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Digital EditorIn light of the massive $1.8 billion (Rs 11,400 crore) scam allegedly involving jeweller Nirav Modi that has hit state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), industry chamber Assocham said on Sunday that the government should surrender its majority control of banks, which should be allowed to function like private sector lenders.

In a regulatory filing earlier this week, PNB said it had detected the gigantic fraud in one of its Mumbai branches, putting the quantum of fraudulent transactions at $1,771.69 million. The amount is equivalent to eight times the bank's net income of about Rs $206 million.

"The PNB's fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11300 billion should act as a strong trigger for the government for reducing its stake to less than 50 per cent in the banks, which should then be allowed to work on the lines of private sector lenders with a full sense of accountability to their shareholders protecting interest of depositors," Assocham said in a statement here.



ALSO READ: Accused ex-PNB deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty took only one promotion ever

"The public sector (PSBs), ironically, are slipping from one crisis to the other and there is a limit the government can keep bailing them out at the cost of taxpayers' money, even if it is the principal shareholder in these lenders," it said.

The industry body said PSB senior managements spend bulk of their time "receiving and implementing directions from the bureaucrats even for innocuous issues."

"In the process, the core banking functions, including all important risk mitigation and management, take a back seat."

"The problem has become more grave with adopting new technologies which can prove both boon and bane," it added.

In this connection, a Special CBI Court in Mumbai on Saturday remanded to police custody till March 3 three accused persons in the case.

The three includes a retired PNB Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat and an authorised signatory of the prime accused Nirav Modi's group companies.

Besides these, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named 10 other directors and officials as accused in the scam.

"Once the government equity in the is reduced below 50 per cent, there would be much more autonomy along with accountability and responsibility of the senior management," Assocham said.



"The boards should then be truly taking the policy decisions while the CEOs would run the banks with full authority, coupled with the commensurate responsibility, instead of looking towards the bureaucrats for directions," it added.

Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat in a statement urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take the lead to "engage with the industry in finding ways to do clean business in the entire financial sector, be it the public sector or private sector banks or even the non-banking companies."

In this regard, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramaniam has also advocated more private participation in public sector banks.

Speaking at an event in Chennai on Saturday, Subramaniam said while the government was going for recapitalisation of public sector banks, the scrutiny, monitoring and disciplined deployment must be ensured only through greater private participation in banks.

According to him, there should be less public lending to private sector and the mode to achieve that is to have higher private participation in the banking sector.

He said more privatisation could be the way forward since there was no guarantee that better governance recommendations of banks, instead of privatisation, would be implemented effectively.State-owned UCO Bank on Saturday said it has exposure of $411.82 million (about Rs 26.36 billion) in the Rs Rs 114-billion PNB fraud committed by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates.

In normal course of business, the Hong Kong branch has been negotiating export documents against Letter of Credit issued through authenticated SWIFT message by Punjab National Bank (PNB) after receiving acceptance through authenticated SWIFT message, UCO Bank said in a regulatory filing to stock exchanges.

The applicants for these Letters of Credit includes few of the corporate clients associated with the incident of recent fraud at PNB, it said.

"The outstanding exposure involved in the transactions is approximately $411.82 million and the bank is fully confident to receive the payment from the PNB," it said.

Earlier this week, fraud-hit PNB said it will honour its bonafide commitments and entire liability will be known after the investigation.

The PNB fraud pertains to issuance of fake Letters of Understanding (LoUs) to companies associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi by errant PNB employees, which enabled these companies to raise buyers credit from international branches of other Indian lenders.

Last week, PNB had lodged an FIR with CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 2.807 billion (Rs 280.7 crore) were first issued on January 16. At the time, PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud.

In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms -- Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds saying they had pproached it on January 16 with a request for buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

The bank sought 100 per cent cash margins for issuing LoUs for raising buyers credit, which was contested by the firms saying they had availed of the facility from as early as 2010.

Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and uncle Mehul Choksi are partners in Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds, which has shops in foreign locations such as Hong Kong, Dubai, and New York.Poland today sought to defend remarks by its prime minister which Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu called "outrageous" and amounted to denying the Holocaust.

"The comments of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a discussion in Munich were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust, or charge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust with responsibility for what was a Nazi German perpetrated genocide," Morawiecki's spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said in a statement.

The Israeli premier, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, yesterday responded angrily to the remark that the Holocaust had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones.

It showed "an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people", Netanyahu said in a statement.

Morawiecki's spokeswoman countered today that to the contrary the Polish prime minister "has repeatedly and categorically opposed the denial of the Holocaust-the murder of European Jewry-as well as anti-Semitism in all its forms".

Morawiecki's claim about the Holocausts perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a controversial law passed by Poland's Senate this month.

The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

Yesterday Morawiecki had been questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbors were planning to denounce them, and asked if recounting that would now be against the law in Poland.

Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."



After a slew of negative reactions to the comments, the Polish PM's spokeswoman sought to clarify the remark saying his words "should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime."



"Each crime must be judged individually, and no single act of wickedness should burden with responsibility entire nations, which were conquered and enslaved by Nazi Germany," she said.US-based Russian news outlet RIA Global has registered as a foreign agent with the US Justice Department, the fourth Russian-linked media company to do so since November under pressure from the US government. RIA Global, which produces content for Russian state-owned news outlet Sputnik, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) on Friday, according to filings on the Justice Departments website. FARA has taken on new importance in recent months amid probes by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and multiple congressional committees into Russian attempts to ...Pakistan's anti-graft watchdog has informed an accountability court here that ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family's declared assets were nearly Rs 58 million 18 years ago, a media report said today.

Three corruption cases were filed against 68-year-old Sharif and some of his family members on September 8 following a Supreme Court verdict that disqualified him as prime minister and ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for the institution of cases against the PML-N leader.

The cases include Avenfield properties, Azizia & Hill Metal Establishment, and Flagship Investments. In two supplementary references one pertaining to Flagship Investments Limited and 15 other companies, and the other to Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Establishment against Sharif and his sons, NAB said the total declared financial worth of assets of the accused persons as per their tax record in 2000-01 was Rs 50,940,870 and USD 64,984 (Rs 7.18 million), the Express Tribune reported today.

"The NAB chairman said in the reference that Sharif had acquired Al-Azizia Steel Mills as well as Hill Metal Establishment, but the proceeds were found disproportionate to his known sources of income," the paper said.

In the supplementary references, the NAB said that Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, in connivance with each other, assisted, abetted and aided Sharif in accumulating and managing assets, the paper reported. Al-Azizia and Hill Metal supplementary reference stated that the investigation officer had seized material evidence, including certified banking record, regarding remittances sent from Hill Metal Establishment to different persons.

NAB claimed that Sharif had acquired and owned "assets and its crime proceeds [are] in millions of rupees" with the active connivance of his sons as dependents/benamidars, the paper said.

In the Flagship supplementary reference, NAB said that the bureau collected material evidence, including certified record, pertaining to companies and properties established in the UK by the accused persons.

Subsequently, the top anti-graft body said that the record establishes and reaffirms the ownership as well as the acquisition of assets by the accused persons.

The prosecution said that the accused persons were given fair opportunities to explain and provide evidence justifying the accumulation of assets but they failed to do so. NAB stated that the accused persons' public statements through media, as well as record produced in their defence before the Supreme Court and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the Panama Papers, were found "untrue".

Sharif and his sons have been named in all three interim and supplementary references while Maryam Nawaz and her husband Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar have only been named in the interim and supplementary reference pertaining to Avenfield properties. Currently, Accountability Court Judge Muhammad Bashir is recording evidence in the Avenfield properties reference. On February 22, two foreign witnesses would record their statements via video link.President Donald Trump is railing against law enforcement and lawmakers this time over an Obama-era payment to Iran.

Trump says in a tweet that he's "never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!" The Obama administration transferred the money to Iran in 2016, using non-US currency.

The administration said it was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the countries. An initial payment was delivered the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.

The Obama administration eventually acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. Congressional Republicans decried the payment as ransom, which the Obama administration denied.As many as 8 public sector companies, including Hindustan Aeronautics and RITES, will hit the capital next financial year as the government intends to unlock the real value of and bring in greater accountability.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Neeraj Gupta said these initial public offerings (IPO) will be done in a "staggered manner" depending upon the size of the issuance.

"Eight companies are at different stages of preparation (for an IPO) and will enter the market at an appropriate time," Gupta told PTI.

Of these, HAL has already secured market regulator Sebi nod for floating an IPO. The government plans to sell 10 per cent stake in the defence PSU.

Besides, four -- RITES, IREDA, Bharat Dynamics and Midhani - have filed their draft papers with Sebi and are awaiting its go-ahead to launch public issue.

Through RITES IPO, the government plans to sell 12 per cent stake to raise an estimated Rs 6 billion.

The government will sell 139 million shares in Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), while 12 per cent and 25 per cent would be sold in defence Bharat Dynamics and Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI), respectively.

In a 2018-19 financial year, the government has budgeted to raise Rs 800 billion through PSU disinvestment, which includes a strategic sale.

"The government will adopt a comprehensive approach in going about its disinvestment mandate," Gupta said.

In the current financial year, which ends in March, the government has already raised over Rs 236 billion by way of IPOs in four companies.

As much as Rs 113 billion has been raised from General Insurance Corp, Rs 96 billion from New India Assurance Co, Rs 14.4 billion from Cochin Shipyard and Rs 12 billion from Housing and Urban Development Corp (Hudco).Police busted a ganja smuggling racket on Saturday and nabbed eleven people in connection with the same.

Around 175 kg of cannabis was recovered from them in a joint operation conducted by the sleuths of Commissioners Task Force, South Zone team, Hyderabad along with Kanchanbagh police.

Expensive cars like Skoda and Renault Logan were recovered from the smugglers.

Earlier in January, 387 kgs of cannabis or ganja were recovered by a team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) after they raided Kasimkota village of Visakhapatnam district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 15-year-old daughter of an Indian Army personnel was raped in Hyderabad city of Telangana.

Trimulgherry police station Inspector said the class X student's father on December 21 last year complained that his daughter was raped near Ammuguda Railway track when she went out to meet her friend.

The victim and her friend left for their places after meeting for a while. Her friend returned to home, but the victim was dragged into bushes by an unknown person. She was then brutally raped and beaten with a stick.

The man also stuffed a cloth into the victim's mouth so that she could not scream.

According to passersby, the badly injured girl was lying unconscious on the ground.

A case has been registered under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 5 and 6 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The police said it had interrogated many suspects, including 12 professional criminals, who were involved in such cases earlier.

The police also questioned the victim's minor friend, and awaiting the forensic science laboratory report.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kerala police on Sunday arrested eight people in connection with the murder of a Youth Congress leader.

M Suhaib was hacked to death on Monday at Thyroor in the Kannur district of Kerala. When Suhaib was having tea at a nearby teashop at around 11:30 pm at night, some people came in a speeding van and hurled a bomb at him.

Later, the attackers brutally hacked Suhaib to death and fled from the spot.

He was immediately brought to a city hospital in Kozhikkode where he was declared 'brought dead'.

Along with Suhaib, two other Congress workers Riyas, 28, and Noushad, 36, were also injured in the attack.

The Congress party has alleged the involvement of Communist Party of India- Marxist in the attack and later called for a strike on Tuesday against the killing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said that its ally- Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was not cheated in the Union Budget 2018-19 as the "Centre was supporting Andhra Pradesh in all ways."

The BJP on Sunday called a meeting in Andhra Pradesh's Vijayawada to address issues of the TDP which has been protesting against the Centre for offering "nothing in the Budget for the state."

Andhra Pradesh BJP president Hari Babu, senior leader Porandeshawari, state ministers, MPs and MLAs participated in the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, the BJP state chief said, "Centre is supporting Andhra Pradesh in all ways. Few people are deliberately commenting against the BJP. The Centre is ready to fill the revenue. Officials are discussing about the funds to be provided."

Babu further noted that the Centre has allotted adequate funds for several projects in Andhra Pradesh.

"The Central minister told that we are agreeing for Kadappa steel plant. There are few things to be solved by the state government then we can take a step forward in the Kadappa steel plant project..The Centre is also taking a decision on Railway zone.. Bifurcation law is being focused and soon it will be implemented. Funds are raised for university construction. It is not true that Andhra Pradesh is cheated in the union budget," he added.

He further said that answers should be given for the comments made against the BJP.

Hinting at severing ties with Democratic Alliance (NDA), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu yesterday said that he was ready for any sacrifices for justice to state's interest.

He further said that the state did not get justice in the recent Union Budget while demanding a debate on the matter.

A rift has emerged between the ruling BJP and TDP in the state over the fund allocation to the state in the Union Budget 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)And it's finally time for the silver screen's biggest stars to descend on London for the 71st British Academy Film Awards.

'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' took the first award of the night for outstanding British film, which was presented by Jennifer Lawrence.

The Martin McDonagh directorial earned a second when Sam Rockwell won the best supporting actor for his performance as a brutal, racist police officer in the film, beating out his co-star Woody Harrelson.

At a ceremony dominated by the movement against sexual misconduct, the 49-year-old actor said, "I stand on the shoulders of strong, intelligent, riotous women."

He also called his co-star Frances McDormand "an inspiration," before dedicating the award to "my pal Alan Rickman."

Rockwell also praised the film's writer-director, McDonagh, saying "there are no great actors, only great roles."

The awards are Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a bid to stop cheating, the Bihar School Examination Board has ordered the students shall wear slippers to appear in the exams.

The Bihar School Examination Board on Sunday said that students sitting for the board examinations shall not wear shoes and socks during the examination.

A circular was published by the Bihar School Examination Board, stating that the candidates attending the annual Secondary Examination "have to wear slipper in place of shoes and stocking on the exam day".

Bihar School Examination Board's President confirmed the reports and said, "Today, instructions have been circulated that no student is to wear shoes and socks while appearing for different competitive examinations organised in Bihar"

He added that this rule will also be implemented in the annual Secondary Examinations.

The instructions have been issued to all district officers, candidates and parents in this regard.

The board examinations in Bihar start from February 21.

The new rule comes after, 985 students were expelled on Saturday for cheating during the intermediate examination conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board.

A total of 25 people were caught writing the exam on behalf of another candidate.

Rampant mass cheating in Bihar hits headlines every year.

In 2015, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry sought a report from Bihar government over reports of cheating during board exams in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of diverting public's attention with "Chai (tea) and Pakoda," and called for a discussion on the true state of affairs.

The Lok Sabha by-election for Gorakhpur being round the corner, Yadav said at a press conference here, "I appeal to the public of Gorakhpur to support the candidates in this election with full honesty, and give a message to the country that the manifestos that were put forth have not come to fruition."

"There is a need to discuss the truths. BJP governments in Centre and state do not want discussions on development issues, (so) they kept us engaged with Chai and Pakoda," he added.

Notably, tea is a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's past as a tea seller that came to light during the 2014 general elections, making him the face of the common man.

'Pakoda' is a recent catchphrase used by Opposition leaders to attack the Prime Minister after he termed the selling of 'pakodas' as a valid job.

Yadav also thanked Peace Party and Nishad Party that will be joining hands with his party to contest Gorakhpur by-election on March 11.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister informed that the party has fielded Praveen Nishad, son of Nishad Party's President Sanjay Nishad, for the upcoming by-poll.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief on Sunday said that the party is moving ahead to bring to reality the dream of a 'New India' under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Attending the inauguration ceremony of BJP's new headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, Shah said, "Under the leadership of Modi Ji, this organisation of 11 Crore members is moving ahead to bring to reality the dream of a 'New India'."

The BJP chief said, "Today is a very auspicious day for the BJP. A dream of millions of workers across the country is going to be fulfilled. Every member used to dream of BJP's own office. Now, when the Prime Minister inaugurates this, this dream will turn into reality."

Shah also added that the sacrifices of the slain party workers in Tripura, Kerala, and Karnataka would not go in vain.

"Many party workers have been slain in Tripura, Kerala, and Karnataka, but this has not stopped our workers from relentlessly working for the party. Their sacrifices won't go in vain," he added.

Prime Minister Modi, BJP veteran LK Advani, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Piyush Goyal were also present at the inauguration ceremony.Turns out, newborn babies' brains function in a different way after experiencing stroke at the time of birth.

According to a new study, investigators found that a decade or two after a "perinatal" stroke damaged the left "language" side of the brain, affected teenagers and young adults used the right sides of their brain for language.

The Georgetown University Medical Center-study stated that a stroke in a baby - even a big one - does not have the same lasting impact as a stroke in an adult.

It's not rare that a baby experiences a stroke around the time it is born. Birth is hard on the brain, as is the change in blood circulation from the mother to the neonate.

At least 1 in 4,000 babies are affected shortly before, during, or after birth.

The findings demonstrated how "plastic" brain function is in infants, says cognitive neuroscientist Elissa L. Newport.

Her study found that the 12 individuals studied, aged 12 to 25, who had a left-brain perinatal stroke all used the right side of their brains for language.

"Their language is good -- normal," Newport said.

The only telltale signs of prior damage to their brain were that some study individuals limp a bit and many had learned to make their left hands dominant because the stroke left their right hand's function impaired.

They also had some executive function impairments - slightly slower neural processing, for example - that are common in individuals with brain injuries.

But basic cognitive functions, like language comprehension and production, are excellent, Newport said.

Furthermore, imaging studies revealed that language in these participants is all based on the right side in an exact, mirror opposite region to the left normal language areas.

This has also been found in previous research, but earlier findings have been inconsistent, perhaps due to the heterogeneity of the types of brain injuries included in those studies, Newport explained.

Her research, which was carefully controlled in terms of the types and areas of injury included, suggested that while "these young brains were very plastic, meaning they could relocate language to a healthy area, it doesn't mean that new areas can be located willy-nilly on the right side".

This finding makes sense in very young brains, Newport added. "Imaging shows that children up to about age four can process language in both sides of their brains, and then the functions split up: the left side processes sentences and the right processes emotion in language".

The findings from the study were reported in a symposium at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas, USA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's India visit seems to be part of a plan to tap the Indo-Canadian votes.

In an article published in the CBC News, titled as 'Trudeau's India mission mixes global business with local politics', senior journalist Evan Dyer emphasised that Canadian Prime Minister not only wants to grow business ties with India but is also looking for the Indo-Candian votes.

Dyer, in his article, quoted former premier of British Columbia as saying that a two-way trade between Canada and India amounts to only about USD 8 billion annually. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hopes to improve this figure with the state visit.

"Trade still doesn't amount to much," he said. "Since the time I was premier, prime ministers and premiers have been going over and yet trade just hasn't grown as much as it could."

In a bid to grow the trade relations between the two nations, Trudeau has multiple meetings planned with Indian CEOs and business leaders over the coming days.

Dosanjh further noted that it is even more surprising as Canada is home to about 1.4 million citizens who can trace their roots in India.

"The people-to-people links just haven't translated into strong economic links," said Dosanjh. "You've got grains and pulses, some pulp. But India's needs are mostly met by other markets."

Trudeau's visit is only limited to the metropolitan cities, but the places Trudeau will visit are the centres of Indian politics, culture, and religion as his government is well aware that the Indo-Canadian votes are no longer as reliably Liberal as they once might have been.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday WishesA class 8 student of a government school in Madhya Pradesh's Dindori district was allegedly sexually assaulted by the school peon.

The hapless incident took place on Friday in Harra Tola village of the district.

"The accused has been arrested and a case under Section 354 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and POCSO act has been registered against him," the police said.

The investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is committed to the ideology of 'nationalism', adding that party's core is 'truly democratic'.

Speaking at the inauguration function of the new BJP headquarters here, he said, "In thought, in action and in implementation, the BJP's core is truly democratic."

The Prime Minister, who inaugurated the new BJP headquarters, located at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg thanked party president Amit Shah and its workers for their hard work.

"I want to thank Amit Bhai and his entire team, that worked hard to complete the work on the BJP HQ within the desired time frame," he added.

He further noted that the journey of the BJP began with great personalities such as Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and said that the "generations of Karyakartas have given their lives for the party.

He also emphasised that existence of several political parties in the nation adds to the beauty of democracy.

"Forming a political party is not tough in India. There are several parties with their own views, ideologies and working culture," he added.

He further stressed that BJP leaders and Jan Sangh have been at the forefront of all leading mass movements after Independence.

The Prime Minister further noted that the NDA government under former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's leadership ignited a ray of hope among Indians.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)England won the sixth T20 International tri-series by two runs against New Zealand but failed to qualify for the finals as they needed to win by at least 20 runs.

Coming in to bat first, England posted 195 runs for the loss of seven wickets with the help of skipper Eoin Morgan's magnificent unbeaten knock of 80 runs.

However, Morgan's efforts went in vain as the visitors' lone win in the series didn't guarantee them a place in the finals.

Dawid Malan struck a half-century as Jason Roy contributed with 21 runs in the consolation win.

For New Zealand, Colin Munro and Martin Guptill came out to open the innings and struck brisk half-centuries.

Munro hammered seven sixes before he was dismissed by Adil Rashid for 57.

Guptill went on to complete his 14th T20I fifty before he was dismissed by Dawid Malan for 62.

Mark Chapman and Colin de Grandhomme needed to score 12 runs in the final over but fell two runs short as Tom Curran bowled a superb last over.

New Zealand will now meet Australia, who are already into the final having beaten England twice and New Zealand twice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Fans are losing their calm over the inclusion of transgender actress, Daniela Vega, in the list of presenters at Academy Awards 2018.

Fans have been pouring their thumbs-up on Twitter since the first slate of Oscar presenters came out yesterday, i.e. February 18.

One user wrote, "The final presenter announced here is a notable one: actress Daniela Vega. Unless I'm wrong (I did some cursory research and I don't think I am), Vega will be the first openly transgender performer to present at the Oscars ceremony".

One tweeted, "This is an awesome list, and I'm super excited to see Daniela Vega on it. #AFantasticWoman #TransIsBeautiful".

Another wrote, "Daniela Vega is a wonderful choice! If I had things my way, she would've been presented with something rather than just presenting something, but this is good. Hope we'll still see her twice on the podium that evening, this one and another alongside Mr. Lelio. #afantasticwoman".

A tweet read, "*screams after seeing Daniela Vega and Tiffany Haddish*".

Apart from the 28-year-old Chilean actress, other people who made it to the list are 'Moonlight' actor Mahershala Ali, 'Black Panther' actor Chadwick Boseman, 'Eat Pray Love' actor Viola Davis, 'The Fault in Our Stars' actor Laura Dern, 'Mother's Day' actor Jennifer Garner, 'Jackie' actor Greta Gerwig, 'Girls Trip' actor Tiffany Haddish, 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' actor Tom Holland, 'The Big Sick' actor Kumail Nanjiani, 'Suicide Squad' actor Margot Robbie, and 'La La Land' actor Emma Stone .

The 90th Academy Awards will be held on March 4 and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the second consecutive year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least five militants affiliated with the terror outfit Islamic State (IS) have been killed in Afghanistan's Deh Bala district in Nangarhar province.

According to the Afghan Army, the militants were killed during the operations of the Afghan commandos which were conducted with the help of the close-air support, reported Khaama Press.

At least three weapons and ammunition depots were also destroyed along with another depot containing foods and commodities belonging to the terror outfit, the officials added.

No comments have been received from the anti-government armed militant and terrorist groups including the IS by far.

Nangarhar is among comparatively calm provinces in the East but the armed terrorist and militant groups have started their operations in some of its remote districts during the recent years, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Saturday apprehended a Bangladeshi with gold bars worth Rs 39 lakh at Agartala Airport.

At least 12 gold bars weighing about 1302 gms have been recovered from the passenger, who has been identified as Abul Kalam Azad.

During the security check at the Agartala Airport, the CISF personnel noticed the presence of metal in a body cavity of a passenger. The said passenger identified as Abul Kalam Azad, who was supposed to travel from Agartala to Kolkata by Indigo flight. He was taken to a separate place for thorough checking, read an official note.

Further inquiry revealed that the passenger was carrying gold concealed in his rectum.

The passenger and the gold bars have been handed over to the Customs Officials.

An investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Saturday lauded the farmers of Naxal-hit Dantewada for bringing in a green revolution through organic farming.

"This is a peaceful answer to Naxalism that Green Revolution can bring in a positive change in society rather than violence," said Raman Singh.

"The 'Adim' rice brand of Dantewada has now become famous all over the country. Its fame has reached Bengaluru and Chennai. It has not only become the identity of Dantewada but of the entire Bastar division. Farmers of Dantewada district have created a company named 'Bhumgadi' and linked it to the self-help group. So far, more than one and a half thousand farmers have joined the 'Bhoomgadi' company as a shareholder," he added.

The Chief Minister further expressed happiness over the 'Bhumgadi' Kisan Sangathan's own Mini Rice Mill, where rice is being made from organic farming paddy.

"The dream of the Green Revolution is fast becoming a reality with the hard work of the farmers in the district of south Bastar (Dantewada) suffering from Naxal violence," said the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister.

Last year, the farmers of the Sahayahya group of Rice Mill sold 2000 quintals of rice. The farmers also received a digital payment of around Rs 50 lakh from their company 'Bhumugadi' in lieu of this.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress MLA NA Harris, whose son Mohammed Haris Nalapad was suspended from the party's Bengaluru Youth wing on Sunday admitted that what his son had done was wrong and maintained that the guilty would be punished irrespective of political affiliations.

The Congress MLA told ANI, "I don't know where he is currently. Whoever does wrong is wrong, be it a son of an MLA or anyone else. I have always advised my son to never do anything wrong. I will see that my son does not do anything like this again."

Mohammed Nalapad was suspended from the Bengaluru District Youth Congress General Secretary's post for six years.

Meanwhile, working president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Dinesh Gundurao said, "Strict action to be taken against people responsible. There won't be any sort of protection whether it is a person in the Congress or outside. Mohammed Nalapad was involved too. We have decided to expel him from the Congress."

However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers protested over the incident wherein Congress General Secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others allegedly beat up a person at a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB City.

Earlier in the day, an FIR was registered against Haris Nalapad and ten others.

The accused allegedly has threatened the victim Vidwath, at Mallya hospital where he was admitted for treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday branded Iran as the "greatest threat to world" at the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

"We will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth. This is in my judgement the greatest threat in the Because once armed with nuclear weapons, Iran's aggression will be unchecked and will threaten the entire world," the Jerusalem Post reported.

Addressing the Munich event for the first time, Netanyahu also underscored that Israel would act against Iran, not just its allies in the Middle East, if needed.

"We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," he said.

Netanyahu, a staunch critic of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, used the occasion to draw a parallel between the 1938 Munich Agreement, seen as a failed attempt to appease Nazi Germany and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

He said the deal had only "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in the region and beyond . Iran is devouring huge swathes of the Middle East."

Furthermore, Netanyahu brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called "a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down."

Holding the wreckage, Netanyahu asked Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was sitting in the crowd: "Do you recognize it? You should, it's yours."

"Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck, he said.

An Iranian drone that crossed into Israeli airspace was intercepted by the Israel Air Force on February 10, sparking a flare-up between Israel and Syria, with an Israeli F-16 shot down and an extensive Israeli strike against Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria, according to the reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Meteorological (MeT) Department scientist Naresh Kumar on Sunday said that heavy snowfall is expected in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on February 24.

Speaking to ANI, he further said that western disturbance will be approaching Indian region on February 20 and 23.

"From February 20, the western disturbance will be approaching Indian region. It'll cause isolated to scattered precipitation over the western Himalayan region. Another western disturbance will approach from February 23 that'll cause scattered to fairly widespread rainfall and snowfall," he said.

He further said that the western disturbance will not cause any damage to the crops in the next seven days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Kamal Haasan, who is all set to start his political innings, on Sunday said "only time will tell" about his party's possible alliance with veteran actor Rajinikanth.

Haasan, who met Rajinikanth at his residence in Chennai today, said that the meeting was not political but a courtesy call.

"It's a courtesy call, not a political meeting. I came to inform him about my political tour. He wished me good luck," he told media after the meeting.

On being asked if the duo was planning to enter into an alliance, Haasan said, "Only time will tell".

Haasan's remarks came days after he said that any political tie-up with Rajinikanth seems unlikely, as latter has a "hue of saffron" in his politics, in an apparent reference to the BJP.

"There is a hue of saffron in Rajni's politics. If that doesn't change, then I don't see an alliance with him," he said, during the launch of his website, naalainamadhe.maiam.com, at Harvard University.

Meanwhile, Rajinikanth extended his best wishes to Haasan and said that "he was not entering into politics for fame or money but to serve people of the state."

"Kamal (Haasan) wants to serve the people of Tamil Nadu. I pray to God that he attains success," the actor said.

Haasan will announce the name of his political party during a statewide tour starting February 21.

Rajinikanth had also confirmed his entry into politics in the beginning of this year, saying that he would float his own political party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A clash broke out between members of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) in Alappuzha on Saturday.

Several people sustained injuries and many vehicles were damaged when the two groups clashed. Police restored to lathi-charge to disperse them.

The entire fiasco started when the KSU activists taking part in a rally allegedly destroyed the flag posts of the CPI(M) after which a group of DYFI activists barged into the venue that led to a clash.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Sunday said that the general mood for a proposed inter-Korean summit with North Korea was "still not right".

"There are many expectations, but I believe they might be a little too anxious," Moon was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

President Moon added earlier that the right condition was to be created by the two Koreas for the proposed summit.

A high-level delegation had arrived in Pyeongchang in South Korea for a three-day visit last week that was led by the North Korean ceremonial head of state, Kim-Yong nam. The delegation also included the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Yo-jong.

The possibility of what would be a third inter-Korean summit was highlighted last week when Kim Jong-un's sister, Yo-jong, delivered a letter and a message from Kim, inviting the South Korean president to Pyongyang at the earliest date possible.

Kim on Tuesday pledged efforts to continue the reconciliation with its arch-rival South Korea, as relations between the two Koreas have warmed rapidly over the last few weeks.

President Moon and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon also called on the North Korean delegation.

Yo-jong's visit to South Korea was the first visit by a member of the ruling Kim family ever since the Korean War ended in 1953.

There have been two inter-Korean summits so far, one in 2000 and an another in 2007.

If President Moon accepts the invitation of talks with Kim, then this would pave the way for what could be the third inter-Korean summit between the two Koreas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital, where Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is being treated for pancreatitis, on Sunday denied reports that the former Defence Minister is suffering from Cancer.

"It is been brought to our notice that various malicious/misleading reports/rumors are floating around in the Electronic/Print media with regards to the health of Parrikar. We categorically deny all such reports," a hospital statement said.

Reports doing rounds on social media said the Goa Chief Minister has been diagnosed and is being treated for Cancer.

Updating Parrikar's health, hospital Vice President Ajay Kumar Pande said: "The Chief Minister is being treated and is responding well to the treatment."

Earlier in the day, Goa Assembly Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo told ANI the Chief Minister might skip the state budget session as he continued treatment in Mumbai.

The Chief Minister on February 14 complained of stomach ache and visited the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) for a health check-up. He was later taken to the Mumbai hospital for further examination.

Lobo said the state budget would be presented by the senior most member of the state government if Parrikar could not attend the assembly session.

South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar also said: "The Chief Minister's treatment is in the right direction and he is responding to the same. However, he needs sufficient time to recover and be focused on the treatment. Expert doctors are taking good care of him. We all pray for his speedy recovery.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hits back at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by branding his speech at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Sunday as a "cartoonish circus."

Zarif, who took the stage shortly after Netanyahu's fiery speech, said, "You were the audience for a cartoonish circus just this morning which does not even deserve the dignity of a response," reports The Times of Israel.

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu, in his speech at MSC, brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called "a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down."

Holding the wreckage, Netanyahu asked Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was sitting in the crowd: "Do you recognize it? You should, it's yours."

According to the reports, an Iranian drone that crossed into Israeli airspace was intercepted by the Israel Air Force on February 10, sparking a flare-up between Israel and Syria, with an Israeli F-16 shot down and an extensive Israeli strike against Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria.

The Iranian foreign minister also hinted at Netanyahu's current legal troubles, saying "Israel's major problems are its years-long criminal occupation policies, and I'm not even talking about its corruption.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi police on Saturday arrested the editor-in-chief of a Hindi news channel for allegedly raping a woman employee.

A case was filed at Delhi's Tughlak Road police station by the victim on February 13.

The victim, in her complaint, alleged that she came in contact with Umesh Kumar, the accused, in 2016 when she was staying in Indirapuram and working in Zenetix Gym.

In June last year, he called her at his residence and developed a physical relationship with her on the pretext of marriage. On August, he called her to Claridges Hotel where she was sexually assaulted. Later, she got to know that Umesh was a married man.

The hotel authorities also confirmed the presence of accused in the hotel as a room was booked in his name.

A case has been registered under section 376 and 506 of Indian Panel Code and section 164 Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday conducted raids at 45 locations across 15 cities in connection with the Punjab Bank (PNB) fraud case involving businessman Nirav Modi.

In West Bengal, six locations of Gitanjali and Nakshatra jewellery outlets were being searched in Kolkata.

At the time of filing this report, the raids are on in the 15 cities.

The PNB has lodged two financial fraud complaints of Rs. 11400 crore and Rs 280 crore against Nirav Modi, his family members and Mehul Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Gems.

The CBI filed a formal case charging four- Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and Mehul Choksi- on January 31 over Rs. 280 crore fraud.

The PNB scam has rattled nation as well as the government.

The ED on Saturday also conducted searches at 21 locations across India in connection with the PNB fraud case. The agency also seized diamonds, gold, precious stones and jewellery worth Rs 25 crore.

The ED also seized diamonds worth Rs 2.30 crore from a Nakshatra jewellers showroom of Gitanjali Group in Bhopal.

The agency conducted searches at several places linked to Nirav Modi in Mumbai, Delhi and Gujarat, and seized diamond, jewellery and gold worth Rs. 5,649 crore.

The ED has also seized properties worth Rs 5674 crore till now.

The agency has filed the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The PNB detected scam in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials filed a complaint with the CBI on January 31.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Bank officials (PNB) arrested in connection with the fraudulent transaction scam were sanctioned fixed commission for granting Letters of Undertaking (LoU), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed on Sunday.

As per CBI sources, arrested bank officials, during interrogation, disclosed that for every LoU, a commission was fixed depending on the amount to be sanctioned as loan. Commission in exchange of issuing the aforementioned document was distributed between all employees of PNB involved in it, the CBI said.

Furthermore, the investigative agency stated that the involvement and connivance of more staff members and outsiders, including accused jewellery designer Nirav Modi and relative Mehul Choksi is being probed.

Earlier in the week, PNB detected a 1.77 billion dollars scam in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

On Friday, three companies of Choksi were named in the CBI's FIR, namely Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brand Ltd.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has conducted search operations at over 21 locations across India in connection with the case and seized diamonds, gold, precious stones, metals and jewellery worth Rs 25 crore (Book Value).

Meanwhile, the ED, earlier today, began raids at a Gitanjali store in Raipur in connection with the aforementioned case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited, Mukesh Ambani on Sunday said that his company will invest 60 thousand crores, in a collaborative initiative, over the next ten years, in the state of Maharashtra.

"I am happy to announce that Reliance will establish India's first-ever integrated industrial area for the fourth Industrial Revolution in the state of Maharashtra. Reliance will invest with a coalition of global companies more than 60 thousand crores over the next ten years in this collaborative initiative. More than 20 global companies, including Nokia, Dell, HP, Cisco, Siemens have already agreed to co-invest with Reliance," Ambani said in the Magnetic Maharashtra Global Investors Summit.

Further elaborating on his vision, Ambani said that the fourth Industrial Revolution will help Maharashtra and India solve difficult problems including education, healthcare, water security, and also boost agriculture.

"The fourth Industrial Revolution is a convergence of disruptive technologies in the physical, digital, and biological spheres. It is going to transform the world and our society in unimaginable ways. There is a global race to harness Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, blockchain, Internet of things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality technologies, life sciences, new materials and new sources of energy and other technologies of the future. India cannot afford to lag behind in this race. India has an opportunity based on its large market to be a global leader," he added.

Ambani also revealed that post Jio's launch in India, the country ranks number one in the world in mobile data consumption.

"Before Jio's launch India was 155th in the world in mobile data consumption, Today, it is number one. Over 170 million Indians enjoy the highest quality data services at the lowest prices in the world from Jio. We have so far invested two hundred and 50 thousand crores across India of which our investment in Maharashtra is the highest at twenty two thousand crores. Within the next two years, Jio will connect every Gram Panchayat, every school, every college, and every hospital in Maharashtra to bring the benefits of the digital revolution to the last person in society," Mukesh Ambani concluded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurated the Magnetic Maharashtra Global Investors Summit 2018 at Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex.

This is Maharashtra's first Global Investors Summit, being held from February 18 to 20.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump on Sunday underscored that Russians are "laughing their asses off in Moscow" for the way Washington has handled the Russia investigations and urged Americans to "get smart."

"If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams." Trump tweeted.

"They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!," he added.

The US President who has repeatedly called the investigations into his presidential campaign's potential collusion with Russia a "hoax," tried to clarify his stance.

"I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said 'it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer. The Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!", the US President, said, in an another tweet.

His comments come after 13 Russian nationals and three Russian groups were charged with multiple counts of attempting to interfere in the 2016 election, according to the Hill.

According to The New York Times, along with the 13 nationals, three Russian organisations were also accused of illegally using social media platforms to influence the Presidential elections of the United States.

Some of the Russians allegedly posed as Americans and communicated with "unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities."

"This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the Internet," Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said at a press briefing announcing the indictments.

Russia, however, has denied meddling in the election campaign and Trump has called Mueller's probe a "political witch hunt.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On the occasion of Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao's birthday, special pujas were held across the state.

Cinematography minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Minister of law and endowment Indrakaran Reddy and MP Kavitha, who represents the Nizamabad Lok Sabha Constituency, visited the Secunderabad Mahankali Temple on Saturday.

Chief Minister KCR's birthday was celebrated in a grand manner in Hyderabad's Jala Vihar earlier in the day.

Various leaders of his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) party wished the leader on the occasion, even as greetings and wishes poured in on his social media accounts.

This was the first time that his birthday was celebrated on this scale ever since he assumed the office in 2014. Rao played a key role in the creation of the Telangana state after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali was amongst the first leaders to wish KCR. Speaking to ANI, Ali praised the Chief Minister, adding that KCR contributed a lot in the formation of Telangana, while always aiming for the development of the state.

"Telangana is a very young state and now our Chief Minister's main aim is to be the number one state in the country. Today we can see the brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims just because of him. Our state is a state where there are no disparities between any religions. Today on account of his birthday we wish him all the success." Ali told ANI.

Rao was born on 17 February 1954 in the Medak District of what is now in Telangana.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two assistant constables and a civilian were killed and six security personnel injured in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Sunday.

Heavy exchange of fire between the troops of 202nd battalion of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and Naxals is still underway near Elarmadgu village which falls under the purview of Bhejji police station.

The injured security personnel are being airlifted to Raipur for medical treatment.

Another helicopter has been deployed to carry the mortal remains of the two jawans.

Special DG, anti-Naxal operation DM Awasthi earlier confirmed that four jawans of District Reserve Guards (DRG) and two jawans of Special Task Force (STF) were injured in the encounter.

Meanwhile, in another encounter near Errabore village in Sukma, one Naxal has been gunned down by the police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Battle lines have been drawn for today's poll for the 60-member Tripura Assembly where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Left Front are jostling for the attention of voters.

Voting for the 59 out of 60 seats will be held at 3,214 polling stations in between 7 am to 4 pm. Polling in the Charilam constituency has been deferred due to the death of CPM candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma. It will be held on 12 March.

The much-awaited polling in this northeastern state will decide the electoral fortunes of 292 candidates, including 23 women.

The BJP and the Congress party are looking to root out the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has been ruling the state for the past 25 years.

In their attempt to remove the Manik Sarkar-led government from the state, the BJP has tied up with the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT). While the BJP is contesting from 51 seats, IPFT has been given the remaining nine seats.

The CPM has fielded candidates on 57 seats, leaving one each for its alliances.

The Congress, on the other hand, is fighting the battle alone.

The results of the polling will be declared on March 3 along with Nagaland and Meghalaya.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on the visitor's book after visiting the Taj Mahal with his family here on Sunday.

"Thank you for the wonderful visit to one of the most beautiful places in the world," he wrote on the visitor's book.

Trudeau said that it was his second visit to Taj Mahal.

"About 35 years ago, when I was 11 years, I came to India on an official trip with my father (former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau). I had come down to see Agra from New Delhi to see the Taj Mahal," Trudeau recalled.

"For me to be present on an official trip while bringing my kids with me to share this is really special and being able to enjoy this as a dad with my kids is really nice," he added.

It may be noted that Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada from 1968 to 1984.

Braj Bhushan, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) commandant of the Taj Mahal unit in Agra, termed Trudeau's visit as good and said that the Canadian leader and his family were accorded with special police protection.

"The visit by the Canadian Prime Minister was good. We accorded special police protection to them, which is mandatory for any head of the state, who visits Taj Mahal. They spent quality time at the Taj Mahal and were there for one hour," Bhushan said.

Trudeau was accompanied along with his wife Sophie Gregoire and his three children, Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien.

Many foreign dignitaries have visited the Taj Mahal in the past few years.

The Taj Mahal, located along the Yamuna river, was built by Shah Jahan, a 17th-century Mughal ruler for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her fourteenth child.

It is one of the most outstanding examples of Mughal architecture, having a combination of Indian, Persian and Islamic influences.

The structure of the monument is built entirely with white marble, studded with semi-precious stones and is inscribed with verses of Quran. It is surrounded by four minarets.

It was one of the Seven Wonders of the and is designated as a UNESCO Heritage site since 1983.

Trudeau is on his way to Mathura, where he will visit the Wild Life Century (Elephant Conservation Center).

The sanctuary will remain shut for around two hours to the public, owing to Trudeau's visit.

The Canadian Prime Minister, who arrived in India on Saturday, is on a week-long state visit to the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be visiting the Wild Life Century (Elephant Conservation Center) in Mathura's Churmura on Sunday.

Trudeau, who is on a week-long visit to India with his family, will first visit the Taj Mahal in Agra and from thereon he will travel to Mathura.

Due to Canadian Prime Minister's visit, the sanctuary will remain shut for two hours.

The week-long state visit to India, which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi, will provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with the Indian leaders in government and business, promote empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India's close economic ties.

Both the sides will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries, and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

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 Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday visited a wildlife sanctuary in Mathura's Churmura with his family.

Trudeau visited the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura. He was accompanied along with his wife Sophie Gregoire and his three children, Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien.

"@WildlifeSOS is doing important work rescuing captive Asian elephants across India, and giving them a new chance at life. Thanks for the very warm welcome at your sanctuary today," the Canadian PM tweeted.

The sanctuary remained shut for around two hours to the public, owing to Trudeau's visit.

Earlier in the day, Trudeau along with his family visited the Taj Mahal in Agra.

The Canadian Prime Minister's week-long state visit to India, includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi.

The visit will provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with the Indian leaders in government and business, promote empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India's close economic ties.

The Indian and Canadian sides will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

Trudeau will also participate in several business roundtables to promote further trade and investment between Canada and India.

Canada will work closely with the Indian leaders to advance their economic opportunities in both countries respectively.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to arrive in Gurugram on Monday to endorse his luxurious residential project, the Trump Towers.

Trump Jr., who is the executive director of the Trump Organisation, will arrive on a Boeing 757, which is nicknamed as Trump Force One, The New York Times reported.

The major English daily, Hindustan Times published an advertisement on their front page of the newspaper on Saturday which read- "Trump has arrived. Have you?"

Advertisements inside the newspaper mentioned that anyone who agreed to buy a Trump property before February 21 will have a chance of "a conversation and dinner" with Trump Jr.

Trump Jr. is scheduled to speak at the Global Business Summit in Delhi, which will be held on February 23 and 24.

He will also visit Kolkata, where the construction of a project with 137 luxury units will begin soon.

In Mumbai, he will oversee a 78-story Trump Tower with 400 residences, which is under construction and is scheduled to be completed by next year.

Trump Jr. will also visit Pune, where a fourth Trump-branded project has been built.

In an interview last week, Trump Jr. stated that he had spent nearly a decade "cultivating relationships in India" and that his company was "now seeing the response of that effort."

According to business partners in India, many units in the Trump Towers are selling about 30 percent per square foot higher than the current market rates. Trump Jr.'s visit to India this week is expected to reinforce the trend.

Talking about his trip earlier this month, Trump Jr. said, "India is such an incredible country and our brand has enjoyed tremendous success in the region for many years. This trip is a celebration of all we have achieved, including the launch of the Trump developments in Kolkata and Delhi which have been underway for many months."

"The teams in India have been working very hard to deliver residences that are truly second to none and I am looking forward to visiting these spectacular projects very soon," he added.

India is Trump Organisation's biggest international market, with four real estate projects underway in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Gurugram.

The towers are being built by local partners- M3M, a National Capital Region (NCR) real estate company and Tribeca Developers of Mumbai.

The Trump development encompasses two towers with a total of 254 "ultra luxury" units, each selling for up to $1.5 million, according to the Trump Organisation.

Among other features of Trump Towers are a temperature-controlled indoor swimming pool, a spa and fitness centre, a fine-dining restaurant, business centre, and in-residence catering.

Trump Jr.'s visit to India comes after his sister, Ivanka, visited Hyderabad in November last year to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump has attacked the news media over the coverage of special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians accused of meddling in the 2016 election.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, President Trump said media didn't report how the Russian groups were active long before his announcement to run for the post of the U.S. President.

"Funny how the Fake News Media doesn't want to say that the Russian group was formed in 2014, long before my run for President. Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn't know!" President Trump tweeted.

"The Fake News Media never fails. Hard to ignore this fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman!" he said in a second tweet.

President Trump also highlighted a New York Post column that called the indictment "a big win" for Trump and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's statement that it did not include allegations that "any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity."

On Friday, President Trump announced that the indictments in Mueller's investigation show his campaign "did nothing wrong" and prove there was "no collusion" with Russia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over the Florida school shooting, saying that the agency "missed all of the many signals" sent by the shooter, who killed 17 people and injured 14 others.

Trump took to Twitter and posted the same.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

This comes after the FBI said on Friday said that it had failed to follow the "protocols" when it received a tip earlier this year about 19-year old Nikolas Cruz, the alleged shooter who went on a rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday.

Last month, a person close to Cruz called the FBI's public tipline and raised concerns about his gun ownership, desire to kill and warned of a possible school shooting, The Hill reported.

Trump and his wife Melania visited the injured students Broward Health North Hospital in Florida on Friday.

On Thursday, Trump called on all the US embassies, public buildings, military facilities, diplomatic sites, naval vessels, consular offices, other facilities abroad to fly their flags at half-staff through Monday.

Cruz, who gunned down at least 17 people on Wednesday at the high school, was a former student and was expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons. He has been booked on 17 counts of premeditated murder.

The development also comes after the US Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A police inspector was on Sunday suspended for dereliction of duty in an assault case involving Congress MLA Mohammed Haris Nalapad.

This comes after five persons were detained and an FIR was registered against Congress MLA Mohammed Haris Nalapad and 10 others for beating and threatening a man at a restaurant here.

Nalapad was later expelled from the party.

Nalapad and his supporters thrashed Vidwath, who already had a leg fractured, in a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB city and later threatened him in the hospital he was taken to against pressing charges.

According to Bengaluru Police, the case has been handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) for further investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday questioned as to why India with a population of over 1 billion does not enjoy veto rights at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

"Why India with a population of 1.3 billion does not enjoy veto rights and why does the United States (US) have veto rights," Rouhani questioned during his Special Address titled 'The priorities of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran', organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in association with the Iranian Embassy here.

Rouhani also underscored that at the time of formation of the United Nations (UN), only countries that had a nuclear bomb were given the right to veto, adding that, "If it was based on fairness, it would not have been so."

The Iranian leader used the occasion to underscore the US control over his country.

"Our destiny was in the hands of US for a long period of time. They would decide for our economy, our culture. We did not even have an educational channel on TV. All military centres were in total control of the US," Rouhani said.

Saying ethics should be above interest for a fair foreign policy of any country, the Iranian president warned that wars, aggressions, terrorism would continue in the world unless there is fairness and justice to all countries and people.

Earlier in the day, India and Iran signed nine Memorandums of Understanding (MoU)s following the delegation-level talks in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and Iranian President Rouhani.

The agreements were signed in areas like double taxation avoidance, extradition, agricultural cooperation, port lease, medicine and others.

In addition to this, four MoUs have also been signed between trade bodies.

Prime Minister Modi, in the joint press statement with President Rouhani, said that the MoUs exchanged between India and Iran are reflective of both sides' strong relations and their commitment towards further strengthening it.

Prime Minister Modi also congratulated Rouhani for his leadership and vision in developing Chabahar Port that would give India access to trade with land-locked Afghanistan.

He further said that co-operation between India and Iran would be beneficial to Afghanistan.

President of Iran reciprocated the sentiments in his statement and informed that both countries shared views on two crucial issues, namely transit and economy at the delegation-level talks held earlier in the day.Four persons were killed and as many wounded as an unidentified gunman opened fire at people celebrating pancake week festival in Dagestan's city of Kizlyar on Sunday, media reports said.

"The incident took place in Kizlyar. According to preliminary data, four people were killed. Four more were wounded. The shooter was gunned down," a source in local law enforcement agencies told Tass.

Kizlyar's Mayor Alexander Shuvalov told Tass: "People were leaving a church after an evening service when he opened fire at them.

"Four people were killed. The shooter was shot dead. Two police officers and a woman were wounded."

--IANS

him/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former star couple Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux might not have been legally married as there is no evidence about their wedding.

The actress and actor-filmmaker seemed to be headed for a divorce court following the announcement of their split earlier this week, but based on tmz.com's records search and sources, they may never have been married in the first place.

The couple "got married" at their Bel-Air mansion in 2015.

Tmz.com checked marriage records in Los Angeles County all the way back to 2010 and found that there is no record of a marriage license.

There's a confidential marriage license, but the site was told they did not get one in Los Angeles County.

They could have gotten a marriage license in any of the 57 other counties in California, but according to some of Aniston's sources who have had regular contact with her for years, there's been talk for a long time they might not be legally married.

Tmz.com also checked with numerous divorce lawyers, and no one has been contacted either by Aniston or Theroux.

--IANS

nn/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Over 78 per cent of Tripura's 2,536,589 voters had cast their votes on Sunday in a peaceful manner to elect a new Assembly, said state chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti.

However, he said that the polling percentage might go up as huge numbers of voters were still in queues at 10 p.m. on Sunday night in around 100 of the 3,174 polling stations across the state.

"Over 78.56 per cent of the 2,536,589 voters in Tripura had cast their votes. The polling percentage will go up when the final figures come after completion of the remaining around 100 polling stations," Taranikanti told the media.

He said that 191 (6 per cent) VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) and 89 (5 per cent) EVM (Electronic Voting Machines) malfunctioned causing delay in balloting.

"We have decided to conduct re-poll in a polling station under Karamchara assembly constituency even as the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) demanded re-polling in some polling stations," Taranikanti said adding that there is no incident during the polling throughout the state.

In a separate media briefing, the BJP demanded a re-poll in eight polling stations and the CPI-M demanded re-poll in three polling stations.

Ruling Left Front convenor Bijan Dhar alleged that at least five election agents of Left Front candidates were injured and shifted to hospitals when workers of BJP and its electoral ally IPFT (Indigenous People's Front of Tripura) attacked on them in different places of Tripura.

"Forward Bloc candidate Biswanath Saha and some women were injured when the central para-military forces carried out a baton charge in two separate places in western Tripura," he said, demanding action against the attackers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI has set up a team to examine balance sheets and electronic data of Gitanjali group of companies and its India-based 18 subsidiaries headed by Mehul C. Choksi who is accused along with diamond merchant Nirav Modi in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, officials privy to the case said on Sunday.

The move is a part of investigation to unearth the trail of the $754.92 million (Rs 4,886.72 crore) funds raised by the Gitanjali group through foreign branches of Indian banks against Foreign Letter of Credits (FLCs) or Letters of Undertaking (LoU) given by PNB.

The digital records and balance sheets running in thousand of documents linked to Gitanjali group of companies - indicating Gitanjali Gems Ltd raised $335.06 mllion (Rs 2,144.37 crore) through LoUs and $89.86 (Rs 575.11 crore) through FLCs; Gili India Ltd $88.54 million (Rs 566.65 crore) through LoUs and $97.72 million (Rs 625.40 crore) through FLCs; and Nakshatra Brands Ltd $50.17 million (Rs 321.10 crore) through LoUs and $93.57 million (Rs 598.85 crore) through FLCs -- are being examined, said the officials.

"The financial documents of 18 other subsidiaries of Gitanjali group are also under CBI scanner."

A dedicated Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team headed by a Deputy Inspector General level official is also in the process of getting details of financial documents linked to Diamond R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar diamond whose partners Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi, uncle Mehul Choksi and wife Ami Nirav Modi have been named in the central agency's first FIR filed on Wednesday involving Rs 6,400 crore fraud.

The officials also continued examining arrested bank officials -- Gokulnath Shetty (retired) and Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat -- and Nirav Modi group's authorised signatory Hemand Bhat besides that of other six PNB officials to dig out money trail and the alleged scam.

They said the agency is also analysing records recovered from a huge server seized during searches after registration of the second FIR specially against Choksi for his involvement in Rs 4,886.72 crore fraud.

Asked about possible quid pro quo involved in the alleged scam perpetrated in collusion with Choksi, Nirav Modi and PNB officials, the CBI officials said it was yet to be decided and that it cannot be clearly said if there were regular payments or not.

According to the officials, the agency's initial focus is to understand the depth of the scam, the trail of funds and role of other senior PNB officials.

The total Rs 11,384 crore alleged scam surfaced when companies of Nirav Modi and Choksi approached the PNB's Brady road branch in Mumbai in January this year seeking LoU for payments to suppliers.

The official handling the case sought 100 per cent cash guarantee before any such letters could be issued to which the company officials said no such guarantee was sought in the past. The official checked the records which did not show such LoUs to Modi or Choksi's companies which led to suspicion.

It is alleged that the arrested PNB officials Shetty, for the last seven years, was bypassing core banking system of the bank and issuing LoUs fraudulently.

Shetty and Kharat sent messages of these LoUs using an international messaging system for banking systems called SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.

The LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant.

It is estimated that millions of messages are sent daily using the SWIFT technology globally wherein every member bank can send or receive messages of financial transactions to another bank worldwide.

The PNB officials sent these messages to Indian banks -- Canara Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Allahabad bank -- located in Antwerp, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Mauritius, Frankfurt without making entries in the banking software about the LoUs.

These LoUs and FLCs worth Rs 11,384 crore were getting renewed or issued afresh during last six years without coming in the notice of the bank. The Indian banks abroad did not mind as their money was safe (under guarantee from the PNB) and increasing because of accruing interest.

The party was spoiled in January this year when first renewal arose after the retirement of Shetty, the officials said. An alarmed bank dug out all such LoUs and FLCs showing a mammoth liability towards other banks.

The conniving officer issued FLCs by entering a smaller amount in trade finance module of Core Banking Solutions (CBS) system and generating the reference number and a SWIFT message was sent for the amount, the bank alleged. It said subsequently without making any changes in the module of the CBS, the conniving officer sent modified SWIFT message for enhanced amount under the same reference to the beneficiary bank.

The Indian bank branches which had credited money to Nostro accounts of PNB on receiving LoUs or FLCs, which were then withdrawn by Gitanjali group companies as buyers' credit, include: State Bank of India (Mauritius); State Bank of India (Frankfurt); Bank of India (Antwerp); Canara Bank (Bahrain); Axis Bank (Hong Kong); Allahabad Bank (Hong Kong); Union Bank of India (Hong Kong); and Uco Bank (Hong Kong).

--IANS

rak/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday said that the party became much stronger due to way Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked and the benefits to the people after its victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and appealed to party workers to strengthen it further.

Addressing a gathering of party workers on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bharatiya Janata Party's new headquarters at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg here, he also said that by next one year, 635 among total 695 districts of the country would have a party office on its liness.

"In 2014, people expressed their confidence in Modiji by electing a government with full majority. After that, the way Modiji ran the country and the way it's (government's) fragrance reached to the people, the party became much stronger," Shah said in presence of Modi, several Union Ministers and former BJP Presidents including veterans L. K. Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi.

He added that the party organisation also worked hard to spread the government's message among masses.

"Modiji ki jo lokpriyata hai... Modiji k liye logo ke man me jo bhav hai...use asthaitava dene ka kaam party ke karyakartavo ne kiya hai...isi ke karan aaj 19 rajya me ya to humare CMs hain... (Modi has a popularity... a certain stature in the people's minds.. party workers have helped to give it a status, that is why we have Chief Ministers in 19 states)," Shah said.

Recalling the sacrifices of the party leaders, he said that the party cadres need to achieve new heights in coming days.

"We need to see ahead. Modiji has given us a call of new India. Political parties may be in the fray for winning elections and forming governments but for BJP, merely winning elections is not the limit. The Prime Minister has set a target of new India before us. I belive all the party workers would work in this direction," he said.

The BJP chief said in a year all the district headquarters of the BJP would be constructed and will get connected with the central office.

"We had decided to construct our party offices in 635 districts out of total 694. Among 635, the work of land acquisition has been completed in 315 districts while process of land acquisition is in progress in 125 districts. 192 district offices are ready while 100 are on the verge of completion," he said.

--IANS

bns/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As Sunday's voting to elect 59 of the 60 members of the Tripura Assembly passed off peacefully, the ruling CPI-M and the BJP exuded confidence of an electoral victory in the northeastern state.

Except snags reported in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) attached with VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) in around 180 polling stations, the polling was incident-free. Over 75 per cent of the eligible voters had voted till 4 p.m. when the official voting hours ended.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tripura unit President Biplab Kumar Deb said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party President Amit Shah, General Secretary Ram Madhav, Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other party leaders inquired about polling in Tripura.

"People want change. People strongly wish for a BJP government in Tripura. It is certain that the BJP will form the next government in Tripura," Deb told the media here.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tripura State Secretary Bijan Dhar said the Left parties were "overconfident" of forming the next state government.

He said CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, politburo members Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Biman Bose and other central leaders enquired on phone about the polling.

"The Prime Minister and other BJP leaders always talk of Digital India, but in today's (Sunday) elections a large number of EVMs-VVPATs malfunctioned to create serious doubts about the high-pitch Digital India campaign," the Left leader said.

Tripura Congress Vice-President Tapas Dey also said that frequent inquiries about Tripura elections were received from Congress President Rahul Gandhi's office in Delhi.

All India Congress Committee General Secretary C.P. Joshi, Secretary Bhupen Bora and other leaders also talked to Tripura Congress leaders on the polling, he added.

Criticising the state Election Department, the Congress leaders said election authorities in Tripura were not impartial and election management was very poor and inefficient.

"Despite complaints from the Congress and Left parties, election officials in Tripura did not take action. But election officials took prompt action when the BJP lodged any complaint," Dey added.

The counting of votes would be held on March 3.

--IANS

sc/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hospitalised Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar may not attend the Assembly Budget Session beginning Monday, even as the Speaker said a house panel will decide whether the session needs to be curtailed.

Parrikar, who also holds the finance portfolio, is admitted in a Mumbai hospital for treatment of "mild pancreatitis".

South Goa MP and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Savoikar said Parrikar's treatment is headed in the "right direction" and he will continue his treatment in Mumbai on medical advice.

The parliamentarian, however, did not give a specific time frame for his recovery.

"The CM's treatment is moving in the right direction and he is responding to the same. However, he needs sufficient time to recover and be focused on the treatment. Medical experts are taking good care of him. We all pray for his speedy recovery," Savoikar said.

Parrikar was rushed to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital on February 15 for treatment of "mild pancreatitis". On Saturday, the CMO denied reports that Parrikar underwent a surgery, claiming that his health was improving.

Speaker Pramod Sawant told reporters on Sunday that a meeting of the Assembly's Business Advisory Committee had been called on Monday to decide on whether the Budget Session should be curtailed to three days.

"A decision will be taken at the committee meeting on shortening the session to three days. It was due to start on February 19 and end on March 22," he said.

Informed sources said in case Parrikar did not attend the session, the Budget -- scheduled to be presented on February 22 -- would be presented by a senior Minister.

"The decision on who will present the Budget will be taken at the BJP's legislative party meeting at 10.30 a.m. on Monday," Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo said.

--IANS

maya/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day ahead of the first budget session of the new Gujarat Assembly, Dalit leader and lawmaker Jignesh Mevani was detained by police here on Sunday amid state-wide protests against death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar.

Mevani broke into heated arguments with police when he was being detained in Saraspur suburb of Ahmedabad.

"Gujarat does not belong to your father... give me your buckle number, I am an elected MLA and you have no business to insult me," a furious Mevani shouted at a police constable, after he and 100 others were detained.

When police was taking him out of his car, he claimed he was being manhandled and an elected legislator could not be treated like this. The MLA alleged the cops had barged into his car, pulled out the ignition keys and broke them.

Police denied the charges. Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, J.K. Bhatt told reporters: "It is wrong to say that police ill-treated the respected legislator and we will submit our report to the state Assembly about the incident."

"He (Mevani) may have misbehaved but we have not. It is normal that there will be some arguments when a person is being detained by police," he added.

The Dalit activist who was elected as an Independent from Vadgam constituency from north Gujarat was taken to the police' Special Operations Group office in Juhapura area in the evening where scores of supporters demanded his release.

Besides Mevani, hundreds of protestors were detained from various places in Ahmedabad while staging demonstrations.

Road-blocks, burning of vehicle tyres and slogan-shouting were witnessed on several state highways and several parts of national highways. At some places, police conducted baton charges to disperse the crowds.

Angry protests were seen in Gandhinagar, Unjha, Chanasma and Patan in north Gujarat and Morbi in Saurashtra over the death of Vankar.

Amid this, the political climate has heated up in Gujarat with the month-long Budget Session beginning on Monday and the spirited Congress bracing to corner the government on several issues. The Congress, led by young Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani, is an upbeat mood after winning 77 seats in the 182-member House.

Vankar, 60, had on Thursday set himself on fire at the Patan district collectorate demanding physical possession of land allotted to a Dalit family and was soon after hospitalized with critical burn injuries. He succumbed to his burn injuries on Friday night at a private hospital in Ahmedabad.

What led to widespread anger was that Vankar had resorted to self-immolation on the premises of Patan collectorate in the presence of police, ambulance and fire-fighters after a week-long notice to the authorities. He had been seeking physical and legal possession of the land allotted to the Dalit families by the state government for some time.

Ever since his death, an adamant Vankar's family has been refusing to accept the dead body and put forth a charter of seven demands before the state government.

A delegation comprising the Gandhinagar Collector, Inspector General of Police and Social Empowerment Secretary have held talks with the Dalit activists and his family of Vankar. Although the government maintained that it accepted the key demands of the family, the Dalits wanted a categorical assurance in writing and that the state representatives only listened to them.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had told reporters on Friday: "We have agreed to all their major demands. We would legally transfer the land in name of the family Bhanubhai Vankar was fighting for, pay a compensation of Rs 8 lakh to the family of Vankar and transfer his family members, who are government employees, closer home.

"The government will also set up an inquiry commission headed by a retired High Court judge or a special investigation team, as agreed by the family of Vankar."

Hardik Patel and OBC leader and Congress legislator Alpesh Thakor visited Vankar's family and demanded firm action and justice to the community. Dhanani also called on the family and expressed solidarity the cause of the Dalits.

--IANS

desai/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An 18-year-old Delhi youth was caught at Imphal Airport on Sunday while trying to smuggle three gold bars weighing 500 grammes in a body cavity on to a flight, a CISF official said.

Mohit Kishan was held during pre embarkation security check for a Delhi-bound Indigo flight at around 9 p.m.

"We noticed presence of metal in a body cavity of the passenger. He was taken to a separate place for thorough checking. On enquiry, he revealed he was carrying gold concealed inside his rectum," said Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Assistant Inspector General Hemendra Singh.

Three gold bars weighing about 500 grams valued at approximately Rs 15 lakh were recovered from his possession, he said, adding that the passenger and the gold were handed to custom officials in Imphal for further action.

--IANS

rak/vd/him

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Calling Iran the "greatest threat to our world", Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country will act against it "if necessary", media reported.

"This is in my judgement the greatest threat in the world. Because once armed with nuclear weapons, Iran's aggression will be unchecked and will threaten the entire world," he said at the Munich Security Conference, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Netanyahu accused Iran of "falsely denying that it sent a drone into Israeli territory" which was shot down on February 10.

Holding up a remnant of what he said was the destroyed drone, he, according to the BBC, addressed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif directly: "Do you recognise it? You should, it's yours. Don't test us."

"You can take back a message to the tyrants of Tehran: do not test Israel's resolve."

"Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck. We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," he warned.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Young survivors of Florida school shooting, which left 17 people dead last week, announced on Sunday a national march to Washington to demand political action on gun control.

Students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Florida said they were determined to make Wednesday's shooting a turning point in the national gun debate and march to Washington on March 24 to seek an action on gun control, BBC reported.

"We are losing our lives while the adults are playing around," the report quoted Cameron Kasky, a survivor from the school, as saying.

The shooting reignited demands for tougher gun laws, with student survivors gathering in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday to criticise Trump and other lawmakers for their inaction.

One of the high school students Emma Gonzalez while addressing the rally slammed the US President for accepting political donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful gun rights lobby group.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," said Gonzalez.

"It does not matter because I already know. Thirty million dollars," the 18-year-old said, referring to donations during US President Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Trump has blamed the Democrats for not passing legislation when they controlled Congress during the early years of Barack Obama's administration.

He also slammed FBI for not acting on tip-off about the suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz.

The US news network CNN has invited Florida lawmakers and Trump to attend a town hall event with survivors of the attack on Wednesday, the report said.

--IANS

qd/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Google did not violate labour laws when it fired James Damore, a former employee who was ousted from the company last year for criticising the tech giant for its diversity policy, according to the federal agency that oversees employment practices.

"Employers must be permitted to 'nip in the bud' the kinds of employee conduct that could lead to a 'hostile workplace,'" a lawyer with the US National Relations Board (NLRB) wrote in an agency memorandum made public this week, CNET reported.

Damore's memo, titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", claims that when it comes to technology, there is a biological differences between men and women.

Before his firing, Damore had filed a complaint with the NLRB that charged Google with "misrepresenting and shaming me in order to silence my complaints".

But the NLRB lawyer said Google fired the computer engineer not for expressing dissenting views or criticism, but over "unprotected discriminatory statements" in his memo, which he had posted to internal discussion forums at the tech giant.

"Employers have a strong interest in promoting diversity and encouraging employees across diverse demographic groups to thrive in their workplaces," attorney Jayme Sophir wrote in the memorandum.

"The statements regarding biological differences between the sexes were so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive as to be unprotected," Sophir stated.

Damore withdrew the NLRB complaint last month to focus on a lawsuit against Google.

In his lawsuit filed in a California court, Damore said that Google "ostracised, belittled and punished" him and a fellow plaintiff.

He added that he and others who share his views at Google long have been "singled out, mistreated, and systematically punished and terminated from Google, in violation of their legal rights".

Google CEO Sundar Pichai had said he did not regret firing Damore.

When asked about Google's decision to fire Damore during an interview with MSNBC last month, Pichai said: "I don't regret it. It was the right decision.

"The last thing we do when we make decisions like this is look at it with a political lens."

--IANS

gb/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hamas blamed on Sunday both the US and the Israeli administrations for Gaza's escalating humanitarian crisis.

It also rejected the US claim of the Islamic group's responsibility, saying the US allegations are a green light for Israel to "continue its aggression against our people".

It accused Israel of continuing the policy of US administration that bears responsibility for "the tragedies that have afflicted the Palestinian people since occupying the Palestinian lands", Xinhua news agency reported.

Last week, the US accused Hamas of funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars in aid meant for the people of Gaza toward buying weapons and materials to build attack tunnels and fortifications.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Israel claims that Hamas uses Gaza underground tunnels to stockpile weapons and infiltrate into its territory.

--IANS

him/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Socialite Paris Hilton celebrated her 37th birthday at a party in Manhattan with family, including sister Nicky Hilton Rothschild and aunt Kyle Richards, and friends like Paris Jackson.

Hilton posted photographs and videos from her bash, including a selfie of her and the 19-year-old model on Instagram, reports eonline.com.

"Paris and Paris," Hilton wrote.

Jackson's name was inspired by Hilton's.

In 2009, months after the death of Jackson's father Michael Jackson, Hilton said that her family members were close with the King of Pop and that her mother Kathy Hilton was one of his former school friends.

"So I grew up knowing Michael very well and when he had his daughter, he always loved the name Paris and grew up being an uncle to me," Hilton said.

"So he asked my mom if it was okay, and of course she said 'yes' and I think she's such a beautiful little girl and I'm proud we have the same name."

Hilton's fiance Chris Zylka is not seen in her Instagram images from her party, which took place on Thursday.

However, the two celebrated her birthday, which falls on February 17, on a trip to Brazil earlier this week. They partied at a club, where Hilton DJed.

--IANS

nn/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A passenger plane with 66 people on board crashed in central Iran on Sunday, authorities said but declined to give any definite information about the fate of the passengers.

The ATR 72, a twin-engine turboprop operated by Aseman Airlines, crashed due to bad weather into the Dena Mountain near Semirom town, an official at the Iranian carrier told the media.

The plane was flying from Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasuj, reports Press TV.

Officials in Semirom said the crash site was hard to reach and rescue helicopters had been unable to land because of heavy fog and rain.

The airline initially issued a statement saying all 66 had died in the accident but retracted it later.

"Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane."

Spokesman for Iran's emergency services Mojtaba Khaledi said rescue teams has reached the crash site by land and were trying to find the debris.

Air controllers lost contact with the airplane at around 8 a.m. The people on board were 60 passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants, the pilot and co-pilot.

Iran has seen several aviation accidents in recent years, the BBC reports.

Because of international sanctions imposed on the country to curb its nuclear programme, Iran has had a hard time getting spare parts to maintain its ageing aircraft fleet. The sanctions were mostly lifted under a 2015 deal between Iran and the US alongside several other powers.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli security agency Shin Bet on Sunday said it thwarted a plot by Palestinian militants to carry out a bombing attack against Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Six members of a Palestinian cell associated with the Islamic Jihad militant group were arrested "in recent weeks," Xinhua quoted Shin Bet as saying in a statement.

The cell members, all residents of the West Bank, planned to carry out shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and security. Some members even plotted to attack Lieberman's convoy when he returned to his home in a West Bank settlement, it said.

The investigation revealed that they tried to acquire explosives and contacted militants in the Gaza Strip regarding financing.

After failing to receive financial support from Gaza, the cell members thought they might better succeed if they planted an improvised explosive device along the minister's route.

However, the attack was never carried out due to the minister's heavy security, Shin Bet said.

It added that the case was the latest in a string of attempts by Palestinians from the West Bank "to leverage their links with their Gazan counterparts in order to commit attacks."

Israel and the Palestinians have witnessed a resurging wave of violence since U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of the disputed holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December.

--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 Israeli military on Sunday announced that it carried out strikes against 18 Hamas targets in Gaza in response to an explosive device that injured four soldiers along the fence between Israel and the Palestinian enclave.

Palestinian medical sources said that at least two youths were killed in the strikes on Saturday night, reports Xinhua news agency.

An Israeli military spokesperson said the strikes that continued into the early hours of Sunday, were in retaliation to an explosive that denotated near the fence when a military patrol arrived to remove a "suspicious flag".

Four soldiers were injured.

Shortly later, the Israeli air force launched a large-scale attack.

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) views with great severity the incident.

"The Hamas terror organisation is accountable for this incident and its consequences, as well as everything happening in and from the Gaza Strip, above and below ground," the spokesperson added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dalit leader and Gujarat lawmaker Jignesh Mevani was detained by police here on Sunday along with nearly 100 others while staging demonstrations in protest against death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar.

Mevani broke into heated arguments with police when he was being detained in Saraspur suburb of Ahmedabad.

"Gujarat does not belong to your father... give me your buckle number, I am an elected MLA and you have no business to insult me," a furious Mevani shouted at a police constable, after he and 100 others were detained.

When police was taking him out of his car, he claimed he was being manhandled and an elected legislator could not be treated like this. The MLA alleged the cops had barged into his car, pulled out the ignition keys and broke them.

Police denied the charges. Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, J.K. Bhatt told reporters: "It is wrong to say that police ill-treated the respected legislator and we will submit our report to the state Assembly about the incident."

"He (Mevani) may have misbehaved but we have not. It is normal that there will be some arguments when a person is being detained by police," he added.

Vankar, 60, had on Thursday set himself on fire at the Patan district collectorate demanding physical possession of land allotted to a Dalit family and was soon after hospitalized with critical burn injuries. He succumbed to his burn injuries on Friday night at a private hospital in Ahmedabad.

What led to widespread anger was that Vankar had resorted to self-immolation on the premises of Patan collectorate in the presence of police, ambulance and fire-fighters after a week-long notice to the authorities. He had been seeking physical and legal possession of the land allotted to the Dalit families by the state government for some time.

This led to a series of protests by Dalit activists across the state on Friday night and Saturday, including in Gandhinagar, Unjha, Chanasma and Patan in north Gujarat and Morbi in Saurashtra, with many resorting to blocking traffic and burning tyres.

Vankar's family were refusing to accept the dead body and put forth a charter of seven demands before the state government. The state government sent a delegation comprising the Gandhinagar Collector, Inspector General of Police and Social Empowerment Secretary to talk to the Dalit activists and his family of Vankar. But the meeting failed to break the deadlock.

Although the government claimed to have accepted the key demands of the family, the Dalits wanted a categorical assurance in writing.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel told reporters: "We have agreed to all their major demands. We would legally transfer the land in name of the family Bhanubhai Vankar was fighting for, pay a compensation of Rs 8 lakh to the family of Vankar and transfer his family members, who are government employees, closer home.

"The government will also set up an inquiry commission headed by a retired High Court judge or a special investigation team, as agreed by the family of Vankar."

This, however, did not stop Mevani from leading a group of his supporters on the SG Highway connecting Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad, causing blockades and stopping traffic.

"The Chief Minister has become shameless. Vijay Rupani, drown yourself in Narmada. Why don't you die of shame. This is not your father's Gujarat," he said and appealed to Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor to join him in intensifying the stir in the state from Sunday.

"The Chief Secretary must bring out a notification to initiate similar process for landless Dalits across 33 districts of the state. Till then we would continue our fight," Mevani addeed.

Hardik Patel and OBC leader and Congress legislator Thakor visited Vankar's family and demanded firm action and justice to the community. Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Paresh Dhanani also called on the family and expressed solidarity the cause of the Dalits.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Karnataka for two days starting Sunday night to participate in various public functions, a BJP leader said.

"Modi will arrive in Mysuru late Sunday night. He will take a chopper ride on Monday afternoon to Shravanabelagola, about 85 km north of Mysuru in Hassan district, to take part in the anointing celebrations of Jain god Gomateshwara," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state spokesperson Vamanacharya told IANS.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will receive the Prime Minister at Mysuru airport.

"Later, on Monday afternoon, Modi will commission the 140-km fully-electrified Bengaluru-Mysuru rail tracks and flag off the Humsafar Express train from Mysuru to Udaipur in Rajasthan," the official said.

In the evening, he will address a party rally at the Maharaja Grounds in the city centre.

It is Modi's second visit to the southern state in a fortnight. He paid a three-hour visit to Bengaluru on February 4 to address a BJP rally to mark the culmination of the 90-day "Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivartana Yatre" (journey to build a new Karnataka).

The Assembly elections in Karnataka are due in late April or early May.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four people, including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Jonathone Nengminza Sangma, were killed while three others injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in poll-bound Meghalaya's East Garo Hills district on Sunday, an official said.

The incident took place around 7.30 p.m. at Sawilgre village, about 14 km from Samanda Block, when the candidate was returning to Williamnagar, the district headquarters of East Garo Hills from poll campaigning.

"Four bodies were found on the spot, including that of NCP candidate Jonathone Sangma. The other three dead bodies are yet to be identified," District Magistrate Ramkumar S told IANS.

The injured have been rushed to the Williamnagar Civil hospital.

"The rescue team is still at the blast site to rescue the injured persons," Ramkumar said.

Chief Minister Mukul Sangma tweeted: "Deeply saddened to hear about the unexpected loss of Jonathone N Sangma. My heartfelt condolences to his near and dear ones. The blood of innocents spilled by the enemies of the state will not disturb the peace in Meghalaya."

"This desperate act will not be tolerated. The perpetrators of the crime will be apprehended expeditiously and brought to book," the Chief Minister added.

Sangma, 43, was contesting the Assembly election from Williamnagar which he had unsuccessfully contested as an Independent candidate in 2013. He lost the elections to the incumbent Education Minister and senior Congress leader Deborah C. Marak.

The incident was preceded by posters appearing in certain areas of Williamnagar constituency saying anyone who votes for the NCP candidate Jonathone Sangma would get bullets from "AK-17 and pistol".

Incidentally, Sangma had filed a case in 2013 against Deborah, alleging that she had sought the help of terrorist outfit Garo National Liberation Army to intimidate people to seek votes.

Deborah had won the seat in 2013 securing 8,402 votes while Sangma had garnered 5,525 votes.

A year later, Meghalaya Police filed a chargesheet against Deborah Marak and her aide Tennydard Marak for "hatching a criminal conspiracy" with the GNLA to garner votes in the February 2013 Assembly election.

National People's Party President Conrad K Sangma while offering expressing grief tweeted: "My heart goes out to the family of Jonathone Sangma, my dear friend who lost his life in a militant attack. May his soul rest in peace. Sad very unfortunate."

Voicing "serious concern" on the blast, the Meghalaya Bharatiya Janata Party tweeted: "Our thoughts are with the near and dear ones of NCP candidate Shri Jonathan N Sangma and those travelling with him. The news that he was shot dead...comes as a serious concern on the eve of elections."

Strongly condemning the attack, the A'chik Youth Council has demanded CBI enquiry to find out political nexus which lead to such criminal acts.

"Since Meghalaya came to existence, no record has been there about the candidates who have been attacked or killed for political mileage. He (Sangma) had a right to contest (election) and voters would decide his fate," the Council stated.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab National Bank officials used to take percentage commissions in lieu of issuing letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit to diamond czar Nirav Modi and his partner Mehul Choksi and their firms, according to the probe into the Rs 11,300 crore banking scam.

The fresh revelation in the banking fraud has come after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned former PNB Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat, and Hemant Bhatt, the authorised signatory of prime accused Nirav Modi's group of companies.

They were arrested on Saturday and have been remanded in police custody till March 3.

According to CBI sources, the arrested bank officials during interrogation disclosed that for every LoU, a percentage of the amount was fixed depending upon the amount to be sanctioned.

The commission collected from the client was then distributed between all employees of PNB involved in the scam, the sources said.

The agency on Saturday questioned six people in the case. However, CBI officials refused to share the names of all the people being questioned.

Those interrogated on Saturday have named a few more officials who are likely to be questioned in a day or two, an official said.

The CBI official said the arrested accused were also questioned about their modus operandi.

The agency is also examining if other officials of the bank had access to SWIFT -- global messaging service to move money internationally -- which they used to make entries in core banking solution (CBS) to process daily transactions.

"It was used by many officials including Shetty by using passwords in the capacity of verifier/authorizer enabling the fraudulent Swift messages," the source said.

The involvement and connivance of more staff members and outsiders, including Nirav Modi and Mehul Chowksi, at this stage is being probed.

The agency sources claimed that it was not possible for two bank employees to commit a fraud on this scale without the knowledge of other officials.

The action is based on a CBI case registered against Nirav Modi on Wednesday in connection with a fraud involving Rs 6,498 crore.

The CBI on Thursday registered fresh FIRs against 10 directors of the Gitanjali Group of companies for causing alleged loss of Rs 4,886.72 crore.

The FIR also named two former bank employees said to be directly involved in the fraudulent transactions.

The fraud, which includes money laundering, allegedly involved the Firestar Diamonds group in which the CBI last week booked Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal Modi and their uncle Mehul Choksi.

On Sunday, the ED carried out searches at over 45 locations across the country including four places in Delhi.

Six properties in Mumbai belonging to the jeweller have also been sealed.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Over 75 per cent of the 2,536,589 voters in Left-ruled Tripura had exercised their franchise in a peaceful manner to elect a new Assembly on Sunday even as a large number were still standing in queues at the end of official voting hours, officials said.

Election Department officials said both men and women, including new voters, had queued up in large numbers outside polling booths across Tripura even before polling began at 7 a.m.

A total of 292 candidates, including 23 women and many independents, are in the fray. Counting of votes will take place on March 3.

"Over 75 per cent electorate had cast their votes till 4 p.m. Though the pre-scheduled voting hours ended at 4 p.m, a huge numbers of voters were still in queues at a large number of polling stations across the state," an Election Department official told IANS.

The official said snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) were reported from around 180 polling stations, resulting in slow balloting.

Voters, candidates and leaders of all political parties expressed anger over the malfunctioning EVMs-VVPATs.

In the 2013 and 2008 Assembly polls, Tripura witnessed record balloting at 92 and 91 per cent respectively.

"The Election Commission put up specially modified EVMs attached with VVPATs at all 3,174 polling stations. We replaced or rectified faulty EVM-VVPATs and voting resumed in those polling stations afterwards," Additional Chief Electoral Officer Tapas Roy told IANS.

"Voting was entirely peaceful and incident-free. A large number of electorate, including women, are still standing in queues at hundreds of polling stations. The voters who entered the polling station complex before 4 p.m. will be allowed to cast their ballot even till late night."

Balloting was held in 59 of the 60 Assembly constituencies. Polling was deferred to March 12 in Charilam (Reserved-Tribal) seat due to the death of sitting MLA and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma.

Of the 3,174 polling stations, a total of 47 were totally handled by women personnel. In all, 2,536,589 people, including 1,250,128 women and 47,803 first-time voters, were eligible to vote.

The ruling CPI-M fielded 56 candidates, leaving one seat each to its Left Front partners Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc, and Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting 50 seats, leaving nine seats for its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT).

The Congress fielded candidates in all 59 constituencies. However, its official nominee Sukumar Chandra Das in Kakraban-Shalgarha Assembly seat (Reserved-Scheduled Caste) withdrew his nomination and joined the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress has fielded 24 candidates.

Of the 60 seats, 20 are reserved for tribals and 10 for Scheduled Castes.

"Apprehending trouble by tribal outfits, a record 50,000 paramilitary and other security personnel were deployed while two air surveillance teams led by senior officials were deployed on helicopters," an Election Department official said.

Accompanied by his wife Panchali Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister and CPI-M politburo member Manik Sarkar cast his vote here and expressed confidence about retaining power.

"It is certain that the 8th Left Front government will be formed in Tripura after these elections. We are strongly hopeful."

BJP Tripura unit President Biplab Kumar Deb voted in southern Tripura's Udaipur and claimed : "People want change. People strongly wish for a BJP government in Tripura."

In India's 65-year-old electoral history, the CPI-M has never before come in direct confrontation with the BJP.

Tripura became a full-fledged state in January 1972 along with Meghalaya and Manipur. The CPI-M dominated Left Front has been in power since 1978, except for 11 years (1972-1977 and 1988-1993) when the Congress and a breakaway faction led by five Chief Ministers were at the helm in the state.

During 1988-1993, the Congress in alliance with the tribal Tripura Upajati Juba Samity governed the state.

The CPI-M led Left Front has ruled the north-eastern state since 1993 under Chief Ministers Dasaratha Deb (1993-1998) and Manik Sarkar (1998-2018).

The Congress, which fought Assembly elections in alliance with the tribal party since 1983, entered the poll battle alone this time.

The BJP previously fought elections alone but has since aligned with the IPFT, which since 2009 has been agitating for a separate state comprising areas under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council.

The separate state demand has been rejected by all political parties.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone of the Rs 16,000-crore Navi Mumbai International Airport and inaugurated the country's largest container terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, constructed at a cost of Rs 4,719 crore here.

He performed the ground-breaking ceremony and the inauguration electronically in the presence of Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Ramdas Athawale and state ministers.

The Navi Mumbai International Airport will be the second international aviation hub for the financial capital, presently served by the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport that has almost reached saturation point.

The new airport will be constructed by GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL) as per a concession agreement signed on January 8, with the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), the nodal authority of Maharashtra to oversee the project implementation.

The agreement has created a special purpose vehicle - Navi Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd (NMIAL), in which the GVKPIL, through its subsidiary, Mumbai International Pvt Ltd, holds 74 percent equity, while the rest is held by CIDCO.

The initial concession period is 30 years, from the appointed date, which is extendable by another 10 years, for the project in which GVKPIL was declared the successful bidder in February 2017.

The NMIAL, a greenfield airport, will be constructed in the PPP mode on 1,160 hectares on the mainland in Navi Mumbai, across the Mumbai harbour, with the advantage of the upcoming Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, a Special Economic Zone and other major infrastructure developments coming up.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust's Fourth Container Terminal (FCT)'s Phase I in this Maharashtra district has been completed in a record time at a cost of Rs 4,719 crore and is expected to boost container trade and logistics in a big way.

In October 2015, Modi had laid the foundation stone for this terminal which will double JNPT's current container handling capacity.

The FCT will add capacity of 24 lakh containers per annum in the first phase and after completion of the second phase in 2022, the capacity will be quadrupled to a whopping 100 lakh containers per year.

Gadkari said the FCT was developed on Design, Build, Fund, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis for a concession period of 30 years with an estimated investment of Rs 7,915 crore for both the phases.

The terminal will be able to dock mother vessels, handle the biggest container ships from a quay length of one km, handle three container ships simultaneously with sufficient yard space, and cranes which can reach 22 rows wide or more.

The FCT will be linked to the dedicated road access and a rail freight corridor and will receive around 350 containers per rake besides provision for storing 1,600 refrigerated (reefer) containers for perishables, agriculture and horticulture produce.

The commencement of operations at FCT will offer immense opportunities for the EXIM community so that trade flourishes.

The rail facilities will be the largest in India with the only on-dock Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) compliant facility in the country, capable of handling 1.5-km long, 360 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) container trains on completion of the DFC, said Gadkari.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modis and Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys silence over the "Rs 22,000 crore banking scam", and asked the government to stop behaving like it was "guilty".

Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Gandhi said on his social media handle: "Prime Minister Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hours, but won't speak for 2 minutes on the 22,000 crore banking scam."

"Mr. (Arun) Jaitley (Finance Minister) is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you are guilty! Speak up."

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has admitted to unearthing a fraud of Rs 11,515 crore involving jeweller Nirav Modi's companies and certain other accounts with the bank's flagship branch (Brady House Branch) in Mumbai and its second largest lending window in India.

Nirav Modi, the prime accused, fled the country just before the scam came to light. The ruling BJP and the Congress have been trading charges over the culpability of the banking fraud that dates back to 2011-12.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a bonanza for Maharashtra, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Sunday announced plans to launch the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' in the state with an investment of Rs 60,000 crore and collaboration of over 20 global conglomerates.

He said that the initiative will take forward the flagship Jio Movement with the ambitious new plan for a New India and New Maharashtra by setting up the country's first-ever 'Integrated Industrial Development Area' in the state over the next 10 years.

"The company will make Maharashtra the birthplace and cradle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in India, which is a convergence of disruptive technologies in the physical, digital and biological spheres. It is going to transform the world and our society in unimaginable ways," Ambani said in his address at the 'Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018' inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The company will invest more than Rs 60,000 crores along with a coalition of global companies over the next 10 years in this collaborative initiative, he said.

Some of the global companies who have already agreed to co-invest with Reliance include: CISCO, Siemens, Corning, HP, Dell, Nokia and Nvidia, he said, assuring Modi that "this mega-project will make Maharashtra even more magnetic".

Ambani said there is a global race to harness Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Next-Generation Virtual and Augmented Reality, Life Sciences, New Materials and New Sources of Energy and other futuristic technologies.

"India cannot afford to lag behind in this race and indeed has an opportunity to be a global leader," he said.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will help Maharashtra and India solve the most difficult problems in socio-economic development in health-care and education, water security and environmental security, boosting agriculture production, in making all our towns, cities and villages SMART, and generate millions of new employment opportunities for youth of the state and in India.

Ambani described Mumbai as the 'janmabhoomi' (birthplace) of Reliance and his own 'karmabhoomi' (workplace) where the start-up company was established by his father, the late visionary Dhirubhai Ambani with a seed capital of just Rs 1,000 and one employee.

"Today, Reliance employs over 350,000 people... it's the largest 'wealth-creator for India'. Reliance always invests in India's Big Dreams in building businesses of the future with Indian talent and Indian youth," he said.

He said Mumbai is also home to Jio, the newest tech-startup in the Reliance family, and when the Prime Minister unveiled his vision for a Digital India, it also became Jio's own mission.

"Before Jio's launch, India was 155th in the world in mobile broadband consumption. Today India is No. 1. Over 170 million Indians enjoy the highest quality date services at the lowest prices in the world," he said.

So far, the company has invested Rs 250,000 crore in India, of which the highest share - Rs 22,000 crore - came to Maharashtra, and within two years, Jio will connect every village panchayat, every school, college and hospital in the state to bring the benefits of digital revolution to the last person in society, he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Troubled Chinese company LeEco is reportedly gearing up to launch a smartphone with a 18:9 aspect ratio design.

Images of LeEco's new full-screen device have been spotted on China's social media website Weibo.

"With a full-screen design, it is said to go by the name 'Le X'," tech website GizmoChina reported.

The device was also seen with curved edges at both the front and back and the screen-to-body ratio was also high.

There is a dual-camera setup consisting of two vertically arranged sensors with dual-LED (dual-tone) flash.

The overall design of the handset is indicative of a product meant to compete in the upper mid-range segment of the market, according to Android Headlines.

After a rapid expansion at the end of 2016, LeEco started falling behind in paying its suppliers and the staff began leaving the company.

The company later suspended trading of its stock in April last year. It also disposed of 28.8 per cent share in Coolpad, which is now on its own in China as well as India.

LeEco shut operations in India last year.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday paid a visit to rescued elephants at a care centre run by animal welfare organisation Wildlife SOS in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura and said that India's wildlife needs protection.

Trudeau who landed in Delhi on Saturday evening also visited the Taj Mahal with his family.

Appreciating the cause against animal cruelty at the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Centre here, Trudeau said such initiatives need to be supported to protect wildlife in India.

"What an incredible place, with wonderful people doing great things for elephants and for India. The efforts of Wildlife SOS must be supported as we need to protect elephants and all wildlife in India," said Trudeau, who is on a week-long visit to India.

The care centre houses 21 elephants, all subjected to extreme cruelty and finally unchained after years of efforts and legal battle by the organisation.

The 46-year-old Prime Minister -- accompanied by his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and children Hadrien, Ella-Grace Margaret and Xavier James Trudeau -- also fed the elephants and interacted with Wildlife SOS founders, veterinarians and care givers.

"It is a great honour to have the Canadian Prime Minister sparing his valuable family time to see our efforts to protect elephants in collaboration with Forest Department," said Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder and CEO Wildlife SOS.

Wildlife SOS runs a bear rescue centre in Agra and an elephant rescue centre in Mathura to provide critical medical treatment and lifetime care to the rescued elephants.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump on Sunday criticised Congress, the FBI and the Department of Justice for not investigating the Barack Obama government's 2016 payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran to resolve an international dispute.

"Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 billion in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!" Trump wrote on his Twitter account.

In January 2016, the Obama administration sent Iran $400 million in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies, which were transported from Geneva by plane, Efe reported.

The payment was the first portion of the $1.7 billion that the US promised to pay to Tehran to resolve an international dispute that arose during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. According to the Obama government, the funds belonged to Iran but had been in US custody for decades.

The first payment sparked controversy because the White House did not hand over the money to Iran until an aircraft carrying three US citizens recently released from prison by Tehran left the Middle Eastern country.

The Republican opposition accused the Obama government of having paid ransom to Iran for the release of the Americans, something the White House denied, saying that it simply wanted to ensure that Tehran fulfilled its promise to release the prisoners before dispatching the funds that were to be returned to Iran anyway.

The payment came as part of the 2015 nuclear deal among the US, Iran and five other world powers and sought to compensate Tehran with $400 million for the Shah government's never-fulfilled purchase of military equipment before the rupture of US-Iranian diplomatic relations, along with $1.3 billion in interest.

Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the nuclear pact with Iran and has given an ultimatum to Washington's European allies to negotiate -- before mid-May -- a revised agreement that corrects the "defects" of the multilateral pact that ostensibly reined in Tehran's nuclear programme.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two CPI-M workers have been taken into custody for the brutal murder of a Youth Congress worker near here around a week ago, police said on Sunday.

Accused Akash and Rijin Raj are also allegedly involved in another murder.

However, the opposition Congress said the two accused were not the real culprits while the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded a CBI probe.

Congress worker Shoaib, 30, was waiting at an eatery near Mattanoor around 10.45 p.m on Monday when four persons riding a car hurled bombs to create panic and then fatally slashed him with a sword.

A picture of both allegedly posing along Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has now come out.

"To the best of our knowledge, the two CPI-M workers in custody are not the real culprits. What is even more intriguing is that police did not arrest them. Instead, local CPI-M leaders presented the two accused at the police station. All this while the CPI-M leadership was saying that the party had no role in the murder but it has now been proved wrong," senior Congress leader K. Sudhakaran said.

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, however, downplayed the issue and said the ruling party will take action if any party member was involved.

"Let police do their job and decide who are the culprits," said Balakrishnan.

State BJP President Kummanem Rajasekheran told the media that the two accused were housed at the state CPI-M headquarters here.

"For long, state CPI-M first denies role in such murders but later it comes to light that the accused are CPI-M workers. What is suspicious now is that the two were presented to police by local CPI-M leaders. For the truth to come out, only a CBI probe will suffice," said Rajasekheran.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two youths employed by a road construction company were found dead with slit throats in Jharkhand's Dumka district on Sunday, police said.

The murders were reported from Shikaripara in Dumka district, around 35 km from Ranchi where Maoists are active, though police ruled out the involvement of the guerrillas.

Somaya Murmu and Arjun Rana were involved in the construction of the 6.5-km road between Maluti and Lalitakundi and were assigned to take care of the machinery during the night.

Police suspect they were killed by criminals after they were refused levy or protection money.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The White House continued to deny collusion with Moscow a day after special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and three entities for allegedly meddling in the US 2016 presidential election, the media reported.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, President Donald Trump said that, despite the newly announced charges, the Russian meddling had no effect on the outcome of the election, reports CNN.

"'Charges Deal Don A Big Win', written by Michael Goodwin of the @nypost (The New York Post), succinctly states that 'the Russians had no impact on the election results'. There was no collusion with the Trump Campaign.

"She (Hillary Clinton) lost the old-fashioned way, by being a terrible candidate. Case closed," Trump tweeted.

In a separate tweet, the President quoted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein from when he made the announcement regarding the various indictments on Friday.

"Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein stated at the News Conference: 'There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election'," Trump tweeted.

On Friday, charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities were announced by the Justice Department, CNN reported.

The indictments come as part of Mueller's inquiry into Russian meddling in the election, where he's examining any potential ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

Russia has denied any involvement in the election.

--IANS

ksk

(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 Sunday said the youth should give up guns or they will face thousands of these from the security forces.

Addressing a public meeting on the sidelines of an official function in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, the Chief Minister said: "I have come to have a heart to heart talk with you today.

"I may be in power tomorrow or not, but unless you persuade your children to give up guns, they will have to face thousands of guns of the security forces.

"Violence will get us nothing. If violence escalates in the Valley, there will be more security force camps and then it will take us hundreds of years to have those camps removed."

Mehbooba Mufti said if her peace initiatives get enough support from the people, her government will push for opening up more and more routes across the Line of Control.

Together with Shopian, Anantnag and Pulwama districts, Kulgam has been a hotbed of militancy during the last three years.

This has pushed developmental projects and routine administrative initiatives to the back-burner as the focus of the state and Central governments remains on bringing the ongoing militant violence and street protests under control.

--IANS

sq/him/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Apropos your editorial Bank vulnerabilities (February 16), it is just not possible that a fraud of Rs 114 billion would take place just because a junior employee in one of the branches somehow managed to issue false letters of undertaking (LoUs) to overseas branches of several banks.

It would indeed be naive to believe that just this action of an employee caused the huge fraud and that no other banks or the Punjab National Bank (PNB) management had any knowledge of what was going on. Even if a false letter was issued and a certain bank extended payment to the culprit, ...An FIR has been registered against Bengaluru District Youth Congress General Secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others for allegedly beating up a person in a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB City.

Allegedly, the accused has threatened the victim Vidwath, at Mallya hospital where he later went for treatment.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took to Twitter and said, " Offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.

@CPBlr will take action as per law and bring the guilty to book.



Offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.@CPBlr will take action as per law and bring the guilty to book. https://t.co/H0Km8zauVz  Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) February 18, 2018

Mohammed Nalpad is the son of Congress MLA NA Harris.

An embarrassed Congress was forced to expel MLA NA Harris son Mohammad Nalapad on Sunday following a News18 report on an attack.

The victim, identified as Dollars Colony resident Vidwath, was having dinner at a high-end restaurant in UB City when Mohammad Nalapad and his friends walked in at 11:30pm. The group reportedly told Vidwath, who had a plaster on one of his legs, to sit properly.

After a heated exchange, Nalapad and his friends allegedly attacked Vidwath and beat him up. The victim was rushed to the nearby Mallya Hospital for treatment, but the group reportedly followed him there and allegedly beat him up again. Nalapad and his friends allegedly also tried to attack the victims brother.

Harris paid a visit to the hospital later in the night, following which the opposition BJP and JD(S) alleged that the lawmaker was trying to hush up the case.

On Sunday, Harris claimed he was unaware of his sons whereabouts. It is an unfortunate incident. I met the victim and his family. I don't know where he (Nalapad) is. His phone is switched off. Let the law take its course, the MLA said.

(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.)As of 1 pm on Sunday morning, voter turnout of 45.86% per cent was registered. Incumbent Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has reportedly cast his vote at a polling booth in Agartala. Meanwhile, Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti, said that polling has been going on smoothly as of now. "It is going on smoothly. We hope the momentum carries on.

There was a couple of issues in EVMs in the morning. Our team has resolved the issue. We will be able to complete polling before the stipulated time," he said. The BJP and CPI-M are duking it ...Two CPI(M) workers were today arrested in connection with the recent killing of a Youth Congress leader in this district even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the incident and assured all those involved would be brought to book soon.

Akash and Rijin Raj, both in their 30s, went to the police station at Maloor, near Mattanoor, with a few other local CPI(M) workers and surrendered to the authorities following which the duo was arrested, police said.

Shuhaib, the Mattanur block Youth Congress secretary, was at a roadside tea shop with two other party members, Riaz and Naushad, when they were attacked at Mattanoor on February 13.

The surrender comes in the backdrop of the Congress sharpening its attack on the ruling CPI(M) over the killing.

However, state Congress chief M M Hassan said the surrender seemed to be "a drama" to shield the real culprits.

Vijayan, in a statement, said some persons involved in the case had been taken into custody and others also would be arrested.

He said that immediately after the incident, police had been given instruction to take stringent action against the culprits.

Whoever is the accused and whatever may be their ties, it would not affect the investigation of the case," Vijayan said.

He also sought the cooperation of all for maintaing peace and brotherhood in the state.

This is the first reaction of Vijayan after the killing that triggered widespread condemnation from different quarters including opposition parties Congress and BJP.

CPI-M state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the party will initiate action if its workers were found to be involved in Shuhaib's killing.

Congress Kannur strongman and former MP K Sudhakaran has announced a 48-hour fast in front of the Collectorate here from tomorrow as part of the party's agitation against the delay in arresting those behind the killing.

Police suspect the assault on the Youth Congress workers could be related to incidents of violence in the area last week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Indian nationals were today arrested in Nepal for smuggling arms into the country, police said.

Prasad Kushwaha, 27 and Ajay Prasad Kushwaha, 21, were arrested from a hotel room during a raid by a special police team in Gaur Municipality in southern Nepal.

Acting on a tip off, the police team raided the hotel and confiscated two pistols and three round of bullets from the Indian nationals, Nepal police said.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Ajit Prasad Kushwaha, a Nepali national from Birgunj Municipality in southern Nepal was arrested, police said.

They said a pistol was confiscated from him.

The 28-year-old Kushwaha was arrested during a security check by the police, police said, adding that further investigation into the matter was going on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two policemen were killed and six others were injured in a fierce gun-battle with Naxals after the rebels ambushed a police team in a dense forest in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district today, a top official said. The skirmish started around 11 am near a rivulet in the forest between Elarmadgu and Bhejji under Bhejji police station limits, when a joint team of security forces was out on an "area domination operation", Deputy Inspector General of Police (south Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI. "Assistant constables Madkam Handa and Mukesh Kadthi, belonging to DRG (District Reserve Guard of police), were killed and six other jawans suffered injuries in the encounter," he said. Of the injured, four are DRG personnel and other two belong to the Special Task Force (STF) of the state police. Soon after information about the ambush came, reinforcement was rushed and injured personnel and bodies of the policemen were taken out, he said. The injured personnel were airlifted to Raipur and admitted to a private hospital, he added. Special Director General of Police (anti-Naxal operations) D M Awasthi said the team had launched the operation in the interior of Bhejji, around 500 km from Raipur, early today morning. Around 11 am, when the team was combing the forest ahead of Elarmadgu, it came under heavy fire from the rebels which led to a fierce gun-battle which lasted for about four hours, Awasthi said. The rebels were from 'Military Battalion No:1' of the Naxals which has executed several deadly attacks in south Bastar, he said. Awasthi claimed that many Naxals were also killed in the encounter, though their bodies could not be retrieved due to heavy firing from the rebels' side. In another incident in the same area, along a stretch between Bhejji and Elarmadgu where road construction is underway, Naxals killed supervisor of the construction contractor and torched vehicles engaged in the work, DIG Sundarraj said. The killed supervisor was identified as Anil Kumar, he said, adding that the combing operation was underway in the region. Last month, four police personnel were killed and nine others injured in a fierce gun-battle with Naxals in Abhujmad area of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.

(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 21st century was the age of "knowledge economy" and the power of new ideas and innovation was greater than money.

He said a sustainable development of the human society was possible through the confluence of Indian values and modern science and technology.

Kovind was addressing the diamond jubilee celebrations of University of Delhis PGDAV College here.

Pointing to the success of the youth and their start-ups in e-commerce, transport and tourism, he said more than capital investment, it was the human talent and ingenuity that were behind such success.

"The 21st century is the age of the knowledge economy. In todays era, the power of new ideas, new thinking and innovation is greater than money, Kovind said.

The President said that the definition of employment is changing. Employment is no longer just a conventional job. Creating self-employment opportunities for yourself and for others has become more feasible," he said.

In order to encourage self-employment, the government is providing assistance through various schemes, Kovind said, as he urged students to use these opportunities for their career development as well as to create opportunities for others.

Remembering social reformer Swami Dayananda Saraswati, he said that to spread his teachings, Indian educationist Lala Hansraj had laid the foundation of Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) school in Lahore about 130 years ago.

Kovind also praised the DAV family of educational institutions, saying it has imparted education based on modern scientific perspectives, as well as inspired by Indian traditions, to successive generations in the country.

Indeed, the philosophy of the DAV institutions, which were first founded in the 19th century, can stand us in good stead in the 21st century as well, he said.

The President said that former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had completed his MA from DAV school in Kanpur.

"I also completed my B com and LLB from DAV school, Kanpur," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 76 per cent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise for the Assembly polls today in Tripura, where the BJP is trying to dislodge the Left Front after an unbroken 25-year stint in power, officials said. The polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was peaceful with thousands of central paramilitary forces fanning across the northeastern state. There were reports of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some polling stations which were rectified. Polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week. The constituency will go to polls on March 12. The Election Commission said in New Delhi the updated polling percentage was complied from 41 of the 59 constituencies. At its briefing earlier, the poll watchdog had put the figures at 74 per cent.

In the last Assembly elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 91.82 per cent, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it was 84.32 per cent, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain told reporters in the national capital. He said two crude bombs were detected and disposed of by security personnel. The voter turnout is likely to rise as long queues were seen at polling stations even after 4 pm, the time for the voting to conclude. Under the electoral laws, voters standing in queue at the scheduled time for voting to conclude are allowed to exercise their franchise. Additional CEO Tapas Roy said in Agartala initially there were problems with several EVM machines which were fixed. Earlier in the day, Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti had said voting was delayed in some polling booths of West Tripura, Khowai and Unakoti districts as officials could not properly connect the EVMs. Technicians were rushed in to these placed and EVMs set right. The BJP, hitherto an "also ran" in the border state, has emerged as the key challenger to the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which has remained unvanquished in the last five Assembly elections. Manik Sarkar, one of the most enduring icons of the CPI(M), has helmed the state for the last four terms. The Congress, which has been marginalised in Tripura, was last in power between February 1988 and March 1993. It is contesting 59 seats and had not fielded candidate for Kakrabon constituency. The BJP, which has been rapidly expanding its footprint in the northeast, with the party already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, has forged an alliance with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an anti-Left party. The BJP has fielded candidates in 51 places, while its ally is contesting the remaining nine seats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah spearheaded the BJP-IPFT challenge in one of the last bastions of the Left. Sarkar, known for leading a frugal life and the considered the "poorest" of chief ministers in the country, almost single-handedly tried to defend his 'Red fort' against the saffron challenge. Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) K V Srijesh said the voting was "incident free" and no violence was reported from anywhere. While 300 companies of central armed forces were deployed, besides the state police, the BSF kept heightened vigil along the 856-km-long India-Bangladesh border in Tripura. Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) R K Pachnanda was appointed special observer to coordinate with all security forces deployed for the election. Manik Sarkar cast his vote in Ramnagar constituency here, while Biplab Deb, the state BJP chief, pressed the EVM button in R K Pur seat in Gomati district. Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha cast his vote at Kailashahar in Unakoti district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP chief Amit Shah will be on a three-day tour of poll-bound Karnataka from tomorrow during which he will attend a number of events and hold public meetings, according to a party statement.

He will hold a public meeting tomorrow near the Mangalore airport and interact with students of a college in Dakshina Kannada on Tuesday on the "youth's role in building a new India", it read.

Karnataka is likely to go to the polls in April-May and the BJP has been making concerted efforts to wrest it from the Congress.

It is the only big state, of those which send 20 or more MPs to the Lok Sabha, being ruled by the Congress.

Shah will chair party meetings in the district and visit the home of Deepak Rao, a BJP worker who was killed recently, it read.

He is also scheduled to address a fishermen convention in Udupi.

Shah will address a convention of social media activists in Udupi on Wednesday and meet the family of another murdered party worker, Paresh Mehta, it said.

The BJP chief will chair several party events and visit a number of temples.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Delhi court has expressed displeasure over animals being subjected to cruelty during transportation and then released to their violators as a "matter of convenience". The court said it has to be seen that laws relating to animal protection and prevention of cruelty are firmly implemented and a nation whose roots are strongly embedded in the principles of 'Ahimsa', does not permit cruelty to animals. Special Judge Kamini Lau said the courts cannot turn a blind eye on animal rights violation and dismissed the revision petition filed by Rajasthan resident Bajrang, whose animals were confiscated and who was fined Rs 1,000 for transporting 76 goats and 23 sheep on a truck in an inhuman manner. While refusing to release the herd of goats and sheep to Bajrang, who was convicted under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, the court also said that none of the transport of animals rules were followed by him and he had pleaded guilty before the trial court. "Day in and day out we see truck loads of hapless animals writhing in pain, piled one upon the other heading towards abattoirs with the younger and weaker being suffocated to death in full public view with shocked passer-byes as helpless and unable to do anything to ameliorate the sufferings of these animals despite all laws being in place," the court observed. It court said that the vehicle which transported the animals was not having any permit to do so. The special judge refused to release the animals as he failed to prove that animals, if released to him, shall not be exposed to further cruelty. The court said that according to law, a valid health certificate issued by a qualified veterinary surgeon to the effect that the sheep and goats are in a fit condition to be transported and are not suffering from infectious or contagious or parasitic disease was required, but the convict was not able to produce the same. The judge also said that when ewes, goats or lambs below six weeks of age, are transported, separate panels shall be provided but the same was absent in the vehicle.

The special judge further noted that it was imperative for the courts to take note of the various provisions of laws to punish the offenders against such violence. "A nation, whose roots are strongly embedded in the principles of 'Ahimsa', does not permit any kind of cruelty to be inflicted upon hapless animals and the courts of law cannot turn a blind eye on the enormous violations right under the nose of the state authorities who are duty bound to implement the laws relating to prevention of animals from being put to cruelty," the court said. A trial court had on January 4 convicted Bajrang for transporting 99 animals in one truck. The animals were found to be kept in a painful condition in a cramped manner in the truck which was not meant to be used for transporting animals. The trial court had convicted him and confiscated his animals. He approached the sessions court after his revision petition was dismissed by the trial court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Indian Army today awarded the winners a photography and painting competition that was organised here to mark Army Day. The theme of the competition was 'Indian Army - Symbol of Nation Building' and was organised by the Army under the aegis of Additional Director General of Public Interface (ADGPI), an army officer said. Swapnil Acharya and Balwant Singh won the first prize in the photography competition, and Rohit Gupta and Babita were winners of the painting competition. The participants had submitted their works online and received the certificates and cash prizes from the Army Headquarters through their school authorities yesterday. The results were declared last month on Army Day, the officer said.

The official said the competition was part of Operation Sadbhavana (goodwill) which is an initiative of the Army in the Jammu and Kashmir to address aspirations of people affected by terrorism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month on a rare visit during which they held extensive talks with the top brass of the Bhutanese leadership on strategic issues including the situation in Doklam, authoritative government sources said. The sources told PTI that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation issues with a focus on China's increasing military posturing and infrastructure development in the key Doklam plateau. The visit took place between February 6 and 7 and "positive" outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, they said. The visit by Gen. Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first such high-level trip from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff and it was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides. The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians about the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed Doklam tri-junction by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on August 28.

China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. India argues that since it is a tri-junction involving the three countries, it also has a say in the issue, specially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks.

Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India. The sources said several other key officials of the Army and the Ministry of External Affairs were also a part of the visit. Asked about the foreign secretary's visit, a diplomatic source called it "routine".

This was Gen. Rawat's second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen. Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 km-long border with China. Last month, he had said the time had come for the country to shift its focus from the western to the northern frontier. Army sources said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area. The Indian Army has also been strengthening its troop level in certain key sectors along the Sino-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure. Previously, Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year while then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited the neighbouring country in October last. In November last, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, had visited India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Army today foiled an attempt by a group of terrorists to intrude into this side under the cover of Pakistani firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said.

Jammu-based Army PRO Lt Col Devender Anand said the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from 5:15 pm along the LoC in Poonch sector to facilitate an infiltration attempt by a group of terrorists.

The alert troops deployed at the border detected the movement and engaged the infiltrators with effective automatic fire, he said, adding that search and sanitisation operations were in progress.

Earlier, a police official said the firing from small and heavy weapons from across the border took place in Khari Karmara sector and continued for about 15 minutes.

However, there was no immediate report of any casualty in the Pakistani firing, he told PTI.

The Army PRO said Pakistan does not abandon its nefarious designs of supporting and abetting infiltration across the LoC. "The Army is keeping a strict vigil across the LoC and is prepared to thwart any nefarious designs of Pakistan sponsored terrorists," he said. Twenty people -- 11 security personnel and nine civilians -- were killed and over 75 others injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the International Border (IB) in Jammu division since the beginning of this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today alleged, "fraudsters" were linked to the "highest echelons" of the BJP-led NDA and urged the government to bring out a white paper on the banking system which it said had witnessed scams involving over Rs 610 billion in the last five years.

"Bank frauds are tumbling out of the closet faster than you can say Jack Robinson," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, alleging that another banking fraud was now out in the open.

Referring to the Rs 114 billion scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), Tewari said while the "Modi-Choksi tango" was still going on, reports had emerged about another banking fraud. Vikram Kothari, the owner of Rotomac pens, owes Rs 8 billion to a consortium of Indian and was now untraceable, he said.

The frauds in the Indian are growing every day, the former Union minister said, claiming that according to Reserve Bank of India data, Rs 612.60 billion of banking frauds had taken place in the last five years. "Data released by the RBI show that Rs 612.60 billion banking frauds have taken place in the last five years, and out of these five years, the BJP-led NDA has been in power for four years. The linkages between these alleged fraudsters and the highest echelons of the BJP raise some very serious questions about the health of the Indian economy," he told reporters here.

Therefore, the Congress party "demands a white paper on the Indian banking system from the government," he said, adding that the BJP-led NDA should direct all to publish and declare the name of fraudsters and details related to NPAs ( non-performing assets).

The total NPAs of all public and private banks were worth Rs 8.36 trillion as of September 2017. "And 77 per cent of these NPAs are of leading Indian corporate offices," he said, accusing the government of being unable to check NPAs and take care of the general public's money. India occupies the fifth position among 39 countries on NPAs, he added.

An NPA is when a loan taker cannot pay interest for two successive quarters. The Congress has been attacking the government over the fraud involving PNB, which detected a $1.77 billion (about Rs 114 billion) scam in which jeweller Modi allegedly acquired fake LoUs from the bank to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

"It is hilarious that PNB, where this scam happened, won the vigilant award for 2016-17," Tewari said, adding that this scam raised an important question about the lack of transparency in the government.The BJP-led government's budget reforms have created a new work culture and they are transforming the socio-economic landscape of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here today.

After inaugurating the 'Magnetic Maharashtra' Investors Summit in suburban Bandra, he said the budget was not limited to outlay, its focus was on the outcome.

Days after the presentation of the last full budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Modi said all the four budgets of his government focused on the upliftment of the needy.

He pointed to schemes with definitive targets like clean fuel for all and healthcare for all.

"Now, our state is policy driven, governance is performance driven, government is accountable, democracy is participative. We are making transparent ecosystem part of the new India," he said.

"We have taken governance to a level where intervention by the government is minimal. A country progresses when there is holistic vision which is inclusive and comprehensive," the prime minister said.

On budget reforms, Modi said changes like merging of rail budget, removing the "artificial wall" between plan and non-plan spends, advancement of the budget date had helped resources reach departments ahead of time and minimise monsoon impact.

"Our focus is on development-policies based budget. In the last 3-4 years, budget reform and the change in thinking is developing a new work culture and also transforming socio-economic life," he said.

In the recent budget, the government proposed resources of Rs 14 lakh crore to the agri and rural sector and also upped infra sector spend by over Rs one lakh crore, he said.

Mentioning work on national highways, new rail lines, electrification, housing for poor and solar capacity, Modi said the pace of growth in infrastructure creation had increased by 2-3 times in every aspect.

"In the last three and a half years, we have transformed the country from being 'fragile five' nation to one now looking at USD 5 trillion GDP," he said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state is aiming to increase its pace of growth of 9.3 per cent to become a USD one trillion economy by 2025.

Modi welcomed the vigour with which the states were attracting investments following the "success" achieved by Gujarat on that front, and exuded confidence that Maharashtra would achieve the ambitious target.

"I am sure that Maharashtra will become the first trillion dollar economy in the country. Maharashtra's development is representative of changes in the country," he said.

Modi also welcomed the investments garnered by Maharashtra at the Make in India summit two years ago, saying the state signed agreements entailing investments of Rs 4 lakh crore of which Rs 2 lakh crore had fructified.

Fadnavis said the state had received investment proposals of Rs 8 lakh crore at MII, of which Rs 4.91 lakh crore are in various stages of implementation.

He also enlisted a five-point plan for growth which includes focus on digital sectors, skilling agri workers, addressing the fintech opportunity, upping public infrastructure and creating growth corridors.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court's historic verdict on the decades-old dispute on Cauvery river water sharing between the southern riparian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also saw some heated and anxious moments during its hearing. On September 30, 2016, jurist and senior advocate Fali S Nariman, who led the arguments for Karnataka, had refused to argue the matter over differences with the state government for its non-compliance of the top court's order asking it to release 6,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu. The episode was also mentioned in the court's 465-page verdict penned for the bench by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The court had on February 16 ruled an increase in the share of Cauvery water for Karnataka. The bench, however, did not go into the episode in any detail. The bench, which also comprised Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, had appreciated the stand taken by Nariman on the issue, and said, "We think it necessary to state here that Mr Nariman had courageously lived up to the highest tradition of the Bar and we had recorded our uninhibited accession." When the matter was taken up for hearing on September 30, 2016, Nariman had submitted two letters to the top court requesting it to take them on record. The letters pertained to the communication between him and the state government on compliance of the top court's order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu. During the hearing, Nariman had told the bench that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had called an all-party meeting after the Supreme Court passed its order on September 27. He had said the meeting reiterated that the "will of the people of the state should be respected" and no water could be released at that juncture. While referring to the contents of his letter to the chief minister, Nariman had told the bench he had unequivocally stated he would not argue for Karnataka till the orders of Supreme Court were followed. He had said he would not make any submission on behalf of Karnataka, a move which was hailed by the bench which said Nariman's stand "unhesitatingly beholds the right tradition of the bar". The top court after the highly charged hearing had given the last opportunity to the Siddaramaiah government to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from October 1 to October 6, 2016, despite a unanimous resolution passed by both house of the Assembly. "Karnataka, despite being a state, is flouting the order and creating a situation when the majesty of the law is dented," it had said. The top court had then ordered all the stakeholders - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry - to suggest names of representatives to be included in the Cauvery Water Management Board, which would be chaired by the Union Water Resources Minister. Similarly, another incident annoyed the apex court during the hearing on September 12, 2016, when Karnataka moved an application for modification of the September 5, 2016, order directing it to release water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka had sought a modification of the order on the grounds that spontaneous agitations had broken out in various parts of the state, which had paralysed normal life and resulted in the destruction of public and private properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees. The top court after reading the affidavit filed by Karnataka observed the application contained "certain averments which cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law seeking modification of an earlier order". It categorically stated that an "agitation in spontaneity or propelled by some motivation or galvanised by any kind of catalystic component can never form the foundation for seeking a modification of an order". "Citizens cannot become the law unto themselves; and when a court of law passes an order, it is the sacred duty of citizens to obey the same," the bench had said while rejecting the prayer of the state government to keep the order in abeyance but had modified the order for the release of water.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One and half years after the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016, was passed, the Centre has notified its draft rules specifying on how states could utilise around Rs 50,000 crores under it for growth and regeneration of forests. In the notification, the Centre has also specified the allowed and disallowed activities. The ministry in its notification, dated February 16, has come out with draft rules for the Compensatory Afforestation Act, 2016, which seeks to ensure expeditious utilisation of funds in an efficient and transparent manner of amounts realised in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose. The following draft of certain rules which the central government proposes to make in exercise of the powers conferred by section 30 of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016, (38 of 2016) is hereby published, as required under sub-section (1) of section 30 of the said Act for the information of the public likely to be effected thereby, the notification said. It said that the draft rules will come into effect after 30 days. It has also invited comments and suggestions from various stakeholders, the notification said. The rules has prohibited the use of certain activities, including payment of salary and travelling allowances, to regular employees of state forest departments undertaking foreign visits, expansion and up-gradation of zoo and wildlife safari among others. The notification came days after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh questioned the Centre's delay in making draft rules for the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016, saying it posed a "serious threat" to the rights and livelihoods of tribals and forest dwellers. Provided further that the said activities over forest land under the control of state forest department and being managed as per the working plan with participation of local people shall be taken up in consultation with the gram sabha or van sanrakshan samiti or village forest committee as the case may be It shall be in consonance with the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (2 of 2007), and the guidelines issued thereunder, wherever applicable, the notification said. Most of the funds, amounting to around Rs 50,000 crore, are with the ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). As per the draft rules, 80 per cent of the accumulated funds can be used by a state in a financial year for 12 activities for forest and wildlife management, which includes, assisted natural regeneration, artificial regeneration (by plantations), protection of plantations and forests, pest and disease control in forest and forest fire prevention and control operations. These also include soil and moisture conservation in the forest, improvement of wildlife habitat, relocation of villages from protected areas, planting and rejuvenation of forest cover on non-forest land falling in wildlife corridors, establishment, operation and maintenance of animal rescue centre and veterinary treatment facilities for wild animals among others. The remaining 20 per cent of the net present value (NPV) will be utilised for strengthening of the forest and wildlife related infrastructure, capacity building of the personnel of state forest departments and other associated agencies and organisations, the draft rules said. The rules have prohibited certain activities which shall not be used by the funds. These include payment of salary and travelling allowances to regular employees of the state forest department, undertaking foreign visits, payment for legal services for defending cases filed in tribunals or courts not related to the management of the state authority, purchase of vehicles for officers and heavy vehicles and machines for the state forest department, construction of residential and official buildings for officers above forest range officers. The list of activities not permissible also include leasing, hiring and purchase of land for afforestation purposes, purchase of furniture and appliances, establishment, expansion and up-gradation of zoo and wildlife safari among others. It also said that 60 per cent of the interest accrued on the amount available in the state fund shall be spent in a financial year for six activities for conservation and development of forest and wildlife while the 40 per cent will be spent for the non-recurring and recurring expenditure of the state authority, with the approval of the steering committee of the said authority. The notification said that the national fund will be managed according to the provisions of Government Accounting Rule, 1990, and the General Financial Rules, 2017. On the other hand, it said that the state fund will be managed according to provisions of the state financial rules or any such rules applicable in the state and in accordance with the accounting procedure notified by the state or union territory government and as per the guidelines issued by the the national authority. Questioning the delay by the government, Jairam Ramesh had recently shot off two separate letters to Minister Harsh Vardhan and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. He had said in the letters that the rules are yet to be made public despite former minister Anil Madhav Daves assurance to the Rajya Sabha in July 2016.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Centre should ensure that Tamil Nadu received the quantum of water from river Cauvery as apportioned by the Supreme Court, CPI leader D Pandian said here today.

Tamil Nadu and the people, with due respect to the court, have accepted the ruling.

However, it was the responsibility of the Centre to ensure that Karnataka was adhering to the verdict and release the 177.25 tmc ft to Tamil Nadu, he told reporters here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Eight soldiers and 19 suspected members of Al-Qaeda were killed in Yemen today, as the army launched an offencive against key outposts of the extremists, a military official said. General Faraj al-Bahsani, governor of Hadramawt province, told AFP the army had taken control of the Mesini Valley west of Mukalla, a central site for Al-Qaeda in southeast of the country. Mukalla was the most populated Yemeni city under direct Al-Qaeda control from 2015 to 2016, when the army and its regional military allies seized control of the port city. Special forces trained by the United Arab Emirates - a key member of a Saudi-led alliance fighting alongside Yemen's government forces - over the weekend launched the offencive, codenamed "Al-Faisal", against Al-Qaeda cells in oil-rich Hadramawt province. Two soldiers were killed on Saturday in the offencive, which targets the Mesini and Amed Valleys -- both in the vast province of Hadramawt and home to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The two valleys are critical to control over Yemen's southeastern coastline. More than 9,200 people have been killed in the Yemen war since 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition joined the governments fight against Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Radical groups, including AQAP and the Islamic State group, have flourished in the chaos of the war, regularly launching attacks on government and military targets. The United States, the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen, has ramped up a long-running campaign against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress, which has given three chief ministers to Nagaland since its inception in 1963, is contesting from just 18 Assembly seats in the February 27 state polls this time, two short of the BJP, which is an emerging entity in the north-eastern state.

As many as five Congress candidates have withdrawn from the election race and now, there are only 18 nominees in the fray for the 60-member Assembly polls.

The party had released a list of 23 candidates on February 6, of whom three were "restrained" by their respective village authorities from filing nominations, while two contestants withdrew their documents citing a "fund shortage".

The BJP, a relatively new entity in the tribal-dominated state, has fielded candidates from 20 seats.

The saffron party has forged an alliance with the Nationalist Democratic People's Party (NDPP) of Neiphiu Rio, who walked out of the ruling Naga People's Front (NPF) to form the new outfit.

The NDPP is contesting from 40 seats as per its seat-sharing arrangements with the BJP.

The Congress nominees, who withdrew from the polls are -- Limawati Jamir from Aonglenden and Aimong Lam from Noklak. Three others -- Hobeto Kiba from Zunheboto, Shami Angh from Longleng and Choakpa Konyak from Tobu -- were reportedly forced by the village authorities not to file their nominations.

Party insiders said the withdrawal was primarily due to a shortage of funds in the state Congress unit.

Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) president Kewekhape Therie admitted that the cash crunch had forced the party to initially field candidates from only 23 seats.

Nagaland became a state on December 1, 1963 and after the election in January, 1964, the first 40-member Nagaland Legislative Assembly was formed on February 11, 1964. In 1974, the strength of the Assembly was increased to 60.

The downfall of the Congress had started in the north-eastern state at least five years ago.

The party, which had won eight seats in the last Assembly polls in 2013 and was the principal opposition in the state, lost all the eight MLAs when they merged with the NPF on November 21, 2015.

On the other hand, the BJP has been gaining in strength.

On June 18, 2014, three NCP MLAs had defected to the BJP, taking its tally in the state Assembly to four. The NCP does not have any MLA in the Assembly now as the lone legislator of the party had joined the NPF in 2015.

In the 2013 Assembly polls, the Congress had contested from 56 seats and won eight. The party had secured 24.89 per cent of the total votes polled.

The BJP had fought from 11 seats and won one. Their vote percentage was 1.75.

The NPF had contested from 60 seats and won 38, securing 47.4 per cent of the total votes polled.

Hokishe Sema was the first Congress chief minister of Nagaland (1986-1988).

S C Jamir, currently the Governor of Odisha, served as the Congress chief minister of Nagaland from 1989 to 1990 and then again from 1993 to 2003.

K L Chishi of the grand old party was on the chair for 36 days in 1990.

Buoyed by its success in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is making a determined bid to expand its footprint in the north-east. The saffron party is leaving no stone unturned to win the elections in Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today accused the Congress of looking for a scam every day to throw mud on the "corruption-free" NDA government as she hit out the opposition party for throwing 'trantrums' over the Rafale deal.

BJP did not throw tantrums during Congress-led UPA government over any defence deals as the Congress was doing at present over the deal for purchase of Rafale fighter jets, she said at "The Huddle", a thought conclave, conducted by The Hindu Publication here.

"The Congress wants to equate their corrupt and scam-hit UPA government with ours. So, it is looking for a scam every day. Here we go there is one, pick it up and throw mud, and it is for us to keep wiping it and saying we are clean. I am sorry it is somewhat not so responsible way in which you want to criticise the government," she said.

Stating that she had 'happily released all the answers on purchase of equipment, weaponry and certain helicopters," she said when some helicopters were deployed in friendly countries during UPA regime, then ministers did not disclose information citing national security concerns.

There was no outrage at that time, in spite of BJP being the opposition. "We didn't throw tantrums. We then thought there would have been some reason, the government, the defense ministry and the PM, probably had a genuine reason not to talk about it," she added.

Sitharaman also said there was no controversy over the Rafale deal as there was no deal under the UPA government. "Let's get this out of our system that they (UPA government) had the deal and it was much better. Where was the deal under the UPA? There was just no deal..."



She was responding to Congress President Rahul Gandhi's allegations that the Rafale deal inked by the government to buy 38 fighter planes had no technology transfer, ignoring the deal signed by UPA government to procure 126 Rafale planes.

The Defence Minister said Rafale had been considered along with Eurofighter Typhoon under the UPA regime and there was enough data in public domain where within three years between 2011 to early 2014, the UPA's quoted prices about Rafale had undergone nearly 300 per cent increase.

She said the process was almost completed and the bids were opened and at the stage of buying, the then "Raksha Mantri thought probably there was something wrong and asked for the details."



Sitharaman said the Defence Minister had no business to enter the process after the bids were opened.

Responding to the allegation that Qatar was buying Rafale jet at cheaper rate than the rate at which India will procure them, she said, "The simple thing is also that every time you go with transfer of technology, the price goes up to that extent."



She also countered allegations that a contract to manufacture parts of the jets was awarded to an inexperienced private company.

"In the UPA non-deal, HAL had very clearly come up with certain number of man-hours which was not even acceptable for Dassault. So, the HAL deal again did not happen, so we had managed to get transfer of technology, you have not...Dassault even did not consider HAL, and we have not considered anybody," she said.

Moreover, the Prime Minister did not mention any particular company's name, public or private, in the inter-governmental agreement, which was more like an MoU, she added.

She said Dassault had not yet told the government with whom they were going. " So, why there is imagination, "Oh you have gone with them and that name was given by Prime Minster. Sorry again - non-sense," she added.

Giving reasons for the government not wanting to reveal the price, Sitaraman said she would love to answer this in the Parliament or anybody to satisfy all, but it will be more satisfying to the enemies of India.

"By revealing the prices of all the additional equipments to be fixed in the jets, who are we trying to help?" she asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The decision of the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) to go separate ways in the bypolls for two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh may have brightened the BJP's prospects of retaining these seats even as the saffron party claimed it would rely on its hardwork and strength. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav today announced the name of the party contestant from Gorakhpur and said the candidate for Phulpur will be declared shortly. The Congress has already named its nominees for both the high-profile constituencies.

Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies were vacated by Chief Minister Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively, after they became members of the UP Legislative Council. For the BJP, Gorakhpur assumes significance as it is the bastion of Adityanath, who has represented it in Lok Sabha five times. Prior to Adityanath, Gorakhpur was thrice represented in the Parliament by his mentor Avaidyanath. Phulpur, on the other hand, was once the bastion of the Congress, and represented by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It had for the first time witnessed a saffron surge in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when Maurya emerged victorious. "We can clearly see that opposition votes will split with both the SP and the Congress in the fray. However, we will contest on our strengths, and emerge victorious. We believe that the hard work of the party workers will definitely help us to clinch victory on both the seats," UP BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla told PTI here today. Even when the two parties (SP and Congress) fought against us jointly in the 2017 Assembly polls, their alliance came a cropper, he said. Shukla exuded confidence that BJP will not only retain the two seats, but also improve its margin of victory. "There are only two waves - Modi wave and Yogi wave - in Uttar Pradesh, thanks to their vision for development as reflected in both the Union and state budgets," he said. The Samajwadi Party (SP) today declared its support for Praveen Kumar Nishad, for the bye-election to the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat. Praveen Kumar Nishad, who belongs to the Nishad Party, would contest on SP poll symbol - the bicycle, the party said. SP would soon declare its candidate for the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, it added. On February 16, the Congress decided to go it alone in the parliamentary bye-elections in Uttar Pradesh and declared its candidates. Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that Dr Sureetha will be its candidate for the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll, and local leader Manish Mishra will contest from the Phulpur parliamentary seat. Voting for the Lok Sabha bye-elections will be held on March 11, while counting of votes will be held on March 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Agrarian distress in Madhya Pradesh may emerge as a key election plank for the opposition Congress in the state which has seen 15,000 farmer suicides from 2004 to 2016.

The ruling BJP, however, has maintained there is no cause for alarm as farmer income grew manifold during the past 14 years and the agriculture sector posted a robust growth.

Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP has been in power since 2003, goes to the polls by the year-end and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is under the opposition fire since the last year's widespread protests by farmers.

Reports of farmer suicides is a cause of concern for Chouhan, who used to take pride in his governments achievements in the field of agriculture.

Chouhan received the prestigious Krishi Karman Award five successive times in the recent years even when the Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre.

The award was instituted by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in 2010-11 to reward the best performing states in foodgrains and individual crops of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals.

Statistics of farmer suicides in the state are disturbing. As per the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) data, over 15,000 farmers committed suicide between 2004 and 2016 in Madhya Pradesh.

On the other hand, the opposition has claimed that 172 debt -ridden farmers committed suicide since the killing of six cultivators in police firing in Mandsaur, the epicentre of peasant agitation in the state, on June 6 last year.

"Since police firing killed six farmers in Mandsaur, 172 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the state. The latest one took place on February 17 in Garhakota village of the Bundelkhand region.

"Over 20,000 farmers ended their lives during the BJP regime. This distress (in the farm sector) is visible because the government failed to turn its announcements into reality," said Ajay Singh, Leader of Opposition in Assembly and senior Congress legislator.

He said the prevailing agrarian distress will be one of the main campaign issues for his party in the Assembly elections.

In the last eight months, as many as 34 farmers committed suicide in various districts of Bundelkhand, a backward region, Singh said.

He said the Congress would continue to press the BJP government on the issue of farmer welfare.

According to the SCRB, the data source of the National Crime Record Bureau (NRRB), as many as 15,129 farmers and people associated with farming killed themselves in 13 years (up to 2016). The data of 2017 is yet to be released.

While 1,638 agrarian suicides (farmers and persons related to agricultural activity) were recorded in 2004, the figures for subsequent years are 1,248 (2005), 1,375 (2006), 1,263 (2007), 1,379 (2008), 1,395 (2009), 1,237 (2010), 1,326 (2011), 1,172 (2012), 1,090 (2013), 826 (2014), 581 (2015) and 599 (2016), according to SCRB.

Of these, about 12,600 farmer suicides took place during the regime of Chouhan, who took over as chief minister in November 2005.

Madhya Pradesh was on the boil in June last year after cultivators in various parts of the state held protests demanding a complete loan waiver and better remuneration for their produce.

State BJP spokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya, however, said there are different reasons for suicide by the people associated with farming.

"There are 50 lakh farmer families in Madhya Pradesh. The sad incidents of suicide are not caused by agrarian distress alone. There have been family and personal reasons behind such steps," he claimed.

Vijayvargiya hit out at the Congress for what he called was the "politicisation" of the issue of farmer suicides.

"The Congress is only politicising the sorrow of these families. The truth is the income of farmers has gone up manifold during the past 14-years. The productivity has also gone up.

"Over the years, the state recorded an average growth of more than 20 per cent in the agriculture sector," the BJP spokesman said.

After the Mandsaur incident, Chouhan had announced a slew of measures for farmer welfare, including the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana, under which the model price of farm produce is deposited directly into the bank accounts of cultivators.

He also launched the 'Chief Minister Agriculture Productivity Scheme' under which an additional incentive of Rs 200 per quintal is provided on MSPs of wheat and paddy.

Fear of further aggravation of farm distress looms large in the state, where the recent hailstorm damaged crops across 984 villages.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A police inspector here has been relieved from duty and an inquiry ordered after a photo purportedly showing him feeding birthday cake to a historysheeter went viral on social media.

Police today said the inspector attached to Kannagurichi Police station had been relieved from the station duty and placed on "wait list" (list of officials waiting for posting) on the orders of city police commissioner.

The inspector allegedly participated in the birthday party of the historysheeter Suseendran, facing 22 criminal cases, including murder, recently and fed him a piece of cake.

The photograph purportedly showing the inspector feeding the cake was circulated in Whatsapp since last evening.

The Commissioner took note of it and relieved the inspector of the station duty and ordered a departmental inquiry, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The death toll in an LPG cylinder blast during a wedding function on Friday night in Beawar town of Ajmer district rose to 19 with the recovery of 10 more bodies today, police said. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has also ordered an inquiry into the incident and has appointed the chairman of the Ajmer Revenue Board as the investigating officer (IO), an official said. The IO has been asked to submit a report to the state government and also give suggestions so that such an incident does not not recur, he said. The officer will also investigate for lapses by departments concerned. Ten more bodies were recovered today from the debris. With this the toll rose to 19. Two more are feared to be stuck under the debris, Ajmer District Collector Gaurav Goyal said.

He said a joint rescue-and-relief operation by the Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was underway.

Of the 18 injured, six were discharged, whereas five persons, said to be critical, were referred to Jaipur from the JLN Hospital in Ajmer, police said.

Raje has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the family members of those killed in the blast and a financial help of Rs 50,000 each to the injured, an official spokesperson said. Yesterday, the chief minister took stock of the rescue operation, met the family members of those killed and announced the compensation from the chief minister's relief fund. An additional compensation of Rs 1 lakh each was given by the Shree Cement company to the kin of the deceased, she said. Compensation will also be provided to the owners of the houses damaged in the explosion after an assessment, the spokesperson said. The powerful blast had turned the building, where the wedding ceremony was underway, into rubble. Nine bodies were recovered yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today alleged that the top leadership of the BJP government was involved in the Rs 11,400-crore alleged fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB) which was why billionaire could Nirav Modi flee the country. Talking to reporters here, the chief minister said the central government should answer when Modi and embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya would be arrested. "Nirav Modi fled the country after committing a scam of Rs 11,000 crore which cannot merely be a coincidence. Lots of agencies are involved in it and it is not possible until it gets nod from the top," he alleged. "So, it is clear that top brass of the Centre is involved in this matter. How can it be possible that Vijay Mallya ran away with Rs 9,000 crore and Nirav Modi escaped with Rs 11,000 crore, which clearly indicates that top leadership of the central government is directly involved in it," Kejriwal alleged. Yesterday, the BJP had alleged that multi-crore scam involving the billionaire jewellery designer happened during the UPA rule and the Congress was spreading lies to mislead the public. Kejriwal said the people wanted to know whether their money in the bank was safe or not. "Some people called me as well and inquired about their deposited money. The government (Centre) should answer when Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya will be arrested as the entire country wants to know about this," Kejriwal asked. The chief minister also alleged the scams that had happened during the previous Congress-led UPA government were still going on under the current government. "Whatever scams took place during the Congress governments regime are still going on. Not even a single one was stopped. People had voted for the BJP in 2014, hoping that it would bring some change, but nothing has changed," Kejriwal alleged. "Not even a single person (involved in alleged scams during the UPA regime) has been sent to jail. Both the parties (BJP and Congress) are hand in glove. Nothing has been changed, and people are only being fooled," he alleged. Yesterday, the BJP, which fielded Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to counter the Congress' charge, had claimed that it was under the NDA government that scams committed during the UPA rule were being unearthed now. "The original sin took place during the Congress regime. It multiplied, it took traction under the Congress regime," she had told reporters yesterday. "We are not conspiring to help scamsters flee the country, but the BJP government is catching them instead," she had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian-American teen inspiration, Sparsh Shah of Iselin, New Jersey, will soon be seen in a documentary "Brittle Bone Rapper" set to release on YouTube on March 1. Sparsh, 14, has severe osteogenesis imperfecta, which is characterised by fragile bones that break easily. Despite having fractured bones over 130 times in his life, the resilient teen says "nothing can break his spirit - or stop him from singing." Osteogenesis imperfecta is a congenial bone disorder in which the person has low levels of type I collagen. There is no specific treatment or cure for the condition and treatment is directed towards preventing or controlling the symptoms, maximising independent mobility, and developing optimal bone mass and muscle strength. The documentary, which will go live on the Real Stories YouTube channel, showcases Shah's powerful performances and remarkably mature, spiritual perspectives on his life and condition. It will revolve around Shahs journey to the Champions of Hope awards ceremony in Los Angeles, where he is honoured and hopes to perform his latest song, a duet with YouTube star Meredith Grace Puckett. However, before he makes it to Los Angeles, he will be seen undergoing a critical surgery to straighten his spine which would ultimately save his life. Shah, who was featured at a recent IACCGH gala here, has written at least 10 original songs and several short stories, poems and speeches, along with performing at community events in the New York/New Jersey area. The teenager gained international fame in 2016 after he uploaded a cover of rapper Eminem's "Not Afraid" on his YouTube channel with 7,00,000 views. "I've gone through my share of rough spots in life, but I don't let it get to me. I want to show people that no matter what happens in your life, you should never ever give up on your passion, and mine is singing and creating music! Sparsh told the audience at the gala.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today seized diamond jewellery worth around Rs 1 crore from an outlet here that has business links with PNB scam accused Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, ED officials said.

"The ED today carried out raid and seized diamond studded jewellery worth around Rs 1 crore from the 'Just In Vogue' outlet," the officials said.

The "Just In Vogue" outlet, owned by a Mumbai-based businessman, sells diamond studded jewellery items designed by the Gitanjali Jewellers, the chain of shops run by Nirav Modi and his maternal uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, the two accused in the PNB scam case.

After the scam surfaced, the 'Just In Vogue' outlet removed all diamond jewelleries that had been on display and replaced them with watches, ED officials said.

During the raid, the outlet's employees claimed it sells watches and not jewellery items.

The ED team members then searched the outlet and seized diamond studded jewellery worth around Rs 1 crore from the locker, the officials said.

ED's Patna zonal office had yesterday seized jewellery worth Rs 2.07 crore from a Gitanjali showroom here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The killing of a leopard, which had strayed into the Aashiyana locality here, evoked criticism from the opposition with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav asking whether this indicated a new trend of encounters of animals. "Traps were laid to catch the leopard. The forest department staff and police were there. If the leopard tried to break the trap, then attempts should had been made to catch it. What was the relevance of shooting it? Did the leopard have a country-made pistol? Was it firing? And did the police have to carry its encounter it to save their lives?" Yadav said taking a jibe. Yesterday also, Yadav had demanded action against those responsible for the animal's death.

"Which law says that instead of catching the animal, it should be killed. It could have been tranquilised. Has the new government started the trend of encounter of animals also? This is illegal, and those responsible for it should not be spared," the former chief minister had tweeted. UP Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput also raised questions about the incident. "The forest officials should have made efforts to catch the leopard. Strict action should be initiated against the guilty," Rajput said. UP BJP spokesperson Shalabh Mani Tripathi said that it is indeed sad that the leopard was killed, but the circumstances should also be examined. A leopard had strayed into the Aurangabad Khalsa village in the Ashiyana area of the state capital and was shot dead by a police team yesterday. The big cat broke through the nets put up by the forest department team and injured three locals and a policeman who opened fire in self defence, police said.

The injured leopard was rushed to the Lucknow zoo where it later died.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)It's exam time and you are getting cold feet, right? But don't fret. The prime minister is backing you, and schools, boards, counsellors and even a soft drink brand are all lending a helping hand -- and a concerned ear. Last week, Narendra Modi addressed students across the country on exam worries and launched his book "Exam Warrior" with 25 mantras to overcome such fears. "You are not talking to the prime minister of India, you are talking to a friend," Modi told the students. The 200-page self-help book is peppered with tips on how not to get bogged down by exam pressure. Besides anecdotes and confidence-enhancing words, it mentions yoga as a stress buster. Clearly, there's reason for concern. According to the National Crime Records Bureaus 2015 data, one student commits suicide every hour in India. Psychiatrist Lav Kaushik underscored the gravity of the problem and said it was a result of a combination of factors. Cut throat competition, parental expectations, students' own aspirations and poor stress coping skills caused pressure to mount, Kaushik said. But the issue is being highlighted with the help of government-run advertisements, health talks in schools and other awareness campaigns. Many schools and boards hold counselling sessions before the examinations. The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) also has a toll-free help-line number for students that will be functioning till April 13. Health drink brand Horlicks has initiated a new digital platform to support students, while popular soft drink Mirinda is running a campaign called "Release The Pressure" with Fortis Healthcare. The Mirinda campaign, which seeks to renew conversations around the pressures faced by teenagers, includes a help-line number for parents and students which gives them instant access to expert psychologists on ways to overcome exam related stress. This is a cycle we see repeated every year, where children are burdened with the pressure of exams and performance. Excessive pressure leads not only to anxiety but also low confidence, sleep difficulties, mood disturbances and burnout," said Samir Parikh, Director - Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences, Fortis Healthcare. Working towards reducing the pressure and anxiety of exams has to be a priority for society, he said. "Mirinda and Fortis have set up a help-line number for parents and students to gain instant access to expert psychologists, he added. Most parents, teachers and students saw exams as a break or make situation, said Kaushik. "Students who are anxious and have poor stress coping skills are the most vulnerable ones, and a few of them take the extreme step of self harm, the consultant psychiatrist said. Not surprisingly, Radha Bhatt, the mother of a class 11 student at the Army Public School in New Delhi, hardly slept when her daughter was preparing for her board exams last year. When my daughter was appearing for her Class 10 boards, we decided we would be as calm as possible. We made it a point that at home, the exam would be talked about or discussed just as we treated any unit test," she said. But some feared "helicopter parenting" -- fathers and mothers who constantly hovered around their offspring -- may end up harming children. A Social Science teacher at a government school in Jammu, Rajni Gupta, said she feared it may lead to children not being ready to take up the bigger battles later. I understand that exams are not the end of the world, and they should not be seen like that by anyone. But, we should never undermine its importance in a child's life. A bit of stress just means that they are taking things seriously. And there is nothing wrong with it. So rather than protecting your child from the process itself, try to educate them about the process better and how it is for their good," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) has restrained former CEO of Ranbaxy Laboratories and the co-owner of Fortis Healthcare, Malvinder Mohan Singh, from selling a posh property in Lutyen's Delhi and some other assets in a bank loan default case.

A bench headed by presiding officer GVK Raju passed the interim direction on an application by Yes Bank seeking recovery of Rs 5.6 billion loan given to Oscar Investment Ltd. for which Singh was a guarantor.

"In the facts and circumstances of the case, defendants, their men or agents are restrained from alienating or creating any sort of encumbrance in respect of the immovable property, i.e., 1, Rajesh Pilot Marg, until further orders," the court said, while also restraining him from selling some of his other assets including properties.

The bank had filed an application through its law officer, advocate Navin Trivedi, claiming that the defaulters, "with an intention to defeat its rights, are trying to alienate the movable and immovable property and if they are permitted to do so, the bank would suffer irreparable loss."



The tribunal also directed Singh to file an affidavit disclosing his movable and immovable assets.French development bank AFD has shown interest to fund 100 million euros (around Rs 8 billio) for India's smart cities mission, a finance ministry official has said.

Under the smart city mission, the government has so far identified 99 cities for upgradation which would require a total investment of about Rs 2.03 trillion.

"France's AFD has said it is interested in funding 100 million euros for The funding is expected to be finalised before President Emmanuel Macron's expected visit to India next month," the official told PTI.

Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) is France's development bank that finances and provides technical assistance to projects that improve daily livelihood in developing and emerging countries. AFD has been operating in India since 2008.

The official said while assistance from the World Bank has also been received for the smart city project, some countries like Germany and Japan are interested in providing technical know-how for infrastructure development.

The cities selected for smart city mission would be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

Under the scheme, each city will get Rs 5 billion from the Centre for implementing various projects. An equal amount, on matching basis, will have to be contributed by the state or urban local bodies.

In January 2016, 20 cities were identified under the smart cities mission, followed by 13 cities in May 2016, 27 cities in September 2016 and 30 cities in June 2017. 9 more cities have been chosen in the fourth round in January 2018, taking the total tally to 99.The moon has descended on the lawns of Victoria Memorial, much to the delight of the city people who were seen thronging the northern gate of the iconic structure to view the spectacle.

A touring artwork, the 3-D installation of the moon has been made using imagery from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, one of the exhibition organizers said.

The 'Museum of the Moon' is a project of the British Council, supported by the Ministry of Culture. It has been put on display at the Victoria Memorial Hall in the city for the weekend visitors, Debanjan Chakrabarti, the director of British Council East, told PTI.

The artwork, created in partnership with the UK Space Agency, was unveiled yesterday in the presence of the director of British Council, India, Alan Gemmell, the secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial, Jayanta Sengupta, and the director of MP Birla Planetarium, Debiprasad Duari.

The 23-feet-wide replica of the moon is half a million times smaller than the real moon. It has been put together by British artist Luke Jerram, Chakraborty said.

"This is an important project for British Council, it merges science with art," he said.

The artwork will foster interest about astronomy among the youngsters, the director of MP Birla Planetarium said.

"It is also interesting that the 'Museum of the Moon' project came to Kolkata 17 days after the total lunar eclipse," Duari added.

Avantika Shah, a Class 10 student in a city school, was among the hundreds who gathered at Victoria Memorial lawns yesterday to watch the giant installation.

"The surface images of the moon look so lifelike. I will opt for space research in future," she said.

The 'Museum of the Moon' project has earlier toured Bengaluru, Mumbai and Udaipur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"Give me peace, I will pursue dialogue", Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister on Sunday appealed to the people of the state, saying her government's agenda was to take them out of the mess of violence.

Seeking cooperation from the public, she said the process of dialogue and reconciliation could be carried forward if peace was maintained in the state.

"Give me peace. I will purse dialogue, the opening of routes like Kargil-Skardu, Jammu-Sialkote, Nowshehra-Jhangar etc. If there is peace I wish people on both sides would march together on the path of growth and development," Mehbooba said, addressing a public meeting in the Devsar area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district.

The chief minister laid the foundation of some key development projects in the area.

Mehbooba said the agenda of her government has been to take people of the state out of the mess of violence, initiation of the consultative process in the state to sort out issues and develop Jammu and Kashmir as a model state of the country.

"Some movement on this agenda has been made and many decisions of huge public welfare like withdrawal of cases against around 10,000 youth, regularisation of 61,000 daily wagers, a massive economic and reconstruction plan were initiated by my government during the last three years," she said.

The chief minister said the situation across the borders in the state was not "encouraging" with "deaths and destruction" being reported so frequently that there is a demand for construction of bunkers from the villagers.

"This is unfortunate. In the 21st century when they should be demanding better schools, good hospitals and efficient services, they are asking for bunkers to protect themselves," she said, adding that the people of the state continue to bear the brunt of partition and acrimony between India and Pakistan.

Mehbooba said she is pained to see that a common citizen of the state is the ultimate victim of this whole scenario of uncertainty, violence and acrimony.

"It's the people of the state alone whole get killed, their businesses suffered, education affected and what not," she said.

Mehbooba said when she recently went to Ajmer to pay obeisance at the Dargah of Hazrat Khawaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti, she met an officer there who was all praise for the talent and intelligence of youth from the state.

"Alas, they (the youth) are imposing a self-afflicting pain upon themselves which hurts them only and nobody else," she said.

Appealing to the youth to desist from going on the path of violence, the chief minister said the world is witness to the fact that it has not resolved any issues, rather it gives birth to many more.

Resorting to more violence, she reminded, leads to a response which ultimately leaves behind scars only.The Budget session of the Goa Assembly will be curtailed to three days from the planned a-month-and-a-half because of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's illness, Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo said today. Parrikar, who is being treated at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai for a pancreatic ailment since February 15, would not attend the session, said BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar. The session will begin tomorrow with Governor Mridula Sinha's address. It was scheduled to end in mid-March, but now it would end in three days owing to Parrikar's illness, Lobo said. The state budget, scheduled for February 22, will now be presented on February 20, the deputy speaker said, adding that the Business Advisory Committee will meet tomorrow afternoon to take a formal decision on cutting the session short. "The questions, which were supposed to be discussed in the current session, would be postponed to the next session," Lobo said. Legislature sources said minister Sudin Dhavalikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party will table the budget as Parrikar, who holds the finance portfolio, will not be able to attend the session. "On the advice of his doctors, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will be continuing with the treatment for (the ailment of) pancreas in Mumbai," BJP MP from South Goa Narendra Sawaikar told reporters. The chief minister was responding to the treatment but he needed "sufficient time to recover and be focused on the treatment", he added. "Expert doctors are taking a good care of him," the MP said. Main opposition Congress said it had no objection to the curtailment of the session. "We have no objection if the Assembly is curtailed to three days as the chief minister is genuinely ill," said Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, who is also a member of the Business Advisory Committee. The BJP's Goa legislature wing will be holding a special meeting tomorrow morning before the start of the session to decide who will be its leader in the House in Parrikar's absence. Party sources said Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik would also attend the meeting. Parrikar underwent a check-up at the Goa Medical College Hospital on February 14 after he complained of stomach pains. The next morning, he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, where the doctors said he was suffering from a "mild pancreatitis".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After the Ganga gram scheme, the government plans to take up a similar project for the Yamuna to make villages on its banks open defecation free as part of Swachh Bharat Mission.

In his budget speech, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while praising the mission, had specially mentioned about the Ganga gram scheme and declared that all 4,465 villages on the banks of the river had been declared open defecation free.

Riding on the success story of Ganga gram scheme, the Centre now plans to take up the same project to make the villages on the banks of the Yamuna river open defecation free.

"I know the problem of pollution of the Yamuna river. We have made all villages on the banks of Ganga open defecation free. I want to take the same project for the Yamuna too. It will be done through active participation of the gram panchayats and the people living in those villages. It will also control the pollution of the river," Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti said.

Bharti had launched the Ganga Gram project last December as part of the governments Namami Gange mission for holistic sanitation development in 4,470 villages on the banks of the river.

She had said that the Yamuna gram scheme will be part of the sanitation drive along with the solid waste management to take care of the polluting elements on the banks of the river.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Protesters blocked roads and held rallies in several parts of Gujarat today, including capital Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Patan in Mehsana district against the failure of the authorities concerned to prevent suicide by Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vanakar on Friday, police said. The protests were held after police detained Dalit leader and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, and over 70 others, in Saraspur area of Ahmedabad this morning when they tried to stage demonstrations over Vanakar's death. City crime branch officials claimed that Mevani did "not behave properly" with the police during his detention. However, the MLA tweeted he was pulled out of a car by police in a "very uncivilised manner". Vanakar (62) had set himself ablaze outside the Patan Collector's office on February 15 seeking allotment of land to a Dalit family. He died of burn injuries at a private hospital in Ahmedabad the next day. His body is still lying at Gandhinagar civil hospital as his kin refused to accept it. Earlier yesterday, Mevani appealed to Dalits to gather at Sarangpur circle this morning for protests. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) J K Bhatt said Mevani did not co-operate with police for maintaining peace in the city. "Many Dalit leaders of the city had assured us that peace will not be disturbed during protests. Unfortunately, Mevani didn't give any such assurance. So, as a precautionary measure, we have detained him today," Bhatt told reporters. He said police also detained around 70 people from Sarangpur and Vadaj areas of Ahmedabad city. "Mevani and other detainees will be released at a proper time," the JCP said, adding two companies of anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) and three companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP) have been deployed in the city. Though the state government yesterday announced that it will accept the key demands of Vanakar's family, including allotment of land to Dalits, Mevani had sought that the government issue a circular conceding the demands. After his detention, Mevani claimed through his tweet that police misbehaved with him when he was on his way for "a peaceful protest at Ambedkar statue in Sarangpur". Mevani, who represents Vadgam (SC) seat in Banaskantha district, claimed he was detained after being pulled out of his car. He also accused the police of damaging the car keys when he was heading to Sarangpur. Responding to his allegation, Bhatt cited a video clip circulating on social media which purportedly shows Mevani confronting a policeman and trying to sit in his car after pushing him away. "You can see how Mevani behaved with the policeman who was only doing his duty. Mevani's behaviour was not proper. No matter what he did, police showed absolute restraint," Bhatt said, adding that violence will not be tolerated. Since Mevani is a sitting MLA, the crime branch will send a report to the Speaker of the Assembly, Bhatt said. After the about Mevani's detention spread, some unidentified people set a car on fire in Vadaj area of the city, police said. The state's police control room said protesters tried to block roads in Patan, Gandhinagar and in Unjha town of Mehsana district, which is the hometown of Vankar. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had yesterday announced constitution of a judicial commission under a retired high court judge or form an SIT to investigate Vanakar's death. Patel had said that a member of the family of the deceased will be given a government job.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A major fire broke out at one of Tibet's holiest Buddhist temples, Jokhang Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the capital Lhasa with a history of more than 1,300 years.

There were no reports of any casualties, state-run Xinhua agency reported, without specifying the damage caused by the fire to the temple.

The fire started at 6.40 pm yesterday but was soon brought under control, it said.

Firefighters doused the fire and the relics are intact, state-run China Daily reported, without providing details.

The Jokhang temple, also known as the Qoikang Monastery, is regarded by the Tibetans as the most sacred and important temple in Tibet.

The fire at over 1,300 years Jokhang temple raised fears over its future as investigators tried to determine the cause of the blaze, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said.

Internet users posted pictures and videos of the fire on social media, showing flames shooting high into the sky above old Lhasa.

The extent of the fire damage to the site, considered the spiritual heart of Tibetan Buddhism, was not known, the Post said.

The oldest part of the temple was built more than 1,300 years ago and the whole structure was added to UNESCOs World Heritage list in 2000 as part of the Potala Palace, the official home of successive Dalai Lamas.

The Jokhang Temple houses many cultural treasures, including a life-sized statue of Buddha when he was 12 years old.

The temple attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists from home and abroad.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The road ahead for artificial intelligence (AI) depended on and would be driven by human intentions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here today.

He was speaking after dedicating the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence in suburban Kalina to the nation.

"It is our intention that will determine outcomes of AI," Modi said.

"With every technological revolution, the scalability of technology has increased manifold. This has given humans increasingly more power," he said.

The march of technology can't be at the expense of further increasing the difference in society, he added.

The evolution of technology has to be rooted in the ethics of Sab ka saath, Sab ka vikas. "We need to make AI in India and it should work for India," Modi said.

"The road ahead for artificial intelligence depends on and will be driven by human intentions. It is our intention that will determine outcomes of AI," he said.

"We are using technology in an unparalleled way, from aeronautics to agriculture and from space missions to service deliveries," Modi said.

He pointed out the diversity in the country, while dwelling on the use of artificial intelligence.

"We are such a diverse nation of hundreds of languages and hundreds of dialects, can we have AI that makes communication and conversation across these languages and dialects easier? I am sure, we can," he said.

"With the arrival of artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that productivity will go up. But there are also rising fears of human redundancy because there is a competition between the mind and the machine," he said.

"Such fears are neither unfounded nor new. At every stage of technological evolution, we have faced such doubts and questions. This leads to two views of the future. The first brings hopes and aspirations and second brings fears and disruption," he said.

On Maharashtra government and Mumbai University helping set up the institute for artificial intelligence, Modi said it was an excellent example of public-private sector cooperation.

"The institute has ten scientists working at present and their number will go up to 50-100 in a few years. Initial investment (in the project) is Rs 200 crore," said Romesh Wadhwani, co-founder of the institute.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A student of IIEST was killed and four others, including three of his classmates, were injured when an app cab they were travelling in crashed into the median divider of a flyover this morning, police said.

The students were on their way to a national-level eligibility test for PhD programme at New Town from Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) campus hostel at Shibpur in Howrah when the accident occurred.

The car crashed into the median divider after descending from Maa flyover to the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, injuring the four students and the driver of the vehicle, the police said.

While Sayantan Biswas died after being taken to a city hospital, the four others are under treatment, an officer investigating the accident said.

The cause of the crash is being probed, he said.

The driver of the vehicle is under treatment at the National Medical College and Hospital.

IIEST director Ajoy Roy told PTI that the four were students of MSc Physics and were going to New Town to appear for the Joint Entrance Screening Test (JEST) when they met with the accident.

He said they were first taken to the state-run National Medical College and Hospital and had to be shifted to a private facility later.

Syantan was declared brought dead by the doctors of the private hospital, he said adding all the four students were very talented and well-behaved.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon today said India and China always managed to de-escalate tensions in the event of face-offs as had happened in Doklam.

Though there had been face-offs over border issues, both the countries had a common interest to handle the dispute peacefully, he said in his address at the thought conclave "The Huddle", conducted by 'The Hindu' Publication here.

"Most commentaries miss the basic point that like previous such crisis whether it was Chumar where we had face-offs, we always managed to disengage," Menon said.

The former diplomat agreed that there would be chances of face-offs in future.

"We do have cases which both sides consider on their side of the line. So we will have face-offs, we will have future cases, but it is not that we do not know how to handle it and we see a common interest in handling it peacefully," he said.

Elaborating further, he said Doklam had actually proved that India and China can manage their differences.

India did what it always does "which is deal with quietly, bring force if you need to but talk to them and say restore the status quo and we are ready to discuss other issues once the status quo is restored, which happened ultimately," he added.

However, former Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, who has been critical of Pakistan's military and political leadership, warned India to understand the Chinese game.

He said China was setting up bases to tie down India and supporting nations to keep its potential rival at bay.

"Pakistan is just a pawn for China in that case. They are not thinking the best for the people of Pakistan. They are thinking how to use Pakistan to keep a potential rival at bay. And they can do that with other countries as well," Haqqani said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Public sector has undertaken initiatives to increase business at its overseas branches in Sri Lanka and Singapore, a top official has said.

"Our operations (in overseas) are actually profitable. We have started ramping up activities in both the centres," the bank's Managing Director and CEO, Kishor Kharat told PTI.

He said the bank had taken steps to increase business levels as there was "slight stagnancy earlier" (in the bank operations).

"Having understood the policies, we are in a position to grow in the Singapore market. In the nine-month period (ending December 31, 2017) alone, our business there improved by (Rs 13 billion) Rs 1,300 crore", he said.

By end of the current fiscal, the business levels in Singapore "will be increased by Rs 15 billion to Rs 16 billion," he said.

On the Sri Lankan operations, Kharat said the business in the two branches grew by Rs 1.5 billion as of December 2017.

"Sri Lankan operations are slightly smaller than Singapore operations. Before March (2018), we will be in a position to show a growth of close to Rs 5 billion there."



On whether the bank was looking at expanding overseas presence, he said two branches were planned, one each in Dubai and other a "overseas banking operation" branch in Ahmedabad.

"We have applied for two licenses. One, we are planning to open in AFC Dubai and the other at GIFT (Gujarat International Tec-City), Ahmedabad. It will be overseas banking operation branch," he said.

ON FUND RAISING



On diluting the government stake in the Bank as per SEBI regulations, Kharat said there was enough time for that and the bank would raise funds at the "opportune time.""Government of India has not given us any capital. We have adequate capital. Today Government of India has 81.87 per cent holding in bank. As per SEBI regulations, we have to bring it down to less than 75 per cent.To comply with SEBI, we will have to come out with issuance of fresh equity", he said.

Kharat said for fund raising there was time for the bank.

"There is still time for us. By next financial year, we have to comply with the guidelines (of SEBI). So when the market is good and when there is opportune time, we will be raising some funds", he said.

ON NON PERFORMING ASSETS



To a query about Non-Performing Assets, he said the bank was able to contain NPA in the last one year and planned to bring down the Gross NPA to less than six per cent and Net NPA to less than three per cent.

"Gross NPA has been brought down from 7.69 per cent to 6.27 per cent and net NPA from 4.76 per cent to 3.30 per cent (as on December 31, 2017). Now, this 3.30 per cent is best in the industry. Particularly in public sector banks," he said.

By March or by June of the next financial year, the bank would be in a position to push the net NPA to less than 3 per cent and Gross NPA by less than 6 per cent, he said.

"Our plan is that gross NPA at 5.5 per cent and net NPA at 2.5 per cent," he said.

To a query on those areas which the bank would focus, he said, it would be on retail, agriculture, micro, small and medium enterprise sectors.

"All the growth is coming from these three segments. Within agriculture we are giving mostly to small and marginal farmers and under MSME our focus is on the micro enterprises," he said.A senior Indian-origin police officer is in the running to take charge as Britains anti-terrorism chief when Scotland Yards National Lead for Counter Terrorism resigns next month. Neil Basu, currently Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner and Senior National Coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing, is tipped to take over one of the British policings toughest jobs from Mark Rowley, The Sunday Times reported. Basu, whose father is of Indian origin, is a former Met Police commander overseeing organised crime and gangs. He has specialised in anti-terrorism policing for the past three years and is currently Rowleys deputy. He has been vocal about cracking down on British nationals who joined the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. In a recent interview with the Combating Terrorism Centre in New York, he said that exclusion powers would be applied to about 200 of the 300 fighters in the war zone as he revealed that about half of the 850 who travelled from Britain to join ISIS had already returned and more than 100 were dead. Of the remaining 300, two-thirds would be blocked from the UK. Like other countries, we operate on the principle that we dont want you back, and therefore we will deprive you of your British passportfor those among these who end up coming back, we are absolutely waiting for them. Thats the bottom line, he said. The big threat for us now is the ideology thats been diffused onto the internet and the calls for attacks by its followers in the West by ISIS online. The caliphate may have been defeated militarily, but it has now become a virtual network, he warned. Other possible candidates for the post of Britains anti-terror chief include Helen Ball, a Met Police assistant commissioner, and Dave Thompson, the West Midlands chief constable, from whose area numerous terrorist plots have emerged in the UK.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)(IOC) will invest Rs 7 billion to raise its oil refining capacity by about a quarter by 2030 as it takes the lead to meet rising energy needs of the country.

IOC will expand its refining capacity to 116.55 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030 from the current 80.7 MTPA with an investment of about Rs 7 billion, a top company official said.

India's current refining capacity of 247.6 MTPA exceeds consumption but with demand growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 3.5-4 per cent, it will need to add more capacity to meet the rising fuel needs.

While the Energy Information Agency of US projects India's demand to reach 434 MT by 2040 from 194 MT currently, IEA puts the number between 450 and 492 MT.

The oil ministry estimates fuel demand to rise to 335 MT by 2030 and has planned to raise the country's refining capacity to 415 MTPA by 2020 from the current 247.6 MTPA. In 2040, the refining capacity is projected to rise to 439 MTPA.

The official said the investment planned by IOC also includes in upgradation of major units at existing refineries to help produce cleaner Euro-VI or BS-VI grade petrol and diesel by April 2020.

Besides, IOC plans to raise capacity of its Panipat refinery in Haryana to 25 MTPA from current 15 MTPA while Koyali refinery in Gujarat would be expanded to 18 MTPA from 13.7 MTPA.

The recently-commissioned 15-MTPA Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5 MT while 3 MT will be added in IOC's Barauni refinery in Bihar, he said.

A 1.2-MTPA capacity addition is planned for Uttar Pradesh's Mathura refinery to take its capacity to 9.2 MTPA.

The official said IOC is also looking at adding a 9 MTPA refinery at its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum (CPCL).

Other state refiners too have planned capacity addition to meet rising demand. Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) is looking to ramp up capacity to 56 MTPA, from 36.5 MTPA currently, by adding 5 MT to its Kochi unit and ramping up capacity of Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh by 9 MT to 15 MTPA. Also, Numaligarh capacity will go up to 9 MTPA from 3 now.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) also plans to expand its Mumbai refinery to 9.5 MTPA from 7.5 MTPA and that of Vizag unit to 15 MTPA from 8.3 now.

It is also setting up a new 9 MTPA unit at Barmer in Rajasthan.

The official said IOC, BPCL and HPCL are together looking at putting up a new 60 MPTA refinery on the west coast in Maharahstra.A court in the Iraqi capital today sentenced to death a Turkish woman and 11 other foreign widows to life in jail for belonging to the Islamic State group. The 12 women, 11 Turks and an Azeri, some of whom appeared in the dock nursing infants, were convicted despite their pleas that they had been duped or forced by their husbands to join them in Iraq. The women, aged between 20 and 50, were all arrested in Mosul or Tal Afar where their husbands were killed as Iraqi forces recaptured the northern cities from IS last year. "I got to know my husband through the internet. He proposed we meet in Turkey but an intermediary there told me he would drive me to my future husband without saying where," said Angie Omrane, the Azeri woman. "I thought we were staying in Turkey but I found myself in Syria and then my husband took me to Iraq."



Leila, one of the Turkish women, said: "My husband forced me to come to Iraq by threatening to take away my two-year-old son if I didn't follow him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)From their outpost on Iraq's westernmost edge, US 1st Lt Kyle Hagerty and his troops watched civilians trickle into the area after American and Iraqi forces drove out the Islamic State group.

They were, he believed, families returning to liberated homes, a hopeful sign of increasing stability.

But when he interviewed them on a recent reconnaissance patrol, he discovered he was wrong. They were families looking for shelter after being driven from their homes in a nearby town.

Those who pushed them out were forces from among their "liberators", Shiite militiamen who seized control of the area after defeating the IS militants.

It was a bitter sign of the mixed legacy from the United States intervention in Iraq to help defeat the militants. American-backed military firepower brought down the IS "caliphate," but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists rise remain unresolved.

The US-led coalition, which launched its fight against IS in August 2014, is now reducing the numbers of American troops in Iraq, after Baghdad declared victory over the extremists in December. Both Iraqi and U.S. officials say the exact size of the drawdown has not yet been decided.

US and Iraqi commanders here in western Iraq warn that victories over IS could be undercut easily by a large-scale withdrawal. Iraq's regular military remains dependent on US support.

Many within Iraq's minority communities view the US presence as a buffer against the Shiite-dominated central government.

Still, Iranian-backed militias with strong voices in Baghdad are pushing for a complete US withdrawal, and some Iraqis liken any American presence to a form of occupation.

That has left an uncomfortable limbo in this area that was the last battlefield against the extremists. Coalition commanders still work with Iraqi forces to develop long-term plans for stability even as a drawdown goes ahead with no one certain of its eventual extent.

"Lets go win us some hearts and minds," Sgt. Jonathan Cary, 23, joked as he and Hagerty and the patrol convoy set off from a base outside the town of Qaim, evoking a phrase used in American policy goals for Iraq ever since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

After just a few hours moving on foot across farmland and orchards to a cluster of modest houses, Hagerty realized the families he thought were returnees to the area were in fact newly displaced.

Their homes in Qaim had been confiscated by the government-affiliated Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, made up mainly of Shiite paramilitary fighters backed by Iran.

"Our end goal is a stable Iraq, right?" Hagerty said later, back at the base. "But when you see stuff like that, it makes you wonder if they are ever going to be able to do it themselves."



After victories against IS, the PMF has built up a presence in many parts of Sunni-majority provinces, including western Anbar. It formally falls under the command of the prime minister, but some Iraqi commanders accuse the PMF of being a rival to government power.

PMF flags line highways crisscrossing Anbar. At a PMF checkpoint outside al-Asad airbase, a sprawling complex used by both Iraqi and coalition forces, US convoys are regularly stopped for hours while busloads of PMF fighters are waved through.

US Marine Col. Seth Folsom works closely with the branches of Iraqs security forces, Sunni tribal fighters and the Iraqi army, who are increasingly concerned about the rise in power of the PMF.

Iran has given no indication of dialing back its support after the defeat of IS extremists.

"The biggest question I get now is, how long can we count on you being here?" Folsom said of his conversations with Iraqi commanders and local politicians.

That decision ultimately rests with Iraqs political leadership, he said.

"I guess some people could see that as a cop-out, but at the same time its not my place as a lowly colonel to define how long the U.S. presence is going to be.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ministers today greenlighted a bill allowing Israel to withhold tax monies it collects for the Palestinian Authority by the same amount as stipends that the PA pays to jailed militants. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose ministry drafted the bill, welcomed the vote in a ministerial committee, the first step toward sending it to parliament to be passed into law. "Soon there will be an end to this theatre of absurd," he wrote in Hebrew on Twitter, adding that the money confiscated would be used "to prevent terror and compensate victims". Israel annually collects around $127 million in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports monthly and then transfers it to the PA. It has withheld payment in the past, notably in response to Palestinian admission in 2011 to the UN cultural agency UNESCO as a full member. The Israeli move comes as the US Senate considers a bill approved by the House of Representatives to withhold aid to the PA if it does not stop the controversial practice of so-called martyr payments to families of Palestinians convicted of terrorist attacks. Republican and Democratic US lawmakers alike have warned that the payments incentivise violence and serve as a sticking point in the Middle East peace process. According to the Israeli bill, Lieberman will present an annual report detailing payments to "terror activists" and their families granted by the Palestinian Authority", his office said. "Based on the report, the sum will be deducted from payments handed from Israel to the Palestinian Authority." The bill will now face a series of parliamentary debates and votes before being finalised. The Palestinian government slammed the move, calling it "piracy and theft" as well as a breach of international law, official agency WAFA said. The American legislation, called the Taylor Force Act, is named after a US military veteran and graduate student, age 28, who was killed in a 2016 attack while he was visiting Israel. The attacker, a Palestinian, was killed by police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jet Airways is set to pull out daily direct services on the Kolkata-Port Blair and Kolkata-Bagdogra routes from March-end, a top Airports Authority of India (AAI) official today said.

"Jet Airways has informed us that with effect from March 25, they are withdrawing Bagdogra and Port Blair flights from Kolkata," the official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

Travel industry sources said that profitability was the key reason behind the move.

Jet Airways has been operating flights on the routes for around five years.

An e-mailed query sent to the carrier did not elicit any response.

"It is bad for Kolkata. I don't know why this decision despite all operators having 70-80 per cent occupancy," Travel Agents Association of India Treasurer C P Poddar said.

Jet Airways has connectivity to Port Blair with two stop-over flights that take between 19 and 47 hours against a maximum of a little over two hours for a direct flight.

Indigo, Spicejet, Vistara, Go Air and Air India, among others, currently operate flights on the Kolkata-Bagdogra and Kolkata-Port Blair routes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Investigations into the escape of dreaded Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from a busy hospital has brought to the fore lapses at different stages, especially the failure of the prosecution wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police as well as the state home department over hurriedly issuing orders for transfer of the accused to a central jail here from Kathua in the Jammu region, it has emerged.

Piecing together events before the escape of 22-year-old Jhatt from the SMHS hospital on February 6, it has been found that the accused had moved a habeas corpus petition before a single bench of Jammu and Kashmir High court in Srinagar which ordered his lodging "preferably in a jail in Kashmir division" on November 19, 2016.

After the High court order, the state home department issued a stand alone order dated January 27, 2017 directing for compliance of the direction of the High court and shifting Jhatt, a Pakistani national who infiltrated into the Kashmir valley in 2014 for spreading terrorism, from Kathua jail to the central jail in Srinagar with "immediate effect".

The order, a copy of which is available with PTI, was issued on behalf of state's Principal Secretary (Home) by the then Special Secretary Dilshad Shaheen.

A senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, feels that there was an undue haste in the case of Jhatt and explained further that such hardcore terrorists could have been easily booked under the Public Safety Act and lodged again in a jail outside the Kashmir Valley.

"The second course that could have been taken was to challenge the single bench order of the high court and reason out that he (Jhatt) should be kept away from other inmates as he was a highly motivated terrorist," said the official, who has been dealing with terror-related cases.

The high court order was also not specific about any prison in the Kashmir division and had left it to the government's to choose an appropriate jail, he said, adding "Jhatt could have been kept at Anantnag prison in South Kashmir which is more secure or at Humhama jail where hardcore terrorists are often kept. The high court was vague about the choice of prison."



In November last year, a communication marked as "urgent" to Principal Secretary (Home) was sent by the then Director General of Prison S K Mishra, asking him to shift some of the prisoners including Jhatt to a jail in Jammu division and also highlighted the need to segregate them completely from each other.

"In view of inputs received with regard to anti-national activities of the militancy related prisoners lodged in central jail, Srinagar from time to time through police and (security) agencies, there is urgent need to shift these prisoners to the jails in Jammu division in order to segregate them from each other. This will help in preventing the already deteriorating security atmosphere in the Valley and prevent indoctrination of young offenders," Mishra, a 1985-batch officer who is the seniormost IPS officer of the state, said in his letter.

Mishra, who was shunted to the post of Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Jammu and Kashmir Police Housing Corporation after the escape of Jhatt, did not answer the phone or messages sent to his mobile phone.

Notwithstanding silence from the state home department, Mishra issued an order for shifting 17 Pakistani nationals accused in cases of terrorism and drug cases to be shifted outside jails in Jammu division but it could not be complied with because of the Home department's order of January.

Mishra made another attempt in January this year when he shot off another letter, a copy of which is with PTI, to Principal Secretary Home in which he highlighted that presence of Pakistani hardcore terrorists was hampering the smooth functioning of the jails in the Kashmir Valley.

"....the prosecution wing of the police department needs to defend such shifting orders as and when the trial courts desire to lodge them in the Kashmir based jails again."



"It is, therefore, requested that necessary directions may kindly be issued to prosecution wing of police department to defend the shifting orders of the prisoners before the trial courts," the letter dated January 13, 2018 said.

Messages to state Home Secretary R K Goyal on his phone remained unanswered.

Jhatt escaped from the SMHS hospital after he was handed over a pistol with which he killed two policemen accompanying him to the hospital. The case is now being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which took over the case from the Jammu and Kashmir police. The central agency has also taken custody of five accused arrested in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The bodies of the mother and toddler daughter of a local journalist were found in a nullah in the city today, with police suspecting murder.

Usha Kamble (52) and Rashi (1), mother and daughter of local scribe Ravikant Kamble, were missing since last evening, police said.

"Usha and Rashi had gone missing since last evening. Their bodies with injury marks were found in a nullah in Bahadura area around 10.30 am today," a police officer said.

"It is suspected that they were killed with a sharp weapon by unidentified persons," he added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Nilesh Bharne told PTI that Usha Kamble was into money-lending business.

"Usha (alongwith her grand-daughter) went to a jewellery shop near her house around 5.30 pm yesterday. Her husband tried calling her when they didn't return for quite some time, but her mobile phone was switched off. Around 10 pm her son informed police when he returned from his work," DCP Bharne said.

Bodies have been sent for autopsy, the DCP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif today accused the country's judiciary and powerful military of "conspiring" against him and asserted that he was not "afraid" of them.

Speaking at a big rally in Punjab's Sheikhupura district, the 67-year-old Sharif said both the judiciary and military had become his enemies and want to take revenge against him.

"They have become my enemies and they want to take revenge against me. But I want to tell them that I am not afraid of them and I will face their every conspiracy," Sharif said.

He urged his supporters to help him defeat the forces (of military and judiciary), asserting that they had been playing havoc in the country for the last 70 years.

Sharif and some of his family members are facing charges relating to their ownership of posh properties in London.

He resigned as prime minister in July after the country's Supreme Court disqualified him over undeclared income in the Panama Papers case.

Three cases were registered by the NAB against Sharif, his children and son-in-law in the court on September 8.

"You and I have become part of this cruel system during the last 70 years. But the time has come to take on this system and change it," he said, warning that the "cruel" system is posing a serious threat to the country.

Sharif also vowed to avenge his disqualification in this year's general election and make those accountable who ousted him.

"I was sent to jail because I held nuclear tests. That was my crime. And this time I was ousted because I brought USD 56 billion investment to the country under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), overcoming load-shedding and eliminating terrorism from the country," he said.

Sharif said he would change the destiny of the country if his party wins the elections.

Sharif has held several rallies in different parts of Pakistan since his ouster.

He has targeted the judiciary for removing him from the office of the prime minister and also come up with 'give respect to the ballot' slogan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today started his week-long visit to India with a tour of the iconic Taj Mahal, which he had first seen 35 years ago.

Trudeau was accompanied by wife and three kids during the tour of white marble mausoleum on the banks of Ganga river.

"I was about Xav's age when I first visited the Taj Mahal almost 35 years ago... and it's amazing to be back with him & the family on Day 1 of our trip to India," he tweeted.

The Canadian first family was visibly thrilled during the visit and posed for a picture seated on the iconic bench with the monument in the backdrop.

Trudeau had arrived yesterday in India for a week-long visit, during which he would hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on wide-ranging issues, including defence and counter-terror cooperation.

He is scheduled to visit Akshardham temple in Gujarat and the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former US Secretary of State John Kerry says it is "absolutely critical" to make sure that world powers nuclear agreement with Iran survives.

President Donald Trump is deeply sceptical about the 2015 nuclear deal. He extended sanctions waivers in January but said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

Kerry, one of the leading negotiators on the deal, told the Munich Security Conference today that "this is untenable. It is not good diplomacy."



He added: "I believe it is absolutely critical for Europe, for the world, to make sure we hold on to this agreement. Because to go backward, we know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement. Its not a better place.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Will people of Indian origin violate any law or visa rule if they campaign in elections in the country?



The law ministry has maintained silence on this question posed by the Election Commission after the Punjab assembly polls.

It has, on the other hand, asked the poll panel whether it has any particular suggestion to make on the issue of PIOs campaigning in Indian polls.

During the Punjab elections, when several PIOs came to the state to campaign for the AAP, the chief electoral officer of the state had raised a query with the commission on whether this category of the people can do so.

The election law is silent on who can campaign in Indian elections.

"There was no complaint from any party in this regard. But the CEO raised a query as it was a new situation. As the Representation of the People Act or related electoral rules are silent on the issue, the commission then sought an answer from the Ministry of External Affairs.

"The MEA asked it to seek a response from the law ministry," explained a government functionary aware of the correspondence between the EC and the government.

The commission then approached the law ministry.

When there was no response, the poll panel reminded the ministry in January to clarify on the issue.

The ministry responded by asking whether the poll watchdog had any specific suggestions to make make on PIOs campaigning in India. It, however, remained silent on whether campaigning in India was a violation of any law or visa rules, EC sources said.

"We are aware that the Representation of the People Act is silent on PIOs campaigning in India. We wanted to know whether any other law prohibits them from doing so. That query remains unanswered," said a commission official.

"PIOs are not Indian citizens. They visit India on visa explaining the purpose of visit -- official, personal or tourism.

"Since election campaign is not one of the purposes, we wanted to know whether coming on a private visit visa they can campaign in elections," said a commission functionary requesting anonymity.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir today extended the low danger avalanche warning in high altitude areas by 24 hours and advised people to take necessary precautionary measures.

The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) had yesterday issued the low danger avalanche warning on the basis of information received from Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE).

An official spokesman said a fresh low danger avalanche warning has been issued for Baramulla, Gulmarg, Furkian-Z Gali and Kupwara-Chowkibal-Tangdhar, Anantnag, Kulgam, Budgam, Kupwara, Bandipora, Ganderbal and Bandipora-Kanzalwan-Gurez sector in the valley.

He said the low danger avalanche warning is also valid for Poonch, Rajouri, Reasi, Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar and Udhampur districts in Jammu and Kargil and Leh districts in Ladakh besides Srinagar-Jammu national highway for next 24 hrs.

"People living in these avalanche-prone areas have been advised by the SDMA to take precautionary measures," the spokesman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police today arrested a Mumbai-based woman make-up artist working in the film industry for allegedly running a prostitution racket.

A team led by Assistant Superintendent of Police Atul Kulkarni arrested the 38-year-old woman, who works as a make-up artist for Bollywood films, at Bhayandar in Thane district after sending her a decoy customer.

The police didn't disclose the woman's name.

The accused lured young women into flesh trade after initially promising them modelling assignments or roles in films, Kulkarni said.

Police arrested her after the decoy customer struck a deal with her for supplying call girls for Rs 1 lakh.

She was booked under IPC section 370 (trafficking) and under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.

Two women, aged 26 and 27, were rescued by the police.

The women, who wanted to act in films, didn't know that they were to be part of a prostitution racket, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court of the Maldives has delayed its order reinstating 12 pro-opposition lawmakers ahead of a key parliamentary sitting, the latest political turmoil to roil the island nation. Opposition lawmaker Ahmed Mahloof said the government may call for important votes at a parliamentary sitting today to extend a state of emergency or dismiss two Supreme Court judges who have been arrested on allegations of corruption. President Yameen Abdul Gayooms ruling party may have lost a majority in the 85-member parliament if the 12 lawmakers were to be allowed to participate today. The Maldives has faced upheaval since February 1, when the Supreme Court ordered the release of Yameens imprisoned political opponents and the reinstatement of 12 lawmakers sacked after they sided with the opposition. The prisoners include Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first president elected in a free election, who could have been Yameens main rival in his re-election bid later this year. After days of conflict with the judiciary, Yameen declared a 15-day state of emergency and had the country's chief justice and another Supreme Court judge arrested on bribery allegations. After the arrest of their colleagues, the remaining three judges of the Supreme Court annulled their ruling for the release of Yameen's opponents. Yameen's half-brother and former dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, whom Nasheed defeated in the country's first democratic election 10 years ago, also was arrested for conspiring with the opposition to overthrow the government. Demonstrations across the country Friday demanded the resignation of the president and the release of his jailed opponents. Dozens were injured and many arrested when police broke up the protests. The Maldives became a multi-party democracy in 2008 after decades of autocratic rule. However, Yameen has rolled back much of the country's democratic gains and freedoms since being elected in 2013.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday visited Lilavati Hospital here to enquire about the health of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who is undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment.

"Modi was in the hospital for 15 minutes in the evening," a BJP source said.

"The prime minister was accompanied by Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis," the source told PTI.

Earlier, the hospital authorities said Parrikar is "responding well to treatment".

"It has been brought to our notice (that) various malicious and misleading reports/rumours are floating around in the electronic/print media with regards to his health," a hospital statement read.





Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre issues statement rejecting rumours on Goa CM Manohar Parrikars health. pic.twitter.com/QJCpFUkhI9  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Modi's visit to the hospital came on a day Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant met Governor Mridula Sinha in Panaji to discuss the situation in view of Parrikar's ill-health.

The budget session of the Goa Assembly begins on Monday.More cyber police stations will be set up in different Odisha towns to deal with high-tech crimes, Director General of Police R P Sharma said today.

Four new cyber police stations would be set up at Bhubaneswar, Balesore, Sambalpur and Jeypore, he said.

The DGP said presently three cyber police stations were functioning in the state.

Sharma said trained police personnel would be posted in the police station for quick investigation of cyber crimes.

The cyber police station in Berhampur would be investigating into cyber crimes in 10 southern Odisha police districts, including Ganjam, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada, Malkabnagiri, Nabarangapur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Kandhamal.

While a total 30 cyber cases were registered in these districts in 2014, the number increased to 168 in 2017. In 2015 and 2016, there were 47 and 168 such cases registered, respectively. In the first month of 2018, nine such cases were registered, official sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mumbai's crumbling infrastructure could dissuade potential investors from the financial capital, business leader Anand Mahindra said here today.

"If Mumbai, the 'crown jewel', continues to groan under its weight, it will drive away investors," Mahindra said, addressing the 'Magnetic Maharashtra' Global Investors Summit in suburban Bandra.

Mahindra's remarks, directed at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, were in a stark contrast to mostly laudatory remarks the BJP leader received from many Indian and global corporate leaders at the event.

Besides Mahindra, the other industry captain to voice concern over the state of affairs of Mumbai's infrastructure was Ratan Tata, who chose the state government-organised investor summit and the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to make public his concerns on the infrastructure front.

Facilities on the ground may not be keeping up with the state's faster economic growth, Tata said.

"If the city begins to grow under its own weight and mismanages growth, then you may just as well turn away investors," Mahindra said.

"Apart from the promise of rural consumption growth, this state (Maharashtra) has a 'bramhastra'. Cities are gateways to a state, they are the showcase of the ability of a country to execute our vision of the future. Mumbai is the most commercially exciting, robust city in the country. It is a jewel in your crown. But it is a double-edged sword," he said.

Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons, who spoke before Mahindra did, said it is unfortunate that the infrastructure has not been able to keep pace with the growth, but quickly added that things are changing since the BJP-led dispensations have assumed power.

"Unfortunately, over the years, industrial growth in Maharashtra has exceeded the ability of the state to provide infrastructure to support this," he said.

Industry leaders including Chanda Kochhar, Adi Godrej, Baba Kalyani, Mukesh Ambani, Ajit Gulabchand, Anil Agarwal, Richard Branson, Deepak Parekh, Sajjan Jindal and ministers Piyush Goyal and Suresh Prabhu were present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Italian helicopter manufacturer has withdrawn from the Delhi High Court a plea against invocation by the Indian Navy to buy 56 naval utility choppers of its Rs 30 million bank guarantee deposited to bid for a tender floated



The company withdrew the plea as the Centre had encashed the bank guarantee after the high court revoked its stay preventing the government from invoking it.

The submission on behalf of the Italian company was made before Justice Jayant Nath who "dismissed as withdrawn" the civil suit of the helicopter manufacturer.

The high court on October 17 last year had revoked its stay on the invocation of the bank guarantee.

The order came as the Italian company had neither deposited the amount of Rs 30 million in the court, nor given a guarantee of a nationalised bank or banks such as ICICI, Axis Bank or HDFC as directed by the high court.

The court had earlier made it clear that not complying with its directions would lead to revocation of the interim stay order.

The amount of Rs 30 million was deposited by the company along with the pre-contract integrity pact, which was one of the conditions of the request for technical and commercial proposal (RFP) issued to it by the government.

The integrity pact, signed in 2013, said that if a successful bidder violated the agreement, it would entail forfeiture of the bank guarantee.

Central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for the Centre, had earlier told the court that the bank guarantee was invoked and full payment of the amount was demanded as the company had allegedly violated the integrity pact.

In its petition challenging the invocation of the bank guarantee, the company had said that the government in its invocation letter did not say that the RFP has already been withdrawn.

The company had claimed that it was not informed of any alleged breach of the integrity pact and that once the government had withdrawn the RFP, it had no right to seek enforcement of the bank guarantee.

It had said that the government instead was obligated to return the bank guarantee.

The company, in its plea, had also alleged that by invoking the bank guarantee, the government was trying to "unjustly enrich itself".Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav today demanded the Narendra Modi government's resignation over the alleged multi-crore-rupee Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam and accused the Centre of failing to protect the money of ordinary depositors. "A government is the most powerful entity after god. If it cannot protect public money, who else will? They (the NDA government at the Centre) should immediately resign," he told reporters here. Alleging that 90-95 per cent of the PNB "scam" had happened during the NDA government's tenure, Yadav said diamond merchant Nirav Modi was the hero in the social circles of Delhi. "The present regime claims that the country has become a superpower, but it has failed to bring back Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya. The banks monitor a loan given to a rickshaw owner with the highest alacrity but one who owes a loan of Rs 9,000 crore escapes from the country," he added. Claiming that the alleged PNB scam was a result of the Centre's Digital India programme, the JD(U) leader said the NDA government had failed to honour its promises, whether they were related to health, education or employment. "The people had voted the BJP to power to fulfil the promises made in its manifesto. Instead of fulfilling those promises, BJP spokespersons are saying this was going on since the Congress regime. They had promised two crore jobs but on the contrary, unemployment has increased," he said. Targeting the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, Yadav alleged that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had destroyed the Narmada and Tawa rivers by allowing sand mining on a huge scale. "It is not the chief minister's job to carry out a Narmada Parikrama. On the one hand, he is holding a parikrama and on the other, he is allowing a plunder of the natural resources. "Did they include the parikrama in the party's manifesto during the last election?" Yadav asked, adding that it was the government's responsibility to save the environment. The veteran leader also criticised the Madhya Pradesh government's Bhavantar Yojana, saying farmers should be paid the minimum support price (MSP) and not the difference of the MSP and the modal price (average market price for a particular commodity over a particular period) as was being done under the scheme. Replying to a question, Yadav said Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar had deceived 11 crore people of the state by joining hands with those against whom he had contested the Assembly election.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel "will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth" about the Holocaust, a statement that comes as tensions between Israel and Poland over the issue flare anew.

Israeli politicians accused Poland's prime minister of anti-Semitism for equating Polish perpetrators in the Holocaust to supposed "Jewish perpetrators."



Poland and Israel were already at odds over a new Polish law criminalising some statements about the country's actions during World War II.

Speaking today at the Munich Security Conference, where Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki made his comment a day earlier, Netanyahu remembered the 6 million Jews "killed by the Nazis and their collaborators."



He added: "We will never forget and we will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pravin Nishad will be the Samajwadi Party candidate for the upcoming Gorakhpur bypoll while Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel would contest the Phulpur Lok Sabha byelection, the Akhilesh Yadav led party said today. While Yadav himself declared Nishad's name, Patel's candidature was announced hours later at a meeting of party office bearers. "Pravin Nishad is the son of Sanjay Nishad, who is the president of Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD party). Pravin today also became the member of SP. From Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel has been named as SP's candidate. Patel has been a member of SP's state executive," SP secretary and spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI. Earlier in the day, SP chief Yadav said, Praveen Nishad would be his party's candidate from Gorakhpur. NISHAD chief Sanjay Nishad and Dr Mohd Ayub (president of Peace Party) had already announced their decision to contest the bypoll along with the SP. The Congress has already declared its candidates for both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats which go to polls on March 11. Asked about the future of the Congress-SP alliance as both parties were contesting the polls separately, Yadav said "Our main aim is to defeat communal forces." We will appeal to the people of Gorakhpur to support those who fighting for the truth, he said. "Last year, hundreds of innocent children lost their lives due to shortage of oxygen, but the government did not take any step. Now even an incident of fire has been reported from the office of the principal of the (BRD) college, and all important evidences have been burnt," he alleged. Yadav claimed that the people were feeling "harassed owing to the lies of the BJP" and exuded confidence that his party would emerge trumps in the bypolls. "We will take their election manifestos of the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls to the people. We will hold discussions to bring out the truth. They had earlier confused the people with 'chai pe charcha', and now they are planning to confuse with 'pakoda'," Yadav said, taking a dig. Continuing his attack, Yadav alleged that farmers were dying under the burden of loans. Apparently referring to the Nirav Modi swindle, Yadav alleged that under the BJP rule, "people are showing plans on paper to nationalised banks, and fleeing from the country after pocketing crores". "When I distributed laptops, BJP poeple said that all of them were given to Yadavs and Muslims. The expressway, Lucknow metro was built by us, but BJP termed us as those belonging to backward class. While they won the polls claiming to be forward...I don't know how to speak lies," he alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will leave tonight for a four-day visit to Japan, a government release said.

The CM, who would be accompanied by top state government officials on the trip, left for New Delhi this afternoon from where the team will catch a flight for Japan, a CMO official said.

Some of the senior officials accompanying the CM on the trip include Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Road Construction Department Principal Secretary Amrit Lal Meena and Industries Department Principal Secretary S Siddharth.

Road Construction Minister Nand Kishore Yadav will also be a part of the Bihar CM's Japan visit.

The official, however, did not elaborate on the details of the tour.

Several leaders of the JD(U) met Kumar at his official in the state capital before he left for New Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The police today detained 23 persons, including local Shiv Sena MLA Manohar Bhoir, who were planning to stage a protest at the site of the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport for the "exclusion" of party leaders from the ground-breaking ceremony. Bhoir alleged that Sena leaders were deliberately not invited to the ceremony, performed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the project site in Uran in neighbouring Raigad. No Shiv Sena leader or minister attended the event. "The protesters were detained before they could reach the spot," Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale said. In a statement issued in the morning, Bhoir had claimed that the BJP-led Maharashtra government deliberately did not invite him as well as the Shiv Sena MP from Maval, Shrirang Barne, despite the project being in their constituencies. Bhoir and his supporters had gathered near Ovale village. They had planned to show black flags to Modi, but were detained at the village before they could proceed, said another police official. They were released after the event was over. "It is a state-organised event, taking place at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The airport is located in Raigad district, in my constituency. Our MP, Shrirang Barne, represents the same area in the Lok Sabha, and still, both of us were not invited, which is a violation of protocol," Bhoir said in his statement. "This is an insult to the people's representatives...I condemn this act of the BJP-led government as it has insulted the people of the Uran Assembly constituency which I represent," he added. Though the BJP and Sena are partners in the NDA governments in the state as well as at the Centre, the relations between the two allies are strained.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior CPI(M) leader and MLA M Y Tarigami today termed the rally organised by a fringe right-wing group, demanding the release of the accused in the rape and murder of a minor girl, as the most "shameful act" and against human values.

He expressed hope that the civil society here would raise its voice to seek justice for the eight-year-old girl, allegedly raped and murdered in Kathua district last month.

Body of the minor girl was recovered from Rassana forest on January 17, a week after she went missing while grazing horses in the forest area.

On Jan 23, the government handed over the case to crime branch of the state police which arrested a Special Police Officer (SPO) for his alleged involvement in abduction and killing of the girl in February.

Earlier, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) had arrested a 15-year-old boy and claimed he had strangulated the victim after she resisted his rape attempt.

Quoting example of similar brutal incident in Lahore in Pakistan, where a seven-year-old girl was raped and brutally murdered, the CPI(M) leader said the accused has been sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in shortest possible period of four days.

The civil society in Pakistan used its influence to get the speedy trial of the case and they succeeded in their mission. I am hopeful that similar efforts would be made by the civil society here to ensure that the accused in the minor's rape and murder case are hanged to death without any further delay," he said.

Referring to the rally taken out on Thursday last to seek the release of the accused, Tarigami said it is an "indication of dangers confronting Jammu and Kashmir".

By supporting the accused the Hindu Ekta Manch has shamelessly displayed their communal intentions. Using national flag during the rally is an insult to tri-colour and things cant get more horrible than this," he said.

The MLA said some fringe elements in Jammu are "hell bent" on giving religious colour to this heinous crime.

Not only people cutting across political and ideological differences should unite to against this horrific incident, but the government must take stern action against the accused without showing any leniency to them," he said.

"A criminal is a criminal irrespective of his caste, colour and creed and must be dealt according to law, Tarigami said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Frustrated by Brexit negotiations, angry at Brussels or simply afraid of the future, ordinary Britons and other Europeans are already taking life-changing decisions a year before Britain leaves the EU. Office workers, farmers and radio hosts are taking on new nationalities, relocating their businesses or looking forward to lucrative alternative trade deals, as politicians struggle to come up with a plan. "Other people my age, they are starting settling down, they make more long-term plans with their lives," said 32-year-old Matt Davies, a British expat in Madrid. "Its very difficult for me to plan anything beyond March 2019 because you just have no idea what is going to happen," the call centre worker said. British and EU diplomats resumed negotiations in Brussels last week and are hoping to agree next month on a post-Brexit transition period. But the shape of future relations between Britain and the EU is far from certain and the British government is deeply divided over how to proceed. That uncertainty is even more pressing for the three million EU nationals living in the UK, many of whom are now questioning their future there. Brexit affects "every part of our lives", radio presenter Gosia Prochal, one of nearly a million Polish citizens living in Britain, told AFP. The 25-year-old is based in Peterborough, a city in eastern England that has seen a sharp rise in immigration in recent years and voted 61 percent in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum. AFP spoke to five EU nationals and five Britons in the UK, as well as five British citizens living in continental Europe about their hopes and fears ahead of the expected Brexit date of March 29, 2019. William Lynch, from Northern Ireland, farms oysters in Lough Foyle. He faces having to move his business two kilometres downstream to the Republic of Ireland -- across a currently invisible boundary -- if customs tariffs come in after Brexit. "I cant really leave it till the last minute to do that," the 63-year-old ex-fireman said. The oysters he lays down this year, largely for export to France, will not be harvested until after the UK has left the EU. Brexit-backing sheep farmer Pip Simpson said he felt Brussels was making the negotiations "as awkward as possible" to deter other countries from leaving the bloc. The 51-year-old voted to leave the European Union in the June 2016 referendum but now faces the prospect of losing the EU subsidies his farm relies on. Polls in recent months have shown a slight increase in the number of people who, in hindsight, think Britain was wrong to vote to leave the EU, but experts say the difference from the referendum is negligible. "The country was divided down the middle 18 months ago and not a great deal has changed," political scientist John Curtice told a conference this month. The discord has left some Britons living in the EU feeling alienated. Business intelligence consultant Andrew Ketley, 41, who moved to Munich in February last year, is putting down roots. "We dont want to live in a country which is tearing itself apart," he said. Barnaby Harward, 44, an editor who has lived in Warsaw with his Polish wife since 2005, is applying for Polish citizenship and ending thoughts of moving back home. "The whole Brexit thing has put me off. It kind of made me feel that my country is not what I thought it was," he said. EU citizens in Britain are taking similar decisions. Gabriela Szomoru, 32, a Romanian who has lived all her adult life in Kent, southeast England, is now applying for British nationality, as well as UK accountancy qualifications. "England is my home now," the salad-farm bookkeeper said. For people in business, clarity cannot come soon enough. Richard Stone, 44, the chief executive of London retail stockbrokers Share, wants Britain to sign trade agreements with the growth markets of China and India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan has billed India Rs 286,000 as route navigation charges for Indian Air Force aircraft used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a stopover in Lahore and visits to Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and Qatar, an RTI response shows.

The data gathered by activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra. through his RTI application, show that till June 2016, Indian Air Force aircraft were used for the Prime Minister's visits to 11 countries - Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Qatar, Australia, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Fiji and Singapore. Batra gave a copy of the RTI responses, received from August last year to January 30 2018, to PTI.

During one such visit on December 25, 2015, Modi had a brief stopover in Lahore at the request of then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The stopover took place when Modi was returning from Russia and Afghanistan. For this, a bill of Rs 149,000 has been issued as route navigation charges, records accessed under the RTI Act from the Indian High Commission in Pakistan show.

Modi was received by Sharif with a warm hug at the tarmac of the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, when he made the unexpected stopover on his way back home following a day-long trip to Afghanistan after concluding a two-day visit to Russia. Modi was accorded a red carpet welcome as the PM's special Indian Air Force Boeing 737 plane touched down at 4.50 pm. He then took a helicopter to Sharif's Raiwind palatial residence on the outskirts of Lahore to attend Sharif's birthday celebrations.

A bill of Rs 77,215 was imposed as route navigation charges by Pakistani authorities when Modi used an IAF aircraft to visit Iran on May 22-23, 2016, and Rs 59,215 when he visited Qatar on June 4-6, 2016, the RTI response shows. For both visits he flew over Pakistan. The records were part of a response collected from various missions of India on the expenditure incurred on the visits of Modi on IAF aircraft between 2014 and 2016. According to the data collected, a total of about Rs 20 million has been spent on foreign visits of the Prime Minister during the period for the use of IAF aircraft. Generally, an Air India aircraft is hired for the foreign visits of the VVIPs



the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister -- for which the carrier sends the bill. The bills for the Prime Minister's visits are borne by the External Affairs Ministry.

The bills submitted by Indian missions in these countries include charges for fuelling, ground handling, airport charges, dearness allowance paid to the staff, hotel stay, catering and mobile for the crew, transport hiring, captain's imprest and other charges.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today declined to comment on his deputy O Panneerselvam's remarks that the latter acted on a suggestion from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on merging his faction with that of Palaniswami.

Palaniswami said he would respond to the issue after going through Panneerselvam's remarks, made at an AIADMK office-bearers meeting at Theni on Friday.

"I don't know about it. I will comment after going through it (Panneerselvam's remarks)," he told reporters here.

Meanwhile, senior state BJP leader and Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan ruled out the possibility of Modi's role in the merger, saying the "prime minister has at no point of time involved himself in "



"Even during elections, he campaigns for the BJP and its allies...he doesn't initiate any political steps (such as this)," he told reporters in Madurai.

However "Panneerselvam's remarks show as if they (AIADMK) are still in some kind of problem," he said in an apparent reference to the pre-merger differences between the two camps.

Panneerselvam,who last year merged his faction with that of Palaniswami, had said on Friday that he had acted on a suggestion from the prime minister.

"He (Modi) said that you (Panneerselvam) could join (merge the faction) to save the party," the deputy chief minister had said, without specifying exactly when the conversation took place.

Meanwhile, sidelined AIADMK leader and RK Nagar MLA, T T V Dhinakaran, hit out at Panneerselvam for his criticism against V K Sasikala, the close aide of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and her family.

He also asked if the prime minister was the "general secretary of the AIADMK" to whose suggestion Panneerselvam paid heed.

"If he (Panneerselvam) says he joined (merged his faction) because the prime minister suggested so, then who is the general secretary of AIADMK, the prime minister?," he told reporters in Chennai.

Dhinakaran said that if Sasikala wanted to become the chief minister, she could have done so on the very night Jayalalithaa died, i.e December 5, 2016, but that she chose Panneerselvam for the job.

He claimed Panneerselvam had insisted that Sasikala take over the party's reigns in the wake of Jayalalithaa's demise.

"If he was really troubled (by the Sasikala family) how could have she made him the chief minister. In fact, Panneerselvam had proposed Chinnamma (Sasikala) as chief minister on February 5 last year," he said.

Sasikala was elected leader of the AIADMK legislature party, paving her way for her elevation as chief minister. However, Panneerselvam revolted against her two days later, alleging he was forced to make way for her. Sasikala was later that month convicted in an assets case and is since lodged in a prison in Bengaluru.

At the Theni meeting, Panneerselvam had charged that Sasikala's family members tried to work for his defeat in the 2016 polls.

"If anyone else had faced this amount of crisis and problems, they would have committed suicide or would have left the party. (But) I tolerated everything for Amma," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider has instructed authorities to give state funerals to those killed due to alleged firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control.

Haider yesterday accused the Indian Army of targeting civilians, including women and children, The Express Tribune reported.

"All deputy commissioners have been instructed to ensure the best treatment of the injured as well as funerals of martyrs with state honour," he said, alleging that Indian troops recently targeted a school van killing its driver.

He also appealed to the Government of Pakistan to raise the issue of ceasefire violations at the Line of Control allegedly by the Indian Army in the UN Security Council.

"Pakistan must raise the issue of targeting of civilians, schools and hospitals in the Security Council," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A high-tech cheating syndicate was busted today when over 90 candidates, appearing in postman and mail guard recruitment examination, were caught cheating using bluetooth devices concealed in their inner wear and connected to microphones and mobile phones, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, separate police teams raided four examination centres in the city where the high-tech cheating syndicate was operational. Ninety four candidates were arrested and most of them are from Haryana and Jaipur, Police Commissioner Sanjay Agarwal said.

He said 53 candidates, including three girls, were arrested from Jaipur south, 16 from Jaipur west and 25 candidates from Jaipur east.

Further investigation into the case will reveal the nexus of the gang, he added.

Director Postal Services Dushyant Mudgal said nearly 80,000 candidates had registered for the examination at 146 centres here.

There were 300 examination centres in Rajasthan, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's Prince Harry is set to take charge of a new leadership role of the Commonwealth as the group's youth champion, according to a media report. The fifth in line to the British throne is expected to formally accept the new role at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, which will run from April 16 to 20 and is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among other world leaders from 53 member-countries. The Sunday Times quoted senior royal sources as saying that the 33-year-old prince will play a leading part at the summit, which is to be hosted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Reportedly, there is already an agreement among the Commonwealth heads for Harry to adopt a youth leadership role and he is expected to speak at the summit's Commonwealth Youth Forum. Prince Harry has enjoyed his work on youth-led issues throughout the Commonwealth on behalf of the Queen and the institution. He will continue to expand on that and will be very visible at the heads of government meeting, the source told the newspaper. The 91-year-old Queen, who has been head of the Commonwealth since her coronation in 1953, is also expected to be honoured with a special birthday event at Royal Albert Hall in London at the end of the summit on April 21. Plans for a concert are still in the early stages, with details not yet released to the public, but Commonwealth leaders are said to be organising their diaries accordingly. Harry's active role within the organisation is seen as a tribute to his grandmother and is also expected to assist a smooth transition of the Commonwealth headship from the Queen to Prince Charles, Harry's father. The title is not hereditary and will not automatically pass to the 69-year-old heir to the British throne. The UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office is said to be keen to capitalise on the global appeal of Prince Harry and his bride-to-be, Meghan Markle, as part of a post-Brexit push for closer ties with Commonwealth countries. In their engagement interview last November, Markle had said: There is so much work to do in the Commonwealth. In October this year, the couple will visit Sydney for the Invictus Games and there are plans to expand the trip into an official tour of Australia and New Zealand - leading Commonwealth economies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid sealing of shops in certain areas of the national capital, traders' body CAIT today said the performance of DDA as well as MCD has been dismal and they have failed to ensure structured development of the city in the last 60 years and there is a need to privatise both the organisations. Handing them over to professional agencies for carrying out responsibilities in a time bound manner would enhance efficiency of these two institutions, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said in a statement. Failure of Delhi Development Authority (DDA) as a planner and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as an implementing agency has created a havoc for Delhi traders who are facing the brunt of sealings for no fault or failure of theirs, it said. Deliberative wing of MCD should remain as it is, while the executive wing should be handed over to private agencies, it said, adding that the DDA should be privatised completely. The first Master Plan was released in 1962 and its several provisions were never adhered to, it said. The second Master Plan which was supposed to be released in year 1980 was released 10 years later in 1990 and large number of development plans under it could not see light of the day, it added. The third Master Plan which was scheduled to be released in 2001 was finally released in the year 2007 and like two previous one, the MCD and other agencies which were assigned different responsibilities utterly failed to put various plans into action, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Private bus operators in Kerala today decided to continue their three-day old indefinite strike demanding hike in minimum bus fare as the talks held by the state government with them here failed.

"The government did not accept our demands. We cannot move ahead without a increase in the minimum fare toRs.10 and the students concession from the existing Re.1 to Rs 5. So, we have decided to continue with the indefinite strike," an office-bearer of the Private Bus Owners association said.

Earlier, Transport Minister A K Saseendran held a nearly two-hour long meeting with the association members at the government guest house here to find a solution to their issues.

The government had on February 14 raised the minimum bus fare to Rs eight.

Demanding that the minimum bus fare be hiked to Rs 10 and the students concession from the prevailing Re one to Rs five, the private bus operators in the state went on the indefinite strike from February 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to speak up on the multi-crore PNB scam and not behave like "guilty".

"PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hours, but won't speak for 2 mins on the 22,000 Crore banking scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you're guilty! Speak up #ModiRobsIndia," he wrote on Twitter.

The Congress had on Thursday targeted Modi for the presence of Punjab National Bank fraud accused jewellery designer Nirav Modi in an Indian business delegation at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Gandhi had earlier alleged Modi and Jaitley did not act despite being aware of the scam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The death toll in an LPG cylinder blast during a wedding function on Friday night in Beawar town of Ajmer district rose to 18 with the recovery of nine more bodies today, police said.

Of the 18 injured, six were discharged, whereas five persons, said to be critical, were referred to Jaipur from the JLN Hospital in Ajmer, they said.

Nine more bodies were recovered today from the debris. With this the toll rose to 18. Two more are feared to be stuck under the debris, Ajmer District Collector Gaurav Goyal said.

He said a joint rescue-and-relief operation by the Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was underway.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the family members of those killed in the blast and a financial help of Rs 50,000 each to the injured, an official spokesperson said.

Yesterday, the chief minister took stock of the rescue operation, met the family members of those killed and announced the compensation from the chief minister's relief fund. An additional compensation of Rs 1 lakh each was given by the Shree Cement company to the kin of the deceased, she said.

Compensation will also be provided to the owners of the houses damaged in the explosion after an assessment, the spokesperson said.

The powerful blast had turned the building, where the wedding ceremony was underway, into rubble. Nine bodies were recovered yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said today that an international educational institution for minorities will be built in Rajasthan's Alwar city as part of the Centre's ambitious plan to set up five such institutes across the country.

The plan for building these institutes was initially prepared in 2016 and an 11-member committee was formed under former bureaucrat Afzal Amanullah to oversee it, Naqvi said.

The committee submitted its report to the Minority Affairs Ministry and after March 2017 the work on this ambitious project started, he said.

"For setting up a world-class educational institution for minorities, 100 acres of land has been allotted for an institute in Alwar, Rajasthan," Naqvi told PTI/Bhasha.

The government is mulling to proffer 40 per cent reservation for girls at these institutes, he said.

According to information received from the ministry, work is underway in Greater Noida to create a "skill development hub" for minorities.

Meanwhile, the ministry is also going to open more than 100 schools on the lines of Navodaya Vidyalaya for the students belonging to minority communities, Naqvi said.

"By the end of this year, 32 of these schools will be functional. Special attention will be given to girls," the minority affairs minister said.

"In this context, a high level committee constituted on January 10, 2017 submitted its report on the structure of these educational institutions," he said.

Naqvi said that it is a matter of concern that literacy rate among minorities, especially Muslims, is much below than the national average rate. The central government is running a strong campaign of educational empowerment to overcome this, he said.

The school drop-out rate among Muslim girls, which is more than 72 per cent, is a matter of concern for the government, Naqvi said. Keeping this in mind, the ministry will be focusing on educational empowerment of minorities, especially girls," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The first day of the Magnetic Maharashtra investors summit here on Sunday saw Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) promising investments of Rs 600 billion into the state, the Mahindra Group pledging Rs 23.25 billion and the Virgin Group signing an intent agreement with Maharashtra to build a hyperloop transportation system between Mumbai and Pune, to reduce travel time to 20 minutes from the three hours at present.

Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani said his RIL and its global partners will set up the country's first integrated digital area in Maharashtra, entailing investments of Rs 600 billion.

Reliance along with other global will invest over Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) in the next 10 years in Maharashtra, which will be the first integrated digital industrial area in the country, Ambani said on the opening day of the summit. He did not offer more details like the location of the proposed mega investment or when the first phase will begin. The summit was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Within a few weeks, more than 20 global have already agreed to invest with us. These include Cisco, Siemens, HP, Dell, Nokia and Nvidia among others, Ambani said.

Meanwhile, the first hyperloop route will link central Pune with the megapolis as well as the Navi Mumbai international airport.

Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson said, We have signed an agreement with Maharashtra to build a Virgin Hyperloop between Mumbai and Pune, beginning with an operational demonstration track in the region.



Also, the Mahindra Group announced over Rs 23 billion in investments in three projects of which as much as Rs 17 billion will be spent towards creating an entertainment destination at Kandivali, a northwestern suburb of Mumbai. Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said his software company Tech Mahindra will invest Rs 1.25 billion to create an all-green tech hub in Nagpur that will create at least 2,500 jobs.

On the Rs 17 billion investment announced in the city, Mahindra said, "we are exploring to set up a unique film-centric entertainment destination on our land at Kandivali in the city as Mumbai is the heart of Hindi film industry This will create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs and we plan to spend Rs 1,700 crore (Rs 17 billion) on this venture," he said.

It can be noted that the group already runs a successful tour and leisure services company Mahindra Holidays and this announcement hints that the group is ready to tap tourism and related segments in a more aggressive manner.

He also said the company will invest another Rs 5 billion in the state for which his group has "executed an agreement with Maharashtra for an investment of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) under the new electric vehicle policy."

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity - which completed 5,000 Martian days - has spotted "rock stripes" on the red planet similar to those seen on some mountain slopes on Earth that result from repeated cycles of freezing and thawing of wet soil. However, the stripes might also be due to wind, downhill transport, other processes or a combination, researchers said. Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. As it reaches the 5,000th Martian day, or sol, of what was planned as a 90-sol mission, it is investigating a channel called "Perseverance Valley," which descends the inboard slope of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. "Perseverance Valley is a special place, like having a new mission again after all these years," said Ray Arvidson from Washington University in the US. "We already knew it was unlike any place any Mars rover has seen before, even if we don't yet know how it formed, and now we're seeing surfaces that look like stone stripes. It's mysterious," said Arvidson. On some slopes within the valley, the soil and gravel particles appear to have become organised into narrow rows or corrugations, parallel to the slope, alternating between rows with more gravel and rows with less. The origin of the whole valley is uncertain. Rover-team scientists are analysing various clues that suggest actions of water, wind or ice. They are also considering a range of possible explanations for the stripes, and remain uncertain about whether this texture results from processes of relatively modern Mars or a much older Mars. Other lines of evidence have convinced Mars experts that, on a scale of hundreds of thousands of years, Mars goes through cycles when the tilt or obliquity of its axis increases so much that some of the water now frozen at the poles vaporises into the atmosphere and then becomes snow or frost accumulating nearer the equator. "One possible explanation of these stripes is that they are relics from a time of greater obliquity when snow packs on the rim seasonally melted enough to moisten the soil, and then freeze-thaw cycles organised the small rocks into stripes," Arvidson said. "Gravitational downhill movement may be diffusing them so they don't look as crisp as when they were fresh," he said. Bernard Hallet of the University of Washington in the US agrees the alignments seen in images of Perseverance Valley are not as distinctive as the stone stripes he has studied on Earth. Field measurements on Earth, near the summit of Hawaii's Mauna Kea where the soil freezes every night but is often dry, have documented how those form when temperature and ground conditions are right. Soils with a mix of silt, sand and gravel expand more where the finer-grain material is most prevalent and retains more water. Freezing expands the soil, pushing larger particles up. If they move to the side, as well as down the general slope, due to gravity or wind, they tend to move away from the finer-grain concentrations and stretch out downslope. Where larger particles become more concentrated, the ground expands less. The process repeats hundreds or thousands of times, and the pattern self-organises into alternating stripes. Perseverance Valley holds rocks carved by sand blowing uphill from the crater floor, and wind might also be the key in sorting larger particles into rows parallel to the slope.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Africa has widened a corruption probe into allies of ex-president Jacob Zuma to other countries including India, China and Dubai, the police minister said today. Fikile Mbalula made the announcement days after South Africa issued an arrest warrant for one of the brothers of the Gupta business family, close associates of scandal-plagued Zuma who was forced from power on Wednesday. Mbalula told public broadcaster SABC that Ajay Gupta and another four people who are being sought in connection with the case were all out of the country. While there was no indication that they fled the country fearing arrest, Mbalula vowed that they will "be followed up" through Interpol with the possibility of extradition to face trial in South Africa. He said two of the suspects were of Indian descent and one other was Chinese. All are thought to be in India, China or Dubai. "We operate through Interpol, we operate through bilateral (means), if you ever resist there will be extradition. All means necessary will be employed to ensure these people are brought to book," said Mbalula. He refused to name the suspects except for Ajay Gupta who police last week declared a fugitive. Local media reports suggested that Zuma's son Duduzane, a business associate of the Guptas, is also among those being sought, and some speculated that he could be in Dubai. The minister refused to say whether Duduzane Zuma is on the police wanted list. "There will be more arrests... it's not just a witch hunt," he added. "It doesn't matter, if you are a politician ... there are no holy cows, there are no untouchables." In all, 13 people are facing charges linked to allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers was syphoned off by the Guptas. Eight other suspects were arrested last week and have appeared in court. In his first address to the nation hours after he assumed power on Friday, new South African President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to fight corruption in a direct reference to the accusations levelled at his predecessor Zuma.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)For the first time, a group of Indian students who have worked on grassroot-level social projects for creating jobs will present their proposals to international diplomats and policy-makers from around the world at the UN headquarters.

The programme is part of the Future Leaders initiative of 1M1B, an Indian not-for-profit organisation which seeks to train over the years one million young entrepreneurs for creating jobs for one billion people.

After a six-month-long curriculum and fellowship programme, 1M1B selected 10 students from India who will be present at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on March 19.

The top three students among them will make a presentation on their respective projects before a gathering of diplomats and representatives of the media, foundations and others.

"The 17 goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require people, especially young people, to drive action towards their fulfilment by the year 2030," said Manav Subodh, co-founder of 1M1B. "So today, more than any other time, the UN requires ambassadorship and action by young people towards the UN SDGs," Subodh said.

He said the Future Leaders programme of 1M1B, a job-creation and income enhancement initiative aligned to the UN SDG, seeks to give a global stage to future influencers.

Under the fellowship programme, promising students are identified, felicitated and given access to high impact development projects.

One of the selected projects, 'The Project Fresh Start (TPFS), by Nikita Nambiar (14) of The International School Bangalore, seeks to empower incarcerated women, socially and financially, help them stay out of prison, and become productive community members.

Ten women inmates of the Tumkur Central Jail are being trained in the art of making Tanjore paintings by a professional artist.

Nambiar plans to auction off these paintings through a charity event later and forward the proceeds to the women.

Another selected project, Divyang, an initiative by Sanjana Tarigopula (14), addresses the lack of awareness on autism and hopes to provide support for caregivers, friends and family of patients.

She created an app that not only provides access to autism-related research to create awareness within support groups, but also showcases the varied talents of people who suffer from autism.

The programme started in August 2017 in partnership with The International School of Bangalore (TISB).

Selected candidates were called for a panel interview following which the fellows were chosen.

The 1M1B Future Influencers programme will be formally announced at the UN on March 19.

After the first cohort from India, the programme will open up for participants from other schools and countries, including the US, Kenya and Vietnam.

Over 100 Future Influencers are expected to participate at the grand finale of the event in October 2018 at the UN Headquarters in New York.

1M1B focuses on youth and women from ages 18-25 in the most underserved parts of the world.

The initiative builds conscious enterprises and undertakes income enhancement initiatives for underprivileged communities by engaging urban leaders and startups.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead has sparked calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses across the United States aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws.

Organisers behind the Women's March, an anti-Trump and female empowerment protest, called for a 17-minute walkout on March 14 to "protest Congress inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighbourhoods."



The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools, meanwhile, announced a "national day of action" on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which two students opened fire on their classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher.

The organization is encouraging teachers and students to organize sit-ins, walkouts, marches and any other events to protest gun violence in schools.

"The politicians sit on their hands as our children and their teachers are murdered in their schools," Diane Ravitch, the groups president, and Carol Burris, its executive director, said in a post online.

The protest plans circulated widely on social media on Saturday, signaling that the outcry for new gun legislation may not fade away as it has after other recent mass shootings.

Many of those shootings, including the deaths of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, led to a push for new gun laws, but those efforts stalled in Congress.

"We need to make this moment a movement and to actually make changes that need to happen in this country so that these kinds of weapons, AR-15s, are not in the hands of people who shouldnt have them," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a union representing teachers and other educators.

Weingarten said she was part of the discussions about the April 20 protest. What gives the Florida shooting more potential to spark change, she said, is that the students themselves got angry really quickly and demanded it.

Teenage survivors of Wednesdays shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have become advocates for gun control, sparring with gun-rights activists on social media and calling for safer gun laws at vigils and in television interviews.

Thousands of angry students, parents and residents demanded stricter gun control laws on Saturday at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, which is about 20 miles from the site of the shooting in Parkland.

Some people in online posts called for a Civil Rights-era style boycott of schools until gun laws are changed. David Berliner, a professor of at Arizona State University who also participated in the plans for the April 20 protest, said he would support such a boycott.

He recalled watching a television report about Wednesdays shooting at an airport.

"I am crying, and Im watching all the people all around me crying, and I just said, This has got to stop," he said.

Clare Schexnyder, a mother of a middle-school student in Decatur, Georgia, said she wants moms to take their kids out of school for a day to make a statement.

She said a private Facebook page she launched announcing a meeting of her Stop School Shootings group after the Florida shooting attracted more than 7,000 followers overnight. Her protest is planned for March 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shiv Sena legislators from Raigad district today claimed that the BJP-led Maharashtra government deliberately did not invite local MP and MLA of the Sena for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the airport today afternoon. The new airport, on completion, is supposed to relieve the burden on the Mumbai airport.

Local Sena MLA Manoj Bhoir alleged that he and member of Parliament from Maval, Shrirang Barne, were deliberately not invited for the function.

"It is a state-organised event, taking place at the hands of PM Modi. The airport is located in Raigad district, in my constituency. Our MP, Shrirang Barne, represents the same area in the Lok Sabha, and still we both were not invited which is a violation of protocol," Bhoir said in a statement.

"This is an insult to people's representatives....I condemn this act of the BJP-led government as it has insulted the people of Uran Assemly constituency which I represent," Bhoir said.

A Shiv Sena spokesperson said here that none of its ministers or legislators were attending the ground-breaking ceremony.

Though the BJP and Sena are partners in the state as well as in the NDA government at the Centre, relations between the two are strained.

Local Sena leader and former Thane Mayor Sanajy More had said yesterday that his party workers would stage a protest at the project site.

Though his party welcomed the airport project, the BJP was excluding Sena leaders from the function for the sake of politics, More alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Six members of a family, including four women, were today booked by the Thane police for preventing a police team from arresting a person wanted in a case of cheating.

Police said that an offence had been registered by NM Joshi Marg police in Mumbai against some people for cheating a woman in a bank.

CCTV footage showed that an accused, Javed Sakar, was hiding in Ambivli in Kalyan, police said, following which a police team from Mumbai moved to nab him.

Officials said that six members of a family prevented the police for entering the house long enough to allow Sakar to esacpe.

An official said that a search was on for Sakar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Samajwadi Party (SP) today declared its support for Nishad Party candidate, Praveen Kumar Nishad, for the bye-election to the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat. Praveen Kumar Nishad would contest on SP poll symbol - the bicycle, the party said. SP would soon declare its candidate for the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, it added. "Praveen Nishad, son of Sanjay Nishad, the president of Nishad Party will be our candidate from the Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency. He will be contesting the poll on SP's election symbol - cycle," Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said. Asked about the SP candidate from Phulpur, Yadav said a name would be declared soon. This time lotus will wither in Phulpur, he claimed. Prior to Yadav making the announcement, Sanjay Nishad (president of Nishad Party) and Dr Ayyub (president of Peace Party) had announced their decision to contest the bypoll along with the SP. The Congress has already declared its candidates for both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats which go to polls on March 11. Asked about the future of the Congress-SP alliance when both parties were contesting the polls separately, Yadav said "Our main aim is to defeat communal forces." We will appeal to the people of Gorakhpur to support those who fighting for the truth, he said. "Last year, hundreds of innocent children lost their lives due to shortage of oxygen, but the government did not take any step. Now even an incident of fire has been reported from the office of the principal of the (BRD) college, and all important evidences have been burnt," he alleged. Yadav claimed that the people were feeling "harassed owing to the lies of the BJP" and exuded confidence that his party would come out trumps in the bypolls. "We will take their election manifestoes of the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls to the people. We will hold discussions to bring out the truth. They had earlier confused the people with 'chai pe charcha', and now they are planning to confuse with 'pakoda'," Yadav said taking a dig.

Continuing his attack, Yadav alleged that farmers were dying under the burden of loans. Apparently referring to the Nirav Modi swindle, Yadav alleged that under the BJP rule, "people are showing plans on paper to nationalised banks, and fleeing from the country after pocketing crores". "When I distributed laptops, BJP poeple said that all of them were given to Yadavs and Muslims. The expressway, Lucknow metro was built by us, but BJP termed us as those belonging to backward class. While they won the polls claiming to be forward...I don't know how to speak lies," he alleged.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa has claimed that there are no safe havens for terrorists in his country and asked the US to stop blaming Islamabad for its failure in Afghanistan.

Gen Bajwa asked the American leadership to instead search for the reasons for its failures in the war-torn country.

Speaking at the three-day Munich Security Conference where military chiefs and civilian leaders have gathered to discuss the world's most pressing security issues, the army chief yesterday categorically denied the existence of terrorist sanctuaries on the country's soil and recalled the steps taken to prevent unauthorised movements across the porous border, the Dawn reported.

Gen Bajwa said Pakistan was being attacked from terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil. He also emphasised the need for repatriation of 2.7 million Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan.

Pointing to the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic State safe havens, he said terrorists had established sanctuaries on the Afghan soil along the border with Pakistan.

Gen Bajwa said underscored the importance of cooperation against terrorism.

Speaking about the operations launched in the country against terrorists, he said that besides kinetic operations, a lot of emphasis had been put on cutting off their financial sources.

He said Pakistans counterterrorism operations were being carried out under a National Action Plan.

Last month, the Trump administration suspended nearly USD 2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan accusing the country of not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.

However, despite the US administration's tough stand against Islamabad, Pakistan has categorically denied the allegations of supporting terrorism.Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida focused their anger today at President Donald Trump, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive. "You're the president. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us," said David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press." "How dare you," he added. Hogg was responding to Trump's tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn't passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI's failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous while bemoaning the bureau's focus on Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Trump was at his Florida estate Sunday but did not mention the attack in a series of morning tweets. After more than a day of criticism from the students the White House, announced today that the president would hold a "listening session" with unspecified students on Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials Thursday. Florida politicians, meanwhile, scrambled to produce legislation in response to the February 14 attack that killed 17 people. In a TV interview, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio embraced a Democratic bill in the Florida legislature to allow courts to temporarily prevent people from having guns if they are determined to be a threat to themselves or others. Gov Rick Scott, also a Republican, attended a prayer vigil at the First Church Coral Springs, a few blocks from the shooting site. He is expected to announce a legislative package with GOP leaders of the legislature this week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit today held review meetings with district officials on the implementation of development schemes, taking forward an exercise which has attracted opposition criticism.

Purohit, who had earlier held such meetings in Coimbatore, Salem, Madurai, Dharmapuri, Cuddalore and Krishnagiri, attended a slew of events here.

The Governor "viewed the presentation on features of Nagapattinam district made by the Collector Dr S Suresh Kumar," a Raj Bhavan release said.

The Governor also took up cleaning activities under the Swachch Bharat scheme, administered a pledge under the initiative and inaugurated a blood donation drive, the release said.

Tamil Nadu Handlooms Minister O S Manian was present during the Swachch Bharat initiatives.

The Governor also visited the Shrine Basillica at Vailankanni, the world famous Christian pilgrim centre.

Local unit of DMK staged a black flag demonstration against the Governor for holding such a meeting here with officials including the District Collector.

The DMK activists raised slogans against the Governor and the ruling AIADMK, saying such meetings were "against federalism."



Purohit had faced protests during his visits to some of the districts in recent months with DMK cadres showing black flags alleging that he was interfering with the state's autonomy.

This charge, however, has been rejected by the Raj Bhavan as well as the ruling AIADMK and BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy today hit out at Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan for his remarks that Tamil Nadu was becoming a training camp for terrorism, saying the state was the most peaceful in the country.

"It is a blatant lie. In the present situation, Tamil Nadu is the most peaceful state in India and law and order situation is also very good," Palanisamy told reporters at the City Airport tonight.

Stating that both the BJP-led central and AIADMK-led state governments were functioning to serve the people and working jointly for their benefit, he said the ideology of both the parties was completely different.

"I do not know," was his reply to a question on Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam's remark that he joined hands with Palanisamy following advise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Paneerselvam had taken pains for the cause of the party and now both (he and Paneerselvam) were taking it on the path of growth, he said and blamed the media for blowing the issue out of proportion.

The proposed entry of film stars Rajinikanth and Kamal Hasan will not have any impact on the AIADMK and nobody can defeat the party, he said.

Blaming the DMK for the prolonged dispute on Cauvery water issue, Palanisamy said the party had not renewed the 1974 agreement which was the root cause for the problem.

He alleged that DMK's working president M K Stalin was blaming the AIADMK for the problem which was a blatant lie.

It was the case filed by former chief minister Jayalalithaa which resulted in Tamil Nadu getting its due share of water, he said.

The DMK had done nothing for the benefit of the state, when it was ruling at the Centre with the Congress, he alleged.

The chief minister also expressed hope that the Centre would constitute the Cauvery Management Board within six weeks as directed by the Supreme Court in its verdict which would be in force for 15 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has advocated for a calibrated taxation policy that encourages "technology agnostic approach" and urged the government to treat all technologies at equal footing to bring down vehicular pollution and boost the volume growth in the auto sector.

Technology agnostic approach implies that a company is unbiased towards using any specific technologies to solve its business problems.

The automaker's comment comes against the backdrop of Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant asserting that there is no need for a policy for electric vehicles (EVs).

The company, which is a joint venture between the Japanese auto major and Kirloskar group, said it remains committed to continuous efforts in developing alternate mobility technologies.

"We wish that taxation policy is calibrated towards encouraging a technology agnostic approach which would reduce pollution, reduce Indias oil import bills and encourage volume growth in the auto sector both of mass market cars and luxury vehicles," TKM vice chairman and whole-time director Shekar Viswanathan said in a statement.

This will in turn lead to growth in employment where automobile sector is a big contributor, he added.

Under the GST regime, hybrid vehicles have been put in the same category as big petrol and diesel luxury cars, attracting 28 per cent rate with a cess of 15 per cent.

However, the GST on electric vehicles is lower at 12 per cent.

On the government's decision of not having a separate policy for electric vehicles in the country, Viswanathan said the company understands the current stance of government towards promotion of mobility in the country.

"Toyota will further drive its customer-friendly and eco-friendly approach to encourage the ecosystem for all technologies," he added.

The company would continue to focus on the action points to align with the government objectives of reducing oil imports and minimising pollution, Viswanathan said.

He added that Toyota has always been in the forefront working on ever better mobility solutions to address rising levels of emission and fuel consumption not only globally, but also in India.

"We will introduce appropriate products in consultation with all stakeholders. In line with Toyotas Global Environmental Challenge 2050 to achieve zero CO2 emissions, we remain committed on our continuous efforts in developing alternate mobility technologies such as BEVs, HEVs, FCVs, etc, towards the conservation of our environment," Viswanathan said.

He further said the state level EV policies will have a key role to play as a concerted effort to achieve reduced emissions and fuel imports.

"We also recognise that it is the customer who will drive the choice of technology that we will adopt based on his/her needs of travel distance, safety and total cost of ownership," Viswanathan said.

Last week, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had said that there is no need for a policy for electric vehicles (EVs) as an action plan has been prepared.

He, however, added that a final call on EV policy will be taken by the government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Polling in the Tripura Assembly election began on a peaceful note at 7 am today amid massive security arrangements.

Voting is being held in 59 of the total 60 seats due to the death of the CPI(M) candidate for the Charilam constituency, Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma, six days ago. The Charilam constituency will go to polls on March 12.

Voters were seen queuing up at polling stations across the state since morning.

In hilly and tribal areas, women huddled in large numbers outside poll booths in their colourful traditional attires.

Small-time shop keepers were seen doing brisk business selling tea and snacks to the voters.

Voting will end at 4 pm in all the 3,214 polling stations in the state, election office sources said.

Altogether 307 candidates are in the fray with the CPI(M), the major partner of the ruling Left Front, contesting 56 seats and its constituents -- RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI -- one seat each.

The BJP, which forged a pre-poll alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), has fielded 51 candidates. The IPFT, an anti-Left party, will contest the remaining nine.

The Congress is going it alone in Tripura this time and is contesting 59 seats. The party has not fielded any candidate from Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

Altogether, there are 25,73,413 registered voters, of whom 13,05,375 are male and 12,68,027 female.

The number of voters under the third gender category in the state is 11 and that of the new voters is 47,803.

Twenty seats are reserved for the scheduled tribes.

State Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla said security measures are in place across Tripura to ensure free and fair polls.

He said 300 companies of central armed forces have been deployed along with state armed personnel and police, while BSF is keeping keep a close vigil along the 856-km-long India-Bangladesh border in Tripura, he added.

Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti said the Election Commission has appointed police observers, general observers and expenditure observers to ensure hassle-free polls.

The director general of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), R K Pachnanda, has been appointed as a special observer to coordinate with the security forces deployed in the state.

Counting of votes would be taken up on March 3 and the voting for Charilam constituency will be conducted on March 12, sources in the election office said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha Police today warned traders, in the western region, against getting involved in hawala transactions.

The warning was issued after some businessmen were caught, while transporting cash to the Bijepur Assembly segment where a by-election will be held on February 24.

The police held a meeting with traders after intelligence inputs indicated that political parties may transfer money through hawala, in which money is transferred without physical movement of cash, to avoid police checking.

The police during the meeting told traders to refrain from any such dubious deals which might bring them under the scanner.

"The model code of conduct is in force in Bijepur and its violation is an offence under the Election Commission Act," Inspector General of Police (IGP) Northern Range (NR) Susant Kumar Nath said.

The objective of the meeting is to sensitise the business community about it, the IGP said.

Physical movement of huge cash has become difficult since adequate number of police check posts are there in Bijepur constituency, and massive checking is being carried out, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Bargarh district J N Pankaj said.

Innovative ways could be adopted to transfer money now, he said.

The SP also said that the police will not harass anyone carrying cash for genuine purpose.

However, he or she will have to produce proper document, he said.

The Bargarh police on Saturday night had seized Rs 40.5 lakh in cash from a car while it was on its way from Padmapur to Bargarh, and arrested a businessman and his son in this connection, after they failed to give a proper explanation about the source of the cash.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The police today recovered arms and ammunition from two criminals and arrested them following an encounter in Bihar's Lakhisarai district.

Two other criminals were also injured in the encounter that happened at Jaidpur village in riverine area under the jurisdiction of Barahiya police station of the district, police said.

The criminals fired around 20 rounds at the police and in retaliation the police personnel fired around 25 rounds at them, Superintendent of Police Arvind Thakur said.

While the injured criminals managed to escape from the spot, two others have been arrested, the SP said.

A carbine, a 315 bore rifle, two country-made pistols, two magazines of AK 47 rifles, 47 cartridges and three mobile phones were seized from their possession, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two policemen were killed and six others injured in a gun-battle with the Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district today, a top official said.

The encounter took place in a forest under the Bhejji police station when a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and local police was out on an "area-domination operation", Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.

As the team was passing through the forest between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, around 500 km from state capital Raipur, it came under heavy firing from the ultras, leading to the gun-battle, the DIG said.

The exchange of fire lasted for over two hours, he added.

"Assistant constables Madkam Handa and Mukesh Kadthi of the DRG were killed and six other jawans were injured," the DIG said.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel as well as the bodies of the slain jawans were brought to Bhejji.

The injured jawans were being airlifted to Raipur, the DIG added.

In another incident along the stretch between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, where a road construction project is underway, the Naxals killed Anil Kumar, the supervisor of the private contractor, and set vehicles engaged in the road construction work ablaze, Sundarraj said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UK police are investigating the alleged online abuse of an Indian-origin school principal who was characterised as German dictator Adolf Hitler over her attempt to ban the hijab for very young pupils. Neena Lall, the head-teacher of St Stephens School in east London, has been in the eye of the storm over a decision to ban the hijab for girls under eight years, a decision she was forced to reverse last month amid backlash from the community. A complaint has now been filed with local police in Newham, east London, about emails, Facebook posts and other social media messages received by both Lall and Arif Qawi, the former chairman of governors, The Sunday Times reported. Local police confirmed that they were assessing a report of malicious communications following abusive e-mails having been received in connection with the case. Qawi claimed that a campaign of messages, some abusive, over several days had forced the school to reverse its hijab ban. "I resigned because I did not agree with reversing the hijab ban and to protect the head-teacher. She was told that if I left, the campaign would stop, he told the newspaper. No head teacher or governing body should be subject to the sorts of abuse we have heard reported in these recent incidents, said UK secretary Damian Hinds, the the latest high-profile figure to come out in defence of the schools right to set its own uniform policy. Lord Theodore Agnew, Britains minister for schools systems, faith and counter-extremism in education, had last week offered his backing to Lall over her decision. St. Stephens Primary School in east London has been at the centre of media attention after its ban on young pupils wearing the hijab and fasting during Ramadan. I have seen the vitriolic abuse on social media after this decision and read of the intimidation of staff, resulting in the resignation of the chairman of governors. I wanted to send out a clear message: bullying or intimidation of school staff is completely unacceptable, he said. Earlier this month, the UKs independent schools watchdog the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) had also came out in support of the school. School leaders must have the right to set school uniform policies in a way that they see fit, in order to promote cohesion, said Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted. Under the UKs Department for guidelines, uniform policy is a matter for individual head-teachers and their governing bodies. Next week, Ofsted inspectors are to publish a report praising the schools leaders and governors. It is expected to confirm that the school is outstanding the highest inspection judgment for schools and criticise the pressures brought to bear on Lall and her management team.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's far-right UK Independence Party has sacked its leader after weeks of controversy surrounding his girlfriends racist messages targeting Prince Harrys fiancee Meghan Markle.

Henry Bolton, who had refused to resign amid mounting pressure from within the party, was sacked following a 63 per cent vote in favour of a no-confidence motion against the leader at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the party in Birmingham yesterday.

"I think it's going to be difficult to unite the party, what we have effectively had is a rejection of a new draft constitution, a reorganisation and indeed a new way of doing politics," said Bolton, who is thought to be considering legal action to challenge the result.

The 54-year-old former Army officer had faced calls to go after it emerged he was in a romantic relationship with Jo Marney, a model 29 years his junior, who had described black people as ugly and said Harrys mixed-race fiancee would taint the royal family, paving the way for a black king.

The married father of two who reportedly walked out on his family over Christmas last year suffered a string of UK Independence Party (UKIP) resignations following the leaked texts.

"I have said all along that once we got the EGM out of the way I would spend time sorting out my private life," he said in reference to his relationship with Marney, who he said he had "strong affections" for.

Marney responded to the EGM vote by tweeting: My love for Henry is unconditional of political leaderships.

Bolton was elected in September 2017 in the wake of UKIP's disastrous performance in the last year's General Election.

The party's national executive committee expressed no confidence in him last month, triggering this weekends ballot. He lost the no-confidence motion by 867 votes to 500.

"Henry Bolton has been removed by the democratic decision of the membership," outgoing UKIP chairman Paul Oakden said.

UKIPs former Brexit spokesperson Gerard Batten will take over as interim leader of the party, with a leadership contest expected within 90 days.

"I believe that you have made the best decision that you could in the circumstances," Batten told the UKIP gathering.

The pro-Brexit, anti-immigrant party has seen four different leaders in the gap of a year.

Boltons exit leaves UKIP seeking a new leader in the space of 18 months after Nigel Farage, Diane James and Paul Nuttal.

The party, which made big gains in the 2014 European elections and got the third-largest vote share in the 2015 General Election with 12.6 per cent, has been suffering from an internal crisis in recent months.

Its vote share plummeted to 1.8 per cent in the June 2017 snap General Election and has struggled to elect a leader who can fix its fortunes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Emma Watson has donated one million pounds to a new campaign directed at helping victims of sexual harassment. The 27-year-old actor has contributed the whopping amount to the UK Justice and Equality Fund after nearly 200 female British and Irish stars signed an open letter calling for an end to sexual harassment in the workplace, The Independent reported. Watson is one of the first donors to the campaign, which was set up by the 190 women who signed the open letter, which was published in The Observer. Actors such as Emma Thompson, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Chan and Keira Knightley, along with a group of 160 academics, activists and charity workers have also signed the letter. The letter comes ahead of the upcoming Bafta awards ceremony, calling it an occasion "celebrate this tremendous moment of solidarity and unity across borders by coming together and making this movement international". "This movement is bigger than just a change in our industry alone. In the very near past, we lived in a world where sexual harassment was an uncomfortable joke; an unavoidable awkward part of being a girl or a woman. "If you have said 'time's up', if the stories you have read in the papers have resonated and distressed you - join us in shifting the dial. Let's make 2018 the year that time was up on sexual harassment and abuse. This is your moment too," it further reads. Women attending the Bafta Awards have also said they will be dressed in black on the red carpet in solidarity with Hollywood's Time's Up movement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit has said that she will always stand by her party even though the top leadership "ignored" her for a long time and "denied her any big role in electoral campaigns".

The three-time former Delhi chief minister said she was named the party's star campaigner in elections that came after the 2013 assembly polls, but was not given any big responsibility for canvassing and that she never complained.

"I do what I am told. I belong to Congress and the Congress is my party. I can do anything for Congress. They ignored me for years but I never complained," the 79-year-old leader added.

A few days ago, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken and Dikshit addressed their first joint press conference after the 2015 drubbing.

"Before this press conference, Maken came to my house three or four times, requesting me to join the media briefing," she said.

"There is no dilemma in my mind. We have to work for the Congress. I don't have personal issues with anyone. I went there to do something good for the party and the results were good too. But when elections were held they did not call me," Dikshit said.

She said the party leaders need to understand that we are fighting the opposition. "They have to understand that our enemy is not Congress. Our enemy is the opposition. The day they'll understand this thing, everything will be all right," Dikshit said.

Recently, former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely rejoined the party months after he quit to join the BJP. Lovely is believed to be a close aide of Dikshit.

When she was asked about the AAP government in Delhi, Dikshit said, "Either you will see their advertisements or you'll see them talking about their work. But the ground reality is very different."



"The party did not fulfill its promise of providing free water and cheaper electricity to Delhi's citizens. Arvind Kejriwal has been exposed," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India will "definitely" be considered as one of the destinations for a semiconductor manufacturing facility by the world's biggest power and smart card chip firm Infineon as and when it expands to new locations, the company's global CEO Reinhard Ploss has said. He said that in case the company ventures into India with electronic chip production it will start with investment in assembly, testing and packaging of semiconductors and scale up gradually. "We are still watching if we think about major site, we will definitely consider India. Currently we built and grow around locations we have at present. Therefore, no new site is planned. Before building new site we have to scale existing facility to build economies of scale," Ploss told PTI. The German chip company has its sales office and research and development centre in India. As per market research firms, Infineon led global power electronic chip market with 18.5 per cent share and smart card chips segment with 24.8 per cent share in 2016. It was second largest chip firm for automotive electronics with 10.7 per cent share in 2016, as per research estimates. Ploss was responding to queries about Indian government's ambition to set-up electronic chip plants in the country to meet security as well as to reduce dependence on electronic imports. "We believe that local procurement and establishment of a vibrant local manufacturing base which provides good employment opportunities to India will be a positive step. Reliance on imports is not sustainable for an economy which aims to reach USD 5 trillion by 2025," he said. The Cabinet had initially cleared setting up of the two semiconductor plants in September 2013. A global tender was issued to invite interest from other semiconductor firms to set up plant in India. The government had promised same incentives as the two electronic chip plants, but no company turned up. Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC) is the only electronic chip firm that is working with the government to set up India's first semiconductor plant. The government had also approved the JP Associates-led consortium's plan to set up one more plant, but the group backed out in the absence of an appropriate market. HSMC has approached the government seeking market commitment to set up a high-technology electronic chip plant that entails investment of around Rs 29,000 crore.

Ploss said that there are still areas which need to be improved in India mainly power supply stability, infrastructure, education. "Infineon has been working closely with the Electronics Sector Skills council of India (ESSCI) in this regard,. We are sharing our experience in setting up large manufacturing units in emerging markets. Last year in August, we hosted a delegation of master trainers from India at our largest manufacturing plant in Melaka, Malaysia," he said. The company last week signed an agreement with Niti Ayog to support Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) under which it will share design, manufacturing experiences and knowledge in semiconductor systems. "We are leveraging our presence in India along two pillars 'India for India' and 'India for Global'," Ploss said. Under the 'India for India' strategy, the company has been expanding its sales and marketing resources in the country. It is looking at big potential around electrical vehicles in India. It is also partnering with Indian academia and start-ups to build new applications. "Under the second pillar, we are growing our R&D activities in India. Our design centre in Bengaluru in working on global technical projects in hardware and software. While we do not disclose the size of revenues in India, we see the country as having tremendous growth potential due to favourable macros and policies coming together," Ploss said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bharatiya Janata Party today said it would give a fitting reply to those criticising the Narendra Modi government for "not doing anything" for Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh has been surging ahead on the path of progress thanks to the blessings and total support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party asserted.

The BJP said it would exhibit to the people a list of "facts and figures" and projects the Centre had sanctioned for the state.

"A misinformation campaign is being carried out against the Central government saying it had done nothing for AP and had ignored the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. We will go to the people and place all the facts before them," BJP state president Kambhampati Haribabu said.

"Barring three promises, we have fulfilled all the others. In fact, the Centre has given much more to the state than what was provided for in the Reorganisation Act," Haribabu added.

The state unit's office-bearers, district presidents and senior leaders of the party held an extensive meeting here today and discussed the ongoing political developments in the state in the aftermath of the presentation of Union Budget 2018-19.

The meeting assumed significance against the backdrop of a slugfest between NDA partners BJP and TDP over Central aid to AP in the last four years.

Addressing the meeting, Haribabu, who is an MP from Visakhapatnam, said only the Dugarajapatnam port, Kadapa steel plant and Visakhapatnam railway zone did not happen though they were promised in the Reorganisation Act.

"Though the railway zone at Visakhapatnam was found to be not feasible, the Centre is discussing the issue with neighbouring states to find a way out. We are hopeful that a positive decision will come out soon," he said.

The port and the steel plant were under the "active consideration" of the Centre, Haribabu added.

Referring to the renewed demand for grant of special category status (SCS) to AP, the MP said a special economic package that was equivalent to the SCS had been granted to the state.

The dispute over bridging the states revenue deficit (for the year 2014-15) would also be resolved soon, he said, adding that development was possible only through mutual co-operation between the Centre and the state.

"It has been so till now and hopefully will continue in future as well," Haribabu said, adding the Narendra Modi government was "fully committed" to help the state grow further.

State Ministers Kamineni Srinivas, P Manikyala Rao, Narsapuram MP Gokaraju Ganga Raju, the BJP floor leader in the Assembly P Vishnu Kumar Raju, MLCs Somu Veerraju, P V N Madhav and other senior leaders attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, MLC Veerraju said the BJP was also ready for a debate on what the Centre did for AP in the last four years.

The BJP legislator was reacting to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidus announcement yesterday that he was ready for a debate on the Central assistance to the state.

"When we are allies, why go for a public debate? Let him (Chief Minister) invite our state party president and he will give all details. Our president is ready to reveal all facts, so let the Chief Minister call him and talk," Veerraju, a vociferous critic of the TDP, said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today reviewed the preparations for the two-day Investors' Summit beginning here on February 21. "The government is organising this for the betterment of the public. Through this event, UP will get an opportunity to change its image. Hence, it is the responsibility of every department that it should strive for its success," Adityanath, who reviewed the preparations at Indira Gandhi Pratisthaan here, said. He instructed officials that reports of all the sessions be presented. "The state government has implemented policies for various sectors. The respective ministers, principal secretaries and their subordinate staff must go through the policies, so that the investors can be given correct information about the policies," he said. Adityanath instructed Uttar Pradesh DGP to ensure that traffic arrangements were proper. Instructions were also issued to ensure proper security arrangements for the event, which would be attended by the President, Prime Minister, Union ministers, public representatives, investors, CEOs of various companies and senior officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At a time when Congress president Rahul Gandhi is emphasising a blend of the young and old in the ranks, veteran leader Ashok Gehlot has said the youth needed to rise in the party hierarchy by proving their worth rather than undermining their seniors. The AICC general secretary incharge of Gujarat and former Rajasthan chief minister said Gandhi was like a teacher who wants his students to draw longer lines without erasing the existing ones. Rahul ji has been saying this since the very beginning that one has to move forward with the experience of old leaders and the energy of young leaders. I feel that he meant the new leaders should draw a longer line than the existing one drawn by the veterans, Gehlot said in an interview to PTI. Carrying on further with the teacher-student analogy, he said Gandhi did not want the earlier lines to be erased, but extended. Rahul Gandhis real thought is that of this teacher. He wants new young leaders to draw longer lines instead of removing or erasing the lines drawn by senior leaders. Those youngsters who have not understood this are now facing problems in various states," he said. Gehlot said ever since Gandhi had become Congress president he had been stressing the need for "discipline and performance". "One can't impress Rahul Gandhi with mere talk. One has to deliver and prove one's credibility through hard work. Whether you are an asset or liability for the party, he is focussing on that," the former CM said. Gehlot, who recently aided Congresss power performance in Gujarat, also said he would abide by whatever decision the party leadership took in election-bound Rajasthan. Asked if he was in favour of a chief ministerial candidate be declared in Rajasthan, Gehlot said, I dont mind...Personally, I have left the issue of leadership to the high command. Be it Gujarat or Rajasthan, this issue is to be decided by the high command. It is their privilege. Prompted further, he said, This question ends when I say that whatever decision the high command takes in the interest of the party, it will be acceptable to all. The AICC general secretary said the Congress mostly goes to polls with a collective leadership and the high command decides on that after talking to those elected and factoring in public opinion and the contribution of a leader. In rare cases, if the high command wants, it can declare anyone anytime as the leader in the state, said the former five-time MP and two-time CM. To a question on why the Congress lost Gujarat despite coming so close to the finishing line, Gehlot said it was because Prime Minister Narendra Modi evaded "real issues" and made it a personal battle by raking up trivial matters. The BJP has lost Gujarat even after victory and the Congress has won the state even after defeat, Gehlot said. The Congress veteran also lauded Gandhi for changing the perception of the people about the so called Gujarat Model. In Gujarat we managed to demolish the false perception of a development model created by Mr Modi, said Gehlot. He added that he had never asked the party for "anything" and had still been entrusted with important tasks. Since 1977, when I came into electoral politics, I have never asked for a party ticket. I have been a five-time MP, three-time central minister with Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and PV Narasimha Rao, three-time PCC president of Rajasthan, two-time AICC general secretary and a chief minister for 10 years," he said. I never lobbied for any post or requested anyone (for one). Without asking for anything, I have been trusted with so much and entrusted with responsibilities, said the Rajasthan Congress strongman.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Khaleda Zia's counsels were led more by their emotions than professional obligations which delayed her getting privileges she was entitled to as the former premier in the prison after being convicted in a graft case, Law Minister Anisul Huq said today.

The 72-year-old three-time former prime minister and main opposition leader was on February sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment by Dhaka's Special Court in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about USD 250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-politician.

"The 'learned' defence team of Zia on that day (of verdict) was busy in shedding tears as much as they could. But they did not file the required prayer for her division status," Huq told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

Prison authorities accommodated Zia for three days in a refurbished abandoned office of a prison official in Dhakas old central jail, which is now relocated on the outskirts of the capital, after she was awarded the sentence.

Four days after the verdict was delivered, the prison authorities received a court directive ordering the special division facilities for Zia and allow her personal domestic aide Fatema Begum to be inside the jail as her companion.

BNP earlier accused the government of keeping Zia in solitary confinement at the abandoned jail, depriving her of the privileges and alleged that the authorities were yet to issue the "certified copy" of the judgement required for their subsequent legal actions to challenge the verdict and seek her bail.

"She suffered due to the faults of her 'wise' lawyers...should we take the responsibility for that," Huq said but added that she was awarded the division status instantly after the defence lawyers filed the prayer in the court in line with the legal procedures.

Huq reiterated his earlier comments regarding the delay in issuing the certified copy of the judgement, saying it was entirely a court affair with government having no stake in the process but it could take them some time to obtain the 632-page document because of its length.

A lawyer by background, Huq, however, said the law demands the court to issue instantly the certified copy of a judgement only if it is a case of death penalty while in other cases the "logical timeframe" is the limit.

The minister said the government wanted the BNP chief to exhaust her legal options in challenging the lower court verdict in the High Court to let the law take its own course as "we want do everything to establish rule of law in society".

"But the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina believes that none is above law," he said. BNP supporters in the past several days staged non-violent street protests across the country, demanding the party chiefs release.

Legal experts say Zias imprisonment would disqualify her from contesting the next general elections slated for December this year unless the Supreme Court comes up with a different direction during the appeal process.

The protests ahead of the verdict saw arrests of hundreds of BNP activists and mid ranking leaders but fears of more aggressive government actions visibly debarred the opposition to discard tougher street actions.

BNP boycotted the general election in 2014, but Zia appears to be seeking to contest the next polls but analysts said the party is now virtually exposed to a political wilderness after Zias conviction.

This verdict will hamper a participatory and fair election. If there is no attempt to remove this obstacle, we will be affected as a nation...after the judgement, doubts over a fair election has increased, pro-BNP economist Professor Mahbub Ullah said.

BNP named Zias convicted and fugitive son Tarique Rahman as the acting party chief after the verdict was delivered, a week after amending the party constitution which until then debarred any corrupt element with moral turpitude from being a party leader.

Several courts earlier declared him fugitive as Rahman preferred to live in London apparently to evade justice while he was convicted and jailed for 10 years in absentia on the same charges as Zia.

Rahman is also being tried on several charges including the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on a rally of the then opposition Awami League when 23 people were killed and Hasina narrowly escaped the attack.

The government earlier criticised BNP for installing him as the acting party chief while the law minister today called BNP leaders "shameless" as they amended the party constitution overnight to install a "fugitive criminal" as its highest leader.

"They made a fugitive criminal (Tarique Rahman) as the acting (BNP) chairman...this is their real identity," Huq said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab National Bank branch in south Mumbai sits just down the road from both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of India, at a physical centre of one of the world's fastest growing major economies. The branch, clad in a stately colonial edifice, is now also at the heart of a fraud case linked to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi that has shaken confidence in a state banking sector that accounts for some 70 percent of India's banking assets. It was here, according to accounts from Punjab National Bank executives and government investigators, that a ...RIGA (Reuters) - Latvia's central bank Governor Ilmars Rimsevics, who is a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, has been detained by the country's anti-corruption agency, the prime minister's office said on Sunday, without disclosing further details.Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said Rimsevics' detention did not pose a risk to financial stability."There are no indications that would suggest threats to the financial system of Latvia," Kucinskis said in an emailed statement to Reuters.Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola would hold a news conference at 1300 GMT, the ...A two-vehicle accident Saturday afternoon near Willard sent a pregnant woman and another man to the hospital, both with life-threatening injuries.

Utah Highway Patrol troopers report the 21-year-old female was driving a Mazda Protege eastbound on 8700 S. around 3:30 p.m. The woman, who is in her first-trimester of pregnancy, was stopped at a stop sign when it pulled in front of a Dodge Ram pickup truck that was traveling southbound on US-89.

The truck hit the Mazda on the drivers side door, causing the car to spin off the right side of the roadway. The woman was wearing a seat belt, but the 20-year-old male passenger was not. He was thrown into the drivers seat, hitting the driver.

The female driver was flown by helicopter to McKay Dee Hospital. The male passenger was flown to Ogden Regional Hospital, Both were in extremely critical condition.

Troopers report the driver of the truck was unhurt.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com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 January were up 2.8% year-over-year (including homes, condos and manufactured homes).



2) Active inventory is now down 10.7% 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 fifteenth consecutive month with a YoY decrease in inventory, and prices rose a little faster in 2017 compared to 2016 (5.0% through November or 5.5% annual rate).





January Residential Sales and Inventory, Greater Phoenix Area, ARMLS Sales YoY

Change

Sales Cash

Sales Percent

Cash Active

Inventory YoY

Change

Inventory Jan-08 2,907 --- 553 19.0% 56,8741 --- Jan-09 4,736 62.9% 1,625 34.3% 53,581 -5.8% Jan-10 5,789 22.2% 2,475 42.8% 41,506 -22.5% Jan-11 6,539 13.0% 3,263 49.9% 42,881 3.3% Jan-12 6,455 -1.3% 3,198 49.5% 25,025 -41.6% Jan-13 5,790 -10.3% 2,555 44.1% 22,090 -11.7% Jan-14 4,799 -17.1% 1,740 36.3% 28,630 29.6% Jan-15 4,785 -0.3% 1,529 32.0% 27,238 -4.9% Jan-16 5,199 8.7% 1,425 27.4% 25,736 -5.5% Jan-17 6,028 15.9% 1,631 27.1% 23,762 -7.7% Jan-18 6,197 2.8% 1,668 26.9% 21,226 -10.7% 1 January 2008 probably included pending listingsSaturday, February 17, 2018 at 4:42PM

Microsoft is celebrating the Surface's 5th anniversary and also Family Day in Canada by offering up to $250 off new Surface Pro devices bought online and in store. This is a great incentive for anyone pining for Microsoft's powerful and versatile 2-in-1 device. Check out the deal here.The list of theories as to the origins of the giant rock cairn atop Gossan Hill continues to grow almost as fast as the cairn itself. Imaginative readers have pointed the finger at just about every suspect, from bored (and artistic) school kids to aliens. Yes, aliens. Why some intelligent inter-galactic life form would travel all the way to Earth, then choose a hill in suburban Belconnen to their leave the mark has got me beat. Who knows, maybe it's to offset their crop circle creations in the United Kingdom? One of the more rational theories is the cairn is the result of management practices of park managers, who following the establishment of a nature reserve, selectively pile up rocks in order to clear areas for mowing. One now retired park ranger who used to work in Canberra Nature Park (of which Gossan Hill is part of) back in the 1970s reports "one of our least liked jobs was this so-called "rock picking". "The task was to pick up all the rocks in a defined area (usually behind houses), place them in the bucket of a front-end loader which loaded them onto a tip truck and they were then taken away somewhere," the parks insider explains. This was done so the area could be slashed for fire fuel reduction. While my informant remembers this being done on Mt Painter behind Cook and in other reserves too, photographic evidence obtained by this column shows this was unlikely to be the genesis of the Gossan cairn which was barely noticeable just six years ago and has grown rapidly to now feature thousands of rocks. Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate's acting executive director Daniel Iglesias has his own ground-breaking theory which may bring those who advocate the conjecture of cosmic connections, back to earth. "Clearly the Gossan Hill walkers have a quirky thing going with the cairn build-up," says the Parks head honcho, who urges Canberrans not to pile rocks in nature parks. "I would appeal to walkers to think twice about contributing any further to the construction," says Iglesias. "Movement of rocks within a reserve does impact on available habitat to a range of plants and animals." One reader who agrees with Iglesias' advice is fellow Canberra Times columnist Rod Taylor of ''Ask Fuzzy'' fame, who reports his wife once undertook a field trip to study scorpions that live under rocks scattered around Gossan Hill. "So in moving so many rocks, their homes are being wrecked," says Taylor. However, it seems not everyone is sympathetic with the conservation-minded Iglesias and Taylor, with one reader claiming, "I have it on good authority that the not-so-fleet-footed lizards in the area have just moved into the cairn." Talk about a biodiversity hotspot! Perhaps the last word for now should go to Irene (no surname provided) who says, "Wake up folks, it's a pile of rocks  not indigenous, not an environmental disaster, not extra-terrestrial but a simple pile of rocks." Given the cairn's recent increase in size, there's probably only one way to solve this curious case once and for all - a good old-fashioned stake-out atop Gossan Hill. I'll bring the donuts if someone else brings the takeaway coffee (oh, and a trail camera might come in handy too). Meanwhile, it's time to crack open the bubbly, for the location of an ''unidentified'' church, one of this column's longest running mysteries, has finally been solved. Following a request from ArchivesACT, a circa 1960-1966 photograph of the steep-roofed church first featured on these pages last August. The photo was part of a collection of the late Oskar Pumpurs, a planner with the National Capital Development Commission, whose photographs were donated to ArchivesACT and The ACT Heritage Library aftetr his death late last century. While the eagle-eyed archivists were able to identify most of Pumpurs' prized photos featuring mid-20th century Canberra landmarks, the location of the grainy old church left them stumped. Fortuitously, this column's recent renewed push to uncover the church's location (Cryptic Church, February 3) found its way to Murwillumbah in northern NSW, home of John Pumpurs, Oskar's son, who was promptly able to positively identify the church. So where is it? Well it turns out Sherlock Holmes wannabes who were searching within the confines of the ACT border, which was the focus of Pumpurs' work, were barking up the wrong tree. "Our family bought 'Tara', a property at the end of Keirs Road, across the border near Murrumbateman, around 1964," reveals Pumpurs. According to Pumpurs, his dad spent most of his spare time out there. He "was particularly interested in old buildings, including this church which was located on private property just off Keirs Road, near Murrumbateman Creek". Not only can Pumpurs identify the photo of the church, which "at the time belonged to the Butt family and was being used to store hay", but he also remembers the very day it was taken, for he was there. "It was the winter of 1966 and dad wanted a photo of the church with snow on the ground," says Pumpurs. In fact, the NCDC happy snapper liked the church so much he even asked his artist friend ''Shibu'' to paint it. "It's painted from a different angle to the photo, and has some surface damage in the sky area, but you can definitely see the resemblance," says Pumpurs. During the week, this column confirmed that the church is not only still in situ on the property, now called Winstonwood, but is used as an office by owners Murray and Loraine Dwyer. Purveyor of fine wines and dabbler in local history, Ken Helm, whose winery adjoins Winstonwood, says, "It was originally known as Armstrong's Church, built of rammed earth from the creek circa 1901 on the property Greenwood, before the property was sold off in blocks in 1973." Helm further reports that in Errol Lea-Scarlett's Gundaroo (Roebuck Society Canberra, 1972) "there's a wonderful description of the Nanama [local name given to that part of Murrumbateman] Creek people, who, in spite of Methodist prejudices against dancing, held maypole dances and harvest festivals around the church, and even auctioned off local produce from a high step at the back of the church." While the rediscovered church may not have hosted a maypole dance for many a year, I'm sure the good folk at ArchivesACT are today dancing around the office that their mystery photo has finally been identified. If you have an historic photo of Canberra you'd like to be identified, please let me know. After perusing this column's recent expose on out-of-place pythons around Canberra, (The mystery that's more than ssskin deep, February 3), John Pumpurs reports, "We live in python heaven up here in northern NSW, the discarded skins are always stretched when dry so it is difficult to know the exact size of the snake it came from." Pumpurs confesses as a youngster he was scared of the big brown snakes that were probably hiding out in the aforementioned church when it was full of hay. "We also had a quite a few big brown snakes in and around the huge storage shed at Tara, including a big one which used to frequent Oskar's sauna, much to his disgust." I'm not exactly sure if it is the result of speculation in this column that aliens could be responsible for the rock cairn on Gossan Hill, but there's been a corresponding spike in the number of extraterrestrial-themed photos lobbing into my inbox. These include this ''ET log'' which Ron Jacobs of Calwell recently stumbled on during a trip to Marthavale, Victoria. Indeed, even your akubra-clad columnist has been caught up in alien fever. While recently fossicking on the shores of Lake Burrinjuck, I nearly tripped over this piece of driftwood. While it does looks a bit like one of ET's fossilised cousins, I'm not sure it could build a rock cairn. Clue: Also beware of the nurse lurking under the cattle grid. Degree of difficulty: Medium. Congratulations to Lexa Hains of Canberra City who was the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo (above) as the courtyard at the Hotel Kurrajong Canberra, in leafy Barton. Hains, who beat Ian York and June McKenzie to the prize, immediately recognised the scene for she "recently watched a family of fairy wrens playing in the fountain." Originally opened in 1926, the hotel's corridors are steeped in the nation's political past. History buffs will enjoy a guided tour of the landmark building which is followed by a traditional high tea, including a glass of bubbles. Next tour: March 10. $55 per person. 12pm and 2.30pm seatings. To book, call 6234 4444 or email meet@hotelkurrajong.com.au. I might see you there. How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday February 17 will win a double pass to Dendy.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/c4e9f6c0-63b9-4cb7-9f85-95d6d61d3dc2/r0_898_1500_1746_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Trailblazing, a strong advocate and a respected leader are all terms used to describe Canberra's new Victims of Crime Commissioner, Heidi Yates. Ms Yates will leave her position as head of general practice at Legal Aid ACT to join the Human Rights Commission in March. The appointment was announced on Friday, following the departure of long-serving former commissioner John Hinchey in late-2017. A local in the true sense of the word, Ms Yates was born in Canberra, schooled at Kaleen Primary, Canberra High and Daramalan College. She studied at ANU, graduating in 2006, and since then had spent her career engaging in front-line victim support for Canberrans. Ms Yates said the hundreds of victims and their families she's met over the past 13 years are the driving force of her work in the sector. "I think the best systemic advocacy is informed by front-line engagement with victims, and that is something that has been core to all of my systemic advocacy and law reform work here in the ACT," she said. "One of the biggest challenges in the sector is being fortified by the change you can make to people that you are helping, and not overwhelmed by all of the unmet need." Ms Yates played a major role in reforming family violence legislation in the ACT, and is a champion of the development and funding of free legal services across Australia. Adding to her impressive resume, she was a Young Australian of the Year finalist in 2011, and was nominated Young Lawyer of the Year by the ACT in 2008. Looking forward, Ms Yates said she hopes to continue to drive the development of a Victims Charter in the ACT, improve the accessibility of services, and ensure Canberra has the "best possible range of services". She's pleased to be continuing the "fantastic" work of previous commissioners in the ACT, where being a small jurisdiction you could "get things done". "There's a great deal of work to be done," Ms Yates said. "It's a really exciting position because of it's breadth, and I'm really looking forward to getting started." ACT Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs described Ms Yates as "perfect for the job". "We're very excited to welcome her on board," Ms Watchirs said. "She has a very strong record of engagement with the community, and she's a very strong advocate." Minister for Justice Shane Rattenbury said Ms Yates was well-known and respected leader in the community for her work as a victims advocate. "I am looking forward to working with Ms Yates to ensure victims of Crime in Canberra have the right support available to them when they need it most," he said.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/bf022b4d-8b6b-4f6f-90c0-abdc23f47cb5/r0_125_2000_1255_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg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.Grant time to special envoy for talks, Maldives tells Delhi

Mohamed has not held a face-to-face meeting yet with Indian officials since the crisis began, but said he was in touch with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs over phone.

Updated: February 17, 2018 7:55 am Written by Shubhajit Roy | New Delhi |

Maldives Ambassador to India, Ahmed Mohamed

For the second time in the last 10 days, amid an ongoing political crisis in Maldives, the island nation has approached India with a request to allow a special envoy to meet the Indian leadership at a convenient time for New Delhi. Speaking to The Indian Express, Maldives Ambassador to India, Ahmed Mohamed, said: During Thursdays meeting between Indian Ambassador Akhilesh Mishra and our Foreign Secretary Ahmed Sareer, we once again requested India for a bilateral visit by a special envoy from our President. Unlike last time, when we had requested for a visit by a special envoy on a specific date, this time it has been kept open-ended, at a time convenient to the Indian government.

Mohamed has not held a face-to-face meeting yet with Indian officials since the crisis began, but said he was in touch with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs over phone. After the Maldives government jailed former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and the Supreme Court Chief Justice, following an adverse ruling to

release 12 jailed opposition leaders, the country had sent special envoys to China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

In a move to assuage concerns raised by New Delhi through diplomatic channels, Male has conveyed that its special envoy did not seek military support from the Chinese leadership.

Read | Delhi and Maldives break the ice first time in latest chill

Maldivian police officers stand guard on a street after Maldives President Abdulla Yameen declared a state of emergency for 15 days, in Male, Maldives February 6, 2018. (Reuters/File Photo)

On February 7, the Maldives government informed India that a special envoy would like to visit on February 9, and meet the External Affairs Minister or the Ministers of State, as well as the Prime Minister. However, India expressed its inability to host the envoy, citing scheduling issues  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were travelling.

On the meeting between Mishra and Sareer in Male Thursday, Mohamed said, The Indian envoy was told that the special envoy has not asked for any military intervention from China or any other country. The Indian side wanted to know about the discussions between Maldives special envoy and the Chinese leadership in Male. So, we clarified our position.

Also read | Bengaluru FC asked by MEA to defer Maldives visit, cites advisory

The Maldives envoy said the Indian official also wanted to know when the nation would return to normal. We have conveyed that the Maldives government has all the intention to end the emergency as soon as possible, he said. President Abdulla Yameen imposed emergency on February 5 for a 15-day period.

On the calls for military intervention by India, Mohamed said, We were concerned not because of (former President Mohamed) Nasheed (who demanded Indian intervention). But senior BJP leaders of high calibre like Yashwant Sinha, who has been former finance and foreign minister, and whose son is in the Cabinet, had called for military intervention. Although he is a non-state actor, being a senior member of the BJP, general public in Maldives were getting worried. So, the Maldives defence ministry had to issue a statement to assuage the domestic concerns.

He said the current situation was very different from 1988, when India had intervened militarily. There is no genocide, no massacre, no civil war in Maldives. The foreign expats are not in danger. So, the basic conditions for foreign military intervention, under international law, is not there in Maldives. As government officials, we know this. But the general public in Maldives were worried, he said.

On whether he had asked India to clarify this position, he said, On what basis would we have asked? The government had not said so (that they would intervene militarily). Only non-state actors had suggested such intervention. So, how can we ask the government whether such an intervention is being planned or not?

In 1988, he said, Maldives had approached India for help when people were being killed, gunmen were roaming the streets of Male and then president Gayooms life was in danger.

Mohamed described Nasheeds call for military intervention was an act of treason. It is irresponsible for him to suggest such a thing, if he aspires to become a President of the country, he said. On whether the current crisis has dented the image of Maldives, the envoy said, Probably, it hasbut for us, the democratic norms and the rule of law needs to be maintained.

The envoy alleged that the two judges, who were jailed, were found to have taken bribes and had overstepped the Constitutional provisions  the Maldives Supreme Court took law into their own hands. In such a situation, where the Supreme Court took the law into their hands, the President, who is the ultimate authority responsible under the Constitution to implement the rule of law, has to stop it, he said.

Asked if he had a message for India, Mohamed said, Let us meet at the highest possible levels, and try to understand the situation in Maldives. And, we would like India to lend a helping hand in resolving the differences and focussing on coming out of the current situation.

Asked what he meant by a helping hand, he said, Public statements are not a helping hand. Closed door discussions are needed. Public diplomacy comes in when all else fails. Meanwhile, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Indian government would monitor what steps are being taken in the next few days by the Maldives government.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/grant-time-to-special-envoy-for-talks-maldives-tells-delhi-5067176/You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here are some recent crimes that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

CRIME: THEFT FROM BOAT DEALERSHIP

DATE: February 6, 2018

RCMP FILE: 2018-6794

Sometime on February 4th or 5th 2017, a thief entered the locked yard of a marine dealership located on Petrie Road in Lake Country. Staff discovered two boats had been entered and stereo and amp equipment were missing. Footprints in the snow led to a hole in the fence. On February 7th, staff found the thieves had returned to finish the job of taking the remaining Wetsounds SYN DX-6 DSP amp from the Tige RZX3 boat. Video shows a Caucasian male, wearing all black clothing hop the locked gate at 7:02 p.m. on February 6th and head directly to the corner where the boat was stored. The culprit cut the wiring harness to remove the amp and attempted to steal the touch screen monitor. A neighbouring business security camera caught a light brown 4-door car picking up the suspect at the main gate about 30 minutes after dropping him off.

If you know anything about this crime, or any other crime, call the Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS or visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net. Your information will be kept confidential and could lead to a reward of up to $2000.00.

CRIME: MISCHIEF TO VEHICLE

DATE: February 11, 2018

RCMP FILE: 2018-7498

A resident who lives on Darlene Road in Lake Country contacted RCMP on February 11th when she noticed that her security company vehicle had been vandalized overnight. Suspects smashed the drivers side window, dented the side door and back of the trunk of the grey 2010 Hyundai Genesis. They then pulled back the corner of the front bumper that had been previously damaged.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.Photo: The Canadian Press Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion Project's Westeridge loading dock in Burnaby.

British Columbia's government is appealing a decision that allows Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass local regulations in constructing its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

The National Energy Board ruled in December that the company is not required to comply with two sections of the City of Burnaby's bylaws, which Kinder Morgan had said were hindering its ability to go ahead with the federally approved project.

The city said on Friday that it wants to appeal the decision, saying the company should be required to comply with all municipal bylaws.

Now the provincial government is following suit, saying it has filed leave to appeal the board's ruling with the Federal Court of Appeal.

The province says in a statement that the board erred by "too broadly defining federal jurisdiction over interprovincial pipelines."

B.C. is also locked in a dispute with Alberta and the federal government over the project's future after Premier John Horgan's government announced it is looking at limiting shipments of diluted bitumen from the west coast.Former CIA Chief Admits US Meddling In Foreign Elections "For Their Own Good"

Former CIA chief James Woolsey appeared on Fox News to push the narrative of how dastardly 'dem Russkies' are in their meddling with the sacred soul of America's democracy.

Woolsey did his patriotic deep-state-duty and proclaimed the evils of "expansionist Russia" and dropped 'facts' like "Russia has a larger cyber-army than its standing army," before he moved on to China and its existential threats.

But then, beginning at around 4:30, the real debacle of the conversation begins as Ingraham asks Woolsey,

"Have we ever tried to meddle in other countries' elections?"

Hes responds, surprisingly frankly...

"Oh probably... but it was for the good of the system..."

To which Ingraham follows up...

"We don't do that now though? We don't mess around in other people's elections?"

Prompting this extraordinary sentence from a former CIA chief...

"Well...hhhmmm, numm numm numm numm... only for a very good cause...in the interests of democracy"

So just to clarify - yes, the CIA chief admitted that Democracy-spreading 'Murica meddled in the Democratic elections of other nations "in the interests of democracy."

In case you wondered which ones he was referring to, here's a brief selection since 1948...

2016: UK (verbal intervention against Brexit)

2014: Afghanistan (effectively re-writing Afghan constitution)

2014: UK (verbal intervention against Scottish independence)

2011: Libya (providing support to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi)

2009: Honduras (ousting President Zelaya)

2006: Palestine (providing support to oust Prime Minister Haniyeh)

2005: Syria (providing support against President al-Assad)

2003: Iran (providing support against President Khatami)-

2003: Iraq (ousting of President Hussein)

2002: Venezuela (providing support to attempt an overthrow of President Chavez)

1999: Yugoslavia (removing Yugoslav forces from Kosovo)

1994: Iraq (attempted overthrow of President Hussein)

1991: Haiti (ousting President Aristide)

1991: Kuwait (removing Iraqi forces from Kuwait)

1989: Panama (ousting General Noriega)

1983: Grenada (ousting General Austin's Marxist forces)

1982: Nicaragua (providing support

1971: Chile (ousting President Allende)

1967: Indonesia (ousting President Sukarno)

1964: Brazil (ousting President Goulart)

1964: Chile (providing support against Salvador Allende)

1961: Congo (assassination of leader Lumumba)

1958: Lebanon (providing support to Christian political parties)

1954: Guatemala (ousting President Arbenz)

1953: Iran (ousting Prime Minister Mossadegh)

1953: Philippines (providing support to the President Magsaysay campaign)

1948: Italy (providing support to the Christian Democrats campaign)

(h/t @Yogi_Chan)

Commemts

bEmergency personnel of all description were at SilverStar Mountain Resort Saturday, but there is no reason for alarm.

It was all part of the eighth annual Emergency Services Day.

Phil Gaudette, patrol and safety manager at SilverStar, said the idea is to bring various emergency groups together to show the public what they do.

Held in the Village, demonstrations included everything from how to operate a fire extinguisher to building a snow shelter to rope rescues.

Gaudette, who is also a member of Vernon Search and Rescue, said safety is a top priority for the ski hill.

Making sure that everyone skis safe and are safe with what they are doing and that is what we do in some of our demonstrations, said Gaudette. We show how we do things safely and make sure everything is done right.Photo: The Canadian Press

Jagmeet Singh has issued a call-to-arms against inequality as he sought to put his stamp on the federal NDP on Saturday by taking aim at the Trudeau government and foreign web giants while offering a full-fledged defence of taxes and public services.

He delivered the battle cry at the NDP's national convention and, as Singh's first major address to the party since he became leader in October, aimed to motivate delegates as they looked to turn the page on the last election and prepare for the next.

"The time for timid is over," Singh said. "Too many people have felt stuck for too long. People are counting on us. We can't let them down. We need to win."

The NDP has appeared stuck in neutral for the past two-plus years with public opinion polls and several recent byelection results showing the third-place party struggling to find momentum even after Singh took the helm.

Convention delegates had been anxiously waiting to hear from their leader in the hopes his address, which clocked in at close to 40 minutes, would provide the NDP with an injection of energy while setting the party on a new, winning course.

Singh kicked off his speech by railing against growing income inequality in Canada before bucking what has become political orthodoxy by criticizing leaders who argue "taxes just take something away from you, rather than give something back to us all."

He later doubled down on that message, saying taxes "are investments into building a fairer society for us all" before blasting what he described as a "rigged tax system that benefits the ultra-rich" and criticizing those who don't pay their fair share.

A large part of his attack was directed at foreign web giants, many of which don't pay income tax in Canada despite repeated calls for the federal government to change that policy as a matter of fairness for Canadian companies.

Singh also blasted the Liberals' recent agreement with Netflix, which saw the online streaming giant pledge $500 million over five years to set up an office in Canada and create Canadian content, but which has sparked a massive revolt in Quebec.

The NDP leader meanwhile promised to better protect the pensions of workers whose companies go bankrupt and change the electoral system to proportional representation  all in the name of fairness.

He went on to offer a full-throated defence of government-delivered services, which he described as essential for equality, before calling for universal pharmaceutical and dental care, free tuition, and more affordable housing.

Singh didn't dwell on the details, including how the government would pay for those services, but those questions are sure to come as New Democrats look to begin building their campaign platform before next year's election.

The NDP leader, who is the first visible minority to lead a major federal party in Canada, concluded by calling for equality between all Canadians, as he referenced the Colten Boushie verdict, last year's Quebec mosque shooting and the #MeToo movement.

The speech was delivered before a mandatory review of Singh's leadership, and there had been questions in the hallways outside the main meeting room over how much support he would receive, particularly given the party's apparent lack of momentum.

But Singh easily survived the test, as more than 90 per cent of delegates voted against holding another leadership race, meaning he will emerge from the convention and head into the party's election planning in earnest with a strong mandate.

Despite a sharp debate over a resolution on Israel on Saturday night, the federal party appeared poised to emerge from this weekend's convention more united than after its last in 2016.Photo: AvCanada

An Air Canada Express plane had to return to Saskatoon shortly after takeoff when flames were reported to be coming from it.

Airline spokesperson Teri Udle says in an email that Flight 8585, a Dash 8 Q400 operated by Jazz, was on its way to Calgary on Saturday when flames were noticed near the left tail pipe.

Udle says the crew requested priority landing, and the aircraft landed safely.

Saskatoon's airport says in a tweet that the plane was evacuated on the runway.

Everyone got off safely and were taken to the terminal.

The airport says passengers took off for Calgary later in the afternoon.Photo: Contributed

Saskatchewan's first mental hospital is closing its doors after 100 years.

At its peak, the massive red-brick complex with a scenic view of the North Saskatchewan River was a community unto itself.

Saskatchewan Hospital, which first opened to patients in 1914, had its own barns, cattle, grain field, school and chapel  even a curling club and legion.

For more than a century, it has provided care for thousands of mentally ill patients who were untreatable, abandoned and alone.

"We get the worst of the worst individuals in the province and when I say that I mean the most ill. The most ill, the most treatment resistive, the most underdog population of the province," says Linda Shynkaruk, director of Saskatchewan Health North Battleford, who started at the institution 34 years ago as a psychiatric nurse.

"They're the most not heard  the most unvoiced people in the province. They can't advocate for themselves. They can't make the determination about what treatment they need."

This year, the old facility will close its doors. It's being replaced with a new $400-million hospital right next door.

Psychiatric care has changed immensely over the last 100 years. Improved psychotropic drugs mean patients can be better integrated into the community. In the 1950s, there were 2,040 patients. Now there are 156.

"Today we want to keep people connected to the community, so we take people out to those community places like the curling rink, the swimming pool and things like that," Shynkaruk says.

The old buildings are steeped in history.

"We have three graveyards," Shynkaruk said. "There's hundreds and hundreds of patients buried back there. We have a chapel here. We've had weddings there."

There's an old autopsy room and morgue, complete with four wooden body drawers, with "Close This Door" written on it.

Some people believe the site is haunted.

"I have had calls from people who are producing movies ... There are a lot of ghost stories out here," Shynkaruk says. "I just gracefully decline for the patients' sake.

"This is their home and it is the 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' stigma and we really need to work hard at reducing public perception of that."

Patients range in age between 18 and 86. The average stay is 18 months.

"We've had patients who've been here 20, 30, 40 years. They're at the tail end of the era and were admitted before psychotropic drugs were invented," says Shynkaruk, who knows most of the patients by name.

"Hi Mike," she says to a senior leaning against the wall. "I'll come back and visit you. I stopped by yesterday but you were sleeping."

Merilee, a woman in her 30s, says she appreciates her relationships with staff.

"We're starting this buddy-buddy action where nurses and patients, they sit down and actually talk to one another," she says. "And the doctors are seeing us more, so it's pretty good."

The day-to-day running of the facility isn't without its problems.

"Violence is a huge issue in mental health and how do you manage that?" Shynkaruk says. "We've undertaken a lot of initiatives in this last year and a half."

Shynkaruk says finding staff who have experience with mental-health issues is also a challenge because it requires extra training.

"It's kind of the 80-20 rule  20 per cent of your problem children take up 80 per cent of your time," she says. "I would say that we have excellent staff here but it's our responsibility to make sure they're well trained.

"We are trying to do a better job."Photo: The Canadian Press

With marijuana legalization only months away, members of Nunavut's new government are finally discussing how the territory will handle the change.

"We do feel behind in our preparation," said Dan Carlson, Nunavut's deputy minister of finance.

The territory had an election in the fall and, because of its consensus-style government, little could be done until new members met and laid out an agenda for the new legislative session  a meeting that doesn't begin until Monday.

"Bad timing," said Carlson.

But he said Nunavut's plans to regulate distribution and consumption of cannabis are emerging and are likely to look a little different than anywhere else in the country. Don't look for pot stores in Iqaluit any time soon, he said.

"We are only proposing to offer online sales. We think that's the smart move for Nunavut."

The territory is considering whether to partner with private-sector vendors who would sell cannabis on the government's behalf.

"The government would retain control and we would essentially contract out one or more organizations to deliver certain aspects of our operations," Carlson said.

"We're deciding product. We're deciding the price. We're just working with the private sector."

Marijuana legalization appears to be popular in Nunavut. A government poll last fall found three-quarters of respondents favoured the move. Sizable minorities said it should be unrestricted in public places. Most favoured a minimum age of 19.

"Marijuana has been smoked and consumed in Nunavut for many years," said Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern, who is also head of the Nunavut Association of Municipalities.

She doesn't anticipate a rash of new social problems. The recent opening of Nunavut's first beer and wine store in her city wasn't followed by increased crime, she said.

But applying the pot law could create problems. Nunavut communities depend on bylaw officers to enforce laws such as those around impaired driving, and extending those responsibilities to include marijuana may create the need for more training.

Communities also want to have some control over where cannabis is used, said Redfern.

"The main concern is ensuring the municipalities are going to get the support we need to amend the bylaws and there is some ability for municipalities to regulate and control. If there is training that is offered to the RCMP, it should be made available to local bylaw officers."

Nunavut mayors have also been renewing their call for better substance abuse treatment facilities in the territory. Nunavut has no residential treatment centre.

Nunavut currently allows communities to decide if they will allow alcohol sales, but that is unlikely to survive cannabis legalization, said Carlson.

"At this stage, we're proposing no. We appreciate for some communities this is a sensitive position for the government to take and we're hearing about it."

Carlson suggested a municipal ban on smoking cannabis would likely have little effect pointing to decades of federal prohibition.

Despite Nunavut's slow start, the territory should be ready for the federal law. A bill should be introduced into the territorial legislature in May or June, he said.

"We are not going to be jumping into a fully mature system, but we don't need to. We're expecting a lot of evolution, a lot of change in the industry.

"In terms of the actual operations, we do feel it is possible to have an online system up and running this summer."Photo: Contributed

The family of Gloria Miller is headed back home.

Gloria's husband David Chambers is expected to give a formal statement on the disappearance of his wife when the family arrives back home in Vernon.

The family is asking for privacy until the statement is given, says a close family friend.

"This has been so heart-wrenching," said the close family friend. "We all appreciate everyones kind words so much. Its been a horrific past few days."

Gloria Miller went missing Thursday morning while scuba diving off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

An extensive search by land, water and air was conducted by a number of government agencies and volunteers.

Gloria Miller is the wife of prominent Vernon businessman, David Chambers of DCT Chambers Trucking.Weve all heard of dead languages: the Latins, Ottomans, Manchus and Arawaks that dot the pages of historical texts. These are languages that have ceased to be spoken, whether as first languages or taught ones, by anything more than a handful of scholars. Some dialect groupings disappear altogether for reasons of politics (consider Ottoman and Manchu); social change (Gaulish and Messina Greek); or simple brutality and terror (Arawak and Beothuk). For many others, their death is merely a fudge: Latin developed into Italian, French, Spanish and other Romance languages by the same process that brought us contemporary English from Old English, although the latter grouping was never considered to have died. But what of languages that have disappeared through bureaucratic measures? The Sart language might be considered one such example.

Sart is, or was, a Turkic language spoken by the Sart people of Central Asia. Although ethnic identity in pre-Soviet Central Asia is an exceptionally thorny issue, consensus seems to be that the Sarts were a sedentarized Turkophone population in various urban centres throughout the region. They were assumed to be Iranic by descent, but a quick look at two works in the British Librarys collections confirm that their speech, as recorded by Russian officials and travellers at the end of the 19th century, was very much Turkic. This was a basis for their distinction from the neighbouring Tajik peoples of the Pamir range, a community with whom 19th and early 20th century ethnographers assumed they shared a common ancestry, as Maria Subtelny explores in Symbiosis of Turk and Tajik.

Portraits of Sayid Azimbaev (above) and Palvan Tapylbaev (below), two Sarts whose lives and genealogies are studied in N.P. Ostroumovs 19th-century ethnographic work on Sart communities, Sarty: etnograficheskie materialy (Tashkent, 1896) RB.23.b.6250.





The first of the two works in question is a phrasebook entitled Frazy na sartovskom iazykie (Phrases in the Sart Language), authored by Z. A. Aleksieev in 1884 and published in Tashkent. It was intended to be of useful benefit for landlords and landladies, buyers and farmers, and [with] a good chrestomathy for Russians learning literacy in Sart and for Sarts beginning to read in Russian. This was only 19 years after the city of Tashkent had fallen into Russian hands, and five years before the arrival of the Trans-Caspian Railway. It is a good indication of the pressure Russian officials felt to cement their interests among the mercantile classes of a sensitive part of the Empire abutting British interests in the Sub-Continent.

Cover of Frazy na sartovskom iazykie  (Tashkent, 1884) 14489.d.15

Although the work was advertised as being a learning resource for Sarts, it was clearly aimed at Russians: it is organized into three columns, with a Sart phrase on the far right; its Russian translation on the far left of the page; and a Cyrillic transliteration of the Sart in the middle. No Arabic transliteration of the Russian exists.

A page from Frazy na sartovskom iazykie, dealing with tree planting

The table of contents shows just how heavily it was geared towards functional interactions: while there is no section on small talk, there are stock phrases about buying birds or carpets; teacher-student interaction; farming; and the repair of telegraphic lines.



Table of contents from Frazy na sartovskom iazykie showing the diversity of commercial topics covered by the book

It is difficult to compare Sart to contemporary Turkic languages from the region. These reflect heavy state intervention on the part of the Soviet authorities and bear the scars of often traumatic social disruption, such as the collectivization and sedentarization campaigns of the 1930s. Nonetheless, what we can say about it is that it resembles considerably contemporary Uzbek, as well as certain features of Kazakh and Kyrgyz, all of which are spoken today in the regions where the Sarts lived.

Cover of V.P. Nalivkin, Russko-Sartovskii i Sartovsko-Russkii Slovar (Kazan, 1884) 12975.l.21.

The second work is a dictionary and short grammar of the language compiled by Vladimir Nalivkin. Published in 1884 as well, this time in Kazan, it focuses on the dialect of the Namanganskii Uezd, in contemporary eastern Uzbekistan. Russko-Sartovskii i Sartovsko-Russkii Slovar is not, unfortunately, as telling of the social relations between Russians and Sarts as is Frazy, but it does reveal many important features of the language. Much of the vocabulary is not far from that of the Turkic languages of todays Central Asia, although there are some remarkable departures, including in the names of months. The grammar is far from systematic, and provides only a sketch of the most important morphological structures of the language. Nevertheless, it is easy to see that Sart behaved very much like other Karluk Turkic languages; it would not have been hard for anyone versed in Chagatai or even contemporary Uyghur or Uzbek to pick up.

Sketch of Sart grammar, from Russko-Sartovskii i Sartovsko-Russkii Slovar

As an important vehicle of commercial communication, it would be easy to assume that Sart would function as a crucial tool in extending Moscows authority over Central Asia in the 20th century. Such was not the case. In the 1920s and 30s, the Soviet government sent out teams of ethnographers and anthropologists in order to determine the regions ethno-linguistic make-up; a key step towards the division of the territory into national republics. As Francine Hirsh has explored in Empire of Nations, this was a fraught process, occasionally led by political fiat rather than evidence. Throughout it, the Sarts fared badly. It was assumed that, in the march towards Socialism, they would be absorbed into the Uzbek nation. As a result, their language was not provided official recognition, and their culture ignored in favour of a Socialist Uzbek one. Sarts disappeared from the 1926 census and official discourse. The Sart language, along with dozens of other dialects that were no longer deemed to be expedient in the march towards Communism, was expunged from the historical record. These two items in the British Librarys collections, however, remain as testimonies to the vibrancy and importance of the language in the pre-Soviet period, and the people who spoke it.

Michael Erdman, Curator of Turkish and Turkic Collections

References/Further reading

Sergei Abashin, Natsionalizmy v Srednei Azii: v poiskakh identichnosti (St Petersburg, 2007) YF.2009.a.901

Maria Subtelny, The Symbiosis of Turk and Tajik, in Central Asia in historical perspective, edited by Beatrice F. Manz (Boulder, 1994) ORW.1996.a.1330

Frances Hirsch, Empire of nations: ethnographic knowledge & the making of the Soviet Union (Ithaca, N.Y., 2005) YC.2005.a.7999

Polveka v Turkestane : V.P. Nalivkin biografiia, dokumenty, trudy = Half a century in Turkestan : Vladimir Petrovich Nalivkin : biography, documents and works, Redaktory-sostaviteli: S.N. Abashin [and five others] (Moscow, 2015) YF.2017.a.4115This blog is looking for wisdom, to have and to share. it is also looking for other rare character traits like good humor, courage, and honor. It is not an easy road, because all of us fall short. But God is love, forgiveness and grace. Those who believe in Him and repent of their sins have the promise of His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us the Way.LONDON  Manchester United will host Brighton in the FA Cup quarterfinals next month after all the big guns avoided each other in the draw on Saturday."When I was told by the doctor this morning that he was not coming, I don't want to know anything else about it -- I have to think who is going to replace him, what I am going to do because we worked hard during the week."And once he got backstage, he said a police officer showed up with a dog to sniff his bags. I see you looking nervous, he said to the audience. Me too! While Ive seen enough stand-up to fancy I know schtick when I see it, based on the prominence of this story in his set, and my own elaborate and circuitous route to get into the show (which found me spending some time in the rear security entrance and catching sight of a police officer with a dog), this particular bit seems more than plausible.Sometime during his rant, Morriswho motioned several times toward his jacket as if he were going to pull a weaponflipped the bench where the boy was still sitting, causing the boy to tumble backwards, hitting his head and falling to the ground, prosecutors said. When police later arrested Morris, they found a knife on him, authorities said.Uber released a statement saying it was "saddened to hear of this horrifying incident and stand ready to provide any information to police for their investigation. We extend our thoughts to all those who are mourning the loss of their loved one."The high-rise includes more than 1,000 residents who live in condos from the 44th to 92nd floor of the building, which until Tuesday was the John Hancock Center, according to the 175 East Delaware Place Home Owners Associations website.One man was killed and another injured in a shooting near Marys apartment in the 1500 block of West 80th Street just before 1 a.m. Sunday. Both men were rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where a 23-year-old man was pronounced dead with multiple gunshot wounds to the body. A 33-year-old man is in good condition after he was shot in the legs."While controversy is sometimes seen as part and parcel of the alternative-weekly world, we believe it's necessary in this instance to apologize to anyone who was offended by this week's cover, Eisendrath said in the statement. The published cover in my view distracted from the publication as a whole.Heading into trial, the case against Cichy appeared solid, given the other defendants admissions of guilt and the evidence, which also included cocaine confiscated from a drug dealer the men allegedly worked with and secretly taped audio recordings of discussions about the scheme, according to court documents and officials. And Cichy was later caught with some of the cash he was seen taking from the storage locker, officials have alleged.Julius Francellno and Malik Caswell, both 18, were being held Sunday in fatal shooting of Yakez Semark, 20, who was hit in the chest Feb. 8, according to a news release from Evanston police. Semark was taken to Evanston Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. on Feb. 9, said Becky Schlikerman, spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.So far as they know, Cruz wasnt particularly close to any of the victims and they dont know of any resentment he might have had against any of the people who were murdered. They have no clue why he did it.Thousands of colleges across the country are welcoming both new and returning students back to campus for the fall semester. To coincide with the beginning of another school year, Stacker compiled a list of the best colleges in America using Niches 2021 rankings."I don't want him to become too fatalistic," Darr said. "I want him to see the flip side of what it means to be black. That's why I focus on the positive aspect of what we do. What we've been able to bring to the country. The things we've been able to create and innovate."While Tota did not attend the meeting, he said later that he believes, "pour your own is a safer way to dispense beer because every ounce that is poured is tracked and tied back to a specific customer. The beer wall, which is 32 linear feet, is managed and monitored by beer ambassadors that are there to educate and engage customers but also make sure they are pouring responsibly and underage people are not trying to pour.You are here: Arts

A Chinese Film Festival was officially inaugurated at Nay Pyi Taw Cinema in Myanmar's Yangon on Saturday evening.





Sponsored by the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar, the festival activities were being launched in 12 regions and states including Nay Pyi Taw and Mandalay since Friday and will last until Feb. 22.





Four Chinese movies - Xuan Zang, Kung Fu Yoga, Detective Chinatown and Go Away Mr. Tumor will be screened in respective cinemas, dubbed with Myanmar voice.





Speaking at the opening ceremony, Myanmar Information Minister Pe Myint praised the technology and materials equipped in Chinese movies and expressed belief that the festival would enhance cultural exchanges between China and Myanmar.





Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang pledged to promote cooperation between China and Myanmar in movie industry for better concrete bilateral relations in the future.





In October last year, a film week was also held in Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon when two Chinese movies depicting the culture of China were screened.



Multiple SIM slots, weeks of battery standby time, front camera exposure calibrated to suit darker skin tones... a Chinese mobile phone maker has become popular in Africa by making products tailored for the local market.

Since entering Africa ten years ago, Chinese phone maker Transsion, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, has acquired 38 percent of the African market, according to company co-founder Arif Chowdhury.

"A full understanding of the local market is the key to success," Chowdhury said. "Together with our technicians, I have been to Africa over 100 times to get to know the specific needs of local people."

Dual SIM phones, a focus of the company, have gained a solid footing in Africa, since people often use several mobile phones or SIM cards due to inadequate telecom network infrastructure, according to Chowdhury who is from Bangladesh.

"We also have triple and even four-card phones, because there are many phone operators in some countries, and it is expensive to dial between networks," said Chowdhury.

In some parts of the continent, blackouts is a frequent occurrence as a result of poor power supply facilities. The feature phones produced by the company boast a long battery standby time, and some can even last nearly a month after a single charge.

The company has also launched a mobile phone with a front camera which can recognize faces according to the entire facial features, so that the African consumers can make better selfies.

"We also recognized that Africa is not a uniform market. For example, the demands in eastern and western Africa differ from each other, as is do areas south and north of the Sahara," he said.

In an effort to offer good after-sales service, the company set up over 1,000 service locations in Africa, both in big cities and small towns.

The company's success in Africa has been largely based on cheap feature phones, and it will focus more on smartphones, considering the rising purchasing power of the market.

Currently the company has entered over 50 countries across the world, with more than 200 million phones sold in a decade.

Besides Africa, some Asian countries including India, Pakistan and Vietnam have also seen the expansion of the brand.

In India, the company launched a phone model with a fingerprint recognition button that is good at recognizing greasy fingers, considering the fact that the Indians enjoy eating hand pilaf, said Chowdhury.

Vowing to become a country of innovators, China has been encouraging the development of technological and innovation-based enterprises. Made-in-China products are embracing a new brand image as being more creative and with higher added value.

Telecom giant Huawei, also headquartered in Shenzhen, said its smartphone shipments reached 153 million last year, grabbing a 10-percent global market share to become the third-largest international smartphone player.

Beijing-based mobile phone provider Xiaomi is now one of the largest unicorn companies in the world and aims to ship 100 million smartphones in 2018.South China's Hainan Province will implement stricter emission control measures on motor vehicles this year to control air pollution, the provincial government said.

The island province plans to implement the stricter State VI emissions standard, which is equivalent to the Euro VI standard, on all new cars by September this year. Petrol and diesel products meeting State VI standards will also be available province-wide beginning July.

In addition, the provincial government will take measures to limit the number of vehicles in the island, including restricting registration transfers of out-of-province vehicles and controlling the number of cars traveling to Hainan. It will also speed up efforts to phase out obsolete motor vehicles.

With no major factory pollution, Hainan has better air conditions than most parts of China. Haikou, the provincial capital, topped Chinese cities with best air quality in 2017, according to China's Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The new emission control measures come amid Hainan's efforts to become a world-class tourist destination. The island received more than 1.1 million overseas tourists in 2017, up nearly 50 percent year on year, according to the provincial tourism development commission.

A three-year plan will be rolled out this year to make the island a top-tier destination, with preferential policies such as visa-free services, ticket promotions and upgrades in service quality.China's tourism authority said Saturday that it is highly concerned with a tour bus accident in southern Thailand that has killed a Thai driver and injured 17 Chinese tourists.





The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said in a statement that it has asked its office in Thailand to urge local hospitals to spare no efforts to treat the injured and Thai police to find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible.

A bus carrying 35 Chinese tourists heading from a hotel in Krabi to a port in Phang Nga crashed on a pole which hit the bus on Friday morning, according to Thai media.

The Chinese consulate general in Songkhla said Saturday that nine of the 17 injured were hospitalized. Among them, three suffered severe injuries, including two children.

The CNTA will find out more about the tour group and help deal with the aftermath of the accident, according to the statement.You are here: China

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has unveiled a three-year poverty-relief plan to help its 22 poorest counties.

Under the plan, more than 400,000 local people and 94,000 households will be lifted out of poverty within the year.

As part of China's national objective to eliminate absolute poverty by 2020 to create a "moderately prosperous society in all respects," Xinjiang's regional government is determined to help 22 counties in Kashgar, Hotan, Kizilsu and Aksu prefectures to shake off poverty.

Of the 6.1 billion yuan (US$964 million) anti-poverty fund allocated by the regional government in 2017, over 80 percent reached those four prefectures.

Under the new plan, officials will be sent to 192 areas in the 22 counties and stay there until 2020, with 144 volunteers assisting the anti-poverty work.

Earlier this year, the regional government issued a poverty-relief plan to employ 100,000 destitute people in the four prefectures by 2020.

The four prefectures are located in southern Xinjiang.Upcoming 2018 is the Year of the Dog, eleventh sign in the 12-year Chinese zodiac. Not only are dogs humanity's best friend, but they also have many characteristics that provide useful lessons for business and people generally.

Chinese tradition has it that, when a dog chooses to walk into your life, it is a symbol of coming good fortune. Businesspeople learning the lessons that a dog can teach are also likely to make their own good luck.

Dogs live in the present. Dogs have a wonderful talent for being totally focused on the present. In contrast, we humans carry a lot of emotional baggage from the past and spend far too much time worrying about the future. Most of the things we worry about and fear never happen.

Dogs are totally focused. A business person who is the same in regard to their customer; a manufacturer totally concentrating on quality; anyone focused on doing the right thing and doing it as best they can -- these are the pathways to success.

Dogs are not overly judgmental. Dogs don't judge you by what you own, but take you as you are and love you without reservation. The older I become, the more I see the harm that comes from being overly judgmental. We seem to take far too much pleasure from negatively judging other people, which can prove totally inaccurate, unfair and overly broad.

Being overly judgmental will cause one to lose or weaken many relationships and that is not good business. In contrast to the negative attributions humans too often fall prey to, a dog will err on the side of the positive. As humor writer, Dave Barry, writes: "You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'"

And, as famous Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan notes: "Dogs don't rationalize. They don't hold anything against a person. They don't see the outside of a human, but the inside." Sometimes business people can grow to be cynical and highly judgmental. It is important to remain open to new ideas and the power of people to change for the better.

Dogs keep the life simple. They don't clutter up their lives with junk. They don't impulse buy and acquire things they don't need. They simply want to be fed, have a secure and warm place to sleep, be exercised and be loved. The foundation of many successful businesses is to find a simpler way of doing things.

Other innovation comes from making a complex product simpler to use, as shown by the passion of Steve Jobs and Apple Computers. Often the best designs, the best solutions are simple and elegant at the same time.

Dogs don't have a big ego. Another fatal flaw of many is that we let ego get in the way. Consequently, we make poor decisions and focus on ourselves instead of others and fail to see the reality of things. Dogs, in contrast, being highly social animals, are hard wired to see the other person and be focused on the social clues that enable them to fit in, to find their place, to network for success. As humorist Josh Billings says, "A dog is the only thing on Earth that loves you more than he loves himself."

Dogs are natural collaborators. One of the key skills for success in business is the ability to collaborate effectively. This is the secret of effective teams; and high performing teams lead to good growth and scale of a business. As Rudyard Kipling writes in his delightful Second Jungle Book:

"Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;

And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack."

Dogs are loyal and protective. Related to friendship are a dog's qualities of loyalty and protectiveness. For over a decade our family had an amazing member, namely a beautiful rough collie, named Nicky. Although a large dog, I was always amazed by the care and gentleness he displayed to our young daughters. He was also very protective of them and of our yard.

Similarly, those businesses do best when their employees are loyal and treat the employer's business as if it were their own. In return, those employers are best who treat their employees well. Indeed, many regard their employees as extensions of their family. As writer Mark Twain observed: "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he won't bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man."

Dogs are honest communicators. If they are hungry, want to go outside, or seek a gentle pat or scratch, they will let you know. Humans are more likely to play games; hide their true feelings and fail to communicate. Dogs are especially good listeners and seem to have a wonderful knack of sensing your mood and responding to your needs.

Dogs are adaptable. They seldom complain. If you move to another location; they are happy to go, too, as long as you are there. They appreciate the person more than the place.

Dogs have a positive attitude. Most dogs approaching a group of people will put their head down and approach with their tails or sometimes their entire body wagging. Their openness and friendliness wins even the hardest of hearts. Our world would be a warmer, friendlier place if we greeted one another with similar enthusiasm and warmth.

Unfortunately, today we are often locked into our own technology devices, heads down, not paying attention to the other person standing or sitting right in front or beside us. Those businesses that create a culture where it is fun to work will attract and keep the best talent.

Dogs see and bring out the best in people. More often than not, dogs bring out the best in us. Perhaps this is because they see the best version of ourselves. They make us feel relaxed. Become less guarded and our inner light is able to shine forth. As Aldous Huxley observed, "To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs." At the same time, it's important for us to have a little humility and realize that our dog's undying admiration is not proof positive that we are always wonderful.

Dogs value routine and habit. They like to be fed and walked at regular times. Success in business and in life is a by-product of developing lifelong habits. These include: keeping your promises, showing up and on time, being prepared, paying attention, working hard, and so on.

Dogs are authentic. Dogs are simply themselves; they are genuine and authentic. We humans are often overly concerned about trying or pretending to be something other than what we are. Unfortunately, the world of social media, television and film can delude us into thinking that everyone is having a great time except ourselves. As Oscar Wilde (and dogs) remind us: "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

Dogs high in emotional intelligence (EQ). We read much today about the importance of emotional intelligence. EQ is especially powerful in the service industries and jobs/businesses where EQ is required will likely be the safest from robots and computers.

It is not surprising dogs are often used in therapy and as companionship for the millions of people who are lonely, depressed or isolated. They can bring us great comfort and joy.

Dogs nurture trust. Human beings evolved as small groups of hunter-gatherers. It is challenging for us to develop trust outside of our inner group. Yet, successful business, especially on a global scale, requires a company to develop consumer trust in relation to their brand.

Again, dogs seem to do this almost naturally. Sadly, in today's society, children are taught to be wary of strangers.

Dogs can keep a secret. "Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell," said the poet Emily Dickinson. Too many of us have a keen sense of rumor. We talk too much and love to gossip. Yet, in an Information Age, trade secrets and other valuable business information needs to be protected.

The ready availability of social media unfortunately means that we are tempted to wag our tongues rather than listen, reflect, think critically, suspend judgment, know when we should remain silent and keep secrets to ourselves. Keeping secrets also builds trust.

In conclusion, let us, at the start of a new year, take this opportunity in the "Year of the Dog" to learn a few of the important lesson we can take from our best friend.

Eugene Clark is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/eugeneclark.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.You are here: World

 Flash

An Egyptian court sentenced on Saturday 65 loyalists of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi up to 10 years in prison over inciting anti-state riots, protests and violence, official MENA news agency reported.

Zagazig Criminal Court sentenced 44 defendants to 10 years in jail and 21 to two years while acquitting eight of the said charges.

The convicts are mostly members and supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group which has been outlawed in Egypt as a terrorist organization.

Morsi was ousted by the military in early July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his Brotherhood group.

His angry supporters attacked many security personnel and churches of the Coptic minority in several provinces, following a heavy crackdown on pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza in mid-August 2013 which left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.

Most Brotherhood leaders, members and supporters, including Morsi himself and the group's chief Mohamed Badie, are being detained.

Many of them have been given appealable death sentences and lengthy jail terms over charges of inciting violence, murder, espionage and jailbreak.

Morsi is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence over inciting deadly clashes between his supporters and opponents in late 2012 and a 25-year jail term over leaking classified documents to Qatar.

Since Morsi's removal, Egypt has been facing a wave of terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers before expanded to target hundreds of civilians, mostly at houses of worship.

Most of the terror attacks were carried out by the Wilayat Sinai, a Sinai-based group affiliated with the Islamic State regional terrorist group.

Meanwhile, security forces also killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster in 2013.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formWe attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland firefighters discovered a body while responding to an outside rubbish fire, officials say.

The burning body was discovered about 7 p.m. Saturday while firefighters were called to an open fire in a yard on Laisey Avenue between Union Avenue and Kinsman Road, Cleveland fire spokesman Mike Norman and police said.

The body was found in the fire and had signs of trauma, Norman said.

The investigation has been turned over to Cleveland police. A cause of death has not yet been determined, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Saturday's crime and courts comments section.LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- The city of Lakewood welcomed the Songtsen Gampo Buddhist Center to the community at its grand opening Saturday afternoon, and center answered back with a message of inclusion and of peace.

The center, at 14023 Madison Ave. in the double storefront of the former Urban Bulk Foods, will offer meditation classes, retreats and other activities for religious seekers of all ages.

Running it will be Buddhist nun Ani Palmo Rybicki, who has been teaching in Cleveland for the past 12 years. The center describes her as one of the most highly trained instructors in the country.

"While we provide a home for Buddhists, we are open to those of any faith and those of no faith at all," Rybicki said. "We offer tools to transform the mind and heart."

She said the center is the only one in Greater Cleveland to have programs specifically for families and children.

Rybicki, 55, grew up in Garfield Heights. Her family owned a funeral home. She first encountered Buddhism after college, when she moved to Japan to teach English for three years. She met more Buddhists when she traveled to Thailand. She then moved to France for three years to study, and in 1994 was ordained a Buddhist nun.

At the grand opening Saturday, she was busy preparing to meet guests and visitors. She and her group have been preparing the space, which includes a Buddhist temple, since last September.

"We have 40 members. We have ceremonies twice a month. We have meditation and instruction every Sunday," she said. "Songtsen Gampo is the name of a Tibetan King. The words mean 'Profound, Brilliant Justice.'"

Rybicki is excited to be in Lakewood and eager to meet other people in the community. She's gotten to know Lakewood city councilman Tristan Rader, who welcomed her into the city.

"They are really a cool group of people," Rader said by phone. "We welcome multi-cultural groups in Lakewood, especially ones that support peace and a sense of community."

Claire Schmidt, 7, of Cuyahoga Falls, was working at the kids' craft table making Buddhist "peace flags" with paper and colored markers. Her mother, pre-school teacher Alayne Schmidt, said she was happy to make the drive to celebrate the opening of the center.

"I first discovered Buddhism when I was in college at Ohio State," she said. "It was through the books of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and author. I consider myself co-religious."

Sheila O'Rourke, board president of the Buddhist Center, planned activities for the kids which included reading a story and doing crafts that dealt with the issue of anger. "The goal is to promote our wish for a peaceful world," she said.

Rybicki recalled another big experience in her spiritual journey. In 1990, she met the exiled Dalai Lama at his house in India. "It was so wonderful. He radiated humility, wisdom and compassion."

The Buddhist Center will continue its grand opening Sunday, with more meditation and activities for kids, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. All are welcome. More information is at buddhistcleveland.org.

"We're not trying to convert anybody. In today's sometimes troubled world we just want to help others develop peace in their hearts," Rybicki said.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Plain Dealer reported this week that Cleveland police failed over three years to send hundreds of rape kits collected from sexual assault victims to a lab for testing.

Not only did that violate state law, which requires that kits be sent to a lab within 30 days, it also broke promises safety officials made five years ago to city council members and the public to test evidence and investigate rapes in a timely manner.

In 2017, the city had to ask the state lab and a county-run lab to test more than 200 cases from previous years. That testing is now complete, but the public would never have known about what the city referred to as a "backlog" had The Plain Dealer not requested public records about the testing.

Was this the problem of one detective not doing his job? Was this a problem of one person overwhelmed by too much work? Is the Sex Crimes & Child Abuse unit adequately staffed? We don't know the answers to those questions because police officials - citing a pending internal investigation - would not answer our questions.

Readers reacted strongly to our story: "Is there no consequence for this misconduct? Does law enforcement in Cleveland even believe rape is a crime? They seem entirely indifferent. I am not disheartened or discouraged, I am mad as hell and I vote," e-mailed Eileen McCully-Hsi, of Orange.

A cleveland.com commenter wanted to know why detectives assigned to investigate each sexual assault did not raise questions regarding the status of their evidence at the crime lab. Another wondered whether hospitals could send kits directly to the forensics labs for testing and police could then get the results.

Ohio doesn't have a standard method for tracking rape kit submissions or testing. It did pass the law that required all kits to be submitted within 30 days and for older, untested kits to be sent to a lab. But there's no penalty for not submitting a kit and it is unclear how many departments have complied with the law.

The Plain Dealer is working with community volunteers to look at what happened with nearly 14,000 kits that were submitted since 2011, and we hope to share some of that information in the coming months.

In the meantime, we still have the unanswered questions that we sent to Cleveland police.

How did CPD find out about the sexual assault kits that were not properly being sent for testing?

What is the total number of sexual assault kits that were not properly submitted in a timely manner?

Has anyone or is anyone being disciplined for the kits not being sent per department policy and Ohio law?

Did detectives or supervisors alert anyone that they were not receiving information on tested evidence in a timely manner?

Were victims whose kits were not tested in a timely manner notified about the delay when it was discovered?

What were the results of testing the "backlog" of kits? Were arrests made?

Does the department know of any instances where another offense was committed by a suspect who was eventually identified by the delayed testing?

What is the total number of full time detectives currently in the Sex Crimes and Child Abuse unit? What is the total number of supervisors in the unit?

What other questions do you have about the testing of rape kits? Or about how the police department investigates sex crimes? Leave your questions in the comments or send them to rdissell@plaind.com and I'll add them to my list.

Better yet, send them directly to Mayor Frank Jackson's Action Center mayorsactioncenter@city.cleveland.oh.us or to Chief Calvin D. Williams at 1300 Ontario St., Cleveland, Ohio 44113. If you get an answer, let us know what you hear.Mark Salling is a research fellow at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Stories in the media about the new "bipartisan" plan for congressional redistricting make a case that we have solved a big problem. But how much bipartisanship is really required in the new process? And how different could the map drawn in 2021 be from the one we have today?

Granted, the plan Ohioans will vote on in May calls for input from both major political parties on how boundaries are drawn and is a major change to our existing practice. The current system has resulted in 75 percent of the state's congressional seats being won by Republicans while Republicans obtained an average of only 57 percent of the votes in the last three elections.

The proposal incorporates several steps requiring diminishing bipartisan agreement at each step.

Initially, half of the minority party's legislators would have to approve. Failing that, the existing bipartisan seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission could draw the boundaries with the agreement of two of the minority party commissioners. The majority party commission members could frustrate that step by not agreeing to a plan acceptable to the minority party. In such a scenario, the process would move to the next step, where only one-third minority party approval is required.

If less than a third of the minority party approves, the majority party could create boundaries on its own for two elections, after which the process would start again. There is no guarantee that a subsequent change after the initial four-year plan would be any less driven by the majority party. Therefore, the minority party would be under pressure to acquiesce to an imperfect 10-year plan.

Cindie Carroll-Pankhurst is a graduate of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Studies at Cleveland State University.

We argue that, in calling for the legislature not to pass a plan that "unduly favors or disfavors a political party," the proposal supports the objective of representational fairness, in which the percent of election wins approximates the percent of votes for the party's candidates. But that objective is not clearly stated nor guaranteed and is insufficient to ensure this critical fairness measure. How should "unduly" be interpreted or measured? More important, how would the courts decide in the likely event that the plan is challenged?

The proposal also says districts should be compact. But there are at least 30 measures of geographic compactness. One measure might yield a compactness measurement that favors one party over another. The courts might be faced with deciding which measure should be used.

The process also states that government units -- counties, townships, and municipalities -- should not be unduly split. The proposal specifically lists predetermined numbers of how many counties can't be split, can be split once, and can be split no more than twice. Rules limiting splitting larger municipalities call for "attempting" to include "significant" portions of the municipality which contain residents with "similar interests." There are no guidelines on what "similar interests" means. Again, the courts might have to decide.

Specifying numbers suggests that backroom partisan negotiating teams were estimating what possible districts might look like. The politicians are already carving up the state among themselves.

The impact of the rules and objectives limiting splits in larger urban counties and cities allows packing of minority party voters, just as now. Packing minority party voters creates noncompetitive districts in which candidates speak only to their constituents and can ignore voters with divergent political views. There is no provision encouraging, never mind requiring, competitive districts. This suggests that the legislators involved in shaping the new process are more interested in protecting their districts than creating ones where they must listen to the voters.

There is little meaningful provision for citizen voices to be heard. Mapmakers can ignore comments from the required three public hearings. And granting voters permission to seek a referendum for change is a concession with little teeth given the cost and risk of getting an issue on the ballot.

The last, but most concerning, issue is that should the redistricting results be challenged in court, the courts are likely to hear that the process has been touted by both political parties as bipartisan.

So what should we do? While the proposed change to congressional redistricting in Ohio has some merit and would certainly be preferable to the existing process, more could be done.

Specifically, the process should require clearly defined measures of competitiveness, compactness and representational fairness to evaluate and score alternative redistricting plans submitted by citizens and politicians alike.

Today's technology makes drawing boundaries by nonexperts relatively easy. Demonstrations have shown that citizen-submitted plans score better on fairness criteria than those produced by politicians. The Redistricting Commission could choose from three or four plans meeting minimum thresholds.

Regardless of the details, having a process of selecting a redistricting plan based on measurable criteria and allowing public submissions would make the process far more fair, transparent and democratic.

Mark Salling is a research fellow in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Cindie Carroll-Pankhurst, his wife, is a graduate of the Levin College.

************

Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts, and stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the Notification Settings (in blue).SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The Shaker Heights Teachers' Association and the school board have ratified a new three-year contract calling for 2 percent annual base salary increases.

This year's pay raise, retroactive to Jan. 1, brings the annual starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree to $46,208 for 2018.

"Even in an extremely challenging revenue environment, it is important that we don't lose ground to neighboring districts," school board President Jeffrey Isaacs said in a press release after the new contract was approved Feb. 13.



The agreement also outlines an increase in the employee-shared premium percentage of health, dental and prescription coverage from the current 12 percent to 13 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2020.



"We hope that this contract demonstrates how we value and appreciate our teachers' hard work and commitment to Shaker Heights Schools," Isaacs said. "We continue to look for operational efficiencies to demonstrate our commitment to excellence and fiscal stewardship."

Although the new contract's pay raises are down from the previous labor agreement that established pay raises of 3 percent in 2015, then 2.5 percent in 2016 and 2017, it was approved by 99 percent of the Shaker Heights Teachers' Association who voted on Jan. 22.

"SHTA members overwhelmingly approved the new agreement and look forward to three more years of stability and compensation that we hope continues to bring and retain the best and brightest teachers to our district," union president John L. Morris said in the press release.

Isaacs commended the collaborative approach taken on both sides of the table during contract talks.

"The district and SHTA employed a negotiations process known as interest-based bargaining, which is more collaborative and solution-oriented than traditional labor negotiations," Isaacs said of the approach, which was also used three years ago.

The agreement also features a new pilot program for the transfer of sick days for teachers who have experienced a catastrophic illness, as well as an extension of maternity leave and newly introduced adoption leave.

"Negotiations, by nature, require thoughtfulness, time and tough conversations," Superintendent Gregory C. Hutchings said. "Our use of interest-based bargaining ensured that we collaborated and kept our young people at the top of mind."

In the previous contract, the 400-plus members of the SHTA received their largest pay raises since 2009.

Along with classroom teachers, the new bargaining agreement covers computer, art, music and physical education specialists, as well as nurses, librarians, guidance counselors, school psychologists and therapists for speech and hearing.

"Our discussions were always respectful, productive and reflective of the team culture we've fostered throughout our school district," Hutchings added.

Back in August, the school board cleared an early hurdle with its approval of supplemental contracts totaling about $328,500 for clubs and activities in the 2017-1018 school year.

School district officials anticipated at the time that regular contract negotiations could proceed from there.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The cost to fly to Europe from Cleveland has dropped by more than a third, thanks to the two new Icelandic airlines that will begin flying from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport this spring.

The average fare for travel to Europe from Cleveland dropped 36 percent, from $1,383 in 2017 to $882 in 2018, according to travel company Hopper.

Hopper, which has access to years of fare searches across the globe, conducted the analysis at the request of The Plain Dealer. It looked at online flight searches for travel between Cleveland and Europe, comparing fares for June 2017 to June 2018.

The results are dramatic.

Patrick Surry, the chief data scientist for Hopper, said the drop in price is a direct result of new European service from Cleveland via Wow Air and Icelandair. The two Iceland-based airlines, which start flying from Cleveland in May, offer nonstop service to Reykjavik, with connections to dozens of cities in Europe.

"There's a big decline and that's specific to Cleveland," said Surry. "We haven't seen huge differences to Europe as a whole. It's primarily due to the introduction of these new carriers. We've seen that in other cities, as well."

In addition to comparing fares from Cleveland to Europe as a whole, Hopper looked at fares from Cleveland to four European cities: London, Paris, Madrid and Rome.

Fares to Paris dropped the most, 44 percent - from $1,052 to $588.

Fare to London dropped 31 percent, from $1,159 to $796.

Fares to Madrid (down 17 percent) and Rome (down 19 percent) didn't drop as much, perhaps because Wow doesn't fly to either city; Icelandair flies to Madrid but not Rome.

Both Wow and Icelandair are known for their low fares. Wow, in particular, offers some rock-bottom prices, as low as $99 to Reykjavik and $149 to other European cities.

But it's not just fares from those two airlines that are bringing down average prices from Cleveland. U.S. carriers that currently offer one-stop service to Europe from Cleveland (via New York City, Detroit or other hubs) have likely lowered their prices, as well, said Surry.

This information is anecdotal, but consider these June round-trip fares discovered on a recent web search:

* Cleveland to Paris for $945 on United Airlines, with a stop in Washington, D.C.

* Cleveland to London for $844 on American Airlines, with a stop in Chicago.

* Cleveland to Amsterdam for $755 on Delta Air Lines, with a stop in Detroit.

Though these fares may not be as cheap as travelers can find on Wow or Icelandair, they are likely lower than they were a year ago, said Surry. "These carriers feel the pressure of somebody new coming in and taking away their customers."

Surry said he expects these low fares to Europe will continue as long as Wow and Icelandair -- or at least one of them -- stay in the Cleveland market.

In fact, prices may go down even more, as Cleveland's legacy carriers continue to adjust to this new reality.

In recent months, U.S. airlines have expanded new bare-bones fare categories to their European routes specifically to compete with low-cost competitors, said Surry. These Basic Economy fares generally correspond to Wow fares, with extra fees for baggage, advanced seat assignments and other amenities that were previously included in the ticket price.

The only scenario Surry envisions that could cost the prices to increase: a spike in the price of oil.

Comparing airfare from Cleveland to Europe

Trips in June 2017 Trips in June 2018 CLE to Europe $1,383 $882 CLE to London $1,159 $796 CLE to Paris $1,052 $588 CLE to Madrid $1,430 $1,190 CLE to Rome $1,331 $1,080

Source: Hopper

Related: How Cleveland Hopkins International Airport scored two routes to Iceland in one weekCLEVELAND, Ohio - Fly to Europe for as little as $99? It won't be that cheap for me, unfortunately.

Still, I suspect the $880 ticket I just booked for a May trip is much cheaper than it would have been a year ago.

I recently booked a ticket to Europe - Amsterdam by way of Reykjavik - and didn't score one of the super-cheap fares occasionally offered by Wow Air, the ultra-low cost carrier that starts service from Cleveland in May.

In fact, my one-way fare on Wow was more expensive than my return trip on Icelandair, the other European carrier that starts flying from Cleveland in May.

The bottom line: Do your homework before booking on these two new airlines and see which one works better for you.

Perhaps my experience will be instructive. Here's what I found:

Cleveland to Reykjavik to Amsterdam

I'm flying to Reykjavik on May 7, the third flight from Cleveland on Wow, which begins service from Hopkins on May 4. The flight leaves Cleveland at 12:30 a.m. - a time that I'm hoping will maximize my ability to sleep on the plane (fingers crossed).

I plan to spend 4 1/2 days in Iceland before heading, on Saturday, May 12, to Amsterdam for a few days. I thought I could book one of Wow's stopover rates, which allows travelers, with one transaction, to stay and tour in Iceland before heading to another destination in Europe.

Unfortunately, Wow doesn't allow stopovers on one-way itineraries, so I was forced to make two transactions - Cleveland to Reykjavik and then Reykjavik to Amsterdam. Those two flights together cost me $495 (in airfare alone; I'll get to the extra fees shortly).

I priced the same flights as part of a round-trip itinerary on Wow, with a stopover in Iceland on the outbound leg. Using the stopover option would have saved me about $90 on the same flights.

Those prices are airfare alone. Wow - in the model of Ryanair in Europe and Spirit and Frontier in the United States - tacks on numerous "optional" fees to its basic fare.

In addition to my basic fare, I paid $40 for a carry-on bag (a checked bag would have been $50), and $10 for an advanced seat assignment. Those same fees were somewhat less for the Reykjavik-to-Amsterdam leg: $25 for my bag and $7 for my seat assignment.

So my total Cleveland-to-Amsterdam price: $570.

Note: I bought Wow's basic fare, which includes an unassigned seat and personal item, and then added on a carry-on bag and advanced seat assignment. Wow offers other fare categories, including Wow plus, for an extra $80, which includes a carry-on bag, checked bag and advanced seat assignment; and Wow comfy and Wow biz, which include extra legroom, meals and other amenities.

Amsterdam back to Cleveland

Booking my flight to return to Cleveland was easier, in part because I won't be spending any time in Iceland on the trip home - but also because Icelandair operates more like a "traditional" airline (if there is such a thing these days).

I booked the airline's "Economy light" fare, which includes a carry-on bag and advanced seat assignment, for $308. "Economy standard," which includes a checked bag, was $85 more.

Botton line: Even if I had been able to buy the less expensive, stopover fare on Wow, the Icelandair fare still would have been cheaper. I'll be flying home on May 16, the first inbound flight to Cleveland on Icelandair.

The 24-hour rule

After I made my purchases, I wondered: Could I change my mind?

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation began enforcing the so-called 24-hour rule, which allows travelers to cancel airline bookings within 24 hours of making a reservations (so long as that reservation is made seven or more days prior to travel).

I've only used the 24-hour rule once, but it gives me peace of mind every time I book a flight.

I wondered: Does it apply to flights outside of the country? Yes, according to the DOT, as long as the airline "has a website marketed to U.S. consumers," which both Wow and Icelandair do.

Happy to say, I didn't cancel my reservation to Reykjavik and Amsterdam. Please stay tuned for more stories about my upcoming trip.

If you go: Wow Air and Icelandair

Wow Air: Service starts May 4, and runs four days a week: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday (to Iceland) and Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday (back to Cleveland). The Cleveland to Reykjavik flight leaves Cleveland at 12:30 a.m., arriving in Iceland at 10:35 a.m. The Reykjavik to Cleveland flight departs Iceland at 9 p.m., arriving in Cleveland at 11:30 p.m..

Icelandair: Service starts May 16 and runs five days a week: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Cleveland to Reykjavik flight leaves Cleveland at 8:20 p.m., arriving in Iceland at 6:25 a.m. The Reykjavik to Cleveland flight departs Iceland at 4:50 p.m., landing in Cleveland at 7:15 p.m.

the complete review - fiction

The Life and Opinions

of Zacharias Lichter



by

Matei Calinescu



general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

Romanian title: Viata si opiniile lui Zacharias Lichter

Translated by Adriana Calinescu and Breon Mitchell

With an Introduction by Norman Manea

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Our Assessment:



A- : appealing, unusual philosophical-fictional portrait

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Summaries Source Rating Date Reviewer TLS . 27/8/2018 Costica Bradatan

From the Reviews :

"Only now has his account of Lichters deeds and sayings entered the English language in this inspired rendition by Adriana Calinescu, the authors widow, and Breon Mitchell, a distinguished translator of German literature. In a certain sense, the translation could hardly be more topical. Like a disease, the theatre of the absurd can flare up anywhere, and Zacharias Lichter is a reminder of how to laugh at our own times." - Costica Bradatan, Times Literary Supplement

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.



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The complete review 's Review :

The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter is presented as a sort of collection of biographical sketches of its titular hero, a shopkeeper's son who was a promising scholar -- "He graduated with an outstanding dissertation on the Enneads of Plotinus" -- who not only abandoned the academy but any sort of role in traditional bourgeois society. He haunts the city's street and parks, "clothed in squalid beggar's rags", and he does occasionally go around actually begging -- his appearance, surely, rather than his line ("Help a poor metaphysician"), apparently convincing enough that he can collect enough to sustain himself. Lichter is a wandering, public philosopher -- with disciples, as in ancient Athens (though they are not a major presence here) --, and not one given to quiet reflection: "Words burst from his mouth in torrents". He is very much the kind of word-person who believes in speech over writing. Only rarely does he write anything down -- often a poem, which he then often tosses aside as soon as he's put it down on paper.

A shadow(y)-biographer collects and presents this material on Leader: the novel is presented in short chapters of only a few pages each, each focused on a different aspect or opinion of the strange man. Many describe Lichter's attitude and opinion on specific subjects -- 'On Courage', 'On Women', 'On Poetry', 'On Mirrors', 'On Self-Indulgence' --, making for a collection that captures much of the breadth of Lichter's personal philosophy. A few of Lichter's poems -- some rescued by his biographer from the trash -- are also interspersed in the text; Lichter's attitude towards poetry is ambivalent: on the one hand he wants to distance himself from it, casting aside his own poetry as soon as he's set it down; on the other, he wonders (and shudders): "am I myself anything other than a poet ?"

An Epilogue-chapter has Lichter confront his (would-be) biographer -- denouncing the project, and arguing that: "you are writing about yourself, not me". Not that he wants the biographer to write about him, either -- or, if so, at least have it be a "fictional life"; instead, he finds himself annoyed by the biographer's "serious-mindedness".

(Still, he annoyance about this project is less than in that of analyst Doctor S., who also "shows an interest in all that Lichter says and does", much to Lichter's chagrin: Lichter is not only suspicious of the processes and methods of analysis but considers them misguided and downright dangerous: understanding, especially of man and his essence, can only be found differently.)

For all the serious-mindedness he accuses his biographer of, Lichter nevertheless is presented, and comes across, as a larger (and louder) than life figure, and even if he's not quite the: "combination of Diogenes, Nasreddin, and a Jewish prophet" that some eventually begin to see him as in their tall tales about the picaresque figure, one can see where they're coming from. Lichter is on board, too: "Haven't I tried to be a clown to the very end, unto madness ?" The serious biographer won't go quite that far -- the Lichter that comes across in this portrait is neither sad nor ridiculous clown-figure, but rather only clownish in his extremes. The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter is a portrait and exploration of a man living true to his searching philosophy, not an entertainer -- though there's an undeniable showmanship element to how he presents and conducts himself.

There are few individuals in Lichter's world, with much that the biographer describes a world of 'him' versus and/or in contrast to 'them' (and, often, 'us'); even the biographer is just one more awe-struck follower among presumably many. Lichter does engage with some individuals however, from regularly reading the Bible to an old woman to spending time with his one close friend, the hard-drinking and almost entirely wordless Leopold 'Poldy' Nacht, whom the teetotaler Lichter considers: "one of the great philosophers of contemporary Europe". Lichter is in awe of and aspires to Poldy's thinking, "free of all signification".

A comic contrast is a professor of English phonetics, Adrian Leonescu, whose: "complete lack of interest in ideas is compensated for by his remarkable ability to pronounce words" -- a void of meaning that is the antithesis of Lichter's constant (but presumably not quite so well-pronounced) meaning-full spouting. Here, as in much of the story, there is -- notwithstanding Lichter's concluding complaints -- actually quite a bit of humor, tending nicely to the absurd.

Calinescu's unusual novel quite impressively presents this figure, and a life lived according to specific ideas and ideals that stand in contrast to the bourgeois society around him. Lichter isn't simply a critical outsider, but manages to almost inhabit a parallel world, going his own way with little concern for the conventions that he nevertheless is familiar and occasionally prods and teases. He is very much a 'character', but the narrator-as-biographer reveals more of the depth to his thinking and actions -- profound reflection couched in the presentation of this colorful character.

The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter is also about how to capture and convey thought and experience (and 'truth'); the question of language extends to, for example, a chapter: 'On Mathematical Language', while the ridiculous phonetic-man Adrian Leonescu is another (extreme) manifestation. Meanwhile, Lichter's speech and accompanying wild gesticulations are described early on already as if: "his entire being is partaking in the violent effor of expression, as if imbued with the necessity of saying". Appropriately, Calinescu pays close attention to form and expression in his writing, and much of the novel is quite stylized, the sentences and descriptions carefully phrased; so too, there's much concision -- all in contrast to what is described (but never presented) as Lichter's torrents of words, or the long time-spans of much of his (in)activity. The question of speech -- embraced by Lichter -- versus the written word -- chosen by his biographer -- is also one brought up repeatedly over the course of the novel.

As Norman Manea notes in his Introduction to The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter, it's: "surprising that such an unusual book should have come out at all under the repressive Ceausescu regime", but it did, in 1969 -- during: "a brief period of relative liberalization". Certainly it helped that the novel is not overtly political (or even time-specific), but rather more subtly subversive. Manea notes that in a preface to a new, 1995 (i.e. post-Ceausescu) edition, Calinescu mentioned setting the novel in the 1930s as: "dodge to mislead the censors", but one of the reasons The Life and Opinions of Zacharias Lichter holds up so well is because of the lack of specificity as to time and place. While perhaps obviously a product and reflection of Romanian conditions, most of the larger issues addressed -- and, as a philosophical work, it deals with a lot of larger issues -- tend to the universal, and can be appreciated as such. It is a welcome (re)discovery, and even now an impressive work.



- M.A.Orthofer, 18 February 2018

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:

New York Review Books publicity page

Humanitas publicity page

See Index of Eastern European literature

Other books from New York Review Books

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About the Author :

Romanian-born Matei Calinescu (1934-2009) emigrated to the US in 1973 and taught at Indiana University.

- Return to top of the page -No, they are not going to bring back times tables. Teachers think this sort of thing is beneath them, and that making any child learn things is cruel.

I must have heard Education Ministers promise to restore times tables 20 times. Nothing ever happens, except that the unfortunate politician is asked on air to say what nine eights are, and cant.

I do wish that some of them would retaliate by testing the TV and radio presenters who torment them on their knowledge of the tables.

I doubt whether most of them could cope.

Even I, properly drilled in tables at a strict-regime school in the 1950s, trip up sometimes. On Friday, I was shocked and mortified to find I couldnt do 11 times 11.

Even I, properly drilled in tables at a strict-regime school in the 1950s, trip up sometimes, writes Peter Hitchens (stock photo)

But most politicians and TV presenters, being far younger than I am, never endured what I did  the rhythmic, endless chanting as we sat in rows, while the sun shone temptingly outside.

Instead, they were sometimes tested at school, while their poor parents were expected to make themselves unpopular with their children, and do the actual teaching, perhaps in the car. But that rarely works.

This is a pity, because my times tables are the one part of my schooling that I still consciously use, many times a day. I still need them. And so does everyone else.

So why is this latest pledge, like all the others, a fantasy and a false promise?

Its partly because all proper education rests on authority, on the idea that adults have something to teach, and children have much to learn.

And teachers no longer have any real authority. What they have is conditional authority, while luck lasts.

The Guardian newspaper, which thinks very highly of itself, has this week made a public apology to me, for telling a serious untruth about me. It has done so in a very obscure place, and very grudgingly, but it has done so. I count this as a triumph. You will have to visit my blog for the details (if you are lucky, yours may be the 30 millionth visit, as Im fast approaching that total). Advertisement

Teachers are seldom more than 30 seconds and three feet away from an accusation of abuse that, even if totally untrue, will ruin their lives and their careers irrevocably.

They can charm. Or they can bluff. In some cases the bluff is backed up by almost totalitarian regimes in schools with charismatic, overpowering heads.

Such heads usually find subtle ways of excluding troublesome children, either before they arrive, or afterwards. But the excluded ones have to go somewhere.

And that means that most of the difficult stuff, from times tables on up to irregular verbs in foreign languages, either is not done at all, or is skirted around, except in highly selective schools, state or private, almost all of which pick their children and parents on the basis of wealth and privilege.

Even then, look and see how the numbers taking languages, especially, decline over the years.

But of course the grades go on getting better, and the number of people with supposed qualifications and alleged degrees gets bigger and bigger, even if no one knows what six nines are.

But employers, if they can, somehow seem to prefer to hire Poles or Romanians.

We may have the certificates. But it is the people from the old-fashioned countries that tend to have the education.

Seventeen more deaths because we won't ask a simple question

Amid all the usual fuss about guns, important information about Nikolas Cruz, the alleged Florida shooter, is as usual obscured.

So here it is. The Miami Herald spoke to his aunt, Barbara Kumbatovic, who said: I know he did have some issues, and he may have been taking medication. Other reports speak of him having received treatment for mental problems  which almost invariably means powerful mind-altering drugs, often known to cause suicidal or violent thoughts.

Can I make this simple point again? The USA has always had freely available guns, indeed they used to be more freely available than they are now. It has had schools, and racialist fanatics too, for more than a century. Yet these school massacres are a feature of the modern era.

And what is new about the modern era? Two things: the widespread use of illegal mind-altering drugs, especially marijuana; and the even more widespread use of legal mind-altering drugs, especially SSRI antidepressants, but also steroids and ADHD drugs, often amphetamines which are illegal in any other circumstances.

Seized: Police arrest Nikolas Cruz after the mass killing at a Florida school

It was revealed the other day that the three London Bridge killers Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane, and Youssef Zaghba, had taken large quantities of steroids before their crimes last June.

Steroids had also been taken by Khalid Masood, the Westminster murderer, and by Omar Mateen, the Orlando night-club mass murderer, and by Anders Breivik, the Norway mass killer.

Almost every terror killer in Europe in the past few years has been a cannabis user. You might also like to know that SSRI antidepressants were used by at least one of the Columbine High School killers. The others medical records are sealed, though there are strong indications that he too was taking such pills.

This is nothing like a complete list. It would be longer still if the authorities showed any interest in this fascinating and important correlation, but as yet they do not.

Quite often, those who end up on prescription pills became mentally ill after using marijuana, which is increasingly correlated with mental trouble. Police nowadays no longer bother to pursue the crime of cannabis use, so it is quite possible for it to go unrecorded.

All this may be totally irrelevant. But then again, it may be important. In which case, we need to act. Once again, I offer these facts in the hope that someone in Government or Parliament will hold the inquiry into this connection which is so badly needed.

Oxfam outrage lays bare the Lefty bigots

As the horrible abusive crimes of some Oxfam workers are revealed, Left-wing types crowd the media saying that these outrages are individual misdeeds and should not unleash a fury against foreign aid in general.

Well, I agree. But these same Left-wing types did not take this view when abuse was revealed in churches.

They used the crimes of individual priests as a weapon with which to beat the Christian religion as a whole.

I warned against this. I said that abuse could just as easily happen in liberal, secular outfits.

Now that the BBC and Oxfam have both proved me right, will the Left soften their bigoted fury against religion? What do you think?Dear Ms Aniston,

...or may I call you Jennifer?

Im sorry Ive not been in touch since we did a cover shoot together in, ooh, when was it, 1999? I still have the signed Polaroid you gave me and, at a time when mud is being slung at the likes of SJP, I can only confirm you were as sweet off screen as on. Ive just read the rather upsetting press release issued by your publicist, Stephen Huvane.

So, at least you two are still together  Huvane terrified the bejesus out of me during our cover story negotiations  but Im saddened to hear youve separated from your husband, Justin Theroux, after just two years but, then again, I suppose Hollywood actress years are like dog years, so in fact you lasted a very respectable 14.

Liz Jones writes an open letter to Jennifer Aniston after the actress split from her husband Justin Theroux (couple pictured above)

Youve been on my mind a lot over the past few months. Now that Friends is available on Netflix, Ive been self-medicating the side effects of my own relationship ups and downs by re-watching every episode.

It has reminded me just how funny and beautiful you were. Still are.

When Friends ended back in 2004 it was just like a divorce, as if Id been ditched by the most handsome, sexy, helpful-in-the-kitchen millionaire who ever lived.

You made us happy, so we wanted you to be happy, too. It probably seems at the moment that is never going to happen.

There was the ignominy of being usurped in Brad Pitts affections by a woman who can crush walnuts with her eyelashes.

And Im afraid I also have to disabuse you of one thing. You say of the separation from Theroux, we look forward to continuing our cherished friendship. Aint never gonna happen. He wont be there for you (singing).

I parted on good terms with my husband: wed meet for dinner occasionally, and he once came to stay with me in the country. I even donated 5 towards his goal of self-publishing his second novel.

But once youre not married, theres no glue, no reason to put up with the faults that got on your nerves in the first place. In my experience, men dont make very good friends: they are either boring (straight) or bitchy (gay).

An ex who I really loved promised he would always be my friend.

The only time I heard from him in the next 20 years was when hed got wind Id become an editor, and phoned my PA to ask if Id blag him a free flight to Jamaica. I remember telling her: Yeah, tell him as long as its one way!

So, forget Justin. Forge your own path. You dont really need a husband: you can afford to employ people to go up ladders, change bulbs and unstick a sticky drawer.

Liz Jones also warned the actress that her and ex-husband Justin wouldn't remain friends, despite the statement they released

We cant help but wonder what happened between you, but a factor in my divorce was that men resent us if were more fabulous and famous than they are, especially if youve made them sign a pre-nup: my husband snuck off to have sex with a work-experience girl with a very low forehead. Maybe Justin grew tired of the endless hounding by the paparazzi, the constant sniping in the gossip columns, or perhaps of the amount of time you spend ironing your hair before being ready to go out.

My one regret about divorcing, like you, in my 40s was that I missed out on having a baby (roughly translated as, You stole my last child-bearing years, you heartless bastard!)

Kids wouldnt have made a dodgy marriage last  Id always assumed I was so bad at staying in relationships because I never got pregnant, but my most recent ex assured me that, on the contrary, once kids arrive men become even more resentful and secretive.

But hurrah! Youre single again! No more coins and receipts just left on the bedside table, no more F1 on the telly, no more hankies in the wash (Just use a tissue like a normal person! Do I LOOK like a 1950s housewife!).

There has been much talk about you getting back with Brad, but I doubt youve ever forgiven him, and can you really be bothered to learn all those childrens names? Youre 49! Lifes too short!

With love and singleton solidarity,Advertisement

It all started with a simple question - what's your favourite colour?

That was one of the first things that Mumbai couple Brij and Namrata asked each other when they first met.

And the pair soon found out that the answer was one of many things they shared in common - they loved the colour blue.

So it was only fitting that the couple took their gorgeous engagement photos in the Blue City of Jodhpur, India.

Mumbai couple Brij and Namrata took their engagement photos among the beautiful blue walls of Jodhpur, India

One of the first things the pair asked each other when they met was what their favourite colour was - and the answer was blue

The beautiful backdrop of deep blue windows, doorways, and walls was the perfect place for Brij and Namrata to showcase their deep love.

'The simplicity of the blue back alleys of Jodhpur appealed to us in every way,' the couple told Daily Mail Australia.

'And the cityscape, in various shades of blue, was just what our hearts desired.'

While many couples want to be the stars of their engagement shoot, Brij and Namrata wanted to show off the setting as much as themselves.

The beautiful backdrop of deep blue windows, doorways, and walls, was the perfect place for Brij and Namrata to showcase their deep love

While many couples want to be the stars of their engagement shoot, this couple wanted to show off the setting as well

'The simplicity of the blue back alleys of Jodhpur appealed to us in every way,' the couple told Daily Mail Australia. 'And the cityscape, in various shades of blue, was just what our hearts desired'

The couple both share a passion for places of historical significance and architectural gems and instantly fell for the ancient city.

Brij and Namrata were in 'awe of the architectural unity and beauty' of Jodhpur, and knew they wanted to wed among the 'sea of vibrant blue houses'.

'This led us to decide that the colourful and cultural state of Rajasthan was the place we would get married in,' they said.

'And with our love for the colour blue, Jodhpur was our obvious pick.'

Brij and Namrata even had their wedding invitations specially designed so it could match their blue theme as well.

Brij and Namrata both share a passion for places of historical significance and architectural gems and thus they knew they wanted to get married in the state of Rajasthan

The couple love the colour blue so much they even had their wedding invitations specially designed to match the theme

There are various theories as to how the older quarters of Jodhpur got their signature colour.

Some believe that the houses were painted blue to distinguish which belonged to families of the Brahmins, a priestly class at the top of India's caste system.

Others say the indigo dye was a defense against termites that were ravaging the city's structures, and still others claim the blue colour simply helps keep the houses cool during the hot summers.

Whatever the reason behind the blue colour, the city was exactly where Brij and Namrata wanted to make their romance official.

There are various theories as to how the older quarters of Jodhpur got their signature colour. Some believe the houses were painted blue to distinguish which belonged to families of the Brahmins, a priestly class at the top of India's caste system

Others say the indigo dye was a defense against termites that were ravaging the city's structures, and still others claim the blue colour helps keep the houses cool during the hot summers

The couple originally met eight months ago in an arranged marriage set-up. It was a meeting that they said would go on to 'change our lives completely'.

'Every moment of our first meeting is etched into our hearts forever,' they added.

'When we look back, we might have asked each other some questions that seemed frivolous at that point but are so pertinent today.'

Including, of course, their favourite colour.

Brij and Namrata first met eight months ago in an arranged marriage set-up in a meeting that they said would go on to 'change our lives completely'

Samsara Photography used drones to get the bird's eye view of the city to capture its 'rustic yet royal appeal'

'The pre-wedding shoot got us even closer, and we are hoping that every moment from our wedding in this beautiful city enchants us and sweeps us off our feet!' they added.

Their pictures were taken by Samsara Photography, who revealed that the couple were adamant that the photographers capture the beauty of Jodhpur in the engagement shoot.

'Because the couple insisted on not just capturing themselves, but the rich culture and history of the city, we ensured we shot the city as well in every frame!' the team told Daily Mail Australia.

'We also tried drone shots to get the bird's eye view of the city to capture its rustic yet royal appeal, along with the couple's love for each other.'She ruffled feathers last week by weighing in on the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

And Joanna Lumley has spoken out once again on the pressures faced by women working in the film industry.

The actress, 71, famously stripped for her role in 1971 comedy Games That Lovers Play, in which she starred alongside Penny Brahms as a brothel owner.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, the Absolutely Fabulous star said: 'In those days if you were an actress you had to take you top off or they would have said youre not a real actress.

'I got my top off. We had to. Look, Diana Rigg has done it. Julie Christie has done it.'

Scroll down for video

Outspoken: Joanna Lumley has spoken out once again on the pressures faced by women working in the film industry, admitting she feared not being taken seriously as an actress

Pressure: The actress, 71, famously stripped for her role in 1971 comedy Games That Lovers Play, in which she starred alongside Penny Brahms as a brothel owner

Lumley, who is hosting tonight's BAFTAs awards ceremony in London, added: 'That was a tough one as I had not gone to drama school. I was afraid theyd say, "If you dont take your top off youre not serious about your profession."'

Referring to a 'sleazier' atmosphere on set during filming, she added: 'It is quite interesting in these Weinstein days.'

The veteran actress raised eyebrows recently by suggesting that women need to take greater responsibility for their actions in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal.

Lumley insisted she was in 'full of sympathy for the horrors that have gone on' but said women should 'speak up' if they are put in an uncomfortable situation.

Speaking to Hello! magazine, she said: 'If you don't know whether to take your pants off, don't suddenly scream later "I really didn't want to do it". And don't go to his hotel room if you're not sure, because it won't end well.'

Joanna Lumley, 71, recently said she is 'full of sympathy for the horrors that have gone on' but insisted women need to 'speak up' if they are put in an uncomfortable situation

The actress commented on the recent wave of sexual harassment claims in Hollywood including those against Harvey Weinstein, pictured, saying 'it was - and is - everywhere'

Lumley will wear black to the BAFTAs but is not doing it in support of the #MeToo movement. Like at the Golden Globes (pictured) actors will wear black as a stance against harassment

Lumley, who is taking over from Stephen Fry as the presenter of the BAFTAs tonight, also admitted she was 'lucky because she is not predator fodder'.

Speaking on the scandal, she said sexual harassment 'was - and is - everywhere'.

'I'm full of sympathy for the horrors that have gone on, but at the same time, women need to know what they are or aren't going to do,' she commented.

'It's your ship, you're the captain, so if somebody does something you don't like, speak up. Don't feel you ought to do it because you need a job.'

Lumley will be wearing black to the awards show in London on Sunday but will not be doing it as a show of support with the #MeToo movement, unlike many other stars who will be follow those who took a stand on the Golden Globes red carpet.

Lumley, pictured in London in January 2016, said she was fortunate not to be 'predator fodder'

She added: 'I had to choose how I would look before any of this blew up.'

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes became the latest person to break his silence about disgraced movie mogul Weinstein, with whom he worked on his ITV drama, Doctor Thorne.

Speaking for the first time since the Hollywood producer was accused of sexual harassment last year, Lord Fellowes admits he deliberately overlooked rumours about Weinstein's behaviour because he wanted his show to be successful.

'Did I know what was going on? I knew the rumours and I think the reality exceeded the rumours  if what everyone's saying happened, happened,' says Fellowes.

Lumley is best known for her role opposite Jennifer Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous

'But in the end Harvey was a very talented producer and he marketed the show in America very well.

'And because I'm a man, and not a particularly good-looking one, that was all there was to it. He was buying a product, and he sold it well, and I'm grateful for that.'

Speaking at the Services To Film inaugural gala dinner, in aid of Walking With The Wounded, Fellowes adds: 'I don't think I can say I regret working with him.

'I think subsequent events have cast a shadow, as they must, but all through our lives we go through situations without understanding the significance of them.'Advertisement

Fashion Week is a time for pushing boundaries - but budding designers took things one step further when they sent models down the runway wearing giant dummies and pool inflatables.

Students at Central Saint Martins - which counts Alexander McQueen and John Galliano among its alumni - raised eyebrows with a surreal show that featured papier-mache, rubber chickens and a lampshade.

The biannual style spectacular, held at London's BFC Show Space, is a chance for students to showcase some of their best work and hopefully get spotted by fashion bosses.

Master's student Edwin Mohney, from Buffalo, New York, dressed a model in head-to-toe plastic to resemble a giant pink condom, with not so much as a pair of eye holes for her to see out of.

A pair of giant walking dummies grace the catwalk at the Central Saint Martins London Fashion Week show on Friday

One model walked the runway in a giant inflatable padding pool with just her head poking through, while another wore an inflatable mattress as a skirt.

And one daring designer dressed his models in rubber shoes made in the shape of chickens and even US President Donald Trump.

Fashion bible Vogue gave its verdict on the show and on Mohney's 'eerily infantile' designs, saying: 'If sending a duct-taped swimming ring down the runway seems silly to some, ask yourself why this makes us pay more attention than we would a neatly cut floral designer dress ready for the retail rack.'

Stella McCartney famously recruited her supermodel friends Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell for her CSM graduation show in 1995 - although later admitted it was 'naive' of her.

Jump right in! One model walked the runway in a giant inflatable padding pool with just her head poking through

One model wears an inflatable mattress as a skirt (left) while another is dressed in a huge purple creation (right)

No household furniture for this model, although she was tasked with carrying a giant green cardboard box instead

That's not very practical! Two women sheathed in colourful sheets don rubber pig shoes (left) while one woman teams her bizarre feathery trousers with a large cardboard box (right)WHAT TO DO

Celebrity personal trainer Nadya Fairweather, recommends this squat exercise for achieving defined calf muscles

If you want defined calf muscles, try a plie squat, says personal trainer Nadya Fairweather (u-shape.co.uk). Stand with your feet wider than your hips, toes pointing out.

Squat, keeping shoulders over your hips, knees and toes pointing to the sides at right angles. Lift your heels off the floor.

Do ten reps. Now try holding the squat and lift heels 10-15 times. Repeat for five sets. Avoid this exercise if you wear high heels every day for work.

WHAT TO EAT

To add definition and sculpt your calves, nutritionist Shona Wilkinson (shonawilkinson.com) recommends protein to help build muscle. Buffalo steak is thought to have twice the protein content of regular steak and half the fat.

And stock up on yams as a source of muscle-boosting mineral potassium. Potassium helps prevent the build-up of lactic acid during exercise, saving you from aching muscles.

Lastly, beetroot is a good source of betaine (also called trimethyl-glycinate). Studies show this substance helps increase muscle strength and power. Try making beetroot juice to avoid the sugar in ready-made ones.

WHAT TO WEARAs I sat chatting happily to the man opposite me, I was trying hard to cover up how nervous I felt. Terrified he wouldnt find me attractive, I had spent all day getting ready.

My hair was newly highlighted and sexily tousled, while my favourite Diane von Furstenberg mini showed off my legs.

But I neednt have worried  the moment he saw me, his face lit up. We were soon laughing. He held my hand briefly and even put his arm around me as we left the restaurant. I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder.

We could have been any other middle-aged couple on a successful first date. The difference was that we were not strangers. This was the man I had loved and lost 20 years ago. This, remarkably, was the man who had asked me to marry him when I was 33 and he was 32. This was the man I turned down.

Kate Mulvey (pictured left), 54, revealed why she decided to go on a date with her old flame Serge (pictured right)

At 54, I am not one for dwelling on the what ifs. But as I looked at him, wearing his trademark charcoal-grey jumper, his face a bit fuller, his girth a bit wider, but with the same half-smile that always seemed to be affectionately mocking me, I felt a serious pang of regret.

My personal life post-Serge has been a roller- coaster of failed romances, unsuitable men, and a near nervous breakdown after a series of miscarriages.

Marrying Serge would certainly have saved me a lot of heartbreak. But then hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Would I have been happier, settling down with him all those years ago? Facing old age with a family  had I been lucky enough to have one  and living in the large, rambling house he now owns? Building a lifetime of memories with one man?

It sounds idyllic. But even though that is absolutely what I want now, I was very different back then.

I met Serge on a hot summers day at a friends house party in the countryside just outside Burford in the Cotswolds.

It was 1998. I was sitting on the grass when I saw him walk across the lawn. He was bronzed, his hair falling foppishly over his blue eyes. Although we hardly spoke, I caught him looking at me.

When he called a few days later to go for a walk in Richmond Park, I was over the moon. Within weeks we were inseparable. It was the classic opposites-attract paradigm: he was serious and shy, I was a neurotic loudmouth. I made him laugh, and he made me feel safe.

A couple of months later, he asked me to move into his flat in Chelsea. He bought new modern furniture, the kind I liked. Serge is Swiss French, so he introduced me to his friends and family back in Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva.

He took me on weekends to Rome and Paris, and we enjoyed holidays in San Francisco and Hawaii. It was life surfing the crest of the executive wave: he worked as a trader at a Swiss bank and had moved to London as part of their team.

Kate (pictured with Serge in their old relationship) revealed they previously separated as she began to feel claustrophobic

I should have been happy. And I was, but I felt claustrophobic. He stifled me with his declarations of love, his intensity.

The more I tried to free myself, the more he tightened his grip.

I didnt want to have to account for my every move. I didnt want to check in with him if I wanted to go for drinks after work.

I remember coming home after a night out with friends to find Serge sitting at the kitchen table, fuming. There were fights, chipping away at our happiness.

I dont know whether it was out of true love or a need to lock down the relationship, but at the wedding of his best friend, Serge asked whether I wanted to marry him.

I said nothing, and my crestfallen face spoke volumes.

I did love Serge, but I simply wasnt ready for marriage. We barely exchanged a word for the rest of the weekend. Things went rapidly downhill after that.

Should you date an old flame? 72 per cent of exes who get back together stay together Advertisement

The cuddles and romance morphed into evenings spent in silence, while everything about the other started to grate. He sulked, I shouted.

In the end, the constant arguing got the better of him. One morning, without saying a word, he gathered all my belongings, put them in a large black bin liner and placed it by the door, before telling me to get out. It was finally over.

Overwhelmed with emotion, I walked around like a zombie. I had to take a couple of weeks off work  I was a writer for a womans magazine, and kept bursting into tears in meetings. So why on earth was I, as a middle-aged woman, embarking on a trip down loves memory lane? Did I want to go through that heartache again?

The truth is, I never forgot Serge. I bumped into him once in a restaurant in London, three years after our break-up.

I was 38 and on a disastrous date, while he was at a business lunch with colleagues, visiting from Switzerland, where he had returned. I wanted to fling my arms around him; instead, I laughed and joked as though he were a casual acquaintance.

Then, a couple of years later, I heard through mutual friends that he was getting married. I was shocked at how deeply upset I was. I suppose, somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought we might get back together one day.

I carried on living my glossy magazine lifestyle, travelling and building my career as a journalist and author, as relationships came and went. But none of them quite lived up to Serge.

Kate claims re-romancing an old flame is easy, but you risk falling into old negative patterns (file image)

Then, in April last year, while I was on holiday with my then boyfriend, Serge pinged me a message on Facebook.

Coffee, tea, me? he said.

Huh? I thought. Then I realised  it was the line we both loved from the Eighties romcom Working Girl. He was flirting!

My heart missed a beat. I knew I still had feelings for him.

I have a mind for business and a bod for sin, I pinged back immediately (quoting the same film).

We messaged each other surreptitiously that week, but when he asked me to come to Switzerland to recreate old times, I told him I was with someone and we left it at that. A few months later, my relationship came to an end, so I got back in touch with Serge.

We started chatting on the phone. He told me he was divorced with a son. I commiserated, but inwardly I was whooping with joy.

I told him I had never married or had children.

You should have married me, he said, laughing.

That was typical Serge, throwing his little darts. I burst into tears. He was overcome with remorse, and immediately we were back in our old routine. The thing is, even then I knew I still loved him.

Nevertheless, we were both wary. The hurts have been so etched into our hearts, but we seem propelled towards each other.

Then, in December, he told me he was thinking of buying a place in Spain. He suggested we meet in the New Year in a tapas bar we both knew in Marbella. I couldnt wait.

Nervous though I was, that first meeting was all I had hoped for.

Little things kept reminding me of the young Serge: the way he always pulled my chair close to his; even the timbre of his voice. It was lovely. We spent a wonderful few days together hiking in the hills (like we used to) and he took me to romantic restaurants in the middle of nowhere.

So what next? Now he is back in Switzerland and I am back in London, but our diaries are full of plans. Im going to see him in Geneva in a couple of weeks, then its his turn to come to London.

On one level, re-romancing an old flame is easy. On the other hand, we dont want to fall back into those negative patterns of old. I will need to dial down the histrionics, and he will have to learn not to sulk for days on end.

Then theres the small matter of us living in different countries, though he is semi-retired and, as a freelance writer, I can hop on a plane with my laptop  and even, down the line, move cities to be with him.

Only time will tell if our history together will prove to be a hindrance or a help. But who knows  this time round, we could actually make it all the way to the altar.From shiro to shoyu to miso, there is a broth out there for every type of ramen lover.

But would you slurp up the popular Japanese dish if it was blue?

Plenty already are at Kipposhi, a Tokyo restaurant that has become an Instagram sensation this year thanks to its bright blue bowl of ramen.

The blue, which stains both the noodles and the chopsticks, was inspired by the Hawaiian ocean - and made without any food colouring or additives.

Blue ramen, available at Tokyo restaurant Kipposhi, has become a hit on Instagram recently

Master Koizumi, the owner of Kipposhi, saw his blue ramen become a viral hit just two days after he posted a picture of it on Instagram.

Called 'Clear Chicken Soup Blue', the ramen only costs 900 yen (AUD$10.71) and is topped with sprouts and a salted egg.

The soup, made with a rich chicken broth, also swaps out the traditional pork slices commonly seen in Japanese ramen for slices of roasted chicken fillet instead.

Koizumi wanted the broth to be as clear as translucent as possible to truly give it the feel of the ocean.

The blue, which stains both the noodles and the chopsticks, was inspired by the Hawaiian ocean - and made without any food colouring or additives

Called 'Clear Chicken Soup Blue', the ramen only costs 900 yen (AUD$10.71) and is topped with sprouts and a salted egg

The ramen master thus boils the chicken soup together with minced meat, which collects the particles that can make a soup base cloudy.

What's left is a beautiful clear broth, along with the added bonus of a slight meat taste.

The Chinese technique, known as Chintan, is only used by one other Japanese restaurant in Tokyo, according to travel magazine Matcha.

The soup, made with a rich chicken broth, also swaps out the traditional pork slices commonly seen in Japanese ramen for slices of roasted chicken fillet instead

Koizumi is so dedicated to his blue ramen that he even dyed his hair bright pink, hoping to create a warm contrast to the colour of his signature dish.

But if you ask the ramen master just how he gets the soup so blue, his lips will be sealed.

Rumour has since spread that the blue colour actually comes from phycocyanin, a natural pigment derived from spirulina algae.

Phycocyanin has long been used in the food industry as the natural colouring agent 'Lina Blue', seen in sweets and ice cream.Most 'super agers' smoke, drink, gain weight, drink coffee, never retire and even have dementia tangles in their brains - but they have better brain function than people in their 50s.

Scientists are baffled by the paradox which has emerged from the famed 90+ study, analyzing people aged 80 to 100 who seem resilient to cognitive decline.

To their surprise, they found the people in this unique group do not have an over-expression of the APOE 22 gene, which was thought to be protective against dementia.

But they did all share a more positive outlook on life than their peers, they cared more about close relationships, they were very active - and diet seemed to have little to do with it.

New scans also reveal these super agers have a higher proportion in their brain of a rare neuron called von Economo, a 'social' neurons which tends to be dysfunctional in people with autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Medical experts were stunned when they carried out research on 'super-agers', who despite having many symptoms associated with dementia, seemed not to be affected by the condition

Presenting the new findings on Sunday, Emily Rogalski, a professor of cognitive neurology at Northwestern University in Chicago, said lifestyle factors and outlook are increasingly being looked at as integral to maintaining cognitive function.

'The findings suggest that super agers have unique personality profiles,' she told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas.

'Excellent memory capacity is biologically possible in late life and can be maintained for years even when there is significant neuropathologic burden.'

Selecting 10 super agers from the group of 74, Dr Rogalski's team followed them for 24 months then analyzed their brains after they died.

The scans showed the participants weren't void of the build-ups of tau protein that cause dementia, and yet they had none of the symptoms and were leading an active life unimaginable for most over 90.

The vast majority (71 percent) smoked or had smoked previously, and 83 percent still drink alcohol regularly.

The average retirement age is 68.5 years old, but Dr Rogalski said 18 percent of super agers never retire, and the rest tend to pick up another career later on, or at least are very active in the community.

There was no 'magic bullet' in terms of diet ('no, they don't eat more blueberries and some really like their hamburgers and French fries'), but they did tend to sleep at least eight hours a night.

Compared to their peers, they were also far more social - yet another sign that loneliness is a silent killer.

'This builds on the idea of negative consequences of loneliness and the positive consequences of positive relationships,' Dr Rogalski said.

It is not yet clear if this is a driving force, or a symptom, of having the von Economo neurons which were over-expressed in super agers.

These neurons are only found in the brains of large mammals and are believed to offer high-speed connections between different regions within the brain.

They are known to develop in the late stages of pregnancy and early childhood and could be down to luck.

Dr Rogalski's study could provide a breakthrough in dementia research.

In contrast to much of the dementia research carried out to date, it does not focus on trying to reverse the spread of amyloid and tau, deformed proteins that form lumps in the brains of people with dementia.

Dr Claudia Kawas, professor of neurology at the University of California, Irvine, said the findings are challenging everything she has ever known after decades in the field.

'I almost think we should stop doing research and just start using our bodies and brains more,' she quipped.

'These people are inspiring - they drink wine, drink coffee, gain weight, but they exercise and use their brains. Maybe that can tell us something.'From positive patterns to curated cushions, the new interiors companies are putting the love back into lifestyle

THE PATTERN PIONEERS

Anna Murray and Grace Winteringham co-founded Patternity as an image archive nine years ago to inspire positive living through design. Now the company has evolved into a creative agency and has collaborated on a home and lifestyle range with John Lewis.

Anna (left) and Grace at their London-based studio

Whats the story behind Patternity? The company started out with a very simple concept  we wanted to share with the world the wonder and beauty of pattern and encourage a new way of seeing it.

Why pattern? The pattern of our lives is shaped by the places and spaces which we inhabit and our John Lewis collaboration is a celebration of that. Weve designed a pattern-focused homeware and fashion collection to help people create mindful daily rituals.

We are constantly collecting and documenting patterns, and our Instagram followers also share their images using #patternity  which is a great fountain of inspiration, says Anna

How would you define the term pattern? Our designs are very simple but theres a lot more to them than what you see on the surface. So much of what Patternity is about is exploring interconnectivity and encouraging people to be more mindful of the shapes and textures that make up life here on planet Earth.

Whether you look through a telescope or a microscope, life is made of fundamental forms and shapes that repeat  its a wonderful and curious thing.

'We start each day with an ideas meeting where everybody from interns to financial advisers can share new ideas, updates and inspirations, says Grace

Why a monochrome palette? As newborns we are only able to see in black and white, so these colours reflect our first experience of the world. And in an era of limitless choice, a minimal colour scheme creates a sense of simplicity.

Where do you find your inspiration? We have an open-minded approach and believe inspiration can be found in anything  from appreciating a great cup of tea to marvelling at the moon.

CUSHION, from 30, and RUG, from 80, both Patternity + John Lewis, johnlewis.com

How has Patternity evolved? The brand has gone from an image archive to an organisation that works across the creative, science and spiritual world. Its been an exciting journey so far and it feels like its just beginning.

To shop Patternity + John Lewis, visit johnlewis.com and patternity.org

THE CUSHION CURATOR

A self-confessed interiors fanatic with a passion for travel, Lisa Mehydene founded Edit58 as a platform to share the handcrafted artisan designs she discovered overseas. Lisas capsule collection of textiles is now available at Liberty.

Lisa with her cushion collection. The lamp is by Les Couilles du Chiens and the sofa is by Rutland, all available from Liberty, libertylondon.com

What is the concept behind Edit58? We collaborate with artisans from around the world to bring customers one-of-a-kind treasures that they wont find anywhere else.

From handpicking vintage Moroccan fabrics for our cushions, to the charming papier-mache animal heads that are handmade in Portugal, the result is a thoughtful edit of pieces to cherish in your home for years to come.

I love looking through the fabric archives at Liberty and deciding what my next collection will be. This year I am really drawn to bold pattern and colour, says Lisa

How is Edit58 different to other interiors companies? Everything we stock is carefully curated and considered. It is very much a reflection of my taste and my eye and, ultimately, a collection that feels very personal. Edit58 is 100 per cent a passion project.

Which corners of the globe do you source your stock from? Im lucky enough to have discovered a number of our wonderful artisans on my travels. Our stock comes from all over the world  mainly France, Morocco, Portugal, Turkey, Bali and the UK.

Lisas moodboard of postcards, fabric, drawings, stickers, and magazine tears provides inspiration for future designs

Why is supporting craft and working with artisans especially important to you? There are so many talented crafts people pursuing trades that are unique to a particular region and have been passed down through the generations.

Not only does working with these artisans bring their beautiful work to our shores, it enables them to continue doing what they know and love. There is a story and a skill to their creations  and unique artisan products will add interest to your home.

How do you decide which products to sell? From the very beginning Edit58 has been a reflection of the items I love and have in my own home.

CUSHIONS, from 60 each, from Liberty, libertylondon.com

When I discover new pieces or design something myself, you can be certain that Im obsessed by it and want to share it with you. If I wouldnt want the product in my home, it wont make it on to the website.

What does the future hold for Edit58? Lots of exciting things! A lighting collaboration with a fellow homeware brand, a new range of cushions, the introduction of eiderdowns and quilts and a steady stream of one-off vintage rugs.

To shop the Edit58 range, go to edit58.com and libertylondon.com

THE FRAGRANCE AFICIONADOS

Simon Leighton and Gavin Pickburn are behind Fellowstead, a hand-poured, soy-wax candle company that they started from their South London kitchen in 2015. The duo have recently launched a home fragrance collection at Heals.

Simon (left) and Gavin at their studio in Peckham, Southeast London

What does Fellowstead mean? Our company name is our ode to slow living. A couple of years ago we realised that we were both living hectic lives that werent necessarily resulting in us being any happier, so we decided to shift our focus.

The brand began as a homesteading project; a conscious effort to be more creative and savour time spent with each other, friends and family.

Balanced and poured properly, the right blend can be incredibly evocative  theres a whole psychology behind how smell informs our mood, says Simon

Why scented candles? We wanted the brand to begin at home and candles felt like the logical first step. There is something hugely therapeutic about blending and pouring the ingredients by hand; when you get it right scent will evoke memories and emotions we associate with particular aromas.

Fragrance is an often-neglected element in the home so weve expanded our range to include reed diffusers.

The duos Orange Peel & Ginger candle. This is my personal favourite, says Simon

How involved in the making process are you? The most exciting part of starting our own business was the idea of blending the products ourselves. Weve always felt that theres something lovely about the tactile nature of the hand-poured, small-batch process. This spurred us on when developing our first collection; we mix and hand-pour every candle.

BASIL, SAGE LEAF & THYME REED DIFFUSER, 24, and CLARY SAGE & CORIANDER SEED CANDLE, 18, both available from heals.com

What makes Fellowstead different from other home-fragrance ranges? Our ethos is natural, simple products handmade with integrity and this drives everything we do. We use only soy wax and have developed clean, paraben-free fragrances for our reed diffusers.

Weve also invested a lot of time in pouring techniques, which ensure our ingredients work together and burn cleanly and evenly without the need for anything else.

To buy Fellowsteads home-fragrance range, visit heals.com and fellowstead.comFew organisations come out of last years British Steel Pension Scheme misselling scandal with their reputations intact.

As the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee highlighted last week in its intelligent probe into the affair, it was the financial advisers who swirled around Port Talbot like vultures who were most culpable.

They exploited for their own gain the confusion created by the restructuring of the companys pension scheme demanded by sponsor Tata Steel as the price for keeping the former British Steel operations open in South Wales. And boy did they succeed.

Hit hard: Jobs were saved but as a result, workers were preyed upon by pension vultures

Aided by introducers who lured workers into meetings through the offer of sausage and chips, they persuaded some 2,000 steelworkers to transfer their pensions into defined contribution plans. In so doing, the workers lost key pension benefits, put their pensions at risk and paid a small fortune in fees.

Although many of the culpable advisers have since been put out of business as a result of regulatory action  and most victims of misselling should be able to seek financial redress  it is too little too late.

The advisers should never have been allowed to prey on workers who were given too little time, and meagre help, to ensure they made the right choice. Namely, whether to transfer to a mark two (but inferior) British Steel Pension Scheme, opt for the safety of the Pension Protection Fund or fall into the clutches of a salesman acting in no ones best interests other than their own.

Both the Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Regulator are guilty in this regard. Between them, they were responsible for ensuring the 124,000 members of the British Steel Pension Scheme were given all the information needed to make a sound choice  as well as enough time to do so and, where necessary, access to advice. Through effective policing, they should also have kept the vultures far at bay.

Yet they failed on all counts. The information provided was too much for most people to digest (information overload) while the time to make a decision was not long enough (24,000 members missed the deadline, resulting in their pension being picked up by the Pension Protection Fund).

Impartial advice  from official sources such as The Pensions Advisory Service  was sporadic and came too late. Worst of all, the vultures were allowed to circle and pick off prey at will.

Of course, all financial advisers caught up in this misselling scandal should never again be allowed to ply their trade.

But the two regulators also need to do some serious soul searching. Despite their multi-million pound budgets, both are reactive when they should be far more proactive.

In the case of the Financial Conduct Authority, it spends more time designing corporate logos and masterminding its imminent move to state-of-the-art headquarters in Stratford, East London, than it does in trying to catch criminals. This is not good enough.

The Nottingham Building Society is extending its branch network to a total of 67

In an age when online banking and cashless transactions are all the rage, it is good to learn that some financial institutions are busy investing in the high street  while other organisations are fighting for the right of people to have free access to cash.

The Nottingham Building Society may not be a household financial name but it is expanding its network. The result is seven new branches, bringing the total to 67 and extending its reach beyond Nottinghamshire.

The society says the seven branches have attracted more than 14 million in savings deposits in 11 weeks. A great advert for financial services on the high street.

Yorkshire Building Society is also doing its bit. Once it absorbs its Norwich & Peterborough branches into the Yorkshire network in the spring, it hopes to boost its agency outlets by 50 per cent.

This will leave it with 147 branches and 150 agents (a mix of estate agents and local solicitors). More branches per 1 billion of assets under management than rivals Coventry, Lloyds and Nationwide.

Finally, on the battling front, consumer group Which? and the Federation of Small Businesses have joined forces to launch a Save Our Cashpoints campaign. This follows a move by the banks to cut the fees cash machine operators impose on them when a banks customers use their holes-in-the-wall. They now want the Payments Regulator to intervene and ensure free-to-use cash machines remain available nationwide. It is a campaign we support.The incentive scheme at Persimmon, which is so bloated it would make even a banker blench, makes me wonder what pay packages like this are for.

Up to a certain degree, pay is purely about being able to afford material necessities. Above that, it starts to be a yardstick of status and respect, until it becomes self-defeating.

There comes a point  maybe it should be called the Persimmon Point  where pay is so obscene it is no longer a marker of esteem, but the opposite: It tips over into making the recipient an object of ridicule and contempt.

Contempt: Jeff Fairburn resisted calls to give up some of his payout for weeks, making himself look mulish and greedy

There is a similar effect with knighthoods. What was the purpose of Fred Goodwin clinging doggedly to his, when all the deference that is supposed to accompany it had drained away long since?

James Crosby, one of the bosses of HBOS at the time of its downfall, had the wit to recognise this and surrendered his knighthood voluntarily, sparing himself a lot of the vilification piled on Fred.

But back to Jeff Fairburn, the chief executive of Persimmon who is in line for 130 million under the companys insane incentive plan.He resisted calls to give up some of his payout for weeks, making himself look mulish and greedy before finally saying he would give a chunk to charity.

He deserves credit for doing so, but rather than making a personal apology, he issued a stilted statement that was short on detail and sounded self-justificatory. Fairburn may well be a decent man, as his supporters say, who planned to give a large sum to good causes all along.

But he has put himself into the Ratner category of bosses who embody corporate scandal or misfortune, after Gerald Ratner who called one of his own products c**p.

Others include Bob The time for remorse is over Diamond, who personified the toxic bonus culture at Barclays, and Tony I want my life back Hayward, who was in charge of BP at the time of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

'There comes a point where pay is so obscene it is no longer a marker of esteem, but the opposite: It tips over into making the recipient an object of ridicule and contempt'

Whether its fair or not on a personal level, bosses such as these are a flashpoint and a liability.

No one looks at Fairburn and thinks: Wow, hes worked wonders on earnings per share, I really admire his achievements. They look at him and see an emblem of excess.

This isnt just a question of envy, it is a serious concern for shareholders because it has hurt Persimmons reputation. It could hamper the firms ability to drive a hard bargain when it is doing deals, because suppliers and others will assume that, if it can afford to pay such sums to its managers, it can afford to pay them plenty too. Similarly, it might be difficult to deal with wage demands from its own staff in future.

And mightnt a first-time buyer be inclined to purchase from another builder, rather than enrich the Persimmon bosses even further?

Fairburn may be a very capable housebuilder but he is not a business superstar. And lets not forget his lieutenants: Mike Killoran, the finance director, is in line for 82 million from the scheme.

Dave Jenkinson, another senior executive, could receive 45 million, enough to put the worst-paid of the trio at the top of the FTSE 100 pay league on a par with Sir Martin Sorrell.

Fairburn and Killoran have pledged to make big charitable donations but this disgusting pay scheme remains in place.

Plenty of pertinent questions remain unanswered in this mad episode, including how much Fairburn has donated  and precisely how much his bonuses are inflated by taxpayer subsidy. He is refusing to give any answers.

Perhaps Rachel Reeves, who chairs the business select committee, would like to call him in front of MPs to explain and to say sorry properly.Mortgages may currently be cheap, but it will not be long before rates start climbing.

While this spells bad news for many homeowners, it represents a double whammy for those borrowers who do not meet standard lending criteria. Not only will they find it hard to get a mortgage, but they will probably pay more for it.

So why is life so tough for those who do not fit the mould? Put simply, banks and building societies are happy to lend to applicants with a regular income, a solid employment history, a squeaky clean credit record and a decent deposit.

Lucky: Teachers Ben and Laura, with son Charlie, found an understanding lender

But when it comes to the self-employed, zero-hour contractors, new jobbers, older borrowers and divorcees, the response from the bank is often: The computer says no.

Recent research by specialist lender Masthaven revealed that 65 per cent of borrowers now believe getting a mortgage is all about box ticking  and not the financial reality of their situation.

Mark Harris, of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, says: Tougher affordability criteria now makes it particularly hard for certain groups of people to get home loans, turning them into mortgage misfits.

The good news is that there are lenders prepared to take on borrowers who are not quite the norm. There are also steps you can take to improve your chance of getting accepted for a home loan.

Self-employed

The UK has almost five million self-employed workers. Yet getting a mortgage when working for yourself can be a struggle.

Matt Andrews, of lender Masthaven, says: The main challenge for this type of worker is that lenders do not take time to understand their finances. The affordability models used by some lenders in determining who to lend to do not properly take into account self-employed income.

Steve Seal, of rival specialist lender Bluestone Mortgages, agrees. He says: Many successful business owners find it difficult to get suitable mortgage products as traditional big banks will turn away those with variable incomes  or new businesses without a certain number of trading years behind them.

For the self-employed, the best way to improve your chances of getting a home loan is showing evidence of your earnings. Harris says: So long as you can prove your income, you should be able to get a mortgage.

Being new to self-employment makes things harder.

David Hollingworth, of broker London & Country Mortgages, says: The newly self-employed should try mainstream high-street lenders initially. They will tend to offer the most competitive rates, but you may find a specialist lender is more open-minded.

He adds: Some lenders such as Precise, Kensington, Vida Home-loans, Kent Reliance and Aldermore may consider borrowers with as little as one year of accounts.

It makes sense to seek help from a mortgage broker who can help identify lenders that understand self-employment.

Zero-hours workers

The Government has just promised an overhaul of employment rights to support the countrys gig economy workers. Changes include new rules on holiday and sick pay and higher fines for firms which mistreat staff. This is in response to last years Taylor Review into working practices.

These changes may be a step in the right direction for the estimated 1.1 million people in Britains gig economy, such as Deliveroo drivers. But it still remains hard to get a mortgage if you have an irregular income stream as a result of a temporary or zero-hour contract.

Brian Murphy, of the Mortgage Advice Bureau, says: You may consider yourself able to meet the financial commitment of a home loan, but demonstrating this to a lender can present a challenge.

Automated processes used to assess an applicants affordability do not always take into account multiple sources of income or those on zero-hour contracts.

Moving in the right direction: The longer your track record either with the same employer, or in the same line of work with different employers  the better your chances of getting a loan

Ishaan Malhi, from online mortgage broker Trussle, says: Working and earning habits have changed significantly with more people taking flexible jobs with non-regular income. But while some lenders have made positive efforts to offer more flexible lending criteria, many have yet to catch up.

Metro Bank does not accept borrowers on zero-hour contracts, nor does Yorkshire Building Society, or its intermediary arm Accord. The longer your track record either with the same employer, or in the same line of work with different employers  the better your chances of getting a loan.

But the key is proving your income. Harris says: Lenders will base their decision on what you can show in terms of accounts and SA302 tax year calculations [the figures which support your earnings claim].

You can also help your case by seeking out pragmatic lenders. Halifax, for example, only requires that a mortgage applicant has 12 months history of being on a zero-hour contract.

Murphy adds: A number of the new lenders also take a more considered approach, but they will still need to see evidence of earnings over a sustained period to give them an assurance that an applicants income is consistent and regular.

Another way to increase your chances is by saving for a little longer so you can put down a larger deposit  as this reduces the lenders risk. Equally, preparing accounts and paperwork can make a real difference as can speaking to a mortgage broker who knows where to turn for the best chance of success.

WE CAN PAY BUT NO ONE WOULD LEND US ENOUGH Moving: William and Julie Cadwell struggled to get a mortgage after being viewed by lenders as 'too close to retirement' William and Julie Cadwell struggled to get a mortgage after being viewed by lenders as too close to retirement. The couple, aged 58 and 52, had previously lived in a rented property in Falmouth, Cornwall, for 17 years. But when their landlord told them they had to move out, as the lease on their property was not being renewed, they decided they wanted to buy. William says: As we were applying for a mortgage in our 50s, only a handful of lenders were willing to lend. It was frustrating as I am still working hard as a self-employed builder while Julie is a healthcare assistant. In fact, we had been paying 1,000 a month in rent and were looking at monthly mortgage payments of no more than 800. Despite this, the few lenders who were willing to offer us a mortgage would only let us borrow a maximum of 80,000. This was nowhere near enough. The Cadwells eventually got around the problem by opting to buy a home in nearby Perranporth via shared ownership. William says: We bought a brand new two-bed semi-detached house from developer Aster Group in September 2016, worth 200,000. Under the shared ownership agreement, we bought a 25 per cent share with a 14,000 deposit and a 35,000 mortgage. We got the home loan with Santander, fixed for seven years at 3.6 per cent. But after recently inheriting some money, we have been able to clear this mortgage altogether. We now feel settled in our home.

Newly qualified professionals

Workers who have only recently qualified can face difficulties securing a mortgage.

Teachers commonly get offered a job well in advance of their start date. But many struggle to get a home loan as lenders want to see some history in the job  and security of employment  before they will contemplate lending.

Ben Spenceley was one of the lucky ones as he was able to find an understanding lender. The 31-year-old started his first teaching post at a primary school in September last year. Only weeks earlier, he completed the purchase of his first home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, with his fiancee, Laura Amatt, aged 30. The couple moved into their new home with son Charlie, aged three, in August.

Ben and Laura bought the three-bed semi-detached property, valued at 168,000, with a home loan from Accord Mortgages, the intermediary arm of Yorkshire Building Society.

Laura has been a teacher for several years whereas Ben qualified in July last year and was offered a job three months earlier.

Ben says: When we first started looking for a property in the summer of 2016, we found a house we liked on the market at 125,000. Initially, we tried to get a mortgage with HSBC based on just Lauras salary. It refused to lend to me until I had started work.

Some lenders will not offer a mortgage while a borrower is still in their probationary period

When this property fell through due to issues with the vendor, the couple started house-hunting once again. Ben says: This time around, we approached Accord and it was happy to offer us a deal based both on Lauras salary and my future salary.

All that was required was confirmation of my job. Being able to get a home loan based on two salaries meant we could look at bigger properties.

The couple have taken out a two-year fixed-rate deal at 2.72 per cent.

Hollingworth says: Newly qualified teachers could face a number of hurdles as they have no previous employment history.

Barclays, for example, requires a minimum of three months in current employment  or an 18-month history of continuous employment  while NatWest requires six months of continuous employment, though this does not have to be with the same employer.

Some lenders will not offer a mortgage while a borrower is still in their probationary period. A select number of lenders are happy to start the ball rolling before a borrower has actually started their job, provided employment is confirmed.

Yorkshire Building Society, for example, will lend to new graduates and those starting out in their career  it does not require a previous work history. It will make an offer on a mortgage three months ahead of the applicants employment start date, as long as the borrower can show they have been given a permanent contract.

Nationwide Building Society will consider those on probation as well as professionals with minimal history in their job  subject to the relevant documentation being provided. A lender specialising in an area of work  such as Teachers Building Society  is also worth approaching.

Andrew Montlake, from broker Coreco, says: You can help your case by having bank statements showing you are conducting your finances well.

It also makes sense to improve your credit score by getting registered on the electoral roll, clearing unpaid debts and closing credit card accounts you no longer use. You can check your credit rating at Experian, Equifax and Callcredit.

Metro Bank does not accept borrowers on zero-hour contracts, nor does Yorkshire Building Society, or its intermediary arm Accord

Older borrowers

The long-held expectation that people will pay off their mortgage by state retirement age is no longer realistic. But a lot of lenders are still wary about lending into retirement  and many high street banks have relatively conservative upper age limits on whom they will lend to. NatWest imposes an age cap of 70 while Barclays will typically expect a mortgage to end by age 70.

One of the big issues is being able to give evidence of earnings. Adrian Anderson, of broker Anderson Harris, says: Proving income in retirement can be tricky, particularly if you are relying on a pension.

The situation is improving. Hollingworth says: Some lenders have become more flexible.

Halifax, for example, will lend up to age 80 at the end of the term, while Nationwide also considers lending to already retired borrowers up to age 85.

It may be worth trying small regional building societies as some have upper age limits of up to 85  or even beyond  subject to you being able to demonstrate affordability.

Older borrowers may also want to consider equity release, which has become more flexible and better priced. Here the mortgage interest rolls up rather than being paid every month.

Divorcees

Divorce is a big issue at this time following the New Year. One of the big resulting financial problems is being able to split the mortgage liability on a jointly-owned property.

Hollingworth says: The home loan will usually need to be taken on by one of the borrowers, but lenders will not release one party until they are happy the other can afford the mortgage.

That may require the existing mortgage to be taken in one name, rather than two  and could prove a challenge where one income must support the home loan originally underwritten on two incomes. If it is deemed to be unaffordable, the lender will not discharge the other borrower and this could ultimately result in a need to sell the property.

To help get a home loan in the future you will need to demonstrate that you can pay the mortgage on a new property on your own.

Harris says: For divorcees, affordability is the big issue, with much depending on the divorce agreement. If maintenance is the only source of income for one party, this can prove a problem for some lenders. Independent advice from a mortgage broker can prove vital.Britain's top four banking bosses raked in 21 million last year in pay and benefits.

The big four banks  HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS  will this week reveal their financial figures for 2017. They will also publish annual reports disclosing pay details for senior staff on the day of their results.

HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver, who is about to step down, is likely to lead the pack with total pay in his last year at the bank expected to top 8 million. He picks up 3.5 million as a minimum in pay and benefits.

Strong share price performance is set to put him in line for a 1.5 million bonus, and he is also on course for a further 3 million in long-term incentive payments. It is unclear if the long-term incentives will be included in his single pay figure for this year, however, meaning the bank could claim he earned a lower total.

In the money: Ross McEwan, Stuart Gulliver, Jes Staley and Antonio Horta Osorio raked in 21m in pay and benefits

The bank is on course to hit the key financial targets that trigger the payout. Gulliver will also benefit from the expiry last year of the banks deferred prosecution agreement with the US authorities.

This was a pledge by the bank not to break the law after it was fined five years ago for money laundering and busting sanctions with rogue regimes.

Lloyds boss Antonio Horta Osorio is likely to see his pay rise slightly above last years 5.5 million. He receives 2.8 million in pay and benefits and is on course for a 1 million bonus and 1.8 million in long-term incentives.

Barclays boss Jes Staley  who is under investigation by City regulators over his attempts to unmask a whistleblower  will receive about 3.8 million. He is not eligible yet for long-term incentive payouts but is likely to get a 900,000 bonus on top of his estimated 2.9 million in regular pay, pension and benefits.

RBS boss Ross McEwan is in line for around 3.2 million  comprising just under 1 million in long-term incentives to add to the 2.3 million he earns through his pay, share awards and benefits. The banks results will reveal losses on Carillion, which collapsed last month.

All four high street giants had lent money to the PFI contractor, and several booked writedowns late last year.

Pay bonanza: The big four banks will this week reveal their financial figures for 2017

Lloyds is likely to unveil up to 450 million in new write-offs for the mis-selling of PPI insurance. On a more positive note for long-suffering small shareholders, it will also unveil a year-end dividend of as much as 3.5p per share when it announces its numbers on Wednesday.

Horta Osorio will give details of a new strategy that includes cost-cutting and 2.6 billion of investment in digital banking

Barclays could slash its staff bonus pool to 1.1 billion from 1.5 billion paid out last year, analysts at investment bank UBS said. The bank will face a hit to its investment banking operations from the weaker dollar, UBS added.

RBS could reveal a tenth consecutive year of red ink. City analysts expect the bank to book a loss in the hundreds of millions for 2017.

Technically, it could record a profit if it chooses not to make provisions for a possibly huge penalty relating to a US probe into its sub-prime mortgage securities.

HSBC profits are forecast to top $20 billion (14.3 billion), slightly up on last year. Analysts expect the bank to say it spent $400 million in 2017 setting up its new ring-fenced bank in the UK. Rules that came in following the financial crisis require banks to separate their retail and investment banking arms by 2019.

The banks Brexit preparations, where it has said it may have to move 1,000 investment bankers to a Paris office, cost $18 million in 2017, analysts said.Joan Collins's estate agent has reignited the sleaze row over the Presidents Club dinner by claiming the young female hostesses were less like scantily-clad Pamela Andersons than Brenda from reception.

The charity event caused a storm of protest after allegations that hostesses were fondled by guests and invited to their hotel bedrooms.

Trevor Abrahmsohn, who styles himself the estate agent to the stars, has this weekend defended the events, saying they were serious and responsible fundraising exercises.

'Unsexy': Girls were no Pamela Anderson said Trevor Abrahmsohn

In a blog post entitled: The Tragedy of the Presidents Club: who are the real victims?, he said: I have to tell you that contrary to the celluloidal image painted by the press, these so-called hostesses are hardly scantily-clad Pamela Anderson lookalikes, but more Brenda from reception.

The 130 hostesses at last months Presidents Club dinner at the Dorchester hotel were chosen on criteria dictated by the charitys joint chairman, property tycoon Bruce Ritchie, that they should be tall, thin and pretty.

They were ordered to wear black underwear and sexy shoes, along with a short black dress and corset-like belt.

Mr Abrahmsohn, 63, did not attend the latest Presidents Club dinner but has been a guest at seven previous events.

He said the dress code was more akin to something worn at a Womens Institute convention than a pole-dancing club. When I was there, invariably some of the hostesses seemed rather bored by it all and were hardly the victims of drunk, hyper-testosteroned male guests with wandering hands disease.

Mr Abrahmsohn is managing director of North London estate agency Glentree International.

He has sold more than 1billion of property over the past 40 years to clients including Joan Collins, former Beatle Ringo Starr, steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Formula One mogul Bernie Ecclestone.

One of his clients, the restaurant tycoon Richard Caring, donated 400,000 to the Evelina childrens hospital in London at last months dinner.

Mr Abrahmsohn said Labour MP Jess Phillips needs to get out more after she called for luxury homeware tycoon David Meller, who co-chaired the now defunct Presidents Club charity, to step down as a director of the Department for Education.The finance director of Persimmon is planning to follow his bosss lead by donating some of his 82 million bonus to charity.

Sources said Mike Killoran is considering a similar move to Jeff Fairburn, the housebuilders chief executive.

Fairburn last week bowed to criticism following The Mail on Sundays revelations over his pay package and announced plans to give up some of his 100 million-plus bonus to good causes.

Bowing to criticism: Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn (left) and finance director Mike Killoran

Dave Jenkinson, group managing director and the other major beneficiary of the bonus scheme, has not clarified what he plans to do with his payout, which is currently worth around 45 million.

Around 140 senior Persimmon managers stand to become millionaires from the 800 million bonus scheme, one of the most lucrative in UK corporate history.

Much of the scrutiny has been on Fairburn and his bonus, which was worth around 130 million in December before the share price fell slightly. But Killoran and Jenkinson, the two other executive directors in the scheme, also stand to make a fortune.

Killoran, who joined Persimmon in 1996, will not have to pay for any of the shares once Persimmon has returned all the cash to shareholders. At the current share price of around 24, his bonus will be worth 82 million.

As Jenkinson only joined the board in 2013, a year after the scheme was introduced, he has to pay for some of the incentive shares. However, at the current price, he still stands to make around 45 million once all the cash promised to shareholders is paid out. The Mail on Sunday revealed in November that Fairburn was set to pocket the first 50 million of his bonus on New Years Eve.

The revelations sparked outrage and prompted the resignations of chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Jonathan Davie, a senior director who chaired the companys remuneration committee, two weeks later. They admitted they had failed to put a cap on the scheme.

Pressure: The Mail on Sunday has led the way reporting the scandal

Wrigley is understood to have urged Fairburn to give some of it to charity. Fairburn, who has risen through the ranks of Persimmon over nearly 30 years, refused to comment on his plans and called them a private matter. But last week he broke his silence and said he had been mistaken.

In what might be considered to be an old-fashioned approach, I believed that this was a personal matter and that I would be able to do this privately. Its now clear that this belief was misplaced and so I am making my plans public and recognise that I should have done so sooner, Fairburn said.

He is to set up a charitable trust, but declined to say how much he would be giving up or to which charities he would be donating, besides saying it would be a substantial proportion of the total.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the Church of England and the Methodist Church both voted against Persimmons executive pay last year and were considering similar protest votes at Aprils annual meeting.

Fairburns donation will be dwarfed by the gesture made by Redrow housebuilder Steve Morgan last year when he gave 42 million shares worth 250 million to his charitable foundation. In total, he has donated around 300 million.

Morgan hit out at Fairburn earlier this month and said Persimmon was doing the whole of the industry a complete disservice.

For somebody who has not taken a salary for 20 years it sticks in the craw, being called a greedy housebuilder because of that one company, Morgan said.

Killoran and Jenkinson declined to comment.The scandal engulfing Royal Bank of Scotlands infamous GRG unit is spilling over into the top echelons of Santander, the UKs fifth biggest bank.

The Mail on Sunday last week revealed damning details from a suppressed report into abuses of small firms by GRG, which was supposed to help troubled businesses back to health but preyed on them instead.

Two of the senior managers overseeing GRG at the time are now at Santander  where they are trying to beef up the banks lending to small firms.

Key roles: Nathan Bostock (right) looked after RBSs GRG unit and Sullivan was 'heavily involved' at the top of GRG

Santander, the UK arm of the Spanish finance giant, is trying to position itself as the bank of choice for UK companies. Its UK boss Nathan Bostock, paid 4.5million last year, and its head of commercial banking Chris Sullivan held key roles at RBS at a time when it was found by an official report to have plundered small firms for fees.

Regulators are mulling action against those involved with GRG and Bostock and Sullivan could be in the firing line.

The scandal over RBSs treatment of small firms continues to exercise MPs and regulators this weekend. The Treasury Select Committee forced the Financial Conduct Authority to provide it with a copy of a secret report into the affair.

But the FCA still refuses to release the documents, saying it would be breaking the law.

The Mail on Sunday last week revealed the findings of the report, which lifted the lid on RBSs bullying and exploitation of its vulnerable customers. In one case bankers plotted to help themselves to the stock of a bankrupt shop. Another memo urged bankers to let some customers hang themselves.

The FCA could in theory decide that Bostock or Sullivan are not fit and proper people to hold senior roles in a British bank.

It could take action against others too but none of the other senior names involved still work in the banking industry. Sources close to Sullivan argue that he had little to do with GRG because he was running the commercial banking business at RBS. But former RBS insiders this weekend painted a different picture, saying he was close to GRG boss Derek Sach.

Sullivan was heavily involved with Sach, a source said, suggesting that Sullivan would have talked to Sach very frequently about businesses going in and out of GRG.

Sach revealed in evidence to the Treasury Select Committee in 2014: Mr Sullivan and others sit on what we call the Executive Committee of GRG, so there is considerable oversight of what we do within the bank.

Sullivan has become a target for GRG victims because he told the Treasury Select Committee the division was unequivocally...a cost centre for the bank.

Exclusive: The Mail on Sunday revealed keys points of the secret report last week

But the leaked report, by independent experts at research firm Promontory, said that GRG was a profit centre. Sullivan was the executive RBS used following the crisis to push the argument it was still lending to small businesses, even as it foreclosed on thousands of them.

He made enemies inside the bank as well as outside. He is described by one former colleague as being meticulously groomed, even to the point of being manicured. Bostock was in charge of risk and restructuring at RBS, looking after GRG, the banks legal department, risk management and the bad bank that was cleaning up toxic loans.

The full report does not identify what Bostock knew of the issues but it criticised the oversight of GRG, saying there were significant shortcomings in governance controls that might have avoided unfair treatment of customers.

Bostocks background was in running down so-called non-core divisions, where banks house their bad debts, having done that job for Abbey prior to joining RBS.

Sources describe him as more introverted than the average chief executive, and as a man who attends closely to details. He was promoted to finance director in late 2013 at RBS shortly before jumping ship to Santander.

Support: Sir Callum McCarthy backs our call for an Ombudsman

At one stage he had been named as the head of Lloyds Banking Group wholesale division, only to decide against taking the job.

The RBS scandal is a major embarrassment for Santander, which wants to expand its modest business banking division.

As well as offering growth capital loans for very fast-growing businesses, it is planning to apply for cash from RBS to help it compete with the banking giant to win small business clients.

Under a bizarre provision, RBS has to give money to its rivals to make it easier for them to lure away its own customers, as a condition for allowing it to keep its Williams & Glyn division.

RBS had been ordered to sell off W&G as a condition of its taxpayer bailout, but could not find a buyer.

The Promontory report carried a foreword by its chairman, Sir Callum McCarthy, who chaired the Financial Services Authority before the crisis.

In the foreword to the full report, he backs calls for an independent Ombudsman or Tribunal for small firms in conflict with their banks, for which The Mail on Sunday has been campaigning. He said small businesses should have wider access to independent dispute resolution and redress.

The Treasury select committee will this week decide whether to publish the full report into RBS in what could prove to be another parade of its worst failings. Once that is done, the real business of finding the bankers accountable for the behaviour will begin.Members of Parliament are demanding a probe into a debacle involving thousands of small investors who won a landmark 200 million payout from Royal Bank of Scotland last summer.

Eight months after the settlement was agreed, private shareholders have still not received a penny.

Law firm Signature Litigation, which is handling the case, blames the company formed to bring the claim  the RBS Shareholders Action Group  and its co-founder Gerard Walsh, who it described as a proven fraudster.

MPs are demanding a probe into a debacle involving thousands of small investors who won a landmark 200 million payout from RBS

Norman Lamb, vice chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking, told The Mail on Sunday he would be asking Parliaments Treasury Select Committee to investigate the fiasco.

He said: Faced with these very serious allegations its clearly important they are thoroughly investigated.

Lamb added: 'My acute interest is in securing justice for the victims of banking malpractice, and Im really concerned to hear of these allegations.

What we have to avoid at all cost is that those people who have already suffered an injustice - suffered a loss, sometimes catastrophic loss as a result of banking malpractice at RBS - then suffer further loss if there is malpractice in the action to recover losses.

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable called for shareholders to be recompensed immediately.

The situation has prompted concerns about a separate company, the RBS GRG Business Action Group  set up more recently on behalf of small firms. Irish businessman Walsh is a volunteer adviser to the GRG group. The latter said it is unrelated to the action group for shareholders.

In 1997, a judge in the High Court of Ireland ruled that Mr Walsh was guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation by posing as a Lamborghini dealer. Separately, in 2014, the Jersey Royal Court described him as a fraudster.

Sources close to Mr Walsh say he denies wrongdoing and add that he was neither a witness nor defendant in the Jersey case and was unable to contest the judgment.

The Mail on Sunday has learned that a criminal complaint has been made against the RBS Shareholders Action Group.The grievance was lodged with Action Fraud, part of the City of London Police, by one of the small investors.

Row: Businessman Gerard Walsh

Lawyers for the action group said it was unaware of the criminal complaint or anything to justify it. Signature Litigation has a number of concerns about the action group. These include questions about a contract to pay 20 million to a company called Evalusafety.

The shareholder action group blames Signature Litigation for delays in making payouts to investors. It has lodged a complaint about Signature with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The SRA said: We are aware that a complaint has been made and will assess it before deciding on any next steps.

A spokesman for Signature Litigation said: 'The Action Group company is not our client and has not shown us the complaint, which it has confirmed is not on behalf of any claimant.

'We view it as a bogus stunt from Mr Walsh and his associates who have long threatened to create negative publicity to support demands for some of our clients' money to be paid to them.

'He is a proven fraudster who has been the main force behind its activities and dealings with us.

'Should the SRA decide there is something to investigate, we will be happy to cooperate fully and purposefully, and to share our findings and serious concerns in relation to the Action Group company.'

Manx Capital, the lead claimant, added: We and Signature Litigation would welcome and fully co-operate with any public inquiry into how around 200 million of taxpayers money intended for claimants could potentially have ended up in the hands of an unregulated claims management company such as this, operated by someone like Mr Walsh.They began in the early 1990s as a beachside band of brothers who came together to surf big waves and protect their home break.

But the Bra Boys from Maroubra, in Sydney's south-east, soon had a reputation beyond fierce tribalism including street violence and other anti-social behaviour.

Among their number have been members charged with murder, armed robbery and smuggling cocaine.

Along the way the Bra Boys have been the subject of a movie, formed a clothing label and inspired the fictional River Boys in the TV drama series Home And Away.

Bra Boys founder Koby Abberton pictured with his psychologist wife Olya Nechiporenko

Big waver surfer Koby Abberton with his model-turned-actor former girlfriend Tahyna Tozzi

Brothers Koby (left), Sunny (centre) and Jai (in sunglasses) Abberton outside court in 2006

Koby (left) and Sunny Abberton (right) with Russell Crowe at the premiere of the Bra Boys film

For years the gang seemed to go quiet but this week they have been back in the headlines.

Just this month two of the Bra Boys' founding members, brothers Jai and Koby Abberton, have made news at Waverley Local Court, again.

More than a decade ago Waverley magistrate Lee Gilmour commented on the alarming frequency with which Jai had been before the court.

She said he and his family had 'been through the ringer the last couple of years' and needed to 'get back to the status quo.'

'He's always been polite, well-behaved and not problematic in court,' Ms Gilmour said in August 2006 when Jai was before her charged with affray.

The Abberton brothers - Sunny, Jai, Koby and Dakota - are synonymous with the Bra Boys but it has sometimes been others who have sullied the gang's name.

Jai Abberton (in red T-shirt) has been charged over a home invasion in December last year

A promotional poster for the Bra Boys: Blood Is Thicker Than Water movie released in 2007

Jai Abberton gestures at the media as he leaves Waverley Local Court in August 2006

Back in 2009 a syndicate with alleged links to the Bra Boys - not the Abbertons - was caught smuggling cocaine through Sydney Airport.

Last year, a man bearing the Bra Boys signature tattoo - My Brother's Keeper - was one of two people charged with the murder of a homeless person near Maroubra.

Ray and Jackson Travers, aged 20 and 18 respectively, were arrested in July over the June 21 alleged stabbing murder of Peter Hofmann, 68.

The older brother has 'My Brother's Keeper' tattooed across his stomach. The Travers brothers are still before the local court.

At the time core Bra Boys members suggested a younger, drug-fueled generation had misappropriated the gang's name and slogan.

In August, the teenage son of a former Bra Boy won the right to at least $100,000 after his family finally agreed to end a bitter court battle over his father's purported $30 million empire.

Muslim convert Cade Dallas, who grew up at Maroubra, died in 2012 after a two-week party binge in Bali, where he had moved to develop clothing brand Somewhere.

Film directors Macario De Souza (left) and Sunny Abberton (right) with Koby Abberton (centre)

Bra Boys founder member and former pro surfer Koby Abberton with wife Olya Nechiporenko

Koby Abberton met his wife Olya Nechiporenko in Bali, where they now live (both pictured)

Shortly before his death Dallas allegedly penned a will in which he asked for his fortune to be split evenly between his children.

The will led to a bitter court battle between Dallas's Balinese ex-wife and his mother in part over how the will should be interpreted under Islam.

None of those matters involved the Abbertons, who were the subject of a 2007 documentary called Bra Boys: Blood Is Thicker Than Water, narrated by Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe.

The boys were born to a heroin-addicted mother and cared for by their grandmother Mavis, known as Ma. Sunny, Jai and Koby all grew up to surf professionally.

Koby described the Bra Boys ethos to news.com.au in 2016: 'Our creed stands for unconditional love, respect and support of those close to you regardless of race, gender and age.'

Jai, who has been tried and acquitted of murder, has in recent years also embraced Islam.

Ray Travers (right) with his My Brother's Keeper Bra Boys tattoo has been charged with murder

Big wave surfer Koby Abberton and his Ukrainian model wife Olya Nechiporenko have a son

Koby, who moved to Bali where he became close to drug smugglers Andew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran before their 2015 executions, is married to Olya Nechiporenko, a Ukrainian model, psychologist and accountant.

He was previously in a relationship with model-turned-actor Tahyna Tozzi and once gave surfing lessons to heiress Paris Hilton.

Sunny, the oldest of the brothers and the man behind the Bra Boys film, has laboured as a fly-in fly-out worker in mines in Western Australia.

Together the Abbertons established a clothing label called MyBrothersKeeper.

The Bra Boys came to prominence outside Maroubra in late 2002 when more than 100 members attending a birthday party at the Coogee-Randwick Club brawled with off-duty police leaving a Christmas party at the same place.

It was Jai who first brought the Abbertons widespread unwanted attention when he shot dead standover man Tony Hines, whose naked body was found at the base of cliffs at Maroubra in 2003.

Original Bra Boy Koby Abberton signs a surfboard with heiress Paris Hilton at Bondi in 2007

Koby (left), Sunny (centre) and Jai Abberton (right) were the founding members of the Bra Boys

Accused armed robber Jai Abberton leaves Waverley Local Court after a 2006 appearance

Two years later he was found not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence, successfully claiming Hines was going to rape a woman and kill him.

Koby was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the same matter and given a nine month suspended sentence.

In 2008 he spent three days in custody for assaulting an off-duty police officer in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In September 2009 Jai was jailed for 15 months with a minimum nine months following a melee in March at Byron Bay police station, where he was tasered three times.

He tried to have charges including two counts of assaulting police and one of causing grievous bodily harm overturned on the basis of mental illness.

Tweed Heads Local Court heard Jai had been in a drug rehabilitation facility and broken multiple bones after jumping out of a tree.

Koby Abberton was the most successful surfer among the four Maroubra-raised brothers

Big Wave surfer Koby Abberton with wife Olya Nechiporenko; his Bra Boys tattoo is visible

On Thursday Jai was in custody at Waverley Local Court after being arrested the previous day in relation to an alleged home invasion involving a meat cleaver.

The 44-year-old was refused bail on charges of armed robbery with an offensive weapon causing wounding or grievous bodily harm and entering a dwelling with the intent to steal, causing grievous bodily harm.

Police say Jai and two unidentified men forced their way into a South Coogee unit about 10pm on December 12 last year and robbed a 43-year-old man.

One of the other men was wearing a balaclava and the resident was allegedly assaulted with a pole.

Police allege Abberton told the alleged victim: 'I should get a knife out at you and get you to sign this unit over.'

Professional surfer Koby Abberton in action at the Billabong Pro in Teahupoo, Tahiti, in 2007

Former Bra Boy member Cade Dallas left a $30 million estate after his death in Bali in 2012

Sunny Abberton (left) with brother Koby (in white shirt) with Oscar winner Russell Crowe

One of Jai's alleged accomplices grabbed a meat cleaver from the kitchen and cut the back of the man's left leg, the court heard.

He is accused of stealing the man's wallet, 10 grams of cannabis and a sheet of Valium.

The court heard Jai was on a disability support pension due to mental health issues.

Younger brother Koby was supposed to be before the same court on February 5 over charges stemming from a bizarre roadside incident with police but did not show up.

Koby, the most successful of the brothers on the surfing world stage, had locked himself in a car then stripped off his clothes on a busy Sydney street when police tried to search him for drugs.

The 39-year-old was convicted and fined $1,000 in his absence for hindering police, offensive conduct and not carrying a driver's licence.

Former professional surfer Koby Abberton after he was arrested for assault in Hawaii

Sunny (left) and Koby Abberton (right) were born to a heroin-addicted mother in Maroubra

Koby was driving a silver Hyundai SUV when police pulled him over at the intersection of Bronte Road and Birrell Street, Bondi Junction, about 6.20pm on October 12, 2016.

Police said while speaking to Koby they detected a strong odour of cannabis.

'Due to this and known intelligence about the accused police suspected he may have in his possession or in the vehicle a prohibited drug,' a statement of facts said.

Koby, who told police he had lost his driver's licence in Bali, refused to be searched and locked himself inside the vehicle.

Eventually he got out and stripped down to his underwear while swearing at police.

Former professional surfer Koby Abberton with his psychologist wife Olya Nechiporenko

When the matter was before court on June 26 last year Koby's solicitor tendered a doctor's certificate stating her client had undergone back surgery and was unfit to travel from his home in Bali.

Two days later, the youngest Abberton, Dakota, pleaded guilty in the same court to driving with an illicit drug in his blood and was put on a 12-month good behaviour bond without conviction.

In February 2013, Dakota avoided jail after pleading guilty to reckless wounding in company and assault occasioning bodily harm.

Koby, who gives surfing lessons to children, told news.com.au two years ago the Bra Boys were a brotherhood and that marriage and fatherhood had changed his life.

'If you look at any group the Bra Boys included, you are always gong to find bad people among them,' he said.Marckles Alcius has been accused of deliberately crashing a stolen bakery delivery truck into a Planned Parenthood clinic in East Orange, New Jersey

A Massachusetts man has been accused of deliberately crashing a stolen bakery delivery truck into a Planned Parenthood clinic.

The crash, which took place in East Orange, New Jersey, injured a pregnant woman and two other people.

Marckles Alcius faces numerous charges stemming from Wednesday's crash in East Orange, including aggravated assault, theft and attempting to cause widespread injury or damage.

The 31-year-old Lowell man pleaded not guilty during a court hearing Friday, and Essex County prosecutors say they will seek to have him detained until his trial.

The three injured people were two patients and a staff member, who were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

The crash, pictured above, injured a pregnant woman and two other people. The driver was not injured

Authorities haven't disclosed a possible motive for the crash and are investigating further

The Planned Parenthood clinic in East Orange where the crash happened is shown above

Authorities haven't disclosed a possible motive for the crash and have declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy posted a tweet Friday expressing his outrage about the deliberate attack.

'Angered by this week's truck attack against a @PPFA clinic in East Orange,' Murphy said.

'At a time when women's health care is under siege, we must protect and defend safe and affordable health care access for all.'Pablo Picasso painted over the work of another artist to create one of his masterpieces, new x-rays reveal.

The discovery, announced on Friday at a conference in Austin, offers unprecedented insight into the esteemed painter's creative process.

A team of scientists and curators used state-of-the-art non-invasive imaging techniques to find a landscape in a completely different style to Picasso's lying underneath his 1902 oil painting The Crouching Beggar (La Misereuse Accroupie).

They also found the Spanish artist painted over his own first attempt before completing the final piece, a desolate woman crouching on the floor in a green cloak, which now hangs in Toronto, Canada.

A team of scientists and curators scanned Picasso's La Misereuse Accroupie (pictured) using state-of-the-art non-invasive techniques

The oil painting, completed in 1902, is the result of the Spanish painter's multiple attempts, painting over his own first version

This is a scan of the landscape hidden beneath the visible surface

La Misereuse Accroupie formed part of Picasso's Blue Period, a time when he used blues and greens above all else.

When the Art Gallery of Ontario received the piece, they noticed unusual textures across the canvas, suggesting a different composition underneath.

Studying it, Kenneth Brummel, the AGO's assistant curator of modern art, thought it had the hallmarks of Picasso's famous portrait Femme Assise.

'[It] became clear to me that the arm hidden under the visible surface of La Misereuse Accroupie is the same as the proper right arm of a crouching woman in a Picasso watercolour recently sold at auction,' he said.

Enlisting the help of Marc Walton, a research professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering, they sought to scan the painting to get a clear picture of what lay beneath without damaging the artwork.

They used reflectance imaging spectroscopy to see the underlying images beneath every paint layer and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging to map out the composition of the pigments.

Within 24 hours, they had been able to analyze 70 percent of the painting.

At its base, they found a horizontal landscape by a different (anonymous) Barcelona painter.

It seems Picasso tipped the artist's canvas 90 degrees to the right, and used some of the landscape forms to shape the woman's slouching posture.

But before reaching the final piece in which her entire body is shrouded by a cloak, he initially painted the woman with an object in her right hand.

That arm is what bears a striking resemblance to The Femme Assise, as Brummel had suspected - a watercolor which was sold at auction in New York by Christie's in 2015 for $149,000.

Analysis of the pigments present in the paint layers of La Misereuse accroupie (NU-ACCESS)

The first version of the woman was also narrower with her head tilted the other way.

What's clear, Professor Walton said, is that 'Picasso had no qualms about changing things during the painting process.'

'Our international team  consisting of scientists, a curator and a conservator  has begun to tease apart the complexity of La Misereuse accroupie, uncovering subtle changes made by Picasso as he worked toward his final vision,' he added.

The research was jointly conducted by Northwestern University's Art Institute of Chicago Centre for Scientific Studies in the Arts (NU-ACCESS), the AGO, which currently owns the painting, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Sandra Webster-Cook, AGO's senior conservator of paintings, said: 'We now are able to develop a chronology within the painting structure to tell a story about the artist's developing style and possible influences.'

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas.Dash cam footage showing a truck and car involved in a motorway accident on the Port of Brisbane Motorway is causing debate on the Dash Cam Owners Facebook page.

In the video the driver of the car with the dash cam can be seen coming up on the semi-trailers left side as the truck sits in the right lane.

After overtaking the truck, causing it to go out of view of the dash cam, the car is tagged form behind and begins to spin out of control before slamming into the divider on the right side of the motorway.

An accident which left a car turned around 180 degrees on the Port of Brisbane Motorway has Facebook divided on who was at fault

Facebook users have come out in defense of both drivers.

'I cannot believe the comments blaming the truck driver,' Lynne Hawkins wrote.

'The car had clearly started moving into the right lane to pass the truck in front before the bang of the truck hitting it.'

However others were quick to defend the driver of the car.

'The dash cam driver was in their lane doing everything legally and got hit by a truck. I do understand that trucks have blind spot issues but seriously,' Michael Goes wrote.

Some truck drivers also weighed in on the debate.

'Not saying this guys not at fault but as a truck driver myself thats the one thing I always stress to my wife,' Garry Biltoft wrote.

'Dont just sit beside the bloody truck, sit behind it or get in front.'

In the footage the car can be seen coming up on the left of the truck which was travelling in the right lane before the accident occured

Even one of the admins for the Facebook page weighed in on the debate.

'I'm confident if the roles were reversed here, everyone would be blaming the car for sitting in the right hand lane,' the administrator wrote.The surviving son of the prime suspect in the Beaumont children murder case has said his father is innocent.

Breaking his silence on the claims against businessman Harry Phipps, Wayne Phipps said he believes his mentally ill older brother Haydn made up the allegations pointing the finger at his father.

'This is wrong. It's hurting those who I care about and the memory of those who I cared about. We loved Harry and believe in his innocence,' Wayne told the Sunday Mail this week.

Scroll down for video

The Beaumont children (pictured) never returned after leaving their parents' Glenelg home for an afternoon at the beach on Australia Day, 1966

Breaking his silence on the claims against businessman Harry Phipps (pictured), Wayne Phipps said he believes his mentally ill older brother Haydn made up the allegations

Two brothers told police in 2013 they spent the 1966 Australia Day weekend digging a large hole at the Adelaide factory at the request of owner Harry Phipps (pictured)

The search for the remains of the missing Beaumont children was called off in early February after only 'non-human' bones were found at the suspected grave site of the three siblings.

Excavation at the North Plympton site in Adelaide, South Australia, once owned by prime suspect Harry Phipps, began on February 2 as part of a fresh investigation into the 52-year-old mystery.

After a full day of digging - and with the entire country waiting with bated breath - diggers and anthropologists were only able to identify animal bones, thought to be from a horse, and a large amount of rubbish.

Detective Chief Inspector Greg Hutchins said only a number of 'non-human bones' had been discovered in the western section of the dig site, where two brothers had told police they had dug a hole for Phipps, who died in 2004.

'There's been a number of non-human bones found. From the anthropologist, they are non human, most likely from a large animal,' Mr Hutchins said. 'But clearly she will take them back and have further examinations.

'All we had was an anomaly, we know the brothers dug a hole, no question, a hole has been dug on the site. This anomaly is approximately in the area where the two brothers [dug].'

A digger is seen at the site of a factory in North Plympton in Adelaide on February 2

Police said they were 'hoping for the best' as they began excavation in early February

Nine-year-old Jane, seven-year-old Arnna and four-year-old Grant have never been found

A former police officer investigating the Beaumont children disappearance revealed the prime suspect's son Hayden told him the location of their final resting place.

The revelations came as police said they were just 80cm from an 'anomaly' in the ground as they excavated land at the Adelaide factory.

Former policeman Bill Hayes revealed that he spoke with Harry Phipps - the prime suspect - about the Beaumont children's final resting place.

Mr Hayes said Hayden Phipps told him that his father was a paedophile and that he had buried the children in a sandpit at the North Plympton industrial site.

'He told me [Harry Phipps] was taking [the Beaumont children] to a place, a factory, that the father owned,' Mr Hayes told A Current Affair.

'His exact words were, ''they are in the sand pit, Bill''.'

Former policeman Bill Hayes said that in the years following their disappearance he spoke with the son of prime suspect in the Beaumont children disappearance , Harry Phipps

Former policeman Bill Hayes said Hayden Phipps (pictured), the son of the prime suspect, told him that his father was a paedophile and that he had buried the children in a sandpit

Harry Phipps died in 2004, but his son, who accused his father of years of sexual abuse, believed he had a part in the crime.

Harry Phipps also bore a resemblance to an identikit picture prepared at the time, and lived close to Glenelg Beach, where the children were last seen.

A woman recently came forward saying she was indecently assaulted by Harry Phipps in a vacant lot near the factory in 1979.

'He just walked me across the road and was saying 'you're a really pretty girl, I've seen you around' and I just went with him,' the woman told the Seven Network.

'He sort of started getting really slimy, really dirty talk and things like that.'

Detective Superintendent Des Bray inspects the dig site at a factory in North Plympton

The industrial site in Adelaide is at the centre of a renewed search for the missing trio

Two brothers revealed in 2013 they had spent the 1966 Australia Day weekend - when the children vanished - digging a hole at the request of Harry Phipps.

Mr Hutchins initially said there are innocent explanations for the anomaly, but it could also be a major breakthrough in Australia's most enduring cold case.

'We have our fingers crossed, we hope for the best but we do want to temper expectations,' he said at the site on Friday.

'Clearly we have an anomaly which we need to investigate.'

HOW DID THE BEAUMONT CHILDREN DISAPPEAR AND WHAT LED POLICE TO THE ADELAIDE FACTORY? JANUARY 26, 1966 The Beaumont children got on a bus near their home at about 8.45am They travelled together to Glenelg Beach, to swim at an area between Jetty Road and the Anzac Highway The trio were due home about 2pm, but failed to return At about 7.20pm, their father reported his children missing An extensive search of the area was conducted by police that night, but the children were not found NOVEMBER 8, 1966 World-renowned Dutch clairvoyant Gerard Croiset is flown to Adelaide by local real estate developer Con Polites He declared to crowds gathered on the beach that the Beaumont children had not been kidnapped, and were rather trapped beneath freshly laid concrete Mr Croiset indicated the children were at a building site in North Plympton The public raised $40,000 to demolish the building in their search for the children About 30 years later, when the site was being partially demolished, the owners reportedly allowed for a full excavation, but nothing was found MAY 20, 2013 The Satin Man by Alan Whiticker is released The book investigates one theory about the Beaumont Case, which alleges a prominent businessman was behind the murder of the children In the book, the businessman's estranged son says he saw the Beaumont children in his father's backyard - just metres from Glenelg Beach The prominent businessman was identified as Harry Phipps in a segment on the book aired on Today Tonight As a result of the report, two men came forward to police and said they had been asked to dig a trench on the grounds of Mr Phipps' factory in North Plympton AUGUST 2013 Police announce allegations made against Harry Phipps have been discounted, and he is not a suspect in the investigation into the missing Beaumont children NOVEMBER 2013 Police dig up a small area of the land surrounding the factory The dig does not uncover any new information relating to the disappearance Officers are criticised for not inviting the two men along to the dig, and some claim they dug in the wrong spot JANUARY 2018 Tests on the soil at Mr Phipps' former factory reveal an area of soil measuring about one metre wide, two metres long and two metres deep has been disturbed Following new information from witnesses and the soil tests, police declare a section of land at the rear of the factory a crime scene FEBRUARY 2, 2018 Police begin excavation at the site in the hope they finally uncover the final resting place of the Beaumont children. The search is called off at 5pm after only 'non-human bones', believed to be from a horse, and rubbish were found in the soil Advertisement

The Beaumont children never returned after leaving their parents' Glenelg home for an afternoon at the beach on Australia Day, 1966.

Their disappearance sparked a wide-scale search operation, but nine-year-old Jane, seven-year-old Arnna and four-year-old Grant were never found.

An initial excavation at the North Plympton site proved fruitless, but police now believe they may have been digging in the wrong spot.

Insp Hutchins said police had been in regular contact with the parents of the children, Jim and Nancy Beaumont, and had informed them of Friday's activity.

'Clearly the parents of the three Beaumont children have suffered significantly over the last 52 years,' he said.

A range of experts are present at the site including a forensic anthropologist, a criminologist, crime scene examiners and officers from the major crime division.

The excavation at the North Plympton site (pictured)President Donald Trump slammed the 'fake news media' for not reporting Facebook ads vice president's claims that the 13 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday weren't trying to sway the 2016 election.

In a barrage of angry tweets on Saturday afternoon, Trump used Rob Goldman's words that the goal of the Russian influence operation was to sow fear and hatred in the United States, dividing citizens.

Goldman claims that the Russians weren't actually trying to sway the election, and that was just a consequence of their attempt to polarize American views. Facebook verified the authenticity of his comments.

Trump later referenced those claims on Twitter, quoting him and saying 'The Fake News Media never fails,' clearly frustrated that no major media outlets had reported on Goldman's post yet.

His tweet storm comes just one day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians credited with the fake ads to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

President Donald Trump (pictured Friday) slammed the 'fake news media' for not reporting Facebook ads Vice President's claims that the 13 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday weren't trying to sway the 2016 election

Trump later referenced those claims on Twitter, quoting him and saying 'The Fake News Media never fails,' clearly frustrated that no major media outlets had reported on Goldman's post yet

'Funny how the Fake News Media doesnt want to say that the Russian group was formed in 2014, long before my run for President, he wrote.

'Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didnt know!'

Goldman said the main goal wasn't to influence the elections because, after reviewing all of the fake ads, he said 56 percent weren't displayed on Facebook until after the November 8 election.

'I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was NOT the main goal,' Goldman tweeted.

People on Twitter think Goldman might have been suggesting the motive was more long-term than just the single election.

Goldman followed up later to clarify that he did not mean to suggest that swaying the election wasn't a goal at all, just that it was not the primary goal.

'The Russian campaign was certainly in favor of Trump,' Goldman wrote. 'The point is that the misinformation campaign is ongoing and must be addressed.'

Trump either did not see this follow up tweet or chose not to ignore it when crafting his Twitter posts.

He also referenced a statement made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a news conference earlier Saturday.

Rosenstein claimed: 'There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.'

In a barrage of angry tweets on Saturday afternoon, Trump used Rob Goldman's words that the goal of the Russian influence operation was to sow fear and hatred in the United States, dividing citizens

He also referenced a statement made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a news conference earlier Saturday

The president's stream of posts came just hours after the president's National Security Adviser HR McMaster said Russia's meddling in the election is 'beyond dispute,' in a statement Saturday morning conceding the results of Mueller's probe.

McMaster's comments at the Munich Security Conference directly contradicted those made by the US Russia Foreign Minister, who labeled them 'juts babble' moments earlier.

He said the evidence that there was interference 'is now incontrovertible' and he credited Mueller's investigation and the sensational, long-awaited indictment for bringing it to the surface.

'As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain.'

Laughing off the notion that the US could work with the Kremlin on the issue of cyber security in the future, he said:

Goldman followed up later to clarify that he did not mean to suggest that swaying the election wasn't a goal at all, just that it was not the primary goal

'Im surprised there are any Russian cyber experts available based on how active most of them have been undermining our democracies in the West.

'We would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage.'

Moments earlier on the same stage, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had dismissed the indictment and its allegations.

'I have no response. You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying,' he said. 'Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber.'

He said there was an 'irrational myth' that Russia was threatening the West, and said: 'traces' of it 'are found everywhere from Brexit to the Catalan referendum.'

Both were responding to the 37-page indictment returned on Friday by a grand jury which charges 13 Russian individuals and three companies with a series of crimes relating to the interference.

Among those indicted are a businessman nicknamed Putin's 'chef', a woman who acted as a spy for the organization to come to the US in 2014 to gather intel and a computer whiz who used servers to hide 'troll factory's location'.

Mueller's office made the stunning announcement on Friday, saying that the defendants laid the groundwork for targeting U.S. elections in 2014  and that by mid-2016 they were actively 'supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton'

The 13 Russian nationals accused of meddling in the election worked for the Internet research Agency - what has now been branded a 'troll factory' (pictured is the building in St Petersburg where the 'troll factory' was housed)

Mueller's office made the stunning announcement on Friday, saying that the defendants laid the groundwork for targeting U.S. elections in 2014  and that by mid-2016 they were actively 'supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton.'

The 13 Russian nationals accused of meddling in the election worked for the Internet research Agency - what has now been branded a 'troll factory.'

Details about the ominous organization floated around in the international media before Friday's charges were brought, but never before has there been such insight into the operation.

It is headed up by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin's 'personal chef' who gained access to Russia's political power players through his luxury restaurants in St Petersburg in the mid 2000s.

In 2012, he landed a lucrative contract to provide the country's military soldiers with meals. It only lasted a year but was rumored to be worth around $1.2billion.

At the center of the indictment against 13 Russian nationals accused of meddling in the US presidential election is the Internet Research Agency, the 'troll factory' where they all worked.

Details about the ominous organization floated around in the international media before Friday's charges were brought, but never before has there been such insight into the operation.

It is headed up by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin's 'personal chef' who gained access to Russia's political power players through his luxury restaurants in St Petersburg in the mid 2000s.

In 2012, he landed a lucrative contract to provide the country's military soldiers with meals. It only lasted a year but was rumored to be worth around $1.2billionA British schoolboy has told of his horror at seeing a fleeing student gunned down in the Florida school massacre.

Ben Bullock, 13, was in an outdoor science lesson at the middle school next to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High when Nikolas Cruz carried out his shooting spree with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.

I heard some gunshots and I saw some high schoolers running, Ben said. In the distance, as the shots were going on, I saw a boy running and then I saw him go down.

We were all rushed into the class and continued to hear gunshots. And then a couple of high schoolers who were running came in and one of them had blood on his trousers.

The teenager was trapped inside his class at Westglades Middle School for two hours as Cruz, 19, killed 14 students and three teachers in Parkland  Americas second-worst school shooting.

Ben Bullock, 13, has spoken of his terror at seeing a fleeing student gunned down during the school massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Florida

His mother Kirstie, 47, said: We dont know if the person Ben saw being shot made it. Our hearts go out to all those whove lost loved ones.

My neighbour was taking her daughter to a funeral this morning  14-year-olds shouldnt have to go through that.

She said the family moved from Windsor, Berkshire, to Parkland seven years ago because they viewed it as a safe haven with exceptional schooling.

This community that we live in, we jokingly refer to it as The Bubble, she added. We are very proud and happy to live in that bubble. I am still in shock.

When you watch the news and hear about a school shooting your mind instinctively goes to Columbine and Sandy Hook. Then you realise you are talking about your neighbourhood. And that really hasnt sunk in yet.

As funerals for the victims of the Valentines Day killings continued this weekend, the community was left reeling from revelations that the FBI had been tipped off about Cruz six weeks ago but did not act.

He has no idea if the student he saw gunned down made it out alive. At the time of the shooting Bullock was in an outdoor science lesson

A person close to the loner called the FBIs hotline on January 5 with information about his gun ownership, and his desire to kill people and carry out a school massacre.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said the agencys director Christopher Wray must resign, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review, lamenting FBI failures.

Yesterday Donald Trump and his wife Melania visited survivors in hospital and the local sheriffs office, thanking them for their response to the tragedy. Mr Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate 40 miles away.

Cruz, who fired more than 150 rounds, has offered to plead guilty to 17 murders to avoid the death penalty. Last night there was further outrage after a gun fair selling rifles similar to the type used by Cruz went ahead just 22 miles away from the scene of his crimes.

At least 100 AR-15 semi-automatics were on sale from 410 each, many capable of firing 5.56mm bullets  the same used by Nato forces. Other guns on sale in Hollywood, Florida, included Uzi submachine pistols and Kalashnikov rifles.

AR-15 salesman Dallas Speer, 31, insisted it was right to go ahead with the show. Anyone buying one goes through a comprehensive background check, he said. It goes into felony charges, domestic abuse. We feel confident selling these.

Salesman Steve Rosenbaum, 71, expressed sympathy for the Parkland victims  but said he believed teachers should take weapons inside schools to combat an attack.

He added: People have a right to live their lives and those kids had a right to stay alive. But the show goes on, and thats the sentiment here.James Bulger killer Jon Venables has a secret girlfriend who knows about his vile past and his convictions over child abuse images.

The woman was told of her new boyfriend's true identity when their relationship got serious but she stood by him.

She was even at Venables' house when police discovered his sickening hoard of child sex images and plans to visit him in prison after he was jailed for 40 months, according to The Sun.

James Bulger's killer, Jon Venables, left, has a secret girlfriend who knows about his evil past, as well as his child sex charges. Right: Robert Thompson, also convicted of James' murder

The woman was told Venables murdered James (pictured) when their relationship got serious but she stood by him - and even plans to visit him in prison

Their relationship has emerged as two-year-old James' mother, Denise Fergus, demanded to know why her son's murderer was freed to offend again after spending just eight years locked up.

Ms Fergus is calling for a public inquiry to find out what parole bosses knew when they released Venables and fellow murderer Robert Thompson in 2001.

She has only now found out the full extent of James's sexual injuries after years of being unable to face the full horror of what happened to her son, according to the Sunday Mirror.

Venables, 35, was jailed for child sex offences earlier this month, five years after being released from a two-year sentence for similar offences.

But it has now been reported he has a secret girlfriend who not only knows he became a murderer at 10 years old but even plans to visit him in prison.

A source said: 'There is nothing to stop Venables dating, but when the relationship became serious officials had a duty to inform the woman about his past.

'That included full disclosure about his criminal history, including his role in murdering James Bulger.

The latest revelations come as James' mother, Denise Fergus, called for a public inquiry to find out why Venables was freed to offend again after just eight years locked up

'She must be the only woman in the world who's blissfully happy to be dating the devil.'

The woman, who cannot be named, is understood to have met Venables some time after he was given a second new identity in 2013.

The Probation Service monitored the couple during weekly visits to Venables and told him to reveal his true identity once the relationship became serious.The Florida school shooter's violent history reveals his mother called police multiple times to report angry outbursts against her, but without any felony convictions or psychiatric holds, he was legally able to purchase a gun.

The police were called to the Cruz family home 39 times since 2011. Now CNN reports that his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, bore the brunt of outbursts so angry, that she would often call the cops on her son, Nikolas Cruz.

According to police incident reports Cruz in one instance threw chairs, a dog bowl and a drinking glass around the home, and in another he hit his adoptive mother with the plastic hose of a vacuum cleaner.

Police would often respond, along with mental health professionals that were aware of Cruz's case history.

Nikolas Cruz, standing with his public defender Melissa McNeill, had a history of police calls about violence towards his mother

Lynda Cruz (pictured) called police on her son several times to report varying degrees of violence, and even told them of his desire to buy a gun when she called over an argument about getting paperwork after his 18th birthday

However, none of the calls ever ended with a conviction on felony charges, and he was never involuntarily held due to mental illness, two points that are flagged in the national gun background checks.

During one of dozens of times police responded to the Cruz family home for threats violent outbursts and self destructive behavior was in September of 2016.

In that incident report he is described as suffering from mental illness and being 'emotionally handicapped,' and being on behavioral medication.

Another report notes, 'He has mentioned in the past that he would like to purchase a firearm.'

Some of the reports also focused on his younger brother, Zachary, who turns 18 next week, and was just placed on involuntary hold on Friday under the Baker Act, which is Florida's involuntary hold for mental-illness

The emergency calls that the police received from the home included incidents categorized as 'mentally ill person,' 'child/elderly abuse,' 'domestic disturbance' and 'missing person.'

At least two calls reported Cruz as missing, in 2012 and 2013.

During an incident in November of 2012, Lynda called the police to report he hit her with with the plastic hose of a vacuum cleaner.

On another occasion on January 15, 2013, an angry Cruz railed against his mother after he refused to go scool, and she took away his Xbox privalges. During this one instance the teen 'retaliated and threw a chair, dog bowl and a drinking glass across the room.'

Cruz called Lynda 'a useless b****' and other profanities she declined to share with police at the time.

During this particularity volatile outburst, Lynda told police her son had a 'history of developmental and learning disabilities,' was 'increasingly irate' and suffered from ADHD.

Cruz was placed, cuffed, in the back of a police cruiser, while the responding officers interviewed Lynda.

Nina Barela, a counselor from the nearby Henderson Behavioral Health facility, where Cruz was a client for years, then arrived at the home and 'gave Nikolas his prescribed medication.'

He then 'began to calm down and cooperated.' During this incident, the counslor said he 'did not make any threats of harm to him or others,' the report said, Barela advised that it was unnecessary to invoke a Florida law allowing police to put a mentally ill person in custody.

'A Baker Act was not needed,' the report said.

Cruz's father Roger P. Cruz, purchased the Parkland home in 1996 and the family lived there until they sold the home in early 2017.

Roger Cruz died in 2004, and Lynda died in November.

And then, in a police report dated September 28, 2016, only days after Cruz's 18-birthday, he and his mother had a disagreement about paperwork he needed to get a Florida State identification card.

He was 'cutting his arms ... to get attention,' she told them, and he had mentioned he wanted to buy a gun before he had just turned of legal age.

Again, another mental health worker, this time Cruz's therapist from Henderson, Jared Bienenfeld, was 'on the scene at the home and deemed Nikolas to be no threat to anyone or himself at this present time,' according to the report.

Additionally an investigator with the Florida Department of Children and Families was there to check on the teen's well-being.

Fellow students, teachers, neighbors, as well as police, and mental health professionals who handled Cruz's cases, all were aware of the seemingly growing issues Nikolas Cruz was facing, and was inflicting on those around him.

Additionally he was expelled from the school where he carried out his carnage, for disciplinary reasons.

Nikolas Cruz held his adoptive mother in a reign of terror at their Parkland family home (right)

Cruz was able to legally purchase the AR-15 rifle he used to kill 14 students and three teachers with on Wednesday after passing a background check at this small local gunshop

However, without a conviction on a felony, or involuntary hold under the Baker Act, he was legally allowed to purchase the AR-15 semi-automatic weapon he used to kill 14 student and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14.

When Cruz purchased the AR-15 rifle at nearby Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs in February of 2017, according to officials, he passed the required government background check, and bought it legally.

Thursday evening, a lawyer for the gun shop owner delivered this statement to news reporters:

'The Morrisons here sold a lawful weapon to someone who was mentally ill. Someone who fell through the cracks. Someone who was not held accountable for their actions when they were expelled from school. Someone who was not put into any sort of database and someone who was essentially allowed to go unchecked before walking into this store and purchasing a firearm,' said Douglas Rudman, the attorney representing shop owner Michael F. Morrison.

The national government system checks for felony convictions, instances of domestic violence, addiction to illegal drugs and involuntary commitments due to mental illness.

It does not cover the early warning signs that Cruz displayed, the violent threats he posted to social media, school expulsions, and other mental health history or domestic disturbances that do not result in criminal charges.The Duchess of Yorks compensation claim against Rupert Murdoch over a cash-for-access sting that she says destroyed her reputation could leave her with a legal bill of more than 2.3million.

New documents show Sarah Fergusons legal fees are likely to reach 1,354,056 by the time her 40million action against the publisher of the now defunct News of the World reaches the High Court, possibly in the autumn.

The newspapers costs are estimated at 951,195, and she could be ordered to pay them as well if she loses her battle for what she claims are loss of earnings since the story tainted her public image.

The documents show the Duchess has already spent 321,556 on legal action against News Group Newspapers and fake sheikh journalist Mazher Mahmood, and has gone over budget on agreed or approved costs by 120,000.

The Duchess of York has filed a compensation claim against Rupert Murdoch over a cash-for-access sting that she says cost her 40million in lost wages

In the sting, she was filmed offering to arrange introductions to her former husband Prince Andrew in exchange for money, but later claimed she was in the gutter at the time and had been tricked by the newspaper.

The Mail on Sunday revealed in 2016 she was suing for 25million, but last month disclosed she had upped that to more than 40million.

Painting herself as a businesswoman and entrepreneur, she said potentially lucrative projects  ranging from book and film deals to celebrity endorsements  had virtually dried up after the story.

She said she missed out on 4.8million for personal appearances, 22million for two planned television animation shows and 8.6million on a deal to promote health products. Lawyers for Mr Murdochs publishing company have dismissed her claims as defective.

But the Duchess, 58, has faced long-standing financial problems, and questions have been raised about how she will find the cash to fund her legal battle.

Her legal fees are likely to reach 1,354,056 by the time her 40million action against the publisher of the now defunct News of the World reaches the High Court

Brought up by her polo-playing father Major Ronald Ferguson, her penchant for first-class air travel and lavish gifts, as well as her apparent willingness to cash in on her Royal connections, has caused concern.

Since her divorce, she has tried her hand at a range of enterprises, with varying degrees of success.

Her childrens books about Budgie The Helicopter, and bids to re-invent herself as a TV host, film-maker and the US face of Weight-Watchers, earned money, but she still ran up huge debts. At one point she owed Coutts Bank almost 2million, but she later paid off her debts.

She once said she had little understanding of money, adding: Im not just emotionally bankrupt, Im continually on the verge of financial bankruptcy. She has remained on friendly terms with Prince Andrew.

A spokesman for the Duchess declined to comment.Theresa May used a major speech yesterday to vow to take back full control of the UKs foreign policy immediately after Brexit  only to be greeted with mockery by her German audience.

The Prime Minister delighted the anti-Brussels wing of the Tory Party by telling a security conference in Munich that the UK would not wait until the end of any transition period to leave the EUs common foreign and security policy.

Mrs May said: We shouldnt wait where we dont need to.

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Theresa May told a security conference in Munich on Saturday that the UK would not wait until the end of any transition period to leave the EUs common foreign and security policy

Jacob Rees-Mogg (left) welcomed Mrs Mays pledge to pull out of the common foreign policy whereas upporters of Chancellor Philip Hammond, the leading Cabinet advocate for maintaining close links with Brussels, believe Mrs May is tacking towards a hard Brexit

Mrs May's speech came a day after crunch talks and a tense press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin (pictured) on the first leg of her trip to Germany

For the Brexiteers this would mark a powerfully symbolic break with the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which started the process of developing common EU foreign policies.

She also pleased the hard Brexit camp by arguing that our departure from the EU was a chance to reinvigorate the trans-Atlantic alliance between London and Washington.

WHEN WILL BRITAIN BE OUT OF THE EU? Britain triggered Article 50 on March 29, 2017, starting a two year process for leaving the EU: March 2018: Outline transition deal agreed, running for about two years June 2018: EU summit that Brussels says should consider broad principles of a future trade deal. October 2018: Political agreement on the future partnership due to be reached Early 2019: Major votes in Westminster and Brussels to ratify the deal March 29, 2019: Article 50 expires, Britain leaves the EU. Transition is expected to keep everything the same for about two years December 31, 2020: Transition expected to come to an end and the new relationship - if it has been agreed - should kick in Advertisement

But Mrs Mays stance annoyed some delegates at the conference.

After she had finished speaking, the host, Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German Ambassador to London, was greeted with loud applause when he told Mrs May: Things would be so much easier if you stayed [in the EU]. Mrs May, looking irritated, responded by ruling out a second referendum on Brexit.

A delegate then stood up to tell Mrs May that it would not be a matter of national shame if she did call a second poll on leaving the EU.

The foreign policy vow comes just days before a crunch Cabinet meeting at Chequers, when Mrs May will try to heal the rift in her senior ministerial team between the hard and soft Brexiteers. Thursdays all-day meeting is being held to agree a unified position on the Governments Brexit demands.

Supporters of Chancellor Philip Hammond, the leading Cabinet advocate for maintaining close links with Brussels, believe Mrs May is tacking towards the hard Brexit camp  because she fears being toppled as leader if they turn against her. Other pro-Remain MPs hope that Mrs May is throwing red meat to the Brexiteers to keep them onside.

The Munich speech was one of six being given by Mrs May and her senior Cabinet Ministers over the next fortnight, before the UK presents its Brexit demands to the EU at a Brussels summit next month.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson started the so-called road map to Brexit speeches with a poorly received address on Wednesday in which he called for greater divergence from EU rule-making.

The only soft Brexiteer giving a speech is Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington. One ally of the Chancellor said: May has decided that Boris and the Brexiteers pose a greater risk to her political survival than the Remain camp. But she needs to be careful  Philip will not stand for being humiliated.

In her speech, Mrs May argued for a deal that would allow the UK and the EU to agree distinct arrangements for our foreign and defence policy co-operation.

Mrs May also offered an olive branch to the EU over the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, saying that the UK would respect its remit when co-operating with EU agencies.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the head of the pro-hard Brexit group of Tory MPs, welcomed Mrs Mays pledge to pull out of the common foreign policy. He said: This decision normalises our relationship as one between sovereign states akin to those we have with our other allies.A fierce battle emerged last night between a No 10 aide caught in a porn row and a Tory spin doctor with close links to Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.

Carrie Symonds is fighting moves to sack her as the partys communications chief over claims that she spends too much time promoting the Brexit-backing Ministers and not enough time promoting Theresa May.

The dispute took an extraordinary turn last week when Mrs Mays Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell  who is leading efforts to overhaul Tory HQ  was embarrassed after he replied to a tweet concerning hardcore pornographic videos.

Mr Barwell has apologised and there is no suggestion of a connection between the Conservative HQ upheaval and his embarrassment.

However, the developments come amid an acrimonious power struggle in the party as divisions over Brexit and Mrs Mays leadership threaten to wreck its campaign for vital town hall elections in May.

Carrie Symonds is fighting moves to sack her as Tory's communications chief after being accused of being too politically close to Boris Johnson and Michael Gove (Pictured: Ms Symonds with Gove at a Black and White Party earlier this month)

If, as many Conservative MPs fear, the Tories lose seats to Labour, Mrs May could be forced to resign. When she made Brandon Lewis the party chairman in the recent reshuffle, she ordered him to prevent a repeat of Tory HQs shambolic campaign in last years Election.

Ms Symonds has been targeted as part of the shake-up after some senior Tories claimed she had become too politically close to Brexiteers Mr Johnson and Mr Gove. Conservative MP supporters of both men are believed to be plotting Mrs Mays downfall.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed a new pro-Gove WhatsApp group called Phoenix. Members say the title is a coincidence and does not imply Mr Gove is planning to rise again after his disastrous leadership bid in 2016.

Ms Symonds, a Phoenix member, was photographed chatting with Mr Gove at the Conservative Black and White Ball ten days ago. She is a former aide to another Brexit hardliner, ex-Cabinet Minister John Whittingdale.

A Tory source said: Theresa badly needs a strong and united team at Tory HQ. We cannot go on with the current shambles. Changes must be made.

But a friend of Ms Symonds said: Carrie is 100 per cent loyal to the PM, is excellent at her job and is working flat out to ensure the party does well in May. It is absurd to blame her for the partys troubles. Michael and Boris are determined she stays.UKIP was plunged into fresh turmoil last night as members dramatically ousted leader Henry Bolton over his love affair with a controversial model.

The ex-Army officer had lasted less than six months in the post and the pro-Brexit party will now have to go through its fourth leadership election since the EU referendum.

Mr Boltons downfall came at an emergency party meeting called after the The Mail on Sunday revealed his glamour-model girlfriend, Jo Marney, had made racist remarks about Meghan Markle.

UKIP was plunged into fresh turmoil last night as members dramatically ousted leader Henry Bolton over his love affair with a controversial model, Jo Marney

The revelations sparked fury from Ukip bosses and led to calls for him to quit as party leader.

He made a last-minute plea for the infighting to end at the behind-closed-doors meeting in Birmingham yesterday, while also vowing follow-up action against his enemies on the partys ruling body.

But a ballot of party members ended with 867 voting to sack him with just 500 showing support.

Ukips National Executive Committee moved swiftly afterwards to appoint as interim leader the party veteran and MEP Gerard Batten, who is notorious for calling Islam a death cult.

Taking to the stage at Birminghams International Convention Centre, he said: It gives me no pleasure or satisfaction whatsoever that we have had to be here today to make this difficult decision.

Weve had many crises and I think this one is about whether we have a future or not.

The revelations sparked fury from Ukip bosses and led to calls for him to quit as party leader

Mr Batten said he had offered his services as interim leader because he was committed to the party and getting Britain out of the EU. He would not say if he planned to stand in the forthcoming leadership contest but said: I want Ukip to be a populist party. I want to do something quite unusual in politics which is to have policies which are popular with the general public.

The bookmaker William Hill immediately made former leader Nigel Farage their 7/2 favourite to head up the party yet again.

But Mr Batten said Mr Farage had upset many members when he had suggested there could be a second EU referendum.

In a press conference after the meeting, Mr Batten highlighted controls on immigration as an early priority. He also advised Mr Bolton to get on with the rest of your life  but Mr Bolton raised the possibility that he might stand again for the leadership, or even sue the party, saying: You cannot keep a good man down  I am not finished with politics.

The crisis had begun when father- of-two Bolton, only elected Ukip leader in September, left his wife for the 25-year-old late last year.

Then The Mail on Sunday revealed she had made racist remarks about Meghan Markle and the Grenfell Tower disaster in a series of offensive messages to a friend.

Her party membership was suspended and Mr Bolton suffered a vote of no confidence from Ukips NEC, paving the way for yesterdays showdown. Mr Bolton had further angered the party faithful by keeping in touch with Miss Marney, and bizarrely claimed he had been hounded like Princess Diana.

In a further bizarre twist, Jo Marney wrote on Twitter: Well... @_HenryBolton... at least we dont have to have sex any more!  apparently a joking reference to the fact she was accused of only sleeping with him because he was party leader. She added: My love for Henry is unconditional of political leaderships.Jeremy Corbyn was part of a group of 15 Labour MPs who provided information to Soviet spies during the Cold War, a former Eastern-bloc agent claimed last night

Jeremy Corbyn was part of a group of 15 Labour MPs  including Ken Livingstone and current Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell  who provided information to Soviet spies during the Cold War, a former Eastern-bloc agent claimed last night.

Jan Sarkocy, a one-time Czech spy, said the hard-Left MPs were great sources in the 1980s, adding: From Mr Corbyn we obtained good information we could use.

Mr Sarkocy, 64, said there was no question that Mr Corbyn and the other sources knew that he was a spy, adding: Everything was absolutely clear at the time.

Mr Sarkocy claimed Mr Livingstone, then a Labour MP, was a good boy and in a very strong position in the Labour Party.

The claims  dismissed as a fantasy by Labour  came after Mr Sarkocy claimed Mr Corbyn had been paid to share information with the communist regime.

Speaking from his home in Bratislava, Slovakia, Mr Sarkocy told a Sunday newspaper he had met Mr Corbyn more than ten times.

Mr Sarkocy worked for the Statni Bezpecnost, or StB, at Czechoslovakias London embassy under the identity of a diplomat. He was in Britain from 1986 to 1989, when he was expelled.

His allegations come after documents released by the Czech government last week revealed Mr Sarkocy had met Mr Corbyn three times in London.

Mr Corbyn has admitted meeting Mr Sarkocy on a small number of occasions  including twice at the House of Commons. But he vigorously denies supplying information to a foreign power.

Labour last night described the claims as absurd, while Mr Livingstone said they were a tissue of lies.

He admitted to meeting a Russian representative, but said nothing happened. Mr McDonnell called the claims ridiculous.President Donald Trump took to Twitter Saturday to blame Democrats for failing to address gun control during the eight years President Obama was in office.

He took to Twitter to avert any blame and gloat that the opposition party couldn't pass any gun laws, accusing Democrats of using the issue as a political talking point.

'Just like they don't want to solve the DACA problem, why didn't the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration,' he wrote Saturday evening.

'Because they didn't want to, and now they just talk!'

This was the first time the president has addressed the issue of gun control since Wednesday's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, and came just hours after a rally where thousands of students, parents, teachers and politicians called on Trump and the Republican party to pass new gun restrictions.

Trump took to Twitter to avert any blame and gloat that the opposition party couldn't pass any gun laws, accusing Democrats of using the issue as a political talking point

'Just like they don't want to solve the DACA problem, why didn't the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration,' he wrote Saturday evening

This was the first time the president has addressed the issue of gun control since Wednesday's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Trump is pictured Friday visiting a trauma surgeon at a Florida Hospital where many victims are recovering

It also came just hours after a rally where thousands of students, parents, teachers and politicians called on Trump and the Republican party to pass new gun restrictions

The attack left 17 dead and 14 injured after accused gunman Nikolas Cruz entered the high school with an AR-15 Wednesday afternoon and opened fire on students and faculty members.

The attack left 17 dead and 14 injured after accused gunman Nikolas Cruz entered the high school with an AR-15 Wednesday afternoon and opened fire on students and faculty members

Before Saturday's tweet, Trump hadn't spoken about gun control at all, instead offering thoughts and prayers and touching on the shooter's alleged mental illness.

Just after the attack Trump tweeted to suggest that the 19-year-old attacker was 'mentally disturbed' and said more people should have alerted authorities.

'So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior,' Trump tweeted.

'Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!'

But during Saturday's rally, survivor and student Emma Gonzalez pointed out that students did report him 'again and again'.

'It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to her that he was the shooter,' Gonzalez said through tears.

She directly addressed Trump during her speech, demanding to know how much the NRA had donated to his campaign. During the presidential election, the gunowners' rights group pumped $31 million into ads supporting Trump and attacking his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Gonzalez also reminded the president that in February 2017 he repealed an Obama-era regulation that made it more difficult for people with mental illness to purchase firearms.

Just after the attack Trump tweeted to suggest that the 19-year-old attacker was 'mentally disturbed' and said more people should have alerted authorities. He is pictured with workers at the hospital where many victims are being treated

But during Saturday's rally, survivor and student Emma Gonzalez pointed out that students did report him 'again and again'

After Saturday's emotional anti-gun rally in Florida, CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted to invite President Trump to a live town hall the network is hosting with parents and students from Stoneman Douglas High School

That law came after the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012. Obama aggressively pushed for new gun restrictions after the shooting, announcing a sreies of executive actions intended to strengthen gun control.

He also urged congress to pass legislation and address the matter.

In 2013 two gun control measures failed to pass. the first was a ban on assault weapons, proposed by California's Dianne Feinstein. The second called for universal background checks, introduced by Senators Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey, a democrat and a republican, respectively.

But Republicans have had control of the House of Representatives since 2011, and regained control of the Senate in 2014, making it difficult for any further legislation to pass.

After Saturday's emotional anti-gun rally in Florida, CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted to invite President Trump to a live town hall the network is hosting with parents and students from Stoneman Douglas High School.

The network announced it will air 'Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action' on Wednesday following calls from students demanding lawmakers take action.

CNN has invited Trump, Florida Governor Rick Scott, Florida Senators Marco Ruio and Bill Nelson, and Representative Ted Deutch.

Governor Rick Scott has said he plans to talk to legislative leaders in the coming week about what could be done to make it harder for people who are mentally ill to purchase a gun.Police are urgently appealing for help to locate a missing Gold Coast mother and her 18-month-old daughter.

There are fears Tara Inglis, 27, doesn't have items such as food and clothing to care for her baby.

Ms Inglis was last seen pushing her toddler in a pink pram on Tuesday afternoon near an intersection in Booval, west of Brisbane.

There are fears Tara Inglis, 27, doesn't have items such as food and clothing to care for her baby

Ms Inglis was last seen pushing her toddler in a pink pram on Tuesday afternoon near an intersection in Booval, west of Brisbane

Police believe Ms Inglis and her daughter, along with a man known to her, were at the Booval Fair Shopping Centre around the same time.

The man has since been spoken to by police.

Detectives are now attempting to confirm Ms Inglis's movements last Tuesday and are urging anyone who may know her whereabouts to contact them.

It's understood Ms Inglis and her daughter both have medical conditions and there are concerns she doesn't have food or clothing for either herself or her daughter.

Ms Inglis is described as approximately 150cm tall with a very slim build and short, dyed red hair and was last seen wearing a blue T-shirt, shorts and thongs.Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Friday that she plans to introduce legislation that will raise the age limit to buy a rifle from 18 to 21.

'Licensed gun dealers cannot sell a handgun to anyone under 21, but they are allowed to sell assault rifles like the AR-15 to anyone over 18. This policy is dangerous and makes absolutely no sense,' Feinstein said in a statement.

'If you can't buy a handgun or a bottle of beer, you shouldn't be able to buy an AR-15,' she continued. 'This is common sense, and I hope my Republican colleagues will join me in this effort.'

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (pictured) walks through the senate basement following a vote on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2018 in Washington, DC

Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Friday that she plans to introduce legislation in the coming days

Following the rampage of Nikolas Cruz on Wednesday during which he killed 17 with a legally obtained weapon at a Florida high school, many are asking why a liquor store is stricter than a gun store.

As federal law currently stands, individuals under the age of 21 are prohibited from purchasing handguns. Licensed gun dealers, however, are allowed to sell 'long guns' and other assault style rifles to adult teenagers.

Following the rampage of Nikolas Cruz (pictured) on Wednesday during which he killed 17, many are asking why a liquor store is stricter than a gun store

Some gun-shy states such as California and New York impose their own stricter regulations ontop of the federal law, so even though they will sell hunting rifles to 16-year-olds, assault rifles such as the AR-15 are totally banned.

But some states like Kentucky and Kansas do not bolster the bare federal law at all, meaning that legally it would be up to the conscience of the dealer to sell or not to sell to anyone old enough to exchange money and buy an AR-15.

In 1994, then President Bill Clinton signed a federal ban on the sale, possession and manufacturing of what it called 'assault weapons' and large-capacity magazines.

The law, however, expired in 2004 and was not renewed by congress.

Despite the mishmash of gun laws across the nation according to the Giffords Law Center there are 30 states that have 18 as a minimum age to buy an AR-15.

But of course the United States has a drinking age of 21, meaning that a teenager can legally arm himself with enough weaponry to kill 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but to drink one can of beer is breaking the law.In Australia in 2017 there were 56,000 reports filed with the ACCC's Scamwatch involving ransomware, identity theft, phishing, hacking and online shopping scams alone and 160,000 in total.

In January 2018, nearly $11,000,000 was lost to online scams ranging from investment schemes to online shopping.

The rise of ransomware is causing a lot of heartache for Australians, 9 News reported that victims of ransomware are likely to lose at least $1000 on average whereas victims of phishing scams are at risk of losing more.

Australians lost $11,000,000 in January, 2018 alone with $100 million lost in total in 2017 through online frauds and scams

Ransomware is defined as a type of malicious software which is designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid, a 'ransom.'

A high profile ransomware case involving Russia's biggest oil company and the Australian offices of Global law firm DLA Piper, The Guardian reported in 2017.

In this case DLA Piper was forced to to take down its entire IT network after a 'major cyber incident' occurred.

Phishing scams are the practice of creating a duplicate template of an official website designed to lure unsuspecting consumers into giving their bank and personal details to a seemingly reputable company.

Victims of phishing are more likely to lose $3000 on average.

The Verve recently reported that a phishing attack on Snapchat compromised 50,000 Snapchat users.

Using public WiFi increases the risk of falling victim to online scams and users are advised to avoid using sites with their personal details while on a public WiFi network

With online consumerism becoming increasingly popular people need to be more aware of the risks and how t protect themselves against online scams.

Public WiFi hot spots are also becoming increasingly risky areas and you should always keep your personal details safe when accessing pubic WiFi.

In short don't use public WiFi to do your banking or anything else that requires you to enter your personal or banking details.

Internet security software for your home computer is the first and easiest way to help protect yourself against scams and there are plenty on the market to choose from.

Fake emails are a common scam employed by fraudsters and can infect your device with a number of viruses or could lead you down a rabbit hole of sites and introduce ransomware to the mix.

People are advised not to trust any email at face value just because it has come from what looks like a reputable company, look and look again and then visit the official website of the company to make direct contact in regards to the email.

And the mobile phone, which most if not all people posses, should always be protected by a strong password, as with all other devises, strong security starts with a strong password.A Tory MPs researcher has been sacked after The Mail on Sunday unearthed racist and Islamophobic posts on Facebook.

Jordan Hennessy, 23, who served as the press officer for Jack Lopresti, Conservative MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke, made a series of offensive posts in a closed Facebook group called The Young Free Speech Society.

They included boasting of regularly shredding Korans in Mr Loprestis office. Hennessy claims the statement was an outlandish joke.

A spokesman for Mr Lopresti, Conservative MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke, said: I was appalled by the comments by Jordan Hennessy'

Last week, a member of the group posted a photo of a couple wearing a black cosmetic face mask asking Is this racist? In response, Hennessy wrote: Yes, and I like it, and included a video of the black actor William Warfield singing Ol Man River.

Last night Mr Hennessy apologised for any offence caused saying that he abhorred racism and would never disrespect a holy text.

A spokesman for Mr Lopresti said: I was appalled by the comments by Jordan Hennessy.

I have accepted his resignation with immediate effect.Jeremy Corbyn, pictured here in the 1980s, was part of a group of 15 Labour MPs who provided information to Soviet spies during the Cold War, a former Eastern-bloc agent has claimed

Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Ken Livingstone were among a group of at least 15 Labour figures who passed information to the Soviet Union, a former Eastern-bloc agent has claimed.

Former Czechoslovak spy Jan Sarkocy said the hard-Left politicians were 'great sources' in the 1980s.

Mr Sarkocy, 64, claims there is 'no question' Mr Corbyn and his Labour colleagues knew he was a spy and said: 'Everything was absolutely clear at the time.'

Mr Livingstone, then a Labour MP, was a 'good boy', the Czech agent told the Sunday Telegraph.

He said he had met 'about '10 or 15' Labour MPs but did not name them.

Labour has dismissed Mr Sarkocy's latest claims, which come after he previously alleged Mr Corbyn was a paid informant of the Czech secret police at the height of the Cold War.

Mr Livingstone last night denied the accusations, saying they were a 'tissue of lies'. He admitted meeting a Russian 'representative' though said nothing happened.

Mr McDonnell, now Labour's shadow chancellor, described the claims as 'ridiculous'.

Labour sources said the claims were 'entirely false' and insisted Mr Mr Sarkocy has 'no credibility at all'.

Former Czechoslovak spy Jan Sarkocy claims Mr Corbyn, as well as John McDonnell (left), Ken Livingstone (right) were 'great sources' in the 1980s

Last week documents showed Ron Brown, the late Scottish Labour MP, was also noted as a contact in Sarkocy's files under the codename 'Bento'.

Speaking from his home in Bratislava, Slovakia, Mr Sarkocy told the Sunday Telegraph he had met Mr Corbyn 'more than ten times' .

He had previously said he recruited the MP, codenamed Cob, in the 1980s.

Mr Corbyn was an 'asset' who knew he was working with the Soviet puppet state, Mr Sarkocy claimed.

Last week it emerged Mr Corbyn had hosted Mr Sarkocy  who was posted to Britain as a diplomat under a fake identity  in the House of Commons.

The Labour leader insisted he had no idea Mr Sarkocy, who was actually working for the Czech secret police and was later expelled from Britain by Margaret Thatcher, was a spy.

Mr Corbyn's aides described the claims as a 'ridiculous smear and entirely false'.

Former Czechoslovak spy Jan Sarkocy said the hard-Left politicians were 'great sources' in the 1980s

Former spy Jan Sarkocy has made fresh allegations against senior Labour figures. He claims Mr Corbyn, Mr McDonnell and Mr Livingstone were all spying for the Russians in the 1980s

But Mr Sarkocy directly challenged Mr Corbyn's account, insisting the MP had known about his role within Statni Bezpecnost (StB)  the Communist era secret police force in the country.

'It was a consensual collaboration,' Mr Sarkocy said. At his home in rural Slovakia, the 64-year-old added: 'He was our asset, he had been recruited. He was getting money from us.'

The former agent said the operation to cultivate Mr Corbyn, who allegedly told him that he 'admired' the Soviet Union, was overseen by officials in Russia.

'Recruitment [of Corbyn] was overlooked and secured by Russians,' he said. 'All the information that we got from him and one other supporting source had been verified and then valued not only here, but in Russia as well  It was like this, when we got a tip on someone we worked together with the Russians.'

Mr Corbyn's aides strongly denied the claims.

Last week secret documents suggested the spy targeted Mr Corbyn in the hope of finding information on MI5 and MI6, as well on America's nuclear regime.

Mr Sarkocy said he would not talk about the information Mr Corbyn discussed because the matter was 'confidential'. But he revealed that the Labour leader had helped him build contacts.

Mr Corbyn has claimed the pair simply had a 'cup of tea' in the Commons.

Mr Corbyn strongly denies Mr Sarkocy's allegations. He claimed the pair simply had a 'cup of tea' in the Commons

Mr McDonnell, now Labour's shadow chancellor, described the claims as 'ridiculous'. Mr Livingstone denied the accusations, saying they were a 'tissue of lies'

However, Mr Sarkocy  who at the time used the alias Lieutenant Jan Dymic  said they met more often than the three times listed in archived records. He said Mr Corbyn was a regular at events within the Czech embassy in Kensington, London, at the time. The ex-spy claimed the then backbench MP was also in touch with other StB agents working from within the agency.

Asked if he met Mr Corbyn on more occasions than documented, he said: 'Yes, of course. It's not important what you can find in official documents. Don't forget, a lot of them were destroyed.'

As well as their two Westminster meetings in 1986 and 1987, and a meeting at Mr Corbyn's constituency office, he claimed that they met in 'intellectual circles'.

'You can't do it openly,' the Slovak national said. 'What was important for us was to be able to move on, get more contact to create a network. He [Corbyn] put us in touch with other people  He knew I was there as a diplomat.

'At that time there was no question about whether you were working for the StB or as a diplomat. It was the same. There was no reason to stress that I was working for the StB because I was working in diplomacy.'

The Labour leader met the Czech agent at least three times after being vetted by communist handlers in 1986, papers reveal

Mr Corbyn allegedly provided the spies with material about the arrest of an East German, according to the leaked documents

Mr Sarkocy, who went on to become a businessman after going back to Slovakia and having a brief return to spying before the fall of the Iron Curtain, added: 'Corbyn admired the Soviet Union at the time  Money wasn't his sole motive.

'These were all highly intellectual and mature people, graduates of universities like Cambridge, Oxford.'

Asked how he tried to establish Mr Corbyn as a contact, he said: 'Well you come and get to talking, you politely ask whether he'd like to co-operate or not, how he sees things. The binding act can be in written form or verbal.'

He added that 'if something happened at the time, he [Corbyn] knew he could go live in Russia', but he denied that any such proposal was discussed with the MP.

Three years after Mr Sarkocy arrived in London posing as a diplomat in the Czech embassy, he was evicted by Mrs Thatcher for his role in a spy ring with three others.

The ex-spy, who was renowned by bosses for his innovative ways of cultivating sources, last week bragged about his ability to work inside the British system.

One page of the documents reveals contact was established with Mr Corbyn twice in 1986

A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in Scotland on Monday) denied the allegations, branding them 'smears'

'I knew what Margaret Thatcher would eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day and what dress she would be wearing,' he said.

Hinting at his proximity to other MPs during his trips to the Commons, he added: 'I was going there for a whisky. There was a really good whisky. It is great to be on the terrace and looking at the River Thames.'

How Corbyn helped two Cuban spies come to UK Jeremy Corbyn faces fresh questions over links to foreign secret agents as it emerged he helped two Cuban spies to Britain. The Labour leader hosted the pair in the Commons in July 2016 despite warnings they were a threat to national security. Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez had served jail terms in the US after being convicted of spying for Fidel Castro's government on Cuban exiles. It comes after it was alleged Mr Corbyn was 'groomed' as a contact by a Czechoslovakian spy in the 1980s  a claim which he strongly denies. The Cuban spies were part of the Miami Five, a group arrested in 1998 and found guilty in 2001 of trying to infiltrate US military installations. Gonzalez was released in 2011, while Hernandez was let out in 2014. Mr Corbyn invited Gonzalez to Commons meetings on Cuba-US relations, but he was denied a visa by then home secretary Theresa May on security grounds. MPs led by Mr Corbyn and John McDonnell wrote to the Court of Appeal saying this breached his human rights. Their appeal was upheld. Advertisement

Documents seen by the Daily Mail last week showed Ron Brown, the late Scottish Labour MP, was also noted as a contact in Sarkocy's files under the codename 'Bento'.

At the time, there was significant concern that spies from behind the Iron Curtain were targeting members of the Labour Party for state secrets.

Mr Sarkocy, an engineering graduate, moved to London in May 1986.

Secret documents in an StB archive in Prague revealed Mr Corbyn was vetted as a possible contact by the Czech interior ministry and displayed a 'positive' view of the eastern bloc during meetings.

Experts have said the documented information points to the Labour leader being cultivated as a possible source rather than serving as an active informant.

The pair are said to have first met after Mr Sarkocy received a tip-off from a 'very important Labour MP' who worked within the trade union movement at the time. On Thursday night, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: 'Jeremy was neither an agent, asset, informer nor collaborator with Czechoslovak intelligence. These claims are a ridiculous smear and entirely false.

'The former Czechoslovak agent Jan Sarkocy's account of his meeting with Jeremy was false 30 years ago, is false now and has no credibility whatsoever. His story has more plot holes in it than a bad James Bond movie.'

Labour officials pointed out that Svetlana Ptacnikova, director of the Czech Security Forces Archive that keeps documents of the StB, said Mr Corbyn was 'neither registered [by the StB] as a collaborator, nor does this [his alleged collaboration] stem from archive documents'.

A Labour spokesman said: 'The former Cold War Czechoslovak agent Jan Sarkocy is a fantasist, whose claims are entirely false and becoming more absurd by the day.

'These ridiculous smears should be given no credence whatsoever.'

A spokesman for John McDonnell added: 'These are ridiculous and false allegations.

'John never met any Czechoslovak or Soviet agent, nor visited the Soviet or Russian embassy and has only visited Guildford once in his life, which was last year for a Labour Party public meeting.'The son of missing murder suspect Lord Lucan has provoked outrage by launching a fashion label using his father's 'sullied' title.

George Bingham and his wife Anne-Sofie Lucan have set up Lucan Fashion, which describes itself as 'City and Country clothing with a twist'.

Shooting gear including an 895 Donegal tweed Norfolk jacket and a 1,200 Castlebar coat for women are up for sale.

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Lord Lucan (pictured with Victoria Lucan in 1963) was finally declared dead in 2016 after disappearing in 1974 following the murder of their nanny - but police believe it's not impossible that he is still alive

George Bingham - the son of the missing peer - and his wife Anne-Sofie Lucan have set up Lucan Fashion, which describes itself as 'City and Country clothing with a twist'

George Bingham (pictured left arriving at the High Court in December 2015 to obtain a death certificate for his late father) said his mother (pictured right) had enjoyed living rent-free at a property in Belgravia, London, for the latter years of her life

Shooting gear including an 895 Donegal tweed Norfolk jacket and a 1,200 Castlebar coat for women are up for sale

Scotland Yard say the peer remains a suspect over the 1974 killing of Sandra Rivett (pictured) - her son Neil is bitterly critical of the new clothing range

Scotland Yard say the peer remains a suspect over the 1974 killing of Sandra Rivett and insist there is no 'evidential or tangible proof' for his death.

The earl has reportedly been spotted hundreds of times since he disappeared, but none have ever been substantiated.

Ms Rivett's son, Neil Berriman, a builder from Hampshire, is reported by the Sunday Express to have told friends he considers the title to be 'tainted' and naming a clothing range after it was 'sick'.

'I don't know why anyone would want to have this label on them,' he said.

Scotland Yard last week said that it believed that Lucan  who would now be in his mid-80s  could still be alive after the MoS applied for the release of files about the first ten years of the Met's investigation into the murder and his disappearance under the Freedom of Information Act.

When the police refused to hand over the files, this newspaper complained to the Information Commissioner's Office.

In its response, which the watchdog ultimately agreed with, the Met argued that disclosure could hamper attempts to capture the peer and any accomplices.

The force stated: 'Lord Lucan is still very possibly alive and remains an outstanding murder suspect.'

They argued that the High Court declarations that he was presumed dead 'does not mean the murder case is closed'.

'Although there has not been any proof of life there has neither been any indication of evidential/tangible proof of Lord Lucan's death,' they said.

'There is statistically a very reasonable chance that he would still be alive.'

Lord Lucan has twice been declared legally dead in the four decades since he went missing after the murder of his family's nanny

They cited the fact that war criminals from the Second World War were still being brought to justice in their 90s as reason for keeping the case open.

Lucan went missing on November 7, 1974, after an intruder at the family home in Belgravia, Central London, bludgeoned Mrs Rivett to death and attacked the peer's estranged wife.

Lady Lucan later identified her attacker as her husband, and an inquest named him as Mrs Rivett's killer.

In 1999, the High Court declared Lord Lucan dead so his family could take control of his estate, but did not issue a death certificate, meaning the peer's eldest son, George Bingham, could not take over the earldom.

That situation changed in 2016 at a second High Court hearing, which said he should be presumed dead.

After that judgment the new Lord Lucan said he suspected his father had taken his own life.

The missing peer's widow Veronica, who died last year, also believed he killed himself.

It is widely assumed Lucan, who had been battling for custody of his children, intended to murder his wife but killed Mrs Rivett in error.

His bloodstained car was found in Newhaven, Sussex, hours later.Britain's most violent prisoner Charles Bronson (pictured)

Britain's most violent prisoner Charles Bronson is now free to dance and sing with his wife after recently being moved to a different jail.

Former soap actress Paula Williamson was used to getting only a peck through bars from her husband before he was moved to a new prison last month.

Bronson, 65, was moved from Wakefield jail to Frankland in County Durham.

Last week the couple waltzed around the visitor's room as Bronson sang the Louis Armstrong tune 'It's a Wonderful World'.

Paula, 38, has revealed that while the set up still lacks privacy - with prison officers always being in the room - it is a lot more intimate than the previous arrangement.

'Before, I was forced to kiss Charlie through the cell bars, but now we can have a kiss and cuddle like a normal married couple,' she said, reported the Mirror.

At the Wakefield jail their policy for high security units meant open visits weren't allowed.

The move means Bronson's new wife is facing a 200-mile round trip to visit her husband.

This is double the journey she had when she visited him at HMP Wakefield from her home in Stoke-on-Trent.

The pair married in November in the chapel at the Yorkshire prison, before she flew out to Malta with a friend for her honeymoon.

Former soap actress Paula Williamson (left) was used to getting only a peck through bars from her husband (right) before he was moved to a new prison last month

In 1999 he was given a life sentence after taking prison art teacher Phil Danielson hostage at HMP Hull after he criticised one of his drawings

The Category A prisoner - who has been a prison inmate for 43 years, during which he has beaten up prison officers, held numerous rooftop sieges and once threatened to eat an inmate he had taken hostage - plans to begin a specialist psychological unit class in a bid to downgrade to Category B.

Bronson will now share a prison with some of the country's most notorious lags, including Soham murderer Ian Huntley, serial killer Levi Bellfield, Lee Rigby murderer Michael Adebolajo and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

Bellfield was in an adjoining cell to Bronson in segregation at Wakefield Prison, and boasted about how 'terrorised' him and wrote in a letter how 'that little fat leprechaun Charlie Bronson is still perving over young men.'

HMP Frankland is believed to hold 'bad memories' for Bronson as he previously took a deputy governor hostage there and has been 'doing well' at HMP Wakefield, passing a string of violence reduction courses.

Bronson will now share a prison with some of the country's most notorious lags, including serial killer Levi Bellfield (left) and Lee Rigby murderer Michael Adebolajo

Bronson, real name Michael Peterson, was first locked up for armed robbery in 1974, but during his time inside he has taken hostages in 10 prison sieges, attacked at least 20 prison officers and caused 500,000 in damage in rooftop protests.

In 1999 he was given a life sentence after taking prison art teacher Phil Danielson hostage at HMP Hull after he criticised one of his drawings.

After two failed marriages, his new wife Paula Williamson says her husband has changed his ways.

'People said our romance is a sham but he's the only man I want,' said Paula.

In recent years her husband has turned his hand to art and changed his surname from Bronson to Salvador in tribute to the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.Sometimes they come with turrets, sometimes with battlements, and sometimes they are just a solitary tower, but castles are the stuff of property dreams. They just drip with history and, if you are very lucky, will have a romantic tale to tell.

Duchray Castle is an archetypal fairy-tale affair. It sits in 80 acres on the edge of the Trossachs with six miles of a trout and salmon river. And it boasts a thrilling association with Rob Roy MacGregor, the Scottish Robin Hood, outlaw, swordsman and supporter of the Jacobite rebellion, who took refuge at the castle after his father was imprisoned in 1689.

1.5 million: Duchray Castle is an archetypal fairy-tale affair. It sits in 80 acres on the edge of the Trossachs with six miles of a trout and salmon river

Duchray Castle, Stirlingshire, 1.5m: It boasts a thrilling association with Rob Roy MacGregor, the Scottish Robin Hood, outlaw, swordsman and supporter of the Jacobite rebellion, who took refuge at the castle after his father was imprisoned in 1689

Here he was sheltered by the Graham family until the Redcoats arrived. While one Graham sister distracted the soldiers, the other helped Rob Roy escape from a tower window by knotting together bedsheets.

Oliver and Frances Bigwood have owned Duchray, which was built in 1509, for the past eight years. We fell in love with it the minute we saw it, says Oliver. It had everything  Gothic architecture, a river, streams, hills and forest. They had been living in Edinburgh, with Oliver involved in property renovation and Frances in event management.

Frances always wanted to run a weddings venue, and I wanted a really huge restoration project. The castle had been abandoned then repossessed, there were no working drains, the roof leaked, and entire windows were missing. It was the ultimate challenge.

Restoration took two and a half years, with Oliver doing much of the work himself.

For the past five years the Bigwoods have run Duchray Castle as a B&B and weddings venue. They are moving to the Isle of Wight to be nearer to family.

I will miss the views down the valley, the red deer, the swifts, the pine martens  rare things that are hard to find in the world today, Frances says.

Northumberland, 600,000: Bedrooms 4 Unique features One wing of the Grade I listed Callaly Castle near Alnwick; drawing and dining rooms with mezzanine levels; glass atrium; double garage; house listed in Pevsners Architectural Guide as one of the most interesting and varied houses in Northumberland; 27 acres of shared gardens and grounds

Isle of Man, 3.95m: Bedrooms 8 Unique features 1833 castle on Douglas Head, half a mile from the town of Douglas and overlooking its bay; octagonal reception hall; sun and roof terraces; wine cellar; four reception rooms; three bathrooms; home of Victorian artist John Martin; guest house; cottage; three acres of land

Edinburgh, 6m: 16th Century castle within three miles of the centre of Edinburgh; Grade B listed; stables; gatehouse; 4.4 acres; on sale freehold for the first time in nearly 300 years; recently used as offices, with seven of the rooms easily convertible into bedrooms; visitors have included Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Anderson and Alfred Lord TennysonMelania Trump wants everyone to try the 'power of kindness,' offering the encouraging words via Twitter for 'Random Acts of Kindness Day.'

'I encourage everyone to test the power of kindness on Random Acts of Kindness Day. It's an opportunity to teach our children the importance of taking care of one another,' the first lady tweeted.

People on the social media platform called the tweet 'Tone deaf' while others referred to the president and First Lady's Florida hospital visit photo-op Friday night where they stood smiling with staff and a victim just two days after the horrific school shooting.

At least no thumbs up: The president was criticized for his bright smile and also giving a thumbs up while visiting a victim of the Florida school shooting

Thumbs up! The issue of 'tone deaf' for the Trumps just days after the school massacre first came up during Friday night's hospital photo op

Some people chided the First Lady, calling out previous tweets from her husband where he has spoken in an unkind way.

However, not everyone took issue with the First Lady, as many reacted positively to the tweet with sweet messages like, 'Thank you for the positive motivation,' and, 'You are an amazing person Melania, thank you for encouraging this!'

One of Melania's priorities is her anti-bullying campaign, which she launched back in October.

'We need to step up, come together, and ensure that our children's future is bright,' she explained during a speech at the United Nations that same month.

On Friday night the president shared images from his visit to a Florida hospital where victims are still recovering after a gunman, armed with an AR-15 rifle, slaughtered 14 students and three teachers Wednesday.

A brightly smiling Donald Trump flashed the thumbs up sign during his visit where he spoke with a trauma surgeon and hospital staff, before dodging a question about gun control.

The president told reporters at Broward Health North Hospital that he met with victims: 'Yes I did, yes I did, I did indeed and it's very sad that something like this happened,' before sharing the smiling photo op.

The president refused to answer a reporter who followed up with 'Mr. President, do gun laws need to be changed?'

Before they left for Florida, the First Lady broke tradition and hopped on Air Force 1 solo, the same day a Playmate accused her husband of cheating with her in 2006

Trump and Melania were seen talking to Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, a trauma surgeon at Broward Health North Hospital while in the hospital hallways before addressing the waiting press pool where his dialogue focused mainly on praising first responders.

On Twitter several people hit out at the president's thumbs up gesture and wide grin while visiting the hospital that handled the trauma victims that flooded the hospital Wednesday afternoon.

They departed the hospital in the motorcade at 7:15pm, according to a pool log by a New York Times reporter.

The president and Melania also spoke to first responders at the Broward County Sheriff's Office.The world of humanitarian aid is not Hollywood. And despite recent appearances, the world of humanitarian aid is much more than a sex party in Haiti. For sure I know I am not Harvey Weinstein. And I am not Roland van Hauwermeiren [the former Oxfam chief accused of using prostitutes in Haiti] .

But I think back to near the end of my 30-month stint as a rural development agent in West Africa. I went to the Flamboyant, a favourite nightclub for male expats in the capital of the country I worked in.

For most of my stint I had promoted and honoured the moral code that it was wrong to hook up with club girls and engage a professional girlfriend as was common. Anxiety and insecurity propped up my sexual self-righteousness. But here is an entry from my diary that betrays the fragility and hypocrisy of my moral convictions.

The world of humanitarian aid is much more than a sex party in Haiti (pictured)

I got horny enough to follow through on my resolve to get laid the easy way. It [the club] was packed with whores, some eye-catching and some not in the least bit so. Two ugly Ghanaians approached me but I told them not to come to my hotel. Then I went out and danced with a dungareed, aloof-looking girl. Her name is Ami. Intelligent, distant, not very interesting in bed and attractive. I like her.

Later I visited the Flamboyant again, leaving with a woman named Aisha. Another time with Maimouna. I would eventually try to justify my actions to my wife by saying there was never a direct transaction for money. Ami, Aisha, and Maimouna were not prostitutes, there was no quid pro quo. I didnt have any direct power over these women; they came on to me!

You could find similar women in clubs in any major city in the world. Statuesque and intelligent young women who will leave with less statuesque though perhaps wealthier older men. I know I am no Harvey. I know I am no Roland. Over my 15 years with a big agency I had no relationships with beneficiaries, staff, prostitutes. I didnt have a professional girlfriend  where the financial transaction is unspoken, such as help buying a new pair of shoes or dinner at a nice restaurant.

But as Quentin Tarantino said [about the Weinstein scandal]: I knew enough to do more than I did. I recall the bevy of local girlfriends at the parties in Luanda; our well-marked cars parked in the prostitute cruising area; seeing a local woman exit the shower in the morning, never to be seen again; cringe-worthy relationships between senior and junior staff, or international and national staff.

This was the powerful sense of entitlement earned from the nobility of humanitarian aid. There were deep bays of machismo and rivers of old boy networks that accounted for too much in the way of promotion and position. There was turning a blind eye not from fear but acceptance. That I helped develop our safeguarding policy and facilitated training sessions only complicates this picture. Sixteen years ago, a report exposing routine sexual abuse by aid workers on refugee children in West Africa jolted our sector. Progress was made. But jolts fade and cultures of abuse show resilience and endure. The Oxfam scandal is deeply distressing, not least since Oxfam has always been among the finest in fighting this culture of abuse.

But the humanitarian sector descends as the saviour of helpless victims, and it is within this lopsided environment that disturbing relationships take place. There is a risk in placing aid workers among the traumatised, desperate and broken. Aid work transforms an ordinary guy like me into a hedge fund titan or the owner of a Ferrari  it places in my pocket a ticket to the high life and a passport out of hell. Therein lay the path to my moral undoing.

I am not Harvey. I am not Roland. But that is not good enough. We dwelled in the same culture. We propagated its rituals and allowed ourselves, in different ways, to become shamefully corrupted. This is the global culture of rape, harassment, abuse and the devaluation of women. It often faded to invisible for me, or was pushed aside by matters more comfortable to prioritise. Now we all need to be more open  although I fear the catastrophic impact of this saga on Oxfam risks driving these issues below ground and making them more difficult to expunge.

I had to read through months of my diary entries from more youthful days to locate my encounter with Ami. Many passages brought a smile or a sense of pride. Many others left a deep sense of sadness. I cried for a moment. It is painful not to be the person I believe myself to be. I knew right from wrong and yet I managed to find enough moral wiggle room to engage in abuse.

That women in Hollywood, politics and now the aid world speak of their experiences, and that men condemn those responsible  and accept responsibility for their own actions  is crucial. When it comes to aid work, men need to rethink what it means to possess and exercise power. Not just with regard to women. For it goes far deeper.

We are seeing the imbalances of power and the inequitable relationships that criss-cross the core culture of our sector.A worker has died after being trapped inside heavy machinery at the Bungala solar power plant the construction South Australia.

Emergency crews were called out to the solar far, located 10km outside of Port Augusta at 3.30pm on Saturday The Advertiser reported.

Safework South Australia has declined to provide any further details about the incident however an investigation into the man's death will be launched as soon as possible.

A worker has been killed after being trapped inside machinery at the under construction Bungala solar farm near Port Augusta in South Australia

The solar farm is expected to be one of the biggest in Australia upon its completion and will most likely be the first major one to participate in the frequency control and ancillary services market (FCAS Market).

The ancillary services are used by the Australian Energy Market Operator to oversee the safe use of energy.

In 2017 project developer, Reach Energy, agreed to sell the solar farm to two of Europe's biggest renewable energy investment companies, the Dutch Infrastructure Fund and Italys Enel Green Energy according to a report by Renew Economy.

This is Enel Green Energy's first project in Australia, the company stating its interest in renewable energy investment in Australia.

The solar farm will be the biggest in Australia upon its completion and will create energy for up to 82,000

Upon its completion its expected the solar farm will generate enough energy to power up to 82,000 homes with hundreds of of solar panels.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be $315 million and could create 350 jobs for the Port Augusta community.

The project is expected to be complete and full operational by the middle to late part of 2018.

The Bungala solar project with feature modular utility-sized battery storage systems which can be adapted to specific demands

Port Augusta is proving an ideal location for solar farms with an average 300 sunny days per year.

Construction is also expected to begin on a 150MW solar thermal power plantEric Bolling, the disgraced Fox News host who was fired after claims of sexual harassment, announced that he's helping President Donald Trump battle the growing opioid addiction.

In an op-ed for CNN about his son's tragic overdose in September, Bolling revealed there were warning signs that he and his wife, Adrienne, had missed.

'Like many parents, we worried about the possibility he was getting involved with harder drugs. But we never expected this would happen to him. We were guilty of the "not our kid" syndrome,' the 54-year-old said.

Former Fox News host Eric Bolling (left) revealed he's an ambassador against opioid addition following the death of his son Eric Chase Bolling (right)

Eric Chase (left) died in September at the age of 19 from an accidental overdose. Eric Chase is pictured above with his father Eric Bolling (right)

In an op-ed for CNN, Bolling (right) revealed that he learned of his son's death after leaving dinner with his wife Adrienne (left)

Bolling said in the weeks before 19-year-old Eric Chase died, he had become distant, would skip his summer glasses and wan't interested in talking with his parents. Bolling said he and his wife noticed the changes in Eric Chase's behavior and 'now wish we had done more to address'.

Eric Chase was a student at the University of Colorado when he died

'Eric Chase was a really good student at the University of Colorado. He was a social kid, liked to go to parties and had joined a fraternity,' he wrote. 'Over the year or so since he was in Colorado, Adrienne and I had discussed drug abuse with Eric Chase.'

Bolling, 54, then announced that he teamed up with Trump - who Bolling said called him following his son's death - to tackle the opioid epidemic.

'For the past few months I've been working directly with President Trump and his senior advisers handing the White House's opioid awareness initiatives,' he said. 'I pray my voice helps parents realize the importance of getting involved in their kids' social activities.

'You see, opioids are the unbiased killer of our most precious commodity, our children. Opioids kill athletes, straight-A students, white, Hispanic, black, rich, poor, gay, straight, girls and boys alike.'

Bolling said President Trump (pictured) called him following his son's death and in the months since the tragic situation he started working with Trump to tackle the opioid crisis

Bolling was fired from Fox News in September, one day before his son's death, after three former female colleagues accused him of sending them pictures of male genitalia

The former news host was fired in September, one day before his son's death, over allegations he sent photos of male genitalia to three of his former female colleagues.

In the op-ed Bolling referred to his departure from Fox News as a separation, saying he and his wife had gone to dinner to 'mark (the) new chapter in (their) lives'.

Bolling said as he was returning home from dinner, Eric Chase's friend called to say the teen had died.President Donald Trump said it was 'not acceptable' that the FBI missed signs the Florida school shooter was going to attack, slamming the agency for 'spending too much time' focusing on the Russian collusion investigation.

After a week during which Robert Mueller appeared to prove Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Trump used the shooting, in which 17 died, including 14 children, to attack the FBI for going after him in the Russian collusion investigation.

And in just one 280 character tweet late Saturday night, he managed to conflate the two biggest national news stories of the week - Russian election interference and the Florida tragedy.

'Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter,' he tweeted. 'This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!'

Trump sparked anger among many Twitter users - but perhaps none so much as Arizona State Congressman and Iraqi War veteran Ruben Gallego - who went so far as to call the president a psychopath.

'You are such a psychopath that you have to make even the death of 17 children about you,' Gallego, a democrat, wrote. 'America will regret the day you were ever born.'

President Donald Trump said it was 'not acceptable' that the FBI missed signs the Florida school shooter was going to attack, slamming the agency for 'spending too much time' focusing on the Russian collusion investigation

After a week during which Robert Mueller proved Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Trump used the shooting, in which 17 died, including 14 children, to attack the FBI for going after him in the Russian collusion investigation. Trump is pictured at Mar-a-lago with Ali (right) and Jenna (left) Browder, ardent Trump supporters and hosts of Christian Broadcasting Networks Faith Nation

And in just one 280 character tweet late Saturday night, he managed to conflate the two biggest national news stories of the week - Russian election interference and the Florida tragedy. Pictured left is FBI director Chris Wray, and right is Nikolas Cruz, the man accused of opening fire at his former teachers and classmates

The president failed to mention that the FBI, which has 35,000 employees, was alerted to the 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz at its field office in Miami. Field officers in Miami have nothing to do with looking into the Russian collusion into the 2016 election - that is being handled in Washington.

The message came just a few hours after a late-afternoon tweet-storm from the president, in which he took aim at the 'fake news media' for failing to report that a Facebook executive confirmed the majority of Russian spending on ads came after the 2016 election.

He also took the opportunity to attack Democrats for failing to pass gun control legislation during Obama's eight years in the White House.

It seemed that in the series of Tweets about Russian collusion and the Florida school shooting, Trump was paving the way for his late-evening message linking the two things.

These messages all came just one day after special counsel Robert Mueller issued a 37-page indictment, charging 13 Russian individuals and three companies with a series of crimes related to the Russian interference into the 2016 election.

Trump sparked anger among many Twitter users - but perhaps none so much as Arizona State Congressman and Iraqi War veteran Ruben Gallego - who went so far as to call the president a psychopath

The message came just a few hours after a late-afternoon tweet-storm from the president, in which he took aim at the 'fake news media' for failing to report that a Facebook executive confirmed the majority of Russian spending on ads came after the 2016 election. He is pictured in Mar-a-lago Saturday night

Trump failed to mention that FBI field agents in Miami, who don't work on the Russian collusion investigation, were the ones who received the tips about Cruz. He and Melania are pictured Friday visiting the hospital where many of Cruz's gunshot victims are recovering

It seemed that in the series of Tweets about Russian collusion and the Florida school shooting, Trump was paving the way for his late-evening message linking the two things. Pictured are people hugging at the candlelight memorial service for the shooting victims

But Trump is far from the only person to attack the FBI field office in Miami for overlooking warning signs that pointed to the likelihood that Nikolas Cruz would become a school shooter.

Cruz was repeatedly identified by local and federal agencies as a troubled young man with violent tendencies, and on Friday the FBI admitted it failed to investigate a tip by someone last month identifying him as a potential threat.

In that tip, someone close to Cruz identified him as a gun owner intent on killing people, and said it might happen at school.

Local police were also called to the teen's home multiple times over the past few years for reports of disturbances.

A state report also shows that Cruz worried officials at his school, who on at least one occasion alerted a crisis unit because they believed he needed emergency counselling. Cruz had a long history of violence at the school, including fighting with teachers and using profane language.

And nearly a year-and-a-half before his brutal crime, the Florida Department of Children and Families conducted an in-home investigation of Cruz. They had been alerted to posts on snapchat of the then 18-year-old cutting his arms and speaking about wanting to buy a gun.

After visiting his home, state agents said he was a low risk of harming himself or others, and no action was taken.Senior Nationals are looking to challenge Barnaby Joyce's leadership.

Veterans Affairs Minister Michael McCormack has not ruled out a Nationals leadership challenge after news broke of the Deputy Prime Minister impregnating a former media adviser.

McCormack, from southern New South Wales, said he didn't want to get 'too far ahead of myself,' Fairfax reported.

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The controversial Deputy Prime Minister (pictured) continues to refuse to step aside amid the drama of the former pregnant staffer scandal

Despite talking with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) in an urgent meeting on Saturday, Barnaby Joyce continues to keep his position, 'frustrating' the country's leader

The heated words back and fourth between the politicians come a week after Mr Joyce's affair with his pregnant staffer Vicky Campion (pictured), 33, became public

'Obviously what else transpires - not just in our electorates but obviously on a national front - has to be thought through,' he said Saturday morning.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull insisted he could continue working closely with Mr Joyce despite a public spat between the leaders of the two coalition parties.

But Labor says it's inevitable one of them will have to go.

The Prime Minister and his deputy met for more than an hour on Saturday after exchanging a war of words over Mr Joyce's extramarital affair.

Mr Turnbull on Sunday characterised it as a 'frank and warm, friendly, good, constructive' meeting.

'There are no issues between the Liberal and National parties at all. None at all,' he told reporters in Melbourne.

Malcolm Turnbull (pictured with his wife Lucy) has marriage problems of a different kind with Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce

'It's always very important to meet, to work through the various challenges and issues that we face but the important thing is Barnaby and I are working closely together as we always have.'

In a 60 Minutes interview airing on Sunday night, the Prime Minister will discuss his long-standing love for wife Lucy, and the secrets that will ensure they remain 'together, forever'.

On Thursday, while announcing a ban on ministers having sex with staffers, Mr Turnbull described Mr Joyce's affair with his 33-year-old former media advisor Vikki Campion as a 'shocking error of judgment' causing 'a world of woe'.

That provoked an angry response from Mr Joyce, who said the remarks were 'inept' and 'unnecessary' following the break-up of his 24-year marriage to Natalie.

Mr Turnbull said he hadn't apologised to the Nationals leader because 'there's nothing to apologise for'.

Labor frontbencher Richard Marles said it was unprecedented to have the nation's leaders at each other's throats.

The Prime Minister's ban on ministers having sexual intercourse with their staff has infuriated his Nationals deputy

Mr Joyce (pictured) agreed to take personal leave this week which will mean he won't be the acting prime minister while Mr Turnbull is in America

The Prime Minister asked Mr Joyce on Thursday (pictured) to 'consider his position'

'We've clearly now got a totally dysfunctional state of affairs at the top of this government,' he told Sky News.

'It would seem to me Barnaby has to go but I know one thing: one of them has to.'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten seized on Mr Joyce's assessment of the prime minister to repeatedly refer to the 'inept' government during his speech at the Tasmanian Labor election campaign launch.

'This is the real scandal here: the deputy prime minister and the prime minister care more about themselves than they do about the needs of Australians,' he said.

Tensions within the National Party have reportedly been reignited, with MPs spending the next week taking the temperature of their electorates before meeting again in Canberra on February 26.

Cabinet minister Greg Hunt said the Liberals would work with whomever the Nationals chose as their leader.

Mr Joyce takes a week's leave from Monday, leaving Mathias Cormann as acting prime minister when Mr Turnbull heads to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump.

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said that arrangement was yet another sign Mr Joyce needed to go.

The controversial deputy's 24-year marriage ended with estranged wife Natalie (pictured together) late last year, which Mr Joyce announced in December

'I don't know how the prime minister and deputy prime minister can possibly repair the division and dysfunction that we've seen in recent weeks,' she told reporters in Adelaide.

Treasurer Scott Morrison backed the Prime Minister's update to the ministerial code of standards to ban sex between frontbenchers and their staff.

'I'm happy to have a prime minister who's been prepared to call out a political culture in this country that has been going on for decades, if not generations,' he told ABC TV.

'If you sleep with your staff, it's not private any more, it's public because you're a minister in a position of responsibility and power over those who work for you.'

However, Ms Plibersek was sceptical updating the ministerial standards would work given Mr Turnbull 'has been completely unable to enforce his existing code of conduct on Barnaby Joyce'.A Massachusetts woman accused of murder bragged on Facebook about the slaying hours after she allegedly shot and killed a man who had cut her off, police said.

Graciela Paulino was arrested on Thursday for fatally shooting 34-year-old Marc Devoe in the chest following a road rage incident in Lowell, according to the Lowell Sun.

Police said Devoe, a construction worker for Excel Mechanical Inc, was on his lunch break with a co-worker when he noticed that another driver he may have cut off was following them.

Police charged Graciela Paulino (pictured) with Devoe's murder

Marc Devoe, 34, was killed on Thursday following a road rage incident in Lowell, Massachusetts

Police said Devoe was shot in the chest by another driver he may have cut off. He was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead

The 20-year-old woman seemingly bragged about the shooting on a Facebook post police said was posted hours after she allegedly shot Devoe

Devoe's 34-year-old co-worker, whose identity was not released, advised his friend to drive past the Thorndike Exchange, where they had been working, to the Gallagher Intermodal Terminal next door.

According to a police report, Devoe stopped in the terminal parking lot and the other driver, later identified as 20-year-old Paulino pulled up next to them.

The co-worker told police that Devoe and Paulino 'were yelling back and forth at each other' when he saw Paulino reach in her waistband. The co-worker told Devoe to get back in the car and leave.

Devoe pulled out of the parking lot, and Paulino followed.

The police report states that Devoe pulled over on the terminal's access road under a bridge, got out of his car and stood on the side of the road. As Paulino drove past she fired a single gunshot at Devoe, the co-worker told police.

Devoe got back in his car and tried to drive after Paulino but crashed the car. Witnesses said Devoe then got out of the car before collapsing.

The co-worker performed CPR until first reponders arrived. Devoe was rushed to Lowell General Hosptial/Main Campus, where he was pronounced dead at 1:15pm.

Officers later found Paulino's abandoned car and tracked her down to a building on Grand street, where she had been hiding in a stairwell. She was arrested without incident around 11pm Thursday, about 10 hours after the shooting.

Devoe, a construction worker, was on his lunch break with a co-worker when the shooting occurred

Police said an argument ensued between Paulino (pictured) and Devoe and she shot him the chest before driving off

Paulino faces life in prison with no chance of parole if convicted

According to the Lowell Sun, police also discovered that Paulino had seemingly bragged about the shooting on Facebook, writing: 'Tried to warn Em tried to tell Em told Em stop that you my son don't make me spank you'.

Police said she wrote the post around 2:30pm on Thursday.

'We believe, at this point, that this is a random incident as a result of a possible road rage incident," Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a press conference announcing Paulino's arrest.

Paulino was arraigned on Friday on a single count of murder and is being held without bail. She faces life in prison with no chance of parole if convicted.A woman caught shoplifting a jumping castle told security she had it on lay-by, before attempting to steal the inflatable again the very next day.

Rachael-Ann Webster, a 36-year-old mother-of-five, tried to steal the $349 jumping castle from Target at the City Centre Plaza in Rockhampton, central Queensland on December 13 and 14, The Morning Bulletin reported.

Police prosecutor Jess King told the court Webster grabbed the jumping castle from the front of Target and packed it in her trolley.

Rachael-Ann Webster, a 36-year-old mother-of-five, tried to steal the $349 Polar Bear jumping castle (pictured) from Target

She then did a few laps of the store and picked up two more items before proceeding to the checkout, where she tried to convince staff the jumping castle was already paid for.

When Webster couldn't produce any proof of payment, she was forced to leave empty handed.

Less than 24 hours later, Webster returned to the store and attempted to steal the jumping castle again.

Police prosecutor King said the mother-of-five returned at 8.30am on December 14, and again loaded the box into her trolley.

After doing a few laps of the store, Webster left without going through the checkout to pay.

Staff followed Webster, who made it onto the street before she was stopped.

Staff followed Webster, who made it onto the street outside the City Centre Plaza (pictured) in Rockhampton before she was stopped

She told staff she found her receipt for the jumping castle overnight, but had lost it since leaving the store minutes earlier.

She claimed she bought the item on lay-by, but could not show any proof.

Webster's defence lawyer told the court his client suffered from mental illness, and was not taking her prescription medication at the time of the offending.

Webster pleaded guilty to one count of stealing, and attempted stealing when she appeared at the Rockhampton Magistrates Court on Friday.

She was given an 18-month probation order and a conviction was recorded.Advertisement

Family members at the centre of the 'cruise from hell' who were allegedly kicked off for brawling with passengers live in a sprawling suburban mansion with several luxury cars parked out front.

The four-bedroom home, complete with marble flooring and a grand entrance hall, sits in an upmarket Melbourne suburb and belongs to the Barkho family.

Police were forced to escort some members of the Barkho family from the Carnival Legend cruise ship following a series of fights on board - which passengers described as a 'bloodbath' of violence lasting three days.

The ship - which was due for Melbourne on Saturday after a 10-day South Pacific cruise - was forced to dock briefly in Eden, NSW, after passengers reportedly began barricading themselves inside cabins to avoid violence.

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Family members who were allegedly kicked off the 'cruise from hell' live in a sprawling suburban mansion with several luxury cars parked out front (pictured)

Members of the Barkho family were escorted from the Carnival Legend cruise and transported to Canberra airport

A home owned by the Bharko family, in an upmarket suburb in Melbourne, features a grand entrance hall with marble flooring

A host of luxury cars including a BMW and Mercedes with P plates are parked outside the sprawling property

Video filmed on a guest's mobile phone shows both male and female passengers erupt into an all-in brawl as cruise security attempted to intervene, leaving some victims with savage bruises and cuts. Pictured: One passenger named Michael

When Daily Mail Australia approached the family for comment, a woman said they said they would be providing a full statement in due course. Pictured are two people entering the property on Sunday

Pictures of the home, understood to be owned by the Barkho family, captures a host of luxury cars parked out front including a Mercedes Benz with green P plates and a BMW.

The house was bought in 2011 for $750,000 and has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The grand entrance hall opens out with a marble floor and staircase up to the gallery level overlooking the hallway and bedrooms.

The master suite also boasts a spa ensuite and the main bathroom has a spa bath as well.

When Daily Mail Australia approached the family for comment on Sunday, a woman said they said they would be providing a full statement in due course.

David Barkho, the family's patriarch, has denied any of his relatives had started or were the cause of the clashes on board.

'It's all lies. None of what is being said is true. It's all in the hands of our legal team,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

'Members of my family are receiving medical attention at the hospital now.'

Passengers on the ship claimed the carnage had been provoked by some members of the Bharko family who had been terrorising staff and fellow travellers over three days.

Inside the home a gallery office space overlooks the main entrance foyer - with stairs leading up either side

Living in luxury: The four-bedroom, three-bathroom home was bought in 2011 for $750,000

There are large rooms throughout the house with huge entertaining and living areas downstairs

The house has a large garden out the back and an open layout deck area for entertaining guests

Upset passenger Lisa Bolitho claimed some members of the family spent a few days insulting and attacking 'Aussies' with people 'getting punched up'.

Shocking vision of brawls erupting in a common area of the cruise ship showed several passengers locked in savage fist fights.

The filmed scuffle allegedly broke out while the ship was 220km off Jervis Bay, Australia, around 1am on Friday.

One witness, named only as Zac, alleged the brawl started after two men tangled feet, leading to a bitter exchange of words between two family groups.

Six men and three teenage boys were removed from the ship when it docked in Eden in New South Wales.

Police confirmed no charges have been made.

Upset passenger Lisa Bolitho (right) said some members of the family spent a few days insulting and attacking 'Aussies'

Footage emerged of the brawling on board while the vessel was 220km off Jervis Bay. The captain made the decision to return to shore and allow police to escort some of the Bharko family off the cruise

A spokesman from New South Wales police said officers were now investigating the alleged fight after footage emerged of the brawling on board 220km off Jervis Bay.

They said: 'Police have been told a fight involving several men took place on board the ship after an argument.

'Security intervened and detained the men before notifying the Marine Area Command.

'Other passengers, including women and children, also left the ship.

'The group were transported to Canberra where other travel arrangements were made.

'Marine Area Command investigators have commenced investigations into the incident.'

The Carnival Legend was heading for Melbourne when the incident broke out on board prompting police to be called



A mental health patient has died after reportedly being tasered and pepper sprayed by police trying to arrest him.

Officers were called to a street in Newtown, Sydney after a 30-year-old man fled Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he was being held under the Mental Health Act.

A witness said she saw 15 officers 'on top of him' as they pinned him to the ground.

A mental health patient has died after reportedly being tasered and pepper sprayed by police trying to arrest him. Pictured: The scene of the arrest

'My gut feeling was that maybe they used a bit of excessive force trying to arrest him,' she told the Seven Network.

'He looked like he may have been a big man but still, and they pulled him back up which made it even worse.'

The witness added that she thought the man had a heart attack. She said she saw police trying to revive him.

Witness Andrew Barnett told the Daily Telegraph: 'We pulled up and I saw five or six police officers on top of one person. The police officers were yelling "stop resisting, stop struggling".'

Police said in a statement: 'A critical incident investigation has commenced after the death of a man in Sydney's inner-west.

'Police were called to Carillon Avenue, Newtown, about 1.30pm today after a man, who was being held under the Mental Health Act, fled a nearby hospital.

Police were called to Carillon Avenue (pictured) in Newtown at about 1.30pm today

Police said in a statement: 'A critical incident investigation has commenced after the death of a man in Sydney's inner-west'

'A 30-year-old man was located by officers attached to Inner West Police Area Command, who attempted to arrest the man.

'The man resisted arrest and collapsed at the scene before being taken to hospital, where he later died.

'A critical incident team will now investigate all the circumstances surrounding the incident and that investigation will be subject to an independent review.

'A report will be prepared for Coroner.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the hospital for comment.During the Winter Olympic games 30 years ago a then 20-year-old Debi Thomas had won a bronze medal in figure skating, making her the first African American athlete to win a medal in the Winter games.

Now, Thomas is living in a trailer in Richlands, Virginia with her fiance, struggles to pay her bills and lost her bronze medal to the bank after being forced to file bankruptcy following a bipolar diagnosis.

'It may look (to) people on the outside like it's insane, but I don't care,' Thomas told the New York Post. 'I don't care about living in a trailer. People are so obsessed with material things, but I only care about knowledge.'

Debi Thomas was in her 20s when she won bronze in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Thomas is pictured here during the women's competition in Calgary at the Winter Olympic Games on February 27, 1988

Thomas became the first African American athlete to win a medal in the Winter Olympics. The figure skater is photographed during the women's competition in Calgary at the Winter Olympic Games on February 27, 1988 with Germany's Katrina Witt, who won gold

Thomas, now 50, says she's struggling to pay her bills, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is living in a mobile home in Virginia with her family

Thomas also said sh lost her bronze medal (center) when she had to file for bankruptcy

Thomas, 50, said she has left her skating days behind her - and she hopes others have too. The former orthopedic surgeon now spends her time practicing hypnosis and selling tiny pieces of gold for a company called Karatbars. She also earned a certificate in Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique, which the Post reports she uses to hypnotize people to cure them of ailments.

Thomas is also working on an autobiography called 'In Right Light it Looks Gold'.

The former Olympic athlete told the outlet that her choice of work doesn't provide her a steady income, and she still struggles to make ends meet but she's okay with that.

'I always know that sometimes if you want to be a visionary, you're going to have to commit to that and you may go through some financial struggles,' she explained.

It seems Thomas' struggles began in April 2012 when, according to the Washington Post, she got into a domestic dispute with her fiance Jamie Loone outside her home.

Thomas pulled out a shotgun and fired it, trying to scare Loone. The police were called and Thomas reportedly threatened to harm herself. She was taken the hospital for a psychological evaluation and diagnosed as bipolar.

Thomas said she was diagnosed as bipolar in 2012 following a domestic dispute with her fiance in which she pulled out a shotgun and shot it, trying to scare him

The Olympian said she struggled to pay her medical bills and had to close her private orthopedic practice and file for bankruptcy

Thomas, who claims she no longer suffers from the disorder and refuses to take medication because she doesn't believe in it, told the Post she couldn't afford her medical bills following her diagnose and filed for bankruptcy.

She was $600,000 in debt when she filed.

The one-time household name had to close her private orthopedic practice and had to hand over her bronze medal, worth a reported $2,200, to the bank. She had won the medal in 1988 during the 'Battle of the Carmens' at the Winter games against Germany's Katrina Witt, who took gold.

'I lost (the medal) to bankruptcy,' Thomas said.'They can take away the medal, but they can't take away the fact that I won it.'

Thomas said she wasn't upset about losing the bronze medal, and no longer focuses on her past competing in the Olympics.

'I got really detached from skating,' she said. 'People who are still so focused on my skating career, I'm just like, 'Come on, that was thirty years ago. Why does it matter?''

She added: 'I'm not proud of how I performed in the Olympics at all. The biggest disappointment isn't that I didn't win the gold, it's that I didn't skate my best.'

Besides winning her bronze medal, Thomas was the 1986 world champion and two-time US national champion.

Thomas said she was $600,000 in debt when she filed for bankruptcy

'It may look (to) people on the outside like it's insane, but I don't care,' Thomas said, adding that she doesn't regret anything that's happenedA newlywed couple were left devastated after their dream wedding pictures were ruined by a fire on Coogee beach.

A huge blaze raged along the coast of the popular spot throughout Saturday afternoon, with fire crews continuing to battle it into the evening.

The unnamed couple were hoping to taking the first photos of their married life on the sand but the shots were ruined by smoke billowing into the sky.

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A newlywed couple were left devastated after their dream wedding pictures were ruined by a fire on Coogee beach.

'The poor couple, they just finished their ceremony, we were about to head, where we saw smoke and it just erupted so quickly,' photographer Matthew Regan told 9NEWS.

'I'd say this makes them a pretty hot couple,' he joked.

Police said the fire may have been have been deliberately lit, and have been told several young people were seen in the area about the time the fire broke out.

About 200 square metres of land between Coogee and Gordon's Bay in the city's eastern suburbs was burnt.

Thick billows of smoke engulfed the streets, forced hundreds of people to flee their homes.

A huge blaze (pictured) burned along the coast of one of Sydney's most popular beaches

The large bush fire burned about 200 metres of land between Coogee and Gordon's Bay (pictured)

The fire started Saturday afternoon and firefighters struggled to contain the blaze (pictured)

Fire crews fought the 'hectic' blaze Saturday afternoon, which residents described as 'pretty scary' and like 'a big explosion'.

'Never seen anything like this in Coogee,' one person wrote online.

Thick plumes of smoke were seen from a number of locations along the coast and the airport.

The black smoke filled the sky, making it a stark contrast to the swimmers basking in the sun on the beach.

There were reportedly more than 100 calls made to fire fighters by concerned onlookers.

At least three fire crews and a number of helicopters were fighting the grass fire which started late in the afternoon.

Authorities swept the headland north of Coogee for walkers but reported no one was in danger.

Early reports suggested the fire may have been started deliberately.

'Never seen anything like this in Coogee,' one person wrote online

Firefighters have been fighting the blaze which locals described as 'pretty scary'

At least three fire crews and a number of helicopters are fighting the grass fire (pictured)

While the popular beach side suburb isn't known for it's bushfires, thick plumes of smoke were seen from a number of locations along the coastThere are fears lives and homes could be lost in Western Australia's top end as the region cops a battering from flooding and destructive winds of up to 150 km/hr.

Residents are bracing for the worst as Tropical Cyclone Kelvin was upgraded to a category two and hit landfall in a remote part of the Kimberley region on Sunday morning.

A cyclone red alert is in place as of Sunday night for Bidyadanga to Sandfire in the Kimberley with all roads closed.

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Around 250 kilometres south of Broome, Anna Plains Station felt the brunt of Tropical Cyclone Kelvin as roofs were knocked off, windows smashed and trees were uprooted

A cyclone red alert is current for Bidyadanga to Sandfire in the Kimberley with all roads closed

'There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need to act immediately,' Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA posted on Facebook.

There are reports of sheds being destroyed by the strong wind gusts, 9 News reports.

Heavy rainfall is likely to continue over the far west Kimberley and far east Pilbara.

'People in the West and North Kimberley Districts need to take action now as major flooding is expected over the coming days,' Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA posted.

It advised residents in the region to watch for changes in water levels so they are ready if you need to evacuate to pack a relocation kit and relocate equipment and livestock so they do not get caught in floodwaters.

Tropical Cyclone Kelvin was upgraded to a category two and hit landfall in a remote part of the Kimberley region on Sunday morning

Residents in the cyclone-hit region are advised to stay indoors

The cyclone threat for between Broome and Bidyadanga has passed but residents are warned to take care to avoid dangers caused by damage.

People are advised to not swim, fish in Roebuck Bay or Dampier Creek in Broome until further notice following heavy rainfall since Saturday.

Broome is now just 23 millimetres off recording its wettest year ever, after record rainfall last month.

Around 250 kilometres south of Broome, Anna Plains Station felt the brunt of the cyclone as roofs were knocked off, windows smashed and trees were uprooted.

Station owner David Stoate, who has 20,000 cattle on the property, estimates the damage to be about $150,000.

'The worst of it is gone for us but it's still quite windy,' he told AAP.

'I think the cattle probably coped with it better than us.

There are reports of sheds being destroyed by strong wind gusts of up to 150 km/hr

'People in the West and North Kimberley Districts need to take action now as major flooding is expected over the coming days,' Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA posted

Anna Plains Station owner David Stoate, who has 20,000 cattle on the property, estimates the damage to be about $150,000

In Bidyadanga Aboriginal community, residents have remained calm as conditions intensified.

'The wind has picked up quite a lot in the last half an hour so it's pretty full on at the moment,' Community CEO Tania Baxter told the ABC.

'Everyone's inside, we're all just prepared for it. We've all been waiting for it to happen for a few days now so I think everyone's ready for it.'

Further south, Bureau of Meteorology Western Australia issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Gascoyne, Goldfields and Central Wheat Belt districts including Kalgoorlie and Southern Cross.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA said the cyclone will gradually weaken on Sunday night or Monday morning as it continued to move inland.An anti-coal mine activist has reported maverick Nationals MP George Christensen to police for posting a social media image of himself wielding a handgun.

The member for Dawson's message was accompanied by the phrase, 'You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?'

The north Queensland MP's parody of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movie character didn't amuse Brisbane-based Stop Adani activist Ben Pennings, who reported the Facebook post to Queensland police on Thursday last week.

Anti-coal mine activist Ben Pennings reported Nationals MP George Christensen to Queensland police for a Facebook post

The member for Dawson said the controversy over his Facebook post, featuring image of him at the George Range west of Mackay, showed 'you can't have a joke anymore'

He said the image of Mr Christensen at George Range near Mia Mia, south-west of Mackay, had sparked 100 online death threats against him, adding 'threats of physical violence to peaceful protesters are particularly unacceptable'.

'I reckon the abusers are ultimately cowards but I've gone to the police just to be sure,' Mr Pennings said.

Mr Christensen, who removed that post on Sunday at the request of Acting Nationals leader Nigel Scullion, stressed he had not incited violence against green groups.

'No one should shoot a greenie except with the facts,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Sunday.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull should instruct Mr Christensen to remove the post, even though it had already been taken down

Mr Christensen removed his post, referencing Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movie character from 1971, at the request of acting Nationals leader Nigel Scullion

The outspoken backbencher said environmental activists had broken the law themselves, by violently protesting against the Adani coal mine proposed for Queensland's Galilee Basin, and had threatened free speech.

'The problem we have is that you can't have a joke anymore.

'Not just in politics but almost in any walk of life.

'If you make a statement that is humorous but it upsets someone particular group, well the whole world comes down on top of you.

'It is just a nonsense. I don't apologise for that.'

Greens leader Richard Di Natale made a separate report to the Australian Federal Police.

'I have reported George Christensen's disgraceful post to the AFP and have asked Malcolm Turnbull to instruct him to take it down and apologise,' the Melbourne-based senator said.Ministers were slammed today for proposing tuition fee reforms that could make arts courses cheaper than engineering or science.

Ex education secretary Justine Greening - who was sacked amid government tensions over tuition fees - questioned whether making science degrees appear to cost more was the right approach.

Earlier, Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said the idea appears to 'fly in the face' of what the economy needs.

Labour insists all tuition fees should be free and the Government is scrambling to find reforms that will help the Tories fight back among young voters.

Education secretary Damian Hinds today said he was determined the annual cost of a degree should not rise further than the current cap of 9,250 a year.

Expensive courses such as engineering and science could receive higher government subsidies, while universities will be encouraged to offer shorter or more intense courses in other subjects to save money.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds (pictured today on the Marr show) trailed a major overhaul of university funding today ahead of an announcement of a review by the Prime Minister tomorrow

Ex education secretary Justine Greening (pictured today on Peston on Sunday) - who was sacked amid government tensions over tuition fees - questioned whether making science degrees appear to cost more was the right approach.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner (pictured today on the Andrew Marr show) said the idea appears to 'fly in the face' of what the economy needs

Theresa May will use a speech tomorrow to announce the chairman of an independent panel into university funding.

The overhaul, which was first signalled at the disastrous Tory conference last October, is a bid by the Tories to appeal to young voters in response to Labour's promise to cancel fees altogether.

Mr Hinds today said: 'When the system was brought in it wasn't anticipated that so many universities, so many courses would have the same fee for their course.

'There hasn't been as much variety that has come into the system as we would have expected and wanted so I think it's right to ask questions about that and see what can be done to stimulate that diversity and variety.'

He told The Andrew Marr Show: 'I don't think politicians are going to be setting the cost and the prices for different courses. All forms of education, all courses, all subjects have great value, have great worth.

'What we need to look at is the different aspects of pricing - the cost that it is to put on the course, the value that it is to the student and also the value to our society as a whole and to our economy for the future.

'There are some subjects, some areas both in higher education and technical education where we are going to need more of those coming forward in the future because of the changes, because of the new challenges in the world economy.'

Mr Hinds (pictured being interviewed by Andrew Marr today) insisted the review into tuition fees was a real look at how the system works

Theresa May (pictured today at church in Maidehead) will use a speech tomorrow to announce the chairman of an independent panel into university funding

Ministers expect this to lead to dramatic cuts in fees for arts and social science courses.

Ms Greening told ITV's Peston On Sunday: 'I think that many companies that have STEM degree skills shortages will wonder whether it's the right thing to make those degrees more expensive.'

She also stressed social mobility, adding: 'Making sure that we don't end up with a system where young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds will feel like maybe they ought to do one of the cheaper degrees, rather than doing the degree that they actually want, that will really unlock their potential and future.'

LABOUR: ALL NEW SCHOOLS MUST HAVE SPRINKLERS All new school buildings would be fitted with sprinklers under a 14 billion Labour plan to ensure safe classrooms. Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said Labour would also remove asbestos and flammable cladding from schools. She highlighted Government figures indicating that under 30% of schools in England built under a major programme had sprinklers. Writing in the Sunday People, Ms Rayner said: 'I am proud to say that we will provide the full 14 billion that is needed to bring all schools up to a good standard. 'Within that, we will put money aside to make sure schools are safe. 'To remove asbestos and flammable cladding and fit lifesaving sprinklers. 'We will also close the loopholes that let developers get away with anything less in new schools, too. 'Parents want a lot of things for their kids, but above all they want them to be safe. Nothing is more important than that.' Advertisement

Ms Rayner told the BBC's Andrew Marr that leaving courses such as engineering and science more expensive was a bad idea.

She said: 'We are told we need science and maths and to make those degrees more expensive flies in the face of what our economy is going to need.

'Making fees at different levels is going to cause more chaos.'

Ms Rayner said the current system of university funding was 'completely unacceptable' and said Labour would spend billions creating free life-long education for all.

Universities have dramatically expanded the courses in recent years because they are the cheapest to run and make them the most money.

Under the plans, universities will be told to offer: more two-year degrees; sandwich courses, where students spend time in the workplace; and 'commuter courses', where they live at home to cut costs.

Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of Universities UK, told the paper: 'A fees cut would grab the headlines but leave a funding gap.

'Unless government replaced the money, it would mean bigger class sizes, poorer facilities and less student choice.'

A spokesman for the Russell Group, which represents 24 of the UK's most selective universities, said: 'Any changes to the current funding model need to be fair and affordable to students, while still meeting the needs of taxpayers and universities in providing students with a high-quality education and experience.'

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said the review needed 'to be radical and explore genuine alternatives to the current system, not just tinker at the edges of the current failed system'.Jeremy Corbyn faced growing pressure to shift Labour to a full anti-Brexit stance today.

The Labour leader is being confronted by calls from 20,000 party members demanded a stronger say on the party's Brexit policy.

Meanwhile ex-leader Neil Kinnock called on Mr Corbyn to stop Brexit to save the NHS from disaster.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in Scotland last week) faced growing pressure to shift Labour to a full anti-Brexit stance today

Since the referendum Mr Corbyn and Labour have insisted Brexit must be delivered but maintained ambiguous policy on exactly how it should be done.

Mr Corbyn is facing growing calls to at least commit his party to staying inside the EU single market and customs union in a similar set up to Norway.

Brexiteers believe this is worse than EU membership as most rules from the Brussels bloc would be imposed without any British input on writing them.

Writing in the Observer today, Lord Kinnock said Brexit was already hitting the tax revenues needed to fund the NHS.

He said: 'If Johnson really wanted the extra NHS spending, which is sorely needed, he wouldn't be using the issue as a ploy to feed his lust for the Tory leadership but would be working to end Brexit.

'The truth is that we can either take the increasingly plain risks and costs of leaving the EU or have the stability, growth and revenues vital for crucial public services like the NHS and social care.

Meanwhile ex-leader Neil Kinnock (file image) called on Mr Corbyn to stop Brexit to save the NHS from disaster

'Recognising that, we should stop Brexit to save the NHS  or, at very least, mitigate the damage by seeking European Economic Area membership.'

Labour has so far promoted what it describes as a 'jobs first' Brexit and insisted a negotiated outcome that replicates existing benefits is more important than which organisations Britain belongs to.

But the message has infuriated many pro-European supporter in the membership ranks, with 20,000 of them reportedly contacting the party to demand a stronger say.

Labour is undertaking eight policy commissions to draft policy in consultation with members but none focus on the party's Brexit strategy.Karl Pollard, 46, was taking Stephanie, 14, to visit his mother, who was suffering from cancer

A loving father who booked a room with his teenage daughter was shocked when police raided his room and accused him of being a paedophile.

Staff at the Travelodge he was staying in called police after assuming his daughter was an underage girl which he had groomed.

The pair were staying in the hotel in Macclesfield, Cheshire, as Karl Pollard, 46, was taking Stephanie, 14, to visit his mother, who was suffering from cancer.

Mr Pollard and his daughter had travelled four hours on the train from their home in south Wales to visit his mother.

Mr Pollard said: 'I couldn't believe it. It was an emotional trip already  but it was made so much worse.

'One minute I was brushing my teeth, the next I was being told I was a paedophile.'

Mr Pollard added: 'My mum has just been diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer.

'We're not sure how long she has left.

'I wanted to take Stephanie down to visit her before she started treatment.'

Mr Pollard, who cares for his wife Kim, 45, who has multiple sclerosis, booked a double bedroom for him and Stephanie after being told it was the only room left.

Mr Pollard booked a room with his teenage daughter was shocked when police raided his room and accused him of being a paedophile

He said: 'When we arrived the receptionist gave me a weird look but I thought nothing of it.

'We went up to the room to get unpacked and ready to see my mum.

'It was only a 20-minute walk away  which is why I chose the hotel.

'About 10 minutes later there was a knock at the door. A policewoman was standing there. I thought something had happened to my mum or my wife.

Staff at the Travelodge he was staying in called police after assuming his daughter (pictured) was an underage girl which he had groomed

'But she said, "We've had a call from Travelodge, they believe you are a paedophile grooming underage girls".'

To make matters worse, Mr Pollard and his daughter were interviewed separately, with his daughter left 'distraught' after the whole ordeal.

He said: 'I explained to her that I was Stephanie's dad. The officer had to ask her loads of questions to prove it.'

He said: 'My daughter was in tears. She was so scared  and thought I was going to get taken away. This has never happened to me before.'

Mr Pollard and his daughter had travelled four hours on the train from their home in south Wales to visit his mother

Mr Pollard said he was not offered a refund for the 150 trip by Travelodge, although a spokesman the company said that had now issued and apology for the fiasco and had given him a refund.

A Travelodge spokesman said: 'All our hotel teams are trained according to national guidelines supported by the NSPCC.

'In the past proactive action by our hotel teams has helped to safeguard young people at risk. In this instance we got it wrong.'

A Cheshire Police spokesman said: 'Police were called at 3pm on Thursday, February 8, to reports of suspicious activity at a hotel on Waters Green in Macclesfield.

'Staff at the Travelodge did the right thing by reporting what they believed to be suspicious activity to officers, although thankfully there was nothing untoward and it turned out to be a misunderstanding.'Prince Harry, 33, has been offered an official position with the Commonwealth in a bid to make the 53-member organisation more 'relevant to a younger generation'

Prince Harry has been offered an official position with the Commonwealth, in a move to make the organisation more 'relevant to a younger generation'.

The 33-year-old prince is expected to play a principal role at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, which runs from April 16 to 20.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, that are mostly former territories of the British Empire, and covers a population of 2.4billion people.

The Queen, who turns 92 in April, was proclaimed Head of the Commonwealth at her coronation.

Harry, who is engaged to American actress Meghan Markle, 36, is also expected to take an interest in the organisation's youth-related work and speak at the summit's Commonwealth Youth Forum.

Seen as a boost to his position within the royal family, it is thought the foreign office and the government strongly back Harry's involvement with the Commonwealth.

There is speculation Harry may take on an ambassadorial role at this year's Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast, which will be opened by Prince Charles.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Dr Sue Onslow, deputy director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, said: 'It's a very astute move giving Prince Harry a non-political, global role, drawing on his charisma and energy to help keep the Commonwealth and its headship relevant to a younger generation. This is soft-power diplomacy.'

Harry, pictured on an official visit to the Caribbean in 2016, is expected to take an interest in the organisation's youth-related work and will speak at the Commonwealth Youth Forum

The news comes among speculation that senior Commonwealth officials will meet for secret talks to consider whether Prince Charles should take over as head of the organisation when the Queen dies.

A 'high level group' of seven leading figures will discuss 'wider governance considerations' - code for the succession, according to insiders - and is expected to report to the CHOGM on its findings.

This year's meeting in April is expected to be the last attended by the Queen.

While the monarch has made it known that she wishes Prince Charles to succeed her, the head of the Commonwealth is not a hereditary position.

The foreign office and government are said to strongly back Prince Harry's growing involvement in the Commonwealth and utilise his and fiancee Meghan Markle's global appeal

Any decision about the future would have to be made by the Commonwealth heads of government at the time of the Queen's death, but there is no formal process for choosing her successor.

While many Commonwealth figures presume there will be no realistic alternative to Charles, there has in the past been talk of electing a ceremonial leader to improve the organisation's democratic credentials.

Her Majesty has been sending officials around the world to lobby Commonwealth leaders to ensure Prince Charles succeeds her.

News of Prince Harry's role comes among speculation senior Commonwealth officials are discussing whether Prince Charles should take over as head when the Queen dies. The monarch (pictured in Uganda in 2007, has served as head of the Commonwealth since 1953

At the most recent CHOGM two years ago in Malta, the Queen said she could not 'wish to have been better supported and represented in the Commonwealth than by the Prince of Wales who continues to give so much to it with great distinction'.

The developments will be of interest to Theresa May's government, which has emphasised the importance of the Commonwealth post-Brexit.

In March last year, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pointed out the Commonwealth will soon overtake the EU in terms of the size of its economy.

He said it illustrated how important it is to get good trade deals with the Commonwealth, and how the UK can survive outside the EU.The Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal has prompted an actors' union to draw up new rules for sex scenes.

Equity is to consider new guidelines for simulated sex on screen and stage which could ban acts such as sharing saliva or using tongues during kisses.

The proposals, to be discussed next week, rule out nudity at auditions and screen tests, as well as suggest 'best practice' for steamy scenes.

The Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal has prompted the actors' union Equity to draw up new rules for sex scenes (above Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct in 1992)

Tom Hiddleston famously exposed his bottom during a steamy sex scene with Elizabeth Debicki in TV series The Night Manager

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio got very intimate during filming for the iconic 1997 film Titanic

Several actresses have said they were surprised by aggressive kisses using tongues while filming, and prominent male actors and directors have been accused of abusive behaviour.

The #MeToo campaign on social media saw scores of women come forward to make allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour, abuse and rape.

What could be the new rules in steamy scenes? Actors should rehearse kissing scenes by 'giving each other a peck' at first

'No use of tongues' unless the director and both actors agreed in advance

'No saliva mixing as it is abusive'

'No nudity with genitals touching (always use patches or modesty barrier)'

Producers should employ an 'intimacy director' to protect actors on set

Actors should be told in advance if they need to strip for an audition and may bring a 'support person' along Advertisement

Tonight stars will head to the British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall.

Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Emma Thompson are among more than 190 leading women who have signed a letter calling for an end to sexual abuse.

Dame Helen Mirren has said one of her steamy performances was 'like filming a scene doing the washing up'.

But others have had much more traumatic experiences on set.

Last Tango in Paris star Maria Schneider said she was not told that her co-star Marlon Brando was going to use butter as a lubricant during a scene.

Bernardo Bertolucci, who directed the iconic film, said he had wanted her reaction 'as a girl, not as an actress'.

Schneider, who was 19 at the time, said she had felt humiliated and 'a little raped'.

Last Tango in Paris star Maria Schneider said she was not told that her co-star Marlon Brando was going to use butter as a lubricant during a scene (pictured together on set in 1972)

Schneider (pictured), who was 19 at the time, said she had felt humiliated and 'a little raped'

So-called 'modesty' coverings used for sex scenes have long been unreliable.

Actors have reported them being flimsy and prone to falling off.

Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan said 'tucking away your essentials in a little flesh-coloured bag' was a peculiar experience.

Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan (pictured with co-star Dakota Johnson) says using 'modesty' coverings was a peculiar experience

Suranne Jones and Bertie Carvel shared dramatic on-screen sex scenes in TV series Doctor FosterA senior Turnbull Government minister insists a ban on politicians sleeping with their staff would be easy to enforce.

Treasurer Scott Morrison hailed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's new ministerial code of conduct as a 'preventative' measure to end 'decades if not generations' of extramarital affairs in Canberra.

'What's so hard to administer? You set out a standard that says, "Don't sleep with your staff",' he told the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday.

Treasurer Scott Morrison insists it would be easy to enforce a ban on ministers sleeping with their staff

The Liberal MP added ministers deserved the sack for being intimidate with those on their payroll.

'If you have a code, you're telling people, "Understand, by doing it, that you'll be gone-ski",' he said. 'Understand it. It's a clear standard,' Mr Morrison said.

'I'm happy to have a prime minister who's prepared to call out a political culture in this country that has been going on for decades if not generations.'

He enthusiastically backed his boss Malcolm Turnbull's new code of conduct despite misgivings from some of his Nationals colleagues, including George Christensen who mocked the 'bonking ban'.

Mr Morrison has enthusiastically backed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's new ministerial code announced last week banning senior politicians from having sex with their staff

The Prime Minister's controversial new code was announced in the wake of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's affair with a 33-year-old former media adviser, Vikki Campion

'That took an enormous amount of courage,' Mr Morrison said.

'If you sleep with your staff it's not private anymore. It's public.'

The Prime Minister's controversial new code was announced on Thursday in the wake of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's affair with a 33-year-old former media adviser, Vikki Campion.

The Treasurer's appearance on the ABC came a day after Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce met in Sydney to sought out a very bitter falling out, after the Deputy Prime Minister interpreted the code as a personal attack on him.The man who sparked a manhunt after he was thrown from his kayak by a three-metre shark has told how close he came to death before escaping to shore with the beast that nearly killed him.

Brett Palmer, 34, was plunged into the water at Western Port Bay near Melbourne after pulling a shark on board at 2.30am on Sunday.

In panic he immediately pulled himself into his brother's kayak and the pair - still clinging on to their catch - rushed to dry land, leaving his kayak behind.

Brave fisherman: Brett Palmer, 34, was plunged into the water at Western Port Bay near Melbourne after pulling a shark on board

In panic he immediately pulled himself into his brother's kayak and the pair rushed to dry land, leaving his kayak behind. Pictured: Mr Palmer and his brother with the shark

Speaking about the moment he was overthrown, Mr Palmer said: 'It was really carrying on, jumping out of the water.'

Speaking about the moment he was overthrown, Mr Palmer told 7 News: 'It was really carrying on, jumping out of the water.'

'She's bit the boat and missed me leg and whatever, that was pretty, pretty surreal.'

His brother Luke said he heard him swear and thrash about before hearing a splash as he entered the water.

'I jumped straight up. My brother's kayak turned around real quick,' said Mr Palmer. 'It was just scary, I don't like sharks.'

Mr Palmer said there were bite marks on his kayak where the shark had nearly mangled him in the wrestle.

The fisherman's abandoned kayak was found drifting off the coast in Victoria on Sunday morning

Mr Palmer had failed to report the kayak missing to authorities sparking a search when it was spotted by a vessel

After Mr Palmer returned to the shore, he carried on fishing with his friends.

But when he returned to collect the kayak several hours later it had drifted out to sea and was nowhere to be seen.

This prompted a search after the empty boat was found by another vessel in the Western Port Bay early on Sunday morning.

But police found Mr Palmer safely at home gutting his enormous catch.

A spokesman for Victoria Police said: 'The shark, obviously unhappy to be caught, has caused the man to be tipped out of his kayak in its effort to get free.

'He's managed to get the kayak to shore and continued fishing with his mates.

'When he's returned several hours later to collect his kayak, it had gone.

'A search was commenced to locate the owner of the kayak, who was located safely at home and hadn't thought to notify authorities of his missing kayak.

'The man's fishing gear remained intact and Water Police will return his vessel to him today.'Katrina Hodge, 30 reveals she has suffered 12 years of abuse from a 'sexist boys club' in the Army

A former Miss England who was given the moniker 'Combat Barbie' when she joined the Army reveals she quit after years of sexist attacks.

Katrina Hodge, was decorated for her bravery in Iraq aged 18 however her male colleagues bullied her for the commendation.

After earning her nickname for arriving on her first day wearing kitten heels and a case full of pink clothes Katrina proved she was just as determined as any man.

A year after she joined Katrina saved the life of five soldiers during a seventh month tour of Iraq in 2005.

Katrina and her other squaddies had apprehended a suspected rebel fighter and were on their way back to base when their truck crashed.

During the commotion of the crash the prisoner grabbed two rifles and Katrina instinctively punched him in the face causing him to drop the weapons.

Combat Barbie: After earning her nickname for arriving on her first day wearing kitten heels and a case full of pink clothes Katrina proved she was just as determined as any man when she saved the lives of five comrades

Following her act of bravery Katrina's comrades, who she describes as a 'sexist boys club' allegedly turned on her saying that she had made the whole thing up.

The 30-year-old was called a 's**t' and a 'b***h' and had a can of coke thrown at her head in the canteen which stopped her eating there at all.

Katrina was part of a handful of women at the Royal Anglian Regiment based at Piribright, Surrey and couldn't understand why a group of male soldiers hated her so much.

A poison pen letter was written about Katrina and pinned up around the barracks and when she was called in by her sergeant to ask who wrote it she was advised to ignore it to avoid 'looking like a diva', the Mirror reports.

The decorated soldier then went on to win Miss England and used the publicity to promote the Army

Katrina, who now lives in Brighton, claims that although her superiors were aware of the torment they failed to look into it.

Despite joining the army 12 years ago aged 17 Katrina still receives sexist comments online from trolls.

The mum of two said: 'It's been 12 years of hell for me and I'm not going to put up with it any longer.

'In 2018 it's not acceptable for women to be degraded in this way. It's pure sexism.'

Despite joining the army 12 years ago aged 17 Katrina still receives sexist comments online from trolls

In 2015 she decided enough was enough and decided to quit the Army after reaching the rank of corporal to become a banker

Katrina, who went on to front a La Senza campaign, won the Miss England beauty pageant and used the media attention to urge women to join the forces.

She was spotted by the high street store when she won second place in a Miss England contest, after wowing the judges with her performance of a rifle drill, a first for the beauty pageant's talent section.

However this only encouraged her harassers to send her more sexism and hate online.

In 2015 she decided enough was enough and decided to quit the Army after reaching the rank of corporal to become a banker.

Last month a positive post appeared on the British Military Club's Facebook page highlighting Katrina's achievements.

Katrina, who went on to front a La Senza campaign swapped her beret and army fatigues for tousled hair and skimpy lingerie for the campaign, which offered a 15 per cent discount to all British servicemen and women

Not long after hundreds of comments appeared from the same men who bullied her aged 18.

She said: 'They are writing all these derogatory and disgusting things about me and I can't believe they are still at it, 12 years on and three years after I left the Army. I even received a private message from an ex-colleague who said my face would be smashed in if he ever saw me again.'

Katrina said that she was concerned that one day her daughters aged six and three will have access to the internet and see the things written about her.

Although she still encourages women to join the Army Katrina believes the sexist culture needs to change.

Katrina has logged an official complaint with the Service Complaints Ombudsman and hopes this time her allegations will be taken seriously.

She said she believes that if the incidents that occurred back in 2005 happened now they would be dealt with differently - but improvement is still needed.

An Army spokesman said: 'We take all allegations of bullying and harassment very seriously.

'Those who are found to have fallen short of our high standards can expect action to be taken.'Sir Philip Green at the launch of Ivy Park, Beyonce's collection for Topshop

High Street mogul Sir Philip Green is in talks to sell of part of the Arcadia group empire.

The conglomerate which owns both Topshop and Miss Selfridge, may be bought by Shandong Ruyi, a Chinese textile giant who are rapidly expanding into Europe, the Sunday Times claims.

The sale would a landmark moment for the British retail industry and potentially bring an end to Sir Green's 50-year high street career that was been tarred with controversy.

Arcadia has 2,800 stores and 26,000 employees globally.

It is believed Sir Green, who is thought to be worth $4.9bn (3.5bn), has been seeking a buyer for some time as flagship brand Topshop is struggling to compete with online rivals such as Asos and Boohoo.

Topshop's sales for fell by 10.9 per cent like-for-like, according to a leaked set of results from Christmas 2016. Arcadia's sales fell by 6.5 per cent for the same period. It it thought the group's performance has deteriorated further since.

Sir Philip Green is in talks to sell of part of the Arcadia group empire.Pictured left in 2010 with daughter Chloe and right in 2013 with actress Jessica Lowdes at the Topshop LA opening party

The sale of the group would lead do the probable retirement of Sir Green, who has been in the spotlight throughout his five decade career.

The 65-year-old is also thought to have held talks with Oxford Industries, who own several US clothing brands, but they have reportedly ended.

Sir Green may want to keep Topshop but sell off the rest of the group.

Leonard Green, a US private equity firm, holds a 25 per cent share in Topshop - the terms of the sale means either party can sell their part of the business after five years. The period expired in December.

What makes up the Arcadia group? The Arcadia group is majority owned by Taveta Investments, the company owned by Tina Green, the wife of Sir Phillip Green. It is currently comprised of Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop. It also owns Outfit, an out-of-town retailer that sells lines from the other chains. The group also has more than 2,500 outlets in UK department stores. It was founded in 1903 and was bought by the Green family in 2002, having acquired and sold off several well-known British brands in its 100 year history. Advertisement

Sir Green has been been in discussions to separate Topshop from the rest of the group since 2016, but it may come with complications following the BHS pensions scandal.

Shandong Ruyi was established in the 1970s as a woollen mill in Jining, northern China.

It has been on forceful expansion mission throughout Europe and has purchased controlling stakes in the French luxury brands Sandro and Maje as well as British tailoring houses Aquascutum, Gieves & Hawkes and Kent & Curwen. Most recently, it bough a majority share in Swiss shoe company Bally.

Born in Croydon, south London, Sir Green left boarding school in 1967 with no qualification and began an apprenticeship at a shoe-importing firm.

Sir Phillip Green sits Kate Moss with her sister Lottie at the Unique by Topshop autumn/winter 2014/15 collection shown at London Fashion Week

His career and personal life has often made headlines, and he had made deals international brands such as Olympus and Sears.

He took over BHS in 2000 and Arcadia in 2002, and was knighted by Tony Blair in 2006.

The collapse of BHS and sale for 1 in 2015 sullied his reputation and he was branded a 'billionaire spiv' by MP, David Winnick when the company collapses a year later with a 571m hole in its pension funds.Theresa May was warned today that Britain will automatically crash out of the EU next year if she fails to offer a workable deal to Brussels.

Senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt said Britain's red lines in the negotiations were dramatically narrowing the options for a deal.

He said he had backed Britain staying in the EU single market, the customs union or an existing associate membership model - but that all had been rejected in London.

Mrs May used a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday night to insist the negotiations were not a 'one way street'.

Theresa May (pictured today with husband Philip in Maidenhead) was warned today that Britain will automatically crash out of the EU next year if she fails to offer a workable deal to Brussels

Senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt (pictured today on the Marr show) said Britain's red lines in the negotiations were dramatically narrowing the options for a deal

Formal talks on the transition period are due to come to a head next month with a series of major obstacles still to be finalised.

Mr Verhofstadt issued his warning to the Prime Minister today in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr.

He denied it was 'punitive' to talk of the need for Britain to accept the 'consequences' of breaking from EU rules.

He said: 'It's your decision.

'I suggested the single market is the best solution. But the British government does not want that because the red line is no freedom of movement of people.

'The second best option is the customs union. But Britain says that is no, that not possible because it wants control of trade policy.

'I said look at one or the other of the association arrangements. Maybe that will also be opposed, they will say it implies a role for the European Court of Justice.

'A lot depends not on the European side, a lot depends on the red lines put on the table by the British.'

Asked what would happen if the House of Commons vetoes any deal as not good enough - a scenario some say could happen if Mrs May tries to stay in some EU rules -, Mr Verhofstadt said: 'There will be, I presume, a crisis in British politics,' he said.

'I presume maybe an election, maybe after that election a new government and maybe a new position of that government on Brexit.

'That's unknown territory.'

Mr Verhofstadt issued his warning to the Prime Minister today in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr (pictured)

The MEP said: 'There is Brexit on March 29 without any agreement.'

The message echoed the declaration by Mrs Merkel in a joint press conference with Mrs May in Berlin on Friday.

The Chancellor said: 'I'm not frustrated, I'm just curious how Britain envisages this future partnership and obviously we also have our own vested interests.'

Mrs Merkel said Germany has not changed its position on Britain leaving the EU, saying: 'We deplore it.'

She said that she now wanted to hear from the British on their proposals for a Brexit deal.

'We very much look forward to Britain again setting out its ideas,' she said.

In response, Mrs May told the press conference: 'It is not just a one way street our future economic partnership is good for the UK and the EU.

'I believe through negotiations we can achieve that economic relationship.'

Asked if it was time for Britain to make a clear offer and not wait on Europe, Mrs May said: 'The point of negotiations is two partners sit down and talk about these issues and come to an agreement about these issues.'A murder investigation has been launched after a teenager was stabbed to death outside the late Freddie Mercury's home in west London.

A gang of around eight youths, some armed with sticks, chased the 19-year-old victim before he was stabbed on Logan Place, a narrow side road just a 10 minute walk away from Earls Court Tube station.

Officers were initially called to the scene at around 3.20am on Sunday after reports of disturbance, but found a teenager with multiple stab wounds. A car is said to have driven the wrong way down Earls Court Road in a bid to escape the violence.

Two rival gangs are believed to have clashed in the street when they had come out of two different parties, one on Logan Place and the other on Abingdon Road, five minutes from the scene of the stabbing.

Police and forensic officers in Logan Place, Kensington, west London after a 19 year old was discovered fatally wounded with knife injuries near a large number of cars at around 3.30am

Knife pulled from a drain by police search teams. Police officers at scene where a Murder Squad Police are investigating the fatal stabbing of a teenager following a party in west London

Police officers at scene where a Murder Squad Police are investigating the fatal stabbing of a teenager following a party in west London

An officer on his hands and knees looking down a drain with a magnet on a chain on the pavement ready to be used

An officer searches under a car parked on Logan Place in a desperate hunt for evidence

A neighbour said he heard loud hip-hop music coming from an uninhabited flat hours before the attack and recalled seeing five men being chased by a group of eight youths.

He heard one of the chasing youths shout: 'F*** it. I don't care. Let's chase him down.'

A 19-year-old man was arrested at the scene in connection to the incident. He was taken to a West London police station where he remains in custody.

Police administered first aid until the arrival of the London Ambulance Service, but the 19-year-old victim was pronounced dead at the scene at 3.46pm.

The next of kin has been informed.

The area where the man was stabbed has been cordoned off as police scour for evidence.

A second area also been cordoned off around the entrance to a five-storey terraced building opposite Logan Place, where a uniformed officer was guarding the door.

A 19-year-old man was arrested at the scene in connection to the incident. He was taken to a West London police station where he remains in custody

A team of officers walk down Logan Place searching for evidence after the teenager was stabbed to death

Two officers search a bush for the knife which was used in the fatal stabbing in West London

An officer strips out of his forensic overalls in the street while an officer stands outside town house nearby

Police officers at scene where a Murder Squad Police are investigating the fatal stabbing

There have been 13 fatal stabbings in London this year

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, who is leading the investigation, said: 'While we are in the very early stages of our investigation, we know there was a party at a nearby address on Earls Court Road around the time of this incident.

'We are still working to establish any link, but it does mean the area would have been busy with vehicles and pedestrians at the time.

'I want to hear from anyone who was in the area; did you witness an altercation? Every fragment of information is beneficial to our investigation and I would urge anyone who may know something to contact police immediately.'

It is the third teenage this week to have been fatally stabbed to death in the capital and the 13th in 2018.

Last year, 26 teenagers were murdered in London last year, 20 of whom were fatally stabbed, the highest number since 2008.

A local resident called council noise abatement officers two hours before the killing when loud music was heard coming from a previously empty flat, believed to have been used by squatters as a party venue.

A police officer outside a house on Earls Court Road, Kensington, west London after a 19 year old was found stabbed to death

The man, who did not want to be named, said: 'Around 1am I heard really loud music.

'I called the council noise department, but the people at the party totally ignored the advice of the lady who came down and the noise carried on.

'They were playing loud, trashy rap music.

'I looked out of my kitchen and saw a group of youngsters standing outside the flat having an argument.

'I saw a group of five of them run down Logan Place, then another bunch chased after them. The group that was chasing was bigger, around seven or eight.

'One of the group had a bat and another had a walking stick.

'I heard the sound of glass breaking at one point. We were very worried about them breaking into our place.

'I called police, but I think they were already on their way.

'At around 3am I saw an ambulance down the road.'

He added: 'It's terrible, we've never had anything like this before.

'There's never been any noise from the flat before.

'The flat was previously empty. I don't think anyone lives in there, so I don't know how they got in.'

Police are searching nearby bushes for the murder weapon after a witness saw something being thrown into the undergrowth.

Another resident said she saw people with torches scouring a nearby back garden moments after the attack.

She said: 'My dad sleeps in the back bedroom and he saw some people in the garden with torches.

'I don't know if they were a lynch mob or the police. That was around 3.30am. No one has access to that garden, you have to climb a gate to get in.

'He also saw some girls at the bus stop and one came from Logan Place looking in an agitated state. They then ran off up the road.'

Upon arriving at the scene, police found a man with stab injuries. Police have been searching the scene this morning for evidenceCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau toured the Taj Mahal with his wife and children on Sunday as he began a week-long visit to India.

The family was pictured larking around by the famous marble bench where Princess Diana once sat looking forlorn and alone in 1992, and where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned in 2016.

Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their three children posed for a family portrait before marvelling at the legendary marble monument frequently visited by foreign leaders.

It came after an apparent 'snub' at the start of his trip when the country's PM Narendra Modi failed to meet them at the airport and instead sent a junior agriculture minister.

Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and his three children are pictured visiting the Taj Mahal at the start of a trip to India

Trudeau's children, from left: Xavier, 10, Hadrien, 3, and Ella-Grace, 9, joined their parents for a photoshoot on the famous bench

The family was pictured larking around on the bench where Princess Diana once looked lonely and forlorn near the end of her marriage to Prince Charles

Canadian PM Trudeau was visiting the Taj Mahal at the start of a visit to India in which he will aim to promote trade and investment with India

Sophie Gregoire (left) wore a colourful full-length blue dress as she posed for the pictures

Diana was pictured looking forlorn and alone on the bench as her marriage to Prince Charles crumbled

The picture of Diana sitting on her own became one of the iconic images of her relationship

Two years ago William and Kate marked happier times as they posed for pictures together on the marble bench

The image of Diana looking forlorn and alone on the bench as her marriage to Prince Charles crumbled became one of the iconic images of their failed relationship.

But two years ago William and Kate marked happier times as they posed for pictures together on the marble bench.

Trudeau will spend the week talking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about how they can boost their relationship.

But the arrival was a far cry from when former US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Israel and the UAE made the trip, with Modi patiently waiting for them on the tarmac.

The PM and his smiling family were in stark contrast to the lonely image of Princess Diana

The visit to the legendary marble monument in Agra came at the start of a week-long trip

The Trudeaus' daughter Ella Grace wore a long patterned skirt and was joined by her younger brother Hadrien in wearing a hat to keep out the sun

The family is flanked by security and other visitors as they admire the Taj Mahal

The Canadian PM is seen leading his family for a stroll around the gardens of the Taj Mahal

Trudeau and Modi will hold talks on civil nuclear cooperation, space, defence, energy and education.

Trade between Canada and India has doubled in the last decade to just over $8 billion in 2016, a figure which India's foreign ministry says 'does not reflect true potential'.

At Davos last month, while President Donald Trump supported new tariffs on imports, Trudeau and Modi came out forcefully against a drift toward protectionism in the global economy.

Canada is home to more than 1.2 million Indians - more than three percent of its population - with Sikh members of Trudeau's cabinet joining in the visit.

Trudeau and Modi will hold talks on civil nuclear cooperation, space, defence, energy and education

There was no sign of PM Modi on the red carpet when the Trudeaus touched down, with the family greeted instead by a junior minister

Former US President Barack Obama is greeted by Modi at a New Delhi airport in January 2015 (left), while Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was warmly received by Modi last month

The delegation will walk a diplomatic tightrope in Punjab where Trudeau will visit the Golden Temple - the holiest site in Sikhism, and the scene of a bloody massacre of religious separatists in 1984.

Trudeau is scheduled to visit Modi's home state of Gujarat on Monday before jetting off to India's financial capital of Mumbai for talks with CEOs and business leaders the next day.

After visiting Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday, Trudeau will meet Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi following a welcome at the presidential palace and a wreath-laying at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial.

Modi visited Canada in 2015 and addressed a crowd of 10,000 from the Indian diaspora in Toronto.The sister of murdered MP Jo Cox said the family will support her widower Brendan following new sexual assault allegations made against him.

Kim Leadbeater said she would stand by Brendan Cox after he quit two charities which he set up following the resurfaced allegations.

In a statement, Kim Leadbeater, Jo Cox's sister, said: 'This is another very difficult day for our family. The last 20 months have been a constant rollercoaster of emotions which we are still dealing with on a daily basis.

'My priority is and always will be looking after Jo and Brendan's children and supporting my parents, who have already been through so much.

'As a family we will support Brendan as he endeavours to do the right thing by admitting mistakes he may have made in the past, and we respect him for doing so.

'We all make mistakes. Brendan is a wonderful father and I have no doubt about the happiness he brought to Jo.

'My other focus is to wholeheartedly continue the work I have begun through the More in Common movement at a local and national level and to support The Jo Cox Foundation in continuing its valuable work.

'I have a fantastic team of people who have supported me so far and I know they will continue to do so as we focus on creating a positive legacy for Jo. Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support.'

Last night, Brendan Cox apologised for the 'hurt and offence' he has caused to women, and said that he was 'deeply apologetic' for his behaviour.

In a highly emotional interview with The Mail on Sunday, he dramatically announced his immediate resignation from the Jo Cox Foundation and More In Common  the charities he launched to honour the memory of his wife.

His confession came as this newspaper uncovered shocking new details of a second sexual assault he allegedly committed.

The accusation relates to his time with Save The Children in the year before his wife was killed by a far-right fanatic during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.

Kim Leadbeater (right) said she would stand by Brendan Cox (left) after he quit two charities which he set up following the resurfaced allegations

Brendan Cox, the husband of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox (pictured together), has admitted to being a sex pest and resigned from two charities he set up in her honour

In a statement, Kim Leadbeater (pictured), Jo Cox's sister, said: 'This is another very difficult day for our family. The last 20 months have been a constant rollercoaster of emotions which we are still dealing with on a daily basis'

It is claimed that Mr Cox drunkenly harassed a female employee at the charity in London, forcing her against a wall outside a bar, holding her by the throat and telling her: 'I want to f*** you.'

The incident led to him being forced to leave the charity in 2015. Save The Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth, a close friend of Mr Cox and former aide to Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, resigned four months later.

Astonishingly, one month after Mr Cox left the charity, a senior female US Government official told police Mr Cox had carried out a similar alleged assault on her at Harvard University in America  as this newspaper revealed last week. The woman was unaware of the Save The Children incident at the time.

In another development, it emerged yesterday that Mr Forsyth was also the subject of a complaint by a female employee. It related to an 'inappropriate comment' he allegedly made. The complaint was investigated and said to have been resolved 'by consensus'.

Insiders insist Mr Forsyth's subsequent departure from the charity had nothing to do with the complaint against him, nor the handling of the Cox scandal. Mr Forsyth was then appointed deputy executive director of Unicef in New York, a post he still holds.

MailOnline has contacted Unicef for comment.

A Save The Children source said: 'Brendan and Justin were a formidable double act. But they were too big for their boots.'

The disclosures will fuel the current controversy over charity sex scandals and cover-ups.

Mr Cox said in a statement to this newspaper: 'I accept I have made mistakes, behaved badly and caused some women hurt and offence. I take responsibility for what I have done. I apologise unreservedly for my past behaviour and am committed to holding myself to much higher standards of personal conduct in the future.'

He is accused of drunkenly harassing a Save the Children employee in London by forcing her against a wall outside a bar and holding her by the throat (Pictured, Mr Cox during a special service for his wife at Trafalgar Square in June 2016)

It marks a dramatic fall from grace for Mr Cox, who has won praise for the way he has focused on bringing up his and his wife's two young children and thrown himself into charitable work since her death.

He says he is determined to end his 'deeply inappropriate' behaviour and strive harder to keep the vow he made after his wife's murder to 'love and protect our children and fight the hatred that killed Jo'.

Labour backbencher Jess Phillips, a friend of Ms Cox, said it was right that he step down from his post with the charities.

Speaking on ITV's Peston on Sunday, she said: 'I think the truth of the matter is we live in an era where men are going to have to address (their) behaviour both previously and in the future and what I want to see, I don't like this idea that we just switch off our feelings ... I love Brendan, he's my friend.

'His family are friends with my family, but the fact of the matter is, is that it's not enough just to say 'oh I'm sorry', you have to show how you're going to change the way you are in the future and I think Brendan, more so than many I've seen in this area is actually trying to do that.'

But Mr Cox said the furore over his conduct made his charity work more difficult and he would therefore give up public life  for now at least.

Brendan and Jo met while working for Oxfam, where Mr Forsyth had been their boss. Mr Forsyth became Gordon Brown's campaigns chief when he became Prime Minister in 2007, and Mr Cox joined him in Downing Street, while Mrs Cox became an adviser to Sarah Brown. The Coxes married in 2009.

When Labour lost the 2010 Election, Mrs Cox followed her political dream  eventually being elected MP in 2015. Mr Forsyth became Save The Children's chief executive and Mr Cox went with him as director of policy, including responsibility for the 'empowerment of women.'

Some colleagues say he had a reputation for pestering women for sex. 'It wasn't comfortable being on duty alone with him,' said one.

'He would buy women drinks, his hands were everywhere. Everyone knew it was going on, but he was best friends with the boss.'

Matters came to a head after a Save The Children drinks party in July 2015. 'Brendan was dancing provocatively with a woman who told him to leave her alone,' said one source. 'She joined a group of women who went on to a bar. Brendan followed them. He got her outside, pushed her against a wall and tried to force himself on her.'

Another source said: 'He was drunk, said, 'I want to f*** you' and held her by the throat. She was outraged and made a complaint.'

Some female employees are said to have feared Mr Cox was 'shielded' by Mr Forsyth, and threatened to resign unless Mr Cox was fired.

Mr Cox has dramatically announced his immediate resignation from the Jo Cox Foundation and More In Common (pictured: Brendan and Jo outside 10 Downing Street)

Charity chiefs suspended Mr Cox, banned him from the office and set up a disciplinary panel. Mr Forsyth did not sit on the panel because of their close friendship.

But the investigation was effectively scuppered when Mr Cox refused to attend a disciplinary hearing and suddenly resigned. The charity was told they could not find him guilty of misconduct without hearing his side of the story.

The ploy also meant Save The Children could not tell Harvard he had been found guilty of misconduct when he attended a course there four weeks later. This newspaper revealed last week how a woman, whose identity we withheld, complained to US police, accusing Mr Cox of sexual assault while there.

By her account, he cornered her in a bar, plied her with drink, 'grabbed her by the hips, pulled her hair, forced his thumb into her mouth in a sexual way' and later sent her obscene text messages. Police filed her complaint as 'assault and battery', but she told them not to take further action because she 'feared repercussions'.

Mr Cox last week called the allegations 'spurious'. Yesterday he said he did not 'recognise or accept' her claims.

Following the murder of his wife, there were reports that Mr Cox was lined up to succeed her Labour MP for Batley and Spen in Yorkshire, but he did not do so. The Mail on Sunday has been told Labour officials advised against it because of rumours about his behaviour.

Mr Forsyth's successor as Save The Children chief executive, Kevin Watkins, last night announced new measures to stop staff being abused by colleagues in the wake of the allegations about Mr Cox.

He pledged to take charge of a major shake-up of the charity's complaints procedure and vowed a 'zero tolerance of disrespectful behaviour'.

Mr Watkins could face tough questions over the Cox scandal  as well as other allegations of misconduct by aid workers  when he is quizzed by MPs this week.

Mr Forsyth declined to comment last night.

Additional reporting: Charlotte Wace

Was I inappropriate? I thought I was flirtatious. But I overstepped the line: Brendan Cox's astonishing tearful confession over his inappropriate and often drunken behaviour

BY JO MACFARLANE

The strain of the last week is etched plainly on Brendan Cox's face. His manner is as crumpled as his casual black T-shirt and jeans; his eyes heavy and rimmed with red. This is a man in turmoil, struggling to confront some very difficult personal truths.

Today, Brendan sits in the houseboat on the River Thames in London that he shares with his two young children, and holds his head in his hands. He is plagued, he admits, with a sense of crushing guilt.

Guilt that his sexually inappropriate, often drunken behaviour led to damning complaints about him by two women, which is why, he says, he is taking part in this extraordinary and often tearful interview.

But there is clearly shame, too, that this behaviour has now forced him to step away from the work he has been carrying out in memory of his wife, the Labour MP Jo Cox. He has quit the charities the Jo Cox Foundation and More In Common as he withdraws from public life.

It is a remarkable fall from grace. Yet while Brendan is keen to apologise for any offence caused to women by his behaviour, he remains reluctant to face head-on the disturbing details of the sex abuse claims he now faces.

Mr Cox was, until now, a grieving widower, but now finds himself labelled a sexual predator who is accused of trying to take advantage of other women during his marriage

Brendan was, until now, a grieving widower who, in the aftermath of his wife's shocking murder just before the 2016 Brexit vote, had been dedicating himself to campaigning on her behalf. Now, he finds himself labelled a sexual predator who is accused of trying to take advantage of other women during his marriage.

'I know that there are instances when I was working at Save the Children that did make people feel uncomfortable and that they felt was inappropriate,' he concedes. 'And I think that charge is a fair one. There will be people who will put the worst possible spin on this and assume it was malicious or a deliberate act.

'Others will think I behaved unacceptably badly. But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm innately a bad person or that it's not possible to learn from those mistakes.

'I know I've never acted with malice or tried to upset people, but I've clearly made people feel like that.

'The thing I want to say today, to people that I have offended and upset or to those I've let down, is that I am deeply sorry for doing that. I feel that very profoundly.'

The small, cosy living space on the boat, warmed today by a wood-burning stove, is filled with pictures of the family in happier times. They adorn every wall, every surface. There are photographs of a smiling Jo with their children; a photograph of the couple on The Cuillin mountain range in Skye where Jo realised she was pregnant with their eldest son; and a poignant painting of Jo and the kids on the deck of the boat, which, Brendan says, captures her gait perfectly.

Yet this cosy domesticity stands in stark contrast to the damning allegations about his behaviour during their marriage. There were even rumours, which he does not deny, that he slept with other workers at the charity. Did Jo know about any of it?

'I'm not going to talk about my relationship with Jo,' he says, firmly. 'We never pretended that we had the perfect relationship, or the perfect marriage.

Mr Cox said: 'This is about me, and my behaviour  not about her. I'm sure people might advise me to talk about her but it'd be a PR tool and that doesn't feel right'

'We had difficult times, we had amazing times, but I'm not going to recount conversations I had with her because she's not here.

'This is about me, and my behaviour  not about her. I'm sure people might advise me to talk about her but it'd be a PR tool and that doesn't feel right.'

Such declarations are to his credit. And yet Brendan maintains even now that the allegations against him are a 'massive exaggeration' of his actual behaviour. He is today refusing to discuss the details of any incident.

Last week, The Mail on Sunday revealed that a woman complained to police in the US over an alleged sexual assault at Harvard University in October 2015, where Mr Cox was attending a course. Her claims  categorically denied by Brendan  include that he plied her with alcohol, tried to force himself on her, and inserted a thumb in her mouth following a late-night dinner.

Brendan says he is keen not to disclose confidential details of a separate incident in July 2015 involving a colleague at Save the Children. But what he is prepared to concede is that both women saw his behaviour very differently than he did.

Hearing that he was 'known' as a sex pest and that women were reluctant to be on duty alone with him at the charity, appears to come as a shock. Brendan looks visibly uncomfortable and turns away, rubbing his face with his hands.

'It's entirely fair to say that other people felt my presence was different than I meant it to be. The sense that I was physically imposing I don't think I had a good account of that, and how that made people feel in some situations. At the root [of the rumours] was a sense, which is fair, that I could overstep the line.'

To his regret, he failed to acknowledge that at the time. It may seem a weak defence given the seriousness of the allegations, but Brendan insists he saw his behaviour as playful rather than predatory.

'Maybe if I had seriously sat down and thought about it in the cold light of day then I might have been clearer on it. Certainly, I had too much to drink at times. I probably behaved in a way I thought was sort of jokey, or flirtatious. I often wasn't being serious, but that was perceived differently by others.

Hearing that he was 'known' as a sex pest and that women were reluctant to be on duty alone with him at the charity, appears to come as a shock to Mr Cox (pictured during a previous interview with the BBC)

'There was never any malice; any intention to upset or offend people. But the bigger picture is that you do have to face up to how you make people feel, not just what your intention was. I didn't reflect on it  that's not a defence, it's a failing. It's not good enough. With the #MeToo movement, I think people, including me, are reflecting not just on their behaviour but the power imbalance in some encounters. It's a painful thing, if you're one of those people, but ultimately it's a healthy thing to be going through.'

The realisation may have come too late. The allegations are so serious they may end Brendan's public life. 'I didn't want the charities to suffer from my mistakes,' he says. 'They're important both for Jo's legacy and for building stronger communities and that's more important than any individual. I didn't want to be a burden or a distraction to any of that.'

It is hard, too, not to consider what Jo would have made of it all. It is an enormous source of regret to Brendan that she is not here to support him now.

'It would have been a very difficult conversation,' he says. 'But yes, I agree  I'd have drawn so much comfort from it.'

When asked if he feels he has let his late wife down, there is a long pause. When he eventually speaks, his voice is choked, his eyes wet with tears.

'I think that I've let myself down,' he says, quietly. 'I need to take responsibility for that. It's what I'm trying to do.

'With everything that's happened in my own life, and the public conversation, I am a lot more reflective than I would have been. I want to make sure that in the future I hold myself to a much higher standard, and that nothing like this can ever be said of me again.'

A legacy, perhaps, that Jo could be truly proud of.

'I think that I've let myself down,' Mr Cox added. 'I need to take responsibility for that. It's what I'm trying to do' (pictured with his sons on the River Thames)

Dfid 'knew about Oxfam predator 12 years ago but did nothing': Whistleblower raised concerns over disgraced chief but was told: 'People can change'

BY SIMON MURPHY AND NICK CRAVEN

An official at the Department for International Aid and Development failed to heed a warning about the disgraced Oxfam chief at the centre of the aid scandal, according to a whistleblower.

Having raised her concerns over the conduct of Roland van Hauwermeiren  who left Oxfam after being accused of using prostitutes  the whistleblower says Dfid responded: 'People can change.'

The female humanitarian employee who raised the alarm worked under Roland van Hauwermeiren for Merlin  now part of Save The Children  in Liberia in the early 2000s.

When she discovered he had later become Oxfam's Country Director in Chad in 2006, she reported allegations about his past misconduct, but says her concerns fell on deaf ears.

Roland van Hauwermeiren (pictured) left Oxfam after being accused of using prostitutes

Mr van Hauwermeiren later went on to work for Oxfam in Haiti, where he was forced out after being accused of sleeping with prostitutes, a claim he denies.

Mr van Hauwermeiren, country director for health charity Merlin between 2002 and 2004 in Liberia, reportedly used the charity's drivers to ferry him to clubs to meet prostitutes and take them to the villa rented for him using donated funds.

He has admitted dancing with prostitutes in Liberia but denies he had sex with them.

Posting in a Facebook group used by concerned aid workers, the whistleblower wrote: 'I was only 24, in my first field job and I shouted and shouted.

'Even though it was so rife in Monrovia [Liberia's capital], that his behaviour only marginally stood out as crossing a line.

'When I heard he was Oxfam CD [Country Director] in Chad, I told a woman from Dfid about his past. Her response, was that people can change.'

Last night, a Dfid spokeswoman said: 'These allegations were not reported to our whistleblowing or HR departments.'A fundraising page has provided bright news in the midst of darkness for the family of amputee policeman Constable Jonathon Wright.

Policemen Jonathon Wright and Matthew Foley were working a random breath test site on Friday night when a distracted driver plowed into the pair - trapping them between a car and police van.

Constable Wright's leg had to be amputated after the smash - as it was revealed that the 22-year-old man behind the wheel of the car was allegedly texting at the time.

A GoFundMe set up by a friend with a humble goal of $10,000 to help with medical bills and support the family has raised more than $70,000 in just 48 hours.

The page reads: 'Our dear friend Jono, a Senior Constable with the NSW police force, was struck by a car last night whilst at work. He was just a bloke going to work, supporting his family and protecting his community.

Scroll down for video

Smiling with his wife and three young children, this is the first picture of the policeman who was mowed down at a random breath test site on Friday night

Constable Wright was on duty at a random breath test site in west Sydney when a driver in a Fiat van allegedly smashed into him and colleague Matthew Foley on Friday night

Driver Jakob Thornton, 22, appeared in court on Saturday accused of ploughing into the policemen at 60km/h while looking at his phone

The fundraising page has already achieved $60,00 more than the $10,000 goal in 48 hours

'He and a colleague were both hit, with Jono sustaining life threatening injuries. Today he is stable in ICU, but facing the reality of life as an amputee.

'Lisa and Jono have a long and arduous road ahead of them. They've been inundated with messages of love and support, all of which I know are so greatly appreciated.

'Probably the only thing that's actually within our power right now is to help ease their financial stresses so they can focus on what's important, Jono's recovery. If you can spare any amount, no matter how small, I know they'll be eternally grateful.

'Everyone deserves to go home safely.

Constable Wright was on duty at a random breath test site in west Sydney when a Fiat van driver allegedly smashed into him and colleague Matthew Foley on Friday night.

He was rushed to hospital where his leg was amputated 15cm above his foot.

A police spokesman on Saturday night told Daily Mail Australia that Constable Wright 'is in stable condition but will be in hospital for some time.'

Constable Foley who suffered a 'serious fracture' remains in a stable condition.

The GoFundMe page says: 'He was just a bloke going to work, supporting his family and protecting his community'

One of the constables is pictured being taken into hospital by ambulance after the crash

This is the van that allegedly smashed into the constables as they worked at the breath test site

Driver Jakob Thornton, 22, appeared in court on the weekend accused of ploughing into the policemen at 60km/h while looking at his phone.

He faced Parramatta Bail Court via video link, charged with dangerous driving offences, including dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and using a mobile phone when not permitted.

The court heard Mr Thornton lost his licence four times in four years, and was fined in 2016 for using his mobile while driving, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mr Thornton then admitted to police officers he was looking at his phone for 10 to 20 seconds when he crashed into the two officers, the court heard.

'Ten to 20 seconds at 60 kilometres an hour, that is a few hundred metres,' magistrate John Favretto said, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Prosecutor senior sergeant Leesa McEvoy told the court police lights and safety measures were in place as the constables set up the road side breath testing site.

'The strength of the prosecution case is nothing short of solid,' senior sergeant McEvoy added.

Mr Thornton's application for bail was denied and he was ordered to face Campbelltown Local Court on Wednesday.A coalition of academics went public today with a mission to prove it was not only less educated people who voted for Brexit.

The group - which includes Leavers and Remainers - said it was 'simply not true' and set out a mission statement to campaign for a good Brexit deal.

The 37-strong panel are contributing to a new website called Briefings for Brexit which will attempt to offer a positive case for quitting the EU.

Cambridge economist Graham Gudgin and French history teacher Robert Tombs edit the website.

Among the group are Nigel Biggar, professor of theology at Oxford; Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of MI6; David Abulafia, professor of history at Cambridge; and Sir Noel Malcolm of All Souls, Oxford.

Cambridge economist Graham Gudgin (left) and French history teacher Robert Tombs (right) edit the new website

The 37-strong panel are contributing to a new website called Briefings for Brexit which will attempt to offer a positive case for quitting the EU.

Mr Gudgin told the Sunday Times: 'I thought of it during one of those terribly pessimistic weeks when Theresa May wasn't going to last until teatime and there was definitely going to be a second referendum.

'Together we thought, ''Gosh, we ought to be better organised than at the last referendum''.'

Professor Tombs, who teaches vat Cambridge, added: 'It was the whole tide of propaganda about how awful everything was, how awful everything was going to be, and we didn't believe this.

'We realised quite a lot of other people didn't believe it either.'

The project is unashamed about its desire to confront the idea the only people who voted for Brexit are less educated.

Professor Tombs said: 'Graham and I have working-class or lower middle-class backgrounds.

'I do feel you just can't write off a large part of the population as being unworthy of consideration.'

Many of the people who signed up did so after hearing of the project via word of mouth and before any publicity.

Among the people signed up to Briefings for Brexit is Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6 (file image)

Mr Gudgin said: 'I've been surprised by how many people found out about it and came on board quickly.

'We would not have known about them unless we set this up.'

Mr Gudgin and Professor Tombs said they had been left furious by the Project Fear-style reports that forecast economic disaster from Brexit.

Both a Treasury report ahead of the referendum and a leaked impact assessment prepared by the Brexit department came under fire.

Mr Gudgin said: 'It looks like most of the errors in the short-term report have been repeated in last week's report from Dexeu [Department for Exiting the European Union].'

Tombs agrees: 'The original paper has kind of coloured the whole debate.'The former inmate who sparked national outrage when he was pictured in a restraint chair with a spit hood covering his face in a youth detention centre is facing a raft of new charges.

Dylan Voller, 21, shot into the spotlight when he was shown in CCTV footage being assaulted by guards, forcibly stripped naked, and tear-gassed while incarcerated at Darwin's Don Dale juvenile detention centre in 2014.

The shocking ABC investigation prompted the establishment of a $70million royal commission which closed the centre after finding it breached human rights laws.

On Thursday Voller was arrested again after allegedly exposing himself on a drunken night out at a Perth train station.

He admitted 'taking a piss' on Cannington station railway tracks but claimed he was beaten up by security guards who allegedly strangled him by pressing their knees into his neck.

Dylan Voller has been accused of exposing himself on a drunken night out at a Perth train station. He claimed he was beaten by guards and shared these images of his bruised face on social media

Voller said he later encountered police who called him 'a piece of sh**' and said they 'would love to shoot him'.

The next day he shared pictures of his bruised and swollen face on social media which he claimed was a result of train guard violence.

CCTV footage from the station shows a group of guards pinning him down on a platform as he shouts 'help me'.

The PTA says the response was required because Voller was being confrontational and goading officers.

Speaking to 7 News about his 'drunken and silly' night, Voller said: 'I must have said something' because the guards must have seen me and they all started coming at me.

'There was about eight of them and they got me down on the ground and they smashed my face into the ground. They were all yelling at me and stuff.

'One of them punched me in the face. They then dragged me out and threw me in the back of the transit van.'

He admitted 'taking a piss' on Cannington station railway tracks but claimed he was beaten up by security guards who allegedly strangled him by pressing their knees into his neck. Pictured: CCTV footage from the station shows a group of guards pinning him down on a platform

Voller said he later encountered police who called him 'a piece of sh**' and said they 'would love to shoot him'. Pictured: CCTV footage from the station shows a group of guards pinning him down on a platform

After he was released, Voller (pictured) said he was walking along a road with friends when a police car approached. He claims police verbally abuse him

After he was released, Voller said he was walking along a road with friends when a police car approached.

He said: 'They knew who I was because they said, 'you think because you've been on telly you're pretty good, but you're just pieces of s**t' and 'I'd love to shoot you'.

WA police said they were responding to reports that four men were jumping out infront of cars.

A PTA spokesman said: 'When the Transit officers left, it is alleged Mr Voller jumped down on to the tracks and exposed himself in front of members of the public.

'Following this, he was approached by two TOs who spoke to him for seven minutes, during which he refused to provide his details. He was arrested by two TOs.

'Mr Voller was held in the back of one of our vehicles for about 30 minutes pending the arrival of an ambulance, which was called at his request for an unrelated medical condition. He was then released from custody.'

The PTA said it would be charging Mr Voller by summons. Daily Mail Australia contacted WA police for further comment.

Voller shot into the spotlight when he was shown in CCTV footage on ABC's Four Corners program being assaulted by guards, forcibly stripped naked, and tear-gassed while incarcerated at Darwin's Don Dale juvenile detention centre in 2014Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran not to test his country's resolve while brandishing what he said was part of an Iranian drone shot down in Israel's airspace.

Saying he had 'a message to the tyrants of Tehran' during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, he warned: 'Do not test Israel's resolve.'

He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called 'a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down.'

He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called 'a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down'

During the strikes last week, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

The charred remains of an Israel F-16 that crashed after coming under fire by Syrian air defences

Israel's military said the attacks were in retaliation for the violation of its airspace by an Iranian drone. Pictured is Shahed-129 drone on display at a rally commemorating the 37th anniversary of the Islamic revolution

Netanyahu, a long-time critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 'Munich Agreement' that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe

Israel has said it shot down the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

Calling Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the 'smooth-talking mouthpiece of Iran's regime,' Netanyahu said: 'Mr. Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, it's yours.'

Again referring to Zarif, who is expected to speak later in Munich, the Israeli leader said: 'No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Iran's involvement in Syria.'

'He lies with eloquence.'

Responding to the attack, Zarif slammed Netanyahu for staging a 'cartoonish circus'.

'You were the audience for a cartoonish circus just this morning which does not even deserve the dignity of a response,' he said, shortly after Netanyahu's fiery speech.

Zarif also denounced what he said were Israel's 'almost daily illegal incursions into Syrian airspace.'

He said Israel was trying 'to create these cartoonish images to blame others for its own strategic blunders, or maybe to evade the domestic crisis they're facing.'

During the strikes last week, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Israel's response marked the first time it publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

Israel has said it shot down the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drone's debris.

Netanyahu also told world leaders, defence officials and diplomats at the Munich event that an agreement with Iran has 'unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond'.

Netanyahu, a long-time critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 'Munich Agreement' that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe.

'The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime,' he said.

'Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war... those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly.'

Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran.

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israel's resolve.

'Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck,' he said.

'We will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself.'

He also said: 'The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.'

But Zarif told the conference that 'Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbours', accusing Israel of 'mass reprisals against its neighbours and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon.'

'The entire speech was trying to evade the issue,' Zarif added.

'What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility (of Israel) has crumbled,' he said of the downing of an Israeli jet.Moving pictures show a cancer-stricken boy enjoying himself at Simon Cowell's son's Despicable Me-themed birthday party.

Though known for his fearsome put-downs, the TV judge's soft side came out as he shared a heart-melting hug with five-year-old Kian Musgrove.

Kian, who suffers from rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma, can be seen embracing the music mogul at his son Eric's 4th birthday bash at a swanky hotel.

Simon Cowell shared a heart-melting hug with five-year-old Kian Musgrove, who suffers from rare childhood cancer neuroblastoma

The little fighter became friends with Cowell after he donated 25,000 and paid for his flights to America for pioneering treatment in 2016.

And at the party he can be seen playing with Eric on the bouncy castle before jumping into what he thought was a ball pit - but was actually filled with water.

His mum Kat, 30, told Chronicle Live: 'Two days ago I got a message from Eric's mammy asking if we would like to go to his party.

'Simon paid for us to be chauffeur driven and our train journey, he's so kind.

'We have arrived at this real luxurious hotel in a Jaguar. Kian is loving it.'

Kian (pictured left with Cowell's son Eric) became friends with Cowell after he donated 25,000 and paid for his flights to America for pioneering treatment in 2016

His mum Kat, 30, (pictured left with Cowell and her son) said the TV judge was 'so kind' to have invited Kian to the party in London and paid for them to travel there

Dressed in an adorable waistcoat and tie, Kian was drenched after jumping into the water-filled ball pit.

'I couldn't believe it,' said Kat. 'Kian was so excited and running around with Eric when he jumped straight into what he thought was a ball pit. But, in fact, it also had water in.

'Kian was soaking and had to be taken away by Eric's nanny. They dried him off and ordered some more clothes for him. It was very good of them to do that.

'He's just loving it. He's running around and playing with Eric. He's been jumping up and down on the bouncy castle with inflatable bananas. It's been a brilliant day.'

Kian, who lives in Prudhoe in Northumberland, and his family were invited to watch the X-Factor final in London in December (pictured with mum Kat in 2015)

The cheeky youngster (pictured right with mum Kat and sister Katie) entertained thousands of people in the audience by doing a dance on the stage

Kian, who lives in Prudhoe in Northumberland, and his family were invited to watch the X-Factor final in London in December.

And the cheeky youngster entertained thousands of people in the audience by doing a dance on the stage.

The schoolboy recently returned from America where he had a final round of pioneering treatment in New York.

More than 600,000 was raised by Generous Geordies and others across the world to send him there in the hope of ending his cancer nightmare.

In 2015 a mystery benefactor from Luxembourg also donated 40,000 to his family so he could fly to the Michigan for treatment.

There was a note alongside the money saying 'good luck to your son'.

Kian was first diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma on October 31, 2013 when he was 18 months old

He was cared for at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and had chemotherapy and numerous operations after doctors discovered 27 tumours around his kidneys and in his bones (pictured in 2014)

Kian was first diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma on October 31, 2013 when he was 18 months old.

Doctors discovered 27 tumours around his kidneys and in his bones.

He was cared for at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary and had chemotherapy and numerous operations.

But now the youngster has started to enjoy life again.

But now the youngster (pictured left in 2015) has started to enjoy his life againBarnaby Joyce's relationship with his younger former media adviser came after taxpayers had coughed up more than $28,000 for them to travel together for work.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting anything illegal took place and is not accusing Mr Joyce of misusing public funds.

However, the revelation about the 50-year-old Nationals leader's expenses came as a Newspoll survey showed two-thirds of voters wanted Mr Joyce to resign as Deputy Prime Minister as he prepared to take a week of leave.

Barnaby Joyce's work trips with his former adviser Vikki Campion cost taxpayers $28,408

She travelled extensively across Australia with her former boss, flying with him from Brisbane to Victoria (flight receipts pictured above)

In 2016 and 2017, the father-of-four's travel to events with his now pregnant 33-year-old former staffer Vikki Campion cost taxpayers $28,408 when she was on his payroll.

Daily Mail Australia has analysed expenses incurred by Mr Joyce between May 2016, when Ms Campion joined his election campaign as media adviser, to April 2017 when she quit as his adviser to work for Nationals minister Matt Canavan.

This publication isn't suggesting any misuse of funds and has examined the records from the Department of Finance and Defence, which operate VIP flights for ministers.

However, Mr Joyce's 24-year marriage to his estranged wife Natalie ended after Ms Campion had joined his office.

She travelled extensively across Australia with her former boss, flying with him from the Gold Coast to Melbourne, and several regional centres in between, during her year as a full-time staffer with the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Joyce and Ms Campion were photographed together in a bar at Glebe in Sydney's inner-west in February 2017, after flying down from Tamworth

EXPENSES TIMELINE 27 May 2016  Gold Coast/Tamworth: $11,000  VIP flight 17 June 2016  Glen Innes/Lismore: $1,334  VIP flight 17 June 2016  Lismore/Inverell: $1,334  VIP flight 25 August 2016 - Melbourne/Sydney: $1,135; Comcars: $346 5 October 2016  Orange/Narrandera: $562  VIP flight 5 October 2016  Narrandera/Deniliquin: $351  VIP flight 14 November 2016  Brisbane/East Sale: $8,740  VIP flight 14 November 2016 - East Sale/Melbourne: $2,300  VIP flight 23 February 2017 - Tamworth/Sydney: $356 flight; two night travel allowance: $442; Comcars: $73 25 February 2017 - Sydney/Tamworth: $356 flight; Comcar: $79 Sources: Department of Finance, Defence Advertisement

When Ms Campion first joined the Deputy PM's office in May 2016, she travelled with her boss on VIP flights to the New South Wales towns of Tamworth, Glen Innes, Armidale, Lismore, as Mr Joyce campaigned for the upcoming July election.

Three months later, in August 2016, the pair caught a flight from Sydney to Melbourne costing taxpayers $1,135 so they could attend an Australian Dairy Industry Symposium.

In October and November 2016, Mr Joyce and Ms Campion took four VIP trips together, costing almost $12,000, taking them across central-western NSW and to Brisbane and Melbourne.

In February last year, Mr Joyce was photographed with Ms Campion, a former Daily Telegraph journalist, drinking a bar at Glebe in Sydney's inner-west.

During that visit to the New South Wales capital, Mr Joyce claimed two nights of travel allowance worth $442, along with flights from Sydney to Tamworth each costing $356.

A Newspoll survey shows 65 per cent of voters want Mr Joyce to quit as Deputy Prime Minister

The Deputy Prime Minister also claimed $152 in Comcar travel.

The revelations came as a Newspoll survey of 1,632 voters, published in The Australian, showed 65 per cent of the electorate wanted Mr Joyce to quit as Deputy Prime Minister.

His relationship with Ms Campion has damaged the Turnbull Government's standing, with the Coalition's primary vote falling two points to 36 per cent, putting it one point behind Labor's.

The government now trails the Opposition 53 per cent to 47 per cent after preferences.

Daily Mail Australia contacted Mr Joyce's office for comment.Denise Fergus, the mother of murdered toddler James Bulger, has revealed she has only just learned the extent of her son's sexual injuries

Denise Fergus, the mother of murdered toddler James Bulger, has revealed she has only just learned the extent of her son's sexual injuries, in the wake of the 25th anniversary of the two-year-old's death.

Ms Fergus has today demanded an inquiry into what was known by authorities when her son's killers were released in 2001.

She believes the parole board did not know all the facts before releasing Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who were both only 10 years old when they abducted James Bulger from a Liverpool shopping centre and murdered him.

Venables has twice since reoffended and been imprisoned on charges relating to the possession of child pornography.

Ms Fergus' calls were twice rejected by the Government, despite a petition signed by more than 190,000 people.

Speaking for the first time since her petition was rejected, she said: 'I have always said I didn't want to know the full details of about the sexual abuse on my son and only found out the true extent of what they did this week.

'After I had learned this week, via social media, that the Government had turned down out request for a public inquiry I felt backed into a corner so I asked the relevant people to tell me everything because I need to know now, which was totally heart breaking.

'Releasing Venables was massive mistake. Both of them should have served time in an adult prison.

'I want to know on what basis the parole board considered they were rehabilitated.

She is demanding to know if evidence James was sexually assaulted before he was killed on a railway track in Liverpool on February 12, 1993, was not presented to the parole board.

George Howarth, Labour MP for Knowsley, where Ms Fergus lives, said her family deserve answers.

'They need responses from the Justice Secretary and other relevant agencies' he said.

Her solicitor Sean Sexton has a list of 14 questions that he claims remain unanswered including why experts missed Venables' interest in child abuse.

Venables (right) has twice since re-offended and been imprisoned on charges relating to the possession of child pornography since he murdered two-year-old James Bulger (left) in 199

Ms Fergus' comments come as the news emerges that Venables has a secret girlfriend who knows about his vile past and his convictions over child abuse images.

The woman was told of her new boyfriend's true identity when their relationship got serious but she stood by him.

She was even at Venables' house when police discovered his sickening hoard of child sex images and plans to visit him in prison after he was jailed for 40 months, according to The Sun.

The woman does not have any children but is believed to have primary-age relatives.

Venables is currently serving 40 months in prison after pleading guilty to having more than 1,000 indecent images of children at a trial at the Old Bailey earlier this month.Poland's Jews have been left 'psychologically shaken' by the rise in anti-Semitic acts in Poland following a dispute with Israel over a new Holocaust speech law.

An eruption of anti-Semitic comments in public debates have raised concerns that this could lead to violence against Jews and some have considered fleeing.

Anna Chipczynska, the head of Warsaw's Jewish community, said members feel 'psychologically shaken' or even 'depressed.'

She claimed that the hostile rhetoric has triggered hateful phone calls and emails and other harassment.

The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday where he said that the Holocaust had Polish perpetrators, just as it had Jewish ones

Counter-protesters took to the streets to condemn the new Holocaust speech law amid fears that anti-Semitism is rising in Poland

In recent events, two men tried to urinate in front of Warsaw's historic Nozyk Synagogue, and then shouted obscenities when security guards intervened.

A woman found the word 'Zyd'  Polish for 'Jew'  written in the snow outside her home.

As a result of the rise in anti-Semitic acts Agnieszka Ziatek of the Jewish Agency for Israel said she has seen a spike in the number of Polish Jews inquiring about immigrating to Israel.

Matylda Jonas-Kowalik, 22 claims she is now uncertain of her belief that she would never know the discrimination, persecution or violence against the Polish Jews before her.

Jewish people pray in a synagogue in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday during the eruption of anti-Semitic rhetoric in mainstream Polish public debate

An eruption of anti-Semitic comments in public debates have raised concerns that this could lead to violence against Jews and some have considered fleeing

The Jewish studies student said that although Poland is her home the situation is making her anxious and she has begun to consider leaving the country.

The Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki spoke at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday where he said that the Holocaust had Polish perpetrators, just as it had Jewish ones.

Israeli officials have criticised a new Polish bill criminalising the mention of Polish complicity in the Nazi-led genocide.

They accused Poland of seeking to use the law to whitewash the role of the Poles who helped Germans kill Jews during the war.

However this has been denied by Polish authorities who say they just want to protect the country as being a collaborator of the Nazis.

Nationalists demonstrate in support of the controversial new Holocaust law

The Jewish community in Poland is the surviving remnant of a diverse Polish and Yiddish-speaking population that had 3.3 million members before the Holocaust.

Just ten per cent of this community survived the genocide and many of the survivors were later driven out by communist rule.

But following the fall of communism in 1989 Jewish life has flourished with many feeling safe enough in the democracy to embrace their heritage.

Almost thirty years later anxieties are creeping back in amid a global rise in xenophobia that has been felt in Poland.

A conservative party, Law and Justice, won power in Poland vowing to restore national greatness while also stressing an anti-Muslim, anti-migrant message.

Israeli officials have criticised a new Polish bill criminalising the mention of Polish complicity in the Nazi-led genocide which has been denied by authorities in Poland, pictured: Auschwitz Birkenau

Amid Israeli criticism, a prominent Polish right-wing commentator used an offensive slur to refer to Jews.

Rather than being punished, he was welcomed on TV programs, including a state television talk show where he and the host made anti-Jewish comments, including jokes about Jews and gas chambers.

The current wave of discrimination comes just weeks before the 50th anniversary of an anti-Semitic campaign orchestrated by Poland's communist regime in March 1968.

That campaign began with rhetoric eerily similar to the things being said today and ended up with 20,000 Jews forced to relinquish their possessions and their Polish citizenship and flee the country.Ukip's new interim leader has insisted he was 'factually and historically right' to brand Islam a 'death cult'.

Gerard Batten faced condemnation less than 24 hours after taking the helm of Ukip following the sacking of Henry Bolton.

The London MEP said Islam was fuelled by 'dark ages ideologies' and claimed many Muslim migrants to the UK believed in a literal interpretation of the Koran.

He claimed new arrivals to Britain should be obliged to sign an agreement rejecting this view.

Mr Batten, a member of the European Parliament elected in London, was thrust into the spotlight yesterday after Mr Bolton was sacked by Ukip members.

Ukip's new interim leader Gerard Batten (pictured today on Sky News) has insisted he was 'factually and historically right' to brand Islam a 'death cult'

On Sky News's Sunday With Niall Paterson Mr Batten did not rule out running for the party leadership on a permanent basis and insisted it still had a role to play on the national stage by making sure Brexit supporters were not 'betrayed'.

Defending his 'death cult' comments, written in a blog shortly after the 2017 Westminster terror attack, Mr Batten said: 'What I wrote there about Islam is factually and historically true.

'Anybody that cares to look at the history of Islam over the past 1,400 years will see that that is true.'

He added: 'It glorifies death. They believe in propagating their religion by killing other people and martyring themselves and going and getting their 72 virgins.

'Not all of them  that's not saying that all of them do believe that or do that  I'm saying that a significant minority believe that and they are the problem.

'But the trouble is they are justified in those beliefs by a literalist interpretation of their own so-called holy texts.'

Mr Batten (pictured yesterday at Ukip's EGM) faces likely condemnation less than 24 hours after taking the helm of Ukip following the sacking of Henry Bolton.

Mr Batten has called for Muslims to sign a 'charter' rejecting extremism and has suggested no more mosques should be built in Britain until there is a place of non-Muslim worship in Mecca.

He told Sky News he wants Ukip to 'adopt a policy that says no foreign money should be allowed to fund extremist mosques and imams -which is what we have allowed Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to do over decades'.

He added: 'They have exported their ideology to us and we have to think that we are powerless to do anything about it.

'I don't think we are and I think we should do something about it.'

Former Ukip deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans suggested she could launch a run for the leadership.

'I might very well, let's see,' she told Sky News.

But she has also called for Nigel Farage to return to lead the party to clear up the 'mess' he has created.Advertisement

Speculation is rife about the mystery owner of a $100 million superyacht docked at the Port River in Adelaide.

The yacht - named The Felix - boasts spas, beautiful bedrooms, an elevator, gym, cinema and helicopter pad for its high-profile guests.

The yacht docked in Adelaide last week, with one local cruise company claiming Australian actor Chris Hemsworth had rented out the luxury vessel.

The Felix pictured at the Port River, where the yacht is currently docked until at least tomorrow in Adelaide, South Australia

Actor Chris Hemsworth is a rumoured owner of the boat according to Port Adelaide cruise company 'Dolphin Cruises'

Chairs for relaxation, couches, comfortable bedrooms and an inside dining table.. .just some of the features of this luxurious yacht

The deck, pictured, features a beautiful dining table perfect for a romantic dinner for six couple on the expensive yacht

The stunning yacht has an incredible interior including an elevator, a fancy staircase, paintings and marble-like floors

The ship is pictured in South Australia's famous Port Adelaide, where local Councillor Matt Osborn welcomed the arrival

The ship was previously owned by a French billionare Bernard Arnault and known as Amadeus.

Valued at $100 million when it was sold to a mystery owner in 2016, it was renamed Felix and can host at least 12 guests in six cabins plus 18 crew members.

City of Adelaide clipper ship volunteer Jill Maden told Daily Mail Australia the ship was originally built in 1998 as a German research vessel called Komet.

'I don't know who currently owns her but apparently she's based in the Caribbean and is hired out for private charters,' she said.

'She has a crew of 18 and currently has eight guests on board.'

Ms Maden said she'd been told by a passerby the owner used to belong to Kerry Packer but added: 'Apparently that's not true'.

The $100 million yacht was bought in 2016 to mystery owners and renamed the 'Felix'. The views are just incredible!

What a location for a relaxing spa! The yacht can fit 12 guests on board in the six cabins plus the additional crew members.

'For all the Chris Hemsworth fans his luxury yacht Felix has docked today at 4pm,' Port Adelaide cruise company the Dolphin Explorer posted to Facebook on Tuesday.

Adelaide local Bree Vracic posted about her parent's yacht being nearby, posting:

'When Chris Hemsworth moors his private yacht next to your parents... not sure whos boat is bigger... but I better go say hello to the new neighbors.'

Dolphin Explorer, a Port Adelaide Cruise company, posted on Facebook Chris Hemsworth luxury yacht had landed on the Port RiverDonald Trump couldn't get more tone deaf.

The president was seen smiling alongside two pretty blondes and giving another big thumbs to cameras while visiting his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday night.

First Lady Melania was seemingly a no-show, at least for the photos, amid talk that Trump had another affair during their marriage. This time, with Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy Playmate.

The Saturday engagement was an Orphans Promise charity event, according to one of the women's Instagram posts of the photo, which read,' Tonight at #Maralago  @realdonaldtrump @orphanspromise'

President Donald Trump is seen at Mar-a-lago Saturday night with David Brody, Jenna Browder and Ali Browder

Another Instagram user posted a photo of the president from the Orphans Promise charity event

Orphan's Promise is an organization that works to serve orphaned children and also created opportunities for them and their families, the website says.

The president's happy new appearance follows his Friday hospital visit to victims and families of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Trump took to his Twitter page late Friday night to post photos from the hospital and share a message about the most recent tragedy that shook the nation.

'Our entire Nation, w/one heavy heart, continues to pray for the victims & their families in Parkland, FL. To teachers, law enforcement, first responders & medical professionals who responded so bravely in the face of danger: We THANK YOU for your courage!,' he wrote to social media.

Trump and First Lady Melania visited a hospital in Florida Friday night where victims from the shooting were under care

Trump is pictured giving cameras another thumbs and while smiling next to doctors, nurses and his wife

Trump took to his Twitter page late Friday night to post photos from the hospital

'It's very sad something like that could happen but the job the doctors did, the nurses, the hospital... first responders, law enforcement, really incredible,' Trump told reporters

When one of the reporters questioned Trump about whether he thought America's gun policy needed to be changed, he walked away without response

While in the hospital, the president was seen grinning and giving another thumbs up as he stood alongside doctors, nurses, shooting victims and wife Melania.

He was heard speaking to reporters outside of the hospital rooms about the impressive job the staff has done.

'The job they have done is incredible... and I want to congratulate you. incredible job,' he was heard telling Broward Health North Hospital trauma surgeon, Dr. Igor Nichiporenko.

'It's very sad something like that could happen but the job the doctors did, the nurses, the hospital... first responders, law enforcement, really incredible,' he went on to say.

Melania Trump walks up the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base alone on Friday

'The speed they got the victims over to the hospital was a record... in one case 20 minutes and in one case, 19 minutes.'

When one of the reporters questioned Trump about whether he thought America's gun policy needed to be changed, he walked away without response.

He later took to his Twitter page to gush about the visit.

'Melania and I met such incredible people last night in Broward County, Florida. Will never forget them, or the evening!,' he added.

President Trump and First Lady Melania reportedly departed the hospital in a motorcade around 7:15pm, according to a pool log by a New York Times reporter.

Earlier in the day, Melania was seen boarding Air Force One by her lonesome before the pair departed to Florida amid affair claims.Reports that Russian mercenaries were killed by US airstrikes while secretly fighting in Syria have been met by a stark silence from The Kremlin.

They are yet to name any of the Russian causalities and it is still unclear why they were there in the first place.

This has led to questions from the grieving victim's families about why these details remain unanswered.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova would only concede that five Russian citizens may have been killed but the Russian government has declined to confirm the reports.

Kremlin lies: President Vladimir Putin is accused of covering-up his reliance on mercenary soldiers, pictured, to minimise the extent of regular army casualties in Syria

Farkhanur Gavrilova, mother of Ruslan Gavrilov who is reported to have killed in Syria

Dmitri Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said on Friday: 'We have no new information about this and we said everything we wanted to say on this matter.'

The group of soldiers had reportedly been told to take what was described as a vacant oil field in Syria, Valery Shebayev told CNN.

Ms Shebayev claims the following in incident as a 'massacre' which led to the death of '20 to 30' Russian citizens, Ruslan Leviev, an activist with the Conflict Intelligence Team in Moscow said.

Although the aim given to the Russian fighters is unexplained it is believed they were heading towards a valuable oil and gas field, Coneco, controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

For Russian mother Farkhanur Gavrilova, the blow came a week ago when an acquaintance called her to say that her son was killed in a US airstrike in Syria that pitted Russian and American combatants against each other for the first time in the Syrian war.

Gavrilova's son, 37-year-old Ruslan Gavrilov, was one of seven men in this central Russian village of 2,300 who are believed to have joined a private military company called Wagner.

The company reportedly was involved in a February 7 attack on US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria and suffered devastating losses in an American counterstrike.

On the morning of February 8, she said, her son's colleague called to say he was told by an unidentified caller that Ruslan had died in the airstrike.

'He was torn to pieces,' the 67-year-old said, speaking Thursday in her sparsely furnished apartment.

'If he was alive - he is a plucky guy - he would have tried to call.'

Footage captures the moment a US fighter jet destroyed a Russian tank in Syria  after it emerged that hundreds of Russian mercenaries are secretly fighting in the country

Pro-regime forces began firing at a base held by SDF and the US retaliated with airstrikes and artillery fire which lasted for three hours.

It has been reported by CNN that US commanders attempted to contact their Russian counterparts to warn them but by the time they got through the counterattack was underway.

It has previously emerged that hundreds of Russian mercenaries are believed to be fighting in Syria.

A US jet destroyed a Russian-made T-72 tank during a bombing raid designed to protect rebel fighters in Syria, reportedly killed hundreds of fighters, including a number of Russian mercenaries.

The US jet destroyed a Russian-made T-72 tank during a bombing raid designed to protect rebel fighters in Syria on Saturday

If that proves true it would be the biggest clash between American and Russian forces since the end of the Cold War - and represent an escalation of tensions between the world's two most powerful armed forces who are engaged in a war by proxy in Syria.

The tank was targeted near Al Tabiyeh in a bid to stop it firing towards a position held by American forces and their Syrian allies, a Pentagon spokesman said.

It happened days after the US military said its anti-jihadist coalition had carried out strikes in 'self-defense' against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the same region, leaving an estimated more than 100 pro-regime personnel dead.

It comes after reports that more than 200 private Russian military contractors were killed in a failed attack on a base held by U.S. and Kurdish forces last week, Bloomberg reports.

In recent weeks, more than 600 Russian mercenaries have reportedly been killed in Syria, many of them in airstrikes carried out by the U.S.-led coalition.

Killed: Vladimir Loginov and Igor Kosoturov were both reportedly killed in Syria this month

Asked during a conference call with reporters if Putin raised the episode during Monday's phone conversation with President Donald Trump, Peskov said the situation in Syria wasn't discussed during the call.

The Kremin said it had no information about Russian mercenaries being killed in Syria, saying it only knew about Russian nationals who have been deployed there as members of the armed forces.

'We don't have information about other Russians who might be in Syria,' Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

The denial comes despite the leader of one of the private armies of mercenaries being photographed meeting Putin and attending a ceremony in the Kremlin.

Russian mercenary soldier Alexey Ladygin, 26, from Ryazan, perished in Syria last week

Opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who is standing against Putin in next month's presidential election, has called on him to come clean on his use of mercenaries to prop up Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad - and to tell the Russian people the scale of the losses.

Mr Yavlinsky claims mercenary forces 'are trained at Russian army facilities' and 'receive military awards in the Kremlin' in secret, he alleged.

'They are, in essence, special troops of the Russian army - despite the fact that mercenaries and private military companies are officially banned in Russia'.

'Officially denying deaths of armed Russian citizens that fight in Syria by the leadership of Russia is absolutely unacceptable,' he said.

Dead: Stanislav Matveyev, 38, was also reported killed in Syria

'I call on Russian president Vladimir Putin to clarify this. If there were mass deaths of Russian citizens, then relevant officials including Commander-in-Chief of Russian Armed Forces (Putin), must announce it to the country and determine who is responsible.'

The Kremlin has consistently refused to talk about the deployment of mercenaries - which is illegal in Russia - to Syria and rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

According to Igor Strelkov, a former intelligence officer who was a commander of pro-Putin clandestine military operations in Ukraine, said the number of Russians killed in bloody clashes recently could be as high as 600.

'It is clear that there are hundreds of dead and injured, several hundreds,' he said.

'But the latest figure looks too extreme, it's allegedly over 600.'

He claimed he was told by Russian private army sources in Syria that by Saturday, 644 had been killed, but he could not verify the figure.

Pictures of a handful of the mercenaries who perished in Syria in the past week have emerged.

One was Cossack fighter Vladimir Loginov, 51, from Kaliningrad, a father of two who formerly worked for the Russian Interior Ministry, who died in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike on February 7.

He fell 'heroically defending our Motherland in its far reaches from crazy savages', according to the Baltic Cossack Union in Kaliningrad.

Accusations: Putin has been accused by opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky, pictured together, of lying about the government's ties to the mercenary armies

Other mercenaries killed were Stanislav Matveyev, 38, and Igor Kosoturov, 45, from Asbest, Alexey Ladygin, 26, from Ryazan and Kirill Ananyev, 33, also with the same private military unit.

Several of the mercenaries killed were reportedly employed by a shadowy private army called Wagner, which has close ties to the Russian defence ministry and whose leader has met Putin.

Wagner - or Vagner - is the nickname of an ex-Russian special forces officer called Dmitry Utkin, who runs the private army.

US JET DESTROYS RUSSIAN-MADE TANK IN SYRIA A US jet has destroyed a Russian-made T-72 tank during a bombing raid designed to protect rebel fighters in Syria, it has emerged. The tank was targeted near Al Tabiyeh on Saturday in a bid to stop it firing towards a position held by American forces and their Syrian allies, according to a Pentagon spokesman. The tank had been 'maneuvering with coordinated indirect fire' on a position held by Syrian Democratic Forces - a US backed rebel movement that has been battling ISIS. While America has been training and equipping SDF rebels during the brutal civil war in Syria, Russia has been backing forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad operating nearby. Advertisement

Utkin is reported to be the ex-commander of the famous Pskov special forces brigade and has been photographed with other Wagner army chiefs and Putin at a Kremlin ceremony. Other leaders of Wagner include decorated former senior Russian army personnel.

Such 'deniable' forces enabled Russia to deploy in Crimea, other areas of Ukraine and Syria, while denying its soldiers were on the ground.

The funding for the secret army is believed to come from Russia's military budget.

A military analyst said: 'Russia is putting these mercenary forces in harm's way on the ground, while the regular army and Air Force are not at the frontline.

Russian media said the Russian private contractors were part of pro-government forces that advanced on oil fields in the eastern Deir el-Zour province and were targeted by the United States.

The reports cited activists who confirmed that at least four Russian citizens were killed in Syria last Wednesday.

The U.S. military said last week it launched air and artillery strikes on Syrian government-backed troops after some 300 attackers launched what appeared to be a coordinated assault on Syrian opposition forces accompanied by U.S. advisers in the province of Deir el-Zour.

It said it was in regular communication with Russian counterparts before, during and after the attack, and Russian officials assured coalition officials they would not strike coalition forces.

Mercenary leader: Several of the mercenaries killed were reportedly employed by a shadowy private army called Wagner, whose leader, Dmitry Utkin, pictured, has met Putin

It said the U.S. strikes, which reportedly killed about 100 of the attackers, were in self-defense.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 25 Syrian volunteers were wounded in the U.S. strike and insisted that its troops weren't involved in Wednesday's incident.

It said that pro-government forces that advanced toward the area under control of the U.S.-supported forces had failed to coordinate their action with the Russian military in Syria.

Making friends: Utkin, far right, is photographed with other Wagner army chiefs and Putin at a Kremlin ceremony

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday dismissed any suggestion that Russia had any control over the attacking force, whose nationalities, motives and makeup he could not identify.

The U.S. strike came as U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces were vying for control of the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province with Russian-backed Syrian troops that are reinforced by Iranian-supported militias.

The Russian and the U.S. militaries have maintained regular communications to avoid collisions on the chaotic Syrian battlefield.

If the death of Russian private contractors is confirmed, it could further strain ties between the two countries that have plummeted to the lowest levels since the Cold War over the Ukrainian conflict, the war in Syria and the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

Without mentioning the U.S. strike, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted on Tuesday that 'Americans have taken dangerous unilateral steps.'

'Those steps look increasingly as part of efforts to create a quasi-state on a large part of Syrian territory - from the eastern bank of the Euphrates River all the way to the border with Iraq,' he said.

The state Tass news agency on Tuesday cited Natalya Krylova, a municipal lawmaker in the town of Asbestos in the Urals, as saying local residents Igor Kosoturov and Stanislav Matveyev were killed in Syria Wednesday.

The Interfax news agency said that the Cossack group in the westernmost Kalningrad region said a member named Vladimir Loginov was killed in combat in the province of Deir el-Zour.

Putin's friend: Dmitry 'Wagner' Utkin, circled, is pictured at the reception dinner at the ceremony in Kremlin

It also quoted Alexander Averin, leader of extreme leftist group Another Russia, as saying that one of its activists, Kirill Ananyev, was killed by the U.S. strike near Khusham.

Liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, who is running for president in Russia's March 18 presidential election, urged Putin to come into the open regarding the deaths of Russians in Syria, saying that official silence on the subject was 'unacceptable.'

'If many Russian citizens were killed, officials, including the commander-in-chief, must tell the nation about it and determine who is responsible for that,' he said.

Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, helping Syrian President Bashar Assad's government seize large chunks of territory and turn the tide of war into its favor.

Russian media have reported that in addition to Russian servicemen deployed to Syria, thousands of Russians also fought there as private contractors, allowing the Kremlin to keep the official death toll from its campaign in Syria low and avoid the negative public response.

The Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry have refused to comment on media reports on Russian private contractors in Syria.

The Russian mother who lost her son to a US airstrike in Syria For Russian mother Farkhanur Gavrilova, the blow came a week ago when an acquaintance called her to say that her son was killed in a US airstrike in Syria that pitted Russian and U.S. combatants against each other for the first time in the Syrian war. Gavrilova's son, 37-year-old Ruslan Gavrilov, was one of seven men in this central Russian village of 2,300 who are believed to have joined a private military company called Wagner. The company reportedly was involved in a Feb. 7 attack on US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria and suffered devastating losses in an American counterstrike. On the morning of February 8, she said, her son's colleague called to say he was told by an unidentified caller that Ruslan had died in the airstrike. 'He was torn to pieces,' the 67-year-old said, speaking Thursday in her sparsely furnished apartment. 'If he was alive - he is a plucky guy - he would have tried to call.' For Russian mother Farkhanur Gavrilova (pictured), the blow came a week ago when an acquaintance called her to say that her son was killed in a US airstrike in Syria that pitted Russian and U.S. combatants against each other for the first time in the Syrian war The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday for the first time acknowledged that five Russians had been killed by the US strike in Syria, emphasizing they weren't on active military duty. Previously, both Russian and US officials said they had no information on Russian casualties in the clash. Russian forces are supporting the Syrian government in the fight against opposition groups, some of which are backed by the United States, and elements of both sides are fighting the last remnants of the Islamic State group in Syria. Moscow and Washington long have feared a collision between Russian and US combatants in Syria and sought to prevent it by maintaining a regular communications link between the militaries. Observers blame the February 7 clash on a lack of coordination between the Russian military and private military contractors in Syria. Along with the Russian military, thousands of Russians have also reportedly fought in Syria as private contractors. That allows the Kremlin to keep the official death toll from its Syrian military campaign low, helping to avoid negative publicity as President Vladimir Putin runs for re-election in Russia's March 18 presidential vote. Gavrilova said she had tried to dissuade her son, who was remodeling apartments, from going to Syria but he was lured by a promise of a high pay. 'Why did they leave? Because of poverty, to make money,' Gavrilova said. Russian law forbids the hiring of mercenaries or working as one. Putin declared victory in Syria on a visit to a Russian military base there in December, and ordered a partial pullout of troops. Many Russian politicians and commentators long have assailed the Kremlin for failing to acknowledge the Russian contractors' presence in Syria. A push for oil assets appears to have been the top mission for Russian private contractors in Syria. Last year, an obtained copy emerged of a contract between a Russian company and the Syrian government that would give the Russians a 25 percent cut of the proceeds from the oil fields they capture and guard. Unlike many other military contractors with previous experience of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Gavrilova's son hadn't even done his military service. 'I thought they went there to do some odd jobs,' Gavrilova said. 'They did not even undergo medical tests. He called me from Krasnodar and asked: `Mother, what is my blood type?'' The Krasnodar region in southern Russia hosts a training base for the Wagner company on the grounds of a Russian Defense Ministry installation, according to social media evidence and testimony of the relatives. A listing for the company could not be found to seek comment. Gavrilova and a relative of another Wagner fighter said the men from Kedrovoye all traveled to Krasnodar before traveling to Syria. Advertisement



A woman fell to her death from her fifth story New York City apartment - in front of her young son.

The 30-year-old victim, who has not been named, had turned up at her ex's apartment in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Towers on Lenox Ave. near W. 115th St. around noon on Saturday.

She was barred from contacting the child's father, and when she turned up, a resident called the police.

The 30-year-old victim, who has not been named, had turned up at her ex's apartment in Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Towers (pictured) around noon on Saturday

When police arrived, she leaped to her death out the window before they could intervene.

She was rushed to the nearby Mount Sinai St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital after plunging five stories but later died, ABC News reports.

The tragedy happened while two young boys, aged 11 and 10, one of them her own son, were in the apartment.

If you were affected by this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 800-273-8255.

The woman was barred from contacting the child's father, and when she turned up, a resident called the policeThe suspected Florida high gunman managed to unleash terror in just a few short minutes after wearing a school polo shirt to blend in and evading security as they were busy unlocking gates before he stormed in and shot dead 17 people.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was wearing a maroon shirt with the logo from the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when he was arrested on Wednesday following the massacre.

The teenager, who used to be a member of the ROTC marksmanship team before he was expelled, would have known they wore the polo to school on Wednesdays when he was hatching his deadly plan, according to some students.

It is believed he wore the shirt to blend in so he could sneak by undetected and then flee with the terrified students after he opened fire with an AR-15.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, was wearing a maroon shirt with the logo from the Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program (above) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when he was arrested on Wednesday following the massacre

Police have managed to put together a timeline of Cruz's deadly rampage based on the school's surveillance cameras and the multiple eyewitness accounts.

Students told the Miami Herald that Cruz, who arrived at the school at 2.06pm in an Uber, may have chosen that time given security would have been busy unlocking the various gates ahead of the dismissal bell.

Police have managed to put together a timeline of Cruz's deadly rampage based on the school's surveillance cameras and the multiple eyewitness accounts

Authorities are investigating initial reports that suggested Cruz triggered the school's fire alarm moments before he unleashed a barrage of gunfire so he could coax students into the hallways to maximize the number of casualties.

They haven't yet confirmed if Cruz pulled the alarm and the school's superintendent has since said it may have even been triggered by smoke from his assault rifle after he fired.

Details continue to emerge about the troubled teen gunman, including that he had mental health issues and had been reported to law enforcement before he used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle in the massacre.

From a mosaic of public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, it appears Cruz was unstable and violent to himself and those around him - and that when notified about his threatening behavior, law enforcement did little to stop it.

Cruz's mother died in November and his father died years ago. He reportedly left a suburban Palm Beach County mobile home where he had been staying after his mother's death because his benefactor gave him an ultimatum: you or the gun.

Students said Cruz may have chosen the afternoon to open fire because security would have been distraction unlocking the gates ahead of the dismissal bell. Students are pictured above evacuating during the massacre

From a mosaic of public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, it appears Cruz was unstable and violent to himself and those around him

The Sun-Sentinel reported that Florida's Department of Children and Families investigated when Cruz posted a video on the social media network Snapchat showing him cutting his arms in 2016.

'Mr Cruz has fresh cuts on both his arms,' the Florida DCF abuse hotline was told in August 2016.

'Mr Cruz stated he plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is buying the gun for.'

DCF's investigation was completed on November 12. The agency concluded Cruz had not been mistreated by his mother, was receiving adequate care from a mental health counselor and was attending school.

At school, Cruz routinely fought with teachers, was accused of swearing at staff and was referred for a 'threat assessment' in January 2017, two months after the DCF investigation concluded.

Records show he was suspended several times in the 2016-17 school year and was frequently absent. They also show Cruz attended at least six schools, including a school for students with emotional problems.

Cruz (pictured in court on Thursday) is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after killing 14 students and three staff members

This photo posted on the Instagram account of Nikolas Cruz shows weapons lying on a bed. Cruz had spoken about his desire to buy a gun just days after he turned 18 years of age

Cruz had been diagnosed with autism, a neurological disorder that often leads to social awkwardness and isolation, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

The FBI said a person close to Cruz called the FBI's tip line and provided information about Cruz's weapons and his erratic behavior.

The caller was concerned Cruz could attack a school. The agency acknowledged the tip should have been shared with the FBI's Miami office and investigated, but it was not.

President Donald Trump lashed out at the FBI Saturday night, saying the agency 'missed all of the many signals' in relation to Cruz - and argued they were 'spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.'

Trump said on Twitter: 'This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!'

Pressure is now growing for tougher gun-control laws in the aftermath of the Florida shooting.A sarcastic President Trump praised the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, for assigning some blame to President Obama for the Russians' 2016 election meddling effort.

'Finally, Liddle' Adam Schiff, the leakin' monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election,' Trump said in a Sunday morning tweet. 'He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!'

On Saturday, Schiff told NBC's Andrea Mitchell that he believed the Obama administration's lax response to the 2014 Sony hack encouraged the Russians in the run-up to 2016, adding that he believed the previous White House should have done more to publicize what the Russians were up to.

President Trump sent out a flurry of tweets first thing Sunday morning, including several that sarcastically thanked the House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, for assigning some of the blame for the Russia hack on President Obama's administration

President Trump went after Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff Sunday morning, labeling him 'liddle' and a 'leaker' and sarcastically thanking him for being critical of the role President Obama's administration played in the Russian 2016 presidential election hack

Rep. Adam Schiff appeared on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning and was asked about the indictments handed down Friday and if they prove there was no collusion with the Trump campaign. Schiff said no

President Trump called attention to a statement he made back in September 2016, in which he didn't wholly assign blame to Russia for the 2016 election-year hack. The president seemed more inclined to blame Russia now that Mueller's probe indicted 13 Russian nationals

'We should have called them out much earlier,' Schiff said. 'While I respect the motive in terms of the Obama administration, they didn't want to be seen as meddling, the American people had a right to know what was going on and could be trusted to do the right thing with it.'

Trump, in a series of tweets Sunday morning, latched on to Schiff's statements with glee.

'Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election,' Trump also said. 'But wasnt I a great candidate?'

President Trump was emboldened by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's decision to indict 13 Russian nationals on Friday, with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein saying, 'There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.'

President Trump suggested that the multiple investigations into Russian interference - including the three on Capitol Hill - are what the Russians want because they create 'discord, disruption and chaos'

President Trump also lashed out at the Obama administration Sunday morning over a payment made to Iran, which was part of the Iran nuclear deal. Iran had purchased military equipment from the U.S., but it was never delivered because of the Iranian revolution

The White House sent out a statement shortly after the indictments were made public indicating that the president was fully briefed on the matter and was 'glad to see the Special Counsel's investigation further indicates  that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.'

With these indictments handed down, the president was more willing to say that Russia had indeed interfered in the 2016 election cycle.

'I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said, "it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed playing with his computer,"' Trump said, repeating a claim he first made during a presidential debate against Hillary Clinton in September 2016.

By this point, the U.S. intelligence agencies had squarely pointed a finger at Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

'The Russian "hoax" was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia  it never did!' Trump added Sunday.

The president also suggested that the multiple investigations on Russia interference played into the hands of the Russians, with Schiff leading one of the three on Capitol Hill.

'It if was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams,' Trump wrote. 'They are laughing their asses off in Moscow.'

'Get smart America!' the president said.

In taking another swipe at the Democrats, this time President Obama, Trump also noted how he had 'never gotten over that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!'

The Obama administration sent money back to Iran as part of the nuclear deal, cash that Iran had paid to the U.S. for military equipment in 1979, but because of the Iranian revolution the equipment was never delivered.

Schiff appeared on CNN Sunday morning, but the interview was conducted before Trump had tweeted about the Democratic lawmaker.

That being said, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee gave a 'no, of course not,' when asked if the indictments from the Mueller probe really meant that collusion was off the table.

'But this is a president who claims vindication anytime someone sneezes,' Schiff said.

Schiff then explained that the indictment only pertained to one element of the 'Russia active measures campaign'  that involving social media.

'It doesn't contain any of the allegations that are really most known to the public and that is the Russian hacking into the Democratic institutions  the Russian publishing of stolen information,' Schiff said. 'Now on that, the Trump campaign and indeed candidate Trump himself was very witting of what was going on  indeed the whole country was, when on October 7, the intelligence community told the country, the Russians are behind this.'

'They're behind the hacking and dumping,' Schiff continued. 'But nonetheless, the [Trump] campaign continued to use those products of that element of the Russian campaign,' the Democratic congressman charged.Policemen are complaining of being used as Uber drivers for prisoners.

Some NSW officers say they are spending hours taking offenders to court, leaving stations understaffed.

One officer in Kingscliff complained of doing a whole night shift of transportation.

Fury: Policemen in New South Wales are complaining of being used as Uber drivers for prisoners

The officer wrote: 'No police covered Kingscliff jobs while we were away and this can be proven as a missing person alert was being broadcast for four hours while we were away... no police did the job for us. Not happy.'

Another wrote that one shift 'involved us doing a hospital guard before conveying that prisoner and another prisoner to Lismore.

'We arrived back with about an hour to do some paperwork... this was a waste of our whole shift.'

One constable complained that driving prisoners to court, 'sapped good will and morale' out of the policemen.

The complaints were formally submitted in a document seen by the Daily Telegraph.

The NSW Police Association has written to the government to demand changes and threatened action if nothing is done by March 18.

One officer in Kingscliff complained of doing a whole night shift of transportation

Association vice-president Pat Gooley said: 'Whole communities are being put at risk because police are being used as Uber drivers for prisoners.'

'You have situations where a 000 call to Parkes police station may have to be covered by another station from Forbes because a rostered police truck is driving prisoners to court hundreds of kilometres away.'

A state government spokeswoman said 'all agencies involved in prisoner transport work hard'.

'The NSW government thanks Juvenile Justice, Corrective Services and NSW Police officers for their effort and commitment.

'Representatives from Corrective Services, Police, Courts and Tribunal Services and Treasury are working on options for a new approach to prisoner transport, escorting and guarding duties.

'Options include trialling new arrangements in a number of locations  including increased use of (audio visual links) in police stations and changes to how accused persons requiring a mental health assessment are transferred from courts.'Labour grandee Keith Vaz faces a possible police probe into his 'property empire' after a Tory MP demanded a review into his finances.

Andrew Bridgen wants the National Crime Agency to use new powers created to crackdown on crime gangs to investigate the Labour MP.

Mr Bridgen claimed in a letter that Mr Vaz owns eight homes in the UK, more property in India and sends his children to fee-paying schools on his MP salary of 74,962.

Labour grandee Keith Vaz faces a possible police probe into his 'property empire' after a Tory MP demanded a review into his finances

Legacy: Labour MP for Leicester East Mr Vaz reportedly owns this Leicester home

Mr Vaz received an extra 15,025 a year during his time as chairman of the home affairs committee until he resigned in September 2016 amid a rent boy scandal.

Mr Bridgen said in the letter this income did not justify the expenditure and called for an 'Unexplained Wealth Order investigation'.

A spokesman for Mr Vaz denied any wrongdoing, branding the claims 'malicious'.

Keith Vaz and his wife Mia Fernandes live in this five-bedroom house in north west London

Labour grandee Keith Vaz (file image) faces a possible police probe into his 'property empire' after a Tory MP demanded a review into his finances.

Mr Vaz (pictured left with Jeremy Corbyn at last year's party conference) is already subject to a long-running standards investigation

Any new probe into Mr Vaz would be an extra cloud over him as he is already subject to a long-running standards investigation. The Commons probe is on ice after Mr Vaz said he was too ill to cooperate.

In his letter to NCA Director General Lynne Owens, Mr Bridgen cited press reports to claim Mr Vaz 'has amassed an eight-home UK property empire valued at over 4m, despite earning a salary of around 90,000'.

In the letter Bridgen also claims that Vaz paid for at least one of his homes with cash, has further property in India, sent his son and daughter to a fee-paying school and has previously employed a chauffeur.

He also said the MP had declared less than 12,000 in outside earnings since the 1997 general election, other than income from renting out flats.

Mr Bridgen said: 'Given these circumstances, I believe an Unexplained Wealth Order investigation would be warranted as it appears Mr Vaz's lifestyle and expenditure are completely unaffordable given his declared income.

'It is important that the public can have trust and confidence in their elected representatives and in this matter I believe transparency is urgently needed.'

Andrew Bridgen (file image) wants the National Crime Agency to use new powers created to crackdown on crime gangs to investigate the Labour MP.

Mr Bridgen told MailOnline: 'There appears to be a clear disparity between Mr Vaz's lifestyle and assets and his historic and current declared income.

'The NCA should investigate as a matter of urgency.'

Mr Vaz's register of Commons interest lists a house in Leicester and two flats in London.

He does not have to register any property he lives in, either in his constituency or elsewhere, only homes from which he receives income worth more than 10,000 a year.

The Sunday Times, which revealed Mr Bridgen's letter today, said it could only identify six properties in Britain.

Mr Vaz referred MailOnline to Carter Ruck. A spokesman said: 'Mr Vaz considers Mr Bridgen's cowardly actions in peddling malicious, highly defamatory and utterly false allegations in this way to be wholly reprehensible, albeit unsurprising given Mr Bridgen's track record.

'Mr Vaz will be considering appropriate legal action against Mr Bridgen and also ask the NCA or other relevant authorities to investigate Mr Bridgen for wasting public resources by pressuring them into investigating his vexatious and malicious ''complaints''.'

The spokesman said all or Mr Vaz's properties had been fully and properly declared in the Commons register of interests, adding Mr Bridgen had exaggerated their value.

He said Mr Vaz's expenditure was part-funded by his wife, who owns a firm of solicitors and is a part-time judge.The perturbed pair who took in Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz back in November have opened up about living with the teen and say they didn't see the danger he posed.

Kimberly, 49, a neonatal intensive care nurse, and James Snead, 48, a military intelligence analyst, agreed to allow the 19-year-old live in their Parkland home after their son, a friend to Cruz, inquired.

Cruz's new home at the Snead residence came just days after his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, passed away from pneumonia on November 1.

The Snead couple have now revealed that they failed to see the dark side of Cruz, who gunned down 17 innocent individuals in a Valentine's Day rage.

While speaking with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, a wearied Kimberly said: 'We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know.'

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In this Feb. 17, 2018 photo, James Snead and his wife Kimberly appear at an interview about the shooting at Marjory Stonemason Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed

The Sneads recounted their time living with the shooter, Nikolas Cruz. The couple said they didn't see his dark side

Kimberly and James said Cruz lived with them for only three months. They took him in after his mother died

This booking photo obtained February 15, 2018 courtesy of the Broward County Sheriff's Office shows shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz

Pictured above is the Snead's Parkland home where Cruz lived for just three months before he shot dead 17 people at his high school in a Valentine's massacre

Her husband, James, also added: 'Everything everybody seems to know, we didn't know... It's as simple as that.'

The couple told the local newspaper in a sit-down interview they knew Cruz had been 'extremely depressed' after the death of his last living guardian, Lynda.

They said he was noticeably 'immature' but seemed to be 'growing happier' after moving into a new home.

Cruz had unusual eating habits and at times would place cookies inside steak and cheese sandwiches.

The family, who had pets in their home - claimed there were no signs of animal cruelty - despite several claims by neighbors who revealed disturbing details about Cruz's treatment toward animals.

Pictured: Cruz as a baby with his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz. Lynda died from pneumonia on November 1 before her son moved in with the new family

The Snead couple (shown) claims the night prior to the Valentine's Day shooting, there was no indication Cruz had unusual behavior

The couple admitted they allowed the 'gun-obsessed' teen to keep an AR-15 rifle in their home, however, as they are avid about gun safety, they made him buy a locking safe to keep in his bedroom.

Inside the safe, were other various guns as well as knives. The pair instructed Cruz to ask for permission before unlocking the safe - which they claimed to the Sentinel he did twice since moving in.

Kimberly reportedly encouraged Cruz to attend therapy sessions after the passing of his adoptive mother.

She said just five days before the shooting, she and Cruz attended a session together.

Still, the couple claims the night prior to the Valentine's Day shooting, there was no indication the teen had any unusual behavior.

'We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know,' Kimberly said of Cruz

The parents reportedly asked Cruz if he needed a ride to school the morning of February 14, when he declined and said he didn't even need to go.

'It's Valentine's Day and I don't go to school on Valentine's Day,' he said, the couple told the Sentinel.

The Sneads recalled receiving the 'panic-stricken' phone call from Cruz around 2.30pm that day.

Cruz informed them about a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High - when James told him to walk to the nearby Walmart and that he was on his way to pick him up.

During the drive, James received a troubling phone call from a SWAT officer inquiring about Cruz's whereabouts.

The expelled 'gun-obsessed' student was taken into custody by the time the Sneads saw him on February 14

That's when James realized there were more troubling details to the story.

James phoned the officer back and ordered police to rush to their Parkland home to check on his wife.

'I need a police presence at my house. Go make sure my wife is OK,' James urged in the phone call.

'I was fearing for her life,' he recalled in the interview.

Shortly after, Kimberly answered the door, when officers ordered her to put her 'hands up'.

Cruz (shown Thursday at his first court appearance) is facing 17 charges of premeditated murder for the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

Police raided the home while Kimberly feared the worst.

Cruz was taken into custody by the time Kimberly and James saw him for the first time since the massacre.

James told the Sentinel that he was forced to hold Kimberly back when she attempted to charge after Cruz while in custody. In a panic, Kimberly then told Cruz: 'Really, Nik? Really?'

James added: 'He said he was sorry... he apologized. He looked lost, absolutely lost.

'That was the last time we saw him.'

Despite the couple's claims they didn't notice his disturbing behavior, the teen was expelled from school last year, while neighbors and friends revealed details of his love for violence and weapons.

Police had been called to Cruz's homes as many as 39 times over the course of seven years over reports of violence or suspicious behavior.The suspected Florida high gunman allegedly repeatedly threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend and physically attacked him twice in the months before he shot dead 17 people.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, is charged with carrying out the deadly massacre on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after he opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

In the months leading up to the shooting, Cruz sent a series of threatening messages to 17-year-old Enea Sabadini after he started dating his ex-girlfriend, Buzzfeed reports.

'I'm going to f***ing kill you,' Cruz allegedly wrote to Sabadini. 'I am going to shoot you dead.

'I'm going to watch you bleed.'

Florida high school gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, sent a series of threatening messages to 17-year-old Enea Sabadini (above) after he started dating his ex-girlfriend

In another message, Cruz wrote: 'You have no idea what I'm capable of' alongside a photo of a collection of weapons'

Cruz also repeatedly used homophobic and racial slurs in the message exchange, calling him a 'fa***t' and 'n****r'.

'You underground hispanic wall jumper, ill will f***ing destroy you,' he also wrote.

In another message, Cruz wrote: 'You have no idea what I'm capable of' alongside a photo of a collection of weapons.

Sabadini said he started dating Cruz's ex shortly after they broke up in August 2016.

Cruz is charged with carrying out the deadly massacre on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after he opened fire with an AR-15 rifle

Other messages accused Sabadini of stealing the girlfriend.

The ex-girlfriend has said she does not want to be identified.

Sabadini said he ended up breaking it off with Cruz's ex in December 2016 and the most recent threatening messages from Cruz were sent several months later in August 2017.

'He got upset about that and started sending messages to me on Instagram,' Sabadini said.

The teen said Cruz also picked two fights with him in September 2016 - one of which happened on a sidewalk outside the school, while the other happened during lunch in the courtyard.

He claims Cruz charged at him during the second fight, part of which was captured on video, and Sabadini said he ended up punching him several times in the face.

Both students were suspended over the incident.

Sabadini claims he and several other students reported Cruz's social media messages and other threatening behavior to school officials.

Cruz had already been expelled from the school when the messages were sent, but Sabadini said he doesn't know what led to his dismissal.

In another message to Sabadini, Cruz wrote: 'You have no idea what I'm capable of' alongside this photo of a collection of weapons. The photo was also posted on Cruz's Instagram page

From a mosaic of public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, it appears Cruz was unstable and violent to himself and those around him

Cruz (pictured in court on Thursday) is charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after killing 14 students and three staff members

Harrowing details continue to emerge about Cruz, including that he had mental health issues and had been reported to law enforcement before he used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle in last week's massacre.

From a mosaic of public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, it appears Cruz was unstable and violent to himself and those around him - and that when notified about his threatening behavior, law enforcement did little to stop it.

Cruz's mother died in November and his father died years ago.

Florida's Department of Children and Families investigated when Cruz posted a video on the social media network Snapchat showing him cutting his arms in 2016.

The agency concluded Cruz had not been mistreated by his mother, was receiving adequate care from a mental health counselor and was attending school.

At school, Cruz routinely fought with teachers, was accused of swearing at staff and was referred for a 'threat assessment' in January 2017.

Records show he was suspended several times in the 2016-17 school year and was frequently absent.

The FBI said a person close to Cruz called the FBI's tip line and provided information about Cruz's weapons and his erratic behavior.

The caller was concerned Cruz could attack a school. The agency acknowledged the tip should have been shared with the FBI's Miami office and investigated, but it was not.Malcolm Turnbull gloated about his happy marriage and offered relationship tips on national television just days after blasting his deputy for having an affair.

The Prime Minister's own political marriage with his Nationals deputy Barnaby Joyce was already in disarray, after he chastised him for his affair with his pregnant former media adviser Vikki Campion.

As Mr Joyce was dealing with the breakdown of his 24-year marriage, his boss was on Sixty Minutes declaring he was still happily married to Lucy after 37 years.

'We're a team. I've always had a greater sense of Lucy and me than I do me,' Mr Turnbull told interviewer Liz Hayes. 'We are just a very tight team.'

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Malcolm Turnbull gloated about his happy marriage to his wife of 37 years Lucy on Sixty Minutes

The Liberal PM was even giving advice to newlyweds as a Nine Network film crew followed him around in Hobart.

'Keep loving each other,' he said.

In an awkwardly timed interview, Mr Turnbull downplayed a suggestion the Liberal and National parties were headed for the divorce courts, as Mr Joyce's affair with a 33-year-old woman strained the Coalition government's political relations.

'It's frank. It's a frank relationship,' he said.

He doubled down on his comments about Joyce's affair - which sparked the deputy to accuse him of 'ripping the scab off' and being 'inept and harmful'.

'Australians wanted to hear their prime minister's heartfelt views about these events, they wanted to know what I felt about them,' Mr Turnbull said.

'They wanted to hear it from my lips but also from my heart.

'Saying you're speaking for 25 million people is a bit presumptuous, but I certainly felt that the values I expressed and the action I took, would have the overwhelming endorsement of Australians. I felt it was absolutely the right thing to do.'

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (left) has revealed the truth about his relationship with Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (right)

Mr Turnbull will also give an insight on his relationship with Barnaby Joyce, 50, who had an affair with his pregnant staffer Vicky Campion, 33, (pictured)

Mr Joyce in December told parliament about his separation from his wife of 24 years.

The couple had four daughters together.

The Prime Minister and his deputy met in Sydney on Saturday to resolve their public spat about a new ministerial code banning ministers from having sex with their staff, which Mr Turnbull had consulted his wife about.

Mr Turnbull (pictured with Lucy Turnbull) told veteran journalist Liz Hayes their 'secrets' to a 'good marriage' while saying his relationship with Mr Joyce was 'frank'

It comes after news broke this week that Mr Joyce and Ms Campion were expecting a baby in April (pictured together)

Mr Turnbull said on Thursday: 'Barnaby made a shocking error of judgment in having an affair with a young woman working in his office'

On Thursday it was announced Mr Joyce would not take over as Acting Prime Minister during Mr Turnbull's trip to the US next week.

Mr Turnbull said on Thursday the ministerial code of conduct had been rewritten and asked Mr Joyce to 'consider his position'.

'The real issue is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby, by his conduct, has visited on his wife, Natalie and their daughters and indeed, his new partner,' Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.

'Barnaby made a shocking error of judgment in having an affair with a young woman working in his office.

'He has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us.'

The Prime Minister asked Mr Joyce on Thursday (pictured) to 'consider his position'

The controversial deputy's 24-year marriage ended with estranged wife Natalie (pictured together) late last year, which Mr Joyce announced in December

Mr Joyce responded in tit-for-tat style the following day.

'In regards to comments by the Prime Minister yesterday at his press conference, I have to say that in many instances they caused further harm,' Mr Joyce said.

'I believe they were in many instances inept. And most definitely in many instances unnecessary.

'All that is going to do is basically once more pull the scab off for everybody to have a look at.'

The Prime Minister cannot sack his deputy because it is up to the Nationals MPs to choose their leader under the coalition agreement.School walkouts are planned across the United States to protest gun violence after the Florida shooting.

The Women's March, an organization that advocates for policy and legislation change on human rights issues, announced a 17-minute walkout for March 14 to protest Congress' inaction on gun control.

This protest will happen one month after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed.

The Network for Public Education (NPE), an advocacy group for public schools, also announced a walkout on April 20 at 10am.

Protesters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hold signs during a rally just three days after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Multiple organizations are now planning walkouts to protest gun violence and shootings

The Network for Public Education (NPE) is planning a walkout on April 20 to protest gun legislation. The organizers said politicians are 'sitting on their hands' while students are murdered. Pictured is Lawrence Nodarse, a school teacher in Florida, at the rally on Saturday

The NPE created a Twitter page to advertise the walkout. They are encouraging everyone to wear orange, the official color of the anti-gun violence movement

The Women's March chose March 14 because it will be one month after the Florida school shooting.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, allegedly walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday and killed 17 people with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, according to reports released by authorities.

The Women's March is also organizing its own walkout on March 14, exactly one month after the Florida shooting massacre

He now faces 17 counts of premeditated murder and is being held without bail at Broward County jail in Florida.

Since the Florida shooting on February 14, students and other people in the community have been vocal about the need for gun laws.

Thousands of students, parents and community members rallied on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, during the March for Action on Gun Violence to express their anger towards current gun laws.

The Women's March tweet said it was calling all 'students, teachers and allies,' to take part in the movement to let lawmakers know they've had 'enough' with gun violence.

The walkout will happen at 10am across all time zones.

National School Walkout, a Twitter page created by the NPE after the shooting, went viral with its own post about a walkout on April 20.

This date was chosen because it will be the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

Columbine was the largest modern day school shooting at the time before it was later surpassed by Virginia Tech in 2007.

National School Walkout's post has been shared more than 100,000 times and liked close to 200,000 as of Sunday morning.

The March for Action on Gun Violence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was in front of the US Courthouse. Many students, parents and teachers have been outspoken since the shooting about a need for better gun regulations

Organizers for the different walkouts are hoping this will send a message to politicians about the need for stricter laws. Pictured is demonstrators during the rally on Saturday

The organizers are also encouraging people to organize sit-ins and other marches to keep the conversation going about gun regulations.

The NPE started a petition on Change.org to explain the walkout and why it was organizing the movement.

This photo provided by the Broward County Jail shows Nikolas Cruz, the teen suspected of killing 17 and injuring more than a dozen in a school shooting on Wednesday in Florida

A statement by the organization said: 'There has been too much complacency on the part of politicians when it comes to gun violence. The time to act is now.

'The violence of guns is being performed in our schools and our communities. Not the Senate floor.

'As the future of America, it is time for teenagers to speak their minds and put their frustration into action.'

The organization is urging everyone to wear orange on that day, the official color the anti-gun violence movement.

As of Sunday morning, the petition had more than 35,000 signatures with a goal of getting at least 50,000.

Diane Ravitch, the NPE's president, and Carol Burris, the NPE's executive director, said in an online post: 'The politicians sit on their hands as our children and their teachers are murdered in their schools.

'We will be silent no more.'

These walkouts are planned to be another step towards imploring Congress to re-evaluate gun regulations.

As of Sunday morning, more than 35,000 people have signed a petition to walkout of schools on April 20. The date was chosen because it will be the 19th anniversary of Columbine High School's school shooting where 15 people were killedFive women have been killed while leaving a church service in southern Russia, media in the country is reporting.

Another five people were wounded during the shooting at the Orthodox Christian house of worship.

Tass news agency said the slaughter occurred outside a church in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan.

The gunman shouted 'Allahu Akbar' during the shooting, according to an Orthodox priest.

Tass news agency said the slaughter occurred outside a church in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan. Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea

The assailant was identified as a 22-year-old man local to the region, the TASS news agency said, citing the investigative committee. He has been reported dead. Left: Bodies covered by police after the slaughter. Right: A gun found at the scene

The agency cited Mayor Alexander Shuvalov as the source for the number of people killed and wounded.

A police source told Tass: 'The shooter was gunned down.'

The assailant was identified as a 22-year-old man local to the region, the TASS news agency said, citing the investigative committee. He has been reported dead.

He was shot and killed by security services who were on duty nearby, TASS said, adding that a hunting rifle, bullets and a knife were discovered on his person.

'An unknown man opened fire with a hunting rifle in Kizlyar, fatally wounding four women,' the regional internal affairs ministry said in a statement.

People stand by a victim's body after the shooting in southern Russia

A fifth woman died of her injuries in hospital, health ministry spokeswoman Zalina Mourtazalieva told TASS news agency.

Russian news agencies said the attack occurred as churchgoers celebrated Maslenitsa, a Christian holiday marking the last day before Lent according to the eastern Orthodox calendar.

Two of those hurt were reportedly security personnel.

Russian state-funded broadcaster RT reports that an eyewitness explained the shooting happened just outside a church.

Oksana told RT: 'There were a lot of people there, moms with little children, elderly people.

'I believe God saved us, not allowing the man to get inside the church.'

She added that the gunman was killed while trying to flee the scene.

According to RBK, an Orthodox priest said the perpetrator wore a beard and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' during the slaughter.

Father Pavel also told the paper the attacker was armed with a knife as well as a gun.

Media in the country have also reported that worshippers were celebrating the Maslenitsa festival, which marks the final week before Lent. Pictured: Stills from a video that appears to have been recorded close to the shooting

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea.

Following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya, an Islamist insurgency spread to Dagestan.

Kizlyar is a city of around 50,000 people.

Dagestan is one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia.

Islamist rebels from the region are known to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.

In 2015, IS declared it had established a 'franchise' in the North Caucasus.

It has claimed a number of attacks on police in Dagestan in the last couple of years that have involved guns and explosives, as local security forces battle a simmering Islamist insurgency.

Sunday's shooting comes exactly one month before the March 18 presidential election that Vladimir Putin is almost guaranteed to win.A police officer has been nicknamed 'The Hoff' after risking his life to save a drowning man - by jumping into a freezing river.

Student officer PC Mohammed Nadeem had seen the man standing by the edge of the water on Saturday afternoon.

The Greater Manchester Police trainee watched as specialist officers started negotiating with the man - but suddenly he fell into the freezing River Irwell, in Radcliffe.

PC Nadeem jumped in to rescue him, grabbed hold and despite the plunging temperatures he dragged him to safety.

The man, in his 30s, is now safe.

Supt Rick Jackson of GMP's Bury Borough, said: 'As with any incident that we respond to, the safety of the public is our number one priority.

'Sometimes that means putting them first, ahead of your own safety.

'Without hesitation, PC Nadeem dived off an eight foot drop into freezing, deep and fast moving water.

'The man is now safe and receiving the treatment he needs.

'I'd like to personal commend PC Nadeem's actions.

'They were a prime example of why people join the force, to protect people and make sure they are away from harm.

'He's also gained the nickname 'The Hoff' by his colleagues so I'm sure he won't be forgetting this anytime soon!'

Student officer PC Mohammed Nadeem (left) has been nicknamed 'The Hoff' by his colleagues after Baywatch star David Hasselhoff (right)

Yesterday, both rescuers said both men were in a state of 'near hypothermia' when they were pulled from the river.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service crew manager Ted Dorrington said: 'The river was in flood so it was quite deep.

'The issue that we had was that they were only 10 or 15 feet from a weir which recycles, having a tumble drier effect, so we were wary of that.

The GMP trainee watched as specialist officers started negotiating with the man - but suddenly he fell into the freezing River Irwell, in Radcliffe, and it was caught on his bodycam

PC Nadeem jumped in to rescue the drowning man, grabbed hold and despite the plunging temperatures he dragged him to safety

'It is a big hazard on a river, especially with it being in flood.'

The man and the brave officer, also aged in his 30s, were then handed over to paramedics who dried them off and took them hospital.

Mr Dorrington said: 'The police officer was that cold that we had to take his clothing off and put a foil blanket on him.

'He was shivering and dithering when we got him in to the ambulance.'

Yesterday, both rescuers said both men were in a state of 'near hypothermia' when they were pulled from the river - they are both now safeA former teacher and housemaster at Eton College has been reported over alleged child abuse.

The late Raef Payne has been accused of swapping pictures of naked children with other men at parties in the latest case of suspected historic abuse at a British boarding school.

The elite college reported its former staff member to Thames Valley police after the allegations surfaced in a book.

Eton College (pictured) reported the allegations to Thames Valley police after Raef Payne was accused of swapping pictures of naked children

These historic abuse allegations follows claims of drunken floggings at the school, The Sunday Times reports.

A spokesperson for Eton told the paper: 'We became aware of an allegation relating to a former member of staff and we contacted the police.

'As a school, we take our safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously and always pass any allegations to the relevant authorities.'

It comes ahead of an ITV documentary that will be shown tomorrow night at 10.45pm titled Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame  Exposure.

It is presented by Alex Renton, a victim of abuse at Ashdown House, which is the former preparatory school of Boris Johnson, Viscount Linley and Damian Lewis.

He was abused by maths teacher Thomas Keane at the school in East Sussex, where paedophile Martin Haigh also taught.

In tomorrow's documentary, Mr Renton speaks with a person who was abused by Haigh, who was jailed for 12 years in March last year.

Thomas Keane, left, abused Alex Renton at Ashdown House in East Sussex where Martin Haigh, right, also taught before being jailed for historic sex offences at the school

The documentary exposes how one paedophile teacher was sexually abused by five masters when he was at prep school.

'It never did me any harm,' is the teacher's chilling conclusion in the documentary, which focuses on schools at which 75,000 children still board today.

Today 24 police forces released figures showing that 425 people have been accused of sex attacks at UK boarding schools since 2012.

Figures also showed at least 160 people have so far been charged. Of those accused, more than 170 faced allegations of historical abuse, with 125 alleged to have attacked children recently. Police are investigation 31 cases.

Alex Renton, pictured aged eight at Ashdown, left, returns to the school, right, in tomorrow's ITV documentary

In the 1990s, allegations surfaced of drunken floggings at Eton. Anthony Chenevix-Trench, who was the school's headmaster in the 1960s, was said to have cried after engaging in the beatings.

Some Old Etonians said they deserved floggings while others dubbed it a 'bizarre ritual'.

It is expected that this year's independent inquiry into child sexual abuse will consider boarding schools.The daughter of a millionaire Manhattan landlord claims she was cut out of his will after she caught him in a secret gay tryst.

Diana Downing, 54, said her relationship with her 'closeted homosexual' father, Vincent Downing, crumbled after she walked in on him with his 'male lover', wrote in an affidavit filed to get her hands of part of her father's $80 million inheritance.

'I believe that my father was so embarrassed that he shunned me,' she wrote, adding that he skipped her high school graduation and her Yale University commencement, the New York Daily News reports.

The father and daughter were never able to reconcile their differences before Vincent was killed, aged 86, on May 10, 2016, when an elderly driver crushed him while he was walking across a pedestrian crosswalk on the Upper East Side.

Diana Downing, 54, (pictured) claims she was cut out of her father's will after she caught him in a secret gay tryst

Diana is now fighting her two siblings for a slice of her father's estate. His collection of Manhattan apartment buildings bring in a combine $3 million in rent every 18 months.

She believes that if he hadn't died expectantly, they would have reconciled.

'I was cautiously hopeful that my father would overcome the embarrassment that I believe prompted him to shun me in my teen years, and which I suspect haunted him,' she wrote.

'I believe that, shortly before he died, my father was preparing to reconnect with me.'

Vincent was killed, aged 86, on May 10, 2016, when an elderly driver crushed him while he was walking across a pedestrian crosswalk on the Upper East Side (pictured)

In her petition to Manhattan Surrogate's Court to halt the distribution of the assets in his will, Diana argued that her father, who had a townhouse on the Upper East Side, had spent to past 20 years living in Paris. She claims to have evidence showing he had most of his medical procedures in France and family had visited him there.

Under French law, all children, even if cut out of the will, are entitled to a share of their parents' assets.

Diana is also fighting the same battle across the pond, in France, to demand her share of the inheritance.

However, a lawyer for Diana's brother, David Downing, claims Diana is lying about walking in on their father in an attempt to get a share of his money.

Diana (pictured left and right) is now fighting her two siblings for a slice of her father's estate. His collection of Manhattan apartment buildings bring in a combine $3 million in rent every 18 months

The attorney called her claims 'totally fabricated' with 'no basis in fact' and said that Vincent had actually disinherited her because he was disappointed in how her life had turned out.

They highlighted a 2010 felony charge which saw Diana disbarred as an attorney after pleading guilty to a Medicaid fraud scheme.

They say she also turned down his attempts at reconciliation.

Diana's siblings also point out that their father had filed taxes in the US, mostly living in Manhattan, so couldn't be a resident of France.Ohio Gov. John Kasich  who campaigned for president as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment  knocked Congress for being 'totally dysfunctional' and said state and local officials need to enact gun control measures if U.S. lawmakers don't.

'If you're a strong Second Amendment person you need to slow down and take a look at reasonable things that can be done to answer these young people,' Kasich said Sunday.

Kasich, who ran for the 2016 Republican nomination, appeared on CNN's State of the Union directly after a group of students from Parkland, Florida  a community rocked Wednesday by yet another school massacre  who demanded gun control.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Sunday that he believed state and local officials should enact gun control measures if the U.S. Congress couldn't get its act together

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (right) told CNN's Dana Bash (left) that he was for 'reasonable things' to be done on the issue of gun control

CNN's Dana Bash first asked Kasich, who signed a number of pro-Second Amendment bill while in his current position, how he responded to complaints that his political party has done nothing on guns.

Kasich answered by calling the young people 'amazing.'

'They're absolutely right when they say that politicians have not been responding to any of this,' the Ohio Republican said. 'You take a look at the Congress, and I think the Congress is totally dysfunctional. Dana, I have never seen anything like it.'

Kasich, a former U.S. House member himself, blasted lawmakers for not getting an immigration deal passed and for driving up the deficit with President Trump's tax reform bill, passed in December.

'They just can't seem to get anything done, except the fact that they all came together and agreed to take money out of our kids' piggy banks, because now they just go ahead and blow a hole in the deficit,' he huffed. 'So it's dysfunctional.'

'Wake up. Wake up,' he said, scolding U.S. lawmakers.

As for passing new gun laws, Kasich said he had 'no confidence' in Congress to act.

Kasich also didn't seem to have much confidence in President Trump's leadership ability on the issue.

Bash asked Kasich about a tweet President Trump sent out that suggested the FBI dropped the ball on this particular school shooting because agents were spending too much time on the Russia investigation.

'I mean, I don't agree with that. I think it's an absurd statement, OK? Absurd,' Kasich said.

He agreed, though, that the country needed 'leadership out of the executive.'

'This is a great opportunity for commonsense steps that can be taken just in the area of background checks,' he said. 'There should be no ability to do a casual sale without somebody having to find out who they're selling the gun to and what is involved.'

'The president should be for that,' Kasich added.

What the governor moreso advocated was for legislation to be crafted at the local level.

'Where we have to effect this, I believe, is at the local level and the statehouse, because, because you can have greater access to politicians who serve in the state legislature, in a county commissioner, in a city council,' the Ohio governor offered. 'there's where you need to put the pressure and call these people out.'

In Ohio, Kasich said, he's formed a committee to look at potential moves, including 'full background checks,' how to handle people that have, as Kasich put it, 'emotional problems,' and a potential bump stock ban.

A bump stock is a device that turns semi-automatic weapons into automatic ones and became part of the gun control vocabulary after the October concert shooting in Las Vegas, in which 58 people were killed and 851 were injured.

'I was talking to a friend of mine this morning, he's a big collector. I said, "If all of the sudden, you couldn't buy an AR-15, what would you lose?"' Kasich said, referencing the gun Nikolas Cruz used in the latest massacre and one that has often been used in the mass shooting around the country in recent years.

'Would you feel as though your Second Amendment rights would be eroded because you couldn't buy a God-darn AR-15?' Kasich continued.

'There are the things that have to be looked at. And action has to happen before  and, look, you're never going to fix all of this, but commonsense gun laws make sense,' Kasich added.

Kasich said if his committee doesn't come up with some solutions, 'I will put my own stuff out.'Advertisement

The Navalacruz Carnival is an ancient festival originating in Navalacruz, Spain that was traditionally held to protect cattle and children.

These striking photos show how the festival is celebrated every year on February 17, with revellers dressed as Harramachos to mark the carnival - fierce looking characters that hide their identities with a mask.

The origins of the festival and the Harramachos character is unknown but revellers dress up in a number of colourful roles to mark the carnival.

A reveller dressed as 'Harramacho' poses for a portrait during the traditional Navalacruz Carnival, a celebration of ancient pre-Roman rituals that were intended to protect cattle

A number of revellers can be seen dressed as the Harramachos, and their costumes, as per tradition, are made up of materials from the natural surrounding environment

The residents of Navalacruz clearly take the ancient carnival extremely seriously, and the outfits are grand and elaborate, the reveller boasts an impressive Harramacho costume

The dressed-up Harramachos usually leave the streets of Navalacruz on the Saturday of the carnival in the afternoon.

They start in the city square, where the mayor welcomes the revellers from the balcony of the city hall.

The characters are also presented and the schedule of the carnival is revealed. After the speech, the event starts.

Traditional music and dances take place throughout the festivities.

The Harramachos-inspired costumes can only be made up of materials from the natural surrounding environment and this tends to include animal skins, sacks and hay

During the celebrations, the costumed revellers walk through the mountains and participate in a series of rituals and events to mark the ancient carnival that originated among pre-Romans

The animal-like appearance of the Harramacho is also linked to the importance of farming and nature to Navalacruz, a reflection of ancient tradition

Some of the masks are stunning, although it isn't clear where the festival or the Harramachos originated, however it seems as if the striking characters are intended to frighten people

The festival is based on the traditions of the vettones, a pre-Roman people that lived in the region.

As well as protecting cattle and children, the festival is also supposed to boost fertility in the city.

The animalistic appearance of the Harramacho is also linked to the importance of farming and nature to the city, a throwback to earlier times.

The Harramachos are described as reckless characters and are dressed in materials from the surrounding environment, although they have no official role in the event

Despite not playing a part in the carnival like some of the other characters, the Harramachos are striking and flashy, with numerous revellers dressing up as them

So popular are the Harramachos in fact, that they tend to dominate the attention of revellers and photographers, with participants seemingly competing to be the most fierce

The dressed-up Harramachos usually leave the streets of Navalacruz on the Saturday of the carnival, in the afternoon as they gather in the city square and wait for the mayor to give the go ahead

The Harramachos are reckless characters dressed in materials from the surrounding nature.

They do not do anything, or have a specific role in the celebrations but are intended to look frightening.

The materials used to make up their costumes include animal skins, sacks and hay.

Other characters in the carnival include the Heifer, the incarnation of evil.

The Heifer wears cow antlers at the waist with a cowbell behind them. In addition, he has three black crosses on his face. He 'fights' in the square and dies .

As part of his role, he chases after women and lifts their skirts with horns.

The revellers dressed as Harramachos are only to happy to pose for photographs, with this costumed participant looking frightening in his dark mask and with an antler stick

Other characters in the carnival include the Heifer (pictured), who is the incarnation of evil. The Heifer wears cow antlers at the waist with a cowbell behind them

Another character is El Vaquero. He tends to have chorizo, wine and bread.

In the past, he also rewarded children who made the most noise.

Another key character is that of the Mayor. The Mayor must jump the Chico River in the city by leaning on a rod.

He chooses the part of the river that he likes the most and jumps, usually on more than one ocassion to satisfy the crowd.

Another character is El Vaquero who has chorizo, wine and bread and rewards children who have made the most noise during the carnival celebrations

Pictured is a woman wearing a traditional dress that symbolises life, she can be seen standing over the Heifer after killing the devil in the carnival celebrations

The children in the celebration are dressed in sacks , their faces are painted black and they wear a belt with cowbells.

They ring their bells to scare the Harramachos.

A number of people also put their clothes on upside down or inside out, in an attempt to confuse evil.

Another tradition sees revellers carry Peleles, dummies that will be burned at the end of the Navalacruz Carnival.

The festival was revived in 2015.

Revellers carry the Peleles (dummies) that will burned at the end of the Navalacruz Carnival, a tradition that marks the end of the celebrations

The children in the celebration are dressed in sacks , their faces are painted black and they wear a belt with cowbells which they use to try to scare Harramachos

Another key character is the Mayor who has to jump a river with a pole while being watched by the rest of the revellers, pictured is the Mayor from this year's celebrations

People also put their clothes on upside down or inside out, in an attempt to confuse evil during the carnival which was only revived in 2015

Republic of Macedonia's Strumica carnival

Another lesser-known festival is the Strumica carnival in Strumica, eastern Republic of Macedonia.

The Strumica Carnival was first mentioned in 1670 and is held every year at the beginning of the Great Lent, an Eastern Orthodox period similar to the Roman church's calendar.

The three days of the festivals are called the 'trimer days' and they mark Trimery, an Orthodox Christian holiday, when evil spirits are chased away with dance rituals.

Costumed revelers perform in a carnival procession on the streets of Strumica in the great evening carnival held on February 17 in the eastern Republic of Macedonia town

The renowned carnival, which marks the beginning of the Christian Orthodox Lent, attracted hundreds of participants and tens of thousands of visitors in Strumica

The three days of the festivals are called the 'trimer days' and they mark Trimery, an Orthodox Christian holiday, when evil spirits are chased away with dance rituals

However, in recent times, the event has been described as similar to the famous Rio carnival, with the masks and costumes it inspires compared to the Brazilian event

This year's carnival took place on February 17.

It saw masked and elaborately dressed groups of people stroll throughout the city, with men visiting the homes of their fiancees and staying there until the early hours.

The celebration is filled with love songs and romantic lyrics.

The holiday marks the beginning of the fasting period ahead of Easter.

The stunning costumes saw people flocking to the town from all over the world with organisers claiming that the carnival attracts thousands of people to the eastern Macedonian town

Some of the images were incredible and showed the lengths that participants went to for the carnival, with costumes and masks seen as a competitive part of the celebrations

Although there are limits placed on the size of masks, they don't seem to have hindered a vast majority of the revellers who can be seen dressed in an array of outfits

Costume themes are left up to participants, members of carnival groups perform during a carnival procession in the closing night in Strumica

Carnival organisers encourage people to come up with their own masks and themes for costumes, which leads to friends and family members dressing in remarkable outfits

Participants are also encouraged to create their own masks.

Each person or group decide upon their own theme and idea.

Rules state that masks should be up to 3.5 m high.

As shown in the pictures, the event draws a competitive crowd with many people describing it as similar to the Rio Carnival.

As part of the carnival, a long standing tradition sees men visiting the homes of their fiancees and staying there until the early hours

Romance and love is a big part of the celebration with the carnival filled with a variety of love songs and romantic lyrics, usually on display throughout

Although it has kept its romantic roots, the present-day carnival is fairly modernised and has been influence by similar carnivals worldwide

Above is an example of love and romance, one of the key themes of the Strumica carnival and one that is endured despite the event's modernisation

The carnival attracts hundreds of masked people onto the streets of the city as well as thousands from other cities in Macedonia and from abroad - including young children

The event sees hundreds of masked people on the streets of the city as well as thousands from other cities in Macedonia and from abroad.

The event is sponsored by the mayor of Strumica.

Since 1994, Strumica is a member of the International Association of Carnival Cities, FECC.

The carnival is still also heavily symbolic, despite the modernisation it has undertaken, with participants encouraged to dress in order to hint at various themes

The carnival uses bright, multicolored costumes, figures, and masks to highlight different motives and topics and to discuss key themes of human nature

Yin and yang and duality is another key theme of the carnival, as participants are encouraged to symbolise and hint at these themes with their masks and costumes

Pictured are two revellers dressed as the Beauty and the Beast, perhaps the most famous example of duality and the difference between good and evil

The carnival also claims that it attempts to demonstrate the infinite struggle and antagonism between good and evil - which is a key theme of the celebrations

Although it has a long and cultured history, the present-day carnival is fairly modernised.

It has been influence by similar carnivals worldwide, although its traditional custom of going to engaged girls' houses remains.

The carnival is still also heavily symbolic, with participants encouraged to dress in order to hint at various themes.

It uses bright, multicolored costumes, figures, and masks to highlight different motives and topics.

The carnival attempts to demonstrate the infinite struggle and antagonism between good and evil.

It also highlights themes of realism and sarcasm, as well as irony and satire.

Other topic areas covered by the event include more lighter topics, such as realism, sarcasm, as well as irony and satire - although some people just seem like they want to have fun

The costumes are extremely impressive with groups of friends agreeing on a theme and dressing in striking and flamboyant outfitsSacked Ukip leader Henry Bolton was spotted out on the town with his ex-girlfriend Jo Marney today less than 24 hours after he was ousted over the relationship.

Witnesses told MailOnline the couple appeared to be very much still together - despite Mr Bolton insisting repeatedly he had broken off the relationship.

Mr Bolton, 54, and Ms Marney were spotted drinking red wine together at the Rose and Crown pub near Hyde Park this afternoon.

The couple spent more than an hour together at the central London bar, making little secret of their continuing affections.

Sacked Ukip leader Henry Bolton was spotted out on the town with his ex-girlfriend Jo Marney today (pictured) less than 24 hours after he was ousted over the relationship

Witnesses told MailOnline the couple (pictured at the Rose and Crown today) appeared to be very much still together - despite Mr Bolton insisting repeatedly he had broken off the relationship

Mr Bolton, 54, and Ms Marney were spotted drinking red wine together at the Rose and Crown pub (pictured) near Hyde Park this afternoon

Mr Bolton was sacked as Ukip leader yesterday by party members disgusted that he had left his wife and children for the 25-year-old glamour model.

The couple had repeatedly insisted the relationship was over after it emerged Ms Marney had sent a tirade of racist messages to a friend.

But they have been seen repeatedly together in recent weeks - with Mr Bolton even claiming the relationship had been under more scrutiny than any since Diana and Dodi al Fayed.

Two friends who bumped into Mr Bolton and Ms Marney this afternoon told MailOnline what they saw.

The first woman said: 'I went across the bar to go and buy a drink and I saw Jo Marney and Henry Bolton. They were stood at the bar, facing the rugby screen, watching that

'They seemed really relaxed, smiling, kissing a little bit but not too much PDA. They were there for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, and then they left.

'It seemed as though they were very much together. They were turned in toward each, they were watching the screen together but they were mirroring each other's body language.'

The beleaguered Ukip chief has faced growing calls to quit after his ex girlfriend Jo Marney (who he is pictured with) was exposed for sending racist messages about Meghan Markle

Jo Marney declared her love for the ousted Ukip leader in a series of tweets sent after the result

Jo Marney tweeted shorty after the vote was announced to hint that she would resume her relationship with Henry Bolton now he is no longer Ukip leader

Her friend did not know who Ms Marney was they first spotted the couple - but recognised her after seeing MailOnline coverage of the affair.

How long did Henry Bolton last as leader and what happened to spark his removal? September 2017: Henry Bolton is elected leader of Ukip in a shock election result. Few people had heard of him outside the party, but Nigel Farage had given the former Army officer his considerable backing. Christmas 2017: He leaves his wife Tatiana Smurova and their two young children to start a relationship with former glamour model Jo Marney. The affair sees him hit the headlines and plunge the crisis-prone party into fresh turmoil. January 2018: Racists texts sent by Ms Marney about Prince Harry's fiance Meghan Markle emerge in the press. In them she said the US actress would 'taint' the Royal Family by joining it. Late January 2018: The Ukip NEC call a meeting at which Mr Bolton's leadership is put to a confidence vote. Every member of the NEC apart from Mr Bolton votes against him - but he vows to carry on as leader. February 2018: Ukip members vote to oust Mr Bolton as leader at an extraordinary general meeting in Birmingham. But Mr Bolton comes out fighting - threatening to launch legal action against the party for how he has been treated. Advertisement

She said the pair were 'not hiding' and were both drinking red wine - though there no sign of a bottle.

She said: 'I suppose I thought they were just a normal couple, the way they were behaving.

'They weren't hiding. They looked pretty happy to be honest I was facing them as we were eating. They kept moving in for kisses.

'She popped out for a cigarette for a few times and that's when I snuck up to the bar for a look at his face.

'They looked pretty happy and relaxed to be honest.'

The woman spotted Ms Marney first and recognised her from the deluge of news stories about the text messages she had sent.

She said she had been 'disgusted' by the messages sent about Grenfell Tower and Meghan Markel, Prince Harry's fiancee.

She added: 'So I recognised her face because she was the one facing us when I approached the bar.

'That's when I saw thought ''is that Henry?''. That's how I noticed them.'

The woman said she appreciated the difficulty the couple were in.

The Rose and Crown is a relatively obscure venue for central London, up a side street a few hundred metres from the bustling Hyde Park.

She said: 'I feel they were trying to go under the radar as much as they could. It seems as though its pressure from the party more than anything, and she's embarrassed at the messages.

'I believe they very much are still a couple or want to be anyway.'

Mr Bolton last night threatened to sue Ukip after being ousted as leader - as Ms Marney hinted they are back together.

Ms Marney, a former glamour model 30 years his junior, was exposed for sending racist texts about Meghan Markle

The former Army officer was toppled from the top job when party members decided to support a no confidence vote against him at a crunch meeting yesterday.

Speaking after the vote, Mr Bolton revealed he is considering launching legal action against against Ukip's NEC over the way he has been treated.

Meanwhile, Ms Marney sent a series of tweets declaring her love for the father-of-three and hinting that they will pick their relationship back up.

She wrote on Twitter: 'I love the bloke and that's that. UKIP leader or dustman.

'I may be many things but shallow isn't one of them. We've stood by each other throughout this and I will continue to do so.'

The former Army officer was toppled from the top job when party members decided to support a no confidence vote against him at a crunch meeting yesterday.A British former model and socialite is being probed by German police after she questioned the Holocaust during a far-Right protest in Dresden.

Australian-born Michele Renouf is one of two people being investigated for remarks made at a neo-Nazi rally on Saturday commemorating those killed in the 1945 Allied bombing of the city.

Videos of the rally posted online show Lady Renouf saying the only Holocaust perpetrated in Europe was against German civilians.

Michele Renouf is being probed by German police after she questioned the Holocaust during a far-Right protest in Dresden

At a neo-Nazi rally on Saturday Lady Renouf said the only Holocaust perpetrated in Europe was against German civilians

Publicly denying the Nazis' well-documented murder of six million Jews is a criminal offence in Germany.

Lady Renouf has in the past supported Holocaust-deniers such as British historian David Irving.

Dresden police spokeswoman Jana Ulbricht said officers ordered the rally dissolved after determining that two speakers had broken the law.

Lady Renouf is the former wife of the late Sir Frank 'The Bank' Renouf, a wealthy New Zealand financier who was almost 30 years her senior.

The marriage collapsed in 1991 after only a few months.

In 2015, Lady Renouf was pictured attending a secret rally in London at which speakers unleashed anti-Semitic rants, referring to Jews as the enemy and children of darkness.

In 2015, Lady Renouf was pictured attending a secret rally in London at which speakers unleashed anti-Semitic rants, referring to Jews as the enemy and children of darkness

Lady Renouf has previously been quoted as saying: People should have the freedom to question the accepted view of what happened

Held in Londons Victoria, the meeting was described by experts as the most significant gathering of Holocaust deniers Britain had ever seen, with speakers invited from Spain, Canada and the United States.

The star speaker at the event was Spanish self-confessed Nazi Pedro Varela. Lady Renouf was pictured speaking to him outside the venue.

She has previously been quoted as saying: People should have the freedom to question the accepted view of what happened.His trip to India may have began without a bump but Canadian leader Justin Trudeau has another method of diplomacy up his sleeve... or pants leg.

Trudeau was snubbed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who failed to meet them at the airport and instead sent a junior agriculture minister.

It was far cry from when former US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Israel and the UAE made the trip, with Modi patiently waiting for them on the tarmac.

But it appears Trudeau has decided to launch a charm offensive to win over Modi, by putting his best foot forward in a set of Darth Vader socks.

Justin Trudeau donned Darth Vader socks (pictured) as he kicked off his week long diplomatic trip to India

Canadian PM Trudeau was visiting the Taj Mahal at the start of a visit to India in which he will aim to promote trade and investment with India

It appears that the Canadian Prime Minister may be attempting to bond with Modi over their shared love of Star Wars. Last summer Modi left the stage after a speech to Darth Vader's Imperial March (pictured)

The footwear may seem an unusual choice for a world leader but it appears that the Canadian Prime Minister may be attempting to bond with Modi over their shared love of Star Wars.

The Indian Prime Minister made headlines of his own last July when he decided to exit a speech on corruption at the Institute of Chartered Accountants to the villainous Vader's Imperial March.

Many were surprised by Modi's unusual choice to liven up a potentially dry speech.

But the 67-year-old has history with the franchise. In 2014, he ended a speech at Central Park, New York by wishing the crowd: 'May the force be with you.'

Trudeau has a long history of combining his love of novelty socks with diplomacy. He wore a Chewbacca pair in September at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum with Dutch PM Mark Rutte

On May 4, 2017, national Stars Wars fan day, he wore an R2D2 sock, and a C3PO sock for a meeting in Montreal with the former Irish prime minister, and fellow Star Wars fan, Enda Kenny

Other choices are less obvious, such as the purple pair with yellow ducks he wore to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January

Today, Trudeau was seen wearing socks featuring Vader and other Star Wars iconography as he wandered round the Taj Mahal with his wife and children on Sunday as he began a week-long visit to India.

The 46-year-old appears to have a vast collection of novelty socks - including a whole array in a Star Wars theme.

On May 4, 2017, national Stars Wars fan day, he wore an R2D2 sock, and a C3PO sock for a meeting in Montreal with the former Irish prime minister, and fellow Star Wars fan, Enda Kenny. He also cracked out a Chewbacca pair in September at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum with Dutch PM Mark Rutte, the Financial Times reports.

Some of his choices make a clear statement, such as the NATO socks he wore in May this year during a meeting with Angela Merkel and other leaders in Brussels, and he has a couple of pairs of patriotic maple leaf socks which he has worn on national days of importance such as Canada day.

He has a couple of pairs of patriotic maple leaf socks which he has worn on national days of importance such as Canada day

These ultra patriotic socks feature both the Canadian maple leaf and a Canadian mountie

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sported a pair of socks with a skull and crossbones motif in Davos, Switzerland in 2016

When not making a political statement, the prime minister still plumps for a jazzy pair of socks to brighten up an outfit

Other choices are less obvious, such as the purple pair with yellow ducks he wore to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

His love of a novelty sock has become so well known that he was recently gifted some polar bear socks from James Quicey, president and CEO of Coca-Cola.

Trudeau will spend the week talking with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about how they can boost their relationship.

But the arrival was a far cry from when former US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Israel and the UAE made the trip, with Modi patiently waiting for them on the tarmac.

Trudeau and Modi will hold talks on civil nuclear cooperation, space, defence, energy and education.

Trade between Canada and India has doubled in the last decade to just over $8 billion in 2016, a figure which India's foreign ministry says 'does not reflect true potential'.

At Davos last month, while President Donald Trump supported new tariffs on imports, Trudeau and Modi came out forcefully against a drift toward protectionism in the global economy.

Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and his three children are pictured visiting the Taj Mahal at the start of a trip to India

Trudeau's children, from left: Xavier, 10, Hadrien, 3, and Ella-Grace, 9, joined their parents for a photoshoot on the famous bench

Sophie Gregoire (left) wore a colourful full-length blue dress as she posed for the pictures

Canada is home to more than 1.2 million Indians - more than three percent of its population - with Sikh members of Trudeau's cabinet joining in the visit.

The delegation will walk a diplomatic tightrope in Punjab where Trudeau will visit the Golden Temple - the holiest site in Sikhism, and the scene of a bloody massacre of religious separatists in 1984.

Trudeau is scheduled to visit Modi's home state of Gujarat on Monday before jetting off to India's financial capital of Mumbai for talks with CEOs and business leaders the next day.

After visiting Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday, Trudeau will meet Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi following a welcome at the presidential palace and a wreath-laying at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial.

Modi visited Canada in 2015 and addressed a crowd of 10,000 from the Indian diaspora in Toronto.A group of female protesters wearing 'Time's Up' T-shirts invaded the red carpet at tonight's BAFTA ceremony.

The women were dressed in black as part of the 'BAFTA blackout', chanting 'sisters, united, we'll never be defeated'.

They hijacked the Time's Up movement - which came to the fore in the wake of the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal - by wearing 'Time's Up Theresa' t-shirts.

Protesting against domestic violence and calling on the Prime Minister to do more, they linked arms and lay on the red carpet, leading to them being ushered away by security guards.

A group of female protesters wearing 'Time's Up' T-shirts invaded the red carpet at tonight's BAFTA ceremony

The women were dressed in black as part of the 'BAFTA blackout', chanting 'sisters, united, we'll never be defeated'. They hijacked the Time's Up movement - which came to the fore in the wake of the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal - by wearing 'Time's Up Theresa' t-shirts

The protesting women link arms and lie on the red carpet before they were ushered away by security

A group of female protesters (pictured) wearing 'Time's Up' T-shirts invaded the red carpet at tonight's BAFTA ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London

Tonight's iconic award ceremony at London's Royal Albert Hall is being dominated with discussion of the 'Me Too' and 'Time's Up' movements, calling for an end to gender inequality and sexual harassment.

Many stars heeded the call to wear black, using the celebration of UK and international cinema Sunday to call for an end to sexual harassment and bullying across society.

The protesters - wearing trainers, black tracksuit bottoms and dark hoodies over their t-shirts - are from a group calling themselves Sisters Uncut.

They describe themselves as a feminist group taking direct action for domestic violence services.

One of the protesters Ana Kaur said: 'We are in solidarity with the Times Up campaign.

'We recognise that gender-based violence happens everywhere, and that to disclose abuse requires support.

'As well as calling Times Up on individual perpetrators, we have to call Times Up on our government for failing to provide us with real options and support.'

The woman were dressed completely in black with a 'Time's Up' message on their T-shirts

Female activists are pictured spilling onto the red carpet at the Royal Albert Hall this evening

In a statement, the Sisters Uncut group said they stormed the red carpet to protest Theresa Mays upcoming Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill, which they say will 'criminalise survivors while distracting from devastating funding cuts to domestic violence services nationwide'.

It continued: 'A group of activists from Sisters Uncut jumped onto the carpet as celebrities were arriving at the ceremony wearing t-shirts declaring Times Up Theresa. While laying on the red carpet, they chanted the DV Bills a cover-up, Theresa May your time is up.

'In their highest-profile action to date, the group aim to add another voice to the global Times Up campaign against gender-based violence, by demanding that the government meet their obligations to support all survivors of domestic abuse.

'The Prime Minister has made clear that she intends the Bill, which is still under consultation in parliament, to bring in tougher sentences and deliver more convictions for domestic violence.

'Sisters Uncut say that these measures skirt the governments responsibility to support all survivors of domestic violence, leaving them locked up in prison, locked out of refuges, and locked in to violent relationships.'

The women were dressed in black as part of the 'BAFTA blackout', chanting 'sisters, united, we'll never be defeated'

Several female stars brought feminist activists and anti-violence campaigners as guests.

Men showed solidarity with 'Time's Up' lapel pins as tremors from abuse revelations rumble through the movie awards season.

Kristin Scott Thomas, a supporting actress nominee for 'Darkest Hour,' praised the conversation about misconduct that has started in the entertainment industry, but said a tougher task will be 'moving it from conversation to action.'

Actress Andrea Riseborough, who brought UK Black Pride founder Phyll Opoku-Gyimah as her guest, said she also hoped the film industry was on the road to greater diversity.

'It's more likely we'll see an alien onscreen than we'll see an Asian woman at the moment, which is disgraceful,' she said.President Donald Trump blasted a member of his own team on Twitter.

The president went after National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster after his speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. In it McMaster said indictments from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation are 'incontrovertible' evidence of Russia's election meddling.

'General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems.

'Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!' Trump tweeted on Saturday night.

Scroll down for video

President Trump took to Twitter to say his National Security Adviser forgot to say the election's results were not impacted or changed by the Russians

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said on Saturday that Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election was 'beyond dispute' after the FBI's indictment

McMaster said on Saturday that Russia's meddling in the election is now 'beyond dispute', conceding the results of Robert Mueller's probe and directly contradicting the US Russian foreign minister who labeled them 'just babble' moments earlier.

He said the evidence that there was interference 'is now incontrovertible' and he credited Mueller's investigation and the sensational, long-awaited indictment for bringing it to the surface.

'As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain.'

Laughing off the notion that the US could work with the Kremlin on the issue of cyber security in the future, he said:

'I'm surprised there are any Russian cyber experts available based on how active most of them have been undermining our democracies in the West.

'We would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage.'

Moments earlier on the same stage, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the indictment and its allegations.

After the indictments were announced, Trump said in a statement that 'it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans'

On Friday the president celebrated the indictment's timeline which said the interference began before he announced his candidacy. It said any of his campaign aides were 'unwitting'

'I have no response. You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying,' he said. 'Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber.'

He said there was an 'irrational myth' that Russia was threatening the West, and said: 'traces' of it 'are found everywhere from Brexit to the Catalan referendum.'

Both were responding to the 37-page indictment returned on Friday by a grand jury which charges 13 Russian individuals and three companies with a series of crimes relating to the interference.

Among those indicted are a businessman nicknamed Putin's 'chef', a woman who acted as a spy for the organization to come to the US in 2014 to gather intel and a computer whiz who used servers to hide 'troll factory's location'.

Mueller's office made the stunning announcement on Friday, saying that the defendants laid the groundwork for targeting U.S. elections in 2014  and that by mid-2016 they were actively 'supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton.'

They did not suggest that there had been any collusion between them and Trump's campaign and stated in the indictment that any member of his campaign that was contacted by the 'trolls' was 'unwitting'.

On Friday, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said: 'There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity.'

He also said there was no proof that the interference successfully swayed voters.

Trump lamented it on Twitter, repeating what he and his supporters have been saying for months.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the charges at a press conference on Friday (above)

How the Russians meddled in the 2016 election A 37-page indictment released Feb. 16, 2018 by the U.S. Department of Justice accuses 13 Russians and 3 Russian companies of conspiring to compromise the most recent U.S. elections by running online campaigns disguised to look like home-grown activity. A federal grand jury charged that they: posed as both real and nonexistent Americans to operate social media pages and groups supporting Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders

worked to undermine support for Hillary Clinton and at leas two of Trump's Republican rivals

conducted 'information warfare' by stealing identities and buying ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter

created niche groups on Facebook to attract hundreds of thousands of Muslims, evangelical Christians, people associated with Black Lives Matter, and Americans from specific regions of the country

organized real-life political rallies to support Trump and oppose Clinton

created Twitter accounts with names meant to appear linked to the Republican Party (one had more than 100,000 followers)

used foreign bank accounts to route more than $1.25 million per month to the project from companies owned by a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin

never reported the spending to the Federal Election Commission as campaign expenses

never registered as foreign agents with the Justice Department

bought space on computer servers based in America so all their Internet traffic would appear to be domestic Advertisement

'Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong  no collusion!'

The White House issued a longer victory-lap statement afterwards.

Trump, it said, 'has been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsel's investigation further indicates  that there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected.'

Trump said in the statement that 'it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful.'

'It's time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions. We must unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections.'

Insiders told CBS that the Trump briefing prior to the announcement was held in hopes of keeping Trump from over-reacting on Twitter and ensuring the president would not 'break any glass' over the new information.

Mueller's investigation is still ongoing.

The Special Counsel has not concluded the investigation into whether Trump or his associates colluded with Russia ahead of the 2016 election, an insider told Bloomberg.

Rosenstein said the Russian defendants engaged in 'what they called 'information warfare against the United States,' with the stated goal of spreading distrust toward the candidates and the political system in general.'

He said the indictments are a reminder that 'people are not always who they appear to be'.A woman has been arrested over a series of violent incidents including a Molotov cocktail attack last night.

The woman, 40, was arrested for allegedly firebombing a home in Salisbury, in Adelaide's northern suburbs.

Sunday night's attack left the 77-year-old resident, who lives alone, terrified and in shock, and she was taken to Lyell McEwin Hospital for assessment.

A woman has been arrested over a series of violent incidents including a Molotov cocktail attack last night (pictured is the scene)

Police and emergency services were called to the home on Spains Road about 8.30pm after a firebomb was allegedly thrown through a front window (pictured)

Police and emergency services were called to the home on Spains Road about 8.30pm after a firebomb was allegedly thrown through a front window.

The elderly occupant, who was sitting in her lounge room at the time, was able to extinguish the blaze, which caused about $3000 damage, The Advertiser reported.

Police found another Molotov cocktail had been allegedly thrown at the house an hour earlier, but no damage was caused by the first alleged attack.

Sunday night's attack left the 77-year-old resident, who lives alone, terrified and in shock, and she was taken to Lyell McEwin Hospital for assessment (pictured is the scene)

The 40-year-old woman is allegedly responsible for a number of firebomb attacks in the suburb in the last week, police claim.

She has been charged with two counts of arson, three counts of attempted arson and two counts of endangering life.

The Salisbury woman was refused policed bail and will face the Elizabeth Magistrates Court on Monday.

The woman, 40, was arrested for allegedly firebombing a home in Salisbury, in Adelaide 's northern suburbs (pictured is the scene)

More to comeSurvivors of the Florida school shooting are planning to march on Washington DC to demand tighter gun control.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, where Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire on Wednesday killing 17 and leaving 15 injured, are demanding an end to gun violence and school mass shootings.

'Please stop allowing us to be gunned down in our hallways,' Emma Gonzalez, a high school senior, told Fox News. She insisted yesterday that this would be final school shooting in US history.

'We will be the last mass shooting,' said Gonzalez, a senior at the high school who took cover on the floor of the auditorium as a shooter rampaged through the building.

They are organizing a protest in Washington on March 24 called March For Our Lives to call for action by politicians.

Protesters hold signs calling for more gun controls at a rally three days after the shooting in Parkland, Florida

Seventeen perished and 15 were wounded in the hail of bullets at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday

'We will be the last mass shooting,' said Emma Gonzalez, a senior at the high school who took cover on the floor of the auditorium as a shooter rampaged through the building

'People keep asking us, what about the Stoneman Douglas shooting is going to be different, because this has happened before and change hasn't come?' Cameron Kasky, an 11th-grader, told ABC's 'This Week.' 'This is it.'

'At the end of the day, this isn't a red and blue thing. This isn't Democrats or Republicans. This is about everybody and how we are begging for our lives,' he added on Face The Nation. 'We need to make real change here and that's exactly what we're going to do.'

'This cannot be [our] normal. This can be changed and it will be changed. And anybody who tells you that it can't, is buying into the facade of this being created by the people who have our blood on their hands,' he said.

The teens also plan to create a 'Badge of Shame' for politicians who continue to accept money from the NRA.

'At this point, any politician on either side who is taking money from the NRA is responsible for events like this,' Kasky said. 'The NRA is fostering and promoting this gun culture in which people like Nikolas Cruz can gun down 17 innocent lives in our school.'

The protesters highlighted politicians such as Republican Florida Senator Rubio who has accepted $3,303,355 in campaign spending by the NRA, according to the LA Times. He claimed in the wake of the tragedy that gun control would not have stopped the shooting.

Gonzalez cries as she hugs her father Jose Gonzalez at the rally. The senior took cover on the floor of the high school auditorium as a shooter rampaged through the building on Wednesday

Seniors Delaney Tarr, 17, (left) and David Hogg, 18, (right) both spoke out at the rally in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday

The Florida Republican told the US Senate that it 'isn't fair or right to create this impression that somehow this attack happened because there is some law out there that we could have passed to prevent it. Most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterday's tragedy, but any of those in recent history,' Rubio added. He also made similar comments after the Pulse nightclub shooting.

The students are hoping to get a reaction from President Trump who is yet to endorse any gun control policies.

Instead, he has discussed the mental health of the shooter and even blamed the FBI's Russia investigation, tweeting: 'Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable.

They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!'

Gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, at is seen on a closed circuit television screen during a bond hearing in front of Broward Judge Kim Mollica at the Broward County Courthouse on Thursday

Students left the school on Wednesday with their arms on each other's shoulders during the active shooter situation

An injured female was transported from the school on a stretcher by first responders on Wednesday afternoon

Plans for the Washington march have emerged after thousands gathered on Saturday at the federal court house in Fort Lauderdale, some 25 miles from where 17 people were shot and killed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Yesterday, Gonzalez directly addressed Trump, reading out his tweet in response to the shooting and demanding to know how much the NRA had donated to his campaign.

During the presidential election, the gun owners' rights group pumped $31 million into ads supporting Trump and attacking his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton

Gonzalez also said adults who knew that the shooter was mentally ill should have done more to prevent him from having a weapon.

'We need to pay attention to the fact that this isn't just a mental health issue,' Gonzalez said at the rally. 'He wouldn't have been able to kill that many people with a knife.'

'They say a good guy stops a good guy with a gun - we call BS!' Gonzalez said. 'That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works - we call BS!'

It was a deeply emotional time for the many students who had lost their friends or family members in the attack

More than a thousand people attended a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida

Dressed in the school's colors, some held flowers while others wielded signs asking for action to fight school violence, including gun control

Another senior at the school, Delaney Tarr, told the crowd: 'My innocence, our innocence has been taken away from us. I am 17 but in a matter of days I have aged decades.'

Senior David Hogg, 18, also spoke out at the rally, saying: 'Thank you for your prayers and condolences but that is not enough.'

'We've been hearing the same thing again and again, and same thing continues to happen. We say stop it, stop it today,' Hogg said.

'No more guns, no more guns!' the crowd began chanting at points.

Other speakers demanded a ban on 'assault weapons'. Shooter Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle that he purchased legally a year ago to kill 17 on Wednesday.

Many speakers at the rally urged for change through the ballot box, suggesting that Democrats would offer solutions

Protesters hold signs at a rally for gun control at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Saturday

Heres the speech from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez at an anti-gun rally happening today in Fort Lauderdale https://t.co/CyfMnPDAvW // https://t.co/hgewZy4Cxf https://t.co/gssAmGczuH  Joshua Chavers (@JoshuaChavers) February 17, 2018

Students who survived the shooting at Stoneman have been speaking out loudly in the days since the massacre on Wednesday.

David Hogg urged 'policy makers take a look in the mirror and take some action' in an interview just one day after the shooting.

'Ideas are great, but without action, ideas stay idea and children die,' added the teen, whose articulate, 'common sense' response to the shooting has won him fans on Twitter.

Hogg was in his AP Environmental Science class when he heard a gunshot ring out at around 2.30pm.

The high schooler, a news director of the student TV station, said he initially suspected it could be a drill, so when the fire alarm rang he and his classmates dutifully filed out. That's when he saw a 'flood' of kids running in the opposite direction.

'So I started running with the herd and we're running we're actually running towards the freshman building,' he told CNN. 'And thank god a janitor stopped us.'

'That's not acceptable,' the very articulate 18-year-old said. 'That's not something that should happen in this country, especially when we're going to school. It's something that we really need to take a look at.

'Our policy makers and some people need to look in the mirror, and take some action.'

David Hogg (pictured with classmate Kelsey Friend) urged policy makers to take action in an inspirational interview outside his school earlier this week

Meanwhile, state lawmakers in Florida have just three weeks left in their annual 60-day session and normally are trying to wrap up work on a new state budget in the final days.

But the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland has revived an ongoing legislative debate about how to respond to gun violence.

Democrats want the Legislature to take up gun control bills that have languished again this year, but Republican legislative leaders are talking about boosting mental health programs in Florida's public schools as well as considering measures that would bolster safety on school campuses.

Governor Rick Scott has said he plans to talk to legislative leaders in the coming week about what could be done to make it harder for people who are mentally ill to purchase a gun.

Earlier in the weekend, placards inspired by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri were driven around Miami to put pressure on its Republican senator after the high school massacre this week in Florida.

The signs  reading 'Slaughtered in school', 'And still no gun control?', 'How come, Marco Rubio?'  echoed the Oscar-nominated film where a mother challenges authorities over justice for her daughter who was raped and murdered.

The protest was organised by activist group Avaaz, which highlighted the campaign donations Mr Rubio has accepted from gun advocates the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Over his legislative career, Rubio has been the beneficiary of $3,303,355 in campaign spending by the NRA, according to the LA Times.Hungary's Prime Minister has claimed that 'Christianity is Europe's last hope' after accusing politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris of causing the 'decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam'.

During his annual state of the nation speech, Viktor Orban said his government will oppose efforts by the United Nations or the European Union to 'increase migration' around the world.

In a passionate speech, he claimed that Islam would soon 'knock on Central Europe's door' from both the west and the south.

During his annual state of the nation speech, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban said that 'Christianity is Europe's last hope'

Orban, who is seeking a third consecutive term in April's elections, called for a global alliance against migration.

In his speech, he insisted that Western Europe is being overtaken by Muslims, before claiming that 'born Germans are being forced back from most large German cities, as migrants always occupy big cities first.'

He made the claims as his right-wing populist Fidesz party began campaigning for an April 8 election in which it is expected to win a third consecutive landslide victory.

He is popular in Hungary but is increasingly at odds with mainstream European Union politicians.

Orban has seemingly thrived on controversy, including repeated clashes with Brussels.

Those conflicts are mostly centred on migration, since people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa flooded into Europe in 2015.

They have recently intensified as the elections approach, with Orban posting himself as a saviour of Europe's Christian nations.

The Hungarian PM, who is seeking a third consecutive term, also called on a global alliance against migration

Orban told an audience at the Royal Castle in Budapest: 'Christianity is Europe's last hope. Our worst nightmares can come true. The West falls as it fails to see Europe being overrun.'

Domestically, Orban is widely credited for reversing an economic slump in Hungary and controlling its public finances, culminating in a return to investment-grade for its debt, which was cut to 'junk' during the 2008 global economic crisis.

To achieve that and hold onto power the prime minister, 54, has used methods that critics have called authoritarian, and picked fights with EU partners, especially in the West.

Eastern leaders, most notably in Poland, have followed his lead.

But migration is now the dominant theme of his agenda.

Orban said on Sunday that Europe faces a divide between nations of the East and the West, which he called an 'immigrant zone, a mixed population world that heads in a direction different from ours'.

He went on to claim that the West wants eastern Europe to follow its lead, which could trigger an increasingly vicious struggle.

'Absurd as it may sound the danger we face comes from the West, from politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris,' Orban said to loud applause. 'Of course we will fight, and use ever stronger legal tools. The first is our 'Stop Soros' law.'

The politician also targeted long-time critic George Soros and claimed that supporters of more migration are losing the fight

Orban has for years targeted Hungarian-born U.S. financier George Soros, whose philanthropy aims to bolster liberal and open-border values.

The Hungarian leader has advocated 'ethnic homogeneity' and compared Soros, a Jew, to a puppet master unleashing immigration onto Europe to undermine its cultural and economic integrity.

At the peak of the migrant crisis, he ordered a double razor wire fence to be built to keep people out of Hungary.

Orban also said the Hungarian opposition had failed to heed the call of history when it opposed his toughness on migrants.

Voters have responded favourably and Orban is a clear leader of all polls.

Orban has conflated the issue of immigration with the image of Soros, 87, whose name was used in a tough anti-migrant bill sent to Parliament on Wednesday.

Soros, for his part, compared Orban unfavourably to both the Nazis and the Communists, saying his rule evoked dark tones from the 1930's, when Hungary was allied with Nazi Germany.

But Orban remains committed to his policy, claiming that Soros and supporters of migration are losing the fight.

He said: 'Soros has antagonised not only us but also England, President Trump and Israel too. Everywhere he wants to get migration accepted. It won't work. We are not alone and we will fight together and we will succeed.'

In Europe, he cited Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland as allies.

He said a victory for Silvio Berlusconi's party in Italy's March 4 election would strengthen the nationalist fold.

'We don't think the fight is hopeless, on the contrary, we are winning,' Orban said. 'The V4 is firm, Croatia has come around, Austria has turned in the patriotic direction, and in Bavaria the CSU has created a resistance.'A Pablo Picasso print worth as much as $50,000 has been taken from a Wisconsin art gallery, according to its owner.

The valuable original print, which is signed by the legendary Spanish painter, was stolen from the DeLind Fine Art Appraisals in downtown Milwaukee on Friday, Fox6 reported.

Appraiser Bill DeLind said his business partner noticed the print was gone at about 2pm. They think the thief could have come through the unlocked doors unnoticed while they were upstairs.

Scroll down for video

A Pablo Picasso print worth as much as $50,000 was taken from a gallery in downtown Milwaukee on Friday. The Spanish painter's signature is on the lower right corner

The late Spanish painter Pablo Picasso only made 30 of the prints which are worth an estimated $35,000 to $50,000

DeLind added that there are no security cameras in the gallery but he hopes cameras across the street captured the thief.

The 1949 artwork is worth an estimated $35,000 to $50,000, and there are only 29 others like it in the world - Picasso only made 30 and signed each of them with green crayon on the lower right corner.

Aside from reporting the incident to police, DeLind reached out to art galleries and museums nearby in case they come across the Picasso.

'Some of what went through my mind couldn't be repeated on television,' he told Fox6.

Appraiser Bill DeLind said his business partner noticed the print was gone from the gallery (pictured) at about 2pm

DeLind said he just wants the artwork back and the thief will be forgiven if he returns it

'But it was a shock and a big disappointment...I think most people are genuinely good and people don't just steal things. So it's always a disappointment.'

But DeLind doesn't think whoever took the print knows how much it's worth, as they never display how much the gallery's art is worth, or even who the artists behind it are.

'So somebody maybe just got lucky,' said DeLind.

The appraiser also had a message for the 'lucky' thief: 'First of all, bring [the print] back.

'I'm not sure I'm in a position to negotiate, you'll be forgiven or no harm will come, but I will say, I want the artwork back.'A mother has shared a graphic picture of her eight-year-old daughter's injuries after she was mauled by a dog in an effort to warn other parents about the canine.

Kerry Garforth's daughter Mia was attacked by the Husky-type dog, named Zeus, in the village of Roberttown, near Leeds, West Yorkshire.

The little girl needed nine stitches for the wounds on her face and is now nervous around dogs.

The mother of two said: 'I want to make everyone aware of a dog that gets walked round Roberttown/Norristhorpe, it's a Husky and is walked by a man in his mid-30s.

'This dog bit my daughter in the face for which she needed nine stitches.'

Kerry Garforth's eight-year-old daughter Mia (pictured) was attacked by a dog in Roberttown, near Leeds, West Yorkshire. She needed nine stitches after being mauled

The attack happened in June last year when Mia was seven but Ms Garforth, 33, is coming forward now because she still sees the dog walking around the village and she fears it could be a danger to other children.

Ms Garforth said she asked an old school friend to look after Mia while she went for a hospital appointment and went back to pick up her daughter.

She said: 'I was sitting on the sofa chatting to my friend and Mia was with her son having some tea. Suddenly I heard Mia screaming. The dog had bitten her after trying to take some food from her plate. She was stood there shaking.

'We took her to Dewsbury Hospital but she was transferred to Pinderfields where she had about eight to nine injections and the wounds cleaned out with salt water.

'My daughter's father, Steve Crook, reported it to the police but when they came to see me about three to four days later I must admit I down-played it as she and her partner were friends and I didn't want to get them into trouble.'

However her friendship with her old friend has since disintegrated and she says she feels guilty about not acting sooner.

Ms Garforth, 33, is coming forward now because she still sees the dog (pictured) walking around the village and she fears it could be a danger to other children

She said: 'He continues to walk past my house with the dog which is not only very upsetting for my daughter but I have to live with the guilt of what that dog did because I was at their house when it bit her.

'The dog should never have been left alone with the children and I have to live with it, I think it's very unfair I'm getting reminded by seeing the dog myself and seeing my daughter upset. Yes, it's a public road but there's absolutely no need for him to walk past my house.

'Roberttown is a village full of children and I just want to warn anyone that has children playing out to be cautious.

'I'm not saying the dog will do anything but considering the circumstances I'm now making it known to you all.'

She added: 'I can't sleep and I worry about Mia playing out. I don't feel like I have been loyal to my daughter. This dog is walking around without a muzzle on either.

'But at least now my conscience is clear.'

Former Kirklees mayor Martyn Bolt, and a Kirklees councillor for Mirfield, said he was 'horrified' by the picture of Mia's face.

He said: 'I would be interested to know what steps the police have taken and I think where a child has been bitten there should be an investigation and Kirklees Council should be involved in that.'Advertisement

A team of six Israeli researchers today ended a four-day Mars habitat experiment in Israel's Negev desert where they simulated living conditions on the Red Planet, Israel's Science and Technology Ministry said.

The experiment was held near the isolated Israeli township of Mitzpe Ramon, whose surroundings resemble the Martian environment in its geology, aridity, appearance and desolation, according to the ministry.

Participants were investigating various fields relevant to a future Mars mission, including satellite communications, the psychological effects of isolation, radiation measurements and searching for life signs in soil.

Guy Ron, a nuclear physics professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the project was not only intended to look for new approaches in designing a future mission to the Red Planet, but to increase public interest.

He said: 'D-Mars is half about the research, and the other half is about the outreach. A major part of this project is getting public interest and getting students interested in space.'

The 'D-Mars' project was being held in Israel for the first time in cooperation with the Israel Space Agency. It is one of a number of Mars simulation projects taking place worldwide.

Researchers today ended a four-day Mars habitat experiment in Israel's Negev desert where they simulated living conditions on the Red Planet, Israel's Science and Technology Ministry said

The D-MARS project involved investigating various fields relevant to a future Mars mission, including satellite communications, the psychological effects of isolation, radiation measurements and searching for life signs in soil

Israeli analog astronauts walk past solar panels as they start their mission on the D-MARS Project in near an Israeli township

The experiment was held near the isolated Israeli township of Mitzpe Ramon, whose surroundings resemble the Martian environment

Israeli analog astronauts start their mission on the D-MARS Project in cooperation with the Israel Space Agency, which simulates life on Mars by performing several scientific experiments and staying in the D-MARS (Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station)

The 'D-MARS' project was being held in Israel for the first time in cooperation with the Israel Space Agency, and is one of a number of Mars simulation projects taking place worldwide

Guy Ron, a nuclear physics professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the project was not only intended to look for new approaches in designing a future mission to the Red Planet, but to increase public interest

One of the Israeli researchers working on the mission waits as his equipment is adjusted by a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit

Two of the Israeli scientists clasp hands in the desert surroundings near to the Israeli township of Mitzpe Ramon

Israeli researchers in the project step out into the Israeli Negev desert was chosen for its similarities to Mars

There are several Mars simulation experiments or research projects taking place worldwide, but the one in the Negev Desert ended today

Scientists pictured dressed in their equipment in the Negev desert, which has similar properties to the Red Planet

Nearby Israeli township Mitzpe Ramon's surroundings resemble the Martian environment in its geology, aridity, appearance and desolation, the ministry said

'D-Mars is half about the research, and the other half is about the outreach': One researcher explained that the experiment was about igniting interest in MarsAmelia Carroll is nearly five and quite the live wire, quick with a giggle and a Disney song, and quicker still on her scooter. She loves Taylor Swift and One Direction and has levels of energy her parents can't keep up with.

'She was up at 4.30 this morning, sitting on top of Mike, going 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy',' laughs her mum Lucy.

That she is like this at all, they say, is nothing short of a miracle. For like her older brother Ollie, Amelia suffers from a rare degenerative condition called Batten Disease, which is cruel and uncompromising, gradually robbing children of their sight and their ability to walk, talk and eat.

If nature had been left to take its course, say her parents, Amelia would be in a wheelchair by now, unable to speak, never mind sing.

She would most likely be dead by the time she was 12 years old.

Lucy and Mike Carroll from Cheshire are convinced their children Amelia and Ollie will have a better chance of surviving Battens Disease with a new drug called Brineura, but it's going to cost the NHS over 1million

That their daughter is the way she is, they insist, is the clearest evidence anyone should need that the drugs  eye-wateringly expensive drugs which cost 550,000 a year per child  work.

So why, then, have the family just received the news that this 'miracle' treatment, which is possibly Amelia's only hope of reaching adulthood, may now be withdrawn?

Last week, the National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence (NICE) issued draft guidelines concluding that Brineura  an enzyme treatment made by drugs company Biomarin  is not a cost-effective treatment option for NHS patients.

While the committee agreed that it is an effective short-term treatment, it said the 'absence of long-term evidence' led it to conclude that providing the drug  which would cost over 1million a year for Amelia and Ollie  was 'not a good use of NHS resources'.

Today, the Carroll family are devastated, angry and incredulous at this news. Or, as Lucy puts it: 'The money men have said no.'

'They aren't saying that it doesn't work  that's what makes me so furious,' she says. They are just saying that we don't know if it will keep working.

'But these are children. There has only been a three-year clinical trial so far. There can't be long-term evidence until it is too late for them all.

'Our argument is that Amelia herself will be all the evidence they need. I want to take her into the room where they make these decisions and say: 'Look! Does she look like a terminally ill child to you?' I want to show them what a miracle these drugs have been.'

Retired NHS surgeon: Sorry, the evidence isn't strong enough By J. Meirion Thomas, retired NHS consultant surgeon While I have the most profound sympathy with the agony that these families are enduring, I believe NICE has made the right move in deciding that the new American drug Brineura should not be available on the NHS. Policies like this are always tough, but it is far too simplistic to characterise such a decision as a triumph for cold-hearted accountancy. In truth, NICE had to look beyond costs and consider two other crucial factors. The first is the effectiveness of the drug, for which there is, so far, little hard evidence, given how limited the studies have been. The second is the nature of how the drug is administered, which carries the risk of both greater suffering and patient morbidity. In practice, justifiable parental emotions have to be weighed against clinical realities. During a 30-year career as a cancer surgeon, I have seen how so many drugs, introduced with an initial fanfare, have failed to live up to expectations. Brineura could be another such case. Sadly, even based on a tiny sample in its trials, the results of Brineura have not been especially promising. Pictured: J. Meirion Thomas, retired NHS consultant surgeon Even its most enthusiastic advocates do not claim Brineura is any kind of cure for the disease. As far as I understand, the only benefit is a possible slower decline in terms of walking ability. The challenging mode of delivery also gives cause for caution. It has to be administered directly into the ventricles (central cavities) of the brain and initially requires major surgery to drill holes in the skull and then to insert the necessary tubes, followed by weekly injections through these devices. It involves dangers not only from the operation but from infections. If I were a parent of a child with Batten, I would not be pushing for this invasive treatment Advertisement

When the Carrolls went public about their fight to keep their children alive  a fight that raises uncomfortable questions about what treatments the NHS can or should afford  the focus was on seven-year-old Ollie, Amelia's big brother, for whom the disease was much more advanced.

Both Lucy and her husband Mike, 33, are carriers of Batten Disease but discovered this only in 2015, when doctors investigated Ollie's condition.

Today, the family home in Poynton, Cheshire, is full of the equipment Ollie needs  his wheelchair, hoists to get him in and out of the bath.

He can no longer talk, and while he can manage the odd piece of chicken or toast, his favourite shepherd's pie has to be blended so that he can be fed by tube.

He's spent much of his young life in and out of hospital  winning some very high-profile admirers on the way.

Aged six, he was hugged by Prince Harry when the royal visited him at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Ditto when he met his musical hero Ed Sheeran.

But two years ago, when doctors broke the devastating news that Amelia was also a sufferer, this family grabbed a lifeline.

Aware of a medical trial for a potentially transformative enzyme drug treatment, they travelled to Paris to beg a pharmaceutical company to include their children in it.

The odds were against them (the trial had been closed in December 2014, just months before Ollie was diagnosed), but they successfully argued for an extension, not just for their children but for three other British sufferers.

Since 2016, brother and sister have travelled to London's Great Ormond Street every two weeks to have the gruelling treatment, which involves an overnight stay while they are hooked to drips.

For the first six months, the Carrolls paid for their own accommodation but now stay in the charity-funded Patient Hotel. Within weeks, the family began to see huge differences.

Senior pharmacology researcher: Greedy drug giants are the real villains By Dr Andrew Hill, senior research fellow in pharmacology and therapeutics at Liverpool University No one whos read about Ollie and his sister Amelia can fail to have been moved by their story. When anyone with a serious disease cant get access to the medicine they need, emotions run high. But its not the NHS that should be under the spotlight here, its the pharmaceutical industry. The company that makes the drug that Ollie and Amelia need wants to charge the NHS 550,000 per year to treat each patient. But herein lies the rub: 550,000 is not what the drug will actually cost to manufacture. Pharmaceutical companies are profit-making organisations: many make vast profits by selling medicines for many times what they cost to manufacture. For instance, a course of treatment to cure hepatitis C costs 40 to make, but its then sold to the NHS for up to 20,000. A years treatment with pomalidomide for a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma costs under 300 to make, but is then sold to the NHS for 116,000 per year. Pictured: Dr Andrew Hill, senior research fellow in pharmacology and therapeutics at Liverpool University Drug companies typically claim that the price they charge reflects the costs of that drugs research and development  yet they often spend far more on marketing them than on developing them. Its telling that pharmaceutical companies have higher average profit margins than car makers, oil and gas and media companies, according to a report in 2014. Many of the largest pharmaceutical companies are so rich that they have tens of billions of pounds diverted to offshore accounts in countries such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, avoiding billions in taxes. Companies should be told what prices are affordable to the NHS, and then accept them. If the price of their medicine was lowered to below the 100,000 threshold set by the NHS to treat rare diseases, then Ollie and his sister could get the medicines they deserve. Advertisement

'With Ollie, the downward slide had been so fast  scarily so,' says Mike. 'He lost his speech within a few months.

'He was having seizures constantly. But once he was on this drug, his condition stabilised. The seizures stopped and he didn't get any worse.'

More miraculous still, they argue, was how Amelia responded. They had been told to expect her to lose her eyesight, hearing and mobility, all with terrifying haste, but this hasn't happened.

She runs into class each morning, and while her brother had lost his speech by the time he was this age, Amelia is not only retaining her vocabulary but building on it.

'The doctors tell us that if this continues, there is no reason why Amelia can't have a normal life,' says Lucy.

'She could live to 30, 40, even 60. She's the youngest child in the country with this disease. That should give hope to so many people.'

But in light of the NICE ruling, hopes for Ollie and Amelia are now in tatters.

'To us, it is not just cruel but inhumane to stop the treatment now. They have given us hope, then snatched it away,' says Mike.

'Yes, it is a lot of money, we appreciate that. But it is effective use of that money. It's giving our children a life.

'We know that the NHS isn't a bottomless pit, but if you want to start talking about controversial things they DO fund, then we could be here a long time.

'The NHS pays for heroin addicts to get their fix. How much does that cost? What about obesity related treatments? A lot of these things are self-inflicted.

'Our children didn't do anything to deserve this, and what this decision will do is hand them, and children like them, a death sentence.'

The answer to Mike's question is that the NHS spends an estimated 6 billion a year treating obesity, while around 3.6 billion is spent treating drug addicts.

The Carrolls had never even heard of Batten Disease, which affects just one to six babies each year, before the children were diagnosed in 2015.

There are different strains, but the one Ollie and Amelia have would generally claim a child's life between the ages of 10 and 12.

Their two eldest sons, Danny, now 10, and Micky, nine, were born healthy but when Ollie was born, alarm bells soon began to ring.

At six months he was diagnosed with asthma. By his second birthday his parents had noticed a speech delay and that he was becoming increasingly clumsy. In September 2014, he had his first seizure while in the bath.

Mike, who performed mouth-to-mouth on his son, remembers it as one of the 'scariest moments of my life'.

From then on, Ollie started to have weekly seizures but still the family didn't suspect that he was suffering from anything other than a form of epilepsy.

'On the day we got word to go in to see the doctors, they told us to bring Ollie too. I thought there was no way it would be anything serious if they wanted him there  but it was.'

Doctors gave them the brutal news that their son had Batten Disease and there was no cure.

'They told us we should go home and enjoy him,' says Lucy. 'We were in complete shock.

'We had to phone Mike's dad to come and collect us because neither of us was in a fit state to drive.

Within months, however, tests on all the family would pile on the agony. Although the eldest two boys were found to be free of the disease, Amelia, who was just two at the time and had no symptoms, tested positive.

Even worse was the discovery that Amelia, who was two at the time and had no symptoms, already had the disease.

In that year before the 'lifeline' of the enzyme treatment was available, Ollie's decline was rapid and terrifying.

'We were losing him in front of our eyes,' recalls Lucy. 'It is like a kind of grieving. It's quite hard to watch videos of him now of when he was running around, chatting away.'

But that decline was abruptly halted with the treatment.

While the hospital visits are exhausting and invasive  the drug is administered via a drip directly into the brain  Lucy and Mike believe they are a small price to pay for keeping their children alive.

The two elder boys go to their grandmother's while they take Amelia and Ollie to London and stay overnight.

It is the return of the seizures that they are most scared of.

'It's how most of the children die,' says Mike. 'They don't come out the other side.'

As for Amelia, apart from a slight speech delay she is a normal nearly five-year-old. Doctors had warned it was likely she'd lose her sight because they didn't think the drug she is receiving could cross the blood brain barrier with regard to eyesight. So far that isn't the case.

With Ollie, the situation is more complex but his parents insist his life is absolutely worth living. 'He can't talk or walk and he will always need help, but he still goes to a mainstream school,' says Mike. 'I take him swimming twice a week. He's still got so much to offer.'

The final NICE decision regarding the Carroll children will be made next month after a public consultation.

For now, at least, the drug company has agreed to keep treating both children, but the family is haunted by the possibility that this lifeline might be taken away at any moment.

They've sat late into the night with a pen and notepad, working out how much they could afford if the worst comes to the worst. The answer is bleak.

'Of course, we'd sell the house and the car and everything really, but it would still be a drop in the ocean,' says Lucy.

For now, both she and Mike are clinging to the idea of the happy final chapter relayed by Amelia herself in years to come.

'I hope that you will be able to interview her in 20 or 30 years' time and she will be able to tell you herself what the NHS did for her,' she says.

'I hope she will be able to say 'Thank you' herself.'A man who was dragged unconscious from the surf by his girlfriend has died on the NSW mid-north coast.

Emergency services were called to a boat ramp at Hat Head, east of Kempsey after a 24-year-old man collapsed while swimming shortly after 4pm on Sunday.

Members of the public began CPR until paramedics arrived, but the man, who is believed to be from Kempsey, died at the scene.

A man, 24, has died after being pulled unconscious from the water on the NSW mid-north coast

A NSW Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the man was swimming and then collapsed.

The girlfriend has not given permission to provide the public with his name.

The police is preparing a report for the Coroner into the 24-year-old man's death.Three hotel staff have been rushed to hospital after eating chocolate left behind by guests.

The trio ended up in hospital after gorging on the cannabis-infused chocolate and suffering a number of worrying symptoms.

A woman in her 40s arrived at a Sydney emergency department hours after eating just one square of chocolate and suffering vertigo and vomiting, the Herald Sun reported.

The trio ended up in hospital after gorging on the cannabis-infused chocolate and suffering a number of worrying symptoms (stock image)

Doctors were worried she may have had a stroke, but test came back normal and she was discharged the following day.

Results from her drug test tested positive for cannabinoids.

A second woman ate four squares of chocolate was mute and drowsy. It took her a full day to make a neurological recovery.

The third patient ate one square and was nauseous and unsteady on her feet.

The chocolate was taken to a hospital lab and following tests was identified as cannabis-infused from the US.Theresa May today slammed the 'horrific' behaviour of staff at Oxfam after a report revealed three men caught up in the Haiti scandal physically threatened witnesses.

The Prime Minister has demanded that charities spell out to ministers exactly what they are doing to protect the people they work with in the wake of the controversy.

Her tough words come after it emerged that Oxfam's 2011 investigation into the Haiti sex scandal concluded charities should be warned about 'problem staff'.

But the charity failed to act on the advice and several men accused of abuse were allowed to take up future posts in the aid sector.

Speaking to reporters on a school visit in London today, the PM said: 'In relation to the Oxfam issue, the behaviour that we've now discovered was horrific.'

Theresa May (pictured on a visit to a school in London today) slammed the 'horrific' behaviour of staff at Oxfam after a report revealed three men caught up in the Haiti scandal physically threatened witnesses.

Oxfam has been accused of a fresh cover-up after it finally released a report into the Haiti sex scandal but redacted the names of the aid workers involved, except former director in Haiti, Roland Van Hauwermeiren (pictured)

She added: 'It was far below the standards that we expect for the charities and the NGOs that we're working with.

Oxfam in numbers: How much money does the scandal-hit charity make each year and how is it spent? The charity's annual review provides a breakdown of income and spending for Oxfam GB each year. Here are the headline figures from the 2016/17 report. 408.6 million Oxfam's total income in 2016/17. The Government and public authorities provided 43% of the total, at 176 million, while donations and legacies made up the second largest proportion of the charity's income at 108 million. 303.5 million The amount Oxfam spent on charitable activities in 2016/17. 41% The percentage of Oxfam's funds that went on humanitarian spending in the last financial year, which the charity describes as saving and rebuilding lives after disasters. Development, described as helping 'communities and families lift themselves out of poverty', made up 38% of spending. 21% The remaining 21% was spent on support costs (10%), fundraising (8%) and campaigning and advocacy (3%). 31 The number of worldwide emergencies the charity responded to in 2016/17. 8.6 million The number of people hit by conflict and natural disaster for whom the charity provided emergency support during the last financial year. 5,083 The number of staff employed by Oxfam as of March 31 last year. 130,000 to 139,000 One member of staff earned between 130,000 and 139,000 in the year to March 31 2017, the highest bracket available. The figure could be made up of a number of things including salary, taxable benefits and other allowances; for example, the charity pays towards the cost of education for up to three children where suitable free schooling is not available. Advertisement

'And I understand there have been further revelations today which show that actually there was physical intimidation of witnesses.

'This is absolutely horrific.

This is exactly the problem that we see which means that all too often people don't feel able to come forward to report what has happened to them, the behaviour that they've been on the receiving end of.'

She added: 'I think what is important from a government point of view in dealing with these charities is we are demanding that these charities come forward in very short order and show us what their safeguarding, their protection arrangements are.

'We will not work with anybody who does not meet the high standards that we set and we believe are important.'

Her words, made on a visit to a school in west London this morning, reveals that the charity treated Mr van Hauwermeiren leniently to protect its reputation.

Last week, Mr van Hauwermeiren denied ever using prostitutes in Haiti.

But the report alleges that when an Oxfam team was sent to Haiti to investigate, Mr van Hauwermeiren confirmed that he had used prostitutes at the residence procured for him by the charity.

Oxfam allowed him to resign in a 'phased and dignified exit' if he agreed to help with the investigation. He left within a month.

The charity, which has nearly 10,000 staff working across more than 90 countries, released a redacted version of the report.

Oxfam said that it wanted to be 'as transparent as possible' about the decisions it made.

The names of the ten people who were investigated were redacted apart from that of Oxfam's director in Haiti, Roland van Hauwermeiren.

The charity is set to present the original, unedited report to the Haiti government on Monday and apologise for 'mistakes,

But MPs accused the organisation of hiding the truth, and urged it to end a crisis that has left its reputation in tatters.

The scandal only came to light ten days ago when a newspaper revealed details from the original investigation.

These included allegations that staff hosted parties with prostitutes wearing Oxfam T-shirts.

The investigation concluded that charities should be warned about 'problem staff'  only for several accused of abuse to successfully take up new posts in the aid sector.

Mr van Hauwermeiren became a senior figure in Bangladesh at Action Against Hunger, which claims Oxfam made no mention of his alleged conduct in 2011.

One former staff member was employed by Oxfam as a consultant in Ethiopia just months after being sacked, a move the charity said last week was a 'serious error'.

The 2011 report said there was 'more needed' to be done to stop 'problem staff' working for other charities

Roland Van Hauwermeiren was accused of using prostitutes in Haiti and Mikelange Gabo (pictured) said he had sex with her

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: 'Transparency is always the best disinfectant, and this is not transparency.

Oxfam have lost the public's trust, and actions such as this will not help to restore it.'

Among the alleged crimes uncovered by the charity's investigation were the use of pornography and the bullying and intimidation of witnesses to misconduct.

The charges against those involved also included fraud, negligence and nepotism. One man was accused of faking his CV.

When an initial report was leaked, three suspects were allegedly 'physically threatening and intimidating' towards a witness named in the document.

The report will put further pressure on Oxfam boss Mark Goldring, who was described as 'arrogant' yesterday by Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson.

The charity has already faced claims that it buried the report in 2011, in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake

She became the most senior politician yet to call for him to step down, after he said it was not as if aid workers had 'murdered babies in their cots'.

He also claimed that media reports were motivated by an 'anti-aid agenda' and critics were 'gunning' for the charity.

Miss Davidson said exploiting disaster victims represented 'the lowest circle of Hell'.

Last week, International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said new Government funding for Oxfam had been stopped until its standards improved.

It received around 30million from the Government last year.

Donors are reported to be deserting the charity, while several celebrity patrons have either distanced themselves from the charity or withdrawn support.Labour MPs were paid up to 10,000 to meet Eastern Bloc agents during the Cold War, an ex-spy Jan Sarkocy (pictured) claimed

Labour MPs were paid up to 10,000 to meet Eastern Bloc agents during the Cold War, an ex-spy claimed last night.

Jan Sarkocy said at least 15 senior Labour figures had shared information with him in the late 1980s. Some pocketed between 1,000 and 10,000 per meeting but still wanted more, he alleged.

The former Czech spy, who met Jeremy Corbyn at the time, claimed the MPs wanted big bucks for giving us help.

His latest comments prompted calls for an official probe into the allegations.

Mr Corbyn vehemently denies Mr Sarkocys claim he was a paid informant of the Czech secret police.

It was also alleged that John McDonnell had met a KGB agent several times and Ken Livingstone had met representatives of the Czech regime, although there is no suggestion that either of these were paid.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood wrote on Twitter: Corbyn (and others) meetings with the StB (the repressive Czechoslovak secret police & intelligence service) at the height of the Cold War ... raises serious questions about his loyalty to Britain that should be investigated.

The Mail understands MPs are urging the Commons foreign affairs committee to consider the claims in its probe into the influence of foreign powers on elections.

Mr Sarkocy, 64, who was not involved in organising or delivering the payments, described the MPs as great sources to himself or colleagues in the KGB.

Speaking from his home in Bratislava, he has alleged that Mr Corbyn shared good information that we could use with the Communist Czechoslovak regime.

The Labour figures have hit back at the claims, branding them absurd, ridiculous and a tissue of lies  and the party has dismissed Mr Sarkocy as a fantasist.

The row began with claims by Mr Sarkocy in classified documents released by the Czech government that he had met Mr Corbyn three times.

It has piled pressure on the Labour leader over his open attitude towards the then hostile Soviet bloc.

Mr Sarkocy worked for the Statni Bezpecnost (StB) at Czechoslovakias London embassy under the identity of a diplomat called Lieutenant Jan Dymic.

He was in Britain from 1986 to 1989 before being expelled and says there was no question the Labour figures knew he was a spy.

The former Czech spy, who met Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) at the time, claimed the MPs wanted big bucks for giving us help

It was claimed official records show only part of the picture and that he met Mr Corbyn  codenamed Agent Cob  more than ten times.

Mr Corbyn admits meeting Mr Sarkocy, but strenuously denies supplying information to a foreign power.

Yesterday an online petition was launched calling for the Labour leader to make public any files showing his link to Communist spy agencies.

More than 2,500 people had signed it last night.

It said Mr Corbyn has a duty to provide clarity over who he met, what information he handed over, and how deep the relationship was.

Mr Sarkocy said the Islington North MP was a very smart and polite guy and was a communist from the inside, following in the footsteps of his parents.

Yesterday, Mr McDonnell said the accusations against him were ludicrous and lies. Mr Livingstone said he had no recollection of meeting anyone from the Czech embassy and said Mr Sarkocys claims were a tissue of lies.

Tom Watson, Labour deputy leader, attacked the Press, saying the claims were not worth the paper theyre printed on.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said the accusations were rubbish, telling ITVs Peston on Sunday: This is what the Tories were chucking at us last year, it got them nowhere.Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta  whose emails were hacked and leaked during the 2016 campaign  called out President Trump Sunday for not doing more to punish the Russians for their interference or prep the nation for when the Kremlin tries to do it again.

'If this is information warfare, then I think he's the first draft-dodger in the war,' Podesta claimed of Trump on Face the Nation.

Asked about Trump's motivations, Podesta said that Trump's psyche is 'complicated,' but added that 'he certainly can't accept that this activity may have helped him, and I think he just constantly tries to move the ball away.'

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Hillary Clinton's former campaign chairman John Podesta (pictured) called President Trump a 'draft-dodger' for not doing more to combat the Russian threat of 'information warfare'

CBS News' Nancy Cordes (right) asked John Podesta (left) if he thought Russian interference actually swung the election to President Trump. Podesta said he thought it had some effect

'Including what was, I think, really a despicable tweet about the fact that he's blaming the FBI for investigating the Russia investigation and somehow relating that to the tragic killings in Florida,' Podesta continued.

Trump, during a Twitter rant on Saturday, had suggested the FBI had been spending too much time investigating Russian collusion, and that's why they mishandled the tip about shooting subject Nikolas Cruz.

'Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter,' Trump wrote. 'This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion.'

Podesta said Trump 'has failed in carrying out his duty as president of the United States, which is to protect our democracy.'

'I mean, he has done nothing but tried to undermine the Mueller investigation, he hasn't implemented the sanctions that he  was passed by the Congress and that he signed in reaction to the, to the activities in the 2016 campaign,' Podesta said.

'We learned this week, he's ordered no effort to try to get the intelligence community to get together to try to prevent further activities in the 2018 election,' Podesta said.

CBS' Nancy Cordes also wanted to know if Podesta thought Russia's meddling actually had an impact on the vote.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein took great pains to mention Friday, as he handed down 13 indictments to Russian nationals as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe, that Russian tampering did not swing the election.

Podesta pointed out that those indictments just applied to Russia's disinformation social media campaign, and didn't even touch the hacking of emails, like the ones from Podesta's account.

'We won the popular vote by there millions votes, they were pushing votes  just to give one example  to Jill Stein. Her vote in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin was greater than the gap between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in those states,' Podesta noted.

'So you can't prove that it did effect the outcome, but it certainly seems likely that it had some impact,' the Clinton campaign official said.She spent her Valentine's Day with musician beau Danny Fujikawa in Beverly Hills.

But on Saturday, Kate Hudson was spotted arriving at the Sydney Airport in Australia with the hunky rock star.

The 38-year-old actress dressed appropriately for the warm weather as she donned a beautiful patterned maxi dress.

They have arrived! On Saturday, Kate Hudson was spotted arriving at the Sydney Airport in Australia with the hunky rock star

Kate paired her casual flowing summer dress with black and white slides.

The How To Lose A Guy In 10 Day star accessorized her look with a long necklace and aviator sunglasses.

Kate's boyfriend - founder of Lightwave Records and former guitarist for the band Chief - sported a white T-shirt, a plaid button-up shirt, and black jeans.

Danny was the perfect gentleman as he held Kate's bags while walking through the airport terminal.

Looking fly! The 38-year-old actress dressed appropriately for the warm weather as she donned a beautiful patterned maxi dress

Pretty in plaids! Hudson rocked a bold and bright ensemble

Keeping it casual! Kate paired her casual flowing summer dress with black and white slides

Things are clearly still going strong between Kate and the NYU drop-out, whom she first met in 2002 through his stepsisters Erin & Sara Foster.

Earlier, Hudson - who boasts 8.5M social media followers - posted a PDA-filled ski snap of the couple kissing atop an Aspen mountain captioned: 'My valentine!'

Their street sighting came a week after the Marshall actress referred to the pair as 'The Fujikawa's' despite calling recent engagement and secret wedding rumors 'nonsense' to WWD on January 24.

The Pretty Fun author has a 14-year-old son Ryder with her ex-husband, Black Crows frontman Chris Robinson; as well as a six-year-old son Bingham with ex-fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy.

The perfect suitor: Things are clearly still going strong between Kate and the NYU drop-out, whom she first met in 2002 through his stepsisters Erin & Sara Foster

Stepping out: The How To Lose A Guy In 10 Day star accessorized her look with a long necklace and aviator sunglassesShe's the English rose who has carved out a successful Hollywood career for herself.

And Karen Gillan looked every inch the screen siren as she attended the BAFTA nominees party at Kensington Palace in London on Saturday.

Ensuring all eyes would be on her for the event, the 30-year-old actress was a vision of beauty in a stunning ballgown.

Movie star: Karen Gillan looked every inch the screen siren as she attended the BAFTA nominees party at Kensington Palace in London on Saturday

Karen oozed glamour in a sequinned black gown with a plunging neckline that flared out into a fishtail tulle hemline.

Flashing a hint of leg, Karen boosted her petite frame with a pair of black satin court shoes that were adorned with a large bejeweled buckle.

The Doctor Who star finished off the look by wearing her glossy auburn locks in loose waves that framed her pretty features.

Posing up a storm: Ensuring all eyes would be on her for the event, the 30-year-old actress was a vision of beauty in a stunning ballgown

Dressed to impress: Karen oozed glamour in a sequinned black gown with a plunging neckline that flared out into a fishtail tulle hemline

Whilst the Scottish star first found fame playing the companion Amy Pond in British series Doctor Who, it is her latest role that scored her international fame.

The radiant redhead recently took the lead female role in the remake of the classic Jumanji film, joining Nick Jonas, Kevin Hart and Jack Black.

The actress portrayed alter-ego Ruby Roundhouse, the tough-as-nails female avatar in the Jumanji game.

Leggy lady! Flashing a hint of leg, Karen boosted her petite frame with a pair of black satin court shoes that were adorned with a large bejeweled buckle

Walk this way: Karen looked delighted as he prepared to enter the party

Appearing on This Morning, Karen - who was the 11th companion to Matt Smith's Doctor Who from 2011 TO 2013 - revealed that the iconic BBC sci-fi show helped her career excel in the US.

Speaking to show hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, she said: 'Yeah, it was a launch pad and I feel like I was getting roles for things because the directors who were Doctor Who fans.'

And while the host asked whether she would have liked to be the first female Doctor Who, Karen couldn't help but gush over Jodie Whitaker and how she is perfect for the role.

She added: 'No it should be Jodie. She's going to be incredible. I think it's going to be amazing, of course a woman can do it, the role isn't bound by genders. I think she'll be fantastic.'

Radiant redhead: The Doctor Who star finished off the look by wearing her glossy auburn locks in loose waves that framed her pretty featuresThey're two of the most controversial contestants on this season of My Kitchen Rules.

And on Weekend Sunrise on Sunday, Russian 'villains' Olga and Valeria brushed off their critics.

The pair said some enthusiastic fans even want to marry them, but Olga admitted: 'It's always a love hate relationship with Russians.'

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'Some people want to marry us!' MKR villains Olga (L) and Valeria (R) brushed off their critics during an interview on Weekend Sunrise on Sunday, saying they've actually had proposals

'Are people coming up to you in the street? Do they have a problem with how you've been on the show?,' Olga and Valeria were asked.

'We heard some people want to marry us!' Olga replied.

'We're unavailable, but thank you for the compliment. We are two strong opinionated women. It's horrible, right?'

Looking at the positives: 'We're unavailable, but thank you for the compliment. We are two strong opinionated women. It's horrible, right?' Olga said

Olga added: 'It polarises people. They either want to marry us or kick us off!'

The pair are set to host their Instant Restaurant on Sunday's episode of My Kitchen Rules.

In a preview for the show, they are seen cooking and feeling the strain.

Does it go well? The pair are set to host their Instant Restaurant on Sunday's My Kitchen Rules

Not a fan? It appears the 'villains' may get a taste of their own medicine on Sunday because, at one point, rival Hadil compares their dishes to 'cat food'

It comes after Olga and Valeria didn't hold back when criticising their rivals' dishes.

It appears they may get a taste of their own medicine on Sunday because, at one point, rival Hadil compares their dishes to 'cat food'.

'What the hell, all I can think about is cat food!' Hadil says in a voiceover as she holds her nose and laughs as a meal is placed in front of her.

Elsewhere in the teaser, judge Manu Feildel tells the Russians: 'Stop, you're making me angry!'She's eternally been the ultimate IT girl.

But Paris Hilton was reminded of a time before extreme jet-setting and perma-dark glasses indoors, as she turned 37 on Saturday.

Her aunt Kyle Richards posted an adorable throwback picture of the socialite, as she wished the star a happy birthday.

Cute: Paris Hilton's aunt Kyle Richards posted an adorable throwback baby photo to celebrate her 37th birthday

Family love: Her reality television star aunt wrote: You are truly one of a kind. I love you so much '

'Happy birthday to my niece & first live baby doll @parishilton lover of life, animals and all things pink & sparkly,' Richards wrote in the posts caption adding, 'You are truly one of a kind. I love you so much .'

Paris was keeping it in the family for her birthday celebrations and also received a shout-out from her sister Nicky Hilton Rothschild.

'Happy Birthday to the sweetest sister in the world. I love you so much @ParisHilton,' the mother-of-two wrote.

Birthday girl: Kyle shared a further picture of Paris as a child, captioning 'Happy birthday to my niece & first live baby doll @parishilton'

Hilton - who dropped her new single, I Need You, on Valentines Day in honor of her fiance Chris Zylka - celebrated her big day with family on Thursday night at a party in New York City.

Giant balloons reading: 'Happy Birthday Paris' adorned the venue.

The star shared images from the lavish bash, including a picture with her namesake - Paris Jackson.

'Paris & Paris,' she captioned a picture of the pair.

Glam fam: Paris celebrated her big day with family on Thursday night at a party in New York City

Seeing double: The star shared images from the lavish bash, including a picture with her namesake - Paris Jackson

'Celebrating my #Birthday with my beautiful fam,' she captioned another image from the party.

Theodora Richards - daughter of Rolling Stones rocker Keith - also shared snaps from the party with Kyle Richards - who is not related to her.

She captioned: 'And Happy Birthday to you sweetness @parishilton You are an absolute dream woman who makes all her dreams come true with love and grace and such generosity and I adore you!!! You deserve every happiness!!! Congrats on engagement AND finally got to meet the other fabulous Richards sister!!! @kylerichards18 #rhwbh woohoo.'

Hot air: Paris was keeping it in the family for her birthday celebrations and also received a shout-out from her sister Nicky Hilton Rothschild

Party time: Theodora Richards - daughter of Rolling Stones rocker Keith - also shared snaps from the party with Kyle Richards - who is not related to her

Shout out: She captioned: 'And Happy Birthday to you sweetness @parishilton

Happy to be there: 'Congrats on engagement AND finally got to meet the other fabulous Richards sister!!!' she added

Sweet talk: Theodora told Paris, 'You deserve every happiness!!!'

Paris also shared several fantastic pieces of fan art given to her for her birthday with the rest of her Instagram following.

'Thank you all for the Birthday wishes & fan art! Truly appreciate you all so much! Thank you for always putting a smile on my face & making me feel special! Love you forever,' the California blonde captioned the surreal photos.

One photo showed Paris jumping from a three-tiered cake while another positioned her in front of the Hollywood sign with stars Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

Fan favorite! Paris also shared several fantastic pieces of fan art given to her for her birthday with the rest of her Instagram following

One photo showed Paris jumping from a three-tiered cake while another positioned her in front of the Hollywood sign with stars Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

Hollywood Royalty: Another piece looked like an homage to a renaissance painting as angels hovered above the star with a crown

Another piece looked like an homage to a renaissance painting as angels hovered above the star with a crown.

Paris was too sweet to handle in another fan art where she appeared to be icing a half-a-dozen cakes carrying mini versions of herself.

Another couple seemed to take their theme from Valentine's Day earlier in the week.

Let them eat cake! Paris was too sweet to handle in another fan art where she appeared to be icing a half-a-dozen cakes carrying mini versions of herself

Seeing double! Paris's fans created several alluring tribute to the starlet

Heart on her sleeve! Another couple seemed to take their theme from Valentine's Day earlier in the week

The former The Simple Life star got engaged to The Leftovers actor Zylka at the end of 2017.

Zylka, 32, popped the question in Aspen, Colorado, during a ski trip, with a $2 million, 20-carat diamond engagement ring.

The impressive rock can be seen sparkling in her I Need You music video.

The couple celebrated her birthday early, on Monday, with a PDA at a party in Brazil.

Spelling it out: Giant balloons reading: 'Happy Birthday Paris' adorned the venue

Loving the limelight: Paris shared a video of her aunt Kyle on the mic

Hard to miss! Paris was her usual low-key self as she partied with her family

Having fun: The Real Housewives star stood in front of the balloons and chatted on the mic

Amour: Paris Hilton also celebrated her 37th birthday early on Monday. The stunning blonde partied up a storm during a DJ gig in Brazil where she was seen kissing her fiance Chris Zylka

With 'my love': 'Birthday kisses,' the siren captioned an Instagram photo; here she posed next to her husband to be on MondayThe Bachelorette couple recently celebrated Valentine's Day with a romantic rooftop 'glamping' escape in Melbourne.

But on Saturday, Georgia Love and Lee Elliott opted for a more casual date as they embarked on the Bondi to Bronte coastal walk.

The reality TV lovebirds flaunted their fit physiques in swimwear as they enjoyed the warm weather and picturesque ocean views.

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Beach date! The Bachelorette's Georgia Love flaunted her slender figure in a low-cut swimsuit and denim shorts while on a coastal walk with boyfriend Lee Elliott in Sydney on Saturday

Georgia, 29, showed off her trim pins in a pair of high-waisted ripped denim shorts.

The Ten Eyewitness News journalist left her shorts unzipped and completed her look with a colourful flamingo print swimsuit.

She styled her brunette looks loosely and concealed her gaze behind a pair of chic sunglasses.

Beach day! The Ten Eyewitness News journalist left her denim shorts unzipped and completed her beach look with a colourful flamingo print swimsuit

The low-cut swimsuit highlighted Georgia's toned back and her cut-offs offered a glimpse of her slender thighs.

Much to the delight of onlookers, Lee went shirtless for the stroll, showcasing his buff physique as he clutched a towel and flip-flops.

The mechanical plumber appeared to have caught sun on his shoulders as he focused his attention on his phone.

'You snooze you lose': In a photo shared to Lee's Instagram account on Saturday, Georgia was seen apparently dozing off during their beach outing

In a photo shared to Lee's Instagram account on Saturday, Georgia was seen apparently dozing off during their beach outing.

Lee wrote in the caption: 'You snooze you lose.'

The Bachelor returns to screens later this year, with Georgia and Lee's mutual friend Cameron Cranley rumoured to be taking on the lead role.With a pair of twins on the way, Dancing With The Star's Kym Johnson is making sure she stays in fine shape.

The Aussie talent, who is happily expecting twins with her husband Robert Herjavec of Shark Tank, looked happy and healthy as she stopped by her Santa Monica dance studio The Bod on Saturday.

The beautiful blonde, 41, was all smiles as she draped her third trimester baby bump in loose, dark layers during her outing with a pal.

Skip in her step! Dancing With The Star's Kym Johnson looked happy and healthy as she visited her Santa Monica dance studio, The Bod, with a friend on Saturday

She teamed a black tunic and grey leggings with a gradient tint with sporty black Nikes for the visit.

Keeping warm, the ballroom dancer tossed on a black open-front sweater.

She accessorized with a delicate golden necklace and a giant diamond ring that certainly seemed fit for a billionaire's wife.

Kym's blonde hair was styled down and she kept relatively make-up free, masking her face with a pair of tinted aviator sunglasses.

Bumping along nicely! The beautiful blonde, 41, was all smiles as she draped her third trimester baby bump in loose, dark layers during her outing

Workout buddy! Kym was joined by a friend who she looked happy to chat with during the outing

Back on Valentine's Day the DWTS champion was seen carrying a bouquet of heart-shaped balloons to her dance studio, almost definitely from her entrepreneur husband.

The couple first met when they were paired up during season 20 of her ABC reality competition show.

They married in 2016 in Los Angeles and announced they're expecting twins on December 11, 2017.

Kym first shared the happy news in a January 15 update to her website which revealed a photo of her sonogram.

Sign of affection! Back on Valentine's Day the DWTS champion was seen carrying a bouquet of heart-shaped balloons to her dance studio, almost definitely from her entrepreneur husband

'We are truly so excited and can't believe that we will get to meet our two little bundles of joy in a few months,' Johnson wrote.

'When you get pregnant, it's such a big feeling, right? You're surprised, happy, nervousall at the same time!' she continued, 'Being pregnant is such a special experience and Im truly so excited to be a Mum!'

This pregnancy marks Kym's first while the twins will be Robert's fourth and fifth take on parenting.

He has three older children, two girls and a boy, from his previous marriage to ex-wife Diane Plese.The Block 2013's Bec and George Douros welcomed their second child on Friday.

The Melbourne couple were delighted to share news of the birth to their Instagram followers, announcing they have called their son Lenny Anthony Douros.

Accompanying a photo of Bec resting in hospital with her newborn, the now mother-of-two wrote in the caption: 'We are all well and completely in love.'

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A new Block baby has arrived! Bec and George Douros announced on Friday they are 'completely in love' after welcoming their second child, a son named Lenny Anthony

The proud parents famously appeared on The Block: Sky High in 2013.

Taking to social media, Bec said their latest arrival was born on '16/02/18 at 11:14am'.

Baby Lenny joins big brother Archie, two, in the Douros family.

'Those lips and his gorgeous almond shaped eyes! So beautiful': Doting mother Bec praised her newborn's features and claimed she already saw resemblances to his older brother Archie

Too cute! George was also seen introducing their two-year-old son Archie to his newborn sibling in a sweet Instagram video

Bec wrote on Instagram: '30 minutes young. Lenny is practically identical to Archie when he was born, those lips and his gorgeous almond shaped eyes! So beautiful.'

George was also seen introducing their two-year-old son to his newborn sibling in a sweet video.

Archie smiled as he approached his baby brother, before gently kissing him on the head and cuddling his mother.

Kisses! Archie smiled as he approached his baby brother, before gently kissing him on the head and cuddling his mother

Bec also took to her Instagram Story to share intimate videos of herself breastfeeding her newborn.

She captioned one of the videos: 'Those 2am newborn suckles.'

It's unclear whether Bec is still in hospital or is now settling in at home with her baby.

Precious moment: Bec also took to her Instagram Story to share intimate videos of herself breastfeeding her newborn

'I'm a big believer in the universe working in mysterious ways': Lenny's arrival comes five years after Bec suffered a miscarriage at seven weeks

Lenny's arrival comes five years after Bec suffered a miscarriage at seven weeks.

Bec said in 2015: 'We tried for a while to fall pregnant but when I did in mid-2012, which was just before we went on The Block: Sky High, I had a miscarriage at seven weeks. It was devastating.'

After welcoming their first child, Archie, in October 2015, Bec told Woman's Day: 'I'm a big believer in the universe working in mysterious ways and this is just perfect timing for us.'Russell Simmons has been spotted for the first time since heading to Bali after following multiple accusations of sexual misconduct in the past months.

The Def Jam Records co-founder appeared relaxed and refreshed while spending time out in the area near the Yoga Barn retreat in Ubud, on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The Queens, New York native, 60, was dressed down in a pair of purple harem pants and Adidas slides as he and a friend fetched a healthy lunch before visiting a nearby spa.

Namaste: Russell Simmons was spotted laying low near his Balinese yoga and wellness retreat Saturday, the businessman's first spotting he decided to travel overseas following several sexual assault allegations against him

Russell didn't appear worried that any of the locals would recognize or bother him.

The comfortably dressed music mogul rounded out his look with a white tee shirt and a matching hat.

It looked like he has picked up a few mementos during his time away to focus on 'his spiritual and emotional health,' donning a beaded necklace and slinging a yellow hobo bag across his body.

After getting some food, the multi-millionaire checked his phone and sipped on a bottle on kombucha.

Relaxed: The Queens, New York native, 60, was dressed down in a pair of purple harem pants and Adidas slides as he and a friend fetched a healthy lunch before visiting a nearby spa

Refreshing! After getting some food, the multi-millionaire checked his phone and sipped on a bottle on kombucha

Then he and his pal headed to a local spa.

Page Six first reported that Simmons had skipped town back on February 10, with a source explaining the avid yoga practitioner was taking time to devote himself to 'yoga and meditation, as well as his spiritual and emotional health'.

'He has also been seen wearing robes and walking the streets and markets of Ubud, the yoga town in the jungle,' the source said.

The producer and businessman is also apparently working on a book, Page Six reports, but it won't mention the rape allegations he's accused of. An insider said Simmons will instead talk about spirituality, yoga and healing.

Time for a getaway? Page Six first reported that Simmons (above in November 2017) had left town on February 10, with a source saying 'He has also been seen wearing robes and walking the streets and markets of Ubud, the yoga town in the jungle' near his retreat

Over the past several months, 15 women have come forward to accuse Simmons of sexual misconduct.

Former Victoria's Secret model Keri Claussen Khalighi was the first accuser to publicly allege that she had been raped by Simmons.

She claimed the music mogul raped her in his apartment as producer Brett Ratner watched and did nothing.

Other women then came forward with their own claims, including fashion PR maven Kelly Cutrone who alleged that Simmons had tried to assault her in 1991 but she managed to escape.

Simmons stepped down from his businesses and charities in December. He also released a lengthy statement vehemently denying the allegations insisting all of his relations were consensual.

'I have already apologized for the instances of thoughtlessness in my consensual relations. I have separated myself from my businesses and charities in order to not become a distraction. I have re-dedicated myself to spiritual learning, healing and working on behalf of the communities to which I have devoted my life,' he said. 'What I will not accept is responsibility for what I have not done. I have conducted my life with a message of peace and love.

He added: 'Although I have been candid about how I have lived in books and interviews detailing my flaws, I will relentlessly fight against any untruthful character assassination that paints me as a man of violence.'They've been dating for over a year, live together and are frequent co-stars.

And Joaquin Phoenix, 43, and Rooney Mara, 32, seem to be completely inseparable, as the pair were spotted on Saturday at a mall in Sherman Oaks, California.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star and her I'm Still Here actor beau both sported a very similar low-key look for the weekend outing.

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A-list couple: Joaquin Phoenix, 43, and Rooney Mara, 32, seem to be completely inseparable, as the pair were spotted on Saturday at a mall in Sherman Oaks, California

The Master actor paired white chinos with a dark gray sweater and wore his long, graying tresses pulled back in a pony tail.

His Carol-starring girlfriend, meanwhile, wore blue boyfriend jeans with an oversized green sweater.

The A-list couple, who star together in the movies Her, Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot and the upcoming Mary Magdalene, wore matching Converse high top sneakers for the shopping expedition.

Twinning! The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star and her I'm Still Here actor beau both sported a very similar low-key look for the weekend outing

Phoenix is reported to be in talks to play the Clown Prince of Crime in Todd Phillips' as-yet untitled Joker movie, according to Variety.

The publication reports that studio negotiations are not yet underway, but Phillips clearly wants Phoenix in the lead role.

Sources say that Phillips is on board to co-write and direct the movie, having met with Phoenix before the new year to further discuss the project.

The film would possibly be able to expand and explore more opportunities within the DC Comics world, with more details to further the iconic comic-book characters.

'Insiders stress that Jared Leto - who starred in Suicide Squad as the Joker - is still on board as the character in the DC universe and that Phoenix has no effect on what happens with Letos character in future DC films,' Variety wrote.

Joaquin recently wrapped filming The Sisters Brothers with Jake Gyllenhaal and John C. Reilly, and stars with girlfriend Rooney Mara in the upcoming Mary Magdalene film.It looks like Brooklyn Beckham's latest tattoo has mom Victoria Beckham's seal of approval.

The budding photographer, 18, proudly flaunted a heart-shaped 'mum' body art on his very famous mother's social media Saturday.

In the photo the Spice Girl, 43, wrapped her eldest child in a one-armed hugged and pointed at his arm while he flexed to show off his new ink.

Mama's boy! Brooklyn Beckham was seen proudly flaunting a heart-shaped 'mom' body art on his very famous mother Victoria Beckham's social media Saturday

The sleeves on Brooklyn's white tee were rolled up to reveal a traditional looking sailor tattoo bearing the word 'Mum' atop a heart and flowers.

Beckham wore a herringbone patterned newsboy cap along a chained necklace while appearing like he'd skipped his morning shave with a bit of stubble across his face.

Behind him, his pop star-turned-fashion designer mom looked chic in a black top as she bent around her boy to point at the tattoo.

The glowing parent captioned the Instagram: 'Big tattoo! X kisses from NYC!!'

Touching tribute to Victoria: On Sunday, Brooklyn shared his new inking of a heart with the word 'mum' emblazoned on his bicep to his 10 million followers on Instagram

Tatt's cool: Brooklyn Beckham flashed his new 'mum' tattoo as he headed out in Los Angeles this past Monday

On Monday, Brooklyn flashed his fresh tat while out and about in Los Angeles.

The eye behind What I See put on his signature quirky display as he rolled up the sleeves to his rose-print white top to show off the ink.

Brooklyn teamed his top with a pair of stylish ankle-grazing grey trousers which exposed his grey socks ad casual black shoes.

He cut a casual figure as he picked up some lunch from hot-spot eatery Joan's on Third.

The year he was born: The photography student's latest inking comes after he unveiled another tattoo tribute to his dad on Instagram last Tuesday

On Sunday, Brooklyn - who in in a relationship with girlfriend Chloe Moretz - shared his new inking of a heart with the word 'mum' emblazoned on his bicep to his 10 million followers on Instagram.

The photography student's latest inking comes after he unveiled another tattoo tribute to his dad on Instagram last Tuesday.

The social media sensation proudly showed off a fresh '1975' inking on his right hand, honouring his beloved father's date of birth.

Brooklyn has used body art to honour David before, and last October he got the number seven tattooed on his little finger in a nod to his fathers illustrious sporting career.

His icon: Brooklyn has used body art to honour David before, and last October he got the number seven tattooed on his little finger in a nod to his fathers illustrious sporting career

Tatt's impressive: He later revealed a sizeable new rose tattoo, which is located along the side of his torso

The single digit  Davids squad number while playing for Manchester United and England  also serves as a middle name for Brooklyns six-year-old sister Harper.

Brooklyn has a plethora of tattoo in his collection and last month the teenager revealed a new Buster tattoo just above his bellybutton, paying tribute to both his childhood nickname and the tattoo David got on his neck in 2015.

His first came in April - a forearm inking which directly mimics his father David's - is an illustration of a Native American in traditional headdress.

Picture perfect: He also has an intricate inking of what appears to be a Fujitsu camera on his left bicep

Only weeks after sitting for the tattoo at Shamrock Social Club, he revealed a second intricate inking of what appeared to be a Fujitsu camera on his left bicep, a homage to the aspiring photographer's passion.

In July he debuted his third piece of body art on Instagram, posting a photo of an intricate compass design upon his left forearm.

The teenager later revealed his fifth design, a distinctive eagle occupying the space between his thumb and forefinger.

Shortly afterwards Brooklyn showcased the words 'Made In England', inked across his left foot - an ironic choice as his namesake was inspired by his parents love of America, and he now divides his time between England and the States.

This came shortly before he revealed a sizeable new rose tattoo, which is located along the side of his torso.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn was a notable absentee from Victoria's AW18 presentation at New York Fashion Week.

However David, 42, was there along with Brooklyn's younger siblings Romeo, 15, Cruz, 12, and Harper, six.She's an author, mother, and star.

And Molly Sims enjoyed a well-deserved vacation in Mexico on Saturday.

The actress, 44, was spotted soaking up some rays in sunny Cabo San Lucas with friends.

Rest and relaxation! Molly Sims shows off her post-baby figure in one-piece as soaks up the sun with friends in Cabo San Lucas

The blonde beauty arrived poolside in a black robe, shades and large sunhat.

But she soon shed the former to reveal a cleavage-baring black one piece beneath.

The Las Vegas star shared her lounger with one of her tiny puppies; no doubt she was afraid to part with him having only lost one of her beloved dogs just a fortnight ago.

She revealed earlier this month via Instagram that her Yorkshire Terrier Poupette had passed away, at the astonishing age of almost 19.

Cool: The blonde beauty arrived poolside in a black robe, shades and large sunhat

Hot mama: But she soon shed the former to reveal a cleavage-baring black one piece beneath

Room for two: The Las Vegas star shared her lounger with one of her tiny puppies

Grieving: No doubt she was afraid to part with him having only lost one of her beloved dogs just a fortnight ago

'She has been my MVP for almost 19 years' she wrote in a tribute montage of snaps.

'She found a way to mend my broken heart and bring me sunshine on my darkest days. She was my constant in a world that never stopped moving.

'From walking the runways with me, traveling to Paris and New York, breakups, love, marriage and 3 babies...Whether I was poor, rich, single or married. She loved me unconditionally.'

Smile: The friends posed for social media snaps

Time off: Molly's last regular role on TV was Delinda Deline on Las Vegas, which she played from 2003 to 2008

Molly's last regular role on TV was Delinda Deline on Las Vegas, which she played from 2003 to 2008.

Since then she has only appeared in the odd episode of various shows, but has no doubt been kept busy by her brood of three.

She shares five-year-old son Brooks, two year-old daughter Scarlett, and one-year-old son Grey with producer husband of seven years, Scott Stuber.She's making a name for herself as an actress, screenwriter, and film director.

And Greta Gerwig proved her style credentials as she commanded attention on the red carpet for the 71st British Academy Film Awards nominees party in London on Saturday.

The 34-year-old triple threat was a vision to behold as she arrived at the ceremony in gold sparkling couture.

Gold star: Greta Gerwig, 34, commanded attention on the red carpet for the 71st British Academy Film Awards in London on Saturday

Daring to impress, the Sacramento native looked stunning as she donned the glittering fringe masterpiece.

Her trademark blonde tresses matched the ensemble as she kept them swept to the side allowing her youthful face to shine.

Throwing caution to the wind, the Oscar nominated wonder went virtually makeup free with just a slight smokey eye and dab of bright berry lip.

She accessorized the sensational look with black bejeweled pumps, a metallic clutch, and drop earrings.

Shining stunner: The triple threat was a vision to behold as she arrived at the ceremony in gold sparkling couture

Impressive: Daring to impress, the Sacramento native looked stunning as she donned the glittering fringe masterpiece

Greta attended the event as she is up for Best Original Screenplay for Lady Bird, which stars Saoirse Ronan as the titular lead.

Written and directed by Greta, the movie is intended as a kind of love-hate letter to her own Sacramento upbringing.

The movie also garnered five Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Saoirse), and Best Supporting Actress (Laurie Metcalf).

Daring: Throwing caution to the wind, the Oscar nominated wonder went virtually makeup free with just a slight smokey eye and dab of bright berry lip

Greta first drew attention in Frances Ha, the delightful 2013 comedy she starred in and co-wrote with the director (and her partner) Noah Baumbach.

She later starred in Mistress America in 2015 with Lola Kirke.

Greta will next be seen in an upcoming untitled by Noah starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver,She's a proud mom of two.

And Blac Chyna lavished her children with affection as she took to Instagram on Saturday to share two new cuddly photos of her with her little ones.

The 29-year-old posted a photo of herself kissing her baby daughter Dream, age one, along with an image of her pecking son King Cairo, five, on the cheek.

Kisses! Blac Chyna posted a photo with daughter Dream Kardashian for the first time in more than a month

Smooches! Chyna stayed in for movie night with son King on Saturday

Chyna and her now ex-fiance Rob Kardashian welcomed daughter Dream a year ago.

While taking care of Dream on Friday night, proud father Rob posted an adorable video of the one-year-old saying the word 'dada' from her crib.

Rob proposed to Chyna with a $325,000 ring in April 2016, but the two remained on and off again until they called it quits in February 2017.

Chyna is also mother to five-year-old King Cairo with ex-fiance Tyga.

Baby daddy! She shares her little girl with ex-fiance Rob Kardashian

'It's important to me and Tyga not to have negative energy,' she told Cosmopolitan South Africa. 'Kids breathe energy. You have to learn to forgive and forget. Many people don't like to forgive others.

'Even if someone does something awful to you, you need to forgive them to be able to move on with your life,' she continued. 'You can't hold on to that stuff because it'll make you a bitter person and it'll block your blessings. You need to let it go and be free.'

Meanwhile, the model recently added Kylie Jenner and Khloe Kardashian to her lawsuit claiming the famous family sabotaged her E! reality show with ex-fiance Rob and ruined her brand, according to an article on Wednesday by TMZ.

First born! Chyna is also mother to five-year-old King Cairo with ex-fiance Tyga

The lawsuit alleging defamation and intentional interference of contractual relations was amended in November to only name Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian and Rob as defendants.

It was not clear why Kylie and Khloe were brought back as defendants.

Chyna in her lawsuit alleged that one of the Kardashian sisters trashed her and said, "The show [Rob & Chyna] is giving this toxic woman money and exposure she lives and breathes for and by continuing it ... [s]he will proceed with using and physically abusing my brother

The Kardashians have maintained that Rob and Chyna's reality show was canceled after she obtained a restraining order against him preventing them from filming together.

The civil lawsuit originally filed in October also accuses Rob of battery, assault, distribution of private sexually explicit materials, domestic violence, harassment and intrusion into private affairs for posting nude pictures of her online as well as personal medical information.

Family drama! Blac Chyna is in the midst of a legal battle with her former sister-in-law Kim Kardashian following the cancellation of her reality show Rob & Chyna



















She's visiting Down Under as a guest speaker for the Business Chicks conference.

And Kate Hudson was making the most of her Sunday afternoon off with boyfriend Danny Fujikawa, as the couple walked hand in hand around Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The 38-year-old actress dressed casually for the weekend stroll, wearing a floral patterned blue maxi skirt over a white 6 Shore Road swimsuit.

Kate Hudson looked boho chic in a floral maxi skirt and plunging 6 Shore Road swimsuit alongside her boyfriend Danny Fujikawa as they took stroll in Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday

Kate was carrying a vintage-inspired camera, perhaps ready to take some happy snaps of the pair in the summer weather.

Danny matched his girlfriend in a plain white T-shirt and light board shorts, keeping the aquamarine theme with a pair of blue sneakers.

They walked through the iconic Bondi Markets, with the mother-of-two pausing to look at a cap that took her fancy.

Say cheese! Kate was carrying a vintage-looking camera, perhaps ready to take some happy snaps of the pair in the summer weather

Twinning! Danny matched his girlfriend in a plain white T-shirt and light board shorts, keeping the aquamarine theme with a pair of blue sneakers

Couldn't be happier! Things are clearly still going strong between Kate and Danny

Things are clearly still going strong between Kate and Danny.

Kate recently posted a loved-up snap of the couple kissing atop a mountain in Aspen, which she captioned: 'My valentine!'

Their sighting comes a week after the Hollywood star referred to the couple as 'The Fujikawas', despite dismissing recent rumours of a secret wedding as 'nonsense'.

Gossip: Their sighting comes a week after the Hollywood star referred to the couple as 'The Fujikawas', despite dismissing recent rumours of a secret wedding as 'nonsense'

To buy or not to buy? They walked through the iconic Bondi Markets, with the mother-of-two pausing to look at a cap that took her fancy

Kate has a 14-year-old son Ryder with her ex-husband, Black Crows frontman Chris Robinson. She also shares a six-year-old son Bingham with ex-fiance, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy.

Kate is in Sydney as a guest speaker for Business Chicks, and will be talking about how she founded her athleisure brand Fabletics.

Tickets for guests start at $239 and everyone will receive her a copy of her book Pretty Fun.He's had a heated clash with Olga before, on My Kitchen Rules.

And on the show on Sunday, judge Manu Feildel had a run-in with Olga's rival Hadil.

Hadil complained about the main dish - consisting of cabbage rolls stuffed with mince - when Manu defended Olga.

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'You better be good at it now you've said it': My Kitchen Rules judge Manu Feildel (pictured) has a heated clash with Hadil as he defends her rival Olga

'I didn't really like the stuffing, I thought it was a little under-seasoned, and she just gave me one. It wouldn't be a mistake we make,' Hadil said, about getting just one cabbage roll.

'Everybody makes mistakes,' Manu told Hadil.

'I won't make that mistake,' Hadil hit back.

Opinionated: 'I didn't really like the stuffing, I thought it was a little under-seasoned, and she just gave me one. It wouldn't be a mistake we make,' Hadil (pictured) said, about getting just one cabbage roll

Their turn: On Sunday, it was Olga (seen L) and Valeria's (R) turn to cook

Manu then shot her down.

'Unfortunately it doesn't matter if you've done a recipe a hundred times, the night it's meant to be the best, just something goes wrong. Always,' he said.

Hadil said she could serve the correct amount of food as she regularly cooks for a large crowd.

Not having it: 'Unfortunately it doesn't matter if you've done a recipe a hundred times, the night it's meant to be the best, just something goes wrong. Always,' Manu said

'You better be good at it, now you've said it,' Manu insisted.

Russian 'villains' Olga and Valeria managed to impress at their Instant Restaurant on My Kitchen Rules on Sunday, topping the leader board on 108 points.

The duo served an entree of meat jelly with beetroot and horseradish sauce, cabbage rolls for main and a white Russian dessert.There is bad blood between My Kitchen Rules stars Hadil and Olga.

And on the show on Sunday, Hadil couldn't help but slam her rival, as she sat at Olga and Valeria's Instant Restaurant.

'Olga the vulgar!,' Hadil declared at the dinner table, shocking her fellow contestants.

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'Olga the vulgar': My Kitchen Rules star Hadil (seen) SLAMS her Russian rival at her instant restaurant and shocks their fellow contestants by declaring how much she doesn't like her

'It is clear to everybody that I do not like Olga, that's no secret because she is rude and I can't be quiet if someone is not nice,' Hadil said.

'She was rude to Manu and there are things you just don't say and she has ruffled far too many feathers.'

She added: 'And at this point, I refuse to let somebody get away with being impolite.'

Their turn: On Sunday, it was Olga (seen L) and Valeria's (R) turn to cook

Ouch: 'It is clear to everybody that I do not like Olga, that's no secret because she is rude and I can't be quiet if someone is not nice,' Hadil said at the dinner table

At that point, Alicia interrupted, saying Hadil and Olga have 'too many similarities.'

Hadil continued: 'If I don't like you, I'll never like you.'

To camera, she again slammed Olga, saying: 'Olga is not my kind of person and definitely not my cup of tea.'

At the start of the show, Hadil walked into Olga and Valeria's Instant Restaurant and greeted Valeria, but refused to acknowledge Olga.

Snub: At the start of the show, Hadil walked into Olga and Valeria's Instant Restaurant and greeted Valeria, but refused to acknowledge Olga

Olga was not impressed with the snub, and said Hadil will get small portions of food.

Hadil ended up getting a small main, and was not happy.

She also said their entree, meat jelly, looked like cat food.

But in a bizarre twist, Hadil said the dessert - a white Russian - was her 'favourite dessert we've had to date.'As an international fashion model, she is always on the move.

But on Saturday, Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) slowed things down a little as she took her $135,000 Range Rover Velar to the car wash in Sydney's Rose Bay.

The glamorous football WAG, 26, looked effortlessly chic as she waited patiently while sipping from a take-away coffee cup.

Simply chic! Jesinta Campbell looked stylish in ripped jeans and a white blouse while waiting for her $135,000 Range Rover at the car wash in Sydney's Rose Bay on Saturday

Jesinta was spotted sitting at a cafe with the morning paper open in front of her.

The former David Jones ambassador showcased her slender figure in a pair of high-waisted ripped denim jeans.

She completed her look with a white button-up blouse which she loosely tucked into her pants on one side.

Leggy blonde! The former David Jones ambassador, 26, showcased her slender figure in a pair of high-waisted ripped denim jeans

She chose to keep her look casual and comfortable with a pair of Givenchy slides.

Jesinta's natural beauty shined through with natural-look makeup, and she slicked her blonde hair back into a tight bun.

The wife of Sydney Swans star Lance 'Buddy' Franklin accessorised with black sunglasses, gold jewellery and a cream-coloured tote.

Stunner! Jesinta's natural beauty shined through with natural-look makeup, and she slicked her blonde hair back into a tight bun

The model, who is an ambassador for Jaguar Land Rover, made the trip to the Trivett Land Rover showroom in Alexandria last October to pick up her new car.

She apparently splashed out $135,000 on the vehicle, despite having only recently bought another car.

However, as an ambassador, she may well have been gifted the vehicles.With her name in the news, Naomi Watts stepped out at London Fashion Week on Saturday to take in the Burberry show at Dimco Buildings.

The English beauty, who's recently been named as a point of contention in the brief marriage between Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, sat in the front row for the swanky outing, alongside celebs such as Kate Moss, Nicholas Hoult, Kate Driver and Naomi Campbell.

Naturally, the 5ft5 actress, 49, went to the show in style, pairing a long black trench coat over a white patterned top with black slacks with a thick white vertical stripe running up the side.

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Stylish: Naomi Watts, 49, stepped out at London Fashion Week on Saturday to take in the Burberry show at Dimco Buildings

The mother-of-two carried a black bag with a horizontal yellow buckle across the top, with her blonde locks parted on the side, gold hoop earrings and a necklace.

The Oscar-nominated performer found her name in the headlines this week amid the jaw-dropping split between the Friends star and The Leftovers actor after about a year-and-a-half of marriage.

Aniston was 'upset' of how close Theroux was with Watts, in particular a hug they shared at The Unveiling: Class by Taryn Toomey in January of 2017 at Tribeca Studio in New York City, according to National Enquirer UK.

The Ophelia actress and Theroux go back more than 17 years, as they've been pals since filming the David Lynch thriller Mulholland Drive.

A-list: The veteran actress had a seat in the front row of the luxe fashion showcase

Made in the shades: The beautiful entertainer had a pair of blue tinted glasses on

Rubbing shoulders: Watts was seated next to X-Men: Apocalypse actor Nicholas Hoult

Celebrity row: Among the famous faces in the crowd included (L-R) Sabrina Dhowre, Hoult, Watts, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and director Steve McQueen

Matching: Both Watts and Moss wore monochromatic black ensembles to the show

Watts last summer credited her role in the film as the stepping stone to bigger and better projects - and a creative freedom few in Hollywood are able to enjoy.

'Things came to me very quickly from that point I turned down giant paychecks, giant opportunities - my agents were flummoxed,' she told The Guardian. 'But I knew what I liked by then. I had a strong understanding of my taste.'

Amazingly, the stunning star in the interview revealed that up until that point, she was quick to second guess herself as she tried to navigate the tricky terrain of Tinseltown.

'Looking back, I know why people weren't hiring me,' she said. 'I went into auditions thinking, "What version of me do they want? How should I shape myself in order to win them over?"

'I wasn't getting parts. I was giving myself away. My soul was being destroyed. I was never able to walk in a room and own it by being me.'

Good time: Watts, Moss and Campbell looked to be having a fantastic time at the show

Limelight: Watts was impeccably styled at the English style showcaseShe's one of Australia's funniest and most accomplished comedians.

So it's no surprise that humour runs in Magda Szubanski's family, with the 56-year-old revealing that her late mother Margaret was still funny up until her death in September.

'Right to her death, still with the humour  it was extraordinary,' she told news.com.au.

'Right to her death, still with the humour  it was extraordinary': Magda Szubanski has opened up about her late mother's sense of humour

The iconic comedian also revealed that she wants British A-lister Maggie Smith to play Margaret in a film.

'If I ever did a film I would get [Maggie] to play my mum  there was that dry and hilarious humour,' she said.

Magda added: 'If you were to ask any of my famous comedy friends who know my mum, they would agree with me.'

Star: The iconic comedian also revealed that she wants British A-lister Maggie Smith to play Margaret in a film

The acclaimed actress announced her mother's passing on social media last September.

Sharing a shot of herself holding hands with her Margaret, Magda captioned the emotional post: 'RIP Margaret Szubanski 5/11/1924 - 4/9/2017.'

The Kath and Kim star added a broken love heart to the post, and was inundated with messages from fans.

'Rest in peace': Magda Szubanski announced Margaret's death on social media in September

'My condolences to you and yours,' one follower wrote on Instagram.

Another wrote: 'Hold on to the memories for they will see you through. Deepest sympathy for your loss.'

In August, Magda shared a black and white image of her mother online, saying she was 'fading.'

Sad: Sharing a shot of herself holding hands with her mother, Magda captioned the emotional post: 'RIP Margaret Szubanski 5/11/1924 - 4/9/2017'

'This is mum two months ago,' Magda captioned the image.

'She has grown so much frailer since then. Her voice has faded to less than a whisper. Her thoughts often an incoherent jumble of past and present, real and imagined.'

'Now even her sense of humour is fading. I think maybe that is the thing I find hardest to bear. What Bette Davis said is so true - "old age ain't no place for sissies,"' Magda wrote.He allegedly underwent emergency septum surgery earlier this month, following years of drug abuse.

But Jeremy McConnell seemed to be back to full health on Saturday, as he made a boisterous appearance at London Fashion Week.

The 27-year-old delightedly showed off his new nose as he made a playful arrival at the Fashions Finest catwalk - dancing for cameras before larking about on the FROW.

Having a ball: Jeremy McConnell made a boisterous appearance at London Fashion Week on Saturday - just two weeks after undergoing 'emergency septum surgery' due to drug abuse

Fooling around: The 27-year-old delightedly showed off his new nose as he made a playful arrival at the Fashions Finest catwalk - dancing for cameras before larking about on the FROW

The Irish reality star looked in very good spirits as he arrived at the show in his trademark ripped jeans and a black shirt, left unbuttoned to flash his tattooed torso.

Clearly excited for the day ahead, the former Celebrity Big Brother star was spotted dancing and laughing for cameras ahead of the catwalk show, before pulling a number of funny faces beside guests on the FROW.

The boisterous appearance proved Jeremy to be confident with his new appearance - showing off both his sprawling head tattoo and new nose as he fooled around at the bash.

Casual: The Irish reality star looked in very good spirits as he arrived at the show in his trademark ripped jeans and a black shirt, left unbuttoned to flash his tattooed torso

Say cheese! Jeremy appeared to be confident with his new appearance - showing off both his sprawling head tattoo and new nose as he beamed for cameras

The father-of-one was pictured outside a Polish hospital last month, after reportedly undergoing emergency surgery on his nose following years of drug abuse.

He had looked bruised and tender as he walked the streets alongside a pal, shortly after sharing a Snapchat showing his battered face from within the hospital bed.

In the image, Jeremy could be seen sitting in a hospital bed, with the post being captioned: 'When your mate gets lippy over who paid for the packet of Monster Munch in Centra.'

Joking around: Jeremy was seen catching up with fellow guests on the FROW

Chilled: He was also seen checking his phone as he mingled with his fellow guests

Road to recovery: The father-of-one reportedly underwent emergency surgery on his nose earlier this month, following years of drug abuse

The social media snap was deleted within seconds of it being uploaded onto Snapchat.

A source told the Mirror: 'It was due to years of abuse of alcohol and other substances. It's to repair his septum. He really is the male version of Danniella Westbrook.'

The ex of Stephanie Davis spoke toThe Sun about his well-documented cocaine addiction as he revealed he would snort 200 worth of the Class A substance while doing 'double-barrelled lines'.

Tough time: The ex of Stephanie Davis star recently spoke about his cocaine addiction - revealing he would snort 200 worth of the substance while doing 'double-barrelled lines'

Terrifying: He said of the fallout of his addiction: 'If I do a line Im paranoid to f**k. Im so paranoid Ill be looking under the door and out of the blinds. I think the cleaners are hit-men'

Jeremy said: 'There were times when I would get 200, shove it up my nose and do double barrelled lines. We used to call them the M50 after the motorway in Dublin.

At the height of his addiction, Jeremy divulged he believed people were trying to murder him.

He told the newspaper: 'If I do a line Im paranoid to f**k. Im so paranoid Ill be looking under the door and out of the blinds. I think the cleaners are hit-men. I think Ill get a bullet off a cleaner. Thats f****d.'

Loved-up: Chloe-Jasmine Whichello and Stevi Ritchie also attended the event - with Chloe standing out in a bold silk coat

Pucker up! The pair could not take their eyes off each other as they headed inside, with Stevie even pouting his lips for a quick kiss

Abs-olutely fabulous: Chloe Paige stunned in a skimpy white bralet as she joined singer Kristofer James at the bash

Like mother like daughter: Aston and Gillian McKeith (L) both hit the catwalk in skimpy leotardsPaul Burrell has revisited sensational claims that Prince Charles left Princess Diana in hospital to meet Camilla Parker Bowles after Prince Harry's birth.

The former royal butler alleged that Charles saw a newborn Harry in his cot, remarked 'now I have an heir and a spare' and left to meet Camilla at the theatre - leaving Diana in floods of tears.

Paul also repeated his claims that the Princess Of Wales predicted her own car crash death nine months before it happened and allegedly wrote to tell him she believed Charles was planning an 'accident'.

Accusations: Paul Burrell has revisited sensational claims that Prince Charles left Princess Diana in hospital to meet Camilla Parker Bowles after Prince Harry's birth

Burrell, speaking during his stint on I'm A Celebrity Australia on Sunday, told actress Kerry Armstrong: 'She told me, on the night that Harry was born, Charles came to visit.

'He wasn't at the birth. Harry is lying into the cot, and he said "red hair, I suppose that's a Spencer gene".

'She said "are you pleased, Charles?" He said "I'm delighted. I now have an heir and a spare". She said "well, that's an odd thing to say why are you dressed up in black tie?".'

Paul continued: 'He said "my work is done, isn't it, now? I'm off to the theatre with Camilla". She said "on the night that Harry was born, I cried myself to sleep, knowing my marriage was over".'

Claims: The former royal butler alleged that Charles saw a newborn Harry in his cot, remarked 'now I have an heir and a spare' and left to meet Camilla at the theatre - leaving Diana in floods of tears

Paul was Diana's butler for 10 years between 1987 and 1997, when Diana tragically died in a car crash in Paris. He famously described himself as her 'rock'.

Diana and Dodi Fayed were killed early on the morning of August 31, 1997 when a Mercedes driven by chauffeur Henri Paul crashed in the Pont D'Alma tunnel in Paris.

A French inquiry in 1999 blamed Mr Paul, concluding he had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs and was driving too fast.

Discussing her death, Burrell claimed: 'She wrote me a letter. On her own stationary, in her own hand writing.

Long-time butler: Paul was Diana's butler for 10 years between 1987 and 1997, when Diana tragically died in a car crash in Paris. He famously described himself as her 'rock'

'Her words were "these next few months, are the most difficult months of my life. I fear my husband is going to kill me. In an automobile accident. With head injuries. In order that he can remarry".

'Her words. Her writing. Her stationary. I said to her "you don't really think that, do you?" then she said, "I don't know, these thoughts get in my head. I get the voices and feelings and I write then to you at night".

'She leaves them on my desk so I can read her thoughts the next morning. That is spooky. She predicted her own death nine months before she died.'

Paul first revealed the note in 2003 in his book, A Royal Duty, in which he claimed the princess had handed it to him as an insurance policy.

Rumour has it: Paul claimed that after Harry's birth, Charles said: 'I'm delighted. I now have an heir and a spare' and then went to meet Camilla (pictured with Harry, left, and William, right, in 1995)

He wrote that she told him she was going to date it and he should keep it, 'just in case'. It was written two months after her 1996 divorce from Charles.

The father-of-two added of his relationship with Diana: 'We had a very needy relationship. She needed me to be there, and I needed to be there.'

It's not the first reality show Paul has participated in since Diana's tragic death, prompting accusations that he's been cashing in on his links to her.

He also was a judge on Australian Princess, competed in the UK version of I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here and made an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother.They cast their 38-year age difference aside to embark on a relationship back in 2008.

But Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell enjoyed a less conventional day out together on Saturday, as they were spotted window shopping at a funeral directors in London.

The actor, 77, was seen browsing the display of the undertakers' with his wife, 39, during a wintry morning walk in the city.

Date day: Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell enjoyed a less conventional day out together on Saturday, as they were spotted window shopping at a funeral directors in London

The famous actor was his typically smart self in a tailored navy suit, layered beneath a warm coat and scarf to protect him from the chilly climes.

Meanwhile his wife upped the glamour in a chic fluffy coat and knee-high heeled boots, formed of soft leather, as she stepped out with her husband.

The pair were seen happily chatting together as they strolled hand-in-hand, before they were seen browsing the window of a funeral directors branch nearby.

Having a look: The actor, 77, was seen browsing the display of the undertakers' with his wife, 39, during a wintry morning walk in the city

Patrick confessed he often thinks about his 'mortality' last year, following the deaths of many loved ones.

Reflecting on the deaths of his Star Trek co-stars Leonard Nimoy and Anton Yeltsin, he said last year: 'There is a not a day goes by where I don't think of my mortality.

'I am 76 years old. I am married to a much younger woman and I cannot see her without reflecting on the differences in our ages and expectations and so forth.

'And this has been a horrible three or four years for my profession. My generation has been decimated. So many actors have gone.'

'So many actors have gone': Patrick confessed he often thinks about his 'mortality' last year, due to the deaths of many loved ones and the age gap with his wife

Patrick and Sunny first began dating in 2008, after meeting during the actor's run in Macbeth at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The pair then moved in together four years later and cast aside their 38-year age gap to marry in 2013 - with Sir Ian McKellan performing the wedding ceremony.

The legendary thespian was born in West Yorkshire, but now lives in Brooklyn with his spouse - who is the stepmother to his two children Daniel and Sophie Alexandra Stewart.

He was previously married twice before - first to Sheila Falconer [19661990], then to Wendy Neuss [20002003].She's the Sydney PR maven who recently added a VERY cute new member to her brood.

And it appears Oreo Curtis is settling in just fine to his new home.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, PR queen Roxy Jackeno, 37, shared a cute snap of herself taking her new puppy out for a walk in Sydney's Centennial Park.

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Settling in? PR maven Roxy Jacenko has shared an adorable snap of herself and kids Pixie, 6, and Hunter, 3, taking new puppy Oreo out for a walk in Sydney's Centennial Park

In the happy snap, Roxy and her two children, Pixie, six, and Hunter, three, huddle around their four-legged friend.

Roxy appeared to be squeezing in some quick exercise before the family embarked on a trip to Western Australia.

'Family outing pre-packing for a tour of Perth,' she wrote, adding Enjo hashtags, which indicated the trip may be sponsored by the company.

Every dog has its day! On Valentine's Day, the PR maven surprised her youngsters with the new pet puppy

In the snap, blonde Roxy shows off her slender frame in exercise clothes, meanwhile, the kids looks quite casual in a mix of shorts and thongs while in the inner city Sydney park.

On Valentine's Day, Roxy surprised the young tykes with the puppy by placing a cardboard box into the family's dining room.

The video started with Roxy saying to the kids, 'gentle, gentle ... look at your present,' as the excited kids eye off the mystery parcel.

Puppy love! Roxy Jacenko surprises children Pixie and Hunter with an adorable new dog ... giving the pooch a VERY sweet name

'Ready,' Pixie said, before opening up the box to reveal their furry present.

'Dogs? Are they real?' an excited-sounding Hunter exclaimed.

The pair seem confused until Roxy explains 'It's Oreo,' prompting squeals of delight from the cute siblings.

It comes after Roxy revealed to Daily Mail Australia that she finally told the truth about her husband's incarceration to Pixie - after the PR queen had previously admitted she told her kids Oliver Curtis was on a business trip.

'I needed to tell her that I lied, and that lying wasn't the right thing to do - but in the circumstance I was in, I needed to do it,' Roxy said.

Mother of the year! Pixie and Hunter squealed with excitement when they saw the cardboard box in their dining room contained a new puppyThey're two of Britain's best young acting talents.

And Lily James and her boyfriend Matt Smith swapped film sets for the runway on Saturday when they attended the Burberry show during London Fashion Week in style.

The 28-year-old Baby Driver star made a statement in a black dress with gold embroidery detailing and a sexy sheer bodice.

Dynamic duo: Lily James and her boyfriend Matt Smith swapped film sets for the runway on Saturday when they attended the Burberry show during London Fashion Week in style

The quirky number also featured a silk sash cinching in her waist, with sheer panel at the bottom offering a glimpse of her black stilettos.

Lily wore her hair swept back in a glamorous updo, which she accessorised with statement earrings.

She kept her make-up soft and natural, with a bronze eye shadow and a pale pink lip.

Stylish from head to toe: The quirky number also featured a silk sash cinching in her waist, with sheer panel at the bottom offering a glimpse of her black stilettos

Matt cut an edgy figure in an all-lack ensemble, including a casual, rope embellished sweater.

He laced a protective arm around Lily's shoulders as the pair posed ahead of the runway presentation.

The couple looked pleased to be reunited after having spent the past couple of months apart, with Lily working on the sequel to Mamma! Mia in Croatia.

Glamorous: Lily wore her hair swept back in a glamorous updo, which she accessorised with statement earrings

FROW fashionistas: The Cinderella actress posed up a storm with Tessa Thompson

Lily will play Meryl Streep's character Donna, way before she became Mamma Mia! heroine Sophie's mother or the owner of the Villa Donna from the first film.

Meanwhile, Matt has been busy on the promotional tour for series two of his Emmy and Golden Globe winning show, The Crown.

The Netflix hit which premiered last Friday, is the last series where Claire and Matt will play Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Series three of The Crown will see Olivia Colman take on the role of the monarch during the 1950s and '60s. It has not yet been announced who will play Prince Philip.

Keeping it casual: Matt cut an edgy figure in an all-lack ensemble, including a casual, rope embellished sweaterBRIAN VINER: All films fall broadly into one of three categories: they are either more than, equal to, or less than the sum of their parts. Stillwater belongs squarely in that third group.She's the sprightly reality star who found love with Lee Elliot on The Bachelorette.

And Georgia Love may have been getting some inspiration for the future of their relationship as she attended an engagement party on Sunday.

The bubbly brunette took to Instagram to share a number of uploads from the festivities, before publicly declaring that she was 'obsessed' with her beau.

Getting some inspiration? Georgia Love and Lee Elliot may have been gathering some ideas as they attended an engagement party in Sydney on Sunday

The lavish bash was held at Watson's Bay Boutique Hotel in Sydney's swanky eastern suburbs, with Georgia posing outside the venue for a photo she later shared to Instagram.

In the snap, the aspiring anchorwoman faced away from the camera, showing off the tie-strings on the back of her dress.

She captioned the photo with the claim that Lee 'told me I looked like a sexy yellow rack of lamb'.

Happy snap: Georgia posed outside the engagement party's venue for a photo she later shared to Instagram

Throughout the engagement party, Georgia had her phone close at hand, keeping her fans enthralled with a steady stream of uploads to her Instagram Stories.

With one short clip, the presenter proved she is just as talented behind the camera as she is in front of it, scanning her phone around the room so as to take in the scenic surrounds.

'I mean it's an OK place for an engagement party I guess...' the star humorously captioned the brief video.

Thrilling her fans: With one short clip, the presenter proved she was just as talented behind the camera as she is in front of it, scanning her phone around the room so as to take in the scenic surrounds

It appears her pal's impending nuptials had Georgia in a loved-up state of mind even as she left Sydney to head back to her home city of Melbourne.

The Studio 10 fill-in panellist was seen at the domestic airport wearing a T-shirt by the brand Lee, a coincidence that wasn't lost on her beau who shares the same name.

Sharing a side-splitting Instagram Story, Georgia drew a speech bubble coming from Lee's mouth accompanied by the words: 'Why you so obsessed with me?'

It appears if Georgia's job in journalism doesn't work out, she may have a career in comedy, as she added a subsequent self-deprecating post which read: 'But actually I am obsessed'.She's the outspoken Real Housewife of Sydney who regularly takes aim at co-star Krissy Marsh.

But it looks like Lisa Oldfield, 43, has set her sights on a new victim as she enters the South African jungle on 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.'

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Sunday, the camp's newest intruder didn't mince words when it came to Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell.

'Let the poor lady rest in peace': Real Housewife of Sydney Lisa Oldfield and husband David have SLAMMED royal butler Paul Burrell accusing him of milking 'that poor dead princess,' for 20 years

'He has been milking that poor dead princess 20 years on ... Let the poor lady rest in peace,' straight-talking Lisa said.

'Or if he wants to keep talking about it, lets hear who she shagged. The first question I am going to ask is did she shag Bryan Adams?'

Meanwhile, her former One Nation staffer husband David echoed the sentiment as well, adding he didn't like Paul or recently eliminated actress Kerry Armstrong.

Sparks will fly! Lisa didn't mince words when discussing royal butler Paul, saying he should 'let the poor lady rest in peace,' after spectacularly hitting out at him

'In the case of Paul Burrell, he seems to be making a living off a dead princess,' David said.

'I dont know how long that goes on for, that seems to be the whole reason for his life.'

David also freely admitted the pair will probably be doing most of the fighting on the show, which won't be a massive change from their roles on RHOS.

He added he thinks they 'shock' people with how 'cruel,' they are with each other.

Not so fast! David also took a swipe at recently eliminated actress Kerry Armstrong

The husband and wife duo were slammed on social media following the announcement they would be the 'dysfunctional couple,' going on the reality show.

Speaking in a clip shown on Sunday night, Lisa said: 'I'm a long suffering wife and I deserve a George's Cross for putting up with this.'

David shot back: 'She's an extraordinary actress who managed to cast me to be perceived as a villain. Lisa is very affable and makes friends very easily because she's fake.'

(Un)welcome guests? Lisa and David Oldfield are set to enter the camp on Monday night and have already taken a swipe at a number of the camp mates

Viewers flocked to Twitter to express their dismay at the reality stars' arrival into the camp.

'Why oh why does Aust TV continue to give morons like David Oldfield broadcast oxygen??? #beatsme #imacelebrity,' one wrote.

'Ugh already saw Oldfield on TV last year. Had enough of his bulls**t. Why gotta keep bringing trash when they take themselves out?' another vented.Former Home and Away star Johnny Ruffo shocked the nation six months ago when he announced he was diagnosed with brain cancer.

And as the actor continues to bravely face his health battle, his former co-star Ray Meagher has provided an update on Johnny's well-being.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia this week, the Gold Logie winner explained that Johnny was doing well despite his health woes.

EXCLUSIVE: 'He's still as sharp as a tack!' Home and Away veteran Ray Meagher (left) provided an update on former co-star Johnny Ruffo (right) as he faces cancer battle

'I had coffee with Ruffo the other day. You probably know that he's having a problem with brain cancer at the moment,' Ray, who plays iconic character Alf on the long-running soap, explained.

'But he's still as sharp as a tack. We had a coffee and a good yarn.'

Ray added that he enjoyed catching up with the former X Factor contestant and hoped Johnny would bounce back to full health soon.

'He's a good boy Johnny and it was nice to see him and he was in really good spirits and we wish him a speedy recovery,' Ray said.

'He was in really good spirits' Ray said it was good to catch up with Johnny over coffee and everyone was wishing him a speedy recovery

Dramatic scenes: Recalling a near-death scene with Johnny on Home and Away alongside Johnny, Ray remembered: 'He had to row the boat and his rowing skills are as about as good as mine, it's a wonder we both didn't drown.'

Ray also fondly recalled one of the most memorable scenes on Home and Away that he and Johnny had together.

While on a boat together, Alf lost consciousness after an incident when Johnny's character Chris accidentally added death cap mushrooms to a batch of risotto he whipped up - which Alf made the mistake of consuming.

Laughing while reminiscing on the scenes, Ray recalled: 'He had to row the boat and his rowing skills are as about as good as mine, it's a wonder we both didn't drown.'

Last week, the Australian star gave his own update on The Morning Show, revealing: 'I've got a little way to go now but everything's looking good and is on the mend.'

New project! The Gold Logie nominee has just released Ray's Flamin' Hot Sauce

Meanwhile, Ray has had his hands full launching a new tasty-looking condiment: Ray's Flamin' Hot Sauce

The side project, which was launched with the help of GoDaddy, has been in Ray's sights for years, he admitted.

'It's something that's been bubbling away in the background for a long long time and it sort of started when I was a kid in the bush,' he confessed.

The established actor explained that when he was nine years old, he and his brothers would head out into the bush with slices bread with mutton on it as their lunch and added Worcestershire sauce to it, where he developed a taste for the flavour.

'Then of course I graduated to all sorts of hot sauces and chilli sauces as I got older and I love spicy foods now,' he said.She is one of fashion's leading advocates for body confidence.

And Daisy Lowe showcased her sensational figure in all it's glory on Sunday as she slipped her gym-honed physique into a tight-fitting burgundy midi at Roland Mouret's show during London Fashion Week.

The British model was joined by Downton Abbey's Michelle Dockery, who put on an elegant display in a chic strapless jumpsuit.

Style savvy: Daisy Lowe, 29, (left) and Michelle Dockery, 36, (right) turned heads in their chic ensembles at Roland Mouret's show during London Fashion Week on Sunday

Stylish Daisy, 29, ensured all eyes were on her as she graced the event in her clingy number, which featured subtle ruffles and floral prints throughout.

The London native still managed to flaunt a glimpse at her leggy pins through the garment's high-low hem detail.

The Strictly Come Dancing star wore her brunette locks in a sleekly straight style as she enhanced her beautiful facial features with grunge-inspired makeup.

Wow-factor! The London native still managed to flaunt a glimpse at her leggy pins through the garment's high-low hem detail

Gorgeous: Stylish Daisy ensured all eyes were on her as she graced the event in her clingy number, which featured subtle ruffles and floral prints throughout

Raven-haired beauty: The Strictly Come Dancing star wore her brunette locks in a sleekly straight style as she enhanced her beautiful facial features with grunge-inspired makeup

Stood on a pair of patent heels from Christian Louboutin, the raven-haired star accessorised with a dainty silver necklace as she took to the FROW to view the fashion forward exhibit by the French designer.

Michelle, 36, also put on a trendy display as she donned a sartorially chic jumpsuit, while draping a cropped jacket on her shoulders.

Teaming her all-black ensemble with peep-toe heels, the English actress wore her tresses in loose curls as she commanded attention at the event.

Her gorgeous porcelain complexion was complemented with a brown smokey-eye, lashings of mascara and light pink lip gloss.

Stunner: Michelle also put on a trendy display as she donned a sartorially chic jumpsuit, while draping a cropped jacket on her shoulders

Making a statement! The English actress wore her tresses in loose curls as she commanded attention at the event

Front row: Beaming Daisy was joined by Dakota Blue Richards, Clara Mcgregor, Yasmin Le Bon, Amber Le Bon, and Arizona Muse (L-R)

Screen stars! Michelle was spotted chumming up to Jumanji's Karen Gillian (right)

Bold: Her gorgeous porcelain complexion was complemented with a brown smokey eye, lashings of mascara and light pink lip gloss

Simon Cowell's partner Lauren Silverman also made a show-stopping entrance while spotted heading to the star-studded event.

Clad in an off-shoulder orange top with wide leg bottoms, the American socialite beamed as she teamed her stand-out number with a gold-embroidered belt.

The 40-year-old protected her eyes behind a trendy pair of cat-eye sunglasses while clutched onto a simple black handbag.

Pretty in orange: Simon Cowell's partner Lauren Silverman also made a show-stopping entrance while spotted heading to the star-studded eventThe Logie Awards has spent almost every year in Melbourne.

But on July 1st, the ceremony will relocate to the Gold Coast as part of a four-year deal with the Queensland Government.

The move is expected to shake up the show in more ways than one, with Sonia Kruger predicting that the shift to a warmer city will result in a racier red carpet.

Dare to bare? Sonia Kruger has predicted that the fashion at the Logies will become much racier when the show moves from Melbourne to the Gold Coast this year

'The fashion might be a little bit more daring,' she told the Courier Mail.

The blonde beauty also said that she believes the 'parties will be huge' on the Gold Coast.

The Logies has been held at Melbourne's Crown Towers every year since 1997.

While Sonia is clearly excited to see the awards ceremony change location, not every industry figure is quite as keen.

'The fashion might be a little bit more daring,' said the 2-year-old television presenter

More daring than THIS?! Jodi Anasta and Sophie Monk have both previously flaunted some flesh on the Logies red carpet

Last September, Karl Stefanovic lashed out on the Today show after whispers first emerged that the Logies would leave Melbourne.

'This is disgusting, I will be boycotting the Logies until they are back in Melbourne at Crown Casino,' a furious Karl told viewers.

The Logies have been held in Melbourne for the past 30 years, with the ceremony hosted at Crown Casino, owned by Karl's mate James Packer.

Karl launched several tirades against the Victorian Government's decision to opt out of bidding for the Logiers, claiming premier Daniel Andrews had 'lost the plot'.

Boo hoo! Last September, Karl Stefanovic lashed out on the Today show after whispers first emerged that the Logies would leave Melbourne

'I am not happy about this Logies situation with Melbourne,' Karl said.

'For a million bucks the advertising Victoria gets is second to none ... this is disgusting - I will be boycotting the Logies until they are back in Melbourne at Crown Casino.'

Karl has been a regular fixture at the TV night of nights, famously hosting the Today show while drunk after the ceremony in 2009.

He also won a Gold Logie for most popular personality in 2011.Jeremy McConnell allegedly joked about the assault on his ex Stephanie Davis during a 'rough' one-night stand with a mother-of-two.

The Mirror reports the model, 27, enjoyed a one-night-stand with a woman he met on Instagram and was said to have 'laughed and joked' about the attack on Stephanie, which left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, saying she 'deserved it.'

Celebrity Big Brother star Jeremy was convicted of assaulting Stephanie as she held their then eight-week-old son Caben in her arms last March.

Claims: Jeremy McConnell allegedly joked about the assault on his ex Stephanie Davis during a 'rough' one-night stand with a mother-of-two (pictured on February 7 2018_

Former flame: The Mirror reports the model, 27, enjoyed a one-night-stand with the woman he met on Instagram and was said to have 'laughed and joked' about the attack on Stephanie (above with their son Caben, 13 months)

The woman told the website: 'He was laughing about the assault on Steph while I was there. And then he started laughing about the post traumatic stress disorder.'

'He would make little remarks, something like, she deserved it, or Ill do that like I did to Steph kind of thing.

'He talks about her so much. It was almost as though he was trying to get her back or something.'

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she first chatted to Jeremy before joining him at a hotel in London during fashion week.

Model: The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she first chatted to Jeremy before joining him at a hotel in London during fashion week

She alleges that Jeremy was 'rough' in bed, leaving her with a bruised collarbone and 'massive' unwanted love bite on her neck.

The woman also said Jeremy 'leaned on her so she couldn't breathe properly' and dug his legs into hers, causing her pain.

She claims as the pair were having sex, Jeremy told her he wished to get her pregnant, which she said he 'tells everybody.'

Calling Jeremy a 'horrid, horrid person'. she said the experience left her feeling 'awful' and that she couldn't wait to leave.

Beginnings: Jeremy and Stephanie first met on the January 2016 series of Celebrity Big Brother

She also claims Jeremy, who has spoken only about his cocaine addiction, spoke about using the drug 'later' although he did not drink alcohol or do drugs when she was there.

Jeremy's representative declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

Messages shared with the website appear to show Jeremy telling the woman his nose was still swollen, after he reportedly went under the knife for emergency surgery on his septum.

The woman blocked him on Instagram and said she went public with her story to warn others about 'what he is like.'

Turbulent romance: Jeremy was convicted of domestic assault on Stephanie in August

In March, a court heard how Jeremy had thrown the soap actress 'around like a rag doll' during the attack, and was handed a 20 week suspended sentence and 200 hours community service in August.

Jeremy was later sentenced to 18 weeks in prison after skipping out eight community service sessions while jetting off to Turkey for a hair and beard transplant.

Jeremy recently spoke to The Sun about his well-documented cocaine addiction, revealing he would snort 200 worth of the Class A substance while doing 'double-barrelled lines'.

The star underwent emergency surgery on his septum in Poland this month to repair the damage following years of drug abuse.

Jeremy said: 'There were times when I would get 200, shove it up my nose and do double barrelled lines. We used to call them the M50 after the motorway in Dublin.

Stephanie and Jeremy met and fell in love on Celebrity Big Brother two years ago, when the actress was already in a relationship.

Over the next year the couple's turbulent relationship played out in the press before Stephanie fell pregnant.Advertisement

Jennifer Lawrence put on a typically chic display on Sunday evening, when she stepped out in head-turning style ahead of presenting an award onstage at the annual BAFTAs.

The Oscar-winning actress, 27, wowed as she made her way to London's Royal Albert Hall in a breathtaking black gown - in support of the Time's up movement - which featured an angular neckline with white chiffon straps.

She was joined at the ceremony by fellow Hollywood screen stars Angelina Jolie, 42, and Margot Robbie, 27, who exuded old Hollywood glamour in black gowns as they joined the protest in memorable style

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Old Hollywood glamour: Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie and Margot Robbie led the glamour - and stood in solidarity with the Time's Up movement - as they arrived at the BAFTAs, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday night

Angelina and Jennifer's choice of wearing black gowns saw them standing in solidarity with the Time's Up movement, which has been a dominant theme at Hollywood awards shows this season.

Mother-of-six Angelina amped up the glamour, adding glittering Graff chandelier earrings - featuring 32.98 carats of diamonds - to her custom Ralph & Russo ensemble, which included a matching velvet wrap and vertiginous black heels.

With her raven tresses swept back in a sleek bun, she highlighted her natural beauty with a flattering palette of makeup that included a nude pink lipstick and smokey eye-shadow.

Sweetheart: Her custom Ralph & Russo dress featured a plunging sweetheart neckline, which she complemented with a matching velvet wrap

Diamonds are forever: The glam mother-of-six amped up the glamour, adding glittering chandelier earrings to her ensemble

Sweeping train: As she made her way down the red carpet, the star posed up a storm in her gown, showing off her long train

Jovial: The 42-year-old actress smiled and waved to her adoring fans as she made her arrival on the glam red carpet event

Good spirits: She appeared to be in decidedly good spirits as she posed for photographers gathered at the awards ceremony

In the details: She accentuated her famous plump pout with a slick of nude lipstick, letting her natural beauty shine through

Tatt's the way to do it: As she posed on the red carpet, the screen star peeled off her shawl to reveal her sizeable back tattoo

Picture perfect: Keeping her angles picture perfect, Angelina posed for selfies with a large group of excited fans at the venue

Angelina looked thrilled to be joined by her long-term friend as they soaked up the glamorous atmosphere together, hugging and joking while they made their way into the star-studded venue.

Loung Ung, who she has known for 16 years, complemented Angelina and showed her support for the worthwhile initiative by wearing a black full-length gown which featured sheer panelling.

Loung wrote the book First They Killed My Father, which Angelina adapted into her directorial passion, which told the story of a young girl's version of the 1975 Cambodian genocide from the child's five-year-old eyes until she turns nine.

Girls' night out: Angelina, 42, beamed as she arrived on the red carpet in a breath-taking designer gown, accompanied by her pal, human rights activist and author, Loung Ung

Giggling: The pair hugged and giggled as they posed together for photographers gathered on the star-studded red carpet

Having fun: The pals appeared in jovial spirits as they lapped up the celebratory atmosphere at the exclusive celebrity event

Fun-filled: The friends appeared to keep each other entertained, chatting and laughing away together, amid the carpet chaos

Making an arrival: The brunette beauty arrived at the venue in one of the chauffeur-driven Audi cars provided for the VIPs

Beauty: Angelina sported a dramatic smokey eye, while a large, dazzling diamond ring wrestled for attention on her hand

Signing off: Angelina happily signed autographs for her fans, a number of whom arrived bearing snapshots of the A-list star

Deadline previously reported that when Angelina was in Cambodia while in her 20s, she purchased Loung Ung's book from a street corner and became fascinated by the story.

She said: 'I didnt realize how much my education was lacking and how much I needed to learn. This book was an education for me  about refugees and what children go through in a war. I wanted to find Loung.'

Angelina revealed that Loung went to Cambodia with her to adopt her eldest son Maddox, 16, and reflected on how she wanted to find the author after reading her book.

Standing in solidarity: The actresses wore black in solidarity with the Time's Up movement, in reaction to the sexual harassment scandal sweeping Hollywood. It marked the first major awards show where the protest was put into place

Commanding attention: The stunning actress commanded attention as she posed in the centre of the star-studded red carpet

Cream delight: The star complemented her breathtaking Christian Dior gown with a cream chiffon accent, which wrapped around her back

Natural beauty: She highlighted her natural beauty with a palette of makeup that included siren red lipstick and a deep blush

Stunning: Earlier in the evening, the Oscar-winning actress turned heads as she left her London hotel to head to the ceremony

Show-stopping: The star teamed her dress with an embellished black clutch bag, which added to her show-stopping look

She shared: 'It was an education about refugees and what children go through in a war. I wanted to find her.'

'We clicked right away,' Loung added. 'She was really, really authentic. She hates it when I gush about her in public, but shes a really cool person.'

First They Killed My Father faces off stiff competition in the Best Foreign Language Film against Elle, The Handmaiden, Loveless and The Salesman.

Stunning: Margot also stepped out in style, wearing a sleeveless, high-neckline Givenchy dress, which featured an embroidered skirt

Dazzle: With her golden tresses resting about her shoulders in soft waves, she complemented her outfit with dazzling earrings

Strike a pose: Before ascending the stairs to enter the imposing venue, she posed for more snapshots for photographers

Starry: Ahead of making her way to the event, the Australian beauty shared a picture on Instagram of her stunning look

Accessorising her outfit with dangling emerald earrings, blonde beauty Jennifer opted to wear her golden locks down in a bone-straight style with a centre-parting, while siren red lipstick added a flourish of colour of her look.

The actress and philanthropist proudly displayed the dramatic train on her gown as she posed on the red carpet for the large gathering of photographers gathered at the hot-ticket event.

Margot also made a stylish arrival, hitting the red carpet in a floor-length, sleeveless Givenchy gown, which boasted a high neckline and semi-sheer overlay, descending into an intricately embroidered skirt.

Sensational: Pregnant Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (centre) - who is expecting her third child - looked radiant in a sweeping dark green gown by Jenny Packham as she arrived with her husband the Duke of Cambridge

Emerald green: She accessorised with a stunning diamond and emerald necklace, which she teamed with matching earrings

baby bump: Her baby bump was on prominent display as she mingled with a host of film and TV talent from all over the wold

Radiant: Kate, who is set to celebrate seven years of marriage to William in April, looked happy and radiant on the red carpet

Boss: William and Kate walked down the red carpet with BAFTA chief executive Amanda Berry, who also stepped out in style

Revel: The couple appeared to be revelling in their night off from parental duties as they made their way down the red carpet

Making a grand entrance: The trio made a graceful ascent into the venue, moments before the ceremony was due to begin

With her blonde hair resting about her shoulders in gentle waves, she accessorised with dazzling earrings, while she toted a small, embellished black clutch bag.

As part of their participation in the Time's Up protest, the stars entered the imposing venue with movement activists by the side, further highlighting their dedication to the cause.

Also present on the night was Rochelle Humes, 28, who showed off her sleek figure in an extreme plunging black Suzanne Neville gown as she hit the red carpet ahead of presenting for EE.

Added sparkle: Actress Salma Hayek injected colour into her figure-hugging black Gucci gown with a pink floral embellishment

Intricate design: The pretty pattern ran along the plunging neckline and featured at the shoulders, the waist and at the cuffs

Salma plus one: She arrived at the BAFTAs on the arm of billionaire business mogul husband Francois-Henri Pinault

Exuding confidence: The Mexican-born beauty exuded confidence as she posed on the glittering gala's expansive red carpet

Strong: Speaking to Sky News, Salma discussed Time's Up and reflected on how it's made her feel 'stronger' for speaking out

Proudly displaying her natural curls, she added a dash of colour with oversized turquoise cocktail rings as she posed with one hand on her hip.

The event is being held at the Royal Albert Hall in for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

Rochelle wore black in support of the Time's Up movement, which raises awareness of sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace and helps sexual assault survivors take legal action against their abusers.

Sharing the red carpet with the Dagenham Girls: Gemma Arterton (centre) was accompanied by former sewing machine operators Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis on the BAFTAs red carpet

Girl power: Screen star Gemma appeared proud to have such brave figures by her side on the celebrity-packed night

Striking: The actress wore an elegant Alberta Ferretti dress that featured a ruffled one shoulder aspect, Gina shoes, Ara Vartanian jewellery and a Jimmy Choo clutch

Support: Gemma looked delighted to be sharing the red carpet with activists Eileen and Gwen as they posed together

Glamour: The star showcased her toned curves in the elegant ruffled gown, which featured an asymmetrical front design

Inspirational: All three women looked glamorous in their black gowns as they posed ahead of the glam awards ceremony

Elegant actress: Her dress swept the floor in a subtle ruffle design, which fanned from the the cinched waistline of her gown

Smile: The star was every inch the Hollywood heavyweight as she smiled at the crowds gathered outside the awards gala

She said: Being a woman, even before I had children, I had young cousins and things, I think its an important thing to do, and especially now Ive got children too.

Its a powerful message, its a strong thing to do, obviously its a night to celebrate everyones work, but fashion will always be what makes headlines the next day, thats what makes these things work.

'Showing your support in that way, using that as a platform, using that to get the message across, is a positive thing, everyone is united in doing it together, it's powerful.'

Sophisticated: Kate Mara couldn't have been prouder of Best Actor nominee husband Jamie Bell as she joined him at the gala

Shimmering ensemble: The big-screen queen added extra sparkle with a diamond choker and chic ear cuff, and took the opportunity to flash her wedding ring

Cute couple: The Fantastic Four star flaunted her sensational physique in the form-fitting Christian Dior floor-grazer

Suit you! While Jamie complemented Kate's red carpet look in a Burberry tuxedo

Beautiful: Rochelle Humes showed off her sleek figure in an extreme plunging black Suzanne Neville gown as she led the stars walking down the red carpet at the BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night

Gorgeous: Opting to wear black to support the Time's Up movement, the 28-year-old looked incredible as she posed for snaps ahead of her presenting gig for EE on the night

Important cause: Kristin Scott Thomas (left) wore a long monochrome Christian Dior number and wore a Time's Up badge in a bid to show her support and fellow actress Andrea Riseborough (right), followed suit in a thigh-split number by Elie Saab

Friends: Andrea caught up with Time's Up activist Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, who accompanied her down the red carpet

Important cause: The friends posed alongside one another on the red carpet once inside the venue

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

A-list actress, Kristin Scott Thomas, 57, wore a long monochrome Christian Dior number and wore a Time's Up badge in a bid to show her support.

And fellow actress Andrea Riseborough, 36, followed suit in a thigh-split number by Elie Saab to walk down the red carpet with Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, co-founder of UK Black Pride from 2005.

As well as being a trustee of gay rights group Stonewall, she was formerly head of political campaigns and equality at the Public and Commercial Services trade union.

Style savvy: (Pictured L;R) Anya Taylor Joy - who donned Dolce & Gabbana, Letitia Wright sported Gucci and Greta Gerwing wore Jonathan Cohen on the carpet

Style queens: Sally Hawkins donned Ralph & Rosso while Isabelle Huppert (R) wore Armani Prive

Fashion footsteps: Natalie Dormer stunned in custom Alberta Ferretti alongside Caitriona Balfe in The Row and Octavia Spencer in Sachin & Babi (Pictured L-R)

Yummy mummy! Rebecca Ferguson debuted her baby bump on the red carpet as she attended the star-studded awards show

Elegant: The 34-year-old Swedish actress debuted her baby bump on the red carpet, wearing a black cape gown by Stella McCartney, Rupert Sanderson shoes and sporting the Time's Up badge in support of their sexual harassment protest

Film: She plays rogue former MI6 agent Isla Faust in the next Mission Impossible film, alongside Tom Cruise and Sean Harris

Sizzling! Rebecca, who previously starred in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation in 2015, confirmed her pregnancy on the Graham Norton show in January

Out soon: Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which is still filming in London, is slated to hit movie theatres on July 27

Bond: Marai Larasi, (right) arrived as a guest of Tessa Thompson (left) and she is the executive director of Imkaan, a British black feminist organisation which campaigns against violence towards black, minority ethnic and refugee women and girls

Strong bond: Afua Hirsch came as a guest of Naomie Harris - who donned Zuhair Murad and DeBeers jewels. The Guardian journalist hit the headlines in 2017 when she suggested Admiral Nelsons statue in Trafalgar Square should be taken down because he was a white supremacist

According to Vogue, members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes.'

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

Also joining the cause was former TOWIE star Lydia Bright, 28, who showed off her curves in a beautiful strapless fishtail gown by AloNuko which flattered her figure perfectly. She sported a golden glow after her recent trip to Cape Verde.

Best Actress? Saoirse Ronan dazzled in a semi-sheer sequined black dress by Chanel with feathered fringing as she walked the red carpet at the BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday

Hair she goes: Her contrasting blonde locks were tied up into an elegant chignon, with elegant drop earrings to add a touch of sparkle and an oversized cocktail ring

Working it: She teamed the outfit with a pair of simple black platform shoes, complete with ankle strap by Jimmy Choo as she posed confidently on the red carpet with her Cartier jewellery

Commanding attention: Karen Gillan returned to her British roots as she graced the star-studded red carpet at the 71st BAFTA Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday in a Vera Wang design

Ultra glam: The ultra-glam look spoke for itself as Karen added a touch of sparkle with her Norman Silverman earrings, but did amplify her natural beauty with a dusting of pink blush and a smokey eye

Strut her stuff: Karen exuded glamour as she posed up a storm on the red carpet, heightening her statuesque frame in classic black skyscraper heels

All that glitters: Hofit Golan made a glamorous arrival at the event, stepping out in a glittering metallic silver gown

Silver siren: She was one of the few attendees who opted not to wear a black gown to the event, per the Time's Up protest

Showered with kisses: She blew kisses at red carpet photographers as she put on a bold display in her deeply plunging gown

Meanwhile, Dermot O'Leary and wife Dee Koppang complemented one another perfectly in their matching ensembles.

They arrived shortly after Sian Welby, who was the first celebrity to walk the red carpet on the night.

The television presenter, 31, looked incredible as she dared to go underwear free under her semi-sheer panelled black dress.

Angled: Lupita Nyong'o wowed as she made her way down the red carpet in a stunning black Elie Saab gown with an angled silhouette

Glittering: Lighting up her ensemble with drop statement earrings, the Oscar-winning actress also sported a Time's Up badge

Metallic detailing: The Mexican-born, Kenyan-raised actress' chic high-neckline dress featured metallic detailing throughout

Promotional trail: Days before, she was in South Africa as part of her promotional trail for her new blockbuster Black Panther

Looking good: Lydia Bright wore an incredible fishtail strapless gown by AloNuko which suited her figure perfectly

Power couple: Dermot O'Leary and wife Dee Koppang complemented one another perfectly in their matching ensembles

Work mode: The popular TV personality soon got into work mode as he took on presenting duties on the expansive red carpet

She teamed the number with a studded pair of nude strappy heels, which gave a glimpse of her inked feet.

Presenter Edith Bowman, 44, looked resplendent in a brocade strapless number which was cinched in at the waist

The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk, I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

A (near) Royal delight! Cressida Bonas certainly ensured all eyes were on her as she arrived at the annual ceremony in style

Respecting the dress code! The English model turned actress, 29, stunned in a floor-length strappy black gown by Armani Prive as she arrived

Staying mum! She is yet to comment on the news that Harry will marry Meghan next spring, after a year and a half of dating

Ruffling feathers! While the fitted bodice accentuated her petite frame, the elegant floor-length skirt boasted an array of ruffles, teasing a peek of her peep-toe sandals

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

Her Finest Hour: Lily James, 28, stunned in a show-stopping Burberry ballgown but it was the diamond sparkler on her ring finger which commanded attention as she arrived to London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday for the BAFTAs

Sparkling: The blonde beauty, who began dating actor Matt Smith in 2014, looked positively regal in her sweetheart-necklined number from the British fashion house while her ring sparkled on the carpet

Sensational: The former Downton Abbey star made sure all eyes were on her as she walked the carpet solo in stunning style

Dramatic: Beaming as she posed for cameras, she showed off hr choice of ensemble, which featured a striking frill-tiered train

Bag it up! She carried a velvet Tyler Ellis clutch in her manicured hand, proudly displaying her participation in the Time's Up protest

Head-turning: She sported a few bracelets around her slender wrist

Excitment: The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House

One on the way? Hugh Grant's 'pregnant' girlfriend Anna Eberstein looked chic in a short black dress and smart blazer as she cosied up to the Paddington 2 star on Sunday evening

Expecting something? Savvy onlookers would be able to see the hint of a bump at Anna's waist, if they were shrewd enough - yet neither Anna nor Hugh have confirmed this news

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful BAFTA colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

Bag: Helena Bonham Carter looked suitably regal as she seemed to give a nod to her new role in The Crown with her Dolce & Gabbana handbag while wearing a statement Vivienne Westwood dress

Old pals: She walked the red carpet with acclaimed American screenwriter James Ivory, 89, who was nominated for his work on the screenplay and as producer for Call Me By Your Name

Colleagues: James, who has worked with Helena on A Room With A View and Howard's End, looked dapper in a black suit and bow tie as he chivalrously escorted the actress along the red carpet

Joyful: Seasoned actress Helena looked sensational in her slinky black gown as she smiled for the cameras on the red carpet

Star studded! Emma Roberts made the trip across the pond to attend the star-studded BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall and had her mane tended to by renowned hairstylist Paul Edmonds

Turning heads! The American actress, 27, put on a stunning display in a black power dress by Schiaparelli, conforming to the suggested black dress code to support Time's Up protests

Taking the plunge: Actress Florence Pugh dazzled as she arrived at the awards ceremony in a plunging Miu Miu strappy black dress

Knuckleduster: The British star opted to wear her Time's Up badge as a knuckleduster, which she pointed at photographers, while her mane was worked into a modern updo by Paul Edmonds

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

She means business! Millie Mackintosh commanded attention in a plunging halter-neck jumpsuit by Pronovias and diamonds as she arrived

All in place? The halter-neck design highlighted her lean arms and the plunging V-neck allowed Millie to fully show off the David Morris diamonds around her neck

Accessorise: She matched this accessory with a bracelet of the same design and was sure to flash her engagement ring - yet other half Hugo Taylor was not in attendance

Captivating beauty: Bollywood actress Amy Jackson wowed as she arrived on the red carpet in a deeply plunging black dress by Julian Macdonald

Looking sensational: Laura Bailey looked sensational as she arrived at the awards gala wearing a sweeping A-line black dress

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Turning heads: Allison Janney turned heads as she arrived in an unconventional black dress, which featured a gold neckline

Golden girl: The Bibhu Mohapatra gown's gold neckline was attacked to her sleeves, which the bare centre have the look of a large cut-out

Moment of glory: She cut a glamorous figure as she enjoyed her solo moment of posing in front of the sweeping outdoor stairs which she paired with Messika jewellery

Trousers: Ruth Wilson was one of few actress in attendance who opted to forgo a gown in favour of wearing a Christian Dior trouser suit

Making waves: The brunette beauty's hair rested about her shoulders in soft waves, while she sported a smudge of red lipstick

Stunner: Sian Welby was the first celebrity to walk the red carpet as she went underwear free under a semi-sheer black dress

Hostess with her mostess: Presenter Edith Bowman, 44, looked resplendent in a brocade strapless number which was cinched in at the waist

Metal marvel: Presenter Victoria Bonya veered away from the black dress code, adding a metallic feel to her Aniiiqa look

Form-fitting: Jackie St Clair swanned down the red carpet in style, arriving in a form-fitting gown with a thigh-high side slit

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent were women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010.

BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told Saturdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

The EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, was a battle between Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson. Get Out star Daniel emerged the winner.

Twinning: Actors Gary Oldman, left, and Taron Egerton right, wore near-identical classic black tuxedos with crisp white shirts, however Taron was clad in Burberry

Badge: Showing solidarity with the large majority of other attendees at the televised awards show, he wore a Time's Up badge

Pairing up: Taron posed with a pretty companion, while Willem Defoe arrived with his actress wife Giada Colagrande, right

Spreading her wings: Blogger and actress Tanya Burr also attended, wearing a pretty Valentino dress

Stylish gents: (L-R) Orlando Bloom, Daniel Kaluuya - who was clad in Burberry - and Nicholas Hault put on dapper displays as they hit the gala's red carpet

Black to basics: Handsome father-of-one Orlando teamed his stylish Stella McCartney tuxedo jacket with a black shirt, opting to forgo a bow tie

Sign of the times: After posing for photographers gathered at the event, he stopped to sign autographs for a crowd of fans

The crew: En route to the ceremony, Edgar Wright shared a shot of the entire crew behind the nominated picture Baby Driver

Sip up: Ahead of slipping into his tuxedo for the highly-anticipated awards show, Francis Lee, left, enjoyed a drink at the pub

Dapper: (L-R) Mark Mangini, Francis Lee and Edgar Wright all put on a stylish display as they arrived in tuxedos at the event

Cirque: The cast of Cirque du Soleil put on quite the eye-catching display as they hit the red carpet in full colourful costume

Protesting the PM: Also present at the awards ceremony were a group of women protesting Prime Minister Theresa May

Saying it loud: The prostestors linked arms as they chanted and protested on the grounds of the star-studded ceremony

Grounded:: Wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words 'Time's Up Theresa', the women got down on the carpet in protest

End of a long night: After a long night at the awards show, Jennifer Lawrence was spotted heading back to her London hotel

Handlers: The Hollywood actress was guided safely into the building by a small team of handlers as her night came to an endRochelle Humes showed off her sleek figure in an extreme plunging black gown as she led the stars walking down the red carpet at the BAFTAs on Sunday night.

Opting to wear black to support the Time's Up movement, the 28-year-old looked incredible as she posed for snaps ahead of her presenting gig for EE on the night.

The event is being held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

Beautiful: Rochelle Humes showed off her sleek figure in an extreme plunging black gown as she hosted on the red carpet at the BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night

Gorgeous: Opting to wear black to support the Time's Up movement, the 28-year-old looked incredible as she posed for snaps

Proudly displaying her natural curls, she added a dash of colour with oversized turquoise Monica Vinader cocktail rings as she posed with one hand on her hip.

Rochelle wore black in support of the Time's Up movement, which raises awareness of sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace and helps sexual assault survivors take legal action against their abusers.

She said: Being a woman, even before I had children, I had young cousins and things, I think its an important thing to do, and especially now Ive got children too.

Its a powerful message, its a strong thing to do, obviously its a night to celebrate everyones work, but fashion will always be what makes headlines the next day, thats what makes these things work.

Important cause: Rochelle wore black in support of the Time's Up movement, which raises awareness of sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace and helps sexual assault survivors take legal action against their abusers

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

'Showing your support in that way, using that as a platform, using that to get the message across, is a positive thing, everyone is united in doing it together, it's powerful.'

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes.'

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

Candid: In an exclusive chat with MailOnline ahead of her BAFTAs red carpet hosting gig with EE, Rochelle Humes talked about why the dress code is so important

The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk, I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said: Being a woman, even before I had children, I had young cousins and things, I think its an important thing to do, and especially now Ive got children too'

Red carpet moment: The TV presenter chatted to EE Rising Star winner Daniel Kaluuya as he prepared for his big moment in the spotlight

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

She continued: Its a powerful message, its a strong thing to do, obviously its a night to celebrate everyones work, but fashion will always be what makes headlines the next day, thats what makes these things work'

Chatterbox: Rochelle shared a moment with former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan as she walked the red carpet at the Royal Albert Hall

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Talent: Rochelle interviewed EE Rising Star nominee and star of Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, Timothee Chamolet, on the red carpet

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Star-studded: Rochelle also enticed stars, including Celia Imrie (pictured) into the 4GEE Style Scanner, which will capture their red carpet looks and use image recognition technology to find affordable alternativesShe's a former reality television star with a growing lifestyle blog.

But Kelly Bensimon looked every inch the beach babe as she flaunted her fantastic figure while on holiday in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday afternoon.

The 49-year-old bombshell sported a darling pink bikini before covering up in a tight white crocheted beach dress as she caught some sun rays by the shore.

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Pretty in pink! Kelly Bensimon looked every inch the beach babe as she flaunted her fantastic figure while on holiday in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday afternoon

Her Melissa Odabash Cancun Triangle bikini featured delicate golden trim along the shoulder straps.

A playful hot pink and white calypso pattern lined the top and bottoms of the vibrant suit which retails for nearly $230.

Her toned and tanned stomach was on full display in the tiny two-piece, as delicate necklaces highlighted her golden shoulders.

Sun seeker: The 49-year-old bombshell sported a darling pink bikini before covering up in a tight white crocheted beach dress as she caught some sun rays by the shore

Beauty: Her Melissa Odabash Cancun Triangle bikini featured delicate golden trim along the shoulder straps

The former Real Housewives of New York stunner showed off her long blonde hair as she donned a pair of dark sunglasses over her eyes.

Later in the afternoon, Bensimon trekked through the sand wearing a crocheted white dress with thigh-baring slits on either side.

Made from the same designer, the $365 low-back, see-through dress featured long sleeves with an ankle-length hem.

Strike a pose! A playful hot pink and white calypso pattern lined the top and bottoms of the vibrant suit which retails for nearly $230

Covered up: Later in the afternoon, Bensimon trekked through the sand wearing a crocheted white dress with thigh-baring slits on either side

She kicked up her feet and relaxed on a large bright yellow hammock tied to two palm trees in the sand.

Kelly made sure to share some of her outdoor adventures to her nearly 120,000 followers on Instagram.

In one image, she looked ready to catch some waves near a stand-up paddleboard before frolicking on the grass in a gorgeous white Zimmermann sun dress.

The former model shares her two daughters, Sea and Thaddeus, with former photographer husband Giles Bensimon.

Surf's up! Kelly made sure to share some of her outdoor adventures to her nearly 120,000 followers on InstagramAdvertisement

They are preparing to go head-to-head in the best actress category at the glittering 2018 BAFTAs on Sunday night.

And Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan showed they were winners in the glamour stakes as they shared candid behind the scenes photos showing them prepping for one of the biggest nights this award's seasons at the Royal Albert Hall.

Australian actress Margot, 27, who is nominated for her sterling turn in I, Tonya, looked breathtaking as she posed with her blonde locks swept up into a chic chignon and accessorised with glittering silver leaf earrings.

Best actress nominees: Margot Robbie (L) and Saoirse Ronan (R) showed they were winners in the glamour stakes as they shared candid behind the scenes photos showing them prepping for the 2018 BAFTAs

Her make-up look featured metallic eyeshadow, fluttery lashes, peachy cheeks and a soft pink lip.

She appeared to have gone for a dramatic ivory gown, with flamboyant feather detail for the red carpet.

Meanwhile, Saoirse Ronan, 23, who is nominated for her part in coming-of-age drama Lady Bird, looked flawless as she was attended to by her glam squad, with foundation being applied to her radiant visage and her ombre locks being swept into a half updo.

Acclaimed: Screenwriter Edgar Wright (centre) proudly posed with the team behind hit action movie Baby Driver, which is nominated for two awards

Also getting suited and booted for the evening was acclaimed screenwriter Edgar Wright, 43, who donned an all-black suit with white silk handkerchief for a snap with the team behind hit action film Baby Driver.

The film, which starred Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and Jonn Hamm, is nominated in the Best Sound and Best Editing categories.

He proudly captioned the snap 'With my whole BAFTA nominated 'Baby Driver' team on our way to the awards. Love these guys.'

Outstanding British Film nominee: God's Own Country director Francis Lee (R) shared a photo with film stars Josh O'Connor (M) and Alec Secareanu (L) before the ceremony

Nine-times BAFTA-nominated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri took home an incredible five awards at this year's EE British Academy Film Awards.

The stars turned out in force for the award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, to see Three Billboards take home the first award of the night, scooping the Best British Film gong.

But by the end of the evening it had racked up a further two, including the prestigious Best Film and Lead Actress accolades.

Frances McDormand beat Annette Bening [Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool], Margot Robbie [I, Tonya], Sally Hawkins [The Shape Of Water] and Saoirse Ronan [Lady Bird] to scoop the Lead Actress award of the night for her portrayal of Mildred Hayes - a woman looking to hunt down the man that raped and murdered her daughter by hiring three derelict billboards to spread her message.

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

In her speech, she referenced the fact she was not wearing an all-black ensemble, much like her fellow actresses who were supporting the Time's Up initiative in support of battling sexual harassment.

'I have a little trouble with compliance. But I want you to know that I stand in full solidarity with my sisters tonight in black,' she said. 'I appreciate a well-organised act of civil disobedience. I am thrilled that activists all over the world have been inspired by Three Billboards.'

The movie then took the Best Film prize, with McDormand back on stage to join writer Martin McDonagh ad producers Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin. It beat Call Me Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk and The Shape Of Water.

Earlier in the evening, the men were accepting the Best British Film gong, with screenwriter McDonagh - who took home another award for the movie, this time for Best Original Screenplay - joking that hes half Irish so hes not allowed to make the speech.

The movie's next gong went to Sam Rockwell for his Supporting Actor role in the movie.

To his co-star, lead actress McDormand he said: 'Frances you're the rock. You make me proud to be an actor.'

Gary Oldman took the Lead Actor prize for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, beating Daniel Day-Lewis [Phantom Thread], Daniel Kaluuya [Get Out], Jamie Bell [Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool] and Timothee Chalamet [Call Me By Your Name].

Allison Janney took home the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in I, Tonya as Tonya Harding's mother.

'I want to thank BAFTA and clear up a lie,' she said. 'I did not graduate from the Royal Acadmay of Dramatic Art - but I did do a two-week summer programme there - that's probably why I'm here tonight!'

Guillermo Del Toro won the BAFTA for Best Director for The Shape Of Water. Blade Runner 2049's Denis Villeneuve, Call Me By Your Name's Luca Guadagnino, Dunkirk's Christopher Nolan and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri's Martin McDonagh.

Call Me By Your Name took home the gong for Best Adapted Screenplay. Acclaimed American screenwriter James Ivory, 89, looked dapper in a black suit and bow tie as he collected the accolade.

28-year-old Daniel Kaluuya beat out stiff competition from Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson in the EE-sponsored Rising Star category, which was voted for by the public.

He was presented with the award by 2015 Rising Star nominee Margot Robbie, who was nominated in this year's Best Actress category for I, Tonya and Octavia Spencer, who received a nod in the Best Supporting Actress group for The Shape of Water.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.Advertisement

Gemma Arterton, Naomie Harris and Ruth Wilson joined forces with female activists at the EE BAFTAs on Sunday night in a powerful Time's Up protest to 'show solidarity with women who have experienced inequality and abuse.'

The ladies all walked proudly down the red carpet with perhaps their most important plus ones ever at the iconic event held at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Gemma, 32, played one of the leading female activists in the West End dramatisation of the 1968 Ford sewing machinists' strike and she had the privilege of accompanying two of the original pioneers to the event.

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Sharing the red carpet with the Dagenham Girls: Gemma Arterton (centre) was accompanied by former sewing machine operators Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis on the BAFTAs red carpet on Sunday night, at the Royal Albert Hall

Powerful: Time's Up movement campaigning against sexism and inequality supported by: (L to R) Letitia Wright, Hayley Squires, Ruth Wilson, Tessa Thompson, Marai Larasi, Laura Bates, Gemma Chan, Gemma Arterton, Gwen Davis, Andrea Riseborough, Eileen Pullen, Greta Gerwig, Salma Hayek, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah and Barbara Broccoli

Celebrating their work in female activism, the British actress looked proud to share the red carpet with former sewing machine operators Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis.

The two women were among the 187 women staged a three week walk-out from Fords Dagenham plant in June 1968.

They were motivated by the stark divide between male and female workers in the plant, where women were paid 15% less and considered 'unskilled' workers.

The events were made into a film entitled Made In Dagenham in 2010, which was later developed for the stage. The show ran at the Adelphi theatre with former Bond Girl Gemma in the role of Rita.

Girl power: Gemma appeared proud to have such brave figures by her side on the night

Striking: The actress wore an elegant dress that featured a ruffled one shoulder aspect

Support: Gemma looked delighted to be sharing the red carpet with activists Eileen and Gwen

Glamour: The star showcased her toned curves in the elegant ruffled gown

Gemma is tasked with presenting one of the awards on the night, as awards season for film and television comes across the pond.

She looked effortless in a ruffled one-shoulder gown that swept the floor with an elegant train.

The actress paid homage to the Time's Up movement by sticking to the black dress code, with only a subtle slick of claret lipstick to make a glamorous statement. A host of stars also wore Time's Up badges in support of the movement.

Gemma said on the night: 'I think an incredible amount of work has been done in a very short amount of time, there is a real appetite for change, and this is the moment.'

However, the British actress added that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to achieve equality within the film business. Gemma said: 'We have so much more to do.'

Trio: The women were all smiles as they arrived on the red carpet and supported Time's Up

Inspirational: All three women looked glamorous in their black gowns at the awards

Gemma has been an outspoken critic of the movie industry for a number of years.

Speaking back in 2015, she explained: 'The difference between what men and women get paid in my industry is shocking. On one job I must have been paid a tenth of what my male counterpart was getting.'

She also said as part on an open letter, published on Industry Observer: 'Were pressing for change in our industry, and we welcome the fact the UK industry has come together and developed principles and guidance which puts tackling harassment in the workplace on the agenda for everyone.

'We are only now waking up to the full scale of systematic abuse, inequity and sexual harassment based on gender and power... abuse that hurts us all. Today we stand in unity with others in zero tolerance of this abuse.'

Elegant actress: Her dress swept the floor in a subtle ruffle design

Smile: The star was every inch the Hollywood heavyweight as she smiled at the crowds

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

Meanwhile, Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, co-founder of UK Black Pride from 2005, attended as a guest of Andrea Riseborough.

As well as being a trustee of gay rights group Stonewall, she was formerly head of political campaigns and equality at the Public and Commercial Services trade union.

In 2016, she refused an MBE because she said gay, lesbian and transsexual people were still being persecuted and tortured under laws put in place by the British Empire.

Laura Bates, came as a guest of actress Gemma Chan, having launched the Everyday Sexism project in 2012. She has spoken out about receiving vile death and rape threats because of her campaign work and has re-trained police officers on matters of sexual violence.

Gemma said told The Guardian at the weekend: 'Its time  we are here today as part of a much bigger movement supporting safety and equality in the workplace.

'We all stand alongside the thousands of women who have challenged and raised their voices against harassment and violence across the world.'

Powerful: Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, co-founder of UK Black Pride from 2005, attended as a guest of Andrea Riseborough

Important cause: The friends posed alongside one another on the red carpet once inside the venue

Marai Larasi, arrived as a guest of Tessa Thompson and she is the executive director of Imkaan, a British black feminist organisation which campaigns against violence towards black, minority ethnic and refugee women and girls. She was awarded an MBE for her campaign work in 2010.

US actress Tessa Thompson has been an outspoken supporter of the Times Up movement and was nominated for a Bafta for her role in Thor: Ragnarok.

Afua Hirsch came as a guest of Naomie Harris. The Guardian journalist hit the headlines in 2017 when she suggested Admiral Nelsons statue in Trafalgar Square should be taken down because he was a white supremacist who spoke out in favour of slavery.

190 actors  including Carey Mulligan, Emma Watson, Kate Winslet, Claire Foy, Emma Thompson and Saoirse Ronan  signed an open letter, published in the Industry Observer.

It read: 'This movement is bigger than just a change in our industry alone. This movement is intersectional, with conversations across race, class, community, ability and work environment, to talk about the imbalance of power.'

Fighting: Laura Bates, (left) came as a guest of actress Gemma Chan, (right) having launched the Everyday Sexism project in 2012. She has received vile death and rape threats because of her campaign work

Bond: Marai Larasi, (right) arrived as a guest of Tessa Thompson (left) and she is the executive director of Imkaan, a British black feminist organisation which campaigns against violence towards black, minority ethnic and refugee women and girls

Strong bond: Afua Hirsch came as a guest of Naomie Harris. The Guardian journalist hit the headlines in 2017 when she suggested Admiral Nelsons statue in Trafalgar Square should be taken down because he was a white supremacist

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

In the race for accolades, The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations.

Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, I, Tonya, Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

As far as the red carpet dress code goes, members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was less strict for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

Gemma - accompanied by the Ford employees - previously took the equal pay fight to Parliament, mimicking their protests about sexual discrimination in the Sixties.

A host of people have joined forces to support the UK Justice and Equality Fund. Emma Watson donated 1m of her own money, among others. The aim is to make sure workplaces will be safer and fairer.

Flanked: Gemma was previously joined by the two women to stage a protest against unequal pay in 2014She has been keeping a low profile since the announcement of her ex Prince Harry's engagement to Meghan Markle.

But Cressida Bonas certainly ensured all eyes were on her as she arrived at the annual BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night.

The English model turned actress, 29, stunned in a floor-length strappy Armani Prive black gown as she hit the red carpet in style.

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A (near) Royal delight! Cressida Bonas certainly ensured all eyes were on her as she arrived at the annual BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night

Making the most of her slender physique, Cressida's Armani gown featured delicate spaghetti straps, and was embellished with a sprinkling of sequins.

While the fitted bodice accentuated her petite frame, the elegant floor-length skirt boasted an array of ruffles, teasing a peek of her peep-toe sandals.

Wearing her hair in tousled golden waves, Cressida accessorised with a statement ring and drop earrings as she posed for the cameras.

Respecting the dress code! The English model turned actress, 29, stunned in a floor-length strappy Armani Prive black gown as she hit the red carpet in style

Turning heads! The English model turned actress, 29, stunned in a floor-length strappy black gown as she hit the red carpet in style

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

The actress - who is youngest daughter of Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon and entrepreneur Jeffrey Bonas - previously dated Prince Harry before he began seeing and got engaged to Suits star Megan Markle.

The British beauty is yet to comment on the news that Harry will marry Meghan next spring, after a year and a half of dating.

In 2014, the pair split and the thespian chose to remain dignified about why exactly the pair parted ways.

Elegant! Making the most of her slender physique, Cressida's gown featured delicate spaghetti straps, and was embellished with a sprinkling of sequins

She is the daughter of renowned Sixties It girl Lady Mary Gaye Curzon (whose father was the 6th Earl Howe) and Old Harrovian Jeffrey Bonas (her mother's third husband) owns a fabric company called MacCulloch & Wallis.

Meanwhile the stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, I, Tonya, Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Ruffling feathers! While the fitted bodice accentuated her petite frame, the elegant floor-length skirt boasted an array of ruffles, teasing a peek of her peep-toe sandals

Posing up a storm! The British beauty is yet to comment on the news that Harry will marry Meghan next spring, after a year and a half of dating

According to Vogue, members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

Cut from the same cloth! She is the daughter of renowned Sixties It girl Lady Mary Gaye Curzon

Former flame: She has been keeping a low profile since the announcement of her ex Prince Harry's engagement to Meghan Markle

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

Solidarity: According to Vogue, members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

People nominated for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, will be a battle between Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson.Jess Wright couldn't resist posting yet another loved-up snap of herself with Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice on Instagram on Sunday.

The new couple, who have remained largely private about their romance until just recently were enjoyed a cosy dinner date at Nobu restaurant in London.

Jess posted the sweet snap to her stories, wearing a pretty black lace dress, while her man wore a smart jumper over a shirt.

Is he her Mr Wright? Jess cosied up to Strictly Come Dancing professional Giovanni Pernice for another cosy social media snap during romantic dinner date on Sunday

The couple finally confirmed months of dating rumours by posting a smitten social media snap on Valentine's Day.

And it's the second public declaration of love they've made in a week as they also shared a throwback snap from New Year's Eve on Jessica's Instagram on Thursday.

The former TOWIE star, 32, looked utterly besotted as she giggled away while the Strictly Come Dancing professional, 27, planted a tender kiss on her lips.

Cute couple: Jessica Wright and Giovanni Pernice looked loved-up as they shared a sweet snap in a throwback snap from New Year's Eve, posted to Jessica's Instagram account on Thursday

Jessica captioned the shot: '#tbt #newyears'.

The pair beamed with delight as they embraced each other to ring in the beginning of the year.

Jessica and Giovanni - who previously dated his Strictly Come Dancing partner Georgia May Foote, 27 - are believed to have got together around December time.

The passionate new image comes just hours after the Italian professional dancer paid tribute to the brunette beauty on Valentine's Day.

Loved-up: The former TOWIE star, 32, and the Strictly Come Dancing professional, 27, confirmed months of romance rumours by posting a sweet snap on Valentine's Day

The new couple looked closer than ever as they held hands for the black and white photograph.

The fitness entrepreneur was dressed to impress in an eye-catching patterned attire while enhancing her God given good looks with heavy make-up.

It seemed Giovanni and Jessica enjoyed a low-key romantic evening together for their first ever Valentine's as a couple.

Excited about his new romance, he shared the kissing picture with his 149,000 Instagram followers and penned the caption, 'Buon San Valentino.'

Moving quickly: The pair were first romantically linked in November when they were spotted on a cosy date by eagle-eyed onlookers

The reality star shared a screen grab from the famous scene depicting unrequited love in Love Actually.

In the flick, Andrew Lincoln's character Mark is in love with Juliet (Keira Knightley), who is married to his best friend Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Mark can be seen holding up a place card in the picture when he makes his love known to Juliet.

Jessica wrote in the caption: 'Happy Valentines Day  I hope someone makes you feel this special today #loveactually.' (sic)

How impressive! Giovanni nearly lifted the Glitter Ball trophy when he reached the final with his celebrity dance partner Debbie McGee

They were first romantically linked in December when they were spotted on a date by eagle-eyed onlookers.

The lovebirds enjoyed a cosy drink at Soho House before they went onto watch West End production Dream Girls.

An insider told The Sun: 'It was obvious to everyone it was a date. They were talking really closely, leaning into each other.'

A close pal to Jess elaborated to the publication: 'They've been on a few dates, but it's early days. They met through her brother Mark's Strictly connections from when he was on the show and they're getting to know each other.'

In recent months, Giovanni nearly lifted the Glitter Ball trophy when he reached the final with his celebrity dance partner Debbie McGee.

Debbie was forced to laugh off claims after the dance partners were romantically linked during their time on the hit dancing show.

Strictly skills: Jessica's brother Mark Wright made it to the Strictly finals back in 2014 when he was partnered up with professional dancer Karen Clifton

The former ballet dancer told the Loose Women panel: 'Theyre totally ludicrous, we do have a special chemistry, hes a very special person to me, Im sure I am to him. We love each other to bits, but theres nothing more than a friendship there.'

Jess and Giovanni were reportedly introduced to each other through the TOWIE star's brother Mark Wright, who made an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing.

Jess's younger sibling made it to the Strictly finals back in 2014 when he was partnered up with professional dancer Karen Clifton.

Although Giovanni didn't join the series until 2015, the Extra presenter is said to have kept in close touch with his Strictly family.

Back in 2015, Jessica expressed a desire to follow Mark onto the show after he made it to the final during a season that was won by Caroline Flack.

'I love dancing, so that would be amazing. One day maybe,' she told The Radio Times. 'Mark got to the final, so who knows? [He] set the bar very high.'

Jess divulged in an exclusive interview with the MailOnline that she had hit the dating market again with a new found confidence thanks to her fitness regime.

In May 2017, she explained to MailOnline: 'I needed to do it for my own self confidence and own self loving. How can you expect someone to love you when you don't love yourself?

'There was definitely a time in my life when I was lacking in that area. Whereas now I feel like I am completely in control of myself and where I am. I am in a happy place.

'I'm dating a lot at the moment and while I'm not necessarily looking for love, if it comes around then great.'She sparked romance rumours with Darkest Hour director Joe Wright last month, days after he confirmed his eight year marriage to Anoushka Shankhar was over.

And Haley Bennett dazzled as she arrived at the 2018 BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday.

The Girl On The Train actress, 30, positively dazzled as she made her showstopping entrance, clad in a glittering and ornate gold sequinned and leather gown.

Radiant: Haley Bennett dazzled as she arrived at the 2018 BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, after igniting romance rumours with Darkest Hour director Joe Wright

Showing off her trim figure, the star's dress featured sequinned sections along the neckline and waist, while a sweeping metallic chain panel ran down the centre of th gown.

Flowing into a gold mesh skirt, the gown sported leather panels down the edges, hugging her toned curves.

Her blunt blonde bob was styled sleek and straight while her sparkling peepers were enhanced with smoky shadow, feline flicks of liner, peachy blush and a fuschia lipgloss.

She added extra sparkle with gold chandelier earrings and black leather bag with gold chain strap.

Dazzle: The Girl On The Train actress, 30, positively dazzled as she made her showstopping entrance, clad in a glittering and ornate gold sequinned and leather gown

This comes as Haley was linked to recently separated director Joe Wright, 45.

The pair were previously spotted at the Critics Choice Awards Los Angeles, shortly after making their first joint appearance at the Palm Springs film gala on January 2.

The director's separation from wife of eight years Anoushka, 36 - with whom he shares two children - was confirmed by a spokesperson for the couple in January.

'I can confirm that Joe Wright and Anoushka Shankar recently ended their marriage,' read an official statement issued to the New York Post's Page Six.

'All parties are committed to the welfare and happiness of their two beautiful children and ask that their privacy be respected. No further comments will be made on this matter.'

Flawless: Her blunt blonde bob was styled sleek and straight while her sparkling peepers were enhanced with smoky shadow, feline flicks of liner, peachy blush and a fuschia lipgloss

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, I, Tonya, Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

According to Vogue, members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

Backless glamour: The star sultrily turned to show off the gown's plunging back

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

New romance? This comes as Haley was linked to recently separated director Joe Wright, 45 who also stepped out on the red carpet

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Actors battling it out in the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, will be Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson.She is Hollywood's sweetheart, best known for her roles in Nancy Drew and Wild Child.

But Emma Roberts made the trip across the pond to attend the star-studded BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night.

The American actress, 27, put on a stunning display in a black power dress, conforming to the suggested black dress code to support Time's Up protests.

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Star studded! Emma Roberts made the trip across the pond to attend the star-studded BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night

The structured piece featured a daring sweetheart neckline, and was cinched in at the waist to make the most of her enviable physique.

Elegantly skimming her calves, the wrap dress showed a glimpse of her toned pins, accentuated with a pair of classic court shoes.

Adding a unique edge, the dress boasted statement shoulder pads, and Emma injected a touch of glamour with a pair of gold drop earrings and a sequin-embellished clutch bag.

Looking effortlessly glamorous, Emma worked a smokey bronzed eye which she offset her sleek chignon 'do styled by Paul Edmonds London, who was the official Hair Partner of the EE BAFTA 2018.

Turning heads! The American actress, 27, put on a stunning display in a black power dress, conforming to the suggested black dress code to support Time's Up protests

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

Making an entrance! The structured piece featured a daring sweetheart neckline, and was cinched in at the waist to make the most of her enviable physique

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

Wowing on the red carpet! Elegantly skimming her calves, the wrap dress showed a glimpse of her toned pins, accentuated with a pair of classic court shoes

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

Golden girl! Adding a unique edge, the dress boasted statement shoulder pads, and Emma injected a touch of glamour with a pair of gold drop earrings and a sequin-embellished clutch bag

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.Advertisement

The Duchess of Cambridge risked a backlash last night as she broke ranks with actresses and chose not to wear black at the Bafta awards.

Pregnant Kate, 36, wore a dark forest green gown by British designer Jenny Packham following weeks of speculation over whether she would wear black in a public show of support for Hollywood's stance against sexual harassment.

Almost every actress on the red carpet wore black, including A-listers Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie, making the Duchess' choice all the more striking.

Tradition dictates that the Royal Family avoids anything that could be construed as a political statement, but there had been speculation Kate could wear a patterned black gown to demonstrate she backed the Time's Up movement, but also respected royal protocol.

Kate wore an empire line dress in a deep shade of green, which was complemented by a dazzling emerald necklace and earrings. Perhaps in a subtle nod to the movement, she accessorised with a black bow above her bump, matching her shoes and clutch handbag.

In addition, Kate wore a stunning Columbian emerald and diamond suite estimated to be worth 1million - joining A-listers who have worn the stones as a symbol of 'hope and victory' during awards season.

Bucking the trend: The Duchess of Cambridge chose not to wear black at last night's Bafta awards at the Royal Albert Hall

Traditional: Kate's black accessories, including her shoes, bag and ribbon, were a subtle nod in London to the movement

Kensington Palace refused to comment on whether her black sash and bag were intended as a nod to the movement against gender inequality and sexual harassment, which has gained widespread support since the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal.

Some women turned to Twitter to voice disappointment that Kate had not worn black. Nikki Long wrote: 'Disappointed in Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge not wearing black to the Baftas. It's not a political thing. It's a woman thing!'

Journalist Rachel McGrath tweeted: 'I know the Royals aren't supposed to get involved with 'protests' or anything  but would it really have been THAT bad for Kate Middleton to wear black??? I feel properly let down (didn't know I cared this much).'

And a Meghan and Harry fanpage wrote: 'How does Kate not feel any shame sitting right at the front with a green dress while every other woman is wearing black.

'Honestly, she should have stayed her a** at home if she wasn't even going to show her support for women.'

Anothers questioned why some royals were able to make political statements while others felt they couldn't.

A Twitter user said: 'If her mother-in-law, The Duchess of Cornwall, can stand against sexual harassment openly and make a topic of it, then Kate can wear a black dress easily without raising any questions.'

But not everyone had it in for the Duchess. One user going under the name of Stephie McStephface wrote: 'I think the Duchess of Cambridge's dress is a smart move. Not black, so in line with protocol, but dark enough to be a nod of support.'

Green goddess: She wore an emerald dress to set off the garment, but a black ribbon showed her support for the movement

Expecting her third: Kate is expecting her third child in April, and displayed her bump below an empire line

Bucking the trend: The Duchess of Cambridge was the centre of attention, as she walked the red carpet

Turning out: The Duke of Cambridge has been a president of Bafta since 2010

Bump in the night: Seen outside London's Royal Albert Hall, Kate was coping with a chill in the air

Another turned on those protesting, saying: 'Feminists show their true colours by bullying the Duchess of Cambridge because she chose not to get into politics and not wear black. This has gone too far.'

And another Twitter user called Sue wrote: 'Anyone commenting on the Duchess of Cambridge's dress choice needs to remember what the issue is and it's not fashion or colour choice. Grow up.'

In an open letter published yesterday before the awards, almost 200 British and Irish stars backed a new fund to help women facing sexual harassment and abuse at work.

It echoes a similar initiative launched in Hollywood last month, and was kick-started with a 1 million ($1.4 million) donation from actress and activist Emma Watson.

It was the most openly political Bafta night in its history, with all the female nominees urged to follow the example of last month's Golden Globes awards and wear all-black.

All eyes on the Duchess: Kate's outfit was a subtle nod to the movement, as in some lights her gown was as dark as black

Handsome couple: Beside her, the Duke looked sharp in a black tuxedo, worn with velvet slippers

Old Hollywood glamour: (From left) Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence and Margot Robbie led the black glamour - standing in solidarity with the Time's Up movement - last night

Standing in solidarity: The actresses wore black in solidarity with the Time's Up movement, in reaction to the sexual harassment scandal sweeping Hollywood. It marked the first major awards show where the protest was put into place

Stunning: Margot also stepped out in style, wearing a sleeveless, high-neckline dress, which featured an embroidered skirt

Several actresses brought feminist activists as their guests, including prominent gay rights campaigners, trades unionists and two women who were involved in the equal pay protests at Dagenham in the 1960s.

A group of female protesters wearing 'Time's Up Theresa' T-shirts invaded the red carpet at the Royal Albert Hall in London, chanting: 'Sisters, united, we'll never be defeated.'

The feminist group Sisters Uncut said it was behind the protest to call on Prime Minister Theresa May to halt cuts to domestic violence services, and to protest against the Government's Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill.

Many male attendees wore 'Time's Up' lapel badges and the awards event was hosted by Joanna Lumley - its first female host since 2001, when Mariella Frostrup co-hosted with Stephen Fry.

Absolutely Fabulous star Miss Lumley, 71, hailed the Time's Up movement as a continuation of the 'dogged determination' of the suffragettes 100 years earlier.

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

She praised the 'determination to eradicate the abuse of women the world over' as she took to the stage.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were greeted as they arrived by Bafta chief executive Amanda Berry. William has been president of the British Academy of Film and Television since 2010.

Kate's flowing chiffon gown was teamed with a large emerald and diamond necklace and earrings.

Bafta itself did not request attendees to wear black but a letter was circulated ahead of the awards night, which claimed to be from 'a collective of UK based female film and television industry leaders'.

It said: 'Inspired by the Time's Up movement in the US, we are working to continue the incredible movement this side of the Atlantic.

Glossy: Kate's hair was worn in loose waves around her shoulders, with a natural shine to her hair

Making an entrance: All eyes were on the royal when she made her red carpet entrance

Glittering: The Duchess was glittering with a bright necklace, matching earrings and a chunky bracelet

Bumping along: The brunette seemed to be coping with her third pregnancy with poise

Making their ascent: From behind, she displayed a neat velvet black bow

'With Bafta being the first major film awards ceremony in Europe this year, we feel it is important to make a statement to show global solidarity and that the issue is not being forgotten, and to join hands with people across all industries who have experienced inequality and abuse.'

Last year, more than 80 women in the entertainment industry came forward to accuse Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault and rape.

The claims prompted the 'Me Too' movement, in which women shared their experiences of harassment and abuse in an attempt to encourage others to speak out.

In January, the Time's Up movement launched a legal fund to help those who had suffered abuse or harassment in any industry.

Commanding attention: The stunning actress commanded attention as she posed in the centre of the star-studded red carpet

A group of female protesters (pictured) wearing 'Time's Up' T-shirts invaded the red carpet at the Baftas ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London

The woman were dressed completely in black with a 'Time's Up' message on their T-shirts

Bucking the trend: Along with Kate, there were other red carpet stars who decided against the black dress code

Metal marvel: Presenter Victoria Bonya veered away from the black dress code, adding a metallic feel to her look

Jane Lush, chair of Bafta, addressed last night's star-studded audience, saying it was important to acknowledge a 'difficult' 12 months.

She said: 'Brave revelations have followed brave revelations of bullying and sexual harassment, and which to all our shame has been hidden in plain sight for decades.

'This is a moment in history, it should be a watershed, a catalyst for lasting change.'

Actress Andrea Riseborough, who brought gay rights activist Phyll Opoku-Gyimah as her guest, said: 'I'm here tonight to stand in solidarity with every woman, every person in the world who has suffered sexual abuse in the workplace.'

Dazzle: With her golden tresses resting about her shoulders in soft waves, she complemented her outfit with dazzling earrings

Exquisite: She wore a one-colour gown that featured elegant white sleeves

Striking: She added a slick of red lipstick to offset the black garment

Stunning: Earlier in the evening, the Oscar-winning actress turned heads as she left her London hotel to head to the ceremony

Making her way to the event: Jennifer was pictured leaving her hotel in London that night

Kristin Scott Thomas, who was nominated for her role in the World War Two drama Darkest Hour, wore a Time's Up badge and said she wanted to see 'words turn into actions'.

British actor Josh O'Connor, who was nominated for an award for best rising star, wore a Time's Up badge and said: 'It means a great deal.

'I wear it with pride to my generation who I feel can lead this and lead change in an industry that can be looked upon with pride. We can be actors with honour. I'm coming into this industry as this is all happening and hopefully I can be part of that change.'

Beautiful: Rochelle Humes showed off her sleek figure in an extreme plunging black gown as she led the stars walking down the red carpet at the Baftas at the Royal Albert Hall last night

Gorgeous: Opting to wear black to support the Time's Up movement, the 28-year-old looked incredible as she posed for snaps ahead of her presenting gig for EE on the night

Starry: Australian screen beauty Margot Robbie shared a picture of her make-up look ahead of leaving for the event

Important cause: Kristin Scott Thomas (left) wore a long monochrome number and wore a Time's Up badge in a bid to show her support and fellow actress Andrea Riseborough (right), followed suit in a thigh-split number

Friends: Andrea caught up with Time's Up activist Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, who accompanied her down the red carpet

Dazzling: Hofit Golan wore glittering gold, instead of the black dress code

Claret: Even down to her fresh manicure, Hofit decided not to follow suit

Looking good: Lydia Bright wore an incredible fishtail strapless gown which suited her figure perfectly

Power couple: Dermot O'Leary and wife Dee Koppang complemented one another perfectly in their matching ensembles

Work mode: The popular TV personality soon got into work mode as he took on presenting duties on the expansive red carpet

Trousers: Ruth Wilson was one of few actress in attendance who opted to forgo a gown in favour of wearing a Christian Dior trouser suit

Stunner: Sian Welby was the first celebrity to walk the red carpet as she went underwear free under a semi-sheer black dress

Hostess with her mostess: Presenter Edith Bowman, 44, looked resplendent in a brocade strapless number which was cinched in at the waist

Turning heads: Allison Janney turned heads as she arrived in an unconventional black dress, which featured a gold neckline

Form-fitting: Jackie St Clair swanned down the red carpet in style, arriving in a form-fitting gown with a thigh-high side slit

Twinning: Actors Gary Oldman, left, and Taron Egerton right, wore near-identical classic black tuxedos with crisp white shirts, however Taron was clad in Burberry

Badge: Showing solidarity with the large majority of other attendees at the televised awards show, he wore a Time's Up badge

Pairing up: Taron posed with a pretty companion, while Willem Defoe arrived with his actress wife Giada Colagrande, right

Stylish gents: (L-R) Orlando Bloom, Daniel Kaluuya - who was clad in Burberry - and Nicholas Hault put on dapper displays as they hit the gala's red carpet

Black to basics: Handsome father-of-one Orlando teamed his stylish Stella McCartney tuxedo jacket with a black shirt, opting to forgo a bow tie

Sign of the times: After posing for photographers gathered at the event, he stopped to sign autographs for a crowd of fans

Handlers: The Hollywood actress was guided safely into the building by a small team of handlers as her night came to an end

End of a long night: After a long night at the awards show, Jennifer Lawrence was spotted heading back to her London hotel

The crew: En route to the ceremony, Edgar Wright shared a shot of the entire crew behind the nominated picture Baby Driver

Sip up: Ahead of slipping into his tuxedo for the highly-anticipated awards show, Francis Lee, left, enjoyed a drink at the pub

(From left) Mark Mangini, Francis Lee and Edgar Wright at the event last night

Cirque: The cast of Cirque du Soleil put on quite the eye-catching display as they hit the red carpet in full colourful costume

Snapshot: Hours before the big event got underway, staffers at the Royal Alert hall shared a shot of the red carpet on TwitterShe's up for a Best Actress gong for her role in Lady Bird - and Irish actress Saoirse Ronan looked incredible as she walked the red carpet at the BAFTAs on Sunday.

The 23-year-old headed to the Royal Albert Hall in London, where she stood out from the crowd wearing a black dress which had a 1920s style panel of fringing.

While the sequined number was modest in design, she showed off some serious leg i the garment due to its panel of sheer fabric.

Best Actress? Saoirse Ronan dazzled in a semi-sheer sequined black dress with feathered fringing as she walked the red carpet at the BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday

Hair she goes: Her contrasting blonde locks were tied up into an elegant chignon, with elegant drop earrings to add a touch of sparkle and an oversized cocktail ring

She teamed the outfit with a pair of simple black platform shoes, complete with ankle strap as she posed confidently on the red carpet.

Her contrasting blonde locks were tied up into an elegant chignon, with elegant diamond and emerald earrings to add a touch of sparkle and an oversized cocktail ring.

Saoirse's latest movie role in Lady Bird has earned her huge critical acclaim as protagonist Lady Bird McPherson.

The film, which has been tipped for Oscars success is set in 2002, and tells the story of an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl, who comes of age in Sacramento, California.

Working it: She teamed the outfit with a pair of simple black platform shoes, complete with ankle strap as she posed confidently on the red carpet

Important cause: Saoirse was no doubt thrilled to be a part of such an important evening which supported the Time's Up movement

Behind the scenes: The movie star shared a snapshot of herself getting ready for the big do hours before on Instagram

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

Other movies tipped for success on the night include The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations.

Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk, I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

Iconic: The film, which has been tipped for Oscars success is set in 2002, and tells the story of an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl, who comes of age in Sacramento, California

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

Left out: Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.She's been busy taking over Hollywood one blockbuster at a time.

But Karen Gillan returned to her British roots as she graced the star-studded red carpet at the 71st BAFTA Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday.

The actress, 30, commanded attention in her sensational semi-sheer black gown, which flaunted her lithe pins with the chic drop-hemline skirt.

Commanding attention: Karen Gillan returned to her British roots as she graced the star-studded red carpet at the 71st BAFTA Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday

The former Doctor Who star's elegant dress boasted a sheer shoulder panel and billowing sleeves.

Karen exuded glamour on the red carpet, heightening her statuesque frame in classic black skyscraper heels.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy star teamed the decadent look with a bejeweled black box clutch.

The redhead styled her glossy tresses pin-straight, tucking any loose tendrils behind her ears while showing off her glittering waterfall earrings.

Stunner: The actress, 30, commanded attention in her sensational semi-sheer black gown

The ultra-glam look spoke for itself as Karen went without any extra sparkling accessories, but did amplify her natural beauty with a dusting of pink blush and a smokey eye.

Karen joined a host of female actresses on the carpet wearing black in support of the Time's Up movement, which raises awareness of sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace and helps sexual assault survivors take legal action against their abusers.

Whilst the Scottish star first found fame playing the companion Amy Pond in British series Doctor Who, it is her latest role that scored her international fame.

The radiant redhead recently took the lead female role in the remake of the classic Jumanji film, joining Nick Jonas, Kevin Hart and Jack Black.

Out of this world: The former Doctor Who beauty's elegant design boasted a sheer shoulder panel and billowing sleeves

The actress portrayed alter-ego Ruby Roundhouse, the tough-as-nails female avatar in the Jumanji game.

Appearing on This Morning, Karen - who was the 11th companion to Matt Smith's Doctor Who from 2011 TO 2013 - revealed that the iconic BBC sci-fi show helped her career excel in the US.

Speaking to show hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, she said: 'Yeah, it was a launch pad and I feel like I was getting roles for things because the directors who were Doctor Who fans.'

Karen's next big blockbuster project - Avengers: Infinity War - is set for release in May, where fans can see the actress reprise her role as comic book super villain Nebula.

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

Strut her stuff: Karen exuded glamour as she posed up a storm on the red carpet, heightening her statuesque frame in classic black skyscraper heels

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, was the most-nominated film, with a total of 12 nods.

Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both received nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

Posing up a storm: The redhead styled her glossy tresses pin-straight, tucking any loose tendrils behind her ears while showing off her glittering waterfall earrings

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Ultra glam: The ultra-glam look spoke for itself as Karen went without any extra sparkling accessories, but did amplify her natural beauty with a dusting of pink blush and a smokey eye

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.She plays rogue former MI6 agent Isla Faust in the upcoming Mission Impossible movie, starring alongside Tom Cruise and Sean Harris.

But Rebecca Ferguson looked far from her criminal character as she attended the BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday.

The 34-year-old Swedish actress debuted her baby bump on the red carpet, wearing a black cape gown and sporting the Time's Up badge in support of their sexual harassment protest.

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Yummy mummy! Rebecca Ferguson debuted her baby bump on the red carpet as she attended the BAFTAs at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday

Cradling her baby bump, Rebecca, who is due to give birth in the second quarter of 2018, slipped into an elegant floor-length gown.

The dress featured a thigh-high slit, offering a glimpse of her patent skyscraper heels and she teamed it with a matching cape.

Wearing her hair in an understated chignon, she added a touch of glitz with two monochrome diamond encrusted bracelets.

The award-winning actress, who is also mother to a 10-year-old son from a previous relationship, glowed with contentment as she posed ahead of the star-studded ceremony.

Elegant: The 34-year-old Swedish actress debuted her baby bump on the red carpet, wearing a black cape gown and sporting the Time's Up badge in support of their sexual harassment protest

Rebecca, who previously starred in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation in 2015, confirmed her pregnancy on the Graham Norton show in January.

As Tom Cruise spoke about an ankle injury he suffered on his break, Rebecca joked: 'I made a baby in the break! I thought I'd have at least six months off.'

Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which is still filming in London, is slated to hit movie theatres on July 27.

Loving: Cradling her baby bump, Rebecca, who is due to give birth in the second quarter of 2018, slipped into an elegant floor-length gown

Bumping along nicely! The dress featured a thigh-high slit, offering a glimpse of her patent skyscraper heels and she teamed it with a matching cape

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

Meanwhile the stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Chic: Wearing her hair in an understated chignon, she added a touch of glitz with two monochrome diamond encrusted bracelets

Hot! The award-winning actress, who is also mother to a 10-year-old son from a previous relationship, glowed with contentment as she posed ahead of the star-studded ceremony

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

Sizzling! Rebecca, who previously starred in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation in 2015, confirmed her pregnancy on the Graham Norton show in January

As Tom Cruise spoke about an ankle injury he suffered on his break, Rebecca joked: 'I made a baby in the break! I thought I'd have at least six months off.'

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

Talented: She plays rogue former MI6 agent Isla Faust in the upcoming Mission Impossible movie, starring alongside Tom Cruise and Sean Harris

Out soon: Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which is still filming in London, is slated to hit movie theatres on July 27

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this year's Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Backlash: Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this year's Best Director shortlist

Long-running: The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterday's BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere'.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh O'Connor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.They're enjoying the honeymoon period after tying the knot in a romantic ceremony in July 2017.

And Kate Mara couldn't have been prouder of Best Actor nominee husband Jamie Bell as she joined him on the BAFTA red carpet at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night.

The actress, 34, beamed as she posed along side her man - who received his nod for Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool - while wearing an ultra glamorous black strapless gown, embellished with gold web detailing.

Sophisticated: Kate Mara couldn't have been prouder of Best Actor nominee husband Jamie Bell as she joined him on the BAFTA red carpet at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night

The Fantastic Four star's decadent ensemble was teamed with a shimmering metallic box clutch as she cuddled up to her beau.

Kate added extra sparkle with a diamond choker and chic ear cuff, and took the opportunity to flash her wedding ring.

Kate swept back her glossy chestnut locks behind her ears into a sleek pin straight style.

Jamie complemented Kate's sophisticated sartorial choices in a dapper black tux suit and bow tie.

So proud: The actress, 34, beamed as she posed along side her man, while wearing an ultra glamorous black strapless gown, embellished with gold web detailing

The Snowpiercer star previously won a BAFTA Best Actor gong in 2000 for his role in Billy Elliot, making him the youngest actor to pick up the accolade at age 13.

Both in black, Jamie and Kate showed their support to the Time's Up Movement, with Jamie attaching the protest badge to his suit lapel.

They joined a host of other red carpet attendees who donned black for the cause, which raises awareness of sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace and helps sexual assault survivors take legal action against their abusers.

Kate and Jamie reunited while working on the Fantastic Four film in 2015, but they had first met during an ill-fated screen test 12 years earlier.

Cute couple: The Fantastic Four star flaunted her sensational physique in the form-fitting garb

Jamie revealed the pair's history during an appearance on ITV's Jonathan Ross Show on Saturday, telling the host: 'I met her on a screen test for a film 12 years ago and neither of us got the part, but she did have to kiss a lot of other guys on that screen test,' he said.

'And there were a lot of other people there, pop stars, legitimate movie stars. And apparently she went home and her mum said, "How was your day?" and she was like, "I kissed a lot of guys today but Jamie Bell was a good kisser".

'And then 12 years later, we got married.'

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

Sultry pose: Kate's decadent ensemble was teamed with a shimmering metallic box clutch as she cuddled up to her beau

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, was the most-nominated film, with a total of 12 nods.

Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both received nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Shimmering ensemble: The big-screen queen added extra sparkle with a diamond choker and chic ear cuff, and took the opportunity to flash her wedding ring

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Power couple: The big-screen queen added extra sparkle with a diamond choker and chic ear cuff, and took the opportunity to flash her wedding ring

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.Salma Hayek fully supported the Time's Up movement on Sunday evening, at the 71st annual BAFTA Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Arriving in a figure-hugging black gown on the arm of her billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault, the Mexican beauty, 51, looks typically voluptuous as she posed with and without her other half on the red carpet.

Speaking to Sky News, Salma spoke about Time's Up - which has seen women across the industry stand together against sexual harassment - and reflected on how it's made her feel 'stronger' for speaking out about her own encounters.

Added sparkle: Salma Hayek injected colour into her figure-hugging black gown with a pink floral embellishment

'It was very difficult [speaking out]. It took me months,' she said. 'I have been an activist for womens rights for 25 years, but what surprised me is that when it was my turn to talk about it, how difficult it was. But it has united me with other women, stronger and deeper.'

She went on: 'The one extra thing to say is talking about the bulling that comes when you say no. It has to do with gender and equality in many ways and [women] are being psychologically abused.

'Its important to talk about these things that come when you dont value women as [they] should be valued.'

Salma spoke out about her experiences with Harvey Weinstein last year, alleging that he had put pressure on her to have sex with him.

Salma plus one: She arrived at the BAFTAs on the arm of business mogul husband Francois-Henri Pinault

The actress opted to inject some colour into her BAFTA ensemble, as the dress featured a floral embellishment in pink and green jewels.

The pattern ran along the plunging neckline and featured at the shoulders, the waist and at the cuffs.

Salma matched the pink blossom design with a similar shade of lipstick and added a smokey sweep to her eyes for added dramatic flair.

She wore drop earrings and carried a black satin bag as she cosied up to her husband, 55, on the red carpet.

She kept her sleek black locks loosely falling in waves around her features.

Intricate: The pattern ran along the plunging neckline and featured at the shoulders, the waist and at the cuffs

Complimentary: Salma matched the pink blossom design with a similar shade of lipstick and added a smokey sweep to her eyes for added dramatic flair

Cuddles: She wore drop earrings and carried a black satin bag as she cosied up to her husband, 55, on the red carpet

Francois-Henri injected his own dash of colour into his look, wearing a traditional tuxedo but with a streak of orange on the bow tie.

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Brunette beauty: She kept her sleek black locks loosely falling in waves around her features

Dashing: Francois-Henri injected his own dash of colour into his look, wearing a traditional tuxedo but with a streak of orange on the bow tie

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

Honest: Speaking to Sky News , Salma spoke about Time's Up and reflected on how it's made her feel 'stronger' for speaking out about her own encounters

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

Time's Up! The movement campaignin against sexism and inequality supported by the likes of Gemma Arterton, Greta Gerwig, Salma Hayek and Barbara Broccoli

Speaking out: 'It was very difficult [speaking out]. It took me months,' she said. 'I have been an activist for womens rights for 25 years, but what surprised me is that when it was my turn to talk about it, how difficult it was'

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Stronger: 'It has united me with other women, stronger and deeper,' she went on

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.She her cinematic project First They Killed My Father was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 BAFTAs.

And Angelina Jolie, 42, beamed as she arrived on the red carpet in a breath-taking designer gown, accompanied by her pal, human rights activist and author, Loung Ung at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday.

The Oscar-winner looked thrilled to be joined by her long-term friend as they soaked up the glamorous atmosphere together, hugging and joking while they made their way into the star-studded venue.

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Girls' night out: Angelina Jolie, 42, beamed as she arrived on the red carpet in a breath-taking designer gown, accompanied by her pal, human rights activist and author, Loung Ung at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday

Joined by her important plus one, director Angelina slipped into a strapless custom Ralph & Russo velvet gown for the occasion.

The raven-haired beauty's one shouldered number featured a daring thigh-high slit which teased at her slender pins as she posed with her friend on the carpet.

The mother-of-six teamed her vintage-inspired attire with a pair of head-turning 33 carat diamond earrings by Graff while her tresses were worked into a sleek chignon.

Support: The Oscar-winner looked thrilled to be joined by her long-term friend as they soaked up the glamorous atmosphere together, hugging and joking while they made their way into the star-studded venue

Striking: Joined by her important plus one, director Angelina slipped into a strapless custom Ralph & Russo velvet gown for the occasion

A host of female celebrities walked the red carpet at the BAFTAs with some very important plus ones indeed, bringing along strong female figures who have done their bit to change the world for the better.

And on a night where the guests wore black in a bid to support Time's Up,a movement against sexual harassment founded on January 1, 2018, by Hollywood celebrities in response to the Weinstein effect and #MeToo, it perhaps couldn't have come at a better time.

Loung Ung, who she has known for 16 years, complemented Angelina and showed her support for the worthwhile initiative by wearing a black full-length gown which featured sheer panelling.

Loung wrote the book First They Killed My Father, which Angelina adapted into her directorial passion, which told the story of a young girl's version of the 1975 Cambodian genocide from the child's five-year-old eyes until she turns nine.

Having fun: The pals appeared in jovial spirits together

Glam: The raven-haired beauty's one shouldered number featured a daring thigh-high slit which teased at her slender pins as she posed with her friend on the carpet

Deadline previously reported that when Angelina was in Cambodia while in her 20s, she purchased Loung Ung's book from a street corner and became fascinated by the story.

She said: 'I didnt realize how much my education was lacking and how much I needed to learn. This book was an education for me  about refugees and what children go through in a war. I wanted to find Loung.'

Angelina revealed that Loung went to Cambodia with her to adopt her eldest son Maddox, 16, and reflected on how she wanted to find the author after reading her book.

She shared: 'It was an education about refugees and what children go through in a war. I wanted to find her.'

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

Heading-turning: The mother-of-six teamed her vintage-inspired attire with a pair of head-turning 33 carat diamond earrings by Graff while her tresses were worked into a sleek chignon

Dramatic: Angelina's look featured a striking long train

'We clicked right away,' Loung added. 'She was really, really authentic. She hates it when I gush about her in public, but shes a really cool person.'

First They Killed My Father faces off stiff competition in the Best Foreign Language Film against Elle, The Handmaiden, Loveless and The Salesman.

Meanwhile, The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Walk this way: She teetered to the ceremony in a pair of pointed stilettos

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night .

Wrapped up: She teamed her look with a matching velvet shawl

Beauty: Angelina sported a dramatic smokey eye

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

Giggling: The pair giggled during the red capret

Fun-filled: The friends appeared to keep each other entertained during the carpet

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page .

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

In the details: She accentuated her plump pout with a slick of nude lipstick

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Jovial: She smiled to her adoring fans as she arrived to the event

Signing off: Angelina happily signed autographs for her fans

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Battling it out in the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, which will be a battle between Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson.

Picture perfect: She posed for selfies with fans



She all but confirmed she will take on the role of Princess Margaret in The Crown last month, replacing Vanessa Kirby in the hit show's upcoming third series.

And Helena Bonham Carter looked suitably regal as she arrived at the BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, and seemed to give a nod to her new Royal role with her sparkly bag.

The A Room With A View actress, 51, wowed in a plunging off-the-shoulder black silk gown, which clung to her toned midriff as she posed.

Showstopping: Helena Bonham Carter looked suitably regal as she arrived at the BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, and seemed to give a nod to her new role in The Crown with her sparkly bag

New Princess Margaret: Hinting at her upcoming portrayal in the hit Netflix series, the star carried a sparkling black and white boxy bag, emblazoned with the word 'Queen' and a crown

Flaring into an elegant asymmetric skirt, the Oscar nominee flaunted her honed legs in black stiletto heels.

Hinting at her upcoming portrayal in the hit Netflix series, the star carried a sparkling black and white boxy bag, emblazoned with the word 'Queen' and a crown.

Her brunette tresses were styled into a messy updo with strands framing her face while her make-up look featured fluttery lashes, liner and a slick of red lipstick.

She was one of many stars to don black to show solidarity with the Time's Up movement, which raises awareness of sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace and helps sexual assault survivors take legal action against their abusers.

Regal: The A Room With A View actress, 51, wowed in a plunging off-the-shoulder black silk gown, which clung to her toned midriff as she posed

Old pals: She walked the red carpet with acclaimed American screenwriter James Ivory, 89, who was nominated for his work on the screenplay and as producer for Call Me By Your Name

She walked the red carpet with acclaimed American screenwriter James Ivory, 89, who was nominated for his work on the screenplay and as producer for Call Me By Your Name.

The star, who has worked with Helena on A Room With A View and Howard's End, looked dapper in a black suit and bow tie as he chivalrously escorted the actress along the red carpet.

Helena won the best supporting actress Bafta for playing the Queen Mother in the 2010 film The Kings Speech.

According to The Evening Standard, recasting Vanessa Kirby, who played the part in the first two seasons, came in order to continue the story and timeline.

Glamour: Her brunette tresses were styled into a messy updo with strands framing her face while her make-up look featured fluttery lashes, liner and a slick of red lipstick

Helena was being eyed up to play Elizabeth in the show following the departure of Claire Foy but bosses decided she'd be better suited to Margaret while Olivia Colman will play the matriarch.

The 43-year-old star will play the role for the next two series - documenting the fourth decade of Elizabeth's life - and then producers will go on the hunt for another actress to take over the reins in order to document the queen's life from her 60s to her 90s - providing Netflix decide to recommission it.

The stars turned out in force at the 2018 BAFTA award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the second year in a row, after the move from the Royal Opera House.

The Shape of Water , directed by Guillermo del Toro, has been nominated for a total of 12 awards with Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri both receiving nine nominations. Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , I, Tonya , Call Me by Your Name and Phantom Thread were also nominated for multiple awards.

Colleagues James, who has worked with Helena on A Room With A View and Howard's End, looked dapper in a black suit and bow tie as he chivalrously escorted the actress along the red carpet

Members of the Time's Up initiative sent around a letter urging guests 'to wear black to the awards ceremony, to follow suit from our sisters who attended the Golden Globes'.

Just a month ago, most of the stars who attended the Golden Globes wore black in a show of solidarity towards victims of sexual harassment.

And while the dress code was looser for the Grammys, stars walked the red carpet carrying white roses in support of gender equality.

This year's BAFTA Awards are being hosted by Joanna Lumley after Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

Glittering: The pair looked in great spirits as they caught up at the glittering event

She said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Stephen Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

'Over the last two decades I have especially loved watching the emergence of new young film talent behind and in front of the camera. But after so long a time I felt it only right to stand down and let others take the Baftas on to new heights and greater glories.

Joyful; Helena looked sensational in her slinky black gown as she smiled for the cameras

Laugh out loud: Helena looked over the moon to be chatting with James as the pair posed

'I want to thank all the production staff, Amanda Berry and her wonderful Bafta colleagues, the BBC and all those who helped make every year so enjoyable.

'I reserve especial gratitude and imagination for Ivor Baddiel and Phil Kerr, whose work on the scripts was so skillful it made people think I'd written every line myself.

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The 2018 BAFTAs will be live on air on BBC One on Sunday. The star-studded ceremony is also being live-streamed on the BAFTAs official Facebook page.

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off include Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Taking the reins:Helena all but confirmed she will take on the role of Princess Margaret in The Crown last month, replacing Vanessa Kirby (above) in the hit show's upcoming third series.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.

British movies such as Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool and Paddington 2 have received more attention than at the big US ceremonies.

Daniel Kaluuya, Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson will battle it out for the EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public.She sparked rumours she had converted to Islam when she changed her Instagram bio to 'Alaikum salam' in January, which translates to 'and unto you peace' in Arabic.

And Lindsay Lohan certainly looked the part as she attended a London Modest Fashion Week event in the capital on Sunday.

The American Mean Girls actress, 31, opted to wear a hijab for the event, conforming to the event's theme- which showcases the latest styles in hijabs, abayas and long hemlines.

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Demure: Lindsay Lohan certainly looked the part as she attended London Modest Fashion Week in the capital on Sunday

Letting a glimpse of her trademark flame hair shine through, the head piece perfectly framed her pretty face, accentuated by a touch of lipgloss and eyebrow pencil.

She teamed it with a black bomber jacket and black trousers as she stopped to check out the cosmetics.

The actress was seen posing with excited fans at the event, before making a quiet exit.

Sharing a snap of the actress with their goodie bag, a beauty brand from the event later wrote: 'She was so lovely and was saying how she's into halal cosmetics and what shes actually wearing on her face today was all halal!!'

Modest: The American Mean Girls actress, 31, opted to wear a hijab for the event, conforming to the event's theme- which showcases the latest styles in hijabs, abayas and long hemlines

London Modest Fashion week kicked off this weekend, showcasing the latest styles in hijabs, abayas and long hemlines.

The second installment of the two-day event, held at Victoria House, Bloomsbury, saw models parading down the runway in demure clothing.

Running alongside London Fashion week, the event, which charges up to 200 for tickets, features shopping, runway shows, talks and workshops - including a 'sharia legal hub'.

More than 40 designers from around the world showcased scarves, hijabs and loose-fitting maxi dresses at the annual style showcase organised by Haute Elan, who say 'modest fashion' is one of the fastest-growing consumer markets.

In January Lindsay deleted all the pictures on her Instagram account and changed her bio, changing her bio to 'Alaikum salam.'

A new angle: London Modest Fashion week kicked off this weekend, running alongside London Fashion week

The Arabic greeting translates to 'and unto you peace,' and many took it mean that Lohan was converting to the Muslim faith.

Lohan has not revealed however if she is in fact converting to the faith, and a rep for the actress did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.

There were previously rumors that Lohan might be converting back in 2015 when she was photographed holding a copy of the Quran while doing community service in Brooklyn.

When appearing on the Turkish talk show Haber Turk later year, she explained that the book was actually just a gift from some friends.

'My very close friends, who have been there for me a lot, in London are Saudi and they gave me the Quran and I brought it to New York because I was learning,' said Lohan.

Rare picture: In January Lindsay deleted all the pictures on her Instagram account and changed her bio, changing her bio to 'Alaikum salam.' (seen in her latest new Instagram post)

'It opened doors for me to experience spiritually, to find another true meaning. This is who I am.'

She said however that she was attacked after that picture was released in the media.

'They crucified me for it in America. They made me seem like Satan. I was a bad person for holding that Quran,' said Lohan.

She said that she was then happy to leave and return to London because she felt unsafe in [her] country.

Lohan spent time in October of last year visiting child refugees who had fled Syria and crossed over into Turkey.

She told Page Six last month that she was hoping to return to Turkey again either before of after the start of the new year.

'The dates are not set yet. It depends on how Turkey feels after the recent terrorist attack in Istanbul,' said Lohan,

'Not that any attack has or will ever stop me from helping those suffering, those who need our help the most.'

Quick change: Lindsay ditched her hijab to party with drag queens at The Box's 7th birthday party later that night

Party time: The event was held in association with lovebullets and in partnership with Belvedere Vodka

She then added: 'I miss my family a lot, but they are very supportive and understanding of the fact that my main focus is business, writing and soon to start another film. More so, my work with refugees.'

Just a few days before her account was wiped clean in January 2017, Lindsay had shared a poem in which she said she wanted to 'fix ISIS minds'.

'Sometimes I hear the voice of the one I loved the most. But in this world we live in on terror,' the poem went.

'Who i am to be the girl who is scared and hurt, when most things that happen i cannot explain.

'I try to understand, when i'm sitting in bed alone at 3am. So i can't sleep, i roll over. I can't think and my body becomes cold. I immediately feel older.....

'Than [sic] i realize, at least I am in a bed. I am still alive. So what can really be said? Just go to bed and close the blinds.

'Still and son on, i cannot help but want to fix all of these idle isis minds because, there has to be something i can figure out.

'Rather than living in a world of fear and doubt, they now shoot, we used to shout

'If only i can keep trying to fix it all, i would keep the world living loving and small. 'I would share my smiles and give too Many kisses.'Advertisement

Nine-times BAFTA-nominated Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri took home an incredible five awards at this year's EE British Academy Film Awards.

The stars turned out in force for the award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London, to see Three Billboards take home the first award of the night, scooping the Best British Film gong.

But by the end of the evening it had racked up a further four, including the prestigious Best Film and Lead Actress accolades.

Film of the night: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri enjoyed a triumphant night at the BAFTAs as it became the big winner of the night with FIVE prizes including Best Film and Best Actress [pictured Frances McDormand - Leading Actress winner]

Victorious: Frances McDormand won the Lead Actress award of the night for her portrayal of Mildred Hayes - a woman looking to hunt down the man that raped and murdered her daughter by hiring three derelict billboards to spread her message

Frances McDormand beat Annette Bening [Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool], Margot Robbie [I, Tonya], Sally Hawkins [The Shape Of Water] and Saoirse Ronan [Lady Bird] to scoop the Lead Actress award of the night for her portrayal of Mildred Hayes - a woman looking to hunt down the man that raped and murdered her daughter by hiring three derelict billboards to spread her message.

In her speech, she referenced the fact she was not wearing an all-black ensemble, much like her fellow actresses who were supporting the Time's Up initiative in support of battling sexual harassment.

'I have a little trouble with compliance. But I want you to know that I stand in full solidarity with my sisters tonight in black,' she said. 'I appreciate a well-organised act of civil disobedience. I am thrilled that activists all over the world have been inspired by Three Billboards.

'Thank you, Sir Winston!' Meanwhile, Gary Oldman took the Lead Actor prize for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, beating Daniel Day-Lewis [Phantom Thread], Daniel Kaluuya [Get Out], Jamie Bell [Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool] and Timothee Chalamet [Call Me By Your Name]

Leaders: Oldman and McDormand took home the awards for Lead Actor and Lead Actress for their roles of Sir Winston Churchill and Mildred Hayes

'I have a little trouble with compliance!' In her speech, she referenced the fact she was not wearing an all-black ensemble, much like her fellow actresses who were supporting the Time's Up initiative in support of battling sexual harassment

Worthy winner: McDormand beat Annette Bening [Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool], Margot Robbie [I, Tonya], Sally Hawkins [The Shape Of Water] and Saoirse Ronan [Lady Bird]

'When I was a young actor I was told I wasnt gifted and would need to work on it... so I did. I am deeply grateful for the writers for helping me reach my potential. Power to the people!'

The movie then took the Best Film prize, with McDormand back on stage to join writer Martin McDonagh ad producers Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin. It beat Call Me Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk and The Shape Of Water.

Earlier in the evening, the men were accepting the Best British Film gong, with screenwriter McDonagh - who took home another award for the movie, this time for Best Original Screenplay - joking that hes half Irish so hes not allowed to make the speech.

Broadbent then said: 'We finished this film about a year ago about a woman taking on the establishment. It seems more timely now than it did then with Times Up. It turns out meaningful change can happen quickly if we put our minds to it.'

Powerful: The Frances McDormand fronted drama Three Billboards received a total of nine nods, taking home Best Film, Best Supporting Actor, Lead Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best British Film

Historic: The stars turned out in force for the award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London

'See you in the bar!' The movie's next gong went to Sam Rockwell for his Supporting Actor role as Jason Dixon. He was sure to thank his 'friend' the late Alan Rickman

Over to you: Rockwell was presented with the award by Lupita Nyong'o

To his co-star, lead actress McDormand he said: 'Frances you're the rock. You make me proud to be an actor'

Night full of stars: The triumphant winners of the 71st British Academy Film Awards posed with their prizes at the end of the evening

The movie's next gong went to Sam Rockwell for his Supporting Actor role in the movie.

To his co-star, lead actress McDormand he said: 'Frances you're the rock. You make me proud to be an actor.'

He was sure to thank his 'friend' the late Alan Rickman adding: 'I'll see you in the bar!'

Gary Oldman took the Lead Actor prize for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, beating Daniel Day-Lewis [Phantom Thread], Daniel Kaluuya [Get Out], Jamie Bell [Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool] and Timothee Chalamet [Call Me By Your Name].

'Tonight is even more special because I can share it with my three sons and my beautiful wife Giselle,' the actor said.'

Speaking to director of Darkest Hour Joe Wright, he said: 'You handpicked an armada of talent. I love you Kristen [Scott Thomas] and Lily [James].

'Last but not least I want to thank Winston, the man himself. He held the line of honour and freedom and integrity for his nation. Thank you Sir Winston and thank you BAFTA.'

Allison Janney took home the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in I, Tonya as Tonya Harding's mother.

'I want to thank BAFTA and clear up a lie,' she said. 'I did not graduate from the Royal Acadmay of Dramatic Art - but I did do a two-week summer programme there - that's probably why I'm here tonight!'

Winner: Oldman has continued his winning streak as he nabbed the BAFTA for the Best Leading Actor at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday surrounded by his peers

Front runner: The 59-year-old actor has been cleaning up during the awards circuit and now after picking up his latest honour has become the favourite at next month's Oscars for his portrayal of late former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

Sealed with a kiss: Oldman kissed his art curator wife Giselle Schmidt before going up on stage

Guillermo Del Toro won the BAFTA for Best Director for The Shape Of Water. Blade Runner 2049's Denis Villeneuve, Call Me By Your Name's Luca Guadagnino, Dunkirk's Christopher Nolan and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri's Martin McDonagh.

Call Me By Your Name took home the gong for Best Adapted Screenplay. Acclaimed American screenwriter James Ivory, 89, looked dapper in a black suit and bow tie as he collected the accolade.

'I've been here before but never by myself and never for writing a screenplay,' he said in his acceptance speech. 'We are wonderfully lucky to have the actors we have - some of whom are here now.'

28-year-old Daniel Kaluuya beat out stiff competition from Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson in the EE-sponsored Rising Star category, which was voted for by the public.

Truth time: 'I want to thank BAFTA and clear up a lie,' Allison Janney said. 'I did not graduate from the Royal Acadmay of Dramatic Art - but I did do a two-week summer programme there - that's probably why I'm here tonight'

I, Allison: Janney took home the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in I, Tonya as Tonya Harding's mother [presented by Bryan Cranston, pictured]

Supporting Actress: Janney plays LaVona Harding in I, Tonya

An honour: Call Me By Your Name took home the gong for Best Adapted Screenplay. Acclaimed American screenwriter James Ivory, 89, looked dapper in a black suit and bow tie as he collected the accolade

He was presented with the award by 2015 Rising Star nominee Margot Robbie, who was nominated in this year's Best Actress category for I, Tonya and Octavia Spencer, who received a nod in the Best Supporting Actress group for The Shape of Water.

Host Joanna Lumley joked 'Please welcome my niece Margo Robbie' as she introduced the award's presenters.

Listing the former winners of the award - such as Tom Holland, Jack OConnell, Will Poulter, Tom Hardy, Kristen Stewart, Noel Clarke, Eva Green and James McAvoy - Spencer remarked: 'This tells us that the British public would make pretty excellent casting directors.'

Emotional Kaluuya praised his fellow Rising Star nominees in his poignant speech as well as thanking his acting mentors and his family for letting him 'think different.'

Champion: Emotional Kaluuya praised his fellow Rising Star nominees in his poignant speech as well as thanking his acting mentors and his family for letting him 'think different'

Glee: Robbie looked delighted as she embraced the talented actor on the star-studded night

He said: 'I've gone blank. Thank you, Tessa, Tim, Josh and Florence. I feel so privileged to be in your guys' company. I am a product of arts funding in the UK. I want to thank people who support that, mainstream arts and grass roots levels.

'Thank you for letting me think different. I wasn't supposed to say that. We break all the rules.

'Mum - you're the reason why I started, why I'm here, you're the reason I keep going. This is yours. Love, peace, let's get it.'

Kaluuya has also picked up Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his role as Chris Washington in the 2017 horror film Get Out.

Viewers' favourite: The 28-year-old actor beat out stuff competition from Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson in the EE-sponsored category, which was voted for by the public

National treasure: Joanna Lumley left the BAFTAs audience in hysterics with her pre-show skit... featuring the likes of Hugh Grant, Timothee Chalamet, Woody Harrelson and Gary Oldman

Winning chat: Kaluuya has also picked up Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his role as Chris Washington in the 2017 horror film Get Out [pictured with Allison Janney and Gary Oldman]

He is known for his roles in hit TV shows, Skins, Psychoville and Black Mirror and has also starred in films, including crime thriller Sicario, Johnny English Reborn and Kick Ass 2.

This month he appeared in Marvel film Black Panther, followed by a co-starring role in Steve McQueens upcoming heist thriller Widows later this year.

National treasure Joanna Lumley - who has this year taken the hosting reigns over from Stephen Fry - had the audience immediately eating from the palm of her hand as she took part in a pre-show skit, leaving the celeb-packed audience in hysterics.

In the routine, Lumley was seen in her living room, making calls to people to tell them she was going to be hosting this year's awards.

Hostess with the mostess: 'Here we go,' Lumley said before stepping onto the stage to rapturous applause

Evening entertainment: A performance from Cirque du Soleil followed after which Lumley was seen backstage, applying her lipstick, looking at her reflection in the iconic bronze BAFTA statuettes that are handed out to the eventual winners

As she chatted on the phone, she was inter-cut with snippets from a variety of the nominated movies, featuring scenes with actors on the phone.

The likes of Hugh Grant, Timothee Chalamet, Woody Harrelson and Gary Oldman appeared in clips from their various films [Paddington 2, Call Me By Your Name, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Darkest Hour respectively].

A performance from Cirque du Soleil followed after which Lumley was seen backstage, applying her lipstick, looking at her reflection in the iconic bronze BAFTA statuettes that are handed out to the eventual winners.

'Here we go,' Lumley said before stepping onto the stage to rapturous applause.

Stephen Fry announced he was stepping down after hosting for 12 years, from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2012 to 2017. TV presenter Jonathan Ross presented during the intervening years.

The Rising Star award was presented by 2015 Rising Star nominee Margot Robbie, who was nominated in this year's Best Actress category for I, Tonya and Octavia Spencer, who received a nod in the Best Supporting Actress group for The Shape of Water

On the bottle: Salma Hayek (left) and Allison Janney (right) signed the giant bottle of champagne, as is tradition

Fizz time: Toby Jones and Rebecca Ferguson, who were in attendance to present an award, also did the honours

Lumley said at the time: 'Honestly how exciting is this? It's just so unbelievably thrilling. I always looked at the BAFTA Awards with Stephen Fry there forever more, so who thought I'd turn into Stephen Fry? I said yes indecently quickly. Thank you, thank you, I'll see you on the night.

And after stepping down from his coveted position, Fry said: 'Every one of the 12 BAFTA film award ceremonies that I had the privilege of hosting has a place in my memory.

'The mixture of glamour, glory, drama and - occasionally - embarrassment and hiccup holds a unique place in the British film calendar.

Behind-the-scenes: Three Billboards star Sam Rockwell was chatting backstage ahead of his awards show glory

Leading ladies: Lupita Nyong'o (left) and Rachel Weisz (right) were in a hurry to make it onto the stage

Proud moment: Rising Star award winner Daniel Kaluuya held his well-deserved trophy aloft

Enjoying a tipple: Lily James enjoyed a glass of bubbly ahead of the main event

British beauties: Lily (left) and fellow actress Gemma Arterton (right) made for a dynamic duo when they took to the stage to present an award

'What fun it will be to watch BAFTA 2018 without my heart hammering, mouth drying and knees trembling.'

The first BAFTA award ceremony took place in 1949 and presented the initial awards for films made in 1947 and 1948.

Following the nomination announcements back in January, BAFTA was criticised about the absence of women making this years Best Director shortlist.

Greta Gerwig, director of Lady Bird, was notably absent from the shortlist  despite the film receiving nominations for Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and Supporting Actress and winning two Golden Globes last week.

Still smiling: Allison couldn't contain her excitement as she returned backstage following her big win

Calm and confident: Salma's opening awards delivery gambit was one of the better delivered introductions of the night

Beauty: Naomie Harris dared to be different in a beautiful sequinned dress, worn over a pair of smart trousers

Highest honour: Sir Ridley Scott received a fellowship in a special honour presented by The Duke of Cambridge

Next time: Timothee Chalamet [Call Me By Your Name] failed to take home a gong on Sunday's awards night

Angelina Jolie also failed to make the cut for directing First They Killed My Father, nominated for the category of Film Not in the English Language. Other female directors left off included Lucy Cohen, who directed Kingdom of Us, and Rungano Nyoni for I Am Not A Witch  despite both having made it into the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category.

Of all the 2018 BAFTA Film nominees in non-gender-specific categories, only around 20 per cent are women.

Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman in history to win the Best Director award  for The Hurt Locker in 2010. BAFTA boss Amanda Berry told yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme: Well, I have to admit there are no female directors in the director category, but there are five female directors nominated elsewhere.Advertisement

He has been the leading contender during this year's award season, having already picked up a Golden Globe and SAG for his portrayal of late former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

And Gary Oldman has continued his winning streak as he nabbed the BAFTA for the Best Leading Actor during the ceremony held at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday surrounded by his peers.

The 59-year-old actor has been cleaning up during the awards circuit and now after picking up his latest honour has become the favourite at next month's Oscars.

Winner: Gary Oldman has continued his winning streak as he nabbed the BAFTA for the Best Leading Actor at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday surrounded by his peers

The acclaimed British actor fought off stiff competition from Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya, Jamie Bell and Timothee Chalamet to be presented with the statue.

Accepting the accolade, Gary thanked his three sons; Oliver, 29, Gulliver, 20, and Charlie, 19, his art curator wife Giselle for their unwavering support as they sat in the audience.

He began: 'I salute my fellow nominees for your beautiful work. This is made all the more special because I can share it with my family tonight: my three sons and my beautiful wife and my extended family Jim Osborne and Douglas Urbanski.'

As his speech came to a close, the screen star acknowledged Winston and thanked him for his 'integrity'.

Front runner: The 59-year-old actor has been cleaning up during the awards circuit and now after picking up his latest honour has become the favourite at next month's Oscars for his portrayal of late former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

Acceptance: The 59-year-old actor has been cleaning up during the awards circuit and now after picking up his latest honour has become the favourite at next month's Oscars

Speaking to director of Darkest Hour Joe Wright, he said: 'You handpicked an armada of talent. I love you Kristen [Scott Thomas] and Lily [James].

'Last but not least I want to thank Winston, the man himself. He held the line of honour and freedom and integrity. For his nation and the world. I thank you Sir Winston. I thank you the Churchill family, and once again BAFTA.'

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.

No stranger to the best Leading Actor category, Gary was previously nominated for his turn as George Smiley in 2011's Tinker Tailor Solider Spy but ultimately lost out to The Artist's Jean Dujardin, while he was recognised for his work in 1987's Prick Up Your Ears, directed by Stephen Frears.

Although he has finally bagged his first Leading Actor BAFTA, he previously won Best Screenplay and Best Film for his 1997 cinematic offering Nil by Mouth, which starred Ray Winstone and Katy Bates, at the awards.

His latest win comes after he was overcome with emotion while picking up his Screen Actors Guild Award last month.

The actor couldn't hide his emotions as he picked up the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. 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.

Sealed with a kiss: Gary kissed his art curator wife Giselle Schmidt before going up on stage

Celebrations: The acclaimed British actor fought off stiff competition from Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Kaluuya, Jamie Bell and Timothee Chalamet to be presented with the statue

Delight: Accepting the accolade, Gary thanked his three sons; Oliver, 29, Gulliver, 20, and Charlie, 19, his art curator wife Giselle for their unwavering support as they sat in the audience

Presentation: Salma Hayek presented Gary with his award on Sunday night

'Freedom': He shared: 'In those dark and uncertain days he held the line for honour and integrity and freedom. For his nation and the world. I thank you Sir Winston. I thank you the Churchill family, and once again BAFTA' (Pictured in costume as Sir Winston Churchill)

The winners of the EE British Academy Film Awards 2018 WINNER: BEST FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh Winner: Best Film: (L to R) Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh and Graham Broadbent, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri CALL ME YOUR NAME DARKEST HOUR DUNKIRK THE SHAPE OF WATER WINNER: OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin Winner: Outstanding British Film: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider GODS OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin OReilly, Alice Birch PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby WINNER: LEADING ACTRESS Frances McDormand, THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Winner: Leading Actress: Frances McDormand (right) came top ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya SALLY HAWKINS The Shape Of Water SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird WINNER: LEADING ACTOR: Gary Oldman, DARKEST HOUR Winner: Leading Actor: Gary Oldman picked up a gong DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Daniel Day-Lewis Phantom Thread DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out JAMIE BELL Film Stars Dont Die In Liverpool TIMOTHEE CHALAMET Call Me By Your Name WINNER: SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson Winner: Special Visual Effects went to Blade Runner 2049 DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees TBC WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees TBC WINNER: OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER I AM NOT A WITCH Winner: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer - I Am Not A Witch THE GHOUL JAWBONE KINGDOM OF US LADY MACBETH WINNER: PRODUCTION DESIGN THE SHAPE OF WATER, Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau Winner: Production Design - The Shape Of Water BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis WINNER: ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, James Ivory Winner: Adapted Screenplay, Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider FILM STARS DONT DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh MOLLYS GAME Aaron Sorkin PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King WINNER: FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THE HANDMAIDEN, Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim Winner: Film Not In The English Language: The Handmaiden - Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim ELLE FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER THE SALESMAN LOVELESS WINNER: BRITISH SHORT FILM COWBOY DAVE, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen Winner: British Short Film - Cowboy Dave, Colin OToole, Jonas Mortensen AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Srensen, Patrick Campbell WORK Aneil Karia, Scott ODonnell WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick WINNER: BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION POLES APART, Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low Winner: British Short Animation: Poles Apart HAVE HEART Will Anderson MAMOON Ben Steer WINNER: DOCUMENTARY I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck Winner: Documentary: I Am Not Your Negro CITY OF GHOSTS ICARUS AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL JANE WINNER: EDITING BABY DRIVER, Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss Winner: Editing - Baby Driver, Jonathan Amos, (pictured) and Paul Machliss BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker DUNKIRK Lee Smith THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory WINNER: ANIMATED FILM COCO, Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson Winner: Animated Film: Coco LOVING VINCENT MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE WINNER: Costume Design PHANTOM THREAD, Mark Bridges Winner: Costume Design: Phantom Thread BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira WINNER: MAKEUP & HAIR DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji Winner: MakeUp and Hair: DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten WINNER: ORIGINAL MUSIC THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat Winner: Original Music: The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood WINNER: EE RISING STAR AWARD DANIEL KALUUYA Winner: EE Rising Star Award - Daniel Kaluuya FLORENCE PUGH JOSH OCONNOR TESSA THOMPSON TIMOTHEE CHALAMET WINNER: SOUND DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten Winner: Sound: Dunkirk's Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood WINNER: DIRECTOR Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER Winner: Director: Guillermo del Toro - The Shape Of Water BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTRESS ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya Winner: Supporting Actress: Allison Janney for I, Tanya KRISTEN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape Of Water WINNER: SUPPORTING ACTOR SAM ROCKWELL, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Winner: Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World HUGH GRANT Paddington 2 WILLEM DEFOE Florida Project WOODY HARRELSON 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri WINNER: CINEMATOGRAPHY BLADE RUNNER 2049, Roger Deakins Winner: Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis WINNER: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh Winner: Original Screenplay - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri GET OUT Jordan Peele I, TONYA Steven Rogers LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor ______ Advertisement

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.'

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!'

Having fun: Fellow BAFTA winner Sam Rockwell appeared in high spirits alongside Gary following their wins

All smiles: The award winners couldn't contain their delight as they held their awards

Cheery: Gary posed with BAFTA Leading Actress winner Frances McDormand

Thrilling: The winners wrapped their arms around each other as they posed for photos

Congrats: Supporting Actress winner Allison Janney caught up with Rising Star winner Daniel Kayuula and Gary

Picture perfect: Gary contain his excitement as he held onto his award

Meanwhile, the 71st BAFTAs saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri take home an incredible five awards at this year's EE British Academy Film Awards.

The stars turned out in force for the award ceremony on Sunday, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Three Billboards was the first to take home an award, scooping the Best British Film gong.

Screenwriter Martin McDonagh joined producer Graham Broadbent on the stage, with McDonagh joking that hes half Irish so hes not allowed to make the speech.

Broadbent then said: 'We finished this film about a year ago about a woman taking on the establishment. It seems more timely now than it did then with Times Out. It turns out meaningful change can happen quickly if we put our minds to it.'

The movie's next gong went to Sam Rockwell for his Supporting Actor role in the movie. Call Me By Your Name took home the gong for Best Adapted Screenplay and Daniel Kaluuya scooping the EE Rising Star award.

Support: Gary donned a Time's Up pin on his suit jacket for the ceremony

Family affair: Gary pictured with his three sons and wife Giselle on the red carpet (Pictured L-R: Guest, Guillver, wife Giselle Schmidt, Gary, Charlie and Alfie)

Support: The BAFTA winner posed with his family on the carpet

Dressed to impress: He sported a dapper tuxedo for the cinematic occasion

28-year-old Kaluuya beat out stiff competition from Florence Pugh, Josh OConnor, Timothee Chalamet and Tessa Thompson in the EE-sponsored category, which was voted for by the public.

He was presented with the award by 2015 Rising Star nominee Margot Robbie, who is nominated in this year's Best Actress category for I, Tonya and Octavia Spencer, who received a nod in the Best Supporting Actress group for The Shape of Water.

The emotional star praised his fellow Rising Star nominees in his poignant speech as well as thanking his acting mentors and his family for letting him 'think different.' He said: 'I've gone blank. Thank you, Tessa, Tim, Josh and Florence.

'I feel so privileged to be in your guys' company. I am a product of arts funding in the UK. I want to thank people who support that, mainstream arts and grass roots levels.'

Adding: 'Thank you for letting me think different. I wasn't supposed to say that. We break all the rules. Mum - you're the reason why I started, why I'm here, you're the reason I keep going. This is yours. Love peace lets get it.

Kaluuya has also picked up Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for his role as Chris Washington in the 2017 horror film Get Out.

Previous winners of the award include Tom Holland, Jack OConnell, Will Poulter, Tom Hardy, Kristen Stewart, Noel Clarke, Eva Green and James McAvoy.Learning about sexual health has never been more rewarding - at least that's the case for festival-goers on the NSW Central Coast who've gained access to an exclusive VIP area in exchange for a cup of urine.

Young people who test for chlamydia at the Mountain Sounds Festival at Kariong Parklands on the Central Coast will be given access to a hygienically clean toilet, phone charging station, a glitter bar and a bunch of sexual health advice.

"Music festivals are a great opportunity to reach people aged between 15 and 29 to help normalise STI testing and remind them that condoms are the best way to stop the spread of HIV and STIs," Head of NSW STI program unit Dr Chris Bourne said in a statement.The Queensland opposition and a motoring body are calling on the state government to introduce real-time fuel price reporting with petrol prices forecast to soar in the state's south-east.

The RACQ says prices are set to rise to 151.9 cents a litre at many south-east Queensland service stations in coming days - a three-year record high.

Both the RACQ and LNP opposition leader Deb Frecklington are calling on the Palaszczuk government to introduce real-time reporting which they argue has already resulted in falling prices in NSW.A fisherman has been tossed from his kayak after hooking a less than impressed shark in Victoria's Western Port Bay, sparking a mystery when his vessel was spotted drifting hours later.

After the run-in, the fisherman was able to signal for help from friends, who were fishing in a boat nearby off Balnarring on Saturday night and helped him and his kayak to shore.

Unperturbed by the near-miss, the fisherman decided to have another fish, this time from the safety of his friends' boat.

But when he went to retrieve his kayak a few hours later, it was missing and he returned home without notifying authorities.

The mystery began when a passing boat spotted the unmanned kayak drifting off Cliff's Beach on Sunday morning, sparking a search involving the Water Police, the police Air Wing helicopter, Coastguard and Volunteer Marine Rescue members.

Police later found the fisherman at home and the kayak, containing his fishing gear, will be returned to him.Another 35 refugees are leaving Nauru for the United States on Sunday, the third group to depart Australia's offshore immigration centres this week.

Almost all are single Afghan, Pakistani or Rohingya men, along with one Sri Lankan family and one Bangladesh refugee, the Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul said.

So far 84 people have flown from Nauru and another 85 from Papua New Guinea's Manus Island to the US under the resettlement deal, with at least one more flight expected to leave this month.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull consulted his wife Lucy about the sex ban prohibiting cabinet ministers from sexual relations with staffers.

Mr Turnbull announced the ban on Thursday after it was revealed deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce had an extra-marital affair with his media advisor with the PM labelling it a "shocking error of judgment".

"Yes Lucy and I talked about this, this is one of those classic issues where it's good to take counsel from your wife, life partner," Mr Turnbull told 60 Minutes in an interview about their long marriage.A 30-year-old man has died after he collapsed while being arrested in Sydney's inner west, sparking a police internal investigation.

Officers were called to a street in Newtown after a man, who was being held under the Mental Health Act, fled a nearby hospital, NSW Police said in a statement on Sunday.

"The man resisted arrest and collapsed at the scene before being taken to hospital, where he later died," the statement said.

A witness said she saw 15 officers "on top of him" during the arrest.

"My gut feeling was that maybe they used a bit of excessive force trying to arrest him," she told the Seven Network.

"He looked like he may have been a big man but still, and they pulled him back up which made it even worse."

The investigation will be independently reviewed and a report will be prepared for coroner.WA Premier Mark McGowan says he has been assured a media adviser for Health Minister Roger Cook was not sacked as the result of a clash with the minister's chief of staff who allegedly called her "Kim Jong Lard".

Media adviser Jane Grljusich is reportedly embroiled in a legal battle after losing her job, while chief of staff Erik Locke resigned on Friday and is facing an independent inquiry rather than the Public Sector Commission.

Mr McGowan said he became aware some time last year that there was a "personality conflict" in his deputy's office.

But he said he only became aware of the alleged "Kim Jong Lard" comment on Friday when Mr Locke quit.

"Obviously I'm unhappy with the developments and I wish it hadn't happened, but obviously there's now an independent inquiry into these issues," Mr McGowan told reporters on Sunday.

"I don't want to get into the business of character assassination ... I won't make comments about the individuals involved."

The premier said he had been been assured Ms Grljusich was not removed as a result of her clash with Mr Locke.

"My understanding is that there were other issues, unrelated issues, that resulted in that outcome," he said.

Ms Grljusich has been sought for comment.

Her lawyer, Anna Liscia, previously told The West Australian newspaper that Ms Grljusich was given no reason for her termination or prior notice.

"It is highly suspicious that after making her complaints known, she was terminated," Ms Liscia said.

Opposition spokesman Sean L'Estrange said the matter showed a dysfunctional office with internal squabbling.

But the premier insisted the issue would not affect the health portfolio or department.A 20-year-old woman has been sexually assaulted while walking by a vacant block in Western Australia's Goldfields region on the same night another woman was rescued from an attack nearby.

The woman was walking along Great Eastern Highway in Kalgoorlie about 3.30am on Sunday when she was approached by a man as she walked by a vacant block near Patroni Road.

She was forced to another vacant block between Centennial Park and the Shire offices, before being sexually assaulted, police say.

The woman broke free and reported the incident to police.

About half an hour earlier, a 37-year-old woman was walking towards South Kalgoorlie when she noticed a man behind her.

As she turned onto Lane Street, the woman began to run but was chased by the man who forced her to the ground and began dragging her.

A member of the public intervened and the man ran away.

"Although it is early stages of both investigations, police are examining whether these two incidents are linked," a police spokeswoman said.

In both incidents, the offender is described as being a dark-skinned male, aged between 20 and 40.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers. Police are particularly urging anyone with CCTV footage to come forward.Barnaby Joyce is on his first day of personal leave after a tumultuous week that culminated in a public spat with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

But the prime minister has hosed down talk of a rift between himself and his deputy.

Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce met in Sydney on Saturday to resolve the war of words that centred around the deputy prime minister's extramarital affair, which dominated headlines last week.

On Thursday, while announcing ministers would be banned from having sex with staffers, Mr Turnbull described Mr Joyce's affair with former media adviser Vikki Campion as a "shocking error of judgment" causing "a world of woe".

That provoked an angry response from Mr Joyce, who said the remarks were "inept" and "unnecessary".

Mr Turnbull played down the public spat but insisted there was "nothing to apologise for" and stood by the ban.

The government announced Mr Joyce would take five days of personal leave while Mr Turnbull was overseas.

His absence means Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will be acting prime minister for the week.

Labor was quick to seize on the spat with the manager of opposition business Tony Burke saying Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce would struggle to put forward a convincing unified front when they return to work in a week's time.

"You've had the government being described as inept, you've had the government being described as having no judgment and that's all come from the two most senior members of the government," he told ABC TV on Sunday.

Mr Burke said Labor were not outright opposed to what social media dubbed the "bonking ban" but would seek advice on whether it was the best way to improve federal parliament as a workplace.It seems sprint champ Cameron McEvoy can breathe a little easier ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games swimming trials - Mack Horton is not interested in defending the national 200m freestyle crown.

But Italian distance great Greg Paltrinieri is firmly in Olympic champion Horton's sights.

Horton upstaged McEvoy to become the first Australian man in nine years to claim the 200m-400m-1500m freestyle treble at a national titles in 2017.

Much to Horton's surprise.

Horton said his focus at the trials starting next week would be the 400m, 1500m and a 4x200m relay spot after claiming he only won the 200m title last year by "accident".

From lane eight, Horton left three-time defending champion McEvoy in his wake before mowing down Olympic gold medallist Kyle Chalmers to win the 2017 200m final - an event he entered for a "bit of fun".

Rio 400m freestyle champion Horton said he had not even considered contesting the 200m yet ahead of the four-day Gold Coast trials from February 28.

"I haven't discussed it (200m) yet because if it happens again it will be an accident again," Horton laughed.

"I am just going for that (4x200m) relay spot.

"For Commonwealth Games the trials are shorter (than usual eight days) so it will all be about managing and balancing the events."

National sprint champion McEvoy will no doubt be happy with Horton's call as he eyes yet another 200m title ahead of the Gold Coast Games.

But world and Olympic 1500m champ Paltrinieri won't be getting off so easily against Horton in future.

Horton's focus is the Commonwealth Games but he has already cast his eye toward Tokyo 2020 after training alongside good friend Paltrinieri the last three months in Melbourne.

Paltrinieri is the undisputed 1500m king but Horton reckoned he could work out chinks in the Italian's armour before the next Olympics.

While Horton is the Olympic 400m champion, his favourite is still the 1500m due to the event's long and glittering history in Australian sport.

Asked if he knew how to beat Paltrinieri now, Horton laughed: "Yeah, but I am not going to tell you.

"He is very good though. It's interesting to see him train and see him go in our program (in Melbourne).

"I don't do anywhere near the distance work or 1500m pace work compared to him - that's all he does.

"We do a bit of everything at training so it has been interesting to see how he handles it and how we handle it."Nationals MPs have hit out at a television interview in which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull backed his ban on ministers having sexual relations with staffers.

Mr Turnbull announced the ban on Thursday after it was revealed deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce had had an affair with his former media adviser.

The prime minister labelled the affair as a "shocking error of judgment" and said it had caused a "world of woe".

"I certainly felt that the values I expressed and the action I took would have the overwhelming endorsement of Australians. I felt it was absolutely the right thing to do," Mr Turnbull told the Nine Network's current affairs program 60 Minutes on Sunday.

But a Nationals MP slammed the interview, questioning why the deputy prime minister wasn't interviewed on the show.

"Funny that 60 minutes didn't bother to ask Barnaby Joyce whatever they wanted for tonight's story when he was on the same floor as their film crew in Sydney's Commonwealths (sic) Parliamentary Offices on Friday," George Christensen tweeted.

Mr Joyce promptly retweeted the statement.Julie Bishop has stopped short of throwing her direct support behind a ban on ministers having sex with staff.

But the deputy Liberal leader has acknowledged the changes to the ministerial code of conduct by Malcolm Turnbull brings the government into line with many workplaces.

The prime minister made the announcement last Thursday following revelations about Barnaby Joyce's affair with a staffer who is now carrying their child.

Ms Bishop was previously critical of suggestions there should be a ban, akin to the one adopted by the US Congress.

When commenting on the US ban, Ms Bishop said the government had no business interfering in personal lives and there shouldn't be "moral police" dictating what happens between consenting adults.

But on Monday, after one was announced by Mr Turnbull, Ms Bishop said he was simply trying to make the code more explicit.

A Newspoll published on Monday showed 64 per cent of Australians supported the ban, with 25 per cent opposed.

"There are still areas of a politician's life that are and should be private," Ms Bishop told Sky News from London.

"What the prime minister is seeking to do is ensure that there are not relationships within ministers' offices that can lead to an improper influence over a minister's decisions to conflicts of interest, to misuse of taxpayers funds."

Asked directly if she supported the call now, she said: "I will abide by the ministerial code of conduct."

On news of the poll result, Ms Bishop said if it was meeting community expectations then it was a "positive thing".Gun enthusiasts attend a show at the Dade County Youth Fairgrounds in Miami, Florida, on February 17, 2018, three days after a mass shooting at a high school 30 miles (48 km) away left 17 people dead

Pistols, rifles and ammunition are on display at a gun show in Miami, where Mike Vallone is buying an AR-15, a firearm at the center of debate on gun control as the weapon of choice of several mass shooters.

Why would the 55-year-old, who already owns about 50 guns, want another one?

"Because I choose to own them. I have the constitutional right to own them and I choose to exercise that right," he told AFP on Saturday.

Vallone was visiting the gun show three days after a 19-year-old massacred 17 people at his former high school with an AR-15 in Parkland, about an hour north of Miami.

The semi-automatic rifle was also used to carry out mass shootings in Las Vegas (58 dead), Sutherland Springs, Texas (26 dead) and Newtown, Connecticut (26 dead).

The media "makes it look like it's evil," Vallone said, holding the $600 gun he is about to buy. "This does nothing by itself. This takes a human being to take the rifle, point it and shoot someone."

A man checks out a weapon at the South Florida Gun Show

Every mass shooting reveals the deep fissures in American society between those who favor fewer restrictions on guns and gun ownership, and those who demand greater controls. The "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is guaranteed under the US Constitution's Second Amendment, which was adopted in 1791.

"The focus on gun control is an error and it won't stop someone determined to commit crimes," said Vallone, raising a common argument among pro-gun advocates.

"I own guns, I choose to own guns, I choose to carry guns. That's my choice. It's not for everyone, I absolutely agree with that. Everybody needs a background check, I'm having a background check right now," he said, pointing at the gun vendor who was looking at a laptop.

In the US, adults with a clean criminal record can generally buy a gun, as was the case with Nikolas Cruz in Parkland. Regulatory loopholes also allow for certain gun sales without background checks.

The issue is deeply political -- on one side, the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) aggressively lobbies lawmakers to maintain the status quo.

On the other side, advocates for stricter gun controls say a criminal record check is not sufficiently thorough and often misses red flags that don't rise to the level of criminal charges, such a mental health problems.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

- Popular show -

Visitors to the gun show were mostly men, with some of them bringing small children

Florida Gun Shows, which holds events in major cities throughout the state every week, opened its Miami show on Saturday.

"Legislation is great to talk about, as long as it doesn't infringe upon your rights," said George Fernandez, a spokesman for the gun show, defending the Second Amendment.

Some 140 exhibitors had their wares on display in booths, many decorated with alligator heads.

One vendor displayed knives made from giraffe bones. Another seller highlighted the advantages of tasers and stun guns: "You don't need to go through the paperwork to carry it, you can just take it."

The line to enter the exhibition hall was long and made up mostly of men, with some holding small children by the hand.

A wide variety of weapons, including knives and stun guns, were on offer

Meanwhile, student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland rallied in the nearby city of Fort Lauderdale. Brandishing posters with messages like "Never again" and "Gun control now," they demanded that politicians tackle the issue that surfaces after every mass shooting.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," 18-year-old student Emma Gonzalez said in a fiery address to several thousand people.Medics treat a wounded Palestinian at Rafah hospital in the southern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2018

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip, medical sources said Sunday, as tensions rose after an apparent bomb attack that wounded several Israeli soldiers on the enclave's border.

The Saturday explosion and ensuing Israeli air strikes marked one of the most serious escalations in the Hamas-ruled territory since the Islamist movement and Israel fought a war in 2014.

Israel's army said it attacked "18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation" in two waves of air strikes.

"Eight targets were attacked in a military compound near Deir el Balah, which belongs to the Hamas terror organisation, including weapon-manufacturing and training infrastructures," it said in a statement.

Earlier the army said fighter jets had targeted "six military targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas, including: a terror tunnel in the Zaytun area and military compounds near Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis".

Two Palestinians were injured in air strikes which hit three bases belonging to Hamas in the east of the blockaded Gaza enclave, Palestinian sources said.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich late Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called the border blast "very serious" and pledged to "respond appropriately".

Israeli forces patrol near the border with Gaza on February 18, 2018

According to witnesses, the two dead Palestinians were shot by Israeli forces near the border on Saturday.

They were identified by the Gaza health ministry as Salam Sabah and Abdullah Abu Sheikha, both 17, who were killed east of Rafah in the south of the enclave.

The Israeli army said that its forces had fired "warning shots" at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence "in a suspicious manner".

- 'Rogue group' -

Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, two severely, when an improvised explosive device blew up along the Gaza border fence, but none of their lives were in danger, the army said.

A hospital spokeswoman later said that the condition of one of those seriously wounded had improved.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said a "rogue group" had claimed responsibility for the bomb blast, likely indicating one of the more radical Islamist groups who are present in Gaza.

But he insisted that "from our point of view Hamas is responsible" and said the explosive had been planted during a protest arranged by the group on Friday.

According to Conricus, Israeli soldiers saw a flag on a pole on the Gazan side of the border fence, with the device exploding when one of them grabbed it.

According to Palestinian security sources, the explosion took place east of the city of Khan Yunis.

In response Israeli forces said a tank promptly opened fire at an "observation post" in southern Gaza, causing no injuries on the Palestinian side.

A projectile launched from the Gaza Strip hit near a home in a southern Israeli community, damaging a building but causing no injuries, Israeli authorities said.

A second was fired on Sunday night, hitting an Israeli house near Sderot also without causing any casualties, the Israeli army said.

Israel holds the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas responsible for any fire from the blockaded coastal enclave.

An injured Palestinian man arrives at a hospital to receive treatment following an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip

The Israeli army responds automatically to any strikes on its territory, generally targeting Hamas facilities.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had fired at Israeli jets overhead. Conricus denied the claim.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, and the last conflict in 2014 was waged in part over tunnels from Gaza that were used to launch attacks.

Israel hit Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip repeatedly in early February, saying Palestinians there had fired a rocket into its territory.

Tensions between the Palestinians and Israel have been high since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in December.

Netanyahu will visit the White House next month, a senior US administration official told AFP on Friday.

The March 5 visit comes as Netanyahu faces a scandal that has seen police recommend he be indicted for graft.Premchai being arrested for poaching

Thai officials will test human faeces found at a campsite in a wildlife sanctuary to try to prove their case against a tycoon accused of poaching a leopard.

Construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta has denied poaching charges levelled against him and three others.

They were arrested earlier this month in the sanctuary in western Thailand where rangers stumbled on their camp and found guns and animal carcasses.

Rich and influential Thais have a habit of avoiding justice.

The junta which seized power in 2014 is on the back foot over a luxury watch scandal that has engulfed the defence minister, and allegations that the ex-police chief borrowed nearly $10 million from a fugitive brothel owner.

Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, head of a special task force with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the discovery of the excrement was important because it was near the campsite and he did not believe Premchai would wander deep into the woods for such a purpose.

He said the excrement was suspiciously close to spent bullet casings and the location where the panther was skinned.

"It can prove that he was there, he cannot say he was not there," Chaiwat said, adding that the waste would be tested for Premchai's DNA.

Premchai, president of Italian-Thai Development Company which built Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport among many other major projects, denied poaching after his arrest.

He and his camping colleagues have been bailed while the case is under investigation.

The Thungyai Naresuan national park where Premchai was arrested is in tourist-friendly Kanchanaburi province.

The slain animals at the campsite were a black leopard, a Kalij pheasant and a red muntjac or barking deer -- protected species under Thai conservation law.School shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez delivers a fiery speech at a rally for gun control in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on February 17, 2018

US President Donald Trump said Saturday the FBI was so caught up in the Russia probe that it failed to heed signs which could have prevented the Parkland school shooting.

His comments came as he faces criticism from survivors of the attack over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, and after several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," he wrote on Twitter.

"They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs ahead of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 people were killed.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said the gunman Nikolas Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

But the attack, the 18th school shooting this year alone, has also renewed calls for greater gun control with several survivors leading the charge.

One of them, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd of students, parents and residents in Ft. Lauderdale.

"To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!" she thundered, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby. The crowd chanted in turn: "Shame on you!"

"We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law," she vowed -- slamming the fact 19-year-old Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behavior.

"The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics," Gonzalez told AFP following her speech.

One of the signs at the gun control rally at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on February 17, 2018

In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health -- making no mention of gun control.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," Gonzalez said in her impassioned address.

"It doesn't matter because I already know. Thirty million," she said, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trump's election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.

She then ran through a list of the pro-gun lobby's talking points -- for example, that "a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun," that no law could ever stop a madman intent on killing -- answering each argument with "We call BS."

The young woman's powerful address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.

- Missed warnings -

A protester at the gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Marco refers to US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who has received millions in political help from pro-gun groups

In addition to the FBI's missteps, Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated Cruz in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

The newspaper, citing Department of Children and Family Services documents, said the investigation came four days after Cruz turned 18 -- legally an adult, and thus able to buy a firearm.

Investigators said there were "some implications" for the teen's safety, but concluded that his "final level of risk is low as (he) resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling" as an outpatient at a mental health center, the Sun Sentinel said.

Cruz later passed a background check, allowing him in February 2017 to buy the AR-15 rifle used in the massacre.

- Russia probe -

Trump spoke by phone Saturday with the Parkland mayor, the county commissioner and the principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to express his condolences and offer his support.

He then pivoted to politics late Saturday with his allegations against the FBI -- though the federal government's investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race and collusion with the Trump campaign has been led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller since last May.

There was no immediate response from the FBI to Trump's latest allegation.

Mueller's investigation has so far swept up four members of Trump's campaign, with two agreeing to work for the probe under a plea deal.

On Thursday Mueller indicted 13 Russians for allegedly running a secret campaign to tilt the vote, but did not accuse any Americans of knowingly participating in that effort.Relatives of passengers onboard a plane that crashed in Iran gather near Tehran's Mehrabad airport on February 18, 2018

The hunt for a plane that disappeared with 66 people onboard in Iran's Zagros mountains was stopped until morning as blizzard conditions made progress impossible for rescue teams, state television said Sunday.

"With the wind intensifying, and with snow, rain and darkness, it is not possible for rescue and relief teams to reach high altitudes and the search operation has been postponed until tomorrow," broadcaster IRIB announced.

"Five helicopters are on alert to resume the search at dawn if the weather conditions are better."

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 disappeared from radar 45 minutes after taking off from Tehran.

The ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service for 25 years, left the capital's Mehrabad airport at around 8:00 am (0430 GMT) and was heading towards the city of Yasuj, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) to the south.

The Red Crescent said 45 teams had been deployed to the Dena mountain of Iran's southwestern Zagros range, but there was still no sign of any wreckage.

"The mountainous terrain is impassable. Thick fog and snow and rain have made it impossible to use helicopters," said Morteza Salimi, head of its rescue and relief section.

Map of Iran locating the Zagros mountains, where a passenger plane crashed on Sunday, killing all on board, according to officials

The airline said 60 passengers, including one child, were on board flight EP3704, as well as six crew.

It was the third disaster to strike Iran in recent months, after an earthquake that killed at least 620 people in Kermanshah in November and 30 Iranian sailors were lost in an oil tanker collision off China's coast last month.

A French-made ATR-72 owned by Iran's Aseman Airlines sits on the tarmac at Dubai airport on July 29, 2008

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent a message of condolence, saying the news had "left our hearts overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow", according to state television.

- Ageing fleets -

Families of the passengers gathered at a mosque near Mehrabad airport.

"I can't bring myself to believe it," said a woman whose husband was on board.

A man who missed the doomed flight told reporters of his conflicting emotions.

Iranian emergency services gather near Tehran's Mehrabad airport as relatives of passengers on a plane that crashed gather on February 18, 2018

"God has been really kind to me but I am so sad from the bottom of my heart for all those dear ones who lost their lives," the unnamed man told the Tabnak news website, which showed a picture of his unused ticket.

A Greek seismologist was also scheduled to take the flight but missed it after getting stuck in traffic, Greece's ANA news agency reported.

"I had planned to go to Yasouj on this flight, or the next if I missed it, but because of huge traffic jams in Tehran, I didn't get on board the plane in the end," Akis Tselentis was quoted as saying.

Decades of diplomatic isolation have left Iran's airlines with ageing fleets of passenger planes which they have struggled to maintain and modernise.

Aseman's fleet includes at least three ATR-72s that date back to the early 1990s, according to the IRNA news agency.

France's air safety agency BEA said it would take part in the investigation led by Britain's Air Accidents Investigation Branch. "Three investigators and our technical advisers will go to the site," a BEA spokesman told AFP.

President Hassan Rouhani ordered the transport ministry to set up a crisis group to investigate the crash and coordinate rescue efforts, ISNA reported.

Aseman's three Boeing 727-200s are almost as old as the country's 1979 Islamic revolution, having made their first flights the following year.

Relatives of passengers on an Iranian plane that crashed gather near Tehran's Mehrabad airport on February 18, 2018

Iran has suffered multiple aviation disasters, most recently in 2014 when 39 people were killed when a Sepahan Airlines plane crashed just after take-off from Tehran, narrowly avoiding many more deaths when it plummeted near a busy market.

Lifting sanctions on aviation purchases was a key clause in the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015.

Following the deal, Aseman Airlines finalised an agreement to buy 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets for $3 billion (2.4 billion euros) last June, with an option to buy 30 more.

However, the sale could be scuppered if US President Donald Trump chooses to reimpose sanctions in the coming months, as he has threatened to do.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences over Sunday's crash, just moments after he launched a blistering attack on Tehran's government.

"I take this opportunity to send condolences to the families of the 66 civilians that lost their lives," Netanyahu said at the Munich Security Conference.

"We have no quarrel with the people of Iran, only with the regime that torments them," he added.

The US Treasury Department, which must approve aviation sales to Iran, has done so for 80 Boeing jets and 100 Airbus planes for national carrier Iran Air.

The first few Airbus jets have already arrived in Tehran.Saudi women tour a women-only car showroom on January 11, 2018 in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah after King Salman approved the end of a decades-long driving ban which goes into effect in June

Women in Saudi Arabia can now open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or male relative, as the kingdom pushes to expand a fast-growing private sector.

The policy change, announced by the Saudi government on Thursday, also marks a major step away from the strict guardianship system that has ruled the country for decades.

"Women can now launch their own businesses and benefit from (governmental) e-services without having to prove consent from a guardian," the ministry of commerce and investment said on its website.

Under Saudi Arabia's guardianship system, women are required to present proof of permission from a male "guardian" -- normally the husband, father or brother -- to do any government paperwork, travel or enrol in classes.

Long dependent on crude production for economic revenue, Saudi Arabia is pushing to expand the country's private sector, including an expansion of female employment under a reform plan for a post-oil era.

While women still face a host of restrictions in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor's office this month said it would begin recruiting women investigators for the first time.

The kingdom has also opened 140 positions for women at airports and border crossings, a historic first that the government said drew 107,000 female applicants.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne, has been leading the drive to expand the role of women in the workforce in recent months.

His father, King Salman, in September approved the end of a decades-long ban on driving, which goes into effect in June.

The 32-year-old prince pledged a "moderate, open" Saudi Arabia in October, breaking with ultra-conservative clerics in favour of an image catering to foreign investors and Saudi youth.

Prince Mohammed is widely seen as the chief architect behind Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" reform programme, which seeks to elevate the percentage of women in the work force from 22 percent to nearly one-third.The streets and square outside Jokhang Temple in the regional capital Lhasa constitute one of the most important pilgrimage circuits for Tibetans

Streets around Lhasa's fire-hit Jokhang temple, one of the most sacred sites for Tibetan Buddhism, were reopened to pilgrims Sunday after a blaze broke out the night before, Chinese state media said, but the extent of damage remained unclear.

The official Xinhua news agency said the fire had erupted Saturday evening in part of the more than 1,300-year-old Jokhang temple, but was soon put out.

Images posted on social media of the blaze showed the eaved roof of a section of the building lit with roaring yellow flames and emitting a haze of smoke.

"The fire was quickly extinguished, there were no casualties and order is normal in the area," said the state-run Tibet Daily, adding that Tibet's top Communist party official Wu Yingjie had rushed to the scene.

Jokhang temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which lies at the heart of old Lhasa.

The Barkhor -- a bustling, shop-lined area surrounding Jokhang whose streets and square constitute one of the most important pilgrimage circuits for Tibetans -- was temporarily closed after the fire but has been reopened, the state Xinhua news agency said Sunday.

Prominent Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser told AFP she was "very worried" about the state of the monastery.

"Tibetans consider Lhasa to be a sacred place, but Jokhang is a sacred place within that sacred place -- the most sacred in all of Tibet," she said. "Some people say it's only because of Jokhang that the holy city of Lhasa exists at all."

"No matter where they are in the world, Tibetans all wish to come to Lhasa to pray at Jokhang; it's the wish of a lifetime. Many who make pilgrimage to Lhasa prostrating do so just to visit the temple," she added.

The area has been the site of past protests against Beijing's presence in Tibet.

On Twitter, which is blocked in China, Tibetans abroad noted that photos and posts about the blaze were quickly being censored.

Robert Barnett, a London-based Tibetologist, tweeted that sources in Lhasa "claim police have threatened anyone distributing pictures or unofficial news about the fire."

- Home of a venerated icon -

The incident comes as Tibetans across the country are celebrating Losar, the traditional Tibetan New Year that began Friday, the same day as the Chinese lunar new year.

The temple had been closed to the public on Saturday, Xinhua reported, citing a schedule from local authorities from before the holiday began.

Jokhang monastery houses one of Tibetan Buddhism's most venerated icons, the Jowo Shakyamuni -- a statue believed to be one of just three crafted during the Buddha's actual lifetime, depicting him at age 12.

It is also home to numerous other priceless cultural artifacts, including over 3,000 images of Buddhas, deities and historical figures as well as treasures and manuscripts, according to UNESCO.

Many murals and other items were damaged during the Cultural Revolution, but much of its wooden architectural structure had remained intact over the centuries despite countless renovations, said Woeser.

China has ruled Tibet since the 1950s, and has been accused of trying to eradicate its Buddhist-based culture through political and religious repression.

Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy extensive freedoms and argues that it has brought economic growth to the region.

Foreign journalists are banned from visiting Tibet except on state-sponsored tours, as Beijing seeks to strictly control the narrative about the region, ranked the second-least free territory in the world after Syria by US think tank Freedom House.

In 2008, demonstrations by Tibetan monks in Lhasa degenerated into deadly violence targeting China's majority Han ethnic group and the Hui, a Muslim minority.

Later that year, dozens of monks burst into Jokhang temple to interrupt a state-run foreign media press tour intended to showcase the region's harmony and stability in the wake of the protests, accusing the government of lying.

More than 150 Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Beijing since 2009, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, headquartered in Washington.A Syrian woman and a child head to school on February 18, 2018, following days of calm in Damascus's Old City, frequently targeted by rebel shellfire from the Eastern Ghouta region

Hanan anxiously waved goodbye as her 11-year-old daughter headed into class in Syria's capital after more than a week at home under escalating rebel shellfire.

"I can't describe my anxiety from the moment Lina leaves for school, until she returns. It's like she's coming back from some adventure or battle, not from class," the 44-year-old mother told AFP.

Hanan lives with her husband and three daughters in Al-Amin, a neighbourhood at the heart of Damascus's Old City which has been bombarded by rebels entrenched outside the capital.

Fighting between government troops and rebels escalated during the second week of February, forcing nearly a dozen schools in the Old City to shut for several days and prompting terrified parents to keep children at home.

Hanan kept her daughters out of school for eight days. On Sunday, she woke up and checked a Facebook page called "Daily Mortar Strikes -- Damascus" to see where shelling had hit overnight.

Nervously, she sent her daughters off to class, personally accompanying Lina on the 10-minute walk to Josephine's Girls School.

"Today was better. We woke up to our alarms instead of explosions," she said.

The walk to school has become so dangerous that Hanan said she would rather keep Lina at home.

"It's better that my daughter loses a year of school than lose her life, or that I lose her," she told AFP.

Syrian students head to school on February 18, 2018, following days of calm in Damascus's Old City, often the target of mortar fire by rebels entrenched on the capital's outskirts

Although it has been relatively insulated from the mass destruction wreaked on other Syrian cities, Damascus is regularly bombarded by armed opposition factions based in nearby Eastern Ghouta.

- Wailing sirens, empty classrooms -

Syrian troops have recaptured most rebel positions around the capital in recent years, and are determined to clear the final pocket in Eastern Ghouta.

Government forces intensely bombarded the enclave for five days earlier this month, killing dozens, as rebel rockets and mortars on Damascus killed at least 20 people including three children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The rain of shells has traumatised Damascenes including Fadia, who teaches English to eighth graders at a private school in the Bab Sharqi district.

"We'd hear the sound of shells, we were so scared. Then one of our students, 15-year-old Rita al-Eid, was killed by a mortar," Fadia told AFP.

"The next day, most of the classrooms were empty."

Syrian students head to school on February 18, 2018, following days of calm in Damascus's Old City, which has been bombarded by rebels entrenched on the capital's outskirts

She breathed a sigh of relief last week when her school sent out text messages saying classes were cancelled for three days.

"The sound of ambulances didn't stop at all. Sometimes we had to close the windows just so we could hear the students," said the 36-year-old.

"Then we'd open them again, scared the glass would shatter if a shell hit nearby."

Now that shelling has subsided, Fadia's school will reopen on Monday.

"I think residents will feel safe when they see that schools have opened again," she told AFP, but admitted she's still nervous.

"Shells aren't a game. It's a matter of life or death -- and life in the Old City is directly tied to the situation in Eastern Ghouta."

- 'Death can ride buses' -

A few blocks away in Bab Touma, a handful of public buses stood waiting for passengers to head to the outskirts of the capital.

Syrian students head to school on February 18, 2018, after a few days of calm in Damascus's Old City, often targeted by rebels in an enclave on the edge of the capital

Driver Abu Mohammad cleaned the glass of his white bus, pausing briefly to point out a crater punched in the pavement by a deadly mortar strike last week.

"We all went home then, but we came back the next day -- we have to live, and we have no other choice," he told AFP.

The unpredictability of the rocket and mortar fire has made Damascus residents afraid to leave their homes, making business slow for bus drivers, said Abu Mohammad, in his fifties.

"Usually on days like this, there are tons of people from early in the morning until late at night. But there are so few people today," he said.

"No one's leaving their homes except when absolutely necessary. Death can ride buses, too."Filipina workers returning home from Kuwait arrive at Manila International Airport

After the murder of a Philippine maid in Kuwait, domestic helpers are streaming back to Manila with tales of abusive employers -- but many are still prepared to take their chances overseas again.

For them, the sometimes brutal conditions and the hide-and-seek with Kuwaiti police are outweighed by the need to provide for their families at home.

"The mother of my boss, she would hurt me, she would hit me with a shoe with a thick sole. My body was bruised but I would not (go home)," said Marissa Dalot, 40, who laboured for almost five years in the wealthy Gulf state.

"I did not want to go home. I wanted to continue working because my kids were still in school," said Dalot, who finally decided to fly home over the weekend.

In all, some 10 million Filipinos work overseas in a wide variety of jobs and their cash remittances, which the central bank says totalled over $28 billion last year, are a major contributor to the Philippine economy.

But the issue of domestic helpers in Kuwait came into sharp focus with the death of Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found stuffed in a freezer.

A visibly angry President Rodrigo Duterte has alleged that Arab employers routinely rape their Filipina workers, force them to work 21 hours a day and feed them scraps.

Some 252,000 Filipinos work in Kuwait, many as maids, with reports of widespread abuse and exploitation.

"When will this inhuman treatment of these Filipino workers end?" Duterte said this month.

He has banned the deployment of new workers to Kuwait as his cabinet members seek additional legal protection for those already there.

A Filipina overseas worker returning home from Kuwait is pictured upon arrival at Manila airport

Domestic helpers who want to leave are being flown home for free.

One of them returning over the weekend was Michelle Obedencio, 34, who said she also suffered at the hands of her employer.

After two years she ran away and worked illegally in a beauty salon, where she was treated better -- even if she had to dodge the police.

Despite the hardships and risks overseas, she is willing to give it another chance.

"If there is no stable job here (in the Philippines), and if there is someone who will take me, I would go back. I have three kids in school, the oldest in college," Obedencio told AFP after six years abroad.

"My husband has no job so I really must make an effort to go out (of the Philippines): if not in Kuwait, someplace else."

- Little to show -

About 1,700 workers have come home under Duterte's repatriation programme so far, the government said.

Some have been persuaded to leave by a Kuwaiti government amnesty for illegal workers, which allows them to depart without penalty until February 22.

But those headed home may have little to show for their labour. Many of the returning women who spoke to AFP over the weekend in Manila said they had no personal savings.

The money they earned over the years had already been sent back home. Some said they had only been getting about 80 Kuwaiti dinars ($267) a month, which went to pay household expenses and school tuition in the Philippines.

Filipino workers are attracted overseas by salaries unavailable at home, where even skilled workers like computer engineers earn only about 49,300 pesos ($960) a month, according to government figures.

Overseas workers are widely hailed as national heroes for their contribution to the economy, and reports of their mistreatment abroad often become a political issue domestically.

Loreza Tagle, 37, said she had been overworked and underfed by her employer. She laboured illegally in a restaurant for five years to support her four children and her poorly-paid husband back home.

But as she pondered an uncertain fate after leaving Kuwait, tears welled up in her eyes.

Relatives of murdered Filipina worker Joanna Demafelis hold banners as they wait for the arrival of her body from Manila at Iloilo International Airport

"It is frightening to come back to the Philippines with no guarantee of finding a job," she said through sobs.

"Over there, no matter what, even if you are in fear of getting caught by the police, somehow you can find a job... over here, you may not be afraid but you won't have a job."Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds up an object what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace during a speech at the Munich Security Conference.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Sunday over aggressions by Iran and its "proxies" in Syria, saying he would not allow them to "put a noose of terror around our neck".

Calling it "a message to the tyrants of Tehran", he warned in a speech at the Munich Security Conference: "Do not test Israel's resolve."

His fiery comments came as tensions between the arch enemies have mounted after clashes involving Syrian forces this month, sparked by Israel's downing of what it called an Iranian drone sent from Syria.

With a theatrical flourish, Netanyahu brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal at the podium.

"Here's a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down," he said.

Referring to Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who spoke later in Munich, he said: "No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Iran's involvement in Syria."

"Mr Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, it's yours," Netanyahu said, adding that the Iranian official "lies with eloquence".

Zarif responded by calling Netanyahu's speech a "cartoonish circus" which "does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

- 'Dangerous tiger' -

Recent weeks have seen an intensification of the violence in Syria

The clash came as Netanyahu again slammed the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Iran and world powers, which is under threat by opposition from the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu compared the deal to the "appeasement" of the 1938 Munich Agreement that only emboldened Hitler, and said it allowed Iran to hide its continued efforts to build an atomic bomb.

"The sanctions relief that the deal provided has not moderated Iran... In fact it has unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond."

"Once armed with nuclear weapons, Iran's aggression will be unchecked, and it will encompass the entire world," Netanyahu claimed.

Those accusations were dismissed by Zarif.

"We will not be the first ones to violate an agreement which all of us tried, in spite of Netanyahu's attempts, to achieve," he said.

Israel has said it downed the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

It marked the first time Israel publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

Fighting has raged near Damascus in recent weeks

During the strikes, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Tensions between the two countries had already been building in recent months, with Israel fearing that Tehran is trying to establish a permanent presence in Syria as part of an effort to become a greater regional power in the Middle East.

The clashes this month have stoked fears of an escalated conflict between the two countries, even though both sides appear to want to avoid an open war for now, analysts say.

Russian senator Alexei Pushkov, addressing the Munich conference shortly after Netanyahu spoke, said: "OK, you bomb Iran, and then you do what, what happens next?" while saying the Iranian issue requires acting with "responsibility".

Following the confrontation between Israel and Iran, clashes involving US-led coalition forces and violence intensifying in many parts of Syria, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura this week called for de-escalation.

"This is as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I have seen in my time as special envoy," said De Mistura, who has been the international mediator for Syria since 2014.

- 'Defend ourselves' -

It was not the first time Netanyahu, who is under pressure at home over a corruption inquiry, has made a dramatic show.

In 2012, speaking at the UN, he notably showed a simplistic drawing of a bomb with a lit fuse, supposedly indicating how close Tehran was to becoming a nuclear threat.

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drone's debris.

Staffan de Mistura has been the UN's Syria peace envoy since 2014

Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that Israel would not let Iran obtain a permanent foothold in its northern neighbour.

"Through its proxies -- Shiite militias in Iraq, the Huthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza -- Iran is devouring huge swathes of the Middle East," he said.

"Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he added.

"We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."

But he stressed that Israel was not the enemy of the Iranian people, and offered his condolences to the families of the people killed in an Iranian plane crash Sunday.

"We have no quarrel with the people of Iran, only with the regime that torments them," Netanyahu said.A Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighter stands in Raqa's iconic Al-Naim square on October 17, 2017 after US-backed forces ousted the Islamic State group from the city

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said Sunday that three of its foreign members were killed in Syria, including two in the northern enclave of Afrin.

The Kurdish militia, the backbone of a US-backed force that has fought the Islamic State group, named the fighters as French national Olivier Francois Jean Le Clainche, 41, Spanish national Samuel Prada Leon, 25, and Dutch national Sjoerd Heeger, 25.

The YPG said Le Clainche and Leon were killed "in the clashes with the occupiers at the Jandairis front on February 10."

Jandairis lies in a southwestern pocket of the Afrin enclave which is the target of a Turkish-led assault against Kurdish forces.

The area, close to Turkey's border, has been fiercely bombarded by Ankara and allied rebels in their nearly month-long assault on the YPG.

The YPG said the two men had joined their forces in the summer of 2017 to fight IS.

"These two comrades gave great efforts for the liberation of the main bases of IS, such as the cities Raqa and Deir Ezzor, and they participated continuously in the war lasting for months," it said.

Heeger was killed fighting IS in Syria's eastern Deir Ezzor province on February 12, the statement added.

Hundreds of foreigners have fought alongside the YPG in Syria.A handout photo provided by the office of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on January 9, 2018, shows him delivering a statement in the capital Tehran

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that progress was needed in "the field of justice", acknowledging widespread criticism of the system in recent weeks.

"Progress has happened in various fields... but in the field of justice we acknowledge that we have lagged behind," Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran, which was published on his website.

He said it was necessary to apologise to God and the people of Iran for this failure.

Khamenei was marking the 40th anniversary of an uprising in the city of Tabriz that was a key moment leading up to the 1979 Islamic revolution.

He acknowledged the widespread anger exposed by a week of rioting and protests across Iran over the new year, but he said people were still firmly behind the revolution.

"Of course people have criticisms of some current issues in the country and we are fully informed about complaints," Khamenei said.

"But when it comes to the question of the revolution and the system, people come out and defend them."

The conservative-dominated judicial system has been frequently criticised by rights activists for targeting political opponents, arbitrary detentions, violence against inmates and having the highest per capita rates of execution in the world.

Its behaviour has returned to spotlight in recent days after a renowned environmentalist, Kavous Seyed Emami, "committed suicide" in prison after being arrested on espionage charges.

His family say they were threatened with violence if they discussed the case.

That followed allegations that two people had died in prison last month after being arrested as part of the crackdown on the protests.

The authorities say their arrests were unconnected to the protests and that they, too, committed suicide.Thousands have been arrested as Nigeria has tried to crack down on Boko Haram whose bloody quest to establish a hardline Islamic state has left at least 20,000 dead

Nigeria has freed another 475 Boko Haram suspects following a series of mass trials in which most cases were dropped for lack of evidence, the justice ministry said Sunday.

Over the course of the week, hundreds of suspected Boko Haram extremists have appeared before a court at the Kainji military base in central Niger state.

The release order was issued on Friday, with the 475 suspects to be returned to their home states for "proper rehabilitation" before being sent back to their families, ministry spokesman Salihu Othman Isah said.

He said they had been arrested on grounds they either belonged to Boko Haram, or had concealed information about the group's plans or its members' whereabouts.

"However, the Prosecution Counsel could not charge them with any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them. Therefore, the suspects were released."

Among those released was a young girl with a three-month-old baby from Borno State who was taken to a Boko Haram enclave by her brother and married off to his friend when she was 11. She was arrested in 2014 while trying to escape.

Also freed were two mechanics, identical twins who were arrested in Bauchi State in 2010 after servicing a vehicle at their workshop which belonged to a Boko Haram member.

Also Friday, the court imposed a second 15-year sentence on Haruna Yahaya, 35, who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok.

Earlier in the week, he had been jailed for 15 years but the court handed him an additional 15-year term, with the judge saying the two sentences would run consecutively.

- Years without trial -

In total, some 1,669 people have been processed in a string of mass hearings which began in October at four specially-constituted civilian courts inside the facility.

Most were men, but their number also included some women and children, with Nigeria widely criticised for holding them and thousands of others for years without trial or even contact with a lawyer.

Before Friday's release of 475 suspects, 468 had been freed after it was found they had no case to answer; 45 were jailed for between two and 15 years and 28 had their cases transferred to other jurisdictions.

A further 82 pleaded guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence or release, taking into account time served in custody. And others were freed after spending years behind bars.

The remaining cases have been delayed for another hearing.

Boko Haram's bloody quest since 2009 to establish a hardline Islamic state in remote northeast Nigeria has left at least 20,000 dead and forced more than 2.6 million others out of their homes.

The violence has also spilt over into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.Friday night's violence took place during a demonstration by members of Tanzania's main opposition party, Chadema

Tanzanian President John Magufuli on Sunday ordered an inquiry after police admitted responsibility for the death of a 22-year-old student who was hit by a stray bullet as they sought to break up an opposition rally.

The young woman's death on Friday night triggered an outpouring of national anger and demands for justice.

"I am profoundly shocked by the death of 22-year-old student Akwilina Maftah," Magufuli said in a posting in Swahili on Twitter.

"I have ordered the security forces to carry out an inquiry and to take legal measures against those responsible."

Another four people were seriously injured in the incident as police sought to disperse a peaceful demonstration in Dar es Salaam, the country's commercial capital.

Regional police commander Lazaro Mambosasa said six officers had been arrested for using their weapons during Friday's march as they sought to clear the road of demonstrators from Chadema, the main opposition party.

Police had earlier said the bullet which killed the young woman was one of the warning shots fired by officers during the operation.

Witnesses said police used tear gas and fired live ammunition, while the police accused some of the demonstrators of throwing stones.

- Interior minister under fire -

The shooting triggered a flood of public outrage, with the TNSP, an umbrella group of Tanzanian students, demanding "the immediate resignation" of Interior Minister Mwigulu Nchemba, urging Magufuli to sack him if he refused to go.

The group also said it would help the victim's family to file suit against the police.

The Alliance for Change and Transparency, another opposition party, also called for Nchemba to resign as well as police chief Simon Sirro.

On February 11, Tanzania's Catholic bishops accused Magufuli's government of cracking down on political activities and demonstrations, warning it was creating a political climate which would foment "division and hatred."

Nicknamed the Bulldozer, Magufuli took office in 2015 promising to tackle corruption.

But detractors describe him as autocratic, saying he has clamped down on freedom of expression, with opposition meetings routinely banned and several newspapers shut down.

Several journalists and artists have received death threats for criticising his regime.Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives for a visit at the home of late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who died in South Africa last week, to express his condolences to the family.

Zimbabwes president on Sunday praised opposition icon Morgan Tsvangirai who died last week as an outstanding political figure who had endured political hardship and deserved his place in the country's history.

Tsvangirai, the strongest and fiercest opponent ever to Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party's four decades of rule, died on Wednesday, aged 65 at a hospital in South Africa where he had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer.

"When we write the history of this country we cannot leave out the participation and role that the former prime minister played in the effort to entrench democratic values in this country," President Emmerson Mnangagwa said shortly after offering his condolences to Tsvangirai's family.

"He travelled a difficult journey and we should remember that."

Mnangagwa also urged unity as the country mourned the death of a man who had become the symbol of resistance to authoritarian rule and of the fight for democracy.

"Let us all be united, let us be brothers and sisters and come together and mourn our former prime minister with that spirit. We are all Zimbabweans."

Before being forced into a power-sharing deal with ZANU-PF as a prime minister, Tsvangirai was beaten up by police, his rallies were banned and he was charged with treason and jailed.

Mnangagwa said the upcoming elections in Zimbabwe, expected by July, should be free, fair and credible as a tribute to Tsvangirai.

"I am appealing to all political parties in this country to hear my call that we need no violence in this country. We need fair, free and credible elections this year," he said.

The casket of late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is carried into Mabelreign Methodist Church in Harare for a memorial service.

Tsvangirai, a former trade union stalwart and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), pulled out of an election run-off in 2008 following a flare-up in violence which claimed at least 200 opposition supporters.

He had beaten long-time ruler Mugabe in the first round of presidential elections that year, narrowly coming short of garnering enough votes to be declared the winner.

Tsvangirai's death came as tensions over his succession are threatening to tear apart the MDC, which he had led since its formation in 1999.

A split in the MDC could hand advantage to Mnangagwa who took power from Mugabe following a military takeover in November.

Tsvangirai will be buried at his rural home in Buhera on Tuesday.A Syrian opposition fighter from Failaq al-Rahman brigade carrying a sniper rifle walks down a street full of damaged and partially destroyed buildings on the frontline in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus on February 15, 2018

Syrian forces readied Sunday for a ground offensive against the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta outside Damascus, a monitor said, as residents of the capital braced for retaliatory shelling.

President Bashar al-Assad has in recent days been sending reinforcements from across the country to the edge of Eastern Ghouta, besieged by regime troops since 2013.

"The reinforcements are complete; the attack is just waiting for a green light," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

On Sunday, more than 260 rockets, heavy artillery fire, and air strikes slammed into several towns in Eastern Ghouta, he told AFP.

The bombardment left at least 14 civilians dead, including four children, and dozens more people wounded.

The last rebel bastion near Damascus, Eastern Ghouta is held by two main Islamist factions, Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman, although jihadists also have a foothold there.

The regime is keen to regain control of the area to halt the deadly salvo of rockets and mortars that those factions have fired on the capital.

An AFP correspondent in Damascus said six rockets hit the capital on Sunday.

Residents were already starting to pack bags and rent rooms outside the city in anticipation of an operation now seen as imminent.

One of them said he was planning to temporarily move his parents out of their home in the capital's east, which is regularly hit in rebel shelling.

"I'd rather drop my parents off in our village in Wadih al-Qalaa," in the government-controlled province of Latakia, said 29-year-old Karim.

"They'll be safer there, and I can bring them back as soon as it's calm in their neighbourhood," he told AFP.

- Talks on evacuation -

According to the Observatory, the regime began dispatching military reinforcements to Eastern Ghouta on February 5, the same day it launched a fierce five-day bombing campaign on the region.

Air strikes have left around 250 civilians dead, with retaliatory rocket fire on Damascus killing about 20, the monitor said.

Abdel Rahman said negotiations with Russian involvement were taking place for the evacuation of jihadist faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), whose footprint in Ghouta is limited but includes areas directly adjacent to Damascus.

The Syrian daily Al-Watan, which is close to the government, also reported the talks on Sunday.

But rebels have denied the claim, with top Jaish al-Islam figure Mohammad Alloush telling AFP there were no negotiations.

"We reserve our legitimate right to defend ourselves. We opened the door for a political solution and participated in negotiations to stop the bloodshed in Syria, but the other side breached these agreements and broke every ceasefire," he said.

Faylaq al-Rahman spokesman Wael Alwan also told AFP his group had "no correspondence or negotiations with the criminal regime or its allies."

The government has already cleared swathes of territory around Damascus through local deals, whereby besieged anti-government forces were evacuated and bussed to other rebel-dominated areas.

If a deal is struck for Eastern Ghouta, HTS jihadists would likely be sent to the northwestern province of Idlib, which is almost completely out of government control.

But time appeared to be running out for an agreement Sunday and regime forces, who have been receiving aerial backing from Russia, looked on the brink of starting a major offensive.

The Observatory said more than 260 rockets had rained down on Eastern Ghouta in the space of an hour on Sunday evening, and air strikes and artillery also hit the area.

"The collapse of the negotiations will signal the start of an assault," Abdel Rahman said.

An estimated 400,000 people still live under siege in Eastern Ghouta, including hundreds in urgent need of medical care outside the enclave.

The United Nations has called for a month-long ceasefire across Syria to allow for aid and medical evacuations, to no avail.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on the third day of the 54th Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich, southern Germany, on February 18, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday told his Polish counterpart that his remarks on "Jewish perpetrators of the Holocaust" were unacceptable and unfounded, Netanyahu's office said.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today spoke by telephone with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki," a statement said.

"He told him that the remarks that were made were unacceptable and that there was no basis for comparing the actions of Poles during the Holocaust to those of Jews."

On Saturday Morawiecki, who like Netanyahu was in Munich for a global security conference, was questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbours were planning to denounce them, and asked if recounting that would now be against the law in Poland.

"It's not going to be punishable," he replied. "Not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."

His comments fuelled an already seething diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a controversial law passed by Poland's senate this month.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out that the goal of the Holocaust was to destroy the Jewish people and that all Jews were under sentence of death," the Israeli statement said.

"He told his Polish counterpart that the distortion regarding Poland could not be corrected by means of another distortion."

"The two agreed that the countries would continue their dialogue on the matter and that to this end the teams would hopefully meet soon."Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki came under fire for a remark saying the Holocaust had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones.

Poland on Sunday sought to defend remarks by its prime minister which Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu called "unacceptable" and tantamount to denying the Holocaust.

"The comments of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a discussion in Munich were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust, or charge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust with responsibility for what was a Nazi German perpetrated genocide," Morawiecki's spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said in a statement.

The Israeli premier, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, laid into his opposite number in a terse telephone call on Sunday over his remark the previous day that the Holocaust had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones.

"He told him that the remarks that were made were unacceptable and that there was no basis for comparing the actions of Poles during the Holocaust to those of Jews," Netanyahu's office said in an English language statement.

Israeli police on Sunday published pictures of graffiti discovered on the gates of Poland's embassy in Tel Aviv, which included Nazi swastikas and the word "murderer" in English.

The building was closed to the public as is usual on Saturday and Sunday.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out that the goal of the Holocaust was to destroy the Jewish people and that all Jews were under sentence of death," the Israeli statement said.

"He told his Polish counterpart that the distortion regarding Poland could not be corrected by means of another distortion.

"The two agreed that the countries would continue their dialogue on the matter and that to this end the teams would hopefully meet soon."

- Row over law -

Morawiecki's spokeswoman said earlier Sunday that the Polish prime minister "has repeatedly and categorically opposed denial of the Holocaust -- the murder of European Jewry -- as well as anti-Semitism in all its forms".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a speech during the Munich Security Conference on February 18, 2018

Morawiecki's claim about the Holocaust's perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a controversial law passed by Poland's senate this month.

The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

On Saturday Morawiecki had been questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbours were planning to denounce them, and asked if recounting that would now be against the law in Poland.

Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."

After a slew of negative reactions to the comments, the Polish PM's spokeswoman sought to clarify the remark saying his words "should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime."

"Each crime must be judged individually, and no single act of wickedness should burden with responsibility entire nations, which were conquered and enslaved by Nazi Germany," she said.

burs/scw/dvJacob Zuma, pictured in 2017, is embroiled in a corruption probe

South Africa has widened a corruption probe into allies of ex-president Jacob Zuma to other countries including India, China and Dubai, the police minister said Sunday.

Fikile Mbalula made the announcement days after South Africa issued an arrest warrant for one of the brothers of the Gupta business family, close associates of scandal-plagued Zuma who was forced from power on Wednesday.

Mbalula told public broadcaster SABC that Ajay Gupta and another four people who are being sought in connection with the case were all out of the country.

While there was no indication that they fled the country fearing arrest, Mbalula vowed that they will "be followed up" through Interpol with the possibility of extradition to face trial in South Africa.

He said two of the suspects were of Indian descent and one other was Chinese. All are thought to be in India, China or Dubai.

"We operate through Interpol, we operate through bilateral (means), if you ever resist there will be extradition. All means necessary will be employed to ensure these people are brought to book," said Mbalula.

He refused to name the suspects except for Ajay Gupta who police last week declared a fugitive.

Local media reports suggested that Zuma's son Duduzane, a business associate of the Guptas, is also among those being sought, and some speculated that he could be in Dubai.

The minister refused to say whether Duduzane Zuma is on the police wanted list.

"There will be more arrests... it's not just a witch hunt," he added.

"It doesn't matter, if you are a politician ... there are no holy cows, there are no untouchables."

In all, 13 people are facing charges linked to allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers was syphoned off by the Guptas. Eight other suspects were arrested last week and have appeared in court.

In his first address to the nation hours after he assumed power on Friday, new South African President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to fight corruption in a direct reference to the accusations levelled at his predecessor Zuma.Lebanese take part in the Zambo carnival held in the northern city of Tripoli to mark the last period of excess on the eve of Orthodox Christian period of Lent

Residents of the Lebanese city of Tripoli donned bright, curly wigs and dark body paint Sunday for Zambo, a festival on the eve of the start of the Orthodox Christian period of Lent.

The origins of the annual celebration remain unclear and it only seems to take place in a seaside suburb of Tripoli, a Muslim-majority city with an Orthodox minority.

But that has never dampened revelers, dozens of whom hopped and danced their way through Tripoli's streets, glittery hats on their heads and sceptres in hand, a day before the beginning of the fast for eastern-rite Christians.

"Zambo, zambo, zambo!" they chanted.

"This festival is more than 100 years old, passed on and enjoyed from generation to generation," said Beshara Hassan, 48. "People come from all over to take part, from all sects."

Lebanon, a country of over four million, is home to 18 religious communities.

Muslims and Christians often take part in each other's festive holidays -- but no one is quite sure where Zambo came from.

Ahmad Sawalhi, 25, is a native of the Mina suburb of the northern city of Tripoli where Zambo is fervently celebrated.

"Zambo is a Greek custom, but it only happens here in Tripoli before our Christian brothers begin Lent," said Sawalhi, who is Muslim but takes part every year.

Ibrahim Touma, another Zambo enthusiast, told AFP that the tradition dates back at least to 1932, but perhaps even earlier.

Lebanese take part in the Zambo carnival held in the northern city of Tripoli on the eve of the start of the Christian Orthodox period of Lent

"There's no doubt that the real origin of the festival is unknown," he said.

One theory is that it originated with Lebanese visiting from Brazil and Argentina, Touma said, while another traces it to Senegalese forces stationed in Lebanon during World War II.

"My grandmother used to tell me that Senegalese units used to put on these evening masquerades to calm down people in Mina, who were scared of the Vichy (French) bombing," said Touma.

After a two-hour parade through Tripoli, the crowd reached the shores of the Mediterranean and ran into the sea, washing off their paint to cleanse themselves before Lent begins.Family members welcome their loved ones after Sudan released dozens of opposition activists arrested last month in a crackdown on protests against rising food prices, outside Kobar prison in north Khartoum

Sudan on Sunday released dozens of opposition activists arrested last month in a crackdown on protests against rising food prices, an AFP correspondent reported.

The release of detainees, including some top opposition figures, came three days after the US embassy voiced concern over the arrests and said many of them were being held in "inhumane conditions".

Those released emerged from Kobar prison in northern Khartoum shouting "Freedom! Justice! Revolution!" the correspondent reported, after authorities had invited journalists to the scene.

They were greeted and hugged by family members who had been waiting outside for several hours.

"According to President Omar al-Bashir's order, all detainees are being released," Abdelrehman Al-Sadiq, a senior aide to Bashir, told reporters.

On Thursday, the US embassy said that "hundreds of political leaders, activists and ordinary citizens" were being detained by Sudanese authorities.

Many of the detainees were being "held in inhumane and degrading conditions, and without access to lawyers or family", the embassy said in a statement.

Freed detainees said they were expecting their release due to the political situation in the country.

"But we are still not fully free because several of our colleagues are still detained," said Al-Sidiq Al-Sadiq, son of former premier Sadiq al-Mahdi, whose government was ousted by Bashir in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989.

"The conditions that took us to jail have still not changed. There are still some laws that restrict freedoms."

During their detention, some prison officers had treated them well but "some did not", he said.

Those freed on Sunday included Fadlalla Burma Nasir and Sarah Nugdallah, senior leaders of Sudan's main opposition Umma Party, and women's rights activist Amal Habbani.

Sporadic protests have erupted since early January in Khartoum and some other parts of Sudan after the opposition and activists called for anti-government demonstrations to protest a surge in food prices.

Anti-riot police and security agents have so far swiftly managed to disperse the rallies.

Sudanese authorities are eager to prevent a repeat of deadly unrest that followed an earlier round of subsidy cuts in 2013.

Rights groups say dozens of people were killed when security forces crushed 2013 demonstrations, drawing international condemnation.ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Ethiopia's defense minister has ruled out a military takeover a day after the East African nation declared a new state of emergency amid the worst anti-government protests in a quarter-century.

Siraj Fegessa on Saturday also ruled out a transitional government. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn remains in the post for now after making the surprise announcement Thursday that he had submitted a resignation letter to help planned political reforms in one of Africa's best-performing economies succeed.

The state of emergency will last for six months with a possible four-month extension, similar to one lifted in August, the defense minister said.

The new state of emergency, which effectively bans protests, will be presented for lawmakers' approval within 15 days. Siraj said security forces have been instructed to take "measures" against those disturbing the country's functioning, with a new special court established to try them.

Ethiopia's cabinet on Friday cited deaths, ethnic attacks and mass displacement as reasons for the latest state of emergency. The announcement followed crippling protests in towns across the restive Oromia region on Monday and Tuesday that called for the release of political prisoners and urged the government to carry out rapid reforms.

Similar protests have taken place across Ethiopia since late 2015, leading the government to declare a state of emergency in October 2016 after hundreds of people reportedly had been killed. A stampede at a religious event southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa, that month claimed the lives of several dozen people.

That state of emergency led to the arrest of more than 22,000 people and severely affected business.

Rights groups alleged that people were beaten and subjected to arbitrary detentions. The government said those arrested by mistake were released and those who unwillingly took part in the unrest were released after what it described as "trainings."

The United States has responded to the latest unrest by warning its embassy personnel to suspend all travel outside of the capital. And Ethiopia's state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting corporate reported that the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, met and discussed current political issues with Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu in New York.

Befekadu Hailu, a prominent blogger who has been jailed for his writings, urged Ethiopia's government to "carry out genuine reforms, negotiate with legitimate opposition groups and prepare the country for a free and fair election" to solve the unrest.

The new state of emergency will create a group of people with conflicting interests, Befekadu said. "The state of emergency was tested a year ago. It brings temporary silence but not normalcy."PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - The deadly shooting at a Florida high school has put pressure on the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws in a state that has resisted restrictions on firearms for decades, lawmakers said Monday.

The legislative effort coalesced as 100 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School prepared to ride buses more than 400 miles to the state capital Tuesday to urge lawmakers to act to prevent a repeat of the massacre that killed 17 students and faculty last week.

The suspect, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz, made his first appearance in court Monday. Wearing a prison jumpsuit, he kept his head down and didn't appear to make eye contact with the judge or others in the courtroom, though he responded briefly to someone on the defense team. A previous appearance was by a video connection from jail.

Nikolas Cruz appears in court for a status hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Cruz is charged with killing 17 people and wounding many others in Wednesday's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which he once attended. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

His lawyers have said he will plead guilty if prosecutors agree not to pursue the death penalty. No decision has been made on that.

Soon after the shooting, several legislative leaders were taken on a tour of the school to see the damage firsthand and appeared shaken afterward.

The attack seemed to overcome the resistance of some in the state's leadership, which has rebuffed gun restrictions since Republicans took control of both the governor's office and the Legislature in 1999. However, there is still strong resistance by many in the party to any gun-control measures, leaving the fate of new restrictions unclear.

Sen. Bill Galvano, a Republican and the incoming state Senate president, said the Senate was preparing a package that would include raising the age to purchase any firearm to 21, creating a waiting period for purchasing any type of firearm, banning bump stocks that can allow semi-automatic guns to spray bullets quickly and creating gun-violence restraining orders.

Authorities said Cruz had a string of run-ins with school authorities that ended with his expulsion. Police were also repeatedly called to his house throughout his childhood. Cruz's lawyers said there were repeated warning signs that he was mentally unstable and potentially violent. Yet he legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle.

"We need to make sure everything is working and to learn from the experience," said Galvano, who was among those who visited the school.

The Senate is also considering boosting spending on mental health programs for schools and giving law-enforcement greater power to involuntarily hold someone considered a danger to themselves. The body will also look at a proposal to deputize a teacher or someone else at school so they are authorized to have a gun.

Galvano said senators want to examine ways to protect schools that do not have resource officers - often armed law enforcement officers - on site.

State House leaders and Gov. Rick Scott also are considering possible changes to firearms rules but have not given any details. Scott planned meetings Tuesday on school safety, and said he would announce proposals on mental health issues later in the week.

Still, some Republicans questioned whether additional gun restrictions are the answer.

"I really don't want to see this politicized into a gun debate," Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley.

Referring to gun-control advocates, he said: "Sometimes I wish they were right, that this would fix it, but it won't ... We have a terrible problem with obesity, but we're not banning forks and spoons."

Democrats believe raising the age limit and creating a waiting period to buy rifles isn't enough.

"That's unacceptable. That's a joke," said Democratic Sen. Gary Farmer of Broward County. "I don't see that as a restriction. It never should have been that an 18-year-old could buy an assault weapon. No Floridians should be able to buy an assault weapon."

Cruz legally purchased at least seven long guns, including an AK-47-style rifle he bought less than a month ago, a law enforcement official said Monday. The official is familiar with the investigation but isn't authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Federal law allows those 18 and over to buy rifles, and Cruz passed background checks necessary to obtain the weapons.

Since the attack, students from the school have become increasingly vocal in their demands for gun-control measures. Many have pointed out politicians who take financial support from the National Rifle Association, and some have lashed out at President Donald Trump, saying he was busy blaming Democrats for failing to pass gun restrictions while taking no action of his own.

After staying largely mum in the last few days about the massacre and the escalating debate about weapons, Trump said Monday that he was supportive of a bipartisan effort to strengthen federal background checks for gun purchases.

Students are also calling for anti-gun violence demonstrations in Washington and other cities March 24.

Organizers behind the anti-Trump Women's March called for a 17-minute nationwide walkout by teachers and students on March 14, and a gun-control group was calling for a rally to ban assault weapons Wednesday at the Florida Capitol.

The community around the Parkland school has been holding funerals at the grim pace of several per day. And at the school itself, hundreds of mourners came Monday to lay flowers and hang balloons on 17 crosses and Stars of David that now mark a corner of the campus.

At a church in the neighboring community of Coral Springs, more than 1,500 mourners turned out to remember 14-year-old freshman Alaina Petty.

"The only thing I want to say about what happened to her is that it was a very, very ugly act that was committed by one person," Meghan Petty said. "But as you look around at how many people who are here ... there are thousands more who are doing something really beautiful for my sister."

___

Anderson reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Farrington reported from Tallahassee, Florida. Associated Press Writer Gary Fineout in Tallahassee also contributed to this report.

___

Follow the AP's complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting .

Nikolas Cruz appears in court for a status hearing before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Cruz is charged with killing 17 people and wounding many others in Wednesday's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which he once attended. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Mourners hug as they leave the funeral of Alaina Petty, in Coral Springs, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Petty was a victim of Wednesday's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The casket of Alaina Petty, a victim of Wednesday's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, leaves her funeral in Coral Springs, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Sara Smith, left, and her daughter Karina Smith visit a makeshift memorial outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, in Parkland, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Denyse Christian, hugs her son Adin Christian, 16, a student at the school, at a makeshift memorial outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, in Parkland, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A makeshift memorial is seen outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, in Parkland, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Alex Gonzalez stops at a makeshift memorial outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, in Parkland, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Paul Birmingham, a friend of the parents of victim Gina Montaldo, writes on a cross placed in her memory at a makeshift memorial outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and faculty were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday, in Parkland, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Passengers say their cruise in the South Pacific was interrupted by brawls apparently caused by a 23-member family who threw punches at other guests, some of whom locked themselves in cabins to escape three days of violence.

The Carnival Legend arrived in its home port of Melbourne on Saturday, a day after a family was offloaded in an unscheduled stop in New South Wales.

Police say they're investigating the incident and the operator apologized for the "disruptive behavior" by the group that was removed from the cruise liner.

Passenger Lisa Bolitho told reporters the "big Italian family" spent days attacking Australians aboard the ship, with people "getting strangled and punched up."

She also criticized the ship's leadership for inaction.QAIM, Iraq (AP) - From their outpost on Iraq's westernmost edge, U.S. 1st Lt. Kyle Hagerty and his troops watched civilians trickle into the area after American and Iraqi forces drove out the Islamic State group. They were, he believed, families returning to liberated homes, a hopeful sign of increasing stability.

But when he interviewed them on a recent reconnaissance patrol, he discovered he was wrong. They were families looking for shelter after being driven from their homes in a nearby town. Those who pushed them out were forces from among their "liberators" - Shiite militiamen who seized control of the area after defeating the IS militants.

It was a bitter sign of the mixed legacy from the United States' intervention in Iraq to help defeat the militants. American-backed military firepower brought down the IS "caliphate," but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain unresolved.

In this Friday, Jan. 26, 2018 photo, U.S. Army Sgt. Kaylin Jones, 25, stands at a guard tower on the perimeter of a small coalition outpost on the western edge of Iraq. A few hundred American troops are stationed at a small outpost near the town of Qaim along Iraq's border with Syria. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

The U.S.-led coalition, which launched its fight against IS in August 2014, is now reducing the numbers of American troops in Iraq, after Baghdad declared victory over the extremists in December. Both Iraqi and U.S. officials say the exact size of the drawdown has not yet been decided.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders here in western Iraq warn that victories over IS could be undercut easily by a large-scale withdrawal. Iraq's regular military remains dependent on U.S. support. Many within Iraq's minority communities view the U.S. presence as a buffer against the Shiite-dominated central government. Still, Iranian-backed militias with strong voices in Baghdad are pushing for a complete U.S. withdrawal, and some Iraqis liken any American presence to a form of occupation.

That has left an uncomfortable limbo in this area that was the last battlefield against the extremists. Coalition commanders still work with Iraqi forces to develop long-term plans for stability even as a drawdown goes ahead with no one certain of its eventual extent.

HEARTS AND MINDS - AGAIN

"Let's go win us some hearts and minds," Sgt. Jonathan Cary, 23, joked as he and Hagerty and the patrol convoy set off from a base outside the town of Qaim, evoking a phrase used in American policy goals for Iraq ever since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

After just a few hours moving on foot across farmland and orchards to a cluster of modest houses, Hagerty realized the families he thought were returnees to the area were in fact newly displaced. Their homes in Qaim had been confiscated by the government-affiliated Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, made up mainly of Shiite paramilitary fighters backed by Iran.

"Our end goal is a stable Iraq, right?" Hagerty said later, back at the base. "But when you see stuff like that, it makes you wonder if they are ever going to be able to do it themselves."

After victories against IS, the PMF has built up a presence in many parts of Sunni-majority provinces, including western Anbar. It formally falls under the command of the prime minister, but some Iraqi commanders accuse the PMF of being a rival to government power.

PMF flags line highways crisscrossing Anbar. At a PMF checkpoint outside al-Asad airbase - a sprawling complex used by both Iraqi and coalition forces - U.S. convoys are regularly stopped for hours while busloads of PMF fighters are waved through.

U.S. Marine Col. Seth Folsom works closely with the branches of Iraq's security forces - Sunni tribal fighters and the Iraqi army - who are increasingly concerned about the rise in power of the PMF. Iran has given no indication of dialing back its support after the defeat of IS extremists.

"The biggest question I get now is, 'how long can we count on you being here?'" Folsom said of his conversations with Iraqi commanders and local politicians.

That decision ultimately rests with Iraq's political leadership, he said.

"I guess some people could see that as a cop-out, but at the same time it's not my place as a lowly colonel to define how long the U.S. presence is going to be."

'FORWARD LINE OF FREEDOM'

For the senior officers leading the current fight against IS, decades of U.S. military intervention in Iraq has defined their careers.

The top U.S. general in Iraq - Lt. Gen. Paul Funk - served in Iraq four times: in the Gulf war in 1991; in the 2003 invasion; in the surge when some 170,000 American troops were serving in Iraq in 2007; and most recently in the fight against IS.

"It will definitely be positive," Funk said of the legacy of the U.S. role against IS in Iraq. "People see their young men and women out here defeating evil. That's a positive thing."

On a recent flight from Baghdad to a small U.S. outpost in northern Syria near Manbij - a trip that traversed the heart of the battlefield with IS for the past 3 years - Funk described the future of the fight as ideological and open-ended.

"The problem is people believe it's already over, and it's not," he said. "Beating the ideology, destroying the myth, that's going to take time."

Touching down outside an orchard on the perimeter of the Manbij base, Funk exclaimed: "Welcome to the front line of freedom!"

Funk predicts the ideological fight could take years and easily require U.S. troop deployments elsewhere. He said that is one reason he believes it's so important to visit U.S. troops on the current front lines - to show them "the American people believe in their purpose."

"We have got to recruit the next generation," he said.

Many of the young U.S. troops interviewed by The Associated Press said they didn't know anything about the Islamic State group when they enlisted.

Rayden Simeona, a 21-year-old corporal in the Marines, enlisted in 2014, when all he knew about the U.S. military was from movies and video games.

"I felt like I wasn't going anywhere with my life, I had no idea what IS was. I just knew I wanted to go to war," he said. Once deployed, he said talk rarely broached the big questions of "What we are doing here?" or "Why?"

"But I do wonder all the time: Why are we spending all this money in Iraq?" he said. "There's probably some greater plan or reason that someone much higher up than me knows."

IS THE JUICE WORTH THE SQUEEZE?

Along Iraq's border with Syria, the two Iraqi forces charged with holding a key stretch of territory lack direct communication. Because one force falls under the Defense Ministry and the other under the Interior Ministry, their radios are incompatible.

Instead, the troops use Nokia cellphones in a part of the country where network coverage is spotty to nonexistent.

At the nearby coalition outpost near Qaim, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brandon Payne spends much of his time filling communications gaps by relaying messages between different branches of Iraq's military.

"The coordination is not where we hoped it would be," Payne said. "But they do talk to each other, and we see that as a sign of progress."

Tactical shortcomings within Iraq's military are partially what fueled the expansion of the coalition's footprint in Iraq in the past three years. As Iraqi ground forces demonstrated an inability to communicate and coordinate attacks across multiple fronts, U.S. forces moved closer to the fighting and sped up the pace of territorial gains.

Despite the caliphate's collapse, those weaknesses have persisted. Iraqi forces remain dependent on coalition intelligence, reconnaissance, artillery fire and airstrikes to hold territory and fight IS insurgent cells.

Payne regularly shuttles between his base, Qaim and the Syrian border, meeting with different members of Iraqi forces to coordinate security and repel IS attacks from the Syrian side.

"I would say we are still needed," Payne said. "We are getting great results with this model, but you see how much goes into it."

The base, once a small, dusty outpost, now houses a few hundred coalition troops and is a maze of barracks, gyms, a dining facility, laundry services and a chapel.

"At some point, someone much higher up than me is going to decide the juice is just not worth the squeeze," Payne said, referring to the cost of such a large outpost in a remote corner of the country.

ROTTEN LEADERSHIP

Iraqi army Lt. Col. Akram Salah Hadi, who works closely with Payne's soldiers at the Qaim outpost, said coalition training and intelligence sharing have improved the performance of his unit. But overall, the U.S. effort in Iraq gives him little hope for the future.

Corruption in the military, Hadi said, remains as bad as it was in 2014, when it was seen as a major reason why entire Iraqi divisions simply dissolved in the assault on Mosul by a few hundred IS fighters.

Young Iraqi soldiers with ambition and talent can't rise through the ranks without political connections. Top ranks are bloated with officers who have bought their promotions. Within his division alone, Hadi said he can think of 40 officers with no military background who attained their rank because of their membership in a political party.

"With leadership like this, the rest will always be rotten," he said.

Coalition programs that have trained tens of thousands of Iraqi troops have largely focused on the infantry, not the junior officers needed to lead units and instill a culture of service that will make a professional force.

Folsom, the U.S. Marine colonel, said military power will not root out corruption or heal Iraq's longstanding divisions.

"I have a saying out here," he added, "'You can't want it more than them.'"

In this Jan. 25, 2018 photo, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brandon Payne meets with his Iraqi counterpart at a small complex in the town of Qaim. As the fight against IS in Syria grinds on, Iraqi troops stationed in western Iraq near the border continue to call on coalition forces for help sharing intelligence and launching strikes. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, photo, U.S. Army soldiers on a reconnaissance patrol in a rural village near a coalition outpost in western Iraq. A few hundred American troops are stationed at a small outpost near the town of Qaim along Iraq's border with Syria. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018, photo, U.S. Army Lt. Aleecia Young prepares for her early morning shift as an intelligence officer inside her tent at the small coalition outpost on the western edge of Iraq near the border town of Qaim, Iraq. The U.S.-led coalition has announced a shift in focus in the fight against IS as combat operations against the group slow following Baghdad's declaration of victory over the extremists. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Jan. 27, 2018, photo, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Kyle Hagerty speaks to a shepherd in rural Anbar on on a reconnaissance patrol near a coalition outpost in western Iraq. A few hundred American troops are stationed at a small outpost near the town of Qaim along Iraq's border with Syria. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Jan. 25, 2018, photo, American troops coordinate with Iraqi counterparts to launch airstrikes and artillery from a small complex in the town of Qaim, Iraq. As the fight against IS in Syria grinds on, Iraqi troops stationed in western Iraq near the border continue to call on coalition forces for help sharing intelligence and launching strikes. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018, photo, U.S. Army soldiers conduct a reconnaissance patrol in a rural village near a coalition outpost in western Iraq. After Islamic State group fighters were pushed out of this area late last year, civilians have slowly returned to the town of Qaim and its rural outskirts near the border with Syria. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Jan. 27, 2018, photo, U.S. Army soldiers walk through fields and pass orchards while on a reconnaissance patrol in a rural village near a coalition outpost in western Iraq. A few hundred American troops are stationed at a small outpost near the town of Qaim along Iraq's border with Syria. Thousands of U.S. troops and billions of dollars spent by Washington helped bring down the Islamic State group in Iraq, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists' rise remain. (AP Photo/Susannah George)

In this Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018, photo, U.S. Army Lt. Aleecia Young reviews briefing notes on a ride into the town of Qaim on Iraq's border with Syria for a meeting with senior Iraqi officers concerned by the ongoing fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. As the fight against IS in Syria grinds on, Iraqi troops stationed near the border continue to call on coalition forces for help sharing intelligence and launching strikes. (AP Photo/Susannah George)Free-agent first baseman Eric Hosmer has agreed to an eight-year, $144 million deal with the San Diego Padres, according to published reports Saturday night.

The 28-year-old, two-time Gold Glove winner hit a career-high .318 and matched his best from the previous season with 25 homers, and drove in 94 runs and scored 98 for the Royals last season. He also had a career-best .385 on-base percentage.

Hosmer was among the top free agents in the offseason that remained unsigned into the start of spring training. Right-hander Yu Darvish signed with the Chicago Cubs earlier this month, but Jake Arrieta and outfielder J.D. Martinez are still without contracts.

Hosmer's deal was first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

He is the latest addition by the Padres this offseason. Previously, they re-acquired third baseman Chase Headley from the New York Yankees and got shortstop Freddy Galvis from the Philadelphia Phillies.MUNICH (AP) - The international nuclear deal with Iran has emboldened Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, warning that Iran should "not test Israel's resolve."

Netanyahu said if the U.S. decides to scrap the 2015 nuclear deal, which he has long opposed, "I think they'll do nothing."

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, appearing two hours later at the same Munich Security Conference, fired back that Netanyahu's comment was "delusional thinking."

In this photo released by Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holds a part of a downed drone during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, MSC, in Munich , Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018/dpa via AP)

"I can assure that if Iran's interests are not secured, Iran will respond, will respond seriously. And I believe it would be a response that means people would be sorry for taking the erroneous action they did," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed deep skepticism about the Iran nuclear deal that lifted sanctions against the country. He extended sanctions waivers in January but said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a main architect of the nuclear deal, said it was "absolutely critical" to ensure it survives.

"We know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement," he said Sunday, speaking at the same conference. "It's not a better place."

If the U.S. abandons the current nuclear deal it's unlikely Iran would consider a new one, Kerry said.

"The problem is the waters have been muddied because of this credibility issue about America's willingness to live up to any deal," he said.

Kerry dismissed Netanyahu's contention that Iran would be on its way to having a nuclear arsenal in 10 years, saying "that's fundamentally not accurate."

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir weighed in, saying the Iran nuclear deal "has flaws that need to be fixed." He said that, among other things, the inspection system needs to be more intrusive.

"The world has to extract a price from Iran for its aggressive behavior," he added.

Netanyahu told world leaders, diplomats and defense officials at the conference that the deal was similar to the infamous 1938 "Munich Agreement" that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe, which became synonymous with appeasement.

"The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime," he said. "Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war... those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly."

Similarly, he said, the Iranian nuclear agreement has "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond."

Declaring that Iran's "brazenness hit new highs," he theatrically held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Zarif.

"Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should, it's yours," Netanyahu said. "You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran - do not test Israel's resolve!"

Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran. Zarif on Sunday dismissed Netanyahu's stunt as "a cartoonish circus... which does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

Netanyahu has been projecting a business-as-usual approach on his visit to Germany amid uproar at home after police on Tuesday said was sufficient evidence to indict him for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases. The Israeli leader has angrily rejected the accusations and denounced what he describes as an overzealous police investigation. He has also dismissed the accusations as a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media.

Zarif suggested the Israeli leader might be escalating tensions with Iran simply to distract from his domestic problems.

Denouncing what he said were Israel's "almost daily illegal incursions into Syrian airspace," Zarif said Israel was trying "to create these cartoonish images to blame others for its own strategic blunders, or maybe to evade the domestic crisis they're facing."

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israel's resolve.

"Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he said. "We will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself."

Lebanese Defense Minister Yaacoub Sarraf accused Israel of being hypocritical, saying that he'd had "an Israeli drone above my head for the past 15 years" and warning about any aggression from its neighbor.

"Lebanon has no belligerent intent on anybody, but watch out, we will defend ourselves," he said. "We also have partners, we also have friends, we also have people willing to die for their country. We are for peace, yet we will not stand for any threat and we will not accept any aggression. "

___

Moulson reported from Berlin

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers a speech during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers a speech during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

A demonstrator carries a poster reading: 'We Love War' as they protest against the Security Conference, MSC, in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Sebastian Gabriel/dpa via AP)

Demonstrators gather to protest against the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Sebastian Gabriel/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, is welcomed by the chairman of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, right, at the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)MUNICH (AP) - The Latest from the Munich Security Conference (all times local):

1:45 p.m.

Iran's foreign minister is rejecting the idea that Tehran wouldn't respond if the United States gives up on the 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

In this photo released by Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holds a part of a downed drone during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, MSC, in Munich , Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018/dpa via AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an opponent of the deal, said Sunday that if the U.S. refuses to keep approving the deal "I think they'll do nothing."

But Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Munich Security Conference that was "delusional thinking."

He said: "I can assure that if Iran's interests are not secured, Iran will respond, will respond seriously and I believe it would be a response that means people would be sorry for taking the erroneous action they did."

Zarif said that "we will not be the first ones to violate" the agreement.

___

1 p.m.

Iran's foreign minister is dismissing as a "cartoonish circus" accusations by Israel's prime minister that his country has become increasingly aggressive and sent a drone into Israeli airspace.

Mohammad Javad Zarif took the stage Sunday at the Munich Security Conference a few hours after Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu held up what he said was a fragment of the drone and challenged Zarif to recognize it.

Zarif told the gathering: "You were the audience for a cartoonish circus just this morning which does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

Zarif denounced what he said were Israel's "almost daily illegal incursions into Syrian airspace." He said Israel was trying "to create these cartoonish images to blame others for its own strategic blunders, or maybe to evade the domestic crisis they're facing."

___

12:30 p.m.

Lebanese Defense Minister Yaacoub Sarraf says his country is prepared to defend itself if Israel launches strikes on its territory.

The comments came Sunday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country had shot down an Iranian drone in its airspace, and would "act if necessary" against Iran and its proxies, such as the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Sarraf told participants at the Munich Security Conference he'd had "an Israeli drone above my head for the past 15 years" but that his country has "no belligerent intent" against anyone.

But he says "we will defend ourselves" and that "we are for peace, yet we will not stand for any threat and we will not accept any aggression. "

___

11:55 a.m.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says it is "absolutely critical" to make sure that world powers' nuclear agreement with Iran survives.

President Donald Trump is deeply skeptical about the 2015 nuclear deal. He extended sanctions waivers in January but said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

Kerry, one of the leading negotiators on the deal, told the Munich Security Conference on Sunday that "this is untenable. It is not good diplomacy."

He added: "I believe it is absolutely critical for Europe, for the world, to make sure we hold on to this agreement. Because to go backward - we know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement. It's not a better place."

___

11:25 a.m.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel "will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth" about the Holocaust - a statement that comes as tensions between Israel and Poland over the issue flare anew.

Israeli politicians accused Poland's prime minister of anti-Semitism for equating Polish perpetrators in the Holocaust to supposed "Jewish perpetrators." Poland and Israel were already at odds over a new Polish law criminalizing some statements about the country's actions during World War II.

Speaking Sunday at the Munich Security Conference, where Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki made his comment a day earlier, Netanyahu remembered the 6 million Jews "killed by the Nazis and their collaborators."

He added: "We will never forget and we will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth."

___

11 a.m.

A spokeswoman for Poland's prime minister has sought to downplay his words equating Polish collaborators in the Holocaust to alleged "Jewish perpetrators" by saying they were an invitation to a frank debate about the World War II crimes against Jews.

Israeli politicians have accused Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of anti-Semitism following his remarks Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, setting off a new chapter in an angry dispute over Poland's new law banning some Holocaust speech.

Morawiecki spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said Sunday that his words "should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved."

The statement in Polish and English said Morawiecki's comments were "by no means intended to deny the Holocaust."

___

10: 50 a.m.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says an international agreement with Iran has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

Netanyahu told world leaders, defense officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday the agreement has "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond."

Saying Iran's "brazenness hit new highs," he held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was to speak later.

Netanyahu said "Mr. Zarif do you recognize this? You should, it's yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran - do not test Israel's resolve!"

Tehran says it wasn't Iran's drone.

A demonstrator carries a poster reading: 'We Love War' as they protest against the Security Conference, MSC, in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Sebastian Gabriel/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers a speech during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers a speech during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Demonstrators gather to protest against the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Sebastian Gabriel/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, is welcomed by the chairman of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, right, at the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, attends a panel discussion during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Former U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, attends the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

In this photo released by Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holds a part of a downed drone during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, MSC, in Munich , Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018/dpa via AP)

In this photo released by Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, holds a part of a downed drone during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, MSC, in Munich , Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Lennart Preiss/MSC 2018/dpa via AP)

In this Feb. 17, 2018 photo, Chief of Pakistani Army staff, Qamar Javed Bajwa, speaks at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

In this Feb. 17, 2018 photo Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, speaks at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, attends a panel discussion during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, is welcomed by the chairman of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, right, at the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arrives for his speech during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivers a speech during the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank speaks at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank speaks at the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

Roch Marc Kabore, president of Burkina Faso, speaks at the security conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. EZEKIEL FLOWERS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent-Appellee. No. 17-12051 Decided: February 16, 2018

Before WILSON, JORDAN and HULL, Circuit Judges.

Ezekiel Flowers, a federal prisoner serving a 188-month sentence after being convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm, appeals the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C.  2255 motion to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence. The district court granted Flowers a certificate of appealability (COA) on whether his prior Florida convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and felony battery qualify as violent felonies under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C.  924(e), in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Samuel Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. __, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015). After careful review, and based on our precedent, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In January 2012, a federal grand jury charged Flowers with a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1), 924(e)(1). Flowers pled not guilty and was convicted at trial in June 2012.

In calculating Flowers's advisory guidelines range using the 2011 Guidelines Manual, the presentence report (PSR) determined that Flowers was an armed career criminal under the ACCA based on these four Florida convictions: (1) a 2003 robbery conviction, in violation of Fla. Stat.  812.13; (2) a 2004 felony battery conviction, in violation of Fla. Stat.  784.041; (3) a 2005 conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, in violation of Fla. Stat.  784.021(1)(a); and (4) a 2007 conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, in violation of Fla. Stat.  784.021(1)(a). In light of his armed career criminal status, the PSR assigned Flowers a total offense level of 33 and a criminal history category of IV, resulting in a guidelines range of 188 to 235 months' imprisonment. Additionally, Flowers was subject to the ACCA's 15-year (180-month) statutory mandatory minimum sentence.

At his August 2012 sentencing, Flowers objected to the ACCA enhancement, arguing that his Florida convictions for robbery and felony battery did not qualify as violent felonies because the ACCA's residual clause was unconstitutionally vague. Flowers acknowledged, however, that this Court's binding precedent at the time foreclosed his challenge to the ACCA's residual clause. The district court accordingly overruled Flowers's objection and ultimately sentenced him to 188 months' imprisonment.

Flowers appealed, arguing among other things that his ACCA sentence violated the Sixth Amendment because it was based on facts found by the district court at sentencing, rather than by the jury at trial. United States v. Flowers, 531 F. App'x 975, 980, 984-85 (11th Cir. 2013). In August 2013, this Court affirmed Flowers's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Id. at 985.

In June 2016, Flowers filed his present  2255 motion to vacate. Flowers argued that, following the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Samuel Johnson striking down the ACCA's residual clause, his prior Florida convictions no longer qualified as ACCA predicate offenses.

A magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation (R&R) recommending that Flowers's  2255 motion be denied. The magistrate judge concluded that, after Samuel Johnson, all of Flowers's prior convictions remained qualifying violent felonies under the ACCA's elements clause. The district court adopted the R&R over Flowers's objections, but granted Flowers a COA on whether his prior Florida convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and felony battery qualify as violent felonies under the ACCA.

II. DISCUSSION 3

Under the ACCA, a defendant convicted of violating 18 U.S.C.  922(g) is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years (180 months) if he has three prior convictions for a violent felony or serious drug offense. 18 U.S.C.  924(e)(1). A violent felony is any crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year that:

(i) has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another; or

(ii) is burglary, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.

18 U.S.C.  924(e)(2)(B). The first prong is referred to as the elements clause, while the second prong contains the enumerated crimes and the residual clause. United States v. Owens, 672 F.3d 966, 968 (11th Cir. 2012). In Samuel Johnson, the Supreme Court struck down the ACCA's residual clause as unconstitutionally vague, but did not call into question the validity of the ACCA's enumerated crimes or elements clause. 576 U.S. at __, 135 S. Ct. at 2563. Under the elements clause, the phrase physical force means violent forcethat is, force capable of causing physical pain or injury to another person. Curtis Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133, 140, 130 S. Ct. 1265, 1271 (2010).

A. Florida Felony Battery

Florida's felony battery statute provides that a person commits felony battery if he [a]ctually and intentionally touches or strikes another person against the will of the other, and [c]auses great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement. Fla. Stat. 784.041(1)(a)-(b) (emphasis added). In United States v. Vail-Bailon, this Court, sitting en banc, concluded that a conviction for felony battery under Fla. Stat.  784.041 qualifies as a crime of violence under U.S.S.G.  2L1.2, which contains the same elements clause as the ACCA. 868 F.3d 1293, 1297, 1308 (11th Cir.) (en banc), petition for cert. docketed, No. 17-7151 (Dec. 20, 2017); see also, e.g., Gilbert v. United States, 640 F.3d 1293, 1309 n.16 (11th Cir. 2011) (en banc) (stating that, because the ACCA definition of violent felony is nearly identical to the guidelines' definition of crime of violence, decisions about one apply to the other).

In Vail-Bailon, this Court explained that, unlike the simple battery statute at issue in Curtis Johnson, Florida felony battery requires more than a slight unwanted touch. Vail-Bailon, 868 F.3d at 1298. Rather, in addition to touching or striking a victim against his will, an offender must also cause the victim to suffer significant bodily harm in order to be convicted of felony battery under  784.041. Id. Accordingly, this Court reasoned that felony battery under  784.041 necessarily requires the use, attempted use, or threatened use of violent physical force within the meaning of the elements clause. See id. at 1303. This is so, this Court explained, because intentional forceeven of the touching varietythat in fact causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement, as required to sustain a conviction under  784.041, necessarily constitutes force that is capable of causing pain or injury. Id. This Court further noted that, under Florida law, only severe physical injury satisfies the great bodily harm element of  784.041, and slight discomfort and minor injuries are insufficient to sustain a felony battery conviction. Id.

On appeal, Flowers acknowledges that Vail-Bailon presently forecloses his challenge to the use of his Florida felony battery conviction as an ACCA predicate, but contends Vail-Bailon was wrongly decided and may soon be overturned by the Supreme Court. Unless and until the Supreme Court actually does so, however, Vail-Bailon remains binding. United States v. Archer, 531 F.3d 1347, 1352 (11th Cir. 2008) (explaining that this Court's precedent remains binding unless and until it is overruled or undermined to the point of abrogation by the Supreme Court or by this court sitting en banc). Accordingly, the district court did not err in concluding that, even after Samuel Johnson, Flowers's felony battery conviction remains a qualifying ACCA predicate offense under the elements clause.

B. Florida Aggravated Assault

Florida's aggravated assault statute defines aggravated assault as an assault (a) [w]ith a deadly weapon without intent to kill; or (b) [w]ith an intent to commit a felony. Fla. Stat.  784.021(1). By its plain terms,  784.021 sets out two separate aggravated assault crimes in the alternative: (1) aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, or (2) aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony. See id.  784.021(1)(a)-(b). Here, the parties do not dispute that both of Flowers's prior Florida aggravated assault convictions were for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under Fla. Stat.  784.021(1)(a).

In turn, Florida law defines assault as an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled with an apparent ability to do so, and doing some act which creates a well-founded fear in such other person that such violence is imminent. Fla. Stat.  784.011(1).

In Turner v. Warden Coleman FCI (Medium), this Court held that aggravated assault under Fla. Stat.  784.021 categorically qualifies as a violent felony under the elements clause of the ACCA. 709 F.3d 1328, 1337-38 (11th Cir. 2013), abrogated in part on other grounds by Samuel Johnson, 576 U.S. __, 135 S. Ct. 2551. This Court explained that Florida aggravated assault, by its definitional terms  necessarily includes an assault, which is an intentional, unlawful threat by word or act to do violence to the person of another, coupled with an apparent ability to do so. Id. at 1338 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Fla. Std. Jury Instr. 8.2. As such, a conviction under section 784.021 will always include as an element the  threatened use of physical force against the person of another.  Turner, 709 F.3d at 1338 (quoting 18 U.S.C.  924(e)(2)(B)(i)). Although Turner was decided before Samuel Johnson, this Court has since reaffirmed its holding as to Florida aggravated assault. See United States v. Golden, 854 F.3d 1256 (11th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 197 (2017).

As with Vail-Bailon above, Flowers contends that Turner and Golden were wrongly decided. But again, unless and until the Supreme Court or this Court sitting en banc overturns those decisions, they remain binding and foreclose Flowers's challenge to the use of his Florida aggravated assault convictions as ACCA predicates. See Archer, 531 F.3d at 1352.

For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court's denial of Flowers's  2255 motion to vacate his ACCA sentence.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. At that time, Flowers did not contest that his convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon counted as predicate offenses.

. Flowers also contended that his prior convictions no longer qualify as predicate felonies under U.S.S.G.  2K2.1(a)(2), the guideline for his 18 U.S.C.  922(g) firearm conviction, which provides a higher base offense level for a defendant convicted of illegal firearm possession under 18 U.S.C.  922(g) if that defendant has sustained two prior felony convictions for crimes of violence, as defined in U.S.S.G.  4B1.2(a), the career offender guidelines. U.S.S.G.  2K2.1(a)(2) & cmt. n.1, 4B1.2(a) (2011). Flowers reiterates that argument on appeal. Flowers's guidelines argument fails because the Supreme Court has held that Samuel Johnson does not apply to the sentencing guidelines and, at a minimum, Flowers's two convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon are valid predicates for the  2K2.1(a)(2) increase. See Beckles v. United States, 580 U.S. __, __, 137 S. Ct. 886, 890 (2017); see also, U.S.S.G.  2K2.1(a)(2), 4B1.2 cmt. n.1 (2011) (listing aggravated assault as a crime of violence for purposes of the guidelines); United States v. Palomino Garcia, 606 F.3d 1317, 1332 (11th Cir. 2010) (stating that the generic offense of aggravated assault under the guidelines includes assault with a deadly weapon).

. We review de novo whether a prior conviction is a violent felony within the meaning of the ACCA. United States v. Howard, 742 F.3d 1334, 1341 (11th Cir. 2014).

. Section 784.021(1) provides in full:(1) An aggravated assault is an assault:(a) With a deadly weapon without intent to kill; or(b) With an intent to commit a felony.Fla. Stat.  784.021(1).

. Florida's standard jury instructions for aggravated assault provide:To prove the crime of Aggravated Assault, the State must prove the following four elements beyond a reasonable doubt. The first three elements define assault.1. (Defendant) intentionally and unlawfully threatened, either by word or act, to do violence to (victim).2. At the time, (defendant) appeared to have the ability to carry out the threat.3. The act of (defendant) created in the mind of (victim) a well-founded fear that the violence was about to take place.Give 4a and/or 4b as applicable. If 4b is alleged, give the elements of the felony charged.4. a. The assault was made with a deadly weapon.b. The assault was made with a fully-formed, conscious intent to commit (felony charged) upon (victim).See Fla. Std. Jury Instr. 8.2.

PER CURIAM:GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) - The Russian delegation at the Pyeongchang Olympics has announced that one of its athletes has failed a drug test.

Two Russian state news agencies cited Konstantin Vybornov, spokesman for the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" team, as saying the delegation received an official notification from the International Olympic Committee of the positive test.

The IOC later Sunday said it had taken note of Vybronov's statement.

A Russian supporter waves a flag before the preliminary round of the men's hockey game between the team from Russia and the United States at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Vybornov said a "B'' sample taken from the athlete will be analyzed within 24 hours, but did not name the athlete or the sport involved.

A confirmed doping case could be an obstacle to Russia's efforts to have the Russian team formally reinstated in time for the closing ceremony.

"Doping testing and sanctioning at the Pyeongchang 2018 is independent from the IOC. Therefore, the IOC cannot communicate on individual cases while the procedure is still ongoing," the IOC said in a statement. "However, we take note of the statement by a spokesperson of the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) delegation."

The IOC added that "if the case is confirmed, it will be considered" by the IOC body which would be considering whether to reinstate Russia.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which rules on Olympic doping cases, said it had not received any notification.

"No new case received and no rumors of it so far," Matthieu Reeb, the court's secretary general, said in an e-mail.

As part of IOC sanctions for Russian doping at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, athletes from the country had to undergo IOC vetting including an examination of their drug-testing history before being invited to the Olympics. Dozens were rejected.

The IOC suspended the national Olympic committee, meaning that Russian athletes are competing in neutral uniforms under the Olympic flag in Pyeongchang. The IOC has said Russia could be reinstated for the closing ceremony if it follows IOC rules, including anti-doping regulations.

The only other doping case so far at the Pyeongchang Olympics came when Japanese short-track speedskater Kai Saito tested positive for a banned diuretic and was removed from competition. His case is ongoing.FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - The evidence against the Florida school shooting suspect is so overwhelming, the only question left for the courts if he is convicted is whether he will be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.

The fate of 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who faces 17 counts of first-degree murder in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, will depend on his mental state and the wishes of the victims' families, which have a say in how the prosecution proceeds.

Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, said there were so many warning signs that Cruz was mentally unstable and potentially violent that the death penalty might be going too far. Finkelstein said Cruz would likely plead guilty if prosecutors opt not to seek the death penalty.

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2018 file photo, students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after a shooter opened fire on the campus. Students are taught to evacuate during fire alarms but lock down during school shootings. So there was confusion Wednesday when a fire alarm sounded, the second one that day at the high school as 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz unleashed a barrage of gunfire. Head for the exits or hunker down in classrooms? (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)

"Because that's what this case is about. Not, did he do it? Not, should he go free? Should he live or should he die," Finkelstein said. "He will never see the light of day again, nor should he. But I know personally I am very upset and angry that we all failed to spot a problem and do anything as a result."

Michael J. Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, said Saturday in an email that, "This certainly is the type of case the death penalty was designed for." He called the slayings "absolutely horrific and tragic." However, he also said his office is working with law enforcement and will announce later what penalty it plans to seek.

The prosecution will likely take years. The sheriff's office said Cruz confessed, and they have his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, ammunition clips and video from the school. The FBI also said Friday it had gotten a call from someone close to Cruz who expressed concern that he had "a desire to kill people" and "the potential" to conduct a school shooting.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the information was not properly investigated and promised to get to the bottom of it.

A major issue for the courts will be Cruz's mental state. Officials have said he underwent unspecified treatment at a mental facility but quit after his mother died in November. His father had died some years earlier. Without any living parents, he was taken in by a local family.

Cruz's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill, told reporters after Cruz's initial court appearance that he had become unmoored from society and had no support network to lean on.

"When your brain is not fully developed, you don't know how to deal with these things," she said. "When you have the lack of impulse control that a 19-year-old has, that affects the behavior you exhibit."

McNeill also said of Cruz: "He's sad, he's mournful, he's remorseful. He's just a broken human being."

An initial decision will be whether Cruz is mentally competent to understand legal proceedings and assist in his own defense. Experts say it's a relatively high bar to clear to be declared incompetent and McNeill said Cruz is "fully aware of what is going on."

Cruz could try to plead innocent by reason of insanity, which also rarely works. James Holmes, the shooter who killed 12 people and wounded 70 in a Colorado movie theater in 2012, was convicted despite pleading insanity and was sentenced to life behind bars.

David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, said the penalty phase of Cruz's case is likely to be where his background, family situation, mental condition and life history will play the biggest part. Even if he pleads guilty and prosecutors refuse to waive the death penalty, a jury must decide by a 12-0 vote that Cruz deserves to be executed.

The victims' families also have a legal right to participate in discussions over whether to seek the death penalty.

"I think among them there are many people who aren't going to want to go through this," Weinstein said. "That would save a lot of time and a lot of anguish for people. Some will say, 'we don't care, we want him put to death. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' They will want retribution."

___

Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt

___

Follow the AP's complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/FloridaschoolshootingAZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan (AP) - A job center opened Sunday in Jordan's second largest camp for Syrian refugees, the latest sign of an EU-backed policy shift meant to improve the lives of the displaced in regional host countries and discourage them from migrating onward.

Dozens of refugees crowded around long tables in a community center in the Azraq camp to register with potential employers for jobs in factories and on farms.

"Any work is OK for me," said Sumaya Mohammed Jidaa, a 39-year-old widow and mother of six inquiring about a sewing job. "Just give us money to take care of our children."

Syrian refugees register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Under the so-called Jordan Compact, a deal struck with donor countries in 2016, the kingdom promised to provide 200,000 work permits for Syrians over three years, in exchange for several billion dollars in development assistance and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe.

Implementation has been slow because of Jordan's economic downturn, high unemployment and the slow pace of regulatory change. About 90,000 Syrians have obtained work permits so far, and only two factories are exporting goods to Europe under the new rules, officials said.

"You cannot expect the private sector to simply make use of a trade agreement if the proper support is not being provided," said Patrick Daru, country coordinator of the International Labor Organization.

The job center is a project of the ILO, the U.N. refugee agency and Jordan's Labor Ministry.

Jordan has been struggling with the fallout from prolonged conflict in neighboring Syria and Iraq, leading to unemployment of about 18 percent, with twice that rate among the young.

At the same time, the kingdom has more than 300,000 registered foreign workers and up to one million unregistered ones, according to the Ministry of Labor. Most are Egyptian and South Asian migrants in low-skilled jobs like domestic care, construction and agriculture.

The government has attempted labor reform, but many Jordanians disparage the manual labor traditionally performed by migrant workers, leaving a gap that Syrian refugees may now partially fill.

Job creation is Jordan's central problem, Daru said.

"It's a problem of investment. It's a problem of getting European companies to source from Jordan, and this is the main game-changer," he said.

At the job fair, Emad Hussein offered jobs for up to 100 refugees, hoping that by hiring them his textiles company will become eligible for reduced European tariffs. Hussein said he currently employs 700 Jordanians, 1,700 South Asians and two refugees.

"It's less expensive to hire Syrians because we don't have to pay meals and accommodations for them," he said. "Even if there's no European customers, we still need Syrians. We have to help people because of humanity, and we know they have experience."

The job center, supported in part by the Dutch Embassy, contributes to the goal of keeping refugees as close to home as possible, said Dutch Ambassador Barbara Jozaisse.

"At least people now can apply for a job and earn their own income, so you have some dignity, you have pride, you have income, you can continue building your life and developing yourself and your family," she said.

The Syria conflict, which erupted in 2011, has displaced millions of people, including some 5.5 million who fled civil war in their homeland. Jordan hosts about 660,000 registered Syrian refugees, though Jordanian authorities say the actual number of Syrians in the country is twice as high.

Syrian refugees hold their identity documents to register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Syrian refugees queue to register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Syrian refugees register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Syrian refugees register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Syrian refugees queue to register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Syrian refugees register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)

Syrian refugees gather to register their names at the Azraq refugee camp job centre for employment on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of Amman, Jordan. Jordan has promised to provide thousands of work permits for Syrian refugees in exchange for development assistance funds and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh)Tax returns surge over Presidents Day weekend, with the IRS saying it receives more phone calls on the day after Presidents Day than on any other day of the year. That can mean long waits for filers trying to get through on the phone.

So where should you turn if you have a question?

ONLINE

Getting someone on the phone might be a challenge, but the IRS.gov website has answers to most tax questions. The site can also direct you to outside tax help, such as the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. The program provides free tax help to people with incomes under $54,000, those with disabilities and those who require in-person assistance because of language issues. There's also the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program, which provides free help to all taxpayers, specializing in those 60 years or older.

Taxpayers whose income is $66,000 or less can use IRS Free File, also accessible on the main site, to access free tax-preparation software.

SOFTWARE

Filing online is the most accurate, safest and easiest way to file, according to the IRS.

There are numerous free and paid tax software programs that will walk you through common tax scenarios. Some brands, such as TurboTax, offer add-on perks for help.

TurboTax Live, for example, allows you to ask for immediate help from an expert online and you can even get your tax return reviewed, signed and filed by an experience certified public accountant or enrolled agent.

PROFESSIONAL

If you decided you want to call in a pro, make sure you choose wisely.

While the majority of tax professionals provide honest, quality service, the IRS warns of dishonest preparers who set up shop to commit refund fraud, identity fraud and other scams. There are a number of tips on the IRS website on how to choose a tax return preparer wisely. But one easy place to start is to make sure they have an IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number, known as a PTIN, which is required by law. In general avoid preparers who boast about getting you the biggest return, aren't available for questions or want to be paid based on a percentage of your return.

Remember that no matter who prepares a federal tax return, by signing it the taxpayer becomes legally responsible for is accuracy.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on the deadly Florida high school shooting (all times local):

10:00 p.m.

Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida are focusing their anger at President Donald Trump, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive. David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said: 'You're the president. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us.'

Mourners brought flowers, candles and stuffed animals to a makeshift memorial created by community members outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Hogg on "Meet the Press" Sunday was responding to Trump's tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn't passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI's failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous, while bemoaning the bureau's focus on Russia's role in the 2016 election.

After more than a day of criticism from the students, the White House says the president would hold a "listening session" with unspecified students on Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials Thursday.

___

4:15 p.m.

Nineteen-year-old senior Chris Grady was hiding at Stoneman Douglas High School during the shooting days go. He says he's angry and will be pressing with other students for gun control measures.

He and some fellow students organized a rally Sunday near the Parkland, Florida, high school, set to press for greater gun control measures from lawmakers. The students plan to visit the state capital, Tallahassee, and visit the nation's capital in March.

Grady says pupils targeted by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012 were "too young to understand." But he adds: "We want to be the voice for those kids and thousands of others who have been affected by tragedies like this."

___

3:30 p.m.

A gun show went on as scheduled this weekend, a short drive from the school where a teenager used his own legally purchased AR-15 assault weapon to kill 17 people and wound more than a dozen others. Many assault weapons were on display as customers, some bringing their children, checked out the killing firepower.

Jorge Fernandez spoke for Florida Gun Shows in sharing what he called their "deepest condolences to the persons who have been involved in this terrible tragedy." But he told The Associated Press that his company's shows are scheduled years in advance, and "it would just be cost prohibitive to cancel."

Fernandez says he personally blames the shooting not on guns, but on the mental health of the 19-year-old shooter, Nikolas Cruz. He says he feels there should be a mechanism permitting doctors or law enforcement to identify people with mental health problems and do something about it.

Customer Jerry Sepulveda said he can see how the gun show could be seen as insensitive to the victims, but he came anyway to see the guns. He says he thinks there should be an age limit preventing teens from buying high-powered rifles, and that background checks should be strengthened.

___

12:30 p.m.

The principal of the Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people last week addressed the community in an emotional video message.

The video, which was posted Sunday, showed an emotional Ty Thompson, who is principal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

He thanked the thousands of people around the world that have reached out to the school in emails and on social media. He said he promises to love the staff, students and their families over the difficult weeks to come.

Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the Wednesday afternoon shooting

___

12 p.m.

In the wake of the high school shooting that killed 17 people, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio says Florida should consider enacting a law that would allow family members or law enforcement officials to ask a court to remove guns from a person who poses a danger.

Democratic state legislators filed bills that would create "risk protection orders" but the legislation hasn't been heard during this year's session.

During an interview with Miami television station WFOR, Rubio said legislators should "absolutely" consider the bill. Rubio, who once served as House speaker in the state Legislature, called it an "example of a state law" that could have helped prevent the shooting.

The suspect in the case, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from school and had mental health issues and had been reported to law-enforcement.

Other states have already enacted similar laws.

___

11:50 a.m.

In a flurry of tweets Sunday morning, President Donald Trump sounded off on a number of issues but did not mention the deadly shooting rampage at a Florida high school that killed 17 people.

The tweets mainly attacked allegations that Trump's campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

Another tweet claimed Republicans were polling better after a recent tax cut. Trump also said there were no calls for investigation after then-President Barack Obama's cash payment to Iran.

Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the Wednesday afternoon shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

___

11:30 a.m.

The school records of the suspect of a mass shooting in Florida killed 17 people reveal a child that had problems since middle school.

According to records obtained Sunday from the state Department of Children and Families, when Nikolas Cruz was a student at Westglades Middle School, he was constantly in trouble for insulting teachers and staff, using profanity, disruptive behavior, unexcused absences and at least one fight.

His mother was called in more than a dozen times for conferences and Cruz was frequently sent to counseling.

Nineteen-year-old Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the Wednesday afternoon shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

___

11:20 a.m.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott was in attendance at a church service Sunday just a few blocks from the high school where a shooting rampage killed 17 people.

Scott shook hands and hugged churchgoers there.

The community has been in mourning since the deadly attack Wednesday afternoon at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the shooting.

___

11:05 a.m.

Students who survived the shooting at a Florida High School that killed 17 people are urging President Donald Trump and other leaders to do something to address gun violence.

Speaking on NBC's "Meet The Press," Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, says now is the time to get on right side of the issue. Gonzalez also said politicians who are funded by the National Rifle Association won't be allowed to stay in office when midterms elections come later this year.

David Hogg, a senior at the school, lashed out Trump for a tweet that blamed Democrats for not passing gun control legislation when they controlled both houses of Congress during the Obama administration. Hogg said Trump is now the president and he should do something because children are dying "and their blood is on your hands."

___

11:05 a.m.

The school where a shooting killed 17 people will reopen to staff later this week.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. It will also be closed Tuesday and Wednesday. The Broward County School District said Sunday that the aim is for staff to return to campus by the end of the week.

School officials say there will be no classes Thursday and Friday while teachers and possibly students have time to come together and meet with counselors if they wish.

The school is in South Florida, about 50 miles northwest of downtown Miami and in Broward County, near the Everglades.

___

9:50 a.m.

The 19-year-old suspect in the Florida school shooting that killed 17 people didn't know how to use a microwave, didn't pick up after himself and didn't know how to do his own laundry.

The family that took him in following his mother's death spoke to the Sun Sentinel .

The paper published a story Sunday about the family, who said that what Nikolas Cruz did baffles them.

They made Cruz buy a locking gun safe to put in his room the day he moved in. Cruz had a handful of guns, including the AR-15 and two other rifles that James Snead said would be considered assault rifles. Cruz, a hunter, also had knives, BB guns and pellet guns.

Snead thought he had the only key to the cabinet but has figured out Cruz must have kept a key for himself. The family kept their own rifles, bought after a burglary a couple of years ago, in a separate locked cabinet.

They told Cruz he needed to ask permission to take out the guns. He had asked only twice since November. They said "yes" once and "no" once.

___

9:20 a.m.

Survivor of the shooting rampage at a Florida high school that killed 17 people are planning a march on Washington next month to pressure politicians to take action on gun violence.

Speaking Sunday on CNN, a group of students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland said they are determined to make a difference on the issue.

Cameron Kasky, a junior at the school, said the March 24 march will provide a time to talk about gun control, saying "we are losing our lives while the adults are playing around."

Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz is facing 17 counts of murder in the Wednesday afternoon shooting.

___

11 p.m.

Pressure is growing for tougher gun-control laws after a Florida high school shooting that killed 17 people.

Thousands of angry protesters in Fort Lauderdale and St. Petersburg gathered Saturday to demand immediate action by legislators. More demonstrations are planned across the country in the weeks ahead.

Organizers are calling for a 17-minute walkout by teachers and students on March 14. The Network for Public Education announced a day of walkouts, sit-ins and other events on school campuses on April 20. The date is the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 12 students and one teacher dead.

___

Follow the AP's complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting .

Melody Barry wipes a tear from her face as she mourns in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

A mourner leaves the funeral for Scott Beigel in Boca Raton, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Beigel was a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, who was killed along with 16 others in a mass shooting at the school on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

People embrace during a service at the First United Methodist Church in Coral Springs, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. The service was dedicated to the victims of Wednesday's mass shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, a former student was charged with 17 counts of murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A man bows his head in prayer before the start of a service at the First United Methodist Church in Coral Springs, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. The service was dedicated to the victims of Wednesday's mass shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, a former student was charged with 17 counts of murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Florida Governor Rick Scott addresses the congregation during a Sunday service at the First United Methodist Church of Coral Springs, dedicated to the victims of the Wednesday mass shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Coral Springs, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, who is in custody, was charged with 17 counts of murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A woman holds a child to her during a service at the First United Methodist Church in Coral Springs, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. The service was dedicated to the victims of Wednesday's mass shooting at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Nikolas Cruz, a former student was charged with 17 counts of murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Mourners hug near a makeshift memorial created by community members outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Mourners bring flowers to a makeshift memorial created by community members outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Mourners follow the casket of Scott Beigel, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who was killed along with 16 other faculty and students in the Wednesday shooting at the school, for burial after his funeral in Boca Raton, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Stacey Sindon, 51, reacts as she mourns in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Gene Hochman, 36, reacts as he mourns near a makeshift memorial created by the community members outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Chris McCormick, far right, from First Priority of South Florida, carries boxes of tissues for grieving community members outside of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Diane Cappelli wipes her face as she mourns in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Bryan and Amber Gruzenksy place flowers on crosses with their son Joshua, 14, outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

From left to right: Tatana Hobson 14, Annia Hobson 13, and Leilany Canate, 16, mourn in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. A gunman entered the school last Wednesday and killed 17 students and teachers. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)

Volunteers help carry 17 crosses to be placed outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Hadley Sorensen, 16, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is comforted by her mother Stacy Sorensen outside the school in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Isabella Vanderlaat, 15, and Gabriella Benzeken 15, both students of Scott Beigel, the 35 year-old geography teacher who was killed during the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shootings attend the funeral service at Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, Feb. 18, 2018. (Charles Trainor Jr/Miami Herald via AP)

Hadley Sorensen, 16, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, places flowers outside the school in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Hadley Sorensen, 16, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is comforted by her mother Stacy Sorensen at a makeshift memorial outside the school in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Samantha Ramirez, 12, holds a sign with other students and parents at an intersection near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Angelina Lazo, 18, center, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, holds a sign with other students and parents at an intersection near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

People taking part in the Never Again Movement hold signs at an intersection near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Pall bearers carry the casket of Scott Beigel after his funeral in Boca Raton, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. Beigel was a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, who was killed along with 16 others in a mass shooting at the school on Wednesday. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) - A gunman opened fire with a hunting rifle on churchgoers leaving a service in Russia's Dagestan region, killing five people and wounding four others, then was shot and killed by police, authorities say.

The shootings took place Sunday evening in Kizlyar, a town of about 50,000 people on the border with Chechnya.

Four people died at the scene and a fifth died at a hospital, regional Interior Ministry spokesman Ruslan Gadzhiibragimov said. The gunman was a local resident, and his wife has been detained for questioning, he said.

The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea. Following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya, an Islamist insurgency spread to Dagestan.GOLETA, Calif. (AP) - Two female bears badly burned in a Southern California wildfire are settling back into their home in the wild.

Los Angeles news station KABC-TV reports that recent photos and GPS tracking data show the bears are moving around and appear to be in good health in Los Padres National Forest. They suffered third-degree burns in December in the largest wildfire in state history.

The bears were released into the forest in January after getting care for their injuries. Wildlife officials used alternative treatments, including placing fish skins on their paws to promote healing and soothe pain.

FILE - This Jan. 2018 file photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows a bear, injured in a wildfire, resting with its badly burned paws wrapped in fish skin - tilapia - and covered in corn husks during treatment at the University of California, Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in Davis, Calif. Two female bears badly burned in a wildfire are back home in the Los Padres National Forest. KABC-TV reports recent photos and GPS tracking show the bears are moving around and in good health in the forest after suffering burn injuries in December from a massive wildfire that affected Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The bears were released back into the wild in January. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)

One bear was pregnant. Fish and Wildlife officials say they aren't sure if she has delivered the baby.

___

Information from: KABC-TV, http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/

FILE - This Jan. 2018, file photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shows the badly burned paw of a bear, injured in a wildfire, wrapped in fish skin - tilapia - during treatment at the University of California, Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in Davis, Calif. Veterinarians successfully used alternative medical treatments such as acupuncture and wrapping wounds in fish skin on two bears and a mountain lion burned in the Southern California wildfires, vets at UC Davis said Wednesday, Jan. 24. Two female bears badly burned in a wildfire are back home in the Los Padres National Forest. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)MALE, Maldives (AP) - The Supreme Court of the Maldives has delayed its order reinstating 12 pro-opposition lawmakers ahead of a key parliamentary sitting.

Opposition lawmaker Ahmed Mahloof says the decision came Sunday. At a parliamentary sitting Monday, the government may call for important votes to extend a state of emergency or dismiss two Supreme Court judges who have been arrested on allegations of corruption.

President Yameen Abdul Gayoom's ruling party may have lost a majority in the 85-member parliament if the 12 lawmakers were allowed to participate Monday.

The Maldives has been in political turmoil since Feb. 1 when the Supreme Court ordered the release of Yameen's imprisoned political opponents and the reinstatement of 12 lawmakers sacked after they sided with the opposition.LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Bolivian authorities now say that both of the explosions that killed 12 people during recent Carnival celebrations were caused by dynamite, not exploding gas tanks as initially thought.

Interior Minister Carlos Romero says officials are still trying to determine who planted the explosives in the city of Oruro, and why.

He says both the Feb. 10 and Feb. 13 explosions were caused by 3 kilograms (6.5 pounds) of dynamite. Until now, officials had blamed the initial blast on a street vender's leaking gas line.

Police stand guard at the site of an explosion in Oruro, Bolivia, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. Bolivian officials said Wednesday that a bomb was what caused the explosion that killed four people during Carnival celebrations in Oruro. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Romero said Sunday that police also have found a small piece of dynamite in a hotel bathroom in the city, which is about 120 miles (190 kilometers) south of the capital, La Paz.

It's a mining area where dynamite is widely available.Britain will pull out of a major foreign policy arrangement as soon as possible after Brexit, Theresa May has announced.

The Prime Minister said the UK would not wait until the end of any implementation period to take back full control over areas like diplomacy, peacekeeping, defence and aid.

Common policy on foreign and security areas grew out of the Maastricht Treaty so the move is likely to please Brexiteers.

Prime Minister Theresa May is addressing the Munich Security Conference pic.twitter.com/IC1PCNtWtg  Sam Lister (@sam_lister_) February 17, 2018

But Mrs May stressed that Britain will continue to work closely with the EU on security and said the UKs commitment to protecting Europe from threats is unconditional.

Mrs May said: There is no reason why we should not agree distinct arrangements for our foreign and defence policy co-operation in the time-limited implementation period as the Commission has proposed.

She added: We shouldnt wait where we dont need to.

The system meant that Britain was forced to take part in a summit in 2003 in Lisbon despite protesting over the attendance of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugagbe. Gordon Brown boycotted the event but the government was obliged to send a representative.

We will continue to work with our European friends and neighbours in promoting our values and protecting the security of our continent. #MSC2018 pic.twitter.com/iSO6Ey65Hg  Department for Exiting the EU (@DExEUgov) February 17, 2018

But in practice the UK is still expected to maintain very close cooperation.

No 10 sources insisted the move was about regaining sovereignty.

Mrs May said: In particular, we will want to continue to work closely together on sanctions. We will look to carry over all EU sanctions at the time of our departure.

Second, it is clearly in our shared interests to be able to continue to co-ordinate and deliver operationally on the ground.

Of course, we will continue to work with and alongside each other. But where we can both be most effective  by the UK deploying its significant capabilities and resources with and indeed through EU mechanisms  we should both be open to that.

On defence, if the UK and EUs interests can best be furthered by the UK continuing to contribute to an EU operation or mission as we do now, then we should both be open to that.

Theresa May arrives at the Security Conference in Munich (Andreas Gebert/dpa via AP)

And similarly, while the UK will decide how we spend the entirety of our foreign aid in the future, if a UK contribution to EU development programmes and instruments can best deliver our mutual interests, we should both be open to that.

But if we are to choose to work together in these ways, the UK must be able to play an appropriate role in shaping our collective actions in these areas.

Mrs May also called for an open and inclusive approach on defence capability projects.

During a question and answer session German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger sparked a round of applause from the audience of diplomats and security experts when he said it would be easier if Britain remained in the EU.

Mrs May then faced a second questioner suggesting Brexit should be ditched.

Chairman of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, urged a U-turn on Brexit (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

But the PM insisted Britain is leaving, adding there will be no second referendum.

Mrs May set out proposals for a new treaty between the UK and the EU to enshrine security cooperation and warned a reluctance to agree a new type of partnership would have damaging consequences.

The PM also urged Brussels to ignore the rule book and do whatever it takes to ensure the security of Europe is protected after Brexit.

Applause from audience when German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger says it would be easier if Britain wasnt quitting the EU. The PM insists there will be no second referendum.  Sam Lister (@sam_lister_) February 17, 2018

Mrs May warned that rigid institutional restrictions and deep-seated ideology must not be allowed to jeopardise the safety of citizens, saying: Those who threaten our security would like nothing more than to see us fractured.

They would like nothing more than to see us put debates about mechanisms and means ahead of doing what is most practical and effective in keeping our people safe.

So let the message ring out loud and clear today: we will not let that happen.United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. JASON ADAM TOWNSEND, Defendant - Appellant. No. 17-4485 Decided: February 16, 2018

Before TRAXLER and DIAZ, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Jorgelina E. Araneda, ARANEDA & STROUD LAW GROUP, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Amy Elizabeth Ray, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Jason Adam Townsend appeals his conviction and 42-month sentence imposed following his guilty plea to conspiracy to commit health care fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  371 (2012). On appeal, Townsend's counsel has filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), asserting that there are no meritorious issues for appeal but questioning whether Townsend received ineffective assistance of counsel and whether Townsend should be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea. Townsend has filed a pro se supplemental brief, in which he raises a variety of allegations regarding his counsel's ineffectiveness, sentencing errors, and his innocence of the offense. The Government has declined to file a response brief. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

Both counsel and Townsend primarily claim that Townsend's trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance on various grounds. However, we decline to reach these claims. Unless an attorney's ineffectiveness conclusively appears on the face of the record, such claims are not addressed on direct appeal. United States v. Faulls, 821 F.3d 502, 507-08 (4th Cir. 2016). Rather, absent such a showing, ineffective assistance claims generally should be raised in a motion brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  2255 (2012), in order to permit sufficient development of the record. United States v. Baptiste, 596 F.3d 214, 216 n.1 (4th Cir. 2010). Because no conclusive evidence of ineffective assistance on any basis appears on the face of the record, we conclude that Townsend's claims should be raised, if at all, in a  2255 motion.

Counsel also questions whether Townsend should be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea. Because Townsend did not seek to withdraw his guilty plea in the district court, we review the district court's acceptance of his plea for plain error. See United States v. Williams, 811 F.3d 621, 622 (4th Cir. 2016); see Henderson v. United States, 568 U.S. 266, 272 (2013) (describing standard); United States v. Sanya, 774 F.3d 812, 816 (4th Cir. 2014) (describing error that affects substantial rights in guilty plea context).

Before accepting a guilty plea, the district court must conduct a plea colloquy in which it informs the defendant of, and ensures that the defendant understands, the rights he is relinquishing by pleading guilty, the charge to which he is pleading, and the maximum and any mandatory minimum penalties he faces. Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(1); United States v. DeFusco, 949 F.2d 114, 116 (4th Cir. 1991). The court also must ensure that the plea is voluntary and not the result of threats, force, or promises extrinsic to the plea agreement, Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(2), and that a factual basis exists for the plea, Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(3).

Although our review of the record reveals certain omissions in the plea colloquy, see Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(1)(E), (H), (J), (L); United States v. Nicholson, 676 F.3d 376, 382 (4th Cir. 2012), we conclude that none of these omissions affected Townsend's substantial rights, see Sanya, 774 F.3d at 816. The record reveals that the court generally ensured that Townsend's plea was knowing, voluntary, and supported by an independent factual basis. Further, insofar as Townsend claims that his counsel misadvised him regarding the terms of the plea agreement or that the Government breached the agreement's terms, we find these contentions unsupported by the available record.

Notably, Townsend never advised the court that the plea agreement did not conform to the parties' agreement, that he did not wish to plead guilty, or that he was dissatisfied with counsel. His sworn statements to the contrary during the plea colloquy indicate otherwise. See United States v. Lemaster, 403 F.3d 216, 221 (4th Cir. 2005) (holding that defendant's sworn declarations during plea colloquy carry a strong presumption of verity, such that, absent extraordinary circumstances, the truth of sworn statements made during a Rule 11 colloquy is conclusively established (internal quotation marks omitted)). Townsend falls far short of establishing the fair and just reason required to withdraw a guilty plea prior to sentencing, even if this standard applied at this late stage of the proceedings. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(d)(2)(B), (e); United States v. Thompson-Riviere, 561 F.3d 345, 347-48 (4th Cir. 2009) (discussing relevant factors). We therefore conclude that Townsend's guilty plea is valid and binding.

Townsend and his counsel also appear to question aspects of Townsend's sentence. We review a sentence for reasonableness under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. United States v. McCoy, 804 F.3d 349, 351 (4th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks omitted). We first must determine whether the district court committed significant procedural error, such as improperly calculating the Sentencing Guidelines range, insufficiently considering the 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) (2012) factors, and inadequately explaining the sentence imposed. United States v. Lymas, 781 F.3d 106, 111-12 (4th Cir. 2015). If we find no such procedural error, we also must consider the substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed under an abuse-of-discretion standard. Id. at 112 (internal quotation marks omitted). A sentence within or below a properly calculated Guidelines range is presumed substantively reasonable. United States v. Louthian, 756 F.3d 295, 306 (4th Cir. 2014). Townsend can rebut that presumption only by demonstrating that the sentence is unreasonable when measured against the 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) factors. Id.

Our review of the record reveals that Townsend's sentence is reasonable. The court properly calculated the Guidelines range, taking into account the parties' nonbinding recommendations; considered the parties' arguments and Townsend's allocution; granted Townsend's motion for a downward variance in reliance on considerations he raised; and provided a reasoned explanation for the sentence it imposed, grounded in the  3553(a) factors. Contrary to counsel's passing contention, nothing in the available record suggests that Townsend's restitution amount was unduly high. See United States v. Jinwright, 683 F.3d 471, 486 (4th Cir. 2012) (discussing requirements of Mandatory Victims Restitution Act in conspiracy context). And although Townsend challenges the loss amount attributed to him at sentencing, that value was supported by Townsend's own stipulation. Finally, we conclude that Townsend fails to rebut the presumption of substantive reasonableness accorded his below-Guidelines sentence. See Louthian, 756 F.3d at 306.

We have reviewed Townsend's remaining pro se arguments and find them unsupported by the record and ultimately unpersuasive. In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the entire record in this case and have found no meritorious issues for appeal. We therefore affirm Townsend's criminal judgment. This court requires that counsel inform Townsend, in writing, of the right to petition the Supreme Court of the United States for further review. If Townsend requests that a petition be filed, but counsel believes that such a petition would be frivolous, then counsel may move in this court for leave to withdraw from representation. Counsel's motion must state that a copy thereof was served on Townsend.

We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

PER CURIAM:Activists fighting harassment and violence against women are to walk the red carpet at the Bafta Film Awards on Sunday night, alongside stars of the big screen.

In a move mirroring last months Golden Globes initiative, actresses Tessa Thompson, Andrea Riseborough, Gemma Arterton, Gemma Chan and Naomie Harris will be joined by special guests at the event.

The move comes after more than 190 female British stars penned an open letter demanding an end to harassment, abuse and impunity across all industries.

Here we profile the six activists from Everyday Sexism founder Laura Bates to two of the famed Dagenham Girls involved in the 1968 Ford Motors strike.

Marai Larasi, guest of Tessa Thompson

Marai Larasi receives a MBE for her work (Lewis Whyld/PA)

Larasi is the executive director of Imkaan (UK), a leading black-feminist network organisation with members in England, Wales and Scotland.

She joins US actress Thompson  who is nominated for the rising star Bafta  after previously walking the red carpet with Emma Watson at the Golden Globes last month.

Imkaans members are dedicated womens organisations and community groups working to end violence against black and minority ethnic women and girls through support, prevention and awareness-raising.

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, guest of Andrea Riseborough

Pt 1- SISTA ANTHOLOGY: I cant begin to tell you how overjoyed I am to be an Editor alongside Rikki Beadle-Blair and John R Gordon on SISTA! Its and anthology of writing by and about same gender loving women of African/Caribbean descent with a UK connection. pic.twitter.com/r3bbLjx3NR  Phyll Opoku-Gyimah (Lady Phyll) (@MsLadyPhyll) December 10, 2017

Opoku-Gyimah is the co-founder and director of UK Black Pride, a trade unionist, columnist and equalities campaigner who focuses on intersectionality.

She was named in the World Pride Power List in 2017 and was formerly the head of political campaigns and equality at the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Trade Union.

Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis, guests of Gemma Arterton

Pullen and Davis are two of the 187 Dagenham Girls who walked out of the Ford Motor Companys Dagenham plant in June 1968 after learning their work was classified as unskilled  leaving their pay 15 per cent below that of their male counterparts.

The strike, which lasted three weeks, put all car production to a halt. During that time, the Dagenham women were joined by 195 women from Fords Halewood plant in Merseyside.

Their brave stand resulted in the 1970 Equal Pay Act and the events inspired 2010 film Made In Dagenham, later turned into a West End musical which starred Arterton.

Laura Bates, guest of Gemma Chan

Laura Bates (Ryan Phillips/PA)

Bates is the founder of the award-winning Everyday Sexism Project, a collection of hundreds of thousands of testimonies of gender inequality, which has expanded to branches in more than 20 countries worldwide.

She worked with the British Transport Police on Project Guardian, which involved using Everyday Sexism Project testimonies to retrain 2,000 officers, resulting in a 30% rise in the reporting of sexual offences on the transport network.

Her campaign work alongside other activists has led Facebook to change its policies on content depicting sexual violence, and the UK government to commit to putting sex and relationships education on the school curriculum.

Afua Hirsch, guest of Naomie Harris

(Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Hirsch is the author of the best-selling Brit(ish), an award-winning first book which asks questions about race, identity and social justice in modern-day Britain.

The book is the culmination of two decades of work as a journalist, lawyer, and writer, highlighting intersectional injustices around race, class, and gender.

She has previously been a war reporter, West Africa correspondent and social affairs editor.Irish President Michael D Higgins is to visit a refugee camp during a state visit to Greece.

The three-day trip, which begins on Thursday, also includes meetings with the Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, Prime Minister Alexis Tsiparas and other senior political figures.

Thousands of migrants have been stuck in make-shift camps across Greece since a series of Balkan border closures and an EU-Turkey deal on stemming migration.

Refugees occupy a disused swimming pool on the Greek island of Lesbos (PA)

The President will see first hand the conditions in which they have been living when he visits a camp outside Athens on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Mr Higgins  who will be accompanied by his wife Sabina  will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, where he is expected to give a lecture on the ancient and enduring relationship between Ireland and Greece.

His office has confirmed other engagements include a State dinner, wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown solider in Athens, a breakfast meeting with Irish and Greek business leaders at the Acropolis Museum and a concert performed by Irish and Greek artists at the Megaron Concert Hall organised by Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned an international agreement with Iran, saying it has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

He told Iran that it should not test Israels resolve.

Mr Netanyahu told world leaders, defence officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference the agreement has unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond.

Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Sven Hoppe/dpa/AP)

   ,    ?  .       .



Mr. Zarif: do you recognize this? You should. Its yours. Dont test Israels resolve. pic.twitter.com/x8NvI9X5Jm  Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) February 18, 2018

Mr Netanyahu, a long-time critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 Munich Agreement that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe.

The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime, he said.

Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly.

Declaring that Irans brazenness hit new highs, he held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was to speak later at the event.

Mr Zarif do you recognise this? You should, its yours, Mr Netanyahu said.

You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran  do not test Israels resolve.

Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran.

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israels resolve.

Israel will not allow Irans regime to put a noose of terror around our neck, he said.

We will act if necessary, not just against Irans proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself.President Donald Trump has launched another attack on Twitter, this time over an Obama-era payment to Iran.

President Trump said in a tweet that he has never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars (1.2 billion) in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!

The Obama administration transferred the money to Iran in 2016, using non-US currency.

President Donald Trump (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

The administration said it was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the countries.

An initial payment was delivered the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.

The Obama administration eventually acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran.

Congressional Republicans decried the payment as ransom, which the Obama administration denied.

Mr Trump insisted that he never denied Russias election meddling and declared that they are laughing their asses off in Moscow.

While the nearby town of Parkland, Florida, continues to mourn a deadly school shooting that left 17 dead, Russia was clearly at the top of the presidents mind. The administration has focused on the fact that the Russian effort began in 2014, before Mr Trump announced his White House run.

He said the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California Representative Adam Schiff  calling him Liddle Adam Schiff, the leakin monster of no control  is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election.

Mr Trump appeared to be referring to an interview Mr Schiff did in which he said the previous administration should have set up a more forceful deterrent against foreign adversaries considering cyber attacks.

Mr Obama in late 2016 defended his administrations response to the Russian meddling, also saying he had confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin that September, telling him to cut it out.

Mr Trump also argued that he never said Russia did not meddle in the election, adding: The Russian hoax was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia  it never did!

The president has repeatedly expressed scepticism over the Russian election meddling. In November, he said he believed the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that there had been meddling. But Mr Trump also said he believed Mr Putin is sincere when he says Russia did not interfere.

Mr Trump also argued that the ongoing investigations are just what the Russians want, saying: Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!Chris Froome finished the Ruta del Sol in 10th position as Belgian rider Tim Wellens claimed overall victory in Andalucia.

Froome was never in contention having started the time trial on the final day in 14th after suffering a puncture towards the end of Saturdays fourth stage.

#64RdS Top ten de la Etapa Contrareloj celebrada hoy en Barbate pic.twitter.com/NOrcLrk2Td  Vuelta a Andalucia (@VCANDALUCIA) February 18, 2018

His Team Sky team-mates Wout Poels (17:22), Dylan van Baarle (17:23) and David de la Cruz, who won the stage with a time of 17 minutes and 11 seconds, were all faster than the four-time Tour de France winner, who posted 17mins 38secs and finished the stage in 11th.

Chris Froome was never in the running in Andalucia (Adam Davy/PA)

Wellens finished the time trial in a time of 17:25 which was enough to hand him overall victory ahead of Poels, while De la Cruz was celebrating his first race win for Team Sky.A senior Irish politician has hit out at Boris Johnson after he failed to mention Ireland in a key Brexit speech.

Fianna Fail TD Stephen Donnelly slammed the Foreign Secretary for speaking about stag parties and the eye-popping activities of those living abroad but did not address the pressing issue of the border in his road to Brexit speech in London last week.

He said: It was an extraordinary speech. It was insulting. It was reckless.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson delivers his speech - "road to Brexit, a United Kingdom", as part of the governments road map on Brexit, at the Policy Exchange, London.

Boris Johnson gave a 4,600 word national address on #Brexit today. He didn't mention Ireland, or Northern Ireland, once. He did talk of stag parties in ancient cities and eye-popping activities by British citizens in Thailand. Insulting, reckless behaviour.  Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) February 14, 2018

Mr Johnson was speaking at the Policy Exchange think tank in London on Wednesday.

He urged people to unite around Brexit, adding the UKs departure from the EU should not be seen as a great V sign from the cliffs of Dover.

However, Mr Donnelly told RTEs The Week In Politics programme: In his 4,600 word speech he never mentioned Ireland. He never mentioned Northern Ireland. He never mentioned the border.

The Wicklow representative claimed the speech was more about internal Conservative party rivalry than resolving potential difficulties posed by Brexit.

The Tory Party is not really negotiating with the EU at the minute. The Tory party is negotiating with itself. It would appear that the big Brexit beasts, the likes of Johnson and others are positioning themselves, Mr Donnelly added.Lifeboats have helped rescue a 1,200-tonne cargo ship which broke down off the coast of Skye.

The 65 metre CEG universe was heading through the notorious Kylerhea Narrows between Skye and Glenelg when it became stuck with a broken rudder on Sunday morning.

The vessel, which was carrying a cargo of road salt to Gairloch, used its anchor to attempt to hold position against the strong eight-knot tide.

A lifeboat crew from Kyle of Lochalsh arrived shortly before 8am followed by the crew from Mallaig.

Kyle lifeboat turning the broken down cargo ship (Andrew MacDonald/RNLI/PA)

The cargo ships anchor failed and it began to drift backwards but the two lifeboats took the vessel under tow and held it against the current until tugboat the SD Kyle of Lochalsh from the British Underwater Test and Evaluation Centre military testing range in Kyle arrived at 10.15am.

The tug and lifeboats then manoeuvred the vessel through the narrows and towed it into Kyle Harbour shortly after noon.

Andrew MacDonald, of the Kyle of Lochalsh lifeboat, said: Theres not much room in the Narrows and with the length of the vessel we werent far from the shore but with the power of bigger Mallaig lifeboat we were able to hold in position.

It was thanks to the SD Kyle of the Lochalsh that we managed to get it out, without them we would have really struggled to get it out the Narrows.A Labour MP is calling for a review of the decision to change how free ATMs are funded, claiming it could create a cash machine desert in some areas.

Ged Killen has written to the UK Governments Payment Systems Regulator, asking for a full market review of ATMs following Links plan to cut the fees paid to cash machine operators.

Link plans a four-year phased cut totalling 20% and Mr Killen claims this could threaten the viability of 30,000  45%  of the UKs free to use ATMs but Link has said it is committed to protecting free access to cash.

Scottish Labour MP Ged Killen has raised concerns about ATM fee changes (Nick Ansell/PA)

The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP said: I have written to the Payment Systems Regulator, the Government regulator which oversees ATMs pressing them to conduct a full market review following Links decision to cut the interchange fee.

Scotland is expected to be one of the worst regions of the UK affected by Links decision. There are already more cash machines in one corridor in the House of Commons than on the whole of Cambuslang Main Street in my constituency. I do not believe the public will accept any further reductions.

Following the most recent round of bank closures by RBS and now this decision from Link, I am concerned that the loss of financial infrastructure on our high streets threatens to leave many people across the country excluded from free and easy to use financial services.

Benefit claimants, the self-employed and those who rely on cash will be most affected by these changes. It can cost as much as 2.99 per withdrawal and this places an extra cost burden on those who predominantly use cash.

He added: Considering the widespread concern raised regarding Links decision, I would encourage the regulator to show its teeth and engage in a full market review of the effects of these proposed changes.

Many ATM providers will be taking financial decisions now in light of Links changes and will not wait until the fees are cut in July, the Government and the regulator must act quickly to prevent the UKs ATM network from being desolated and parts of Scotland becoming cash machine deserts.

Link has previously said it will do whatever it takes to retain free access to cash for all communities and plans to publicly monitor the country reporting on free ATM availablity, highlighting any areas where this is lost and using its Financial Inclusion Programme to redress this.

The company said the fee cut would rebalance the network, making sure new ATMs are not installed where they are not needed.Tesco boss Matt Davies will become chairman at retail firm N Brown after leaving the supermarket giant, it is understood.

The Press Association understands the serving Tesco UK and Ireland boss Mr Davies will be announced as N Browns chairman early next week.

The retail companys brands include JD Williams, Simply Be and Jacamo.

Matt Davies is the serving Tesco UK and Ireland boss (Nick Ansell/PA)

We stopped traffic on Oxford Street this morning with our incredible @SimplyBeUK girl squad  Celebrating curves #rulesrewritten #LFW #loveyourcurves pic.twitter.com/Hzpj0yFviJ  N Brown Group PR (@NBrownPress) February 16, 2018

Mr Davies, 47, has previously been chief executive of Halfords and Pets at Home.

He is due to leave Tesco in April after its 3.7 billion takeover of the wholesaler Booker.More than 2 billion worth of old-style 10 notes remain in circulation, with less than a fortnight to go until they are no longer accepted in shops across the UK.

The Bank of England said the withdrawal rate is 'broadly as expected' ahead of the March 1 deadline, at which point the paper 10 note will cease to be legal tender  replaced completely by the polymer version.

Anyone with the old notes beyond this point will still be able to exchange them for the new equivalent at the Bank of England.

The deadline is fast approaching when the Charles Darwin embossed notes are pulled and the newer embossed Jane Austen notes (pictured) fully take over

The Jane Austen polymer note was launched last September as an update on the old version featuring Charles Darwin.

According to the latest figures, the value of paper 10 notes in circulation is around 2.182 billion  the equivalent of around 218 million paper 10 notes.

This means that paper 10 notes represent around 27 per cent of 10s in circulation.

Currently, weekly returns of paper tenners are averaging a value 85 million.

The new tenner will be followed in three years time by a new 20 note which will feature the British painter JMW Turner.United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. ANTOINE CLACK, Defendant - Appellant. No. 17-4476 Decided: February 16, 2018

Before WILKINSON, FLOYD, and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Mitchell G. Styers, BANZET, THOMPSON, STYERS & MAY, PLLC, Warrenton, North Carolina, for Appellant. Robert J. Higdon, Jr., United States Attorney, Jennifer P. May-Parker, Donald R. Pender, Assistant United States Attorneys, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Antoine Clack pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C) (2012), distribution of heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and possession of a firearm by a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1), 924(a)(2) (2012). The district court found Clack's Sentencing Guidelines range to be 70 to 87 months' imprisonment, and sentenced Clack to 71 months' imprisonment. On appeal, Clack argues that his sentence is procedurally and substantively unreasonable. We affirm.

We turn first to Clack's allegation of procedural sentencing error. Clack argues that the district court erred in calculating his Guidelines range because, when determining Clack's total offense level, the court included a 2-level enhancement for the use, threatened use, or directed use of violence. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual  2D1.1(b)(2). Clack contends that the evidence on which the district court relied to support this enhancement did not have sufficient indicia of reliability.

The district court's determination that evidence is sufficiently reliable to be considered at sentencing is reviewed for an abuse of discretion and its factual findings are reviewed for clear error. United States v. Pineda, 770 F.3d 313, 318 (4th Cir. 2014) (citations omitted). In resolving any dispute concerning a factor important to the sentencing determination, the court may consider relevant information without regard to its admissibility under the rules of evidence applicable at trial, provided that the information has sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy. USSG  6A1.3(a), p.s. Applying these principles to the record before us, we discern no reversible error. Based on testimony provided at the sentencing hearing, the district court concluded that the original source of the relevant information was credible and reliable. The court then listed several corroborating factors it relied on to conclude that the Government had established by a preponderance of the evidence that the enhancement was appropriate.

We turn next to Clack's allegation of substantive unreasonableness. We examine substantive reasonableness under an abuse of discretion standard, considering the totality of the circumstances. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). Any sentence that is within or below a properly calculated Guidelines range is presumptively [substantively] reasonable. Such a presumption can only be rebutted by showing that the sentence is unreasonable when measured against the 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) [ (2012) ] factors. United States v. Louthian, 756 F.3d 295, 306 (4th Cir. 2014) (citation omitted).

Clack posits that his sentence is greater than necessary to accomplish the goals of 18 U.S.C.  3553(a). We disagree. First, despite Clack's suggestion to the contrary, the district court clearly explained that it was giving Clack credit for the 16 months he spent in state custody by reducing his sentence from 87 months to 71 months. Second, the district court meaningfully explained its chosen sentence and provided an individualized analysis as to why this sentence was appropriate for Clack. Finally, Clack presents no evidence to rebut the presumption of reasonableness applicable to his sentence.

We therefore affirm Clack's sentence. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

PER CURIAM:A British couple killed when their car collided with a lorry in New Zealand have been named.

Malcolm Lawrence Brierley and Margaret Anne Brierley, both 65 and from Croydon in South London, died on Thursday when they were caught up in the crash in Prebbleton, Christchurch.

Senior Constable Andy Williamson said it appeared the car slowed almost to a stop (at a stop sign) but clearly hadnt observed the truck coming.

The location of the incident (Google Maps)

It is believed the couple had arrived in New Zealand a month earlier and were visiting Mrs Brierleys brother.

Local media said the location of the crash, at the junction of Shands Road and Blakes Road in Prebbleton, was among the most dangerous junctions in the Canterbury region.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: We are assisting the family of two British nationals following their deaths in New Zealand. Our staff are in contact with the New Zealand police.By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - A man convicted of participating in a 2003 attack on American soldiers in Afghanistan that killed two people and plotting to bomb a U.S. embassy in West Africa was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, who is known by the nom de guerre Spin Ghul, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn.

Harun refused to attend his sentencing hearing, as he had previously refused to attent his trial. A audio and video link was set up between Harun's jail cell and the courtroom, but he was never visible on it and did not address the court.

Since his extradition from Italy in October 2012, Harun has insisted he is a "warrior" who should face a military tribunal rather than criminal proceedings. Cogan said that Harun had told U.S. marshals Friday morning, "This is not my court. That is not my judge."

Harun was found guilty in March 2017 of taking part in an April 2003 assault by al Qaeda in Afghanistan that killed Army Private 1st Class Jerod Dennis, 19, and Air Force Airman 1st Class Raymond Losano, 24. He was also found guilty of plotting to bomb the U.S. embassy in Nigeria.

Harun has said he is from Niger, though the government of Niger has said it does not consider him a citizen.

Dennis's brother addressed Harun at Friday's hearing, saying he mourned the loss of his brother but refused to hate Harun.

"Jerod is still with us, and I feel so sorry for you," he said.

Harun's lawyers had asked Cogan to impose less than a life sentence, but Cogan said Friday that Harun was a "person of murderous zeal" who had to be imprisoned to protect the public.

Cogan also declined to make any recommendations about how the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) should treat Harun. Harun's lawyers had asked in a court filing that the judge recommend he be put in a facility where he can receive mental health treatment and interact with inmates of a similar cultural background.

"The BOP is going to have its hands full with this violent and uncooperative defendant," the judge said.

Harun was captured in Libya in 2005. He was released onto a refugee ship in 2011 and taken into custody by Italian authorities after he acknowledged his battle scars were the result of fighting for al Qaeda against American soldiers. (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)A 36-year-old Brazilian man has been taken into custody at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on Friday on charges of cocaine trafficking, Acting Customs Spokesman Vipula Minuwanpitiya said.

The suspect had arrived from Sao Paulo, Brazil carrying capsules containing cocaine weighing 1 kg and worth around Rs. 20 million in his stomach.

The Customs officials had interrogated him and found out that he had swallowed condoms filled with drugs. He was later admitted him to the Negombo General Hospital.

Following an X-Ray examination, medical officers had confirmed that the suspect had swallowed capsules of cocaine.

Mr. Minuwanpitiya said the medical officers were able to take out some 69 capsules containing cocaine by this morning.

However, further examinations had confirmed that there were more capsules in the suspects stomach.

Therefore, Mr. Minuwanpitiya said the foreigner was detained at the hospital to take the rest of the drugs out.

Meanwhile, Custom officials had received a court order from the Minuwangoda Magistrate to keep the suspect in 14 days remand custody until March 1.

Customs officials are conducting further investigations. (T.K.G. Kapila)As Sri Lankans, we place less stress on the importance of personal space, possibly because of our collective culture and our emphasis on the importance of social ties. However, without understanding personal space and boundaries, we cannot tackle the myriad of problems that develop as a result of invading ones privacy and disregarding their consent.

Respecting ones personal space includes understanding that each individual has their own boundaries defined by them and possibly unique to them. Consent of any kind requires a deep understanding that everyone deserves to be respected, regardless of whether we may understand their experience or not.These values shape individuals through an early process called socialisation, and they begins at home.

Through socialisation, young children and teenagers are exposed to the social norms and values that are present in their society. These norms and values are often deeply internalised and shape the way we view aspects of our society, like gender, family, and, education. Some norms can be so deeply rooted that it may be difficult to tolerate anything that does not fit in the boxes that we have created. These are then reinforced by daily interactions with family and peers.

A prevalent reason for stigma and discrimination follows from the binary gender norms that exist in our society, these impose limitations on the types of behaviours that men, women or trans persons can perform. Women are expected to possess feminine qualities, and men, masculine qualities; a spill over of these qualities are seen as abnormal.

A woman with masculine qualities is seen as a threat, and a man with feminine qualities is seen as a deviation. Socially feminine traits are considered less, and a man displaying such behaviour is at risk for discrimination and abuse. Another harmful aspect of the stereotypical gender norms is the instigation of abuse and the tolerance of it with the failed impression of it being inherent to a true man or real woman. Men often take on a hyper masculine role which involves abusing women, and trans women, and often trans women misunderstand this for a validation of their gender.

"A prevalent reason for stigma and discrimination follows from the binary gender norms that exist in our society, these impose limitations on the types of behaviours that men, women or trans persons can perform. "



The suicide and attempted suicide rates among young LGBTIQ individuals remain dangerously high due to, school victimisation, harassment and social pressure to conform, resulting in the development of depression and other mental health problems that can be a life-long burden. Among the highly reported cases, Rahila, a transsexual woman, who has reported multiple suicide attempts, explained her abuse; she was sexually abused by her grandfather and her school-van driver at a young age. She also faced harassment in public transportation, when she tried to complain to the police multiple times her complaints were rejected. She faced workplace harassments and was abused by several other men during this time. Men and boys who are suspected of being feminine are called derogatory names and are treated differently.

Meanwhile, women who display masculine characteristics are deemed bossy and unattractive. This amounts to the sexism and homophobia that is evident in our society, who validated these values through institutions like schools, law enforcement, and healthcare services.



The prevalent harassments such as bullying in schools are not just instigated by fellow classmates but can often be done by teachers themselves. As a result, students can feel isolated and targeted by the school and their classmates, making it harder for them to receive an education and receive opportunities to excel.

"Men and boys who are suspected of being feminine are called derogatory names and are treated differently. Meanwhile, women who display masculine characteristics are deemed bossy and unattractive. "



These individuals find themselves trapped in situations that continue to keep them rooted in difficult positions. In such a reported case Mahesh, a trans man was repeatedly harassed by his teachers, humiliating him in public. The teachers went as far as getting his parents involved in changing his expression repeatedly. This behaviour led to poor attendance at school and low grades in key examinations. Vindya, a lesbian reported how her teachers humiliated her with her classmates when they found out her affections for another girl. Educators play key roles in shaping young minds of not just the LGBTIQ community but of the general public at large. Early lessons in understanding boundaries and compassion can provide lifelong principles that help with eliminating arbitrary harassment and enriching the well-being of all citizens.

Understanding consent and respecting boundaries can provide a safe and welcoming environment for everyone involved. Respecting boundaries needs to be taught at an early age when children are still learning the norms and values of society. We can teach young people to acknowledge healthy boundaries and respect personal space, thereby creating a society where no one feels uncomfortable to say no and can expect their decision to be respected. It would create a society where bullying of any form will not be tolerated and instead create a culture that is ingrained with values of acceptance and an understanding of the value of diversity. The consequences of this have a positive impact, not just on the LGBTIQ community, but across communities.

What is important to understand is that cultural norms are relative, they differ from culture to culture. But all cultures must cultivate universal respect for individual boundariesne week after the results of the February 10 Local Council elections were announced, tension and uncertainty still prevail amidst much speculation, while President Maithripala Sirisena reflects on the two choices he faces.



The first is to continue with the Yahapalanaya Government with Ranil Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister, Ministers and MPs from the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).



The other choice is to accept a proposal, known to be promoted largely by Minister Susil Premajayantha, for the SLFP to form its own Government with conditional support from former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is the de facto leader of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) which secured the majority of seats at the LG polls.



According to our sister paper the Sunday Times, the weekends political eventsthough they are changing from day to dayindicate the likelihood of the President calling upon Mr Wickremesinghe to continue as Prime Minister.



There is also likely to be a major Cabinet reshuffle.



Among the positive points for this move is the report that some top SLFP MPs are not in favour of Mr.Premajayanthas move. They include SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake, Mahinda Amaraweera, Sarath Amunugama and Mahinda Samarasinghe.

So, if the President opts for the second choice it may create more problems than solutions because even the SLFP group supporting him may split.



Media speculation has been widespread. Most of it based on information provided or the statements made by politicians, who have their own agendas. But essentially it appears that this whole national crisis arose because President Sirisena apparently went into a panic mode after he heard the results on February 11. So did the UNP.



That very night he is reported to have met the Prime Minister and asked him to quit but Mr Wickremesinghe insisted he had the Constitutional right to stay on as the Prime Minister as his party had the majority of seats in Parliament, though not an overall majority of 113 in the 225-member national assembly.

But the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has expressed its support for the continuation of Yahapalanaya Government and with its 15 seats, there is an overall majority for the current administration to continue.



After the President met the Prime Minister on Sunday, February 11, there was speculation the UNP might form its own Government with some party Ministers and MPs commenting about this and some media groups giving it various twists and turns.

There were also reports of pressure within the UNP for a change in leadership with one TV channel quoting State Ministers Harsha de Silva and Vasantha Senanayake as saying that though they did not want to hurt Mr.Wickremesinghe, they believed there should be a change in the party leadership.

During the week UNP Cabinet Ministers met the President to express their confidence in the Prime Minister and call for the continuation of the Yahapalanaya coalition between the UNP and the SLFP.

It was pointed out that while the Local Council election results gave a clear warning to the Yahapalanaya Government for not fulfilling most of the pledges it made in 2015, the local polls constitutionally had no effect on the Central Government and there was little or no reason to panic.

But senior SLFP and UNP Ministers insisted the National Unity Government must go into full gear, taking immediate and effective action in the battle against corruption, to stabilise the economy, to bring down the cost of living, and to provide other relief to the people.



Amid all the turmoil and tension, which also deepen the countrys economic crisis, the official announcement came from Premier Wickremesinghe last Friday evening when he called a news conference at Temple Trees.

Calmly and confidently he announced he would continue as Premier and that there would be no change in the Central Government. But Mr Wickremesinghe also admitted there was a need for structural changes in the party and more effective action by the Government to move faster towards its vision 2025 goals of building a peaceful, just and all-inclusive society.

When Parliament meets today, the country is likely to see who commands the majority and who is with whom.

We hope the eventual outcome will be for the common good of all the people of the country and bring about religious and racial amity, unity in diversity as stressed in a message from the Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Chapter.United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. BALFOUR BEATTY RAIL, INCORPORATED, Plaintiff - Appellant v. KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY, Defendant - Appellee No. 16-11645 Decided: February 15, 2018

Before DAVIS, HAYNES, and COSTA, Circuit Judges.

The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (Southern) hired Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. (Balfour) to complete a new railroad track in Texas. Southern contends that because of Balfour's poor workmanship, it was forced to pay for tens of thousands of tons of ballast in excess of what should have been required to finish the track. The district court determined after a bench trial that Balfour had breached its contract and Southern was entitled to several million dollars in compensatory damages for wasted materials. Except for a minor adjustment to the final amount awarded, we affirm the district court.

I.

Southern originally hired Gulf Coast to construct 85 miles of new railroad track between Victoria and Rosenberg, Texas. After becoming dissatisfied with the quality and timeliness of the construction, Southern solicited a bid from Balfour to finish the remaining 65 miles of the track. Balfour submitted a bid and was awarded the contract. Southern agreed to pay Balfour a flat rate of $12.2 million and to purchase and deliver the necessary track materials such as welded rail and ballast. Ballast is crushed stone used to support the track and maintain a level height along potentially uneven terrain.

Problems arose that caused significant delays and overuse of materials. After the track was completed, Balfour sued Southern in Texas state court. Southern removed the case to federal court and counterclaimed. Following cross motions for summary judgment and a nine day bench trial, the district court decided that Balfour had wasted ballast in violation of its contractual obligations and awarded Southern $2,353,299.40 in compensatory damages for the cost of the material, $721,858.66 in prejudgment interest, and $1,069,934.33 in attorney's fees.

This appeal concerns only Southern's successful counterclaim to recover the costs of wasted ballast. We must determine whether the evidence was sufficient to support the district court's ruling; whether the amount of ballast wasted was properly calculated; and whether Balfour is entitled to any affirmative defenses. We detail only the evidence that relates to this challenged award.

The Master Agreement required Balfour's work to be (a) in a workmanlike manner and  first class in execution and quality, and (b) in accordance with the specifications referenced in the applicable Statement of Work. The Statement of Work called for at least ten inches of ballast under the railroad ties to lift the track to the proper elevation, with an acceptable variance of plus or minus two inches, and no more than twelve inches of shoulder on each side of the railroad ties. Balfour was obligated to exercise care not to distribute ballast in excess of the amount required for the lift to be made.

As the project continued, Balfour began to request more and more ballast from Southern. At the beginning of construction, Southern delivered 1,750 tons of ballast per day. The demand for ballast eventually increased to 3,700 tons per day and then to 4,646 tons per day. To meet the higher demand for ballast, Southern obtained rock from quarries in Arkansas, Georgia, and Mexico. Because of the flat rate payment structure, every additional ton of ballast increased Southern's construction costs.

The court heard extensive testimony on how to calculate the amount of ballast wasted. Ballast is wasted in one of two ways: (1) when too much rock is spread on the outside edges of the track, thus no longer providing structural support; or (2) when too much rock is placed in the center, thus raising the track unnecessarily high. The undisputed total amount of ballast delivered by Southern was 412,511 tons. The amount wasted is this amount of rock delivered minus both the amount Balfour should have needed to complete the project and the amount diverted from Balfour to other contractors. This difference represents how much Balfour used beyond what the project required, and that number can be multiplied by the average cost per ton to get the final calculation of damages. The following formulas demonstrate this:

 Total Wasted Ballast (in tons) = Amount Delivered  (Amount Diverted + Amount Needed)

 Damages for Wasted Ballast = Total Wasted Ballast * KC Southern's Average Out-of-Pocket Cost per Ton

Balfour blamed the use of the additional ballast on the poor quality of the subgrade on which the track was built. That land was flattened by a separate contractor. Balfour raised this concern with Southern during construction and argues that because the height of the subgrade was too low in some places and too narrow in others, the additional ballast was necessary to get the track to the specifications required under the contract. Southern counters that it had warned Balfour that it was using too much ballast and says it took this subgrade variation into account when calculating how much ballast should have been used. Southern presented expert testimony that the subgrade was properly constructed and, regardless of height, ballast had been poured too far on the sides where it did not provide any structural support.

Southern's Director of Track Projects, Lee Peek, testified that Balfour wasted 74,260 tons of ballast. Peek detailed how he reached this number. He surveyed the track following the completion of the project and measured the top rail, the subgrade elevation, and the actual depth of ballast along the rail. He then explained how he calculated that the project should have needed only 327,591 tons of ballast. Balfour argues that there are two other potential estimates of wasted ballast. One, presented by Southern's expert witness David Brookings, was determined using a general rule of thumb of about one ton of ballast per foot of track; based on the length of the track, he estimated about 349,000 tons of ballast would be required. The second, a Balfour revised internal estimate, estimated 340,560 tons of ballast were needed to finish construction. Both of these alternative estimates would result in Balfour owing less.

The district court credited Southern's evidence and concluded that it was Balfour's deficient workmanship, rather than any problem with the subgrade, that caused ballast to be wasted. The court also determined that the project should have required 327,591 tons of ballast, that 10,660 tons of ballast were diverted to other contractors, and thus 74,260 tons had been wasted by Balfour.

The court then heard testimony concerning how much each ton of ballast cost. Southern's Director of Accounting, Lynn Carnes, provided testimony about ballast's cost per ton. Carnes testified that Southern paid $15.03 per ton on average for the raw material that was delivered to the construction site during the relevant time period. Carnes also calculated that Southern paid an additional $7.76 per ton to transport the ballast to the construction site and $8.90 per ton to lease the rail cars. Carnes concluded that the average cost per ton of ballast was $31.69, that the number was out-of-pocket cost not including profit, and that the calculations conformed to General Accounting Principles. The district court accepted this testimony and used this cost in its damages calculation. Multiplying this average cost per ton times the 74,260 tons of ballast it found was wasted, the district court concluded that Southern was entitled to $2,353,299.40 ($31.69 * 74,260) in compensatory damages.

II.

Balfour challenges the district court's damages award on several grounds: (1) that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the award because Southern failed to prove the reasonableness of the cost of supplying ballast; (2) that the district court miscalculated the amount of ballast wasted; (3) that the district court failed to credit Balfour for the total amount of ballast diverted to other contractors; and (4) that the undifferentiated damages model used by the district court failed to exclude from its calculations ballast that had not actually been wasted or ballast wasted because of the actions of a third party.

Whether Southern Proved the Reasonableness of the Ballast Costs

Balfour argues that Texas law requires Southern to prove the cost of the excess ballast was reasonable, and that it failed to do so. The evidentiary reasonableness requirement arises in construction contract cases when the court is awarding remedial or cost-to-complete damages. McGinty v. Hennen, 372 S.W.3d 625, 627 (Tex. 2012) (per curiam); Mustang Pipeline Co. v. Driver Pipeline Co., 134 S.W.3d 195, 200 (Tex. 2004). McGinty highlights that there are

two measures of damages for the breach of a construction contract: (1) remedial damages, which is the cost to complete or repair less the unpaid balance on the contract price, and (2) difference-in-value damages, which is the difference between the value of the building as constructed and its value had it been constructed according to the contract.

McGinty, 372 S.W.3d at 627. When a party is seeking to recover remedial damages that party must prove that the damages sought are reasonable and necessary. Id.

The district court believed that this reasonableness requirement did not apply for the cost of the wasted ballast because the damages were expectation damages, not remedial, and thus not subject to the evidentiary requirements of Mustang Pipeline. Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. v. Kansas City S. Ry. Co., 173 F. Supp. 3d 363, 459 (N.D. Tex. 2016). We do not need to decide whether the unusual type of construction damages in this caseoveruse of supplies the nonbreaching party was responsible for purchasing at ordinary levelsfalls outside of Mustang Pipeline. Even assuming the reasonableness requirement applies, Southern presented sufficient evidence to establish it. See In re Am. Hous. Found., 544 F. App'x 516, 523 (5th Cir. 2013) (applying the rule that an appellate court may affirm on any grounds in the record to the appeal of a bench trial).

A party trying to prove reasonableness must introduce more than just the amount it paid for the extra costs. Mustang Pipeline, 134 S.W.3d at 20001 (Evidence of the amounts charged and paid, standing alone, is no evidence that such payment was reasonable and necessary.). That the party went out and purchased goods or services from a third party does not automatically establish that the price paid, even in an arms-length transaction, was reasonable. But Southern was not required to produce a witness to say magic words such as reasonable or necessary. CCC Grp., Inc. v. S. Cent. Cement, Ltd., 450 S.W.3d 191, 200 (Tex. App. 2014); see also Prime Tree & Landscaping Servs. v. Americon Servs. Co., 2011 WL 947004, at *8 (Tex. App. Mar. 17, 2011). And the reasonableness requirement is not rooted in abstract formalism. The theme from the Texas cases is that the reasonableness requirement addresses the concern that a plaintiff, knowing the defendant will have to cover the costs after breach, will overpay when remedying damages. See generally Dickey v. Jackson, 1 S.W.2d 577, 577 (Tex. Comm'n App. 1928) (discussing the origin of the reasonableness requirement in cases when the court assumed a jury had little common knowledge about the prices of medicines and personal services).

The reasonableness of the ballast costs is supported by circumstances present in this case that were absent from the Texas cases cited by Balfour. Most importantly, Southern is not just relying on the price it paid for the extra ballast for which Balfour is responsible. It is also relying on the price it paid for ballast for which it was responsible. Southern presented evidence that the ballast was purchased and shipped based on a purchase order that it negotiated to cover the entire quantity for the project before any breach occurred. This makes sense as there was not a separate order for extra ballast attributable to Balfour's breach. The breach instead resulted in increased daily requests for ballast, the price of which was previously negotiated. That is why there was so much debate at trial over how much ballast was wasted; the extra ballast was part of the same purchases as the expected ballast so it took a lot of after-the-fact analysis to separate the two. Southern thus had every incentive to negotiate the lowest possible price for the ballast because, without a breach, Southern would have been fully responsible for the entire cost. The evidence shows a fixed price at each quarry, not the highly variable pricing one might see in other businesses. This generally accepted pricing structure is also true for much of the costs incurred transporting the ballast, such as railroad rates. Reasonableness can thus be demonstrated by the general market prices Southern was paying for these expenses before it had any knowledge that some excess ballast costs would be passed on to Balfour via litigation. McGinty, 372 S.W.3d at 628 (noting that in some cases the process of explaining how pricing figures were derived will reveal factors that were considered to ensure the reasonableness of the ultimate price). We reject the reasonableness challenge to the district court's award.

Calculating How Much Ballast Was Wasted

We can dispose more readily of most of the remaining arguments because we largely agree with the thorough reasoning of the district court. Balfour contends that the district court erred in its calculation of how much ballast was wasted (as opposed to the price of the ballast, which we just addressed). Balfour argues that the baseline amount for expected use should have been the amount Southern expected to use when the contract was signed rather than the after-the-fact assessment of what amount would have been reasonable. We disagree. Benefit-of-the-bargain damages are calculated by the difference between the value as represented and the value received. Arthur Andersen & Co. v. Perry Equip. Corp., 945 S.W.2d 812, 817 (Tex. 1997); see also DaimlerChrysler Motors Co. v. Manuel, 362 S.W.3d 160, 180 (Tex. App. 2012) (finding the calculation depends on an expectancy theory). The contract required Balfour to exercise care not to distribute ballast in excess of the amount required for the lift to be made. Southern expected Balfour to do its job professionally and without waste; that was the expectation that was breached. The remedy thus should be calculated by subtracting how much ballast Balfour would have used had it performed in a workmanlike manner (what Southern expected) from the cost Southern ultimately had to pay (value received). Had the contract been properly performed, Balfour would have used the amount of rock estimated by the district court. We see no requirement for disregarding that amply supported factual finding and instead using an estimated amount listed in Southern's bid package.

Amount of Ballast Diverted

The district court determined based on Balfour's daily reports and the testimony of Lee Peek that 10,660 tons of ballast were diverted to other contractors. Balfour contends that the court failed to include 16,000 additional tons of diverted ballast. But our review of the record reveals a finding of clear error only for 261 tons of diverted ballast from March 28, 2009. This is an error Southern acknowledges. The damages will be reduced to reflect this change. But the other challenges Balfour makes to the diversion findings involve conflicting evidence within the province of the factfinder to resolve.

Whether the District Court Used an Erroneous Damages Model

In its final challenge to the damages award, Balfour contends that the court failed to isolate the ballast attributable to the breach so the damages awarded are too speculative. Southern, however, presented technical testimony supporting its calculations. Peek explained that ballast can be wasted two ways: by spreading the ballast out past where the regulator can bring it in and by raising the track too much. The district court was entitled to credit this testimony and include both types of waste. Peek's testimony also accounted for the subgrading done by other contractors to which Balfour tries to assign some blame. Peek stated that his calculations were based on the actual conditions of the project and that he took into account the actual elevation when calculating how much ballast was needed. The district court sufficiently differentiated between wasted and properly used ballast.

* * *

The only clear error we find in the damages calculation of wasted ballast is the 261 tons of diverted ballast that the district court failed to credit Balfour. The award is otherwise affirmed.

III.

Balfour asserts that the affirmative defenses of waiver and quasi estoppel preclude Southern's recovery. But the quasi estoppel claim fails because Balfour did not prove that Southern's wasted ballast claim is inconsistent with its previous position on wasted ballast or that allowing the claim to go forward would be unconscionable. See Steubner Realty 19, Ltd. v. Cravens Rd. 88, Ltd., 817 S.W.2d 160, 164 (Tex. App.Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, no writ) (explaining the doctrine of quasi estoppel).

Balfour also does not establish that Southern waived its rights to seek a remedy for work not performed in a workmanlike manner. Agreeing to supply the additional ballast at Balfour's request does not indicate that Southern intentional[ly] relinquish[ed] its right to enforce this guarantee. Ulico Cas. Co. v. Allied Pilots Ass'n, 262 S.W.3d 773, 778 (Tex. 2008). Southern was caught between hundreds of thousands of tons of rock and a hard place. It could have refused to ship additional ballast at Balfour's request, but that would have necessitated stopping the project, finding a new contractor, and resuming later, all of which likely would have cost substantially more than the damages awarded here. Southern had a duty to mitigate as much as possible. It did so by allowing Balfour to finish the project and then determining the extent of damages. The district court did not err in disregarding Balfour's waiver and estoppel arguments.

IV.

Because we find that Southern was entitled to its damages for Balfour's breach of contract, it is also entitled to reasonable attorney's fees. MBM Fin. Corp. v. Woodlands Operating Co., 292 S.W.3d 660, 666 (Tex. 2009). Although we did alter the ultimate award by 261 tons, or $8,271.09, this change represents less than one-half of one percent of the total damages and does not merit recalculation of attorney's fees. Contrast Thomas v. Tex. Dep't of Criminal Justice, 297 F.3d 361, 367, 373 (5th Cir. 2002) (vacating and remanding attorney's fees because it allowed plaintiff to choose between a nearly 20 percent reduction in damages or a new trial); Williams v. Trader Publ'g Co., 218 F.3d 481, 488 (5th Cir. 2000) (vacating and remanding attorney's fees because it reduced the damages award by 40 percent).

* * *

The judgment is AFFIRMED except for the reduction of wasted ballast from 74,260 tons to 73,999 tons, which changes the damages calculation by $8,271.09. The case is REMANDED for entry of an amended judgment (including recalculated interest) that reflects the reduction.

FOOTNOTES

. The court awarded Balfour $47,561.43 for claims associated with four Change Orders, which was subtracted from Southern's ultimate award.

. This amount of total ballast may actually underestimate the rock available to Balfour. Balfour had access to an undetermined amount of ballast in a stockpile already on site that was not included in the total amount when the district court did its calculations.

. A portion of the excess ballast did not require these additional locomotive and ballast car costs based on which quarry the rock came from; that difference was taken into account in the final calculation of per ton cost.

. We note that Balfour's argument here that the court use expectation damages conflicts with its insistence above that this court use remedial damages, which are subject to McGinty's reasonableness requirement.

. The court relied on the testimony of Lee Peek to make its diverted ballast calculation. Peek testified that he failed to count three cars when doing his calculation; this omission would result in an error of 261 tons of diverted ballast. The district court failed to include this additional diverted ballast in its final calculation

GREGG COSTA, Circuit Judge:*This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The institutional investor held 32,536 shares of the major pharmaceuticals company at the end of 2017Q3, valued at $2.89M, down from 46,805 at the end of the previous reported quarter. Banced Corp who had been investing in Snap On Inc for a number of months, seems to be bullish on the $9.17 billion market cap company.

Shares of Snap (SNAP) traded up $0.67 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $20.42. The company had a trading volume of 721,424 shares, compared to its average volume of 798,594.

Snap-on (NYSE:SNA) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. It has underperformed by 14.23% the S&P500. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.47, for a total transaction of $125,751.78. The Eventide Asset Management Llc holds 163,500 shares with $24.36M value, up from 160,000 last quarter. The company has a market capitalization of $9,142.30, a P/E ratio of 16.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.09. About 256,459 shares traded. Mateon Therapeutics, Inc. (OTCMKTS:MATN) has 0.00% since February 17, 2017 and is. It has underperformed by 6.07% the S&P500.

Investors sentiment increased to 1.23 in Q3 2017. Its down 0.15, from 1 in 2017Q2. Creative Planning invested in 5,969 shares. 58 funds opened positions while 196 raised stakes. Carderock Mngmt Incorporated has 9,355 shares for 0.63% of their portfolio. Teachers Retirement System Of The State Of Kentucky has invested 0.09% in Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA). Covington Capital owns 0.32% invested in AbbVie Inc. Connable Office reported 0.1% stake. Hexavest holds 0% or 900 shares. Pictet Asset Mgmt Limited accumulated 0.02% or 39,439 shares. Old Mutual (Uk) Ltd has invested 0.11% in Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA). Amalgamated Bank & Trust, a New York-based fund reported 192,210 shares. 17,222 were reported by Fjarde Ap. Bluestein R H And holds 0.02% or 2,000 shares in its portfolio. Rice Hall James And Associates Llc holds 14,054 shares. Rothschild Asset Inc accumulated 291,895 shares. Ubs Oconnor Limited Liability Company invested 0.6% in Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA). It also reduced its holding in Medtronic Plc (NYSE:MDT) by 3.11M shares in the quarter, leaving it with 16.57 million shares, and cut its stake in Sanofi (NYSE:SNY). Delaware-based Ashmore Wealth Management Ltd Liability Corporation has invested 2.8% in Snap-on Incorporated (NYSE:SNA). One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Therefore 33% are positive. Snap-on had a net margin of 15.13% and a return on equity of 20.54%. FBR Capital maintained the stock with "Buy" rating in Friday, July 21 report. The firm has "Buy" rating by Robert W. Baird given on Monday, January 29. Robert W. Baird has "Buy" rating and $19700 target. The firm has "Hold" rating by Jefferies given on Tuesday, May 30. Jefferies Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Snap-on in a report on Friday, November 3rd. The company was maintained on Tuesday, June 27 by Oppenheimer. Longbow downgraded the shares of SNA in report on Monday, August 21 to "Neutral" rating. Snap presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $18.25. The firm has "Buy" rating by Robert W. Baird given on Tuesday, August 22.

Since September 11, 2017, it had 0 insider buys, and 5 sales for $25.59 million activity. On Wednesday, February 7 MOISON FRANCK J sold $705,797 worth of Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) or 10,000 shares. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.55, for a total transaction of $3,609,694.00. Agf Invests has 1.51M shares. Shares for $539,694 were sold by Daniels Jennifer on Wednesday, December 13. (NYSE:ABBV) has "Sell" rating given on Wednesday, April 6 by Societe Generale. The firm earned "Hold" rating on Friday, March 24 by RBC Capital Markets. As per Monday, January 18, the company rating was upgraded by BNP Paribas. Finally, Barrington Research upgraded shares of Snap-on from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $185.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, October 23rd.

Investors sentiment decreased to 0.85 in 2017 Q3. It is positive, as 53 investors sold SNA shares while 154 reduced holdings. Its up 0.07, from 1.16 in 2017Q2. Peoples Fincl Svcs invested in 0.45% or 10,930 shares. 55,449 were accumulated by Beck Mack Oliver Ltd. Fdx Advsrs Incorporated stated it has 10,631 shares. Schnieders Cap Mngmt Ltd Limited Liability Company reported 22,802 shares. Walthausen & Company acquired 6,270 shares as Snap On Inc (SNA)'s stock declined 3.98%. Cap International Invsts invested in 0.09% or 994,200 shares. Prudential Incorporated owns 86,121 shares. Gsa Partners Limited Liability Partnership owns 54,310 shares. Brinker owns 13,026 shares or 0.08% of their U.S. portfolio.On September 7, an 8.2-magnitude natural disaster shook the nation and killed 96 people, mostly in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

"I'm scared", Ms Rojas Huerta said. This time an emergency app on her cellphone gave her a 30-second warning before things started to shake.

On the north side of Mexico City, Julia Hernandez said she felt like she was "in a boat" as the ground swayed beneath her feet.

A 7.2 magnitude quake rocked Mexico on Friday, causing minor damage to buildings in the southern state of Oaxaca, but with no preliminary reports of deaths. A magnitude 8.2 quake on September 7 killed almost 100 people in Oaxaca and neighbouring Chiapas.

When the quake struck Friday, Maricarmen Trujillo was on the same eighth floor of a Mexico City office building where she rode out a September 19 natural disaster that killed 228 people in the capital alone. The district is the site of numerous collapsed and badly damaged buildings from last year's temblor.

"A helicopter carrying the governor and the others went down", he said. "The house is old".

In Mexico's capital, frightened residents flooded into the streets in Condesa, including one unidentified woman wrapped in just a towel, but there were no immediate signs of damage.

The epicenter was about 145 km from Pacific coast surfer resort Puerto Escondido in the southern state of Oaxaca and had a depth of 15.3 miles (24.6 km), according to the US Geological Survey. It said the epicentre was 53 kilometres northeast of Pinotepa in southern Oaxaca state.

About an hour after the quake, a magnitude 5.8 aftershock also centred in Oaxaca caused tall buildings in Mexico City to briefly sway again.

The 7.2 magnitude quake and a magnitude 5.8 aftershock - both with epicenters in Oaxaca state - struck the region Friday, the US Geological Survey reported.

Mexican authorities are reporting damage in a southern town from Friday's magnitude 7.2 quake.

Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state governor Alejandro Murat were on their way to survey the scene of destruction left by the 7.2 magnitude natural disaster when the accident occurred on Friday, the Interior Ministry tweeted.

Oaxaca state authorities opened shelters for those affected, and almost 6,000 soldiers and federal police were deployed to help with the emergency response.

Gladys Barreno Castro was at work on the 29th floor of a downtown office building in Mexico City, but recognized quickly that the shaking was not as violent this time.

Officials in affected states said they were inspecting buildings damaged by last year's quakes, which are especially vulnerable to collapse.The film's producer Karan Johar was trolled when he had shared Akshay Kumar's look to announce Parineeti Chopra's name.

Mumbai: Parineeti Chopra, who will be sharing screen space for the first time with Akshay Kumar, says she is excited to work with the superstar in 'Kesari.'

Also read: Parineeti Chopra chooses Akshay Kumar over Ajay Devgn, is now a part of Kesari

The film, being directed by Anurag Singh, will see Akshay essaying the role of Havildar Ishar Singh, while Parineeti plays his wife.

"(I) am very excited to be working with him. In three days I will be leaving for 'Namastey England'. But I am more excited for 'Kesari'.

"It has been a dream to work with Akshay for a long time. He is a Punjabi and so am I, and we are doing a Punjabi film together. I am very excited to start the shoot," Parineeti told reporters here at an event on Saturday night.

Besides this, Parineeti will also be busy shooting for 'Namastey England' with Arjun Kapoor.

"I have to do it simultaneously as, unfortunately, the dates are planned like that. So I will be shooting in Amritsar (for 'Kesari') and in London (for Namastey England')," she says.

Recently, Akshay's look from the film was released, and talking about her look, Parineeti says, the makers will decide when to unveil it.

Also read: Arjun-Parineeti step into Akshay-Katrina's shoes, to star in Namastey Canada

'Kesari' is based on the Battle of Saragarhi, and the historical drama will see producer-director Karan Johar and Akshay reuniting after having worked together in 'Brothers'.

The film is set to release on Holi next year.Malayalam films are much in demand in Telugu, and several of them have been turned into successful Telugu remakes like Drushyam and Premam. Now, many are looking to dub some of the Malayalam films into Telugu.

Take the case of producer Gururaj, who bought the Telugu rights of a small Malayalam film Anandam that was released in 2016.

Many approached me to remake the film in Telugu, but I decided against it as it may get spoilt. We decided to dub the film in Telugu instead, says Gururaj.

The films original budget is Rs 4 crore and it collected nearly Rs 20 crore in Malayalam.

The story has a college backdrop and most of the artistes are new to the industry. Nivin Pauly of Premam fame did a cameo and the film did very well, he says, adding that it was directed by Ganesh Raj.48-year-old David Miller was on the way to the pharmacy to collect a prescription when he fell. (Photo: Pixabay)

The first words to come out of a homeless man who fell into a drain and spent over three days in the sewers upon being rescued were: 'Got a fag (cigarette)?'

48-year-old David Miller was on the way to the pharmacy to collect a prescription when he fell.

He told the Romford Recorder, "All I remember is a big bang and then darkness. I thought 'I am going to die in here'."

Miller made his way from his friend's house in Barking, Essex and ended up six miles away in Romford.

He is thought to have wandered through pipelines for up to 72 hours as he desperately tried to get out.

When local business workers near Brentwood Road heard his muffled cries for help they rushed to rescue him from below the manhole cover.

Miller sustained injured to his legs and feet, and was rushed to the hospital. He even received treatment for hypothermia.

Network engineers from Thames Water are carrying out investigation into the matter.South Zone Police arrested 11 men for transporting ganja in the city and seized 175 kgs of the contraband along with two cars, all worth ` 25 lakh, from them on Saturday.

Hyderabad: South Zone Police arrested 11 men for transporting ganja in the city and seized 175 kgs of the contraband along with two cars, all worth ` 25 lakh, from them on Saturday.

The arrested accused were identified as Guguloth Veerabhadram, 48, Nallabothula Naresh Kumar, 29, Thota Trinadh, 33, SK Nazeer Basha, 26, and Neel Kamal Biswas, 23 with six others, said the Police.

The prime accused, Guguloth Veerabhadram, a native of Dharmaram village of Mahabubabad district is presently residing at Hayathnagar along with his wife and two sons. In the year 2012, he and his associate Kanthaiah were first arrested by Osmania University P.S for transporting Ganja from Sileru to Hyderabad. While in Jail, he developed contacts with other inmates who were into Ganja business. and after coming out on bail, he started business with his them. In the month of August, 2016 he was arrested by Mothugudem Police of East Godavari Dist in two cases for transporting Ganja from Sileru to Hyderabad.

He was then released on bail in the month of January and during this period, he was lodged at Rajahmundry Central Prison. At that time there were about 500 prisoners who were into Ganja smuggling with whom he exchanged his phone number Additional DCP, Commissioners Task Force, S. Chaitanya Kumar.

After coming out on bail, he started contacting the suppliers and in the first week of February, one Naresh of Sattenapalli supplied him 40 kg Ganja. He transported the same in his car to Salabatpur, near Shirdi during midnight and sold to one Kate Mama. Meantime he contacted Nilkamal Biswas of Malkangiri for Ganja.

The lot has ganged up into a team and were in this business as it is highly lucrative and yields huge profits within short period. Veerabhadram with his contacts is supplying Ganja in Hyderabad and Maharashtra added the official.

The apprehended offenders, along with recovered property, were handed over to the Kanchanbagh Police for taking further action against him.The assault took place at an eatery in Pipra Chowk late Friday night in which the man, a driver by profession, was left critically injured, Deputy Superintendent of Police B K Singh said.(Representational image)

Begusarai (Bihar): A mob assaulted a man and injected acid in his eyes which left him blinded for allegedly eloping with his employer's wife following which a person has been arrested in the case, police said.

The assault took place at an eatery in Pipra Chowk late Friday night in which the man, a driver by profession, was left critically injured, Deputy Superintendent of Police B K Singh said.

The man, 30, a resident of Samastipur district, became blind after the incident, doctors attending him said.

In a statement before the police, the victim said he used to work as a tractor driver at Barauni village under Teghra police station and started an affair with his employer's wife.

On February 6, he and his paramour fled from the house following which her husband lodged a complaint with the police charging him with kidnapping his wife, the DSP said.

However, she came to Teghra on February 16 and recorded her statement in a local court that asked her husband, a farmer, to take her to his house.

It was not immediately known why she had returned and what she said in the court.

Her brother-in-law rang up the driver last evening claiming that she wanted to live with him and he should come to Teghra police station to take her back with him, the police official said.

Barely a kilometre from the police station, the driver was accosted by a group of around 20 people who took him to the eatery and severely assaulted him.

The DSP said they also injected acid in his eyes with a syringe.

They later dumped him near Hanuman Chowk under Bhagwanpur police station area of the district.

A passer-by admitted him to a hospital at Begusarai.

One person was arrested and the police were searching for other attackers, the DSP said.Bengaluru: Four days after the death of two workers while cleaning a clogged septic tank at a hotel in AECS Layout, the owner of the hotel was arrested by the HAL police on Saturday.

Avinash Gupta, the owner of Yumlok hotel, was absconding since February 13, when the incident happened. The manager of the hotel Ayush Gupta and caretaker Venkatesh were arrested on the same day. The police had produced Avinash before a local court, which sent him to judicial custody till February 28.

On February 13, two workers Ramu (25) and Ravi (28) were engaged clean a clogged septic tank at Yumlok hotel. Ramu entered the tank first with the help of a rope, while Ravi stood outside to collect the waste.

Within minutes after Ramu entering the tank, he collapsed inside. When Ravi did not hear from Ramu despite repeated calls, he too entered the tank and met with the same fate. Both died due to suffocation.

Following the incident, the police had arrested Ayush, Venkatesh and two BBMP officials  Devaraj, senior health inspector Devaraj and Kalpana, DHO (Mahadevpura Zone) for causing death due to negligence.

The accused have been booked under Section 9 of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, section 3(1) (J) of SC, ST Act 3 and section 304 of IPC.Bengaluru: The Bellandur police have arrested one Tanveer Khan (34) in connection with the collapse of a five-storey building in Kasavanahalli on Thursday, which claimed four lives.

Tanveer was handed over the general power of attorney (GPA) by the building owner, Ondath Kunhi Mohammad, a Kerala-based businessman. The police said Mohammad was currently absconding in Kerala.

Mohammed had handed over the GPA to Tanveer to develop the property. Tanveer and Krishnakanth Reddy were in-charge of renovating the old building and converting it to a paying guest accommodation with 15 flats.

The police had earlier detained Sameera, daughter of Kunni Mohammed and wife of one Rafiq, who is also absconding. The police are investigating Sameeras role in the construction work. BBMP Executive Engineer Munireddy was also detained for questioning.

Rescue operation

The joint rescue operation involving officials from NDRF, SDRF, Fire and Emergency, BBMP and local police entered the second day on Saturday.

They were clearing the debris to check whether more workers were trapped inside. The officials suspect that two more bodies may be trapped in the debris.

We have been clearing the debris as we are not sure if there are workers trapped inside. We could be able to tell only after clearing the whole rubble, a fire and emergency official said. Rescue operationMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 17)  Stakeholders of the government's alternative learning system (ALS) are asking the Department of Education (DepEd) to adjust the cutoff percentage for the program's assessment test amid concerns its passing rate has hit an "all-time low."

Following the release of results for the system's Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) test, students and proponents of the program have reached out to the Education Department with the hashtag "DEPED_BeFair_to_ALS" to protest what they say could be a record-low dip in its passers.

The ALS, a flagship education program of the Duterte administration, is a "parallel learning system" that allows learners an alternative to formal schooling. It is also designed to encourage out-of-school youth to go back to school and finish their studies.

Learners take the A&E test to measure "competencies" of those who unable to finish formal elementary or secondary school.

ALS learners took the test last November 2017. However, after the release of test results early February, there are claims sudden changes in the examination have severely lowered its passing rate.

They said the examination's 75 percent cut-off was too high and abruptly implemented.

There are also claims the passing rate could be as low as 3.5 percent, but the DepEd has not confirmed this.

The DepEd has yet to release a final assessment of the exam results, however, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Service (PAS) and Alternative Learning System (ALS) GH Ambat confirmed computations from different divisions have so far reflected a "very low" rate.

"Reports coming from the divisions and of course private organizations who are delivering ALS are telling me that it's on an all time low, but there are still some certificates that have yet to be released," she told CNN Philippines Friday.

The last batch of A&E testers in 2015 had a passing rate of 57 percent.

Ambat said the Department's Bureau of Education Assessment will release the summary and analysis of the exams next week.

Meanwhile, DepEd Assistant Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Office of the Secretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the department is taking measures to address the complaint.

"We have directed Curriculum and Instruction to submit their report/analysis in one week. As soon as we have all the facts and informed evaluation we will discuss with stakeholders," he said in a tweet on Thursday.

"These are (teaching) moments for us from policy and administration perspective," she said.

A new batch of examinees is set to take the exam in March.

Passers of the A&E test are given a certificate to certify their competencies are "comparable" to graduates of formal school systems. They are also qualified to enroll in secondary and post-secondary schools.

The DepEd in a press release said ALS enrollment increased from 586,693 in 2015 to 691, 461 in 2016 as the department expanded the program's implementation.BJP state chief Hari Babu said, 'Centre is supporting Andhra Pradesh in all ways. Few people are deliberately commenting against the BJP. The Centre is ready to fill the revenue. Officials are discussing about the funds to be provided.' (Photo: File)

Vijaywada: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said that its ally- Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was not cheated in the Union Budget 2018-19 as the "Centre was supporting Andhra Pradesh in all ways."

The BJP on Sunday called a meeting in Andhra Pradesh's Vijayawada to address issues of the TDP which has been protesting against the Centre for offering "nothing in the Budget for the state."

Andhra Pradesh BJP president Hari Babu, senior leader Porandeshawari, state ministers, MPs and MLAs participated in the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, the BJP state chief said, "Centre is supporting Andhra Pradesh in all ways. Few people are deliberately commenting against the BJP. The Centre is ready to fill the revenue. Officials are discussing about the funds to be provided."

Babu further noted that the Centre has allotted adequate funds for several projects in Andhra Pradesh.

"The Central minister told that we are agreeing for Kadappa steel plant. There are few things to be solved by the state government then we can take a step forward in the Kadappa steel plant project. The Centre is also taking a decision on Railway zone. Bifurcation law is being focused and soon it will be implemented. Funds are raised for National university construction. It is not true that Andhra Pradesh is cheated in the union budget," he added.

He further said that answers should be given for the comments made against the BJP.

Hinting at severing ties with National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday said that he was ready for any sacrifices for justice to state's interest.

He further said that the state did not get justice in the recent Union Budget while demanding a debate on the matter.

A rift has emerged between the ruling BJP and TDP in the state over the fund allocation to the state in the Union Budget 2018.COIMBATORE: In a chain effect, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths raided the house of one Mr. Krishnan in Coimbatore on Friday in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, in the backdrop of Krishna being a director of the Gitanjali Group. According to an official source, following a complaint lodged by the PNB higher officials, the CBI launched searches at 20 locations across six cities in the country including Coimbatore.Three companies including Gitanjli Group belong to Mehul Choksis were included in the CBI- FIR, allegedly in connection with the probe into the `11,400 crore PNB fraud case that involves the diamond billionaire, Mr. Nirav Modi.

Five sleuths from CBI accompanied by a State Bank of India official from Vadavalli searched the house and office of Mr Krishnan on Friday, at Kasturi Naickenpalayam near Vadavalli in suburbs of Coimbatore. Mr Krishnan, who later on met the press, said, I am an individual director of the Gitanjli Group and there are two more directors like me in Pune; once in three months we meet in Mumbai to submit our accounts to our auditor. Apart from that, I am not aware of anything. The CBI officials enquired me regarding money transactions and official documents; they left the house as they could not find any incriminating documents in my home.Hassan: Having paid a hefty fee of Rs 11.61 crore to the Shravanabelagola Jain Mutt, the family of a businessman from Rajasthan, Ashok Patni, had the honour of performing the first Jalabhisheka or bathing the towering statue of Bahubali with holy water filled in kalasas or auspicious pots, on Saturday as the nine-day Mahamastakbhisheka began on the Vindhyagiri Hill, Shravanabelagola at 2.25 pm.

The Patni family, which hails from Kishengarh, Ajmer has bagged the honour for the second time as it was the first to bathe Bahubalis statue with holy water during the 2006 Mahamastabhisheka too. It had then paid a fee of Rs 1.08 crore to the mutt , which was used to build a hospital for children.

Pontiff of the Shravanabelagola Jain Mutt, Charukeethy Bhattaraka Swamiji, told the gathering that the large amount given by Mr Ashok Patni this time would be used for the construction of a hospital. After participating in the holy bathing of the statue, Mr Subham, a Patni family member, told the Deccan Chronicle that it was fascinating to perform the head anointing ceremony of the statue. Another family member, Sanmathi Kumar Chabra said it felt very nice and was an emotional moment.

With many devotees lining up to perform the kalasa seva to the Bahubali statue, organisers rushed through the jalabhisheka. And later the Bahubali statue turned white with milk rolling down its head, followed by tender coconut water, herbal liquids, sandal paste, ashtagandha, and saffron. It was also showered with flowers made of gold and silver and precious stones before the head anointing ceremony concluded with a mangalarathi to the statue.Hubballi: The police on Saturday detained 15 office-bearers of the Popular Front of India (PFI) for trying to hold a convention in Davangere, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a mega farmers rally on February 27 to mark the birthday of state BJP chief, B S Yeddyurappa.

The organisation, which has been targeted by the BJP following the recent murders of Hindu activists on the coast, was in the process of mobilising thousands of activists for the convention by launching awareness campaigns in all educational institutions belonging to the community and in localities that are Muslim strongholds.

But with a nine-day special fair beginning in Davangere from February 23 when over 50,000 sheep, goats and buffaloes will be sacrificed by devotees of goddess Durgambika, the police didnt think it prudent to allow the PFI convention around the same time. And with the Prime Minister too expected shortly in the distict, they gave it the thumbs down.

But PFI office-bearers from across the state tried to take out a procession in Davangere on Saturday in defiance of the district police, who promptly imposed prohibitory orders in the city under section 144 of the CrPC as a precaution. The arrested activists included Dakshina Kannada and Chikkamangaluru district presidents of the PFI.

All office-bearers of the PFI have been sent to judicial custody. As many as 282 activists, who had converged on Davangere, were turned back as we suspected that some elements were trying to disrupt the peace in the city, said Superintendant of Police, Bhimashankar Guled.Kalaburagi: Faced with strong opposition from the BJP and some pro-Kannada organisations, the district administration has called off the Bahamani Utsav it had planned to hold on March 6.

District in- charge Minister, Dr Sharanprakash Patil, who was the chief architect of the utsav, is believed to have informed its organising committee that the government would not like to be associated with the event in the wake of the opposition from some organisations, including the BJP. We will support the utsav as and when it is held. But the government cannot be involved in it, Dr Patil is understood to have told the organisers.

With elections to the state Assembly round the corner, the ruling Congress did not want to give the saffron party any communal issue to exploit, according to sources. They revealed that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was unhappy with the decision to organise the utsav without taking the political ramifications into account.

Convener of the organising committee, Lakshman Dasti ,when contacted, however, said the event had not been called off, but put off to August 3. The decision was taken at a meeting held by the Anjuman Tarakki Urdu here on Saturday. It was chaired by its president, Amjad Javed and attended by academicians, Dr Nazrul Bari and Dr Rab.

The Bahamani Utsav has been held for the last seven to eight years by a private organisation in Kalaburagi. Only this year the district administration decided to provide us some funds for it. But unfortunately due to the opposition the administration has decided to distance itself from the event. Dr Patil spoke to us and conveyed the decision. But we will go ahead and organise it in August as going by historians the Bahamani kingdom was established that month, Mr Dasti said.THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The law sanctions summary eviction of encroachers, but the Forest Department is using both subtle and crass tactics to scuttle the recovery of encroached forest land. Though the comprehensive list of forest encroachers post 1977 was drawn up more than a quarter century ago, the department has been able to wrest back just 113 hectares or 1.5 per cent of the 7,801 hectares of encroached forest land. The departments strategy, which on the face of it seems fair and proactive, is to issue notices to encroachers.

The obvious advantage is, the encroachers will get enough time to seek a court stay. However, for encroachers who are reluctant to go to court, which is the case of majority encroachers in the state, the department has thrown a legal smokescreen around them as protection. It has moved the court with a baffling plea: it wants clarity on how to issue notices. The list of forest land encroachers post 1977 was drawn up as part of a joint verification conducted by the revenue and forest departments in 1992; the list had the names of over one lakh families, half of them in Idukki. (Encroachments before January 1, 1977, were regularised.) The High Court had in September 2015 directed that eviction proceedings be completed within a year.

Each forest division has a separate list of encr-oachers, and the lists were handed over to the district collectors, too, said lawyer and nature activist Harish Vasudevan. The Forest Departments move to serve notice to the encroacher is baffling given that Kerala Forest Act, 1961, allows summary eviction of encroachers. The HC in the Kerala Government vs Mathai Kuriakose case in 1988 had also found nothing illegal in summary eviction. Further, it has also been established that encroachers have no rights. Field level officials of the Forest Department consider swift eviction the most effective way to recover encroached land.

In Nelliampathy, for instance, the only lands that have stayed with the Department are the ones that were summarily evicted. Wherever notices were issued, the encroachers had gone to court and secured a stay, an official said. Encroachers take legal recourse in summary eviction cases, too, but the courts invariably give a status quo order, which is to keep the land as forest. If at all they secure a favourable verdict at a later date, the land would have grown back into a forest by then, the official said.

Strangely, even after notices were issued no action has been taken. Many of these notices have been issued months ago, some through the district collector and others directly by the Forest Department, but none had elicited a response. This should have actually allowed the department to go ahead with eviction, Mr Vasudevan said.

But forest officials say they cannot as the issue was currently sub-judice. The state government has filed a petition in the HC seeking more clarity on issuing notices. In short, encroachers are given two layers of protection. First, the department issues notices unnecessarily to postpone eviction. And now when the time to respond to the notice has long lapsed, the state has gone to Court on the inane pretext of seeking clarity on issuing notices.Hyderabad: The Telangana government informed the state High Court that it would soon notify vending zones for street vendors and prepare a street vending plan for the state after completion of the survey of street vendors which was in the final stage.

The government told the court that it had identified 67, 313 street vendors so far, including in the capital, and the survey would have a data of all street vendors.

The government proposed to notify three categories of zones  free, restricted and prohibited  in municipalities and corporations across the state. It had filed an affidavit in this regard pursuant to the court direction on a petition by one G. Ganesh Singh, a road side vendor near NIMS.

Hospital, seeking to declare illegal the action of authorities in not implementing the Street Vendors (Protection Of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act 2014 and the Scheme of Street Vending in Telangana notified in GO No. 11 of January 5, 2016, in letter and spirit. There was also interference by authorities in his business being carried on street margins.

Special counsel for government A. Sanjeev Kumar told a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi that the government had issued 63,372 identity cards to street vendors across the state.

He submitted that 71 petitions were filed seeking implementation of the Act 2014 and the scheme.

About inconvenience because of vendors at traffic signals in city, the bench made it clear that without providing the facilities under the Act, the government could not take action against street vendors.

He brought to the notice of the court that the Act came into force on March 4, 2013, and Telangana state was formed on June 2, 2014 and the government formulated the scheme in 2016 as per the provisions of the Act 2014.

Counsel said the process for issuance of vending certificates to the identified street vendors would commence soon and but for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area, the government had constituted town vending committees in all urban local bodies. The survey had been completed in 66 urban local bodies.New Delhi: Women and girls who get raped or molested need to be given justice on time or they will never believe anyone, person or institution, said a woman from Arunachal Pradesh, who has allegedly accused incumbent Chief Minister Pema Khandu and two others of raping her in July 2008.

Addressing media in the national capital on Saturday evening, two days after she had formally submitted her detailed complaint before the National Commission of Women (NCW), the victim said, "I have filed the complaint against three men, including Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu. Till now, I have not got a proper response from either the police or the court. Both are saying it is a case of fraud, which is untrue. We (lawyer and I) have approached the National Commission for Women with the help of an NGO. If I don't get justice here also, then victims suffering like me, will not believe anyone."

"I will fight against this till my last breath because I am right. Many people on social media are saying that I am doing this to get popular or for money. But, I can't play with anyone's life just for money. Why would I file a fake complaint against anyone. The NCW should think about it and take action," she added.

The victim said that she was from Arunachal Pradesh's West Siang District and that she had filed the complaint on Thursday through her lawyer Rashmi Bhati under Section 10 of National Commission for Women Act.

She has accused Khandu, Phurpa Lama Thumpeen Tashi, a teacher of the Tawang Higher Secondary School, and Dorjee Wangchu of gang raping her when she was in an intoxicated state at the Tawang Circuit House in July 2008.

Bhati said, "She came to us through an NGO. We heard details of her ordeal and decided to just give her a chance. We filed a complaint with NCW."

Earlier, Bhati had said, "The victim was and is very scared. This courageous woman has filed her complaint before the National Commission for Women in Delhi nearly three years after gathering the courage to do so."

NCW member Rekha Sharma who has additional charge as Chairperson of the institution said, "The NCW has received a complaint in this regard. The commission is going through the documents, and it will be seeking a legal advice, since the matter was dismissed by a court in Arunachal Pradesh. So after going through the complaint, the NCW will react on the matter.

Chief Minister Khandu, however, has categorically rejected the alleged rape charge, and described it as politically motivated and crafted by his opponents.

In a signed statement issued from his office on Saturday, Khandu said, "I am shocked and saddened by these false allegations against me. I have always conducted myself honourably and with utmost integrity. In my view, these allegations are politically motivated and crafted by my opponents."

He further said, "It's unfortunate that they have resorted to such dirty tricks, bringing disgrace to the political life of Arunachal Pradesh. I have full faith in the competent authority before which this matter currently stands and believe that they will do justice. There is no doubt that truth will prevail over this malafide campaign against me. I have already initiated legal actions for making such false and defaming allegations against me."New Delhi: In a rare visit, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month where they held extensive talks with the Bhutanese leadership on key strategic issues including the situation in Doklam and the Chinese building defence infrastructure around the plateau, authoritative government sources said.

The sources said that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation with focus on Chinas increasing military posturing and infrastructure development around the Doklam plateau.

The visit took place between February 6 and 7 and positive outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, multiple government sources said, adding there were deliberations on how to further strengthen defence and security cooperation between the two countries.

The visit by Gen Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first by top Indian officials from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff, and was kept under wraps by both sides.

The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.Bengaluru: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has brushed aside allegations regarding the recent Rafale fighter jet deal with France. While taking part in a panel discussion on the topic 'In Defence of the Realm: How prepared is India? at a conclave in the city here on Sunday, she said, "Rafale was considered under the UPA regime, where the quoted prices increased by 300 per cent. The process was completed, bids opened, but the then Defence Minister felt something was wrong and put a stop to it."

"So, there was no Rafale deal under UPA regime. People ask us why not consider HAL? There is no HAL, there is no Rafale. Inter-government agreement has not named anybody as this was and is a non-deal. This is nonsense!" she said. The Minister also dwelled upon the countrys military preparedness vis-a-vis Pakistan and China.

Cross-border terror

"We face cross border insurgency from Pakistan, as non state actors are coming into Kashmir. Two hundred terrorists have been finished off at the border, despite continuous efforts by Pakistan to disturb peace. Armed forces are fully prepared to meet any contingency, she assured.

Doklam issue

With regard to Doklam, she maintained that everything the Army does is in co-ordination and consultation with border field officers, local authorities, J&K police, diplomats and Ministers. When Doklam disengagement happened, there was active field level and diplomatic efforts to engage again, she added.

Shopian incident

Defending the recent action of security forces in Shopian in January, which led to the death of two civilians, she said, "In Shopian, the army convoy was returning to their unit back from some place. They were pelted with stones and lynched. The matter is subject to judicial scrutiny. Usually only the unit is mentioned in the FIR. This time the name of the Major was included and it has caused the anguish."

The audience questioned her on India's efforts to deal with cyber space security threats and intervention in Maladives, to which, the Minister avoided comment, but assured that the Government was looking into it.

Defence modernisation

Updating on the progress ever since she took office, Ms Sitharaman said, "Defence modernisation is in full swing. Capital account has been entirely utilised in the last two years and there is 7% increase in budget allocation. Orders of 40 Tejas jets have been given and 83 more are cleared. I have held two defence acquisition meetings per month and cleared all pending proposals. Of 170 contracts signed in last four years, 120 are Indian vendors."Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 17)  Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana slammed international advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) for "being unreasonably critical and biased" against government forces.

Lorenzana called the HRW as the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and armed wing New People's Army (NPA), when it said the President's order to kill the rebels encourages troops "to commit war crimes."

"It is obvious that the HRW is acting as the spokesperson of the CPP-NPA," Lorenzana said in a statement Saturday.

The HRW, an international nongovernmental organization that investigates and documents human rights violations, claimed that President Rodrigo Duterte's P25,000 offer to Lumads to kill CPP-NPA members sanctions state-sponsored violence.

"Duterte needs to stop encouraging his troops to commit war crimes and instead promote measures to ensure that those responsible for abuses - including members of rebel groups and militias - are held accountable in accordance with international law," the HRW said Wednesday.

Lorenzana called this out, saying that HRW stays silent when the NPA commits crimes.

"When Jose Maria Sison ordered the CPP-NPA to kill one soldier per region every day, not a pip was heard from the HRW. When the NPA beheaded a former comrade of theirs who had just returned to the fold of the law, the HRW was silent," he said.

The Defense Chief added the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are under strict orders to adhere to the principles of human rights.

Lorenzana explained, "Neutralizing rebels and terrorists is a legitimate law enforcement function, and the government is not precluded from offering rewards under Philippine laws."

Duterte's offer to the Lumad community came after a father and son were shot dead while on the way home from an Indigenous People's Summit in early February.

READ: Duterte offers to pay Lumads 20K each to kill NPA rebels

Members of the indigenous communities have been often recruited to join the NPA, as Lumad communities have decried the militarization in their areas and the killings of their leaders by state forces.

The Duterte administration has also been processing the formal declaration of the CPP-NPA as terrorists since November 2017, after it issued a proclamation formally ending peace negotiations with the rebels.BJP national secretary H. Raja and partys state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan have alleged that the State government has failed to maintain the law and order in TN.

Chennai: Close on the heels of party senior and Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan who has alleged that Tamil Nadu is becoming a training ground for extremists, BJP national secretary H. Raja and partys state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan have alleged that the State government has failed to maintain the law and order in TN.

Echoing Mr. Radhakrishnans charge, Mr Raja claimed on Saturday that Tamil Nadu is sending people to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). TN is the training ground for the terrorist activities in Karnataka and Kerala and even for sending people to ISIS through Kerala, Mr. Raja said in Coimbatore.

Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam says Tamil Nadu is an Eden of peace. But it is only here that a birthday cake is being cut with a sickle, Dr Tamilisai said referring to an incident. The Tamil Nadu government has failed in maintaining the law and order, she added.

On Feb. 14, Mr Radhakrishnan had alleging that TN is no longer a peaceful state, claimed that it was turning into a training ground for extremists. Addressing a public meeting organised by the BJP in Coimbatore to pay tributes to those killed in the 1998 serial bomb blasts, he said, Tamil Nadu is definitely not an Eden of peace. It is only a training ground for various fundamentalist organisations.

Refuting, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam dismissed the charge as a blatant lie, filtered in a blanket.Actor Kamal Haasan will address a string of meetings and unveil his party flag at Madurai on February 21, marking the commencement of his political journey.

Chennai: Actor Kamal Haasan will address a string of meetings and unveil his party flag at Madurai on February 21, marking the commencement of his political journey. According to sources, Ulaganayagan will address his first public meeting on February 21 at Ramanathapuram near the iconic palace entrance. A copy of the itinerary released said Kamal will also visit nearby Paramakudi, Manamadurai and then address a gala meeting in Madurai on the same day.

The actor will unveil his party flag, announce the party name and will hoist the party flag in Madurai.

In keeping with his earlier announcement Haasan will first visit the residence of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at Rameswaram and then visit the school where the late people's president studied. Visit to the memorial of Kalam at Pei Karumbu and interaction with the fishing community of Rameswaram are also scheduled.

Meanwhile Kamal on Saturday called on veteran communist leader R. Nallakannu and discussed TN's current political scenario and the agrarian crisis in the state. On Friday, Kamal met former election commissioner T.N. Seshan.In the last Assembly elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 91.82 per cent, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it was 84.32 per cent. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Agartala/New Delhi: At least 76 per cent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise for the Assembly polls on Sunday in Tripura, where the BJP is trying to dislodge the Left Front after an unbroken 25-year stint in power, officials said.

The polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was peaceful with thousands of central paramilitary forces fanning across the northeastern state.

There were reports of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some polling stations which were rectified.

Polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week.

The constituency will go to polls on March 12.

The Election Commission said in New Delhi that the updated polling percentage was complied from 41 of the 59 constituencies.

At its briefing earlier, the poll watchdog had put the figures at 74 per cent.

In the last Assembly elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 91.82 per cent, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it was 84.32 per cent, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain told reporters in the national capital.

He said two crude bombs were detected and disposed of by security personnel.

The voter turnout is likely to rise as long queues were seen at polling stations even after 4 pm, the time for the voting to conclude.

Under the electoral laws, voters standing in queue at the scheduled time for voting to conclude are allowed to exercise their franchise.

Additional CEO Tapas Roy said in Agartala initially there were problems with several EVM machines which were fixed.

Earlier in the day, Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti had said voting was delayed in some polling booths of West Tripura, Khowai and Unakoti districts as officials could not properly connect the EVMs.

Technicians were rushed in to these placed and EVMs set right.

The BJP, hitherto an "also ran" in the border state, has emerged as the key challenger to the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which has remained unvanquished in the last five Assembly elections.

Manik Sarkar, one of the most enduring icons of the CPI(M), has helmed the state for the last four terms.

The Congress, which has been marginalised in Tripura, was last in power between February 1988 and March 1993.

It is contesting 59 seats and had not fielded candidate for Kakrabon constituency.

The BJP, which has been rapidly expanding its footprint in the northeast, with the party already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, has forged an alliance with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an anti-Left party.

The BJP has fielded candidates in 51 places, while its ally is contesting the remaining nine seats.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah spearheaded the BJP-IPFT challenge in one of the last bastions of the Left. Sarkar, known for leading a frugal life and the considered the "poorest" of chief ministers in the country, almost single-handedly tried to defend his 'Red fort' against the saffron challenge.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) K V Srijesh said the voting was "incident free" and no violence was reported from anywhere.

While 300 companies of central armed forces were deployed, besides the state police, the BSF kept heightened vigil along the 856-km-long India-Bangladesh border in Tripura.

Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) R K Pachnanda was appointed special observer to coordinate with all security forces deployed for the election.

Manik Sarkar cast his vote in Ramnagar constituency here, while Biplab Deb, the state BJP chief, pressed the EVM button in R K Pur seat in Gomati district.

Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha cast his vote at Kailashahar in Unakoti district.GUNTUR: Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has announced that he was ready to do any sacrifice for the rights and interests of the state and the public.

He started targeting Telugu Des-ams ally BJP by raising his voice against the BJP-led NDA government.

Addressing a public meeting, he said that now time has come to break the sile-nce about our fight for fulfillment of promises of bif-urcation and defended that he was guiding the TD MPs in the protest since the past few days in Parliament as this is a sensitive issue.

He announced that he will not flinch from the battlefield, will not collude against the interests of AP state and announced that he will be ready to make any sacrifice for AP people and the state. Mr Naidu came to Kakani near Narasaraopet on Saturday and laid the foundation stone for JNTU-K buildings construction. He claimed that the central and the state governments were sovereign and hence said the Centre cannot ask the state government about central funds utilisation.

Mentioning news and statements circulating in media about showing acco-unts to the Union government about the utilisation of funds, he said that some leaders were also demanding the same and said that he feels it is not correct.

Recalling the injustice done to AP by the Congress, he said, We went with the BJP for getting justice to our state, visited Delhi 29 times, met everyone several times for the past 3.5 years, but in vain as no justice was done by the BJP government.

Mr Naidu demanded that the Centre fulfil all promises given to AP during the time of bifurcation.

And further to help AP till the development of the state on par with other south Indian states, on behalf of five crore people in AP.

Naidu said that the BJP led Union Government did not fulfill its promises (of the Reorganisation Act) and further held that fulfilling those promises is the responsibility of the Union Government. Further increasing his attack on the BJP government, he said that funds were given to AP according to norms. He ruled out BJPs claims of giving surplus funds to AP State and challenged that the State Government is ready to discuss or debate on the allotted Central funds.In a land with too few heroes, a single death can diminish us all. With Asma Jahangirs untimely demise, Pakistan lost a fearless warrior for human rights and dignity, while her friends lost a witty and loyal companion who stood by them in good times and bad.

I met Asma and her husband Tahir Jahangir  known universally as TJ  in the mid-1970s, shortly before they got married, and we have been friends ever since. In all this time, I had always known Asma to be so full of energy that when she had a bout of cancer surgery a couple of years ago, it came as a huge shock to her family and friends.

But with characteristic courage, she faced her illness and carried on. When she and TJ came with us on an expedition into Sri Lankas hill country over a year ago, I expected her to slow down. Not a bit of it.

Oddly, the last time I met her was also in Sri Lanka less than three months ago when she had come to attend a meeting of the South Asia Human Rights organisation that she had helped set up. We had invited friends and their family to a restaurant, and asked Asma to join us. There she was, in the midst of three generations of Jayawardenes, regaling them all with stories, and engaging with them individually.

When she was with friends, she never took herself seriously, or made a big deal about her fame. Until I read all the tributes and condolences that have poured in since her death, I had no idea of the many honours foreign governments and international organisations had bestowed on her.

This recognition was probably useful in ensuring her safety in a country where journalists and human rights activists are routinely beaten up and disappeared by shadowy state operatives. Asmas family and friends were obviously concerned about her security, but she refused to retreat into a bunker mentality.

I recall watching her on one TV chat show when she called generals who staged coups political duffers who had no idea about the ground reality of Pakistani politics. While many of us share this view, few have the courage to state it as bluntly. But this diminutive, gutsy woman kept giving us lessons in speaking truth to power.

The establishment mindset she fought against is captured in a recent email I received from a retired colonel. As this was the copy of a letter sent to the editor of Dawn, and hence meant for publication, I have no qualms in quoting from it:

In spite of the (undeservedly) [sic] praise showered upon her by the so-called pseudo intellectuals of Pakistan; in spite of the eulogising of her by the Tom, Dick and Harries of the paid anti-Army media it would be hypocritical on my part not to say Khas kum jehan pak. (The less rubbish, the cleaner the land).

I was rather rude in my reply, reminding him that when he died, nobody but his immediate family would mourn his passing. But the retired officers hatred of Asma symbolises the gulf that has opened up between the security establishment and civil society.

As a counterpoint to this vicious little missive, heres a quote from John Bunyans famous 1684 hymn (I have taken the liberty of altering the gender of the original):

Whoso beset her round/With dismal stories/Do but themselves confound/Her strength the more is/No lion can her fright/Shell with a giant fight

And Asma certainly took on the giants singlehandedly in battles conducted in courtrooms, TV studios, newspaper articles and the streets of Pakistan. Judges, generals and politicians all felt the lash of her righteous tongue as she fought for the rights of the weak and the vulnerable.

Despite her criticism of Benazir Bhuttos government, the two women remained close friends. In fact, the assassinated PM offered Asma a Cabinet position on several occasions. She refused because being part of the government would curtail her freedom to criticise it.

No personal tribute to Asma would be complete without a mention of TJs supportive role. In a country where men avoid relationships with strong, independent women, TJ stood by Asma when she went to jail, or confronted the states security apparatus.

When Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, my late mothers Christian carer wept and said she and her community had been orphaned. I can imagine her shedding tears at Asmas death now.

By arrangement with DawnGiven the fact that India has now been at the receiving end of Pakistan-sponsored terror since 1980, such attacks have become the rule rather than the exception. (Representational Image)

Two back-to-back attacks one in Jammu and the other in Srinagar once again brought the spectre of Pakistan-sponsored terror to the forefront of national consciousness. The assault in Sunjuwan followed by another attack on a CRPF site in Srinagar once again underscored the same grim pattern of terrorists from across the border infiltrating into the bases of our security forces, mowing down innocent people before being neutralised.

Given the fact that India has now been at the receiving end of Pakistan-sponsored terror since 1980, such attacks have become the rule rather than the exception. After the usual round of chest-thumping and self-serving platitudes by ministers that has unfortunately become the staple of every terror attack, it was back to business as usual.

However, this latest attack underscores a forbidding reality. Ever since the NDA/BJP government assumed office in May 2014 there have been 207 major terror incidents in the past 45 months. For the previous 45 months before that from September 2010 to May 2014, the number was 96. In Jammu and Kashmir alone 288 jawans and officers were martyred between June 2014 and February 2018 as compared to 115 for the corresponding period before that. In the two 45-month chunks, 72 civilians died in terror incidents between September 2010 and May 2014, compared to 138 between June 2014 and February 2018.

However, the picture becomes all the more portentous when it comes to ceasefire violations along the International Border and the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. Between September 2010 and May 2014 there were 543 major ceasefire violations. This number has now climbed to 2,555 between June 2014 and February 2018. A bulk of these violations have taken place in the past 13 months alone from January to December 2017 accounting for 881 incidents and another 241 taking place in the past 45 days. The number of officers/jawans killed in ceasefire violations was 19 and the numbers of civilian deaths were four between September 2010 and May 2014 as compared to 62 officers/jawans killed and another 62 civilian deaths on the border between June 2014 and February 2018. All these figures have been compiled from the figures available on the South Asia Terrorism Portal and those put out by the Indian Army press releases and ministry of home affairs.

Joseph Stalin had once notoriously remarked: The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic. Arthur Koestler in an article in the New York Times magazine in 1944 had written in the context of the unfolding horror in Europe that Statistics dont bleed; it is the detail which counts.

The comparison above therefore is not an attempt to be insensitive to the loss of even a single human life but to try and understand the pattern of engagement with Pakistan over the past 45 months.

What emerges very clearly is that the NDA/BJP government has no policy towards Pakistan whatsoever. On May 26, 2014 when the current government was sworn in in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, former Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif was an honoured guest. At that point in time everybody had lauded the sagacity of the new government in reaching out to Indias extended neighbourhood. Three months later, the Narendra Modi government called off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan taking umbrage to Pakistans continuing outreach to the Srinagar-based All Parties Hurriyat Conference. This set in motion a roller coaster in the relationship that continues till today.

In July 2015 both Mr Modi and Mr Sharif tried to put the relationship back on the rails when they met on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Ufa. In fact, the meeting even produced a joint statement. However, even before the ink had dried on the statement, it was consigned to the dustbin of history but not before a high-decibel verbal kabaddi match playing itself out on live television between Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and de-facto foreign minister of Pakistan Sartaj Aziz.

On Christmas of 2015, Mr Modi surprised everybody by making an unannounced and obviously unplanned visit to Lahore. The ostensible purpose was to greet Mr Sharif on his birthday and his granddaughters wedding. However, Mr Modi miscalculated. Such spontaneous gestures do not cut any ice at all with the deep state of Pakistan and within days there was a deadly terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase and the relationship sank into a deep chill after that.

Though the national security advisers of both the countries have been meeting sporadically, that has not lessened but intensified the terror emanating from Pakistan. This is primarily because the NDA/BJP government has been caught in a trap of its own making.

For 10 long years when they were in the Opposition they repeatedly parroted a mantra that terror and talks cannot go hand in hand. However, after they formed the government they decided to engage with Pakistan but because of the position they had taken for a decade they needed a fig leaf. That came in the form of a new disingenuous formulation that we are only talking to Pakistan about terror.

What the current government did not realise is that a similar anti-terror mechanism that was put in place by the UPA government in September 2006 in Havana had collapsed because of Pakistans chicanery. When the NDA/BJP government resurrected that formulation from its grave they played right into the hands of the Pakistani deep state.

For on one hand the Pakistanis had a communication channel with Indians in place that they so desperately wanted but as the composite/comprehensive/bilateral dialogue was officially off they could just keep on upping the ante of their terror machine and continue to bleed India with a thousand cuts. This is what accounts for the increased casualties on the Indian side in the past 45 months.

By falling between the two proverbial stools the NDA/BJP government has painted itself into a corner from which there is no way out. Either they should have engaged fully with Pakistan or not at all.

Moral of the story: Half-measures do not work.The killing of 17 school children and teachers in his former high school Florida last week by a mentally disturbed ex-school kid was a particularly disturbing event although the United States is tragically inured to violent gun incidents. A lachrymose President got emotionally worked up about the event and spoke of the terrible grief of the kin of the victims when he called upon the survivors at the hospital. Even though he was asked about it, Donald Trump did not mention a word about gun control, which is at the very heart of the problem in the US. The issue may be getting sidetracked by the revelation that the FBI may have botched a potentially life-saving tip on the school shooting teenager, Nikolas Cruz, who was said to have been planning just such an attack. It may suit the Republicans politically to call for the head of the FBI chief because the bureau is investigating the President and is predictably facing a barrage of criticism from Mr Trump and other Republicans accusing the bureau of partisan bias.

The crux of the matter is anyone can buy a gun legally in the US, but after a background check. However, the Second Amendment upholding the right to protect oneself is considered sacrosanct and no matter how much each incident of mass gun violence  like the shooter who took aim at music concert fans recently in Las Vegas  is seen to be overwhelmingly tragic, the debate over the need for stricter gun control will never be won by the doves. It is apparent that a radically new approach is needed although US politicians tend to say after each event it is not the time to discuss gun law reform. This may indeed be the time for the US to think of radical reform as about 18 school shootings have taken place this year alone, according to gun control advocacy groups.The last major war between two states was fought 15 years ago. Saddam Hussein was defeated by George W. Bush in 2003 in a one-sided engagement (I am referring here to the initial invasion and not the occupation). The Iraqis had not received modern equipment for many years, and their outdated tanks and fighter jets were no match for American military power. Though both sides went to war with almost equal numbers of soldiers, about 350,000 each, the American casualties were 1/10th that of the Iraqi side, because their equipment was much better.

The military hardware that nations spend so much money on usually is used to buy equipment for war between nations, meaning tanks, ships and planes. For example, Indias defence budget this year includes over Rs 1 lakh crore for such hardware alone. It has become very obvious to most experts of military strategy that this is materiel that is almost certainly never going to be used except for things like our Republic Day parade. The next modern war between two major nations will be as different from the Iraq war of 2003 as the Iraq war was from the Battle of Plassey in 1757. To understand this we need to ask ourselves what war actually is. A war between states happens when one side is convinced it can compel the other side through force to do what it wants.

However, getting the other side to do something can also happen without violence at all. The intelligence agencies of the United States have said that Russia meddled with the American presidential election of 2016. Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to lose and Donald Trump to win. There is also the accusation that Mr Trump may have colluded with the Russians in this meddling. This is still being investigated but what is not in doubt is that Mr Putin and his spies meddled and influenced the American election, perhaps decisively.

On Friday, February 16, Mr Trumps justice department charged 13 Russians, most from a group called Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg, Russia. They set up social media accounts on a virtual private network that made it appear that these accounts were being operated from America while they were actually in Russia. The Americans believe that these accounts, on which Mr Putin spent less than `2 crore, helped decide the election in Mr Trumps favour. Why did Russia want Mr Trump to win? Because Ms Clinton would have used sanctions and other means of limiting Russias influence in the world. Without going to war against America, Mr Putin got what he wanted.

I am writing this because of what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanghs chief Mohan Bhagwat has said about war. Mr Bhagwat said that the RSS could mobilise in three days a force that it could send to the border, though, according to him, the Indian Army would take six months to do the same thing. This was attacked as being anti-Army but I am not going there. My concern is: what does Mr Bhagwat think his militia will do once it is at the border? Does he think, perhaps because of having seen some documentaries of the 1962 war, that the Chinese will come rushing down the mountains with rifles in their hands? And if so what does Mr Bhagwat imagine his Sangh followers will do that will protect Mother India?

The RSS shakhas drill the cadre regularly with some physical activity and singing of patriotic songs. This is not the sort of training that is useful even for a war fought 100 years ago, forget today. Modern military drill training for infantry is about 400 years old and has evolved over the centuries. It is in 2018, in the era of guided missiles, totally useless.

In a war against a modern nation, our vulnerability will arise not from a lack of volunteers to fight  the Indian Army is one of the largest in the world  or from a lack of equipment, meaning not enough tanks or planes. It will be a vulnerability from a lack of technology, which is usually fatal. An advanced nation will focus on disabling the enemys communications. A shutting down of the Internet will cripple any modern nation today in a way that Iraq could not have been in 2003. The banking system would collapse, and bring the nation to its knees in hours. Internal communications would become so chaotic as to produce panic and disorder. Even purely militarily, just the attack on communications from the outside would defang a nation. For example, the reliance on global positioning systems, which are controlled by the Americans, for aeroplanes and missiles will make them vulnerable, if not useless. Having millions of individuals prepared to martyr themselves will not be of much help. The enemy can compel the less advanced nation to do what it wants, without much violence. This is the way of warfare today, and if this has not been understood it is not because of a want of information, it is because of ignorance.

I thought I should write about this because we should be aware that this is the quality of thinking that informs the RSS, and its products, including our Prime Minister. It is very primitive and simplistic. It may be burning with patriotism and one doesnt doubt the intent. It is the quality that is alarming.Twitter has announced that it will discontinue its desktop Mac app for its web client. According to the companys Twitter post, the app support will stop after 30 days from now.

We're focusing our efforts on a great Twitter experience that's consistent across platforms. So, starting today the Twitter for Mac app will no longer be available for download, and in 30 days will no longer be supported.  Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) February 16, 2018

However, the app rating on Mac App Store is less than 2 stars out of 5, which itself says the popularity of the app and interest of the users using it. Users eventually started using other Twitter clients such as Tweetbot and Tweetdeck, which are far superior in terms of features they offer, compared to default Twitter app.

According to TheVerge report, the company didnt even make the Twitter app for the Mac on their own instead they outsourced development to a third-party digital studio in Seattle called Black Pixel.

In spite of the Twitter app being unpopular on Mac desktop, the majority of the user database is on the web and mobile versions of this micro-blogging site, which the company is focusing to improve on.

The company recently increased the character count from 140 to 240 for its users. Twitter is also planning to deal with the fake news problem  an occurrence that happens after every tragic incident and doesn't seem to be go away.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Xiaomi recently launched its first 2018 smartphones  Redmi Note 5

and Redmi Note 5 Pro in India along with Mi TV 4. After launching the Redmi Note series, the Chinese company might unveil flagship smartphones in the near future.

If rumours are to be believed, the company might soon launch Mi MIX 2S, Mi 7 and Mi A2. Xiaomi could launch Mi MIX 2S and Mi 7 high-end smartphones at MWC 2018 later this month. As of now, the company has not confirmed that it will be attending MWC 2018 in Barcelona.

The Mi A2, on the other hand, did not grab much of the attention, but rumours suggest that the company will introduce Mi 6X in China, which will be the successor to the Mi 5X alias Mi A1. With these three smartphones expected to debut soon, here's everything we know so far.

Rumours of Mi MIX 2S has already been swirling around for months and a recent firmware files obtained by XDA-Developers revealed some of the features of the upcoming flagship. The smartphone is expected to be an upgraded version of the Mi MIX 2.

The Mi MIX 2S might sport a 5.99-inch bezel-less display with a 95 per cent screen-to-body ratio similar to the Mi MIX 2 along with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The handset is expected to be among the first flagships to be powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, carrying an octa-core CPU with a 2.8GHz clock speed. A recent report revealed that the phone will draw its power from a 3400mAh battery and will run Android 8.0 Oreo.

Furthermore, the Mi Mix 2S might follow the latest trend and have an AI-based smart rear camera that will detect scenes and objects such as dog, cat, flower, food, building among other things, enhancing the photograph similar to what we have seen on the Huawei Mate 10.

An earlier report suggested that the Mi MIX 2S could come with nearly 100 per cent bezel-less display. The phone could have a front camera on the top right corner, creating a notch on the display. The rear of the handset might remain the same, featuring a fingerprint scanner, along with a single camera, retaining the ceramic back on the phone. The smartphone was rumoured to come with an iPhone X-like notch but it has been busted.

However, there are chances Xiaomi might surprise its fans with an under display fingerprint sensor for the Mi Mix 2S. Reports also suggested that Xiaomi might ditch the fingerprint sensor and incorporate an iPhone X-like Face ID authentication system. The company has not officially confirmed the existence of the Mi Mix 2S and its presence at MWC, but we could hear about it soon.

This flagship smartphone is anticipated to be unveiled by the first half of this year. If reports are to be believed, Xiaomi is plotting a standalone event sometime in April to unveil the flagship. Following the latest trend, the company might unveil the Mi 7 with an 18:9 display along with minimal bezels. Furthermore, the smartphone could come feature-loaded, powerful specifications.

The Mi 7 could sport a 5.65-inch or a 5.99-inch Full HD+ display with a resolution of 1080x2160 pixels along with an in-display fingerprint sensor. It would likely retain a glass and steel body similar to the Mi 6. The Mi 7 is expected to retain a dual camera system although Xiaomi might upgrade the sensors to get a better picture quality, especially in low light. Moreover, the company has already revealed that the Mi 7 will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 clubbed with 8GB RAM.

As for the camera, the Mi 7 will feature 16MP+16MP dual rear camera setup while the front might sport a single 16MP sensor as well. The Mi 7 will apparently be the first Xiaomi smartphone to support wireless charging. The phone could draw its power from a 4480mAh battery. The Mi 7 would likely run Android Oreo-based MIUI 9 out-of-the-box. If rumours are to be believed, the Mi 7 might come with a price tag of $500 (approximately Rs 31,800).

Rumours suggest that Xiaomi is working on a successor to the Mi A1 smartphone dubbed as Mi A2. The Mi A1 was launched back in 2017 in India and was the company's first Android One smartphone that came with Stock Android software. In China, the Mi A1 is named as Mi 5X and runs MIUI 9. There are rumours of Xiaomi working on a Mi 6X aka Mi A2 smartphone. If true, there is a possibility that the Mi 6X could come to India dubbed as Mi A2 Android One smartphone.

Previous reports suggested that the Mi 6X will be showcased at MWC 2018 with the company's own Surge S2 chipset. It will have an octa-core CPU with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.2GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.8GHz. The processor is said to have a Mali G71 MP8 graphics processor and support for LPDDR4 RAM and UFS 2.1 storage. As per the leaked images, the phone will largely sport 5.99-inch display similar to Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus. The Mi 6X will feature an iPhone X-like design with a vertical dual rear camera setup. The handset could sport 18:9 touchscreen and a rear fingerprint sensor.

Also read: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 review: Redmi Note 4 fortified with new display, camera

(with inputs from India Today)

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 18)  The body of slain Filipino worker Joanna Demafelis is finally home.

Demafelis' remains were brought to her hometown of Sara, Iloilo, Sunday afternoon.

Her body arrived in the Philippines from Kuwait on Friday, and was flown to Iloilo Saturday. She was then taken to a funeral home before she was brought home.

The 29-year-old flew to Kuwait to work as a domestic helper and seek a better life for her family, but met a grim fate in the Arab nation.

Her body was found inside a freezer in an abandoned apartment in the Al Shaab district of Kuwait in January, a year after she had gone missing.

She was beaten several times before she died, according to initial autopsy findings. Her family also said Joanna appeared to have undergone so much abuse.

"'Yung kabila ng mukha...'saka 'yung kamay niya. Durog-durong na ba 'yung buto. 'Saka yung bewang, 'saka yung ribs parang durog na," Joanna's father Crisanto said after seeing her in the funeral home.

[Translation:The side of the face...and her hand. The bones were crushed. And her waist and ribs, they seemed crushed.]

The Demafelis family is preparing for a two-week wake in Iloilo. They have asked for privacy at this time.

Joanna's death has sparked calls for better treatment of overseas Filipino workers. Following her death the government signed an administrative order to completely ban the deployment of all workers to Kuwait.

READ: DOLE orders total ban on deployment of OFWs to KuwaitWe are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law, she vowed -- slamming the fact 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Fort Lauderdale: A survivor of the Parkland school shooting called out US President Donald Trump on Saturday over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, as several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.

Three days after a troubled teen armed with an assault rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd of students, parents and residents in nearby Ft Lauderdale.

To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! she thundered, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby. The crowd chanted in turn: Shame on you!

We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law, she vowed -- slamming the fact 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour.

The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics, Gonzalez said following her speech.

In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health -- making no mention of gun control.

Also Read: FBI chief pressured to resign amid Florida anger over tipoff negligence

If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association, Gonzalez said in her impassioned address.

It doesnt matter because I already know. Thirty million, she said, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trumps election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.

She then ran through a list of the pro-gun lobbys talking points -- for example, that a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun, that no law could ever stop a madman intent on killing -- answering each argument with We call BS.

The young womans powerful address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.

Trump tweeted a day after the massacre that neighbours and fellow students had failed to flag Cruz to the authorities.

We did, Gonzalez fired back, her voice shaking with emotion as she insisted the community had done its best to raise the alarm. Time and time again. Since he was in middle school. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter.

Also Read: Florida school shooter a 'troubled' ex-student, loved guns, say cops

Missed warnings

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated Cruz in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

The newspaper, citing Department of Children and Family Services documents, said the investigation came four days after Cruz turned 18 -- legally an adult, and thus able to buy a firearm.

Investigators said there were some implications for the teens safety, but concluded that his final level of risk is low as (he) resides with his mother, attends school and receives counselling as an outpatient at a mental health center, the Sun Sentinel said.

Cruz later passed a background check, allowing him in February 2017 to buy the AR-15 rifle used in the massacre.

Also Read: I'm not opening door: Indian-origin teacher saved many lives in Florida shooting

School safety

Trump spoke by phone Saturday with the Parkland mayor, the county commissioner and the principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to express his condolences and offer his support.

He then turned political in a tweet Saturday night, asking why didnt the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didnt want to, and now they just talk!

Trump is staunchly opposed to additional restrictions on guns or gun ownership, but Vice President Mike Pence said at an event in Dallas the president would make school safety a top priority when he meets with governors of US states in the coming days.

Lets pray for wisdom. For all in positions of authority that we might find a way to come together as a nation to confront and end this evil in our time once and for all, Pence said.Islamabad: Pakistan will send transgender persons to Saudi Arabia to serve as Khuddamul Hujjaj (servants of pilgrims) this year.

Official said the transgender persons will be part of a team of more than 150 boy scouts being sent to Saudi Arabia.

An official said, Efforts for sending transgender youth to Saudi Arabia to serve as Khuddamul Hujjaj are being made.

Blue Veins, a transgender welfare organisation, is coordinating with the government in this initiative.

At least two to three transgender persons will be selected from each of the provinces for joining the scouting community that leaves for Saudi Arabia every year, he said.

The official said recently 40 transgender youth from Sindh were administered oath on joining the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association (PBSA)  a national scouting organisation and one of the largest volunteer forces in the country.

The transgender persons would be part of a team of more than 150 boy scouts, he said, adding that last year over a hundred boy scouts had been sent.

Blue Veins Programme Coordinator Qamar Naseem said, After the recruitment of 40 transgender persons in Sindh, we are planning recruitment processes in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

He said, This can be a game changer and can significantly improve the social acceptance of transgender youth in our society. He termed the recruitment step a positive initiative that would help the transgender community in improving its image at local as well as regional level.Neena Lall, the head-teacher of St Stephens School in east London, has been in the eye of the storm over a decision to ban the hijab for girls under eight years, a decision she was forced to reverse in January amid backlash from the community. (Representational Image)

London: UK police are investigating the alleged online abuse of an Indian-origin school principal who was characterised as German dictator Adolf Hitler over her attempt to ban the hijab for very young pupils.

Neena Lall, the head-teacher of St Stephens School in east London, has been in the eye of the storm over a decision to ban the hijab for girls under eight years, a decision she was forced to reverse in January amid backlash from the community.

A complaint has now been filed with local police in Newham, east London, about emails, Facebook posts and other social media messages received by both Lall and Arif Qawi, the former chairman of governors, The Sunday Times reported.

Local police confirmed that they were assessing a report of malicious communications following abusive e-mails having been received in connection with the case.

Also Read: Indian-origin UK school principal branded as 'Hitler' over hijab ban

Qawi claimed that a campaign of messages, some abusive, over several days had forced the school to reverse its hijab ban. "I resigned because I did not agree with reversing the hijab ban and to protect the head-teacher. She was told that if I left, the campaign would stop, he told the newspaper.

No head teacher or governing body should be subject to the sorts of abuse we have heard reported in these recent incidents, said UK education secretary Damian Hinds, the latest high-profile figure to come out in defence of the schools right to set its own uniform policy.

Lord Theodore Agnew, Britains minister for schools systems, faith and counter-extremism in education, had last week offered his backing to Lall over her decision.

St. Stephens Primary School in east London has been at the centre of media attention after its ban on young pupils wearing the hijab and fasting during Ramadan. I have seen the vitriolic abuse on social media after this decision and read of the intimidation of staff, resulting in the resignation of the chairman of governors. I wanted to send out a clear message: bullying or intimidation of school staff is completely unacceptable, he said.

Earlier in February, the UKs independent schools watchdog  the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted)  had also came out in support of the school.

School leaders must have the right to set school uniform policies in a way that they see fit, in order to promote cohesion, said Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted.

Under the UKs Department for Education guidelines, uniform policy is a matter for individual head-teachers and their governing bodies.

Next week, Ofsted inspectors are to publish a report praising the schools leaders and governors. It is expected to confirm that the school is outstanding  the highest inspection judgment for schools  and criticise the pressures brought to bear on Lall and her management team.Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years. (Representational Image)

Tehran: A passenger plane with 66 people on board crashed in Central Iran on Sunday, spokesman for Irans Aseman Airline has told the state TV.

Mohammad Tabatabaie, Aseman's public relations chief, told the ISNA news agency that, "Given the special circumstances of the region, we still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane".

Earlier, Tabatabai spoke to state TV and said the flight carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members.

The plane crashed in Mount Dena, which is some 440 meters (1,440 feet) tall, he said.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near the remote mountain town of Semirom, some 620 kilometers (390 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

The semi-official Fars news agency says a commercial airplane carrying 66 people has crashed in southern Iran.

The report on Sunday says the plane crashed near the remote mountain town of Semirom, some 620 kilometers, or about 390 miles) south of the capital, Tehran.

The report identified the plane as an ATR-72. It said the plane was flying from Tehran to the southern Iranian city of Yasuj.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes.Famous Pune-based builder D S Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti were on Saturday arrested in New Delhi in connection with a more than Rs 200-crore fraud and cheating case.



The arrest came a day after the Bombay High Court refused to extend interim anticipatory bail to them.



Kulkarni, the founder of DSK Group, and his wife were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the Pune City police.



The duo had been accused of cheating over 2,000 investors to the tune of more than Rs 200 crore.



Deputy Commissioner of Police Pankaj Dahane, who heads the Pune EOW, said that the couple was being brought to Pune.



Kulkarni is the Chairman of DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd (DSKDL), flagship of the DSK group of companies that has diversified business interests in mainly realty sector.



The depositors, in their complaint, had said the builder had promised to pay them interest at 14% on their deposits. However, since last year, his financial condition started deteriorating and he failed to pay interest on deposits. Last year, depositors had started queuing up outside his company.



Kulkarni had assured the court that they would deposit Rs 50 crore within a fortnight. However, the couple could not keep the promise.



The 8th edition of The Theatre Olympics, being hosted in India for the first time, will soon come to Bengaluru.



The international theatre festival began at Delphi, Greece, in 1993. It was inaugurated in New Delhi on Saturday and will run in 17 cities for 51 days with 450 shows. The festival is meant to be a cultural exchange and has about 25,000 artistes from other countries.

Twenty-four performances will be held in Bengaluru between February 20 and March 6 at Ravindra Kalakshetra and Kalagrama, Mallathahalli.

The theme of the festival is 'Flag of Friendship' and is being organised by the National School of Drama, Bengaluru, with support from the Department of Kannada and Culture.

Four international productions from Poland, Greece, and Lithuania have been scheduled for the city edition of the festival. Among Indian theatre groups will be a solo performance of 'Kabeer' by Shekhar Sen, depicting the life of the legendary poet and philosopher. The epic of Mahabharata will be told using puppetry by Anurupa Roy and her group The Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust from New Delhi. The award-winning act will use Kannada, English and Hindi to depict the story.

Plays in Assamese, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu will give theatre enthusiasts a chance to witness theatre styles from across the country.

Folk art performances from the state will be staged at Ravindra Kalakshetra. The students' union of NSD, Bengaluru, will stage short pantomimes and street plays before the shows to get youth interested in theatre. Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain would take part in the 'Living Legend' interaction.

Tickets will be available for Rs 50. For details, visit http://www.8ththeatreolympics.nsd.gov.in.Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland has withdrawn from the Delhi High Court a plea against invocation by the Indian Navy to buy 56 naval utility choppers.of its Rs 3-crore bank guarantee deposited to bid for a tender floated



The company withdrew the plea as the Centre had encashed the bank guarantee after the high court revoked its stay preventing the government from invoking it.

The submission on behalf of the Italian company was made before Justice Jayant Nath who "dismissed as withdrawn" the civil suit of the helicopter manufacturer.

The high court on October 17 last year had revoked its stay on the invocation of the bank guarantee.

The order came as the Italian company had neither deposited the amount of Rs 3 crore in the court, nor given a guarantee of a nationalised bank or banks such as ICICI, Axis Bank or HDFC as directed by the high court.

The court had earlier made it clear that not complying with its directions would lead to revocation of the interim stay order.

The amount of Rs 3 crore was deposited by the company along with the pre-contract integrity pact, which was one of the conditions of the request for technical and commercial proposal (RFP) issued to it by the government.

The integrity pact, signed in 2013, said that if a successful bidder violated the agreement, it would entail forfeiture of the bank guarantee.

Central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for the Centre, had earlier told the court that the bank guarantee was invoked and full payment of the amount was demanded as the company had allegedly violated the integrity pact.

In its petition challenging the invocation of the bank guarantee, the company had said that the government in its invocation letter did not say that the RFP has already been withdrawn.

The company had claimed that it was not informed of any alleged breach of the integrity pact and that once the government had withdrawn the RFP, it had no right to seek enforcement of the bank guarantee.

It had said that the government instead was obligated to return the bank guarantee.

The company, in its plea, had also alleged that by invoking the bank guarantee, the government was trying to "unjustly enrich itself". PTI HMP SKV PPS ZMN TIRPresident Donald Trump said the FBI "missed all of the many signals" sent by the suspect in the Florida school shooting.



Trump says on Twitter on Saturday night: "This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud."

The FBI received a tip last month that the suspect in the Florida school shooting had a "desire to kill" and access to guns and could be plotting an attack.

But the agency said on Friday that agents failed to investigate.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has called on FBI director Christopher Wray to resign.

Trump has been a frequent critic of the FBI, accusing it of partisan bias.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 18)  Senate begins on Monday its probe of the Philippine Navys controversial P15.74 billion frigate deal.

Senators will investigate the issue to determine if there was intervention in the selection of a supplier for the combat management systems (CMS) of two war ships purchased by the Navy.

The frigate deal is one of the Armed Forces big-ticket modernization projects. The ships purchased were meant to beef up the country's territorial defense and disaster response capabilities.

The Senate probe aims to find out if the deal is being implemented in accordance with the contract initiated by the Aquino administration in 2015 and signed during President Rodrigo Duterte's term.

It comes in the wake of allegations Special Assistant to the President Bong Go, Dutertes right-hand man, intervened in the process by backing a South Korean firm as a supplier.

The Senate resolution calling for the probe, however, made no mention of his supposed role.

READ: Senate to probe controversial frigate deal

Go is accused of influencing the decision on which company will install the CMS of two war ships purchased by the Navy. The CMS is known as the ship's "brain, and integrates all of its sensors and weapons.

Go allegedly recommended South Korean Company Hanwha Tales system, while former flag officer-in-command Vice Admiral Joseph Mercado reportedly preferred Tacticos Thales of Netherlands

Mercado was relieved from his post December last year for supposedly delaying the deal's implementation. Go, meanwhile, had earlier denied any hand in the project.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes said he has new information about the deal, although he believes Special Assistant Go had nothing to do with the contract.

I don't think he has any personal financial interest in this matter, he said. Mr. Bong Go is not capable of doing his own thing without any authority from Mr. Duterte because he knows that this guy can kill him.

Go has vowed to attend the hearing. Malacanang says his testimony will prove he has nothing to hide.

"Expect Sec. Go to tell all, and as instructed by the President, he would likely demand for an open and transparent Senate inquiry to show that he - and the Administration - has nothing to hide as he would squarely answer questions, in full view of the public," Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.

Navy Chief Rear Admiral Robert Empedrad, meanwhile, looks forward to testifying at the hearing to put allegations of corruption to rest.

Very good at least the truth will come out there is no anomaly in the frigate walang anomalya, he said.

Trillanes has also promised an interesting hearing on the issue.

It's going to be a very interesting hearing, I can assure you, he said.

CNN Philippines' Eimor Santos contributed to this report.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday toured the Taj Mahal with his wife and children as he began a week-long visit to promote trade and investment with India.



Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their three children posed for a family portrait before marvelling at the legendary marble monument frequently visited by foreign leaders during roadshows to India.

It was Trudeau's first visit to India since taking office in 2015. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and efforts to expand trade will dominate an agenda also covering energy, education and infrastructure.

"Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries," Trudeau tweeted before embarking on the trip.

Trade between Canada and India has doubled in the last decade to just over $8 billion in 2016, a figure which India's foreign ministry says "does not reflect true potential".

Canada is home to more than 1.2 million Indians - more than3% of its population - and Trudeau is joined by Sikh members of his Cabinet for the visit.

The delegation will walk a diplomatic tightrope in Punjab where Trudeau will visit the Golden Temple - the holiest site in Sikhism, and the scene of a bloody massacre of religious separatists in 1984.

For decades Sikh separatists have been agitating for an independent state, and last year Punjab's chief minister accused Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, who joins Trudeau on this trip, of being sympathetic to their cause.

The Canadian premier will meet Indian political leaders, civil society figures and corporate executives between ceremonial visits to religious sites and national memorials.

Trudeau is scheduled to visit Modi's home state of Gujarat on Monday before jetting off to Mumbai for talks with CEOs and business leaders the next day.

After visiting Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday, Trudeau will meet Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi following a welcome at the presidential palace and a wreath-laying at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial.

Modi visited Canada in 2015 and addressed a crowd of 10,000 from the Indian diaspora in Toronto.Describing the BJP as "dyed in the colour of patriotism", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the party believes in the core of democracy and it enables them to take its allies along.



Inaugurating the new BJP central office on Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Marg, Modi recalled the contributions of the AB Vajpayee-led government and said his predecessor was successful in taking allies along, while navigating regional aspirations and sparking a new hope in the country.

"The root cause for this is that democracy is in our blood. That is why we are moving forward while taking everyone along to the best extent possible," he said inaugurating the new BJP headquarters.

His comments come even as some of the BJP's allies like the TDP, Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal have spoken about their differences with the saffron party.

While the Shiv Sena announced that it will contest the next Lok Sabha polls alone, the TDP is raising the decibel levels over financial assistance to Andhra Pradesh.

Modi said the BJP and its forerunner, the Jana Sangh, led all agitations held in national interest and it never wavered from its ideals and patriotism.

He said the Jana Sangh was founded because after Independence a need was felt to have more national parties.

"After Independence, the Bhartiya Jana Sangh and then the BJP led all agitations held in national interest in the country. And we are proud of it," he said.

"The BJP is 'dyed in the colour of patriotism' and is always willing to struggle and sacrifice for the cause of the nation, " he added.

He said different views of political parties make a bouquet of democracy is beautiful but a lot is still needed to be done about the way they are constituted and function.The government has set March 31 as the deadline for states to set up cyber forensic training labs for which Rs 82.8 crore has already been released.



The setting up of these forensic training labs comes as part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) plans to control cyber crimes in the country.

It has already asked states to gear up institutional mechanism to tackle cyber crimes, which pose "technical, administrative as well as legal challenges" in investigations.

The MHA has also unveiled an extensive training programme in which 37,500 policemen and judicial officers will be trained in the next two years about the facets of cyber crime.

As per the scheme, states that got Rs 3.94 crore as grant should set up a lab with at least 25 work stations.

Those who got Rs 2.30 crore each should have labs with 25 workstations and 15 for those who got Rs 1.48 crore each.

"These funds have to be utilised only for the purchase of cyber forensic tools and lab resources and it cannot be used for civil work or construction of lab," a senior official said.

According to a concept note circulated by the MHA on cyber crimes, most of the crimes now have an element of misuse of computers, smartphones and communication networks and these technologies are being used by criminals in committing conventional crimes.

"Increasing use of internet and social media has resulted in a plethora of varied crimes being committed in the cyber domain. It has become imperative for the law enforcement agencies to have an in-depth understanding of the working of the cyber domain and the modus operandi of crimes being committed therein," it said.

There is a need to evaluate electronic evidences for nailing culprits and the training is aimed at enabling investigators to extract legally tenable evidences for securing conviction in courts, it added.More than 40 languages or dialects in India are considered to be endangered and is believed to be heading towards extinction as only a few thousand people speak them, officials said.



According to a report of the census directorate, there are 22 scheduled languages and 100 non-scheduled languages in the country which are spoken by a large number of people - 1 lakh or more.

However, there are around 42 languages which are spoken by less than 10,000 people. These are considered endangered and may be heading towards extinction, a home ministry official said.

A list prepared by Unesco has also mentioned about the 42 languages or dialects in India which are endangered and they may be heading towards extinction, the official said.

The languages or dialects which were considered endangered, include 11 from Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Lamongse, Luro, Muot, Onge, Pu, Sanenyo, Sentilese, Shompen and Takahanyilang), seven from Manipur (Aimol, Aka, Koiren, Lamgang, Langrong, Purum and Tarao) and four from Himachal Pradesh (Baghati, Handuri, Pangvali and Sirmaudi).

The other languages in the endangered category are Manda, Parji and Pengo (Odisha), Koraga and Kuruba (Karnataka), Gadaba and Naiki (Andhra Pradesh), Kota and Toda (Tamil Nadu), Mra and Na (Arunachal Pradesh), Tai Nora and Tai Rong (Assam), Bangani (Uttarakhand), Birhor (Jharkhand), Nihali (Maharashtra), Ruga (Meghalaya) and Toto (West Bengal).

The Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, has been working for the protection and preservation of endangered languages of the country, under a central scheme, another official said.

Under the programme, grammatical descriptions, monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, language primers, anthologies of folklore, encyclopedias of all languages or dialects especially those spoken by less than 10,000 people are being prepared, the official said.

Apart from the 22 scheduled languages, there are 31 other languages in the country which were given the status of official language by various state governments and Union territories.

According to the census data, there are 1,635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues and 22 major languages in the country.The Congress on Sunday claimed "fraudsters" were linked to the "highest echelons" of the BJP-led NDA and urged the government to bring out a white paper on the banking system which it said had witnessed scams involving over Rs 61,000 crore in the last five years.



"Bank frauds are tumbling out of the closet faster than you can say Jack Robinson," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said, claiming that another banking fraud was now out in the open.

Referring to the Rs 11,400-crore scam in which billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi reportedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), Tewari said while the "Modi-Choksi tango" was still going on, reports had emerged about another banking fraud.

Vikram Kothari, the owner of Rotomac pens, owes Rs 800 crore to a consortium of Indian banks and was now untraceable, he said.

The frauds in the Indian banks are growing every day, the former Union minister said, claiming that according to Reserve Bank of India data, Rs 61,260 crore of banking frauds had taken place in the last five years.

"Data released by the RBI show that Rs 61,260 crore banking frauds have taken place in the last five years, and out of these five years, the BJP-led NDA has been in power for four years. The linkages between these fraudsters and the highest echelons of the BJP raise some very serious questions about the health of the Indian economy," he told reporters here.

"Therefore, the Congress party demands a white paper on the Indian banking system from the government," he said, adding that the BJP-led NDA should direct all banks to publish and declare the name of fraudsters and details related to NPAs ( non-performing assets).

The total NPAs of all public and private banks were worth Rs 8,36,782 crore as of September, 2017.

"And 77% of these NPAs are of leading Indian corporate offices," he said, accusing the government of being unable to check NPAs and take care of the general public's money. India occupies the fifth position among 39 countries on NPAs, he added.

An NPA is when a loan taker cannot pay interest for two successive quarters. The Congress has been attacking the government over the fraud involving PNB, which detected a $1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400-crore) scam in which jeweller Modi acquired fake LoUs from the bank to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

"It is hilarious that PNB, where this scam happened, won the vigilant award for 2016-17," Tewari said, adding that this scam raised important question about the lack of transparency in the government.In a shocking incident, the daughter and mother of a Nagpur-based journalist was found brutally murdered on Sunday.



The mother and daughter of Ravikant Kamble, a crime reporter with Nagpur Times, were reported missing since Saturday evening.

The bodies of Usha Kamble (56) and her 18-month-old granddaughter Rashi were discovered by some people behind a school building in Sitabuldi area of Nagpur. Both of their throats were slit.

According to latest reports, two peeople have been detained by the Nagpur Police and they are being questioned.

Personal enmity and financial disputes are the angles that are being probed by the police.

The double murder has come as a major shock to the people of Nagpur, which is the hometown of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also hold the home portfolio.

"The police should ensure that the accused are punished in a manner which proves a deterrent against carrying out such gruesome murders. We stand in solidarity with the affected family," the Mumbai Press Club said in a statement.Days after the Medical Council for India (MCI) barred open school students from appearing for the undergraduate medical entrance examination, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is now flooded with queries on the issue that it cannot answer.



Finding it difficult to respond to each student's query, the board has put out a notice recently, urging NEET (national eligibility-cum-entrance test) aspirants not to ask for an answer on a decision taken by the MCI.

"Follow the instructions given by the MCI. The CBSE has no role to play in it," the board said in its latest advisory to students.

A large number of students and their parents have sought a clarification on the MCI's decision, requesting the CBSE to allow open school students to take the NEET, to be held on May 6.

The MCI barred all open school students, including those who cleared their Class XII board examinations through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), to sit in the NEET in 2018, though it was allowed last year.

From this year, the medical education regulator has also barred students, who have cleared their Class XII board as private candidates, from taking the test.

Both the open school students and private candidates were eligible to sit in the nationwide test till last year.

In 2017, as many as 4,460 students registered for the medical entrance test, of which 4,114 gave the examination and 1,412 qualified.

More than 50% of the successful candidates a 864 to be exact a were from the NIOS.

But in a surprise decision, the MCI's executive council decided to reverse the policy from this year, ignoring multiple requests from the NIOS.

Sources said Union Health Minister JP Nadda was "almost convinced" with the NIOS arguments on the issue during his meeting with the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar in January.

However, the MCI had its way.

Apart from the NIOS students, the controversial decision led to denial of opportunity to hundreds of students from six other open schools in Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

"No reply to any such (student's) query on the eligibility condition will be given by the CBSE. The eligibility criteria have been provided by the MCI which is stipulated in the Information Bulletin (released for the NEET 2018)," CBSE said in its advisory.Two policemen were killed and six others injured in a gun-battle with Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Sunday, a top official said.



The encounter took place in a forest under the Bhejji police station when a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and local police was out on an "area-domination operation", Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.

As the team was passing through the forest between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, around 500 km from state capital Raipur, it came under heavy firing from the ultras, leading to the gun-battle, the DIG said.

The exchange of fire lasted for over two hours, he added.

"Assistant constables Madkam Handa and Mukesh Kadthi of the DRG were killed and six other jawans were injured," the DIG said.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel as well as the bodies of the slain jawans were brought to Bhejji.

The injured jawans were being airlifted to Raipur, the DIG added.

In another incident along the stretch between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, where a road construction project is underway, the Maoists killed Anil Kumar, the supervisor of a private contractor, and set vehicles engaged in the road construction work ablaze, Sundarraj said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 18)  The University of Santo Tomas has expelled eight law students allegedly involved in the hazing death of UST law student Horacio 'Atio' Castillo III.

The UST Public Affairs Office confirmed the university's decision to CNN Philippines after news of the expulsions was first reported on Sunday by The Varsitarian, UST's official student publication.

The report said UST formed a committee tasked to investigate Castillo's death on September 19, two days after the hazing incident.

The law students were found guilty of violating the Code of Conduct and Discipline for students, although the Public Affairs Office has yet to specify which part of the Code.

UST has yet to disclose the names of the students who were kicked out. They are believed to be members of the Aegis Juris Fraternity.

The expulsions come as UST draws flak over its supposed silence on the case.

The university, meanwhile, insists it has conducted investigations and will continue to do so until all the involved students will be held administratively liable.

UST Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina, in a statement sent to CNN Philippines, said the committee has exercised its authority and carried out the mandate the university has given it.

Divina also said the the Faculty of Civil Law will faithfully implement the resolution.

Atio's family: Expulsions still not enough

Speaking to CNN Philippines, the Castillo family welcomed the expulsions, saying they're better late than never.

However, Atio's mother, Carminia Castillo, said the university's move is still not enough.

"Of course we still need more from them like what about their actions with regards to the faculty members, with the Dean," she said. "They have to answer a lot... they still need to ban the Aegis Juris from the university," she said.

Carminia said the family will still proceed with their complaint against UST before the Vatican, which has direct authority over the university.

Carmina said not only the fraternity, but also UST has violated "every single provision of the anti-hazing law."

"These are lawyers, they know the law, there's already an existing Anti-Hazing Law and they have violated every section of the law, including the school The school was not even there to oversee and Aegis Juris," she said.

She is also calling on the fraternity members to come out in the open and answer hanging questions on the case.

Among these was the failure of UST Law Dean Nilo Divina to inform the Castillos of Atio's death, when he allegedly knew about it before the family did. Divina has denied involvement in the incident.

Carminia also asks why the fraternity's alumni members met in a hotel in Quezon City to cover up the hazing incident.

"They have to answer. I mean, they have to clear their name if they're at all innocent," she said.

She said no one from the fraternity has reached out to the family since Atio's death.

"Wala, walang lumalapit sa amin (no one has approached us), not sending any messages or what I am still waiting for that UST report, of course the names of the students because it will form part of our investigation as well," she said.

Castillo died in September 2017. Five months after his death, no one has been apprehended or found guilty.

Timeline: The case of Horacio Castillo III

The Justice Department has submitted for resolution the criminal complaint filed against Aegis members. It is set to release the results of its preliminary investigation within the month.

The Supreme Court has also treated a letter from Senator Panfilo Lacson, who headed the Senate probe on the issue, as a complaint against 21 lawyers connected with the Aegis Juris fraternity, including Divina.

Castillo, who had last told his parents he would attend a "welcoming party" of the fraternity, was found dead on September 18, 2017. His death prompted calls for tighter anti-hazing laws.

Following Atio's death, both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved bills completely banning hazing as a requirement for admission into a fraternity, sorority, or organization.BJP national president Amit Shah will tour the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada, from February 19 to 21.



Briefing reporters here on Sunday, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said Shah would tour all the 30 districts in the state twice before the election. Fearing Shah's visit and the BJP wave in the state, the Congress leaders are issuing all kinds of statements and are hiding in the den, he said.

"There is an anti-incumbency wave. The Congress is fearing losing the upcoming elections. KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao had stated that Amit Shah incites communal disturbances. However, the state has seen highest number of communal disturbances and gang war during the Congress regime all these years," he said.

Further, he said, "When the chief minister visited Mangaluru, Sharath Madiwala died. During his visit to Uttara Kannada, Paresh Mesta was killed. Wherever the chief minister goes, there is a murder," he said. However, the state has not witnessed communal disturbances or murders during Shah's visit to the state. The Congress leaders should issue responsible statements, he added.

On arecanut, Kateel said it was the UPA government which submitted an affidavit on a report claiming there was carcenogenic content in arecanut. The NDA government is making all efforts to withdraw the affidavit in the court through the ministry of law, agriculture and health. Already, three rounds of meetings have been held with the ministers of law, agriculture and health.

Udupi BJP president Mattaru Rathnakar Hegde said all preparations had been made for Shah's visit to Udupi district, including the Krishna Mutt, on February 20 and 21.A mob assaulted a man and injected acid in his eyes leaving him blind for allegedly eloping with his employer's wife.



Following the incident a person has been arrested and the police were searching for other attackers, police said on Sunday.

The assault took place at an eatery in Pipra Chowk on Saturday night in which the man, a driver by profession, was left critically injured, Deputy Superintendent of Police B K Singh said.

The 30-year-old man, a resident of Samastipur district, became blind after the incident, doctors attending him at a hospital said.

In a statement before the police, the victim said he used to work as a tractor driver at Barauni village under Teghra police station and started an affair with his employer's wife.

On February 6, he and his paramour fled from the house following which her husband lodged a complaint with the police charging him with kidnapping his wife, the DSP said.

However, she came to Teghra on February 16 and recorded her statement in a local court that asked her husband, a farmer, to take her to his house.

It was not immediately known why she had returned and what she said in the court.

Her brother-in-law rang up the driver on Saturday claiming that she wanted to live with him and he should come to Teghra police station to take her back with him, the police official said.

Barely a kilometre from the police station, the driver was accosted by a group of around 20 people who took him to the eatery and severely assaulted him.

The DSP said they also injected acid in his eyes with a syringe.

They later dumped him near Hanuman Chowk under Bhagwanpur police station area of the district.

A passer-by admitted him to a hospital at Begusarai.The Bahubali Hospital, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, is among the various social welfare programmes undertaken by the Jain Mutt here.



The money collected from the auction of 'kalashas' during Mahamastakabhisheka is used for renovation of Jain basadis, educational, literary and social welfare activities.

Ashok Patni, a devotee from Rajasthan, had purchased the first kalasha for Rs 1.08 crore during the 2006 Mahamastakabhisheka. The amount was used for the construction of a children's hospital. Now, a general hospital has been constructed at a cost of Rs three crore, donated by Inox Group CSR Trust and Sidho Mall Charitable Trust, New Delhi.

It is a 50-bed, two-storey hospital, comprising laboratory, x-ray room, operation theatres, labour ward, eye, dental and paediatric departments. Ten specialists including a cardiologist, anaesthesiologist and paediatrician will serve at the hospital. Two ambulances have been purchased and four housing quarters for the staff have been constructed.

The hospital caters to patients around Shravanabelagola hobli and also Turuvekere, Channarayapatna, Hirisave, Nagamangala and KR Pet taluks. Donors from Bengaluru, Mandya, Hubballi and Indore have been extending support by supplying the medicines required.

Speaking to DH, Dr Parshwanath said the money collected through auction during 2006 had been utilised for healthcare. There are also plans to open a Dharmashala, he said. As part of the Mastakabhisheka, 17 health camps were conducted and there was free distribution of artificial limbs, tests conducted for diabetes, blood pressure and others.

Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Swami of the Jain Mutt said the existing hospital will be upgraded to a 200-bed hospital utilising the auction money of the 2018 Mastakabhisheka. Ashok Patni, who has purchased the prestigious kalasha this year also, has assured to extend financial help if necessary, he said.As many as 30 operational air fields of the Air Force are finally set to have improved navigational aids by June, almost four years behind the original schedule.



Meanwhile, a second initiative to upgrade another 37 strategic airfields is yet to take off due to a procedural lapse on the part of the Defence Ministry and Air Headquarters.

Way back in March 2011, the Defence Ministry signed a Rs 1,219.99 crore agreement with Tata Power to install and commission modern navigational aids in 30 airfields, and linking the instruments to the ATC.

The Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) Phase-1 was to be completed in 42 months - by October 2014.

But only 25 airfields were readied by December 2017 and IAF hopes the remaining five would be completed by June 2018, nearly four years behind schedule.

Incidentally, Chabua Air Force Station in Assam - one of the first bases in the eastern sector to receive Su-30 MKI fighters in 2011 - is included in the last batch on MAFI-1.

This compelled the IAF to shift the combat jets to Hashimara in northern part of West Bengal for regular sorties, notwithstanding Hashimara's proximity to Doklam where Indian and Chinese troops had a 72-days face off last year.

In the part-II of the project, it was planned to modernise another 37 airfields. While 24 of these airfields belong to the IAF, 9 of them are from the Navy and two each from Indian Coast Guard and Aviation Research Centre under the Cabinet Secretariat.

But the scheme was caught in a knot for more than two years, sources told DH.

The second phase of the project was first approved in February 2014 by then defence minister A K Antony using an option clause of the MAFI Phase-1 project at an estimated cost of Rs 1125 crore. But the option was applicable to only 30 airfields while the need was to upgrade 37.

For nearly two years, the government couldn't decide what to do because exercising the option clause would mean taking recourse to a fresh tender route for the remaining seven.

Finally the defence ministry under Manohar Parrikar in September 2016 decided to go for a fresh clearance to all the 37 projects under the (MAFI-1) option clause.

A letter of intent was issued to Tata Power in December 2016 against which the company submitted a draft contract in March 2017.

The two sides are currently engaged in price negotiations.

He also accused Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of "hiding". The Congress also hit out at the Modi government for fielding the social justice minister, HRD minister and defence minister to counter Opposition's onslaught on "India's biggest bank loot scam".



"PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hrs, but won't speak for 2 mins on the 22,000 cr scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you're guilty! Speak up," Rahul said on Twitter.



He was referring to the prime minister's address to school students on Friday on how to deal with exam tension.



Keeping up the heat on the government, the Congress said there were now reports that another businessman Vikram Kothari of Rotomac Pens, who owed Rs 800 crore to banks, was untraceable.



"Bank frauds are tumbling out of the closet faster than you can say Jack Robinson," Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters here.



Tewari claimed that according to RBI data, banking frauds totalling Rs 61,260 crore have taken place in the last five years.



"The Congress party demands a white paper on the Indian banking system from the government during the Budget Session of Parliament," the former union minister said.



Tewari also wanted the government to direct all banks to publish the names of all fraudsters and details of non-performing assets of banks.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" on the multi-crore banking fraud and asked him to "stop behaving as if you are guilty".Police on Sunday took into custody two suspects in connection with the murder of Youth Congress leader Shuhaib in Kannur.



The detained men, Akash MV and Rijin Raj, are both CPM workers. They are reported to have surrendered at the Maloor police station. The arrest of the two men is expected to be recorded on Monday.

Shuhaib (30), Youth Congress block secretary in Mattannur, died on Tuesday after sustaining serious injuries in an armed attack near a road-side eatery at Theroor.

Two other Congress workers also sustained injuries in the attack. Shuhaib was involved in recent clashes between student wings of the CPM and the Congress.

The ruling CPM is facing criticism over the killing and the Opposition Congress has intensified its protest against inaction by the police and claimed that the CPM was protecting the killers.

The CPM leadership in Kannur has denied a party hand in the murder.

Congress leaders said the detained men were made to surrender to derail the investigation while the real killers remained elusive.

The Congress had earlier said the police were waiting for "dummy" culprits to be presented by the CPM before making arrests in the case.

Senior Congress leader from Kannur K Sudhakaran is set to begin a 48-hour fast in front of the District Collectorate on Monday demanding the arrest of the killers and conspirators involved in the murder.

The two detained men are also learnt to be accused in the murder of RSS worker Vineesh in Kannur, in September 2016.The CBI is examining balance sheets of 18 India-based subsidiaries of the Gitanjali group of companies, promoted by Mehul Choksi, to understand the money trail of funds taken from various banks.



The funds were taken on the basis of Rs 11,384 crore of guarantees furnished by the Punjab National Bank (PNB), officials said here on Monday.

The CBI officials said the agency is continuing the questioning of arrested bank officials - Gokulnath Shetty, Manoj Kharat and a signatory of Nirav Modi company's - besides that of other officials of the PNB, to find out the money trail and depth of the alleged scam, spread across thousand of documents and digital records.

They said the agency is also analysing records recovered from a huge server seized during searches after registration of the FIR against Mehul Choksi.

When asked about possible quid pro quo involved in the alleged scam perpetrated by billionaire diamond merchants Nirav Choksi and PNB officials, they said they are still looking into it and it cannot be clearly said if there were regular payments or not.

"Right now the focus is to understand the depth of the scam, the movement of funds and role of other senior officials," an official said.

One of the biggest financial scams of the country surfaced when the companies of Nirav and Choksi approached the PNB's Brady road branch, Mumbai, in January this year seeking Letter of Understanding (LoU) for payments to suppliers.

The official handling the case had sought 100% cash guarantee before any such letters could be issued, to which the company officials said no such guarantee was sought in the past.

The official checked the records, which did not show such Letters of Understanding (LoU) to Nirav or Choksi's company, which led to suspicion.

It is alleged that Shetty, for the last seven years, was bypassing core banking system of the bank and issuing LoUs fraudulently.

The LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant.

In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to credit giving bank along with accruing interest.

Shetty and Kharat sent messages of these LoUs using an international messaging system for banking systems called SWIFT, which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.

The PNB officials sent these messages to Indian banks - Canara Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Allahabad bank - located in Antwerp, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Mauritius and Frankfurt without making entries in the banking software about the LoUs.

These LoUs and Letters of Credits (LC) worth Rs 11,384 crore were getting renewed or issued afresh during last six years without coming to the notice of the bank.

The Indian banks abroad did not mind as their money was safe (under guarantee from the PNB) and increasing because of accruing interest.

The party was spoiled in January this year when first renewal arose after Shetty's retirement, the officials said. An alarmed bank dug out all such LoUs and LCs showing a mammoth liability towards other banks.Seyllou / AFP / Getty Guinean police arrest a man in the capital city of Conakry during a protest that was banned by Guinea's ruling junta on Sept. 28, 2009

Correction Appended: September 30, 2009

When Captain Moussa Dadis Camara took control of Guinea last December in a bloodless coup, tens of thousands of cheering supporters thronged the streets of the capital, Conakry, shouting: "Welcome to this change! Welcome to this change!" What a difference 10 months can make.

The capital was a scene of chaos on Sept. 28, when soldiers opened fire on crowds of unarmed civilians at a pro-democracy rally in a stadium, according to witnesses and news reports. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were wounded, Isabelle Bourges, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, tells TIME. According to New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch, bodies were also found with knife and bayonet wounds and witnesses saw women being stripped naked in the streets and sexually assaulted by security forces. (See pictures of drug battles in Guinea-Bissau and Liberia.)

"They didn't even ask us to disperse. They just started shooting!" protester Bambaya Bari told TIME by telephone from Conakry.

The crackdown in the West African country was immediately condemned by the African Union, the European Union and human-rights organizations around the world. "The killing of dozens of unarmed protesters is shocking even by the abusive standards of Guinea's coup government," says Corinne Dufka, a senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Guinea's leaders should order an immediate end to attacks on demonstrators and bring to justice those responsible for the bloodshed." (Read "More Trouble in West Africa's Narco State.")

Tensions had been building in the weeks leading up to Monday's protest after Camara hinted that he may run in the presidential election set for January 2010, going back on an earlier pledge not to take part in the election. The move infuriated the opposition, which wants to see free, democratic elections held in the country. Many opposition members were arrested in Monday's crackdown, according to Mohammed Jalloh, a Guinea expert at the think tank Crisis Group in Dakar, Senegal.

"There was a dialogue about how the transition to civilian rule should be accomplished," says Jalloh, who recently returned from a mission to Guinea. "But Camara blocked it ... and now the street is the only alternative for expressing discontent."

Camara had once been seen as a beacon of hope for the resource-rich country, one of the poorest in the world. When he took power following the death of autocratic President Lansana Conte, who had ruled for 24 years, Camara promised to hold elections to bring about civilian rule within a year. Many Guineans were also optimistic that Camara could stop the rampant looting of the country's coffers by government officials. In 2008, Guinea was ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in a corruption index by Transparency International, a corruption watchdog. (Read "Why Guinea's People Welcomed the Coup.")

Camara initially looked like he was serious about cleaning up the country. He became the host of a popular television program in which he grilled former Conte cronies about their role in cocaine-smuggling operations in Guinea  under Conte, the country had become a stopover for cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe. But Camara's heavy-handed approach soon turned off most of the country's non-military politicians and trade-union members. Ordinary Guineans, who had once been enthralled by his vociferous television appearances, over the past few weeks started demanding a change of power in several anti-government demonstrations. About 60,000 people gathered at Conakry's airport earlier this month to greet opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, expected to be one of the top candidates in next year's presidential election, when he returned from a trip overseas. (See pictures of the scourge of the Guinea worm.)

Now residents in Conakry remain locked in their homes, afraid to venture out into the streets. Jalloh says this could be the start of a massive government campaign against pro-democracy elements in the country. "This [scene] will repeat itself in the provinces," he says. "The situation will deteriorate as long as a new dialogue is not established." For Guineans weary of being ruled by dictators, the promise of life in a free democracy may yet be a far-fetched dream.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.

See the Cartoons of the Week.

The original version of this story has been amended. It now only attributes the death toll to the Red Cross spokeswoman.The security has been tightened in Subrahmanya town in the backdrop of BJP national president Amit Shah's visit to Kukke Subrahmanya on Monday night.



From Mangaluru International Airport, Shah will travel on road to Uppinangady-Kadaba to reach Subrahmanya. He will stay at the Adishesha guest house of the temple and will have dinner brought in from a hotel in Mangaluru.

He will be welcomed by the temple committee members at 6.30 am on Tuesday. After having a darshan of the deity, he will visit Sri Samputa Narasimha Mutt seer Vidyaprasadda Theertha Swami.

Later, he will take part in the Navashakthi Samavesha at Kulkunda. The BJP members have made all preparations to welcome Shah. The roads are adorned with party flags, buntings and flex. A huge stage has been erected at Kulkunda to accommodate at least 5,000 people. At Kulkunda, he will be accompanied by MPs Shobha Karandlaje and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, and MLA C T Ravi.

The security has been tightened in and around Kukke Subrahmanya Temple. Barring BJP leaders, none others are allowed inside the room where Shah will stay. The room has been provided with internet, telephone, television, printer and refrigerator facilities.

Although Adishesha is a VIP guest house, it did not have much facilities. There were no CCTV cameras nor generator facility. On Sunday, however, 10 CCTV cameras were installed in the guest house. Halogen lights have also been installed in and around the guest house.

ANF has carried out combing operations in and around Subrahmanya. Police have been deployed at strategic locations between Uppinangady and Subrahmanya.More than seven months after senior BJP leader and Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh was caught peeing in the open, a video of a BJP MLA peeing in the open has gone viral in Bihar.



The legislator was found urinating in the campus of the District Magistrate's office after attending a meeting on how to make the district free of open defecation.

Incidentally, the legislator, Lal Babu Prasad, belongs to Chiraia Assembly constituency, which comes under East Champaran (Motihari) Lok Sabha seat, represented by Radha Mohan Singh.

Though the MLA denied that he had come to attend the meeting on the cleanliness drive, he admitted that he had felt the pressure to answer nature's call, so he found a secluded place on the district collectorate premises.

"Finding no urinal in the surrounding area, I found a secluded area where I relieved myself," the BJP legislator told the local media on Saturday.

He then went on to talk about how Narendra Modi's effort on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was yielding good results.

"The cleanliness drive launched by the Centre and the Bihar government has evoked good response. It will take time to set things aright. Such a campaign cannot turn successful overnight," the Prasad said.

Champaran has been in the news as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the closing ceremony of the year-long centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagrah.

Modi is likely to visit the historical place in April. The district officials are, therefore, burning midnight oil on how to make the district open defecation-free. District Magistrate Raman Kumar has been holding regular meetings with the elected representatives in this regard.

The Opposition has slammed Prasad for peeing in public and then lecturing on cleanliness. "The BJP MLA, by urinating in public, that too in the DM's office, has proved how serious the government is about the cleanliness drive," said Congress leader S K Shukla.Two bank officials arrested in the multi-crore scam involving Nirav Modi were initially "evasive" in their responses about the involvement of other employees but now have given more clues to investigators, CBI sources said on Sunday.



The sources said they were investigating whether the bank staff also gave any unauthorised access to Nirav's staff to their system while the multi-agency probe expanded its ambit of the investigation in the Rs 11,344.40 crore scam to officials in overseas branches of certain banks.

The CBI had on Saturday arrested Gokulnath Shetty, a retired Deputy Manager, and Manoj Kharat besides an authorised signatory of Nirav Modi Group of companies Hemant Bhat.

The sources said PNB staff were initially not forthcoming on the role of other staff in the bank who used the banking channel to issue Letters of Understanding. However, they said, the duo have now given some details about other staff.

The CBI is also is examining balance sheets of 18 India-based subsidiaries of the Gitanjali group of companies while the ED conducted fresh searches in 45 locations.

The agency also started scrutinising the balance sheets of 18 India-based subsidiaries of the Gitanjali group of companies promoted by Mehul Choksi, uncle of Nirav, to understand the money trail of funds taken from various banks on the basis of LoUs. Investigators are also looking at the quid pro quo angle involved in the scam.

A senior official said the focus at present is to understand the depth of the scam, the movement of funds and role of senior officials.

Investigators in the ED, CBI and the Income Tax Department are also scanning through around 200 shell firms and "benami" assets in connection with the scam. These shell firms were being used by the accused to launder money and create "benami" assets in the form of land, gold and precious stones, sources said.

The ED on its part is planning to attach at least two dozen immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Congress on Sunday continued to step up pressure on the government on the scam with its president Rahul Gandhi asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to speak up on the multi-crore PNB scam and not behave like "guilty".

"PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hours, but won't speak for 2 mins on the Rs 22,000 crore banking scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you're guilty! Speak up #ModiRobsIndia," Gandhi tweeted.

The Opposition is also planning to raise it in big way the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the scam.Dalit anger over the death of activist Bhanubhai Vankar spilled onto Gujarat streets on Sunday, a day before the first and month-long budget session of the 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly begins.



Road blockades and detention of over 100 Dalit activists, including independent legislator from Vadgam Jignesh Mevani, marked the day-long protests across the state.

Bhanu Vankar, a Dalit activist from Patan in North Gujarat, had set himself ablaze on Thursday at the Patan district collectorate, seeking physical possession of a plot of land allocated to a Dalit family. He succumbed to burns on Friday, leading to widespread protests by Dalit community. Vankar's family refused to accept his body till their demands were met. They are yet to perform his last rites.

Reports of tyre-burning from Ahmedabad, Sami, Patan and many other places trickled in, with women coming out in large numbers and blocking traffic with utensils and rolling pins. A woman from Sami in Patan sustained burns during a protest and was rushed to hospital.

The Vijay Rupani government in the state claimed to have accepted most of the demands on Saturday, but talks between the family, Dalit activists and state government continued on Sunday. The family insisted that the claims be made in writing and that Jignesh Mevani, who was detained earlier in the day, be released for the talks to continue.

Mevani had called for Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar bandh on Sunday. While he was on his way to enforce the bandh, he was detained by Ahmedabad police after an altercation. "Gujarat does not belong to your father. Give me your buckle number. I am an elected MLA and you have no right to insult me. How dare you break the keys of my car and stop me from going! The Ahmedabad police is behaving in a dictatorial manner," Mevani was heard shouting at a police constable who tried to snatch away the keys of his car.

J K Bhatt, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch), denied having ill-treated the legislator. "We will submit our report to the state Assembly... He may have misbehaved, but we have not," Bhatt said.

The police moved Mevani to the Special Operations Group office and held him there till late in the evening. Officials said they would release him soon and drive him straight to his residence in Ahmedabad.In New Delhi's Radisson Hotel on September 14, 2013, a meeting of the Board of Directors of Allahabad Bank was held to decide about sanctioning Rs 550 crore as a loan to Mehul Chinubhai Choksi of Gitanjali Jems. The then director of the bank, who smelt a rat in the whole process, tried to raise an alarm, screamed, knocked at the doors of many officials, but of no avail. Subsequently, he was made to resign.



The seeds of one of the biggest banking scams in India's history  the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud of Rs 11,400  were sown then. The current face of the scam  the multi-millionaire Nirav Modi  joined only later. But in no time, he honed his skills in diamond jewellery trade and many other things, connived with bank staff, who agreed to throw the rule books out of the window in order to help a promising businessman, who now appears to have the blessings of more than one political party. But we cannot say that for sure, unless it is proved in a court of law. What we can say for sure and also be alarmed about is that the PNB financial fraud may be much bigger than it appears at the moment. Also, the involvement of other banks in the scam could be much greater than what is now being projected.

Amid political blame game and PNB's own defence, the authorities are treading carefully because banking is also a business, which should be insulated from external shocks. And in case of public sector banks, it is an issue of faith of more than one billion Indians for whom it is the safest place to deposit their money. So, one can expect a gradual opening of a can of worms.

For now, the country only knows that two PNB employees were involved to benefit a few companies of a big businessman and his family, who have left the country for good. Whether a scam of this magnitude can happen only by a staffer or two at a bank branch is something which has been left to people's imagination. But, it all started around the same time when the Reserve Bank of India was busy tightening the rules for housing, export loans and those taken against fixed deposits.

Guidelines to Lenders



In 2011, the central bank began issuing guidelines to the lenders to strengthen their regulatory mechanism and introduce technology to reduce human interface in the banking business, including that of credit. But none of the public sector banks except three State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Corporation Bank adhered to such guidelines. PNB began the process very late and is still in the midst of it, paying the price for the current scam.

Additionally, a CBI First Information Report (FIR) into the scam said that most of the Letters of Understandings (LoUs) by the bank were issued in 2017. In this, the names of many other banks have figured which had given credit to several such businesses in countries like Mauritius, Hong Kong, and Frankfurt (Germany) on the guarantees issued by PNB. LoUs are issued in the cases where import payments are involved. They guarantee payment liability by one bank to another on behalf of a client.

According to international principle of banking, LoUs of a bank have to be honoured by another. In the present case, the LoUs were issued to three companies belonging to Nirav Modi for availing buyers' credit from overseas branches of Indian banks.



Surprisingly, none of these companies enjoyed any fund or non-fund-based limit with the bank branch, and were only maintaining current accounts. And, none of these transactions were routed through the Core Banking System (CBS), which ensures audit of accounts on frequent intervals. Since they were not routed through CBS, they were able to avoid any early detection of fraudulent activity. These LoUs were instead sent on SWIFT system and PNB officials never matched the SWIFT messages with contingent liability on their books.

SWIFT is a messaging service within banks through which they communicate with one another in a secure manner. In case of multi-bank transactions, it is helpful in transmitting instructions to various banks. At the end of the day, these messages have to be reconciled with CBS.

In the coming days, PNB will have to answer how without any entry into the CBS, a few staffers were allowed to issue LoUs for six to seven years, and whether there was an internal audit at all of the bank's books in these years. A bank goes through four kinds of audit - balance sheet audit which is called a statutory audit, internal audit, concurrent audit of bank transaction and RBI inspection. The PNB will also have to answer in due course as to how despite all these, the entire fraud escaped the bank's attention for seven long years. Was there anyone protecting this network of fraud? Additionally, the other LoU norms were also violated almost every time. Instead of a 90-day period, they were issued for 360 days.

PMO in probe



Different departments of the government are probing all possible angles involved in the scam. The Prime Minister's Office has also pitched in the probe. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Serious Fraud Investigation Office, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and even the Institute of Chartered Accountants are all focused primarily on PNB as of today.



The Enforcement Directorate has even claimed to have recovered nearly half of the amount (Rs 51,000 crore) involved in the fraud through raids on Nirav Modi's properties. Some media reports say that PNB is expediting the sale of its real estate properties in Delhi to fetch over Rs 5,000 crore, implying it would completely negate the impact of the financial fraud it is going through. But all these can at best be termed as corrective measures.

A close look at the slump in PNB's profits over the past four to five years and consequent capital support into the bank by the government suggest that many at the helm were aware of the deteriorating health of the patient in the ICU, and yet chose to be silent. PNB's net profit had almost halved in 2014-15, from a high of over Rs 4,500 crore in 2012-13, while the government capital support to the bank reached over Rs 5,000 crore in 2017-18, from merely Rs 500 crore in 2013-14, in the wake of rising NPAs of public sector banks, the government's main reform focus in the past two years had shifted to the banking sector.

Recapitalisation





Recently, the government also promised to infuse Rs 2.11 lakh crore into the state-owned lenders, so that they are able to maintain robust health. Giving such huge monetary support to any institution has a cost implication which is largely borne by the middle-class taxpayers. When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was asked, why he could not give a much expected income tax relief to the salaried class, his reply was that they needed to undergo some sacrifice, if wished to avail world -class services in infrastructure. A back of the envelop calculation suggests that if scams are reduced by half, even without paying so much taxes, Indians could avail world class services.A clash erupted between Congress and JD(S) workers at Gejjagalli village under Chamundeshwari Assembly segment when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's son Dr Yathindra visited the village to lay the foundation stone for development works worth Rs 15 lakh.



As soon as Yathindra visited the village, JD(S) workers opposed and staged a protest alleging violation of protocol. Heated arguments between the party workers then escalated into a clash. However, police intervened and brought the situation under control.

Gram panchayat member Lokesh was injured in the melee. JD(S) party workers alleged that the police assaulted Lokesh. Following the incident, JD(S) workers, including MLA G T Devegowda, sought the suspension of the police personnel who assaulted the member and staged a protest in front of the SP's office.

JD(S) workers alleged that though the village comes under Chamundeshwari constituency represented by JD(S) MLA G T Devegowda, the development works are being inaugurated by Yathindra, who is nowhere connected with the constituency. As the CM is planning to contest from the segment, he is misusing power, they alleged.The stage is all set for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch his election campaign ahead of the general elections in the state. Modi will address people at the BJP conference at Maharaja's College grounds in the city between 3.45 pm and 4.45 pm on Monday.



Earlier in the day, the PM will participate in the 88th Mahamasthakabhisheka of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola, in Hassan district.

Later, the PM will dedicate the electrified double railway track between Mysuru and Bengaluru at the city railway station and also flag off the Mysuru-Udaipur Palace Queen Hamsafar Express train at 2.30 pm. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and PWD Minister HaC Mahadevappa will also attend.

The BJP has made elaborate arrangements at Maharaja's ground. BJP state unit president BaSaYeddyurappa, Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, DaV Sadanandagowda, Anant Kumar Hegde, Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar and others will attend the conference.

BJP flags and flexboards with pictures of party leaders and Modi, have also been installed.

The City Police have restricted the movement of traffic on several roads on Monday.

The Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel are camping in the city and inspecting the security measures.More than 20 people were injured in a bee attack near Karapura Viraktha Mutt, near here on Sunday. All of them were returning after offering prayers at Male Mahadeshwara Hill and were relaxing on the banks of Suvarnavathi river when a swarm of bees attacked them.



People tried to save themselves and sought refuge inside the mutt and in the sugarcane fields.

Around 12 people received serious injuries and were treated at hospitals in Yalandur town and Santhemarahalli.

According to sources, the group lit fire beneath a tree to prepare breakfast. The smoke might have disturbed the bees in the nearby trees and they in turn attacked the people.District in-charge minister M R Seetharam called upon the students to develop a scientific temper.



Speaking after inaugurating the mini Vidhana Soudha at Virajpet on Sunday, he said, "Public should exert pressure to accelerate public works, which are moving at a snail's pace. A lot of development works have been initiated after the Siddaramaiah-led government came to power in the state.

Title deeds

The taluk authorities had received 3,900 applications seeking title deeds. Already, 2,459 title deeds have been distributed. The remaining will be distributed within 15 days.

The minister distributed title deeds to 121 beneficiaries on the occasion.

The students of Kaveri college presented cultural programmes as well.

BJP boycotts

The inauguration of mini Vidhana Soudha was scheduled at 11 am. As the minister arrived late, the programme started at 12.45 pm. BJP elected representatives, who had arrived on time, boycotted the programme citing they had other engagements.

Reacting to this, Seetharam said, "Politically-motivated behaviour does not speak well for anyone. Two programmes were fixed at 11 am. After taking part in a programme at Madikeri, I arrived at Virajpet."Seven rafting guides at Dubare have been arrested over the death of a tourist in a clash, last week.



Razi Ahmed, a tourist from Hyderabad, died of head injuries he had suffered in the clash with the rafting guides.

It is said that 130 tourists from Hyderabad had come to Dubare for river rafting. When the guide Prakash objected to tourists removing their life jackets, the enraged tourists allegedly assaulted the guide.

After they reached the river bank, the guide questioned the tourists for behaving indecently with women tourists, which led to a clash between the tourists and the guide.

In the melee, Razi Ahmed suffered head injuries.Susheela Sharma, a 60-year-old woman confined to a rehabilitation in Bengaluru, was produced before the High Court of Karnataka on Friday in response to a habeas corpus petition.



A division bench headed by Justice B S Patil was hearing a petition filed by Narotham Sharma, Susheela's nephew. Narotham claimed that Susheela, his maternal aunt, had been kidnapped and kept in captivity by her daughter Sunitha Sharma, who is after her property.

On being questioned by the court, Susheela said she was forcibly admitted to a rehabilitation centre where she was given injections for being mentally ill. She said she aspired to do some developmental and social welfare work but her daughter was after her money and property. Police informed the court they arrested Sunitha on Thursday while her accomplice, Karim Lal, is still at large.

The bench, after hearing Susheela out, directed the authorities to get her medically examined at Nimhans and file a report at the next hearing on February 28. The court also directed the police to provide security to Susheela.Medical practice without a valid registration, licence or basic facilities is under-reported in the state.



There are only 1,945 quacks in the state, according to the report by Department of Health and Family Welfare. The report is a collation of data after a survey conducted in November 2017 in all the 30 districts in the state.

The report said Bidar district with 276 quacks topped the list of either unregistered centres or unlicensed practitioners. It is followed by Kalaburagi (176) and Tumakuru (163).

Only eight quack centres were found in Bengaluru Urban district and while there were none in Bengaluru Rural district, the report said. "Just eight quack centres in Bengaluru is not true. It is certainly under reported," said a senior official from the BBMP.

"Door-to-door surveys are conducted by district health officers often. These surprise visits will reveal the number of quacks," said Dr T S Prabhakar, joint director (medical), Health Department.

He said identifying unregistered centres or unlicensed professionals is done as per the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act.

Dr Prabhakar said the district health officer is supposed to conduct door-to-door inspections. However, there are not enough inspections, he added.

Bengaluru Urban District Health Officer Dr Ramesh Babu said the eight quack centres related to the cases pending in courts. The actual number of centres and quacks in the city will be known only when a survey is conducted. The survey will be conducted after two months.

Dr Prabhakar said that all the quack centres have been ordered to shut shop. Some of them approach court due to which they may get a stay order and continue to function.

"Most of these cases are reported from remote areas than in the city limits and are usually small clinics. If they do not oblige, then a complaint will be filed with the police," he said. Such cases are mostly found among practitioners of Ayurveda, he added.The decision of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to bar students of open schools from writing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to MBBS, BDS and AYUSH courses will affect several students in Karnataka.



According to an official at the regional centre of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in Bengaluru, about 1,500 candidates from Karnataka have registered themselves for the class 12 examination to be held in April 2018. While all the 1,500 will not be writing the NEET exam, those who intend to do so are panicking about the last-minute bar.

Parvatharaj from Mangaluru chose NIOS for his son because he thought it would give him more time to prepare for NEET.

But the MCI decision has left Parvatharaj and his son shattered and disappointed. "He has dedicated two years of his life to prepare for NEET. Now he does not have time even to prepare for engineering exams," Parvatharaj said.

Every day is stressful as the March 9 deadline to register for NEET draws closer.

"I am thinking of approaching the court in Karnataka or joining other parents who plan to file a petition in Delhi," Parvatharaj said.

A parent from Puttur said he chose the open school route for his daughter since as a central government employee, he was expecting to be transferred to a different state. "If they had announced it in 2015, I would not have opted for open school. My daughter has worked hard and now if they say that she is not allowed to write, what can we do?" the parent sought to know.

Students use NCERT textbooks and they have practical lab sessions conducted at the study centre assigned to them so that they are on a par with candidates from other boards, he said. He too is looking at legal options.

The HRD minister Prakash Javadekar had met the Union health minister urging a reversal of the decision. However, when the notification regarding the exam was issued by CBSE, there was no change in the status of open schools.

Parents say that the state government should intervene and push for allowing open school students to write NEET. However, state minister for medical education Dr Sharanprakash Patil said that the state government had not been consulted when this decision was made and there was not much it could do.Now you can take free virtual field trips to zoos right from the comfort of your own home. Think you can't go anywhere over Spring Break, well think again. Thanks to technology, its now possible for  [Read More...]Country

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Shareholders of Galati steel plant promise investments of one billion euros GFG Alliance has committed to invest one billion euros to upgrade Galati steel plant in order to reduce emissions and increase production. Another EUR 1 Mai mult

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Laura Codruta Kovesi remains alone in the race for European Chief Prosecutor French Prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert will be appointed as head of the European Financial Prosecutor's Office, a position for which he was heard on Thursday, 11 Mai multEx-CIA director: US meddles in foreign elections

A former CIA director on Friday confessed that US had meddled in other countries elections.

Former CIA director James Woolsey made evaluations on special FBI counsel Robert Mueller's probe about thirteen Russian nationals and three entities who had indicted into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections, and collusion between Moscow and US President Donald Trump's campaign.

Speaking on US Fox channel, James Woolsey said, Well, only for a very good cause in the interests of democracy." when asked whether the US interferes in other countries elections.

Oh, probably, but it was for the good of the system in order to avoid communists taking over. he told Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show on Friday night.

The Russian embassy to the United Kingdom quoted Woolsey on Saturday, adding the comment: Says it all.

Woolsey served as CIA director under former President Clinton.Lisa Rinna's daughter, Delilah Belle Hamlin, is reportedly dating Cully Smoller, the longtime assitant and friend of her fellow model Gigi Hadid.

According to a new report, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills stars oldest daughter with husband Harry Hamlin has been casually dating and "hooking up" with Cully Smoller.

Us Weekly shared the news on Feb. 13, revealing that the couple was first spotted enjoying an evening out in Los Angeles in September of last year. At the time, the outlet revealed, they were caught by photographers outside of On the Rox.

While Delilah Belle resided with her mother, sister Amelia Gray, and father, Harry Hamlin, up until recently, she relocated to New York City after signing a deal with IMG. Since then, she has been spotted out and about in the Big Apple as the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star frequently speaks about missing her on social media.

Rinna also recently spoke on the show about her daughter's move to the East Coast.

Just the thought of Delilah going to New York, I think its great, [but] shes going to be there and Im not going to get the door closing, Rinna told her costar, Erika Girardi. She doesnt always know how to say no. I have every hope and faith but Im a worrier. Its going to be hard  Im going to worry.

During the eighth season, Rinna and Girardi were seen traveling to Tokyo with Delilah Bella and Amelia Gray.

Although Delilah Belle and Smoller have been seen publicly on a number of occasions, they don't appear to have confirmed their relationship quite yet. In fact, they seem to be keeping a very low profile and have yet to speak of each other on social media.

In addition to his working relationship with Hadid, Smoller also appears to be quite close friends with her younger sister, Bella, and frequently shares photos of the two women on his Instagram page.

The Hadid sisters' mom, Yolanda Hadid, appeared alongside Delilah Belle's mom on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills for two seasons before quitting ahead of season 7 in 2016.Teresa Giudice has been facing rumors of a secret romance for the past several months and recently, a face was put to those shocking rumors.

According to a new report, Kim DePaola sparked rumors during season eight that suggest the 45-year-old Real Housewives of New Jersey star had been hooking up with real estate consultant Shane Wierks, who is just 32-years-old. However, she maintained that she was not cheating on Joe and insisted she and Wierks were just friends.

Unfortunately, the rumors have persisted and on Feb. 15, an insider spoke out, claiming that no one believes Giudice is staying faithful to her incarcerated husband.

"Teresa publicly claims she and Shane are just friendly, but no one believes her. Shed been talking about finis a man, and now it seems shes found one," an insider told Life & Style magazine, via OK! Magazine.

In addition to spending time together in October 2017, as seen in the photo above, Giudice and Wierks were reportedly together in Mexico over the holidays and both shared photos from their trip. As fans can see on Wierks' Instagram page, he is not only close with Giudice, but also with her brother, Joe Gorga, and Gorga's wife, Melissa.

Teresa felt she could trust Shane because he knows the family, the source continued.

The insider then said that Joe won't be happy when he gets wind of the recent rumors.

When [Joe] hears about Shane, hes going to freak out.

Since Joe began his prison sentence, he and his wife have been faced with ongoing rumors of a potentially impending divorce. That said, Giudice has denied the divorce rumors on numerous occasions and continues to remain dedicated to her marriage and their four children.

Before Joe entered prison, Giudice served her own 11-month prison term at the Danbury Correctional Institution in Connecticut. As fans may recall, Giudice began her sentence in early 2015 and received an early release from the facility just before the holidays later that year.

The Giudices have been married for 19 years and share four daughters, including Gia, Milania, Audriana, and Gabriella.

Teresa Giudice and her costars, including Danielle Staub, Melissa Gorga, Dolores Catania, and Margaret Josephs, are expected to begin filming on the upcoming ninth season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey in the coming weeks.Letters

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Safety At Rural Road Intersections Crawford County Farm Bureau Board of Directors wants to remind everyone when traveling on rural roads to slow down at intersections, especially where there is tall corn.

A plea for a plea To the Editor, Mr. Schauer and Ms. Creasman wrote a pitiful plea to their followers (Times News July 14) to be Silent No More. Their call to action for support of 

In response to the July 14 Letter to the Editor by Harrison County Chair and Vice-Chair. It was a relief to read the recent Letter to the Editor submitted by Benjamin Schauer and Jan Creasman. Their letter strongly outlined our current political climate, but did so in a respectful manner. They asked the reader to think, rather than telling the reader what to think.

Dig Deeper After my last editorial in this paper on the extreme property tax increases being forced on Harrison County taxpayers, I was tipped off to dig deeper into what really is going on with our County Assessor and Boards.

Read more lettersHey Mickey. My agency, employer confirmed same as what embassy told me, i.e. police cert needs to be attested at the UAE Embassy in London then start visa application. I'm near London so just did it myself.



45 ACRO police cert - received 9 working days after online application. You can pay 80 to get it within 2 working days plus postage.

30 + postage to send to FCO at Milton Keynes - received 3 working days after mailing them with self addressed envelope. You can pay around 35 if you want them to pay for mailing back to you.

34 for attestation at UAE Embassy (Princess Gate not Grosvenor Cres). I dropped it off about 1pm, went to Natural History Museum and picked it up at 2.30pm. Very easy!



So to finally answer my original query you need steps 2 and 3. Step 1 (which only cost me 10 in the past) is required if you are not sending the original police certificate to the FCO.



n.b. if police certificate is lost (in mail or otherwise) you can call ACRO within 3 months of original issue date and get replacement sent out next day for 6.Hope the experienced here can shed some light please. Im an experienced and qualified EFL/ESL/TEFL Teacher.

Im thinking of getting a freelance visa from Dubai Knowledge Village as a teacher.

Just wondering how easy or difficult it is to get jobs after. Has anyone had any experience in this and if so any information would help..



Im from the UK and a qualified teacher and have worked in the UAE in the past. Am based in the UK now.



Many thanks in advance

AnadventureWe live in the Morbihan at present but would like to move further south and Gers appeals. Problem is we're old and it won't be long probably before we can't drive. we would like amenities within walking distance and transport to hospitals, doctors.etc. We're not old and doddery (yet!) and have a great sense of fun and adventure but do not speak fluent french but wife can manage. We've heard the people in Gers are extremely friendly and hopefully tolerant of strangers. We're actually from Aus but don't hold that against us!Being Thankful...



On another thread by an "ex" friend from the US now living here in the Philippines without realizing, in one sentence summed up my entire life's achievement's, then dismissed it as being not enough and we should all have further investment's for old age.

So I wondered what advice he or anyone else would give to the vast diversity of young people here in the Philippines.

How do you lift yourself out of poverty, when your home is a shack by the river with no sanitation, running water or electricity?

Or a poor farmer, whose children walk miles to school and they can barely afford the school fees.

The fisherman whose family trade fish for rice and some days don't have enough food to eat.



Of course there are some families who the parents have good jobs and can afford to send their children to the best schools and colleges, they have the better start in life.

Here in Philippines the higher up the ladder you go the higher lifestyle you have and that allows the privileged (Upper classes) to live like King's.



Finally that brings me to the question of old age and providing for it.

When this world was a better place, love of your parent's, respect for the elderly and materialism didn't rule, as in giving birth, when coming to the end, there was family and neighbors who helped out with what they had.



Given that the Philippines for the most part is still a third world country, I think owning your own House and Lot is still a great achievement and that go's which ever Country you happen to live in.

Not everyone has the same opportunities in life, be grateful for what you do have and remember where you are born, and to whom you were born, relies on a certain amount of luck.



I consider myself as very lucky to have my wife Viol and my children. I dont think I would be able to live life without them. I finally figured it out after all these years of the fast paced, hard working life in the United States. Its not about money or possessions at all. Its about love and the family that fills my life with that love that cannot have value placed upon it. I thank God and I count my Blessings.

Savings - what savings???JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.Vlad will surely hand them over immediately............... So the FBI prosecutes internet trolling but not mass shooters...............



I get it nowMigrants waiting to be rescued by a ship run by SOS Mediterranee in the Mediterranean Sea off the Libyan coast Bild: dpa

Migration is a global phenomenon that is here to stay. Europe currently faces the fourfold challenge of expanding legal pathways, addressing root causes of migration, securing its borders and integrating migrants into their home society. Unfortunately, migration is increasingly being viewed as a threat rather than a source of opportunity and I am keen to counter that.

Particularly, in Europe, several populist parties tactically exacerbate the narrative on migration, feeding off the creation of the other by spreading the myth of a homogenous society. In the light of larger numbers of asylum seekers and migrants, it became increasingly appealing to political influencers, in a desperate move to take action with tangible solutions, to build border walls thereby reviving the symbolism of Fortress Europe fostering an isolationist policy.

History however has proven many times that walls and border protection solely act as a short-term deterrent. What is yet urgently needed are sustainable long-term solutions with the understanding that migration is a constant and cannot be tackled by one state alone but only through cooperation across borders. The current migration movement which is being accelerated by the force of globalization, can only be successfully approached if the international community manages to change the understanding on migration. The discussion needs to focus on the positive contribution of migrants both in their home and host countries. My own family history encourages me daily to be an ambassador and proponent of a new, constructive narrative on migration.

Alike many Tunisians in the last fifty years, my family too had to flee from political persecution. I was 14-years old when we joined my father who was in political exile in Italy at that time, where l pursued my studies. I chose to go back to Tunisia after the revolution to help shape this new democracy in the National Constitutional Assembly and the Tunisian Parliament. As a young Muslim Democrat of the Ennahdha party, I am part of this new bridging generation between two realities, between the south and the north of the Mediterranean, experience it as a personal enrichment, and feel it is of utmost importance to promote the image of young "Ara-peans" (both Arabs and Europeans) that are home in more than one country.

Migration and the labor market

When it comes to migration, Tunisia is dominantly present in media publications. Even as a rather small country, it has been host, home and transit country all at once. As one of the greatest accomplishments Tunisia has been hosting up to a million Libyans since the wake of the Libyan revolution  10 percent of our own population. It can however be observed -my personal story serves as an example  that once conflict in the home country has been resolved, migrants are eager to return home to build their nations. Hence, I advocate to look more positively towards the opportunities and chances that lie within migration. Particularly, the host community bears a responsibility to equip migrants to the best of their knowledge which will have a wider impact in the long term on global development. In light of Europes rapidly ageing population migrants can make up for the shortfalls in the workforce. It should not be forgotten that migrants arrive with skills and contribute to human capital development of receiving countries.

In the short time, migrants can help meet the need for qualified and unqualified work force in host countries. In the long run, migrants can gain experience and practical education that after their return will fit to the needs of foreign investors.

To fully seize these opportunities of migration, the EU and its neighboring partners must develop an intensified and comprehensive framework for organized migration. In which migrants are seen as a transnational social network strengthening their local socioeconomic activities as well as a source of investment as through remittances they send tremendous amounts of capital back to the countries of origin fostering economic growth.

Building bridges between the EU and Tunisia

I envision that countries like Tunisia that are characterized by the rule of law, democracy, freedom and civil liberties and that share a common value base with the European Union can benefit from preferential associated partnerships. These partnerships could entail extended exchange programs such as Erasmus to the academic and business spheres boosting interaction and diversity. In doing so, the European countries could also further encourage and support their companies to invest in these partner countries. Both will lead to skilled labor forces that benefit all parties involved.

Mehr zum Thema 1/

In my view, it is not time to build illusory fortresses  it will remain indispensable that we respect the migrants rights that are protected by all states party to international conventions and treaties. What we really need to build are intensified and comprehensive partnerships aimed at seeing migration as a positive and necessary cause. I therefore, want to make my case for Tunisia becoming EUs prime strategic partner in dealing with this issue. Europe and Tunisia alike are facing the same challenges exacerbated by globalization, from terrorism to migration, and therefore can in the long run only tackle these with a common migration and security policy that also benefits all partners on the social and economic levels alike.

Imen Ben Mohamed is Munich Young Leader 2018 and member of the Tunesian parliament for the Ennahdha party.Martin Freeman has teased his Marvel Cinematic Universe character Everett Ross will be back.

Martin Freeman

The 46-year-old actor - who is best known for his role as Bilbo Baggins in 'The Hobbit' franchise - reprised his role as the Deputy Task Force Commander of the Joint Counterterrorism Center for 'Black Panther', but says the MCU has more in store for him.

He told Den of Geek: "They introduced me in 'Civil War' and said there would be a couple of other films, one of which was 'Black Panther'."

The British star - who appears alongside Andy Serkis, Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan in the film - previously admitted his character goes through an "enlightening journey" in 'Black Panther'.

He said in November: "I'm the government guy. I'm the CIA guy called Everett Ross, who was a character in the comics as well, who sort of has an uneasy peace with T'Challa, who is the Black Panther.

"And my character goes on a strange journey, an enlightening journey to Wakanda, which is the fictional African country. It's really good."

The film follows T'Challla (Boseman) who, after the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to take the isolated, technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king.

Meanwhile, Freeman recently revealed he was considered for a role in 'Star Wars' by George Lucas.

He said: "No, not directly. Indirectly, yeah. I had a chat with the folks a few years ago.

"But no, it's been at the right thing. Yeah, there are other British actors that they prefer over me."

Although Freeman - who shot to fame as Watson in BBC's 'Sherlock' - wasn't picked for the desired role, he admitted he is still interested in starring in the franchise.

He said: "Well of course. Of course, I'd be."Were not sure theres ever been a film better titled than The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society. Directed by Mike Newell and based on the best-selling novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, the film will see Lily James play a free-spirited journalist named Juliet Ashton, who forms a bond with the titular society and decides to write about the book club they formed during World War II, and the occupation of Guernsey.

This week, a brilliant trailer for the film has been released by StudioCanal, which you can now watch below:

James stars alongside the likes of Glen Powell, Matthew Goode, Jessica Brown Findlay and Katherine Parkinson in the movie, with Tom Courtenay and Penelope Wilton also starring. Thomas Bezucha and Don Roos adapted the story for a screenplay.

Having entered pre-production in January of last year, filming officially kicked off in March 2017, but strangely enough, the production wouldnt take itself to the real island of Guernsey.

Downton Abbey fans will be excited to see a mini-reunion of sorts, with Findlay and Wilton working alongside Goode and James in the flick. Perhaps it will unwittingly be the first step in bringing a Downton Abbey film to the big screen!

For now though, were getting excited about this release. Theres no current US release date for the film just yet, but thanks to the popularity of the source material around the world, we imagine it will be headed stateside before too long.

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society comes to cinemas across the UK on April 20, 2018.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me onCategory Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryBut if a Democrat is in the White House, the deficit tends to shrink, if a Republican is in the White House, the deficit grows. The data is highly correlated to those propositions.

And before you go off on "Who controlled congress?"

The correlation between rising and falling deficits is about 50%.

In other words no statistical correlation.COLOGNE, Germany, Feb. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its global wireless strategy for 2020, the global testing service provider plans to invest more than EUR40 million in its wireless area in the next three years. These funds will be used to develop the testing facilities for future technologies, such as eCall and NB-IoT, and increase wireless laboratory capacities as a whole. TUVRheinland experts already operate laboratories for wireless communication technology and IoT products in Europe and the USA, as well as in Japan, Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan and India. With this investment program, TUV Rheinland is strengthening its position on the rapidly growing global IoT market and continuing its successful course in this area.

"We already reached several milestones of our wireless strategy in 2017 with the acquisition of our wireless laboratory in Lund, Sweden, and the opening of our new laboratory in Silicon Valley, which-- as the 'TUV Rheinland Center of Excellence Wireless / IoT' is now responsible for wireless testing in the North America region, among others. The same applies for the integration of 4ffCom, with which we have been able to offer our customers their own fully automated testing solutions (comprehensive testing environment, CTE) since last year and which is an excellent addition to the services we offer. Our next objective is to become the global one-stop-shop service provider for wireless communication technologies," explains Stefan Kischka, Vice President of Wireless/Internet of Things at TUVRheinland. The laboratory network in Europe is currently being strengthened with further investments in Cologne, Nuremberg, Leek, Milan and Lund in order to become also a strong partner in the IoT Ecosystem in Europe.

Complete range of wireless communication technologies for various industries

Today, TUVRheinland is one of the leading testing service providers and pioneers in the entire field of wireless communication technologies. For example, the testing service provider set up the world's first WiFi lab. The experts from TUVRheinland were also involved in Bluetooth technology right from the start. Furthermore, TUVRheinland is also the global leader when it comes to short-range wireless, i.e. WiFi, Bluetooth or ZigBee for smart home applications, where it checks whether the corresponding devices comply with the wireless communication protocols.

One-stop-shop service provider for wireless communication technologies

The company is also a member of numerous committees dedicated to various wireless technologies, using its expertise to provide support with the standardization process, joint development of technologies, and contributing to the testing and certification of products before they are launched on the market. These committees include the 5G Automotive Association, LoRaWAN Alliance, Zigbee Alliance, Global Certification Forum (GCF/ PTCRB), CTIA, Wi-Fi Alliance, SIGFOX Alliance, Wi-SUN Alliance, Bluetooth SIG Alliance, Thread Group, openADR, Echonet Lite and many more. This way, the testing service provider is always close to manufacturers and users around the world and can offer its competence in the field of wireless communication standards.

"For us, direct communication with our customers and partners is also important. Major industry events provide the perfect opportunity for this, such as the Mobile World Congress (hall 8, booth E31) in Barcelona, embedded world (hall 3/3, booth 433) in Nuremberg, and Light + Building (hall 4.1, booth B40) in Frankfurt in the coming weeks. We will be present at all three events, offering expert talks as well as direct personal interaction. If you would like to find out more about us in advance, please visit our recently launched landing page at www.tuv.com/wireless," continues TUV Rheinland expert Kischka.

To become the global one-stop-shop service provider for wireless communication technologies, the testing service provider plans to expand its "Wireless/IoT" team by around 220 staff by 2020.

For more information, visit www.tuv.com/wireless.

TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group employs 19,700 people around the globe. Annual revenue is more than EUR1.9billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all industrial sectors and areas of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, and oversees projects, processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, the company operates a global network of approved labs and testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com.Multi-Region, Multicloud Connectivity Options for Enterprises in Finland and Beyond

BRISBANE, Australia, Feb. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Megaport Limited (ASX: MP1) ("Megaport"), a global leading Network as a Service (NaaS) provider and Cinia Oy, creator of intelligent connectivity solutions today announced that they have partnered to enable enterprises with direct access to leading Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and extend Cinia's network services reach.

"The core tenet of Megaport is making connectivity easy," said Vincent English, Chief Executive Officer, Megaport. "We overcome barriers to entry for cloud adoption by making it easy to get connected directly to Cloud, Managed, and Network Service Providers. This enables scalability, consistent performance, and bandwidth optimisation that helps reduce total cost of ownership. Our Software Defined Network empowers enterprises to architect multicloud and hybrid cloud connectivity. For maximum ease of use, customers can order services in real-time via our Portal or through our API. Our partnership with Cinia enables Finnish enterprises with direct cloud access via Cinia's robust national and international network. Cinia is an agile industry-leading service provider and we are proud to partner with them to elevate connectivity options in Finland."

Cinia has leveraged Megaport's global SDN as a part of its cMatrix service, a customer-specific direct connect solution that bypasses the internet and gives enterprises direct access to CSPs and the data centres in Europe where CSPs enable their services. Enterprises will access Megaport's Ecosystem of over 250 service providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud with high capacity and low latency through Cinia's C-Lion1 Submarine cable, the most direct route from Finland to Central and West Europe.

"We partnered with Megaport because connectivity is a key factor when accessing public cloud services and their solution, combined with our footprint in the Nordics, addresses a clear demand," said Taneli Vuorinen, SVP, Cinia. "The majority of data centres that house public CSPs for European customers are located in Central and Western Europe. This does not account for enterprises that can be over a thousand kilometres away and creates challenges in terms of latency. We wanted to deliver an option for customers to access direct connectivity to cloud services and give them the autonomy to dial these connections up and down as their business demands require it. As such, partnering with Megaport was the natural decision."

About Megaport

Megaport is the global leading provider of Elastic Interconnection services. Using Software Defined Networking (SDN), the Company's global platform enables customers to rapidly connect their network to other services across the Megaport Network. Services can be directly controlled by customers via mobile devices, their computer, or the open API. The Company's extensive footprint in Australia, Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe, provides a neutral platform that spans many key data centre providers across various markets.

Established in 2013 and founded by Bevan Slattery, Megaport built the world's first SDN-based Elastic Interconnection platform designed to provide the most secure, seamless, and on-demand way for enterprises, networks, and services to interconnect. Led by Vincent English, Megaport has been built by a highly experienced team with extensive knowledge in building large scale global carrier networks and connects over 850 customers throughout over 185 data centres in 37 cities across 19 countries. Megaport is an Alibaba Cloud Technology Partner, Oracle Cloud Partner, AWS Technology Partner, AWS Networking Competency Partner, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Partner, Google Cloud Interconnect Partner, and IBM Direct Link Cloud Exchange provider.

Megaport, Virtual Cross Connect, VXC, and MegaIX are registered trademarks of Megaport (Services) Pty Ltd ACN 607 432 646. To learn more about Megaport, please visit: www.megaport.com.

About Cinia

Cinia offers intelligent network, system and software services as well as secure cloud services that eliminate geographical distances and make the world more functional. With its strong expertise in critical systems and its own fibre-optic backbone network of more than 10,000 kilometres in Northern Europe, the company offers businesses a secure IT infrastructure and a cloud-based operating environment for the future. Cinia's C-Lion1 submarine cable strengthens the European digital single market by providing the shortest and fastest route from Central Europe to Northern Europe, where the conditions for data centres are ideal, as well as to the Asian and Eastern European markets. Cinia is headquartered in Finland and employs approximately 230 experts.

For more information: www.cinia.fi /en

MEDIA INQUIRIES

media@megaport.com



Sapphire Communications for Megaport

Wendy Hill, +61 427 173 203

wendy@sapphirecommunications.com.au

Cinia Contact:

Marja Mokko

+358505065536

marja.mokko@cinia.fiDojo Technology Corp., a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based financial software company, secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding.

Vested Ventures, the investment arm of public relations agency Vested, made the investment.

The company will use the funds to activate its brand across the U.S. and Canada, driving new prospects and revenue opportunities. Vesteds support to Dojo will include marketing support, media relations, content development, corporate messaging, and executive positioning.

Led by Chad Sichello, CEO and Co-Founder, Dojo provides an iOS and Android mobile platform that allows families and young people to interact with their banks and credit unions, which leverages reward-based gamification to allow users to develop positive financial habits. Dojo integrates directly with financial institutions legacy account and card infrastructure.

FinSMEs

18/02/2018India and Iran on Saturday signed an agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with regard to taxes on income.

New Delhi: India and Iran on Saturday signed an agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with regard to taxes on income.

The agreement is on similar lines as entered into by India with other countries, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.

"The agreement will stimulate flow of investment, technology and personnel from India to Iran and vice versa, and will prevent double taxation," the statement said.

The pact provides for exchange of information between the two nations as per latest international standards.

"It will improve transparency in tax matters and will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance," the statement said. "The agreement also meets treaty related minimum standards under G-20 OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, in which India participated on an equal footing."

Earlier in the day, addressing industry association FICCI, Iran Economic Affairs and Finance Minister Masoud Karbasian invited Indian business to invest in Iran and take advantage of the rapid economic growth of the country.

"We hope that through signing basic economic and trade agreement such as the avoidance of double tax, supporting joint venture plans as well as preferential tariff would enable companies to enter Iran with fewer obstacles," he said.

"In view of the positive outcome of the nuclear deal, Iran has started to gather momentum...We have set 8 percent economic growth target," he said.

Citing various advantages of Iran, he said, the country has been a safe provider for Indian petroleum companies for importing petrochemical products.

Chabahar is the symbol of multilateral transit cooperation, he said, adding that it is also a golden opportunity for investment for Indian corporates in the field of petrochemicals.Assocham said that the government should surrender its majority control of banks, which should be allowed to function like private sector lenders.

New Delhi: In light of the massive Rs 11,300 crore ($1.8 billion) scam allegedly involving jeweller Nirav Modi that has hit state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), industry chamber Assocham said on Sunday that the government should surrender its majority control of banks, which should be allowed to function like private sector lenders.

In a regulatory filing earlier this week, PNB said it had detected the gigantic fraud in one of its Mumbai branches, putting the quantum of fraudulent transactions at $1,771.69 million. The amount is equivalent to eight times the bank's net income of about Rs 1,320 crore ($206 million).

"The PNB's fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,300 crore should act as a strong trigger for the government for reducing its stake to less than 50 percent in the banks which should then be allowed to work on the lines of private sector lenders with a full sense of accountability to their shareholders protecting interest of depositors," Assocham said in a statement in New Delhi.

"The public sector banks (PSBs), ironically, are slipping from one crisis to the other and there is a limit the government can keep bailing them out at the cost of taxpayers' money, even if it is the principal shareholder in these lenders," it said.

The industry body said PSB senior managements spend bulk of their time "receiving and implementing directions from the bureaucrats even for innocuous issues."

"In the process, the core banking functions, including all important risk mitigation and management, take a back seat."

"The problem has become more grave with banks adopting new technologies which can prove both boon and bane," it added.

In this connection, a Special CBI Court in Mumbai on Saturday remanded to police custody till 3 March three accused persons in the case.

The three includes a retired PNB deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat and an authorised signatory of the prime accused Nirav Modi's group companies.

Besides these, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named 10 other directors and officials as accused in the scam.

"Once the government equity in the banks is reduced below 50 percent, there would be much more autonomy along with accountability and responsibility of the senior management," Assocham said.

"The boards should then be truly taking the policy decisions while the CEOs would run the banks with full authority, coupled with the commensurate responsibility, instead of looking towards the bureaucrats for directions," it added.

Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat in a statement urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take the lead to "engage with the industry in finding ways to do clean business in the entire financial sector, be it the public sector or private sector banks or even the non-banking finance companies."

In this regard, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramaniam has also advocated more private participation in public sector banks.

Speaking at an event in Chennai on Saturday, Subramaniam said while the government was going for recapitalisation of public sector banks, the scrutiny, monitoring and disciplined deployment must be ensured only through greater private participation in banks.

According to him, there should be less public lending to private sector and the mode to achieve that is to have higher private participation in the banking sector.

He said more privatisation could be the way forward since there was no guarantee that better governance recommendations of banks, instead of privatisation, would be implemented effectively.Even as more and more skeletons continue to fall out of the Punjab National Bank's (PNB) cupboard, involving bank officials it is interesting to note that the public sector bank won Vigilance Excellence Awards for two years

Even as more and more skeletons continue to fall out of the Punjab National Bank's (PNB) cupboard, involving bank officials, in the defaulting of Rs 11,400 crore loans by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, it is interesting to note that the public sector bank won several Vigilance Excellence Awards from the Institute of Public Enterprise.

According to PNB's official website, the bank won the Corporate Vigilance Excellence Award in March 2015 for "remarkable achievements of the Bank in Vigilance Administration". The bank claims it won the award for the second time in succession.

For the year 2016-17, PNB received another Vigilance Excellence Award for "Timely Completion of Disciplinary proceedings", according to Press Information Bureau.

A vigilance case is defined as any complaint about "corruption, malpractice or misconduct on the part of public servants" as per the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) manual.

It is quite ironic considering the spate of corruption charges being levelled against the bank officials. Following that, PNB suspended 18 bank officials whom it found responsible for supervisory lapses, according to this Firstpost report.

On Saturday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested PNB's retired deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty and two others in a multi-crore bank fraud case.

"The CBI has Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat and authorised signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms, Hemant Bhat," an official of the investigative agency told IANS.

The court remanded the three to CBI custody till 3 March on Saturday. The remand application said: "It is revealed that Shetty, in conspiracy with Kharat, fraudulently issued LOUs (Letters of Undertaking) without sanction and without having the powers to do so and thereby abused his official position as a public servant."

All LoUs were issued or renewed during 2017-18, the officials said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Shetty, in connivance with accused companies, had issued fraudulent SWIFT messages without any authority, which were not entered in the trade finance module of the CBS (Core Banking System) to avoid detection, the central agency said.

Kharat was Shetty's subordinate and acted upon his directions in making and verifying SWIFT messages before Shetty authorised and transmitted them during 2017, the CBI told the court.

The FIR has listed eight fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 280 crore, but based on further complaints from the bank, the CBI now says the amount investigated in the first FIR is over Rs 6,498 crore, involving 150 Letters of Understanding allegedly fraudulently issued by Shetty and Kharat.

The remaining 150 fraudulent LOUs worth over Rs 4,886 crore issued for Gitanjali group of companies are part of the second FIR registered yesterday by the agency against Choksi and his companies Gitanjali Gems, Nakshatra Brands and Gili, they said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday launched a nationwide raid on the offices, showrooms, and workshops of billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi.

The multi-pronged action came a day after the PNB admitted to unearthing a fraud of Rs 11,515 crore involving Nirav Modi's companies and certain other accounts with the bank's flagship branch (Brady House Branch) in Mumbai and its second largest lending window in India.

The fraud, which includes money-laundering among others, concerns the Firestar Diamonds group in which the CBI last week booked Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal Modi and their uncle Mehul Choksi.

With inputs from agenciesIn a rare visit, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month where they held extensive talks with the Bhutanese leadership on key strategic issues including the situation in Doka La and the Chinese building defence infrastructure around the plateau, authoritative government sources said.

New Delhi: In a rare visit, army chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month where they held extensive talks with the Bhutanese leadership on key strategic issues including the situation in Doka La and the Chinese building defence infrastructure around the plateau, authoritative government sources said.

The sources told PTI that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation with a focus on Chinas increasing military posturing and infrastructure development around the Doklam plateau. The visit took place between 6 and 7 February and positive outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, multiple government sources said, adding there were deliberations on how to further strengthen defence and security cooperation between the two countries.

The visit by General Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first by top Indian officials from India to Bhutan after the Doka La standoff, and was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides.

The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians of the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China, and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doka La from 16 June last year after the Indian side stopped construction of a road at the disputed Doka La tri-junction by the Chinese army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on 28 August.

China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. India has argued that it has a say in the issue, especially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks. Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India.

The sources said several other key officials of the army and the ministry of external affairs were also a part of the entourage. Asked about the foreign secretarys visit, a diplomatic source called it routine.

This was General Rawats second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 kilometre-long border with China. Last month, he had said the time had come for the country to shift its focus from the western to the northern frontier.

Army sources said China has been keeping its troops in north Doka La and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area.

The Indian Army has also been strengthening the presence of its troops in certain key sectors along the China-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure.

Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year, while the then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had travelled there in October last. In November last, Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck had visited India.A BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh, Janardan Mishra, was seen cleaning toilets with his bare hands in a video that went viral, earning much appreciation.

A video that went viral recently showed Janardan Mishra, a BJP member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh, cleaning a toilet with his bare hands at a school.

According to The Indian Express, during one of his visits to a school in Khajuha village of Rewa district, the MP was informed that students were unable to use the toilet because it was clogged. Subsequently, he got down to clearing the soil from the toilet despite protests from a man in the background who insisted that he would get it cleaned.

Mishra had visited the primary school in Bushudi gram panchayat as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The MP on several occasions in the recent past took matters in his own hands on issues of cleanliness. During a visit to another school in Rewa district recently,he also checked if the nails of students were trimmed and shook hands with them. On 23 January, the MP had also posted a video on his Twitter profile in which he was seen giving a bath to a school boy who was studying in a government school.

According to The Times of India, many have appreciated the BJP MP's work and said that it sets a good precedent for other politicians.The fire at the Kamala Mills compound in Mumbai that claimed 14 lives could not have happened without the connivance of officials in the illegal activities going on there, said the Bombay HC

Mumbai: The fire tragedy at the Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai that claimed 14 lives could not have happened without the connivance of officials in the illegal activities going on there, the Bombay High Court has said.

A bench of Justice RM Borde and Justice RG Ketkar on Friday ordered the setting up of a three-member independent committee, headed by a retired high court judge, to probe the 29 December fire at 1Above and Mojo's Bistro roof-top restaurants at the Kamala Mills compound.

The order came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by former top cop Julio Ribeiro, seeking a judicial inquiry into the case.

"The loss of life is attributable to illegal activities of the operators of the restaurants, in connivance with the owners of Kamala Mills as well as the authorities who are responsible to ensure observance of regulations and the licensing norms," the high court said in its 23-page order.

The detailed order was made available on Saturday.

"It is in fact institutional failure of the municipal corporation as well as the state excise department," the court said.

"Considering the scale of violations of rules and regulations, it cannot be visualised that those can occur without the knowledge of the local authority or without any connivance of civic body officials," it added.

Stating that the involvement of civic body officials and the government could not be ruled out, the court said, "We are of the considered opinion that an independent committee, unconnected with the affairs of the municipal corporation and the state government, should be appointed."

The bench added that it went through the policy for roof-top restaurants submitted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

"However, we cannot be unmindful of the shocking incident, taking a toll of 14 lives and we are of the view that the policy adopted by the corporation (allowing such eateries) needs to be implemented with a lot of circumspection," the order said.

According to a report prepared by the BMC commissioner, the flying embers of a hookah, served illegally at Mojo's Bistro, had started the fire and illegal alterations at both the restaurants aggravated the tragedy.

Apart from the owners of Kamala Mills and the two restaurants, a fire brigade officer has also been arrested in the case.'Give me peace, I will pursue dialogue', Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed to the people of the state, saying her government's agenda was to take them out of the mess of violence.

Srinagar: "Give me peace, I will pursue dialogue", Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti appealed to the people of the state, saying her government's agenda was to take them out of the mess of violence. Seeking cooperation from the public, she said the process of dialogue and reconciliation could be carried forward if peace was maintained in the state.

"Give me peace. I will purse dialogue, the opening of routes like Kargil-Skardu, Jammu-Sialkote, Nowshehra-Jhangar etc. If there is peace I wish people on both sides would march together on the path of growth and development," Mehbooba said, addressing a public meeting in the Devsar area of south Kashmir's Anantnag district. The chief minister laid the foundation of some key development projects in the area.

Mehbooba said the agenda of her government has been to take people of the state out of the mess of violence, initiation of the consultative process in the state to sort out issues and develop Jammu and Kashmir as a model state of the country.

"Some movement on this agenda has been made and many decisions of huge public welfare like withdrawal of cases against around 10,000 youth, regularisation of 61,000 daily wagers, a massive economic and reconstruction plan were initiated by my government during the last three years," she said.

The chief minister said the situation across the borders in the state was not "encouraging" with "deaths and destruction" being reported so frequently that there is a demand for construction of bunkers from the villagers.

"This is unfortunate. In the 21st Century when they should be demanding better schools, good hospitals and efficient services, they are asking for bunkers to protect themselves," she said, adding that the people of the state continue to bear the brunt of partition and acrimony between India and Pakistan.

Mehbooba said she is pained to see that a common citizen of the state is the ultimate victim of this whole scenario of uncertainty, violence and acrimony. "It's the people of the state alone whole get killed, their businesses suffered, education affected and what not," she said. Mehbooba said when she recently went to Ajmer to pay obeisance at the Dargah of Hazrat Khawaja Moin-ud-Din Chishti, she met an officer there who was all praise for the talent and intelligence of youth from the state.

"Alas, they (the youth) are imposing a self-afflicting pain upon themselves which hurts them only and nobody else," she said. Appealing to the youth to desist from going on the path of violence, the chief minister said the world is witness to the fact that it has not resolved any issues, rather it gives birth to many more. Resorting to more violence, she reminded, leads to a response which ultimately leaves behind scars only.Protesters blocked roads and held rallies in several parts of Gujarat Sunday, including capital Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Patan in Mehsana district against the failure of the authorities concerned to prevent suicide of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vanakar on Friday, police said.

Ahmedabad: Protesters blocked roads and held rallies in several parts of Gujarat Sunday, including capital Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Patan in Mehsana district against the failure of the authorities concerned to prevent suicide of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vanakar on Friday, police said.

The protests were held after police detained Dalit leader and Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, and over 70 others, in Saraspur area of Ahmedabad Sunday morning when they tried to stage demonstrations over Vanakar's death. City crime branch officials claimed that Mevani did "not behave properly" with the police during his detention.

However, the MLA tweeted he was pulled out of a car by police in a "very uncivilised manner". He later tweeted:

Is this a way to detain an elected MLA ? If a legislator is in this condition, then think about any dalit's situation in Gujarat.#BJPAgainstDalit pic.twitter.com/CEI26fi70A  Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) February 18, 2018

Vanakar (62), set himself ablaze outside the Patan Collector's office on 15 February seeking allotment of land to a Dalit family. He died of burn injuries at a private hospital in Ahmedabad the next day. His body is still lying at Gandhinagar civil hospital as his kin refused to accept it.

On Saturday, Mevani appealed to Dalits to gather at Sarangpur circle on Sunday morning for protests. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) JK Bhatt said Mevani did not co-operate with police for maintaining peace in the city. "Many Dalit leaders of the city had assured us that peace will not be disturbed during protests. Unfortunately, Mevani didn't give any such assurance. So, as a precautionary measure, we have detained him," Bhatt told reporters.

He said police also detained around 70 people from Sarangpur and Vadaj areas of Ahmedabad city. "Mevani and other detainees will be released at a proper time," the JCP said, adding two companies of anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) and three companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP) have been deployed in the city.

Though the state government on Saturday announced that it will accept the key demands of Vanakar's family, including allotment of land to Dalits, Mevani had sought that the government issue a circular conceding the demands. After his detention, Mevani claimed through his tweet that police misbehaved with him when he was on his way for "a peaceful protest at Ambedkar statue in Sarangpur".

Mevani, who represents Vadgam (SC) seat in Banaskantha district, claimed he was detained after being pulled out of his car. He also accused the police of damaging the car keys when he was heading to Sarangpur. Responding to his allegation, Bhatt cited a video clip circulating on social media which purportedly shows Mevani confronting a policeman and trying to sit in his car after pushing him away.

"You can see how Mevani behaved with the policeman who was only doing his duty. Mevani's behaviour was not proper. No matter what he did, police showed absolute restraint," Bhatt said, adding that violence will not be tolerated. Since Mevani is a sitting MLA, the crime branch will send a report to the Speaker of the Assembly, Bhatt said. After the news about Mevani's detention spread, some unidentified people set a car on fire in Vadaj area of the city, police said.

The state's police control room said protesters tried to block roads in Patan, Gandhinagar and in Unjha town of Mehsana district, which is the hometown of Vankar. Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel on Saturday announced constitution of a judicial commission under a retired high court judge or form an SIT to investigate Vanakar's death. Patel said that a member of the family of the deceased will be given a government job.The army foiled an attempt by a group of terrorists to intrude into this side under the cover of Pakistani firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said

Jammu: The army on Sunday foiled an attempt by a group of terrorists to intrude into this side under the cover of Pakistani firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said.

Jammu-based Army PRO Lieutenant Colonel Devender Anand said the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from 5:15 pm along the LoC in Poonch sector to facilitate an infiltration attempt by a group of terrorists.

The alert troops deployed at the border detected the movement and engaged the infiltrators with effective automatic fire, he said, adding that search and sanitisation operations were in progress.

Earlier, a police official said the firing of small and heavy weapons from across the border took place in Khari Karmara sector and continued for about 15 minutes.

However, there was no immediate report of any casualty in the Pakistani firing, he told PTI.

The army PRO said Pakistan does not abandon its nefarious designs of supporting and abetting infiltration across the LoC.

"The army is keeping a strict vigil across the LoC and is prepared to thwart any nefarious designs of Pakistan sponsored terrorists," he said.

Twenty people  11 security personnel and nine civilians  were killed and over 75 others injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the International Border (IB) in Jammu division since the beginning of this year.An FIR was registered against Congress MLA in Karnataka NA Haris' son Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others for allegedly assaulting a man in Bengaluru

An FIR was registered on Saturday against Karnataka Congress MLA NA Haris' son Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others for allegedly assaulting a man in Bengaluru's UB City, said media reports.

Karnataka: FIR registered against Bengaluru District Youth Congress General Secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad & ten others for allegedly beating up a person in a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB City & threatening him at a hospital where he later went for treatment.  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#BREAKING -- CNN-News18 accesses visuals in a case where Congress MLA's son allegedly assaulted a youth in Bengaluru. | @RevathiRajeevan with more details #CongEmbarrassed pic.twitter.com/RWhkdW3pu7  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018

Nalapad, who is Bengaluru district Youth Congress general secretary, was expelled from the party for six years following the incident, according to News18. President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, G Parameshwara on Sunday informed Nalapad's suspension.

The incident happened when Nalapad, with his friends, walked into a pub in UB City around 10 pm. According to India Today, the victim, identified as Vidwath was having dinner in the same pub with his friend. Nalapad and his friends got into an argument with Vidwath when they asked him to sit properly.

My friend Vidwath had broken his leg four weeks ago and I had decided to take him out for dinner. We went to Farzi Cafe at UB City mall. At around 10 pm, Mohammed Haris Nalapad walked into the cafe. Vidwath had stretched his leg out because he couldnt move it and Nalapad had a problem with it, Praveen Venkatachalaiah, Vidwath's friend, was quoted as saying by The News Minute.

Respond to the incident, working president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and national spokesperson Dinesh Gundu Rao condemned the attack and said that nobody is above the law.

Ghastly incident..nobody is above law..police have to take strict action and arrest all concerned, who so ever they may be. Also Mohammed Haris Nalapad will be expelled from the Congress party for his involvement in this terrible act. Condemn in the strongest words. https://t.co/nu3sqaUyvq  Dinesh Gundu Rao (@dineshgrao) February 18, 2018

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday, taking cognisance of the incident, said that "offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are".Activists of Kerala Students Union, the student wing of Congress and DYFI, the youth wing of ruling CPM clashed in Alappuzha on Saturday

Alappuzha: Activists of Kerala Students Union, the student wing of Congress and DYFI, the youth wing of ruling CPM clashed in Alappuzha on Saturday and police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse them.

Police said trouble started late in the evening when KSU activists taking part in a rally, as part of the state KSU convention, allegedly destroyed flag posts of CPM.

A group of DYFI workers then marched to the venue of the meet and engaged in a heated arguement, which resulted in a clash, police said.

Alappuzha district Congress president M Liju alleged that DYFI workers marched to the venue with sticks, pelted stones and also damaged the cars of Congress leaders, including that of Kodikunnel Suresh, a Member of Parliament.

He alleged that several KSU activists were injured in the stone pelting by the DFYI activists.

Liju said that KPCC president MM Hassan was among those present at the venue when the incident occurred.

Both KSU and DYFI have called for a hartal in the city on Sunday.At least nine persons were killed and 18 others injured when two LPG cylinders exploded at a wedding in Beawar in Rajasthan's Ajmer district

Jaipur: At least nine persons were killed and 18 others injured when two LPG cylinders exploded at a wedding in Beawar in Rajasthan's Ajmer district, police said on Saturday.

According to police, six persons were referred to a hospital in Ajmer while 12 were referred to the district hospital in Beawar.

Police said one Surendra Kumar Parecha had organised celebrations at Kumavat Samaj Bhavan in Beawar after his son's wedding on Friday night.

A loud blast brought the two-storey building down like a pack of cards late Friday night.

According to some eyewitnesses, the accident occurred when a cook was trying to refill an empty cooking gas cylinder from another cylinder. That caused a fire and subsequent explosion. The groom's mother was among those missing.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje condoled the deaths and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to bereaved families and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.

Raje went to Amritkaur Hospital in Beawar as well as Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Ajmer and met the injured there. She called the accident tragic.

Shri Cement also announced Rs 1 lakh aid to the families of the deceased.

The chief minister said that owners of houses damaged in the blast will be compensated. Public works department officials will soon survey the losses and the compensation disbursed thereafter, she added.

The army was extending a helping hand to remove the debris, officials said.More than 200 youths and children, who were hit by militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, are on a country-wide tour to familiarise with India's rich cultural and historical heritage.

New Delhi: More than 200 youths and children, who were hit by militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, are on a country-wide tour to familiarise with India's rich cultural and historical heritage. The Home Ministry sponsored programme, Watan Ko Jano, is being organised to give exposure to the youth and children of Jammu and Kashmir about the cultural and socio-economic development taking place in other parts of the country, an official statement said.

The youths and children hit by militancy and from weaker sections of the society were identified for the purpose and taken on a visit to different places of the country from 11 to 20 February, it said. While meeting some of the youths here today, Home Minister Rajnath Singh expressed happiness that the youths could visit various parts of the country.

Singh said the youths from the state are an inseparable part of the country. He also expressed happiness over the fact that one more group of 500 students will also visit various parts of the country after this group.

"Unity in diversity is the unique value of the country and these children are also a reflection of it. With this tour, the youths will be able to see the development of modern India," he said.

The children have visited Ajmer, Jaipur and Agra and will now visit the historical places in Delhi. The home minister said the youths have certain responsibilities towards the nation and they should take interest in education, respect elders and do something that will make their parents and country proud.

He said every citizen has equal opportunities of development irrespective of caste, language and religion.

The minister urged the youths to share their experiences with their friends and relatives when they come back home and they should spread the message of unity.The next modern war between two major nations will be as different from the Iraq war of 2003 as the Iraq war was from the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

The last major war between two states was fought 15 years ago. Saddam Hussain was defeated by George W Bush in 2003 in a one-sided engagement (I am referring here to the initial invasion and not the occupation). The Iraqis had not received modern equipment for many years, and their outdated tanks and fighter jets were no match for American military power. Though both sides went to war with almost equal numbers of soldiers, about 350,000 each, the American casualties were 1/10th that of the Iraqi side, because their equipment was much better.

The military hardware that nations spend so much money on usually is used to buy equipment for war between nations, meaning tanks, ships and planes. For example, India's defence budget this year includes over Rs 1 lakh crore for such hardware alone. It has become very obvious to most experts of military strategy that this is material that is almost certainly never going to be used except for things like our Republic Day parade. The next modern war between two major nations will be as different from the Iraq war of 2003 as the Iraq war was from the Battle of Plassey in 1757. To understand this we need to ask ourselves what war actually is. A war between states happens when one side is convinced it can compel the other side through force to do what it wants.

However, getting the other side to do something can also happen without violence at all. The intelligence agencies of the United States have said that Russia meddled with the US presidential election of 2016. Vladimir Putin wanted Hillary Clinton to lose and Donald Trump to win. There is also the accusation that Trump may have colluded with the Russians in this meddling. This is still being investigated but what is not in doubt is that Putin and his spies meddled and influenced the American election, perhaps decisively.

On Friday, 16 February, Trump's justice department charged 13 Russians, most from a group called Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg, Russia. They set up social media accounts on a virtual private network that made it appear that these accounts were being operated from the US while they were actually in Russia. The Americans believe that these accounts, on which Putin spent less than Rs 2 crore, helped decide the election in Trump's favour. Why did Russia want Trump to win? Because Hillary would have used sanctions and other means of limiting Russia's influence in the world. Without going to war against America, Putin got what he wanted.

I am writing this because of what the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's chief Mohan Bhagwat has said about war. Bhagwat said that the RSS could mobilise in three days a force that it could send to the border, though, according to him, the Indian Army would take six months to do the same thing. This was attacked as being anti-army but I am not going there. My concern is: what does Bhagwat think his militia will do once it is at the border? Does he think, perhaps because of having seen some documentaries of the 1962 war, that the Chinese will come rushing down the mountains with rifles in their hands? And if so what does Bhagwat imagine his Sangh followers will do that will protect Mother India?

The RSS shakhas drill the cadre regularly with some physical activity and singing of patriotic songs. This is not the sort of training that is useful even for a war fought 100 years ago, forget today. Modern military drill training for infantry is about 400 years old and has evolved over the centuries. It is in 2018, in the era of guided missiles, totally useless.

In a war against a modern nation, our vulnerability will arise not from a lack of volunteers to fight  the Indian Army is one of the largest in the world  or from a lack of equipment, meaning not enough tanks or planes. It will be a vulnerability from a lack of technology, which is usually fatal. An advanced nation will focus on disabling the enemy's communications. A shutting down of the internet will cripple any modern nation today in a way that Iraq could not have been in 2003. The banking system would collapse, and bring the nation to its knees in hours. Internal communications would become so chaotic as to produce panic and disorder. Even purely militarily, just the attack on communications from the outside would defang a nation. For example, the reliance on global positioning systems, which are controlled by the Americans, for aeroplanes and missiles will make them vulnerable, if not useless. Having millions of individuals prepared to martyr themselves will not be of much help. The enemy can compel the less advanced nation to do what it wants, without much violence. This is the way of warfare today, and if this has not been understood it is not because of a want of information, it is because of ignorance.

I thought I should write about this because we should be aware that this is the quality of thinking that informs the RSS, and its products, including our prime minister. It is very primitive and simplistic. It may be burning with patriotism and one doesn't doubt the intent. It is the quality that is alarming and that frightens me.DS Kulkarni (67), a high-profile builder popularly known as DSK, and his wife Hemanti were remanded in police custody until 23 February by a local court

Pune: City-based developer DS Kulkarni, arrested on Saturday in a cheating case, was rushed to hospital in the wee hours on Sunday after he complained of uneasiness and lost his balance in a police lock-up, an officer said.

Kulkarni (67), a high-profile builder popularly known as DSK, and his wife Hemanti were remanded in police custody until 23 February by a local court after they were arrested in Delhi in the early hours on Saturday.

ACP (EoW) Nilesh More said Kulkarni lost his balance when police officers were talking to him in the lock-up at Faraskhana police station in the city, following which he was rushed to state-run Sassoon General Hospital (SGH).

A SGH Resident Medical Officer (RMO) said Kulkarni is currently in the ICU but is stable.

"His blood pressure rose up and the blood circulation to the brain too was affected. We have done all the necessary tests and he is currently under observation in Intensive Care Unit and his condition is stable," he said.

More said Kulkarni complained of uneasiness around 12.30 am.

"Kulkarni was taken to the lock-up yesterday (Saturday) after the court proceedings. At around 12.30 am, he complained of uneasiness and while our police officers were talking to him, he lost his balance and when he was about to fall down, he was held by our officers," the ACP said.

Kulkarni's lawyer Shrikant Shivde on Saturday told the court that his client was suffering from high BP and that his bones became weak after road accidents in the past.

According to prosecution, Kulkarni's firm collected over Rs 1,000 crore in the form of deposits and unsecured loans, which was "systematically" diverted in "pre-planned" manner.

Kulkarni and his wife are accused of duping over 2,500 investors of Rs 230 crore over years.

According to a complaint filed with the EOW by one of the depositors, investors put in lakhs of rupees in a deposit scheme of the DSK Developers, but neither received the interest nor the principal amount.Shiv Sena legislators from Raigad district on Sunday claimed that the BJP-led Maharashtra government deliberately did not invite local MP and MLA of the Sena for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

Mumbai: Shiv Sena legislators from Raigad district on Sunday claimed that the BJP-led Maharashtra government deliberately did not invite local MP and MLA of the Sena for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the airport Sunday afternoon. The new airport, on completion, is supposed to relieve the burden on the Mumbai airport. Local Sena MLA Manoj Bhoir alleged that he and member of Parliament from Maval, Shrirang Barne, were deliberately not invited for the function.

"It is a state-organised event, taking place at the hands of PM Modi. The airport is located in Raigad district, in my constituency. Our MP, Shrirang Barne, represents the same area in the Lok Sabha, and still we both were not invited which is a violation of protocol," Bhoir said in a statement.

"This is an insult to people's representatives. I condemn this act of the BJP-led government as it has insulted the people of Uran Assemly constituency which I represent," Bhoir said.

A Shiv Sena spokesperson said that none of its ministers or legislators were attending the ground-breaking ceremony. Though the BJP and Sena are partners in the state as well as in the NDA government at the Centre, relations between the two are strained.

Local Sena leader and former Thane Mayor Sanajy More had on Saturday said that his party workers would stage a protest at the project site. Though his party welcomed the airport project, the BJP was excluding Sena leaders from the function for the sake of politics, More alleged.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar who is admitted in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital for treatment of 'mild pancreatitis'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar who is admitted in Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital for treatment of "mild pancreatitis".

Modi, on a daylong visit to Mumbai, took time off his scheduled engagements to meet Parrikar, who was earlier defence minister in the Modi Cabinet, and asked after his health.

Parrikar was admitted in the Mumbai hospital on 15 February after suffering a bout of food poisoning.

Hospital authorities clarified on Sunday that the chief minister is "responding well to treatment".

"It has been brought to our notice, (that) various malicious and misleading reports/rumours are floating around in the electronic/print media with regards to his health," the hospital said in a statement.

With inputs from agenciesThe prime minister will reach Mumbai on Sunday afternoon and attend a function to mark the ground-breaking ceremony of Navi Mumbai International Airport.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday visit Maharashtra where he will inaugurate a number of projects, an official statement said on Saturday.

From Maharashtra, he will travel to Karnataka and attend public programmes and rallies in the poll-bound state.

The prime minister will reach Mumbai on Sunday afternoon and attend a function to mark the ground-breaking ceremony of Navi Mumbai International Airport.

The statement said he will dedicate to the nation the fourth container terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port.

Modi will also deliver the inaugural address at the Global Investors' Summit - "Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018".

He will inaugurate the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Mumbai.

The prime minister will later leave for Mysuru in Karnataka.

On 19 February, he will address via video conferencing the World Conference on Information Technology, being held in Hyderabad.

He will also visit Shravanabelagola for the Bahubali Mahamasthakabhisheka Mahotsava.

At a function at the Mysuru Railway Station, he will dedicate to the nation, the electrified Mysuru-Bengaluru railway line..

He will flag off the Palace Queen Humsafar Express between Mysuru and Udaipur, besides addressing a public meeting in Mysuru later in the day.Either somebody in the corridors of power thought it fit to invite Nirav Modi to the Davos summit and be photographed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or, somebody failed to alert the Indian contingent that he is on the uh oh list

If the Indian prime ministers UAE visit is anything to go by in terms of security, then the Ministry of External Affairs heated denial of fraudster Nirav Modi being part of the official delegation to the Davos summit and being a part of one of the official group photographs, is suspicious.

Those extended an invitation to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the impressive Opera House in downtown Dubai were warned three weeks in advance and asked to send copies of their identity cards or passports. The deadline for responding was nine days before the prime ministers address on 11 November. Several personal calls were made from the offices of Ambassador Navdeep Suri and Consul General Vipul to the invitees so that they could confirm their attendance. Then came the personal delivery of an impressive card on a lanyard presumably after clearance from New Delhi that the guest was bona fide and could attend the event called Millennium Moment.

It did not stop there. Because of security reasons, the doors were opened at 6.30 am for guests. It was at least 180 minutes before the prime ministers arrival. Not just that. Visitors were also told to be in their seats by 8 am. All the guests were advised to make things easier and not carry bags or packages and even ladies were shorn of their large statement-making designer bags. Modi came, he talked, he left, and things went smoothly.

Now whether the Indian diplomats in situ followed standard procedure or went the extra mile I dont quite know. But there is a blue book and a yellow book, and there is a protocol that has to be followed for and by the VIP when in public. Perhaps at Davos with so many VVIPs around, the atmosphere was more relaxed and guests could bring guests and friends and it was all chummy and stuff. But here is a man who has left India and is probably already in the investigative crosshairs seeing as how he will be hunted three weeks from then and he is smiling beatifically all dressed for the occasion. How did he get there?

Somebody in the corridors of power thought it fit to invite him. The system does not fall apart on its own and only an arbitrary order from someone in high authority can fracture the security structure. If one goes by the methodology used on 11 November for the UAE function it is inconceivable that Nirav just sauntered in and joined the throng. Somebody goofed up or the lines of communication did not alert the Indian contingent that this individual is on the uh oh list.

It is no secret that in every country there are people who are persona non grata to a visiting dignitary, and if you represent your country in an official capacity you ensure you stay away or you leave if you are so cautioned by your support staff.

The reason is that in todays world you can be unwittingly photographed with that person in a compromising friendly position and this can be used against you, and more vitally, you give legitimacy even with a handshake because half the time you dont know with whom you are shaking hands. That is why a greeting line is vetted. And lets be honest, a group photo is not a sudden affair. You need to organise it and all the people in that shot have to be cleared.

Modi has a good reason to blow his fuse. He has been embarrassed because homework wasnt done. Nirav would have been under the cosh months ago and his dominoes had begun to collapse upon each other by the time the Davos summit occurred so it was incumbent upon those who protect and defend the prime minister to have protected and defended him from being red-faced... its not as if Nirav is an eminent economist at the summit.The CBI is examining balance sheets of 18 India-based subsidiaries of the Gitanjali group of companies promoted by Mehul Choksi to understand the money trail of funds taken from various banks on the basis of Rs 11,384 crore of guarantees furnished by the Punjab National Banks, officials said on Sunday.

New Delhi: The CBI is examining balance sheets of 18 India-based subsidiaries of the Gitanjali group of companies promoted by Mehul Choksi to understand the money trail of funds taken from various banks on the basis of Rs 11,384 crore of guarantees furnished by the Punjab National Banks, officials said on Sunday.

The CBI officials said the agency is continuing the questioning of arrested bank officialsGokulnath Shetty (retired) and Manoj Kharat and a Nirav Modi company's signatorybesides that of other officials of the PNB, to find out the money trail and depth of the alleged scam, spread across thousands of documents and digital records.

They said the agency is also analysing records recovered from a huge server seized during searches after registration of the FIR against Mehul Choksi.

When asked about possible quid pro quo involved in the alleged scam perpetrated in collusion with billionaire diamond merchants Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi and Punjab National Bank officials, they said they are still looking into it and it cannot be clearly said if there were regular payments or not.

"Right now the focus is to understand the depth of the scam, the movement of funds and role of other senior officials," an official said.

One of the biggest financial scams of the country surfaced when companies of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi approached the PNB's Brady road branch, Mumbai, in January this year seeking Letter of Understanding (LoU) for payments to suppliers.

The official handling the case sought 100 percent cash guarantee before any such letters could be issued to which the company officials said no such guarantee was sought in the past.

The official checked the records which did not show such Letters of Understanding (LoU) to Nirav Modi or Choksi's company which led to suspicion.

It is alleged that Shetty, for the last seven years, was bypassing core banking system of the bank and issuing LoUs fraudulently.

The LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to credit giving bank along with accruing interest.

Shetty and Kharat sent messages of these LoUs using an international messaging system for banking systems called SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.

It is estimated that millions of messages are sent daily using the SWIFT technology globally wherein every member bank can send or receive messages of financial transactions to another bank worldwide.

The PNB officials sent these messages to Indian banksCanara Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Allahabad banklocated in Antwerp, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Mauritius, Frankfurt without making entries in the banking software about the LoUs.

These LoUs and Letters of Credits (LC) worth Rs 11,384 crore were getting renewed or issued afresh during last six years without coming in the notice of the bank. The Indian banks abroad did not mind as their money was safe (under guarantee from the PNB) and increasing because of accruing interest.

The party was spoiled in January this year when first renewal arose after the retirement of Shetty, the officials said. An alarmed bank dug out all such LoUs and LCs showing a mammoth liability towards other banks.

The conniving officer also issued Foreign Letters of Credit by entering a smaller amount in trade finance module of Core Banking Solutions (CBS) system and generating the reference number and a SWIFT message was sent for the amount, the bank alleged.

It said subsequently without making any changes in the module of the CBS, the conniving officer sent modified SWIFT message for enhanced amount under the same reference to the beneficiary bank.

Upon receiving the messages from the PNB under SWIFT, the banks abroad transferred these amounts into NOSTRO account of the PNB with them.

The Nostro account means an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank to enable foreign trade by its clients.BJP chief Amit Shah will be on a three-day tour of poll-bound Karnataka from Monday, during which he will attend a number of events and hold public meetings.

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah will be on a three-day tour of poll-bound Karnataka from Monday, during which he will attend a number of events and hold public meetings, according to a party statement.

He will hold a public meeting on Monday near the Mangaluru airport and interact with students of a college in Dakshina Kannada on Tuesday on the "youth's role in building a new India", it read.

Karnataka is likely to go to the polls in April-May and the BJP has been making concerted efforts to wrest it from the Congress. It is the only big state, among those which send 20 or more MPs to the Lok Sabha, which is being ruled by the Congress.

Shah will chair party meetings in the district and visit the home of Deepak Rao, a BJP worker who was killed recently, it read. He is also scheduled to address a fishermen convention in Udupi.

Shah will address a convention of social media activists in Udupi on Wednesday and meet the family of another murdered party worker, Paresh Mehta, it said.

The BJP chief will chair several party events and visit a number of temples.Bharatiya Janata Party said it would give a fitting reply to those criticising the Narendra Modi government for 'not doing anything' for Andhra Pradesh

Amaravati: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said it would give a fitting reply to those criticising the Narendra Modi government for "not doing anything" for Andhra Pradesh.

Andhra Pradesh has been surging ahead on the path of progress thanks to the blessings and total support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party asserted.

The BJP said it would exhibit to the people a list of "facts and figures" and projects the Centre had sanctioned for the state.

"A misinformation campaign is being carried out against the Central government saying it had done nothing for AP and had ignored the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. We will go to the people and place all the facts before them," BJP state president Kambhampati Haribabu said.

"Barring three promises, we have fulfilled all the others. In fact, the Centre has given much more to the state than what was provided for in the reorganisation act," Haribabu added.

The state unit's office-bearers, district presidents and senior leaders of the party held an extensive meeting in Amaravati on Sunday and discussed the ongoing political developments in the state in the aftermath of the presentation of Union Budget 2018-19.

The meeting assumed significance against the backdrop of a slugfest between NDA partners BJP and TDP over Central aid to Andhra Pradesh in the last four years.

Addressing the meeting, Haribabu, who is an MP from Visakhapatnam, said only the Dugarajapatnam port, Kadapa steel plant and Visakhapatnam railway zone did not happen though they were promised in the reorganisation act.

"Though the railway zone at Visakhapatnam was found to be not feasible, the Centre is discussing the issue with neighbouring states to find a way out. We are hopeful that a positive decision will come out soon," he said.

The port and the steel plant were under the "active consideration" of the Centre, Haribabu added.

Referring to the renewed demand for grant of special category status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh, the MP said a special economic package that was equivalent to the SCS had been granted to the state.

The dispute over bridging the states revenue deficit (for the year 2014-15) would also be resolved soon, he said, adding that development was possible only through mutual co-operation between the Centre and the state.

"It has been so till now and hopefully will continue in future as well," Haribabu said, adding the Narendra Modi government was "fully committed" to help the state grow further.

State Ministers Kamineni Srinivas, P Manikyala Rao, Narsapuram MP Gokaraju Ganga Raju, the BJP floor leader in the Assembly P Vishnu Kumar Raju, MLCs Somu Veerraju, PVN Madhav and other senior leaders attended the meeting.

Meanwhile, MLC Veerraju said the BJP was also ready for a debate on what the Centre did for Andhra Pradesh in the last four years.

The BJP legislator was reacting to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidus announcement on Saturday that he was ready for a debate on the Central assistance to the state.

"When we are allies, why go for a public debate? Let him (chief minister) invite our state party president and he will give all details. Our president is ready to reveal all facts, so let the chief minister call him and talk," Veerraju, a vociferous critic of the TDP, said.The decision of the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) to go separate ways in the bypolls for two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh may have brightened the BJP's prospects of retaining these seats even as the saffron party claimed it would rely on its hardwork and strength.

Lucknow: The decision of the Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) to go separate ways in the bypolls for two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh may have brightened the BJP's prospects of retaining these seats even as the saffron party claimed it would rely on its hardwork and strength.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday announced the name of the party contestant from Gorakhpur and said the candidate for Phulpur will be declared shortly. The Congress has already named its nominees for both the high-profile constituencies. Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies were vacated by Chief Minister Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively, after they became members of the UP Legislative Council.

For the BJP, Gorakhpur assumes significance as it is the bastion of Adityanath, who has represented it in Lok Sabha five times. Prior to Adityanath, Gorakhpur was thrice represented in the Parliament by his mentor Avaidyanath.

Phulpur, on the other hand, was once the bastion of the Congress, and represented by first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It had for the first time witnessed a saffron surge in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when Maurya emerged victorious. "We can clearly see that opposition votes will split with both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in the fray.

However, we will contest on our strengths, and emerge victorious. We believe that the hard work of the party workers will definitely help us to clinch victory on both the seats," UP BJP spokesperson Manish Shukla told PTI.

Even when the two parties (Samajwadi Party and Congress) fought against us jointly in the 2017 Assembly polls, their alliance came a cropper, he said. Shukla exuded confidence that BJP will not only retain the two seats, but also improve its margin of victory.

"There are only two wavesModi wave and Yogi wavein Uttar Pradesh, thanks to their vision for development as reflected in both the Union and state budgets," he said. The Samajwadi Party (SP) today declared its support for Praveen Kumar Nishad, for the bye-election to the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat.

Praveen Kumar Nishad, who belongs to the Nishad Party, would contest on Samajwadi Party poll symbol - the bicycle, the party said. Samajwadi Party would soon declare its candidate for the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, it added. On 16 February, the Congress decided to go it alone in the parliamentary bye-elections in Uttar Pradesh and declared its candidates.

Party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said that Dr Sureetha will be its candidate for the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypoll, and local leader Manish Mishra will contest from the Phulpur parliamentary seat. Voting for the Lok Sabha bye-elections will be held on 11 March, while counting of votes will be held on 14 March.After meeting Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan met DMK chief M Karunanidhi and DMK working president MK Stalin days ahead of his statewide tour, media reports said.

Hours after meeting Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan on Sunday met DMK chief M Karunanidhi and DMK working president MK Stalin, according to several media reports.

Kamal Haasan met DMK President M Karunanidhi & DMK working president MK Stalin at their residence in Chennai's Gopalapuram #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/MrEZ0vsXLB  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Kamal Haasan arrived at DMK President M Karunanidhi's residence in Chennai's Gopalapuram #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/44P0wEjjy7  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Haasan called on Rajinikanth at his Chennai residence just days after he ruled out an alliance with the actor's political party. Haasan told reporters it was a "friendly meeting". Both actors have announced their decision to take the plunge into politics in Tamil Nadu.

Haasan will start his political journey on Wednesday from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. After announcing his political party's name on 21 February at Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram, he will embark on a state-wide tour. The tour will be held in phases. Haasan will begin the journey from his hometown and later visit people from the districts of Madurai, Dindigul and Sivagangai.

Haasan said he is embarking on an important journey of his life and he'd like to meet the people he likes before he does so. The 63-year-old superstar said his colour of politics is "black" signifying Dravidian.

On 17 January, Haasan said in a statement, "At the commencement of the journey, I intend to announce the name of my political party along with the guiding principles we intend to live by."

The veteran actor said he intends to challenge the status quo "that has been plaguing the politics of Tamil Nadu for some time now".

With inputs from agenciesJonathone N Sangma, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in poll-bound Meghalaya was killed in the very constituency he was scheduled to contest the election from.

Williamnagar: Jonathone N Sangma, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader in poll-bound Meghalaya was killed in the very constituency he was scheduled to contest the election from on Sunday night.

Sangma, 43, was killed along with his two security guards and his driver about 7.50 pm. He was the NCP candidate from Williamnagar constituency in East Garo Hills. Reportedly, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) killed him at Samanda in Williamnagar when he was returning from a poll campaign. The state goes to polls on 27 February.

Ringrang TG Momin, Superintendent of Police, East Garo Hills, said he was yet to confirm how the aspiring MLA was killed as some reports claimed he was shot at from a close distance. The SP said it was too early to comment who could be behind the incident.

A few days ago, posters had appeared on trees and walls in many places in Williamnagar, warning people not to cast vote for Sangma. Written in Garo language, the posters read: Anyone who dares to vote for Jonathone Sangma would be killed.

It is learnt that Sangma had been facing similar threats since 2013 and he had even faced attacks by unknown miscreants earlier. During the last state election in February 2013, he had filed a case against Congress leader Deborah C Marak in Williamnagar police station for instigating militants of the Garo National Liberation Army against him during the elections. The police had then filed a chargesheet against Marak under Sections 120B, 171F and 506 of Indian Penal Code.

Sangma had contested the 2013 polls as an independent candidate and had recently joined the NCP. In 2013, he had secured second highest number of votes, losing out to Marak.

National Peoples Party Chief Conrad Sangma condemned the fatal attack. "It is unfortunate that this kind of incident has happened during election. I express my heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family. I would take up the matter with the Centre and ensure that peace prevails during the election in Meghalaya," he said.

In a Facebook post, Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma wrote: Deeply saddened to hear about the unexpected loss of Jonathone Sangma. My heartfelt condolences to his near and dear ones. The blood of innocents spilled by the enemies of the State will not disturb the peace in Meghalaya. The desperate act will not be tolerated. The perpetrators of the crime will be apprehended expeditiously and brought to book.

The author is a Guwahati-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he had succeeded in taking the coalition along 'in the best possible way.'

New Delhi: Amid strains in the ruling NDA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he had succeeded in taking the coalition along "in the best possible way", emphasising that it could happen because democracy is in the "roots and veins" of the BJP.

The Prime Minister's remarks came during an address on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) new headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg attended among others by several union ministers and former party presidents including LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.

"In a multi-party democratic set up, the politics of alliance is natural. Making and breaking of an alliance due to personal interests is something different. In coalition, the practice of moving together with allies is necessary...The BJP under Atalji (former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee) successfully did this experiment. Such an attempt was also made in 1967 by Samyukta Vidhayak Dal but it could not succeed.

"We succeeded because democracy is in our roots, convention and veins. Due to this, we are successful in carrying the coalition in its best possible way and we are moving ahead," Modi said.

The Prime Minister's remarks assume importance in the wake of recent murmurs of discontent within the BJP-led NDA. The Telugu Desam Party and the Shiv Sena, two NDA partners, are at loggerheads with the BJP over several issues.

The Prime Minister also recalled the contributions of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Advani and Sunder Singh Bhandari in building the party and said the roots of democracy deepened in the party due to their style of functioning and teachings.

"I remember the days when Advaniji used to study the organisational democratic set up. Bhandariji used to focus on running the party constitutionally. We got such leadership. Due to these, there is 100 percent democracy in us. In thoughts, in actions and in implementation, the BJP's core is truly democratic," he said.

Modi said the BJP got the opportunity to serve the people and the teachings by the leaders on democracy helped him in running the government with the values of "sabka saath, sabka vikas".

The Prime Minister said forming a political party was not tough in India and the beauty of a democratic set up lay in the multi-party system.

"There are several parties with their own views, ideologies and working. The fact that there are several parties in the nation adds to the beauty of democracy in India."

Recalling the BJP's journey which began with the Jan Sangh, Modi said the party could reach to this level because of the sacrifices made by the workers.

He said the Jan Sangh and BJP leaders have been at the forefront of all leading mass movements after Independence.

"Ours is a party committed to 'Rashtra Bhakti'. The Jana Sangh and the BJP led all movements after independence. We are proud of it. Our party is dyed in the colour of patriotism. It became a party which struggles and sacrifices for national interest," the Prime Minister added.

About the new building, the Prime Minister urged the party workers to feel proud to say "ye mera karyalay hai" (this is my office) because "karyakartas" are the soul of the headquarters.

"This is not a place for personal political ambitions but a sacred place for the fulfilment of aspirations of crores of people."

BJP President Amit Shah said the party became much stronger due to the way Modi worked and benefited the people after its victory in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

"In 2014, people expressed their confidence in Modiji by electing a government with full majority. After that, the way Modiji ran the country and the way its (government's) fragrance reached the people, the party became much stronger," Shah said.

He added that the party organisation also worked hard to spread the government's message among the masses.

"Modi has a popularity... a certain stature in the people's minds.. party workers have helped to give it a status. That is why we are ruling in 19 states," Shah said.

Recalling the sacrifices of the party leaders, he said the party cadres need to achieve new heights in the coming days.

"Modiji has given us a call of New India. Political parties may be in the fray for winning elections and forming governments but for the BJP winning elections is not the only goal. I believe all the party workers would work in this direction," he said.

The BJP chief said in a year all the district headquarters of the party would be constructed and will be connected with the central office.

The 1.7 lakh square feet office is equipped with modern facilities of Wi-Fi, live video conferencing and other amenities. Its foundation stone was laid by Modi on August 18, 2016 and it was constructed in one-and-a-half years.

With the inauguration, the BJP became the first major national party to shift its office outside the Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, following a Supreme Court directive that party offices should be relocated from there.Narendra Modi will inaugurate new BJP headquarters, a multi-storeyed modern construction fitted with latest communication technologies, on Sunday

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new BJP headquarters, a multi-storeyed modern construction fitted with latest communication technologies, on Sunday in the presence of top party leaders, including its president Amit Shah.

The new party office is located at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and will make the BJP the first major national party to shift its office outside Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, following a Supreme Court directive that party offices should be relocated from there.

Amit Shah arrives for the inauguration function of BJP's new headquarters at #Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg. PM Modi will also attend the event. pic.twitter.com/n6ZyhRtIS1  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#TopStory: PM Modi to inaugurate BJP's new HQ at Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, to also attend various events in Maharashtra, later today. (File Pic) pic.twitter.com/OEEiG8HIcP  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

The BJP's shift may put pressure on other parties to follow suit as almost all of them have been functioning for decades out of bungalows.

The saffron party has been working from Ashoka Road while the main opposition Congress office is at Akbar Road and the two premises are part of the pool of government residences.

The BJP plans to move to the new office from the current one as early as next week, official sources said.

Modi and Shah had laid the foundation stone of the new headquarters in August last year and a Mumbai-based architecture company had designed it.

The premises has three buildings fitted with modern communication tools, enabling party office-bearers to co-ordinate official works with their counterparts in states and local levels in real time.

Since taking over as its president in 2014, Shah has worked to have party-owned offices in all states and districts, a task in progress.

A host of Union ministers and former party presidents like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi are likely to be present during the inauguration ceremony.BSP chief Mayawati referring to Nirav Modi scam on Sunday and claimed that the Centre slept while a mega bank fraud took place.

Lucknow: Raising questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'na khaoonga, na khane doonga' promise, BSP chief Mayawati referred to the Nirav Modi scam on Sunday and claimed that the Centre slept while a mega bank fraud took place.

"A Rs 20,000 crore bank scam took place, while the government was caught napping. What kind of a public welfare government is this?" Mayawati said in a statement.

Lashing out at the BJP, she said all talk about bringing black money stashed abroad and depositing Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of the poor was empty rhetoric.

She sought to know what happened to the prime minister's "na khaoonga, na khane doonga (Won't indulge in graft, won't let anyone do it as well)" assurance.

"Was the hard earned money of poor and hard-working people deposited in the nationalised banks under Jan Dhan Yojana for committing fraud by favourite industrialists and businessmen," the former UP chief minister said.

Was bringing back 'achche din' (good days) mere rhetoric? she asked.

The Modi government must accept its responsibility in the mega scam instead of talking big, Mayawati said adding strict action against the guilty persons was needed so that people could repose their faith in the banking system.

"Despite claims of strengthening of the economy, employment opportunities have not been made available, and this makes it clear that the government machinery under PM Modi has collapsed," she alleged.The Rs 11,400 crore PNB scam is the biggest arsenal that Congress has got in its hand to attack the Narendra Modi government ahead of 2019 General Election to Lok Sabha

The multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam involving jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi is the biggest arsenal that Congress has got in hand to launch an attack on the Narendra Modi government ahead of the 2019 General Election to Lok Sabha.

A major part of the steering committee meeting of Congress, headed by its president Rahul Gandhi at the AICC headquarters on Saturday, was spent in discussing the Rs 11,400 crore scam and chalking out a strategy to pin down the NDA government by demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe.

The members of the steering committee decided to attack the government by raising the PNB scam inside and outside the Parliament in a big way. Inside the Parliament, Congress will try to rope in other like-minded political parties to form a joint action committee and formulate a fool-proof strategy to pressurise the government. Outside, it would reach out to the public through press conferences and rallies.

The attack began immediately after the meeting, as the Congress president told media that the prime minister would have to tell the nation who was responsible for Indias biggest bank scam.

It all began on 8 November 2016, when Modiji banned (old notes of) Rs 500 and Rs 1000, demonetised the economy, took out entire money from peoples pocket and put it into the banking system. Through his actions, the prime minister destroyed the financial system of the country. But the most surprising thing happened is that jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi escaped by withdrawing Rs 22,000 crore out of the banking system. If the PM could spend 1.45 hours giving lessons to students on examination, why is he silent on this issue? Why is he not telling the nation about those responsible for allowing Nirav Modi and Choksi to escape with Rs 22,000 crore of public money? As much as 90 percent of the entire transaction happened in NDA regime. The prime minister must speak and tell the nation the truth, Rahul said.

According to Congress, the scam in reality involved over Rs 22,000 crore as against the said Rs 11,400 crore value declared by the investigating agencies.

The figure may go up to Rs 30,000 crore, as more skeletons are likely to tumble out of the cupboard, one of the members of the steering committee told Firstpost.

Later, referring to the scam vis-a-vis decision of the steering committee, Randeep Singh Surjewala, communication in-charge of All India Congress Committee (AICC), said, Congress will speak with all like-minded parties in the Parliament to form a joint action committee. Our senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge have been assigned with the task of speaking with other political parties and thereafter demand a JPC probe on this scam. As our party president has demanded, the prime minister must speak on this issue and explain why and how this scam happened and what he plans to do. The prime minister is accountable as Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi escaped the country under government protection by siphoning-off public funds.

Presenting a list of 367 LOUs (Letters of Undertaking), Surjewala claimed that the transactions dated back to 2016-17 which was during the NDA government.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, also a member of the steering committee, during the meeting reportedly said that the scam of this proportion couldnt be possible without having 'protection' from the topmost level of the government.

Later reiterating Chidambarams statement, Gandhi told media, During the meeting, Chidambaramji said that this Rs 22,000 crore scam couldnt have been done without high-level protection. The people in the government must have known (about the transactions) beforehand because its a very big amount. The prime minister has ignored it and now hell have to come forward and answer.

Following the decision that was taken in the steering committee meeting on PNB scam, the Congress will take it forward in its upcoming plenary session on how to create an amplifying effect across the country ahead of the Assembly polls in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and thereafter ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Plenary session

Putting an end to speculations regarding the date and venue, the committee took the decision to hold a plenary session of the Congress party in the national capital from 16 to 18 March.

Though the venue has not officially been announced, according to sources, it could be Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi, where approximately 25,000 Congress workers from across the country are expected to attend the three-day brain-storming session.

The Congress will decide its new ideological line and prepare a blueprint after taking views and opinions from party workers.

During the plenary session, the party will look into the ideological and organisational challenges  faced both by the country and Congress  and thereafter build its viewpoint, a party source said.

Besides passing resolutions, some major organisational decisions related to restructuring, strengthening the party at grassroots, new memberships and formation of a new Congress working committee will be taken during the session.

New faces

According to another committee member, during the meeting, the emphasis was laid on getting new faces in the organisation as well as in the AICC.

Rahul expressed his desire to have youth and women as well as members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as fresh faces in the organisation.

The plenary session will look for new faces. Gandhi said that the organisation will have a combination of old guards and new faces. He wants the party to reflect the vitality and vigour of youth, the member said.

Issues that touch common man

The Saturday meeting also dwelt on the issues that affect the common man.

Agrarian crisis, farmer distress, growing unemployment among the youth, joblessness, and problems of labourers  are the other areas that Gandhi-led Congress wants to pursue aggressively both during the plenary session and on the ground. Undoubtedly, it would have an amplified effect on the burning issue of PNB scam.West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on demanded a thorough probe into the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case alleging other banks are also involved in the scam.

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on demanded a thorough probe into the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case alleging other banks are also involved in the scam.

Claiming that the over Rs 11,000 crore PNB scam involving billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi was only a fraction of a mammoth fraud on the Indian banks, Banerjee asserted that it took place during demonetisation.

"Big money laundering happened during demonetisation. There are more banks involved. The full truth must come out," the Trinamool Congress supremo said in a tweet.

The BJP-led NDA government had demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November, 2016 in a bid to curb circulation of black money.

Alleging that key officials were changed in some banks during demonetisation, the chief minister also demanded an investigation into the people who replaced them and those involved in effecting the transfers or removals.

A huge political slug-fest is on between the BJP and the Congress over the PNB scam with both parties blaming each other for allowing Nirav Modi and his associates in the fraud to flourish during their respective tenure.

The BJP is rapidly emerging as a strong Opposition in West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress secured a second term in the 2016 Assembly elections.Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's silence over the 'Rs 22,000 crore banking scam', and asked the government to stop behaving like it was 'guilty'.

New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's silence over the "Rs 22,000 crore banking scam", and asked the government to stop behaving like it was "guilty".

Taking a dig at the prime minister, Gandhi said on his social media handle: "Prime Minister Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hours, but won't speak for 2 minutes on the 22,000 crore banking scam."

"Mr (Arun) Jaitley (Finance Minister) is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you are guilty! Speak up."

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has admitted to unearthing a fraud of Rs 11,515 crore involving jeweller Nirav Modi's companies and certain other accounts with the bank's flagship branch (Brady House Branch) in Mumbai and its second largest lending window in India.

Nirav Modi, the prime accused, fled the country just before the scam came to light. The ruling BJP and the Congress have been trading charges over the culpability of the banking fraud that dates back to 2011-12.The total voter turnout stood at 74 percent in the single-phase Tripura Assembly polls, 17 percent less than the last Assembly election when the polling percentage was recorded at 91.82

New Delhi: The total voter turnout stood at 74 percent in the single-phase Tripura Assembly polls on Sunday, 17 percent less than the last Assembly election when the polling percentage was recorded at 91.82.

Voting was on Sunday held in 59 of the total 60 seats as polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPM candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week.

The constituency will go to polls on 12 March.

According to the figures released by the Election Commission on Sunday, the voter turnout stood at 74 percent.

The BJP, an also-ran until now in the northeastern state, is making a determined bid to demolish the red bastion of 25 years, with stalwarts like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah leading the charge.

The saffron party, which had forged a pre-poll alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), had fielded 51 candidates. The IPFT, an anti-Left party, contested from the remaining nine seats.

The Congress went it all alone in Tripura this time and contested from 59 seats. The party had not fielded a candidate from the Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

There are 25,73,413 registered voters  13,05,375 male and 12,68,027 female  in the state.

The number of voters under the third gender category in the state is 11 and that of the new voters 47,803.Polling began in Tripura amid tight security on Sunday with the BJP emerging as the main challenger to the ruling Left Front, which has been in power in the state for the last 25 years

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About 3214 polling stations have been setup for 25,69,216 voters across 60 constituencies. The Election Commission has also directed to set up one 'All- women managed polling stations for each Assembly Constituency where the entire polling staff, including the police and security personnel, shall be women.

The CPM is contesting in 57 seats and while the other Left Front constituents, the RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI, in one seat each in Tripura Assembly election in 2018.

The Rahul Gandhi-led Congress party is fighting alone in this elections. The party is contesting 59 out of the 60 seats.

A sitting CPM MLA and candidate in Charilam in western Tripura died on Sunday evening due to cardiac arrest, an official said. "The sitting MLA and Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate for Charilam (Scheduled Tribe) seat, Ramendra Narayan Debbarma, died at the Gobinda Ballav Panth Medical College and Hospital, where he was admitted in the afternoon with chest pain," an Election Department official said. The official said the election in Charilam would be countermanded as per electoral laws.

The CPM is confident of retaining power in its bastion of Tripura in Sunday's Assembly elections and achieving a turnaround in the Left movement across the country, though the BJP is battling tooth and nail to oust the Left Front government. In India's 65-year-long electoral history, the country's dominant Left party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), has never been in direct confrontation with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti said that Director General of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) RK Pachnanda has been appointed as a special observer to coordinate the security forces deployed in the state. State Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla said tight security measures are in place across Tripura for free and fair elections. Three hundred companies of central armed forces have been deployed across the state along with state armed personnel and the police, he said, adding the BSF is keeping keep close vigil along the 856 kilometre long India-Bangladesh border in the state, PTI reported.

Voters in Tripura's Udaipur say they want a government which provides development

Voting begins in Raima Valley, a tribal belt in Tripura. The area has about 893 voters and all are of Chakma community.

The green hill states development parameters are mixed. It has a literacy rate of 87.8 percent and is the fifth-most literate state in the country as per the 2011 Census. The states sex ratio, at 960 females per 1,000 males, is above the national average of 942. On multiple social and health indicators, Tripura competes with Goa, Kerala, Karnataka and Gujarat  which rank first, eighth, 10th and 12th on per capita income (2014-15)  our analysis showed.

Tripura, bastion of CPM, is low on development but high on social and health indices

With the Assembly elections in Tripura scheduled for 18 February), incidents of poll-related violence are being reported almost every day from across the Left Front-ruled state. Allegations and counter allegations fly thick and fast, with both national and regional parties laying the blame for their cadres deaths on the CPM-led Left Front government, while the latter ducks the charges.

The CPM on Saturday dubbed "unusual" the appointment of a special observer for the Assembly election in Tripura and objected to his closed-door meeting with the state BJP president. A CPM delegation met Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat and expressed concerns over the appointment of the special observer, PTI reported.

A faulty EVM was reported in one of the constituencies in Gomati district in Tripura

Watch: It is a direct fight between the BJP and the Left in Tripura

In all 292 candidates, including 23 women and many independents, would be testing their electoral fortunes in Sunday's election.

Hours before the end of campaign, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other central leaders boosted the campaign of the Congress party, which has been hit by large numbers of top state party leaders, seven MLAs and huge number of workers joining the BJP since last year.

In all, 2,536,589 people, including 1,250,128 women and 47,803 first-time voters are eligible to elect 60 MLAs of the Tripura Assembly.

This is how Tripura voted in the past

"Seeing the atmosphere and campaigns after visiting various constituencies, I am rest assured that the BJP would form the next government in Tripura and it would be the 20th BJP ruled state," Shah told a news conference in Agartala.

On 12 February, BJP president Amit Shah asserted that the BJP would form the next government in Tripura which would be the 20th state to be ruled by the saffron party, PTI reported . Shah assured the voters that the promises made in the party's election manifesto released on Sunday would be implemented.

Tripura's State Election Commission to take count on the polling percentage every two hours. Across Tripura polling has begun in a brisk pace in the first hour.

On 11 February, BJP leader and Union minister Arun Jaitley released the party's manifesto for Tripura Assembly election, which promised that SEZs would be set up in the state and smartphones would be given to the youth for free if the saffron party is elected to power in the state, reported PTI.

As with most long-serving governments, the Left government in Tripura has seen good days and bad. Thus, while it has been credited with reducing militancy and getting the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) withdrawn from the state by investing heavily in a local police force, it has lately come under attack over its stance on the partition of the state.

The Congress on Monday promised development, employment and waiver of farmers' loans in Tripura if voted to power in the state. Releasing its election manifesto here for the Tripura Assembly elections, AICC general secretary and Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanswamy brushed aside poll promises and claims made by the BJP and the Left, reported PTI.

BJP state in-charge of Tripura Sunil Deodhar says he's confident there won't be any instances of booth capturing and reposes faith in the central forces deployed across the state.

The Congress, which was in power for two complete terms in Tripura since it attained statehood in 1972 and remained the principal Opposition party until the last Assembly elections, is facing the upcoming polls merely to maintain its relevance in the state's politics. The Congress, its critics say, has been absent from active politics, owing to its many political compulsions. Moreover, the large scale exodus of leaders and workers from the party over past three years has left it in a deplorable state, reported PTI.

ANI reports that 11 percent voters in Tripura have cast their vote till 9 am.

People are enthusiastic about voting. The poll percentage count is delayed as we are still getting inputs from the remote tribal areas. That said, the polling has been peaceful so far, Sriram Taranikanti, Chief Electoral Officer, Tripura said.

All India Radio reported that EVM malfunction was reported from one of polling booths of Banamalipur constituency. One EVM was replaced in Badarghat constituency, the report added.

While Manik Sarkar did not interact with the media after casting his vote, his wife expressed confidence that the CPM will be winning the Tripura Assembly election, reported NDTV.

Trinamool Congress, which allied with two tribal-based parties  Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and National Conference of Tripura  boosted its poll campaign by roping in senior leaders and film stars from West Bengal, reported IANS.

Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and developed Tripura, says Amit Shah

Here are the reserved seats for the ST/SC candidates

In a memorandum it submitted to the EC, the BJP stated that going by past several elections in the state, the CPM had indulged in "mass-scale rigging" and has "subverted with impunity the electoral processes by spreading rumours, intimidating voters and unleashing violence."

The BJP on Thursday approached the Election Commission, alleging that the ruling CPM in Tripura is spreading rumours that their workers would be able to assess who voted for them in the state elections.

Polling is yet to begin in several stations in constituencies like Bamutia, Kurti- Kadamtala and Bagbasa due to technical snags in EVMs. Chief Electoral Officer Taranikani said replacement of faulty machines are taking place.

Polling yet to begin in several booths due to technical snag

Bijoy Laxmi Singha, CPM candidate from Kamalpur in Dhalai district, said she faced "rough behavior from security staff" at her polling booth, when she went their to thank her supporters. She also said that booth no 54 and 55 in Kamalpur experienced EVM malfunctioning early in the day, but problems were soon resolved.

In the backdrop of the hectic poll preparations, Pradyot Kishore Manikya, heir of the royal family in Tripura and the working president of the state Congress unit, spoke to Firstpost about elections, his relationship with the Congress leadership, and his vision for the state. The royal scion also cleared the air about his recent meetings with bigwigs from both BJP and the Congress, and explained why he is comfortable with the grand old party and does not see the BJP as a credible force in the state.

15 EVMs have malfunctioned across the state so far. However, no major incident has been reported till now, reports CNN-News 18.

Several stations in constituencies like Rajnagar, Amarpur, RK Pur, Matabari and Bagma haven't started polling due to "malfunctioning EVMs".

At 11 am, the turnout stands at 23.25 percent. However, officials are still counting the numbers. The final figure can go up to 25 percent.

Kalyani Roy, BJP candidate from Teliamura constituency in Khowai district, said CPM cadres were disrupting the poll process by provoking voters to vote for their candidate in her constituency. "There is 'cadre raj' going on here. They threatened me with life when I questioned them. I am filing an FIR at Teliamura police station right now," she said.

Responding to queries on EVM malfunctioning at several places on the polling day, Sriram Taranikanti, Chief Electoral Officer of Tripura said, There were technical glitches and we have had difficulty in about 3% of the total voting machines across the State. We have rectified the same and polling is going smooth. A team of about 180 engineers are helping us address such technical problems.

Taranikanti said that there were no incidents of violence reported anywhere in the state and the polling was peaceful.

Speaking in Hindi, Modi used rhyming words to hit out at Manik Sarkar government and make his point: "Left parties do not believe in democracy (ganatantra) they believe in gun-tantra," Modi said. "They murdered our 10 BJP workers. They killed journalists," he alleged.

The prime minister invoked the recent deaths of BJP workers, claiming that the Left government was resorting to bloodshed, sensing that its end is near. Modi claimed that the murders of 10 BJP workers and a journalist was carried out by the ruling party's supporters ahead of the polls.

There has been disturbance (in poll booths). So we called up the DM and he sent some officers to the voting centre. Now it is going on peacefully. The officers at times misbehaves with the senior voters but for them only now it is systematic and peaceful, Congress candidate Birajit Sinha said.

BJP leader Sudip Roy Burman and ruling CPM leader Krishna Majumder, both candidates from the Agartala constituency , had earlier in the day claimed that voting in a few polling stations in the state capital were held up for more than 90 minutes because of EVM glitches. Additional CEO Tapas Roy refuted the claims and said all voting machines were working.

BJP candidate Nitish Dey told Firstpost, "Since 7 am, voters are waiting to cast their votes for a change and are waiting in queue in front of the polling centres. There are reports of a few anomalies in EVM machines and so few polling centres have started bit late in Kailashwar Constituency. This is the fault of the administration as they did not check the machines properly. I have also seen that some of the state employees are working closely with EC to favour the ruling party. We have taken up this matter with the administration. They are violating the code of conduct. I was canvassing till 4 pm on 16 Feb and I believe that BJP is going to win the seats."

Speaking to firstpost, Moboshar Ali, CPM candidate from Kailashahar constituency, urged voters to maintain peace. "I appeal the voters to maintain peace and harmony and cast their vote so that the left can come to power once again. We hope the voters would defeat the candidates of Congress and BJP with huge margin and make the Left candidate the winner here," 53-year-old Ali said after casting his vote.

Moushmi Ghosh, 42-year-old BJP Mahila Morcha member from Sadar sub-division in West Tripura district, shares her expectations from next government. Safety and unemployment need immediate attention, she says.

According to the state election department, the voter turnout till 1 pm is 45.86 percent.

Rahul Gandhi on Friday appealed to the people of Tripura to vote for the Congress to bring good governance, saying unlike the BJP, his party does not make false promises. Alleging that neither the CPM nor the BJP pay attention to development, he said the Congress is the only party which can deliver on its poll promises and will form government at the centre in 2019, reported PTI.

RECAP: Congress does not make 'false promises' like BJP, urges people to vote for it, says Rahul Gandhi

According to NDTV, several EVMs and Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) systems have malfunctioned in some polling booths in Tripura.

35-year old Agartala-based voter and traditional CPM voter says there aren't too many complaints against the government as such but it will be difficult for CPM to stay in power for too much longer. Even if the BJP doesn't do as well as they hope in these polls, there are more polls coming up soon like Lok Sabha, panchayat, municipality. The opposition and people in general are frustrated with the long incumbency. It's only natural because it's not possible to keep everyone happy for so many years.

Reang tribals who came to vote at Biswaram Chowdhury Para SB School in Raima Valley demand better drinking water, roads and electricity

In the 2013 and 2008 Assembly polls, Tripura scripted a record in the electoral history in India by casting 92 percent and 91 percent votes respectively, reports IANS.

An election department official said that snags in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) in over 150 polling stations, resulted in slow balloting across the state. "Around 35 to 40 per cent votes were cast so far and there are long queues in most of the polling stations both in plain and mountainous areas," the official told IANS.

"It is going on smoothly. We hope the momentum carries on," Tripura Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti said about the Tripura polls to ANI . "There were a couple of issues in EVMs in the morning. Our team has resolved the issue. We will be able to complete polling before the stipulated time," he added.

120-year-old Jarina Bibi comes to vote assisted by her grandchildren in Radhakishorepur Assembly constituency

Tripura CEO Sriram Taranikanti says polling to continue in many booths. He adds that voter turnout until 3 pm stands at 67 percent

The Election Commission (EC) said that the poll percentage at 4 pm stood at 74 percent and it was likely to increase as people were still waiting in queues to vote. It added that there were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, many of which were found to be false. ANI reports that 12 ballot units were replaced due to this malfunctioning. "No incidents of violence were reported from anywhere in the state. Two crude bombs were recovered which were disposed off," EC added. The commission also said that in one constituency, polling would be held on 12 March, as it was rescheduled due to the demands of a candidate.

Tripura Congress spokesman Harekrishna Bhowmik criticizes Election Commission for loss of voting time due to EVM malfunctioning at many booths

Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti says he will order an inquiry into the EVM malfunctioning incidents in the state

NDTV reports that Election Commission said voting would close at 4 pm. The report adds that voting is continuing in places where people have been waiting in queues to cast their vote, polling will conclude once they all cast their votes.

Tripura CEO Sriram Taranikanti says polling to continue in many booths. He adds that voter turnout until 3 pm stands at 67 percent

VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura: Election Commission #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/KiqTI04OCN

VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura, says Election Commission

74% voter turnout till 4pm, it likely to go up as there are people in queues to vote even now: Election Commission #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/UWktStCOp7

The Election Commission (EC) said that the poll percentage at 4 pm stood at 74 percent and it was likely to increase as people were still waiting in queues to vote. It added that there were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, many of which were found to be false. ANI reports that 12 ballot units were replaced due to this malfunctioning. "No incidents of violence were reported from anywhere in the state. Two crude bombs were recovered which were disposed off," EC added. The commission also said that in one constituency, polling would be held on 12 March, as it was rescheduled due to the demands of a candidate.

Tripura Congress spokesman Harekrishna Bhowmik criticizes Election Commission for loss of voting time due to EVM malfunctioning at many booths

He said CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, "The Prime Minister and other BJP leaders always talk of Digital India, but in today's (Sunday) elections a large number of EVMs-VVPATs malfunctioned to create serious doubts about the high-pitch Digital India campaign," the Left leader said. IANS

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) Tripura State Secretary Bijan Dhar said the Left parties were "overconfident" of forming the next state government.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tripura unit President Biplab Kumar Deb said, "People want change. People strongly wish for a BJP government in Tripura. It is certain that the BJP will form the next government in Tripura."

As Sunday's voting to elect 59 of the 60 members of the Tripura Assembly passed off peacefully, the ruling CPM and BJP exuded confidence of an electoral victory in the northeastern state.

Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti says he will order an inquiry into the EVM malfunctioning incidents in the state

The Election Commission said in New Delhi the updated polling percentage was compiled from 41 of the 59 constituencies. At its briefing earlier, the poll watchdog had put the figures at 74 percent.  PTI

At least 76 percent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise for the Assembly polls today in Tripura, where the BJP is trying to dislodge the Left Front after an unbroken 25-year stint in power, officials said.

Voter turnout till now (around 9 pm) is 78.56 %. Voting is still underway at few polling stations. Voting slips were distributed till 4 pm & those voters are at the booths: Election Commission #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/L3VQCkgfaC

Election Commission says voter turnout till around 9 pm stands at 78.56 percent. EC added that voting is still underway at a few polling stations.

Polling began amid tight security in 59 of the total 60 seats in Tripura on Sunday. Polling in the northeastern state has gained a lot of attention with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging as the main challenger to the ruling Left Front, which has been in power in the state for the last 25 years.

The state has witnessed a high-voltage camping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as four rallies in the state.

Though voting has remained brisk since morning, development is likely to be the deciding factor as voters choose representatives among the 307 candidates in the fray. According to ANI, several voters in Udaipur said on Sunday that they want a government which can provide them with economic development.

The Tripura BJP president Biplab Kumar Deb voted in Udiapur, while Chief Minister Manik Sarkar voted at a poll booth in Agartala. As of 12 am, the state recorded a voter turnout of 45 percent.

Meanwhile, Modi has urged youngsters in Tripura to come out in large numbers and vote after voting begins in 59 out of the 60 seats in the CPM-bastion. On the other hand, BJP chief Amit Shah tweeted, 'One vote will lay foundation of prosperous Tripura' and urged people to vote in large numbers.

Reports of EVM malfunction has come from various parts of the state. Voting is yet to begin in some of the polling stations in the state. Speaking to Firstpost, Sriram Taranikanti, the CEO of Tripura said, "There were technical glitches and we have had difficulty in about 3 percent of the total voting machines across the State. We have rectified the same and polling is going smooth."

BJP state in-charge of Tripura Sunil Deodhar says he's confident there won't be any instances of booth capturing and reposes faith in the central forces deployed across the state. However, BJP candidates have been complaining of state authorities and CPM cadres threatening voters.

Polling in Charilam Assembly constituency had to be deferred due to the death of a CPM candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma, five days ago. Voting in Charilam Assembly constituency will be held on 12 March. Twenty seats have been reserved for the scheduled tribes.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) is confident of retaining power in its bastion of Tripura in Sunday's assembly elections and achieving a turnaround in the Left movement across the country, though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is battling tooth and nail to oust the Left Front government.

Apart from Modi, several heavyweight leaders of the saffron party took part in the campaign including national president Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Sarkar, who is running for his fifth term as the chief minister, led the CPM's campaign addressing around 50 rallies in the state. Other Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat lent support to the party's campaign.

In India's 65-year-long electoral history, the country's dominant Left party, CPM, has never been in direct confrontation with the BJP. However, political developments in Tripura in 2016 and 2017 have set the stage for their first face-to-face battle as the saffron outfit has emerged as the key opposition party in this Communist-ruled northeastern state.

The Congress' campaign was somewhat subdued with party president Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally at Kailashahar in Unakoti district, about 180 kms from Agartala, on the last day of campaigning.

Altogether, 307 candidates are in the fray.

The CPM is contesting in 57 seats and while the other Left Front constituents, the RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI, in one seat each.

The BJP, which has forged an alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) has fielded 51 candidates. IPFT will contest in the remaining nine seats.

The Congress is going it alone in Tripura this time and will contest in 59 seats. The party has not fielded any candidate for Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

After Tripura become a full-fledged state in January 1972 along with Meghalaya and Manipur, the CPM dominated Left Front was in power since 1978 except for 11 years (1972-1977 and 1988-1993) when the Congress and the breakaway Congress led by five chief ministers ran the state.

There are 25,73,413 electorates, of whom 13,05,375 are males and 12,68,027 women while the number of third gender voters is 11. There are 47,803 new voters this time.

Voting will be held between 7 am and 4 pm on Sunday at 3,214 polling stations of which 47 would be managed by women, election office sources said.

Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti said the Election Commission has appointed police observers, general observers and expenditure observers to ensure free and fair polls.

He said that the Director General of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) RK Pachnanda has been appointed as a special observer to coordinate the security forces deployed in the state.

State Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla said tight security measures are in place across Tripura for free and fair elections.

Three hundred companies of central armed forces have been deployed across the state along with state armed personnel and the police, he said, adding the BSF is keeping keep close vigil along the 856 km long Indo-Bangladesh border in the state.

Counting of votes will take place on 3 March, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Modok said.

With inputs from agenciestech2 News Staff

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL owners are complaining about overheating and battery drain issues ever since the February security patch was released, earlier this month.

This comes after customers have already dealt with other issues such as software bugs, display and audio issues. Post the February security patch update, the phones are expected to be heating up after mild usage and battery life is also suffering.

Users have started complaining on Google's Pixel User forums as well as on Reddit.

Talking about the battery life issue, user noobsquared said on Reddit, "Battery is terrible since the latest update. Phone is getting pretty warm just using reddit anymore. January update broke all calling for me, had to factory reset."

User Sudarshan Sarang spoke about the issue on the Pixel User Community, saying that the phone was heating to up to 45-50 degrees Celcius and the fact that the screen on time had seen a 30 percent drop since the latest update. This issue for him is not being resolved even after formatting the phone twice.

"My battery should not be at 40 percent from less than an hour of screen on time with no new apps at all," said braidenis on Reddit.

For some users such as Jw224, said that they haven't noticed a difference in battery life, but phone does get warm. For others like 2Cainz, the heat isn't noticeable, but battery life seems to have taken a hit.

A quick glance through the forums definitely highlights the battery drain and heating issues.

We have yet to come across Google's official response in the matter.

In case you are facing the issue, you should drop a line to Google through this link.Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Sunday about the aggressions by what he called Iran and its 'proxies' in Syria, while showing what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Sunday about the aggressions by what he called Iran and its "proxies" in Syria, while showing what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace.

Saying he had "a message to the tyrants of Tehran" during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, he warned: "Do not test Israel's resolve."

He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called "a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down."

Israel has said it shot down the drone on 10 February after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

It marked the first time Israel publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

During the strikes, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Calling Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the "smooth-talking mouthpiece of Iran's regime," Netanyahu said: "Mr Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, it's yours."

Again referring to Zarif, who is scheduled to speak later in Munich, the Israeli leader said: "No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Iran's involvement in Syria." "He lies with eloquence."

-'Noose of terror'

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drone's debris.

Tensions between the two countries have been building in recent months, with Israel fearing that Tehran is trying to establish a permanent presence in Syria as part of an effort to become a greater regional power in West Asia.

At the same time, Syria appears to feel it now has the upper hand in the civil war and is more emboldened to stop Israeli air raids inside the country, analysts say.

But Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would not let Iran obtain a permanent foothold in its northern neighbour.

"Through its proxiesShiite militias in Iraq, the Huthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in GazaIran is devouring huge swathes of the Middle East," he said.

"Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he added.

"We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."

But he stressed that Israel was not the enemy of the Iranian people, and offered his condolences to the families of the 66 people killed in an Iranian plane crash Sunday.

"We have no quarrel with the people of Iran, only with the regime that torments them," Netanyahu said.Ministers on Sunday green-lighted a bill allowing Israel to withhold tax monies it collects for the Palestinian Authority (PA) by the same amount as stipends that the PA pays to jailed militants.

Jerusalem: Ministers on Sunday green-lighted a bill allowing Israel to withhold tax monies it collects for the Palestinian Authority (PA) by the same amount as stipends that the PA pays to jailed militants.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose ministry drafted the bill, welcomed the vote in a ministerial committee, the first step toward sending it to parliament to be passed into law. "Soon there will be an end to this theatre of absurd," he wrote in Hebrew on Twitter, adding that the money confiscated would be used "to prevent terror and compensate victims".

Israel annually collects around $127 million in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports monthly and then transfers it to the PA. It has withheld payment in the past, notably in response to Palestinian admission in 2011 to the UN cultural agency UNESCO as a full member.

The Israeli move comes as the US Senate considers a bill approved by the House of Representatives to withhold aid to the PA if it does not stop the controversial practice of so-called martyr payments to families of Palestinians convicted of terrorist attacks.

Republican and Democratic US lawmakers alike have warned that the payments incentivise violence and serve as a sticking point in the West Asia peace process. According to the Israeli bill, Lieberman will present an annual report detailing payments to "terror activists" and their families granted by the Palestinian Authority", his office said.

"Based on the report, the sum will be deducted from payments handed from Israel to the Palestinian Authority." The bill will now face a series of parliamentary debates and votes before being finalised. The Palestinian government slammed the move, calling it "piracy and theft" as well as a breach of international law, official news agency WAFA said.

The American legislation, called the Taylor Force Act, is named after a US military veteran and graduate student, age 28, who was killed in a 2016 attack while he was visiting Israel. The attacker, a Palestinian, was killed by police.Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, Gaza medical sources said Sunday after four soldiers were wounded in an apparent bomb attack on the border with the Palestinian enclave

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, Gaza medical sources said Sunday after four soldiers were wounded in an apparent bomb attack on the border with the Palestinian enclave.

The Saturday explosion and ensuing Israeli airstrikes marked one of the most serious escalations in the Hamas-ruled enclave since the Islamist movement and Israel fought a war in 2014.

Israel's army said it attacked "18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation" in two waves of air strikes following the blast.

"Eight targets were attacked in a military compound near Deir el Balah, which belongs to the Hamas terror organisation, including weapon-manufacturing and training infrastructures," it said in a statement early Sunday.

It earlier said fighter jets had targeted "six military targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas, including a terror tunnel in the Zaytun area and military compounds near Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis".

The army also reported that a "launch was identified from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory", with a projectile hitting near a home in a southern Israeli community.

An Israeli police spokesman said the projectile had damaged a building but caused no injuries.

The two Palestinian fatalities were identified by the Gaza health ministry as Salam Sabah and Abdullah Abu Sheikha, both 17, who were killed east of Rafah in southern Gaza.

According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, they were shot by Israeli forces near the border on Saturday.

The Israeli army said that its forces had fired "warning shots" at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence "in a suspicious manner".

Speaking at a security conference in Munich late Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called the Gaza border incident "very serious" and pledged to "respond appropriately".

A Palestinian security source said the Israeli air strikes hit three bases belonging to Hamas in the east of the blockaded Gaza enclave.

Two Palestinians were injured in the raids, Palestinian medical sources said.

Earlier in the day, the army said "two soldiers were severely wounded, one moderately and one slightly" when an improvised explosive device blew up along the border fence with Gaza.

None of the soldiers' lives was in danger, a spokesman said.

Palestinian security sources said the explosion took place east of the city of Khan Yunis.

In response Israeli forces said a tank promptly opened fire at an "observation post" in southern Gaza, causing no injuries on the Palestinian side.

'Rogue group'

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said a "rogue group" had claimed responsibility for the bomb blast, likely indicating one of the more radical Islamist groups who are present in Gaza.

But he insisted that "from our point of view Hamas is responsible" and said the explosive had been planted during a protest arranged by the group on Friday.

Israel holds the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas responsible for any fire from the blockaded coastal enclave.

The Israeli army responds automatically to any strikes on its territory, generally targeting Hamas facilities.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had fired at Israeli jets overhead. Conricus denied the claim.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, and the last conflict in 2014 was waged in part over tunnels from Gaza that were used to launch attacks.

Israeli aircraft hit Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip repeatedly in early February, saying Palestinians there had fired a rocket into its territory.

Tensions between the Palestinians and Israel have been high since US president Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in December.

Netanyahu will visit the White House next month, a senior US administration official told AFP on Friday.

The 5 March visit comes as Netanyahu faces a scandal that has seen police recommend he be indicted for graft.Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Bajwa has claimed that there are no safe havens terrorists in his country and asked the US to stop blaming Islamabad for its failure in Afghanistan.

Islamabad: Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Bajwa has claimed that there are no safe havens for terrorists in his country and asked the US to stop blaming Islamabad for its failure in Afghanistan.

General Bajwa asked the American leadership to instead search for the reasons for its failures in the war-torn country.

Speaking at the three-day Munich Security Conference where military chiefs and civilian leaders have gathered to discuss the world's most pressing security issues, the army chief on Saturday categorically denied the existence of terrorist sanctuaries on the country's soil and recalled the steps taken to prevent unauthorised movements across the porous border, the Dawn reported.

General Bajwa said Pakistan was being attacked from terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil. He also emphasised the need for repatriation of 2.7 million Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan. Pointing to the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic State safe havens, he said terrorists had established sanctuaries on the Afghan soil along the border with Pakistan.

Gen Bajwa said underscored the importance of international cooperation against terrorism. Speaking about the operations launched in the country against terrorists, he said that besides kinetic operations, a lot of emphasis had been put on cutting off their financial sources.

He said Pakistans counterterrorism operations were being carried out under a National Action Plan. Last month, the Trump administration suspended nearly $ 2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan accusing the country of not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.

However, despite the US administration's tough stand against Islamabad, Pakistan has categorically denied the allegations of supporting terrorism.For the first time in the history of Pakistan, transgenders will be part of a team of boy scouts being sent to Saudi Arabia to serve as volunteers during 2018 Haj pilgrimage

Islamabad: For the first time in the history of Pakistan, transgenders will be part of a team of boy scouts being sent to Saudi Arabia to serve as volunteers during 2018 Haj pilgrimage, a media report said on Sunday.

"Efforts for sending transgender youth to Saudi Arabia to serve as Khuddamul Hujjaj (volunteers during the annual Haj) are underway," IPC Sindh Boys Scouts commissioner Atif Amin Husain was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune.

Blue Veins, a transgender welfare organisation, is coordinating with the IPC on the matter, the paper said.

"At least two to three transgender persons will be selected from each of the remaining three provinces for joining the scouting community that leaves for Saudi Arabia every year.," Husain said.

He said recently 40 transgender youth from Sindh were administered oath on joining the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association (PBSA)  a national scouting organisation and one of the largest volunteer forces in the country.

The transgender persons would be part of a team of more than 150 boy scouts, he said, adding that last year over a hundred boy scouts had been sent.

"The recruitment process for Khuddamul Hujjaj includes physical training and a test. After that, the PBSA sends a list of successful candidates to the Federal Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony for a final approval," Husain said, explaining the process.

This year the list would include names of transgender youth, he added.

Husain feels that by joining the PBSA, transgender youth would get social acceptance, attain confidence, feel secure and move forward, the paper said.

Blue Veins programme coordinator Qamar Naseem said that after the recruitment of 40 transgenders in Sindh, his organisation is planning recruitment processes in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

"This can be a game changer and can significantly improve the social acceptance of transgender youth in our society," he said.

He termed the recruitment step a positive initiative that would help the transgender community in improving its image at local as well as regional level.US president Donald Trump on Saturday said the FBI was so caught up in the Russia probe that it failed to heed signs which could have prevented the Parkland school shooting.

Fort Lauderdale: US president Donald Trump on Saturday said the FBI was so caught up in the Russia probe that it failed to heed signs which could have prevented the Parkland school shooting.

Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

His comments come after criticism from survivors of the attack over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, and after several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs ahead of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 people were killed.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said the gunman Nikolas Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up. But the attack, the 18th school shooting this year alone, has also renewed calls for greater gun control with several survivors leading the charge.

One of them, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd of students, parents and residents in Fort Lauderdale. "To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!" she thundered, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby. The crowd chanted in turn: "Shame on you!" "We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law," she vowed, slamming the fact 19-year-old Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour.

"The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics," Gonzalez told AFP following her speech.

In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health: Making no mention of gun control.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," Gonzalez said in her impassioned address. "It doesnt matter because I already know. Thirty million," she said, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trumps election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.

She then ran through a list of the pro-gun lobbys talking points  for example, that "a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun," that no law could ever stop a madman intent on killing  answering each argument with "We call BS." The young woman's powerful address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.

In addition to the FBIs missteps, Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated Cruz in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

The newspaper, citing Department of Children and Family Services documents, said the investigation came four days after Cruz turned 18: Legally an adult, and thus able to buy a firearm. Investigators said there were "some implications" for the teens safety, but concluded that his "final level of risk is low as (he) resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling" as an outpatient at a mental health center, the Sun Sentinel said.

Cruz later passed a background check, allowing him in February 2017 to buy the AR-15 rifle used in the massacre. Trump spoke by phone Saturday with the Parkland mayor, the county commissioner and the principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to express his condolences and offer his support.A major fire broke out at one of Tibet's holiest Buddhist temples, Jokhang Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the capital Lhasa with a history of more than 1,300 years.

Beijing: A major fire broke out at one of Tibet's holiest Buddhist temples, Jokhang Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the capital Lhasa with a history of more than 1,300 years.

There were no reports of any casualties, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without specifying the damage caused by the fire to the temple. The fire started at 6.40 pm on Saturday but was soon brought under control, it said.

Firefighters doused the fire and the relics are intact, state-run China Daily reported, without providing details.

The Jokhang temple, also known as the Qoikang Monastery, is regarded by the Tibetans as the most sacred and important temple in Tibet.

The fire at over 1,300 years Jokhang temple raised fears over its future as investigators tried to determine the cause of the blaze, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said.

Internet users posted pictures and videos of the fire on social media, showing flames shooting high into the sky above old Lhasa. The extent of the fire damage to the site, considered the spiritual heart of Tibetan Buddhism, was not known, the Post said.

The oldest part of the temple was built more than 1,300 years ago and the whole structure was added to UNESCOs World Heritage list in 2000 as part of the Potala Palace, the official home of successive Dalai Lamas. The Jokhang Temple houses many cultural treasures, including a life-sized statue of Buddha when he was 12 years old.

The temple attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists from home and abroad.                           ...In the wake of the shooting that killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, stars far and wide are speaking out in the ongoing gun control debate. Now, The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik has made an impassioned plea for civil disobedience.

The star took to Facebook with a video post calling out lawmakers who receive funding from the National Rifle Association and private citizens who own guns.

The images of those 17 faces will not leave my head, but I said that about the last shooting and the last faces and indeed, we forget, she said. Im angry, I feel numb, I feel disgusted, I feel horrified and sometimes I feel all of these things at once.

Unlike some of her celebrity counterparts, Bialik acknowledged the many other facets that often come up in the gun control debate, but noted that nothing can be done about them en masse.

This is not about the media and video games glorifying and encouraging violence. I mean, it is and its not. Its not about toxic masculinity, although thats something we need to discuss as well. The lack of mental health care for people in this country who need it is astounding and horrifying, but thats not whats causing these problems right now, she said in the video below. These are all contributing factors to a larger problem, but we dont have the ability to solve all of them all together today.

The star went on to share some statistics about the AR-15 rifle, the NRA and American gun ownership. Specifically, she called out senators from Arizona, Colorado, Missouri and North Carolina as well as congressmen from Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Montana and Colorado for the funding they've taken in from the organization.

We are not being accurately represented by our elected leaders. How can we change that? she asked. We can do what Josh Gad, whose close friend lost a child in the shooting Wednesday, has vowed to do. Make it your lifes goal to support and vote for every single person who challenges a politician with NRA money behind them.

The star then threw her support behind the upcoming National School Walkout organized by the activists behind the Womens March. She also encouraged fans to go to her blog, Grok Nation, where a post she updated called for more practical ways to advocate for gun control.

Say yes to civil disobedience. Walk out, sit down, stand up, encourage others to do the same, whatever it takes.

Bialiks video came after a gunman used an AR-15 rifle in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.A woman is claiming to have found a live worm in a package of fish she purchased from Costco two weeks ago.

Emily Randolph of Frederick, Maryland, bought a 2-pound package of fresh wild Atlantic cod at Costco on February 9, FOX 5 reported.

Randolph said she planned to cook the fish a few days later, before the February 12 Sell By date, but the fish began to smell bad. Thats when she and her husband looked closer at the package and discovered a live worm in the corner of the wrapped package.

It was big, said Randolph to FOX 5. I have even Googled it since then and that was a very large worm. It should have been caught before it was put out to the public to potentially eat.

CALIFORNIA WOMAN FINDS LIVE FROG IN HER TARGET SALAD

Randolph brought the fish package back to Costco and received a full refund. However, Randolph was disgusted to learn she was not the first customer to return fish for this reason.

We were returning cod, but the person before us had just returned salmon that had worms in it, Randolph said, the girl behind the counter told her.

Randolph took a recording of the wiggling parasite before returning the fish and posted the video on Facebook.

Bought this at the Costco in Frederick, MD. When we took the video to Costco to get our money back the girl behind the counter said someone had just returned salmon with worms in it. No apologies at all. She acted as if this happens all the time. Im so grossed out. Check your food people!!!! she captioned the post.

Her Facebook video went viral soon after that with nearly 6,000 shares and 375,000 views as of Sunday morning.

Though some were equally as grossed out as Randolph, many were more shocked that she didnt know that raw fish contained parasites like worms.

Fun fact raw fish is filled with parasites, one said.

Im surprised this many people didnt know that most wild caught fish contain worms or parasites. Thats why you need to cook it thoroughly, Facebook user Lori Robinson said.

"Cod is one of the fish that contains the most worms. Most times you won't see them as they are embedded in the fish.

Another responded to Robinson, writing, Used to work in a seafood dept. You are correct! Cod is one of the fish that contains the most worms. Most times you won't see them as they are embedded in the fish.

Parasites are found in bottom feeders like cod, but those worms will be killed if you properly cook fish and they shouldn't cause any symptoms at all, Kathryn Kirk, a gastroenterologist in the D.C. area told FOX 5.

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The proper cooking for a cod and other fish, according to a health spokeswoman, is to bring the fish to an internal temperature of 145 degrees for a minimum of 15 seconds to kill off any parasites.

Costco told FOX 5 that they inspect all fish and work to remove any parasites, but sometimes one will slip through the cracks.

Randolph just hopes people learn from her and check [their] food before eating.

The Frederick County Health Department is currently investigating Randolphs claims.Parents terrified by the deadly school shooting in South Florida are spending big bucks on bulletproof backpacks for their kids, according to reports.

Massachusetts-based Bullet Blocker  which sells the fortified bags for between $200 to $500  has seen a 30 percent surge in sales since Wednesdays massacre in Parkland, according to TMZ.

The company sold 500 of the backpacks on Thursday alone, owner Joe Curran told the news outlet, adding that the majority were headed to Florida.

The backpacks, which weigh about 4 1/2 pounds, are lined with Kevlar, a fiber used in bulletproof vests that are used by law enforcement.

Bullet Blocker describes Curran on its website as a real-life father who wanted to do all that he could to protect his two school-aged children after witnessing the horror of the Virginia Tech massacre.

The former US Army Ranger, sheriffs deputy and firearms instructor invented My Childs Pack, the first bulletproof backpack designed for students, according to the company.

One of the backpacks listed on the site is the $330 BulletBlocker NIJ IIIA, which is available in three colors and contains an anti-ballistic panel weighing about 20 ounces.

Bullet Blocker says its capable of stopping .357 and .44 Magnum rounds, 9 mm bullets and .45-caliber hollow-point ammo and more.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Following the Wednesday shooting at a Florida high school that took 17 lives, gun control activists and Second Amendment advocates are predictably arguing about the causes of such horrible violence and what to do next. We should not overlook the big role that social media companies play.

Nikolas Cruz  the 19-year-old who has confessed to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida  posted disturbing material on social media before his attack, authorities said. His posts reportedly included discussing his desire to kill someone, along with hateful messages threatening violence against African-Americans, Jews and gay people, according to media reports.

Cruzs activity on social media is not an isolated case. The lack of accountability on social media platforms for the content they carry and make available to millions of people around the world has contributed to terrorism, mass murders, child sex trafficking, targeted attacks on police officers, manipulation of elections and online violent exhibitionism.

Facebook, Google and Twitter argue that they should have no responsibility for the content posted on their platforms  in the same way telephone companies have been ruled not responsible for what people say on calls. If, for example, one person calls another and makes a death threat, the phone company is not held responsible.

But social media companies are different  text, photos and videos on their sites can be viewed by millions of people around the world  unlike a phone call that involves just two people or a small group.

Because social media have played a significant role in recent attacks that threaten our homeland security interests, it is now time for Congress to act and regulate social media companies.

Consequently, social media companies should not be above the law and should be subject to reasonable federal regulation, in the same way radio and TV stations are regulated.

The high school shooting in Florida  like many other school shootings  highlights the fact that most shooters displayed signs of mental illness and were either radicalized to carry out their attacks or announced their intentions via social media.

Yet time after time, the social media companies fail to warn law enforcement and do not restrict the threatening content that led up to the shootings.

As a doctor of education and a law enforcement professional, one of us (Demetrick Pennie) has studied the prevalence of emergent extremist groups in America and how their influence has been amplified in recent years by social media.

Online social media platforms such as Facebook, Google (which owns YouTube) and Twitter have become a catalyst for the rise in radicalized attacks across this country. These platforms have provided the ability for terrorists to connect with individuals who suffer from an inability to separate fanatic ideas from reality.

Considering that 1 in 5 Americans suffer from some level of mental illness, it would be difficult for anyone to monitor and intervene in problematic behaviors that could lead to violence.

However, because social media have played a significant role in recent attacks that threaten our homeland security interests, it is now time for Congress to act and regulate social media companies.

Over the past four years, social media companies have been permitted to mismanage their platforms. This has allowed terrorists and others with extremist views to freely distribute radicalized propaganda.

Recently, Facebook, Google and Twitter executives have claimed protection for their companies under the First Amendment to the Constitution when critics have called for them to be subject to civil lawsuits or criminal prosecution because of dangerous material people posted on their platforms.

Currently, the companies enjoy protection under the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), which states that online service providers are immune from civil liability for illicit third-party content published on their platforms.

However, based on factual disclosures revealed in congressional hearings, the social media companies should not be eligible for CDA protection because they create, distribute and share profits earned from radicalized content.

We can argue endlessly about what level of gun control is appropriate, and about actions that law enforcement, school officials and others should be taking to protect us from attacks at schools and elsewhere in our country. These are important issues we must address.

At the same time, we should stop ignoring the fact that social media continue to be a contributing factor in many of these attacks. It is now time for society and our government leaders to focus on nipping looming threats of violence in the bud.

To do this, we need to force social media companies to use appropriate technologies and skills to minimize the amount of dangerous content on their platforms.

For America to truly be a nation of laws, our justice system must ensure that the rule of law is equally applied to all  including rich and powerful businesses. It is now time for the law-abiding citizens in this nation to stand up to the social media companies and say: Enough is enough!NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Every minute, in every city and town around the world, people are being heroic.

Im not talking about pulling babies from house fires or working to develop a cure for cancer, as heroic as such feats are. No, Im talking about subtle, ordinary, even mundane acts of kindness, patience, perseverance and generosity that dont make headlines. But they do save lives.

As a society, we do not devote much time to discussing the everyday heroes among us. Were shouting about whats wrong instead of whats right, discussing whos to blame more than whos worthy of praise. We need to change that and start recognizing all of the undercover angels in our midst.

These heroes are everywhere. Let me tell you about one of mine.

In first grade, nothing terrified me like reading out loud in front of my classmates. I wasnt good at it. In fact, leaders at my previous school had told my mother they believed I wasnt just lagging behind. They suggested I was developmentally slower than my peers.

I didnt know what to call it or why reading didnt click for me. I just knew I hated it. Slumped in my classroom chair, trying to disappear, I was counting down the days until a long Georgia summer would deliver nothing but sunshine and freedom.

My new teacher, Janie Adams, had other plans. She offered to tutor me in her home once school let out, determined to follow up on her suspicion that with a little extra care and focus Id become a reader.

So every weekday that summer, my mother dropped me off at Mrs. Adams house, where my teacher drilled down, syllable by syllable, into the fear that was holding me back. I say fear because thats exactly what it was.

It became clear that I didnt need a diagnosis. I needed someone willing to slow down, pay attention and then stay by my side.

To put it another way: I needed a hero.

My hero, Mrs. Adams, gave me more than just the ability to read, which I was doing at a fifth grade level by the end of that summer. She gave me confidence. The low ceiling I didnt even realize Id constructed for myself was smashed into a million pieces. My world that had felt so small became vast and full of potential.

Many of our most impactful moments of heroism are experienced in private, like Mrs. Adams tutoring: watching our single mother work two jobs as she makes sure we have everything we need; being befriended at a new school when all we feel is alone and odd; hearing truth from a spouse who refuses to ignore our addiction any longer. These heroes are often as quiet as they are courageous.

Other brushes with heroism are brief and easy to miss: the grocery store clerk who smiles and chats with the elderly widow whose pace holds up the line; the mother who sees and then strikes up a conversation with an overwhelmed mom sitting alone on the playground; the man in the suit who learns the name and story of the man who busks outside his office each day.

These moments are tiny building blocks, the foundation of something much bigger, transformative, and downright heroic: connection.

Connection  creating it, nurturing it, multiplying it  is at the heart of all truly heroic acts. When Mrs. Adams took the time to uncover what was actually holding me back, then pushed even further to discover and deliver what I needed to overcome it, she was not just teaching me. She was connecting with me.

Whenever I share the story of Mrs. Adams, people cant wait to tell me their own stories of everyday heroes in their lives. We all have a Mrs. Adams in our lives.

Who changed your path or gave you hope at a crossroads in your life? Do they know it? Dont waste time: Make sure you tell them what their acts of heroism have meant to you. Thank them. Then stop and think: How can you pick up their torch? Ultimately, there is no finer way to repay your own heroes than by becoming a hero yourself.

So who do you see that needs you? What opportunities for connection have you overlooked or even just put off because of packed schedules and your harried modern life? Stop waiting for an ideal time to learn a name, extend a hand and be a friend. Your time  our time is now.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham said on the Todd Starnes Radio Show that every Christian in the nation should be offended and alarmed by recent anti-Christian rhetoric that was broadcast on ABCs The View.

Joy Behar, one of the co-hosts of ABCs The View, suggested last week that Christians who listen to the voice of God may be mentally ill.

Click here for a FREE subscription to Todds newsletter  a must-read for Conservative Christian Patriots!

Graham, the president of Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said he could not believe ABC News would permit such dangerous rhetoric to be broadcast on national television.

Every Christian who is listening right now  whether you are a Catholic, whether you are a Protestant  Baptist, Evangelical, - whatever you may be  Pentecostal  this should scare the socks off of you, Graham said. Click here to watch the video.

For Joy Behar to say that all Christians are mentally ill is like suggesting we need to lock them up. They need to be taken out of society because these people are a danger, he added.

Behars remarks were in response to a segment on Omarosa Manigault Newman, the reality television star turned White House staffer turned reality television star.

As bad as you think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence  everyone that is wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life, Omarosa said in a clip from Celebrity Big Brother.

I am Christian. I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things, Omarosa told her fellow contestants.

Behar was stunned by the revelation that Vice President Mike Pence would listen to the voice of God.

Its one thing to talk to Jesus. Its another thing when Jesus talks to you. Thats called mental illness, if Im not correct, hearing voices, Behar declared.

We are mentally ill because we believe in God and we believe in his son Jesus Christ? Im offended by what she said, Graham told me.

Vice President Pence responded to Behars vile claims during an interview broadcast on C-SPAN.

To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong, Pence said Wednesday on C-SPAN. It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.

"View" co-host Sunny Hostin called the vice presidents Christianity dangerous.

When you have a Mike Pence who now puts this religious veneer on things and who calls people values voters, I think we're in a dangerous situation. Look I'm Catholic. I'm a faithful person, but I dont know that I want my vice president, um -- speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him, she said.

Brent Bozell, the founder and president of Media Research Center, is calling on ABC News to apologize for what he called a deplorable episode.

Make no mistake, the slurs against the Vice Presidents faith insult millions of Christians and are unacceptable, Bozell wrote in a letter to the network.

If there is no apology, Bozell warned that ABC News could face a grassroots uprising targeting the networks sponsors.

I am sure the advertisers of The View will be just as appalled as I am about the anti-Christian remarks made on the show. I hope you are able to take the appropriate action before we begin, Bozell wrote.

Later in the segment, Behar backtracked slightly  but held firm to her belief that listening to Jesus is odd behavior.

I think Mike Pence, say what you want about him and his religiosity. I dont think hes mentally ill. Even though he is saying he hears voices I dont think hes that crazy, she said.

Whatever.

If ABC News wants to employ a zealous anti-Christian  that is their business.

But lets be honest  had Joy Behar said about gay people what she said about Christians  she wouldve been fired on the spot.In an attempt to spread awareness about Wednesdays school shooting in Florida and encourage gun reform, an activist group parked three trucks with political billboards outside Sen. Marco Rubios office on Friday. The signs were inspired by those featured in the Oscar-nominated film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri."

The mobile billboards were sponsored by the activist group Avaaz, The Miami Herald reported.

Slaughtered in school," the first sign read. "And still no gun control?" read the second. And the third: "How come, Marco Rubio?

The protest comes after 17 people were gunned down in a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Rubio argued that stricter gun control would not have prevented the shooting because a shooter would "find a way to get the gun to do it.

The billboards in the movie, bearing similar language, were placed by a mother (Frances McDormand) taking law enforcement to task for failing to catch her daughters killer.

Oscar Soria, a senior campaigner for Avaaz, told Fox News that the group will again be driving the billboards throughout Miami on Monday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET.

A similar billboard protest, again taking a cue from the critically acclaimed movie, took place in London on Thursday. This time, the subject was victims of a deadly high-rise fire that killed 71 people in June.

According to CNN, the signs were emblazoned with the words "71 dead," "And still no arrests?" and "How come?" The signs were mounted on vans and driven around the streets of the British capital, according to the CNN report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitts upcoming trip to Israel has been canceled, the agency confirmed Sunday to Fox News.

The EPA declined to provide an explanation, but the confirmation comes amid increasing scrutiny about Pruitts travel costs.

We decided to postpone, agency spokeswoman Liz Bowman told Fox News. The administrator looks forward to going in the future.

The Washington Post, which first reported on the EPA trip, suggested Pruitt made the decision to postpone the week-long trip.

Pruitt is one of several Trump administration officials who have drawn attention over travel costs, including Pruitt's frequent travel at first-class rates. Pruitt last week said a "toxic environment politically" required first-class travel and protection from a 24-hour security detail. He also has said his security detail made the decision.

Pruitt and EPA staffers billed taxpayers nearly $200,000 for his trips over six months last year, according to travel vouchers obtained by an environmental organization.

The Environmental Integrity Project environmental group obtained the travel vouchers, which cover trips by Pruitt and 14 staffers from March to August, through open-records requests. Previous vouchers acquired by the group covered the EPA chief's travel over a shorter period.

Most of at least 10 expensed trips involving stops in his home state of Oklahoma were into the Tulsa airport, including for events in or closer to Oklahoma City, the state's capital and site of the biggest state airport.

The EPA has said all the charter flights were necessary and previously approved by ethics lawyers.

Most of the reported expenses did not appear to include travel costs of the unknown number of security guards traveling with Pruitt.

In addition, CBS News reported last week that Pruitt flew round-trip business class to Italy in June, which cost $7,000. He also flew on his return trip on Emirates Airlines, after receiving special permission to fly on a foreign airline to arrive on time for a Cabinet meeting back in the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Kentuckys Legislature is considering a bill that would cut in half the number of weeks a person can receive unemployment benefits.

Under Kentuckys current labor law, a person laid off for any reason other than misconduct is eligible to receive a portion of their paycheck for a maximum of 26 weeks. But under House Bill 252, the maximum number of weeks would change in accordance with the states unemployment rate.

So if Kentuckys unemployment rate climbs above 9.4 percent, the number of weeks for benefits caps at 26 weeks. But if the unemployment rate dips below 5.4 percent, unemployment insurance would cap at 14 weeks, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. Kentuckys current unemployment rate is 4.4 percent.

Proponents say the bill would help employers, who bear the burden of paying unemployment insurance, and incentivize jobless people to search for work.

Its strictly economic development, the bills co-sponsor, Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, told the Lexington Herald-Ledger. Make sure businesses come in and were competitive with our surrounding states.

"Its strictly economic development. Make sure businesses come in and were competitive with our surrounding states."  Kentucky state Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown

But opponents argue that cutting off benefits sooner could mean that some workers would not endure an employment crisis.

People would end up losing their house, they could go bankrupt or have any other financial hardship, warned Bill Londrigan, president of the Kentucky chapter of the AFL-CIO.

According to the Herald-Ledger, the average number of weeks Kentuckians collect unemployment benefits is 19.

The House Economic Development and Workforce Investment Committee is currently considering the bill. A decision will be made next week.

In January, Kentucky became the first state in the nation to add a work requirement for collecting Medicaid benefits, Fox News reported.The national security adviser to President Donald Trump said Saturday that the new FBI indictments show indisputably that Russians meddled in U.S. elections.

During the Munich Security Conference in Germany, H.R. McMaster said with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible that Moscow meddled in the 2016 campaign.

He also scoffed at any move to work with Russia on cybersecurity, saying "we would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage."

But President Trump tweeted late Saturday that McMaster's remarks didn't tell the whole story.

"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!" the president wrote.

McMasters remarks followed the indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies by a federal grand jury for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential elections. The case brought by Robert Mueller, special counsel for the Justice Department, details a sophisticated plot to wage information warfare against the U.S.

The Russian nationals are accused of setting a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election, according to the indictment.

Tech giant executives, including those from Facebook and Twitter, testified just weeks ago on Capitol Hill that Russia indeed used social media to disrupt the 2016 White House race and sow discord among voters.

The indictment is the first filed against Russian nationals as part of Muellers probe into whether Trump associates colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 elections.

And it indicates the investigation includes looking into whether Russia meddled in the run-up to the elections, following a string of charges relating to the actions of Trump associates.

However, the Justice Department made clear in its case that the indictment does not allege that any of the interference changed the outcome of the presidential race.

There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel probe, said at a Friday press conference.

Russias foreign minister dismissed the indictment on Saturday, calling it just blabber.

Asked about the indictments Saturday while at the same conference as McMaster, Sergey Lavrov replied: "I have no response. You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying." He argued that U.S. officials also have said no country influenced the U.S. election results.

Lavrov added: "Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber."

The 37-page indictment, signed by Mueller, said the actions detailed by prosecutors date back to 2014.

The defendants are accused of spreading derogatory information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, denigrating Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- and ultimately supporting Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.

On Friday, Trump asserted that the indictment proved there was "no collusion" between his campaign and the Russians.

"Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President," Trump tweeted after the indictment was unveiled. "The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong  no collusion."

The three entities charged in the indictment are Internet Research Agency LLC, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering.

The 13 Russians charged are: Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin; Mikhail Ivanovich Bystrov; Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik; Aleksandra Yuryevna Krylova; Anna Vladislavovna Bogacheva; Sergey Pavlovich Polozov; Maria Anatolyrvna Bovda; Robert Sergetevich Bovda; Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly; Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev; Gleb Igorevich Vasilchenko; Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina and Vladimir Venkov.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., believes it would be a mistake for special counsel Robert Mueller to release his final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election near the fall midterm elections.

Caseys comments come after Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals last week and three groups with charges associated with interfering with the 2016 election. Mueller is also investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials.

I dont think well know anywhere near the full story until [Mueller] issues his report, Casey said in an interview with John Catsimatidis in New York. I dont know if that report will be in the spring or the summer.

Casey cautioned that once it's the summer and closer to the fall midterms, I think its a mistake for him to release it late. I think you should wait until after [the election].

Casey also touched on the Senates failed votes on immigration reform this past week.

Click for more from the Washington Examiner.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been corrected to indicate Casey is a Democrat.Attorney General Jeff Sessions is suggesting he has no regrets about recusing himself on anything related to Russia, telling Fox News that he believes he did the right thing.

Sessions' decision in March 2016 to step aside from the Justice Department investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 White House race reportedly infuriated his boss, President Trump, because special counsel Robert Mueller would now lead the investigation.

In a wide-ranging interview with Maria Bartiromo for "Sunday Morning Futures, Sessions said, I believe I did the right thing, the only thing I could do. I participated in this campaign and as such, under explicit regulations of the Department of Justice, no one can participate in the investigation, in the campaign, of which they were an active participant.

Sessions, a former Alabama Republican senator and an early Trump for president supporter, also said Sunday that he didnt know whether Congress would find a permanent legislative solution to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program -- which temporarily protects some illegal immigrants but will expire on March 5.

I dont know, Sessions said. The people who say they want to fix that, President Trump has offered (them) that. Hes been very generous in his legislation. I think that is a very generous policy. It goes beyond, actually, what President Obama had in his DACA policy, goes beyond what, even some people who favored the DACA expected. So thats been very generous.  Hes already made compromises.

DACA protects an estimated 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to the United States by their parents.

Trumps immigration reform plan offers a potential path to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million illegal immigrants. However, the Senate last week stalled on immigration-reform efforts, despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., conducting full, open debates on bipartisan and other reform proposals, as the March deadline approaches.



Sessions on Sunday also said law enforcement officials think that everybody needs to improve on identifying signs of potential mass shooters, after the FBI acknowledged being alerted but failing to follow up on a tip about the alleged shooter last week at a Florida high school, where 17 people were killed.

I met with a group of sheriffs, yesterday, Sessions said. They all believe that we need to do a better job, of receiving these signs and acting on them and following up on them better. That is probably the most valuable thing we can do to stop these kind of cases.The son of liberal billionaire financier George Soros donated $650,000 to Democratic campaigns and committees last year, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Alexander Soros, Soros's son and managing partner of Soros Brothers Investments, has quietly stepped up as a major liberal donor but has remained relatively obscure due to his father garnering much of the media attention in the family.

Alex's generous contributions spanned across a number of liberal party committees and campaigns, including two donations totaling $203,400 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's (DCCC) recount and building funds, while providing an additional $33,900 to the committee during the primary period.

Alex also gave large amounts to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). Like his contributions to the DCCC, Soros gave the DSCC $203,400 for its recount and headquarters account, with another $33,900 going towards the primaries.

The Democratic National Committee's (DNC) building account additionally received six figures from Soros. Alex poured $101,700 into the DNC's headquarters account and $33,900 was provided to the committee for the general election.

Soros also gave thousands to the campaigns of Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Jon Tester (Mont.), and Chris Murphy (Conn.), among others.

Alex has posted pictures of himself on social media day drinking with Democratic leadership, including Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), the Daily Caller reported last year.

"Always great to catch up with senator @chuckschumer who has seized the moment as the head of the #democrats in the #senate and masterfully helped preserve the assault on our nations values and #democracy! Thank you Chuck! #chuckschumer #legend #opposition #dumptrump,", Soros's Instagram caption reads.

During the 2016 election cycle, Alex increased his contributions to Democrats by millions of dollars by pouring $4.5 million into liberal committees. This was a drastic shift from the 2014 election cycle, when Soros gave $88,000 to Democratic committees.

Alex did not return a request for comment on his contributions by press time.President Trump on Sunday launched a tweet storm over the investigations by the Justice Department and others into Russia election meddling -- writing that they are laughing their a---s off in Moscow.

If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their a---s off in Moscow. Get smart America! Trump tweeted after a federal grand jury on Friday indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential elections.

The case was brought by Robert Mueller, special counsel for the Justice Department, who is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the elections. The federal case also argued that Russia has been interfering with U.S. elections since 2014.

Trump also seemed to fire back Sunday at critics who said the indictments show he was wrong in saying Russia didnt meddle in his 2016 presidential election.

I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, the president tweeted. I said it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400-pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer. The Russian hoax was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia -- it never did!

The Russian defendants are accused of spreading derogatory information about several 2016 White House candidates, including Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. However, the Justice Department made clear in its case that the indictment does not allege that any of the interference changed the outcome of the presidential race.

On Sunday, Trump also criticized California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and outspoken Trump critic.

Finally, Liddle Adam Schiff, the leakin monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election, the president tweeted. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!

On Saturday, H.R. McMaster, Trumps national security adviser, said the indictments show the evidence is now incontrovertible that Russians meddled in U.S. elections, which Trump critics also seized upon to say he was wrong about the meddling.

General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company! Trump tweeted hours later.

Trump also took a shot at CNN on Sunday, re-tweeting a cartoon by A.F. Branco that shows the cable network star Wolf Blitzer in the year 2038, slumped over and using a cane, saying: UPDATE! We should see evidence of Russia-Trump collusion any day now.President Donald Trump urged the FBI to get back to the basics Saturday night after an embarrassing series of mistakes in connection with the Parkland, Fla., massacre.

Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter, the president tweeted late Saturday. This is not acceptable.

The president then asserted that the agency was perhaps distracted by the investigation into possible Trump administration ties to Russia.

They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, the president wrote. There is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!

On Friday, Americas top law enforcement agency admitted that it failed to act on information that alleged Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz had a desire to kill people, had written a series of alarming social media posts and had access to a gun.

Cruz, 19, is suspected of opening fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where he was a former student, killing 17 people and injuring more than a dozen others.

Previously, the FBI acknowleged that it failed to follow up on a September tip flagging a YouTube comment posted by a Nikolas Cruz, which said Im going to be a professional school shooter. The FBI said it could not identify the user who made the comment.

In response to the FBI gaffes, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of FBI procedures, and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has urged Congress to launch an investigation into the agencys operations.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, meanwhile, has called for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.

Trump and other Republicans have heavily criticized the FBI in recent months. They are still dissatisfied with its decision not to charge Hillary Clinton with crimes related to her use of a private email server, and they see signs of bias in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.

Fox News Benjamin Brown and the Associated Press contributed to this story.It could be a tornado. A hurricane. An act of terrorism in Belgium or Paris.

And without fail, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis -- and Ryans predecessor, House Speaker John Boehner -- would walk into their weekly press conference on Thursday or Friday morning and offer condolences. Typically speaking from a script, each would strike a somber tone. Extend prayers. Try to offer some hope.

Then it would be on to other subjects. The debt limit. Immigration. A government shutdown. Tax policy. Obamacare. President Trumps latest tweet. You name it.

Pelosis press conference last Thursday appeared headed for the same direction. Murder and hell consumed a high school campus in Parkland, Florida, the day before. Most reporters in the House Radio/TV Gallery Studio suspected Pelosi would mirror her approach after other catastrophes. Some comments about the tragedy. More than likely questions about gun control and the 2016 House sit-in on firearms. Then there would be inquiries about the Senate immigration debate and the memo by Democrats on the House intelligence committee.

But everyone knew it would be a little different when Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., appeared.

In late 2012, Pelosi tapped Thompson to head the Democrats gun violence task force just after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary. Thompson knows something about guns. Hes a Vietnam veteran, a hunter and used to co-chair the Congressional Sportsman Caucus.

Thompson entered the room before Pelosi and briefly took a seat in the front row amid the reporters.

Think I can get the first question? he asked me, half-seriously.

Yes, there was much to be asked about DACA, the presidents budget, the Russia investigation and North Koreas role in the Winter Olympics. But this wasnt going to be a one-and-out event in Pelosi would speak about the calamity in Florida and shifted to other subjects.

Thompsons presence meant one thing. This press conference was going to be about guns.

Children are dying in our schools, in our communities, on our streets, Pelosi said. All this Congress has to say is, Let's have a moment of silence. So I sadly yield, with great gratitude, to Mr. Thompson and thank him for his leadership on this very important issue.

In fact, Pelosi deflected most questions to her lieutenant. Thompson proceeded to upbraid Republicans for rarely entertaining gun safety measures in Congress.

Every time we went to them, they had some excuse, some cockamamie excuse, Thompson fumed.

He wound up fielding the first question. Congress approved a 10-year ban on assault weapons as a part of the 1994 crime bill. Lawmakers failed to re-up the assault the weapons prohibition when it sunset a decade later. So the question was does the sheer volume of assault weapons now floating around contribute to the latest spate of mass shootings?

The issue of assault weapons is an issue that is much thornier to deal with. It is a harder hurdle. We can't even get a hearing on the background check bill, so the idea that we would be able to do something on assault weapons, goes beyond a heavy lift, Thompson replied.

To be fair, assault weapon can be a misleading term. Such arms are malleable and can be modified by any gun enthusiast. Some mass assassins dont always deploy assault rifles to execute people. The gunman in the 2007 Virginia Tech slaughter used semi-automatic handguns. The Rambo aesthetic of some firearms doesnt always reflect the capacity of the weapon. Cosmetic alterations to some guns can drastically shroud their killing power.

The push to restrict assault weapons hit Capitol Hill after a staggering 34 children and teacher were wounded at a 1989 Stockton, Calif., school with an AK-47. A 1991 mass shooting at a Lubys cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, built support in Congress for the assault weapons ban.

But its unclear if the 2004 sunset clause is to blame for whats going on now. And, a bigger question, is would legislation curb such tragedies?

Gun control advocates religiously cite a parade of polls revealing a supermajority of Americans who favor weapon restrictions.

Heres the problem: very few of those supporters are single-issue voters when it comes to firearms. The issue definitely doesnt drive people to the polls. If that were the case, gun control voters would have been legion after Columbine/VirginiaTech/Newtown/San Bernardino/Orlando. Polls demonstrating people supporting gun control initiatives after a mass shooting is akin to liking something on Facebook or Twitter. Someone may like the idea at the time, but it doesnt sway their vote.

At least not yet.

Crazed gunmen have shot two members of the House of Representatives in the past seven years and wounded multiple congressional aides. If Congress decided from within to alter gun policy, that would have happened a long time ago. And so far, change hasnt happened from the outside either.

That said, some congressional Republicans privately concede theyre increasingly uncomfortable with their party rarely addressing the firearms issue outside of a moment of silence on the House or Senate floor. Theres concern that mass casualty events could turn against the GOP. A few Republicans say theyre worried about the general silence of their party on the issue.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., had something to say about that after the Orlando shooting during his 15-hour floor speech in 2016.

I really do worry that there is a quiet, unintentional message of endorsement that's sent when we do nothing or when all we do is talk, he said. I think when there is not a collective condemnation with policy change from what is supposedly the world's greatest deliberative body that there are very quiet cues that are picked up by people who are contemplating the unthinkable in their mind.

Pelosi at last weeks presser cited how Ryan addressed gun violence after the Orlando shooting and following the Democratic sit-in on the House floor.

The action taken by our Republican colleagues and leadership was to investigate who on the floor Periscoped, Facebooked, whatever technology they used, what was happening on the floor to the public, she said.

Three of the mass shootings in less than two years unfolded in political battleground states: Nevada, off the Vegas Strip, and two in Florida, the Pulse nightclub massacre and now at the Parkland, Florida, high school. Its possible mass casualty events could eventually impact voters in those areas.

Consider the way the Connecticut congressional delegation views firearms since Sandy Hook.

But will the issue get people to the polls now?

Whose political survival is important than the safety of our children? Pelosi asked. I would rather pass gun safety legislation than win the election.

Yet nobody knows if bills or laws would help.

Schools spend profusely on fire safety. They conduct regular fire drills. There are sprinkler and fire suppression systems. Fire alarms are placed throughout the buildings. Escape routes are clearly posted. This phenomena suggests that gun control may not be the best way to protect people from violence -- either at school or at a nightclub. Perhaps another method could help protect people without touching off a fracas over the Second Amendment.

Either way, nothing is working. Congress certainly hasnt acted on the issue because voters havent compelled them.

So at some point, in the not too distant future, there will be yet another press conference. Pelosi will take the lectern, speaking in grim terms. And like a sentinel, Mike Thompson will appear.

The sad reality is that everyone will know theyre discussing yet another tragic shooting in America.A pilot made an emergency landing after a fight broke out over a passenger who allegedly refused to stop passing gas.

Two Dutchmen sitting next to the flatulent passenger reportedly asked the man to stop, but he refused and continued to break wind aboard the Transavia Airlines flight from Dubai to Amsterdam Schiphol.

The budget airline crew allegedly did not help the passengers after their complaints, Metro reports, leading to a fight between the men. Despite a warning from the pilot, the altercation continued and forced the airplane to be diverted to Vienna Airport, where it made an emergency landing.

SPICEJET FLIGHT DIVERTED DUE TO HORRIBLE STENCH WAFTING FROM BATHROOM

Police boarded the plane once it landed and removed two women and two men that the pilot reported as passengers on the rampage, Metro reports.

The women, who are sisters, that were removed from the flight are now taking the airline to court claiming they were not involved in the alternation. Nora Lacchab, a 25-year-old law student, called the removal humiliating.

We had no idea who these boys were, we just had the bad luck to be in the same row and we didnt do anything. All I will say is that the crew were really provocative and stirred things up, Lacchab said to De Telegraph.

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All four passengers were released from police custody without being charged. However, all have been banned from flying Transavia Airlines in the future.

Our crew must ensure a safe flight. When passengers pose risks, they immediately intervene. Our people are trained for that. They know very well where the boundaries are. Transavia is therefore square behind the cabin crew and the pilots, the airliner said in a statement.Chicagoans mourned the death of a model police officer at his funeral on Saturday. They also celebrated the life of the officer, who was fatally shot on the job earlier this week.

Hundreds gathered at Nativity of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church, including a slew of law enforcement officers from other agencies, to remember Cmdr. Paul Bauer, 53, and honor his memory. His casket, stationed at the front of the church, was adorned with photos and mementos and was saluted by officers paying their respects.

Bauer, a 31-year veteran of the force, was killed in the line of duty on Tuesday while attempting to apprehend a suspect. He was shot multiple times, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said after the deadly episode.

CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER DIES AFTER BEING SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES

Johnson spoke at the funeral, which was the third this week for law enforcement officers killed in the field in various communities and circumstances.

In his remarks, Johnson lauded Bauer as one of the good guys. Over the course of his remarkable career, Bauer performed his duties with quiet sincerity, professionalism and kindness, he said.

The slain officer never allowed his rank to stop him from being a street cop at heart, Johnson added. And on the day that he was killed, he was just doing what came natural.

As police officers, each of us take an oath to serve and protect with impartiality. We know the dangers are out there, Johnson said. And yet, out of service and sacrifice, we leave our homes every day and our families and run toward the danger. Paul didnt just run toward the danger, he ran into it. And because of that, he made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us.

Former First Deputy Superintendent John Escalante also spoke during the service and told of his lifelong friendship with Bauer, whom he said he met when they were in the first grade.

OFFICERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY IN 2018

He described Bauer as a true leader and said he always put time spent with his family above promotions at work. Bauer, he said, was never there for awards or accolades.

Erin and Grace were everything, Escalante said, referencing Bauer's wife and daughter. Grace gave the first reading during her fathers funeral Mass.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who also spoke, said the slain officer embodied the best of Chicago.

Bauers funeral was the third this week for law enforcement officers killed in the field.

A service was held Friday for Officers Eric Joering, 39, and Anthony Morelli, 54, who were killed in Ohio. Another service was held on Saturday for an officer in Georgia, Chase Maddox.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A womans coldblooded murder in Jamaica last month has reignited interest in a 10-year-old Florida cold case, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

Omar Best Collymore, 35, was someone of interest in the 2008 killing of Angela Aguiar even before he was charged with masterminding a plot to kill his wife on the Caribbean island Jan. 2, according to the paper.

The paper reported Saturday that Fort Lauderdale detectives are working with Jamaican authorities in hopes of solving the Aguiar homicide.

The two slayings have several similarities, Fort Lauderdale Detective Tracy Figone told the paper.

In addition to being romantically linked to Collymore, both women had life insurance policies that listed Collymore as a beneficiary, the paper reported.

Aguiars family established a remembrance page in her honor and memory on Facebook.

Ten years later, I feel numb, Aguiars 26-year-old son Elijah Aguiar told the paper. I feel no matter what happens, it wont bring her back. I feel she never met her grandkids  I have two kids  and I feel hurt. I feel like a part of me died as well.

A court battle ensued over Aguiars $1 million life-insurance policy which she purchased a month before she was killed. She was 38.

The Sun-Sentinel reported that the court record includes a 2010 email from a detective to the insurer that says, No progress. Yes, Omar Best is still a suspect.

The case was resolved with Collymore getting a $400,000 payout. Elijah Aguiar was paid the rest of the life-insurance money.

Jamaica police said assailants on motorcycles killed Collymores 32-year-old wife, Simone Campbell Collymore, as she was riding in a cab, the paper reported. The driver also was killed.

Two weeks after the murder Collymore was the victim of a shooting, but escaped with minor injuries, Jamaica media reported. He was arrested earlier this month on a warrant.

Keshtina Bonner told the paper her sister and Collymore had $600,000 life insurance policies, listing one another as beneficiaries.

Bonner said Campbell Collymore was an entrepreneur and her husband was her partner.

Click for more from the Florida Sun-Sentinel.Australias rebel reverend is commenting on the Florida school massacre with a parish billboard sign that says, When will they love their kids more than their guns.

In a Facebook post of a photo of the sign, Anglican priest Rod Bower calls the U.S. a society destroying itself from within and an empire in decline that can never be great again.

A culture that loves guns more than children has no future other than corruption, decline and death, Bower wrote.

He also offered thoughts and condolences to victims and their families.

Bower, who runs the Gosford Anglican Church in Australias Central Coast, posted the photo the day after police say 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killing 17 teachers and students.

Bower told ABC13 Houston Saturday that the response to the Facebook post, for the most part, has been positive.

"It is very difficult to understand how so many school shootings can happen in a developed nation like America," Bower told the station. "How can anyone let alone someone suffering from a mental illness walk into Kmart and buy an assault rifle? This is surely evidence of a corporate mental illness. This form of constitutional fundamentalism will ultimately lead to your nation's destruction."

Bower lives in a country with gun laws that are among the toughest in the world.

The Washington Post reported that laws in Australia ban the possession, manufacture and sale of semi-automatic weapons except in exceptional circumstances."

There has not been a mass shooting in Australia since its gun control laws were passed more than 20 years ago, according to the paper.

Bower has sparked controversy in the past with other church billboard signs about race, gay marriage, immigration and discrimination, according to reports.

In a Feb. 7 interview with Radio New Zealand, Bower said the church should discuss politics, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Politics is simply the way we human beings organize each other. So yeah, I think everybody ought to be involved in politics, Bower said. Religious leaders have a responsibility, I think ethically and morally, to speak into the life of the nation.Marjory Stoneman Douglas students who lived through last weeks deadly shooting at their Florida school called for more discussion on gun control and announced on Sunday a march planned for next month.

Cameron Kasky, David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez, Alex Wind and Jaclyn Corin spoke to Fox News Sunday about the need for more discussion on gun control after 17 people were killed in Wednesdays deadly shooting.

Please stop allowing us to be gunned down in our hallways, Gonzalez, a high school senior, told "Fox News Sunday." People are telling us that we should run for president, but we want an education.

Kasky, a junior, said nationwide demonstrations called the March For Our Lives have been planned for March 24 to bring more awareness to gun control.

One of the things weve been hearing is its not the time yet to talk about gun control. And we respect that. Weve lost 17 lives, and our community took 17 bullets to the heart, and its difficult to come back from that. So heres the time were going to talk about gun control, Kasky said.

Organizers urged people to join them in Washington, D.C., or march in their own city in an effort to end gun violence.

The March For Our Lives is going to be in every major city and we are organizing it so students everywhere can beg for our lives. Because at the end of the day, this isnt about the red and blue, the GOP and the Democrats, this is about adults and kids, he added.

Kasky said politicians who accept money from the National Rifle Association in the next election have a badge of shame on them. He added that lawmakers are either with us or against us.

David Hogg added, Our elected officials need to get together, overcome their political differences and get some things done because they need to save the future of our country and the future of our country are those children that are currently dying because politicians refuse to take action and continue to take money from these special-interest groups.

The announcement of the march comes a day after students and politicians held rallies in Fort Lauderdale and St. Petersburg on Saturday to demand action on gun-control legislation.

The crowd at the rally chanted: "Vote them out!" referring to lawmakers who accept money from the NRA. Others held signs calling for action. Some read: "#Never Again," ''#Do something now" and "Don't Let My Friends Die."

Nikolas Cruz allegedly walked into the Parkland high school on Wednesday with an AR-15 rifle and opened fire on students and faculty members, sending people fleeing from the school while others barricaded themselves in classrooms.

He later confessed to the shooting, according to court documents.

Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and was ordered held without bond. The 19-year-old could plead guilty to the charges in exchange for prosecutors refusing to seek the death penalty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A Massachusetts woman allegedly shot a driver for cutting her off  and bragged that shed warned her victim, dont make me spank you, on Facebook, according to local reports.

Graciela Paulino, 20, was nabbed in Lowell Thursday for killing 34-year-old construction worker Mark Devoe, who may have cut her off as he was coming back from his lunch break, the Boston Globe reported.

A pal whod been in Devoes blue Hyundai with him at the time of the incident told cops they quickly realized Paulino was trailing them.

When the two men pulled up to a lot near their construction site, Paulino got out of her car and an argument erupted between her and Devoe, with the two yelling back and forth at each other, according to the police report.

ROAD RAGE INCIDENT ENDS WITH FLIPPED SUV, ASSAULT CHARGES

Devoes pal, Brian Daigle, noticed the woman reach to the left side of her waistband and told his friend, Cmon forget it, its just a girl.

The men left but noticed Paulino still following them, so they got out of their car near Hale Street Bridge in Lowell.

Paulino drove by, slowed down and then allegedly shot Devoe in the chest.

Ive been hit, Devoe said, before jumping back into the drivers seat to chase Paulino, and ending up crashing into a vehicle barrier.

He was taken to Lowell General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

READ MORE FROM THE NEW YORK POST.Police are searching for a missing Uber and Lyft driver who had called 911 the day after he was last seen in downtown Los Angeles, his family said.

Joshua Thiede, 29, was last seen driving out of his apartment garage on Feb. 11 while working as a driver for the ride-sharing app, Los Angeles police said. Janet Thiede, who described herself as Thiedes mother, told the Los Angeles Times phone records indicated her son called 911 on Feb. 12 at 2:32 p.m.

"I got frightened when I saw the 911 [call] and called police," she told the newspaper.

However, the 29-year-old hasnt been seen since then. Thiedes mother said it isnt like her son to disappear and not contact family and friends. She added that Thiede was living with two roommates in Los Angeles and was a driver for Uber and Lyft to earn extra money.

"We didn't talk long [on Feb. 11], and now I'm upset we didn't talk longer," the mother said. "Usually I hear from him almost every day.

Thiedes friend Yokeena Jamar told KTLA she believes the 29-year-old was last completing a ride for Lyft.

His last trip for Uber was last Thursday. His last trip for Lyft was for 15 minutes on Sunday; thats why were concerned, she said.

Thiede was described as being 6 feet tall and weighing 170 pounds. He was last seen driving a Black Nissan Altima 2014 with the license number 7CSD450.A passenger plane crashed in a mountainous region in southern Iran on Sunday, killing all 65 people on board, an airline spokesman told Iran state television.

Aseman Airlines Flight No. 3704 came down near the city of Yasuj, about 485 miles south of Tehran, the airline said. The ATR-72  a twin-engine turboprop  was near its destination when it crashed into Mount Dena while carrying 59 passengers and six crew members, Iran Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV.

State-run IRNA news agency initially reported that 66 people were on board.

"After searching the area, we learned that unfortunately ... our dear passengers had lost their lives," Tabatabai said.

Rescue helicopters heading to the scene couldnt land near the crash site because of heavy fog, Reuters reported. Emergency workers were trying to reach the area by land, the semi-official Mehr news agency said. Other weather-related issues prevented rescuers from finding the plane.

Heavy snow is making it difficult for rescuers to find the site of the crash, a TV reporter stated.

The plane disappeared from radar screens about 50 minutes after departing from Tehran, according to local media reports.

Its unclear what caused the crash.

The aircraft only began flights months ago after it was grounded for seven years. The airline posted a photo of the plane on Instagram saying it would be up and running after repairs were done and safety checks and tests were conducted. Its unclear what caused the aircraft to be grounded for an extended time.

Iran Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally. The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed personnel to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating.

The carrier, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website. It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., said it had no immediate information about the crash. The manufacturer specializes in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars. U.S. politicians have expressed concern about the airplane sales to Iran. President Trump remains skeptical of the atomic accord overall and has refused to re-certify it, putting the deal in question.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world. However, Western analysts are skeptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536 million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Model Chloe Ayling isnt bothered that people suspect she masterminded her own kidnapping.

It doesnt offend me, no, she tells Australias 60 Minutes news program, according to News.com.au.

The 20-year-old woman explains that she isnt offended because she gets it.

There are people just picking parts of the story, she says, according to the website. So I see why people have doubts, because if it wasnt me, I would think it was just crazy.

Ayling has said she was kidnapped in July in Milan, Italy, by two men who have since been arrested. She said she was held captive at a farmhouse in Turin for six days until she was freed. She said her captors demanded $355,000 in ransom. No money was ever paid.

BRITISH MODEL CHLOE AYLING SUFFERED PHYSICAL VIOLENCE, 'BRUTALLY TRANSPORTED IN LUGGAGE,' POLICE TESTIFY

Doubts were raised after the lawyer for Lukasz Herba, 30, one of the alleged captors, argued that the kidnapping may have been staged to boost Aylings modeling career. Herba went on trial in an Italian court last week. Cops say his accomplice was his 25-year-old brother Michal who has been arrested and faces extradition to Italy from Britain.

Ayling tells 60 Minutes that she is 100 percent certain Herba and his brother are guilty, News.com.au reported.

The website reported that during the interview, Ayling is quizzed on omissions and inconsistencies in her story, including why she did not tell Italian police shed been shoe shopping with one of her alleged abductors during the ordeal.

Ive heard of Stockholm syndrome, but not shoe shopping syndrome, her interviewer tells her.

In the interview, she describes her kidnapping in detail, the website reported.

I was about to put my hand on the door that said Studio, just to open it, check if anyone was there and thats when I was attacked from behind, she says.

MODEL CHLOE AYLING POSTS NUDE PHOTO JUST MONTHS AFTER 'BLACK DEATH' KIDNAPPING

One person put his arm around my neck and the other hand with a glove on my mouth and my nose. And another masked man rushed in front of me and held a syringe to my arm.

Obviously, I was trying to fight back because I didnt want that to go into my arm, she says, according to News.com.au.

I was trying to make a fist, but I cant fight off two grown men, so they managed to get the syringe into my wrist and then I was unconscious.

She says when she awakened she discovered restraints on my mouth and handcuffs around her hands and ankles.

I was trying to feel where I am, I heard the engine so I knew I was in a moving car, she says. I started shouting driver! like as loud as I could.

They didnt say anything. Not a word.

She says she was injected with the party drug Ketamine.

She denies ever taking it before.

No, I dont do drugs, she says. I dont even drink, really.A passenger killed in the deadly Iranian commercial plane crash on Sunday reportedly channeled his faith just moments before takeoff, sending his girlfriend one last text.

May God protect us to arrive safe, the unnamed passenger wrote to his girlfriend, also sending a photo of the ATR-72 jets propeller, according to an ARD German Television correspondent.

Irans state-run IRNA news agency said all 65 people  59 passengers and six crew members  aboard Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 were killed as it came down near the city of Yasuj, roughly 485 miles south of the capital, Tehran.

"After searching the area, we learned that unfortunately ... our dear passengers had lost their lives," Iran Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV.

One man who missed the flight told Irans Tabnak news agency, God has been really kind to me but I am so sad from the bottom of my heart for all those dear ones who lost their lives.

The plane disappeared from radar screens about 50 minutes after it departed from Tehran, according to local media reports.

IRANIAN COMMERCIAL PLANE CRASHES, KILLING ALL 65 PEOPLE ABOARD, AIRLINE SAYS

It remains unclear why the twin-engine turboprop crashed.

Fox News Katherine Lam and Dom Calicchio, along with The Associated Press contributed to this report.Analysis: Israel Intimidated as Balance of Power Changes in Favor of Hezbollah

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - In the past few months, the Israeli regime has stepped up its threats against neighboring Lebanon as the deep-rooted and long-lasting border disputes continue to unfold. The first provocation in 2018 came when the Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman in early February claimed that the Block 9 of the Lebanese gas field was located in Tel Aviv regime's waters. He pressed a consortium of French, Italian, and Russian companies to end their cooperation with Lebanon in the disputed energy field.



Lebanon in December approved a bid by a consortium of Frances Total, Italys Eni and Russias Novatek for two of the five blocks put up for tender in the countrys much-delayed first oil and gas offshore licensing round.



The Israeli oil exploration companies and an American one, Huston Texas Noble, have estimated that the contested offshore gas filed on the Mediterranean coasts has some 16 trillion square feet gas reserves, the largest discovered in a decade. Estimations also suggest that it by itself can supply the Israeli regime for 100 years.



Responding to earlier Israeli claims, the Lebanese parliament in August 2011 passed a law according to which the nations marine border was declared inclusive free trade zone. Beirut also handed over to the United Nations a map of its territorial waters which was quite different from the one provided by Tel Aviv. Accusing Israeli regime of violating its territorial waters, the Lebanese government asserted that it will not step back from its sea rights.



The border spat is far from being limited to the sea. Tel Aviv is building a wall on the border with Lebanon. The wall is being built under the guise of efforts to block illegal migrants and terrorist intrusions into its territories. The wall, however, will annex tens of kilometers of the Lebanese land. The Israeli regimes continued occupation of Sheba Farms, a small strip of land at the intersection of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, is part of the occupying regime's territorial greed. The land is significant for its water sources and fertile soil as it enjoys high annual rainfall rates.



Lebanons High Defense Council (HDC) held a meeting on the case last week. The meeting, attended by president, prime minister, parliaments speaker, army chief, and other senior military commanders, stated that Lebanon will block the Israeli wall construction. Denouncing wall construction as an aggressive move and violation of the Lebanese sovereignty, the HDCs statement noted that the Israeli sea and land border restrictions are a show move and are meant to disrespect Lebanon and will risk declaration of war. The statement also called for national unity in the face of Israeli aggression by urging all of the political and military leaders of the nation to assert full resistance to such Tel Aviv acts as they hold the potentials to resist.



The Israeli officials several times warned that once a war sparks, it will lead to the full devastation of Lebanon. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz in early January warned that Lebanon would go back to the Stone Age and maybe even to the age of cavemen if war begins.



Hezbollah deterrence boost intimidates Tel Aviv



Despite the fact that the Israeli regime has often sought territorial expansion and economic advantages, in the present conditions the major driving force behind the anti-Lebanese threats is a fear of the Israelis of the boost of the deterrence power of Lebanon's Hezbollah which saw a remarkable increase since the 33-day war of 2006. Of course, the Israelis will read that a restriction for their strategic interests in the region. Beside anti-terror presence in Syria, Hezbollah managed to deal a blow to the terrorists when they endangered Lebanons eastern borders. The Lebanese movement proved its effective role in preserving the security when it hit the terrorists of al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, in Lebanon's Arsal and Syria's Qalamun. Israelis saw Hezbollah power gain presenting a challenge and even a threat.



Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has repeatedly warned Israelis of prevailing aggressive programs. In a fiery speech in 2011, he told Tel Aviv that by endangering the gas and oil facilities the regime posing risk on its own offshore energy facilities. Since then, Hezbollah worked on bolstering its missile capabilities and gained precious experience in the Syrian war that honed the movement's combat skills.



Israelis may threaten to blow back Lebanon to the Stone Age, but the reality could be way different from that. Any aggression against Lebanon can provoke a reciprocal response, which means a barrage of missiles can rain down on the Israeli cities all at once.



The Western military experts and the retired Israeli army commanders have already set off alarm bells on Hezbollah's capabilities, warning that the Lebanese movement could have at its disposal some 150,000 rockets stockpiled underground in southern Lebanons heights.



Tel Aviv over the past decade has invested in costly anti-missile defense systems, including the much-vaunted Iron Dome system. But the combat-time experiences well prove them to be incapable of protecting the Israeli cities against the hand-made Hamas rockets fired from Gaza Strip.



Hezbollah has more complicated weapons and missiles as it appears on the battleground in Syria. Besides, Hezbollah's leader has repeatedly talked of tough reciprocal reactions using missiles once the Israeli regime dares to attack Lebanon. These two have effectively bear witness to Hezbollah achievement of required deterrence power, which is highly alerting to Tel Aviv leaders. A couple of months ago, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah recommended the Jewish migrants in the occupied Palestinian territories to go to their home countries or should wait for harms in any future war with Tel Aviv.



Lebanese unity and regional games



When the Israeli regime deployed its army forces to the borders with Lebanon, Hezbollah and Lebanons army dispatched forces, signaling that the Lebanese were united and will respond to any Tel Aviv adventures.



On January 17, the Lebanese army chief assured that the army forces of his country were ready to deal with Tel Aviv's aggression. This is while in the 2006 war, Tel Aviv only fought against Hezbollah and lost the war.



Beirut has another deterrence in its hand. It tries to take advantage of the regional and international powers' rivalry to build a stronger defense against the ongoing Israeli threats.



Last week, Russian media sources revealed that Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, instructed the Russian Defense Ministry to begin talks with its Lebanese counterpart to sign a military cooperation agreement between Russia and Lebanon.



The draft agreement included opening Lebanese ports to Russian military vessels and fleets, in addition to making Lebanese airports a transit station for Russian aircrafts and fighters, and the dispatch of Russian military experts to train and strengthen the capabilities of members of the Lebanese army, according to the Russian agency Sputnik.



The deal apparently appeals to Moscow which is trying to get a toehold in West Asia region after two decades of decline to play an effective role in the regions developments. The security pact also set up serious roadblocks ahead of the Israeli adventures against Lebanon. Israeli regime's premier Benjamin Netanyahu in past few months visited Moscow several times in a bid to urge the Russian President Vladimir Putin to take into account the Israeli security concerns over the role of Hezbollah and allied parties in Syria. However, Tel Aviv's anti-Lebanese air raids threats continued, showing that the Israelis did not receive the expected assurances from Moscow.









/129Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Sunday that Israel "will act if necessary" after an Iranian drone entered the country's airspace earlier this month and warned the country is growing its presence in the Middle East.

Netanyahu made the remarks at the Munich Security Conference, where he urged U.S. and European officials and diplomats to counter Iran as the country increases its power as the Islamic State terror group has been decimated by the U.S., according to Reuters.

The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, Netanyahu said.

He claimed the latest example of Iran's increasing power and brazeness was the incursion by an Iranian drone into Israeli airspace on Feb. 10. The prime minister then theatrically held up a fragment of what he said was the drone and challenged Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the audience.

"Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should, it's yours," Netanyahu said. "You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran  do not test Israel's resolve!"

Iranian officials have denied that the drone belonged to them, and Zarif dismissed Netanyahu's display after his speech as "a cartoonish circus... which does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

"We will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself."  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli prime minister said his country will not allow Iran "to put a noose of terror around our neck," adding that "we will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."

IRANIAN DRONE SHOT DOWN BY ISRAEL REPORTEDLY BASED ON US SPY AIRCRAFT CAPTURED YEARS AGO

Iranian officials at the conference suggested the Israeli leader may be escalating tensions to distract from his domestic problems after police said last week there was sufficient evidence to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases. He has angrily rejected the accusations and denounced what he describes as an overzealous police investigation

Besides blasting Iran over the drone incident, he also knocked the 2015 nuclear deal that lifted sanctions against the country, saying it was similar to the infamous 1938 "Munich Agreement" that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe, which became synonymous with appeasement.

"The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime," he said. "Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war... those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly."

ISRAEL MILITARY TARGETS IRANIAN DRONE AND STRIKES SYRIA, F-16 CRASHES

Similarly, he said, the Iranian nuclear agreement has "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond."

President Trump has expressed deep skepticism about the Iran nuclear deal. After extending sanctions waivers in January, Trump said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a main architect of the nuclear deal under then-President Barack Obama, said it was "absolutely critical" to ensure it survives.

"We know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement," he said Sunday, speaking at the same conference. "It's not a better place."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Five women were killed and several others were injured after a gunman opened fire with a hunting rifle on people leaving a church service in Russia's Dagestan region on Sunday, Russian media outlets reported.

The shooting unfolded outside a church in Kizlyar, a town of about 50,000 people on the border with Chechnya. The Russian news agency TASS cited Svetlana Petrenko of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation as the source for the number of people killed and wounded.

The Islamic State terror network claimed responsibility, according to its Amaq media agency. ISIS said the killer was a "soldier of the caliphate," a man known as Khalil al-Dagestani, The New York Times reported.

The gunman was shot dead by police responding to the scene, a law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency. According to Interfax, the gunman has been identified as a local man in his early 20s.

"People were leaving a church after an evening service when he opened gunfire at them," Shuvalov told TASS. Two police officers and a woman were among the wounded, according to Shuvalov. One woman later died at a hospital, a law enforcement source told RIA Novosti.

A witness posted a video of the shooting on Twitter, which captured the moment shots were being fired.

Russian television station REN-TV posted surveillance video showing the gunman walking with the gun along main streets of the city.

Russian news outlets also posted photos on social media of the alleged weapon used in the attack, in addition to a body in front of the church covered by a tarp.

Parishioners were at the church celebrating the end of the Russian festival of Maslenitsa, a holiday which marks the start of Lent for Russian Orthodox Christians, according to RT.

POLICE SHOOT MAN DURING SWORD ATTACK ON INDONESIAN CHURCH

A witness to the shooting, Oksana, told RT the gunman targeted people as they were leaving the church, but many took cover inside the building.

There were a lot of people there, moms with little children, elderly people. I believe God saved us, not allowing the man to get inside the church, the woman told the news outlet.

Authorities have not yet disclosed what motivated the shooting, but the shooting took place in the region where Moscow has led two wars against separatists and radical religious groups since the 1991 Soviet collapse. The region has also seen a large number of people join ISIS, according to Reuters.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea. Following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya, an Islamist insurgency spread to Dagestan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.It has been a whirlwind of change for staunchly conservative Saudi Arabia, and on Friday a sold-out audience in Riyadh was treated for the first time to a woman taking the stage alongside the men.

The actress, Najat Mouftah, played the evil character of Yzma in The Emperors New Groove, after she auditioned for the role to break the glass ceiling nearly a month ago.

After my first scene, my mother was surprised by my performance as she did not believe that I would have the courage, Mouftah, who is studying information technology, told local reporters. She thought that I can only perform at home and make them laugh.

The Emperors New Groove was performed several times last year, but this marked the first time that it was presented with a woman. In the past, men have played the female characters.

Based on the 2000 Disney animated movie of the same name, The Emperors New Groove is centered on an egotistical emperor who intends to destroy one of the villages in his kingdom to build a waterpark for himself. He fires his suspicious administrator, Yzma  played by Mouftah  who then hatches a conniving plan to seek revenge and take the throne.

SAUDI ARABIA SHOULD NOT 'FORCE' WOMEN TO WEAR ABAYA ROBES, TOP CLERIC SAYS

The Kingdom also announced over the past week, in keeping with scores of reforms that have swept through the country in recent months, that Saudi women were now allowed to start businesses without permission from male guardians.

In the past, women were forced not only to seek male approval but also to visit a notary to register the company.

SAUDI ARABIA, AT WAR WITH YEMEN REBELS, SENDS AID TO NATION

But, as of Sunday, women have been given the green light to document their businesses electronically, in a larger quest to boost their participation in the economy.Israels security service, the Shin Bet, revealed Sunday that it had arrested two members of Islamic Jihad terror cell (PIJ) who had been plotting to assassinate Israels Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

According to the Shin Bet investigation, the cell operatives had devised a plan to plant an explosive device on a West Bank road where Liberman was scheduled to travel. The operatives allegedly attempted to purchase bomb-making materials and had sought funding from another terrorist group in the Gaza Strip. But after failing to obtain explosives, the plotters are believed to have made a dummy explosive charge  which was handed over during the investigation  in the quest to garner notoriety and secure funding for future attacks.

These terrorist intentions reflect the increasing efforts of the PIJ and other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip to escalate activity with activists in the West Bank, the Shin Bet said in a statement, noting that this was just one of several plots that had been foiled in the West Bank in recent months. The defense establishment will continue to act decisively to thwart this activity and warns both Hamas and the PIJ in the Gaza Strip of the implications of carrying out terrorist attacks in the West Bank under the direction or involvement of terror elements from the Gaza Strip.

VICTIM OR THREAT? IRAQ HAS PLAN FOR ISIS FIGHTERS' WIVES, CHILDREN



The two suspects were identified as Muhammad Ali Ibrahim al-Asakra, 32, and Mahmoud Awad al-Asakara, 25, both from Bethlehem. Awad had already spent two years under administrative detention, from 2015 to 2017, for concocting attacks. Furthermore, Muhammad had already served time behind bars on two separate occasions for his involvement in devising plans to strike IDF soldiers on behalf of the PIJ.

One of the cell members family will reportedly receive a prisoners pension from Islamic Jihad, a practice that has long stirred steep controversy and was also thrown into the limelight on Sunday.

HOW A CONTROVERSIAL PALESTINIAN LEADER JUSTIFIES PAYING AID MONEY TO FAMILIES OF TERRORISTS

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill that would dramatically cut funds to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Under a 1994 economic agreement, Israel annually releases tens of millions to the PA in customs duties collected on goods bound for Palestinian markets that ship through Israeli ports, but much of the money then goes to Palestinian prisoners and their relatives in the form of welfare.

The bill is still required to pass three readings in the Knesset before becoming law. Liberman praised the bill as bringing an end to this theater of the absurd, while critics of the move have cautioned it could bankrupt the PA, leading to its ultimate crash and a much larger crisis for Israel.

The PA has routinely defended the payments, insisting that they have a social responsibility to look after innocent people affected by the incarceration or killing of their loved ones.If compared to some foreign countries, the Iraqi youth indeed owns a citizenship and the acceptance to the Fatwa of Defending the Nation by Ayatollah Sistani best proves it, stated al-Shami.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Organized by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Kalima Center for Dialogue and Cooperation (Affiliated with Grand Ayatollah Sayyid al-Hakeem in Najaf) and the Center for the Study of Islam and the Middle East (Washington, D.C.), an international conference titled Youth in Iraq: Developing Capacities for Active Citizenship was held in the Cypriot city of Kyernia.



The conference focused on the ability to consolidate the citizenship for the Iraqi youth and to develop the weak education system.



Sayyid Afdhal al-Shami, representative of the Imam Hussein Holy Shrine, referred in his research Iraqi Youth: The Dimensions of Internal and External Performance and Threats to the importance of consolidating the national identity.



If compared to some foreign countries, the Iraqi youth indeed owns a citizenship and the acceptance to the Fatwa of Defending the Nation by Ayatollah Sistani best proves it, stated al-Shami.



The Editor-in-Chief of Hussein Revivalism, Mr. Haider al-Mangushee, delivered the holy shrines second research in which he explained the role of media in developing the education system.



Mangushee stressed that education and media are interrelated and help in creating a real national identity.



Rev. Ara Badalian, Senior Pastor at Baghdad Baptist Church, referred to the national and religious identity and ways of living in peace and coherence amongst all Iraqi sects.



For his part, director of Kalima Center for Dialogue and Cooperation, Sayyed Salih al-Hakeem, thanked the participants and organizers and laid emphasis on holding future conferences and meetings that help build and unite societies.



A number of religious leaders, academic and public figures attended the international event.











/129In the message, the Supreme Leader prayed for the souls of the victims and also sympathized with the bereaved families.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in a message on Sunday expressed condolences over deadly plane crash claiming lives of passengers as well as crews on board.



In the message, the Supreme Leader prayed for the souls of the victims and also sympathized with the bereaved families.



The Supreme Leader also ordered related officials to spare no efforts to properly administer the incident.



An Iranian passenger plane which crashed this morning had hit Dena Mountains, Iran Emergency Center announced.



The plane had 66 people on board including 60 passengers, 2 flight attendants and pilots and 2 security forces, Iran Emergency Center spokesmen Mojtaba Khaledi told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).



The Asseman Airlines' passenger plane crashed in the Kohangan Village near the Padena region, 120 Km from Semirom in Isfahan Province, Shahrokh Konari, Governor of the Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad Province earlier told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).



Meanwhile, Head of Relief and Rescue Organization of Iran's Red Crescent Society Morteza Salimi said 20 operational teams from three provinces have been dispatched to the site.



The rescue helicopters are on alert but bad weather conditions is hampering the rescue operation, he added.



The ATR plane is a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flights.







/257Free Freightnet Membership

List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours.President sent a message of condolences over the crash of Aseman passenger plane on the route from Tehran to Yasuj, in which fellow Iranians lost their lives.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - President sent a message of condolences over the crash of Aseman passenger plane on the route from Tehran to Yasuj, in which fellow Iranians lost their lives.



Dr Hassan Rouhani's message is as follows:



In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful



We are all from Allah and to Him we shall return (Holy Quran)



The very tragic incident of passenger plane crashing on Tehran-Yasuj route, which led to the death of a number of our fellow Iranians, caused great grief and sorrow.



I hereby express sympathy with the bereaved families and offer my condolences to the Iranian nation, asking the Almighty mercy for those who lost their lives, and patience and rewards for their bereaved families.



It is necessary that the Minister of Roads and Urban Development visit Iran Civil Aviation Organisation and form a commission of inquiry according to the code of the organisation to manage and investigate the incident and make necessary coordination for emergency and relief operations by the related organs, and swiftly report the causes of the incident, taking all necessary measures to prevent such tragic incidents from happening again.



Hassan Rouhani

President of the Islamic Republic of Iran





.............................

/257At least 18 people, including women and children, have been killed when Saudi warplanes carried out a number of airstrikes in an area of Yemens northern province of Sa'ada as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its devastating campaign against the conflict-plagued country.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - At least 18 people, including women and children, have been killed when Saudi warplanes carried out a number of airstrikes in an area of Yemens northern province of Sa'ada as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its devastating campaign against the conflict-plagued country.



According to Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, the Saudi aerial aggression conducted hit the Aqiq area of the Kataf district on Saturday, adding that among the dead were some medics who had tried to save the wounded from the initial strike.



Earlier in the day, another Yemeni lost his life when his water-tank truck was directly hit by a Saudi airstrike in Wadi Moore Bridge on Hawdh Road in the northwestern province of Hajjah.



Since March 2015, the Saudi regime, together with a coalition of its allies, has been heavily bombarding Yemen as part of a brutal campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor. It has been attempting unsuccessfully to reinstall Yemens former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.



Besides defending Yemen against the Saudi aggression, Ansarullah has also been running state affairs in the capital, Sanaa, in the absence of an effective administration.



The Saudi campaign has killed at least 13,600 people since its onset. Furthermore, much of the countrys infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and factories, has been reduced to rubble in the Saudi war.



According to the World Health Organizations latest tally, the cholera outbreak has killed 2,167 people since the end of April 2017 and is suspected to have infected 841,906.



Additionally, the UN has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as unprecedented, emphasizing that 17 million people were food insecure in the country.



The world body says that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.









/129Galveston, TX (77553)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies with a few showers after midnight. Low around 75F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies with a few showers after midnight. Low around 75F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.An Iraqi official has expressed his opposition to the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, saying they only aggravate problems in the war-stricken country.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - An Iraqi official has expressed his opposition to the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, saying they only aggravate problems in the war-stricken country.



Iraq's Deputy Parliament Speaker Humam Hamoudi made the remarks in a press conference after a meeting with Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, in Baghdad on Saturday.



Hamoudi said that only the Iraqi parliament is authorized to decide on foreign troops on the Iraqi soil.



"The presence of foreign forces in the Iraqi territory is not acceptable. This issue has been raised at the parliament and will be decided upon," he said.



Hamoudi also stressed that problems in the region should be resolved by the residents and that the presence of foreign forces worsens the situation.



The victories over Daesh were achieved by the Iraqi people and the presence of the Takfiri terrorist group or other outfits should not be used as a pretext for foreign boots in the country, he added.



Velayati, for his part, hailed strategic Iran-Iraq relations, noting that the Islamic Republic will spare no efforts to develop bilateral ties.



He further emphasized that defending Iraq means defending Iran and vice versa.



Secretary General of Iraq's Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri, who was also present at the press conference, said that Tehran and Baghdad have similar views on the security, economic and political challenges facing the region.



Daesh unleashed a campaign of death and destruction in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks. Iraqi army soldiers and allied fighters then launched operations to eliminate the terrorist group and retake lost territory.



Last December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of the anti-Daesh campaign in the Arab country.



However, the Pentagon announced earlier this month that the number of US troops in Iraq will remain at just over 5,000 for the foreseeable future.



We are not signaling any significant drawdown in Iraq at this time, said Eric Pahon, a Pentagon spokesman. We are shifting our focus from combat operations to training operations in order to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS (Daesh).



The US has been leading a coalition of its allies in a military campaign against purported Daesh targets in Iraq since 2014. The alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians.



Iran has been providing military advisory assistance to Iraq in its counter-terrorism battle at Baghdads request.









/129bohlah at 18-02-2018 05:05 PM (3 years ago) (m)

The Vice Chancellor of University of Zimbabwe (UZ),Professor Levi Nyagura was arrested yesterday on allegations of abuse of office involving the awarding of a Doctor of Philosophy degree to former First Lady Grace Mugabe. Prof Nyagura was arrested in Harare and is likely to appear in court today.

The Vice Chancellor of University of Zimbabwe (UZ),Professor Levi Nyagura was arrested yesterday on allegations of abuse of office involving the awarding of a Doctor of Philosophy degree to former First Lady Grace Mugabe. Prof Nyagura was arrested in Harare and is likely to appear in court today.

Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) spokesperson, Ms Phyllis Chikundura confirmed the arrest.She said;

Yes, he has been arrested on allegations of abuse of office over the doctorate of former First Lady Grace Mugabe,. He is detained at Mabelreign Police Station and he will appear in court tomorrow (today).



Prof Nyagura is being accused of unprocedurally awarding the Doctor of Philosophy degree without the approval of both the University Council and the Senate Committee.

He recently blasted lecturers in the Department of Sociology for challenging the awarding of the contentious doctorate, saying they were ignorant Messrs and doctors, with no academic capacity to supervise a PhD student.



In a recent interview with The Herald on demands by 10 lecturers for the university to revoke Mrs Mugabes PhD, Prof Nyagura said PhD students were supervised by the post-graduate centre and not by a teaching department.



He dismissed allegations that the thesis was not in the library until this year, but was deposited in 2014.

According to him, Mrs Mugabes thesis was supervised by two professors, who also supervised former Vice President Joice Mujuru.



Supervised by Professor Claude Mararike, Mrs Mugabe graduated with the Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Social Studies in September 2014.



Through their lawyer, Ms Fiona Iliff from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the lectures said they were shocked to hear that Mrs Mugabe had been awarded a doctorate from their department when they never saw her application, acceptance letter, supervision and even awarding of the degree.





The 10 lecturers were Prof Rudo Gaidzanwa, Drs Sandra Bhatasara, Julius Musevenzi, Watch Ruparanganda, Gutsa, Mandizadza, Sadomba, Mate and Messrs Nelson Muparamoto and a T Chevo.



With regards to Professor Mararikes appointment, the lecturers alleged that he was appointed without their consultation as stipulated in the ordinance regulations.



The arrest of Prof Nyagura came after a Harare magistrate had issued a warrant empowering ZACC to search and seize all documents relevant to its probe on whether or not he corruptly awarded Mrs Mugabe the doctoral degree.



Provincial magistrate Mr Elisha Singano directed the UZ registrar or any other senior official at the institution to provide a set of relevant documents, records and articles to the investigators.



The documents ordered to be availed included Dr Mugabes pre-registration application form, her research proposal submitted to the Department of Sociology, minutes of the departmental board assigning a supervisor to Mrs Mugabe, academic certificates of her supervisor, minutes showing that the doctoral degree passed through the Academic Committee, and minutes of the UZ senate recommending to the university council the conferment of the doctorate on Mrs Mugabe.



Mr Singano directed the university to allow ZACC access to minutes of the University Council recommending to the University Chancellor the conferment of the doctorate on Mrs Mugabe, copies of progress reports at Post Graduate Centre, copies of contract of research assistant and contract of teaching assistant in respect of Mr Justice Tandire.



ZACC must also be furnished with the UZ Faculty Ordinance number 44, UZ quality assurance guidelines and benchmarks for management and supervision of higher degrees by research, General Academic Regulations for Post-Graduate Degrees of the university of Zimbabwe 1998/99 Volume 11, as well as copies of the transcript, notification and Doctor of Philosophy Degree awarded to Mrs Mugabe. UZ has since filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court to set aside the search warrant, arguing that it was illegal. Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) spokesperson, Ms Phyllis Chikundura confirmed the arrest.She said;Prof Nyagura is being accused of unprocedurally awarding the Doctor of Philosophy degree without the approval of both the University Council and the Senate Committee.He recently blasted lecturers in the Department of Sociology for challenging the awarding of the contentious doctorate, saying they were ignorant Messrs and doctors, with no academic capacity to supervise a PhD student.In a recent interview with The Herald on demands by 10 lecturers for the university to revoke Mrs Mugabes PhD, Prof Nyagura said PhD students were supervised by the post-graduate centre and not by a teaching department.He dismissed allegations that the thesis was not in the library until this year, but was deposited in 2014.According to him, Mrs Mugabes thesis was supervised by two professors, who also supervised former Vice President Joice Mujuru.Supervised by Professor Claude Mararike, Mrs Mugabe graduated with the Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Social Studies in September 2014.Through their lawyer, Ms Fiona Iliff from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the lectures said they were shocked to hear that Mrs Mugabe had been awarded a doctorate from their department when they never saw her application, acceptance letter, supervision and even awarding of the degree.The 10 lecturers were Prof Rudo Gaidzanwa, Drs Sandra Bhatasara, Julius Musevenzi, Watch Ruparanganda, Gutsa, Mandizadza, Sadomba, Mate and Messrs Nelson Muparamoto and a T Chevo.With regards to Professor Mararikes appointment, the lecturers alleged that he was appointed without their consultation as stipulated in the ordinance regulations.The arrest of Prof Nyagura came after a Harare magistrate had issued a warrant empowering ZACC to search and seize all documents relevant to its probe on whether or not he corruptly awarded Mrs Mugabe the doctoral degree.Provincial magistrate Mr Elisha Singano directed the UZ registrar or any other senior official at the institution to provide a set of relevant documents, records and articles to the investigators.The documents ordered to be availed included Dr Mugabes pre-registration application form, her research proposal submitted to the Department of Sociology, minutes of the departmental board assigning a supervisor to Mrs Mugabe, academic certificates of her supervisor, minutes showing that the doctoral degree passed through the Academic Committee, and minutes of the UZ senate recommending to the university council the conferment of the doctorate on Mrs Mugabe.Mr Singano directed the university to allow ZACC access to minutes of the University Council recommending to the University Chancellor the conferment of the doctorate on Mrs Mugabe, copies of progress reports at Post Graduate Centre, copies of contract of research assistant and contract of teaching assistant in respect of Mr Justice Tandire.ZACC must also be furnished with the UZ Faculty Ordinance number 44, UZ quality assurance guidelines and benchmarks for management and supervision of higher degrees by research, General Academic Regulations for Post-Graduate Degrees of the university of Zimbabwe 1998/99 Volume 11, as well as copies of the transcript, notification and Doctor of Philosophy Degree awarded to Mrs Mugabe. UZ has since filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court to set aside the search warrant, arguing that it was illegal.

Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 18-02-2018 05:05 PM (3 years ago) | Addicted Heroxspraise at 18-02-2018 08:42 PM (3 years ago) (m)

Modibo, son of Aisha Buhari SSA just confirmed that Yusuf Buhari is currently recuperating in Germany following a bike accident in Abuja that left him with a broken limb and head injury.

Modibo, son of Aisha Buhari SSA just confirmed that Yusuf Buhari is currently recuperating in Germany following a bike accident in Abuja that left him with a broken limb and head injury.

Some members of the family including Aisha Buhari's younger brother Musa and her Senior Special Assistant on Administration, Dr. Hajo Sani, recently arrived the country to give her moral support.



Other members of the family are likely to join the first lady, who celebrated her birthday on Saturday, February 17.





Some members of the family including Aisha Buhari's younger brother Musa and her Senior Special Assistant on Administration, Dr. Hajo Sani, recently arrived the country to give her moral support.Other members of the family are likely to join the first lady, who celebrated her birthday on Saturday, February 17.

Post Reply I am Victor, I write reportage on sport news and latest metro happenings in Nigeria. Posted: at 18-02-2018 08:42 PM (3 years ago) | HeroYears of government support for corn farmerspaying Chinese corn producers more than twice the international price level until 2016have left China with a substantial stockpile. To help make use of the excess stock, China in September 2017 announced a plan for nationwide use of E10 gasoline by 2020, up from 11 trial provinces. Achieving this target would require ethanol consumption in China, the largest motor vehicle market in the world, to at least quadruple within the next three years, according to an analysis by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.

Xinhua reports that Chinas State Administration of Grain (SAG) said that China will expand production and consumption of bioethanol fuel this year as the country seeks more channels to use corn and grain stockpiles.



Chinas end-of-year corn stock estimates (2017/2018 values forecasted). Source: USDA FAS. Click to enlarge.

SAG said that it will accelerate the use of grain stockpiles and reform grain storage mechanisms to make them more market-oriented. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed about 618 million tonnes of grain were produced in 2017, the second highest output recorded.

In 2016, China produced more than one billion gallons of ethanol, making it the fourth-largest ethanol producing country/region in the world after the United States, Brazil, and the European Union. From 2004 to 2016, the average annual production growth rate was 16.8%, according to CARD.

2018 fuel ethanol production is forecast at 1.04 billion gallons US. If China were to meet the 2020 national mandate of E10, it would require an extra 3.6 billion gallons of ethanol, putting the country ahead of the EU to become the worlds third-larget ethanol consumer.

The 2017 plan also calls for China to shift renewable fuel production to commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol by 2025. If realized, this, along with Chinas ongoing corn sector reform, would fundamentally transform the coarse grains, distillers dried grains and ethanol markets in China, according to a 2017 analysis by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).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Hawaii: Trigger Modification Ban To Be Heard Wednesday

From NRA-ILA, Feb 18, 2018

On February 13th, the House Committee on Judiciary passed House Bill 1908 by a 7-1 vote with amendments to prohibit certain trigger modifications. HB 1908 will now be heard by the House Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce on February 21st at 2:00PM. Please contact committee members and urge them to OPPOSE HB 1908. Click the Take Action button below to contact committee members.

Also, please consider submitting testimony to the committee through the Hawaii Legislature website. In order to submit testimony, you will need to create an account. For help creating an account and submitting testimony, click here.

House Bill 1908 , introduced by Representative Gregg Takayama (D-34), would charge a person with a felony who manufactures or causes to be manufactured, imports into the State, keeps for sale, or offers or exposes for sale, or who gives, lends, or possesses certain trigger modifications.

The broad language of this bill could encompass many common modifications done by law-abiding gun owners to make their firearms more suitable for self-defense, competition, hunting, or even overcoming disability.

House Bill 1908 passed the House Committee on Judiciary with amendments. HB 1908 will now be heard by the House Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce on February 21st at 2:00PM.1 / 2 Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures, explains what blockchain and bitcoin is at Brigham Young University's Blockchain Summit Feb. 16, 2018. Karissa Neely Daily Herald 2 / 2 Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures, explains what blockchain and bitcoin is at Brigham Young University's Blockchain Summit Feb. 16, 2018. Karissa Neely Daily Herald  

As comedian Ellen DeGeneres explained Thursday afternoon on her television show: Everybody is talking about bitcoin, nobody understands it.

Students, business professionals and investors tackled that question as they came together Friday at Brigham Young University for its first-ever Blockchain Summit. The summit, organized by BYU law student Ryan Lewis, pulled in an impressive array of experts working in this very new field.

But what is blockchain, how does it relate to bitcoin and how will it affect the layperson?

As Chad Bennett, founder and CEO of Heroic Cybersecurity in Provo, explained Friday morning, the internet is the information exchange protocol, and blockchain is the value exchange protocol. Just as the internet changed the way society, at a very basic level, exchanges information, blockchain advocates say this new technology will change the way society exchanges assets.

Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures and a member of Overstock.coms board of directors, defined assets as: real property  like land or a home, currencies  including cryptocurrencies, or even stocks and bonds.

An asset can be anything that, when I give it to you, you dont want a copy. You want the actual thing, Johnson said.

Sending someone an email or PDF  those are copies of the actual thing, he added. In that situation, users dont care if its a copy. But a user does not want a copy of $100. They want the real thing.

The blockchain allows for the digital transfer of assets in a way they will flow free and frictionless, Johnson said.

At its very basic and simple core, blockchain is the highly technical and extremely difficult math games which have created the platform for a decentralized public record of assets to exist. As Bernard Marr explained in a Forbes article published Friday morning, blockchain provided the answer to digital trust because it records important information in a public space and doesnt allow anyone to remove it. Its transparent, time-stamped and decentralized.

He went further by quoting Sally Davies, an Aeon Magazine and Financial Times technology writer and editor.

Blockchain is to bitcoin, what the internet is to email. A big electronic system, on top of which you can build applications. Currency is just one, she said.

Johnson called bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies the first killer app to come out of blockchain technology. In a highly simplified analogy, cryptocurrency is like digital cash. For example, when two people go to lunch, and one person pays the second for their share of the tab, they have different options.

One option would be to use their smartphones and Venmo the money from one to another. That transaction, though, involves multiple users, or trust brokers. Venmo verifies the first person has money in a linked bank, verifies the subtraction from that fund, then verifies the transfer of that money to second persons bank. On each end, the individuals banks also record the transaction on their own ledgers.

Another option is the first person can open their wallet, pull out some dollar bills and pay the other with cash. No one else is involved in that transfer of money except the two people. Using cryptocurrencies through blockchain technology is very similar to giving someone digital cash. Again, no centralized banks are involved in the transaction. It is just a transfer of money from one person to the next, in the form of bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.

Johnson explained the added benefit to cryptocurrency is, yes, that transaction is made directly like the real-world exchange of cash, but there is a digital record, or ledger of the transaction. It leaves a digital footprint, unlike real-world cash normally. In this way, assets can always be verified.

Because blockchain is tied to technology and not to any one government, business or entity, many companies are looking into its use as a way of publicly recording other assets, besides money. These include medical records, supply chain processes, property rights, insurance, contracts and even voting.

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency is still very new, and yes, like the initial advent of the internet, people are still trying to wrap their heads around what it is. Honestly, for the layperson, it may not be the right time to jump into the fray, unless he/she has a solid understanding of the playing field. John Quinn, founder and chief risk officer of Storj, said during Fridays summit that the cryptocurrency world is very risky right now for the uninitiated, as were in the wild, wild West phase of this industry.

That will change as regulation and more oversight comes, though, say blockchain advocates, of which Quinn is one. Johnson even believes people in many parts of the world may eventually be paid their wages in cryptocurrency.

For now, Lewis was just excited to have so many people gathered in BYUs Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Center to start the conversation on this new technology.Its not every day you get to save a cow while on the job.

Kade Evans and L.B. Miller, storm drain technicians for Lehi city, headed out Thursday morning to clear trees from Ditch 51, a storm water ditch in southwest Lehi, when they came across a cow stuck in the ditch.

We could tell shed been in there a while. She was shaking and shivering, Miller said.

He and Evans first tried to dig a hole in front of her to help her out, but she was too weak and stuck to move. They realized theyd need to pick her up. Using the mini-excavator theyd brought for the tree work, Miller hung from the bucket and fastened straps around her mid-section.

Yeah, thats how me and Kade work. I usually do the dirty work, Miller joked after the rescue.

Miller and Evans hoisted the cow out and got her onto dry ground. After letting her rest a bit, they pushed her, encouraging her to stand up. She was very wobbly at first, so they waited to see if shed regain her strength.

They were standing around her, talking to her owner, who lived nearby, when she went on the fight and started chasing us, Evans said laughing.

It wasnt a very nice thank way to thank us, Miller added with a chuckle.

Miller also joked that Evans, who is an experienced rodeo man, saved us all by allowing the cow to chase him so the rest could get out of the way.

Once the chase was over, the farmer rounded up his cow, and the two technicians finished out their day of work. At least they have a fun story to tell their family and friends.Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.Such is the view delivered by Nguyen Duy Hung, President of Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) and Chairman of the PAN Group, in an interview granted to the Thoi Nay (Today), a publication of Nhan Dan Newspaper, on the issue.

Q: What are the most conspicuous changes in 2017, a transitional year of a new cabinet term?

A: Since the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, a new Government has been formed with a strong message delivered by the cabinet leader to the business community and investors, both at home and abroad, on the determination to build a facilitative Government of integrity and action. At the annual Vietnam Business Forum (VBF 2017), PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc stated that every dollar invested in the economy not only brings benefits to businesses and investors, but is also a vote of support for the Governments efforts in reforming and developing a helpful and dedicated administrative system, and a source of encouragement for the Government and the business community to jointly develop the common house of Vietnam. It is the business community that shape the image of the economy, and they will also serve as a vital impetus to realising Vietnams aspirations of prosperity, with the Government playing the role of an implemental guiding hand.

Particularly, with the capital market, the Government does not focus on mobilising resources but rather directs those resources through policies, while enterprises proactively mobilise and allocate resources. This is a very new change and a fundamental reform in the thinking of economic management.

Q: Could you please clarify your point?

A: In the past, the Government was involved in all stages. By this I mean, the Government both mobilised and allocated resources, resulting in the ask  give situation and the low investment efficiency of mobilised resources. This is an issue as Vietnams risk index is quite high. These are potential risks from suspended projects, bad debts, and the danger of collapse in many large enterprises which have been allocated funds with State capital.

When enterprises proactively mobilise capital, they will be responsible for the efficiency of the capital raised from various economic sectors to disburse among their projects. Currently, businesses can absolutely do that because the Government is striving to create a healthy competitive environment between all economic sectors.

Entering the new term, the Government has been confronted with more difficulties compared to the previous term. All of the backlogs from the previous period still remain; bad debt and public debt remain high, and the State sector investment has been reduced due to a lack of sources. Yet the growth in gross domestic product (GDP) has still exceeded expectations, reaching 6.81%, which suggests that the healthy development section of the market is still much better and sufficient to offset the old public investment, plus the new one, in order to ensure the countrys GDP keeps on a track of healthy growth.

It has yet to reach one year under the leadership of the new-term Government, but Vietnam has initially reaped positive results. International financial institutions are putting their faith in the countrys outlook, as both the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) have upwardly revised Vietnams growth forecasts for 2017 and 2018.

Vietnam is becoming an attractive destination for foreign investors.

Q: With such radical changes, do you think the Government has won the trust of the business community?

A: The stock market is a thermometer for the economy, and it only functions well if the economy has a good confidence index. The growth of the VN-Index over the past year has demonstrated a significant improvement in both business and personal confidence in the economy, as well as in the reform efforts made by the Government. Moreover, with the capital market, whats important is not so much the stock market indices, but rather the emergence of billion-dollar deals, such as the divestment of State capital from the Saigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage Corporation (Sabeco).

At the beginning of 2017, there were doubts among businesses. But up to now, enterprises have already put their faith in the Governments actions and have followed its directions. Confidence is growing day by day among businesses and people. That trust cannot be built in only one or two days, it is the result of a process of facilitation and action. From early this year, the confidence of companies and people in the Government has become greater and is still on the rise.

Q: What are your forecasts for the Vietnamese economy in the new year of 2018?

A: The Vietnamese economy has improved greatly over the last year but is still facing difficulties. There remains a lot of work to do to bring the country forward. What has been achieved in the past year is the evidence that we are on the right track. For any country, the Government is like a captain, and businesses are like the ships crew. Without job creation and tax revenues, there will be no budget for the Government to work. Enterprises are always the engine of growth for the country. Enterprises need a favourable environment to develop, and it is the responsibility of the Government to create the healthiest and most transparent environment for business. The interaction between enterprises and the Government for mutual development is very important.

In my opinion, with the current internal factors, Vietnam has become a trusted destination for foreign investors due to the confidence it has built among international friends. Foreign investors are very interested in the banking sector, which is like the blood of the body and is always a prerequisite for the economy to grow. 2018 promises to be a good year for the Vietnamese economy!

Thank you very much!As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

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The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.While streets in Hanoi are less crowded on the first day of New Year, a stream of people goes on a pilgrimage at Tay Ho, Tran Quoc pagodas or Ngoc Son and Quan Thanh temples.

Among the religious destinations, Tay Ho pagoda attracts the largest number of visitors from both in and outside Hanoi with several thousand each day during Tet holidays.

Fruit and offering shops in the entrance leading to the pagoda are overcrowded with visitors on the occasion.

The first half of the first lunar month is the best time for a pilgrimage. Joining the flow of devotees in springs wonderful atmosphere you may feel the harmony of the sky and the earth.

Giving money on the occasion of New Year, with desires that better things will happen in future, has become an indispensable custom of the Vietnamese during the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.

During the New Year festival, the elderly normally congratulate kids on becoming a year older by presenting them with very nice and small red paper envelopes which symbolise luck and good fortune.

According to the custom, the money given on the advancement in age is brand new and of low face value, but bears wishes for growth and successful study.

The first visitor of the New Year is very important to Vietnamese because they he or she is believed to decide the luck of the host for the entire year. Traditionally, the visitor is a member of the family or a good friend.

According to historian Le Van Lan, as the nation's economy depends so much on farming, the earth was very important. The Xong dat, (first visit to a land) custom has its roots in this belief.

It is thought that if the land is good, the house is built on it is good and the family who lives on it will have good luck. The custom is also an occasion for people "to show love to the Mother Land," Lan said.

The Xong dat custom originally aimed to show one's love for the earth. It is a sacred connection and can't be turned into a service, said historian Lan. "Traditionally, the person who is the first visitor of the house must have a pure soul and be genuine. It should be someone from your family," he added.Rocket Fired from Gaza Strikes Home in Southern Israel

The Fellowship | February 17, 2018 Embed from Getty Images

As rocket warning sirens sound in southern Israel, we received this update from our Israel staff:

On Saturday four Israeli soldiers were wounded  two seriously and two others moderately  when a device exploded near the troops at the fence bordering the southern Gaza Strip. The wounded soldiers were evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva with burns and shrapnel injuries. This hospital is equipped with life-saving emergency equipment provided by The Fellowship. The soldiers are in stable condition.

In retaliation for this hostile attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck six Hamas targets in Gaza in what was described as a large-scale attack. Meanwhile, a rocket fired from the Strip hit the roof of a house in Shaar HaNegev after sirens sounded in several Israeli communities near the border; the military later stated that the first round of siren alerts was a false alarm.

The Fellowship has built and equipped thousands of bomb shelters in southern Israel ensuring safety of civilians. Our staff is already reaching out to all those who have been affected by the attacks and offered assistance to all those who need it.

Coincidentally, Rabbi Eckstein is scheduled to dedicate The Fellowships new Shaar HaNegev Trauma Center tomorrow at midday. We are awaiting confirmation from the IDF that they will permit the ceremony to take place, given the frequently sounded Red Alert sirens that have become very frequent in recent hours.

Please keep the people of Israel in your prayers.Imperial Valley News Center

San Diego Zoo Safari Park Rhino Conservation Efforts Boosted with Birth of 97th Southern White Rhino Calf

Escondido, California - A 9-day-old male southern white rhino spent this morning exploring his habitat at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park running around a little, napping, checking out all his surroundings, napping, nursing from mom and napping some more. The curious little ungulate even went face-to-face with a cape buffalo, knowing mom was nearby to protect him.

The baby rhino, named Justin, was born the evening of February 7 to mom Kacy, in the 60-acre East African Plains enclosure. The calf weighed an estimated 125 pounds at birth, and keepers report he is very healthy and is developing on track. It is estimated that Justin will gain 100 pounds a month in his first year, and when full grown he could weigh 4,000 to 5,000 pounds.

Justin is very cute, and hes beginning to show lots of personality, said Matt Gelvin, lead keeper, San Diego Zoo Safari Park. He is very playfulrunning, jumpingand loves checking out everything around him, including the animals that share his habitat. However, his mom Kacy is a very attentive and protective mom. She is fairly tolerant of the other rhinos and animals being curious about the baby, but she is definitely keeping a close eye on them.

There are an estimated 18,000 southern white rhinos remaining in the wild. The southern white rhino is classified as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, due to poaching threats and illegal trafficking of rhino horn. Currently, a rhino dies every eight hours in South Africa, due to poaching.

San Diego Zoo Global has been working for more than 40 years, along with other accredited zoos, to keep a sustainable population of rhinos safe under human care while working to protect them in sanctuaries in their native habitats. To further its commitment to rhino conservation, San Diego Zoo Global recently built the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center to house six southern white rhinos brought in from South Africa. The 3.5-acre state-of-the-art animal facility is dedicated to the conservation of white rhinos, with a focus on assisted reproductive techniques.

Rhinos are very important to the ecosystems in which they reside. Southern white rhinos live in the savannas of Africa. These gentle giants are mega-herbivores, grazing on grasseswhich helps maintain the diverse African grasslands, increasing plant diversity and providing grazing areas for other animals that share their natural habitat, such as elephants, zebras, antelope and gazelles.

Kacys calf is the 97th southern white rhino calf born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park since 1972. Rhino calf Justin and his mom can best be seen roaming their habitat from the Parks Africa Tram Safari, a Caravan Safari, a Balloon Safari, or from the Parks new giraffe cam (showcasing a multitude of animals including rhinos, giraffes, African crowned cranes, gazelles and others) viewable online at http://www.sdzsafaripark.org/giraffe-cam .

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is inspiring children through the San Diego Zoo Kids network, reaching out through the internet and in childrens hospitals nationwide. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.Scientists examining a work by Pablo Picasso using x-ray technology have discovered that he painted it over a landscape painting by an unknown artist.

In 1957, when he was in his 70s, the Spanish painter mused that x-ray technology could one day discover a lost work underneath one of his early paintings.

That prediction came to fruition when a team of researchers in the US and Canada analysed La Misereuse Accroupie (The Crouching Beggar) - painted in 1902 - which is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

They used a non-invasive technique called x-ray fluorescent spectroscopy to examine the 1902 painting and found that it was painted on top of another unknown artists landscape.

It was painted during Picasso's Blue Period, when he mainly used monochromatic shades of blue and blue-green.

The researchers' technique allowed them to study the painting in-depth in just 24 hours, and revealed the horizontal landscape created by a different Barcelona painter, whose identity remains unknown, under the visible surface of Picasso's painting.

By rotating the artist's work 90 degrees, Picasso was able to use some of the landscape forms, such as the lines of the cliff edges into the woman's back, in his own final composition.

Researchers also found Picasso had initially painted the woman with a right hand holding an object before covering it with her cloak in the final version.

They also found in the earlier versions, the woman was narrower and had a different head inclination.

The hidden painting by a mystery artist found behind Picasso's work (PA)

"Picasso had no qualms about changing things during the painting process said Marc Walton, a research professor at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering.

"Our team has begun to tease apart the complexity of La Misereuse Accroupie, uncovering subtle changes made by Picasso as he worked toward his final vision."

The painting was sold in 2015 at Christie's auction in New York for $149,000 (106,000).

Researchers also found Picasso's earlier version of the painting, which showed the woman's right arm, to resemble another one of his creations - a watercolour painting called Femme assise.

It became clear to me that the arm hidden under the visible surface of La Misereuse accroupie is the same as the proper right arm of a crouching woman in a Picasso watercolour recently sold at auction", said Kenneth Brummel, AGO assistant curator of modern art.

Research was jointly conducted by Northwestern University's Art Institute of Chicago Centre for Scientific Studies in the Arts, the AGO, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Additional reporting by Press AssociationJoanna Lumley opened the Baftas by comparing the Times Up and #MeToo movements to the suffragettes, pointing out that 100 years ago, the Royal Albert Hall  where the Baftas took place  celebrated the first group of British women being given the vote.

A century ago, the Suffragettes laid the groundwork for the sort of dogged resistance and powerful protest that is carried forward with the Times Up movement. And with it, the determination to eradicate the inequality and abuse of woman the world over.

Many of those who attended the ceremony wore all black to support the movement, which began last year in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein.

Lumley was one of the few who decided not to wear black, instead donning a charcoal grey suit, explaining beforehand: I had to choose how I would look before any of this blew up I shall look like a head mistress.

BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Show all 26 1 /26 BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge For the annual ceremony the Duchess relied on a firm fashion favourite for her red carpet look. This olive green Jenny Packham gown may defy the dress code, but it's no less worthy of a style accolade. Meanwhile, the Duke stayed true to the uniform in a traditional black tuxedo. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Allison Janney The I,Tonya star excelled in this strapless black and gold ensemble which flattered the American actress from all angles. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Gemma Arterton Few women could pull off the brazen pleats and avant-garde neckline of this couture Alberta Ferretti gown, but Gemma Arterton manages to seduce and delight with aplomb. A simple swish of scarlet lipstick proves the British actress's flair for the dramatic, an apt addition given the occasion. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Salma Hayek A Gucci girl to her core, Hayek returned to the red carpet as Alessandro Michele's ultimate leading lady in this floral design, which was topped off with rosy rhinestones and a black velvet clutch. Jeff Spicer/Getty Images BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Margot Robbie The Australian beautys porcelain-perfect skin was offset by a halter-neck Givenchy couture gown that gracefully flowed onto the red carpet in oscillating pleats. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Chiwetel Ejiofor and Frances Aaternir Packing a stylish power couple punch, Ejiofor and Aaternir each donned classic black tuxedos and #TimesUp pins for the glittering event. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Emma Roberts With a plunging Eighties neckline and oversized shoulder pads, the American actress successfully channelled a nostalgic nod to another Hollywood era in this Schiaparelli gown. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Rungano Nyoni The I Am Not A Witch director added splashes of colour to her gown of choice, which featured a peppering of heavily-embroidered purple floral patterns. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Lily James The British actress posed up a storm in this strapless tulle gown, worthy of a darker and edgier Cinderella. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Jennifer Lawrence The American actress stayed true to her Dior heritage in a rigid off-the-shoulder gown hot off the design house's spring 2018 couture catwalk. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Saoirse Ronan Nominated for her leading role in Ladybird, the Irish actress was semi-prepared for the British chill in a polo-neck Chanel gown that fluttered in the wind thanks to a sheer pleated skirt, complete with a buoyant feather trim. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Greta Gerwig With three nominations for her coming-of-age drama, Ladybird, the American actress, writer and director kept things simple in a feminine shift dress adorned with flowers. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Lupita Nyong'o The Academy-Award-winning actress proved her style credentials in this Elie Saab gown, featuring innovative cuts and a peplum skirt that complemented Nyong'o's lean figure. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Angelina Jolie Nobody looks more at home sashaying down the red carpet than Ms Jolie, who probably would've stuck to her trademark all-black aesthetic regardless of the #TimesUp incentive. Nonetheless, the Hollywood starlet stunned in this velvet sweetheart-neck gown, which she paired with dramatic drop diamond earrings. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Naomie Harris Never one to shy away from daring textures, the beloved British talent amplified her cigarette trousers with a highly-decorative sheer cape that accentuated her longline figure. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Cressida Bonas Void of colour is by no means void of charm as Bonas proved in this wonderfully-girlish gown. Complete with a decorative bodice and dynamic skirt, the British actress looked just the part for the glamorous ceremony ahead. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Kate Mara In a playful interpretation of the all-black dress code, the American actress' intricately-embellished Dior gown featured gold piping and a gentle tulle skirt. Minimal jewellery brought an elevated elegance to her look. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Sir Patrick Stewart Proudly sporting a #TimesUp pin next to his lapel, the British acting legend showed his support for the movement in a dark navy and black suit. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Octavia Spencer Renowned for a slew of sartorial successes on the red carpet, the Academy-Award-winning actress brought a subtle opulence to the BAFTAs in a geometrically-patterned gown, paired with fairy-like cropped sleeves. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Nicholas Hoult There's nothing wrong with a classic tuxedo, as the former Skins frontman proved in his perfectly-tailored look. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Letitia Wright Taking some time out to from Black Panther promo, the British actress turned heads in a slim-fitting velvet gown by Gucci, complete with diamante straps and an army of glittering bumblebees. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Will Poulter The young British actor wore an all-black ensemble accessorised only by a #TimesUp pin and a classic pair of specs. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Anya Taylor-Joy Staying true to her trademark gothic aesthetic, the 21-year-old actress brought a dark romance to the red carpet in a sheer lace Dolce & Gabbana gown. Plus, in an unexpected regal twist, the star of The Miniaturist completed her look with a decadent golden crown. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Rochelle Humes The British singer arrived to host the red carpet arrival coverage wearing a simple but effective plunging long-sleeved gown. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Natalie Dormer The former Game of Thrones star cut a slick silhouette in a strapless chiffon Alberta Ferretti gown with a dramatic micro-train that billowed over the red carpet. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Kristen Scott Thomas The Darkest Hour actress donned a black tapered Dior gown while showcasing her new pixie haircut. Paired with a #TimesUp pin and a rather dazzling pair of oversized diamond Buccellati earrings, Scott Thomas' look was the perfect amalgamation of red carpet glamour and sophistication. Rex Features

Throughout the ceremony, many actors took the opportunity to speak about the Times Up movement, including best actor winner Frances McDormand, who said upon accepting the award: I want you to know I stand in full solidarity with my sisters tonight in black.

Presenting an Outstanding British Debut, Gemma Arterton  who was joined at the event by activists Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis  said: I would just like to thank you all for standing up for equality tonight.

During her opening monologue, Lumley went on to joke about the Baftas not just about the famous people but let's have a look at the famous people here tonight! She poked fun at nominee Gary Oldman, Sally Hawkins, Frances McDormand, Daniel Kaluuya, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Annette Bening.

The exceedingly charming Hugh Grant is in the building, she joked. Quite how Hugh managed to portray a vain and egocentric actor is honestly beyond me.

The host opened the ceremony with a skit taking phone calls from various Bafta nominated films, including Death of Stalin, Call Me By Your Name, and Darkest Hour.

Meanwhile, Three Billboards went on to win five awards, more than any other movie. Read the full list of winners here.This years Baftas red carpet was dominated by the Times Up and #MeToo movements, numerous actors wearing all black in solidarity with those standing against abuse in the industry.

Many nominees and presenters  including Andrea Riseborough, Gemma Arterton, Naomie Harris, and Angelina Jolie  brought activists as their guests. They included Broadcaster Afua Hirsch, co-founder of UK Black Pride Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, and Loung Ung, the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.

Follow along on out live-blog here.

Arterton was joined by former sewing machine operators Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis, two of the 187 women who staged a three-week walk-out from Fords Dagenham plant in June 1968 after learning they were to be paid 15 per cent less than their male counterparts.

Actors and filmmakers to wear all black were Margot Robbie, Octavia Spencer, Helen Bonham Carter, Lupita Nyong'o, Greta Gerwig, Edgar Wright, Kristin Scott Thomas, and many others. Many also wore Times Up badges, such as red carpet presenters Edith Bowman and Dermot OLeary wore.

BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Show all 26 1 /26 BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge For the annual ceremony the Duchess relied on a firm fashion favourite for her red carpet look. This olive green Jenny Packham gown may defy the dress code, but it's no less worthy of a style accolade. Meanwhile, the Duke stayed true to the uniform in a traditional black tuxedo. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Allison Janney The I,Tonya star excelled in this strapless black and gold ensemble which flattered the American actress from all angles. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Gemma Arterton Few women could pull off the brazen pleats and avant-garde neckline of this couture Alberta Ferretti gown, but Gemma Arterton manages to seduce and delight with aplomb. A simple swish of scarlet lipstick proves the British actress's flair for the dramatic, an apt addition given the occasion. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Salma Hayek A Gucci girl to her core, Hayek returned to the red carpet as Alessandro Michele's ultimate leading lady in this floral design, which was topped off with rosy rhinestones and a black velvet clutch. Jeff Spicer/Getty Images BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Margot Robbie The Australian beautys porcelain-perfect skin was offset by a halter-neck Givenchy couture gown that gracefully flowed onto the red carpet in oscillating pleats. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Chiwetel Ejiofor and Frances Aaternir Packing a stylish power couple punch, Ejiofor and Aaternir each donned classic black tuxedos and #TimesUp pins for the glittering event. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Emma Roberts With a plunging Eighties neckline and oversized shoulder pads, the American actress successfully channelled a nostalgic nod to another Hollywood era in this Schiaparelli gown. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Rungano Nyoni The I Am Not A Witch director added splashes of colour to her gown of choice, which featured a peppering of heavily-embroidered purple floral patterns. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Lily James The British actress posed up a storm in this strapless tulle gown, worthy of a darker and edgier Cinderella. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Jennifer Lawrence The American actress stayed true to her Dior heritage in a rigid off-the-shoulder gown hot off the design house's spring 2018 couture catwalk. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Saoirse Ronan Nominated for her leading role in Ladybird, the Irish actress was semi-prepared for the British chill in a polo-neck Chanel gown that fluttered in the wind thanks to a sheer pleated skirt, complete with a buoyant feather trim. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Greta Gerwig With three nominations for her coming-of-age drama, Ladybird, the American actress, writer and director kept things simple in a feminine shift dress adorned with flowers. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Lupita Nyong'o The Academy-Award-winning actress proved her style credentials in this Elie Saab gown, featuring innovative cuts and a peplum skirt that complemented Nyong'o's lean figure. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Angelina Jolie Nobody looks more at home sashaying down the red carpet than Ms Jolie, who probably would've stuck to her trademark all-black aesthetic regardless of the #TimesUp incentive. Nonetheless, the Hollywood starlet stunned in this velvet sweetheart-neck gown, which she paired with dramatic drop diamond earrings. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Naomie Harris Never one to shy away from daring textures, the beloved British talent amplified her cigarette trousers with a highly-decorative sheer cape that accentuated her longline figure. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Cressida Bonas Void of colour is by no means void of charm as Bonas proved in this wonderfully-girlish gown. Complete with a decorative bodice and dynamic skirt, the British actress looked just the part for the glamorous ceremony ahead. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Kate Mara In a playful interpretation of the all-black dress code, the American actress' intricately-embellished Dior gown featured gold piping and a gentle tulle skirt. Minimal jewellery brought an elevated elegance to her look. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Sir Patrick Stewart Proudly sporting a #TimesUp pin next to his lapel, the British acting legend showed his support for the movement in a dark navy and black suit. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Octavia Spencer Renowned for a slew of sartorial successes on the red carpet, the Academy-Award-winning actress brought a subtle opulence to the BAFTAs in a geometrically-patterned gown, paired with fairy-like cropped sleeves. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Nicholas Hoult There's nothing wrong with a classic tuxedo, as the former Skins frontman proved in his perfectly-tailored look. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Letitia Wright Taking some time out to from Black Panther promo, the British actress turned heads in a slim-fitting velvet gown by Gucci, complete with diamante straps and an army of glittering bumblebees. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Will Poulter The young British actor wore an all-black ensemble accessorised only by a #TimesUp pin and a classic pair of specs. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Anya Taylor-Joy Staying true to her trademark gothic aesthetic, the 21-year-old actress brought a dark romance to the red carpet in a sheer lace Dolce & Gabbana gown. Plus, in an unexpected regal twist, the star of The Miniaturist completed her look with a decadent golden crown. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Rochelle Humes The British singer arrived to host the red carpet arrival coverage wearing a simple but effective plunging long-sleeved gown. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Natalie Dormer The former Game of Thrones star cut a slick silhouette in a strapless chiffon Alberta Ferretti gown with a dramatic micro-train that billowed over the red carpet. Rex Features BAFTAs 2018: Best dressed guests on the red carpet Kristen Scott Thomas The Darkest Hour actress donned a black tapered Dior gown while showcasing her new pixie haircut. Paired with a #TimesUp pin and a rather dazzling pair of oversized diamond Buccellati earrings, Scott Thomas' look was the perfect amalgamation of red carpet glamour and sophistication. Rex Features

Over the weekend, nearly 200 female British and Irish stars signed an open letter calling for an end to sexual harassment in the workplace.

The letter, published by The Observer and signed by Emma Thompson, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Chan, Keira Knightley and Emma Watson, said the Bafta are a time to celebrate this tremendous moment of solidarity and unity across borders by coming together and making this movement international.

This movement is bigger than just a change in our industry alone, it continues. In the very near past, we lived in a world where sexual harassment was an uncomfortable joke; an unavoidable awkward part of being a girl or a woman.

It concluded: If you have said times up, if the stories you have read in the papers have resonated and distressed you  join us in shifting the dial. Lets make 2018 the year that time was up on sexual harassment and abuse. This is your moment too.

The Baftas ceremony will be broadcast from Londons Royal Albert Hall and airs from 9pm today on BBC One.Emma Watson has donated 1m to a new campaign aiming to help those affected by sexual harassment.

The donation from the Harry Potter star to the UK Justice and Equality Fund comes as nearly 200 female British and Irish stars signed an open letter calling for an end to sexual harassment in the workplace.

Watson is one of the first donors to the fund, which was set up by the 190 women who signed the open letter, along with a group of 160 academics, activists and charity workers.

Emma Thompson, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Chan, Keira Knightley and Watson are among the actors to sign the letter, which was published in The Observer.

The letter says Sundays Bafta awards ceremony is a time to celebrate this tremendous moment of solidarity and unity across borders by coming together and making this movement international.

This movement is bigger than just a change in our industry alone, it continues. In the very near past, we lived in a world where sexual harassment was an uncomfortable joke; an unavoidable awkward part of being a girl or a woman.

BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Joanna Lumley with the Fellowship award at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Rex BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures David Haye presents the award for Best Sport for The Open in the press room at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Ian West/PA Wire BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Wunmi Mosaku with the Supporting Actress award for 'Damilola, Our Loved Boy' at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Rex BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Actor Adeel Akhtar poses with his Bafta for Best Leading Actor at the British Academy Television Awards 2017 Joel Ryan/Invision/AP BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Sarah Lancashire with the award for Best Actress in the press room at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 PA BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Phoebe Waller-Bridge with the award for Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme in the press room at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Ian West/PA Wire BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Tom Hollander winner of Best Supporting Actor award for the 'Night Manager' at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Rex BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Presented by Katie Piper and Stacey Dooley, Winners of the Single documentary award, 'Teenage Prison Abuse Exposed' with the PANORAMA Production Team at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards Rex BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Andy Worboys, Nicholas Bennett, Daniel Gordon, Andy Boag, Phil Scraton, Tim Atack and John Battsek, winners of the Single Documentary award for 'Hillsborough', pose in the Winner's room at the Virgin TV BAFTA Television Awards Dave Benett/Getty Images BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Charlie Brooker with the award for Best Comedy and Comedy Entertainment Programme in the press room at the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Ian West/PA Wire BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Victoria Derbyshire with her News Coverage award at theVirgin TV British Academy Television Awards 2017 Rex BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures TV presenters Ant and Dec pose with their Bafta for Best Live Event at the British Academy Television Awards at the Royal Festival Hall Joel Ryan/Invision/AP BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Comedian Michael McIntyre poses with his Bafta for Best Entertainment Performance at the British Academy Television Awards Joel Ryan/Invision/AP BAFTAs 2017 winners - in pictures Nicola Shindler, Siobhan Finneran, Sarah Lancashire and Con O'Neill - Best Drama - Happy Valley Rex

It concludes: If you have said times up, if the stories you have read in the papers have resonated and distressed you  join us in shifting the dial. Lets make 2018 the year that time was up on sexual harassment and abuse. This is your moment too.

Women attending the Bafta Awards in London last night have also said they will wear black on the red carpet, in a show of solidarity with the Hollywood-based Times Up movement.

Many are set to attend the ceremony with activists and campaigners rather than their partners. For instance, Gemma Arterton will be joined by former sewing machine operators Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis, two of the 187 women who staged a three week walk-out from Fords Dagenham plant in June 1968 after learning they were to be paid 15 per cent less than their male counterparts.

The Baftas ceremony will be held at Londons Royal Albert Hall and will air from 9pm today on BBC1.

It will also be live-streamed on Facebook for international viewers. The full ceremony will then be available on BBC iPlayer.

Follow Independent Culture on FacebookHer prized work is My Olga Bertgolts that is translated into Vietnamese and published in Hanoi in 2010 on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Russian poet Olga Bertgolts (1910-1975).

Living and working in Russia for 17 years, Nguyen Thuy Anh had learnt about the life of poet Olga Bertgolts for 10 years before deciding to publish the translated work. She expressed her belief that more classic and contemporary Russian literary works will be brought to Vietnamese readers in the future.

The annual award, presented on February 16 in Moscow, was initiated by the Russian Writers Association and the Literature Foundation Road of Life of Saint Petersburg city in 2015 with an aim to honour translation of Russian and foreign literature and strengthen ties between cultures.

The award is not open to entries featuring violence, drug abuse, crimes and anti-social activities.The worlds sea ice shrank to a record January low last month as the annual polar melting period expanded, experts say.

The 5.04 million square miles of ice in the Arctic was 525,000 square miles below the 1981-to-2010 ice cover average, making it the lowest January total in satellite records, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Combined with low levels in the Antarctic, global sea ice amounted to a record low for any first month of the year, the organisation concluded.

The news comes just days after researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder said the rate at which sea levels are rising was increasing every year, driven mostly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica.

The NSIDC, a respected authority on the Earths frozen regions, which researches and analyses snow, glaciers and ice sheets among other features, said that ice in the Arctic Ocean hit a new record low at both the start and end of last month.

In an online post, the group said: January of 2018 began and ended with satellite-era record lows in Arctic sea ice extent, resulting in a new record low for the month. Combined with low ice extent in the Antarctic, global sea ice extent is also at a record low.

It said the Arctic experienced a week of record low daily ice totals at the start of the month, with the January average beating 2017 for a new record low.

Ice grew through the month at near-average rates, and in the middle of the month daily extents were higher than for 2017, the report went on. However, by the end of January, extent was again tracking below 2017.

Scientists place more importance on monthly average figures, which smooth out temporary weather effects.

However, the organisations chief, Mark Serreze, said he was more worried than ever because ice shrinkage was now starting to happen all year round  in winter as well as in September, the warmest month  which is a recent phenomenon.

Ingrid Onarheim, of the University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, said: We are losing sea ice in all seasons now.

And climate scientist Zack Labe of Cornell University said the data for 2018 so far suggested the decline was consistent with the long-term trend.

The rate of decline for January was 18,400 square miles a year, or 3.3 per cent a decade, NSIDC figures showed.

The pattern seen in previous months continued, with below-average extent in the Barents and Kara Seas, as well as within the Bering Sea, the report added.

The experts said this years data suggested the situation in the Antarctic was also worrying. In the southern hemisphere, after January 11 sea ice began tracking low, leading to a January average extent that was the second-lowest on record. The lowest extent for this time of year was in 2017, the NSIDC report said.

At the end of last year the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration agency reported that the Arctic had reached a new normal of air temperatures warming at double the rate of global air temperature rises, with the region showing no signs of returning to reliably frozen region of recent past decades.

It said there were pronounced decade-long declines in cover and extent of sea ice and winter snow cover, and that Arctic paleo-reconstructions which extend back millions of years indicate the magnitude and pace of 21st-century sea ice decline and surface ocean warming is unprecedented in at least the last 1,500 years and likely much longer.

Sea ice cover continued to be relatively young and thin, while older, thicker ice comprised only 21 per cent of the ice cover in 2017 against 45 per cent in 1985.

Scientists say melting sea ice matters because it feeds back into a vicious circle of climate change and rising temperatures. It also damages ecosystems and wildlife from walruses to polar bears, and threatens to drive mass migration away from low-lying countries.

Ms Onarheim said: If we want to keep the ice cover, we have to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. The faster we emit the CO2, the faster we will lose the sea ice.Worldwide population growth and mass migrations are putting the infrastructure of many cities under strain. With city governments under pressure to provide more housing and work spaces, people can end up living and working in poorly designed or low quality buildings.

Since the beginning of human civilisation, people have been striving to create a beneficial built environment. Take Neolithic buildings, for instance: they were purposefully orientated to catch the sun and allow for ventilation. Later, over 3,000 years ago in Crete, the Minoans built underground sewage systems to avoid plagues. So too did the Romans, who also used underfloor heating systems and aqueducts, and provided baths throughout the empire to keep the population in good health.

Despite these early successes, maintaining healthy conditions became much more difficult in times of rapid population growth. During the industrial revolution, for instance, many cities quickly became overpopulated. With growing industries, employers were under pressure to accommodate more workers, and decayed or unfit buildings were used to host increasing numbers of tenants.

During the industrial revolution, British cities became overpopulated and living standards were poor (Creative Commons) (Creative commons)

In the UK, living conditions reached such poor standards that the government passed a number of laws to improve public health. A similar sanitation project took place in Germany, at around the same time. These strategies provided many cities with outstanding green infrastructure such as parks and boulevards, which still bring many health benefits to those who can access them today.

Sick building syndrome

But in recent years, sick building syndrome has become a worry worldwide. Research has shown that headaches and respiratory problems among office workers were directly related to the use of air conditioning, poor ventilation and other widely-adopted technologies. Today, health professionals and designers have plenty of evidence to show that some buildings can harm people, both physically and psychologically. Yet ensuring buildings are healthy is a difficult task.

In the UK, some features such as ventilation and heating have to meet certain standards. But other design features, which are known to have a big impact on human welfare, are still not regulated. For example, theres evidence that exposure to natural light and direct contact with nature have a positive effect on school exam results  yet theres no legislation which says they must be a feature of learning environments.

And while scientists are constantly experimenting to grow our knowledge of the impacts that buildings have on human health, laws and regulations tend to develop more slowly. This means that even new buildings can be inadequately ventilated, or suffer from a lack of natural light  even though we now know that both cause symptoms of ill health.

A lack of natural ventilation means viruses are retained in the air, while a lack of natural light can affect brain functions. In Britain alone, these design pitfalls are adding to the stress on the NHS, and costing the economy an estimated 24.6m due to lost working days each year.

The Grenfell Tower fire highlighted how budget constraints can result homes not safe to live in (Reuters/Toby Melville) (Reuters)

Whats more, as the Grenfell Tower disaster made awfully clear, technical difficulties and budget constraints can mean refurbishments are made using incompatible or inappropriate building materials, resulting in homes which simply arent safe to live in.

Tech fails

Architects aim to deliver sustainability by reducing energy consumption. There is a huge range of technologies which can help achieve this. But relying too heavily on such solutions can backfire: in 2016, researchers found that many homes had been built to be airtight, in a bid to meet energy efficiency targets. This can cause CO2 and other pollutants to build up indoors, which in turn has adverse effects on residents health.

Human factors  including how we navigate and socialise within the built environment, and how our body responds to it  also have a big impact on the overall efficiency of buildings, and the sustainable technologies which go into them. Research has shown that people dont always operate equipment as instructed  rather, they naturally look for comfort through more instinctive behaviours.

If you have a headache and respiratory problems inside, you could have sick building syndrome (Getty)

For example, when we feel a room is overheated, we tend to open windows to gain instant refreshment, rather than turning the thermostat down. This reduces the effectiveness of low-carbon technologies. So even buildings that have plenty of features to enhance energy efficiency can still be unsustainable, if people dont use them properly.

The power of good design

Design is still the most powerful tool an architect can use: simple design measures, such as opening buildings towards sunnier aspects or adding ventilation in strategic locations to make the most of prevalent winds, are tried and tested techniques which can help to deliver healthier, more sustainable buildings.

Yet this approach comes with its own issues. Inner city locations are often difficult to build in, because of their small size and crowded surroundings. Sometimes architects will prioritise creating a landmark exterior, at the cost of a healthy interior. Other times, architects misinterpret planning guidance and recommendations, which can be vague and unspecific. Likewise, planning restrictions can actually be enforced to the detriment of the overall building quality.

At the moment, planning laws arent strong enough to provide truly sustainable environments that take human factors into account. Reform is long overdue, and designers, builders, planners and health professionals need to make a greater effort to find a more collective and coordinated way of working. But as a society, we must take joint responsibility: we can all make a start by learning how to change our our behaviour, to make the human aspects of sustainability a central part of our lives.

Laura B Alvarez is an architectural technologist and urban designer at Nottingham Trent University. This article was originally published on The Conversation (theconversation.com)Fashion week is nothing if not eccentric.

This season, it was Central Saint Martins MA fashion design graduate Edwin Mohney who got the style set talking with his lilo skirts, condom dresses and Trumpettos - rubber stilettos designed to look like the President of the United States.

Evidently, practicality was not the port-of-call for the New York designer, whose surrealist collection was an immediate hit on Instagram.

(Reuters (Reuters)

Numerous variations of Mohneys distinctive condom dress appeared on the runway, however, none of them provided much wiggle room for the arms or shoulders, which seemed constricted within the garment.

Some of his condom-inspired designs were two-fold, featuring a bubble skirt and a translucent hat in the shape of the common contraceptive.

Then, there were the lilos and inflatable swimming pools, used as skirts and dresses with models literally standing inside them.

While they might not be a hit amongst the commuter crowd, they could possibly be a useful getup come BBQ season, when a paddling pool is is just the thing on everyone's mind after a few too many beers in the sunshine (just make sure to bring an extra set of clothes).

Some fashion fans took to Twitter to express their bewilderment at Mohneys outlandish designs.

Looks like they ran out of practical ideas! wrote one person.

Think Ill lilo if these ever hit shops, joked another.

However, the real star of Mohneys show was his "Trumpetto" heels.

Bound to be a talking point at dinner party tables if and when they hit shops, the rubber masks-turned-stiletto heels were not the most aesthetically-pleasing of designs.

However, if the designer's mission statement was to "make fashion great again" he has certainly succeeded with aplomb.Theres more to Ikea than flat-pack furniture and meatballs.

Now, the Swedish retailer has announced on Instagram theyre trialling a vegan hot dog in their Malmo store, with plans to roll the plant-based delicacy out across other European branches in August.

The news comes after Ikea released a range of veggie meatballs in 2015 and forms part of the brands mission to incorporate more plant-based meals into their crowd-pleasing food offerings.

Every year, 660 million people enjoy the Ikea Food offer, and we see this global reach as an opportunity as well as a responsibility to serve food that is good for people and the planet, said Michael La Cour, Managing Director at Ikea Food.

He insists that the new vegan offering will be as delicious as it is ethical, adding: There is no point in creating a more sustainable option for our customers if it isnt tasty.

With the new veggie hot dog, we can inspire and enable customers to choose a plant-based, more sustainable option at an affordable price.

While the hot dog is made from 100 per cent plant-based ingredients, Ikea Food Services clarified in an Instagram comment that theyre currently unable to refer to the prototype as vegan because theyre not entirely secure that the additives used are completely vegan.

However, they said its a work in progress.

The veggie hot dog comes three years after Ikea launched the Gronsaksbullar, a vegan-friendly variant of the retailers iconic Swedish meatballs.

While Ikeas latest plant-based offering wont officially hit stores till August, vegan and vegetarian fans have already starting voicing their excitement by commenting on the brand's Instagram post.

Yay, Ill be there!! wrote one user.

Please bring to the US, too, @ikeafoodservices! Very exciting! added another.Londons Chinatown welcomed in the Chinese New Year with red lantern decorations, lion dancing and red envelope gifts.

Starting from 16 February the lunar celebrations continue for around two weeks with this years zodiac animal being a dog.

Londons West End is known to hold the largest Chinese New Year celebrations outside Asia.A six-year-old boy whose rare form of epilepsy dramatically improved after using cannabis has been denied a request for a medical cannabis licence by the Government.

Alfie Dingley, from Kenilworth in Warwickshire, has a childhood epilepsy (PCDH19) that causes multiple seizures.

He experiences up to 30 fits a day and once had 3,000 seizures and 48 hospital visits in the space of just a year.

The young boy saw his seizures considerably reduce when he travelled to the Netherlands to take a cannabis-based medication prescribed by a paediatric neurologist last September.

It is estimated that with the Dutch cannabis medication Alfie would have about 20 seizures a year.

But the Home Office has denied the familys request for medical cannabis oil, which remains illegal in the UK.

It said the drug cannot be practically prescribed, administered or supplied to the public.

Alfies mother, Hannah Deacon, said while her son was abroad he managed to go 24 days without suffering a single attack.

Youve got to fight for your kids, I want to know that Ive done everything I can, she told the BBC.

Its very rare and very aggressive, there are only nine boys in the world with Alfies condition, she added.

We never imagined how well it would work. Hes just a six-year-old boy, he deserves a happy life. Weve found something that makes him happy and now weve got to take that away.

She said his cannabis dose was very small and he was taking just three drops of the oil. In stark contrast, the volume of steroids he is currently needing to treat his condition can sooner or later lead to organ failure, psychosis and even death, according to Alfie's mother.

Members of the all-party parliamentary group on drug policy reform have urged the Government to help Alfies struggle.

 MP Paul Flynn joins medical marijuana protest outside Parliament

Writing on their campaign website Alfies Hope, the parents said they were fundraising for their son to go abroad to take the treatment. The family were forced to return home from the Netherlands because they did not have medical insurance in the country.

We are now campaigning for him to have a chance to use medical cannabis in his own country along with all other children with epilepsy that is unresponsive to pharmaceutical drugs, they said.

We are also fundraising to enable us to take Alfie abroad to give him the treatment we believe will help him as it is currently still illegal in this country. We feel unable to wait until the law is changed in the UK.

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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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We want our baby back, we want to give Alfie the chance of a happy life which he massively deserves. Hes been through more than most go through in a lifetime. He deserves to have a wonderful life full of joy, not the pain he currently faces.

All of Alfies seizures requite hospitalisation and treatment with drugs. He is believed to be the only boy in Britain with the rare PCDH19 form of epilepsy.

Often, when Alfie has a seizure he stops breathing. Although this rights itself naturally quite quickly, it is very frightening, reads a statement on the site. The seconds when he is not breathing can feel like a lifetime. His family live with the fear of their beloved boy dying every week.

The Home Office said it acknowledged that individuals with chronic pain and debilitating illnesses are looking to alleviate their symptoms.

However, it is important that medicines are thoroughly tested to ensure they meet rigorous standards before being placed on the market, so that doctors and patients are assured of their efficacy, quality and safety, a spokesperson added.

Cannabis is listed as a Schedule 1 drug, as in its raw form it is not recognised in the UK as having any medicinal benefit  and is therefore subject to strict control restrictions.

This means it cannot be practically prescribed, administered or supplied to the public in the UK, and can only be used for research under a Home Office licence. The Home Office would not issue a licence to enable the personal consumption of a Schedule 1 drug.The sister of the murdered MP Jo Cox has said the family will stand by the late politicians husband after he was accused of sexual assault.

Brendan Cox, whose wife was murdered by a far-right extremist in June last year, stepped down from two charities he set up in his wifes memory after allegations of sexual assault became public.

Kim Leadbeater expressed her support for Mr Cox in the wake of the allegations and heaped praise on him for his fathering skills.

This is another very difficult day for our family. The last 20 months have been a constant rollercoaster of emotions which we are still dealing with on a daily basis, she said in a statement.

My priority is and always will be looking after Jo and Brendans children and supporting my parents, who have already been through so much.

As a family we will support Brendan as he endeavours to do the right thing by admitting mistakes he may have made in the past, and we respect him for doing so. We all make mistakes. Brendan is a wonderful father and I have no doubt about the happiness he brought to Jo.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty 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

She said her other priority was continuing work with More in Common and The Jo Cox Foundation  the two charities Mr Cox has stepped down from.

My other focus is to wholeheartedly continue the work I have begun through the More in Common movement at a local and national level and to support The Jo Cox Foundation in continuing its valuable work, she said. I have a fantastic team of people who have supported me so far and I know they will continue to do so as we focus on creating a positive legacy for Jo. Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support.

Mr Cox has denied assaulting a woman in her thirties at Harvard University in 2015 but admitted to inappropriate behaviour while working for Save the Children.

The father-of-two, who married Jo Cox in 2009, decided to leave posts at More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation a week after the Mail on Sunday published the claims. He apologised for the hurt and offence caused by his past behaviour, saying he would take full responsibility for his actions.

I want to apologise deeply and unreservedly for my past behaviour and for the hurt and offence that I have caused, he said in the statement. In the aftermath of Jos murder, I promised that I would dedicate my life to two things, firstly loving and protecting our children and secondly fighting the hatred that killed Jo.

In the last few days allegations from several years ago have resurfaced that make concentrating on both of those tasks much more difficult. For that reason, while away over half term, I decided to step down from my current public roles for the time being.

Mr Cox was reported to police in Massachusetts in America in 2015 for inappropriate touching while on a trip to Harvard  an allegation he denies.

He said some of the allegations against him were a massive exaggeration but admitted that he had at times overstepped the line.

While I do not accept the allegations contained in the 2015 complaint to the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I do acknowledge and understand that during my time at Save the Children I made mistakes, he added in the statement.

 Brendan Cox urges Britiain not allow division after London attack

In 2015 the Mail on Sunday reported that Mr Cox had stepped down from his position as chief strategist at Save The Children after allegations of inappropriate behaviour, which he denied at the time.

Jo Cox was brutally shot and stabbed by a far-right extremist in Birstall, in her constituency of Batley and Spen, in June 2016.

A spokesperson for the Jo Cox Foundation heaped praise on the contribution Mr Cox made as a trustee.

Since establishing the Jo Cox Foundation, the trustees and staff have admired the integrity, commitment and dedication that Brendan has shown in our work to create a positive legacy for Jo, they said.Mary Beard has been hit by a wave of criticism following an apparent attempt to rationalise the behaviour of Oxfam aid workers in Haiti, after reports emerged about the alleged sexual exploitation of women and children.

The Cambridge academic, who was recently announced as the new presenter of the TV version of BBC Radio 4 arts programme Front Row, wrote on Friday that she wondered how hard it would be to sustain civilised values in a disaster zone.

She also said that while she did not condone the behaviour of Oxfam staff in Haiti and elsewhere, overall she respected those who go in to help out, where most of us wd not tread.

 Oxfam CEO Mark Goldring apologises over Haiti sex scandal

The Independent recently revealed how Oxfam was told of aid workers raping and sexually exploiting children in Haiti a decade ago, with a 2008 report sent to the charitys CEO warning of rape, assault and exploitation on a significant scale in Haiti.

Professor Beards words prompted fierce criticism, including from fellow Cambridge academic Priyamvada Gopal, who wrote in a series of tweets that this kind of thing is the *progressive* end of the institutional culture I have to survive day in day out and Cambridge desperately needs a Breaking the Silence on racism. About time and beyond.

In a following tweet Dr Gopal satirised Prof Beard, writing: Obviously its not a great idea to randomly get your d**k out, rape people etc. But its not easy to be politically correct while in s**tholes. And overall I still respect people who head out to s**tholes cos I sure as hell wouldnt dream of it.

Responding to the backlash Prof Beard then wrote: I am amazed that after decades of Lord of the Flies being a gcse English set book we havent got the point about the breakdown of morality in danger zones!! Just saying and this is NOT to condone the actions of a few aid workers.

 Oxfam executive director: 'I'm appointing a high-level commission'

In a later tweet she posted a photo of herself and said she was left sitting here crying, and wrote in her blog about the the torrent of abuse she had experienced: the predictable name calling pervert, sick cow, disgusting creature or gross misreadings... how hard is it not to gangrape women in a disaster zone?. youve lost your house, your family are dead, fancy a shag? Do you take PayPal? (I didnt really want to include that, but I felt that you needed to see the tasteless too.)

She added: I find it hard to imagine that anyone out there could possibly think that I am wanting to turn a blind eye to the abuse of women and children and that while we deplore what has happened and expect better, it is worth thinking of the context in which it took place.

99% of us have no idea of the stresses of working in these environments (and yes, living in them is worse, as there is no escape route). Most aid workers deal with that, I suspect, by drink and cigarettes. But that kind of societal, infrastructural breakdown provides a space for much worse.

That is not to condone the awful things that happened but to contextualise them. And that is what we need to do, if we want to stop this happening again.

However, if she had been hoping the post would turn the criticism into sympathy she was disappointed. The Netherlands-based writer and feminist Flavia Dzodan tweeted: Mary Beard, a prominent woman with almost 200k followers posted a photo of herself crying her white feminist tears. I am amazed by the extent of sentimentality people will go through, debasing themselves if necessary in order to sustain their ignorance, bigotry or both.

Kelechi Okafor wrote: If it had been a country of white children and women who were sexually violated for the sake of charity you wouldnt be opening your long neck to spew this nonsense @wmarybeard. You fail to see the humanity in Blackness.

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

Others spoke out in her defence: New Statesman deputy editor Helen Lewis tweeted: FWIW [for what its worth], I dont think Mary Beard is being manipulative or playing the victim by showing how shes emotionally affected by Twitter pile-ons. I think shes being (perhaps ill-advisedly) honest.

Shes redefining the behaviour we expect from a public intellectual  by engaging at length on Twitter, not just handing down tablets of stone  and even when I disagree with her (as I do here), thats admirable.

Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman replied to Lewis and added: Its also pretty much the textbook definition of bullying: mocking someone for showing weakness.

Dr Gopal later posted a detailed response on Medium, where she said she had arranged a private meeting with Prof Beard to discuss the matter but also wanted to address it in public.

It is not just about you and me, or about an isolated tweet which we know to have shocked and disappointed many of your followers, she said. It is about what is still acceptable and, indeed, valorised in public discourse in Britain and as such needs to be examined with a degree of detachment

Your blogpost is not an adequate intellectual response to your, well, frankly outrageous tweet; its a series of postures of innocence and a continued refusal to analyse a problem in all its thorny difficulty.

I am not going to post a picture of myself crying, she said later in the piece. If I posted every time I was made miserable by abuse or by the genteel liberal racism that is the very lifeblood of Cambridge social intercourse, I would have a feed full of misery. And it would be manipulative.

I cry privately  a lot. But I think the time has come, long since, for Britains white thought leaders and Oxbridges more progressive elements to listen and learn with a degree of open-mindedness and humility instead of retreating into postures of self-pity or defensiveness. And private interactions notwithstanding, this conversation has to be public, searing, open and mutually transformative.An ultra-Orthodox Jewish group in London is understood to have written a letter urging teachers to boycott Government funding that would oblige them to teach the lie that the world is ancient, rather than 6,000 years old, as it says in the Bible.

The leaked document, written in classical Hebrew, was reportedly sent to in January by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, which has an affiliation of nearly 90 synagogues, as well as educational institutions.

The letter, which focuses on funding for schools in Hackney, north-east London, is said to state senior rabbis in the community met to review new Department of Education funding contracts.

It reveals they concluded signing the contracts could amount to heresy on grounds a clause they contain bans schools from promoting views or theories as fact which is contrary to established scientific or historical evidence and explanations, the Sunday Times reported.

This would preclude teachers from putting forward the view the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Scientific evidence points to the figure being out by around 4.5 billion years.

In a response to the letter emailed to The Independent, Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, deputy mayor of Hackney, said: In September 2017, our early years funding contract with nurseries was amended and sent out to include the new 30 hours of free childcare for parents of three and four year olds.

The contract included the clause referred to by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, which has been in the contract since 2015.

All nurseries under contract are registered and inspected by Ofsted and the clause has not caused a problem to date.

There are rightly requirements on nurseries attached to this funding and our contracts reflect DfE guidance, which is clear that we cannot fund providers who do not meet statutory requirements. We have good relationships with our providers and we hope that they will continue to work with us to access this funding.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty 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

Hackney Council stated one Orthodox Jewish provider has written regarding their funding contract and is currently considering its response.

The Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations did not respond to a request for comment.Plans by the Education Secretary to allow religious schools to bar a greater numbers of pupils from other backgrounds will sow seeds for social division, prejudice and hate crime, campaigners warn.

Damian Hinds, who was educated at the Catholic grammar school, St Ambrose College, said in an interview with the Sunday Times he would lift the rule forcing religious schools to allocate 50 per cent of places to pupils who do not share the belief system they espouse.

This would allow schools to select pupils entirely on the basis of religion, arguably advocating closed religious communities within education.

Humanists UK, which has led a campaign against plans to drop the cap, said removing the rule could lead to religious and ethnic discrimination and risk separating children along socioeconomic lines.

The 50 per cent cap on faith-school admissions has worked successfully to reduce social, ethnic and religious segregation within state schools, Richy Thomson, director of public affairs and policy at Humanists UK, told The Independent.

To abolish it because one religious group claims it breaks its own laws would be misguided in its motivations and a disaster in its outcome.

Segregated schools lead to a segregated society ... If our schools arent inclusive, how can we expect our society to be?

Mr Thomson added a lack of mutual understanding of those who come from different background and beliefs could lead to misunderstanding and division which could have knock-on consequences.

Prejudice against people with different religions and beliefs could lead to people experiencing more discrimination, harassment in everyday life and in their place of work and an increase in hate crime.

Currently, new religious free schools can only prioritise the admission of pupils on the basis of religion for up to half of their places, leaving the remaining 50 per cent open to local children of all beliefs and backgrounds.

Theresa May pledged to drop the rule for new state-funded free schools in her general election manifesto last year. However, the move was blocked by Justine Greening, Mr Hindss predecessor as Education Secretary, who defended the cap as a means of ensuring children from non-religious backgrounds are given fair access to good schools.

Speaking on the issue of faith schools on ITVs Peston on Sunday today, Ms Greening said: I think its important that schools are places ideally where communities get brought together. I think in our experience looking at things like the Trojan Horse affair, schools that, as it were, monoculture, are less plugged into their local communities and thats where you tend to get problems.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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. 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

Actually faith schools have played a hugely important role in our school system and I think that should continue. Great faith schools want to have a mix and want to be plugged into their local communities.

Mr Hinds has previously defended removing the cap, stating in a debate in the House of Commons in 2014: If [Catholic schools] were open to all, they would lose their distinctive character  not immediately, but over time.

The Catholic Education Service has previously claimed the cap has effectively banned the opening of any new Catholic free schools because such institutes must select 100 per cent of their places on the basis of religion.

There are more than 2,000 Catholic schools in England and 88 Catholic schools in Wales. Catholic schools make up 10 per cent of the national total of state-funded schools. A third of pupils at Catholic schools are of other faiths or none.

Last month, the Guardian reported Mr Hinds had accepted more than 5,000 from the Catholic church in 2014 to pay for a new intern, raising concerns over the level of religious influence over the education system.Egypts army said on Saturday it killed seven takfiris in north and central Sinai and arrested 408 suspected or wanted criminal elements as Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 continues into its ninth day.

In the ninth communique since the counter-terrorism campaign was launched last Friday, the army said the air forces destroyed eight terrorist targets, killing three takfiris and destroying a 4x4 wheeler carrying a half-inch submachine gun.

The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to hardline Sunni Muslims who accuse other Muslims of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

The army said forces also raided a dangerous terrorist hotspot, killing four of the armed takfiri elements during a shootout, adding that the raid resulted in the confiscation of two machine guns and a improvised explosive device.

The statement said 408 suspected or wanted criminals were arrested and are being legally processed.

Operation Sinai 2018 was launched last Friday, involving land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards, targeting "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations" in northern and central Sinai, as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert.

The statement said army engineers uncovered and diffused 45 IEDs which were planted to target security forces during operations.

The army added that its forces destroyed 158 dens and storehouses containing a number of highly explosive materials, C4 and chemical elements used to manufacture IEDs, transmission devices, as well as seven vehicles and 32 unlicensed motorcycles used by the terrorist elements.

Seven tonnes of narcotics were also seized in the operations.

The statement added that the naval forces continued to conduct missions to secure the coasts from Rafah till Al-Arish in order to stop the escape of terrorist elements through the sea.

The joint combat units of the border guard and the police conducted 586 flying checkpoints on main roads and across desert areas nationwide, imposing full control along the southern and western borders.

According to the statement, Border Guard forces stopped an attempt to smuggle weapons and narcotics on the western borders, seizing 99 guns and 400,000 different narcotic pills.

As part of the efforts to bring the legal status of citizens who live in north and central Sinai up to date, the army said the interior ministry was currently issuing and renewing national IDs, as well as driving licenses and licenses for vehicles and motorcycles.

Short link:

High animal welfare, environmental and food standards must not be sacrificed on the altar of cheap imports, MPs warned as they called for post-Brexit clarity for agriculture.

The Government must not allow imports that have not been produced to UK standards, and should improve country of origin labelling and introduce mandatory method of production labels for food after Brexit, they said.

The MPs warned there needed to be more clarity on the future of the food and farm industry, including a sector-by-sector analysis, and urged ministers to consider setting up a fund for the food-producing industry to adapt to Brexit.

The European Union is the most significant trading partner for the UKs 110bn-a-year agriculture and food sector, accounting for 60 per cent of exports and 70 per cent of imports, a report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said.

Despite government intentions, there is no guarantee of a future comprehensive trading and customs agreement with the EU, leaving the UK relying on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules that would have a significant impact on agriculture.

The committee warned that the Government would have to think carefully about tariffs, as high charges on imports would raise the cost for consumers, while removing them could lower food prices for shoppers but have a devastating effect on the UKs agricultural industry and rural communities.

While trading deals with other parts of the world could have benefits, they should not come at detriment of the UKs reputation for high animal welfare, environmental and food standards, the report said.

Delays at border posts could also lead to increased costs and threaten perishable goods, so it is imperative the Government sets out how it will ensure the right IT systems and infrastructure are in place to ensure businesses can continue to trade smoothly.

The report also warned that non-British vets are critical to the veterinary workforce, and the Government must set out how it intends to ensure their working rights to help meet the needs of the UKs food industry in the future.

Neil Parish, chairman of the committee, said: In order to safeguard the livelihoods of UK farmers and guarantee domestic food security post-Brexit, it is vital that the Government articulates its vision for protecting both.

The first step in this process is creating an analysis of each farming sector before bringing the Agriculture Bill before Parliament.

UK agriculture will need to adapt to the changed trading circumstances following Brexit, so the Government should consider putting funding in place to enable farmers to do so.

And he said: It is crucial that the Government takes positive political action towards new trading relationships as a matter of priority.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 Arsenals Takehiro Tomiyasu attempts to control the ball during the Premier League match at The Emirates Stadium PA UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty 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

We should under no circumstances compromise on our world-renowned animal welfare, environmental, and food standards.

Brexit should be an opportunity to improve, not undermine, our global reputation for quality.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: Leaving the EU gives us a golden opportunity to secure ambitious free trade deals while supporting our farmers and producers to grow and sell more great British food.

Any future deal must work for UK farmers, businesses and consumers, and we will not compromise on our high environmental or welfare standards.

PAOn Wednesday, a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school, leaving 17 people dead and more than a dozen others injured.

In November, a gunman went on a shooting spree at the Rancho Tehama reserve in Northern California, killing four people and injuring three children.

A week before that, a man in Sutherland Springs, Texas, stormed a church with a semiautomatic rifle, killing 26 people and injuring 20.

 White House refuses to release photo of Trump signing bill weakening gun laws for mentally ill

A month before that, a gunman in a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas shot at concertgoers below, killing 59 people and injuring more than 500.

As shootings like these seem to escalate in the US, so do questions about gun control. Americans who fear their town or city could be the site of the next attack wonder what strategies if any the US could take to reduce rates of gun violence.

No country is a perfect analog of the US, but several have taken steps that worked for them  here are their insights.

Australia paid citizens to sell their guns to the government.

(Reuters / David Gray (Reuters / David Gray)

A spate of violence in the 1980s and '90s that culminated in a 1996 shooting that left 35 dead led Australian Prime Minister John Howard to convene an assembly to devise gun-control strategies.

The group landed on a massive buyback program, costing hundreds of millions of dollars offset by a one-time tax increase, that bought and destroyed more than 600,000 automatic and semiautomatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.

Over the next few years, gun-death totals were cut nearly in half. Firearm suicides dropped to 0.8 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 2.2 in 1995, while firearm homicides dropped to 0.15 per 100,000 people in 2006 from 0.37 in 1995.

A US buyback would mean destroying more than 40 million guns  but at the state level, the undertaking might not be so massive.

Japan puts citizens through a rigorous set of tests.

Japan, which has strict laws for obtaining firearms, seldom has more than 10 shooting deaths a year in a population of 127 million people.

If Japanese people want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test.

Then they have to pass a mental-health evaluation at a hospital, as well as a background check, in which the government digs into any criminal records or ties and interviews friends and family members.

Finally, they can buy only shotguns and air rifles  no handguns  and must retake the class and the initial exam every three years.

Unlike in the US, Japanese law has long outlawed guns. Still, the wisdom from Japan seems to be that tighter regulations keep guns confined only to those fit to use them.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

Norway exemplifies the power of social cohesion and trust.

People place flowers in tribute to the victims of the bomb blast and shooting massacre, (Reuters ) (Reuters)

Compared with the US, Norway has about one-third of the number of guns per 100 civilians  and about one-tenth of the rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people.

Sociologists who study the Nordic model have found that social cohesion between citizens and the government goes a long way toward ensuring a (mostly) peaceful society.

For example, an analysis in 2015 found that the number of fatal shootings by police in Norway in the past nine years was less than the number of fatal shootings by US police officers in one day.

Gummi Oddsson, a cross-cultural sociologist from Northern Michigan University, has found that Nordic governments go to great lengths to build trust in local communities.

He told Business Insider that US states could look to strengthen a sense of trust through measures like community policing, a tactic that emphasizes partnership between law enforcement and communities.

The thinking goes that people will begin to feel safer around the police, who will then have a better understanding of the neighborhood and be able to address problems before they happen.

The UK took a multipronged approach.

The UK's approach that combines elements of those of the other three countries.

Around when Australia adopted its gun regulations, Parliament passed legislation banning private ownership of handguns in Britain and banned semiautomatic and pump-action firearms throughout the UK. It also required shotgun owners to register their weapons.

A $200 million buyback program led to the government's purchase of 162,000 guns and 700 tons of ammunition from citizens.

GunPolicy.org estimates that in 2010 there were 3.78 guns per 100 people in the UK, while the US, meanwhile, is estimated to have 101 guns per 100 people.

The result has been roughly 50 to 60 gun deaths a year in England and Wales, which have a population of 56 million. Compare that to the US, a country about six times as large that has more than 160 times as many gun-related homicides.

Read more:

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Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.Donald Trumps national security adviser has said there is undeniable proof of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference after 13 Russians were charged by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, HR McMaster said: With the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible.

His pronouncement came in answer to a question from a Russian delegate shortly after the countrys foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, speaking on the same stage, had dismissed the indictments as just blabber.

Recommended Mueller indictment shows how Russians could have swung election

A Kremlin-linked internet firm has also been charged, along with the 13 Russian nationals, with conspiring to sow discord in the US political system.

Some of the defendants, posing as US citizens, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign and other political activists, according to an indictment filed by a federal grand jury in Washington DC.

The indictment represents the most detailed allegations to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign that put Mr Trump in the White House.

Asked about the charges in Munich, Mr Lavrov said: I have no response. You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying.

Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber  Im sorry for this expression.

He claimed US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, had said no country influenced the presidential election results. US intelligence agencies have previously concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin set out affect the outcome of the vote but stopped short of saying whether he succeeded.

 Rod Rosenstein announces thirteen Russian nationals have been indicted in Mueller probe

Taking the stage after Mr Lavrov, Mr McMaster scoffed at working with Russia on cybersecurity.

We would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage, he said.

On Friday, after the indictments were announced, President Trump acknowledged for the first time that Moscow had conducted an anti-US campaign. But he claimed the results of the election were not impacted and said there was no collusion with and no wrongdoing by his campaign.

Mr Muellers team is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin during the run-up to the election.

The 13 Russians are charged with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign, aimed in part at helping the Republican defeat his Democrat rival, Hillary Clinton.

The indictment marks the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the outcome.

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

According to the indictment, the Russian organisation was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy St Petersburg businessman with ties to President Putin and the Kremlin.

Mr Lavrov denounced this irrational myth about this global Russian threat, traces of which are found everywhere  from Brexit to the Catalan referendum.

In Russia, one of those indicted said that the US justice system was unfair.

Mikhail Burchik was quoted by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda as saying: I am very surprised that, in the opinion of the Washington court, several Russian people interfered in the elections in the United States. I do not know how the Americans came to this decision.

Mr Burchik was identified in the indictment as executive director of an organisation that allegedly sowed propaganda on social media to try to interfere with the election.

He was quoted as saying on Saturday that they have one-sided justice, and it turns out that you can hang the blame on anyone.Facebook plans to begin mailing postcards to verify the identities of political advertisement buyers.

If you run an ad mentioning a candidate, we are going to mail you a postcard and you will have to use that code to prove you are in the United States, executive Katie Harbath said during a weekend gathering of state election officials, according to Reuters.

The social media giants vetting of paid political content has come under deep scrutiny after revelations that Russian-linked agents purchased politically incendiary content, part of what American intelligence officials and prosecutors describe as a concerted effort to disrupt the election.

An indictment of 13 Russian nationals, released this week as part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of election meddling, alleged that Russians working for the Internet Research Agency (IRA) posed as Americans to buy political advertisements on social media, circumventing laws on foreign involvement in American politics.

Often referred to as a troll farm, the IRA is said by the indictment to engage in information warfare against the United States of America. The content was intended to support Donald Trump, attack Hillary Clinton and and sow discord in the U.S. political system, the indictment says.

The indictments allegations of online Russian activity echo disclosures earlier this year by Facebook, which said the Internet Research Agency. used ads to promote content that was seen by some 126 million Americans.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

Facing intensifying calls from Congress to better vet political content, Facebook announced new transparency rules last year intended to identify paid political posts and who purchases them. Twitter also pledged to share more information about paid political advertising.

 Rod Rosenstein announces thirteen Russian nationals have been indicted in Mueller probe

A bipartisan bill before Congress would subject internet giants to the same political disclosure rules that govern television, radio and print advertisements.Three days after the massacre that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the rift between the pro and anti-gun camps in southern Florida may as well be a canyon.

Cars packed into the fields on the Miami-Dade Fairgrounds on Saturday, where the Miami Gun Show was being held  an event that was went forward in spite of the shooting days earlier that has left the surrounding communities reeling with pain. Attendees had their pick of handguns, shotguns, and semi-automatic rifles; the very kind of gun that has once again been used for mass murder.

Just an hours drive north, people packed into a courtyard outside the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Lauderdale, and spilled over onto a terraced water fountain that had been dried up. In the centre of the crowd, high school students from Stoneman said enough is enough, grieving parents promised their children's lives were not lost in vain, and politicians promised allegiance to the cause  all to thunderous applause that bounced off the cement walls and overhangs.

Recommended Community looks to help families of Florida victims any way they can

"We are going to be the last mass shooting," Emma Gonzalez, 17, a Parkland student who survived the shooting, told the crowd. "We are going to change the law. That's going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook, and it's all going to be due to the tireless efforts of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most importantly the students."

In the aftermath of the high school shooting in Parkland, the debate on how to stem the epidemic of gun deaths in America has been given new life. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have argued that the issue is one of mental health  only unstable individuals are going to turn a gun on a hallway full of high school students, they reason.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

Meanwhile, Democrats and gun control advocates say that it is simply too easy for individuals to get their hands on deadly weapons. The United States has some of the highest rates of gun violence in the developed world, and it is exceedingly easy to buy a gun. Its time for a change, they say.

Inside the sprawling expo centre that housed the gun show, rows of long yellow tables provided enthusiasts with a smorgasbord of weapons options, and choices to carry and keep those weapons safe.

Lines of semi-automatic rifles were looked over by potential buyers. Ammunition gleamed on the tables close to offers of $5 instant background checks. Vendors offered up Tasers, knives, and bulletproof vests.

This will work for all tactical operations, one vendor told a woman looking at gun holsters, reassuring her that the option she was looking at would serve her needs.

Listen, youre always going to have evil. There is evil in this world, a different vendor told The Independent. We cant continue to blame the product.

Jorge Fernandez, the manager of the Florida Gun Show, said that his organisation had chosen to go ahead and open up on Saturday and Sunday because it was planned years in advance. Stopping the event on such short notice would cost tens of thousands of dollars, he said, and impact his business.

Were very, very sensitive to what happened in Parkland, we want everyone to know that we dont want them to think that were being insensitive by having the show go forward, Mr Fernandez said.

A smorgasbord of weapons were on display at the Miami show

These shows are put in place years in advance. We pay these venues years in advance. We pay personnel. We hire off duty police. We hire security. So having this mechanism in place  this is a business, Mr Fernandez continued. To put it in reverse and stop it would cost tens of thousands of dollars, and it would really impact the forward motion of the business.

For the protesters at the rally, money is partly the point.

Demonstrators lined the sidewalk with signs blaming the gun industry and its allies  and its vice grip on a certain faction of Congress  for creating circumstance where a 19-year-old man who many have now said seemed off-kilter could legally, and easily, buy a semi-automatic weapon that he would later use to massacre a school.

The NRA are buying politicians, Joanna Peterson, 36, a Fort Lauderdale high school English teacher said, holding her seven-year-old daughters hand.

Ms Peterson noted that the gun industry donates millions to primarily Republican politicians, including Floridas own Sen Marco Rubio.

Assault rifles on sale at the Miami fair

Mary Ann Benitez, 49, had come with her 13-year-old daughter, Amanda, and said that the shooting in Parkland brought the issue frighteningly close to home. Her son is a freshman at the school she said, but wasnt in the building where the shooting occurred by chance.

I think we can make it harder, and save lives in the future, Ms Benitez said, noting that she does not expect every mass killing to be stopped by new gun restrictions.

Ms Benitez said that Parkland, where she lives, is generally a safe community. People forget to lock their front doors, and their cars. Its a gated community that has been terrorised by unimagined evils.

The demonstrators said they realise that the shooting in Southern Florida is just the latest time America has seen mass murder, and that little has been done in light of those events. But, for those who showed up, that does not mean hope is nonexistent.

Two young women hug at a police checkpoint near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where 17 people were killed by a gunman on 15 February 2018 in Parkland, Florida. (Getty)

For those in the community, the shooting was a call to arms  a call to begin using their voices to try and ensure another community is not torn apart by a similar event.

Voices need to be heard. Thats the bottom line, Stephanie Ferris, 32, said.

Ms Ferris, who has a 13-month-old child, said that political pressure is how she sees change coming, and says she realised that she has to play a part in adding that pressure. Her cousin, she said, was one of the high schoolers at Stoneman running from bullets just days ago.

The fact that this shooting happened so close to home, this hits, she said. It just made me realise that I have to actually do something. [Ill do] whatever I can to help.Survivors of last weeks school shooting in Parkland, Florida have announced they will lead a nationwide demonstration to demand action on gun control.

People keep asking us - what about the Stoneman Douglas shooting is going to be different, because this has happened before and change hasnt come? - This is it, explained 11th grader Cameron Kasky to ABC.

Determined to make the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a turning point in the US gun control debate, students told news outlets they are organising a protest called the March For Our Lives on March 24.

Recommended Student who survived Florida shooting hailed as hero for speech

People are saying that its not time to talk about gun control. And we can respect that, Mr Kasky added. Heres a time. March 24th in every single city. We are going to be marching together as students begging for our lives.

The demonstration should transcend politics, suggested Mr Kasky and four of his classmates also interviewed by ABC - Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Alex Wind and Jaclyn Corin.

All five survived last Wednesdays shooting at Stoneman Douglas, in which a 19-year-old gunman, armed with a legally purchased AR-15-style assault rifle, killed 17 people.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

This isn't about the GOP, Mr Kasky said. This isn't about the Democrats. This is about the adults. We feel neglected and at this point, you're either with us or against us.

He said any politician on either side who is receiving money from the National Rifle Association, one of the USs most powerful gun-rights organisations, is responsible for events like this.

At the end of the day, the NRA is fostering and promoting this gun culture. he said. The point is to create a new normal where there's a badge of shame on any politician who's accepting money from the NRA.President Donald Trump has asserted he never said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 election, even though he has repeatedly cast doubt on the Kremlins interference in the race that propelled him into the presidency.

I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer, the President tweeted.

The Russian hoax was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia  it never did! the President exclaimed, referring to his claim that investigations into alleged ties between Trump campaign advisers and the Kremlin were a hoax constructed by the Democrats to explain away their loss in 2016.

In November, Mr Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin had assured him on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that there was no interference by the Kremlin in the election.

I asked him again, Mr Trump told reporters. You can only ask so many times... He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did.

I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it... I think hes very insulted, if you want to know the truth, he added.

Mr Trumps claim he never said Russia did not meddle in the election came amid a Sunday morning Twitter tirade in which he railed against former President Barack Obama, Democrats, CNN and others.

He directed some of his comments at Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee  one of multiple congressional panels conducting a probe into Russian interference in the election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.

Finally, Liddle Adam Schiff, the leakin monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!

The tweet appears to be a reference to Mr Schiffs recent comments to NBC News.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

We should have called them out much earlier, Mr Schiff said, referring to Russias cyber campaign during the presidential campaign. While I respect the motive in terms of the Obama administration, they didnt want to be seen as meddling, the American people had a right to know what was going on and could be trusted to do the right thing with it. And they should have defended being more public and aggressive at the time, at least in my view.

Last year, Jeh Johnson, the former secretary of homeland security under Mr Obama, said the Obama White House knew about the Russian election hacking  but it delayed saying anything.

We were concerned that by making the statement we might, in and of itself, be challenging the integrity of the election process itself, Mr Johnson testified to the House Intelligence Committee.

On Friday, a federal grand jury in Washington DC indicted 13 Russian nationals and a Kremlin-linked internet firm on charges that they meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.

The US government said Russian entities began interfering in US political processes as early as 2014, according to a court document. The Internet Research Agency allegedly served as a hub from which the defendants and other co-conspirators used social media to sow discord in the US political system.

If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the US then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, Mr Trump said in one of his Sunday tweets. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!Government-funded charity World Vision has denied allegations its staff coerced survivors of Haitis catastrophic 2010 earthquake into having sex.

Paid employees of the evangelical Christian humanitarian aid charity were accused of forcing Haitians to have sex or pay for aid in 2010, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday.

But World Vision, where Meghan Markle was a global ambassador from 2016 to 2017, has denied the story and argued it misconstrues the reality of the situation.

While we know we did not get everything right, the Mail on Sunday story in the UK and Ireland misrepresents our actions and omits key findings from our investigations, which we described publicly, and which were shared with authorities, donors, and the Mails journalist, several years ago, the charity said in a statement.

The childrens charity, which is active in more than 90 countries, admitted investigations it conducted identified issues of sexual exploitation, but found that those involved were not World Vision staff.

In our cash-for-work programme in 2010-11, several evaluations conducted by World Vision and our partners highlighted a number of issues in government-run camps; of nepotism, sexual exploitation and inaccurate record-keeping, the charity said.

World Visions extensive investigations into these issues revealed that those involved in sexual exploitation were not World Vision staff. They were community volunteers and cash-for-work beneficiaries themselves.

World Vision explained it reported those issues to authorities and worked in conjunction with them to provide training and follow-up procedures to curb these practises.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

We recognise that it is possible there may have been inappropriate behaviour by people employed by or associated with World Vision that went unreported, the statement continued. If that is the case, we encourage anyone who saw or experienced sexual exploitation or abuse to come forward, or to report it through our confidential Whistleblower Hotline, and we will do all we can to investigate.

World Visions response follows the aid worker sex scandal storm that has engulfed Oxfam since the accusation its workers sexually abused children and used prostitutes in Haiti, Southern Sudan and in the Ivory Coast.

Oxfam, one of the worlds biggest disaster relief charities, on Saturday admitted it knew about a Save the Children report from a decade ago which suggested significant abuse was being carried out by aid workers from unspecified charities overseas.

The charity, which has agreed to stop bidding for government funding until ministers are content it can meet the high standards expected, apologised this week for unspecified sexual misconduct uncovered in a 2011 internal investigation.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the Polish Prime Minister for saying Jews were among the perpetrators of the Holocaust.

Mr Netanyahu said Mateusz Morawieckis comments were outrageous and demonstrated an inability to understand history.

It comes after Poland passed a law criminalising and implementing prison terms for statements which suggest Poland bears responsibility for crimes committed by Nazi Germany.

Under the bill, which is an amendment to an existing law, the use of phrases such as Polish death camps can be punished by up to three years in prison or a fine.

Recommended Netanyahu defiant despite calls to step down over corruption probe

Mr Morawiecki, head of the ruling conservative Law and Justice Party, was asked by an Israeli journalist at the Munich Security Conference in Germany whether anyone who said there were Polish collaborators in the Holocaust would be deemed a criminal in Poland with the new law in place.

Mr Morawiecki said: "It's extremely important to first understand that, of course, it's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators  as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian... not only German perpetrators."

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

Nr Netanyahu, who is also attending the Munich conference, rapidly hit back.

He said: The Polish Prime Ministers remarks here in Munich are outrageous. There is a problem here of an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people.

He added: I intend to speak with him forthwith.

The stern statement comes after Israel, home to the largest community of Holocaust survivors in the world, criticised Poland for plans to outlaw statements describing Nazi death camps as Polish.

At the end of January, Mr Netanyahu said Israel had no tolerance for the distortion of truth, the rewriting of history and the denial of the Holocaust.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry also voiced concern over the timing of the bill which passed the lower house on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Poles have long objected to phrases such as Polish death camps which imply Poland was partially responsible for camps like Auschwitz.

The death camps were built and operated by German Nazis after they invaded Poland in 1939. However historical accounts show some Poles collaborated with the Nazis and committed heinous crimes against the Jews during the Second World War.

Research published in the wake of the fall of communism in 1989 demonstrated thousands of Poles killed Jews or denounced those who concealed them to the Nazi occupier.

Around three million Jews who lived in pre-war Poland were murdered by the Nazis - constituting about half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust.

The new Polish law, which has also been condemned by global Jewish organisations, states that "whoever accuses, publicly and against the facts, the Polish nation, or the Polish state, of being responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich shall be subject to a fine or a penalty of imprisonment of up to three years".

However, it includes the qualification that a person "is not committing a crime if he or she commits such an act as part of artistic or scientific activities".

Critics of Polands new law argue it will restrict historical debate and freedom of expression in the country.

Polands ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) is facing accusations of rousing nationalistic sentiment to boost the far right. Since the collapse of communist rule, the country has been a surge in nationalist activity and the far right has become increasingly emboldened.German police are investigating a British woman for suspected incitement after she questioned the Holocaust during a far-right protest in the eastern city of Dresden.

A spokeswoman for Dresden police says Australian-born Michele Renouf is one of two people being investigated for remarks made at a neo-Nazi rally Saturday commemorating those killed in the 1945 Allied bombing of the city.

Videos of the rally posted online show Renouf saying the only Holocaust perpetrated in Europe was against German civilians. Publicly denying the Nazis' well-documented murder of six million Jews is a criminal offence in Germany.

Renouf has in the past supported Holocaust-deniers such British historian David Irving. Dresden police spokeswoman Jana Ulbricht said Sunday that officers ordered the rally dissolved after determining that two speakers had broken the law.

Associated PressPresident Michel Temer on Saturday arrived in Rio de Janeiro to begin implementing his decree giving the military full control over security in crime-plagued Rio de Janeiro.

Temer was to meet Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao, several ministers and General Walter Souza Braga Netto, who will lead the operation and who was in charge of coordinating security when the city hosted the 2016 Olympic Games.

Army patrols were already used in Rio's gang-ruled favelas, but the decree signed on Friday by Temer now gives the military overall control of security operations in Rio state, which the president said had been virtually seized by organized crime gangs.

Brazilian police are normally under state supervision.

Temer's order for "federal intervention" places command in Netto, who will report directly to the president and not to authorities in Rio, the country's most populous state with around 16 million inhabitants -- 6.5 million of them living in Rio de Janeiro.

The decree is already in force but must still be validated by Congress, which has scheduled a vote for Monday evening.

The army's mission will last until the end of Temer's term as president on December 31.

Temer said he was taking "extreme measures" in the face of organized crime which has spread throughout the country "and threatens the tranquility of our people."

Officials cited, in particular, violence during this month's carnival but David Fleischer, a professor of political science at the University of Brasilia, said other factors also came into play.

He said Temer is desperately "trying to distract" attention from corruption allegations that have embroiled his presidency, as well as his struggles to adopt pension reform.

Arthur Trindade, a university professor and former security secretary for Brasilia, said the main objective of the decree is to "clean up" a police force undermined by corruption.

Eight months before a presidential election, the leftist opposition is wary of military intervention in a country still marked by two decades of military dictatorship which ended in 1985.

"The situation in Rio is serious but it is necessary to be vigilant that these measures are not accompanied by the repression of social movements and the suspension of constitutional rights," said Gleisi Hoffman, president of the Workers' Party of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Polls place Lula in the lead for October's presidential ballot even as he fights to avoid prison for corruption.

More than 8,000 troops were sent to Rio de Janeiro in July to help the overstretched police but results were insignificant.

Rio state has been badly hit by Brazil's recession and a slump in the oil market, as well as by massive corruption.

Short link:

Italians First is the defining catchphrase of 2018 Italian election. In the race between a centre-left coalition, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (5SM) and a right-wing collation, the slogan can be heard repeatedly.

Final polls published two weeks before the 4 March vote have the right-wing coalition  led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and hs Forza Italia party and including two anti-migrant parties, the Northern League and the smaller Brothers of Italy  out in front, but short of the around 40 per cent that will be required for a working majority. The 5SM are the single biggest party at around 28 per cent, while the centre-left grouping led by the governing Democratic Party (PD) has a similar share.

But there are millions of as-yet-undecided voters, with both the right and the 5SM singing from the same hymn sheet about how to bring them on board  immigration. With around 600,000 refugees and migrants having landed on Italian shores during the last four years, it is a large target to hit.

Migrants are a social bomb, Berlusconi has said. The old television tycoon, a kind of Donald Trump ante litteram, has been one of Italys longest-serving post-Second World War prime ministers over various stints, but is now ineligible to run for office thanks to a 2013 tax fraud conviction. However, he is likely to play kingmaker if the centre-right needs to do a deal to form a government.

Berlusconi has pledged to deport those hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, and he is in good company: the leader of the 5SM, Luigi Di Maio, has also called for deportations and to put Italians First. So has right-wing populist leader Matteo Salvini of the Northern League, who seems to be the one capitalising on anti-immigrant sentiment the most.

While before there was Umberto Bossi, the Northern Leagues founder, and his anti-southern rhetoric, now the enemies in Mr Salvinis speeches are illegal immigrants. The party is also seemingly looking to drop the Northern part of its name during the election, so as not to put off southern voters. Not unlike how the Leagues closest European ally Marine Le Pen did, nationalism, euroscepticism and populism have become the keywords.

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 centre-left coalition, headed by the PD who are in turn led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, represents the only frontier against such anti-immigrant fears. Although it is a weak and sometimes ambiguous one, with the party having steadily lost support in recent times.

On the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, a hotspot for migrant arrivals which gained fame for the communitys commitment to manage the refugee crisis, Mayor Salvatore Martello has heard little from those running for power.

When election time comes around, no one comes to Lampedusa, he said, alluding to the candidates. Were not afraid of immigrants as such, and by now arrivals do slow down, the mayor added, talking about a drop in arrivals. Nevertheless, the frontrunners seem to find it inconvenient to come here during the campaign.

Compared with last year, the number of migrants landing on Italian coasts is coming down, but the perception of uncertainty and fear related to immigration continues to grow among voters.

The closer we get to an election, the more these feelings grow. Ive seen this trend during last elections, and I note it now: public anxiety about immigration is rising to record-high levels, said says Ilvo Diamanti, a professor of political science at the University of Urbino. Almost one in two Italians feel afraid, he added.

Referring to his survey research work, Mr Diamanti believes the rise of an anti-immigration sentiment is related to public discourse, including politicians statements and representations in the media, more than to the presence of immigrants themselves, and that has become a vicious circle. Italian voters are concerned about job and unemployment first of all, Mr Diamanti said. But when it comes to the public sphere, immigration concerns are easier to be capitalised upon by populists, he added. This is a short-term winning strategy.

Surveys suggest that such anti-immigration views are especially held among older, less educated and more disadvantaged people. If not the anti-immigration election, this one may be the nostalgia election, a kind of regret for a country that no longer exists.

The extreme things this can lead to were showcased earlier this month, with Luca Traini, 28, an unsuccessful candidate in a recent local election for the Northern League, arrested for allegedly targeting migrants in a drive-by shooting spree in Macerata in central Italy, leaving six people wounded. Police said they had seized a copy of Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf from Mr Trainis home. In the wake of the episode, politicians started debating immigration, with Mr Salvini accusing the PD of flooding Italy with immigrants, with the Minister of the Interior, Marco Minniti, a democratic candidate, pointing out the slowdown in arrivals.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Macerata to protest against fascism and racism, a sign of how important the issue has become.A man in Russia's southern province of Dagestan shot into a crowd of people leaving a church on Sunday, killing five and injuring at least five others, Russian news agencies reported.

The attack occurred in the village of Kizlyar in the Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan.

The small republic in the Caucasus mountains borders Chechnya, where Moscow has led two wars against separatists and radical religious groups since the 1991 Soviet collapse and which has seen a large number of people join Isis.

Russian news agencies said the attack occurred as churchgoers celebrated Maslenitsa, a Christian holiday marking the last day before Lent according to the eastern Orthodox calendar.

The assailant was identified as a 22-year-old man local to the region, the TASS news agency said, citing the investigative committee.

He was shot and killed by security services who were on duty nearby, TASS said, adding that a hunting rifle, bullets and a knife were discovered on his person.

Initial reports suggested all five victims were women, TASS said, citing the local branch of the interior ministry.

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 injured include two members of local security services and two civilians, also women, the Interfax news agency said.

ReutersSixty-six people have died in a second aviation tragedy in a week. After the loss of a Russian airline near Moscow, fatalities from plane crashes so far this year far exceed those in 2017, which was the safest year in aviation history.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704, the daily departure from Tehran, took off as normal shortly after 8am to fly to Yasouj, 344 miles south. The aircraft involved, an ATR72, was 24 years old  which made it a relatively young part of the airlines fleet. The average age is more than a quarter of a century, making it one of the oldest fleets in the world.

There is nothing inherently unsafe about old aircraft. Right now British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are flying Boeing 747s which are over 20 years old; a BA Jumbo jet is en route today to Delhi at the venerable age of 27. But these aircraft are meticulously maintained by well-resourced airlines.

It is far too early to know what caused the loss of EP3704, but the calamity draws attention to aviation in a country starved of the equipment and expertise which makes flying in the West so safe.

Two years ago, when sanctions against Tehran were eased, Irans airlines ordered hundreds of new planes. Aseman Airlines, whose aircraft was lost today, has 30 Boeing 737MAX jets on order. But until the planes arrive  possibly never, if President Trump decides to ban their export  the airlines engineers are having to make do with cannibalising grounded aircraft for parts.

Production of the Boeing 727 ended in 1984, over a third of a century ago. The three-engined jet is still flying scheduled passengers services in only one country: Iran. And the carrier: Aseman Airlines.

New, safer aircraft cannot arrive soon enough.Iran should not test Israels resolve, Benjamin Netanyahu has warned, as he reiterated his argument Tehran was the worlds greatest threat.

The Israeli Prime Minister said Israel would act against Iran, not just its allies in the Middle East, if needed.

Holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone after its incursion into Israeli airspace earlier this month, Mr Netanyahu told the Munich Security Conference: Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck.

We will act if necessary not just against Irans proxies but against Iran itself.

 Iranian UAV shot down by Israeli attack helicopter

Addressing the event for the first time, he urged US and European officials and diplomats to counter Iran immediately, displaying a map showing what he said was its growing presence in the Middle East.

He said Iran was increasing its power as the US-led coalition against Isis in Iraq and Syria regained territory from militants.

The unfortunate thing is that as Isis compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, Mr Netanyahu said.

This is a very dangerous development for our region.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Netanyahu also slammed an international agreement with Iran, saying it has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

Addressing US and European officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference for the first time, he said the agreement has unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond.

Mr Netanyahu, a critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 Munich Agreement that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe.

The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime, he said. Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war ... those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly.

Declaring Irans brazenness hit new highs, Mr Netanyahu brandished the drone fragment and challenged Irans foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was to speak later at the event.

Mr Zarif do you recognise this? You should, its yours, Mr Netanyahu said. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran  do not test Israels resolve!

He told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israels resolve. Tehran has denied the drone belonged to Iran.

 Israeli fighter jet wreckage burns after being shot down following offensive against Syrian and Iranian targets

Tensions surged on 10 February when anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

It was the most serious confrontation yet between Israel and Iranian-backed forces based across the border.Right now, its bitcoin. But in the past weve had dotcom stocks, the 1929 crash, 19th century railways and the South Sea Bubble of 1720. All these were compared by contemporaries to tulip mania, the Dutch financial craze for tulip bulbs in the 1630s. Bitcoin, according some sceptics, is tulip mania 2.0.

Why this lasting fixation on tulip mania? It certainly makes an exciting story, one that has become a byword for insanity in the markets. The same aspects of it are constantly repeated, whether by casual tweeters or in widely read economics textbooks by luminaries such as John Kenneth Galbraith.

Tulip mania was irrational, the story goes. Tulip mania was a frenzy. Everyone in the Netherlands was involved, from chimney sweeps to aristocrats. The same tulip bulb, or rather tulip future, was traded sometimes 10 times a day. No one wanted the bulbs, only the profits  it was a phenomenon of pure greed. Tulips were sold for crazy prices  the price of houses  and fortunes were won and lost.

It was the foolishness of newcomers to the market that set off the crash in February 1637. Desperate bankrupts threw themselves in canals. The government finally stepped in and ceased the trade, but not before the economy of Holland was ruined.

Yes, it makes an exciting story. The trouble is, most of it is untrue.

Recommended Bitcoin value remains steady after recent price plunges

My years of research in Dutch archives while working on a book, Tulipmania: Money, Honor and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age, told me a different story. It was just as illuminating, but it was different.

Tulip mania wasnt irrational. Tulips were a newish luxury product in a country rapidly expanding its wealth and trade networks. Many more people could afford luxuries  and tulips were seen as beautiful, exotic and redolent of the good taste and learning displayed by well-educated members of the merchant class. Many of those who bought tulips also bought paintings or collected rarities like shells.

Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) talks tulips in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox)

Prices rose, because tulips were hard to cultivate in a way that brought out the popular striped or speckled petals, and they were still rare. But it wasnt irrational to pay a high price for something that was generally considered valuable, and for which the next person might pay even more.

Tulip mania wasnt a frenzy, either. In fact, for much of the period trading was relatively calm, located in taverns and neighbourhoods rather than on the stock exchange. It also became increasingly organised, with companies set up in various towns to grow, buy, and sell, and committees of experts emerged to oversee the trade. Far from bulbs being traded hundreds of times, I never found a chain of buyers longer than five, and most were far shorter.

A sign of good taste? Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt, Double Portrait of a Husband and Wife with Tulip, Bulb, and Shells, 1606 (Author provided)

And what of the much-vaunted effect of the plague on tulip mania, supposedly making people with nothing to lose gamble their all? Again, this seems not to have existed. Despite an epidemic going on during 1636, the biggest price rises occurred in January 1637, when plague (mainly a summer disease) was on the wane. Perhaps some people inheriting money had a bit more in their pockets to spend on bulbs.

Prices could be high, but mostly they werent. Although its true that the most expensive tulips of all cost around 5,000 guilders (the price of a well-appointed house), I was able to identify only 37 people who spent more than 300 guilders on bulbs, around the yearly wage of a master craftsman. Many tulips were far cheaper. With one or two exceptions, these top buyers came from the wealthy merchant class and were well able to afford the bulbs. Far from every chimney sweep or weaver being involved in the trade, the numbers were relatively small, mainly from the merchant and skilled artisan class  and many of the buyers and sellers were connected to each other by family, religion, or neighbourhood. Sellers mainly sold to people they knew.

Patterned petals were very valuable. Hans Bollongier, Floral Still Life, 1639 (Rijksmuseum)

When the crash came, it was not because of naive and uninformed people entering the market, but probably through fears of oversupply and the unsustainability of the great price rise in the first five weeks of 1637. None of the bulbs were actually available  they were all planted in the ground  and no money would be exchanged until the bulbs could be handed over in May or June. So those who lost money in the February crash did so only notionally: they might not get paid later. Anyone who had both bought and sold a tulip on paper since the summer of 1636 had lost nothing. Only those waiting for payment were in trouble, and they were people able to bear the loss.

No one drowned themselves in canals. I found not a single bankrupt in these years who could be identified as someone dealt the fatal financial blow by tulip mania. If tulip buyers and sellers appear in the bankruptcy records, its because they were buying houses and goods of other people who had gone bankrupt for some reason  they still had plenty of money to spend. The Dutch economy was left completely unaffected. The government (not a very useful term for the federal Dutch Republic) did not shut down the trade, and indeed reacted slowly and hesitantly to demands from some traders and city councils to resolve disputes. The provincial court of Holland suggested that people talk it out among themselves and try to stay out of the courts: no government regulation here.

Monkeys dealing in tulips. When the bubble bursts, at the far right, one urinates on the now worthless flowers. Jan Brueghel the Younger, Satire on Tulip Mania, c1640 (Creative commons)

Why have these myths persisted? We can blame a few authors and the fact they were bestsellers. In 1637, after the crash, the Dutch tradition of satirical songs kicked in, and pamphlets were sold making fun of traders. These were picked up by writers later in the 17th century, and then by a late 18th century German writer of a history of inventions, which had huge success and was translated into English. This book was in turn plundered by Charles Mackay, whose Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds of 1841 has had huge and undeserved success. Much of what Mackay says about tulip mania comes straight from the satirical songs of 1637  and it is repeated endlessly on financial websites, in blogs, on Twitter and in popular finance books such as A Random Walk Down Wall Street. But what we are hearing are the fears of 17th century people about a 17th century situation.

It was not actually the case that newcomers to the market caused the crash, or that foolishness and greed overtook those who traded in tulips. But this, and the possible social and cultural changes stemming from massive shifts in the distribution of wealth, were fears then and are fears now. Tulip mania gets brought up again and again, as a warning to investors not to be stupid, or to stay away from what some might call a good thing. But tulip mania was a historical event in a historical context and, whatever it is, bitcoin is not tulip mania 2.0.

Anne Goldgar is professor of early modern history, Kings College London. This article was originally published in The Conversation (www.conversation.com)In October 1952, Britain tested its first atomic bomb over the Montebello Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The following month, the US tested a 10.4 megaton hydrogen bomb  more than the total explosives used by all sides during the Second World War. On detonation, its fireball measured three miles in diameter, and the giant mushroom-shaped cloud that it threw up, dropping radioactive mud and rain, measured more than 100 miles in diameter.

The following August, the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb at Semipalatinsk in Soviet central Asia. For the rest of the decade, test after test was carried out  to mounting public concern over both the health consequences of widespread radioactive pollution, and the increasing danger of nuclear weapons use.

By the end of the 1950s, more than 300 nuclear tests had taken place, mostly in the atmosphere  and a new mass movement had been born.

From its origins in local anti-testing groups  largely run by women concerned about hugely increased levels of radioactive strontium-90 in their childrens milk  CND burst onto the political scene 17 February 1958. Attempts to move Labour to an anti-nuclear position had failed in 1957, leading intellectuals and campaigners to take matters into their own hands, calling for a mass movement to defeat Britains bomb. The result was a meeting of thousands of people at Central Hall in Westminster, London, filled to overflowing.

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The rest, as they say, is history.

CND in its early years was inextricably linked to the social radicalisation of the time. The early Aldermaston marches, to the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire, represented microcosms of post-war, post-colonial Britain, articulating both widespread popular dissent and the social rebellion of the youth of the time. In many respects it was through the early mobilisations of the anti-nuclear movement that the radical politics of what were to become the new social movements were first expressed.

The context of CNDs campaigns has changed continually: from the Cuban missile crisis to the war on Vietnam; from the height of the Cold War to detente; from the evil empire of Ronald Reagan to the end of the Cold War; from the aggression of Bush and Blair through to the great dangers presented by Trump and his plans for usable nuclear weapons. Our work throughout has focused on changing government policy, using diverse  but always peaceful  methods: from the mass protests at Aldermaston and Greenham Common, to our central role in post 9/11 anti-war campaigning, to todays struggle to prevent Trident replacement and win support for the United Nations global nuclear ban treaty.

 Trump on US nuclear arsenal: 'we're going to be far, far in excess of anybody else'

Our core objective of UK nuclear disarmament remains as yet unfulfilled. But it is clear in retrospect how CNDs campaigning  and that of its international partners  has affected government policy and decision-making, both at home and internationally. Reading government documents and diaries years later, one can see how the pressure of public opinion and mass mobilisation really does have an impact, and each generation of CND has played a part in that. The banning of nuclear tests in the atmosphere is one very important example; another is the abandoning of the neutron bomb (designed to kill people while leaving property intact) or Nixons pulling back from using nukes on Vietnam.

Above all, we have helped instil a sense in the popular consciousness  and thereby in that of our political leaders  that the use of nuclear weapons would be a catastrophe, an unthinkable tragedy.

So its 60 years and still counting. CND is here to stay  until the monstrosity of nuclear weapons are abandoned. Trident replacement and its 205bn price tag remain within our sights. Support for the UNs global nuclear ban treaty  already backed by a significant majority of states  is being built. However the political context changes, our goal remains the same. And ultimately, we will prevail.

Kate Hudson is general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)Actors Akshaye Khanna (left) and Richa Chadha will play the roles of defense lawyer and public prosecutor in Section 375, a film on the issue of misuse of rape laws in India by men and women alike. (photo provided)Salman Khan is in Bangkok along with the entire team of Race 3 to shoot a sizzling number with Jacqueline Fernandez on the beaches of Pattaya. (IANS photo)New Hampshire state Rep. Latha Mangipudi, citing recently increased racial hostility, told the Concord Monitor that some of her own constituents will tell her to leave the country  to her face, walking along Main Street, or to her children. The lawmaker is seen here (left) speaking to a Nashua resident. (Facebook photo)Political observers are busy asking themselves why no opposition party opted to field a candidate in next months presidential election.

When preparations for the presidential poll began in November commentators were optimistic the more established parties  like the Wafd and Tagammu  would field candidates but their hopes were quickly dashed after the majority of political parties backed the re-election of President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. The situation was compounded when Anwar Al-Sadat and Khaled Ali announced they were withdrawing their candidacy bids.

Now President Al-Sisi faces a single challenger, Moussa Mustafa Moussa, head of the Ghad Party though it is clear, political analyst Hala Mustafa told Al-Ahram Weekly, that Moussa has no interest in competing against Al-Sisi but joined the race at the last minute to prevent the election from being portrayed as a referendum.

Mustafa argues the failure of political parties to put forward candidates necessitates changes to the political parties law to allow the formation of strong parties with distinctive platforms and allow political parties with similar platforms to merge into stronger partisan entities capable of fielding high-profile candidates in the 2022 presidential election. Her hope is that in the future two strong parties will emerge, capable of fielding credible figures in presidential elections.

The real problem was that no political parties have shown interest in fielding candidates, said Makram Mohamed Ahmed, an Al-Ahram political analyst and head of the Higher Council for Media Regulation (HCMR), says parties may have preferred not to field a candidate because they believed the result of the polls are a foregone conclusion.

While political parties prepared well for parliamentary elections in 2015 they were not serious about contesting the upcoming presidential poll and remained silent about their presidential election intentions,he said.

Ahmed argued that though the 25 January Revolution in 2011opened the door wide for political participation, the vast majority of political parties  there are now 104 of them  exist only on paper.

Political parties do not have prominent figures who could achieve victory in a presidential election, Ashraf Rashad, head of the Future of Homeland Party, told the Weekly. Most parties are new. They lack the experience, financial resources and grass roots presence to contest the presidential poll.

According to Rashad political parties which successfully contested parliamentary seats decided early on they would not field candidates in the 2018 presidential election out of respect for President Al-Sisi and his achievements over four years in office.

Instead of fielding candidates we agreed that we should pave the way for President Al-Sisi to complete implementing his programme during another four-year term.

There must be a review of the laws regulating the performance of political parties, says analyst Amr Hashem Rabie. Legislation should be amended so political parties require a minimum of 5,000 members before they can be registered rather than the 1,000 currently specified. And they need to formulate credible political platforms.

Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat, leader of the Reform and Development Party, counters that many opposition figures wanted to run but had little faith state authorities would remain neutral during the poll.

The political environment in Egypt is hostile to political parties and the government has made no concrete steps towards strengthening a multi-party system, says Al-Sadat. He added he withdrew his own candidacy bid after being barred from meeting with MPs in an attempt to solicit recommendations.

Al-Sadat recommends a national dialogue be held between President Al-Sisi and opposition parties to identify the steps necessary to create a flourishing political life. This is important for the future of the country and for ensuring that there will be a peaceful rotation of power in Egypt, he says.

Political analyst Abdel-Moneim Said argued in a recent column that the problem with most opposition parties is that they suffer from what he terms political autism. Like children who suffer from autism they live in a world of their own. Instead of actively participating in political life, their attitude is one of boycott.

According to Said, rather than holding a dialogue with political parties in his first term President Al-Sisi had focused on helping young people enter political life.

The president knows young people are the countrys future leaders. They are the ones who must be groomed to occupy leading positions in the coming years. In his first four-year term President Al-Sisi also gave priority to addressing economic and security concerns and that this might have negatively affected political life.

But in the next four years, argues Said, there will have to be some form of dialogue with political parties to pave the way for a competitive presidential election in 2022.

* This story was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

Short link:

Nigerian self-acclaimed male Barbie, Bobrisky as per his usual had got many talking again when a photo of him posing with some of his fans which has hit the internet.

In the photo, Bobrisky could be seen posing in his multi-colored skin and weave, acting all cool and celebrity-ish but of course, his eggplant wanted a bit of fun as well.

Bobs eggplant made an appearance in the photo, reminding the world that he is infact still a dude.

See photo below.

Few days ago, Nollywood actor, Uche Maduagwu has slammed cross-dresser, Bobrisky for confusing teenage boys into thinking he is a girl.

source: GistreelNigerian record producer, Don Jazzy just shared a very hilarious conversation he had with a female fan who begged him for money.

Inspired by the recent strange snake that swallowed 36million naira at JAMB office, Don Jazzy simply told the fan that Im sorry no money ma, a strange snake has swallowed it.

See the chat below

A few weeks ago, Mavins records supremo, Don Jazzy made a rather crazy assertion of his only means of exercising himself in a recent Instagram post  and it would interest readers to know that his keep-fit routine is basically knacking which means having sex.

source: GistreelPunch

The Presidency on Saturday hinted that necessary constitutional amendments would be done on the issue of state police as soon as it got more support from state governors and the National Assembly.

Vanguard

Last weekend, a story broke that a mysterious snake had swallowed over N36million belonging to the Benue State office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Makurdi.

The Sun

The assignment given to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by President Muhammadu Buhari to reconcile aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is seen by some cynics as a risky political venture. However, in this interview, Chairman, Lagos State chapter of the party, Henry Ajomale, commends the President for the initiative, insisting that Tinubu has all it takes to resolve all the lingering crises.

Thisday

Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, in this interview with ARISE NEWS CHANNEL Anchor, Modele Sarafa-Yusuf, speaks on Ogun gubernatorial race, the call on President Buhari not to seek re-election, efforts by the state to get Lagos State to refund income tax collected from residents of Ogun working in Lagos, his vision and how he wants to be remembered after leaving office. Excerpts:

Daily Times

Hon. Charles Idahosa, a prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State is the former Special Adviser on Political Matters to former governor of the state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Guardian

Nigerians have been advised to stop politicising serious national issues that divide the country along religious line.

Daily Trust

A 27-year-old man, Ifeanyi Ede, has been arraigned in a Kubwa Grade I Area Court for allegedly setting his girlfriends house on fire.

Tribune

THREE suicide bombers simultaneously detonated Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on their bodies at a crowded fish market in Konduga Local Government Area of Borno.

The Nation

There will be no automatic ticket in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for defectors from other parties when the PDP meets to pick its candidates later this year for the 2019 elections, The Nation can now reveal.Gambia-Born Nigerian Actress, Rosaline Meurer has shocked many as she penned down a beautiful and loving birthday message to Tonto Dikes Son, King as he turned 2.

We used the term SHOCKED because Rosaline was accused as being the cheif cause of Tonto Dikes failed Marriage to Olakunle Churchill.

Rosy took to her Instagram Page to share Kings photo with the caption ;

Happy 2nd birthday baby KING  Andre Omodayo!!  You are indeed a special child formed by Gods hands, dreamed up by his heart and placed in this world for a purpose. I pray that God blesses you with all the happiness in this universe. May you prosper and shine everywhere you go! There shall be showers of blessings on you followed by a heavy downpour of Gods love. May Gods light be your companion and his love be your constant guide. Wish you good health and long life baby. You are loved and will forever be a special rare gem. Love from Auntie Rosy 

Meanwhile the Controversial Actress recently lambasted a blogger who called her a side chick.

The blogger on IG, dubbed the actress as an alleged sidechick to Tonto Dikehs estranged husband and in response to this, Meurer turned her cheeks and said a prayer for the blogger.

Rosy Meurer, in her response wrote ;

Awww  Still trying to spoil my name and bury my career. Chai the hustle to survive. Eyaaa Here, let me clean the brown off your nose, Ive never seen a head so far up someone elses ass. BUT I feel the Love boo .. Your mommy and aunties will be someones alleged side chick this year. They fit better. I mean I thought this sound track ended in 2017 or have they renewed your contract in 2018? Its quite a pity dear. A person can only kiss so much ass before they finally choke on shit. Youre almost there. Too bad Rosy is going no where. Im only gonna keep glowing and shinning in your face. If it hurts your eyes too much, SHUT THEM and hide your shameful face. May your ass licking job not be permanent in Jesus name.  bye boo  #rosykisses Popular Nigerian child comedienne, Emmanuella has come into some more recognition as the Senate president, Bukola Saraki reaches out to her.

Nigerias Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Sunday, extended an invitation to popular child comedienne, Emmanuella Samuel, popularly known as Emmanuella.

The girl is reported to have been slated to feature in a Disney Hollywood film.



Saraki described Emmanuella as an inspiration.

Saraki, in a post on his official Twitter and Facebook accounts, said he wanted Emmanuella to visit the Senate to enable him discuss with her how to aid the development of young talents in Nigerias creative industry.





His tweet reads;

Congratulations Emmanuella! Make sure you make them laugh over there. Your story is an inspiration. Come by the @NGRSenate sometime, lets discuss how we can develop the potential of our young talents in the creative industry. Shifi Emoefe of the popular Styl-Plus music group has called on the government to intervene to protect music artistes from copyright infringement.

He lamented the situation where music artistes are limited to direct earnings from shows only while others benefit from their work financially without giving them due credit or royalty.

Shifi disclosed that the situation, if not addressed, could leave many of the popular stars of today broke when they retire.

In an interview with The Punch published on Sunday, he said: I feel the government is not doing enough to protect artistes . When it comes to royalties , we don t get what we are supposed to get . As a result of this , artistes have to depend solely on what they make from shows while they are still relevant. Once they retire , problems start . That is when we discover that they are not really making money from their past efforts . If the likes of King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey retire , there is no reason they should be broke . A lot of artistes of our generation will suffer the same ordeal unless something is done about it. I know that the Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria and the Copyright Society of Nigeria are trying their best , but they need the full support of the government .

He further disclosed that the group gets less than what it expected as royalty from its work.

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry delivered a speech in Germany on Saturday stressing the need to redefine terrorism and unite international efforts to combat it, while setting aside double standards.

Shoukry delivered the speech at the Munich Security Conference, during a special session on "Jihad after the Caliphate", laying out Egypt's counter-terrorism vision and efforts before security officials and foreign ministers from various nations, ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a press release.

Shoukry presented Egypt's comprehensive approach to combating terrorism, including security and military efforts  such as the ongoing Operation Sinai 2018  alongside social, economic, and ideological considerations.

Operation Sinai 2018 was launched on 9 February, involving land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards, targeting "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations" in northern and central Sinai, as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert.

On Sunday, Shoukry stressed the need to intensify counter-terrorism efforts at the international level, especially concerning the financing of terrorism and providing safe havens to terrorists.

He pointed to various areas of weakness that limit the ability of the international community to combat terrorism, including vague definitions of terrorism that lack any scientific basis, such as, "violent extremism", or saying that terrorist acts resemble rebel actions, or defending the actions of those who incite violence using the claim of "defence of freedom of expression", which he said ultimately leads to justifying acts of terrorism.

Another point of weakness, according to Shoukry, is the double standards adopted by some nations. He stressed the importance of adopting a unified international approach and dropping the illusion that there are different types of terrorism.

Shoukry also remarked on the title of the session, rejecting the use of the word "Jihad". He said the activities of the Daesh terrorist group are very far from the noble idea of Jihad, which aims at improving the self. He said it is impossible to equate the actions of Daesh with the age of the Islamic Caliphate, which enlightened the path of humanity.

Egypt has on several occasions called on the international community to unite efforts to combat terrorism and eliminate its financers, while taking a strict stance against those countries that support it.

Short link:

Egypt understands the reasons for Ethiopia requesting a postponement of the trilateral ministerial meeting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) scheduled for late February, but hopes there will be compliance with agreed timeframes for resolving technical issues, Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday.

Sudan was due to host the meeting between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia on 24-25 February, but said on Saturday that it was postponing it at the request by Addis Ababa, following the recent resignation of Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Foreign and water ministers as well as intelligence officials from the three countries were due to meet in a fresh bid to end a standoff over the $4 billion-hydroelectric project, which Egypt fears could greatly diminish its share of the Nile waters.

In a statement on Sunday, Egypt's foreign ministry said that Egypt is "aware of the conditions that promoted Ethiopia to request that the meeting be postponed, which we hope will pass soon."

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced his surprise resignation in a televised speech on Thursday, saying he wanted to make way for further reforms. A day later, the country imposed a six-moth state of emergency to quell potential unrest.

The Egyptian ministry said, however, that Egypt hopes "there will be compliance with the timeframe set by the leaders to resolve outstanding disagreements on technical issues, especially as the issue of the Renaissance Dam affects the interests of all three countries."

It urged "strict implementation" of the leaders' directives as well as "urgent action to find solutions that safeguard the interests" of the three countries.

In January, the leaders of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan set a one-month deadline to draw up ways to end a stand-off in negotiations over the construction of the dam.

Egypt has repeatedly expressed concerns over the stalling of negotiations over a disputed study on the dam's impact on downstream countries. Cairo fears the 6,000-megawatt dam, will reduce the supply of Nile water, which it almost exclusively relies on for drinking water and irrigation.

Ethiopia, which hopes to become Africa's largest power exporter, maintains that the project will not harm Egypt. Meanwhile, Sudan supports the dam because it will provide electricity and irrigation.

Delegations from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia met in Cairo in November to approve a study by a French firm tasked with assessing the dams environmental and economic impact. But negotiations stalled when the three countries failed to reach consensus on the initial report.

Last month, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi held talks with Desalegn and Sudan's Foreign Minister Omar Hassan Al-Bashir in Addis Ababa.

Following the talks, El-Sisi said that the interests of the three countries would not be harmed by the project. El-Sisi's comments were echoed by Sudan's Al-Bashir.

Earlier in January, El-Sisi met with Desalegn in Cairo and said Cairo would not allow differences over the dam affect relations with Addis Ababa.

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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Sunday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss Egypt's contribution to the rebuilding of Iraq, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced.

According to the ministry's statement, Shoukry expressed Egypt's full support to the sovereignty of Iraq and unity of its territories.

He also discussed with the prime minister how Egypt was ready to contribute to restoring security and stability in Iraq in the post-Daesh era, especially in rebuilding liberated cities such as Mosul.

From his side, the Iraqi prime minister expressed his country's special interest in boosting the bilateral economic cooperation with Egypt.

Last week, Ibrahim Mahleb, the former Egyptian PM and current presidential assistant for national and strategic projects, led Egypt's delegation to the donors' conference to rebuild Iraq, which was held in Kuwait.

On the sidelines of that conference, Mahlab discussed with Iraqi officials Egypt's assistance in building two million residential units in areas liberated from Daesh.

Mahlab previously visited Iraq in January to discuss Egyptian-Iraqi economic cooperation with a number of Iraqi officials, including Iraqi President Fouad Masum.

In addition to economic cooperation, FM Shoukry and PM Al-Abadi also discussed the latest developments in the region, including the situations in Syria and Yemen and relations with non-Arab countries in the Middle East.

Shoukry concluded his participation in the Munich conference on Sunday after nearly 20 meetings with foreign officials to discuss Egypt's position on a number of regional and international issues.

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This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.Emily Mieure covers criminal justice and emergency news. She also leads the News&Guides investigative efforts. She has reported for WDRB TV in Louisville, Ky., WFIE TV in Evansville, Ind., and WEIU TV in Charleston, Ill.A Cairo criminal court ordered on Sunday the release on bail of 36 people arrested last month for attacks on a police station while protesting the death of a young man in police custody.

Dozens, who were arrested in clashes with police while protesting the man's death outside Al-Mokattam police station, face charges including attempting to storm a police station, setting police vehicles on fire and possessing petrol bombs.

The 22-year-old man, nicknamed Mohamed Afroto, was arrested early in January on charges of drug dealing and taken to a police station in Cairo's Moqattam district where he later died.

The court set bail for those ordered released at EGP 5,000 (approximately $280) each.

Two policemen have been put on trial for the murder of Afroto, with the first court session held last week.

Afroto's family had said that he was tortured to death in custody.

Several anonymous security sources were quoted by local media at the time of Afroto's death as saying that he died of a drug overdose.

The prosecution had found the man's body "showed no outward injuries".

A post-mortem report showed that the death was caused by "severe laceration of the spleen and abdominal bleeding."

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Cody Cottier covers town and state government. He grew up with a view of the Olympic Mountains, and after graduating Washington State University he traded it for a view of the Tetons. Odds are the mountains are where youll find him when not on deadline.Egypt's Meteorological Authority predicted seasonably cold temperatures during the day Sunday through Tuesday, with even colder temperatures at night.

On Sunday, some northern coastal areas, parts of the Delta region and central Sinai will experience low- and medium-level clouds and rain.

Warmer weather is expected to return across Egypt on Wednesday.

Meteorologists also expect a morning fog that might affect visibility on Egypt's roads in the coming three days.

Active winds are also expected for Cairo on Sunday.

Winds are expected as well in northern coastal areas, the Sinai and Red Sea governorates, affecting maritime navigation.

Waves between 2 and 2.5 metres high are expected in the Mediterranean, and between 1 and 1.5 metres in the Red Sea.

The ports of Sharm El-Sheikh and the fishing port of West Port Said were closed on Saturday evening due to bad weather.

Egypt has witnessed unstable weather over the past few weeks, including heat waves, sandstorms and rainfall.

On Sunday, Cairo is expected to see a high of 20 and a low of 13 Celcius, while Alexandria will see a high of 19 and a low of 12.

Daytime temperatures in Aswan and Luxor will reach 22 Celsius, while at night they will drop to 11 and 10 degrees, respectively.

The tourist city of Sharm El-Sheikh in South Sinai will enjoy a high of 22 and a low of 17, while the cities of Hurghada and Saint Catherine will experience highs of 21 and 11 degrees respectively, and lows of 15 and 6.

The average high temperatures in Egypt during the winter month of February hover around 20.8 degrees Celsius with lows of 9.2.

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The Egyptian Parliament's foreign affairs committee issued a statement strongly rejecting a resolution by the European Parliament on executions in Egypt, warning that the use of human rights matters to place restrictions on Egypt must stop.

Tarek Radwan, the head of the foreign affairs committee, said in the statement that the resolution reveals an "ignorance of the real conditions in Egypt", and that it is a violation of the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.

"Egypt has the full right to choose its legal and judicial system," the statement read.

"The [Egyptian] Parliament rejects any dictations to amend national laws that have been drafted by elected representatives in accordance with the constitution, and [which] evolve from the social context as well as security threats in the country."

The European Parliament issued the resolution on 8 Februrary, expressing concerns that "strict procedures are in place within the countrys legal system in cases where the death penalty is applicable."

The European Parliament highlighted what it called a "significant rise in the number of people sentenced to death in Egypt since 2014," referring to around 1,857 individuals who have received the sentence since January 2014.

The EU legislative body also demanded that Egyptian defendants facing the death penalty be afforded "full access to legal representation and a fair trial in accordance with accepted international standards," and condemned "the use of the death sentence to suppress opposition."

Responding to that, the Egyptian Parliament's statement said that "stopping the death penalty is not an international commitment, nor a subject of consensus among countries."

The committee's statement stressed that, due to the severity of death penalty, Egyptian law contains number of procedures that guarantee the accused a fair trial with full space to defend themselves in accordance with international standards.

The committee also stated that military trials, which exist in many countries, offer the same guarantee of rights as the regular judiciary, but handle crimes related to the armed forces.

"Imposing concepts that are incompatible with other societies' prevailing social and cultural values is an act of arrogance," the committee added.

The European Parliament acknowledged Egypt's fragile security situation, citing "a high risk of terrorist attacks in the Sinai Peninsula and major cities across the country by various jihadi organisations."

The European Parliament also said that it considers Egypt an important partner and that the EU countries have a shared interest in "defeating the threat to regional and international security."

The statement also expressed support for "further offers to help the Egyptian authorities develop robust intelligence and security mechanisms, in line with international law, including measures relating to crowd control and legitimate, peaceful protest."

The Egyptian parliament's response questioned the timing of the resolution, citing Egypt's upcoming presidential elections and ongoing comprehensive military operation against terrorism in Sinai, which was launched last week.

The timing "raises many questions on the credibility of some participants in the war against terrorism, and reveals the real intentions of those who claim partnership with the south of the Mediterranean, and those who make claims supporting stability in the Middle East region," according to the Egyptian parliament.

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The Egyptian parliament's media, culture and antiquities committee held a hearing session Sunday to review efforts being exerted to rid the country's Television and Radio Union -- known as "Maspero" -- of massive debts.

Minister of Planning Hala El-Said told MPs that Maspero's debts have skyrocketed to EGP 32 billion and that the time has come for the government to settle these debts.

"In coordination with the National Investment Bank, we have devised a three-year plan that is based on financial and institutional reform," El-Said said.

"The plan emulates the experiences of other countries which succeeded in improving the performance of their official television and radio channels, such as England and the United Arab Emirates."

El-Said said much of the land and property assets owned by Maspero will be sold to repay part of its debts.

"We are also negotiating with private sector partners to help in upgrading Maspero's performance in both form and content, injecting money and turning it into a self-sufficient institution," El-Said said.

However, the financial reform of Maspero does not mean ridding it of redundant employees, the minister added.

"We will set up a fund to ensure that all employees get their due retirement and pension rights," she said.

Amgad Baligh, Secretary-General of the National Media Authority (NMA), which oversees state-owned audio-visual media, radio, and digital media institutions, said the reform plan began this week by launching "Channel One" in a new form.

"We aim to make it the number-one news channel in Egypt," Baligh said, noting that "work is also under way to upgrade the Egyptian Satellite Channel and the Nile News Channel."

"We hope that we will be able at the end to bring Egyptian viewers back to their national television channels," Baligh said.

Head of the Media, Culture and Antiquities Committee Osama Heikal said "the reform of Maspero" should be a matter of national security.

"Egypt is facing media attacks from everywhere and now it is high time for Maspero to be at the forefront, defending Egypt's interests and creating a kind of consensus on national issues," Heikal said.

Lamees Gaber, an appointed MP and a writer, argued that "reform efforts will never be enough to save Maspero of its problems."

"It is not just a matter of financial debts, but it is primarily a matter of content and openness," Gaber said, arguing that "private television channels have left Maspero dying and that privatization could be the ultimate panacea for Maspero's chronic diseases."

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Egypt is considering relocating certification exams for North Sinai students to a nearby governorate, Education Minister Tarek Shawki announced on Sunday, nearly a week after school sessions were suspended until further notice due to the launch of the army's sweeping anti-terrorism campaign, Operation Sinai 2018.

In statements ahead of the inauguration of a number of schools, including a complex of Japanese schools in Suez, Shawki said his ministry was currently devising a general plan for education in the governorate that aimed to "preserve the students' educational future."

The minister added that the resumption of classes in North Sinai depends on a decision by the armed forces.

On 9 February, hours after the launch of Operation Sinai 2018, Egyptian authorities decided to close all schools in North Sinai until further notice.

The Egyptian Armed Forces launched the operation to implement the plan of comprehensive confrontation with terrorist and criminal elements and organizations in North and Central Sinai and other areas in the Nile Delta and the desert areas west of the Nile valley."

Tens of terrorists have been killed, with hundreds of criminal elements and suspects arrested since the beginning of the ongoing operation, the army had announced.

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Lawyer Max Silverman is seen in front of the Montreal-based address of the Freres Sacre Coeur Thursday, February 15, 2018 in Montreal. Silverman is representing a client in Africa suing a Quebec-based congregation for sexual abuse by one of its priests in Senegal in the 1980s. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan RemiorzThe Mondelez plant is seen in Montreal on December 1, 2016. More than a year after it announced its closure, Montreal's Oreo cookie plant is shutting down for good. A spokesperson for Mondelez Canada confirms the 300,000-square-foot factory will shut its operations at the end of the month and auction off its remaining equipment. It's the latest in a series of big-name companies that have left the city in recent years, but one industry expert believes the city's manufacturing sector is about to turn the corner. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonA Nigerian court has released 475 people allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram for rehabilitation, the justice ministry said on Sunday, as the country's biggest legal investigation of the militant Islamist insurgency continues.

The first person convicted for the kidnapping in 2014 of Chibok schoolgirls, sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment last week, was also handed an addition 15-year sentence, to run back-to-back, the justice ministry said in a statement.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes in northeastern Nigeria since Boko Haram began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state group.

But humanitarian groups have criticised the Nigerian authorities' handling of those detained for infringing on the suspects' rights.

Some of those whose cases were heard last week in a detention centre in central Nigeria had been held without trial since 2010, according to the justice ministry statement.

"The prosecution counsel could not charge them (with) any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them," the ministry said.

In October, the ministry said 45 people suspected of Boko Haram links had been convicted and jailed. A further 468 suspects were discharged and 28 suspects were remanded for trial in Abuja or Minna.

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Ina Matawapit, centre, with her parents Edward and Madeline Matawapit, are seen in an undated handout photo. An inquest probing the circumstances surrounding the 2012 death of an Ontario Indigenous woman is recommending stricter protocols for handling intoxicated patients. Jurors at the inquest heard that Ina Matawapit died in police custody after being turned away from the nursing station in her home community of North Caribou Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Aboriginal Legal Services, *MANDATORY CREDIT*Eight soldiers and 19 suspected members of Al-Qaeda were killed in Yemen on Sunday, as the army launched an offensive against key outposts of the extremists, a military official said.

General Faraj al-Bahsani, governor of Hadramawt province, told AFP the army had taken control of the Mesini Valley west of Mukalla, a central site for Al-Qaeda in southeast of the country.

Mukalla was the most populated Yemeni city under direct Al-Qaeda control from 2015 to 2016, when the army and its regional military allies seized control of the port city.

Special forces trained by the United Arab Emirates -- a key member of a Saudi-led alliance fighting alongside Yemen's government forces -- over the weekend launched the offensive, codenamed "Al-Faisal", against Al-Qaeda cells in oil-rich Hadramawt province.

Two soldiers were killed on Saturday in the offensive, which targets the Mesini and Amed Valleys -- both in the vast province of Hadramawt and home to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

The two valleys are critical to control over Yemen's southeastern coastline.

More than 9,200 people have been killed in the Yemen war since 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition joined the government's fight against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Radical groups, including AQAP and the Islamic State group, have flourished in the chaos of the war, regularly launching attacks on government and military targets.

The United States, the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen, has ramped up a long-running campaign against AQAP since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

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1 of 4

Bizarre blue dish that give the feel of the ocean



From shiro to shoyu to miso, there is a broth out there for every type of ramen lover. But would you slurp up the popular Japanese dish if it was blue?



Plenty already are at Kipposhi, a Tokyo restaurant that has become an Instagram sensation this year thanks to its bright blue bowl of ramen. The blue, which stains both the noodles and the chopsticks, was inspired by the Hawaiian ocean - and made without any food colouring or additives.



Master Koizumi, the owner of Kipposhi, saw his blue ramen become a viral hit just two days after he posted a picture of it on Instagram.



The soup, made with a rich chicken broth, also swaps out the traditional pork slices commonly seen in Japanese ramen for slices of roasted chicken fillet instead. Read More...

RIGA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Latvia's central bank Governor Ilmars Rimsevics should step down while he is under investigation by the country's anti-corruption agency, its finance minister said on Sunday.

Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said earlier on Sunday that Rimsevics, who is a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, had been detained by the anti-corruption agency.

"Given that the governor of the central bank is a symbol for every country, I think that it would be sensible at this moment that Mr. Rimsevics, at least during the investigation, steps down," Reizniece-Ozola told a press conference, without offering any details as to why the governor was detained or what he was being investigated for.

The governor's home and office were searched on Friday, Latvian media reported. (Reporting by Gederts Gelzis, writing by Johan Ahlander; Editing by Susan Fenton)DUBAI/CAIRO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Qatar National Bank (QNB) has hired CI Capital to advise it on the sale of a small stake in its Egyptian unit.

QNB plans to reduce its 97.125 percent stake in QNB Alahly to 95 percent, the bank said in a statement.

The sale is intended to comply with the rules of listing on the stock exchange, which requires that the free float shall not be less than 5 percent, it said. (Reporting By Tom Arnold and Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Saeed Azhar)JOHANNESBURG, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A South African industry group representing mining companies has agreed to postpone a court challenge against new regulations that included a requirement for more black ownership of mines, to allow for negotiations with new President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The uncertainty around the new rules has deterred investment into a sector that accounts for 8 percent of South Africa's economic output.

Mining companies have said many of the new rules are unaffordable while they grapple with depressed prices and rising costs. Rating agencies have also cited the policy as a concern, because it might hinder South Africa's economic growth.

Supporters of the rule changes, proposed under former President Jacob Zuma who resigned last week, say they are necessary to improve conditions at the mines and more equitably share profits.

"The Presidency has been in discussion with the Chamber of Mines to resolve the impasse over the mining charter and to facilitate a process of developing a New Mining Charter that all stakeholders can support and defend," Ramaphosa's office said in a statement on Sunday.

The mining group had agreed to postpone its High Court challenge to the new rules, set for Feb. 19-21. "The postponement serves to allow parties the space to engage and find an amicable solution," the presidency said.

In an address to parliament on Friday and his first as president, Ramaphosa said he was committed to "policy certainty and consistency", in contrast to his Zuma, who was criticised for policy shifts and unpredictable cabinet changes. "We welcome the President's intervention, and his commitment to engaging meaningfully with stakeholders in the industry - and others - on a New Mining Charter," said Chamber of Mines president Mxolisi Mgojo.

South Africa is one of the world's top exporters of gold and platinum metals and is heavily reliant on the industry for jobs and tax revenues.

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Peter Graff)(Adds quotes, details)

RIGA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Latvia's central bank Governor Ilmars Rimsevics, who is a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council, has been detained by the country's anti-corruption agency, the prime minister's office said on Sunday, without disclosing further details.

Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said Rimsevics' detention did not pose a risk to financial stability.

"There are no indications that would suggest threats to the financial system of Latvia," Kucinskis said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola would hold a news conference at 1300 GMT, the minister's office said, while a spokesperson for the European Central Bank declined to comment.

The Latvian government and central bank have not disclosed the allegations against Rimsevics but Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens said the governor should consider resigning.

"Logic of the things now determines that the governor of Bank of Latvia, who is one of the highest officials in the country, has to seriously consider about dismissing himself from the post now," Aseradens told state broadcaster Radio Latvia on Sunday.

The Latvian Central Bank is an independent institution and Rimsevics has been its head since 2001. He has been a member of the ECB's Governing Council since January 2014, when Latvia adopted the euro.

The home and office of the central bank's governor was searched on Friday, the state broadcaster said on Saturday. It is a another setback for Latvia's banking sector, which has also been hit by allegations by the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that the Baltic country's third largest financial institution by assets, ABLV Bank, has institutionalized money laundering.

FinCen said last week that it was seeking to impose sanctions on ABLV. ABLV said in a statement in response on Tuesday that FinCen had referred to unfounded and misleading information about the bank. (Reporting by Gederts Gelzis, writing by Johan Ahlander; Editing by Toby Chopra and Susan Fenton)TVA Honors 2018 Engineer of the Year

By Jeaneane Payne





Greg Goza was honored ats TVA's Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year. Image courtesy of TVA.



Greg Goza was honored as the Tennessee Valley Authoritys Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year. Goza was recognized during the TVA board of directors meeting Friday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is a veteran transmission and power supply engineer and a 44-year TVA employee.



Goza serves as the primary interface between TVAs Transmission Planning Department and Economic Development staff. He helps ensure these teams can attract jobs and investment into the Tennessee Valley.



TVA is honored to recognize Greg Goza as the 2018 Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year, said TVA President and CEO Bill Johnson. Each year, we have the pleasure of recognizing an individual who exemplifies excellence in the engineering field and a steadfast commitment to TVAs mission of service. Greg has made significant contributions to lift up our communities by bringing new jobs into the region, which supports TVAs mission of improving life in the Valley.



Over the past three years, Goza has diligently coordinated 77 industrial inquiries involving more than 370 site requests. His work has helped land five large companies, representing 2,400 jobs and $1.48 billion in investments, in addition to two proposed Google data centers with an additional $1.2 billion investment.



Greg has distinguished himself as a leader who tirelessly helps create job opportunities for our friends and neighbors, said Bob Dalrymple, TVA senior vice president, Transmission & Power Supply. He has committed his professional endeavors to help make the Valley a great place to live, work and raise your family.



The award is TVAs highest honor for an engineer and named for O.J. Ike Zeringue, a former TVA president and chief operating officer and chief nuclear officer.



Goza is also a finalist for the Federal Engineer of the Year Award, which will be presented Feb. 23 in Washington, D.C.



Goza graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga with a bachelors of science degree in engineering, electrical concentration and a masters of science in engineering. He is a senior program manager for TVAs Industrial Development, Transmission Planning and Asset Management group within the Transmission & Power Supply organization and is a registered professional engineer in Tennessee.



The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving more than nine million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation.





Greg Goza was honored as the Tennessee Valley Authoritys Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year. Goza was recognized during the TVA board of directors meeting Friday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is a veteran transmission and power supply engineer and a 44-year TVA employee.Goza serves as the primary interface between TVAs Transmission Planning Department and Economic Development staff. He helps ensure these teams can attract jobs and investment into the Tennessee Valley.TVA is honored to recognize Greg Goza as the 2018 Ike Zeringue Engineer of the Year, said TVA President and CEO Bill Johnson. Each year, we have the pleasure of recognizing an individual who exemplifies excellence in the engineering field and a steadfast commitment to TVAs mission of service. Greg has made significant contributions to lift up our communities by bringing new jobs into the region, which supports TVAs mission of improving life in the Valley.Over the past three years, Goza has diligently coordinated 77 industrial inquiries involving more than 370 site requests. His work has helped land five large companies, representing 2,400 jobs and $1.48 billion in investments, in addition to two proposed Google data centers with an additional $1.2 billion investment.Greg has distinguished himself as a leader who tirelessly helps create job opportunities for our friends and neighbors, said Bob Dalrymple, TVA senior vice president, Transmission & Power Supply. He has committed his professional endeavors to help make the Valley a great place to live, work and raise your family.The award is TVAs highest honor for an engineer and named for O.J. Ike Zeringue, a former TVA president and chief operating officer and chief nuclear officer.Goza is also a finalist for the Federal Engineer of the Year Award, which will be presented Feb. 23 in Washington, D.C.Goza graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga with a bachelors of science degree in engineering, electrical concentration and a masters of science in engineering. He is a senior program manager for TVAs Industrial Development, Transmission Planning and Asset Management group within the Transmission & Power Supply organization and is a registered professional engineer in Tennessee.The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving more than nine million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA receives no taxpayer funding, deriving virtually all of its revenues from sales of electricity. In addition to operating and investing its revenues in its electric system, TVA provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists local power companies and state and local governments with economic development and job creation. Published February 18, 2018Britain's Adam Pengilly in 2009. The former skeleton racer and an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member until Feb. 25 is described as the victim of an IOC vendetta. AP/Yonhap





By Oh Young-jin



What happened in the assault case involving British International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Adam Pengilly in PyeongChang last week?



This much has been confirmed. The IOC admitted Saturday that it ignored the Korean organizers'wish to keep Pengilly in Korea and decided to send him home through its ethics committee discussion.



In a press conference, taped by Reuters Saturday and released Sunday, IOC President's spokesman Mark Adams, "POCOG (the PyeongChang Organizing Committee) at its various highest levels originally didn't want to allow him to get out of the country."



Then Adams said that the guard suffered "bruises and scratches." Oddly, he said he didn't know when asked whether there was violence involved.



Back home, Pengilly is described as the victim of an IOC political vendetta, after criticizing the IOC decision to allow Russia to compete in the 2016 Summer Games.



Hours later after the case was revealed, the IOC wasted no time in saying Pengilly would be sent back to Britain.



The decision was swift but not just for Pengilly, who was reportedly unsure about the level of physical contact and for the guard himself, who remains silent about the incident.



Although he has not raised the issue yet, it is unclear whether the guard's rights were well respected and protected, especially in case he decides to take legal action against Pengilly.



The IOC obviously had the CCTV footage, but did not reveal it or explain how he was allowed to go without being charged.



It is also unclear whether Pengilly was under the influence of alcohol when he defied the guard's request to use a pedestrian path rather than walking in a bus lane, verbally abused the guard and got into a tussle.



IOC President Thomas Bach also apologized in person.



In the process of making its Pengilly decision, the IOC involved its ethics committee and Korean legal authorities, thanking the police and authorities in passing when it replied to The Korea Times inquiry. But it did not go into any detail.



When a case is in dispute, it is best to be open about how it has been handled.



The IOC did not do this, and the way it is behaving shows it has not changed its secretive ways  believing that if it waits long enough, all its problems will go away. In this case, the PyeongChang Games will be over in a week. So will Pengilly's term of office at the IOC.



A document, entitled "President Park Chung-hee's directives," shows he ordered the dispatch of an airborne brigade to Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, to support a crackdown by the Army's 39th division against a pro-democracy movement. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young



Former President Park Chung-hee ordered the military to use airborne troops to quell demonstrations against his dictatorship that were escalating in southeastern cities in October 1979, according to a document unveiled by a government-run fact-finding committee, Sunday.



The document, "President Park's directives," showed the dictator ordered the dispatch of an airborne brigade to Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, to support a crackdown by the Army's 39th Division. According to the order issued Oct. 18, 235 airborne soldiers trained for special warfare were deployed in the city to put down the demonstrations.



The committee concluded that the presidential order was illegal, as it was before the Garrison Decree  proclaimed Oct. 20  stating there should be a request from a local governor to dispatch soldiers. However, there was no such request, the committee said.



"It was unlawful to arbitrarily mobilize the airborne soldiers to Masan. Particularly, it was clearly illegal since the soldiers arrived there before the Garrison Decree was declared."



The committee also found that another group of soldiers arrived in Busan, Oct. 17, also before martial law was proclaimed. There, the soldiers tortured protestors in order to fabricate espionage charges against opposition politicians.



At least 1,584 people were detained, which is more than the previously known 1,058. The report also revealed they were detained without legal grounds, saying the authorities issued warrants at least three days after the arrests.



The anti-government rallies, known as Bu-Ma Democratic Protests named after two southern cities of Busan and Masan, triggered the Park regime's collapse by causing a rift amid the ruling elite. Kim Jae-gyu, Park's aide and of the spy agency, assassinated Park, Oct. 26, right after a visit to the cities to check on public sentiment.



Kim was at odds with Park over how to resolve people's dissatisfaction with the government. Kim viewed that ruling with an iron fist during a sluggish economy angered the citizens; while Park claimed they were mobilized by pro-communist student activists.



In court testimony, Kim claimed that he had to kill Park in order to prevent him from commit nationwide massacres of anti-dictatorship protesters. Park is the father of ex-President Park Geun-hye, who was ousted and imprisoned in a massive corruption scandal.

By Choi Ha-young



Several lawmakers are vying to become the new National Assembly speaker as the incumbent Speaker Chung Sye-kyun's term is scheduled to end in May.



Customarily, the Assembly speaker is chosen among senior lawmakers from the largest party. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) currently has the most seats with 121, so it is supposed to appoint one of its lawmakers as the Assembly speaker. The appointment will be subject to endorsement at the plenary Assembly session.



Two six-term DPK lawmakers  Rep. Moon Hee-sang and Lee Seok-hyun  and one five-term lawmaker Park Byeong-seug are running for the post. Rep. Lee Hae-chan, a six-term lawmaker, is also being touted as a potential candidate, but he is also considered a strong candidate for next DPK chairman.



What is complicating the procedure is growing influence of the conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP), which has only five seats less than the DPK. The gap is likely to be narrowed as the local election in June nears.



Backed by President Moon Jae-in's popularity, about 10 ruling party lawmakers are eyeing mayor and governor posts. If they win the party's nomination, they should give up their parliamentary seats no later than May 14.



Four DPK lawmakers  Woo Sang-ho, Park Young-sun, Min Byung-doo and Jeon Hyun-heui  have issued a challenge to incumbent Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. President Moon's associate Rep. Jeon Hae-cheol is competing with former DPK presidential hopeful Lee Jae-myung, to get the nomination for Gyeonggi governor.



LKP lawmakers are not interested in the local elections  as seen by many polls, the party has support of less than 20 percent and so needs to maintain its current 116 seats. The LKP is also hoping to clinch the speaker post which could be useful in countering the ruling camp's reform bills.



The Assembly is likely to pick its new speaker after the local election, sources said. In a close competition, the DPK and the LKP are going all-out to win by-elections in several electoral districts, which will be held in tandem with the local elections.

By Kim Jae-kyoung





Will President Moon Jae-in accept North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's invitation to Pyongyang?



It must be a very tricky decision for Moon. If he raises the issue of denuclearization, North Korea might revert to its belligerent stance.



But if Moon opts to go to Pyongyang for talks for the sake of talks it could jeopardize the alliance between South Korea and the United States, or other allies.



William Brown, adjunct professor at Georgetown School of Foreign Service, suggests Moon make a counteroffer by inviting Kim to Seoul to avoid the same old mistakes his liberal predecessors have made.



"We have seen far too many VIP trips to Pyongyang over the past decades, and every time, Pyongyang has hoodwinked the visitors into giving it something, even billions of dollars," Brown said in an interview, citing former President Kim Dae-jung.



"I'm sure Kim Jong-un is well aware of that and in need of big money. So, Kim wants an improvement in inter-Korean ties but only to help him pursue his new unification' dream."



He pointed out the North has "engagement" down to a fine art, knowing how to cater to foreign and South Korean egos.



"Perhaps Moon can respond by offering an invitation to Kim to come to the South, maybe suggesting a tour of a nuclear electric power plant, or to a drone factory," Brown said. "The Olympic visits can be considered warm-ups, then, for something interesting."



His advice came after Kim Jong-un invited President Moon to visit Pyongyang through his younger sister Kim Yo-jong who visited South Korea a week ago as part of the North's high-level delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.





Kim in search of new sources



From Brown's perspective, Kim sending his sister to give the invitation suggests the sanctions, especially the near shutdown in China's legal imports from the North and the cutbacks in petroleum deliveries, are having an impact, causing Kim to search for new sources of aid.



"This theory is reinforced by Kim Yo-jong's statement that she was surprised to find herself in South Korea with so little notice, as if it was a snap decision," he said.



Brown, who previously worked for the CIA and the National Intelligence Council, said Moon's cautious approach to Kim's invitation was a step in the right direction. He declined to accept the offer immediately, calling for efforts to "create the necessary conditions."



"Moon's answer to Kim Yo-jong was just right. It puts the ball right back into Pyongyang's court, a part of the maximum pressure campaign one might say," he said.



"Presumably, the necessary conditions are progress toward getting rid of the nuclear weapons, something Kim is unlikely to concede."



Regarding talks between the U.S. and North Korea, Brown said there should be two conditions for such meetings to take place.



"My only conditions for U.S.-North Korea talks, either a summit or at a high level, would be that they are not held inside North Korea, and that they are held with real officials, not track 2 wannabes, former presidents or intelligence directors," he said.



"If North Korea's leadership can be brought out of the country, I think it would add to maximum pressure and might even bring about a breakthrough. Certainly the cost of a cheeseburger, even at a Trump hotel, is worth a try."



He called on Moon to be realistic about Kim's strategies and intentions, in order for his efforts to engage the North while not damaging relations between South Korea and the U.S.



"To understand those (Kim's strategies and intentions), all he needs to do is read and reread Kim's New Year's speech for himself. Kim, very clearly, wants unification," he said.



"I am concerned political advisers are capable of being misled by North Korean charms, especially when they think it works to their political benefit."



Looking carefully at Washington, the Washington-based North Korea expert said Moon should remember Trump's first instinct on Japan and Korea was that those countries, and the Europeans, should do more to protect themselves.



"He, and many Americans, on the right and the left, are tired of being the fall guy, picking up the military costs of other people's problems," Brown said.



By Kwon Bong-woon



Lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties show no signs of ending their blame game over multiple issues. It is a great pity that they are trading barbs over differences in favor of their own political interests.





Rep. Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, left, speaks during a forum Feb. 13 at the National Assembly on discussing the Seoul High Court's verdict on corruption charges against Samsung Group heir apparent Lee Jae-yong earlier this mont



Some senior ruling party lawmakers have shown their ugly side through their tongues. In a recent instance, they said the Seoul High Court, which acquitted Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong of most of the bribery and embezzlement charges made by the prosecution against him, made the "most shameful ruling in judicial history."

By Yao Yang





BEIJING  Last October, as he opened the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping vowed that the country would have a "fully modern" economy by 2035, and would reach high-income status by 2049  the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.







One hopes that he is more successful than China's first premier, Zhou Enlai, who in 1964 promised "four modernizations" by the end of the 20th century.







Zhou's plan focused on reforming four key sectors: agriculture, industry, defense, and science and technology. He did not set a specific income goal, but it is safe to say that he probably expected China to do better than it did: by World Bank standards, China at the turn of the century was a lower-middle-income country.







This time around, reaching China's income goals might actually be the easy part. China's real per capita GDP currently amounts to about 25 percent that of the United States. To join the high-income club, embodied by the OECD, China will have to raise that figure to at least 45 percent (depending on how real income is measured)  a level achieved, so far, by 36-40 economies.







China could join these countries' ranks by 2049 if its economy grows by at least 1.7 percentage points more than the U.S. economy every year, starting now. Assuming that the U.S. economy maintains its long-term growth rate of 2 percent, China would have to grow by 3.7 percent annually. That's a lot lower than China's current 6.5 percent rate. Even if China's GDP growth decelerated steadily to 2 percent by 2049, the average rate would amount to at least 4 percent.







But modernization is about more than income. It is a comprehensive process that would ultimately transform China into a society with the kinds of benefits  opportunities, personal comforts, and public services  found in today's advanced democracies. Completing this process will not be easy.







For starters, China will have to clean up its environment  something that ordinary Chinese now view not as a luxury, but as an imperative. The government has taken some positive steps: The air quality around Beijing, for example, has improved considerably this winter, thanks to efforts to shut down polluting factories and replace coal with natural gas for household heating.







But this change has come at a high cost, including rising natural gas prices. The cost of improving air quality in all Chinese cities, let alone cleaning up all the polluted rivers, lakes, and soil in the country, will be massive.







A second challenge China faces in pursuing modernization is to narrow the rural-urban divide. Notwithstanding the narrowing income gap, rural residents still face inferior access to education, infrastructure, and public services.







Continued urbanization will help, but even the most optimistic forecast estimates that more than 300 million people will still living in the countryside in 2035. No country can be considered modern, regardless of how shiny and dynamic its cities are, if its rural areas are left behind.







Compounding the modernization challenges China faces, its working-age population is beginning to decline, and could fall by more than 10 percent by 2040, according to the World Bank. While automation may protect China from severe labor shortages, population aging will increase the economic burden of social security.







Despite the introduction of individual accounts 20 years ago, China's pension system effectively still functions on a pay-as-you-go basis. When China's "baby boom" generation  born between 1962 and 1976  begin to retire, the system's deficits will mount.







In fact, some rapidly aging and slow-growing provinces already depend on central government subsidies. China desperately needs a more unified and comprehensive system to balance social security coverage across the country.







Of course, China's rising national income will help the country confront the challenges it faces. But wealth, while necessary, is not sufficient.







For one thing, the rule of law must be strengthened considerably, and not just to rein in official corruption. There needs to be a cultural shift, with citizens learning how to function in a society governed by reliable rules and legal structures, not geographical or familial ties.







The good news is that Xi recognizes the importance of the rule of law. In the report he delivered to the National Congress, he mentioned the phrase more than 20 times, emphasizing "the overall goal of comprehensively advancing law-based governance" in order to "build a country of socialist rule of law." Nonetheless, transforming traditional ways of living in China will require more than hortatory rhetoric.







One key obstacle lies in the Chinese political system. It is widely believed that democracy is indispensable for a dynamic civil society. Yet the Chinese authorities are determined not to introduce electoral democracy in any way, shape, or form.







Recent political developments in advanced democracies  in particular, the rise of right-wing populist movements and leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump  have reinforced their resolve.







To the extent that it raises living standards, the "China Model" fulfills some requirements of political legitimacy. But, once those living standards reach a certain level, the Chinese people will almost certainly demand more personal freedom and political accountability.







The most fundamental challenge facing China's leaders, then, is to find a governance model that fulfills these demands while continuing to exclude electoral democracy.







).





Yao Yang is professor and dean at the National School of Development and director of the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University. Copyrights belong to Project Syndicate ( www.project-syndicate.org



U.S. President Donald Trump holds a meeting Feb. 13 on trade with members of Congress at the White House. Reuters-Yonhap





Reciprocal tax' and other moves trigger concerns



U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tactics are increasingly raising concerns in Korea.



Since taking office, Trump has kept up tough talk against major trading partners. The latest is a threat to introduce a so-called reciprocal tax on countries that levy tariffs on American products.



"We're going to do a reciprocal tax and you'll hear about that during the week and the coming months," Trump said last week during a White House session on his infrastructure plan.



Trump underlined his resolve to balance trade, saying "We cannot continue to let people come into our country and rob us blind and charge us tremendous tariffs and taxes and we charge them nothing. We cannot allow that to happen."



He claimed the U.S. had lost "vast amounts of money with China, Japan and South Korea and so many other countries  it's a little tough for them because they've gotten away with murder for 25 years. Some of them are our so-called allies but they're not allies on trade."



It is alarming that in much of Trump's tough talk on trade, he has repeatedly mentioned Korea. The "reciprocal tax" proposal came on the heels of other moves by the U.S. administration expected to hurt Korean exporters.





Smoke and steam spew from the sprawling complex that is a part of the Jiujiang steel and rolling mills in Qianan in northern China's Hebei province. The U.S. Department of Commerce is urging President Donald Trump to impose tariffs or quotas on imported aluminum and steel. The recommendations are likely to escalate tensions with China and other trading partners, including Korea. AP-Yonhap



The U.S. Department of Commerce recently proposed steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum after a probe into their impact on national security. One proposal being considered is a 53 percent tariff on steel from 12 countries, including Korea, Brazil and China.



In January, the U.S. imposed tariffs on foreign producers of washing machines and solar cell panels, including Korea.



Trump also made insensitive remarks regarding the closure of a GM Korea plant due to shrinking sales. GM Korea announced last week that it would close one of its car assembly plants in Gunsan by the end of May.



The announcement has set off a flurry of concerns about job losses and the impact on the local economy and the auto industry. But Trump hailed the move and used it to promote his case on fixing a free trade agreement with Korea, which he has called a "very bad deal."



"We'll either negotiate a fair deal or we'll terminate the deal  but before we do that, already General Motors is coming back into Detroit. That is a really significant statement. Many others to follow from many other countries," he said during a trade meeting at the White House.





Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un-gyu, right, opens a meeting with industry insiders Feb. 17 at the Korea Technology Center in Seoul after the U.S. administration announced proposals to levy hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. YonhapSK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, center, shares his vision for a better world through social entrepreneurship at a forum at Yonsei University in Seoul, Feb. 8. / Courtesy of SK



Chairman Chey mobilizes companies to solve social problems with entrepreneurs



By Park Hyong-ki



When taking a business course on innovation at the KAIST College of Business, students are introduced to a variety of cases to study and examine.



Some of them include examples of how entrepreneurs designed and came up with products such as blankets for babies and electricity-free refrigerators for underdeveloped countries.



People may ask if such social enterprises fall under the category of business for profit or that of philanthropy given that they look as if they were created mainly to serve the underprivileged who have no money to spare.



The environmentally-friendly blankets were made to prevent infant mortality and the refrigerators are to keep food fresh in Third World countries with limited access to healthcare and resources.



Conventional businesspeople may wonder if products of social enterprises can generate a profit in markets where the basic theory of economics has not been fully adopted and implemented.



Products such as the blankets and refrigerators are unlikely to make a lot of money, if looked at from a conformist's point of view.



Like any other businesses, social enterprises seek a balance between being profitable and socially responsible.



But their priorities are solving problems, whether small or big, in communities, societies and the world.



And the first thing business students of social entrepreneurship are taught about innovation is ways to identify problems, and solve them through a business model.



What comes next after problem solving is the creation of a virtuous economic cycle that leads to gaining sustainable profit.



SK's social commitment



SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won believes in this social business for problem solving, which can create greater value than conventional businesses just for profit motive.



Chey is one of the few owners of local conglomerates who have shown passion for and commitment to boosting value through social entrepreneurship.



The group has been backing KAIST's social entrepreneurship MBA program since 2012.





SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, center, poses with KAIST business students in Seoul, Dec. 8, 2017. / Courtesy of SK



By Jung Min-ho, Kang Aa-young







Kumho Asiana Chairman Park Sam-koo has apologized over allegations that he sexually harassed the company's flight attendants.







In a statement released Feb. 12, Park, 72, said he was sorry for those who "felt uncomfortable" with what he did.







But he gave no details of what he did, nor did he admit that he physically touched them against their will.







Park had been accused of forcing some flight attendants to hug him or hold his hand when he visited Asiana's headquarters.







"I am the only one to blame for this," Park said. "It is my fault that some employees felt uncomfortable with what I did during my visit  I apologize to them and I will ensure that it won't happen again."







His apology came after dozens of employees brought sexual allegations against him on Blind, an application that allows insiders to talk about their companies anonymously.







The accusations were part of the #MeToo movement, which was sparked by female prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun, who brought the issue to the fore last month with her own case as a victim.







Since then, much effort has been made to raise awareness of sexual crimes that have too often been tolerated in a conservative society.

US threatens to impose tariffs of at least 53% on Korean steel products



By Jun Ji-hye



POSCO and other Korean steelmakers face stiffer tariffs on their exports to the United States after the Donald Trump administration threatened to apply safeguard measures to their products.



The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has recommended Trump take strong measures to safeguard the country's steel industry. Trump is highly likely to accept the recommendation.



The DOC came up with three recommendations of a global duty of at least 24 percent on all steel imports, a tariff of at least 53 percent on steel imports from 12 countries including Korea, or the introduction of an import quota.



It would mark back-to-back attacks on Korean companies as Trump recently signed safeguard measures slapping 50 percent tariffs on washers exceeding 1.2 million units a year.



"In consideration of his previous actions, I am very concerned that Trump would go ahead with the 53 percent-plus tariff policy because it would be the strongest and most effective. Then, one of the worst victims would be Korea," said a Seoul analyst who asked not to be named.



The U.S. president is required to make a decision on the steel and aluminum safeguard measures by April 11. Any tariffs and quotas would be in addition to any duties already in place.



According to DOC data, Korea exported 3.7 million tons of steel products to the world's largest economy last year to take the No. 3 position following Canada with 5.8 million tons and Brazil with 4.7 million tons. Mexico and Russia also topped 3 million tons with 3.2 million tons and 3.1 million tons, respectively.



But Canada and Mexico are not included in the 12-country list, which means that Brazil, Korea and Russia would be the main targets. The other nine countries are China, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.



The announcement prompted the Korean government and associated corporations, including the nation's largest steelmaker POSCO and second-largest player Hyundai Steel, to scramble for countermeasures.



On Saturday, Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Paik Un-gyu convened a meeting to discuss the aftershocks of the potential tariffs.



CEOs of POSCO and Hyundai Steel took part in the meeting together with senior government officials although it was just a day after Lunar New Year's day.



"Both the public and private sectors will cooperate to persuade the U.S. government, Congress and steel industries. We will also analyze all the scenarios to minimize any negative impacts," an industry minister official said after the contingency meeting.



Given the strong stances of both the DOC and Trump, however, such efforts are not likely to work. In particular, the DOC concluded that the quantities and circumstances of steel imports "threaten to impact national security."



"I am glad that we were able to provide this analysis and these recommendations to the President," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said. "I look forward to his decision on any potential course of action."



Through the maneuver, the DOC strives to increase the domestic steel production of the U.S. from its present 73 percent of capacity to approximately an 80 percent operating rate, which it says is the minimum rate needed for the long-term viability of the industry.



A total of 10 furnaces have closed since 2000 in the U.S. while employment has dropped by 35 percent since 1998, the DOC said.



"The declining steel capacity utilization rate is not economically sustainable. Utilization rates of 80 percent or greater are necessary to sustain adequate profitability and continued capital investment, research and development, and workforce enhancement in the steel sector," the DOC said in a report.



"The only effective means of removing the threat of impairment is to reduce imports to a level that should, in combination with good management, enable U.S. steel mills to operate at 80 percent or more of their rated production capacity."

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Edit CloseYoure married, but your assets dont have to beThank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.The Conference on Disarmament (CD) presided over by Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, on Friday (16 February 2018), adopted a Decision to establish five subsidiary bodies to discuss all items in its agenda, with a view to advance the substantive work of the Conference. The Decision described as a "well-brokered balance between flexibility and safeguards and offered a framework for a more focused and continued debate on core issues", seeks to bring the CD back to its original mandate of negotiating disarmament instruments. Since its negotiation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, the CD is yet to negotiate any new treaty.

In a statement released the same evening in New York, the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said "the Secretary-General welcomes the decision adopted today by the Conference on Disarmament to take forward its substantive work. The Secretary-General commends the Members of the Conference for achieving this positive step, which he hopes will lead to resumption of negotiations on effective measures for disarmament and arms control. The current international security situation underscores the vital need to restore disarmament as an integral component of our collective efforts to prevent armed conflict and to maintain international peace and security". It added that "the Secretary-General urges Member States to make use of this opening, redouble their efforts and forge a new consensus for disarmament".

In his concluding remarks at the CD, Ambassador Aryasinha observed that "the adoption of the decision was an important moment in the collective efforts to bring back the Conference to substantive work and negotiations. It represented a compromise between differing positions in the Conference which had for too long hampered its proper functioning. This decision would represent the beginning of a new phase which would allow the Conference to move forward through a search for commonalities and technical substantive work". The President "urged the Conference to be guided by the Rules of Procedure, but not to use those Rules to inhibit itself". The Sri Lanka delegation to the CD included Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Mrs. Samantha Jayasuriya and First Secretary Mrs. Mafusa Lafir.

Highlighting the elements of the Decision, the UN Office in Geneva (UNOG) in a media release on Friday noted that "the subsidiary bodies would pursue the following areas, and any other areas agreed to in accordance with the Rules of Procedure: reach an understanding on the areas of commonalities in the Conference on Disarmament by taking into consideration all relevant views and proposals past, present and future; deepen technical discussions and broaden areas of agreement, including through the participation, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, of relevant experts; and consider effective measures to advance the substantive work of the Conference, including legal instruments for negotiations". "Each subsidiary body would be chaired by a coordinator appointed by the Conference, under the guidance of the President on the basis of equitable regional distribution".

Reporting on the earlier lengthy negotiations that culminated in the Decision, the UNOG, while noting initial concerns expressed by some delegations, said "other delegations had agreed that the initiative would be the first progress on substantive work of the Conference in twenty years, and urged the adoption of the text especially as there were not many other options at the table. The proposal was a well-brokered balance between flexibility and safeguards and offered a framework for a more focused and continued debate on core issues. Delegates urged trust, compromise and flexibility, stressing that the initiative was not an end product and that its outcome and final results should not be prejudiced".

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) established in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community, was a result of the first Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General Assembly (SSOD-I) held in 1978, and constitute of 65 Members, including the five Permanent Members of the Security Council.

Press Release

Statement Issued by SG - Conference on Disarmanent

Sri Lanka Permanent Mission

Geneva

17 February 2018Dear Liz: My wife and I have updated our will and trust every 10 years. So far weve been sorely disappointed. The local bar association recommended some attorneys, but they were relatively young, inexperienced, unable to answer a lot of our most basic questions, and produced documents that I could have created on my home computer. It seems as though the most experienced attorneys are downtown in tall office buildings with equally tall price tags while the suburbs get the new graduates, the generalists or the estate planning attorneys who didnt make it in the big leagues. Can you recommend a referral source that will actually suggest someone who is experienced, specializes in estate planning and wont require us to drive 40 miles to downtown?

Answer: The first question that must be asked is whether yours is a big-league estate.

For the record: An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated that Individual Retirement Accounts are protected from creditors in bankruptcy filings up to $1,283,025, even if the money was rolled over from a 401(k) or other workplace retirement plan that offers unlimited protection from creditors. In fact, although IRAs protection from creditors in bankruptcy filings is typically limited to $1,283,025, money transferred from a 401(k) or other workplace retirement plan to an individual retirement account has unlimited protection from creditors in bankruptcy. In non-bankruptcy situations, the creditor protection afforded IRAs varies by state.

If your joint estate is worth more than $22.4 million, the current estate tax exemption limit for a married couple, you probably should swallow your distaste and hire a skyscraper-based attorney. Youll need expert help dealing with estate tax issues, and that doesnt come cheap.

If your estate is not in the big leagues, you should still be able to hire a competent, experienced attorney if you do sufficient research beforehand. Understand that software will be drafting your plan, regardless of which lawyer you choose.

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What youre paying for is advice on the documents you need, assurance that those documents are prepared correctly and help getting the deeds for your real estate recorded for your trust, said Jennifer Sawday, an estate planning attorney in Long Beach. Good estate planning attorneys have seen the many ways an estate plan can go wrong so they can give the guidance needed to help you avoid disaster and create the outcomes you want.

Sawday said the best source of referrals maybe your CPA or tax preparer. Your tax pro has a good idea of your financial situation and probably has referred many other clients to good attorneys. Financial planners and attorneys who specialize in other areas can often recommend someone as well.

Professionals dont refer to other professionals time and time again who give bad service or otherwise generate unhappy clients, Sawday said.

Interview two or three attorneys before you decide. Youll typically have to pay a consultation fee, but youll have a much better idea of whether they can answer your questions to your satisfaction.

The suburbs, by the way, are precisely where youre likely to find reasonably priced, competent attorneys, since they dont have the same overhead costs as the skyscraper set.

When rolling your 401(k) into an IRA isnt a good idea

Dear Liz: I have just retired. I have a 401(k) from work. Do I keep it as is or do I roll it over into an IRA?

Answer: Investment companies and their representatives like to push the idea of rollovers as the best option, but that may profit them more than it does you.

Leaving your money in your employers 401(k) has several potential advantages. Many 401(k)s offer access to institutional funds, which can be much cheaper than the retail funds available to IRA investors. Workplace retirement plans also offer unlimited protection from creditors if youre sued or forced to file bankruptcy. Although IRAs protection from creditors in bankruptcy filings is typically limited to $1,283,025, money transferred from a 401(k) or other workplace retirement plan to an individual retirement account has unlimited protection from creditors in bankruptcy. In nonbankruptcy situations, the creditor protection afforded IRAs varies by state.

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If you retired early, you can access your 401(k) without penalty at age 55. The typical age to avoid penalties from IRA withdrawals is 59.

You may opt for a rollover if your 401(k) offers only expensive or poorly performing options. Even if you decide to roll over the rest of your 401(k), though, get a tax pros advice before you roll over any company stock. You may be better off transferring the stock to a taxable account now so you can let future appreciation qualify for capital gains rates. Ask your tax pro how best to take advantage of this net unrealized appreciation.

Liz Weston, certified financial planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the Contact form at asklizweston.com. Distributed by No More Red Inc.Maura Dolan is the California-based legal affairs writer for the Los Angeles Times. She covers the California Supreme Court and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. A California native, she graduated from UC Berkeley and has worked in Washington and Los Angeles for The Times. She is now based in San Francisco.Police are asking for the publics help in finding Joshua Thiede, a 29-year-old Uber and Lyft driver who was last seen Feb. 11 near the 1000 block of Wilshire Boulevard.

Thiede is Caucasian, 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He was driving a black 2014 Nissan Altima with the license plate 7CSD450.

Thiedes mother, Janet, said her son lives in Los Angeles with two roommates, and that he last drove out of his apartment garage on the evening of Feb. 11, according to his key fob.

She said someone called 911 from his phone at 2:32 p.m. the next day, according to phone records. I got frightened when I saw the 911 [call] and called police, she said.

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She said her son makes ends meet by driving for Uber and Lyft, frequently picking up passengers in the Koreatown area. She said he has been working on a prototype for an organic shoe made of pineapple and hemp.

She said she last spoke to him on the afternoon of Feb. 11. We didnt talk long, and now Im upset we didnt talk longer, she said. Usually I hear from him almost every day.

Those with information should call police at (213) 996-1800 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7.

UPDATES:

7:35 p.m.: This article was updated with new information from Janet Thiede, the mother of the missing man.

This article was originally posted at 6:30 p.m.Four months after a ferocious firestorm devastated communities in Californias wine country, those who lost their homes are still struggling.

Animal feeding stations remain on roadsides, monitored by volunteers searching for pets left behind when their owners fled. Cats that had been feared dead continue to be found.

Signs are everywhere, advertising the services of contractors, engineers, debris removers and lawyers. Many burned homes have yet to be cleared.

The shock and horror of the early days have given way to lingering grief and agony over whether to rebuild or move on. But the most perplexing and time-consuming matter for victims has been insurance.

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More than 8,000 homes and other buildings were lost in the fires that swept through Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Forty-four people died. Because of failed communications, some residents had only minutes to escape.

Laurie Lamantia, 58, whose house was left uninhabitable by the fire, said she is constantly having to fight her insurance company to get what is owed her.

She said she spends at least eight hours a day dealing with insurance matters, documenting every conversation and following every meeting and phone call with an adjuster with a written note.

Your insurance company is not your friend, Lamantia said when asked what advice she could give to the victims of the more recent Southern California fires that destroyed about 1,000 homes. They are going to be really nice and tell you they want to take care of you, but they are not your friend.

She and other fire victims here have written letters and made calls to their elected representatives. They study the websites of a group called United Policyholders and the state Department of Insurance and contact them with questions and complaints.

The most important thing people can do is unite, Lamantia said.

New legislation in Sacramento

Pressure from the community has spurred legislative proposals in Sacramento to make it easier for victims to recover from insurance companies.

A lawsuit filed this month accused the Department of Insurance of failing to ensure that out-of-state adjusters registered with the state and worked under supervision of a manager who knew California law.

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Several fire victims complained in interviews that adjusters who poured in from other states to help companies process claims misinformed policyholders about their rights.

Jeff Sengstack, 68, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, lost his home in a hilly, woodsy neighborhood near Santa Rosa.

He and his wife, Birgit, 53, were awakened by a neighbor pounding on their front door in the early hours of Oct. 9.

Jeff Sengstack looked out his window and saw a wall of orange. He and his wife loaded their two cockatiels, one of their cats, photographs and hard drives into their cars.

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In their driveway, Birgit Sengstack tried unsuccessfully to summon their second cat. She said a whipping wind roared like a monster and tornadoes of flames swirled closer and closer.

Explosions from burning tanks and cars sounded like thunder, she recalled, and embers rained from the sky. She was afraid her hair and clothes would catch fire.

A neighbors video recording shows that two minutes after the couple pulled out of the driveway, their home of 18 years was engulfed in flames. Three minutes later, the house was gone.

Still shaken and emotional, Jeff Sengstack said he met a few days later with an independent adjuster who had arrived from Alabama.

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The adjuster, apparently unaware of the wording of the Sengstack policy, asked him if he wanted to be put up in a hotel or an apartment.

Some homeowners in Santa Rosas burned-out Coffey Park neighborhood, above, returned to put Christmas trees on their empty lots over the holidays. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press )

Sengstack, a former journalist who now creates online video tutorials, knew he was entitled to 24 months of housing comparable to the home that burned, not just a hotel room or an apartment.

I thought then, this man is my enemy, my adversary, he said.

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He said the adjuster was among hundreds, mostly from the South, who flooded the region after the fires.

Most failed to register, worked unsupervised and did not know California law, which is more protective of policyholders than rules in other states, the lawsuit said.

Nancy Kincaid, a spokeswoman for the Department of Insurance, said the agency is already investigating whether unregistered and unsupervised adjusters worked the Northern California fires. She said she could not comment on what the confidential probe has found so far.

Like many others who lost their homes, the Sengstacks have not decided whether to rebuild.

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Black, skeletal oak trees dot their five-acre hilltop property. Two stone pillars mark the entry to what had been their home, now a jumble of ash, shattered glass and scorched wood and metal.

The views, once breathtaking, show the ravages of fire  depressing as hell, Sengstack said.

But Birgit Sengstack said they could never find another home like their old one. She pointed to a blackened oleander bush alongside what had been their driveway.

If cut back, it might yet grow, she said. Her husband looked dubious. I have hope, she insisted, examining the blackened leaves.

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The couple said insurance proceeds would not be enough to replace the home they had, though they could build something smaller.

Because of so much demand, the cost of housing and construction has been rising since the fires. Just getting an appointment with a contractor can be challenging.

Jeff Sengstack still weeps when he talks about the fire, but the couple is slowly starting to heal. Their second cat was discovered alive in their old neighborhood two and a half months after the fire.

Claude Corvino, whose house also burned down, said cost was only one factor in deciding whether to rebuild. He said his wife worried that she would never feel safe.

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This will happen again, said Corvino, 64, who owns an engineering company.

The last time was 53 years ago. There were fewer homes back then.

In Coffey Park, a middle- and working-class development in the flats of Santa Rosa, most of the lots have been cleared of debris, and one house is almost ready for occupancy.

Owners of the more than 1,300 tract homes that burned there have tried to be strong in the face of the devastation.

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Some returned to their burned-out lots to put up Christmas trees and other decorations during the holidays.

A group even went caroling, singing in front of houses that existed only in memory.

Lawsuit says out-of-state adjusters gave out bad info

Jon B. Eisenberg, 64, a lawyer who lives in Sonoma County, volunteered at a center to help fire victims understand their insurance policies.

Eisenberg and his wife lost their house in the Oakland hills firestorm of 1991, and the October blaze came so close to their home in Healdsburg that they had to prepare to evacuate.

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He sued the Department of Insurance with Sengstack after speaking to dozens of victims whose adjusters, he said, clearly did not know California law.

The suit said adjusters inaccurately told fire victims they would not receive full replacement cost benefits unless they rebuilt in the same location and gave them wrong time frames for collecting full replacement benefits and for recovering additional living expenses.

My distress turned to anger when I realized how much misinformation was out there, Eisenberg said.

He called the Department of Insurance to complain.

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Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones issued an advisory in November warning insurance companies to ensure their adjusters knew California law. He later persuaded insurance companies to make it easier for victims to be reimbursed for lost contents.

But Eisenberg, whose suit does not seek monetary damages, wants the department to enforce the insurance rules more zealously, either by fining companies or obtaining a court order requiring adjusters to be supervised.

Janet Ruiz, the California representative for the Insurance Information Institute, an industry trade association, said she believed the industry did register its out-of-state adjusters.

Though policyholders may have received some misinformation early on, that was quickly rectified, she said. She also cautioned that treating an insurance representative as an adversary doesnt get you the best result.

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What gets you the best result is being informed and negotiating smartly, she said.

Adjusters who work catastrophes tend to be extremely compassionate because they do this all the time, Ruiz said.

Lamantias impression was different.

Fourteen days after the fire, Lamantia met with an adjuster and told him her family had incurred $3,000 in expenses after evacuating with only the clothes they wore.

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He looked at me as if I had been shopping at Nordstrom, she said. Then he turned to another adjuster and said, We are here for the needy, not the greedy. 

Lamantia was taking notes and jotting down names.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @mauradolanThe last time SpaceX launched a satellite-carrying rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, it caused quite a stir.

The dramatic light show over Los Angeles on Dec. 22 stopped traffic, inspiring both alarm and awe. Excited residents called newsrooms and police and fire departments to inquire about the streaking lights.

The Los Angeles Fire Department eventually put out an advisory informing the public that the mysterious lights in the sky were from the rocket launch.

And the show goes on.

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SpaceX had planned to launch two demonstration satellites into space on Saturday from Vandenberg, but then it rescheduled for Sunday.

The Hawthorne-based company tweeted Saturday, however, that the team needed more time for final inspections, targeting a Wednesday launch.

Team at Vandenberg is taking additional time to perform final checkouts of upgraded fairing. Payload and vehicle remain healthy. Due to mission requirements, now targeting February 21 launch of PAZ.  SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 17, 2018

The two demonstration satellites, known as Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, will launch as the so-called secondary payload on the Falcon 9 launch, according to documents filed this month with the Federal Communications Commission. The primary mission for Wednesdays launch is the Paz Earth satellite, which was built by Airbus and will be operated by Spanish government satellite services operator Hisdesat.

Its the first phase of testing for SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musks vision to build a space-based broadband internet service within six years. The network would operate at fiber-like speeds, especially for individual households and small businesses, according to testimony from Patricia Cooper, SpaceX vice president of government affairs, during a Senate committee hearing in October.

The launch of the demonstration satellites will test their design, structure, subsystems and communication paths.

andrea.castillo@latimes.com

Twitter: @andreamcastillo

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samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunagaNikolas Cruz cut his arms on Snapchat and said he wanted to buy a gun in September 2016, more than a year before he was accused of killing 17 people in a school in Parkland, records show.

The incident on the digital social network prompted an investigation by sheriffs deputies and adult welfare investigators from the Department of Children and Family Services.

The documents obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel provide further evidence that Cruz was a troubled teen who repeatedly went without help before he stalked the halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 rifle on Wednesday.

In another example, the FBI acknowledged Friday that it ignored a tip last month that Cruz was at risk of committing a school shooting.

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A person close to Cruz contacted an FBI national tipline on Jan. 5 with concerns about the young mans gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting, the agency said in a news release.

The information should have been sent to the FBI Miami Field Office but was never forwarded, officials said. U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on Friday ordered an investigation of how the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI handled the matter.

The Children and Family Services investigation came four days after Cruzs 18th birthday, meaning he could legally purchase a rifle.

Mr. Cruz has fresh cuts on both his arms. Mr. Cruz stated he plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is buying the gun for, the agency report reads.

Investigators concluded there were some implications for Cruzs safety but determined he was receiving adequate support from his school and outpatient care from Henderson Mental Health in Broward County.

About five months later, he bought the AR-15.

Cruz came under Children and Family Services supervision and care because he was classified as a vulnerable adult due to mental illness. [Cruzs] final level of risk is low as [he] resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling through Henderson, the investigator wrote.

Cruzs lawyers said the report is the clearest evidence yet that the system failed. All of this could have been prevented, said Melisa McNeill, the Broward assistant public defender who is leading the defense. It makes me sick to my stomach because there are 17 people, including numerous children, who are dead and several others who are injured.

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The attorneys said the Snapchat incident alerted at least four local agencies  Children and Family Services, the Broward Sheriffs Office, the Broward school district and Henderson Behavioral Health, one of the largest mental health providers in the county  that Cruz was in crisis and posed a potential danger to himself and others.

Every single red flag was being thrown up by this kid, four days after his 18th birthday, and nothing was done to help him, said Chief Assistant Public Defender Gordon Weekes. This community has been devastated. The system didnt only fail him, it failed the entire community.

McMahon, Hobbs and OMatz write for the Sun-Sentinel.The verdict of more than $37 million won by the family of Korryn Gaines, who was shot and killed by police two years ago, is one of the largest ever against law enforcement officers in Maryland.

But legal experts question whether her family will actually see all that money. Marylands cap on local governments liabilities in such cases  and the propensity of judges to lower large awards on appeal  make it unlikely Gaines relatives and her young son, Kodi, will see the full amounts.

While thats a tremendous verdict, its certainly going to be subjected to challenges left and right, said attorney Andrew G. Slutkin, who was not involved in the Gaines case, but is regularly involved in large civil claims cases.

This will be litigated for years, Slutkin said. Its going to be subjected to many motions in the trial court and the appellate courts as well.

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The 23-year-old Gaines was shot and killed in her home in Randallstown, an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, in August 2016 after a six-hour standoff with police. Kodi  who was 5 at the time  was struck by gunfire twice, in the face and the elbow.

A jury of six women found that the first shot from the police officer who fired at Gaines was not reasonable, and therefore violated her and her sons civil rights under state and federal statutes. The jury on Friday awarded more than $32 million in damages to Kodi, $4.5 million for his sister, Karsyn, and smaller amounts to other family members.

However, the Local Government Tort Claims Act, which stems from a law enacted in the 1980s, generally limits a local governments payout in a lawsuit to $400,000 per plaintiff, or $800,000 for claims connected to a single incident.

Even so, Baltimore County could be on the hook for more, experts said, because the jury found the officer who shot and killed Gaines violated her and her sons federal constitutional rights, the penalties for which are not capped by state law.

Youre starting at least at $800,000 and it could be more if the constitutional claims survive, he said.

A lot of these jurisdictions have become emboldened by the cap, Pettit said. They dont think they have real exposure. If these jurisdictions had to pay out these large amounts of money, these police brutality cases would go away very, very quickly.

Pettit won the largest jury award in Maryland history against a law enforcement officer in 2004  a $105-million civil verdict against former Baltimore Police Officer Rodney Price, who killed a man he believed was having an affair with his wife.

But a judge reduced that to about $27 million, and Marylands Court of Special Appeals ruled in 2006 that Price was not acting within the scope of his employment and therefore Baltimores government was not responsible for paying anything at all.

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Plaintiffs have had a hard time collecting other large awards against police.

In 2006, a Baltimore Circuit Court jury awarded $44 million to Albert Mosley because of a 2003 encounter with an officer inside a city jail cell that left Mosley a quadriplegic.

Former Baltimore City Solicitor George Nilson said the city refused to pay the multimillion-dollar verdict in the case  arguing it wasnt responsible for covering awards against police officers who were found to have acted with malice  and eventually the plaintiffs lawyers agreed to a $1-million payout.

Regarding the Gaines case, Nilson said: Any award against the county would be subject to the state cap.

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Baltimore County government attorney Mike Field issued a statement after Fridays verdict, saying the county is reviewing its options in the Gaines case, including an appeal.

Even so, several legal observers marveled at the size of the award given Baltimore County juries reputation as more conservative and pro-police than those in Baltimore City.

The last police brutality case they tried in Baltimore County, they had video of an officer kicking a man in the face, said lawyer John B. Bratt. The jury acquitted him and waited afterward to thank him for his service. As a general matter, Ive always considered Baltimore County to be one of the most conservative venues in this state.

Attorney Andy Alperstein, who was not involved with the case, called the award a tremendously large judgment.

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Traditionally country jurors are pretty conservative and pro-police, but in this case you have a sympathetic loss of life, he said. It can pull anybodys heartstrings.

He anticipated a flurry of post-trial motions by the county in the next couple of weeks to reduce the judgment.

If they did not succeed in post-trial motions, the county could then appeal to the Court of Appeals, Alperstein said.

The county is far away from writing a $37-million check, he said.

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Broadwater and Anderson write for the Baltimore Sun.Before Friday, when special counsel Robert S. Mueller III handed down a damning indictment against Russians for 2016 election meddling, it was much easier for President Trump to dismiss the entire inquiry as a Democratic hoax and witch hunt.

Trump had long sought to discredit claims of Russian interference, suggesting that email hacks of the Democratic National Committee might instead have been the Chinese, North Korea or a even a hacker sitting in his bedroom.

But Muellers steady, relentless probe is complicating Trumps efforts to spin the Russia debate, cutting off some of his favorite lines of defense and forcing him to adjust his attacks.

Those difficulties were apparent in a series of 15 tweets over a 19-hour period late Saturday and early Sunday  an unusual outburst for even this president. In one, Trump attempted to conflate the Mueller probe with the FBIs failure to act on warnings about the Florida school massacre shooter.

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Trump tweeted that it was very sad that the FBI missed clues from accused gunman Nikolas Cruz because, in his view, the agency was preoccupied with the Russia probe. He provided no evidence to back up the assertion and critics said the assertion was baseless.

This is not acceptable, Trump tweeted from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!

In other tweets, Trump seemed to be scrambling to rewrite his past statements and parse his positions  acknowledging Russian meddling, but insisting, without evidence, it didnt affect the outcome of the presidential race or include any collusion with his campaign.

I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, Trump claimed, ignoring his own repeated past assertions.

Later, he tweeted that Russians are laughing their asses off in Moscow because they had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in sowing discord in the U.S.

In doing do, Trump seemed to again acknowledge Russian interference, but suggested that U.S. actions to investigate the activity were weakening the nation.

The indictment handed down by Mueller accused 13 Russians and three Russian companies of orchestrating an elaborate, secret campaign using social media to undermine the Hillary Clinton candidacy while promoting Trump.

In addition to forcing Trump into some untenable positions, the latest indictments also make it much more difficult for Trump to shut down the probe as a waste of time or money, by firing Mueller or Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, as some reporting has suggested the president has wanted to do.

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And it raises new questions about Trumps steadfast refusal to take any action against Russia as a result of the meddling. Since before taking office, he has refused to criticize President Vladimir Putin or fully enact sanctions against Russia that were approved almost unanimously by Congress as punishment for its interference.

All major U.S. intelligence agencies are warning that Russians will interfere in the upcoming midterm vote.

Instead of focusing on Muellers findings about how Russians interfered in the election, Trump has emphasized that the indictments Friday did not specifically target his campaign for criminal wrongdoing.

This is a president who claims vindication anytime someone sneezes, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee that is also investigating Russian activities, said Sunday on CNN.

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Trump also took a swipe at his own national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, who on Saturday said the indictment proved that Russian meddling was beyond dispute.

General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians, Trump tweeted, before launching into his familiar accusation that it was actually Clinton who colluded with the Russians.

McMaster spoke at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, which was also attended by senior Russian officials, who scoffed at the Mueller indictment as blabber and fantasy  a characterization repeated by Trump surrogates on Fox News Channel on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, a frequent critic of Trump, said Sunday that although the FBI made a terrible mistake in dropping the ball on Cruz, it was absurd to link that to the Russian investigation. He was speaking on CNNs State of the Union.

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Numerous Republican and Democratic lawmakers spoke out Sunday to criticize Trump for mixing the issues and for continuing to fail to address the core problem of Russian meddling.

Theyre going to try it again, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on CBS News Face the Nation, referring to Russian operatives. Russia is not our friend, he added, saying that the government of Putin is trying to subvert our democracy.

Americans  not Democrats or Republicans  are the victims, Gowdy said.

Putin is not going to stop until we stop him, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said on the same program.

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Coons called for a wider offensive against Russian meddling that involves not only Congress but European allies who also have found Moscow attempting to tamper with their elections. He lamented a lack of leadership at the top.

Why is President Trump failing to act to protect our democracy? he said.

Conservative Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) was more supportive of Trump, suggesting the still-uncompleted Mueller investigation has not revealed evidence that the outcome of the 2016 election was changed by the Russian efforts.

But, he added, theres no question Russians have done all they can to meddle in our elections.

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Several law enforcement experts also criticized Trumps effort to blame the FBIs work on Russia interference for its failure to stop Cruz.

This just seems to be another attempt by President Trump to distract the public from the serious Russian threat to U.S. elections and to undermine the Mueller probe and the FBI, Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond Law School, said in an email. His comment also apparently is an effort to capitalize on a tragedy rather than do the hard work of finding effective remedies for gun violence.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson

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UPDATES:

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with more analysis and reaction.

8:45 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from Rep. Trey Gowdy and Sens.Chris Coons and Tim Scott.

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This article was originally published at 7:10 a.m.How do you like your cup of cancer in the morning? I take mine with fake sugar and skim milk. Lame, I know. But theres no accounting for taste in carcinogens. Or, in this case, coffee.

Youve probably seen the bemused headlines: Coffee in California may soon come with a spoonful of cancer warnings. Theres wacky California, doing its liberalism-through-regulation schtick again.

At issue is a lawsuit brought by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics against coffee purveyors such as Starbucks for not warning consumers about a potential carcinogen in their product. Although the suit was first filed in 2010, a ruling from the Los Angeles County Superior Court is expected soon

The alleged culprit is acrylamide, a compound formed when coffee beans are roasted. Under Proposition 65, passed in 1986, any company of more than 10 employees has to warn its customers about the presence of one of nearly 900 toxins on a state list. Acrylamide is on that list. Yet the states leading purveyors of caffeine failed to disclose that fact. That omission could cost them millions in penalties and fees.

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But is coffee-based acrylamide really a threat to public health  possibly a major one, given that were a nation of caffeine junkies?

Coffee is connected to cancer development by the fact that coffee is sometimes drunk by living people and only living people develop cancer, said Robert A. Weinberg, an oncologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I took that as a no.

Kathryn M. Wilson agreed. A cancer epidemiologist at Harvard University, she has studied the effects of acrylamide on the human body. I think the evidence that acrylamide makes a difference for human cancer risk is pretty weak, she said. Wilson explained that studies connecting acrylamide to ovarian or endometrial cancer for women were based on questionnaires about how often the subjects consumed coffee. The link to ovarian cancer was discounted through subsequent research based on blood analysis.

A label isnt going to reduce the fundamental, frustrating uncertainty inherent in modern life.

In 2016, the World Health Organization declared that there was inadequate evidence for the carcinogenicity of coffee drinking, dropping a previous designation of possible carcinogenicity.

This whole thing kind of bums me out, Wilson confessed. Its a somewhat outdated and reductionist approach to nutrition. As a chemical solution, coffee is a complex brew (sorry) of about 1,500 compounds, and maybe 50 times that much if youre drinking a pumpkin spice latte. In other words, nobody is serving you a cup full of acrylamide. Its a lot more helpful to look at coffee as a food, Wilson said. And its a food, she pointed out, that is the main source of antioxidants for many people. Coffee has also been shown to lower the risk of liver cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

Yet fears persist. As a society we have come to distrust expertise, allowing our beliefs, however suspect, primacy over the consensus of elites. And the internet only nurses our private paranoias, whether of chemicals or immigrants. The truth is always out there, on 4chan or Reddit, where brave souls will tell you what neither the Central Intelligence Agency nor the National Institutes of Health dare admit.

Californias regulatory burden is also to blame. Prop. 65, or the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, was billed as a way to warn residents if they were in danger of chemical exposure. The laws supporters failed to account for the fact that we rely on approximately 80,000 chemicals in our daily lives, making complete avoidance of potential toxins impossible. Sometimes, as with the lead-tainted water supply in Flint, Mich., exposure is dangerous and even criminal. In most cases, it is neither, merely the necessary consequence of modernity.

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The Prop. 65 warnings are obviously well-meaning, and just as obviously misguided. I remember noticing one in a parking garage during my first visit to the state. It was outrageously useless. What were people supposed to do, not park their cars? Same with Prop. 65 warnings in elevators, at airports, in public spaces, which render one helpless in the face of what appears to be a carcinogenic assault.

The states Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment recognizes that theres a problem with Prop. 65  what agency spokesman Sam Delson called overwarning. In fact, come August, Prop. 65 warnings will have to more closely adhere to a clear and reasonable standard, informing people instead of merely frightening them. Delson said the new warnings will have to name the type of hazard and at least one specific chemical.

But better signage wont stop lawyers such as Raphael Metzger, who brought the Council for Education and Research on Toxics lawsuit. Although Metzger didnt answer multiple requests for comment, he has previously said that he likes coffee  good to know  and merely wants his acrylamide-free. (In case you share his concerns: Darker roasts have less acrylamide.) Several coffee companies have already settled. Others fight on, knowing that a Prop. 65 warning would be an expensive new cost of doing business in California. It would be a bummer too.

I want to believe Metzger is suing for the right reasons, but he has given little cause for confidence, playing right into the Republican caricature of the greedy torts attorney.

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Nathan A. Schachtman, a Manhattan lawyer specializing in health-effect claims, argues that the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a supposed nonprofit is, in effect, nonexistent. Metzger is the only officer. CERT shares the address of Metzgers law firm in Long Beach.

I am not aware of any educational or research activities of CERT, Schachtman wrote in an email, but I am aware that CERT has sued in its own name, in several cases, in California. Even if CERT does not itself profit from these lawsuits, its counsel and alter ego would appear to do so.

Mr. Metzgers practice of filing lawsuits and amicus briefs on behalf of an organization that sounds like a public-interest advocacy group, when the group, CERT, is Metzger himself seems deceptive, and is certainly lacking in transparency, Schachtman added.

Whether or not Metzger is a pure-of-heart crusader, he has inadvertently highlighted our confused approach to public health. In a society in which individual liberty is sacrosanct, the consumer is generally free to make his or her own decisions. But weve never really decided how much government should qualify that choice. If we need warnings about nicotine, then why not sugar? For that matter, why doesnt the federal government simply tell corporations what they can and cant market to the public?

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Wilson, the Harvard epidemiologist, understands the craze to label. If you think cancer is due to these chemicals you can label and avoid, thats comforting, she said. But it is also delusive. A label isnt going to reduce the fundamental, frustrating uncertainty inherent in modern life. If you find that disturbing, you can always stop drinking coffee and, just to be safe, move to a cabin in Siskiyou County while youre at it. No pesticides or electromagnetic frequencies will reach you there. But you will have to do something about the mountain lions and bears.

Alexander Nazaryan is a senior writer for Newsweek covering national affairs.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookTo the editor: I have not read Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatts book, How Democracies Die, so maybe this following issue is discussed in their book. (Trump attacks on Russia investigation threaten U.S. democracy, authors say, Feb. 6)

President Trumps most basic assault on our democratic institutions is his willingness to lie and deny facts. Trump began his political rise by promoting his bigoted birther lie, which taught the future president that he could utter any falsehood and people would believe him and not the facts or the truth.

Trumps ability to convince gullible people to believe his lies ties directly to Trumps demand for personal loyalty. In our democracy, we pledge our allegiance to our Constitution and not to the individual. For Trump, allegiance is owed to him personally. Loyalty to an individual is the hallmark of authoritarianism.

Trumps lies and his demand for personal loyalty are the core threats to our democracy.

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Arch Miller, Arcadia

..

To the editor: As a child growing up in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s, I heard the partys exhortation for Germany to become Deutschland uber alles, which is frighteningly similar to Trumps make America great again.

In that era, Adolf Hitler blamed Germanys condition on being unfairly treated by foreign as well as domestic forces. Today, Trump bemoans the trade practices of China and other countries, and he targets immigrants entering this country through the diversity visa lottery and so-called chain migration. He is especially harsh on immigrants who come from Africa and Latin America.

Trumps exhortations attack our democratic traditions.

Franz Berghammer, Huntington Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookAllies balk at Trump administration bid to block Chinese firm from cutting-edge telecom markets By David S. Cloud Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administrations call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart Chinas involvement in future mobile networks. Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say. The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so. Read More Facebook

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Confucius Institutes: Do they improve U.S.-China ties or harbor spies? By Don Lee Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Marylands Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from Chinas central government. But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they werent looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004. American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings  one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition. Read More Facebook

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Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook

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U.S. policy toward China shifts from engagement to confrontation By David S. Cloud For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein. As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tungs old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China. Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead. Read More Facebook

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Mnuchins attempt to calm markets backfires as Trump takes another shot at the Federal Reserve By Jim Puzzanghera An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy. Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economys only problem and that it didnt have a feel for the market. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who cant score because he has no touch -- he cant putt! Trump said on Twitter. Read More Facebook

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He speaks to Democratic hearts. But is Beto ORourke a serious White House contender? By Mark Z. Barabak Hes a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect  despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does. Beto ORourke suggests the will-he-or-wont-he speculation is something he himself cant quite fathom. I think thats a great question, he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. I ask that question myself. Read More Facebook

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Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Elizabeth Dwoskin Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Associated Press) Months after President Trump took office, Russias disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there. The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram  which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal  claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with radical Islamic groups. Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday. Read more Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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President Trump announces Mick Mulvaney as acting White House chief of staff By Associated Press President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year. I am pleased to announce that Mick Mulvaney, Director of the Office of Management & Budget, will be named Acting White House Chief of Staff, replacing General John Kelly, who has served our Country with distinction. Mick has done an outstanding job while in the Administration....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2018 Facebook

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It aint over when its over: In Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere, losers seek to undermine election results By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort. In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do. In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance. Read More Facebook

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New CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger says she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she wont be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position. To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agencys creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Kraningers declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency. Read More Facebook

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Trumps pick for chief of staff, Nick Ayers, out of running By Associated Press Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press) President Trumps top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role. Thats according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. Ayers is Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff. The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment. The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration. Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year. Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause.  #Georgia  Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) December 9, 2018 Facebook

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U.S. hiring slows to 155,000 jobs, unemployment rate holds at 3.7% By Jim Puzzanghera Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates. U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from Octobers strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday. Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last years average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth. Read More Facebook

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Trump is expected to pick State Department spokeswoman for U.N. ambassador By Associated Press Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Two administration officials confirmed Trumps plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trumps announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year. Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past. Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson. Facebook

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Senate confirms new consumer financial protection chief: Kathy Kraninger, protege of industry-friendly Mick Mulvaney By Jim Puzzanghera The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year. Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it. Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms. Read More Facebook

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Shutdown postponed by two weeks under plan approved by Congress By Erik Wasson Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trumps border wall is a waste of money. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border. The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated hell sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush. The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall. Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesnt get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for border security, because the wall is a waste of money. The presidents demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence. Most of the U.S. governments $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security. Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is basically done. Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trumps $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that. Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday. The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21. Facebook

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Bipartisan Senate group wants to formally blame Saudi crown prince for journalists killing By Karoun Demirjian Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. (Associated Press) A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same. This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe. The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agencys assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIAs findings. You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi, Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being good soldiers and at worst were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia for presenting the evidence of Mohammeds involvement as inconclusive. The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggis murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinsteins resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis killing. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggis death. So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggis killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution  something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners. But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will. Demirjian reports for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Los Angeles County offices and U.S. Postal Service closed Wednesday in honor of George H.W. Bush By Brian Park The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images) The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush. All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited. In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriffs Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments. All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open. Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday. To honor the life and legacy of President Bush, the Postal Service will observe the National Day of Mourning. Learn how Postal operations will be affected. https://t.co/Mffch7bPCh pic.twitter.com/vG46BsIOpm  U.S. Postal Service (@USPS) December 4, 2018 L.A. County offices and libraries will be closed tomorrow (Dec 5) in observance of the #NationalDayOfMourning for President George H. W. Bush.



The Countys Disaster Recovery Centers in Malibu & Agoura Hills will remain open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Sv1J7GoJ7T  Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) December 4, 2018 @LAPublicHealth offices will be closed tomorrow December 5 in observance of the national Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Essential Services including clinics and other services will remain open: https://t.co/tZGoGGHRlg pic.twitter.com/ypXsV6vlYY  LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) December 4, 2018 Facebook

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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to skip 2020 White House race, sources say By Associated Press Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he wont launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run. A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patricks plans was first reported by Politico. Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governors office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election. Earlier this year, some of Patricks supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020. Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states. While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run. Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasnt sure he could stand out in such a large field. Its hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and Im none of those things and Im never going to be any of those things, Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod. Facebook

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Former Trump adviser Roger Stone invokes 5th Amendment right and wont testify before Senate Judiciary Committee By Associated Press Roger Stone in 2017. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he wont provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee. An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committees top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview. Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks plans. In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committees requests were far too overbroad, far too overreaching and far too wide-ranging. Facebook

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Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

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Rebuilding crumbling infrastructure has bipartisan support. But who gets to pay for it? By Jim Puzzanghera The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a childs report card. Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-. The nations overall grade: D+, which translates to being in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards with significant deterioration and a strong risk of failure, according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Read More Facebook

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Trump calls former lawyer Michael Cohen a weak person who is lying By Associated Press President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is lying to get a reduced sentence. The president is reacting to Cohens guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia. During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trumps political message. Cohens lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates. Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Mark Z. Barabak When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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As California Republicans confront a congressional wipeout, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy faces a reckoning By Sarah D. Wire When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment. As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights. Fewer than half will be returning in January. Read More Facebook

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Michael Cohen, President Trumps ex-lawyer, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia By Associated Press Michael Cohen, President Trumps former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trumps behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress. Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document. Read More Facebook

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James Comey says acting Atty. Gen. Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer By John Wagner Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isnt too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trumps acting attorney general. Matthew Whitaker may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump  as recently as Tuesday  continues to call it a witch hunt. I think its a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry, Comey said. The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact. He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and Im sure he doesnt want that, added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar. Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department. Trump has called Whitaker a very smart man. Earlier this year, Trump called Comey an untruthful slime ball. Wagner writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Interior Department watchdog clears Zinke in investigation of Utah national monument By Juliet Eilperin Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) The Interior Departments Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump. In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinkes deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office found no evidence that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinkes recommendation. Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noels property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noels land holdings, but later reversed the plan. We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOIs proposed revisions to the [monuments] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noels financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries, Kendall wrote. Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector generals office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress no sooner than 31 days from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinkes office. The Associated Press first reported the inspector generals conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself. Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noels land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea. Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The inspector generals office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it. Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdogs conclusions. The report shows exactly what the secretarys office has known all along  that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws, she said in an email. This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IGs office. But Kendalls spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time. The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently, DiPaolo added. Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department. Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year. I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest, he said. Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits. Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump advisor Larry Kudlow says China must do more to end trade war By Jim Puzzanghera Larry Kudlow, President Trumps top economic advisor, said Tuesday that Chinas response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers trade relationship has been extremely disappointing but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough. They have to do more. They must do more, Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina. I think the president is exactly right  to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls, Kudlow said. Theyre so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation. Read More Facebook

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Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

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Democrat TJ Cox grabs lead over Republican David Valadao in nations last remaining undecided House race By Maya Sweedler Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the countrys sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide. Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the states recent voting history. On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results. Read More Facebook

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Former CIA director Michael Hayden hospitalized after suffering a stroke By Deanna Paul Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008. (Saul Loeb / Getty Images) Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday. He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful, according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters. Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009. Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trumps campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review. Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post. Facebook

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Trump tells troops hes thankful for what hes done for the U.S. and rails against courts and migrants By Associated Press President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trumps call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays. Its a disgrace, Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas. Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost control on its side. The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops  You really are our heroes, he said  as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him. It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics. You probably see over the news whats happening on our southern border, Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: I dont have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who were letting in. Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was a very big subject for him personally. Weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals, Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, Mr. President, from our perspective on the water  we dont see any issues in terms of trade right now. And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch. I hope that youll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well, he said. The nations doing well economically, better than anybody in the world. He later told reporters, Nobodys done more for the military than me. Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his great family as well as himself. I made a tremendous difference in this country, he said. Facebook

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Trump contradicts CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi killing By Josh Dawsey | Washington Post (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIAs assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had feelings but did not firmly place blame for the death. Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing. He denies it vehemently, Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that maybe he did, maybe he didnt. I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, Trump said. Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame. Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place, the president said. He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, we wouldnt be able to have anyone for an ally. Trumps remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy. Facebook

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Former FBI Director James Comey gets subpoena from House Republicans By Bloomberg Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday. Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat. Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. Im still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a closed door thing because Ive seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Lets have a hearing and invite everyone to see.  James Comey (@Comey) November 22, 2018 Read More Facebook

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Republican David Valadaos lead slips to 447 votes over Democrat TJ Cox in still-undecided Central Valley House race By Mark Z. Barabak Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), right, finds himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox. (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term. But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted. Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since. The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted. Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa. All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016. Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes  he last won reelection by a 14-point margin  suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats. If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January. Facebook

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Trump says no new punishments against Saudi Arabia in Jamal Khashoggi murder By Eli Stokols In this Oct. 25 photo, candles are lit in front of a photo of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Lefteris Pitarakis) President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October. In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIAs reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggis murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul to carry it out. Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff. Facebook

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Sixteen House Democrats vow to oppose Nancy Pelosi as next speaker By Mike DeBonis | Washington Post House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Sixteen House Democrats said Monday that they will vote to deny Rep. Nancy Pelosi another stint as House speaker, a show of defiance that puts her opponents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as their party prepares to take the majority. Their pledge to oppose Pelosi (D-San Francisco), both in an internal caucus election and a Jan. 3 floor vote, delivered in a letter sent to Democratic colleagues, comes as Pelosi has marshaled a legion of supporters on and off Capitol Hill to make her case. But her opponents said Monday they are convinced it is time to select a new leader. We are thankful to Leader Pelosi for her years of service to our Country and to our Caucus, they wrote. However, we also recognize that in this recent election, Democrats ran on and won on a message of change. Pelosi has expressed complete confidence that she will retake the speakers gavel in January  eight years after she lost it following massive Republican gains in the 2010 midterms and 16 years after she was first elevated to the top Democratic leadership post in the House. Come on in, the waters fine, she said Friday about a potential leadership challenge. The signers might not be able to force Pelosi out themselves. The size of the Democratic majority remains in flux, but Democrats have already won 232 seats, according to the Associated Press, with five races still undecided. All those races have Republican incumbents, but the Democratic challenger is ahead in only one of them. If the leads hold in the uncalled races, Democrats would have won 233 seats, a 16-seat majority. That means Pelosi could lose as many as 15 Democratic votes when she stands for election as speaker on Jan. 3. Read More Facebook

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Democratic senators sue over Whitakers appointment as acting attorney general By Associated Press Acting U.S. Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker (Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images) Three Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday arguing that Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and asking a federal judge to remove him. The suit, filed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, argues that Whitakers appointment violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. Whitaker was chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and was elevated to the top job after Sessions was ousted by President Trump on Nov. 7. The Constitutions Appointments Clause requires that the Senate confirm all principal officials before they can serve in their office. The Justice Department released a legal opinion last week that said Whitakers appointment would not violate the clause because he is serving in an acting capacity. The opinion concluded that Whitaker, even without Senate confirmation, may serve in an acting capacity because he has been at the department for more than a year at a sufficiently senior pay level. President Trump is denying senators our constitutional obligation and opportunity to do our job: scrutinizing the nomination of our nations top law enforcement official, Blumenthal said in a statement. The reason is simple: Whitaker would never pass the advice and consent test. In selecting a so-called constitutional nobody and thwarting every senators constitutional duty, Trump leaves us no choice but to seek recourse through the courts. The lawsuit comes days after a Washington lawyer challenged Whitakers appointment in a pending Supreme Court case dealing with gun rights. The attorney, Thomas Goldstein, asked the high court to find that Whitakers appointment is unconstitutional and replace him with Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, the second-ranking Justice Department official, has been confirmed by the Senate and had been overseeing special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker is now overseeing the investigation. The Justice Department issued a statement Monday defending Whitakers appointment as lawful and said it comports with the Appointments Clause, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and legal precedent. There are over 160 instances in American history in which non-Senate confirmed persons performed, on a temporary basis, the duties of a Senate-confirmed position, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. To suggest otherwise is to ignore centuries of practice and precedent. Facebook

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Gov. Rick Scott says Sen. Bill Nelson concedes Florida Senate race By Associated Press Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott speaks with his wife, Ann, by his side at an election watch party in Naples, Fla., on Nov. 7. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott says incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called him to concede defeat in their extremely tight race. Scott issued a statement Sunday saying Nelson graciously conceded their Senate race shortly after the states recount ended. The final results show Scott defeated Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of 8 million cast. Nelson is scheduled to release a videotaped statement later Sunday. The defeat ends Nelsons lengthy political career. The three-term incumbent was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Before that he served six terms in the U.S. House and as state treasurer and insurance commissioner for six years. Scott spent more than $60 million of his own money on ads that portrayed Nelson as out-of-touch and ineffective. Nelson responded by questioning Scotts ethics and saying he would be under the sway of President Trump. Facebook

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Orange County goes blue, as Democrats complete historic sweep of its seven congressional seats By Michael Finnegan Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim on Saturday in the last of Orange Countys undecided House races, giving Democrats a clean sweep of the states six most fiercely fought congressional contests and marking an epochal shift in a region long synonymous with political conservatism. With Cisneros victory, Democrats will constitute the entirety of Orange Countys seven-member congressional delegation, the first time since the 1930s that the birthplace of Richard Nixon, home of John Wayne and spiritual center of the Republican Party will have no GOP representative in the House. Sitting back in the 1960s, I would never have believed this would happen, said Stuart K. Spencer, a party strategist who spent more than half a century ushering Republicans, including President Reagan, into office. Read More Facebook

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Going, going ... with midterm wipeout, California Republican Party drifts closer to irrelevance By Michael Finnegan For a party in freefall the last two decades, California Republicans learned that its possible to plunge even further. The GOP not only lost every statewide office in the midterm election  again, in blowout fashion  but Democrats reestablished their supermajority in Sacramento, allowing them to legislate however they see fit After major defeats in Orange County and the Central Valley, two longtime strongholds, Republicans will have a significantly smaller footprint on Capitol Hill. (Democrats hold both Senate seats.) When the vote-counting is finished, the GOP may not even have enough lawmakers in Californias 53-member House delegation to field a nine-person softball team. Read More Facebook

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Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter says she will support Rep. Nancy Pelosi for speaker By Maya Sweedler Democratic Rep.-elect Katie Porter is congratulated by volunteers at her campaign headquarters in Irvine. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Congresswoman-elect Katie Porter said she plans to support Rep. Nancy Pelosis bid for speaker of the House and will make campaign finance reform her top priority when she enters the chamber in January. Im going to continue to have conversations, but so far I feel like Leader Pelosi is definitely making the things that were a priority to the families that elected me her priorities, including announcing her support for campaign finance reform and anti-corruption as HR1, Porter said in her first public appearance since being declared the winner in Californias 45th Congressional District on Thursday evening. It means a lot to me that she is a Californian. She understands our state, Porter added. When we talk about environmental protections, this is a person who understands as a Californian how fragile our environment is and whats at risk in things like drilling off our coasts. Porter, a law professor at UC Irvine, defeated two-term Republican Rep. Mimi Walters. The 45th District, covering inland Orange County, has never been represented by a Democrat. Porter became the third Democrat to claim a Republican-held seat in Orange County, following the victories of Harley Rouda in the 48th District and Mike Levin in the 49th. A fourth, Gil Cisneros, is running slightly ahead of his Republican opponent in the race for the open seat in the 39th District, which extends into Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. Porter attributed the massive political shift in the county, for decades a conservative stronghold, to increased levels of political engagement. Folks here care about education, they care about the environment, they believe climate change is real, they want healthcare that protects preexisting conditions, they want a tax system that doesnt punish California, they want our schools and places of worship to be safe from gun violence, she said. Those are the issues we campaigned on, and to the extent that Donald Trump and Mimi Walters were on the wrong side of those issues, the voters have made clear what direction they want us to go. Porter was flying back from the East Coast when her race was called, she said. She turned on her phone to find 167 text messages from friends and supporters. Among them was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who was one of Porters teachers in law school and with whom she has remained close. The pair spoke via FaceTime this morning, she said. Facebook

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Bitter battle for Senate seat in Florida goes to hand recount By Associated Press Employees look through damaged ballots during a recount Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press) Floridas acrimonious battle for the U.S. Senate headed Thursday to a legally required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by less than 13,000 votes. But the highly watched contest for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appeared to be over, with a machine recount showing DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race. Gillum, who conceded the contest on election night only to retract his concession later, said in a statement that it is not over until every legally casted vote is counted. The recount so far has been fraught with problems. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. A federal judge rejected a request to extend the recount deadline. We gave a heroic effort, said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher. If the county had three or four more hours, it would have made the deadline to recount ballots in the Senate race, she said. Meanwhile, election officials in another urban county in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. Media in South Florida reported that Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes. Counties were ordered last weekend to do a machine recount of three statewide races because the margins were so tight. The next stage is a manual review of ballots that were not counted by machines to see whether there is a way to figure out voter intent. Scott called on Nelson to end the recount battle. Its time for Nelson to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes  which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served, the governor said in a statement. The recount has triggered multiple lawsuits, many of them filed by Nelson and Democrats. The legal battles drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who slammed the state for repeatedly failing to anticipate election problems. He also said the state law on recounts appears to violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that decided the presidency in 2000. We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this, Walker said during a morning hearing. Walker vented his anger at state lawmakers and Palm Beach County officials, saying they should have made sure they had enough equipment in place to handle this kind of a recount. But he said he could not extend the recount deadline because he did not know when Palm Beach County would finish its work. This court must be able to craft a remedy with knowledge that it will not prove futile, Walker wrote in his ruling turning down the request from Democrats. It cannot do so on this record. This court does not and will not fashion a remedy in the dark. The overarching problem was created by the Florida Legislature, which Walker said passed a recount law that appears to run afoul of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore decision by locking in procedures that do not allow for potential problems. A total of six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court in Tallahassee as well at least one lawsuit filed in state court. Walker also ordered that voters be given until 5 p.m. Saturday to show a valid identification and fix their ballots if they have not been counted due to mismatched signatures. Republicans appealed the ruling, but an appeals court turned down the request. State officials testified that nearly 4,000 mailed-in ballots were set aside because local officials decided the signatures on the envelopes did not match the signatures on file. If those voters can prove their identity, their votes will be counted and included in final official returns due from each county by noon Sunday. Walker was asked by Democrats to require local officials to provide a list of people whose ballots were rejected. But the judge appointed by President Obama refused the request, calling it inappropriate. Under state law, a hand review is required with races that have a margin of 0.25 percentage points or less. A state website put the unofficial results showing Scott ahead of Nelson by 0.15 percentage points. The margin between DeSantis and Gillum was at 0.41 points. The margin between Scott and Nelson had not changed much in the last few days, conceded Marc Elias, an attorney working for Nelsons campaign. But he said that he expected the vote tally to shrink due to the hand recount and the ruling on signatures. The developments fueled frustrations among Democrats and Republicans alike. Democrats want state officials to do whatever it takes to make sure every eligible vote is counted. Republicans, including President Trump, have argued without evidence that voter fraud threatens to steal races from the GOP. Facebook

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Democrat Gil Cisneros pulls ahead of Republican Young Kim as more votes are tallied in Orange and San Bernardino counties By Michael Finnegan Congressional candidate Gil Cisneros (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Democrat Gil Cisneros pulled ahead of Republican Young Kim in one of Californias undecided congressional races Thursday, an ominous sign for a GOP already reeling from its loss of four House seats in the state. In updated vote counts released by the registrars for Orange and San Bernardino counties, Kim fell 941 votes behind Cisneros in the contest to succeed Republican Rep. Ed Royce in Californias 39th Congressional District. The 39th straddles Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties. In another unresolved House race, Democrat Katie Porter pulled further ahead of Republican incumbent Mimi Walters in the 45th District, which includes Mission Viejo, Tustin, Irvine, Rancho Santa Margarita and Laguna Hills. Porter, a consumer attorney and UC Irvine law professor, is now 6,203 votes ahead. The Nov. 6 midterm election has been devastating to Republicans in California. If Cisneros and Porter win, the party will have lost six of its 14 House seats in the state, essentially a wipeout in every contest that both parties spent heavily to win. The three Republicans already bounced from Congress are Reps. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, Steve Knight of Palmdale and Jeff Denham of Turlock in the San Joaquin Valley. Democrat Mike Levin won the seat of retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista in the fourth district flipped so far. Facebook

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Florida Senate race likely headed to second recount By Associated Press A Palm Beach County Sheriffs deputy walks past boxes of ballots before a recount on Nov. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Wilfredo Lee) Unofficial Florida election results show that the governors race seems to be settled after a machine recount but the U.S. Senate race is likely headed to a hand recount. Republican Ron DeSantis is virtually assured of winning the nationally watched governors race over Democrat Andrew Gillum. Florida finished a machine recount Thursday that showed Gillum without enough votes to force a manual recount. Unofficial results posted on a state website show the margin between U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott is still thin enough to trigger a second review. State law requires a hand recount of races with a margin of 0.25 percentage point or less. Counties have until Sunday to inspect the ballots that did not record a vote when put through the machines. Those ballots are re-examined to see whether the voter skipped the race or marked the ballot in a way that the machines cannot read but can be deciphered. The election will be certified Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Pelosi says she has the votes to become the next House speaker By John Wagner Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi speaks during a news conference in Washington on Nov. 14. (Susan Walsh) House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi insisted Thursday that she has the votes to become the chambers speaker despite solid opposition from more than a dozen Democrats who want fresh leadership when the party takes control next year. I have overwhelming support in my caucus to be speaker of the House, the San Francisco lawmaker told reporters. I happen to think at this point, Im the best person for that. A vote within the Democratic caucus is scheduled for Nov. 28. The full House votes on Jan. 3 to elect a new speaker. During her remarks, Pelosi touted the size of the Democratic victory in the midterms, which she called almost a tsunami. With a few races still to be decided, Democrats are poised to pick up close to 40 seats in the chamber. Pelosi called that the biggest victory for the Democrats since 1974, when the Watergate babies came in. Pelosis comments come as she faces solid opposition from at least 17 Democrats, setting the stage for a battle over who will ascend to one of the most powerful positions in Washington. After a campaign in which some Democrats prevailed in competitive districts by promising to oppose her, a coalition of incumbents and newly elected members has denied her a smooth path to the speakership. The defections, if they stand, would leave Pelosi, who has led the Democrats for more than 15 years, several votes short of the 218 she would need when the full House votes for speaker Jan. 3. However, no Democrat has stepped forward to run against her for a job she held from 2007 through 2010. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday that shes being encouraged to stand for speaker if Pelosi doesnt have the votes. In an interview with the Washington Post on Thursday, she said she has been overwhelmed by the support from many of her colleagues for her possible entry into the race for House speaker. Over the last 12 hours, Ive been overwhelmed by the amount of support Ive received, Fudge said, adding that there are probably closer to 30" Democrats who have privately signaled that they are willing to oppose Pelosi. Things could change rapidly, Fudge said. Fudge, 66, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she is building a diverse coalition as she mulls a speaker run, talking with allies in the caucus, moderate Democrats and newly elected members. To this point, Pelosi has enjoyed the strong backing of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Thursday, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), one of its members, wrote a letter to colleagues praising her insight, fortitude and strategic thinking and urging support for her speakership bid. Former Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., an African American who is contemplating a 2020 presidential bid, also voiced support for Pelosi, praising her in a tweet as an architect of the recent midterm success. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a leader of the resistance to Pelosi, said during an interview on CNN on Thursday that Fudge is the kind of new leader that we need in this party. Shes in touch with middle America. She understands what the American people want. Shes a next-generation leader that people will look to and say, Thats the future of our party, thats the future of our country, and thats exactly the kind of leader that I want to see as our next speaker. Wagner reports for the Washington Post. The Posts Robert Costa, Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis, Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck contributed to this report. Facebook

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GOP Rep. Jeff Denham concedes to Democrat Josh Harder in Central Valley race By Maya Sweedler Rep. Jeff Denham (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) Republican Rep. Jeff Denham has conceded to Democrat Josh Harder in the race to represent Californias 10th Congressional District in the San Joaquin Valley. It has been an absolute honor to serve our community and represent the Central Valley in Congress over the past eight years, the 51-year-old congressman said. The enormity of the responsibility was never lost on me. My wife Sonia and I look forward to starting the next chapter of our lives. Harder said he had spoken with Denham and the two were committed to a productive transition. Denham, an Air Force veteran, previously represented the region in the state Senate for eight years and founded a company specializing in plastic packaging used in agriculture. While a member of Congress, he sat on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture committees. First-time candidate Harder was born and raised in the district. After graduating from Stanford University, he served as vice president of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Since moving back, he has been teaching at Modesto Junior College. Denhams House seat is one of four in California that Republicans lost in the Nov. 6 election, with two contests in Orange County still undecided as of Thursday morning. Jeff Denham called me this morning and we had a very productive conversation. I'm honored that I've been chosen to serve our community in Congress, and we're both looking forward to a productive transition that best serves the people of District 10.  Josh Harder (@JoshHarder) November 14, 2018 Facebook

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Democrat Katie Porter now nearly 3,800 votes ahead of GOP Rep. Mimi Walters By Maya Sweedler Rep. Mimi Walters thanks all of her supporters as she watches election results in Irvine on Nov. 7, 2018. (Alex Gallardo / Associated Press) Democrat Katie Porter opened a 3,797-vote lead Wednesday over Republican Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange Countys 45th Congressional District. In the neighboring 39th, Democrat Gil Cisneros has nearly tied the race against Republican Young Kim. Cisneros now trails Kim by a razor-thin margin of 122 votes. The 39th District straddles Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties; Wednesdays updated ballot counts came from the latter two. There are more than 202,000 ballots left to count in Orange County, which includes parts of seven congressional districts. The 45th is entirely in inland Orange County. In California, the ballots counted first tend to lean Republican and those tallied later skew Democratic. In the Central Valleys 21st Congressional District, Democratic challenger TJ Cox has pulled within 2 percentage points of Rep. David Valadao, who is serving his third term. The Associated Press had projected a win for Valadao on election night, but his 4,839-vote advantage has shrunk to 2,090. Back in CA-21, Valadao (R) wins a batch of ballots from his stronghold in Kings Co., but by a considerably smaller margin (14 points) than his previous ~30-point margin in the county. We're moving to Lean R from Likely R; today a bit scary for Valadao.https://t.co/WqJVUVkqGW  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) November 15, 2018 A spokesman for Valadao told the Fresno Bee that the changes were expected and that [s]tatistically, David Valadao has won this race. Democrats in California have already flipped four House seats, defeating three Republican incumbents and claiming an open seat previously held by the GOP. Reps. Steve Knight of Palmdale, Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Jeff Denham of Turlock have already lost their races, and retiring Rep. Darrell Issas San Diego County seat was claimed by Democrat Mike Levin. Facebook

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Trump aide departs West Wing after rebuke from Melania Trump By Associated Press First Lady Melania Trump. (Alain Jocard / AFP-Getty Images) Deputy national security advisor Mira Ricardel is leaving the White House, one day after First Lady Melania Trumps office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. No replacement was named. Aides said Ricardel clashed with the first ladys staff over her visit to Africa last month. Yet it is highly unusual for a first lady or her office to weigh in on personnel matters, especially the presidents national security staff. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Ricardel would have a new role in the administration. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, the first ladys spokeswoman, released a statement saying, It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House. President Trumps White House has set records for administration turnover. Ricardel was the third person to hold the post under Trump. An ally of national security advisor John Bolton, Ricardel began her service in the Trump administration as associate director in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, then moved to the Commerce Department last year. Bolton brought her into the West Wing shortly after taking the job in April. He is traveling in Asia this week alongside Vice President Mike Pence. Facebook

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Race for House Minority Leader is Kevin McCarthys to lose By Associated Press (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is running to take over next years shrunken caucus in closed-door elections that will set the tone for the new Congress. The race for minority leader is McCarthys to lose Wednesday. But the California Republican, who is an ally of President Trump, must fend off a challenge from conservative Jim Jordan of Ohio. Jordan is a leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The two encountered questions and finger-pointing during a private meeting with lawmakers Tuesday night as the GOP sorted through the midterm defeat that put Democrats in the majority next year. Elections Wednesday will also determine party leadership in the Senate. Voting for the biggest race, Nancy Pelosis bid to return as the Democrats nominee for speaker, is later this month. Read More Facebook

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Melania Trump calls for the firing of deputy national security advisor By Justin Sink First Lady Melania Trump arrives at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris on Nov. 11. (Alain Jocard / AFP/Getty Images ) First Lady Melania Trumps office said she wants Mira Ricardel, the deputy national security advisor, ousted from the White House. It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House, Trumps spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardels removal. Ricardel is the top deputy to national security advisor John Bolton. She drew the first ladys wrath after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trumps trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said. Grishams statement comes as several media outlets have reported that President Trump is considering a broader shakeup of his administration, including ousting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Sink and Jacobs report for Bloomberg. Read More Facebook

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CNN sues Trump over the suspension of Jim Acostas White House press credentials By Jim Puzzanghera CNN said Tuesday that it is suing President Trump and other administration officials over the decision to suspend the White House press credentials of correspondent Jim Acosta after a conflict at a news conference last week. The suit, to be filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, escalates an ongoing battle between Trump and the cable news outlet that he frequently accuses of disseminating fake news for its aggressive coverage of him and his administration. The wrongful revocation of these credentials violates CNN and Acostas 1st Amendment rights of freedom of the press, and their 5th Amendment rights to due process, CNN said in a written statement. If left unchallenged, the actions of the White House would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials. Read More Facebook

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Maxine Waters to take aim at Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank as new head of House Financial Services Committee By Jim Puzzanghera Rep. Maxine Waters plans to zero in on two big banks  Wells Fargo & Co. and Deutsche Bank  when she becomes head of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. The Los Angeles congresswoman, now the committees top Democrat, is widely expected to gain the gavel after her party won control of the House in last weeks elections. While Waters has outlined a wide-ranging agenda, she said her focus on bank oversight will target two large institutions she has been tangling with for a while  including one, Deutsche Bank, that spills into her bitter feud with President Trump. With Trump in the White House, I know that our fight for Americas consumers and investors will continue to be challenging. But I am more than up to that fight, Waters wrote in a letter last week to her Democratic colleagues on the committee that was obtained by The Times. Read More Facebook

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Heres how a controversial voting system will decide a congressional race in Maine By Kurtis Lee For the first time in U.S. history, a controversial voting system known as ranked choice is being used to decide a federal election. Its happening in Maine, which adopted the system in 2016. Rather than marking a single candidate, each voter ranks them all, assigning a first-place vote, a second-place vote and so on down the ballot. Read More Facebook

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ACLU files suit to stop Trumps new asylum limits By Associated Press A group of Central American migrants march to the office of the U.N.'s humans rights body in Mexico City on Nov. 8. (Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to President Trumps order denying asylum to migrants if they cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco and argues the new rules are against the law. Attorney Lee Gelernt said the regulations will put families in danger. The suit seeks to declare the regulations invalid and wants a judge to stop the rules from going into effect while the litigation is pending. The new rules were spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly moving north on foot, but officials say they will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally. Officials say about 70,000 people who enter the country illegally claim asylum. The order invoked the same national security powers Trump used to push through his travel ban. Read More Facebook

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Trump on new acting AG: I dont know Matt Whitaker By Associated Press President Trump talks with reporters before departing for France on the South Lawn of the White House on Nov. 9. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump is moving to distance himself from Matthew Whitaker as he faces criticism over his choice for acting attorney general. Trump told reporters Friday that I dont know Matt Whitaker and said he didnt speak with Whitaker about special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigation. Whitaker has made public comments critical of Muellers investigation, and critics have called on Whitaker to recuse himself from oversight of the inquiry. Under former Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the investigation was overseen by Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. Of the scrutiny Whitaker is facing, Trump said: Its a shame that no matter who I put in they go after. He also called Whitaker a very highly respected man. Whitaker was Sessions chief of staff before Trump made him Sessions interim replacement. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg out of hospital after fall By Associated Press The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is home after being released from the hospital. She had been admitted for treatment and observation after fracturing three ribs in a fall. The court said Ginsburg was released Friday. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg says she is doing well and working from home. The court had previously said the justice fell in her office at the court on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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Gun-control activist Lucy McBath defeats GOP Rep. Karen Handel in Georgia By Associated Press Lucy McBath speaks during a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Nov. 2 at Morehouse College in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP) Democratic gun-control activist Lucy McBath has defeated Republican Rep. Karen Handel of Georgia in a suburban congressional district long considered safe for the GOP. Handel had to seek reelection after winning her seat last year in a close special election race against Democrat Jon Ossoff. McBath became an advocate for stricter gun laws after her son, Jordan Davis, was fatally shot at a Florida gas station in 2012 by a man angry over loud music the teenager and his friends were playing in a car. McBaths margin of victory was narrow enough for Handel to have requested a recount. The Associated Press declared McBath the winner Thursday after Handel conceded. Handel conceded in a statement Thursday morning, stating that after reviewing all of the election data, its clear she came up a bit short in Tuesdays vote. Handel congratulated McBath, offering good thoughts and much prayer for the journey that lies ahead for her. McBath, who is African American, declared victory Wednesday. Facebook

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall By Associated Press Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening. Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014. Facebook

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White House suspends press pass of CNNs Jim Acosta after heated exchange with Trump By Associated Press The White House on Wednesday suspended the press pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta after he and President Trump had a heated confrontation during a news conference. They began sparring after Acosta asked Trump about the caravan of migrants heading from Latin America to the southern U.S. border. When Acosta tried to follow up with another question, Trump said, Thats enough! and a female White House aide unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone from Acosta. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement accusing Acosta of placing his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern, calling it absolutely unacceptable. The interaction between Acosta and the intern was brief, and Acosta appeared to brush her arm as she reached for the microphone and he tried to hold onto it. Pardon me, maam, he told her. Acosta tweeted that Sanders statement that he put his hands on the aide was a lie. CNN said in a statement that the White House revoked Acostas press pass in retaliation for his challenging questions Wednesday, and the network accused Sanders of lying about Acostas actions. This conduct is absolutely unacceptable. It is also completely disrespectful to the reporters colleagues not to allow them an opportunity to ask a question. President Trump has given the press more access than any President in history.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Contrary to CNNs assertions there is no greater demonstration of the Presidents support for a free press than the event he held today. Only they would attack the President for not supporting a free press in the midst of him taking 68 questions from 35 different reporters...  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 As a result of todays incident, the White House is suspending the hard pass of the reporter involved until further notice.  Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 8, 2018 Sanders provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better, CNN said. Jim Acosta has our full support. Journalists assigned to cover the White House apply for passes that allow them daily access to press areas in the West Wing. White House staffers decide whether journalists are eligible, though the Secret Service determines whether their applications are approved. Facebook

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Trump spars with reporters at post-election news briefing, ordering several to sit down By Associated Press  President Trump assails CNNs Jim Acosta at a White House news conference. President Trump sparred with reporters at his post-election news conference, ordering several to sit down and telling another hes a rude, terrible person. He told another reporter hes not a fan of yours, either. The presidents mood turned sour Wednesday after reporters pressed him on why he referred to a migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. on foot through Mexico as an invasion. Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric against the caravan in the final days of the midterm elections. Trump was also pressed on why his campaign aired an ad featuring a Mexican immigrant convicted of killing American police officers and linking the mans actions to the caravan. Several television networks pulled the ad after airing it or declined to air it at all. Facebook

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Im living one hour at a time at this point By Christine Mai-Duc Republican congressional candidate Young Kim and gubernatorial candidate John Cox campaign in Rowland Heights. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Republican congressional candidate Young Kim greeted gubernatorial candidate John Coxs giant campaign bus, the words HELP IS ON THE WAY emblazoned across it, as it rolled into the parking lot outside her Rowland Heights field office. Standing beside Cox on Saturday, Kim predicted that a string of GOP victories Tuesday would start with voters repealing the gas tax hike. Can you imagine Gavin Newsom being our governor? Can you imagine Gil Cisneros being your representative? Kim asked the crowd, to loud boos and cries of Nooo! The former state assemblywoman who worked for retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) is vying for his seat with Democrat Gil Cisneros. She led the crowd in chants of Enough is enough! and, though short-lived, Drain the swamp! Ive served you in Sacramento and Ive seen dysfunction personally, Kim continued. We cannot continue that route. She urged her supporters to stay and help make phone calls or walk neighborhoods. Lets get out there  the 72 hours is really critical. Its all going to come down to a few votes, it could be your vote, she said pointing to her left, then pivoting right, it could be your vote. So dont sit back and do nothing. Every night I go to sleep thinking, OK, how many more votes can I get or how many more people can I call tomorrow? Kim said. It can be physically exhausting but Im mentally, emotionally very energized. She listed off her events so far that day  and the next one she was heading to. Thats just what I can remember, she said. Im living one hour at a time at this point. Kims campaign invited press to two of her events on Saturday. After she was whisked away to her next event  a high tea fundraiser in Walnut, a couple dozen volunteers remained. John Freeman, a statewide field manager for the state Republican Party, tried to pump them up. This is the Super Bowl. Were not in an NFL stadium, were not getting paid millions of dollars, but you know what? Freeman said. Were walking on the field right now. This is that high-stakes-level game. Facebook

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Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children  the older ones are 5 and 2  about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals  her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican  she the race felt mA former top aide to Donald Trumps presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days  and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign.

The change of heart by Trumps former deputy campaign manager Richard Gates, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to Manaforts, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case.

Rick Gates is going to change his plea to guilty, said a person with direct knowledge of the new developments, adding that the revised plea will be presented in federal court in Washington within the next few days.

That individual and others who discussed the matter spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a judges gag order restricting comments about the case to the news media or public.

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Gates defense lawyer, Thomas C. Green, did not respond to messages left by phone and email. Peter Carr, a spokesman for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, declined on Saturday to comment.

Mueller is heading the prosecutions of Gates and Manafort as part of the wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump or his aides committed crimes before, during or since the campaign.

The imminent change of Gates plea follows negotiations over the last several weeks between Green and two of Muellers prosecutors  senior assistant special counsels Andrew Weissmann and Greg D. Andres.

According to a person familiar with those talks, Gates, a longtime political consultant, can expect a substantial reduction in his sentence if he fully cooperates with the investigation. He said Gates is likely to serve about 18 months in prison.

The delicate terms reached by the opposing lawyers, he said, will not be specified in writing: Gates understands that the government may move to reduce his sentence if he substantially cooperates, but it wont be spelled out.

One of the final discussion points has centered on exactly how much cash or other valuables  derived from Gates allegedly illegal activity  that the government will require him to forfeit as part of the guilty plea.

Gates, 45, who is married with four children, does not appear to be well positioned financially to sustain a high-powered legal defense.

He cant afford to pay it, said one lawyer who is involved with the investigation. If you go to trial on this, thats $1 million to $1.5 million. Maybe more, if you need experts to appear as witnesses.

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The Oct. 27 indictment showed that prosecutors had amassed substantial documentation to buttress their charges that Manafort and Gates  who were colleagues in political consulting for about a decade  had engaged in a complex series of allegedly illegal transactions rooted in Ukraine. The indictment alleged that both men, who for years were unregistered agents of the Ukrainian government, hid millions of dollars of Ukraine-based payments from U.S. authorities.

According to the indictment, Gates and Manafort laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts and took steps to evade related U.S. taxes.

If Manafort maintains his not-guilty plea and fights the charges at a trial, the testimony from Gates could provide Muellers team with first-person descriptions of much of the allegedly illegal conduct. Gates testimony, said a person familiar with the pending guilty plea, would place a cherry on top of the governments already formidable case against Manafort.

The same individual said he did not believe Gates has information to offer Muellers team that would turn the screws on Trump. The president has repeatedly called the special counsels investigation a witch hunt.

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In addition to the charges pending against Gates and Manafort, Mueller has secured formal guilty pleas from three people. Michael Flynn, the retired lieutenant general who campaigned for Trump and served as the presidents first national security advisor, and George Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy advisor to his campaign, have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

On Friday, a Justice Department official announced the guilty plea on identity theft charges of a computer specialist from Santa Paula, Calif., Richard Pinedo, whose illicit services  unbeknownst to Pinedo  were used by Russian operatives who tried to influence the 2016 election. The intrigue was spelled out in an indictment, also made public Friday, of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities on charges of interfering with the election by exploiting counterfeit identities of individuals and entities.

Gates joined Trumps presidential campaign in June 2016 when the candidate hired Manafort as its chairman. At the Republican National Convention the next month, Gates directly handled the campaigns operations as Manaforts top aide.

Perhaps the most controversial step taken by Trumps campaign at the convention concerned how the U.S. should deal with the tense relations between Russia and Ukraine, which repudiated Moscow in a 2014 revolt.

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When a delegate proposed that the Republican platform call for providing lethal defensive weapons to Ukraines military in its struggle against Russia-backed armed forces, the Trump campaign defeated the effort. Instead of U.S. weaponry, the convention platform committee accepted the campaigns substitute language, which offered Ukraine appropriate assistance.

In mid-August 2016, Trump fired Manafort following reports of possibly improper payments he had received from a pro-Russia political party aligned with his longtime client Viktor Yanukovych, who was Ukraines president from 2010 to 2014.

Gates, however, remained with the Trump campaign through the election, serving as a liaison to the Republican National Committee. He also assisted Trumps inaugural committee.

david.willman@latimes.com

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UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: This article was updated with details of guilty pleas of others in the Mueller probe.

This article was originally published at 11:45 a.m.If it happens, the 280 characters might just make up one of the most important social media messages in California politics this year: a tweet from President Trump about the Golden States race for governor.

First, lets set the scene with a reminder of the political peril facing California Republicans in this electoral season. Not only have Democrats won every statewide race since the fall of 2006  thats 18 separate contests  but the GOP share of the registered electorate has kept shrinking.

Then theres the turbulence created by Trump. The presidents statewide reputation is dismal  67% of all likely voters in a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll disapprove of how hes doing the job  and several of the states U.S. House Republicans appear to be in real jeopardy.

GOP leaders undoubtedly would love to win some of the posts currently held by Democrats. But keeping what they have now is their most basic mission. Losing ground would be bad for the state party, potentially worse for national Republicans if it helps flip the U.S. House to Democrats and spark an existential threat to the Trump presidency.

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So how do you keep what youve got? You make sure your voters dont get so disinterested that they sit out this election cycle. Thats one reason the money has flowed into qualifying a repeal of the states new gas tax for the fall ballot  a tax that Republican voters would likely show up in strong numbers to try to kill.

California Republicans are looking for a champion in the race for U.S. Senate 

It is the candidates themselves who energize most voters, and theres no clear standard-bearer for state Republicans. In the race for governor, more than two-thirds of GOP voters in the recent PPIC poll either didnt know  or had no opinion about  any of the three most active candidates. Among all likely voters, all were in single digits in support.

Absent some political adrenaline, its possible two Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls would advance to November under the states top-two primary rules that are hated by both parties. (Its also possible in the U.S. Senate race, where California Republicans lack a candidate with statewide experience or name ID).

Track the California races that could flip the House of Representatives 

So who might the GOP voters listen to, someone with enough influence to rally the faithful around a single Californian that could keep Republicans from staying home in 2018?

Well, theres a guy who was supported by 76% of the partys voters in the PPIC survey. That would be Trump. And hes got an effective way to ensure a chosen candidate gets a ton of free attention.

Yes, a presidential tweet.

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The idea has enough juice that its coming up in casual conversations with political strategists. And while its true that Trump has given the cold shoulder to California writ large, remember that someone close to him has a vested interest in protecting the states GOP incumbents in Congress. That confidante is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), who presumably has enough clout to convince the president to weigh in.

Whom Trump would pick in the governors race is anyones guess. Two candidates, Huntington Beach Assemblyman Travis Allen and San Diego businessman John Cox, already have sparred mightily over support for the president. Cox has said he didnt vote for Trump. Former Sacramento Rep. Doug Ose, on the other hand, helped quell an anti-Trump uprising at the 2016 Republican National Convention and has been one of the presidents most vocal supporters in the state.

The flip side, of course, is that an embrace from Trump could turn off millions of otherwise persuadable California voters. But for a party with limited options, firing up the voters you already have may be better than doing nothing at all.

john.myers@latimes.com

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Updates on California politicsA Bible club at Altruria Elementary School in Tennessee has been shut down, following objection from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which claimed the group was unconstitutional, World Religion News reports.

First- and second-graders at the school had been meeting each day before classes began to discuss Christianity and the Bible. However, Bartlett City Schools agreed with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, saying its main reason for shutting down the club was because it wasnt sponsored by an outside group  a requirement for all religious clubs.

While this club has been postponed, we are working with the school to ensure the proper steps are taken to allow this club in the 2017-18 school year, the district said.

In a statement, Nate Kellum, an attorney for the Center for Religious Expression, criticized the districts decision, saying canceling the club discourages students belief and would give them a negative attitude about pursuing church activities.

The message they are sending these kids is there is something terribly wrong with you wanting to meet and discuss the Bible, Kellum said.

Q. What do you think about the Freedom From Religious Foundations complaint and Kellums counterargument? Should the club be permitted to meet?

We have the full freedom to practice religion in this country. Why cant we be content with that? Why must certain religions, in most cases Christianity, insist on attempts to force their faith on others by pushing it into public schools?

As an atheist, this is offensive to me. Although I personally think there is something wrong with inculcating youth with false dogma, by closing this club nobody is sending the message to kids that there is something terribly wrong with you wanting to meet and discuss the bible. They are sending the message that the place for that is not in a public school but in your home or church.

That is an important lesson taught by our countrys founders and enshrined in the Constitution. The Establishment clause was not meant to discriminate against any religion but rather protect every citizens right to believe and practice as they wish, Christians, adherents of all religions and nonbelievers alike.

Joshua Lewis Berg

Humanist Celebrant

Glendale

..

Instead of shutting down a popular student-driven club the Bartlett City School District should have simply updated its school club regulations and let them continue to meet. It appears the district instead caved in to the intimidation and false claims of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an obviously biased and antagonistic outside group. The districts action makes one wonder which group they will cave in to next. Perhaps the line is already forming.

Mr. Kellums observation is right on point. How else is a young child to perceive the districts actions? The district, using the full force of its authority, has sent the strong message to these impressionable children that reading the Bible is wrong and must be stopped. One could argue that their action is actually a state-sponsored promotion of atheism, which in itself is a distinct religious view. That sounds unconstitutional to me.

Hebrews 4:12 states that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It certainly is, and apparently its sting has driven the Freedom From Religious Foundation to lash out against a group of children. Light always exposes the darkness for what it is.

Pastor Jon Barta

Burbank

..

The School Board of Bartlett City Schools has a point. Due to the almost universal misreading of the 1st Amendment, public school employees are not allowed, in most cases, to lead religious groups, so private groups, churches, synagogues, mosques, etc., usually send people to act as leaders. They in fact have to be screened for no possible improprieties, but when they pass are allowed to be with the students.

If there are any limitations on access to Bible and prayer, perhaps we should look to the local religious institutions in not providing leaders and leadership in this situation and not attack the public schools for acting as they feel in the best public interest.

Rabbi Mark Sobel

Temple Beth Emet

Burbank

..

I have no problem with the complaint nor for that matter with the club, although it needs to be in compliance with the rules governing such activities at that school. However I believe that the Bible, along with the texts of all the other major world religions, should be covered in our schools as the important, often beautiful, sometimes horrific, pieces of human-created masterpieces that they are.

We dont expect Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Ray Bradbury  picking some random examples  to be taught in after-school clubs. Of course the material needs to be presented neutrally and with respect, yet factually to the extent that there are documented facts underpinning the religions. Curricula in history, social studies and literature could benefit by the inclusion of the worlds important spiritual writings, to the benefit of the students and of our societies.

Roberta Medford

Atheist

Montrose

..

I support the Freedom From Religion Foundations fight to discontinue so-called religious clubs like the one in Memphis. Pretending that early elementary students have the ability to maintain their own faith-based organization is just silly. Clearly, this is a case where proselytizing adults are playing evangelical chess using children as pawns.

Faculty-sponsored sectarian clubs that meet during school hours have no place in public schools. Such activities should be limited to after school hours and the organizers should pay rent like other community groups. Further, any intimation that faculty members are endorsing one particular faith tradition over others sends a confusing message to students. Those who participate may be seen as favored and in the right because they are of the same persuasion as the teacher in charge. Those who do not pray and study with the teacher may feel excluded and made vulnerable to the bullying by those who do.

Adults seeking the protection of the state for sectarian proselytizing among children must be weak of faith. How strong can your beliefs be if you need to exploit the captive audience of students to convey your message? Your purpose is better served by instructing your children, at home and in church, to love one another in their interactions with teachers and schoolmates. The fundamentalist fetishizing of creeds and rituals over deeds and actions is inherently divisive. Our schools should teach critical thinking vital to democratic society and not serve as chessboards for scheming adults.

David L. Hostetter, Ph.D.

Vice President, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills

La CrescentaDetermined to neither exceed nor ease from the posted 70-km-per-hour speed limit along Vietnams National Route 1A, my driver, Dai, pulsed the gas pedal with his foot as we traveled north on the two-lane highway to the imperial city of Hue.

The road climbed gently from the outskirts of Da Nang toward mountains that serve as a kind of waistband for the lanky country that stretches more than 1,000 miles north to south but is barely 35 miles east to west at its midsection.

At one time, the Truong Son Mountains were a natural bulwark dividing Vietnam. The two halves were brought together under French rule in the mid-19th century, then split into rival states in 1954. You probably know what happened next.

In 2005, the four-mile-long Hai Van Tunnel was opened, cutting through the mountains, a celebrated engineering feat for a country that was just beginning to sow its economic oats.

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Hai Van Pass or tunnel? Dai asked, adding that the scenic route snaking over the old mountain pass would add $15 and an extra 30 minutes to the drive.

Rain was spotting the windshield, so I skipped the scenic surcharge, and a few minutes later we emerged from the tunnel into a landscape of rice paddies, flanked by the mountains on the left and the South China Sea on the right.

It was the Vietnam I dreamed of.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) are the usual points of entry for travelers to Vietnam; they were for me on my first visit eight years ago.

But those who overlook central Vietnam will miss some of the countrys most iconic sights, its best beaches and a more relaxed pace.

Another world, another era

My journey through central Vietnam began in November in Hue (pronounced hway), a city of about 300,000 that, beginning in 1802, was the last dynastic capital of Vietnam.

Hue, close to the Demilitarized Zone that divided the north and south during the Vietnam War, suffered heavy damage, particularly during the Tet Offensive in 1968 when most of the city and its citadel were leveled.

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La Residence in Hue, built in 1930, was made to be as the home of Vietnams French colonial governor. In 2005 it was redeveloped into a deluxe hotel (David Swanson/special to The Times )

A historic mansion, on the banks of the Perfume River facing the Citadel, managed to escape destruction. It was also my destination for the night.

The house, built in 1930 at the peak of the Art Deco movement, had been the residence of the French colonial governor. It played varying roles following World War II and throughout the 1970s, eventually becoming a bit player in the citys nascent post-war tourism efforts.

In 2005, the structure was redeveloped into a deluxe hotel, La Residence, with new four-story wings extending from the original house.

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Ive seen too many botched adaptations of historic buildings to anticipate that the additions at La Residence would be anything more than perfunctory, but the attention to design was remarkable. The original mansion still oozed Art Deco swank, with terrazzo floors, red velvet curtains and teak armchairs in the fan-shaped Gouverneur Bar.

The new wings were flush with details such as parquet flooring, silver-plated wall sconces and period tiles in the bathrooms.

The Citadel of Hue, Vietnam was built when the Nguyen Dynasty was established in 1802. Inside, the restored Thai Hoa Palace (Palace of Supreme Harmony), is where the emperor would greet official visitors. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

Most rooms overlooked the river and an enormous, frangipani-wrapped swimming pool. I was tempted to dive in but spied the hotels spa and instead splurged on a 60-minute scalp and shoulder massage, my travel-weary mane and muscles manipulated with coconut oil. Expensive by Vietnam standards, $42 was never so well spent.

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I booked a private half-day tour of Hues major sights for the next morning, boarding a dragon boat with guide Van Anh for a three-mile cruise up the Perfume River. Our first stop was Chua Thien Mu, the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady, a delicate, octagonal tower rising seven stories from a hill next to the river.

The temple is around 400 years old, Anh explained as we climbed the steps. Its based on the legend of an old woman who sat on this hill and predicted one day a king would come here and order a pagoda to be built. It was a prediction from the heavens.

Dragon boats ply the Perfume River in Hue, Vietnam. The boats offer transfers from the city to the Thien Mu Pagoda and some of the Royal Tombs. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

In 1601, a high-ranking Mandarin from the north came to Hue to cultivate the south and establish the Nguyen Dynasty, building the temple in tribute to the fable. When the north and south were unified in 1801, Hue became Vietnams capital, and in 1844, the pagoda was rebuilt with the structure visible today.

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The Nguyen Dynasty was not as long-lived.

French colonization of Vietnam started in 1858, Anh said. From then, the emperor had no power; he was a puppet.

During World War II, the Japanese took control of the country, and Vietnams last emperor abdicated in 1945. A new communist leader, Ho Chi Minh, sought independence from the colonial powers and relocated the capital to Hanoi.

Although the complex is a popular tourist attraction, it is peaceful as befits a Buddhist sanctuary. The courtyards are open to the public, with shy monks ranging from toddlers to teens scurrying about in robes.

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Anhs itinerary included a visit to the tomb of the second of the Nguyen emperors, Minh Mang, who reigned from 1820 to 1840, one of seven mausoleums dotting the countryside.

The serene 44-acre site is a series of terraces and lakes that lead through temples, courtyards and across bridges to a final staircase climbing a hill. At its end, a locked gate, the burial chamber hidden beneath the pine trees.

The centerpiece of Hues UNESCO World Heritage designation is the Imperial City, surrounded by the Citadel, six miles of six-foot-thick brick walls and a moat. More than 50,000 people labored here in its heyday; today, much of the enormous feudal capital is unrecognizable, its elegant stone dragon banisters collecting moss.

Some of the Citadels buildings were destroyed by fire in 1947, while others crumbled during the Tet Offensive, but the Hall of Supreme Harmony is one of several that has been gloriously restored.

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I returned that night to the walled Citadel for a meal at Les Jardins de la Carambole, a restaurant in a French colonial residence wrapped by terraces and balconies. Beautifully garnished plates of food  grilled chicken with lemongrass and chili, shrimp and pork steamed in a banana leaf  emerged from the kitchen.

Under circling fans and with a pianist playing unobtrusively, I became cloaked by the Indochine era, transporting me again to another time and world.

A time capsule

The mysterious ruins of My Son are brick Hindu temples from the Champa Kingdom, a distant relative to the much more famous (and expansive) Angkor Wat in Cambodia. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

Just past dawn, in the jungle-cloaked mountains west of Hoi An, fog slunk along the hillsides and beams of sunlight struggled to pierce the uninhabited valley.

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When light finally began to fill the scene, a curtain lifted on the ancient Cham ruins of My Son, with nary another visitor in sight.

The tidy collection of brick Hindu temples is a distant relative of the more famous (and expansive) Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia.

My Son, occupied for almost 1,000 years starting in the late 4th century, may be the longest inhabited religious center in Southeast Asia.

Although a week of carpet bombing by U.S. forces destroyed most of the temples  signs warn of undetonated ordnance nearby  a rebuilding program has been underway since UNESCO designation in 1999.

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I wasnt quite alone at My Son  there were six others led by a guide, Tin. The wake-up call to meet a 4:20 a.m. bus pick-up had been painful. But the reward was arriving at the sites empty parking lot just before the ticket office opened at 6 a.m., then encountering the temples at daybreak.

Some of the structures were originally adorned with gold, Tin explained, and like the best historical sites, mysteries remain. The bricks and construction methods of the Cham people are still not understood, Tin said.

He pointed to temples that were relatively intact, with their brickwork firm, the mortar sealed and free of vegetation. But the temples that have been partly reconstructed using modern materials and techniques showed wear  the 20th century bricks eroding from absorbed moisture, plants emerging from the mortar.

Joyful and atmospheric

Hoi An, an 18th century Southeast Asian trading port, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, recognized for its quaint merchant homes and streetscapes. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

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If My Son was spooky and mysterious, nearby Hoi An was joyful and atmospheric. It was originally a Champa seaport but shed most of that history in favor of its 18th century incarnation as a vital Southeast Asian trading center, with ships calling from as far as Britain and America.

Its quaint merchant homes and streetscapes have been virtually unchanged for more than 200 years, but its cleaned up, and colorful lanterns bob overhead. Although Hoi An has been discovered, its a time capsule that retains its delicate Japanese, Portuguese and Dutch influences. Plus, the fine beach is just three miles down the road.

Another thing that makes Hoi An appealing: The historic part of town is car-free, a tribute to Hoi Ans World Heritage status. Motorbikes are present, of course, but the streets are pedestrian-friendly, and the wharf is home to informal outdoor cafes with names such as Mr. Rin and Mr. Soi.

The historic trading port Hoi An, Vietnam is nicknamed Lantern Town, and there are plentiful silk-lantern shops selling the colorful goods. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

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The houses now are used for restaurants, tailors and silk-lantern shops. On street corners old women peddled cigarettes, lollipops and bananas, their teeth stained red from chewing betel leaf and areca nut.

My favorite place was the open-air market, where the bounty of Vietnams farms is displayed. Dozens of vendors sold fresh fruits and vegetables, crates of eggs, caged chickens, baskets of nuts.

As I walked through, I discovered an impromptu karaoke bar set up in the meat section: Men and women poured their souls into a microphone while standing next to fresh cuts of meat and  yes  the head of a pig, neatly sliced off just behind the ears.

Food is celebrated everywhere in Vietnam but especially in Hoi An. The town offers a conga line of dining options, from enticing street food sold by vendors on almost every corner, to full-on gourmet meals served in lovingly maintained historic buildings, to cooking schools that dish cultural insights alongside hands-on preparations.

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Hoi Ans best-known chef is Trinh Diem Vy, whose business empire includes multiple restaurants, a cooking school and new hotel. Her restaurant, Morning Glory, is named for the deliciously bitter vine.

Its the only dish you can order anywhere in Vietnam, from the north to the south, stir fried with garlic, Vy told me. Otherwise, the food of the north has more Chinese influence, and in the south, dishes are made with coconut cream.

But at Morning Glory, Vy dished the street food of her childhood  crispy pancakes made from a batter of mung beans and rice, banana flower salad, caramelized pork with peas and mushrooms  all delicious.

The beating heart

Fishermen use woven, round basket boats known as thung-chai to ply the broad bay fronting Da Nang, Vietnam. In the 1960s, the deserted shoreline was nicknamed China Beach. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

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I was lured to central Vietnam after a friend grabbed a business opportunity in Da Nang last year. Ben and his girlfriend, Allison, had invited me to visit, and with Asian airfares plummeting, I booked a flight.

As I was packing, I texted Ben to ask if there was anything he desired from the States.

In-N-Out probably wouldnt survive the trip, would it?

Perhaps a little homesickness had crept in, but a scroll through Bens Instagram posts assured me that they were eating beautifully. When I met them for dinner at Bep Hen, a small restaurant in Da Nang, I knew cheeseburgers werent much on his mind.

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The food in Vietnam is so good, and its all so cheap, Ben said.

Bep Hen restaurant in Da Nang offers an invitingly retro environment, and the Vietnamese menu offers dishes that are wildly flavorful and inexpensive. (David Swanson / special to The Times )

Bep Hen offered an invitingly retro environment that looked like a beloved uncles attic, with old TVs and furniture and French pop music from the 1960s.

Ben and Allison ordered plate after plate of wildly flavorful food  fried tofu with minced pork, fried chicken in fish sauce, braised pork belly with duck egg and Huda beer served with an ice cube. The meal came to $15 for the three of us.

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When we met for breakfast the next morning, they took me to what Id call a hole in the wall, a simple cafe tucked away on a side street a few blocks from the beach.

Here, we slurped steaming bowls of mi quang, a staple of central Vietnam with noodles, meat, herbs, a tiny boiled egg and a ladle of broth, and barely a dollar a bowl. The dish was a hearty way to begin the day, especially served with a cold bottle of refreshing corn milk, another local specialty.

Although I passed through Da Nang on my Vietnam trip eight years ago, the city I saw today bore no resemblance to its former self except for the curious round basket boats known as thung-chai that fishermen used to ply the bay each morning.

In the 1960s, Da Nangs shoreline was nicknamed China Beach  a moniker I was assured is not well received locally. Today, Da Nang is the countrys third-largest city, with a population of about 750,000, and the sandy beach is lined with high-rises and luxe resorts. A white 220-foot female Buddha stands guard at the north end of the bay.

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On the surface, Da Nang didnt appear to offer visitors much beyond tropical resorts and a coolly efficient airport.

But as the city reinvents itself as the modern tech hub of Vietnam, it offers a friendly, easy-going base for day trips to most of central Vietnams prime attractions  Hue, Hoi An and My Son are all less than 90 minutes away.

And although Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are traffic-clogged and frenetic, Da Nang hums at a gentler pace. The city is popular with Koreans but has yet to be discovered by Western tourists, allowing for a kind of authentic Asian vacation.

Da Nang is the beating heart of central Vietnam, Ben said. The beaches are attached to a real city, which means you have more amenities, things to do and places to eat. Its easier to become immersed in the everyday Vietnamese lifestyle, and the overall cost of a Da Nang vacation is a lot lower than in places like Phuket.

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I stayed at Fusion Suites, a modern hotel that included a daily 45-minute foot massage in its rates. From the open-air rooftop bar at sunset, I marveled at the view of the beach while painful wails of karaoke echoed from a bar below.

I settled into a lounger for my appointment with Duc at the spa.

How firm? Duc asked, eyeing my feet.

Firm is good, I replied. And with that Duc started in on the soles, searching for pressure points to manipulate, bringing acute pain, then easing back to caress.

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Push-pull, sharp-soft, yin-yang, fast-slow. Vietnam was aiming to reach its sweet spot.

If you go

THE BEST WAY TO DA NANG, VIETNAM

From LAX, American, United, Delta, Korean, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Air China and Singapore offer connecting service (change of planes) to Da Nang. Restricted round-trip airfares from $797, including taxes and fees. There is also an airport in Hue served by Vietnam Airlines from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

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Entry requirements

A visa is required for most visitors to Vietnam, including U.S. citizens. An online e-visa, valid for 30 days, is available through lat.ms/vietnamvisa (beware of scam websites not affiliated with the government.) The cost is about $26, and processing takes a few business days.

TELEPHONES

To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 84 (the country code for Vietnam) and the local number.

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GETTING AROUND

In a country with idiosyncratic rules of the road, renting a car isnt particularly recommended for the uninitiated. Hue is 61 miles northwest of Da Nang airport. It is easiest to arrange a transfer with your hotel on either end; mine with Dai was $50.

Hoi An is 18 miles south of the Da Nang airport. A one-way transfer should be less than $15. Its about 3 miles from the town center to the beach, and most hotels have bikes for loan or rent.

In Da Nang, the easiest way to get around is through a ride-hailing outfit; Uber is available as well as Grab, a similar Singapore-based company. Taxis are also available, and motorbikes can be rented for as little as $5 a day.

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WHEN TO GO

May to August is hot and sticky, and beaches are lively. September through December is the rainy season; Hoi An is particularly susceptible to flooding. Late winter through spring is ideal, with rainfall at a minimum and temperatures comfortable.

WHERE TO STAY

La Residence, 5 Le Loi St., Hue; 234-3837-475, la-residence-hue.com. Centrally located with a fine-dining venue for meals. Doubles from $219 a night, including breakfast.

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Pilgrimage Village, 130 Minh Mang Road, Hue; 234-3885-461, pilgrimagevillage.com. This rural resort, four miles from the citadel, offers appealing brick cabins overlooking a huge swimming pool lined with black granite. From $192 a night.

Maison Vy, 544 Cua Dai St., Hoi An; 235-3862-231, maisonvy.com. Contemporary 35-room hotel with tasteful colonial accents, owned by Trinh Diem Vy. From $120 a night, including breakfast.

Vinh Hung Heritage Hotel, 143 Tran Phu St., Hoi An; 235-3861-621, vinhhungheritagehotel.com. Book early for six antique-filled rooms in a timber Chinese merchants house in the heart of town; street-facing suites can be noisy. From $100 a night, including breakfast and 20-minute foot or shoulder treatment.

Fusion Suites, Vo Nguyen Giap St., Da Nang; 236-3919-777, fusionsuitesdanangbeach.com. In a 20-story tower across the street from the sand, this hotel has oversized rooms with kitchenettes and a beachfront pool  good for families. From $200 a night, including foot reflexology daily.

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InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, Bai Bac, Son Tra Peninsula, Da Nang; 236-3938-888, danang.intercontinental.com. This beach resort is isolated on a peninsula jutting from the bay but lays on the creature comforts, including Michelin-starred chef Pierre Gagnaires restaurant, La Maison 1888. From $613 a night.

WHERE TO EAT

Les Jardins de la Carambole, 32 Dang Tran Con, Hue; www.lesjardinsdelacarambole.com. Three- and four-course French and Vietnamese dinners $14-$20.

Morning Glory, 106 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hoi An; 510-224-1555, tastevietnam.asia. Trinh Diem Vy gives polish to street food in a bustling, well-run environment. Entrees less than $10.

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Mango Rooms, 111 Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hoi An; 510-3910-839, mangorooms.com. Smart, colorful little venue run by chef Duc Tran who cooked his way through Texas, Latin America and New Zealand before opening his own establishment, which combines Latin and Vietnamese traditions such as green papaya salad and spring rolls. Entrees $13-$21.

Bep Hen, 47 Le Hong Phong, Da Nang; 935-3377-05. Traditional Vietnamese dishes in a retro setting, hidden behind potted plants. Most items less than $5.

Nen, Lo 20, My Da Tay 2, Da Nang; 905-7430-70, restaurantnen.com. New restaurant by Da Nang food blogger, Summer Le, serving refined cuisine in a swank setting. Eight-course meals $32-$34. Le also runs Funtastic Da Nang Food Tours at summerle.com/foodtour.

travel@latimes.com

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@latimestravelStanislav Matveev left his home in the Ural Mountains in September to join a Russian private military company. Five months later, Matveev was dead, killed in a U.S. airstrike on Feb. 7 in eastern Syria.

Matveevs widow, Yelena Matveeva, wants answers from the Kremlin about why her husband is dead. By some accounts, scores of Russian contractors were killed.

Id like everyone to know about my husband, she said in an interview with Znak, a Russian news site. And not only about my husband, but about all the boys who died there so stupidly. Where were they sent to, and why? They didnt even have protection, they were like pigs sent to slaughter!

But just who sent them? Theres no easy answer.

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The Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin do not officially associate with the private military companies, but media reports and researchers say they have pieced together enough evidence to suggest that the mercenaries are being employed, or at least directed, by the Russian military. The Kremlin denies this.

Little is known publicly about the military groups and how they operate, but theyve gained a higher profile since the Feb. 7 airstrike in Syria. The U.S. said it was responding to an attack by hundreds of forces supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad near the Syrian city of Deir al Zor.

Russian media have reported that at least eight of those killed were Russian mercenaries, though some reports put the death toll at close to 200  an assertion Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dismissed as misinformation from the Western press.

There were not 400, not 200, not 1,000, and not 10, Zakharova said.

The government has confirmed five, but not eight, deaths, while stressing the men were not members of the Russian armed forces. According to interviews with family members of the eight identified, the mercenaries all were in Syria on contract with a private military company called the Wagner Group.

The company is believed to be organized by Dmitry Utkin, a former Ukrainian citizen who fought in eastern Ukraine on the side of the separatist rebels and later formed the Wagner Group in 2014. The group is named after Utkins nom de guerre.

Like Utkin, many of the Wagner fighters fought first in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed militias have been waging a separatist movement against Ukrainian forces since 2014.

Wagner has not been tied to reports of Russian meddling in U.S. elections, but investigative journalists at the St. Petersburg, Russia-based Fontanka news website have reported that one of Wagners sponsors is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin-connected entrepreneur. Known as Putins chef, Prigozhin owns a St. Petersburg internet troll factory.

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Both Prigozhin and the troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, were indicted Friday in the United States and charged with illegally using social media platforms to sow political discord in the U.S. Twelve other Russians associated with the troll factory and two Russian companies were also indicted.

The Ukrainian conflict has proven to be a steady source for Wagners recruitment. According to Russian media, most of the Wagner fighters killed in the U.S. airstrike on Feb. 7 also served at one point with the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Because private military companies are illegal in Russia, the company is registered in Argentina. Most military analysts estimate there are 2,000 mercenaries in Syria working for Wagner.

Yelena Matveeva said her husband, Stanislav, was home for about a year after fighting in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine before telling her he was leaving on an unspecified mission. She told reporters she knew he had made contact with Wagner representatives while in eastern Ukraine.

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Private military companies are not unique to Russia. Such companies provided services to the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Whereas the Americans used mercenaries for security and stabilization after gaining and holding new territory, the Russians use mercenaries to fight the battles themselves, said Michael Kofman, a Russian military and security analyst with the Wilson Center, a think tank in Washington.

The use of mercenaries would help the Kremlin maintain plausible deniability of direct Russian involvement in conflicts, such as in Ukraine, and avoid public accounting for high casualty rates, said Vladimir Frolov, a Russian political analyst.

The Kremlin has denied also Western intelligence accusations that Russian troops have participated in the separatist fighting in the Donbass region.

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When fighters of Russian origin have been captured or killed in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin has called them volunteers or enlisted men on vacation. Military analysts in the West and Russia scoff at that characterization. Frolov said the government is likely coordinating the efforts of mercenaries in Syria as well.

It is inconceivable for me to think that [the Russian mercenaries in Syria] are not tightly coordinated with the Russian military command, he said. Somebody supplies all their weapons and combat gear and fire support.

In addition, the Fontanka investigation and other Russian researchers have found evidence that the mercenary groups have a boot camp in Russias southern Krasnodar region at a facility owned and operated by the Ministry of Defense.

We dont know concretely who is paying them, but they are supported, deployed and moved about by Russian military, so we can draw some conclusions from that, said Kofman.

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The way the Kremlin is handling the deaths of the mercenaries is beginning to wear on Russian families whose loved ones have been killed in a war that the Kremlin wants to paint as a low-impact conflict.

Domestically, this is all bad press, and bad press a month and a half ahead of the election, Kofman said.

Russia has a presidential election on March 18. It is widely expected that Vladimir Putin will win what will be his fourth term as president.

More than 30,000 people attended the funeral on Feb. 8, in Voronezh, Russia, for Roman Filipov, an Su-25 jet pilot who died in action in Syria. (Vadim Savitsky / AFP/Getty Images)

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The Russian governments response to mercenaries deaths has been a stark contrast with that of Maj. Roman Filipov, a pilot buried in Russia a day after the U.S. airstrike.

Rebels previously affiliated with Al Qaeda shot down Filipovs Sukhoi-25 jet in Syria. The major managed to eject from the plane and parachute to the ground. Surrounded by insurgents, Filipov blew himself up with a grenade in order to avoid being captured.

Filipovs story was covered widely on state media. More than 30,000 people attended his funeral. Putin posthumously awarded Filipov the title of Hero of Russia, the countrys highest honor.

Its an honor Matveeva and other widows of mercenaries killed on Feb. 7 feel their loved ones deserve. I want the government to avenge them, she said. I want the memory of the boys to stay with their wives, so that the children can be proud of their fathers.

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In a daily press call this month, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, was asked by a reporter if there would be a day of mourning for the Russians killed in the Feb. 7 airstrike.

Because of what? I dont get why a mourning period needs to be declared, Peskov said.

Ayres is a special correspondent.After a powerful earthquake struck Mexico Friday, frightened survivors near the quakes epicenter gathered in a field, opting to spend the night sleeping under the stars or in vehicles instead of in damaged homes vulnerable to aftershocks.

And then, a second unexpected crisis hit. This time, it fell from the sky.

A military helicopter carrying top officials assessing quake damage was preparing to land nearby when the pilot lost control. A few seconds later, the helicopter crashed to the earth  directly onto several vehicles packed with earthquake survivors.

Fourteen people on the ground died and least 21 people were injured, according to the state prosecutors office in Oaxaca, where the crash took place. The dead include at least three children.

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Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete, Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat and everybody else aboard the helicopter survived with only minor injuries, officials said.

Navarrete told a local journalist that the pilot of the Blackhawk helicopter lost control about 100 feet above the ground as it was preparing to land in the town of Jamiltepec, about 20 miles from the earthquakes epicenter.

It is unfortunate that this happened, Navarrete told Televisa news Friday night, adding that it was good that there was no greater loss of human lives.

On Saturday, Secretary of National Defense Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda arrived in Jamiltepec and apologized to residents, saying his agency assumes total responsibility for what happened here.

This misfortune originated from our interest in helping the community here, he said, adding that his agency would help reconstruct homes and provide other assistance in the area.

Mexicans reacted angrily to the crash, with some questioning why a helicopter would try to land in a darkened field.

In Oaxaca, a helicopter should not fly at night, tweeted Mexican Sen. Layda Sansores, who belongs to the left-leaning Morena party.

She called the accident an act of stupidity, of failed leadership and unforgivable irresponsibility.

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The accident was another embarrassment for Navarrete, who was chosen to head the Interior Department last month by President Enrique Pena Nieto. Earlier this month, an intelligence agent from an agency overseen by Navarrete was caught tailing a presidential candidate running against Pena Nietos Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Navarrete and Murat were evaluating damage from the earthquake before their helicopter crashed.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 7.2 magnitude quake struck near the town of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state at about 5:30 p.m. Friday. A magnitude 5.9 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca struck about an hour later, and was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks throughout the night and next day.

While some homes and businesses near the quakes epicenter were damaged, there were no reports of deaths, officials said. About 200 miles away in Mexico City, where an earthquake early warning system sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing into the streets for safety Friday, only minor damage was reported.

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Many Mexicans are still traumatized from twin earthquakes that struck days apart in September, killing more than 400 people across the southern and central parts of the country.

Oaxaca was particularly hard hit by the first quake, on Sept. 8, which struck off the coast of Mexico with a staggering magnitude of 8.2. Nearly 100 people died in that quake, most of them in Oaxaca, and many communities are only now beginning to rebuild collapsed structures.

Fridays helicopter accident was an unexpected tragedy for a small community that appeared to have miraculously been spared in the latest earthquake. While geophysicists warned in the aftermath of the quake that communities near the epicenter could be severely affected, no deaths were reported.

According to local newspaper Imparcial de la Costa, the damage in Jamiltepec was limited to about 50 homes and the Catholic Church.

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That was until the helicopter crashed Friday night at about 10 p.m. The newspaper reported that before trying to land, the helicopter had circled several times, kicking up dust and likely reducing visibility.

The newspaper said at least five families were affected by the crash. Photos of the accident site show at least two mangled vehicles, overturned plastic chairs, a sleeping bag and several blankets scattered on the ground.

Who ordered this helicopter to fly at night, with the evident risk to those flying and to civilians? Tweeted journalist Julio Hernandez. Who is responsible for this accident?

Cecilia Sanchez in the Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

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UPDATES:

2:30 p.m.: This article was updated with new details that include an apology to residents from Secretary of National Defense Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who arrived in Jamiltepec on Saturday.

11:25 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with staff reporting that include comments from Mexican Senator Layda Sansores, who was critical of the attempt to land the helicopter in the area at night.

This article was originally published at 8:30 a.m.A powerful, magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck south and central Mexico on Friday afternoon, damaging buildings and sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets.

There were no immediate reports of deaths, but officials said some homes and businesses near the quakes epicenter in Oaxaca state had been damaged.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake originated about 225 miles south of Mexico City, near the town of Pinotepa in Oaxaca state. A magnitude 5.9 aftershock also centered in Oaxaca struck about an hour later.

(Los Angeles Times )

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Local media reports out of Oaxaca showed a partially collapsed hotel and other buildings with partially collapsed roofs or walls split open by deep fissures. The Oaxaca state government said via Twitter the worst damage was in the towns of Pinotepa and Santiago Jamiltepec, and said shelters were opened for those fleeing their homes.

In the nations capital, buildings swayed and minor damage was reported, but Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera said the city was mostly unscathed.

Many residents, still shaken from the Sept. 19 earthquake that killed more than 360 people, lingered in the streets instead of returning to their office buildings and homes.

Were totally traumatized, said Maria Eugenia Angulo, 48, who was eating ice cream with her children and grandchildren in the leafy Condesa neighborhood when the earth started swaying.

About 30 seconds before the earthquake struck, a warning alarm rang throughout Mexico City. Mexico is one of several countries that have implemented early earthquake warning systems designed to give residents crucial time to prepare before the earth starts shaking. California has been developing its own warning system, but President Trumps recent budget proposal would end funding for the program.

Fridays earthquake occurred in a seismically active section of Mexico, where the Cocos plate is sliding underneath the North American plate.

Its epicenter was about 140 miles southeast of the origin of the Sept. 19 earthquake and 275 miles northwest of the origin of a magnitude 8.1 quake that struck Sept. 7, killing nearly 100 people in Oaxaca and the neighboring state of Chiapas.

U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jana Pursley said Fridays earthquake was not related to either of Septembers temblors.

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Damage near the epicenter was a given, Pursley said.

Its a strong earthquake, she said. In the immediate area, it is likely to cause damage.

Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat said in a television interview that 100,000 residents had lost power across the state and that some buildings had been damaged but no deaths had been reported. In Juchitan, the area hardest hit in the Sept. 7 quake, no serious damage is reported so far, he said.

That the damage wasnt more severe came as a great relief to earthquake-wary Mexicans  as well as vacationers.

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Ricky Pierce, a Houston man staying at Mexico Citys Buenavista Holiday Inn, was on the fourth floor when the quake struck.

I felt like I was on a boat in rough water, said Pierce, who was briefly evacuated.

A crowd gathers outside the Holiday Inn on Insurgentes Avenue in Mexico City after the earthquake, centered 225 miles south. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times )

Times staff writers Rong-Gong Lin II in San Francisco and Chris Reynolds and Cecilia Sanchez in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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UPDATES:

7:35 p.m.: This report was updated to say an alarm sounded in Mexico City before the quake.

6:55 p.m.: This report has been updated for additional quotes and details.

This was originally posted at 4:10 p.m.At the start of every month, the Israeli Foreign Ministry sends journalists a list of scheduled official visits.

On Jan. 1, the name of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appeared. He was expected from Jan. 26-28.

Those dates came and went, with no Pruitt and no explanation for why he hadnt arrived, although it coincided with an uproar over his travel expenses and penchant for flying first class.

Pruitts name did not appear on the February list, but a Foreign Ministry official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, revealed last week that Pruitt was expected to arrive on Sunday.

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Breaking with established protocol, the Israeli Government Press Office did not send out his schedule or any information regarding his stay, which was never officially announced.

All attempts to get a schedule, discover his arrival time or the members of his entourage  all information usually made available  failed. Nor were officials forthcoming about why the visit was so hush-hush.

Was he planning on meeting with any Palestinians? No answer.

To all questions, Israels Foreign Ministry replied: Ask the [U.S.] Embassy.

On the record, the embassy declined so much as to acknowledge Pruitts plans. One embassy employee, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss such an inexplicably secretive topic, said: Were not talking about this. Off the record, I can tell you he is expected to sign two memoranda, one apparently with the Energy Ministry and another about methane gas.

Asked if hed be meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the embassy official replied, It would make sense.

Asked about a Netanyahu meeting, the senior foreign press coordinator for the prime ministers office, David Baker, said in an email: Check with me on Sunday.

Sunday arrived  and no Pruitt. Baker did not respond to a query asking why. EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman acknowledged in an email that the trip had been postponed, the Associated Press reported. She also did not explain why.

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Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent.Courtesy photo

Andrew Doerfler | For lehighvalleylive.com

In the spring of 2015, Dorothy Blyskal had quit her corporate job and was writing Facebook posts begging for an entry-level position in show business.

Less than three years later, she walked the red carpet for the premiere of "The 15:17 to Paris," the Clint Eastwood-directed movie that she wrote. The script, her first to hit the big screen, earned the 35-year-old a spot on Variety's list of the year's "10 screenwriters to watch."

"The 15:17 to Paris," which hit theatres Feb. 9, tells the story of three American men who in 2015 helped to subdue a gunman on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris. In an unusual move, the movie's real-life heroes  Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler  were picked to star as themselves. Others who faced the attack also appear in the movie.

Don't Edit

How did a novice screenwriter end up penning a script for a major Hollywood release helmed by an Academy Award-winning icon like Eastwood? Blyskal, who grew up in Easton, had shown her skills to the right people.

She had worked as a production assistant on Eastwoods previous film, Sully, a job that involved (among other duties) fetching organic tomato soup for the director. But the gig introduced her to producers to whom she would show a screenplay she had written about her cousin, a firefighter who died during 9/11.

The feedback was positive, but Blyskal got the impression they were hesitant to take on a story about 9/11. Not long after, though, one of the producers approached her about taking a crack at Eastwoods newest project: an adaptation of The 15:17 to Paris, a book that Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler had written with Jeffrey E. Stern about their courageous act. The story shared themes of heroism and destiny with Blyskals script about her cousin.

Thats exactly why I think she approached me, Blyskal said in an interview. Both stories involved a man feels like hes destined to do something wonderful and good  not specifically save lives, but thats what it turns out to be, she said.

Don't Edit

Photo by Keith Bernstein

After taking a day to read the book, Blyskal banged out a first draft in just six days in Jan. 2017. (The pace was in keeping with Eastwood's, who put the movie together with uncommon speed.) She was no stranger to writing rapidly  she'd written the screenplay about her cousin in 26 hours.

From there, things continued to move quickly. Soon she was in a room meeting with Eastwood and her scripts heroes, making sure the screenplay matched their experience. The decision to cast Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler as themselves came just about three weeks before filming began, Blyskal said.

"It was three weeks before filming that they knew," she said.

Don't Edit

Photo by Keith Bernstein

Blyskal admits that she had some nerves about entrusting her first-ever screenplay to amateur actors. But ultimately, she said, I can trust Clint Eastwood.

He definitely felt some sort of emotional pull toward them that he couldnt escape, she said.

When trying to cast the movie, Eastwood would repeatedly emphasize the importance of faithfully capturing the men's faces on screen, Blyskal said. The director told The Hollywood Reporter that through his conversations with Stone, Skarlatos and Sadler it occurred to him that "the faces just fit."

"And I just thought, I wonder if they could do it? I think there are some wonderful actors around that could've played this, Eastwood said to the Hollywood Reporter, but there's something about this particular project and the heroism that was involved and the way they handled the thing that is just kind of unique, so I thought I'd try that here.

Don't Edit

(RELATED: M. Night Shyamalan is filming his next movie at this local spot)

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The casting of the storys real-life subjects isnt the movies only casting quirk. In a drama built around a single intense moment with huge stakes, the cast is packed with actors better known for their punchlines: Jenna Fischer of The Office and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," Tony Hale of Arrested Development and Veep, and Thomas Lennon of Reno 911! and The Odd Couple. Blyskal was pleasantly surprised to see comedic talent on board.

Everything I write is infused with comedy, so I was thrilled that came across, she said. Youll see in the movie. They definitely bring moments of levity to an otherwise serious script.

Don't Edit

Courtesy photo

Blyskal ended up a screenwriter after spending much of her life actively avoiding such a career. Her parents were both professional writers who had warned her about the professions inconsistent paychecks and volatility.

I blindly followed what they said, and took it too seriously, Blyskal said. I would always avoid it even though I enjoyed doing it.

Her writing did, however, get encouragement from Kathleen Dowd, her English teacher at then-Shawnee Intermediate School. She recalls Dowd assigning the students to write a paper on something they felt passionate about. Blyskal wrote about her favorite band, The Cranberries, and earned the classs only perfect score.

Thats what always inspired me to keep writing, she said. She is the reason I am what I am.

Don't Edit

Still, it would be a while before she seriously pursued writing. After her sophomore year in Easton, Blyskal moved to Florida to finish high school and then went off to Emerson College in Boston to study theater performance.

By graduation, she had become disillusioned with theater and went on a windy path that included time at the acclaimed improv hub Second City and a stint as a character blogger for the web series-turned-television series Quarterlife, writing online posts in the voices of the shows characters. But she eventually settled into a comfortable non-showbiz job.

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Courtesy photo

Six years and some promotions later, she realized that if she ever intended to make a go at writing, she should do it before she settled down, had kids and became reliant on the steady paycheck. With screenwriting classes from a UCLA certificate program already under her belt, she set off scrounging for the opportunities that would eventually lead her to Sully and then The 15:17 to Paris.

After the whirlwind of writing her first movie, she now has an agent, and two possible new projects in the works, the details of which she cant yet share.

It literally has still not hit me, she said. Producers are pitching me projects, which is a total first, and I'm able to pitch my own ideas. Its been life-changing.

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Read more about Lehigh Valley entertainment

All of these movies and TV shows were shot in the Lehigh Valley

7 reasons 'Glass' star Samuel L. Jackson should move to the Lehigh Valley

A Lehigh professor is behind one of the year's most buzzed-about new books

Controversial rapper's Easton concert canceled after sex crime uproar

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Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook.Lehigh Valley law enforcement are participating in a new federal initiative to combat the opioid crisis in eastern Pennsylvania.

Both Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli on Thursday joined prosecutors in neighboring counties for an announcement on the formation of a new Opioid Law Enforcement Task Force.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is spearheading the task force. The office's opioid coordinator will manage the task force.

In addition to local law enforcement, the U.S. Attorney's Office says it intends to use resources from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS and other federal agencies.

Plans are to use the task force for "a robust prosecution response to this crisis," a news release states.

It will target transnational smugglers of opioids, medical professional who unlawfully prescribe drugs, cyber criminals who distribute opioids through the so-called dark web and drug traffickers who are criminally responsible for overdose deaths, the release states.

"This isn't a crisis any one of us can tackle alone," U.S. Attorney Louis D. Lappen says in a statement. "We have already been collaborating on these issues, but it is so critical we continue to work together in even more effective ways. This is the crisis of our time, and we need all hands on deck in an unprecedented way. As this crisis continues, it evolves and adapts. We also need to continue to evolve and adapt."



Nearly 250 people died of drug overdoses in Lehigh and Northampton counties from January through September of last year, the two counties' coroners previously reported.

Nick Falsone may be reached at nfalsone@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickfalsone. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Organizations & Institutions GLOBAL EXPERTS TO ATTEND FIRST INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN FORUM IN SAUDI ARABIA 26-27 February 2018



18.02.2018 05:25:34 -



(live-PR.com) - RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: The 1st Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 26  27 of February 2018 under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Organized by the King Salman Humanitarian and Relief Centre (KSrelief), the forum is the first of its kind - RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: The 1st Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 26  27 of February 2018 under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Organized by the King Salman Humanitarian and Relief Centre (KSrelief), the forum is the first of its kind to take place in the Kingdom, building on previous global humanitarian events to address changes to the humanitarian landscape and to formulate new practical and efficient responses which reflect the changing needs on the ground.



Bringing together professionals and key decision-makers from across the international humanitarian community, the two-day forum will be attended by high level global representatives from the United Nations, international and national NGOs.



H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Advisor  Royal Court and Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, said: Historically, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken on a pioneering humanitarian role in serving the international community around the world. The Kingdom realizes the significance of its role in alleviating human suffering and ensuring that all people are given the opportunity to live healthy, dignified lives. To further emphasize their dedication to the service of all in need, the leadership of Saudi Arabia established King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre; its purpose is to provide and monitor the delivery of humanitarian aid and relief to those in need outside of the Kingdoms borders.



The center was inaugurated on 13 May 2015 under the high patronage and guidance of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, may God bless him. The centers activities are founded upon noble fundamental humanitarian goals and principles.



To date, KSrelief has implemented 328 projects in 38 countries; the majority of our programs have focused on Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Somalia. KSreliefs 119 humanitarian partners include UN member agencies as well as many other international and national NGOs. The main project sectors served by the center are: Food Security, Health, (with special focus on Women and Children), Nutrition, Water and Sanitation and Education, along with some special projects  one of which provides rehabilitation services for former child soldiers in Yemen.



KSrelief is also very active in refugee programs; among these is a project, near completion, of a 300-unit residential village in Djibouti to house Yemeni refugees and provide them with school and health care facilities. The Kingdom has also received 561,000 Yemenis, 262,000 Syrians and 249,000 Rohingya from Burma. These visitors are welcomed into Saudi society and have access to public health care, education and employment opportunities.



Based upon KSreliefs mandate and the worlds growing need for increasing amounts of humanitarian aid and relief, the center determined this an opportune moment in time in which to host the 1st Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum. The forum will take place on 26  27 February 2018, at the InterContinental Hotel in Riyadh under the high patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz.



The Forum is an unprecedented opportunity to drive meaningful, relevant and practical change in humanitarian work to reflect what is most needed in this area. Speakers and sessions will address key issues in humanitarian planning and delivery, and will encourage participants to develop new strategies for reaching the greatest possible number of people in need.



The forums main themes include: Humanitarian Aid, Capacity of Humanitarian Funding, Innovations and Reform and Localizing of Aid. The forum has attracted many attendees from 45 international and regional organizations.



The Forum program will cover the following subjects:

 Humanitarian Assistance

Side Events

 Bridging the Humanitarian Assistance & Development Nexus

 Policy Development in an ever-changing operational context of Global displacement

 Improving Humanitarian Response through Academic Research



 Humanitarian Financing and capacities

Side Events

 Humanitarian Funding, gaps, challenges, responsibilities and opportunities

 Role of non-traditional donors and regional organizations

 Improving Humanitarian response through Academic Research

 Innovation and Reform in the Humanitarian Sector

 Reform of the humanitarian system, World Humanitarian Summit outcomes, and taking stock

 Innovation and Technology in the Humanitarian sphere

 Improving Humanitarian response through Academic Research



 Localizing of Aid

Side Events

 Local organizations, capacity building and empowerment

 Capacity of host countries and communities

 Building local community disaster and fragility resilience



For further information on the 1st Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum and King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre visit: rihf.ksrelief.org

to take place in the Kingdom, building on previous global humanitarian events to address changes to the humanitarian landscape and to formulate new practical and efficient responses which reflect the changing needs on the ground.Bringing together professionals and key decision-makers from across the international humanitarian community, the two-day forum will be attended by high level global representatives from the United Nations, international and national NGOs.H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, Advisor  Royal Court and Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, said: Historically, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken on a pioneering humanitarian role in serving the international community around the world. The Kingdom realizes the significance of its role in alleviating human suffering and ensuring that all people are given the opportunity to live healthy, dignified lives. To further emphasize their dedication to the service of all in need, the leadership of Saudi Arabia established King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre; its purpose is to provide and monitor the delivery of humanitarian aid and relief to those in need outside of the Kingdoms borders.The center was inaugurated on 13 May 2015 under the high patronage and guidance of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, may God bless him. The centers activities are founded upon noble fundamental humanitarian goals and principles.To date, KSrelief has implemented 328 projects in 38 countries; the majority of our programs have focused on Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Somalia. KSreliefs 119 humanitarian partners include UN member agencies as well as many other international and national NGOs. The main project sectors served by the center are: Food Security, Health, (with special focus on Women and Children), Nutrition, Water and Sanitation and Education, along with some special projects  one of which provides rehabilitation services for former child soldiers in Yemen.KSrelief is also very active in refugee programs; among these is a project, near completion, of a 300-unit residential village in Djibouti to house Yemeni refugees and provide them with school and health care facilities. The Kingdom has also received 561,000 Yemenis, 262,000 Syrians and 249,000 Rohingya from Burma. These visitors are welcomed into Saudi society and have access to public health care, education and employment opportunities.Based upon KSreliefs mandate and the worlds growing need for increasing amounts of humanitarian aid and relief, the center determined this an opportune moment in time in which to host the 1st Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum. The forum will take place on 26  27 February 2018, at the InterContinental Hotel in Riyadh under the high patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz.The Forum is an unprecedented opportunity to drive meaningful, relevant and practical change in humanitarian work to reflect what is most needed in this area. Speakers and sessions will address key issues in humanitarian planning and delivery, and will encourage participants to develop new strategies for reaching the greatest possible number of people in need.The forums main themes include: Humanitarian Aid, Capacity of Humanitarian Funding, Innovations and Reform and Localizing of Aid. The forum has attracted many attendees from 45 international and regional organizations.The Forum program will cover the following subjects: Humanitarian AssistanceSide Events Bridging the Humanitarian Assistance & Development Nexus Policy Development in an ever-changing operational context of Global displacement Improving Humanitarian Response through Academic Research Humanitarian Financing and capacitiesSide Events Humanitarian Funding, gaps, challenges, responsibilities and opportunities Role of non-traditional donors and regional organizations Improving Humanitarian response through Academic Research Innovation and Reform in the Humanitarian Sector Reform of the humanitarian system, World Humanitarian Summit outcomes, and taking stock Innovation and Technology in the Humanitarian sphere Improving Humanitarian response through Academic Research Localizing of AidSide Events Local organizations, capacity building and empowerment Capacity of host countries and communities Building local community disaster and fragility resilienceFor further information on the 1st Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum and King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre visit: rihf.ksrelief.org Contact information:

Orient Planet PR & Marketing Communications





P.O.Box. 500266, Dubai, UAE





Contact Person:

Eyad Zeidan



Phone: 0097144562888

eMail: eMail



Web: http://www.orientplanet.com

Author:

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Phone: 0097144562888 18.02.2018 05:25:34 -

Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party.Business "Reaction Monitoring Market - Global Forecasts to 2022" is now available at Fast Market Research



18.02.2018 00:27:46 - New Telecom and Computing market report from Markets and Markets: "Reaction Monitoring Market - Global Forecasts to 2022"



(live-PR.com) - Reaction Monitoring Market by Technology (Spectroscopy (MS, IR, UV, NMR, Raman), Chromatography (GC, LC), Calorimetry, Titrimetry, XRD), Mode (Quantitative, Qualitative), End User (Research, Pharma-Biotech, Food & Beverages Co) - Global Forecasts to 2022



"The reaction monitoring market projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.7%."



The global reaction monitoring market is projected to reach USD 1.52 billion by 2022 from USD 1.15 - Reaction Monitoring Market by Technology (Spectroscopy (MS, IR, UV, NMR, Raman), Chromatography (GC, LC), Calorimetry, Titrimetry, XRD), Mode (Quantitative, Qualitative), End User (Research, Pharma-Biotech, Food & Beverages Co) - Global Forecasts to 2022"The reaction monitoring market projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.7%."The global reaction monitoring market is projected to reach USD 1.52 billion by 2022 from USD 1.15 billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 5.7%. Factors such as stringent regulatory guidelines in the pharmaceutical & biotechnology industry, expansion of the food and beverages industry, and launch of innovative products are factors driving the growth of this marketare driving the reaction monitoring market. However, the high cost of analytical instruments is the major factor restraining the market growth to a certain extent.



Full Report Details at

- fastmr.com/products/1309702-reaction-monitoring-global?afid=702



"The spectroscopy segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period."



The spectroscopy market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The increasing use of spectroscopy drug development pipelines, stringent regulatory compliance for drug manufacturing & food processing protocols are expected to support the growth of this market during the forecast period.



"The pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR."



Based on end user, the reaction monitoring market has been categorized into the following segments: pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies, life science and genomic research facilities, food and beverage industry, pollution monitoring and control industry, and other end users. Amongst these, the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to factors such as the stringent regulations for pharmaceutical drug development and manufacturing (such as cGMP, cGLP, and EXCiPACT certification) and increasing usage of analytical techniques during quality assessment during drug manufacturing.



"Quantitative reaction mode segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment."



On the basis of reaction mode, the market is segmented into qualitative reaction mode and quantitative reaction mode. The quantitative reaction mode segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. This can be attributed to the ongoing technological advancements in the field of analytical techniques (such as real-time quantification, device miniaturization, and process automation), ongoing expansion and modernization of the pharmaceutical & biotechnology and food processing industries.



"Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest growth rate in the reaction monitoring market."



Geographically, the reaction monitoring market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the RoW. The Asia Pacific market is expected to register the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The strong growth potential, key industry players are expanding their geographic presence in emerging APAC countries (such as China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan) to position in the reaction monitoring market are some of the major factors driving the growth of the Asia Pacific reaction monitoring market.



Breakdown of supply-side primary interviews:



* By Company Type - Tier 1 - 45%, Tier 2 - 34% and Tier 3 - 21%

* By Designation - C-level - 10%, Director level - 14%, Others - 76%

* By Region - North America - 40%, Europe - 32%, APAC - 20%, RoW - 8%



The major players in the market included are Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Waters (US), Agilent Technologies (US), Danaher (US), ABB (Switzerland), and Merck (Germany).



Research Coverage



About Fast Market Research



Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.



For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at

billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 5.7%. Factors such as stringent regulatory guidelines in the pharmaceutical & biotechnology industry, expansion of the food and beverages industry, and launch of innovative products are factors driving the growth of this marketare driving the reaction monitoring market. However, the high cost of analytical instruments is the major factor restraining the market growth to a certain extent.Full Report Details at"The spectroscopy segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period."The spectroscopy market is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The increasing use of spectroscopy drug development pipelines, stringent regulatory compliance for drug manufacturing & food processing protocols are expected to support the growth of this market during the forecast period."The pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR."Based on end user, the reaction monitoring market has been categorized into the following segments: pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies, life science and genomic research facilities, food and beverage industry, pollution monitoring and control industry, and other end users. Amongst these, the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period owing to factors such as the stringent regulations for pharmaceutical drug development and manufacturing (such as cGMP, cGLP, and EXCiPACT certification) and increasing usage of analytical techniques during quality assessment during drug manufacturing."Quantitative reaction mode segment is expected to be the fastest-growing segment."On the basis of reaction mode, the market is segmented into qualitative reaction mode and quantitative reaction mode. The quantitative reaction mode segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. This can be attributed to the ongoing technological advancements in the field of analytical techniques (such as real-time quantification, device miniaturization, and process automation), ongoing expansion and modernization of the pharmaceutical & biotechnology and food processing industries."Asia Pacific is expected to register the highest growth rate in the reaction monitoring market."Geographically, the reaction monitoring market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the RoW. The Asia Pacific market is expected to register the highest growth rate during the forecast period. The strong growth potential, key industry players are expanding their geographic presence in emerging APAC countries (such as China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan) to position in the reaction monitoring market are some of the major factors driving the growth of the Asia Pacific reaction monitoring market.Breakdown of supply-side primary interviews:* By Company Type - Tier 1 - 45%, Tier 2 - 34% and Tier 3 - 21%* By Designation - C-level - 10%, Director level - 14%, Others - 76%* By Region - North America - 40%, Europe - 32%, APAC - 20%, RoW - 8%The major players in the market included are Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Waters (US), Agilent Technologies (US), Danaher (US), ABB (Switzerland), and Merck (Germany).Research CoverageAbout Fast Market ResearchFast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156 (1.413.485.7001 Int'l) Author:

Bill Thompson

e-mail

Web: http://www.fastmr.com

Phone: 1.518.300.1215 18.02.2018 00:27:46 -

Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party.Health Report Published: "Timing Belt Market - Global Forecast to 2025"



18.02.2018 00:26:12 - Fast Market Research recommends "Timing Belt Market - Global Forecast to 2025" from Markets and Markets, now available



(live-PR.com) - Timing Belt Market by Drive Type (Dry Belts, Chain, Belt in Oil), Component (Idler Pulley, Sprocket, Tensioner, Timing Shield/Cover), ICE & Hybrid (Passenger Car, Commercial Vehicle, HEV, PHEV), Aftermarket, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025



"The growth of direct injection engines and rise in vehicle production fuel the demand for the timing belt market"



The timing belt market is estimated to - Timing Belt Market by Drive Type (Dry Belts, Chain, Belt in Oil), Component (Idler Pulley, Sprocket, Tensioner, Timing Shield/Cover), ICE & Hybrid (Passenger Car, Commercial Vehicle, HEV, PHEV), Aftermarket, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025"The growth of direct injection engines and rise in vehicle production fuel the demand for the timing belt market"The timing belt market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.21% during the forecast period, to reach a market size of USD 9.22 billion by 2025. The key factors driving the growth of the timing belt market are the rising adoption of direct injection engines and growing vehicle production globally. The rising vehicle parc and increased average miles per vehicle drive the growth of the timing belt aftermarket. The rising demand for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), which do not deploy an ICE, may act as a restraint for the timing belt market.



Full Report Details at

- fastmr.com/products/1309709-timing-belt-global-forecast?afid=702



"Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is estimated to be the largest market, by value, for timing belt by hybrid vehicle type from 2017 to 2025"



The HEV segment is estimated to be the largest market for timing belt, by hybrid vehicle type. The widespread adoption and higher production of HEVs, as compared to PHEVs, has led to the growth of the timing belt market in this vehicle segment.



"Tensioner Market: Largest component type market in timing belt market from 2017 to 2025"



Tensioners ensure efficient working order of a timing chain or belt. The timing chain tensioner maintains appropriate tension in the timing chain or belt. Automotive tensioners are used in timing belts as well as timing chain systems. Tensioners are costlier than other components of the timing drive system. Thus, tensioners are estimated to hold the largest share of the timing belt market, by component, in terms of value, during the forecast period.



"Asia Oceania: Largest and fastest-growing region in timing belt market from 2017 to 2025"



Asia Oceania is estimated to dominate the global timing belt market. The Asia Oceania timing belt market is projected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. Countries such as China, Japan, and India are the leading markets in the region in vehicle production. China alone contributed around 61.2% of the vehicle production in Asia Oceania in 2016. Thus, the increasing vehicle production in Asia Oceania acts as a major growth driver for the timing belt market.



BREAKDOWN OF PRIMARIES



The study contains insights provided by various industry experts, ranging from component suppliers to Tier-1 companies. The break-up of the primaries is as follows:



 By Company Type: Tier-1-50 %, Tier-2-33%, OEMs--17%



 By Designation: C level-17%, D Level-33%, Others-50%



 By Region: North America-49%, Europe-35%, Asia Oceania-16%



The report provides detailed profiles of the following companies:



 Continental (Germany)



 Aisin Seiki (Japan)



 Schaeffler (Germany)



 Goodyear (US)



 SKF (Sweden)



 BorgWarner (US)



 Toyoda (Japan)



 NTN (Japan)



 Hutchinson (France)



 Gates Corporation (US)



Research Coverage



The primary objective of the study is to define, describe, and forecast the timing belt market based on ICE vehicle type (passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles), hybrid vehicle type (HEV and PHEV), Timing Drive type (Dry Belts, Chains, Belt-In-Oil), Component (Idler Pulleys, Sprockets, Timing Shield/Cover, Tensioner), and timing belt aftermarket. The report analyzes the regional markets for growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the overall market. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments such as new product launches, expansions, joint ventures, acquisitions, and other industry activities carried out by key industry participants.



Reasons for buying the report:



About Fast Market Research



Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.



For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at

grow at a CAGR of 5.21% during the forecast period, to reach a market size of USD 9.22 billion by 2025. The key factors driving the growth of the timing belt market are the rising adoption of direct injection engines and growing vehicle production globally. The rising vehicle parc and increased average miles per vehicle drive the growth of the timing belt aftermarket. The rising demand for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), which do not deploy an ICE, may act as a restraint for the timing belt market.Full Report Details at"Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) is estimated to be the largest market, by value, for timing belt by hybrid vehicle type from 2017 to 2025"The HEV segment is estimated to be the largest market for timing belt, by hybrid vehicle type. The widespread adoption and higher production of HEVs, as compared to PHEVs, has led to the growth of the timing belt market in this vehicle segment."Tensioner Market: Largest component type market in timing belt market from 2017 to 2025"Tensioners ensure efficient working order of a timing chain or belt. The timing chain tensioner maintains appropriate tension in the timing chain or belt. Automotive tensioners are used in timing belts as well as timing chain systems. Tensioners are costlier than other components of the timing drive system. Thus, tensioners are estimated to hold the largest share of the timing belt market, by component, in terms of value, during the forecast period."Asia Oceania: Largest and fastest-growing region in timing belt market from 2017 to 2025"Asia Oceania is estimated to dominate the global timing belt market. The Asia Oceania timing belt market is projected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. Countries such as China, Japan, and India are the leading markets in the region in vehicle production. China alone contributed around 61.2% of the vehicle production in Asia Oceania in 2016. Thus, the increasing vehicle production in Asia Oceania acts as a major growth driver for the timing belt market.BREAKDOWN OF PRIMARIESThe study contains insights provided by various industry experts, ranging from component suppliers to Tier-1 companies. The break-up of the primaries is as follows: By Company Type: Tier-1-50 %, Tier-2-33%, OEMs--17% By Designation: C level-17%, D Level-33%, Others-50% By Region: North America-49%, Europe-35%, Asia Oceania-16%The report provides detailed profiles of the following companies: Continental (Germany) Aisin Seiki (Japan) Schaeffler (Germany) Goodyear (US) SKF (Sweden) BorgWarner (US) Toyoda (Japan) NTN (Japan) Hutchinson (France) Gates Corporation (US)Research CoverageThe primary objective of the study is to define, describe, and forecast the timing belt market based on ICE vehicle type (passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles), hybrid vehicle type (HEV and PHEV), Timing Drive type (Dry Belts, Chains, Belt-In-Oil), Component (Idler Pulleys, Sprockets, Timing Shield/Cover, Tensioner), and timing belt aftermarket. The report analyzes the regional markets for growth trends, prospects, and their contribution to the overall market. The report also tracks and analyzes competitive developments such as new product launches, expansions, joint ventures, acquisitions, and other industry activities carried out by key industry participants.Reasons for buying the report:About Fast Market ResearchFast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156 (1.413.485.7001 Int'l) Author:

Bill Thompson

e-mail

Web: http://www.fastmr.com

Phone: 1.518.300.1215 18.02.2018 00:26:12 -

Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party.TRIPOLI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Libyan military forces of the UN-backed government on Saturday held a military exercise with live ammunition near the northwestern Libyan city of Misurata.

"Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad M'etig attended the tactical training exercise with live ammunition at the military airport of Al-Nmowa in Sdada area, in the presence of the Chief of the General Staff, Major General Abdulrahman Taweel, and a number of military officials," the prime minister's media and communication office said in a statement.

"The exercise, which lasted for more than three hours continuously, aimed to increase the combat capability of the ground forces, in partnership with the Libyan air force," the statement said.

The audience appreciated the exercise, hoping such tactical maneuvers could be continued as they boost the morale of the Libyan troops, the statement added.Source: afghanistantimes.af

AT News Report-KABUL: Afghanistan has refuted claims that China wants to establish a military base in the northeast province of Badakhshan in a bid to extend its presence in Afghanistan.

Such military cooperation by the foreign countries will not take place without the approval of the national security council and the president of Afghanistan, presidential office said Saturday.

It added that China like other regional countries was a victim of terrorism, emphasizing that Beijing was cooperating with Afghanistan and the region in fighting terrorism.

Cooperation between Afghanistan and China has wide dimensions, but the Chinese military presence in Afghanistan has not yet discussed.Kozhikode: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on last day condemned political killings and asked people to isolate the forces of violence. "Progress will not be possible without peace. I appeal to the people of Kerala to isolate the forces of violence," he said, speaking at the release of the 100th book of senior BJP leader in Kerala, P S Sreedharan Pillai.

The Vice-President's statement assumes significance in the backdrop of killing of a Youth Congress leader Shuhaib, allegedly by ruling CPI (M) workers, at the politically sensitive Kannur district on February 13.

Coming down heavily on political clashes, Naidu said such attacks were not good. "Murder and violence affect the social fabric. They will divert attention. I request the Kerala state to isolate violence," he said.

"If there is tension, there cannot be attention towards development", Naidu said and exhorted the people to use the power of the ballot and not that of the bullet. "Everything should be decided by the ballot, because ballot is stronger than bullet", he said.Famous Cairo Tower wears red on Chinese New Year's Eve

From:Xinhua | 2018-02-16 11:28

Chinese artists perform acrobatics during a lighting ceremony at the Cairo Tower in Cairo, Egypt, on Feb. 15, 2018. The Cairo Tower is lit in red to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year here on Thursday. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

The Cairo Tower is lit in red to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Cairo, Egypt, on Feb. 15, 2018. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Cairo Tower, an outstanding landmark in the Arab capital, was lit up Thursday in red to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

The Spring Festival Celebration, inaugurated by the Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Song Aiguo and Egypt's Minister of Tourism Rania al-Mashat, was co-organized by the Chinese Culture Center in cooperation with the Egyptian Tourism Authority.

Ambassador Song Aiguo told the crowds at the celebration that he was very pleased to see the landmark of Cairo celebrating the Chinese New Year, which reflects the strength of ties between the two peoples and countries.

"It is a great honor and pleasure for me and my Chinese compatriots in Egypt to have Cairo Tower illuminated in red on this New Year's Eve," the ambassador said.

For her part, minister al-Mashat said today's celebrations prove that the Egyptian-Chinese relationships are very strong and deeply rooted.

She added that celebrating the New Year at Cairo Tower is very special for Egypt, expressing willingness and hope for even stronger and broader partnership.

The celebration featured Chinese cultural and folkloric performances in the presence of distinguished figures of the Chinese and Egyptian sides, along with public figures and celebrities.

After upgrading the relations between the two countries to a "comprehensive strategic partnership" in 2014, cultural exchange has been at its peak as artists, cultural and musical delegations have exchanged visits.

Through such activities, Egypt and China want to boost friendly ties and enhance mutual understanding and future development between the peoples of the two nations, whose relations have deep roots back in history.BOSTON - Authorities are investigating after an 11-month-old baby girl was pronounced dead at a Boston hospital Saturday morning, according to 25-news.

A number of law enforcement agencies are now looking into the girl's death, including Massachusetts State police, Quincy police, and the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office.

Calls for medical assistance were made from the baby's residence in Quincy neighborhood of Wollaston on Friday.

The infant was taken to a Boston area hospital for treatment and subsequently declared dead.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine why the girl died.

Further details have not been released at this time.BOSTON - A Billerica man was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison Thursday after admitting to sexually abusing two young boys, according to The Boston Globe.

Philip Toronto, 43, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation in U.S. District Court in Boston in November.

As part of his sentence, Toronto will also be obligated to undergo 5 years of supervised release.

Massachusetts State police were initially tipped off to Toronto's activities by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children--who reported that a Skype user had uploaded suspected images of child porn to the internet site in October 2016.

Toronto was arrested in February of 2017 following an investigation into his activities by State police and the U.S. Postal Service police.

During a search of his home, investigators found child porn, some of which was "home made," according to prosecutors in the case.

When questioned by police, Toronto initially denied involvement with child porn but later admitted to investigators that he had uploaded the images to Skype, court documents show.

Investigators ultimately discovered videos that Toronto had shot of two boys in "various stages of undress" and "videos and images of Toronto raping and indecently assaulting each of the boys," according to prosecutors.

He ultimately admitted to repeatedly abusing a boy, now 15, between 2011 and 2014 as well as abusing a five-year-old in September of 2016.BRIDGEWATER

- A 17-year-old former Bridgewater high school student was arrested Friday after allegedly making a number of threatening remarks via social media, some of which referenced the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida, according to

.

The student, who has not been publicly identified due to his juvenile status, allegedly said in a text message to other students "Florida part two tomorrow" and posted a separate social media post that featured an image of a person holding a pistol.

Several people subsequently reported the teen to police and he was arrested around 1 p.m. at a residence in Bridgewater.

He has been charged with disturbance of a school and making a terrorist threat.

He will be arraigned Tuesday in Brockton District Court.

The incident occurred just two days after a former high school student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School opened fire at the school in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and wounding dozens.

Parents of children at the school were notified of the incident and arrest around 2:10 p.m. Friday in an email by school Principal Angela Watson.

Bridgewater-Raynham regional school district superintendent Derek Swenson released a statement Friday regarding the incident:

"The Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School Administrative Team received information that a threat was made by a student who no longer attends the high school on his social media page. The police were immediately contacted and an investigation began. I am pleased to inform you that the Bridgewater Police Department has taken this individual into custody. We would like to thank both the Bridgewater and Raynham Police for their swift and appropriate response."

Watson further confirmed to reporters that the school had "received information that a threat was made by a student who no longer attends the high school on his social media page."

"No matter what, every threat we get we take very seriously," said Bridgewater Police Chief Christopher Delmonte, of the incident.

Another incident at the school apparently occurred in which a student giving a slideshow presentation in his business class showed classmates a picture of a handgun that had "no context to the presentation being given," according to Watson. The student claimed he was making a joke. However, police are investigating the incident.

The incidents at the school are just some of several that occurred at Massachusetts high schools across the state following the deadly attack in Parkland.CHICOPEE - Because of the expected snowstorm Saturday the Department of Public Works has called for a winter parking ban.

Starting at 10 p.m., Saturday, there will be no parking on main roads and no parking on the odd side of secondary roads. The ban is expected to last until 2 p.m., Sunday.

Between 4 and 6 inches is expected to fall overnight in Hampshire County and the snow could be heavy at times, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

People who violate the ban face fines and the possibility of having their cars towed.Authorities are investigating the cause of a five-alarm fire that destroyed a popular appliance store in Revere Saturday afternoon.

Officials from the Revere Fire Department and state Fire Marshal's Office returned to Sozio's Home Furnishings and Appliances Sunday after a five-alarm fire ripped through the Revere business the night before.

The business opened in 1949 and has showrooms in Cambridge, Boston and Danvers along with the Revere location, according to the store's website.

Revere Deputy Fire Chief Glen Rich told CBS Boston the fire caused $500,000 to $1 million in damage. He told the television station the owner's wife escaped the building when the fire broke out around 4:30 p.m.

The Boston Globe reports the fire inside the business, located on Route 60, caused cars near the scene and appliances inside the store to explode.

#BREAKING: Firefighters are trying to control a raging fire at Sozios Appliance store in #Revere. The building is completely engulfed, with thick black smoke pouring into the sky. @WBZ pic.twitter.com/NzidY7Da7A  Tiffany Chan (@TiffanyChanWBZ) February 17, 2018

Three firefighters had minor injuries and did not require treatment at the hospital, the newspaper reported.

Investigators are working to determine the cause and origin of the fire.

The state fire marshal is now on scene investigating what caused the huge fire at Sozio Appliances in Revere. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/Tm748Y55lV  Kelly Sullivan (@ksullivannews) February 18, 2018Although Berkshire County has long been a destination for art and nature lovers, recent revitalization efforts and the opening of new attractions, restaurants and hotels have encouraged tourists to explore the entire county - particularly its northeastern corner.

North Adams, a historic mill town turned arts destination, has seen tourism rise in recent years - particularly with the opening of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art's Building 6 last year.

The increase in visitors, including those who previously may have spent time at Tanglewood, the Norman Rockwell Museum and other places in the southern part of the county, has spurred a series of hotel projects to accommodate those looking to stay near north county attractions, like Mass MoCA or the Clark Art Institute in nearby Williamstown.

Among those projects is Greylock Works, an old mill that developers from New York City are looking to turn into a mixed-use facility with an events space, hotel rooms, housing units, restaurants and food production facilities, among other things.

Growing tourism in North Adams has also led some of the people behind Mass MoCA to push for new museum projects in the city.

Thomas Krens, who helped found the northern Berkshire museum, is working to create the Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum near the city's Heritage State Park.

The proposed museum, to be designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, would showcase modern, iconic architectural buildings, surrounded by rail lines and continuously moving model trains.

While Krens and others are looking to build on North Adams' ability to draw tourists, the Berkshire Natural Resources Council has unveiled a project that seeks to drive tourism to all parts of the county.

Hoping to capitalize on the nearly 37 percent of Berkshire County visitors who engage in outdoor recreation during their stays, the BNRC is looking to create a network of hiking, biking and other trails to connect nearly every city and town in the county over the next several years.

While cultural attractions and natural resources accounted for $739 million in economic impact from tourism in 2016, they have also led some visitors to remain in the region long-term.

Arsema Abegaz, a business analyst and digital marketing manager at Zogics, first came to Berkshire County to attend Williams College. She decided to stay after graduating because the region's small towns, rural environment and people reminded her of her native Botswana.

Abegaz acknowledged that she was among the minority of her Williams classmates who chose to stay in the Berkshires post college. Unlike those who went to New York City or Boston, she said, her lack of time spent commuting has allowed her to attend cultural events, hike and hang out with friends.

Berkshire County business owners agree that while it can be hard to recruit employees from big cities, the region's cultural and natural attractions can help draw workers from more rural regions in New England, as well as parts of upstate New York and Western Massachusetts.

Stephen Boyd, president of Boyd Technologies in Lee, said his company looks for recruits who are a good cultural fit for the Berkshires and enjoy nature and the arts.

The long-awaited Berkshire Innovation Center, which is expected to offer access to cutting-edge research and development equipment, could further help with those recruitment efforts and bolster the county's advanced manufacturing and technology industry.PLYMOUTH - State Police who stopped to assist a driver whose car had appeared to have broken down found the motorist had seven warrants for his arrest and allegedly possessed a loaded gun.

Joshua Silva, 42, of Plymouth, was arrested at about 3:30 a.m., Sunday, and charged with illegal possession of Suboxone; possession of a firearm and ammunition without a permit, subsequent offense; carrying a loaded firearm; improper storage of a firearm and firearm violation with three prior violent or drug crimes, Massachusetts State Police officials said.

Silva was stopped at the side of Route 24 southbound when Trooper Michael Pacheco was on routine patrol and stopped to assist him. When he asked for his license, Pacheco realized he had seven outstanding warrants for previous offenses and placed him under arrest.

After the arrest, Silva was found to allegedly be in possession of a .38 caliber Smith & Wesson gun and three packets of Suboxone sublingual strips, police said.

He was transported to the State Police North Dartmouth Barracks for booking. Fall River Police Officer Gary Pasternak assisted in the arrest, police said.Ensure continuous administration of vaccines to prisoners: HC to Kerala govt

The court's order came after the state government informed it that there were only 4,808 prisoners in the prisons in Kerala and that majority of them have been given the first dose of vaccination.SPRINGFIELD - A sidewalk is no place for a strip search, a lawyer for a Springfield drug defendant contends.

Asante Kamau, 35, was strip searched by city narcotics detectives around 6:30 p.m. on April 13, 2017, on a sidewalk on Andrew Street, according to a motion filed by defense lawyer Matthew Hutchinson.

The search turned up a rock of crack cocaine from Kamau's underwear, leading to a charge of possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute.

Kamau pleaded not guilty to the charge in Springfield District Court, and was released on $460 bail.

Hutchinson, a former prosecutor, recently asked a judge to block prosecutors from using the drug evidence at trial, a move that would effectively end the case.

By conducting an "inspection of such a highly personal nature" on a sidewalk in daylight, police violated Kamau's constitutional right to privacy, Hutchinson said.

"The evidence obtained is the 'fruit' of this unconstitutional intrusion and therefore should be suppressed," the lawyer wrote.

During a pretrial hearing Feb. 1, Hutchinson called as witnesses two neighbors who allegedly saw the search. Assistant District Arttorney Laila Atta called two Springfield police officers involved in the search and subsequent arrest.

The case began when police allegedly spotted Kamau speaking to a prospective drug buyer outside 35 Andrew St. in the city's McKnight neighborhood. As the officers watched, Kamau looked up and down the street, then "shoved his hand down the back of his underwear and retrieved a clear plastic sandwich bag," according to the arrest report.

Using high-powered binoculars, an officer could "clearly see a white substance in the bottom of the bag," the report said. Kamau pulled the rock from the bag, placed it in the customer's hand and then "shoved the bag back in his rear underwear area," the report said.

Police arrested Kamau nearby and found $1,520 in his pocket, plus a plastic bag with a rock of crack cocaine. Attempts to arrest the alleged buyer failed when officers lost his car in traffic, the report said.

Police strip searches have been a recurring source of concern in state courts.

In 2012, the state Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court's decision to throw out drug evidence seized during a sidewalk strip search in Lowell, explaining the search "was not conducted in a private room or in a private location and no exigency existed."

In his motion, Hutchinson quoted from the ruling. "Strip or visual body cavity searches are by their very nature, humiliating, demeaning and terrifying experiences that, without question, constitute a substantial intrusion into one's personal privacy rights," Hutchinson wrote.

After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Mark Pasquariello took the defense motion under review, and continued the case for a pretrial hearing March 7.A Worcester police cruiser burst into flames and the officer inside rushed to safety after authorities say another driver struck the cruiser Friday night.

The officer was not injured. The driver of the other vehicle also wasn't injured.

Authorities say the officer was on Greenwood Street Friday night when the cruiser was struck by another car. The cruiser was forced into a utility pole and caught flames.

Police had few details on the crash, which remains under investigation.Former Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry gives her farewell address as former Gov. Deval Patrick looks on. (Photo: Sam Doran/State House News Service)

By Gintautas Dumcius | MassLive

Her farewell drew the current governor, a former governor, and the mayor of Boston, along with dozens of others from across the political spectrum.

They packed the chamber inside the Massachusetts State House to hear Linda Dorcena Forrys goodbye speech, weeks after the state senator of Dorchester and South Boston announced she would be taking a high-level job at Suffolk Construction.

No doubt, when I announced, people were shocked, Wow, I cant believe shes leaving. But this was the time to do it, she said during an appearance on WGBHs Greater Boston show, noting that jobs like the one at Suffolk Construction, where shell be a top executive, dont come along often for people of color.

But the stories and headlines about Dorcena Forrys departure also note that she was, until the end of January, the only black state senator in Massachusetts. Now there are none. The Bay States political ranks currently include one black mayor and five black members of the 160-person state House of Representatives.

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Rep. Byron Rushing, right, speaks as Boston Mayor Marty Walsh looks on. (Photo: State House News Service file)

'If it was a priority, it would be changed'

You cant talk about her leaving without talking about race and without talking about gender, says Byron Rushing, one of the aforementioned five members and a state representative since 1983.

He says he hasnt seen a significant advancement in numbers when it comes to diversity among elected officials.

What seems to have happened is the diversity here has matched more the diversity in the state but it hasnt increased in the way that people of color and population have increased in the state, Rushing, who represents Bostons South End, says during a sit-down in his office.

So I think most people would argue that Massachusetts is close to 20 percent people of color, and for a long, long time, all of those people of color in the Legislature were represented by African Americans, Rushing adds. Now there are Hispanics and Asian-Americans joining the ranks  diversity within the diversity, as he puts it.

Rushing, a Democrat, blames the two major parties for the overall low numbers.

Both the Republican and the Democratic Party, neither one working hard to develop the kinds of programs that are necessary to build up the base of people ready to run, he says. Its racism and sexism. Simple as that. If it was a priority, it would be changed.

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(Photo: Republican staff/File)

The path of Edward Brooke

The Massachusetts Republican Party opened itself up to people of color running statewide decades ago, leading to Ed Brooke becoming the first African-American in US history to win popular election to the Senate, according to Rushing.

Brooke, who died in January 2015 at the age of 95, was the state attorney general before serving in the US Senate from 1967 to 1979.

Think about how long it took before we had a Democrat, a successful Democrat, running statewide, Rushing says, referring to Deval Patrick, who won the race for governor in 2006.

Other countries actively make a decision to run a certain number of women candidates, according to Rushing.

If youre going to run parties like you do in the United States, which is we dont care who you are as long as you win, then you know, youll never get this changed, Rushing says. And thats the kind of parties we have in Massachusetts. We dont care who you are as long as you win. You win the primary, ok then well talk to you.

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'It's just a matter of will, of focus and goals'

Jane Edmonds, who was the first woman of color elected to a local seat in Massachusetts when she won a seat on the Sharon School Committee in the 1970s, also says the parties need to be more inclusionary.

Edmonds, who would join Gov. Michael Dukakis administration as chair of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and later work for Gov. Mitt Romney, is now vice president for programming and community outreach at Babson College.

She noted that there are now six women of color on the Boston City Council, and the first mayor of Framingham, a large town that just recently became a city, is an African-American woman, Yvonne Spicer.

But party officials in Massachusetts should move beyond number-counting towards true inclusion, Edmonds says, which means asking themselves whether theyre providing enough opportunities for people to shine.

Its just a matter of will, of focus and goals, Edmonds says.

That there arent more people of color in politics, even 46 years after her school committee run, likely has little to do with a lack of desire.

It may have something to do, frankly, with picking the right race, Edmonds says. It may have something to do with the strategy that would-be elected officials design. It may have something to do with the inability to raise sufficient funds today.

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Boston City Councilor At-Large Ayanna Pressley (right) stands outside the Massachusetts State House at a Hillary Clinton rally. (Photo: State House News Service)

'I can't and I won't wait my turn'

That is perhaps why theres been an early focus on the six figures Ayanna Pressley is pulling in campaign donations.

Pressley, the first woman of color elected to the Boston City Council in 2009, has launched a campaign against Congressman Michael Capuano, a longtime Democrat who's been on Capitol Hill for 20 years. A WBUR/MassINC Polling Group survey this week showed he was up just 12 percent in the district, which includes roughly half of Boston.

"When the issues we are facing are this big, I can't and I won't wait my turn," Pressley said at her campaign kickoff, according to the Dorchester Reporter.

For his part, Capuano told WBUR earlier this year, "Look, I cannot be a woman of color. And if that's what people care about, that's fine. I accept that, I understand that. I just don't think there are that many people who will vote for me because I'm a white male or vote against me because I'm a white male."

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Former Newton Mayor Setti Warren (Photo: AP)

A 'generational bias,' but 'tremendous' progress

Pressley received a boost this week when she picked up an endorsement from Setti Warren, the former mayor of Newton, who, like Pressley, once worked for US Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Warren, now one of three Democrats running for governor this year, said there is generational bias within Massachusetts.

Theres still a wide divide in access to political office, power, jobs, wealth. The datas there, he said.

But, he added, the state has seen tremendous progress in electing people of color.

I believe that when one embraces conventional wisdom, and doesnt see an incredibly talented woman who happens to be a woman of color who can add a perspective, we lose, Warren said in a phone interview. We lose as a state, we lose as a country.

The former mayor said his grandfather came back from World War II to a segregated society, while Warren returned from a tour of duty in Iraq to the first black president. Warren later became the first black mayor of Newton.

I believe we have an incredibly talented group of people who are people of color in this state, willing to serve, Warren said. And I think we are at a generational moment weve come to.

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Framingham Mayor Yvonne Spicer (Photo: AP)

Higher numbers of women running

Pressley isn't the only woman challenging an incumbent. Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, a Springfield attorney, is running against longtime US Rep. Richard Neal.

Across the United States, women are running for office in numbers this country has never seen before, according to philanthropist Barbara Lee, who is backing Pressleys run.

Massachusetts is truly the original old boys club, Lee said. It is important that legislative bodies reflect the cultural vibrancy of their districts. Having more diversity at the table brings fresh ideas and inspires better policy.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who is pushing to elect more female attorneys general, echoed Lee.

The fact of the matter is we need more women running for office. Period. Local, state, federal level, here and all across this country, she told MassLive. The numbers are just not good and they need to change. And its about ensuring we have policymakers and lawmakers that reflect our democracy and the communities that we serve.

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Not a 'forever goodbye,' Dorcena Forry says

In Dorcena Forry's state Senate district, two state representatives had jumped into the race for her seat: Evandro Carvalho, a Cape Verde native and former prosecutor from Dorchester, and South Boston's Nick Collins, who is white.

But after Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley said he wasn't running for another term this year, Carvalho opted to switch and campaign for the open DA seat, leaving Collins as the favorite to replace Dorcena Forry.

As for Dorcena Forry, who stepped down not just as a state senator but also as the high-profile host of the annual St. Patricks Day roast in South Boston, she held open the door to an eventual return to politics.

She noted Gov. Charlie Baker and former Gov. Patrick both held jobs in the private sector before returning to political life.

I wont promise you today that I wont be back someday, somehow, she said during her farewell speech. You never know what tomorrow brings.

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Read more:

Linda Dorcena Forry, only black Massachusetts state senator, says goodbye to colleagues

How diverse are Massachusetts courts?

Criminal justice system must reckon with unjust outcomes for minorities, Jelani Cobb says at Springfield Public Forum

This post has been updated with a correction. Rep. Capuano has been in Congress for 20 years and 10 terms, not 10 years.PARKLAND, Fla. -- Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida focused their anger Sunday at President Donald Trump, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive.

"You're the president. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us," said David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"How dare you," he added.

Hogg was responding to Trump's tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn't passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI's failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous while bemoaning the bureau's focus on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump was at his Florida estate Sunday but did not mention the attack in a series of morning tweets.

A White House schedule says Trump will host students and teachers Wednesday for a listening session. He also will meet with state and local officials on school safety on Thursday.

The White House did not immediately answer questions about which students would be attending the session.

The president visited the community Friday, seeking out victims at a hospital and meeting first responders.

Florida politicians, meanwhile, scrambled to produce legislation in response to Wednesday's attack that killed 17 people.

In a TV interview, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio embraced a Democratic bill in the Florida legislature to allow courts to temporarily prevent people from having guns if they are determined to be a threat to themselves or others.

Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican, attended a prayer vigil near the school and is expected to announce a legislative package with GOP leaders of the legislature this week.

Emma Gonzalez, another student who survived the attack, cited Trump, Rubio and Scott by name in a warning to politicians who are supported by the National Rifle Association.

"Now is the time to get on the right side of this, because this is not something that we are going to let sweep under the carpet," she said on "Meet the Press."

The pointed comments by the students are the latest sign of increased pressure for gun control after the massacre.

The students have vowed to become the face of a movement for tighter firearm regulations and plan to visit the state capitol in Tallahassee this week to demand immediate action.

You know what isn't acceptable? Blaming everyone but the shooter and the lack of gun control in our country. You even blamed the students. We did report him, we tried. But how were we supposed to know what would happen? Your lack of sympathy proves how pitiful of a person you are https://t.co/32L1z0hhZJ  Carly Novell (@car_nove) February 18, 2018

I will cry.I will cry because 17 people in my school were shot and killed with an AR-15.Trump may be your president but he is a lousy one.The NRA, GOP and even the president value the right to own a semi automatic weapon more than childrens lives, and to think they are prolife https://t.co/S2ZX10hwGq  Sarah Chadwick (@Sarahchadwickk) February 18, 2018

17 of my classmates are gone. Thats 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But youre right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain https://t.co/i6Hldlo0Aq  Aly Sheehy (@Aly_Sheehy) February 18, 2018

Organizers behind the Women's March, an anti-Trump and female empowerment protest, called for a 17-minute, nationwide walkout by teachers and students on March 14. The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools, announced a day of walkouts, sit-ins and other events on school campuses on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 12 students and one teacher dead.

Meanwhile, school and other government records obtained Sunday show the suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at age 3 and had disciplinary issues dating back to middle school. In February 2014, while in 8th grade, Cruz was transferred to a special school for children with emotional and behavioral issues. He stayed there until 10th grade, when he was transferred to Stoneman Douglas. A month after arriving, Cruz was written up for using profanity. Last year, Cruz was expelled.

On Sept. 28, 2016, an investigator from the Florida Department of Children and Families visited Cruz and his mother, Lynda Cruz, after he posted video on Snapchat showing him cutting himself. The report showed that Cruz had written a racial epithet against African-Americans and a Nazi symbol on his book bag, which his mother had forced him to erase. The investigator said Cruz was suffering from depression and on medication and had told Lynda Cruz he planned to buy a gun, but she couldn't determine why.

She said he had been depressed after breaking up with a girlfriend who had been cheating on him, the investigator said. A school counselor told the investigator that Lynda Cruz had always tried to help her son and followed through on his therapy and medication, but the counselor was concerned about the youth's desire to buy a gun.

A crisis counselor told the DCF investigator he had visited the school and that he did not believe Cruz was a danger to himself or others. The case was closed, with the investigator concluding that Cruz was receiving help from his mother and counselors, and "no other referrals or services were needed."

After Lynda Cruz died in November, Cruz moved into the home of a teenage friend. The friend's parents told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper they had no idea the extent of Cruz's issues.

"We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know," Kimberly Snead told the newspaper in an interview published Sunday. "We didn't see this side of him."

James Snead added: "Everything everybody seems to know, we didn't know. It's as simple as that."

The Sneads said Cruz seemed ill-adapted to life on his own, unable to do simple tasks like laundry or use the microwave.

He kept the AR-15 he allegedly used in the massacre locked in a gun safe along with a few other firearms. James Snead thought he had the only key to the cabinet but has figured out Cruz must have kept another key. The family kept their own rifles, bought after a burglary a few years ago, in a separate locked cabinet.

They told Cruz he needed to ask permission to take out the guns. He had asked only twice since November. They said "yes" once and "no" once.

On Wednesday morning, Cruz told them he didn't need a ride to school: "It's Valentine's Day and I don't go to school on Valentine's Day," he said.

Cruz sent their son a few texts that day. In one, he asked what classroom the boy was in. He said he was going to see a movie.

Later he texted he had "something important" he wanted to tell the teen. Then he wrote: "Nothing man."

By Jason Dearen, Terry Spencer and Tamara Lush, Associated Press. Lush reported from St. Petersburg, Florida. Associated Press writers Gary Fineout in Tallahasse, Florida and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed.FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Deven Marrero found out his best friend and offseason roommate Eric Hosmer signed with the San Diego Padres this morning.

Hosmer signed for a reported eight years, $144 million.

"My sisters and stuff had a group text with me and him, telling him congrats," Marrero said. "I was like, what the (expletive) is going on?' I woke up and read all this stuff. I'm happy for him. I'm really happy."

Marrero said Hosmer was surprised Boston took itself out of the running early on during the free agency process. The Red Sox signed Mitch Moreland on Dec. 18.

"I mean, yeah," Marrero said. "He obviously wanted to play for a contender. That's what everybody wants to do. And play for this great city, this great organization, which has a winning tradition. I mean, he would have loved to be here just like everyone else for sure."

Marrero has said multiple times how he'd someday like to play on the same team with Hosmer.

"That's just the way it goes," Marrero said. "I'm happy for Mitch. I'm happy he's back with us. Mitch is a great player. But it's a business at the end of the day. Would I have loved Eric to be here? 110 percent. No question about it. But Mitch is a great player. We're happy to have him here."

The free agent market was stagnant this offseason. But Marrero said Hosmer is not the type who freaks out. He's as cool as a cucumber.

"He's the type of guy he wants what he wants," Marrero said. "He's going to get what he wants. He knows his value. He knew what he wanted. And that was it, man. He kept working hard every day. The same old guy every day. I mean, we lived together. We trained together every single day. So nothing was different. He just knew what he wanted and he was going to wait until he got it."

Marrero also added, "He got bullied there for a little bit in the beginning and stuff like that, but that didn't faze him. He knew his worth. And he got what he deserved."

Marrero and Hosmer both are represented by super agent Scott Boras.

"We have the outmost confidence in him to do what he has to do to get what we want at the end of the day," Marrero said. "That's why I personally think he's the best in the business. And I don't think anyone comes close to how he handles things. He's been doing it for such a long time that he knows how these teams work. And he knows some players do worry. He wanted everyone to be comfortable. He knows how to work everybody. The way him and the communication between him and Eric were the whole offseason was unbelievable. I think that's the most important part."We live our lives from Instagram story to Instagram story, and we have the ability to capture some truly stunning imagery to garner those sweet, sweet likes. With 360-technology where it is now, we can literally capture every angle around us for some truly epic pics and videos. From floating rotating cameras to 360-camera add-ons for your phone to a phone that already has a 360-camera built-in, weve definitely evolved from the old days of panoramic picture.

But can we do better than sticking something on our devices or having an abnormally long phone in our pockets, right? With wearable tech on the rise, 360-cameras should be a more seamless experience, able to complement our style and capture our experiences from every angle. The FITT360 on Kickstarter https://03999e.kckb.st/ aims to fill that role.

https://mashable.com/2018/02/17/fitt360-360-degree-camera-kickstarter/?utm_cid=hp-n-1#CZqyhBr._qq8DLA Piper has received the International Law Firm of the Year award at the African Legal Awards 2021, hosted by Legal Week and the Corporate Counsel Association of South Africa (CCASA).

The African Legal Awards recognise exceptional achievement from within Africas legal community. The judges noted the firms historic and deep ties to Africa against a backdrop of deals that exhibited exceptional expertise, market knowledge and global reach.

DLA Piper has an unrivalled offering across Africa. With over 200 Africa-focused lawyers across global offices and, through DLA Piper Africa, over 450 lawyers across 20 African countries, it advises local and international clients on complex, high-value transactions and disputes involving the continent.

DLA Piper Managing Partner for the Middle East and Africa, Peter Somekh, commenting on the win, said: We were delighted to have won this award last year but to do so again this year is a true honour. We are proud to have helped our clients to deliver on their ambitions in what has been a challenging year. This award is testament to the great work taking place across the continent and to the trusting collaborative relationships that we build with our clients. None of this would be possible however without the exceptional work of our people, who go above and beyond to ensure we continue to deliver the quality and value of advice that is expected from us.

James Kamau, Chair of DLA Piper Africa, said: Our continued success in Africa and the recognition that we are receiving in the market is down to the team of incredibly talented people that we have built over the years, a team that is as rich in diversity as it is in geographical reach. Weve invested heavily in robust learning and development programmes and remain focused on diversity and empowerment, whilst also making a positive impact on the African communities in which we operate through our pro bono partnerships and our commitment to driving a more sustainable future. We look forward to a promising year ahead.Advertisement

Rogers' sensors stick directly to the skin, moving with the body and providing detailed health metrics including heart function, muscle activity and quality of sleep."Stretchable electronics allow us to see what is going on inside patients' bodies at a level traditional wearables simply cannot achieve," Rogers said. "The key is to make them as integrated as possible with the human body."Rogers' new bandage-like throat sensor measures patients' swallowing ability and patterns of speech. The sensors aid in the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, a communication disorder associated with stroke. The tools that speech-language pathologists have traditionally used to monitor patients' speech function - such as microphones - cannot distinguish between patients' voices and ambient noise."Our sensors solve that problem by measuring vibrations of the vocal chords," Rogers said. "But they only work when worn directly on the throat, which is a very sensitive area of the skin. We developed novel materials for this sensor that bend and stretch with the body, minimizing discomfort to patients."Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, a research hospital in Chicago, uses the throat sensor in conjunction with electronic biosensors - also developed in Rogers' lab - on the legs, arms and chest to monitor stroke patients' recovery progress. The intermodal system of sensors streams data wirelessly to clinicians' phones and computers, providing a quantitative, full-body picture of patients' advanced physical and physiological responses in real time."One of the biggest problems we face with stroke patients is that their gains tend to drop off when they leave the hospital," said Arun Jayaraman, research scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and a wearable technology expert. "With the home monitoring enabled by these sensors, we can intervene at the right time, which could lead to better, faster recoveries for patients."Because the sensors are wireless, they eliminate barriers posed by traditional health monitoring devices in clinical settings. Patients can wear them even after they leave the hospital, allowing doctors to understand how their patients are functioning in the real world. "Talking with friends and family at home is a completely different dimension from what we do in therapy," said Leora Cherney, research scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and an expert in aphasia treatment. "Having a detailed understanding of patients' communication habits outside of the clinic helps us develop better strategies with our patients to improve their speaking skills and speed up their recovery process."Jayaraman describes the platform's mobility as a "gamechanger" in rehabilitation outcomes measurement.Data from the sensors will be presented in a dashboard that is easy for both clinicians and patients to understand. It will send alerts when patients are underperforming on a certain metric and allow them to set and track progress toward their goals."We are so grateful for our partnership with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab," Rogers said. "They are helping us move our technology from the research lab to the real world, where it already is making a positive impact on the lives of patients."Rogers also is collaborating with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to test the sensors on patients with other conditions, such as Parkinson's disease. Ten Northwestern professors will present their work at the AAAS annual meeting. See a full summary at Northwestern Now.Source: EurekalertANN ARBOR, MI - Suspensions were a regular part of middle school for Jakobie Pillar.

Pillar, now 17, of Ypsilanti, had decided school wasn't for him, and instead he looked to his older brothers for an example of what his future could hold. One of his brothers dropped out of high school his junior year and eventually was incarcerated.

Marquaun Kane, 17, and his older brother had similar experiences. Kane said the two frequently got into fights with other students while they attended middle school in Ypsilanti, and they were often suspended as a result.

Kane ended up moving to Ann Arbor and changing schools. His brother stayed in Ypsilanti, never returned to school after he was expelled in seventh grade and got involved in a gang, Kane said.

For Kane and Pillar, the school-to-prison pipeline is more than an abstract concept about the link between getting suspended or expelled from school and the likelihood of engaging in criminal activity. It's a reality their brothers faced, and a path they followed too until someone gave them the motivation and support to find a different way.

Pillar, a junior at Ypsilanti's alternative high school; and Kane, a senior at Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School; joined Pioneer senior Henry Taylor; Lincoln High School senior Max McNally, 17; and Anell Eccleston, an advocate with the Student Advocacy Center; on a panel discussing the school-to-prison pipeline on Thursday, Feb. 15.

State Rep. Adam Zemke, D-Ann Arbor, hosted the town hall meeting that drew about 50 people to Forsythe Middle School in Ann Arbor. The meeting continued a conversation about dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline started at a town hall Zemke hosted in May 2017.

"One of the conversations that came out of that panel was ... that I became really aware that we needed to have a student-led panel, student-driven discussion," Zemke said. "We waited on doing this a little while because we felt it was most important to capture the voice of students after the laws had changed."

In August 2017, Michigan's "rethink school discipline" laws went into effect, reforming previous "zero tolerance" school discipline policies. Zemke sponsored one of those bills that became law.

Now, school staff are required to consider circumstantial factors like the student's age, discipline history and disability status when determining an appropriate consequence for breaking school rules. Bringing a gun to school is still an automatic expulsion.

The "rethink school discipline" laws also encourage schools to use alternative discipline methods, like restorative practices that focus on repairing the harm caused by someone's actions or requiring community service.

The goal is to keep students engaged in the school community, rather than forcing them out via suspension or expulsion. Students who disengage from school are more likely to end up involved in criminal activity.

"If we're suspending students and we're sending them back home, which is likely the origin of their angst and where all this conflict happens, are they really doing better? Are they faring better at all?" said Kane, who is now a restorative justice practitioner certified through the Dispute Resolution Center.

"You're taking them from an area where you have all these individuals with all these degrees and all these resources - counseling, mentoringship, educational services - compared to what we have at home," he continued.

Kane, Pillar and McNally all spoke from personal experience about getting suspended from school and then struggling to re-engage and stay motivated in their classes.

Taylor offered the perspective of self-described privilege, noting he could get a tutor when he needed help in math and see a therapist when necessary.

"Up until my junior year, when I started to really learn about the school-to-prison pipeline at an event, I had taken this for granted," he said. "I had not really noticed my privilege and the amount of resources that had been given to me and how my classmates and peers simply were not receiving luxuries that I was."

High school can be competitive, Taylor said, and some students feel isolated in their pursuit to perform at a certain level.

"What people should be striving for is rather more of a collectivist environment, where everyone helps one another," he said. "Students who have a lack of resources are more susceptible to falling through the cracks. If there's a collectivist community, students will be able to pick one another up."

Repeatedly, the panelists brought up inequities in resources and supports for students depending on where they attend school or their family background.

The panelists noted the achievement gap between white students and black students in Washtenaw County, as well as the fact black students face a disproportionately high suspension rate.

Ann Arbor Public Schools was one of 12 Michigan school districts cited in 2017 by the Michigan Department of Education for suspending a disproportionately high number of special education students of a certain demographic.

In Ann Arbor Public Schools' case, the district suspended a disproportionately high number of black special education students, and AAPS was cited for the same thing in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

To improve equity in educational opportunities and dismantle the school to prison pipeline, the panelists talked about changing the way schools are funded, increasing minimum wage to take the financial burden off single parents and reforming the criminal justice system.

They also discussed ways educators, parents and law enforcement can better work together to support youth. The teens gave examples of interactions with teachers and school counselors who helped change their mindset from feeling like the school system was against them to instead seeing school as a means to a successful future.

"The solution is simple but it's very difficult. It's all about relationships," said Eccleston, who has a background in social work. "If a teacher sees a student who is struggling and they're able to build a relationship with that student, that can alleviate a lot of that stress."

Eccleston began working with Pillar when Pillar was in eighth grade, coming out of Ypsilanti's alternative middle school program after working his way from special education classes back into general education classes.

Pillar realized he could share his experiences in a constructive way through Youth Action Michigan, a youth-led social justice initiative that Eccleston facilitates.

After attending Ypsilanti Community High School and then Washtenaw Alliance for Virtual Education in Ypsilanti, Pillar recently transferred to Achieving College and Career Education, Ypsilanti's alternative high school, where he says he is taking more ownership over his learning.

McNally recalled a teacher who bonded with him over an interest in politics and a counselor who encouraged him not to let naysayers derail his ambitions. Taylor mentioned teachers who prioritized getting to know their students over giving homework.

Shannon Koenen, of Saline, said her takeaway from the panel discussion was the importance of helping students' find their voices and reimagining an educational environment that works for them.

She wanted to learn more about the school-to-prison pipeline because students with dyslexia - like her son - have a higher likelihood of dropping out of school. Koenen said she would have liked to hear more discussion about better meeting students' academic needs as an avenue to reducing suspensions.

"If their academic needs aren't being met, then they're misbehaving in school, they're getting suspended, they're getting expelled," she said. "Their belief in themselves suffers, and their aspirations for college and career suffer."GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Forest Hills School Board received eight applications to fill a vacancy on the seven-member board, officials announced Friday, Feb. 16.

Board member Susan Lenhardt, who had served since 2008, resignation was effective Feb.1. The board has 30 days to appoint someone to serve out the remainder of her term that ends Dec. 31.

The vacancy is receiving greater attention than normal because the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) asked that a person of color be appointed to the all-white body, following a racially charged incident Feb. 1.

A male white student at Forest Hills Northern High School put on brown face make-up he found in his Spanish class and his classmates posted pictures on social media.

Posts of him in "blackface'' drew immediate outrage because of the old practice of non-black performers parading around perpetuating degrading racial stereotypes.

But school leaders say the senior did not use any racial slurs or act a certain way, based on their interviews with his classmates. Northern students did hold a "Black out against blackface'' day in solidarity, dressing in all black.

Superintendent Dan Behm said the incident was an opportunity for learning and growth. For years, he said the district has been very intentional about implementing programs for students and staff to ensure an inclusive and welcoming environment.

NAACP President Cle Jackson has encouraged community members to attend the 7 p.m. school board meeting on Monday, Feb. 19, to talk about the board appointment and policy recommendations regarding the incident. The meeting is at Meadow Brook Elementary, 1450 Forest Hill Ave. SE.

"They must put forth some effort in filling the vacancy with a black person or other candidate of color because the students in the district who identify as either black or a person of color have no voice or representation at this level of leadership,'' Jackson said.

"That should not be acceptable in the 21st century.''

Candidates had to submit their letter of interest and resume by Feb. 14 but are not required to disclose race and ethnicity. However, there are a few candidates of color.

The district's population of nearly 10,000 students is 80 percent white, according to state data.

The school board plans to interview all eight candidates in half-hour sessions at a 4 p.m. special board meeting, Tuesday, Feb. 20, in the administration building, located at 6590 Cascade Rd. SE.

The board plans to deliberate after the interviews and could reach a decision Tuesday night.

Candidates will be interviewed in alphabetical order in half-hour sessions beginning at 4:15 p.m., with a 15-minute break at 6:15 p.m.:

4:15 p.m.

4:45 p.m.

5:15 p.m.

5:45 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

7 p.m.

7:30 p.m.

8 p.m.

The candidate appointed has the option of running in the November election for the six-year term.

In addition to addressing the school board about its appointment, Jackson intends to ask for a zero tolerance policy regarding harassment and racial discrimination. He also has suggestions for disciplining the student that wore the make-up, including suspending him at least five days.

Citing privacy, the district has declined to discuss how he was disciplined.

"Anything that causes kids to feel unwelcome or unsafe or disrespected is a threat to learning, and we have to treat that as an urgent matter to be resolved,'' said Behm, after the incident.Wednesday's mass shooting at a Florida high school has triggered a number of debates, including what defines a mass shooting.

And depending on the definition used, Michigan has had between one to 43 mass shootings in the past four years.

The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan federal agency, defines a

"public mass shooting" as an incident in which at least four people were killed, not including the shooter, and the victims are picked indiscriminately.

Under that definition, Michigan has had one mass shootings since 2014, according to the Gun Violence Archives, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks gun violence nationwide.

That is the Feb. 20, 2016, incident in Kalamazoo in which an Uber driver killed six people and seriously injured two others during a shooting rampage at three locations.

Meanwhile, in 2013, Congress defined "mass killing" as three or more deaths.

Under that definition, Michigan has had three mass killings in the last week alone:

A

A

A

The Gun Violence Archives and Mass Shooter Tracker, both crowd-sourced data websites, use a different standard: They define a "mass shooting" as one where four or more people are killed or injured, not including the shooter.

That definition has been picked up by many in the media as well as gun-control advocates, and is used by those who claim the United States averages a mass shooting every day.

Under that definition, Michigan has had 43 mass shootings since 2014, which have killed 39 people and injured 173.

Of those 43 mass shootings, 27 were in Detroit, four were in Flint, two each in Pontiac and Kalamazoo, and once each in Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Jackson, St. Joseph, Warren, Albion, Benton Harbor and Oak Park.

One was a July 2016 shooting in the Berrien County Courthouse, in which two court employees and the shooter were killed and two others injured during a courthouse disturbance.

The list also includes gang-related incidents, robberies gone wrong and domestic assaults.

Nobody was killed in 18 of the 43 shootings incidents.

No matter the definition, mass shootings comprise a very small percentage of gun deaths.

For instance, using the most liberal definition, 24 in Michigan died in a mass shooting in 2016. That's 5 percent of all gun homicides in the state, and 2 percent of all gun deaths that year.

Monday on MLive: A look at Michigan gun ownership by the numbers.NORVELL TWP., MI - Sandra Lindahl sat in a pickup truck Saturday evening and watched flames lap at the house she had lived in since she was 3.

For hours, the old home on Austin Road, between Mill and Case roads, burned. Dark smoke billowed up into the sky.

Decades ago, Lindahl's grandfather bought the two-story country home, and she and her husband Greg raised their sons there. It was the only house their children, now adults, ever knew.

Inside were photographs, important documents, and most critically, the medicines that are keeping Sandra Lindahl alive.

Lindahl, 72, was diagnosed about two years ago with Stage 4 cancer, of the bones and breasts.

"It's bad enough to have incurable cancer," said Sandra Lindahl, a teacher for 40 years in Napoleon.

She and Greg Lindahl were watching TV on Saturday afternoon when Greg said he heard a sizzling. The TV went out, and he checked the laundry room. The wall and ceiling were on fire. He tried to use a small fire extinguisher, but it was useless.

They and their dog escaped without harm, and Greg Lindahl, with some help from a fast-acting Jackson County sheriff's deputy, retrieved their cat. Both animals were in the truck.

Napoleon Township fire Chief Jay Hawley confirmed what was obvious; the fire, reported shortly after 4 p.m. Feb. 17, destroyed the house, which Greg Lindahl said was built in 1902.

A cause was not clear.

The builders used an old method, balloon construction, which means boards extend vertically from the basement or cellar to the roofline without any fire stops; Hawley said the flames seemed to start in the back and travel up and down.

Fire authorities were trying to bring to the property a piece of excavation equipment to take down the house so they could finally extinguish hot spots, the chief said.

About 6:20 p.m., the smoke was less heavy, but the house still burned.

Fire trucks were hauling water from a dam at Mill and Case roads. Hustling and hauling hoses, firefighters from Columbia and Grass Lake townships and Manchester were there to render aid.

It was "terrible" to witness, Sandra Lindahl said.

"We were having a great weekend," she said. "I felt good."

She has had nightmares about tornadoes and fires, and here it was happening, but she was grateful for what she didn't lose. "We got the important things out, ourselves and our two babies."

The Lindahls were not certain where they would now stay, but their sons and other relatives were there with them, standing outside the pickup. "Hope the Super 8 is pet friendly," Greg said.

A firefighter soon proved some items might be salvageable. She brought to the couple's close friend, Ron Celske, medications firefighters were able to pull from the house. It was a noble gesture; their usability, however, was in question.

Greg Lindahl, just recently home from a work trip to Mexico, had called Celske, alerting him to the fire. "I thought you got to be kidding me," Celske said, recalling the conversation while the smoke climbed and occassional bursts of flames leapt through the roofline. "I could hear it in his voice, he ain't kidding."KALAMAZOO, MI -- High school students are pressuring legislators to pass gun control policies in the wake of another violent shooting last week in Florida.

A Change.org petition, "Students Fighting Guns Since Adults Won't," calls on state and federal representatives to pass "comprehensive and responsible gun control policy." The petition has garnered more than 50,000 signatures and growing, just three days after being created by a group of seven Kalamazoo Central High School students.

"Adults have failed us," the petition states. "Everyday, we students walk into school with the promise of an education without threat of violence. However, it has become increasingly clear that hallways of schools across America are no longer a guaranteed safe haven."

Seventeen people were gunned down last Wednesday in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The violence was captured on cellphone video by terrified students and quickly broadcast through to millions through social media platforms as it was happening.

Kalamazoo Central student Jackson Henning, 18, said he identified with students who recorded themselves reacting to sounds of gunfire crack across the hallway while huddled beneath their desks. It could happen anywhere, he said, and without warning.

It's no longer a question of if it could happen, he said, it's a matter of when, where and to whom.

In the hours and days since the tragedy, teen survivors have called for action on gun reform. Students mourned and rallied publicly after the massacre, some pleading for gun reforms.

Henning and six other Kalamazoo students decided they could help drive the issue while sitting in an AP comparative government class. By the end of the period, the petition was online.

"We'd really like to give students a voice in their desire for more gun control legislation," he said. "Obviously there has been a trend in these shootings where not a lot of legislation has been passed. Since students are the victims of many of these shootings, we feel that our safety is in question."

Though most high school students can't vote, the organizers want their voices heard. Henning said it's the responsibility of the government to prevent the violence on school grounds.

"We should try to do something different to maybe bring about change, mobilizing a student coalition," he said. "It's something that hasn't really occurred in the past, though if we could accomplish that it could bring about something new."

Democratic Michigan senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters and U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph are listed as decision makers on the petition. Henning said the group also included representatives of Florida and Connecticut due to their connections to mass shooting incidents.

The petition also calls on Florida senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Connecticut Rep. Chris Murphy.

In an email to MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette, Upton said he's been in contact with legislators on both sides of the aisle. He plans to meet with local law enforcement, students, and others to discuss "common-sense" solutions.

"We hear these students loud and clear and we all share in the heartbreak from the senseless tragedy in Florida," he said. "Guns must be kept out of the hands of dangerous, unstable individuals and our law enforcement needs all the tools in the toolbox which is why I have always supported robust background checks ... Nothing should be off the table: Our kids must be safe from violence at school. Period."

The group has also begun sending letters to meet with local representatives in the Michigan legislature. The letter asks elected officials to enact gun legislation that requires background checks on the purchase of all long guns and semi-automatic weapons.

Henning said he hasn't received any responses yet.

"We think there is no harm in trying to solve (school shootings) with gun bills," he said. "Take that action and see what happens."

President Donald Trump stressed the need to address mental health concerns and criticized the FBI for not acting on several warnings that the alleged shooter was dangerous. He also called for improvements to school security while other GOP officials including, including House Speaker Paul Ryan caution against hasty calls to tighten gun laws.

Last Febuary, Kalamazoo Public Schools became a gun-free district. In front of a packed room of activist groups, parents and students, the Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to pass a policy prohibiting all weapons from school-affiliated property, regardless of a concealed weapons permit.

Critics say removing all guns from schools makes them a soft target for would-be shooters. Posting armed security guards at public schools is a solution often offered in lieu of stricter gun laws.

Law enforcement officers posted at Kalamazoo schools are still able to carry weapons.

An armed security guard never got the chance to stop the teen gunman who murdered 17 students and staffers in Florida -- police said accused mass murderer Nikolas Cruz never encountered the school resource deputy.

Meanwhile, Kalamazoo Central High School students are taught how to respond to active shooter incidents. Lockdown drills are practiced "pretty regularly," Henning said.

The petition has a goal of 50,000 signatures. Support is growing quickly, increasing by several thousand Sunday.

"On a positive note, I'd say that it has been really incredible to see all the support people have given us in a short amount of time," Henning said. "It shows people are valuing what we are saying and they share those views. It's beautiful to see."The family who took in Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school shooting suspect, after his mother died last year has spoken out for the first time about how they had no idea about the violence the teen was planning.

Kimberly and James Snead said they set strict house rules for Cruz, 19, when they agreed to bring their son's friend into their home - including a locked cabinet for the teen's guns. They didn't know he had a key to it, they said in an exclusive interview with the Sun-Sentinel.

Kimberly Snead, 49, is a neonatal nurse and James Snead, 48, is described as a decorated Army veteran and military intelligence analyst.

"Everything everybody seems to know, we didn't know," James Snead said in the interview. "It's as simple as that."

Cruz is accused of killing 17 teachers and students last Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

In the interview, James Snead said he thought he was the only one with a key to Cruz's gun cabinet, but now knows the teen must have kept a key for himself, the Associated Press said.

The couple had told Cruz he needed permission to use his guns.live bse live

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Days after the Rs 11,400 crore fraud at PNB shook the country, private sector City Union Bank today said it suffered three fraudulent remittances of nearly USD 2 million (about Rs 12.8 crore).

Just like the fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), no entries of remittances were made in the ledgers of City Union Bank and transfers were pushed through the SWIFT financial platform.

"During our reconciliation process on February 7, it was found out that 3 fraudulent remittances had gone through our SWIFT system to our corespondent banks which were not initiated from our bank's end. We immediately alerted the correspondent banks to recall the funds," City Union Bank said in a regulatory filing on stock exchanges.

Of the 3 fraudulent remittance, one remittance was made through Standard Chartered Bank, New York, to a Dubai based bank for USD 5,00,000 which was blocked immediately and was returned to City Union Bank, it said.

Chennai-based City Union Bank said the transfers had been made through correspondent banks even though it had not requested the transfers.

A second transfer of 300,000 euros (USD 372,150) was routed through a Standard Chartered Bank account in Frankfurt to a Turkish account, while a third totalling USD 1 million was sent through a Bank of America account in New York to a China-based bank.

The bank said it was working with the Ministry of External Affairs and officials in Turkey and China to repatriate the funds.

"With the help of Ministry of External Affairs through Consulate General of Shanghai and Istanbul and office of the National Cyber Security Council (PMO) all possible efforts through diplomatic and legal channels are being taken to repatriate the money," it said.

The recent episode raises question mark on the efficiency of the SWIFT network as how secure it is.

The PNB fraud pertains to issuance of fake Letters of Understanding (LoUs) to companies associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi by errant PNB employees which enabled these companies to raise buyers credit from international branches of other Indian lenders.

Last week, PNB had lodged an FIR with CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 280.7 crore were first issued on January 16. At the time, PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud.

In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms -- Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds -- saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers. The bank sought 100 per cent cash margins for issuing LoUs for raising buyers credit, which was contested by the firms saying they had availed of the facility from as early as 2010.Just days after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) Rs 11,360 crore fraud came to light, another state-run bank has reported a million dollar scam. The parent company of Rotomac Pens has been accused of fleeing with loans of more than Rs 800 crore from various government banks in the country.

According to sources, the owner of the company, Vikram Kothari, had taken a loan of more than Rs 800 crores from five government banks. Sources have confirmed that Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India compromised their rules to render these loans to Kothari.

Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Allahabad Bank. A year later, Kothari has been reported to not have paid back either the interest or the loaned amount.Indian Oil | The board has approced implementation of Petrochemical and Lube Integration Project at lndianOil's Gujarat Refinery at an estimated cost of Rs 17,825 crore. (Image: PTI)

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Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will invest Rs 70,000 crore to raise its oil refining capacity by about a quarter by 2030 as it takes the lead to meet rising energy needs of the country.

IOC will expand its refining capacity to 116.55 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) by 2030 from the current 80.7 MTPA with an investment of about Rs 70,000 crore, a top company official said.

India's current refining capacity of 247.6 MTPA exceeds consumption but with demand growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 3.5-4 per cent, it will need to add more capacity to meet the rising fuel needs.

While the Energy Information Agency of US projects India's demand to reach 434 MT by 2040 from 194 MT currently, IEA puts the number between 450 and 492 MT.

The oil ministry estimates fuel demand to rise to 335 MT by 2030 and has planned to raise the country's refining capacity to 415 MTPA by 2020 from the current 247.6 MTPA. In 2040, the refining capacity is projected to rise to 439 MTPA.

The official said the investment planned by IOC also includes in upgradation of major units at existing refineries to help produce cleaner Euro-VI or BS-VI grade petrol and diesel by April 2020.

Besides, IOC plans to raise capacity of its Panipat refinery in Haryana to 25 MTPA from current 15 MTPA while Koyali refinery in Gujarat would be expanded to 18 MTPA from 13.7 MTPA.

The recently-commissioned 15-MTPA Paradip refinery in Odisha will see a capacity addition of 5 MT while 3 MT will be added in IOC's Barauni refinery in Bihar, he said.

A 1.2-MTPA capacity addition is planned for Uttar Pradesh's Mathura refinery to take its capacity to 9.2 MTPA.

The official said IOC is also looking at adding a 9 MTPA refinery at its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum (CPCL).

Other state refiners too have planned capacity addition to meet rising demand. Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) is looking to ramp up capacity to 56 MTPA, from 36.5 MTPA currently, by adding 5 MT to its Kochi unit and ramping up capacity of Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh by 9 MT to 15 MTPA. Also, Numaligarh capacity will go up to 9 MTPA from 3 now.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) also plans to expand its Mumbai refinery to 9.5 MTPA from 7.5 MTPA and that of Vizag unit to 15 MTPA from 8.3 now.

It is also setting up a new 9 MTPA unit at Barmer in Rajasthan.Diagnostic chain Metropolis Healthcare has drawn up a Rs 100-crore capex plan to open 30 labs and 700 collection centres, apart from entering the African market, a top company official has said.

"We havve 2,000 collection centres now and are adding 700 more along with 30 laboratories over the next 12 months. We are already present in four countries and is entering two more African markets," promoter and managing director Ameera Shah told PTI.

Currently, the lab chain has 2,000 collection centres and 150 labs across the country and Sri Lanka, Kenya, Mauritius and Ghana.

The company would strengthen its presence in Southern and Western states and expand to the Northeast where it does not have much presence, Shah said, adding they have already identified a lab for acquisition in Gujarat.

The company will invest around Rs 100 crore for expansion, medical equipment and IT development, she said, adding the capex will be funded through internal accruals. She also ruled out hitting the capital markets for funds saying they have no plans to raise money through an initial public offer in the near future.

As part of the public-private partnership, programme, they were recently awarded a contract by the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) under the Union health ministry to conduct an HIV viral load-testing across 525 antiretroviral therapy (ART) centres in the country.

The project will bring about a sweeping change in the way HIV patients are treated in the country now, she claimed.

Shah pointed said the domestic diagnostic market is growing at 10-11 per cent annually and is expected to grow further due to the government thrust on affordable healthcare plans announced in the Budget.

The chain offers comprehensive testing in the areas of genetics biochemistry, molecular oncology, anatomic pathology, microbiology, hematology, and immunochemistry among others.

Of late, Metropolis has also expanded into new service lines like clinical trials, hospital lab management, lab-at- home services, preventive health check-ups and corporate and wellness solutions.

Metropolis processes 30 million tests a year catering to over 20,000 labs, hospitals and nursing homes and 2 lakh consultants.The finance ministry is working with the Prime Minister's Office to resolve the Rs 11,400 crore scam at Punjab National Bank and the government will try to extradite and punish Nirav Modi -- alleged to be behind the fraud -- Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said today.

The state-owned PNB has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from the Brady House branch of the bank in south Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other lenders.

"The finance ministry is in discussions with the Prime Ministers office and whatever the PMO decides, the finance ministry will implement," Shukla told reporters at an Assocham event here today.

He said the investigation into the PNB fraud is still on, and the government will not spare any guilty person.

"We will try to extradite Nirav Modi and punish him for the fraud he has done," Shukla said.

When asked about Modi being part of the business delegation which attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi's events at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Shukla said: "He (Nirav Modi) did not accompany the Prime Minister. Various people were called there and so he was also present."

He also said that RBI has categorically stated that if the fault is from the PNB side, then the lender will have to repay all the banks who have borne the brunt of the fraud.Nirmala Sitharaman, Defence Minister | Responding to Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, she said, "I haven't heard his comments so I may not be able to respond to the specifics, but I agree with him that there is no doubt that (modernisation of equipment for armed forces) is a big challenge for us."

The BJP today alleged that the multi-crore PNB scam involving billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi happened during the UPA rule and the Congress was spreading lies to mislead the public.

The BJP, which fielded Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to counter the Congress's charges, claimed that it was under the NDA government that the alleged scams committed during the UPA rule were being unearthed. The Congress has alleged that the scam took place in 2017 under the Modi government when letters of understanding were signed by Punjab National Bank in favour of the companies of Nirav Modi and his partner and uncle Mehul Choksi.

Sitharaman said Nirav Modi may have been able to run away from the country, but the government is taking action against him, and claimed that it will "surely nab him". "The original sin took place during the Congress regime. It multiplied, it took traction under the Congress regime," she told reporters. "We are not conspiring to help scamsters flee the country, but the BJP government is catching them instead," she said.

Accusing the Congress of spreading lies on the issue, the minister said, "As always, the Congress party indulges in such scandalous affairs, misuses positions in government, tweaks system to help themselves and quietly cover up everything that they do." Sitharaman said the Narendra Modi government came to power with a clear commitment of unearthing scams and corrupt practices. Instead of explaining as to why the scam happened during the UPA rule, the Congress instead is making allegations against the BJP. "I am sorry, the Congress party's allegations against this government and in misleading people is just not going to happen. "Concerted repeating of lies for misleading people may be a strategy the Congress likes to adopt. But I am sorry the facts are facing you and it is for them to answer," she said.

To a question on the offenders fleeing the country during the NDA regime, Sitharaman said, "They have fled but this doesn't mean we will not catch him. But they are facing the heat. Investigation is happening." "They are probably running away but I am not saying that we are sparing them. We will surely nab them. We are the ones to nab them," she said. She alleged that the person who was approving the LoUs was quietly allowed to retire and the BJP which is taking action is being accused instead.

"We have taken action. We have sent notices, confiscated their properties and the process is still on, but allegation is on us. Shocking that the Congress party (is doing this) despite being reduced to 44 in Lok Sabha," she said. Sitharaman also alleged that it was Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who attended a promotional event hosted by Nirav Modi. She also claimed that the Nirav Modi-run Fire Star Diamond International has taken on lease a property of Adwait Holdings in which Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi's wife is a director. "What is important that the premises has been used by Fire Star Diamond International," she alleged. Sitharaman also claimed that a government director of Allahabad Bank, who in 2013 had raised objections to the financial restructuring of Gitanjali Gems, was asked to resign and his dissent was not even recorded.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said the Congress's murky links to Nirav Modi's company were coming out of the closet.

"Abhishek Manu Singvi's wife purchased very pricey diamonds and jewelry worth crores and made payments of over Rs 4.8 crore as unaccounted cash. Singhvi has had wide relations with Nirav Modi both as a property lessee for Rs 30 lakh rent per month after 2015 and now show massive purchases of jewelry in 2014," he alleged in a statement.

Everyday, a new Congress leader's name gets linked to Nirav Modi, Rao said.

"Firstly, Rahul Gandhi was reported to promote business events of Gitanjali Gem's owner in New Delhi days before Allahabad Bank approved fraudulently a loan of Rs 1,550 crore despite objections from a government-appointed director in the bank. P Chidambaram sacked the same director for objecting loan sanction to Gitanjali Gems.

"All these developments clearly show that Rahul Gandhi, Chidambaram and Abhishek Manu Singvi have to answer for their dubious actions and association with Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi," he said. Central probe agencies CBI and ED yesterday continued their crackdown in the Rs 11,400-crore bank fraud case involving Nirav Modi and family, registering a fresh case against Choksi. The CBI has alleged that the new FIR pertains to 143 LOUs worth over Rs 4,886 crore fraudulently issued to three companies of Choksi -- Gitanjali Gems, Nakshatra and Gili -- during the period 2017-18, officials said. The agency had earlier registered a separate case involving Rs 280-crore fraud, which has now been expanded to cover LoUs worth Rs 6,498 crore issued to accused companies of Nirav Modi and Choksi.

An LoU is a letter of comfort issued by one bank to .live bse live

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The proposed petrochemical complex at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh, a joint project of GAIL and HPCL, seems to have hit a roadblock with the Centre asking the state government to pay Rs 5,000 crore upfront in the form of viability gap funding (VGF).

Establishing a greenfield crude oil refinery and petrochemical complex has been mandated under Schedule XIII of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, which paved the way for the creation of Telangana state.

The complex at Kakinada, East Godavari district, is proposed to be jointly set up by GAIL and HPCL, both central PSUs.

After a feasibility study by Engineers India Ltd, GAIL and HPCL signed a memorandum of understanding with the AP government during the Partnership Summit in January 2017 for setting up the 1.5 MMTPA petrochemical complex on a 2,000-acre site in the Kakinada Special Economic Zone.

But the Rs 30,000-crore project did not take off with the Centre and the state squabbling over the VGF, said a top official.

The proposed complex, with a cracker unit, was supposed to produce ethylene and its derivatives.

"SBI Caps did a preliminary financial appraisal and concluded that with a debt-equity ratio of 2:1, the project will yield internal rate of return of 9.8 per cent as against the hurdle rate (the minimum rate of return on a project) of 15 per cent.

"To bridge this gap, viability gap funding in the form of an interest-free loan of Rs 1,438 crore per year has been suggested for a 15 year period beginning from the Project Zero date," the official told PTI.

Following a meeting between Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and GAIL authorities, it was decided that SBI Caps would "revise" the financial model pegging down the power and water supply rates, he said.

Besides, an upfront VGF payment as soft loan was also agreed to be examined taking different IRRs (internal rates of return). The detailed techno-commercial report for this project was still being prepared, he added.

"The AP government has requested the Centre to reduce the IRR to 10-12 per cent on the lines of HPCL's Barmer refinery in Rajasthan.

"For the Barmer refinery, the VGF has been reduced from Rs 3,736 crore to Rs 1,123 crore per annum, adjusting the IRR to 12 per cent.

"But the Centre has been insisting that we chip in with a VGF of Rs 5,000 crore," the senior official involved in the project pointed out.

Naidu, during his visit to New Delhi in January, took up the issue with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and expressed the state government's inability to foot the VGF bill. He wanted the petroleum ministry to take up the burden.

"We are awaiting a response from the Centre to our plea," the official added.

Meanwhile, the state government also suggested an alternative location for the proposed project.

"Instead of Kakinada, we proposed that the cracker unit be set up at the upcoming Machilipatnam Port, which is closer to the state capital Amaravati.

"This will help in economic development of the region. The Centre is yet to respond even to this plea," said the official.The Congress today launched an all-out attack on the NDA government over the alleged multi-crore PNB fraud involving Nirav Modi, saying a scam of such magnitude could not have taken place without "top-level protection", and questioned the prime minister's silence on the issue.

The Congress said it would discuss the issue with other parties in Parliament and explore the option of making a united demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the issue.

Leading the charge was Congress president Rahul Gandhi who questioned the prime minister's silence and asked him to explain why it had happened and what steps were being taken to ensure the banking system was safe in India. The Congress chief rejected the BJP charge that he had personal ties with Nirav Modi and had attended his promotional event, saying "they are trying to divert the issue. There is nothing like that."

"The fact of the matter is that the prime minister has, through his actions, destroyed the financial system of this country. He has demonetised the economy. He has taken money from people's pockets and put it into the banking sector and now his friends and cronies are stealing it from the banking sector and the prime minister is not saying anything," he charged. The Congress Steering Committee, which functions in place of the Working Committee, also adopted a resolution asking the prime minister to tell the nation the reasons for "failure of the fraud detection ability" of the entire banking sector and the finance ministry.

The Steering Committee, which fixed that the party's plenary session would be held in Delhi on March 16, 17 and 18 to decide the future strategy of the Congress, said the "biggest bank scam" has exposed the complete failure of "regulatory mechanism" and "fraud detection ability" of the banking sector and the failure of oversight by the Reserve Bank of India and the finance ministry.

"The manner in which thousands of crores of rupees of public money was looted with impunity and the complete failure of entire risk management system tell its own story of favours extended and protection granted," it said.

"The truth is that 'Bank Scam' has exposed the 'culture of crony capitalism' that has thrived and flourished under the watch of the Modi government," the panel said.

The Steering Committee also called upon the prime minister to apprise the nation of complete facts about the "biggest bank scam", instead of remaining silent.

"It must be brought out how the entire banking system was duped through 'Letters of Understanding' under the watch of Modi Government and why all authorities like Finance Ministry and other agencies were found wanting in preventing the loss? "The Prime Minister must also tell the nation how a fraud of this magnitude escaped the eyes of all the auditors and investigators conducting 'statutory audit', 'internal audit', 'concurrent audit' and even the RBI's own audit?" said the Committee in its resolution. Gandhi, after the meeting, accused the central government of constantly refusing to accept its responsibility and alleged that the prime minister was "destroying" the economy through his actions, starting from demonetisation.

"The prime minister will have to come out and tell what happened (on Nirav Modi) and why, and how did it happen? And what is he going to do about it," he told reporters after the first meeting of the Congress steering committee that will function in place of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision making body of the party.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said the Congress party, in the interest of people of this country, will speak to all like-minded parties in Parliament.

"We will show them the documentary evidence that is now available of the biggest bank scam in the history of India. We will form a joint strategy," he said.

Surjewala said Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge will speak to all the parties to arrive at a strategy either of a demand of the JPC or something else to be decided jointly by opposition parties.

"We will place all the facts and we will in order to demand accountability of the government, will be raising the issue vociferously in Parliament till the Modi government answers to the people of the country," he said.

Gandhi said that instead of spending an hour-and-a-half explaining to children how to take exams, the prime minister should explain to the people of India what is going to be done to Nirav Modi and "what is he going to do to make sure that the banking system is safe".

The Congress chief said the defence minister and social justice minister were briefing on the issue, but "the FM and the PM, who are responsible, have not spoken a word about it".

He said he agreed with former finance minister P Chidambaram who said during the meeting that a scam of this level which the prime minister "is ignoring", "cannot have been committed without high-level protection".

"It must have been known to the people in government beforehand. Otherwise, it is not possible because the amount is so huge," he said.

Surjewala said Rahul Gandhi at the meeting emphasised that composition of AICC must reflect a harmonious blend of experience of senior leaders and vitality and dynamism of the youth. He also said that women, SCs, STs and backward classes need to be considered sacrosanct and given a first priority.

While expressing concern on the jobless growth as also the ongoing agrarian crises in the country, he said the party chief said there was no option but to address the issue of jobless growth and empowering farmers and farm labourers.

The Congress chief also emphasised on challenges faced by the country as also the Congress party both ideologically as also organisationally.

"Through this plenary session Congress Party will attempt to put up a vision and a viewpoint as also a way forward for the country problems that the country faces today," he said.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Kapil Sibal held the BJP responsible for the Rs 11,400-crore scam and accused Prime Minister Modi of institutionalising "crony capitalism".

He also charged the prime minister and his government with bringing the economy to its knees, and warned that under him the country's economy would get bad name internationally.

He also took a dig at the prime minister, alleging that while he was "sleeping" as the country's watchman, thieves were fleeing with the nation's wealth. Nirav Modi, 46, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and Gitanjali Group promoter Mehul Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run PNB to the tune of Rs 280 crore.

The bank subsequently sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs 11,400 crore.Arvind Fashions Rights Entitlement | Kotak Standard Multicap Fund offloaded 4,83,404 RE shares in company at Rs 36.26 per share. (Image: PTI)

Outdoor, adventure active and lifestyle products maker Wildcraft is eyeing around Rs 700 crore in sales in fiscal 2019, clocking 40 per cent growth over the current fiscal year, top company officials have said.

The Bengaluru-based firm that is growing at a CAGR of 35-40 per cent with a turnover of Rs 400 crore in FY17, and expects to clock Rs 500 crore this financial year.

"We'll be a Rs 500-crore brand this year. We are targeting Rs 1,000 crore by 2020 and are on track for that," Wildcraft co-founder Gaurav Dublish told PTI adding in FY19 it aims to achieve Rs 650-700 crore of topline.

The company makes backpacks, rucksacks, camping and hiking equipments, among others, and has entered the footwear and clothing segment a couple of years ago. The new category is contributing significantly to incremental sales.

"We have significantly added to the clothing and footwear performance line and they are doing reasonably well, contributing 25-30 per cent of our business overall now," he said, adding the segment will contribute Rs 150 crore to the total revenue this year, which was similar to the total turnover in 2014.

Backpack remains the largest contributor but its share has declined from 70-80 per cent earlier to 35-40 per cent now, co-founder Siddharth Sood said.

"Clothing and footwear are contributing heavily to our topline and are growing at 70-80 per cent," he said, adding online sales account for 10-12 per cent of total sales.

The company now operates around 175 exclusive outlets across 65 cities and plans to add 40-50 stores each year. It also has presence in 5,500 points of sales across 550 cities.

"We are looking at adding around 40-50 own stores on an annual basis. The stores will be across the large cities and small towns. Over the next five years, we should be present in 100 cities with exclusive stores," Sood said.

Though they are present in the Middle East, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, exports contribute only in single-digit to total revenue. Total investment for an average store would be Rs 30-35 lakh, he added.

Asked if they are evaluating opportunities in the wearables segment, Sood said they are very excited about it.

"We've ideas which are in development stage. It is a segment that will gel well with the products that we offer. But we don't have commercial strategy yet now which we hope to have in place over the next six-nine months."

The company, which has around 3,000 stock keeping units, invests 4-5 per cent of its revenue into R&D and 5-6 per cent on marketing activities.ongc_rigfinal-300-250_38774273

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ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), will bid for development rights of Iran's giant South Azadegan Oilfield in direct competition with the likes of global giants like Shell, France's Total, Petronas of Malaysia and Russia's Gazprom.

OVL will also rework the USD 6.2 billion cost of developing the Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf, which it had discovered a decade back, to get Iran to award rights of the field to it, sources privy to the development said.

OVL is one of the 34 companies Iran pre-qualified last year for development of South Azadegan field, which contains an estimated 33 billion barrels of oil in place, of which 6 billion barrels are deemed recoverable. The field currently produces about 80,000 barrels of oil per day (4 million tonnes per annum) and output is envisaged to touch 320,000 barrels a day (16 million tonnes).

Sources said OVL will make a formal bid when National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) opens a tender for developing the South Azadegan oilfield.

Other firms prequalified include Japan's Inpex Corp, China's CNPC, Eni of Italy, Sinopec of China and Russia's Gazprom, Lukoil and Rosneft.

Sources said OVL had last year made its 'best' offer to invest USD 11 billion in developing the Farzad-B field as well as in building the infrastructure to export the gas but Iran has deterred awarding the rights of the field to the Indian firm owing to differences over pricing of the fuel.

With the deal on the verge of collapsing, OVL has offered to do just the upstream part of bringing the field to production while leaving the marketing of the fuel to Iran, they said, adding that the upstream part is to cost USD 6.2 billion while another USD 5 billion will be required to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility.

Iran believes the upstream investment should not be more than USD 5.5 billion.

Farzad B was discovered by OVL in the Farsi block about 10 years ago. The field in the Farsi block has an in-place gas reserve of 21.7 trillion cubic feet, of which 12.5 tcf are recoverable.

Yesterday, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan held talks with his visiting Iranian counterpart Bijan Namdar Zangeneh where he pressed for a stake for Indian companies in a producing oilfield and promised to raise crude oil import from the Persian Gulf nation in the year beginning April to reverse the reductions introduced in the current fiscal.

Zangeneh said he was "optimistic" about signing of an agreement awarding rights of Iran's giant Farzad-B gas field to its discoverer, OVL. A team of officials led by OVL will be visiting Tehran this week to renegotiate terms.

He said Indian public and private sector oil companies will in 2018-19 fiscal buy 0.5 million barrels of crude oil per day (25 million tonnes).

This will be 25 per cent more than current fiscal imports estimated at 370,000 barrels per day (18.5 million tonnes).

India had for the current fiscal cut oil imports from Iran by nearly 25 per cent over delays in award of Farzad-B development rights to OVL. In 2016-17, India had imported 510,000 barrels per day (25.5 million tonnes) of oil from Iran.

Pradhan said Iran has given "good incentives" on crude oil exports to India. "It will be beneficial for India to buy more crude from Iran rather than from other countries. We have agreed that India will buy more crude oil from Iran in coming days."

Like the recent acquisition of 10 per cent stake in 20 million tonnes a year producing oil field in UAE, India made a case for a stake in a producing Iranian oil field, he said, adding that on Indian horizon was a field like South Azadegan.

"The deadlock we had on the viability of Farzad-B block, its size of capex, return, timeline, we discussed all the three issues. We have exchanged our positions. Next week our business delegation will go to Tehran to discuss all these issues," he said.To ensure better co-ordination and improved quality of water, the government plans to have a single operator maintain all sewage treatment plants (STPs) in a city along the Ganga, as part of its efforts to clean the river, a senior official said.

The Union Water Resources Ministry has already invited tender for integrating the existing sewage treatment infrastructure in Mathura with a new 30 million litres daily (MLD) STP to be built there under the hybrid annuity-based public private partnership mode.

Under this mode, the government will pay the operator 40 per cent of the amount initially, while the remaining 60 per cent will be spent by the operator.

The rest of the amount would be paid by the government over a period of 15 years, "provided the firm operates and maintains the STP properly and meets the ministry's affluent discharge normsa, the official said.

He said efforts are on to integrate STP infrastructures in Allahabad (72 MLD) and Kanpur (49 MLD) in Uttar Pradesh, Patna (150 MLD) in Bihar and Kolkata (136 MLD) in West Bengal.

Tenders for these projects are likely to be invited by the last week of this month, the official said.

"There are several STPs in each city along the Ganga. Some of them are old and are not operating properly. Upgradation, operation and maintenance of STPs in the entire town/city would be done by one operator. This will also mean the ministry does not have to deal with five to six operators,a the official said.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), which is executing the mission on behalf of the ministry, has sanctioned 97 sewerage infrastructure projects at a cost of Rs 14,127 crore to abate pollution in the 2,525-km long river. Of these, 11 are proposed to be completed under the hybrid annuity model.

The NMCG has identified 97 towns (in five Ganga basin states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal) along the mainstream of the river which generate 3,603 MLD of sewage. The existing treatment capacity of the towns concerned is 1,584 MLD.

Eighty-nine sewage treatment projects have been taken up in 56 towns along the mainstream of the Ganga. These projects are estimated to create another 1,525 MLD capacity.8:00 Ready to move no-trust motion against NDA govt over special status: Jagan

YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy today said his party was ready to move a no-confidence motion against the NDA government at the Centre over the demand of special category status for Andhra Pradesh, if the Telugu Desam Party and others supported it.

"At least 54 MPs are required

to sign the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. We have only five members....If TDP moves the no-confidence motion, the YSRC will support it," Reddy said.

7:53 PM Narendra Modi opens Rs 7,900-cr 4th terminal at JNPT

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated the first phase of the Rs 7,900-crore 4th terminal project of the JNPT to the nation, which will raise the cargo handling capacity of the nation's largest container port by 50 per cent.

The fourth terminal project seeks to double JNPT's capacity to nearly 10 million standard container units and will make it the 33rd biggest port globally.

In contrast, the global export powerhouse China already has 15 ports with over 20 million TEUs capacity.

7:31 Low danger avalanche warning extended for 24 hrs in J&K

Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday extended the low danger avalanche warning in high altitude areas by 24 hours and advised people to take necessary precautionary measures.

The State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) had yesterday issued the low danger avalanche warning on the basis of information received from Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment.

6:15 We must ensure Iran nuke deal survives, says John Kerry

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry says it is "absolutely critical" to make sure that world powers nuclear agreement with Iran survives.

President Donald Trump is deeply skeptical about the 2015 nuclear deal. He extended sanctions waivers in January but said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

5:29 Around 74% voter turnout till 4pm in Tripura, likely to go up as there are people in queues to vote even now: Election Commission

4:43 No government after independence thought of the aviation sector on a large scale. But we made the aviation policy: PM Modi in Navi Mumbai

4:40 Issue of Navi Mumbai airport has been pending for years. And, this is not the only project that is pending. When I assumed office I realised there were several such projects. That is why, we began a Pragati initiative and gave priority to completion of projects: PM Modi

4:39 More than 100 waterways have been identified and instead of roads and rail if we use waterways, we will be able to reach places in less time and the harm to environment will also cut down: PM Modi in Navi Mumbai

4:25 A day before the Jayanti of the great Shivaji Maharaj I have the opportunity to come to Maharashtra: PM Modi while laying the foundation stone of Navi Mumbai International Airport (ANI)

4:15 Tripura Elections 2018: 65% voter turnout till 3:00 PM

3:59 Sukma encounter: Two security personnel have lost their lives in the ongoing encounter in Chhattisgarh (ANI)

3:54 PM Narendra Modi at foundation stone laying ceremony of Navi Mumbai International Airport

3:51 'RBI to maintain status quo through first half of this year'

The Reserve Bank is expected to be in wait-and-watch mode in the near term, and is likely to maintain status quo, through the first half of this year, says a report.

According to Kotak Institutional Equities, besides rising retail inflation, the other factors that are expected to keep RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on guard include clarity on monsoons, MSP hike decisions and crude oil prices.



#BREAKING -- CNN-News18 accesses visuals in a case where Congress MLA's son allegedly assaulted a youth in Bengaluru. | @RevathiRajeevan with more details #CongEmbarrassed pic.twitter.com/RWhkdW3pu7

 News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018

2:05 Plane crashes in Iran with more than 50 aboard

An Iranian passenger plane today crashed into the country's Zagros mountains with more than 50 people on board, the head of the country's emergency services told local media.

"This plane has crashed in the Semirom area and all emergency forces are on alert. The plane had 50 to 60 passengers," Pir Hossein Koolivand told the Fars news agency. The plane was reportedly travelling from Tehran to the small town of Yasuj in Isfahan province. Semirom lies in the mountainous southwestern region of Iran, around 480 kilometres south of the capital. - PTI

1:55

#Bengaluru: BJP workers protest over the incident wherein Congress General Secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad & ten others allegedly beat up a person at a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB City. Nalapad has been suspended from the party following the incident. pic.twitter.com/aKHYa2OESl ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

1:14 8 PSUs to hit capital markets next fiscal: DIPAM Secy

As many as 8 public sector companies, including Hindustan Aeronautics and RITES, will hit the capital markets next fiscal as the government intends to unlock the real value of PSUs and bring in greater accountability.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Neeraj Gupta said these initial public offerings (IPO) will be done in a "staggered manner" depending upon the size of the issuance.

Read the full report here

12:16



#BREAKING -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates new BJP HQ in Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg pic.twitter.com/Am0vtex6ug  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018



#LIVE  Prime Minister Narendra Modi at inauguration of new BJP headquarters in New Delhi pic.twitter.com/oYkaEkUst2 News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018

10:37



#BattleForTripura -- 11% voter turnout till 9 AM; 15 EVMs have malfunctioned; no major incident reporter till now. #TripuraElections2018 pic.twitter.com/gaU4zv0oL2  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018



Amit Shah arrives for the inauguration function of BJP's new headquarters at #Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg. PM Modi will also attend the event. | images via ANI pic.twitter.com/FIoya5odPd News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018

10:35



#BattleForTripura | Tripura CM Manik Sarkar casts his vote at a polling booth in Agartala, he is an MLA from Dhanpur constituency #TripuraElection2018. | ANI pic.twitter.com/P0qb8Dmpne  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018



09:54 Shame on you! student tells Trump at Florida anti-gun rally



A student survivor of the Parkland school shooting called out US President Donald Trump today over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, in a poignant address to an anti-gun rally in Florida. "To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!" said Emma Gonzalez, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby -- and prompting the crowd to chant in turn: "Shame on you!" Wednesday's massacre, which claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has fuelled urgent calls for an end to the national deadlock over gun control -- with a string of shooting survivors rallying behind the cause.



09:38 Indian-American seeks re-election to city council in Texas



Indian-American Himesh Gandhi has filed for re-election to a city council in the US state of Texas.He is a three-term incumbent of the At-Large Position 1 post on the Sugar Land, Texas, City Council and is seeking a fourth and final term in the May 5 election. Gandhi, a longtime community leader, promised to continue his focus on improving the lives of residents in the thriving community. Himesh, first elected in 2012 at the age of 35, was the youngest councilman to be elected in a citywide vote. He has served on numerous City Council committees and was also a member of the task force that spearheaded development of the Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Landan iconic concert and performance hall that opened last year. - PTI



09:26 Polling in the Tripura Assembly election began on a peaceful note at 7 am today amid massive security arrangements. Voting is being held in 59 of the total 60 seats due to the death of the CPI(M) candidate for the Charilam constituency, Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma, six days ago. The Charilam constituency will go to polls on March 12.Pakistan has billed India Rs 2.86 lakh as route navigation charges for Indian Air Force aircraft used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a stopover in Lahore and visits to Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and Qatar, an RTI response shows.

The data gathered by activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra. through his RTI application, show that till June 2016, Indian Air Force aircraft were used for the Prime Minister's visits to 11 countries--Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Qatar, Australia, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Fiji and Singapore.

Batra gave a copy of the RTI responses, received from August last year to January 30 2018, to PTI.

During one such visit on December 25, 2015, Modi had a brief stopover in Lahore at the request of then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The stopover took place when Modi was returning from Russia and Afghanistan. For this, a bill of Rs 1.49 lakh has been issued as route navigation charges, records accessed under the RTI Act from the Indian High Commission in Pakistan show.

Modi was received by Sharif with a warm hug at the tarmac of the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, when he made the unexpected stopover on his way back home following a day-long trip to Afghanistan after concluding a two-day visit to Russia.

Modi was accorded a red carpet welcome as the PM's special Indian Air Force Boeing 737 plane touched down at 4.50 pm. He then took a helicopter to Sharif's Raiwind palatial residence on the outskirts of Lahore to attend Sharif's birthday celebrations.

A bill of Rs 77,215 was imposed as route navigation charges by Pakistani authorities when Modi used an IAF aircraft to visit Iran on May 22-23, 2016, and Rs 59,215 when he visited Qatar on June 4-6, 2016, the RTI response shows.

For both visits he flew over Pakistan. The records were part of a response collected from various missions of India on the expenditure incurred on the visits of Modi on IAF aircraft between 2014 and 2016.

According to the data collected, a total of about Rs 2 crore has been spent on foreign visits of the Prime Minister during the period for the use of IAF aircraft.

Generally, an Air India aircraft is hired for the foreign visits of the VVIPs the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister -- for which the national carrier sends the bill.7:41 pm| UCO Bank has $412 million exposure in PNB banking fraud case

India's state-run UCO Bank said it has USD 411.82 million in exposure to fraudulent transactions carried out at Punjab National Bank (PNB).

PNB, India's second-largest state-run

lender, said on Wednesday that it had detected fraudulent transactions worth USD 1.77 billion at a single Mumbai branch that had benefited "a few select account holders", and that it had reported the matter to law enforcement agencies.

UCO Bank, in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange late on Saturday, said its Hong Kong branch granted loans against letters of credit issued by PNB and was "fully confident" of receiving payment from PNB. Read detailed report here

5:45 pm| 200 shell firms, benami assets under ED, I-T dept scanner

At least 200 shell firms and "benami" assets have come under the scanner of the investigative agencies that are probing the Rs 11,400-crore alleged fraud at the Punjab National Bank (PNB), involving diamond czar Nirav Modi, his relative and business partner Mehul Choksi and others.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which continued its searches against Modi, Choksi and their companies for the fourth day today, is also moving to attach at least two dozen immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). For detailed report click here

2:27 PNB fraud: Assocham urges govt to cut stake in PSBs to below 50%

The fraudulent transactions of Rs 11,400 crore detected at Punjab National Bank should act as a strong trigger for the government to reduce its stake to less than 50 per cent in public sector banks (PSBs), industry body Assocham said today.It argued that PSBs should then be allowed to function on the lines of private sector lenders with a full sense of accountability to their shareholders, protecting the interest of depositors.

The USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam in PNB involves billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquiring fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.



The person at the centre of this scam #NiravModi has relations with Congress leaders even with Rahul Gandhi. Truth behind this will soon be out before everyone. At that time Congress leaders will have to answer questions: Ram Madhav, BJP National General Secretary #PNBFraudCase pic.twitter.com/jOz2gJKCZZ

 ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

1:48



Government must come out with white paper on health of Indian economy and the banking sector. All banks must declare and publish complete list of their NPAs as of 31 December, 2017: Congress pic.twitter.com/hv84dbcGmC  News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018



1:10 Diamond is now fraudster's best friend! Nexus under SEBI scanner

Diamonds may have been long known as a girl's best friend, but fraudsters seem to be the new paramours of this glitzy substance and multiple regulators are probing this nexus after a state-run bank got defrauded of USD 1.8 billion by designer jeweller Nirav Modi.

Capital markets watchdog Sebi is looking into the trade details and various suspected violations by Modi-linked entities, including another jewellery major Gitanjali Gems of Mehul Choksi. Also under the scanner is a suspected nexus between the diamond traders and stock market brokers, a senior official said.

The banking regulator is conducting supervisory assessment of Punjab National Bank, while all banks have beefed up their vigil on all clients linked to diamond and jewellery trade.

Besides, the Corporate Affairs Ministry is looking into the filings of all registered companies and directors associated with Modi and Choksi, which run into dozens. Besides, the ministry has identified 150 shell companies for investigations.

Read the full report here

11:33

#BigBankScam -- If the Defence Minister gives out such statements without information, one can make out how the Defence Ministry runs: Kapil Sibal, Congress pic.twitter.com/6SJwyj7Kd1 News18 (@CNNnews18) February 18, 2018

10:57

09:16 PMO working on resolving Nirav Modi fraud: MoS finance





The finance ministry is working with the Prime Minister's Office to resolve the Rs 11,400 crore scam at Punjab National Bank and the government will try to extradite and punish Nirav Modi -- alleged to be behind the fraud -- Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said on Saturday.



The state-owned PNB has detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam where billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from the Brady House branch of the bank in south Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other lenders. "The finance ministry is in discussions with the Prime Ministers office and whatever the PMO decides, the finance ministry will implement," Shukla told reporters at an Assocham event on Saturday. Read the full report here.



09:00 The BJP alleged that the multi-crore PNB scam involving billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi happened during the UPA rule and the Congress was spreading lies to mislead the public.Neil Basu, a senior Indian-origin police officer in the UK, is a frontrunner to become Britain's anti-terrorism chief when Scotland Yard's National Lead for Counter Terrorism resigns next month.

Basu, currently Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner and Senior National Coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing, is tipped to take over one of the British policing's toughest jobs from Mark Rowley, The Sunday Times' reported.

Basu, whose father is of Indian origin, is a former Met Police commander overseeing organised crime and gangs. He has specialised in anti-terrorism policing for the past three years and is currently Rowley's deputy. He has been vocal about cracking down on British nationals who joined the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

In a recent interview with the Combating Terrorism Centre in New York, he said that exclusion powers would be applied to about 200 of the 300 fighters in the war zone as he revealed that about half of the 850 who travelled from Britain to join ISIS had already returned and more than 100 were dead. Of the remaining 300, two-thirds would be blocked from the UK.

"Like other countries, we operate on the principle that we don't want you back, and therefore we will deprive you of your British passport; for those among these who end up coming back, we are absolutely waiting for them. That's the bottom line," he said.

"The big threat for us now is the ideology that's been diffused onto the internet and the calls for attacks by its followers in the West by ISIS online. The caliphate may have been defeated militarily, but it has now become a virtual network,a he warned.February 18, 2018

Weekly Review And Open Thread 2018-07

Feb 12 - On Sending Troops And Bombs At Times Square

The U.S. bombs Afghanistan to prevent bombs from going off in Times Square. Meanwhile bombs go off in Times Square to stop the U.S. from bombing Afghanistan. A perpetual motion machine ... profitable for some.

Feb 14 - Consolation Post

On various interesting issues ...

Feb 15 - Syria - New 'Chemical Weapons' Fake Planned - Chlorine Though Will Not Do

Touches on the reasons why chlorine is not a battlefield weapon ...

Feb 16 - White House: "Iraq Has Anthrax Virus" "Russia Launched NotPetya"

Computer viruses and malware are very difficult to attribute. The U.S. has shown zero evidence for its attribution of the NotPetya malware to Russia.

Feb 17 - Mueller Indictment - The "Russian Influence" Is A Commercial Marketing Scheme

No Russian activity had any influence on the election. Nowhere did Russia collude with Trump or his campaign. But Cold War 2.0 is needed to sell more weapons ...

Use as open thread ...

Posted by b on February 18, 2018 at 14:35 UTC | Permalink

CommentsThere is an old saying: You cant really understand another persons experience until youve walked a mile in their shoes. Walk a Mile in Their Shoes to End Teen Dating Violence asks participants to literally walk one mile in someone elses shoes! Its not easy walking in someone elses shoes, but its fun and it gets the community to talk about something thats really difficult to discuss: gender relations and sexual violence.A statewide candlelight vigil will be held Monday night in honor of the victims of the tragic school shooting in Parkland.

The vigils are scheduled for 7 p.m. Several will be taking place in the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Orange Counties.

The principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has plans of his own to honor the victims.

"We're going to take the love that got lost on Wednesday and we are going to spread that over the next days, weeks, months, and maybe even years," Ty Thompson said.

Officials said the school shooting lasted for a total of six minutes with the shooter firing into five classrooms. Four on the first floor and one on the second.Cocoa Beach police say they were forced to use deadly force on a man they believed was a violent, imminent threat."

Cocoa Beach man shot & killed in home by police

Police say they believe there was a violent, imminent threat"

PREVIOUS STORY: Cocoa Beach Police investigating deadly officer-involved shooting



Fifty-nine-year-old Tim Berger was shot and killed in his Cocoa Beach home by two police officers.

The incident happened Friday night at the Royal Colonial Condos on 2001 S. Banana River Boulevard.

Bergers wife called 911, who told dispatchers that Berger was intoxicated, suicidal and had shot a firearm inside their home.

When police arrived to Bergers home, they attempted to make contact with Berger but were immediately met with an imminent threat, according to a news release.

Authorities say responding officers James Scheiner and Taylor Payne both shot their firearms at Berger. He died on-scene.

The officers were uninjured. Brevard County Sheriffs Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were contacted to handle the investigation.

Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave as standard protocol, police say.WALLINGFORD  Breweries from across the state shared their beer at the CT Craft Beer Fest on Saturday.

Theres such a respect for each other and respect for the craft, said Phil Pappas, of Milford, marketing director of the CT Brewers Guild, which hosted the event at the Oakdale Theatre. Pappas said all 1,800 tickets for the inaugural event sold before the doors opened.

Pappas said he aimed to have all styles of beer under one roof so brewers could learn from each other and attract new customers. Connecticut breweries are a very close-knit community. he added.

We love supporting Connecticut, said Ryan Voytek, co-owner of Front Porch Brewing in Wallingford. Everyones very supportive.

Having opened in November, this was the brewerys first festival and Voytek was hoping for new customers and exposure. Front Porch offered their Parti-Gal #1, with the promise of experimental beers, like their kiwi variant, for those who visit the brewery.

John DeMarsilis, of North Haven, who travels to breweries across the state, said he hadnt heard of about half of those at the festival.

Its nice to see a lot of them at one spot, he said.

This was also the first festival for Cliffside Brewing in Wallingford, said Dave Durant, who opened the brewery in October.

I think its awesome, he said of the event.

Durant said he tried new beers from around the state and heard about different brewing techniques.

Its always good to talk to other breweries (and) pick up tips, he said. Hopefully well pick up a lot of business from this.

The whole craft brew scene has really exploded the past few years, said Rick Sanchez, of Wallingford. He said hes happy to have so many breweries opening in town. The more word gets out, the better for business, he said.

A lot of good breweries show up today, he said, bringing with them a great selection of good beers.Drain the Oceans dives deep into the unknown; a truly epic, truly original series that exposes hidden evidence of the most amazing undersea mysteries, as never seen before. The first episode is the Great Barrier Reef.

Thursdays from 9:30pm AEST.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma on Saturday appeared before Hyderabad police in connection with a case of obscenity booked against him for his movie God, Sex and Truth, and also for his derogatory remarks on a woman activist. He was grilled for at least three and a half hours, his laptop was seized and was directed to appear before the police next Friday. Varma, appeared before police on Saturday after a second notice was served on him.

However, soon after coming out of the police station, Varma posted two photographs on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. One of them of while being interrogated by three police officers and the other while walking out of the police station. The first photo captioned I so loved and thrilled with the professionalism of the CCS team and the second one read I really feel like acting in a police officers role. My request to all directors to please consider.

While it may be questioned whether an accused would be allowed to click photographs during or after interrogation, Additional DCP Raghuvir, said there was nothing wrong in posting such photographs on social media. According to him, some media persons have taken the photo and shared with the director, who in turn posted it on his Instagram page. Meanwhile, on Twitter, director Puri Jagannadh responded to Varmas photo with Sirrrrrrr script ready. Waiting for ur dates. Both the photos have gone viral on social media.

I really feel like acting in a police officers role ..My request to all directors is to please consider pic.twitter.com/Xt7KoyaHmU  Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) February 17, 2018

During questioning, the director apparently told the police that he had nothing to do with the short film. Only after the sleuths showed him his photographs with American adult star Mia Malkova while making of the film, Varma decided to open up and told the police that he made a short video clip on God Sex Truth in Poland for internet.

A team of officers led by Cyber Crime Additional DCP Raghuvir shot several questions to the director in connection with the making of the film starring Mia Malkova. He was asked about his idea behind making such a film, how he approached the American porn star and details of the film crew. Responding to a query on objectionable remarks he made against woman activist Devi, who lodged a complaint against Varma on Jan 25, the director clarified that he has not made any such comments deliberately.

A case under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 was booked against him for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form and a notice was served on him for appearing before police. The film-maker was also booked under Sections 506 and 509 of the IPC for allegedly making personal comments against her and others opposing the movie. He has been charged with insulting the modesty of a woman. Women activists had alleged that Varma was releasing the movie on web to avoid certification procedures as he portrayed woman as a sex object.By PTI

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Regulators RBI and Sebi today stepped up probe into the massive Rs 11,400-crore fraud at PNB as law enforcement agencies intensified their hunt for billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and his associate Mehul Choksi.

The Reserve Bank warned of "appropriate supervisory action", saying it is assessing the control systems at Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Market regulator Sebi has launched a probe into trading and disclosure related issues of the state-owned bank, which has lost Rs 8,731 crore in market capitalisation in three days.

The stock hit its 52-week low on both BSE and NSE today.

Meanwhile, the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) has convened a meeting tomorrow to deliberate on the ramifications of the scam, which has also affected other banks including SBI, Union Bank, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank.

PNB fraud case: Income Tax Department attaches 29 properties, 105 bank accounts of Nirav Modi firms, family

Chartered accountants' apex body ICAI has also taken suo motu cognisance of the USD 1.

77 billion fraud and has sought information from investigation agencies, besides setting up a group to study the systemic issues arising out of the case.

Separately, the corporate affairs ministry has identified 150 shell companies related to Modi and his associates.

In parallel developments, Enforcement Directorate continued raids on assets related to jewellery designer Modi and Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems and co-accused in the fraud case.

Premier investigating agency CBI too is probing the case.

PNB fraud: Allahabad Bank has USD 366.87 million outstanding exposure

The Income Tax Department attached 29 properties and 105 bank accounts of Modi, his family and companies, said officials, adding he has been booked under the new anti-black money act for alleged possession of illegal assets abroad.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs has suspended passports of Modi and Choksi for four weeks at the request of ED.

In a late evening statement, the Reserve Bank said it has already undertaken a supervisory assessment of control systems in PNB, wherein billionaire Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

"The fraud in PNB is a case of operational risk arising on account of delinquent behaviour by one or more employees of the bank and failure of internal controls.

"RBI has already undertaken a supervisory assessment of control systems in PNB and will take appropriate supervisory action," it said.

ALSO READ: Narendra Modi hosted 'Mehul Bhai' of banking fraud at his official residence

The RBI also denied media reports that it had directed PNB to meet its commitments under the letters of undertaking (LoUs) to other banks.

PNB has suspended eight more officials, including one at general manager level, for their suspected involvement in the multi-crore scam, a senior government official said.

The official also said that PNB will repay other banks their dues by March 31 and that would be funded from internal resources.

The country's largest lender SBI said it has an exposure of USD 212 million (about Rs 1,360 crore) in respect to LoU issued by PNB to Nirav Modi, but does not have any direct exposure to the jewellery designer.

ICAI President Naveen N D Gupta told PTI that it has taken suo motu cognisance of the fraud at Punjab National Bank.

"The Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB) has been advised to 'initiate suo motu review' of Punjab National Bank and Gitanjali Gems (matter)," he told PTI.

Gitanjali Gems shares continued to slump with a plunge of 20 per cent today.

PNB fraud case: How could government let Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi to leave India, asks Congress

This is the third straight session of decline for the stock.

The stock market dealings of billionaire jeweller Modi his relative and close associate Choksi came under the scanner of Sebi and stock exchanges following PNB's declaration of the fraud.

When contacted, payment gateway SWIFT said: "SWIFT does not comment on individual customers or entities.

When a case of potential fraud is reported to us, we offer our assistance to the affected user to help secure its environment.

" The instructions for clearance of alleged fraud LoUs issued in favour overseas branches of Indian banks were passed on through the SWIFT gateway.Where did all of those summertime tourists in Newport come from?

localCopy Editor/Entertainment Editor

Frank Pieper is a copy editor and entertainment editor at The News-Gazette, and the author of Frank's Faves and Frank's Weekend Faves. His email is fpieper@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@frp308).First-place entries from the 2018 Best in Show photography competition, sponsored by the Champaign County Camera Club and the Urbana Park DistSuccess! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).Columnist

Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich).One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021New Delhi: As many as 8 public sector companies, including Hindustan Aeronautics and RITES, will hit the capital markets next fiscal as the government intends to unlock the real value of PSUs and bring in greater accountability.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Neeraj Gupta said these initial public offerings (IPO) will be done in a "staggered manner" depending upon the size of the issuance.

"Eight companies are at different stages of preparation (for an IPO) and will enter the market at an appropriate time," Gupta told PTI.

Of these, HAL has already secured market regulator Sebi nod for floating an IPO. The government plans to sell 10 per cent stake in the defence PSU.

Besides, four PSUs  RITES, IREDA, Bharat Dynamics and Midhani  have filed their draft papers with Sebi and are awaiting its go-ahead to launch public issue.

Through RITES IPO, the government plans to sell 12 per cent stake to raise an estimated Rs 600 crore.

The government will sell 13.90 crore shares in Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), while 12 per cent and 25 per cent would be sold in defence PSUs Bharat Dynamics and Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI), respectively.

In 2018-19 fiscal, the government has budgeted to raise Rs 80,000 crore through PSU disinvestment, which includes a strategic sale.

"The government will adopt a comprehensive approach in going about its disinvestment mandate," Gupta said.

In the current fiscal, which ends in March, the government has already raised over Rs 23,600 crore by way of IPOs in four companies.

As much as Rs 11,372 crore has been raised from General Insurance Corp, Rs 9,600 crore from New India Assurance Co, Rs 1,442 crore from Cochin Shipyard and Rs 1,200 crore from Housing and Urban Development Corp (Hudco).New Delhi: French development bank AFD has shown interest to fund 100 million euros (around Rs 800 crore) for India's smart cities mission, a finance ministry official has said.

Under the smart city mission, the government has so far identified 99 cities for upgradation which would require a total investment of about Rs 2.03 lakh crore.

"France's AFD has said it is interested in funding 100 million euros for smart cities mission. The funding is expected to be finalised before President Emmanuel Macron's expected visit to India next month," the official told PTI.

Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) is France's development bank that finances and provides technical assistance to projects that improve daily livelihood in developing and emerging countries. AFD has been operating in India since 2008.

The official said while assistance from the World Bank has also been received for the smart city project, some countries like Germany and Japan are interested in providing technical know-how for infrastructure development.

The cities selected for smart city mission would be developed to have basic infrastructure through assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

Under the scheme, each city will get Rs 500 crore from the Centre for implementing various projects. An equal amount, on matching basis, will have to be contributed by the state or urban local bodies.

In January 2016, 20 cities were identified under the smart cities mission, followed by 13 cities in May 2016, 27 cities in September 2016 and 30 cities in June 2017. 9 more cities have been chosen in the fourth round in January 2018, taking the total tally to 99.New Delhi: State-owned power giant NTPC is in talks for buying out equity of state utilities in some joint venture projects apart from taking over some of their stressed businesses as part of its drive to augment capacity.

We are in talks to acquire some non-performing and under-performing assets of state utilities. The capacity of some of these may not be very high but these projects have potential to expand, NTPC HR Director Saptrishi Roy, who holds additional charge of Director Finance, told PTI.

In some cases we wish to buy out our joint venture partner in specific projects with state utilities in a North Indian state. In another state we have made significant progress to acquire one performing project, Roy added.

He declined, however, to give the names of the states or projects citing confidentiality clauses.

Resources, he said, will not be an issue.

Sources meanwhile indicated that NTPC could be in talks with Bihar utilities for two joint venture projects at Kanti and Nabinagar but it could not be ascertained from the company.

This is part of the NTPC plan for inorganic growth as the corporation is eyeing the plants that are close to coal sources and running with an eye on the cost of generation from these plants.

The company had recently floated tenders inviting bids for acquiring stressed power projects from the private sector and is believed to have been approached by some big-ticket assets including from JP groups Nigrie thermal project.

There are 34,000 MW of stressed assets in the power sector. NTPC is looking to acquire operational coal-based power plants which have lower generation costs, Roy said.

NTPC is currently working on new thermal projects totalling 21,000 mw for capacity addition in the next the 3-4 years, he said, adding that going by the projection of 7-8 per cent economic growth on an annualised basis, the demand for electricity is expected to grow up significantly.

The company, which produces about one fourth of the total power in the country despite having only 16 per cent capacity, would expand to meet its role as the leading power supplier to the nation, Roy said, adding that nation may require additional power capacity to the extent off 4-5 GW annually to meet the growing demand.Kanpur: Just days after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) Rs 11,360 crore fraud came to light, another state-run bank has reported a million dollar scam. The parent company of Rotomac Pens has been accused of fleeing with loans of more than Rs 800 crore from various government banks in the country.

According to sources, the owner of the company, Vikram Kothari, had taken a loan of more than Rs 800 crores from five government banks. Sources have confirmed that Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India compromised their rules to render these loans to Kothari.

Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Allahabad Bank. A year later, Kothari has been reported to not have paid back either the interest or the loaned amount.

Kothari's office in Kanpurs City Center road has been locked for the past week. Kothari, too, has been untraceable ever since.

Meanwhile, Allahabad Bank manager Rajesh Gupta said he hoped the amount would be recovered by selling Kotharis properties.

This comes after jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi were involved in fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,360 crore through PNB.

According to a complaint by PNB, the biggest fraud in Indian banking history involved two junior officials at a Mumbai bank branch issuing "letters of undertaking" to firms linked to Modi and Choksi for them to obtain credit from overseas branches of other Indian lenders.

While three companies of Mehul Choksi  Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brand Ltd  have been named in the CBI FIR, Modi and Choksis passports have now been cancelled for four weeks by the Ministry of External Affairs.

On the advice of the Enforcement Directorate, the passport issuing authority in the Ministry of External Affairs has suspended the validity of passports of Mr Nirav Deepak Modi and Mr Mehul Chinubhai Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks u/s 10(A) of the Passports Act 1967, said a press release by the MEA.New Delhi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month on a rare visit during which they held extensive talks with the top brass of the Bhutanese leadership on strategic issues including the situation in Doklam, authoritative government sources said.

The sources told PTI that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation issues with a focus on China's increasing military posturing and infrastructure development in the key Doklam plateau.

The visit took place between February 6 and 7 and "positive" outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, they said.

The visit by Gen. Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first such high-level trip from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff and it was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides.

The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors' summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians about the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed Doklam tri-junction by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on August 28.

China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. India argues that since it is a tri-junction involving the three countries, it also has a say in the issue, especially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks.

Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India.

The sources said several other key officials of the Army and the Ministry of External Affairs were also a part of the visit. Asked about the foreign secretary's visit, a diplomatic source called it "routine".

This was Gen. Rawat's second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen. Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 km-long border with China. Last month, he had said the time had come for the country to shift its focus from the western to the northern frontier.

Army sources said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area.

The Indian Army has also been strengthening its troop level in certain key sectors along the Sino-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure.

Previously, Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year while then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited the neighbouring country in October last. In November last, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, had visited India.Jammu: The Army today foiled an attempt by a group of terrorists to intrude into this side under the cover of Pakistani firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said.

Jammu-based Army PRO Lt Col Devender Anand said the Pakistan army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing from 5:15 pm along the LoC in Poonch sector to facilitate an infiltration attempt by a group of terrorists.

The alert troops deployed at the border detected the movement and engaged the infiltrators with effective automatic fire, he said, adding that search and sanitisation operations were in progress.

Earlier, a police official said the firing from small and heavy weapons from across the border took place in Khari Karmara sector and continued for about 15 minutes.

However, there was no immediate report of any casualty in the Pakistani firing, he told PTI. The Army PRO said Pakistan does not abandon its nefarious designs of supporting and abetting infiltration across the LoC.

"The Army is keeping a strict vigil across the LoC and is prepared to thwart any nefarious designs of Pakistan sponsored terrorists," he said.

Twenty people, 11 security personnel and nine civilians, were killed and over 75 others injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the International Border (IB) in Jammu division since the beginning of this year.Patna: Thousands of youths on Sunday staged violent protests and indulged in arson at three railway stations in Bihar against reducing the age limit for recruitment in the Railways, leading to services being disrupted for some time, police said.

The protests against the age limit reduction for Group D recruitment and reserving most of the seats for ITI holders in the Railways came two days after hundreds of unemployed youths protested at Ara train station.

On Sunday, the protesters, mostly job aspirants, demonstrated at Rafiganj railway station in Aurangabad district, Athamgola railway station in Patna district and Hajipur railway station in Vaishali district.

They forcibly stopped trains, blocked tracks, torched vehicles and threw stones at police officials in Rafiganj and Athamgola railway stations.

The protesters shouted slogans against the BJP-led Central government and displayed posters that read "hum pakoda nahi bechenge", "protest against surgical strike on railway job aspirants", "notify more jobs in railways".

The protest left half a dozen police officials injured and services on the Gaya-Mughalsarai section of the East Central Railway disrupted for hours.

"Some pelted police with stones when officers tried to disperse them in which nearly a dozen of them were injured," a district police official said.

The police opened fire to disperse the protesters in Rafiganj after they tried to ransack the railway station.New Delhi: The Supreme Court's historic verdict on the decades-old dispute on Cauvery river water sharing between the southern riparian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also saw some heated and anxious moments during its hearing. On September 30, 2016, jurist and senior advocate Fali S Nariman, who led the arguments for Karnataka, had refused to argue the matter over differences with the state government for its non-compliance of the top court's order asking it to release 6,000 cusecs of water from the Cauvery river to Tamil Nadu.

The episode was also mentioned in the court's 465-page verdict penned for the bench by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. The court had on February 16 ruled an increase in the share of Cauvery water for Karnataka. The bench, however, did not go into the episode in any detail.

The bench, which also comprised Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, had appreciated the stand taken by Nariman on the issue, and said, "We think it necessary to state here that Mr Nariman had courageously lived up to the highest tradition of the Bar and we had recorded our uninhibited accession."

When the matter was taken up for hearing on September 30, 2016, Nariman had submitted two letters to the top court requesting it to take them on record. The letters pertained to the communication between him and the state government on the compliance of the top court's order for releasing water to Tamil Nadu.

During the hearing, Nariman had told the bench that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had called an all-party meeting after the Supreme Court passed its order on September 27.

He had said the meeting reiterated that the "will of the people of the state should be respected" and no water could be released at that juncture. While referring to the contents of his letter to the chief minister, Nariman had told the bench he had unequivocally stated he would not argue for Karnataka till the orders of Supreme Court were followed.

He had said he would not make any submission on behalf of Karnataka, a move which was hailed by the bench which said Nariman's stand "unhesitatingly beholds the right tradition of the bar". The top court after the highly charged hearing had given the last opportunity to the Siddaramaiah government to release 6,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from October 1 to October 6, 2016, despite a unanimous resolution passed by both house of the Assembly.

"Karnataka, despite being a state, is flouting the order and creating a situation when the majesty of the law is dented," it had said. The top court had then ordered all the stakeholders - Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry - to suggest names of representatives to be included in the Cauvery Water Management Board, which would be chaired by the Union Water Resources Minister.

Similarly, another incident annoyed the apex court during the hearing on September 12, 2016, when Karnataka moved an application for modification of September 5, 2016, order directing it to release water to Tamil Nadu. Karnataka had sought a modification of the order on the grounds that spontaneous agitations had broken out in various parts of the state, which had paralysed normal life and resulted in the destruction of public and private properties worth hundreds of crores of rupees.

The top court after reading the affidavit filed by Karnataka observed the application contained "certain averments which cannot be conceived of to be filed in a court of law seeking modification of an earlier order".

It categorically stated that an "agitation in spontaneity or propelled by some motivation or galvanised by any kind of catalystic component can never form the foundation for seeking a modification of an order".

"Citizens cannot become the law unto themselves; and when a court of law passes an order, it is the sacred duty of citizens to obey the same," the bench had said while rejecting the prayer of the state government to keep the order in abeyance but had modified the order for the release of water.Bengaluru: An embarrassed Congress was forced to expel MLA NA Haris son Mohammad Nalapad on Sunday following a News18 report on an attack by the latter and his friends on a youth in an upscale Bengaluru restaurant.

Nalapad, the Bangalore District Youth Congress General Secretary, was expelled from the party for six years hours after he and 10 of his supporters were booked for the Saturday night assault.

Arrests were, however, yet to be made as Nalapad remained untraceable. Bengaluru police commissioner Sunil Kumar suspended Cubbon Park Circle Inspector Vijay Hadagali and also recommended the suspension of ACP Manjunath Thalwar for failing to make the arrest.

According to sources, both were close to the MLA and had allegedly tried to hush up the matter. The case has now been transferred to the city crime branch.

The victim, identified as Dollars Colony resident Vidwath, was having dinner at a high-end restaurant in UB City when Mohammad Nalapad and his friends walked in at 11:30pm. The group reportedly told Vidwath, who had a plaster on one of his legs, to sit properly.

After a heated exchange, Nalapad and his friends allegedly attacked Vidwath and beat him up. The victim was rushed to the nearby Mallya Hospital for treatment, but the group reportedly followed him there and allegedly beat him up again. Nalapad and his friends allegedly also tried to attack the victims brother.

The victim, identified as Vidwath, is undergoing treatment at Mallya Hospital.

Haris paid a visit to the hospital later in the night, following which the opposition BJP and JD(S) alleged that the lawmaker was trying to hush up the case.

On Sunday, Haris claimed he was unaware of his sons whereabouts. It is an unfortunate incident. I met the victim and his family. I don't know where he (Nalapad) is. His phone is switched off. Let the law take its course, the MLA said.

The allegations come as a major embarrassment to the Congress-led Karnataka government in an election year.

Speaking to News18, Siddaramaiah said his government would uphold the law. "I have seen your report and ordered the strictest possible action against Haris' son. The police will arrest him. No such criminal act will be tolerated. Law is same for all. We uphold it."

On Twitter, the Chief Minister said the offenders would be punished regardless of who they are.

Offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.@CPBlr will take action as per law and bring the guilty to book. https://t.co/H0Km8zauVz Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) February 18, 2018

The Chief Minister was responding to a tweet by historian Ramachandra Guha.

Here is a news report of the incident: https://t.co/Asl0mgQ98hNA Haris is the MLA for my constituency; such behaviour is unacceptable. I hope the CM @siddaramaiah takes prompt action against father and son. Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) February 18, 2018

Calling it a ghastly incident, Dinesh Gundu Row, the working president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, said police would arrest all the accused.

Ghastly incident..nobody is above law..police have to take strict action and arrest all concerned, who so ever they may be. Also Mohammed Haris Nalapad will be expelled from the Congress party for his involvement in this terrible act.Condemn in the strongest words. https://t.co/nu3sqaUyvq Dinesh Gundu Rao (@dineshgrao) February 18, 2018

Questions were also asked of Prakash Raj as Twitterati shared an old video of the actor heaping praises on Nalapad.

Dear @prakashraaj wow!! D praises u showered upon a young lad about his upbringing. Very true that! U went on #JustAsking everyone about everything. Now will u visit d innocent victim who was beaten up by someone u openly endorsed, Will u slap the criminal?#Bengaluru @dp_satish pic.twitter.com/ny9ltbPJxi Abinash Ganesh (@youdle) February 18, 2018

The actor was quick to condemn the actions of the MLAs son and said that action should be taken against him.New Delhi: After the Ganga gram scheme, the government plans to take up a similar project for the Yamuna to make villages on its banks open defecation free as part of Swachh Bharat Mission.

In his budget speech, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while praising the mission, had specially mentioned about the Ganga gram scheme and declared that all 4,465 villages on the banks of the river had been declared open defecation free.

Riding on the success story of Ganga gram scheme, the Centre now plans to take up the same project to make the villages on the banks of the Yamuna river open defecation free.

"I know the problem of pollution of the Yamuna river. We have made all villages on the banks of Ganga open defecation free. I want to take the same project for the Yamuna too. It will be done through active participation of the gram panchayats and the people living in those villages. It will also control the pollution of the river," Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharti said.

Bharti had launched the Ganga Gram project last December as part of the governmenti??s Namami Gange mission for holistic sanitation development in 4,470 villages on the banks of the river.

She had said that the Yamuna gram scheme will be part of the sanitation drive along with the solid waste management to take care of the polluting elements on the banks of the river.Hyderabad: Billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi may be holed up in a five star hotel in New York after triggering a Rs 11,300 crore fraud on state-run Punjab National Bank, but the priests at the famous Chilkur Balaji Temple near Hyderabad are confident that their prayers will bring him back to India even if the government cannot.

Not only this, the head priests of the temple believe their "special puja" will also solve the banking crisis that has hit the country and bring back the hard-earned money of crores of Indians from all the loan defaulters that have fled the country.

The Chilkur Balaji Temple is popularly known as the Visa Temple as every day thousands of people having trouble getting visa throng the place hoping that their prayers will be answered.

Now, Dr MV Soundararajan, the head priest who came up with the idea of the special puja, believes he can also get people back to India. He said he was confident that the puja will help the recovery of money from defaulters, however big they may be. The puja will take on February 19 at noon and thousands of devotees are expected to take part in it.

A special chanting will be done to invoke the Lion God. Runa Vimochana Nrusimha Stotram is a powerful stotra that when recited regularly will relieve people of their debts and insolvency, however severe and acute," he said.

CS Gopalakrishna, another head priest, said that this is a severe crisis, and there is threat to the money in the banks. "I pray to Lord Lashmi Nrusimha, the Lion God seated with the Goddess of wealth to tide over these debts," he said. Giving details of the special puja, he said that there are nine verses in the chant and it will be repeated 11 times.Jaipur: A leaked official circular through which the Vasundhara Raje government was seemingly trying to reach out to disgruntled party workers has put the BJP in a tight spot in Rajasthan.

The state education department has sent out a letter to BJP MLAs and district presidents of the party, asking them to send recommendations for favourable transfers of their relatives who work in the department.

The letter, dated February 16, was issued from the office of Vasudev Devnani, minister of state for elementary and secondary education and was duly signed by an officer of the Rajasthan Administrative Services.

Written on an official letterhead, it asks BJP office-bearers, former office-bearers or senior party workers to indicate where they would like to get their relatives posted.

The letter then gives out a set format for the family members of the party functionaries to apply and asks the BJP MLA or district presidents to forward the applications by email.

The format given includes names of the party functionary, place of current posting of the person seeking a transfer, place to which the transfer is desired, and the relationship of the teacher with the party functionary.

Such a letter is to be sent to MLAs and all party presidents by all departments of the state government, Times of India reported.

State education minister Devnani, however, denied any partisanship and said the letter was meant for MLAs of all political parties and not just the BJP.

The Congress termed the letter a brazen attempt to woo disgruntled BJP members after the party's defeat in the recent bypolls.

The BJP is shocked by the recent defeat in bypolls so this is an attempt to reach out to its workers. The move is unconstitutional and the order should be withdrawn as soon as possible, Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot told Deccan Herald.

The states teachers union has also criticized the circular, saying that they have never seen anything like it before.

In a letter to chief minister Vasundhara Raje, the union expressed sought the withdrawal of the letter and made it clear that special treatment for relatives of BJP functionaries is not acceptable and goes against the Constitution.New Delhi: Iran has offered to raise the freight discount on oil sales to India in return for New Delhi agreeing to boost imports, as the OPEC member is keen to eat into the market share of other producers including top rivals Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Iran is pushing to retain customers for its oil in Asia, hoping concessions will boost the appeal of its crude compared with other Middle Eastern suppliers, even as the threat looms of potential further US sanctions on the country.

Since the lifting of sanctions on Iran in 2016, it has been offering India a freight discount linked to a formula translating into 105 percent of the Platts assessment.

For 2017/18 Tehran had reduced the discount to 62 percent of the formula from 80 percent, but Iran has offered to change this if Indian refineries step up purchases, three sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

"Now they are offering 100 percent discount, meaning a sum equivalent to 105 percent of the Platts freight assessment," said one of the sources.

Iran said it expected Indian orders to grow.

"State-owned Indian companies are going to increase their level of Iranian oil purchase," Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh told reporters after a meeting with Indian oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi.

Indian refiners  state-owned and private  will buy about 500,000 bpd of Iranian oil in 2018/19, said Zanganeh, in India as part of a delegation led by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

SUPPLIES DOWN

In April through January, the first 10 months of this fiscal year, India imported about 17 percent less Iranian oil at about 442,800 bpd.

Supplies from Iran were down as state refiners, which account for about two-thirds of India's nearly 5 million barrels per day (bpd) demand, curbed imports in protest at Tehran's move to grant development rights for the giant Farzad B gas field to others.

"We have got good incentives compared to other major producers. We will get the benefit if we buy from Iran ... We will boost oil imports from Iran compared to this fiscal year," Pradhan told reporters, without elaborating.

Iran, which used to be the second-biggest oil supplier to India before sanctions, is gradually raising its market share in the world's third-biggest oil consuming nation.

In 2017, Iraq for the first time emerged as the top supplier to India on an annual basis, while Saudi Arabia slipped to second position.

The freight discount offered by Iran will translate to a discount of up to $1 a barrel, one of the sources told Reuters.

Pradhan said India had also sought a stake in Iran's South Azadegan oil field. He said Tehran had not made any commitment on India's request but was willing to show data on some fields to an Indian delegation next week in Tehran.

India recently offered a development plan worth about $6 billion for Farzad B and sought gas pricing of about $4 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) to earn double-digit returns.

Since local gas prices in Iran are about $2.1 per MMBtu, India has asked for a stake in a producing oil field in Iran in addition to Farzad B to improve its average return on investment.

"I am very optimistic about the future of the relationship between the two countries and our companies, especially for developing oil and gas fields," Zanganeh said.New Delhi: JNU Academic Council member and scholar-activist Madhu Kishwar on Saturday said the controversial resolution on compulsory attendance "was not passed in the council", contradicting the administration's version.

In a series of tweets, Kishwar said, "I planned to raise the matter in the Academic Council meeting of 23 Feb. But since VC has postponed it indefinitely, I may as well clarify that the AC did not pass any resolution regarding compulsory attendance. This issue was not an agenda item. It cropped up accidentally."

Kishwar was nominated by JNU Vice-Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar last year to represent the School of Arts and Aesthetics (SAA) as an expert from outside the varsity for two years.

On December 22 last year, the JNU administration issued a circular which read "144th AC meeting has resolved to approve to make attendance compulsory for all regular registered students".

A committee was also formed based on the decision.

Kishwar said it was during a discussion on the performance of SC/ST students that the provision of compulsory attendance propped up leading to a heated exchange among members.

"Some teachers expressed concern about the poor performance of SC/ST students despite special classes. Some pointed out poor performance was related to students not attending even regular classes. In that context someone mentioned a need for compulsory attendance," she tweeted and added that the council was advised by her to first identify the source of a problem and have proper data.

"Meeting ended without any decision on this issue," she added.

Kishwar said she was shocked to read reports about the VC implementing compulsory attendance.

"It was a rude shock for me to read in newspapers that VC had implemented compulsory attendance for all students, including for Ph.D. students where it makes no sense whatsoever because no regular classes are held at that level. Ph.D. students are expected to do fieldwork

or archival research," she tweeted.

Batting for an education system overhaul, she said, "Our universities need all-around overhaul and reorientation. They've become hotbed of disruptive politics rather than academic pursuits. But we cannot undertake meaningful reforms in education by creating an atmosphere of civil war and permanent confrontation in campuses."

She stressed the need for a systematic and planned approach to implement compulsory attendance and said, "I'm not in favour of teacher or student absenteeism. Those who come to a university, especially on scholarships, must take their classes seriously. If attendance system has to be introduced in JNU, as it exists in IITs, IIMs etc, let it be done in a planned & systematic manner."

On Thursday, hundreds of students had laid siege to the administration block and stopped two rectors from leaving the block.Jaipur: At least nine persons were killed and 18 others injured when two LPG cylinders exploded at a wedding in Beawar in Rajasthan's Ajmer district.

According to police, six persons were referred to a hospital in Ajmer while 12 were referred to the district hospital in Beawar.

Police said one Surendra Kumar Parecha had organised celebrations at Kumavat Samaj Bhavan in Beawar after his son's wedding on Friday night.

A loud blast brought the two-storey building down like a pack of cards late Friday night.

According to some eyewitnesses, the accident occurred when a cook was trying to refill an empty cooking gas cylinder from another cylinder. That caused a fire and subsequent explosion. The groom's mother was among those missing.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje condoled the deaths and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh each to bereaved families and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.

Raje went to Amritkaur Hospital in Beawar as well as Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital in Ajmer and met the injured there. She called the accident tragic.

Shri Cement also announced Rs 1 lakh aid to the families of the deceased.

The Chief Minister said that owners of houses damaged in the blast will be compensated. Public Works Department officials will soon survey the losses and the compensation disbursed thereafter, she added.

The Army was extending a helping hand to remove the debris, officials said.Mumbai: The BJP-led government's budget reforms have created a new work culture and they are transforming the socio-economic landscape of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

After inaugurating the 'Magnetic Maharashtra' Investors Summit in suburban Bandra, he said the budget was not limited to outlay, its focus was on the outcome.

Days after the presentation of the last full budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Modi said all the four budgets of his government focused on the upliftment of the needy.

He pointed to schemes with definitive targets like clean fuel for all and healthcare for all.

"Now, our state is policy driven, governance is performance driven, government is accountable, democracy is participative. We are making transparent ecosystem part of the new India," he said.

"We have taken governance to a level where intervention by the government is minimal. A country progresses when there is holistic vision which is inclusive and comprehensive," the prime minister said.

On budget reforms, Modi said changes like merging of rail budget, removing the "artificial wall" between plan and non-plan spends, advancement of the budget date had helped resources reach departments ahead of time and minimise monsoon impact.

"Our focus is on development-policies based budget. In the last 3-4 years, budget reform and the change in thinking is developing a new work culture and also transforming socio-economic life," he said.

In the recent budget, the government proposed resources of Rs 14 lakh crore to the agri and rural sector and also upped infra sector spend by over Rs one lakh crore, he said.

Mentioning work on national highways, new rail lines, electrification, housing for poor and solar capacity, Modi said the pace of growth in infrastructure creation had increased by 2-3 times in every aspect.

"In the last three and a half years, we have transformed the country from being 'fragile five' nation to one now looking at USD 5 trillion GDP," he said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state is aiming to increase its pace of growth of 9.3 percent to become a USD one trillion economy by 2025.

Modi welcomed the vigour with which the states were attracting investments following the "success" achieved by Gujarat on that front, and exuded confidence that Maharashtra would achieve the ambitious target.

"I am sure that Maharashtra will become the first trillion dollar economy in the country. Maharashtra's development is representative of changes in the country," he said.

Modi also welcomed the investments garnered by Maharashtra at the Make in India summit two years ago, saying the state signed agreements entailing investments of Rs 4 lakh crore of which Rs 2 lakh crore had fructified.

Fadnavis said the state had received investment proposals of Rs 8 lakh crore at MII, of which Rs 4.91 lakh crore are in various stages of implementation.

He also enlisted a five-point plan for growth which includes focus on digital sectors, skilling agri workers, addressing the fintech opportunity, upping public infrastructure and creating growth corridors.Mumbai: Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai where Manohar Parrikar is admitted has refuted rumours that the Goa chief minister had to undergo surgery and said that he is responding well to treatment.

Rumours are afloat on WhatsApp that Parrikar has Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer and was operated upon, but those close to the former defence minister say that he has been admitted to treat pancreatitis, or an inflamed pancreas. According to sources, he is in the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital.

The hospital in a statement on Sunday evening, said, It has been brought to our notice, various malicious and misleading report/rumours are floating around in Electronic/Print media with regards to the health of Hon. Chief Minister of Goa. We categorically deny all such rumours. We reiterate that he is being treated and is responding well to the treatment."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a daylong visit to Mumbai, took time out of his scheduled engagements to meet Parrikar and enquire about his health.

Parrikar was admitted in the Mumbai hospital on February 15. He is being treated by oncologist P Jagannath. He will miss the Budget session of the Goa Legislative Assembly beginning on Monday owing to his ill health.

The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the Assembly will meet Monday after the customary address of Governor Mridula Sinha, deputy Speaker Michael Lobo said.

"We will curtail the session to three days considering ill health of the chief minister," Lobo said. Earlier, the session was supposed to culminate mid-March.

Due to proposed rescheduling, the Budget would be tabled on February 20 instead of February 21 and the Vote on Account would be passed on the last day of the session i.e February 21, he said.

When asked whether Parrikar would be attending the session, Lobo said the doctors have asked him not to attend the House. It is not clear who would present the Budget in absence of Parrikar.

Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar said the Opposition parties have no reservations if the session is curtailed as the chief minister is genuinely ill.Nagpur: The mother and minor daughter of a Nagpur-based crime reporter were found murdered on Sunday, police said.

Reported missing since Saturday, the bodies of Usha S. Kamble, 54, and her 18-month-old granddaughter Rashi were discovered by some people in a drain behind a school building in Sitabuldi area of the city on Sunday.

A crime reporter with a portal, Nagpur Times, Ravikant Kamble had reported that they had gone to the market near their residential area of Dighori on Saturday evening and never returned home.

Even as a search was launched for them, they were suspected of being kidnapped and were found murdered on Sunday, their throats slit and their bodies packed in a sack and thrown in a gutter.

Though the motive behind the double murder is being ascertained, police suspect professional or personal rivalry or financial disputes among the possible reasons.

Moving swiftly, Nagpur Police detained two suspects in connection with the double murder.

The murders sent shock waves among the people of Nagpur, which is the second capital of Maharashtra and the hometown of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also handles the home portfolio.Guwahati: With less than a week left for the assembly elections in Meghalaya, a local terror group is supposed to have planned and killed Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Jonathone Sangma from Williamnagar seat with an IED blast on Sunday.

Two of his guards were also killed in the attack.

According to reports, for past few days, warnings had been issued by this unidentified group against supporting Sangma.

The incident took place around 7.50 pm at Samanda, a remote location nearly 245km from Shillong. The 43-year-old NCP candidate was returning to Williamnagar from poll campaigning, when the convoy came under attack, according to police.

Jonathone Sangma had reportedly received death threats while he was campaigning for 2013 assembly elections as well.

Expressing condolences, Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma tweeted, "Deeply saddened to hear about the unexpected loss of Jonathone N Sangma. My heartfelt condolences to his near and dear ones. The blood of innocents spilled by the enemies of the State will not disturb the peace in Meghalaya."

According to police, Jonathone Sangma's convoy was ambushed in a suspected IED blast, after which he was shot. Sangma had recently joined the NCP and was contesting against Congress minister Deborah C Marak. There were eight other candidates in the fray from Williamnagar. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held for the 60-member house on February 27.

The Garo National Liberation Army, a rebel outfit fighting for a sovereign Garoland, had put up posters in the constituency, threatening voters with dire consequences if they voted for Sangma.Imphal: Manipur Education Minister T. Radheshyam on Saturday said during a surprise visit, he found goats occupying two empty classrooms of a school in Khelakhong of the state, as there were no students, though the school authorities had claimed a "comfortable number of students".

On the basis of false claims, mid-day meals, books, and school uniforms were being taken on a regular basis from the government, he said.

The Minister made surprise visits to some schools under Mayang Imphal and Wabagai assembly constituencies on Saturday.

He said: "It was embarrassing that students were not present in some schools and the school buildings are in bad shape. New buildings will have to be constructed if the existing ones cannot be repaired.

"There was no student in some schools and some teachers were also absent. The teachers will be suspended for not taking disciplinary action (against students)."

The local residents told the Minister that about five years ago, there were nearly 200 students in the school at Khelakhong, while another school claimed that there were 32 students. However, the Minister found that there were just two students.

Another school had claimed to have 72 students, although there were just 16. The headmaster had informed the Minister that, apart from himself, there were two teachers. But, the Minister found that the teachers were not in the school premises.

The headmaster explained to him that the teachers had gone for some work. However, not satisfied with this explanation, the Minister said that appropriate action would be taken against the absent teachers.

He added that in another school, there were eight teachers and just 45 students and they had been regularly getting mid-day meal and other benefits from the government. They would face tough action, the Minister said.Bengaluru: Allegations of unprovoked attacks on people at restaurants and pubs are not new to Mohammad Haris Nalapad, the son of Congress MLA NA Harris. The latest is the assault on a youth at an upscale restaurant in UB City area.

According to the FIR, Nalapad and 10 of his supporters thrashed Dollars Colony resident Vidwath after a heated exchange. Vidwath, who already had a fractured leg, was rushed to a nearby hospital, but Nalapad and his supporters reportedly followed him there and threatened against pressing charges.

Hours after News18 reported the assault, the Congress expelled Nalapad, the Bangalore District Youth Congress General Secretary, for six years.

Nalapad has been accused of such brawls in the past, while the police have faced flak for not taking appropriate action.

Nalapads father NA Haris is MLA from Shanthinagar Assembly Seat in central Bengaluru, which includes high-end areas like MG Road, Brigade Road, Lavelle Road and Residency Road. These areas form the central business district of the city. Local restaurateurs and pub owners have complained of Nalapad using political clout to extort money.

The owner of one such plush pub told News18 on condition of anonymity that Nalapad had recently demanded Rs 5 lakh from him. The pub owner paid up Rs 50,000. "The problem is with the police. All local police officials are close to Haris. He got them plum postings like Cubbon Park and Ashok Nagara stations. They take no action against his son, who is out of control with his father's blessings, he said.

In 2016, Nalapad was accused of assaulting a reveller at a Shanthinagar pub. The police allegedly forced the victim to withdraw the complaint. Police had even claimed that someone else was impersonating Nalapad at the time.

According to locals, Nalapad takes offence at the drop of a hat.

Trying to distance himself from the attack, which comes months before Assembly elections, Nalapads father claimed he was unaware of his sons location. It is an unfortunate incident. I met the victim and his family. I don't know where he (Nalapad) is. His phone is switched off. Let the law take its course, the MLA Harris said.

After the News18 report resulted in Nalapads immediate expulsion from the party, the daughter of a retired top police officer of Karnataka tweeted that the accused was known for throwing his weight around in his school days as well. "Even the teachers were scared of him," she tweeted.

Have known him since school days. Even then used to indulge in such nonsense. Never got punished because even teachers were scared. Kitaabikeeda (@kitaab_keeda) February 18, 2018

Haris hails from the Malabar region in Kerala and his family run the famous Nalapad chain of hotels and banquet halls in Bengaluru. Haris started his political career with the Youth Congress and became an MLA in 2008. He is said to be close to Kerala Congress leaders, including former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy.New Delhi: Pakistan has billed India Rs 2.86 lakh as route navigation charges for Indian Air Force aircraft used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a stopover in Lahore and visits to Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and Qatar, an RTI response shows.

The data gathered by activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra, through his RTI application, show that till June 2016, Indian Air Force aircraft were used for the Prime Minister's visits to 11 countries--Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Qatar, Australia, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Fiji and Singapore.

Batra gave a copy of the RTI responses, received from August last year to January 30 2018, to PTI.

During one such visit on December 25, 2015, Modi had a brief stopover in Lahore at the request of then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The stopover took place when Modi was returning from Russia and Afghanistan.

For this, a bill of Rs 1.49 lakh has been issued as route navigation charges, records accessed under the RTI Act from the Indian High Commission in Pakistan show.

Modi was received by Sharif with a warm hug at the tarmac of the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, when he made the unexpected stopover on his way back home following a day-long trip to Afghanistan after concluding a two-day visit to Russia.

Modi was accorded a red carpet welcome as the PM's special Indian Air Force Boeing 737 plane touched down at 4.50 pm.

He then took a helicopter to Sharif's Raiwind palatial residence on the outskirts of Lahore to attend Sharif's birthday celebrations.

A bill of Rs 77,215 was imposed as route navigation charges by Pakistani authorities when Modi used an IAF aircraft to visit Iran on May 22-23, 2016, and Rs 59,215 when he visited Qatar on June 4-6, 2016, the RTI response shows.

For both visits he flew over Pakistan.

The records were part of a response collected from various missions of India on the expenditure incurred on the visits of Modi on IAF aircraft between 2014 and 2016.

According to the data collected, a total of about Rs 2 crore has been spent on foreign visits of the Prime Minister during the period for the use of IAF aircraft.

Generally, an Air India aircraft is hired for the foreign visits of the VVIPs  the President, the Vice President and the Prime Minister -- for which the national carrier sends the bill.

The bills for the Prime Minister's visits are borne by the External Affairs Ministry. The bills submitted by Indian missions in these countries include charges for fuelling, ground handling, airport charges, dearness allowance paid to the staff, hotel stay, catering and mobile for the crew, transport hiring, captain's imprest and other charges.Mumbai: Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials had met representatives of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali groups to impress upon them to pay outstanding amounts, the bank said in a clarification to the stock exchanges.

"A series of meetings were held with representatives of Nirav Modi group and Gitanjali group at Delhi & Mumbai to impress upon them to pay the amount. They were also directed to provide all necessary documents as per law to ensure that the imports are bonafide trade transactions," the PNB statement said in the clarification dated February 15 to the exchanges accessed on Saturday.

Giving details of the fraud on the bank, the statement said that "on January 16, 2018, the partnership firm of Nirav Modi group approached our branch at Brady House, Mumbai and presented a set of import documents with a request to allow buyers' credit for making payment to the overseas suppliers."

"Since there was no sanctioned limit in the name of the above firms, the branch officials requested the firms to furnish at least 100 percent cash margin for issuing Letter of Undertaking (LOU) for raising buyer's credit. The firms contested that they have been availing such transactions since past several years," it said. On scrutiny, the bank found that fraudulent LoUs had been issued favouring the two groups.

On February 14, PNB informed the stock exchanges that a $1.8 billion fraud had happened in one of its Mumbai branches.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate started investigating. The CBI has since arrested PNB's retired Deputy Manager, Gokulnath Shetty and its Single Window Operator Manoj Hemant Karat. One authorised signatory of the Nirav Modi group was also arrested. The three were remanded to police custody till March 3 by a CBI court on Saturday.

The clarification by PNB also states: "Foreign bank branches namely Allahabad Bank, Hong Kong, Axis Bank, Hong Kong and other banks were requested to provide all communication with borrower and documents if any held in their record to understand bonafide of the transactions."

The main accused in the case Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal Modi and maternal uncle Mehul Choksi left the country in January. The CBI is sending notices asking them to present themselves for further investigation. Meanwhile, the PNB said it would be holding an extraordinary general meeting on March 16, 2018.Pune: The body of a 38-year-old man was found hanging from the ceiling of his apartment while his wife and two daughters were found dead on the bed, leading the police to suspect a murder-suicide pact due to the familys financial troubles.

The deceased were identified as Nilesh Chaudhary, his wife Nilam (33), their daughters Shravani (9) and Shreya (7), news agency PTI quoted senior inspector at Uttam Nagar police station Hemant Bhat as saying.

Nilesh had a plastic remolding business and was facing financial crisis. A suicide note, purportedly penned by him, was found in the flat, in which it was stated that he was taking the extreme step due to financial difficulties.

"Nilesh was found hanging from the ceiling in the flat last (Friday) night, while his wife and daughters were found dead on the bed with froth in their mouth," Bhat said.

He said, "We suspect that Nilesh Chaudhary, before committing suicide, might have made his wife and daughters consume some poisonous substance and later strangled them."

"His neighbours alerted police after coming to know about the incident," the official said.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The exact cause of the death of Nilam and her daughters will be known once the autopsy report comes, Bhat said.Jaipur: The death toll in an LPG cylinder blast during a wedding function on Friday night in Beawar town of Ajmer district rose to 18 with the recovery of nine more bodies on Sunday, police said.

Of the 18 injured, six were discharged, whereas five persons, said to be critical, were referred to Jaipur from the JLN Hospital in Ajmer, they said.

Nine more bodies were recovered on Sunday from the debris. With this the toll rose to 18. Two more are feared to be stuck under the debris, Ajmer District Collector Gaurav Goyal said.

He said a joint rescue-and-relief operation by the Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was underway.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the family members of those killed in the blast and a financial help of Rs 50,000 each to the injured, an official spokesperson said.

On Saturday, the chief minister took stock of the rescue operation, met the family members of those killed and announced the compensation from the chief minister's relief fund. An additional compensation of Rs 1 lakh each was given by the Shree Cement company to the kin of the deceased, she said.

Compensation will also be provided to the owners of the houses damaged in the explosion after an assessment, the spokesperson said.

The powerful blast had turned the building, where the wedding ceremony was underway, into rubble. Nine bodies were recovered yesterday.Fathers, take note! Taking too much stress may affect the brain development of your kids, a new study has claimed.

According to the researchers, the stress changes the father's sperm which can then alter the brain development of the child.

This new research provides a much better understanding of the key role that fathers play in the brain development of their kids, the researchers said.

Previously, the researchers including Tracy Bale at the University of Maryland School, found that adult male mice, experiencing chronic periods of mild stress, have offspring with a reduced response to stress; changes in stress reactivity have been linked to some neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and PTSD.

They isolated the mechanism of the reduced response; they found that the father's sperm showed changes in a genetic material known as microRNA. MicroRNA are important because they play a key role in which genes become functional proteins.

Now, the researchers have unravelled new details about these microRNA changes.

In the male reproductive tract, the caput epididymis, the structure where sperm matures, releases tiny vesicles packed with microRNA that can fuse with sperm to change its cargo delivered to the egg, they said.

The caput epididymis responded to the father's stress by altering the content of these vesicles, the researchers added.

The result of the study, presented at AAAS 2018 annual meeting in Austin, suggests that even mild environmental challenges can have a significant impact on the development and potentially the health of future offspring.

The researchers also noted that by learning more about links between a father's exposure to stress and the risks of disease for his kid, we can better understand, detect, and prevent these disorders.Alchemists were people who had child-like fantasies.

In the way that children would like to see wheels under everything stationary so that they could trundle it around, alchemists had way back taken a fancy to burning or boiling everything around them down. They thought something would one day either turn into gold or the potion of immortality.

So when they got wine, the fermented essence of grapes, alchemists didnt think twice. They made the concentrate. Hmm... bitter, but they liked the peppy feeling, so they counted that this could be some sort of medicine.

When the moors plundered Spain in the 8th century, they had much fun boiling the local Spanish wine to extract its essence. The invaders did not stay there for long. When they finally left the country, the art of making this brandewijn (burnt wine) went with them.

But not all had forgotten the technique.

A few monasteries had already begun to distil wine, and by the 13th century, a papal doctor got wind of this magic potion which was rumoured to prolong life.

The Pope sent his men.

By the 14th century, many people knew about the Popes health drink, the popularity of burnt wine grew, fetching much tax revenue. But remember one thing. We are still talking about a medicine, not the popular spirit called, brandy.

It took a few more centuries for mankind to discover the real potential of distilled wine. In the 13th century, the Dutch traders were busy at European seaports loading their ships with salt. Whenever space allowed, they loaded their barges with wine from France. But there was a problem with such wine. The fermented grapes would not last long during sea voyage. It turned acidic and unpalatable and before long turned itself into vinegar.

What to do now?

They only had to take a leaf out of the Arab alchemists for a solution  burn it down. The problem was solved by boiling down the wine to extract its quintessence. The advantage was that the burnt wine took less cargo space. And once it reached its destination, it only needed a liberal thinning down to get back the old wine.

By that time, France had already become the cradle of good wines. The kind of grapes grown in the Bordeaux region was considered supreme for making wine. But there was an ugly duckling in the region: wines from the region of Cognac. Sharp and flavourless, it also had the most horrible weakness  low alcohol content. The only thing working for wines from the region was their proximity to a seaport. So a large part of the wine that travelled in Danish cargo ships all over Europe was a distillate made from the insipid Cognac wines.

The wine was bland, they knew.

When the cellars were prized open in other ports of Europe after long voyages, the traders had a surprise waiting for them. They found that it was impossible to water the condensed wine without killing a wonderfully new taste the burnt wine had acquired with the long voyage.

How could this be!

The raw distilled wine, before it was barrelled at French seaports was bitter, no doubt about that. But something had happened during the voyage. The drink could have undergone a change in taste while it patiently sat inside the barrels as the ships pitched over the turbulent waters, they presumed. The wood yielded its essence to the wine, making it mellow and sweet.

Soon, they were in for a second surprise.

The traders found that the third-rate wine from the Cognac region yielded a stellar drink, much more superior than the brandy made from other popular wines.

It was the birth of a legend, the Cognac.

Brandy is simply distilled grape wine, which has meditated inside a barrel for a long time, mellowing.

Even though most brandies are made by distillation, there are exceptions to this rule. If you go to countries where grape cultivation is rare, you may come across fruit brandies (It is possible to make brandies from anything that has sugar in it). Apples, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, and many other berries yield fine brandies around the world.

Fruit brandy is often drunk chilled over the ice but brandy made from grapes need special care. If it is some superior brand, dont try to mix it with anything else. Soda and fruit juices do not sync well with brandy, as it is a derivative of wine. Drink neat. If it is some inferior brand, you are allowed to wash out the bitterness with some juices.

Ladled into a snifter glass, the drink needs the warmth of your hand to unlock its hidden flavours and the best of your moods for imagination. Now sip slowly.

(Manu Remakant is a freelance writer who also runs a video blog - A Cup of Kavitha - introducing world poetry to Malayalees. Views expressed here are personal)The finishing touches to huge sculptures crafted out of citrus fruits were being made on Friday as the southern French Riviera town of Menton readied itself for the 85th edition of its "Fete du Citron" ("Lemon Festival").

Visitors to the Bollywood-themed festival, which starts on Saturday, would be greeted by several parades featuring floats, dancing and music, as well as a "Holi Party" in a nod to India's popular festival of colours, Efe news agency reported.

About 240,000 visitors descend on Menton for the event that requires 145 tonnes of citrus fruits to produce, according to the organisers.

Images showed workers positioning oranges on the ground as they decorated an area around an elephant sculpture.

Due to the length of the event, which last 20 days, and inevitable decay of the fruits on display, 12 designated individuals would be tasked with replacing any deteriorating oranges and lemons, the organisers said.

The festival will end on March 4.Director: Neeraj Pandey

Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Manoj Bajpayee, Rakul Preet Singh

Aiyaary deals with national security, political corruption and patriotism all of which sound familiar when it comes to Neeraj Pandey's style of working. Over the years, the director has proved his mettle in crafting films, such as A Wednesday, Baby and Special 26 along the lines of these themes. But does this give him the right to take the genre for granted?

Also written by Pandey, Aiyaary revolves around two Indian army officers Major Jai Bakshi (Sidharth Malhotra) and Colonel Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee), the latter of whom heads a covert operation team whose fundings are debated. Jai and Abhay share a wonderful bond, until one day the former gets frustrated after witnessing corruption in defence procurement. Extremely disappointed by the system, Jai goes rogue and decides to make money for himself by joining hands with an ex-army officer. Abhay, on the other hand, is resolute in wanting to abolish Jais mission.

Unlike Pandeys other films, there is a sense of flatness in Aiyaary. Apart from a few scenes, the movie seems to be randomly constructed and fails to evoke any thrill. Though the plot does give vibes of Neeraj Pandey movie, it loses touch with reality after a point.

The first half of the film is scattered to an extent that it gets difficult to focus on something selective. Its basically devoid of meaning and continuously upsets expectations. As if all this was not enough, there are many scenes in the film that serve no purpose to the plot and detract you from the story for no substantial reason. Sidharth and Rakul Preet Singhs forced romance is one such example.

Sidharth may be the lead actor in the film but his act and screen time in the movie only suggest hes a sidey. His performance as Major Jai Bakshi is equally confused and unconvincing in the film. His romantic angle with Rakul also feels icky. Its only when Manoj Bajpayee starts his game that we begin to feel directly involved in the movie. Bajpayees solid acting skills seem to be the only saving grace of this disappointing film. He carries the entire film on his shoulder. Its the strong and quirky screen presence of the man that keeps the audience rooting for him till the end.

Pandey has tried hard to show the mirror to corrupt politicians by using lines like Jis issues se kuch logon ka faayeda ho ussey solve nahi karte balki barkaraar rakhte hai, but unfortunately his direction lacks bite and depth.

The film also boasts an excellent supporting cast, including Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Adil Hussain. But do they help the film in any way? Well, I dont think so. I personally feel these veterans are under-utilized in the movie. Khers character is as useless as the timing of the romantic track Lae Dooba in the movie.

In short, Aiyaary wasnt just required in Neeraj Pandeys filmography.

Rating: 1.5/5As per the CSR commitment of "Ek India Happywala", Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) on Saturday launched its first music training room at the Bhondsi jail in Gurugram, in association with India Vision Foundation.

SPN's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, through its 'The Dhun Project', focuses on creating a positive impact on the social ecosystem and is built around three pillars -- empowerment, education and environment, a press statement said.

"On the 5th anniversary of Sony MIX in 2016, Sony launched 'The Dhun Project' for empowerment through music. Now, project aims to use the powerful medium of music for the rehabilitation of prison inmates, thus preparing them for a successful reintegration into society post their prison term," the Sony statement added.

Under the project, SPN will also be setting up training centers in four more prisons across the nation -- Rothak and Sonipat prisons in Haryana, and Dasna and Kasna prisons in Uttar Pradesh. The network, along with India Vision Foundation, has appointed special trainers (vocal and instrumental) who will visit the music center on a regular basis to train the prison inmates.Hyderabad police on Saturday questioned filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma in connection with a case of obscenity booked against him for his movie God, Sex and Truth, and also for allegedly insulting the modesty of a woman.

The filmmaker, whose controversial movie with American porn star Mia Malkova was released on internet last month, was quizzed for nearly three-and-half hours by the officials of the Central Crime Station (CCS). The police officials questioned him about the allegations made against him by women activists. The officials seized Varma's laptop and served another notice under Section 41 of Criminal Procedure Code, asking him to appear before them once again next week.

The filmmaker told police that he did not direct or produce the movie and it was only the concept which he had given. He claimed that the movie was shot in Poland and the United Kingdom.

With regard to some objectionable pictures in which he is seen with the actress, he told police that the pictures were taken when she was shooting for another movie. CCS Additional DCP Raghuveer told reporters that they collected his passport details. Varma sought time to answer some questions from the investigating officers.

On January 25, a day before the release of the movie, Varma was booked by the CCS. A case under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 was booked against him for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.

The filmmaker was also booked under sections 506 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly making personal comments against women activists during the debate on the movie on some television channels. When activists accused him of promoting obscenity, Varma allegedly offered to make similar movies with them. He has been charged with insulting the modesty of a woman.

The CCS this week issued fresh notice on Varma as he could not appear before the officials earlier.

Women's organisations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had staged protest last month, demanding ban on the release of the movie on web and Varma's immediate arrest. The activists alleged that Varma released the movie on web to avoid the certification by authorities. They said the filmmaker was portraying woman as a sex object and promoting pornography.On February 12, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti once again reiterated her stand for a meaningful and sustainable dialogue with Pakistan to settle all long-standing issues. The chief minister chose the floor of the state assembly to make an appeal to both countries to end hostilities and resume the peace process.

This request came at a time when Indian security agencies were fighting a fierce gun battle with groups of suicide attackers (fidayeen squads) of heavily armed militants at Sunjwan army camp in Jammu and a CRPF camp at Karan Nagar, Srinagar.

Mehbooba Muftis statement was not in isolation. She knew the consequences and had rightly observed, I know I will be labelled anti-national by news anchors tonight for my call to hold dialogue but that doesnt matter. The people of J&K are suffering. We have to talk because war is not an option.

As expected, the news channels exploded and the elected chief minister of the only Muslim state in India was dubbed by newsroom warriors as Pro-Pakistan.

On the same day, the government informed the Legislative Council that around 110 persons, including 52 army and BSF jawans, had been martyred. This came due to the 892 ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pak border and Line of Control (LoC) in just the last three years.

All of this is beside the hundreds of security personnel and civilians who were injured during these skirmishes. In just three days of heavy firing from across the border, around 92 cattle died in RS Pura and Suchetgarh sector of Jammu this month.

The call for dialogue came more than a month after National Security Advisors (NSA) of India and Pakistan held a "secret" meeting in Thailand where the tone and tenor of Ajit Doval was said to be "friendly and positive" besides, as per media reports, the two sides decided to keep backchannels open.

While no fingers were raised at NSA-level talks, many voices roar over CM Muftis repeated assertions on the need to revive peace talk channels with Pakistan. Outbursts are hoarser from opposition parties like the Congress and even fringe groups of the ally BJP find it difficult to go with the idea.

Since out of power, both at the Centre and in the state, the Congress leadership finds talks with Pakistan as absurd, in the backdrop of repeated ceasefire violations and continued attacks inside the state by Pakistans state-sponsored militant groups. Death and destruction in any manifestation saddens every citizen, even the politicians. Its ironic that taking advantage of the general mistrust towards them, each political side terms the others concerns as just lip service and rhetoric. That, though, is not actually the case.

When CM Mufti talks of holding talks, she cites the bonhomie India and Pakistan shared during the regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and her father, Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

The roughly ten-year period did not witness a single incident of firing across the borders. Militant activities within the state were heavily declining and the separatist camp was found trying to desperately save their space in the emerging scenario. The subsequent regime, though, could not capitalise on the gains and in one-year of taking over, the situation was back to square one.

There also was a heavy decline in militant activities within the state, while the separatist camp was found struggling for saving its space in the emerging scenario. But unfortunately the subsequent regime could not capitalize on the gains and in one year of taking over the reins by it, the situation was back to square one.

The peace process initiated by NDA-II witnessed many challenges, including Kargil intrusion by Pakistan Army leading to almost full-scale war, which was followed by the Parliament attack. However, despite the severe criticism back home, Vajpayee continued with his efforts to end hostilities between the two countries. The commitment also saw some movement forward from Pakistans side, where its generally the army calling the shots.

As a state where several lives are lost every year on the borders and the residents get often dislocated due to skirmishes, it is the prime duty of its head to ensure that peace prevails. The chief minister knows that despite her major public initiatives, outreach programmes, social welfare measures the present dispensation has failed to win back the confidence of the people. She is the first chief minister to meet youngsters, unemployed youth, sportspersons, engineering graduates, entrepreneurs and every section of the society. She also heads the first ever government which resolved most of the administrative and public related issues without any agitation from any corner.

As a confidence-building measure, cases against more than 9000 youth were withdrawn. The recruiting agencies were geared up and most of the vacancies were filled in the most transparent manner  by giving up the old practice of viva voce test, thereby reducing any chances of favouritism.

Despite this, all peace remained the basic necessity of the people in Jammu and Kashmir. Even an isolated incidents of killing or a militant attack reverses the entire feel-good factor for the ruling dispensation.

CM Mufti calling for dialogue with Pakistan is based on the strong notion that Jammu and Kashmir has a strategic and geographic advantage to be the gateway of trade and commerce between India and South East Asia.

The chief minister knows that the golden era in Jammu and Kashmirs political history, which her father led from 2002 to 2005, is known so because of its political outreach rather than public outreach. Jammu and Kashmir needs peace and stability as much as it needs development and prosperity. The two necessities are inter-dependent and inter-connected. Its a good time for the union government to understand ground realities and give peace a chance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to go Vajpayees way to win back Kashmir and Kashmiris.

(The author is Member of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council from PDP. Views are personal.)Bengaluru: Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde has courted trouble over his comments on the Kannada language.

Recently, during an event, the minister said that only those from three districts of Uttara Kannada, the undivided Dakshina Kannada and Shimoga spoke the language properly. Others he said, were not speaking Kannada.

Even Bengaluru and Mysore people do not know how to speak proper Kannada, said the MP from Uttara Kannada.

The comments have led to Hedge receiving backlash, especially his own party members. The comments made by the minister were tasteless. It has hurt all Kannadigas, including me. The language has many dialects and all are sweet. Action should be taken against him, said senior BJP leader and former law minister S Sureshkumar.

The partys state leaders have asked the high command to take action against Hegde or at least discipline him ahead of the assembly elections.

Congress and JDS have also condemned the statement and termed it stupid as pro-Kannada organisations have launched a state-wide protest demanding an apology.

Hegde, in December, had kicked up a controversy by mocking "secularists" and saying the BJP would change the Constitution in days to come.

The minister mocked secularists and said they are unaware of their parentage. Urging people to identify with their religion or caste, Hegde said, "I will bow to you, you are aware of your blood. But if you claim to be secular, there arises a doubt about who you are."

He added he respects the Constitution but "it will be changed in the days to come".

Later, after receiving a lot of flak from opposition parties, Hegde tendered an apology in Lok Sabha.Dalu: Union minister Smriti Irani, campaigning for the February 27 Meghalaya Assembly polls, on Saturday said the BJP would work to empower the women in the north-eastern state if voted to power.

Irani's rallies, part of the saffron party's high-voltage campaign for the upcoming polls, were held a day after BJP president Amit Shah promised that Meghalaya would be a model state in five years.

Irani addressed two rallies  one at Dalu and one at Zikzak  in support of the BJP candidates for the Dalu and Salmanpara seats.

Meghalaya has a unique culture and tradition and the confidence of its women and children is fascinating. Our party believes in empowering women and we will be able to drive the agenda in Meghalaya to further their cause, the Union information and broadcasting minister said.

She claimed that crimes against women had gone up in the state, despite its matrilineal system, and promised that a dedicated women police force would be set up to ensure women's security if the BJP was voted to power.

The pride of women has to be restored and we will ensure that the women in Meghalaya feel safe, secure and independent, Irani said.

She took a jibe at Chief Minister Mukul Sangma for allegedly shielding the state home minister, in connection with a 14-year-old girl's alleged rape by an MLA at a guest house owned by the home minister's son in December, 2016.

"The job of a home minister is to protect the women and children, but in Meghalaya, it is the opposite. It is sad and shocking that such an incident took place in Meghalaya where women are held in high esteem. This incident has shamed the state," Irani said.

She also accused the Congress government in the state of creating "hindrances" to the smooth implementation of central schemes and promised an uninterrupted power supply and jobs for the youth, as envisaged in the BJP's poll manifesto.

Alleging that the Congress had failed to carry out its responsibilities for 50 years, the Union minister claimed that the Narendra Modi government had made it possible in just three-and-a-half years.

Promising free gas connections to poor rural women, she said, "Modiji has decided to give gas cylinders to the poor women to ease their problems."

Criticising the health infrastructure of the north-eastern state, she claimed that due to the absence of proper facilities, the people were forced to go to neighbouring Bangladesh for treatment.

It is a blot on the Congress government here that it has not been able to provide healthcare services to its people, Irani said and accused the Mukul Sangma government of failing to provide crucial medicines to the people at a subsidised rate even after the prime minister's announcement in this regard.

The BJP has fielded candidates in 47 of the 60 Assembly seats in Meghalaya. It had announced its "Mission 40" last year -- to win at least 40 seats in the north-eastern state.New Delhi: It is not uncommon to see Panchali Bhattacherjee returning on a cycle rickshaw from the neighbourhood market near her official bungalow.

To put it into context, Panchali is the wife of Manik Sarkar, who has been Tripuras Chief Minister for the last 20 years. The poorest CM of India survives on the fee that he gets from his party, the CPI(M). He donates his CMs salary to the party.

But Manik Sarkar is probably fighting one of the toughest electoral battles of his lifetime. The BJP has been on a winning spree in the North East, but CPMs Sitaram Yechury feels Sarkar is the general who will give the BJP its Waterloo moment.

The battle in Tripura has always been between the Congress and the Communists. But this time, the BJP has made a direct entry at No. 2 by virtue of acquisition.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the CPM won 49 seats in the 60-member House. The CPI won one and the Congress won the remaining 10 seats. Ahead of the 2015 Assembly elections in West Bengal, six MLAs from the Congress had quit to join the Trinamool Congress, upset by the fact that the Congress had allied with TMC in West Bengal, which made their position difficult in Tripura.

The same set of six MLAs  Sudip Roy Barman, Ashish Kumar Saha, Biswa Bandhu Sen, Pranjit Singh Roy, Dilip Sarkar and former tribal face of the Congress Hrangkhawl  joined the BJP on August 2017. Thus, by acquiring six MLAs, the BJP is now the main opposition party in the state.

BJP STRATEGY

The leitmotif of Tripuras political battle has been the fissures between the Bengali-speaking majority and the 31% indigenous people. The violence reached its peak in 1997, when the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts (AFSPA) was enforced in Tripura.

Members of two separatist groups  the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)  were on a terror spree, demanding the secession of Tripura from India.

But the situation improved, and by 2015 the peace, however fragile, was strong enough for all stakeholders to agree on removal of the draconian Act.

Politics of the state, however, would continue to explore these fault lines.

The BJP, essentially an urban party, finds its base primarily among the Bengalis. In Tripura, however, they have decided to ally with one of the main tribal parties. The Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura has been given nine seats, while the BJP is likely to fight on rest of the seats.

The exponential growth of the BJP in the North East has been cast using the same dice  acquiring local talent, mostly disgruntled Congress leaders, and teaming up with the indigenous parties. In Assam, they acquired Himanta Biswasarma from the Congress, arguably the best electoral mind of the region, and tied up with the indigenous parties like Bodo Peoples Front and Asom Gana Parishad.

In Manipur, the entire party is made up of former Congress leaders, and has tied up with the hill parties like NPP and NPF to form the government.

In Arunachal Pradesh, Congress MLAs moved en masse to the BJP. So while the ruling team remained the same, the party changed overnight.

WILL THE FORMULA WORK IN TRIPURA?

The BJP has made Himanta Biswasarma the election in-charge for the state. Himanta, in a freewheeling conversation many months ago, had conceded that Tripura could be the most difficult battle for the BJP in the region.

Today, though he sounds confident, it isnt that the party is without problems.

The old guard and the new imports are at loggerheads. While it is clear that the biggest local face is going to be home-grown party chief Biplab Kumar Deb  someone who comes from a RSS family and has been groomed by the Sangh for Tripura  the senior opposition leaders who joined the party recently want more control.

And therein lies the problem. The set of legislators who joined the BJP are known turncoats in Tripura. Whether they add value or pull the party down is a question that is weighing on the minds of some of the party workers.

But the party says the additions have only made the BJP stronger. Bullish about the partys chances this election, a senior spokesperson from the state Mrinal Kanti Deb says, These are the leaders who won even at the peak of the Left wave, so their popularity is unquestionable. This, along with the fact that the party is led by a young, dynamic and organic BJP state president Biplab Kumar Deb, will ensure that the BJP wins the elections in Tripura.

But even party insiders agree on the rumblings. The party has delayed declaring the candidates and those disgruntled will be left with very slim chance to file candidature either as Independent or go to the Congress for a ticket.

MODI MAGIC

Whatever the dispute in local leadership, the party hopes that once tickets are distributed and Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes to campaign, the prospect of the party would turn gold.

As of now, there are two rallies scheduled in north and south districts of the state on February 8. The party is hoping that Modi would have time to visit the state once again before the elections in February 18, 2018.

While senior ministers and BJP leaders, including party president Amit Shah, have been frequently visiting the state, they feel it is the Prime Ministers visit which will have the cherry-on-the-cake effect.

In Manipur last year, the Prime Minister had arrived towards the last leg of first phase campaigning. It is believed that the tide took a decisive Right turn after that. And this hasnt gone unnoticed even by the Left front.

LEFT SIDE STORY

CPM spokesperson and member of its Central Committee Gautam Das says that earlier the fight was with the Congress, and now the BJP has become the main challenger.

But what has also changed according to him is the way the BJP is using the central government machinery to fight elections. Das claims that unlike before, the BJP not only uses the central ministers but also the central PSUs to further its political cause. Every month, one or the other central minister comes to Agartala and after a brief meeting with the ministers, they straightaway engage in party works. The BJP leaders are invited as guests in the official programmes of central PSUs.

But unlike in Manipur or Assam, the BJP doesnt have its favourite poll plank of corruption. While Ibobi Singh and Tarun Gogois tenures were marred by the baggage of corruption, their Tripura counterpart Manik Sarkars kurta remains starch white.

A man of frugal means who donates even his salary to the party, Sarkar has never had to face charges of corruption. In the 20 years that he has been the Chief Minister, even his strongest opponent has not been able to accuse him of corruption.

Thus, though the Left Front has traditionally been about cadre, it is the personal charm of the Chief Minister that is driving them for a record fifth attempt at power. At every meeting, Manik Sarkar harps about how he would rather invest money in fixing the irrigation problem than print flashy campaign material like the BJP.

The state has mostly seen a two-way fight between the Left and the Congress, but will see a three-way fight in certain areas. The Congress, though well past its prime in the state, is seen essentially as a vote cutter, which is trying to align with a couple of tribal parties.

Traditionally, a three-way fight has always benefitted the incumbent, with the anti-incumbency vote splitting two ways. In a number of seats in Tripura, there will be a three-way fight between the Left, BJP and the Congress. In some of the tribal seats, it could even be a four-cornered fight after the possibility of alliance between National Conference of Tripura and Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura fizzled out.

THE LAST WORD

The fight between the BJP and the Left goes beyond the electoral numbers. It is a fight of two divergent ideologies. While the Congress was just a political rival, for the 20-year-old Left Front government in Tripura, this is the first time they would be waging an ideological battle as well.

Though Tripura election results wont have much of an impact in the larger scheme of things, in the Lefts tryst with democracy, Manik Sarkar would certainly rise up the ranks if he manages to keep the BJP at bay.

No wonder his party secretary, too, has already sounded the poll bugle, calling Tripura Prime Minister Narendra Modis waterloo moment.Bhopal: Agrarian distress in Madhya Pradesh may emerge as a key election plank for the opposition Congress in the state which has seen 15,000 farmer suicides from 2004 to 2016. The ruling BJP, however, has maintained there is no cause for alarm as farmer income grew manifold during the past 14 years and the agriculture sector posted a robust growth.

Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP has been in power since 2003, goes to the polls by the year-end and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is under the opposition fire since the last year's widespread protests by farmers. Reports of farmer suicides is a cause of concern for Chouhan, who used to take pride in his governments achievements in the field of agriculture.

Chouhan received the prestigious Krishi Karman Award five successive times in the recent years even when the Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre. The award was instituted by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in 2010-11 to reward the best performing states in foodgrains and individual crops of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals.

Statistics of farmer suicides in the state are disturbing. As per the State Crime Record Bureau (SCRB) data, over 15,000 farmers committed suicide between 2004 and 2016 in Madhya Pradesh. On the other hand, the opposition has claimed that 172 debt-ridden farmers committed suicide since the killing of six cultivators in police firing in Mandsaur, the epicentre of peasant agitation in the state, on June 6 last year.

"Since police firing killed six farmers in Mandsaur, 172 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide in the state. The latest one took place on February 17 in Garhakota village of the Bundelkhand region. Over 20,000 farmers ended their lives during the BJP regime. This distress (in the farm sector) is visible because the government failed to turn its announcements into reality," said Ajay Singh, Leader of Opposition in Assembly and senior Congress legislator.

He said the prevailing agrarian distress will be one of the main campaign issues for his party in the Assembly elections. In the last eight months, as many as 34 farmers committed suicide in various districts of Bundelkhand, a backward region, Singh said. He said the Congress would continue to press the BJP government on the issue of farmer welfare.

According to the SCRB, the data source of the National Crime Record Bureau (NRRB), as many as 15,129 farmers and people associated with farming killed themselves in 13 years (up to 2016). The data of 2017 is yet to be released. While 1,638 agrarian suicides (farmers and persons related to agricultural activity) were recorded in 2004, the figures for subsequent years are 1,248 (2005), 1,375 (2006), 1,263 (2007), 1,379 (2008), 1,395 (2009), 1,237 (2010), 1,326 (2011), 1,172 (2012), 1,090 (2013), 826 (2014), 581 (2015) and 599 (2016), according to SCRB.

Of these, about 12,600 farmer suicides took place during the regime of Chouhan, who took over as chief minister in November 2005. Madhya Pradesh was on the boil in June last year after cultivators in various parts of the state held protests demanding a complete loan waiver and better remuneration for their produce.

State BJP spokesman Deepak Vijayvargiya, however, said there are different reasons for suicide by the people associated with farming.

"There are 50 lakh farmer families in Madhya Pradesh. The sad incidents of suicide are not caused by agrarian distress alone. There have been family and personal reasons behind such steps," he claimed.

Vijayvargiya hit out at the Congress for what he called was the "politicisation" of the issue of farmer suicides. "The Congress is only politicising the sorrow of these families. The truth is the income of farmers has gone up manifold during the past 14-years. The productivity has also gone up.

"Over the years, the state recorded an average growth of more than 20 percent in the agriculture sector," the BJP spokesman said.

After the Mandsaur incident, Chouhan had announced a slew of measures for farmer welfare, including the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana, under which the model price of farm produce is deposited directly into the bank accounts of cultivators.

He also launched the 'Chief Minister Agriculture Productivity Scheme' under which an additional incentive of Rs 200 per quintal is provided on MSPs of wheat and paddy. Fear of further aggravation of farm distress looms large in the state, where the recent hailstorm damaged crops across 984 villages.Shillong: Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday appealed to the Meghalaya voters not to fall for the BJP's "false promises" of turning it into a model state in case the party was voted to power.

"They (BJP) promise everything. They will promise even the Moon. They promised to give two lakh jobs annually (before the 2014 general elections). I want to ask them how much central government jobs they have given to Meghalaya," he asked while speaking to journalists here.

"They talk of Gujarat as a model state, but what have they done to the tribals in Gujarat? They have only exploited the religious sentiments of its people," Gogoi said.

Voicing fear that the Hindutva movement is gaining ground in the country, the veteran Congress legislator said: "Such development is against democracy and secularism in India."

Election to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly will be held on February 27.

The Congress leader claimed that people of Assam who voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party are now realising their mistake.

"In Assam, after the BJP came to power, the condition of roads has worsened and prices of essential commodities have gone up."

He also accused the NDA government at the Centre of taking away the special category status from northeastern states.

"What did Prime Minister Narendra Modi give in the last four years? They snatched the special category status of Meghalaya. Instead of giving more, assistance they are only paying lip service," Gogoi said.

He also said that the BJP-led central government was only good in repackaging old schemes (started by the earlier United Progressive Alliance government).

"The Congress wants all flowers to bloom but the BJP wants only the lotus to bloom," Gogoi said.Agartala: The total voter turnout stood at 74 per cent in the single-phase Tripura Assembly polls on Sunday, 17 per cent less than the last Assembly election when the polling percentage was recorded at 91.82.

Voting was on Sunday held in 59 of the total 60 seats as polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week. The constituency will go to polls on March 12.

According to the figures released by the Election Commission on Sunday, the voter turnout stood at 74 per cent.

According to officials, technical snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) that were attached with VVPAT in over 150 polling stations slowed down balloting across the state. Long queues of voters were witnessed in most polling stations both in the plains as well as in the hilly areas.

The BJP held a high-voltage campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as four rallies in the state.

Other heavyweight leaders of the saffron party to take part in the campaign were its national president Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

I urge all my brothers and sisters of Tripura to come out and vote in large numbers. Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and developed Tripura. Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 18, 2018

Manik Sarkar, who is running for his fifth term as the chief minister, led the CPI(M)'s campaign addressing around 50 rallies in the state. Other Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat lent support to the party's campaign.

The Congress' campaign was somewhat subdued with party president Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally at Kailashahar in Unakoti district, about 180 km from Agartala, on the last day of campaigning.

Altogether, 307 candidates are in the fray.

The CPI(M) is contesting in 57 seats and the other Left Front constituents  the RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI  in one seat each.

The BJP, which has forged an alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT) has fielded 51 candidates. IPFT will contest in the remaining nine seats.

Good morning #Tripura. I request all to cast their votes and strengthen the spirit of #democracy. Each one of you is important and must exercise your rights. Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 18, 2018

The Congress is going it alone in Tripura this time and will contest in 59 seats. The party has not fielded any candidate for Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

Around 25,73,410 voters form the electorate, of whom 13,05,375 are males and 12,68,027 women, while the number of third gender voters is 11. There are 47,803 new voters this time.

Voting would be held between 7 am and 4 pm at 3,214 polling stations, of which 47 would be managed by women, election office sources said.

Tripura chief electoral officer Sriram Taranikanti said the Election Commission has appointed police observers, general observers and expenditure observers to ensure free and fair polls.

He said that Director General of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) RK Pachnanda has been appointed as a special observer to coordinate the security forces deployed in the state.

State Director General of Police Akhil Kumar Shukla said tight security measures are in place across Tripura for free and fair elections.

Three hundred companies of central armed forces have been deployed across the state along with state armed personnel and the police, he said, adding the BSF is keeping keep close vigil along the 856 km long Indo-Bangladesh border in the state.

Counting of votes would be take place on March 3, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Modok said.

(With PTI inputs)Washington/Paris/Munich: The United States has sketched out a path under which three key European allies would simply commit to trying to improve the Iran nuclear deal over time in return for US President Donald Trump keeping the pact alive by renewing US sanctions relief in May.

The approach, outlined in a State Department cable obtained by Reuters and an interview with a senior department official this week, still faces obstacles. The European allies are uncertain what will satisfy Trump and are reluctant to make such a commitment only to find that he asks them for more, two European officials and two former US officials said.

The cable's characterization of what the United States wants from the Europeans, which has not been previously reported, sets a lower standard than laid out by Trump in January and so might facilitate a meeting of the minds, five current European and four former US officials said.

"We are asking for your commitment that we should work together to seek a supplemental or follow-on agreement that addresses Irans development or testing long-range missiles, ensures strong IAEA inspections, and fixes the flaws of the 'sunset clause,'" said the cable.

The crux of the July 2015 agreement between Iran and six major powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - was that Iran would restrict its nuclear program in return for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy.

Trump sees three defects in the deal: its failure to address Iran's ballistic missile program; the terms under which international inspectors can visit suspect Iranian nuclear sites; and "sunset" clauses under which limits on the Iranian nuclear program start to expire after 10 years. He wants all three strengthened if the United States is to stay in the deal.

Trump delivered an ultimatum to the European powers on Jan. 12, saying they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal" or he would refuse to extend the US sanctions relief on Iran that it calls for. US sanctions will resume unless Trump issues fresh waivers to suspend them on May 12. "This is a last chance," he said.

The State Department declined comment on the cable, saying it would not discuss internal communications. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on what Trump sought in his Jan. 12 statement or how it viewed the approach outlined in the cable.

AN AGREEMENT TO GET AN AGREEMENT

Reaching a full-blown international accord by the May 12 deadline is seen as an impossibility by some US and European officials even if there was agreement on the underlying issues, which there is not.

In an interview last week, a senior US State Department described the effort with the Europeans as a two-phase process. During the first, from Jan. 12 to May 12, the United States will seek to get the Europeans to agree on the weaknesses that need to be fixed, he said.

"We want a commitment from them that these are the deficiencies that need to be addressed ... and an agreement that we will seek an agreement. Thats it," he said.

The second phase, to begin immediately after May 12, would take that understanding to the other parties to the deal - Iran, Russia and China - to see if there was some way to address these issues. The official said there were three possible avenues to do this: amend the existing pact, negotiate a supplemental agreement, or seek a new UN Security Council resolution to make the changes.

If the United States were to pursue a supplemental accord, which is common in arms control, it would want the support of Iran, Russia and China but could live with just the agreement of Germany, France and Britain, the senior US official said. In such a scenario, the four Western nations could create their own supplemental agreement to reimpose sanctions if the Iranians violated any of the new conditions that they would set.

In a meeting not been previously reported, US negotiators will next see officials from Britain, France and Germany, known as the "E3," in Paris on Tuesday, US and European officials said, to discuss how to meet Trump's demands.

"A LITTLE SOFTER"

European officials said in interviews they did not know if the view laid out in the State Department diplomatic cable - sent to US diplomats in London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels to deliver to their counterparts - will prevail in Washington.

Ultimately, they said, all that counts is Trump's judgment on whether to renew US sanctions waivers that expire on May 12. "Has the Trump administration shifted its stance? We don't know," said a senior European diplomat on Friday.

"The reality is that what we are doing now is to try to get the best package possible to convince Trump," said a second European diplomat on Friday, referring to Trump's concerns on missiles, inspections and the sunset clauses. "Nobody knows what Trump will do or wants," he added.

That confusion is caused, in part, by disagreements among different parts of the US administration and the fundamental unpredictability of what Trump  who has at times rejected the advice of his senior national security officials  may ultimately decide. The State Department cable was "a little softer" than Trump's statement, said Richard Boucher, a former State Department spokesman for five US secretaries of state.

Boucher and three other former US officials flagged the difference between Trumps demand the E3 reach an "agreement to fix the terrible flaws" of the deal and the cable's less demanding language seeking a "commitment" to "work together" to "seek" a supplemental accord that "addresses" its deficiencies.

"The president, to me, was holding out a higher standard. They have to agree and negotiate and we have to get an agreement. Whereas the other one was (saying) we have to get their commitment to go down this road," Boucher said.Munich: Iran's Foreign Minister said on Sunday the shooting down of an Israeli jet after it bombed an Iranian site in Syria had shattered Israel's "so-called invincibility", reacting to a critical speech delivered earlier by Israel's premier.

"Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbours," Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Munich Security Conference, accusing Israel of "mass reprisals against its neighbours and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon."

"Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it's as if a disaster has happened," Zarif said.

He was responding to Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the conference hours before, in which the Israeli prime minister, holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone, accused Iran of trying to impose an "empire" across the Middle East.

"What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility (of Israel) has crumbled," Zarif said of Netanyahu's remarks, which followed the Feb. 10 downing of an Israeli F-16 jet.

David Ivry, a former Israeli Air Force chief, told Reuters earlier this month he believed it was the first time an Israeli F-16 was brought down since Israel began using the jets in the 1980s.

Anti-aircraft fire downed the jet as it was returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

It was one of at least eight Israeli planes despatched in response to what Israel said was an Iranian drone's incursion into its airspace earlier on that day.

The jet was hit by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile and crashed in northern Israel, according to an Israeli official.Tehran: All 66 passengers and crew on an Iranian plane that crashed in a mountainous area of central Iran on Sunday are believed to be dead, state television quoted the airline's spokesman as saying.

"Aseman Airlines public relations head said that all on board are unfortunately dead," the television reporter said, without elaborating on how he obtained the information.

The plane was reportedly travelling from Tehran to the small town of Yasuj in Isfahan province.

Semirom lies in the mountainous southwestern region of Iran, around 480 kilometres south of the capital.

"An ATR aircraft of Aseman Airlines with 60 passengers and about six crew disappeared from radar this morning," Aladin Borujerdi, head of parliaments national security and foreign policy commission, told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

"Observation by people (in the area) indicates a crash," he said, adding that he was still awaiting confirmation.

Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national emergency services, told the semi-official ISNA news agency that a helicopter had been sent to the area.

"Given the fact that the area is mountainous, it is not possible to send ambulances," he said.Fort Lauderdale: A student survivor of the Parkland school shooting called out US President Donald Trump on Saturday over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, as hundreds rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.

Three days after a troubled teen armed with an assault rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd of students, parents, and residents in nearby Ft. Lauderdale.

"To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!" she thundered, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby  and prompting the crowd to chant in turn: "Shame on you!"

"We are going to be the last mass shooting," she vowed. "We are going to change the law," she said  slamming the fact 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behavior.

"The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is a question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics," Gonzalez told AFP following her speech.

In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health  making no mention of gun control.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," Gonzalez said in her impassioned address.

"It doesn't matter because I already know. Thirty million," she told the rally attended by fellow students, parents and local officials, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trump's election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.

She then ran through a list of the pro-gun lobby's talking points  for example, that "a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun," that no law could ever stop a madman intent on killing  answering each argument with "We call BS."

The young woman's powerful address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.

Trump tweeted a day after the massacre that neighbors and fellow students had failed to flag Cruz to the authorities.

"We did," Gonzalez fired back at Trump, her voice shaking with emotion as she insisted the community had done its best to raise the alarm. "Time and time again. Since he was in middle school. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter."

MISSED WARNINGS

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but those agents failed to follow up.

Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated Cruz in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

The newspaper, citing Department of Children and Family Services documents, said the investigation came four days after Cruz turned 18 -- legally an adult, and thus able to buy a firearm.

Investigators said there were "some implications" for the teen's safety, but concluded that his "final level of risk is low as (he) resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling" as an outpatient from a mental health center, the Sun Sentinel said.

Cruz later passed a background check, allowing him in February 2017 to buy the AR-15 rifle -- a civilian version of the US military's M16 -- he used in the massacre.

SCHOOL SAFETY

Trump on Friday visited survivors and first responders in the attack, which took place not far from his Mar-a-Lago estate where he was spending the holiday weekend.

Photos posted online showed him smiling at the hospital bedside of a teenage girl, and giving a thumbs-up as he posed with medical workers and law enforcement.

He tweeted Saturday that he and first lady Melania had met "incredible people," and will "never forget them, or the evening!"

Trump is staunchly opposed to additional restrictions on guns or gun ownership, but Vice President Mike Pence said at an event in Dallas the president would make school safety "a top priority" when he meets with governors of US states in the coming days.

"Let's pray for wisdom. For all in positions of authority that we might find a way to come together as a nation to confront and end this evil in our time once and for all," Pence said.Maiduguri, Nigeria: Three suicide bombers killed 18 people in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, capital of the state worst hit by the Boko Haram insurgency, its police commissioner said on Saturday.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack but the use of suicide bombers in crowded areas is a hallmark of the Islamist terrorist group, which has killed more that 20,000 people since 2009 and forced over two million to flee their homes.

Damian Chukwu, police commissioner for Borno state, said the attack took place at a fish market around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the centre of Maiduguri at about 8:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Friday.

"The three suicide bombers were killed and 18 other persons died. Twenty-two people were injured," said Chukwu.

Suicide bombings have continued despite repeated assertions by the government and the military since 2016 to have defeated the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's northeast.

President Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015 with a promise to improve security for ordinary Nigerians.

But in addition to the jihadist insurgency, communal violence has plagued swathes of the country in the last few months, including a clash on Thursday that killed 18.Munich: Turkey never used chemical weapons in its operations in Syria, and takes the utmost care of civilians, its foreign minister said, after Syrian Kurdish forces and a monitoring group accused it of carrying out a gas attack in Syria's Afrin region.

"It's just a fabricated story. Turkey has never uses any kind of chemical weapons," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at the Munich Security Conference.

Cavusoglu dismissed the reports as propaganda by organisations close to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil.

He said Turkey took the utmost care to protect civilians in the military operation, while the YPG was using civilians as "human shields" in areas under its control.

Syrian Kurdish forces and a monitoring group said the Turkish military carried out a suspected gas attack that wounded six people in Syria's Afrin region on Friday.

Turkey launched an air and ground offensive last month on the Afrin region, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war, to target Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Birusk Hasaka, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin, told Reuters that Turkish bombardment hit a village in the northwest of the region, near the Turkish border. He said it caused six people to suffer breathing problems and other symptoms indicative of a gas attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters that Turkish forces and their Syrian insurgent allies hit the village on Friday with shells. The Britain-based war monitoring group said medical sources in Afrin reported that six people in the attack suffered breathing difficulties and dilated pupils, indicating a suspected gas attack.

Syrian state news agency SANA, citing a doctor in a Afrin hospital, said Turkish shelling of the village caused choking in six people.

On Feb. 6, the United Nations called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Syria.

Since the onset of the conflict in 2011, the YPG and its allies have set up three autonomous cantons in the north, including Afrin. Their sphere of influence expanded as they seized territory from Islamic State with U.S. help, though Washington says it opposes their autonomy plans.

U.S. support for Kurdish-led forces in Syria has infuriated Ankara, which views them as a security threat along its frontier. Turkey sees the YPG as terrorists and an extension of the banned PKK.There was drama at One Commando Barracks, Harare yesterday when the late MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirais mother threatened to commit suicide, protesting the presence of her sons widow, Ms Elizabeth Macheka, and party deputy, Advocate Nelson Chamisa.







The incident occurred around 6pm as mourners gathered at the barracks mortuary to receive Mr Tsvangirais body from South Africa where he died.

Ms Macheka and Adv Chamisa did not respond, though tension engulfed the occasion.

Mbuya Tsvangirai fumed: Udza vana sekuru vako kuti Eliza handidi kumuwona pano, naChamisa. Kana speech yaChamisa handidi kuinzwa, ndinozvisungirira (Tell your uncles that I do not want to see Elizabeth and Chamisa. I will commit suicide if Chamisa delivers an address).





She only calmed down after close relatives intervened. Adv Chamisa is believed to be at loggerheads with the Tsvangirai family over the fallen opposition leaders succession.





Reports suggest the family is rooting for Engineer Elias Mudzuri to take over the MDC-T leadership while some senior party leaders are for Adv Chamisa. The family believes Ms Macheka is in the Chamisa camp.

The fissures were pronounced at One Commando as Adv Chamisas supporters cheered him and jeered at Eng Mudzuri and Dr Thokozani Khupe, Mr Tsvangirais other deputy. Mr Tsvangirais brother, Mr Manase Tsvangirai, told The Sunday Mail that they had summoned the three and implored them to stop public spats out of respect for their departed boss.





He said this as his other sibling, Collins, gave an emotional narrative of Mr Tsvangirais last days.

Collins told the gathering that the 65-year-old opposition leader had shown signs of recovery last Sunday, but his condition deteriorated between Monday and Tuesday.

He subsequently breathed his last on Wednesday.





He had battled colon cancer and a resultant combination of ailments such as kidney failure, heart complications and a depressed blood system.





I travelled to South Africa to be with him about six weeks ago; our mother and my sisters also joined me there. On Sunday, we had some hope because his face showed signs of glow. When we left the hospital that day at around 8 pm, we thought that he was going to get better.





But on Monday and Tuesday, his health deteriorated rapidly. When I visited him in hospital on Wednesday, his body temperature was 34 degrees celsius. There was a lot that he was fighting.

It was not just one disease, but many aliments. He had a problem with his heart, kidneys; and blood system was failing and his legs were swollen. On the day that he died, we prayed vigorously with him as we asked for Gods help, but God chose his way.





We thank Government for footing the bills and also giving us direct contact from the embassy in South Africa which was also very helpful. We constantly communicated with the authorities and they provided what we asked for.





Manase told this paper, Ever since he was diagnosed with cancer, he was very open to the family about his illness. I last visited him in hospital in South Africa on 27 January and he still had hope. He told me that he would remain strong and he would fight with all his strength.

But it is sad that he died. Even though he died, I think he died a peaceful man. What is painful for us is the thought that perhaps if he had been diagnosed with the disease a bit earlier, maybe it would not have affected him as much as it did in such a quick time.





Obviously, there was nothing that could have been done because he was a man who went for regular health check-ups. It is a big loss to the family and it is going to be hard to move on without him because you cannot replace such a man.





As a family, we are humbled by the outpouring of emotion that is coming from not only in Zimbabwe, but all over the world. We are comforted by this show of love for him and it is a befitting send-off for a man of his stature and it will also help to preserve his legacy.





Acting Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo said, I was sent by His Excellency, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, to go the airport to receive the body on behalf of Government, together with the family and friends. This was a great man.





I do not have many words because I know His Excellency will visit the house tomorrow (today) and convey his message on behalf of all of us. We thank God for giving us such a courageous leader. He was a leader of vision and a leader of destiny.





I will report to His Excellency that this was a befitting welcome to a man who was a great leader. He was a man of purpose, a man of strength and a man of courage.

Mr Tsvangirais body will be taken to his Highlands, Harare home today, with a possible public parade later in the day.





It will be taken to his rural home in Buhera tomorrow ahead of Tuesdays burial. Sunday MailFormer prime minister Morgan Tsvangirais body arrived in Harare from South Africa yesterday afternoon amid chaotic scenes after the government decided to take it to an army mortuary overnight.



The MDC-T leaders body arrived aboard a South African Airways flight after 4pm accompanied by close family members, who including his elderly mother and Tsvangirais deputy Thokozani Khupe.



Thousands of Zimbabweans brought the airport to a standstill for several hours as they waited for the release of the body.



There was pandemonium when Tsvangirais body was taken to the armys One Commando barracks in Cranborne instead of a Doves funeral parlour as previously announced.







A Tsvangirai family member said they were taken by surprise as there was no prior warning about the armys involvement. President Emmerson Mnangagwas government rejected calls to accord the veteran opposition leader national hero status.





Acting Information minister Simon Khaya Moyo said he was instructed by Mnangagwa that the body of Zanu PFs most strident opponent must be taken to the military mortuary.





I have been instructed by the president to have the body taken to One Commando Barracks, Moyo said much to the disapproval of thousands of MDC-T supporters gathered at the Robert Mugabe International Airport.





The opposition party youths broke into song and dance accusing Zanu PF of causing Tsvangirais death.





Earlier, Khaya Moyo refused to provide reasons why Tsvangirai was not accorded national hero status.





Khaya Moyo said Mnangagwa would pay his respects at the Tsvangirai homestead in Buhera at a later date when asked if the president would attend the funeral.





He will go to the homestead sometime to pay his respects, he told The Standard.

At One Commando, MDC-T youths waited outside the entrance singing as they demanded that the army hands over the body to the family.





When he was alive you hated him, mistreated him even to the extent of denying him his victory and now you want to honour him here, shouted some of the youths.

You are hypocrites. You soldiers you refused to salute him when he was alive and now you want to salute him.





Tsvangirai will be buried on Tuesday at his Buhera home. A church service is scheduled for today in Harare ahead of a send-off rally at Freedom Square. Feuding MDC vice-presidents Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mdzuri were at the airport to receive the body. StandardUniversity of Zimbabwe (UZ) vice-chancellor Levi Nyagura allegedly took the institutions lecturers to Grace Mugabes Mazowe orphanage so she could take oral examinations for her disputed Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, a Harare court heard yesterday.



Nyagura (72) was arrested on Friday for alleged criminal abuse of office for his role in the awarding of the degree to the former first lady.



Harare magistrate Tilda Mazhande was told Nyagura single-handedly accepted the wife of former president Robert Mugabes application to study for the PhD without the knowledge of the UZs sociology department.



Prosecutor Oscar Madhume said in 2011 Nyagura approved Ntombizodwa G Marufu (Graces maiden name) application without the knowledge and recommendations of the departmental board and faculty of higher degrees committee in violation of UZ quality assurance guidelines and benchmark.







He said during the same period, Nyagura appointed Professor Claude Mararike and Professor Chaneta to supervise Grace without the knowledge and approval of the department.





Nyagura is accused of usurping the powers of the UZ senate by single-handedly appointing examiners for Mugabes research in violation of the UZ Act chapter 25:16 and Ordinance 1998/99.





Nyagura allegedly led supervisors and examiners to Mugabes Mazowe orphanage, where the defence oral examination was purportedly done without the knowledge and approval of the academic committee while in actual fact the examination is supposed to be done at the UZ premises.





The prosecution alleged that during the same year, Nyagura recommended to Mugabe that Grace should be awarded the PhD.





This was allegedly done without the knowledge of the UZ council and academic committee.

The sociology department distanced itself from both the candidate and awarding of the degree as it was done without their knowledge. Prosecutors said Grace did not meet the minimum requirements to study for the degree.





Nyagura, who is represented by advocate Lewis Uriri, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded to March 5 on $200 bail.





As part of his bail conditions, Nyagura was ordered not to interfere with State witnesses who include lecturers. StandardTrial: She Was 'Starstruck'

by Holmes, but Not for Long(Newser)  Human-animal chimeras are taking over the barnyard. A year after a research team announced they had created the first animal-human chimera by way of pig embryos containing human cells, they've done it again, the Guardian reports. This time it's sheep embryos with human cells. The goal is to improve the availability and success rates of organ transplants by growing human organs inside animals. Even today the best matched organs, except if they come from identical twins, dont last very long because with time the immune system continuously is attacking them, Dr. Pablo Ross says. According to the Telegraph, Ross' team grew the embryos inside a sheep for three weeks. He says sheep have a number of advantages over pigs, including that their embryos are easier to produce via IVF.

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A professor of animal biotechnology calls it "an important step forward," but Ross' team is a long way off from actually growing human organs inside an animal. The embryos his team created contained about one human cell for every 10,000 sheep cells; he thinks it needs to be closer to one human cell for every 100 sheep cells to be successful. There's also the ethical quandary of potentially producing animals with human-like intelligence. "If our results indicate that the human cells all go to the brain of the animal, then we may never carry this forward, Ross says. Another team member, Dr. Hiro Nakauchi, says that's unlikely: The contribution of human cells so far is very small. Its nothing like a pig with a human face or human brain." Ross' team announced their sheep-human embryos at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas. (Read more chimera stories.)(Newser)  The children of a 23-year-old woman shot to death by Baltimore cops in 2016 after an hourslong standoff have been awarded more than $37 million in the civil lawsuit against Baltimore County and the police officer who fired the first shot. The Baltimore Sun reports that an all-woman jury, after less than three hours of deliberation, awarded Korryn Gaines' son, Kodi, who was 5 at the time of the incident and injured during it, with more than $32 million in damages, while his younger sister, Karsyn, received $4.5 million. Gaines' mother and father received about $600,000 in total, while her estate was awarded $300,000. Punitive damages weren't given, and the Sun notes that due to caps on local government liability in Maryland, the family may not receive the full amounts of their awards, said to be among the biggest ever awarded against the Baltimore police.

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What helped decide the case: the first shot fired by one of the officers, Royce Ruby, which the jury decided was not reasonable. The jury said the Gaineses' civil rights were violated during the incident and that police had committed battery against her and Kodi, per the New York Times; Karsyn wasn't in the apartment at the time. A Baltimore County attorney said in a statement that the county was "disappointed" in the decision and mulling an appeal. "A mother died, a child was unintentionally injured, and police officers were placed in mortal danger. By any account, this was a tragic situation," he notes. Gaines' mother, Rhanda Dormeus, also reacted. "This win is for all of my sisters in the movement who have lost their children to police violence," she told reporters after the verdict, per the Sun. (Read more Korryn Gaines stories.)(Newser)  Where does one shop for a wedding gown set to be the dress of the yearan outfit chic enough for a fashion-loving bride but suitable for a church that's the burial place of monarchs? Everyone at London Fashion Weekand elsewhereis dying to know. With only three months to go before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's May 19 wedding, the fashion and bridal worlds are abuzz with talk of who the bride will pick to design her dress and what kind of look she'll go for. It's no wonder: There's not been a bigger royal wedding since Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011 in an extravaganza broadcast around the world. Seven years later, Kate's lacey, long-sleeved Alexander McQueen gown is still influencing bridal designs. "It's going to be the greatest fashion commission of 2018. There'll be millions of eyeballs on it," said Jade Beer, editor at the British edition of Brides magazine.

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While the designand designerof the dress is a guarded secret, many are positive Markle will choose a British designer, reports the AP. In 1981, then-Lady Diana Spencer surprised many when she chose David and Elizabeth Emanuel, designers fresh out of college. Frontrunners for Markle's choice include British-Canadian Erdem Moralioglu, known for his elegant styles; Ralph & Russo, the couture designers Markle chose for her engagement dress; heritage fashion powerhouse Burberry; as well as McQueen and Giles Deacon, who designed Pippa Middleton's wedding gown. It's a dress that many hope will depart from tradition while living up to the grandeur of its surroundings. "She's going to be walking over dead monarchs on the way up the aisle," said Beer. And yet, says designer Jasper Conran, "I think everybody here loves her so dearly. She can wear a dishcloth and people won't mind."

(Read more Meghan Markle stories.)(Newser)  The widower of a slain British legislator has stepped down from two charities set up in her memory after allegations of sexual misconduct in the past were reported. "I want to apologise deeply and unreservedly for my past behaviour and for the hurt and offence that I have caused," Brendan Cox said in a statement, per the Guardian. He said that "allegations from several years ago have resurfaced that makes concentrating on" his duties "much more difficult." Cox said late Saturday he would leave his positions at the Jo Cox Foundation and the More in Common charity. Both were started after his wife Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death during the Brexit referendum in 2016, reports the AP.

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The Mail on Sunday published reports alleging sexual misconduct on his part. A woman in Cambridge, Mass., alleged in 2015 that Cox bought her drinks, grabbed her hips, and forcibly shoved his thumb in her mouth in a sexual way, per the Guardian. Cox called the newspaper's allegations a "massive exaggeration." Cox has advocated for his wife's beliefs. She was killed by a far-right activist.

(Read more Jo Cox stories.)(Newser)  The Russian delegation at the Pyeongchang Olympics has announced that one of its athletes has failed a drug test, reports the AP. Two Russian state news agencies cited Konstantin Vybornov, spokesman for the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" team, as saying the delegation received an official notification from the International Olympic Committee of the positive test. Vybornov said a "B'' sample taken from the athlete will be analyzed within 24 hours, but did not name the athlete or the sport involved. A confirmed doping case could be an obstacle to Russia's efforts to have the Russian team formally reinstated in time for the closing ceremony. "Doping testing and sanctioning at the Pyeongchang 2018 is independent from the IOC. Therefore, the IOC cannot communicate on individual cases while the procedure is still ongoing," the IOC said in a statement.

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"However, we take note of the statement by a spokesperson of the Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR) delegation," the IOC continued, adding that "if the case is confirmed, it will be considered" by the IOC body that would be considering whether to reinstate Russia. The Court of Arbitration for Sport, which rules on Olympic doping cases, said it had not received any notification. "No new case received and no rumors of it so far," Matthieu Reeb, the court's secretary general, said in an email. The only other doping case so far at the Pyeongchang Olympics came when Japanese short-track speedskater Kai Saito tested positive for a banned diuretic and was removed from competition. His case is ongoing. (A Russian luger made an unprecedented offer to an American counterpart.)(Newser)  President Trump continued to vent his Saturday night fury over the Russia probe into Sunday, reports the AP, arguing that the Obama administration bears some of the blame, insisting that he never denied the election meddling, and declaring that "they are laughing their asses off in Moscow." In a rapid-fire series of tweets from his Palm Beach estate, the president unloaded over the Russia investigation, days after an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians with a plot to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election. While the nearby town of Parkland, Fla., mourns the deadly school shooting that left 17 dead, Russia was clearly top of mind for the president. The administration has focused on the fact that the Russian effort began in 2014, before Trump announced his White House run, and Trump continued that argument Sunday.

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He continued: "Liddle Adam Schiff, the leakin monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something." Trump appeared to be referring to an interview Schiff did with NBC in which he said the previous administration should have set up a "more forceful deterrent" against foreign cyberattacks. Trump also argued that he "never said Russia did not meddle in the election," adding: "The Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!" Trump also tweeted Sunday that the ongoing investigations are just what the Russians want, saying: "Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!"

(Read more President Trump stories.)(Newser)  On Friday, the family that was housing Parkland suspect Nikolas Cruz wasn't ready to speak out about him, with a "visibly emotional Kimberly Snead" telling the New York Post to respect her family's privacy. On Saturday, however, both Snead and her husband, James, spoke to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, revealing their distress and bafflement at how everything went so wrong. "We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know," Kimberly Snead said, with James Snead adding, "Everything everybody seems to know, we didn't know. It's as simple as that." The Sneads, who took in Cruz after his mother died in Novemberhe'd initially been staying with another family, but left due to arguments over his guns and money issues, the Sneads believesay they laid down "strict" house rules for Cruz, which he followed.

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The Sneads also say they made him keep his guns in a locked safe and ask for permission when he wanted to take them out, which was only twice. They thought they had the only key to the gun safe, but James Snead now thinks Cruz may have somehow come across an extra. They add that although he was very depressed after his mother's death, he was polite and seemed to be regaining his spirits. They also note he seemed to be lacking in basic life skills: He didn't know how to do laundry, make himself meals, drive, or even how to use a microwave. Meanwhile, the Palm Beach Post reports that a person believed to be Cruz's younger brother, who was still staying with the first family he and Cruz had moved in with after their mother died, was taken from that home to a mental health facility on Friday. The Sneads detail the day of the shooting from their perspective here. (Read more Nikolas Cruz stories.)(Newser)  Swastikas and profanity were reportedly scrawled on the property of the Polish embassy in Israel over the weekend in the wake of controversial remarks made by the country's prime minister about the Holocaust. The symbol of hate appeared on the entrance to the property in Tel Aviv on Sunday, one day after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki publicly suggested that Jews, along with Poles and others, were among those responsible for aiding the Nazi genocide, Reuters reports. An estimated 3 million Jewish people living in Poland are believed to have been murdered by the Nazis prior to World War II. The markings were reportedly written in marker on both the gate and a bulletin board and included both swastikas and anti-Polish profanities. Police released photos of the vandalism and said they will be investigating the incident.

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Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly condemned Morawiecki's remarks after the Polish leader made them in response to an Israeli reporter's question regarding a new law in Poland that seeks to punish with jail time anyone who says the country was "responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich." The Polish prime ministers remarks here in Munich are outrageous, said Netanyahu after Morawiecki referenced "Jewish perpetrators" in his statement in the German city on Saturday, the Times of Israel reports. It is Morawiecki's stance that Poland was a victim of Nazi occupation and that most Polish people attempted to help their friends and neighbors as millions of Jews from across Europe were sent to death camps. (A secret forest birthday party for Hitler caused revulsion in Poland.)Sorry!

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Mohammad Haris Nalapad, son of NA Haris, Congress MLA from Shanti Nagar BengaluruA and his friends attacked a 24-year-oldA youth Vidvat at a restaurant in Bengaluru onA SaturdayA late night over a trivial issue.

Vidvat received grievous injuries and was immediately taken to Mallya Hospital where his condition is said to be stable.

Police have filed an FIR and started an investigation. As per the primary information, Vidvat was having dinner with his friends around 10 pm. Nalapad was also having dinner in the same restaurant with his friends.

An argument ensued whenA Nalapad confronted Vidvat for putting his legs on a chair. (Vidvat is said to have fractured his legA sometime back so he had put his legs on the chair).

After a verbal exchange, Nalapad and his friends started hitting Vidvat. They did not stop there and followed Vidvat at the hospital where they again attacked him.

Meanwhile, G Parameshwara, President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee informed that Mohammed Haris Nalapad has been suspended from the party for six years.

Dinesh Gundurao, working President of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee said, aStrict action to be taken against people responsible. There won't be any sort of protection whether it's a person in Congress or outside. Mohd Haris Nalapad was involved too. We've decided to expel him from Congress.a

Strict action to be taken against people responsible. There won't be any sort of protection whether it's a person in Congress or outside. Mohd Haris Nalapad was involved too. We've decided to expel him from Congress: Dinesh Gundurao, Working Pres K'taka Pradesh Congress Committee pic.twitter.com/LMs7HN7pef a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote on Twitter, aOffenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.a

Offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.@CPBlr will take action as per law and bring the guilty to book. https://t.co/H0Km8zauVz a Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) February 18, 2018

"I don't know where he is currently. Whoever does wrong is wrong, be it the son of an MLA or anyone else. I have always advised my son to never do anything wrong. I will see that my son does not do anything like this again," said NA Haris, Father of Mohammed Haris Nalapad.New Delhi:

Delhi Police have registered a case against a leading TV channel journalist after a complaint of rape by a woman, a senior Delhi Police officer said on Saturday night.

Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) BK Singh said the woman told them that she met the journalist in 2016 and he offered her a job in the channel which she joined in April 2017.

"She alleged that she was raped by the man on June 9 last year at his residence on the pretext of marriage and several times later on," the officer said.

The woman claimed that in October last year she learned that the man was already married and had two children, Singh said.

She filed a complaint on February 13 and a case was registered on Saturday night at the Tughlak Road Police Station, the officer said.

Her statement was recorded before a magistrate but no arrest has been made.New Delhi:

Bigg Boss Telugu hit the television screens and managed to impress the audience during its two and a half months stint. The show marked the small screen debut of Junior NTR who wooed the viewers in the host avatar.

The Telugu version of Bigg Boss became the number one reality show in its market all thanks to the drama packed episodes. The show was won by Siva Balaji who defeated fifteen other contestants to lift the winners trophy.

Fans were eagerly waiting for the second season of the show which is expected to air in July just like the first season. However, it seems this time Junior NTR wont be hosting the show.

According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, the Temper actor has opted out of the show and will not return back as a host. The Jai Lava Kusa star will be busy with two upcoming films and hence wont be able to devote time for the show.

A source told Deccan Chronicle,  The actor is committed to two films  one with Trivikram and the other with Rajamouli. Both start one after another without a gap. He also has a few family commitments, so he has no time to do the reality show, and hence opted out, says a source.

We wonder who fill in the shoes of Junior NTR and became the new host of Bigg Boss Telugu.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Days ahead of the announcement of his political party on February 21, Kamal Haasan on Sunday met actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth at his residence.

The meeting between the two contemporary superstars has once again set off the speculations of their possible alliance in politics.

However, Kamal Haasan termed the meeting as a courtesy call and said it was not a political one.

aIt was a courtesy call and not a political meeting. I came to inform him about my political tour. He wished me good luck,a Kamal Haasan said after the meeting.

On being asked if he will join hands with Rajinikanth, Haasan said, aonly time will tell.a

Reacting to the meeting with Haasan, Rajini said, aKamal Haasan has started his political journey. He came to invite me for the launch of his party. I have extended my wishes to him.a

aKamal isn't coming to politics for fame, money or power, but to do good for the people of Tamil Nadu. A In cinema, his style was different, my style was different. It will be the same in politics, but our aim remains to do good for the people,a Rajinikanth said.

#TamilNadu: Earlier visuals of Kamal Hassan leaving from Rajinikanth's residence after their meeting, in Chennai. pic.twitter.com/EpvdDMS8rb a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Earlier this month, Haasan had said that there is a ahue of saffrona in the Rajinikathas politics and therefore, a political alliance with him is not possible.

While speaking at the Harvard University in US, he had said, aThere is a hue of saffron in Rajni's politics. If that doesn't change then I don't see an alliance with him. We are good friends but politics is different.a

Both Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth have announced their entry in the politics and call themselves as the aagents of changea who dream of creating a "corruption-freea Tamil Nadu.



Kamal Haasan is expected to announce the name of his political party on February 21 at Rameswaram and launch a state-wide political tour called "Nalai Namadhe" which means tomorrow is ours.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month on a rare visit during which they held extensive talks with the top brass of the Bhutanese leadership on strategic issues including the situation in Doklam, authoritative government sources said.

The sources told PTI that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation issues with a focus on China's increasing military posturing and infrastructure development in the key Doklam plateau.

The visit took place between February 6 and 7 and "positive" outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, they said.

The visit by Gen. Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first such high-level trip from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff and it was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides.

The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians about the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed Doklam tri-junction by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on August 28.

China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. India argues that since it is a tri-junction involving the three countries, it also has a say in the issue, specially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks.

Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India.

The sources said several other key officials of the Army and the Ministry of External Affairs were also a part of the visit. Asked about the foreign secretary's visit, a diplomatic source called it "routine".

This was Gen. Rawat's second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen. Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 km-long border with China. Last month, he had said the time had come for the country to shift its focus from the western to the northern frontier.

Army sources said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area.

The Indian Army has also been strengthening its troop level in certain key sectors along the Sino-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure.Previously, Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year while then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited the neighbouring country in October last. In November last, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, had visited India.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Ahmedabad:

Protesters blocked roads and held rallies in several parts of Gujarat on Sunday, including capital Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Patan in Mehsana district against the failure of the authorities concerned to prevent suicide by Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vanakar on Friday, police said.

The protests were held after police detained Dalit leader and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, and over 70 others, in Saraspur area of Ahmedabad this morning when they tried to stage demonstrations over Vanakar's death.

City crime branch officials claimed that Mevani did "not behave properly" with the police during his detention. However, the MLA tweeted he was pulled out of a car by police in a "very uncivilised manner".

Vanakar (62) had set himself ablaze outside the Patan Collectors office on February 15 seeking allotment of land to a Dalit family.

He died of burn injuries at a private hospital in Ahmedabad the next day. His body is still lying at Gandhinagar civil hospital as his kin refused to accept it.

Earlier on Saturday, Mevani appealed to Dalits to gather at Sarangpur circle this morning for protests. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) J K Bhatt said Mevani did not co-operate with police for maintaining peace in the city.

"Many Dalit leaders of the city had assured us that peace will not be disturbed during protests. Unfortunately, Mevani didnt give any such assurance. So, as a precautionary measure, we have detained him," Bhatt told reporters.

He said police also detained around 70 people from Sarangpur and Vadaj areas of Ahmedabad city.

"Mevani and other detainees will be released at a proper time," the JCP said, adding two companies of anti-riot Rapid Action Force (RAF) and three companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP) have been deployed in the city.

Though the state government yesterday announced that it will accept the key demands of Vanakars family, including allotment of land to Dalits, Mevani had sought that the government issue a circular conceding the demands.

After his detention, Mevani claimed through his tweet that police misbehaved with him when he was on his way for "a peaceful protest at Ambedkar statue in Sarangpur".

Mevani, who represents Vadgam (SC) seat in Banaskantha district, claimed he was detained after being pulled out of his car.

He also accused the police of damaging the car keys when he was heading to Sarangpur. Responding to his allegation, Bhatt cited a video clip circulating on social media which purportedly shows Mevani confronting a policeman and trying to sit in his car after pushing him away.

"You can see how Mevani behaved with the policeman who was only doing his duty. Mevani's behaviour was not proper. No matter what he did, police showed absolute restraint," Bhatt said, adding that violence will not be tolerated.

Since Mevani is a sitting MLA, the crime branch will send a report to the Speaker of the Assembly, Bhatt said.

After the news about Mevani's detention spread, some unidentified people set a car on fire in Vadaj area of the city, police said.

The states police control room said protesters tried to block roads in Patan, Gandhinagar and in Unjha town of Mehsana district, which is the hometown of Vankar.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had yesterday announced constitution of a judicial commission under a retired high court judge or form an SIT to investigate Vanakars death.

Patel had said that a member of the family of the deceased will be given a government job.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Tripura will undergo polling on Sunday with the ruling Left Front, which has been in power in the state for the last 25 years, competing with both the national parties, BJP and Congress.

Voting will be held between 7 am and 4 pm at 3,214 polling stations, of which 47 would be managed only by women.

Polling for 59 out of 60 constituencies will commence on Sunday morning, where over 25 lakh voters will decide the fate of 296 candidates. Charilam Assembly constituency will undergo voting on March 12 since the candidate for the seat, Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma passed away last week.

A total of 20 seats have been reserved for the scheduled tribes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on behalf of BJP, addressed as many as four rallies in the state, while Congress president Rahul Gandhias campaign was limited only to Kailashahar in Unakoti district about 180 kms from Agartala on the last day of campaigning.

A total of 307 candidates are in the fray. The CPI(M) will be contesting 57 seats, while the other Left Front blocks, the RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI will be contesting one seat each.

Here are the LIVE updates:

#A Voter turnout till now (around 9 pm) is 78.56 %. Voting is still underway at few polling stations. Voting slips were distributed till 4 pm & those voters are at the booths: Election CommissionA

#A Seventy-four per cent polling recorded in Tripura Assembly election: EC

#A There were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, many were found to be false. 12 ballot units were replaced: Election Commission

#A Voting still continuing in many polling stations: Election Commission

#A VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura: Election Commission

VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura: Election Commission #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/KiqTI04OCN a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A 65% voter turnout till 3.00pm

#A 45.86 per cent voter turnout till 1.00 PM

# BJPA National General Secretary Ram Madhav says he is confident that Tripura will vote for BJP

The PM had appealed the people of Tripura to come out to vote. We are confident that people will listen to him & join us in our slogan of 'Cholo Paltai': Ram Madhav, BJP National General Secretary #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/uspZX7cf3F a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A Voters queue up at polling center at Ambassa constituency, Dhalai

#TripuraElection2018: Voters queue up at polling centre at Ambassa constituency, Dhalai.#PollsWithAIR#AIRPics: Subhasis Kumar pic.twitter.com/316OGT4Ia8 a All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) February 18, 2018

#A 23.25A per cent voter turnout recorded till 11 am

#TripuraElection2018: 23.25% voter turnout recorded till 11am. a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A Voters queue up at Pratapgarh constituency

# Polling in Shishu Bihar School booth in Agartala underway

Tripura: Visuals of voting for #TripuraElection2018 from Shishu Bihar School polling booth in Agartala. pic.twitter.com/LeGNMQzw5t a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A Voters queue up at Suryamani Nagar constituency

#A Tripura CM Manik Sarkar casts his vote

Tripura CM Manik Sarkar casts his vote at a polling booth in Agartala, he is an MLA from Dhanpur constituency #TripuraElection2018. pic.twitter.com/UniDo6VGIf a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A 11 per cent voter turnout recorded till 9 am in Tripura

11% voters turnout recorded till 9 am in #TripuraElection2018 a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

# Polling continues in the Bhati Abhay Nagar booth

Aerial shots from outside polling booth number 6/20 in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar. BJP's Sudip Roy Barman is the sitting MLA from Agartala. #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/vX2Jg1gh2Q a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A BJP Tripura President Biplab Kumar Deb cast his vote at booth number 31/34 in Udaipur

BJP #Tripura President Biplab Kumar Deb cast his vote at booth number 31/34 in Udaipur, says, 'these election results will be historic, we will definitely win. PM & Amit Shah ji called me & gave good wishes.' #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/9JuawbE2QL a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

# Long queues in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar (number 6/20) constituency

#A EVM, VVPAT malfunctioning reported from two booths

#TripuraElection2018: There is malfunction in #VVPAT in one of polling booths of Banamalipur constituency; Also one EVM replaced in Badarghat constituency.#PollsWithAIR a All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) February 18, 2018

#A Voters in queue to cast their votes in Kamalpur

# Voters say, "WeA want a government that can push for development in the state."

#TripuraElection2018: People queue to cast their votes at polling booth number 31/34 in Tripura's Udaipur, say, 'we want a government that can push for development in the state.' pic.twitter.com/oeck7Eg76e a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

# PM Modi has a special appeal for voters

I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Tripura, particularly young voters, to turnout in record numbers and cast their vote in the Assembly Elections. a Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 18, 2018

# Polling in booth number 6/20 in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar continues

Inside visuals from polling booth number 6/20 in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar. #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/lwH7DYldBr a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A Voters queue up at polling booth number 31/34 in Tripura's Udaipur

#TripuraElection2018: Voters queue up at polling booth number 31/34 in Tripura's Udaipur. 59 out of the total 60 seats are being contested for in these elections, pic.twitter.com/wOhAM635SJ a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

#A People queue up at polling booth number 6/20 in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar

Tripura: People at polling booth number 6/20 in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar. #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/uIfm6cyOPy a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

# Tripura Election 2018: Polling begins for 59 out of the total 60 seats

#FLASH: Tripura Election 2018: Polling begins for 59 out of the total 60 seats. pic.twitter.com/KwsnGtKqtc a ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the three-day Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018 concave in Mumbai on Sunday, said officials.

After inaugurating the states first-ever Global Investors Summit at the MMRDA Grounds in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Modi will interact with corporate chiefs at high tea, along with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The conclave is said to be one of the biggest event of its kind after the Prime Ministers Make in India initiative launched in February 2016 in Mumbai.

The conclave, which goes by the tagline #MadeForBusiness, will intend to sign near about 5,000 MoUs, wherein an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore (nearly 156 billion USD) is expected, which will generate employment for 35 lakh people.

Fadnavis said ahead of the conclave, In past couple of years, Maharashtra has achieved a new trajectory in bolstering the state's industrial output. This is evident in multiple reports released by reputed financial bodies that places the state ahead of the rest in Ease of Doing Business, as also statistics such as 50 per cent of infrastructural development of India being clocked in Maharashtra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to share his day plan of the event.

Will deliver the inaugural address at the Global Investors' Summit - "Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018 tomorrow. Everybody is aware of Maharashtras vital role in Indias economy. The Summit will showcase the rich investment and business potential in the state.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 17, 2018

Tomorrow I would be in Maharashtra to take part in various programmes. At the programme tomorrow afternoon, the ground breaking ceremony of the Navi Mumbai International Airport will take place. The 4th container terminal at JNPT will also be dedicated to the nation.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 17, 2018

Apart from the business conclave, an exhibition with flagship projects of the state government will be held till February 23. The flagship projects to be displayed include Mumbai Metro, Mumbai-Nagpur Super Communication Expressway, Mumbai Coastal Road, Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, and the Navi Mumbai International Airport.

The foundation stone for the Navi Mumbai International Airport will be laid by PM Modi on the same day.

Also Read: LIVE Tripura Election 2018 | Polling begins for 59 out of 60 constituencies, EVM, VVPAT malfunctioning reported from two booths

Devendra Fadnavis described the concept of Magnetic Maharashtra in four main pillars, employment, sustainability, infrastructure, and future industries. He also said that the government is focusing on building future-ready state which features consistently among top world destinations for industrial innovation and smart manufacturing.

With the onset of the summit, the state government hopes to strengthen Maharashtras position as gateway for all industrial development in the country where the best minds, industries, government machinery converge to co-create.

The summit will host a competition titled Magnetic Maharashtra Start-Ups under 30, with prizes of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, and Rs 20 lakh for top three innovative start-ups, as an idea to motivate and support young entrepreneurs.

Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman and MD, Mukesh Ambani, Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic, Tonino Lamborghini SpA President Tonino Lamborghini, Edward Monser, President, Emerson Electric Co, Hande Diltemiz, country manager, Global production, India, H&M, Cho Hyun-Joon, chairman, Hyosung Group, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO, DP World, are among some of the participants who have agreed to be a part of the conclave.

Apart from top Indian ministers and officials, representatives of foreign governments like Karin Roding, Sweden's State Secretary to the Minister, and Bardish Chagger, Canada's Minister of Small Business and Tourism, Waterloo, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant will also be participating.

The event, co-organised by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), will also showcase automobiles, auto components, defence, food processing, IT/ITES, electronics, heavy engineering, pharmaceuticals, and other sectors where scope for development is available in the state.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday lashed out at the Central Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the PNB bank fraud.

Gandhi questioned prime minister's silence on the issue saying a scam of such a big scale could not have taken place without top-level protection and asked PM Modi to explain why it had happened and what steps were being taken to ensure the banking system was safe in India.

"The fact of the matter is that the prime minister has, through his actions, destroyed the financial system of this country. He has demonetised the economy. He has taken money from people's pockets and put it into the banking sector and now his friends and cronies are stealing it from the banking sector and the prime minister is not saying anything," he charged.

The Congress Steering Committee adopted a resolution asking the prime minister to tell the nation the reasons for the failure of the fraud detection ability of the entire banking sector and the finance ministry.

The Steering Committee said the "biggest bank scam" has exposed the complete failure of "regulatory mechanism" and "fraud detection ability" of the banking sector and the failure of oversight by the Reserve Bank of India and the finance ministry.

"The manner in which thousands of crores of rupees of public money was looted with impunity and the complete failure of entire risk management system tells its own story of favours extended and protection granted," it said.

Taking a jibe at PM Modi Gandhi said that instead of spending an hour-and-a-half explaining to children how to take exams, the prime minister should explain to the people of India what is going to be done to Nirav Modi and "what is he going to do to make sure that the banking system is safe".

He also wondered why the defence minister and social justice minister were briefing on the issue whereas it is the job of the FM and the PM.

"It must have been known to the people in government beforehand. Otherwise, it is not possible because the amount is so huge," he said.

(With PTI inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday attacked PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for not coming out and speak on the Punjab National Bank scam.

Rahul Gandhi said Arun Jaitley is hiding and by not speaking on the India biggest banking scam worth Rs 22,000 crore, PM Modi is behaving like guilty.

PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hrs, but won't speak for 2 mins on the 22,000Cr banking scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you're guilty! Speak up. #ModiRobsIndia, Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

In what could be Indias biggest scam in the banking sector, Punjab National Bank last week filed an FIR with the CBI about the fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 11,000 crore.

Also Read | Congress or BJP, who is responsible for Punjab National Bank scam?



Diamond czar Nirav Modi, his uncle Mehul Choksi, who, the Congress claims were close to Prime Minister Modi, allegedly defrauded the Punjab National Bank by making the fraudulent transactions of over Rs 11,300 crore through 151 letters of understanding.

However, the tax department has estimated that the banks could take a hit of more than USD 3 billion (Around Rs 20,000 Crore) by the PNB bank scam.

Both Congress and BJP are blaming each other for the scam while the key accused are still on the run and the government has no clue about their whereabouts.

According to the FIR filed by CBI, most of the loans were given to the accused under Modi government in 2017.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The giant moon, which knocked peoples doorstep at the Gateway of India in Mumbai, now comes knocking to Kolkata. The touring 3-D artwork of the giant moon is now installed at the Victoria Memorial lawns in Kolkata.

The 3-D installation of the moon has been made by using imagery from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, one of the exhibition organisers said.

The Museum of the Moon, as it is known, is a project by the British Council, with the support of the Ministry of Culture. The Director of the British Council East, Debanjan Chakrabarti, told PTI, It has been put on display at the Victoria Memorial Hall in the city for the weekend visitors.

The 3-D artwork, created in partnership with the UK Space Agency, was unveiled on Saturday in the presence of the British Council, India director Alan Gemmell, Jayanta Sengupta, the secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial, and Debiprasad Duari, the director of MP Birla Planetarium.

Chakraborty said, The 23-feet-wide replica of the moon is half a million times smaller than the real moon. It has been put together by British artist Luke Jerram. This is an important project for British Council, it merges science with art.

Also Read: Moon at your doorstep! Giant Lunar replica unveiled at Gateway of India, Mumbai

Debiprasad Duari, the director of MP Birla Planetarium, said, The artwork will foster interest about astronomy among the youngsters. It is also interesting that the Museum of the Moon project came to Kolkata 17 days after the total lunar eclipse.

Avantika Shah, a class 10 student who was among the hundreds who gathered at the Victoria Memorial lawns on Saturday to watch the giant moon, said, the surface images of the moon look so lifelike. I will opt for space research in future.

The tour of the Museum of the Moon has been completed in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Udaipur.

(With PTI inputs)

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Moscow:

Five women were shot dead in an apparent radical Islamist attack on an Orthodox church in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, officials and local media said.

According to local press reports an unidentified gunman fired at worshippers at an Orthodox church in the town of Kizlyar in the mainly Muslim region.

"An unknown man opened fire with a hunting rifle in Kizlyar, fatally wounding four women," the regional internal affairs ministry said in a statement.

A fifth woman died of her injuries in hospital, health ministry spokeswoman Zalina Mourtazalieva told TASS news agency.

Two Russian police officers were injured in the attack.

The attacker was "eliminated" by police fire, the regional internal affairs ministry added.

According to a local official, the assailant was a local man in his early twenties, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian RBK daily quoted an Orthodox priest saying the attacker had opened fire on churchgoers following an afternoon service.

"We had finished the mass and were beginning to leave the church. A bearded man ran towards the church shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and killed four people," Father Pavel told RBK.

"He was carrying a rifle and a knife," he added.

Dagestan, bordering Chechnya, is one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia.

Islamist rebels from the region, which lies immediately east of Chechnya, are known to have travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

In 2015, IS declared it had established a "franchise" in the North Caucasus.

It has claimed a number of attacks on police in Dagestan in the last couple of years that have involved guns and explosives, as local security forces battle a simmering Islamist insurgency.

This shooting comes exactly one month before the March 18 presidential election that Vladimir Putin is almost guaranteed to win.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Islamabad:

For the first time in the history of Pakistan, transgenders will be part of a team of boy scouts being sent to Saudi Arabia to serve as volunteers during 2018 Haj pilgrimage, a media report said on Sunday.

"Efforts for sending transgender youth to Saudi Arabia to serve as Khuddamul Hujjaj (volunteers during the annual Haj) are underway," IPC Sindh Boys Scouts Commissioner Atif Amin Husain was quoted as saying by Pakistan's Express Tribune.

Blue Veins, a transgender welfare organisation, is coordinating with the IPC on the matter, the paper said.

"At least two to three transgender persons will be selected from each of the remaining three provinces for joining the scouting community that leaves for Saudi Arabia every year," Mr Husain said.

He said recently 40 transgender youth from Sindh were administered oath on joining the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association (PBSA) a national scouting organisation and one of the largest volunteer forces in the country.

The transgender persons would be part of a team of more than 150 boy scouts, he said, adding that last year over a hundred boy scouts had been sent.



"The recruitment process for Khuddamul Hujjaj includes physical training and a test. After that, the PBSA sends a list of successful candidates to the Federal Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony for a final approval," Mr Husain said, explaining the process.

This year the list would include names of transgender youth, he added.

Mr Husain feels that by joining the PBSA, transgender youth would get social acceptance, attain confidence, feel secure and move forward, the paper said.

Blue Veins Programme Coordinator Qamar Naseem said that after the recruitment of 40 transgenders in Sindh, his organisation is planning recruitment processes in Punjab (Pakistan), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.



"This can be a game changer and can significantly improve the social acceptance of transgender youth in our society," he said.

He termed the recruitment step a positive initiative that would help the transgender community in improving its image at local as well as regional level.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.The Police yesterday confirmed 18 people were killed after a trio of suicide bombers detonated their bombs at a crowded fish market at ...

The Police yesterday confirmed 18 people were killed after a trio of suicide bombers detonated their bombs at a crowded fish market at Konduga on the outskirt of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.Twenty-two others were wounded, according to Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu.The bombers were all believed to be female.He explained that the injured persons were referred to the Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri.The commissioner said normalcy has, however, been restored to the area.An eyewitness, Musa Bulama, 32, said he was lucky to have survived the blasts.Bulama had gone to the night market to buy fish for dinner when I heard a loud bang some meters behind me and I saw myself on the ground and before I could pick up myself another one went off, then the third one.He added: I couldnt stand any longer and just laid down but everywhere was in total confusion.From the wailings, one can tell that there are many casualties.Another witness, Idrissa Bana, told NAN that the three suicide bombers simultaneously detonated the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) on their bodies in the crowded market.Bana said that the explosives killed 22 persons and 28 others sustained injuries, adding that those injured were evacuated to a hospital in Maiduguri.There were a lot of people doing last minute shopping when the suicide bombers hit the market, he said.The National Emergency Management Emergency (NEMA) zonal coordinator, Bashir Garza, put the death toll at 17 and 51 injured.After about five years absence due to alleged misunderstanding that was later described as political, the Catholic Church has announc...

After about five years absence due to alleged misunderstanding that was later described as political, the Catholic Church has announced its return to the Christian Association of Nigeria.The return was reportedly perfected on Thursday and Friday in Abuja when a delegation of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, led by Rev. Fr. (Prof.) Cornelius Omonokhua, appeared at the expanded National Executive Committee and quarterly meeting of CAN for the amendment of its constitution.The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria had, in a letter to CAN dated September 24, 2012, announced its withdrawal from the organisation.The Catholic Secretariat of Nigerias delegation participated fully in all the discourse while the two-day meeting lasted.The President of CAN, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, according to a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Assistant (Media & Communications), Adebayo Oladeji, expressed delights about the new development.He said, Their return is one of the best things that have been happening since I was given the mandate to become the President of CAN.One of my visions for CAN is to bring our Catholic brothers and sisters back to the fold; and I must acknowledge the support and understanding of my brother in Christ, Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, President, Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria and his team.I give kudos to all the principal officers, the directors and some Christian leaders in the country for their support and understanding while the dialogue lasted.My joy knows no bound with the presence of the CSN at the constitution amendment meeting of CAN held on Thursday and at the NEC meeting on Friday.It is our prayers that the Body of Christ in the country will remain one forever in Jesus name.At a time like this when Christians are almost becoming endangered species in Nigeria, when churches are being denied the Certificate of Occupancy especially in the core North, when Christians are being denied key public offices and when the Church is expected to speak for the voiceless, especially over the economic and social hardship in our country, we cannot afford to be at war with one another.CAN is united in diversity. Jesus Christ prayed for the Church shortly before He returned to heaven in John chapter 17.CANs Director of Legal issues, Kwankur Samuel, said the organisation was working on the new constitution to ensure that CAN has an effective internal mechanism to address any misunderstanding among its members.We are all happy with the return of the CSN. Our strength lies in our unity.The CAN chairman (North Central Zone), Rev. Israel Akanji, said the return of the Catholics was a sign of good omen to the Body of Christ in Nigeria.We are all happy with this new development. Now, the Body of Christ in Nigeria is one, virile and strong. We can now speak with one voice.With their return, CAN is even now stronger and greater. We have learnt one lesson or two from the challenges that led to their withdrawal.Never again will any of the blocks withdraw its membership, he stated.People with sight say the oddest things to those who are blind.

"Oh, you're so pretty,'' like how can that be?

Danielle DiBello, 30, of Saddle Brook, who is legally blind, said she hears that often and finds it irksome.

To her, it says blind people can't be attractive, letting the insensitivity roll off her back.

MORE: Recent Barry Carter columns

Then there's this one that cracks up Joanna Mallard, 32, of Jersey City.

"Who dressed you today?''

"Nobody, I'm just living life,'' said Mallard, who lost her vision due to retinal detachment 12 years ago.

What will they say June 2, when these women grace the stage in Newark during the Ms. Blind Diva Empowerment Pageant 2K18?

Mallard and DiBello are among eight women to sign up first for the pageant hosted by Eyes Like Mine Inc., a Newark nonprofit organization that breaks down stereotypes and stigmas associated with the blind.

This is the second pageant the group has organized, an idea that its president, Krystle Allen, thought of when she was a student at Essex County College. As she walked to class, Allen said, she could hear students referring to her as the "blind girl," a tag she didn't like.

"If they're going to call me something, they're going to call me Blind Diva,'' said Allen, who likes to dress in style and wear her trademark 6-inch high heel shoes.

From that experience, Allen and her vice president, Naquela Wright, who also is blind, rolled out the pageant idea to empower visually impaired women.

For Mallard, the pageant is an opportunity to help others struggling with blindness the way she once did.

"I was depressed and suicidal, because I felt like I was too young for this,'' said Mallard, who was 20 at the time.

"It was a struggle, but once I got over the hump, I walk in the liberty knowing that I'm more than my eyesight.''

Mallard is a poet, licensed foster parent and motivational speaker.

DiBello, after pulling herself through difficult times, such as depression, is a licensed massage therapist and has sung in several talent shows.

Born blind in her left eye, DiBello said she became legally blind in her right eye at 12 years old from retinal detachment. People were off-putting and didn't know how to interact with her, she said.

"Oh, so you can see, but you can't see,'' said DiBello, remembering how she was treated. "I didn't fit into the blind world, and I didn't fit into the sighted world.''

When she turned 20, DiBello accepted being blind and sought help on how to live. "I can see a future, whereas I didn't before,'' she said.

Now DiBello can add Diva to her platform after she and a number of other visually impaired women attended an informational session about the pageant last Saturday at the Ashley Stewart clothing store in Newark.

They came from across the state: from Keyport, Plainfield and Irvington, to Saddle Brook, Jersey City and Maplewood.

One contestant, Tekesha Saffold, 35, flew in from Palm Beach, Florida.

"I've always wanted to be a part of something like this,'' said Saffold, who lost her sight nine years ago from retinal detachment.

Saffold said she had a hard time accepting her situation, thinking her sight would return. Once she got past the denial, Saffold gradually became comfortable with visual impairment and confident in her abilities. An avid traveler, she graduated college with a bachelor's degree in social work and is now president of the National Federation of the Blind for Palm Beach County. This summer, she's planning a life-after-sight party to celebrate her accomplishments.

"I don't look at my blindness as something that holds me back,'' she said.

Neither does Tara Invidiato, 33, of Keyport, who is entering the pageant for another reason. Invidiato is deaf and blind. Her participation, she said, is to reach the deaf-blind community.

"It's very hard for the deaf-blind to come out,'' Invidiato said. "I'm trying to show them that they have the power to come out and do anything they can.''

She was born deaf, but Invidiato said losing her sight three years ago to aggressive glaucoma was tough.

"I couldn't read anything. I couldn't talk,'' she said. "Without any communication, that will drive you nuts."

MORE CARTER:'The ultimate Scout' led Newark troop for generations | Carter

Invidiato learned Braille in 10 months and continued to use American Sign Language. Today, she teaches individuals who are guides for blind people and she is on the board of directors for the American Association of the Deaf-Blind.

Eyes Like Mine takes pride in showing those of us with sight what the blind community can do.

Two years ago, the organization had blind folks wearing out the dance floor during its Dancing With the Blind competition at Essex County College in Newark. The dancers did salsa and hip-hop, liturgical and modern dance, house music and tap dance routines.

The pageant should be just as riveting.

Allen is looking for more contestants to take part in the Blind Diva competition. There will be workshops on public speaking, walking the runway, make-up tutorials. Those who are interested, can sign up at https://fs29.formsite.com/Y0fLJb/form3/index.html. The deadline is Feb. 24. Tickets are $20 in advance and $30 at the door, which happens to be The Club House, 205 Spruce St., Newark.

Come on out. Trust me, Eyes Like Mine won't disappoint. Oh yeah, they want us to dress to impress.

The Blind Divas certainly will.

Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or

nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSLJERSEY CITY -- The American Red Cross is assisting three families displaced by a fire late Friday night on Neptune Avenue.

The seven people were forced out of their home when a devastating three-alarm fire began at about 11:40 p.m., officials said. The Red Cross will help those families with emergency shelter, food, and clothing.

Sources say firefighters encountered trouble while trying to extinguish the blaze in the two-story home because of hoarding conditions.

The fire also caused minor damage to the two neighboring buildings, a city spokeswoman said. Three residents suffered injuries that were not considered life threatening.

Additionally, five dogs, two cats, and two birds, were removed from the house and most did not survive. A displaced resident told The Jersey Journal at the scene on Saturday morning eight of her pets died.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla is publicly acknowledging death threats that have made against him and his family.

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon following a security breach at City Hall Thursday, Bhalla said he and his family have been threatened and that the city is working with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force to improve security at City Hall.

"This incident, along with death threats to me and my family, is an unfortunate reminder that we need to take security seriously," Bhalla said.

The announcement came less than 24 hours after a man entered City Hall and left a bag in Bhalla's office. The man, who was not apprehended, entered the building through the Newark Avenue entrance just before 8 p.m. and went through metal detectors. He told security officers that he was going to use the restroom.

Bhalla's deputy chief of staff, Jason Freeman, was the only person still in the mayor's office at the time and noticed that a bag had been thrown in the direction of a secretary's desk. Freeman made eye contact with the man, who ran out of the office and fled the scene.

City spokesman Juan Melli referred all questions about the investigation to Hoboken police. The department's investigations bureau did not respond to an email seeking additional information on the incident and death threats.

In his statement, Bhalla said the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has "evaluated" City Hall and that the city is working with the task force to implement their recommendations for physical and procedural changes to improve security for all employees in the building."

Bhalla became the state's first Sikh mayor when he won a hotly-contested six-person race in November.

Melli said Bhalla's statement is the first time that he has publicly acknowledge the death threats.

"We take incidents like these incredibly seriously and will continue working to ensure the security of the mayor and everyone who visits City Hall," said Hoboken Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante said in a statement.A student in a northern Monmouth County school district was taken into police custody Saturday after the student made a "terroristic threat," school officials and police said.

The officials in Aberdeen Township would not disclose the nature of the alleged threat when pressed by NJ Advance Media but said there is "currently no active security threat to any school or person."

"This is an ongoing investigation and I can't comment," said Joseph Majka, superintendent of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District.

Police Chief John Powers said in a text message that "I believe that all the information we have to share is in the (press) release."

In a statement posted on Facebook, police said that the student and the student's guardians are cooperating with investigators.

Officials across the nation are on edge after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 people dead.

In New Jersey, school districts across the state have been disrupted by social media threats and rumored threats, prompting at least one district to close and charges against one teen. East Brunswick decided to bolster security by placing armed security guards at all of its schools.

"We understand that this is a stressful experience for everyone particularly given the recent events in Florida," Majka wrote in a letter to students, parents and staff. "We want to assure you that the safety and security of our students and staff continue to be our utmost priority, and we are consistently working to strengthen this area."

The district will be holding a "security forum" Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Matawan Regional High School.

It's unclear if the student was formally charged with making terroristic threats, a third-degree crime that can carry a maximum prison sentence of five years.

According to the criminal code in New Jersey, a person can be charged with making terroristic threats when that person "threatens to commit any crime of violence with the purpose to terrorize another or to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation."

Aberdeen police asked anyone with additional information on this incident to contact Detective Anthony Valentino at 732-566-2054 ext. 205.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Faith S. Hochberg, a former federal judge in New Jersey, retired from the bench in 2015.

Three years later, she has yet to be replaced.

U.S. District Judge William Martini that same year moved to senior status--a form of semi-retirement that allows a judge to continue working at a reduced case level--creating another court vacancy that also has not been filled. Both long-term openings are now considered judicial emergencies.

Last year, former Chief Judge Jerome Simandle moved to senior status as well, with at least two other judges in the federal district announcing they will soon join him in the coming months.

In a few months, the federal courts in New Jersey will be short five judges--possibly more--in a busy judicial district authorized to have 17 active judges. No one has been nominated for any of the vacancies.

"We are heading toward a judicial crisis in the federal courts in New Jersey," warned current Chief Judge Jose L. Linares. "I look at our numbers and I see what is happening and what is coming."

What he sees is a court that last year saw the number of cases grow from 9,674 to more than 13,800 filings--much of that involving complex litigation landing in New Jersey because of the state's concentration of pharmaceutical and technology industries. It puts mounting pressure on an aging judiciary.

New Jersey is not an isolated case, at a time of hard-edged political gridlock in Washington. Appointments at all levels of government have been stalled, with the courts particularly affected.

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, there are 121 District Court judicial vacancies nationwide, representing nearly 18 percent of the authorized judgeships. There are 17 vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

"Judicial vacancies are just a symptom of a system that can't compromise," observed Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University.

Last week, President Donald Trump nominated nine people to appellate and district court judgeships in some of the country's highest-profile vacancies. But more than two dozen others are awaiting confirmation in the Senate.

The district in New Jersey has been particularly hard hit, say judicial officials, with the number of lingering vacancies only part of the story.

The state's federal courts are not only near the top in the nation in total filings, but also deal with more so-called complex cases than many other courts, including class action lawsuits and other multi-party proceedings, according to monthly judiciary reports.

Linares said that based on the filings and the kind of matters that end up in New Jersey, there are already too many cases and too few judges to handle the caseload--even if the federal judiciary in the state were at full strength.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, a national policy-making body for the federal courts headed by Chief Justice John Roberts, has recommended that Congress add another three permanent judges to the district here.

"We're in a dire situation," said Linares, who has voiced his concerns to the White House and both of New Jersey's senators.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Jose L. Linares in his chambers in Newark. (Ted Sherman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

A White House spokesman said the administration does not typically comment on personnel or nominations until there is an official announcement. A spokesman for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) declined comment. The office of Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) did not respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys who practice before the federal court in New Jersey say the vacancies are having an impact.

"Cases are being pushed out further in time," said David Cook of Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark, who serves as a member of the board of trustees of the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey.

While criminal cases are not affected because of the Speedy Trial Act, which establishes time limits for completing a federal criminal prosecution, the proportion of pending cases more than three years old is currently 5.5 percent, court statistics show. While that is down from the previous year, the actual number of "old cases" languishing in the court actually increased, to 674 from 617.

"That number is going to be creeping up," predicted Cook, who said delays affect litigants and tips the scale against plaintiffs. Those appealing Social Security disability decisions are also likely to be forced to wait for a resolution of their cases, he added.

But with the Justice Department planning to expand its offensive against drug crime, more of the court's resources may need to be shifted to criminal cases, experts say.

Despite the vacancies, the federal court in New Jersey still has the services of a number of senior status judges. There are seven senior judges in the district who are able to pick the cases they want to handle, and deal with a reduced caseload.

"Our senior judges are carrying the load as much as they can," remarked Linares. "But they have the right not to have a full caseload."

The federal courthouse in Newark. (Reena Rose Sibayan | Jersey Journal file photo)

Whether the political stalemate affecting the courts can be resolved has yet to play out.

Politics always is part of the process in any judicial nomination. In 2012, Menendez initially declined to endorse the nomination of federal magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz to the U.S. Court of Appeals, in a rare fight between the president and a senator from his own party. He later reversed course and she won approval of the Senate.

The current vacancies in New Jersey stem in part to a Republican majority in the Senate willing to play hardball in the final year of the Obama presidency, according to the liberal Alliance for Justice, which focuses on judicial nominations. Laurie Kinney, a spokeswoman for the group, said the Republicans held off approval of most of Obama's nominees toward the end of his tenure, in hopes that a Republican president would be elected, leading to a big backlog in nominations.

"That gamble paid off, unfortunately," she said.

Kinney pointed to the path through the Senate for Bergen County Counsel Julien X. Neals, who was nominated to the district court by President Obama after Hochberg's retirement.

Neals received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee and his nomination was reported out of committee. But the Republican-controlled Senate never took up his nomination. It died after more than 600 days with the end of the 114th Congress.

Kinney suggested with both the Senate and the White House controlled by Republicans, there is even less motivation to work in a bipartisan fashion.

"Unfortunately, what we've seen is the unwillingness of the Trump administration to work in a bipartisan fashion," she said.

Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.(Above: Seaside Heights officials were worried that their beaches would be packed with earth-moving equipment this summer, but it now appears the town will be spared and the contractor will finish up a project begun in Ortley Beach last year.)

It's like a game of musical chairs - but with more losers.

I'm talking about the Army Corps of Engineers sand-replenishment project for the stretch of beach from Point Pleasant Beach down to South Seaside Park.

The problem with the program is that nobody knows who will be stuck when the music stops.

At first it looked like the big loser would be Seaside Heights. Now it looks like the losers will be Bay Head and Ortley Beach.

Progress has been slow on the $128 million project paid for by the feds out of Hurricane Sandy funds. The contractor is still stuck in Mantoloking, far behind schedule. Corps spokesman Ed Voigt blamed the winter weather.

Whatever the reason, local officials are worried that they'll end up with their beaches packed with pipelines and earth-moving equipment on the beach this summer.

"We're still suffering from Sandy. We're down $200 million in ratables," said Seaside Mayor Tony Vaz. "We can't have a project like that going on. It's impossible."

Vaz said he got great cooperation from the House member whose district includes Seaside Height, Republican Tom MacArthur, as well as Gov. Phil Murphy in pleading with the feds to spare his town.

As of Friday, it looked like the pleading worked. Voigt said the present plan calls for the Seaside pumping to be moved to some less-crowded spot till after Labor Day, most likely Ortley Beach.

But it looks like a project will also be operating in Bay Head this summer. As a result people are already canceling their summer rentals.

"I just heard of one person who pays $48,000 a month and canceled because of the sand-replenishment," Bay Head Mayor Bill Curtis told me.

That's a lot of dough for the homeowner to lose. But who would want to put down that kind of money if there's any chance of spending that month looking out at an industrial operation?

It's anything but a pretty sight. In Mantoloking at the moment, more than a quarter-mile of beach is off-limits to the public. It's packed with earth-moving equipment moving the sand around once it's pumped from a dredge moored out at sea.

"I just think it's dead wrong to do any of our beaches in the summer," said Curtis. "This area relies on 10 to 11 weeks of business in the summer. If we have to close beaches, the quality of life will be outrageously compromised."

It sounds like simple common sense to have the contractor take a summer vacation. But Voigt said the project is long overdue.

"Imagine if we say, 'It's a nuisance. We won't do anything this summer,' but then Sandy Two comes along the week after Labor Day," he said.

Seaside Heights officials say they would welcome the extra 300 feet of beach that the project would create.

In Bay Head, they don't welcome the project at all. The town already has a dune network. Underneath it is a 16-foot rock revetment that protected the shoreline from breaching during Sandy. This was all paid for privately, with no government funds.

Curtis argues that the Army Corps could have saved money by simply pumping sand to widen the beaches and leaving the dunes the way they are. That's also true in other towns such as Seaside Park.

"Do we want the sand? Yes," he said. "But there's a great dune system and it's not necessary to add another dune."

The residents also raised the money privately to repair the jetties that protect the town's beaches. That's a crucial element of a long-term solution, but the Christie administration refused to grant a permit to have the work done.

A prominent opponent of the project is lawyer Larry Bathgate. Bathgate is a leading Republican fund-raiser and served as finance chairman for the Reagan and Bush 41. But he has tangled publicly with Chris Christie over the project, which he said is hurting property values.

"I see more for-sale signs than I've ever seen before," said Bathgate, who lives by the ocean in Bay Head.

The reason is that homeowners will lose the ability to construct decks overlooking the ocean and might even lose the ability to access their own beaches, he said.

But why should you care about someone who has a house on the beach? Because your tax dollars are paying for this replenishment and the many re-replenishments that will be needed - that's why.

There has to be a better way.

And after this project is done, we should start looking for it.Bob Hugin, the wealthy businessman who is challenging Sen. Robert Menendez this year, is an enthusiastic supporter of Donald Trump. He gave Trump big money, served as a Trump delegate at the GOP convention, and praised him on Fox News as an "engaged, constructive and solution-oriented" president.

That means his fight will be a desperate one. Because Blue Jersey is in the middle of a primal scream against all things Trump. Two of the state's five Republican Congressmen have decided to quit rather than fight this wave, and the other three are dancing fast.

So Hugin, a political rookie, has one long shot at victory, and we heard it during his campaign kick-off Tuesday in Springfield.

"I'm embarrassed about how people think about New Jersey based on Sen. Menendez's behavior," he said. "He must be and he will be held accountable by voters in November."

Will it work?

Not likely. Not after New Jersey hears the shocking story told by Beverly Brown, a top saleswoman at the pharmaceutical company Hugin helped to build, Celgene.

Brown filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2014 accusing Celgene of putting cancer patients in danger by hiding information about potentially fatal side effects of two Celgene anti-cancer drugs. In her complaint, she recounts a mandatory conference call in which two Celgene doctors told sales executives that the drugs can cause fatal blood clots and instructed them on how to conceal the risk from doctors. Doctors, she said, were routinely paid kickbacks to prescribe Celgene drugs.

"Patients were put at risk, and patients died," says Reuben Guttman, Brown's attorney.

Celgene denies it all, but the company didn't fight the accusations in court. It settled the lawsuit for a staggering $280 million in July of last year, while Hugin served as CEO and chairman.

"Celgene settled to avoid the uncertainty, distraction, and expense of protracted litigation," says Brian Gill, a company spokesman.

Hmm. That $280 million is a lot of money, far more than anyone could spend on legal bills.

I asked Hugin about it over coffee Friday morning. A trial would have spooked investors, he said, leading to a drop in the company's value. And senior executives were busy managing an explosively successful firm that was making strides against cancer. In a company worth $71 billion, ending the lawsuit was worth $280 million.

"We would have lost billions of dollars in market capitalization," Hugin said. "And maybe we could discover the next big cancer drug instead of fighting in court."

One thing is certain: This race is going to be an ugly contest.

Hugin, now retired from Celgene, told Republicans that he's ready to spend $20 million of his own money on this campaign, and raise millions more friends. So, brace yourself for 30-second spots reminding us that Menendez flew on private jets to luxury resorts in the Caribbean and stayed at fancy hotels in Paris, all free of charge, and then somehow forgot to list mention them on his disclosure forms.

We'll hear all about the favors he did for the man who paid the bills, Salomon Melgen, a dear friend of Menendez who is now awaiting sentencing on felony fraud charges.

But a campaign like that, based on attacking Menendez's ethics, won't work if voters feel that Hugin's ethics are rotten, too. And this fraud settlement put that question in play.

Consumers groups are unhappy with Celgene, too, over its aggressive pricing strategies. In 2017, with Hugin in charge, the company spent $2.7 million lobbying to block legislation that could have sped up a generic replacement for one of its blockbuster cancer drugs, Revlimid.

"He was the poster person for stopping generics from coming to market and keeping drug prices high," says Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th).

Hugin has an admirable life story to tell, a working-class kid from Union City who got a full scholarship to Princeton, served in the Marines, and struck it rich running a company making anti-cancer drugs that are measurably extending lives.

He has no political experience, but he's been a generous Republican donor for years. He contributed $100,000 to the Trump victory fund, $250,000 to a Super Pac supporting Chris Christie's presidential run, and another $500,000 to two funds supporting Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), according to records and confirmed by the campaign.

As for his views on issues, he says he's not ready to tick off exactly where he supports Trump and where he differs, but he opposes off-shore drilling for oil, opposes the new caps on deductions for state and local taxes, and supports abortion rights.

The whistleblower lawsuit centers on charges that Celgene marketed two of its blockbuster drugs for purposes that were not approved by the FDA. The FDA approved the drugs -- Revlimid and Thalomid -- to treat a skin condition associated with leprosy, but the company sold them as treatment for a long menu of cancers, the suit charges.

That's a big deal, because the FDA doesn't want companies driven by the profit motive to market drugs for uses that have not been proven effective. By contrast, doctors are permitted to prescribe approved drugs for any purpose, presumably because they are acting purely in the interests of patients.

In 2005 and 2006, Celgene finally won approval to use both drugs against a blood cancer known as multiple myeloma, on the condition that a second drug was taken with it and that warnings about blood clots were highlighted. It's a much narrower and restricted use of the drugs than the suit alleges occurred going back to 1998.

We'll be hearing more about this fraud lawsuit, and my guess is that Hugin will offer a more detailed defense, based on the unquestioned success of these drugs today. He notes, too, that the Justice Department did not join the whistleblower suit, as it sometimes does, or require Celgene to sign a corporate integrity agreement.

The problem, for Hugin, is that his answers won't fit easily into a 30-second spot. And if Menendez can come close to reaching a draw on ethics, then this race could turn into a rout.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.By Clifford M. Kulwin

Wednesday afternoon, I opened my office door to a teenage girl and her mother. They had come to spend an hour with me to prepare for the young woman's bat mitzvah in several weeks. They were intensely, intently, focused on a cellphone. I asked what had happened.

News of the mass killing in Florida had just gotten out. One of the victims was a geography teacher, Scott Beigel, whose heroism protecting his students will surely become the stuff of legend. Beigel was also a beloved veteran member of the staff at the Poconos summer camp this girl and her sister attended. Dozens of others of "my" children have attended that camp, many now college students and young adults who had been counselors there. They all knew him. A tragedy 1,200 miles away hit home here in North Jersey.

The next morning, I learned that a 15-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff killed in the massacre -- whose mother screamed on CNN, "President Trump, pleased do something! -- attended a Jewish summer camp in Georgia where I once worked and was cousins of members of our congregation.

Difficult conversations are taking place in that home right now. And I have heard from many others with friends or relatives who live in Parkland, Florida, with children who attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

I had no idea such bonds connected Parkland and Livingston.

I wish I could say that what occurred is inconceivable. But if I did, I'd be lying. The frequency of such shootings is ... I don't even know the word to use: ludicrous, grotesque, unimaginable, fantastical? I'm at a loss. I do, however, have a word to describe elected officials who steadfastly refuse to deal with gun violence in a meaningful way: feckless. The satirical website The Onion posted a story with the headline, " 'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." Satire is never more biting than when it is accurate.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a legendary Florida journalist who died in 1998 at the age of 108. She was a ferociously outspoken advocate of women's suffrage and civil rights. She devoted the last 30 years of her life to protecting the Everglades. A St. Petersburg Times journalist who wrote many articles about her noted, "She had a tongue like a switchblade and the moral authority to embarrass bureaucrats and politicians and make things happen."

How ironic that this carnage took place in a school named for such a woman; were she alive today, she would surely be leading the charge, berating elected officials for their inaction. And we can only imagine the words she would use.

We are tempted to use words such as "tragedy" and "calamity." We should not. They imply a sense of what insurance companies call an "act of God." This was no "act of God." This was a deliberate massacre of innocent children and brave teachers. And it did not need to happen.

Gun violence in the United States kills eight times as many people per capita than in Canada, nearly 30 times as many as in Denmark, and close to 100 times as many as in Japan and South Korea; the numbers in Germany and the United Kingdom are similar. If these countries can do it, why can't we?

The answer is both simple and horrible: a lack of political will. Too few of those we elect to protect us will risk alienating campaign donors, breaking with a party orthodoxy or challenging the most powerful lobby in Washington. They are feckless. We should all be ashamed.

Florida is in mourning, as is our entire nation. But even though it is what I as a rabbi feel like I should write at this moment, I cannot bring myself to pen the words that "my prayers are with those we lost and their families." Prayer is good and important and I believe in it.

But there are moments when prayer is not enough. And this is surely one. So if you are angry -- and I hope you are -- honor those slaughtered the very best way we can. Let someone who can do something about it know how angry you are. Be direct, be clear and don't be sensitive about the words you use. Make Marjory Stoneman Douglas proud.

Clifford M. Kulwin is rabbi of Temple B'nai Abraham in Livingston.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.By Blair Bess



Now is the time to politicize gun violence. In the wake of the recent mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, how can we not?



It's tiresome to hear Republican lawmakers say it's inappropriate to politicize this tragedy. Their responses are numbingly repetitive and rote.



These lawmakers loathe the suggestion that assault weapons like AR-15's be banned outright or that gun control legislation be enacted. They hate hearing how concealed carry reciprocity laws are a bad idea, not to mention an encroachment on state's rights. They believe guns should be readily available to anyone.



Yet, there is no legitimate need for civilians to own semi-automatic assault weapons that, with minor modifications, can be transformed into fully-automatic killing machines. The kind used in Parkland, Aurora, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, and God knows how many other mass shootings to come. And don't kid yourself - many more of these atrocities are on the horizon. They've become part of the American landscape.



It was infuriating to listen to pundit Laura Ingraham on Fox News, telling her audience hours after the Parkland shooting that AR-15s are actually "popular and overwhelmingly safe."



Tell that to Broward County Sheriff Bob Israel, whose officers responded to the panic and carnage that claimed 17 lives. Israel made it clear that weapons like the AR-15 have no place in the hands of the American public.

Ingraham criticized Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) when he took to the floor of the Senate and "politicized" the shootings by saying "enough is enough." That the epidemic of mass slaughter must stop. He stated emphatically that our lawmakers are the ones ultimately responsible for these atrocities through their inaction.



Ingraham's response: "Didn't take him long to go right to gun control."



Perhaps because the 20 children and six adults killed at Sandy Hook were Blumenthal's constituents. Gun violence hit him close to home.



"Is this a problem with the gun or the shooter?" Ingraham asked a guest.



The answer is both.



There is a mental health crisis in this country, yet our government continually fails to provide adequate funds to combat it. The NRA and Republican legislators assert that it's the shooter alone, not the weapon, that is the problem. The two often go hand in hand because these weapons are available for sale to nearly anybody, including many individuals psychologically unfit to own them. This is not about the Second Amendment. It's about common sense.



The level of devastation wrought in Parkland could not have happened had the shooter not been armed with an AR-15 or similar weapon. Despite a history of violent behavior and concerns about his psychological state, he was able to go into a gun store and legally purchase an assault weapon. If assault weapons weren't readily available, he wouldn't have been able to buy one. But they are and he was.



So, let's start politicizing gun violence. Let's politicize it every single day. Just like the NRA politicizes gun ownership, lobbies lawmakers, and stands intransigently opposed to gun laws designed to protect American lives.



Is it healthy to drop our kids off at school, kiss them goodbye, then spend anxious hours wondering whether they will be alive and well by day's end?



Do we want to avoid public places like stadiums, arenas, and concerts, unsure of whether the pop-pop-pop interspersed with the music or the roar of the crowd is part of the show, or someone unloading an AR-15?



Do we want to go to work or a work-related event, as in San Bernardino, and be greeted by radicalized individuals who had easy access to assault weapons?



No matter what Republican leaders say or want to believe, politicization of gun violence in the wake of mass shootings is unavoidable.



For every parent, family member, friend, or co-worker, each new tragic episode will produce hundreds - perhaps thousands - more politicized Americans. They are increasingly frustrated by unresponsive legislators; sickened by the insanity. And they vote.

Blair Bess is a Los Angeles-based television writer, producer, and columnist. He edits the online blog Soaggragated.com, and can be reached at BBess.soaggragated@gmail.com.

Send Op-eds and letters to The Jersey Journal at jjletters@jjournal.com.WASHINGTON -- Democratic chances of keeping one House seat in New Jersey and winning two more have improved, according to one of the Washington-based publications tracking congressional races.

In its latest ratings, Inside Elections gave a slight edge to Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist.

It called the 2nd District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., a toss-up.

And it downgraded the chances of Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist., to win re-election.

While a president's party traditionally loses congressional seats in an off-year election, President Donald Trump is having an outsized influence in a state where only 34 percent in a Gallup poll approve of his performance in office.

"President Trump is fueling the Democratic Party right now," said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections. "He's the reason for the energy. He's the reason for the campaign donations. He's the reason some of these candidates are getting into the race."

Trump's major accomplishment was a tax bill that disproportionately affected New Jersey by curbing the federal deduction for state and local taxes. The legislation imposed a net federal tax increase on a state that already sends billions of dollars more to Washington than it receives in services.

Except for Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist., the entire bipartisan New Jersey congressional delegation voted against the Republican tax bill.

"New Jersey families are facing increased health care premiums, higher taxes, and depressed home values, and they know this Republican Congress is to blame," said Evan Lukaske, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Republicans dismissed the forecasts.

"As we saw in 2016, Beltway prognostications regularly miss the mark when it comes to electoral outcomes," said Chris Martin, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Republicans are running strong campaigns across New Jersey and voters will reward us for delivering on our promises in November."

Gottheimer, who ousted seven-term Republican Rep. Scott Garrett, began the off-year election as the New Jersey lawmaker most likely to lose his re-election bid in 2018. But he raised almost $3 million through Dec. 31, far outpacing both of his opponents, former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan and John McCann, general counsel to the New Jersey Sheriffs Association.

Lance represents one of only 23 Republican-held congressional districts carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016 and one of his Democratic challengers, former assistant U.S. Secretary of State Tom Malinowski, consolidated his support and had just $160,000 less to spend than the incumbent entering January.

Democrats also received a boost when LoBiondo announced his retirement after 24 years in Congress. State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, has emerged as the early frontrunner.

"Democrats could pick up a handful of seats in New Jersey because of a combination of open seats, candidate recruitment and a good cycle," Gonzales said.

The DCCC has targeted all five GOP-held congressional districts this November. The Democrats need to pick up 24 Republican seats to win a House majority.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.On Sept. 28, 2016, Florida's Department of Children and Families logged a call on its abuse hotline. Nikolas Cruz, 18 at the time, who has now admitted to carrying out the second worst school shooting in U.S. history, was on Snapchat cutting both of his arms, the caller said.

The Miami Herald reports the call came after Cruz broke up with his girlfriend, got into a fight with another boy and drew a Nazi symbol on his book bag. Six weeks later, the state agency concluded its investigation by determining Cruz was receiving adequate care from a counselor at a mental health center.

Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Cruz, who is diagnosed with autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, has a history of openly sharing anti-semitic, racist and homophobic views on social media.

He also appeared to have an obsession with guns and violence. CNN reported Saturday that Cruz was a frequent participant in a small private Instagram group called "Murica (American flag emoji) (eagle emoji) great". In one part of the group chat, Cruz wrote how he hated, "jews, n----rs, and immigrants." He also frequently talked about wanting to kill Mexicans. After another member of the group expressed hatred for gay people, Cruz responded, "Shoot them in the back of the head."

Cruz's behavior had been reported to the authorities with little action. On Friday, The Associated Press reported that the FBI acknowledged it had failed to investigate a tip about him in January. The agency was given information about Cruz's guns and his expressed desire to kill people and his disturbing posts on social media. In a statement Friday, the bureau said the tip should have been investigated thoroughly.A 21-year-old man was shot to death on North Broad Street in New Orleans early Sunday (Feb. 18), NOPD said.

Officers about 2:10 a.m. responded to a call of shots fired during a fight involving a large group of people on the 700 block of North Broad, near Orleans Avenue, the department said in a news release. They found a male victim with a gunshot wound to his upper chest and stomach. EMS personnel treated him at the scene, but he was later pronounced dead, NOPD said.

The department said the coroner will release the victim's name after notifying family and completing an autopsy. Police did not immediately have information on a suspect or a motive for the fatal shooting.

Hours after the fight, NOPD homicide detectives were still canvassing the area for evidence in the 700 and 800 blocks of N. Broad, just past St. Ann Street.

Around 8:30 a.m. an officer could be seen carrying what appeared to be a piece of cardboard to the NOPD crime scene van. She also collected items from the median on North Broad as well as from the street itself.

Yellow crime scene tape dangled from the door of a nearby lounge in the 700 block of North Broad and on a fence further down the sidewalk in the 800 block of North Broad.

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Authorities have not released any additional details about the fight that turned deadly, including where the fight started.

Anyone with information on this incident may contact NOPD homicide detectives at 504.658.5300, or can call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 1.877.903.STOP.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the location as being in North Broad Avenue. It's North Broad Street.

Staff writer Littice Bacon-Blood contributed to this report.New Orleans Police are seeking the public's help in identifying three men wanted in connection with the shooting of two teenagers on Mardi Gras day in the Central Business District. The men were captured on surveillance footage leaving the scene.

According to the NOPD, a fight involving about 10 people broke out less than a block from the downtown parade route just after 3:15 p.m. on Fat Tuesday. During the fight, one of the men in the group fired a gun, striking two teenage boys, police said.

The victims are 15 and 16 years old, police said. One of the teens was shot in the leg and the other in the head, according to NOPD. The victims' conditions were not known Saturday, but one was reported to be in critical condition Tuesday.

Police ask anyone with information about the identities or locations of the three men to contact detectives at 504-658-6080 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.Police are looking for two 'persons of interest' as officers investigate the shooting of a man Saturday afternoon (Feb. 17) in the Warehouse District, the department said Sunday.

The 26-year-old man was brought by a private vehicle to a hospital about 3:20 p.m., and he told police he had been shot in the 800 block of Magazine Street, according to NOPD. Police did not detail the man's condition Sunday.

The department released surveillance camera images of two men NOPD said were seen nearby when the shooting occurred. The men "are not wanted in connection with this incident, but detectives wish to interview them," the department said.

A large puddle of water could be seen Saturday afternoon in the intersection of Magazine and St. Joseph streets, where a person who declined to give her name said firefighters had recently washed away the victim's blood.

An official at the scene Saturday, whose name is being withheld because he wasn't authorized to speak with the media, said the incident involved three people who were shooting at each other. He said he did not know where on his body the victim was shot, "but there was a lot of blood."

Anyone with information about the men in the photos or about the shooting may contact NOPD detectives at 504.658.6080, or call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 1.877.903.STOP.

Staff writer Marie Simoneaux contributed to this report.Attention, clean freaks: Those cleaning supplies you love so much just might be killing you. According to a report published Friday (Feb. 16) in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers from universities in Norway said recent studies suggest common cleaning sprays could present long-term health concerns for frequent users.

The most attention-getting finding: Regular use of cleaning sprays -- as little as once a week -- over a 20-year period may cause a decline in lung function on par with that seen by people who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years.

A key caveat: The decline in lung function in women who clean appears to be greater that experienced by men.

"While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact," senior author Cecile Svanes was quoted as saying by Science Daily. "We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age."

The study followed more than 6,200 people from 22 health institutions for 20 years. Participants were asked to record what cleaning products they used and in what quantity.

Researchers suspect the negative health impacts of sprays is caused by repeated inhaling of small particles from cleaning chemicals, which irritate the mucous membrane lining air passages.

Their advice? Can the sprays.

"The take home message of this study is that in the long run cleaning chemicals very likely cause rather substantial damage to your lungs," the researchers wrote. "These chemicals are usually unnecessary; microfiber cloths and water are more than enough for most purposes."A few questions for your Sunday morning. Why does Louisiana's Attorney General Jeff Landry, President Donald Trump, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and the GOP Congress -- including many in Louisiana's delegation -- want to drown south Louisiana over the next 40 years?

This is not an outrageous charge. It is based on this fact: Each of those policy makers has recently called climate change a hoax or continues to oppose regulations and research that could reduce the sea level rise the state's own scientists say will drown almost everything between Lake Charles and Slidell by 2067.

Just a year ago the latest edition of the Coastal Master Plan handed to the Legislature by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority contained these warnings:

Louisiana is locked into losing 1,200 to 2,800 square miles of our current coastal zone to the Gulf of Mexico by 2067.

The number of communities, industries and jobs consumed by the Gulf will depend on how successful the world is in reducing the carbon emissions driving warming-caused sea level rise.

Lower emissions will mean more dry land by 2067 - and the hope that some of that will remain dry by the end of the century.

All of this will happen

The Legislature then unanimously approved the plan -- therefore making all of those climate science-based statements and warnings official state policy.

Yet, last week there was AG Landry claiming the science behind climate change and sea level rise is a hoax. This politician and part-time lawyer went on to give his learned opinion on why all those scientists in the state and around the world are wrong.

Who you gonna believe, he asks? A pol already running for governor and backed by carbon-polluting industries, or scientists presenting peer-reviewed facts, measurements and studies dating back decades -- and supported by the state's GOP-dominated Legislature?

Landry's act was doubly embarrassing for the state because it overshadowed the coastal good news his press conference was about: Suing the Army Corps of Engineers for land loss caused by its poor maintenance of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Yes, this is the same guy who opposes efforts to sue oil companies for their far greater role in coastal loss - but the corps doesn't make campaign contributions.

In the same week we had Pruitt, the lawyer from an oil state and noted climate skeptic (see a pattern?) now in charge of our nation's environmental health, asking if climate change was necessarily a "bad thing."

Now, if you farm in a northern state where warming could mean a longer growing season, maybe that's a good thing. Or, if you own a shipping company that sees shortened trade routes thanks to the loss of Arctic sea ice, you could profit.

But if you live on the bottom third of Louisiana where the average elevation is 2.5 feet, and we're expecting at least 3 to 5 feet of sea level rise and sinking by the end of the century -- climate change is a killer.

A loud cry of protest should have immediately come from our political leaders, taking advantage of this headlined sound bite to explain our desperate need for action. Yet there was nary a peep of protest reported from anyone elected to protect Louisiana coastal residents.

Then, of course, there's the case of our Denier-in-Chief, the former reality TV star elected by a wide margin of Louisiana voters, President Trump.

If the budget he released last week is any judge, he obviously hates most of those Louisiana voters below Interstate 10 who supported him. It's an aggressive attack on almost every federal program aimed at addressing climate change and the emissions that are drowning Louisiana.

He wants to cut the EPA budget 23 percent primarily by targeting programs that either study climate change, fund efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions or pursue industries that violate pollution laws and regulations that help reduce emissions. These include the Global Change Research Program, the Atmospheric Protection Program, and NASA satellite programs to keep watch on levels of sea ice and sea level rise.

His effort to remove scientific facts that contradict his ill-formed opinions is highlighted by this item: The budget for the Office of Science and Technology would be cut by one third from $762 million to $489 million. If you don't like the facts, kill the programs producing them.

All of these programs help inform the scientists and engineers working to save some of what is left of south Louisiana. Eliminating them or even cutting them back reduces the hopes that our grandchildren will have a dry place to live here even before 2065.

That's why it's not an exaggeration to say the people making those statements or voting to cut those programs and regulations must want south Louisiana to drown.

Our own scientists say there is no other result. And our Legislature has agreed.

Now all we need are GOP voters to demand a change on these subjects from the people they support - before it's too late.

Bob Marshall, former Outdoors editor for The Times-Picayune and former environmental reporter for The Lens, writes a regular column. He can be reached at bmarshallenviro@gmail.com.#BTS BTS to hold online concert next month K-pop superband BTS will hold an online concert next month to meet fans across the world, its management agency said Wednesday. The concert, titled "BTS Permission To Dance On ...In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote, and his opponent Richard M. Nixon won 49.5 percent. That means Kennedy entered the White House with near equal numbers of people who had voted for and against him. But in a 1964 poll, only 36 percent of those surveyed said they'd voted for Nixon, as a whopping 64 percent claimed to have voted for the assassinated Kennedy. We can assume that poll captured the public's reluctance to express opposition to a president who'd been murdered -- because the actual election numbers show that Kennedy hadn't even persuaded half of those who voted to support him, to say nothing of almost two thirds.

A similar revision occurred and is yet occurring with Martin Luther King Jr. Few people who were alive during the 1950s and 1960s will admit opposition to King despite a 1966 Gallup poll -- the last one Gallup did during King's lifetime -- finding that 63 percent of Americans had a negative opinion of him.

And in 1966, King had yet to express one of his most polarizing positions: opposition to the Vietnam War.

"With Martin Luther King's murder, our country lost one of it's (sic) most powerful voices of reason, ever," reader @fewe2 wrote in response to a recent NOLA.com column. "And there has not been anyone to replace him. I've often wondered, how much better off we would be as a harmonious society today, had he remained alive. Perhaps we would not be so divided a country as we are today."

One wonders why the reader believes that.

"I don't think we'd be that much better off," I answered, "and I say that in response to opinion polls that show how reviled/hated he was when he was alive. If he were alive, it's probably the case that he would be accused of being divisive, just as he was when he was alive."

A couple of readers expressed shock that I'd say such a thing. Their responses suggested a belief that they value King more than I do and that I am not sufficiently upset that he was killed. But I wasn't expressing any satisfaction over King's assassination. I was challenging the belief that if he were here, we'd be "harmonious."

That requires a naivete I can't muster.

Deifying King has become a backhanded way to demonize civil rights leaders and activists who are fighting the good fight today. Todays' warriors may not be King's equals, but neither are they as different from him as the superficial King admirers would have you believe.

King was a disrupter, a disrupter of the highest order. So if you have a problem with today's disruptive activists, then you'd probably have a problem with him. If, for example, you're among the 57 percent of Americans who expressed a negative opinion of Black Lives Matter in an August 2017 Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll, then you'd probably be opposed to whatever King would be doing today.

In a 1996 PBS documentary, Andrew Young, who was in King's inner circle, said King described him as "too well-adjusted" and told Young he was in greater need of "creatively maladjusted" people who couldn't make peace with the social order.

The maladjusted don't win popularity contests. They turn people off.

"Do you approve or disapprove of what the 'Freedom Riders' are doing?" Gallup asked Americans in 1961, and 61 percent said, "Disapprove."

From that same survey: "Do you think 'sit-ins' at lunch counters, 'freedom buses,' and other demonstrations by Negroes will hurt or help the Negro's chances of being integrated in the South?" Fifty-seven percent said, "Hurt."

Gallup says at its website that "King's image became more negative as the years went on." So, unlike the 1966 Gallup survey showing 63 percent with negative opinions of King, an April 1963 poll from the National Opinion Research Center found that 71 percent believed King was "moving at the right speed."

Even so, a Gallup poll from August 1963 found 60 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the scheduled March on Washington: 18 percent believing it wouldn't accomplish anything, 7 percent believing it would be violent, and 35 percent just being generally opposed.

In 1964, 73 percent of respondents told Gallup it was time for protesters to stop protesting because they'd made their point already. And a 1966 Harris Survey asked white people, "I'd like to ask you if you were in the same position as Negroes, if you think it would be justified or not to march and protest in demonstrations." More than half, 54 percent, said "not justified."

Cornell University's Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, which has archived the above opinion polls, states the obvious on its website: "Protest movements look better in hindsight."

So do dead civil rights leaders.

Hating King's assassination is one thing. Loving his work is another. If you think today's social justice advocates are too disruptive and confrontational, then why exactly are you wishing King were here?

Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA.COM | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jdeberry@nola.com or at twitter.com/jarvisdeberry.President Donald Trump's proposed 2019 budget is ugly for environmental protection. He wants to slash roughly one-fourth of the Environmental Protection Agency's funding and eliminate entire restoration and climate programs.

He would end funding for partnerships to monitor and restore water quality in the Gulf of Mexico, Puget Sound and other major bodies of water. Funding to restore Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes would be cut dramatically -- from $72 million to $7 million for the Chesapeake and from $300 million to $30 million for the Great Lakes.

His budget essentially would eliminate more than a dozen climate change-related programs and reduce spending on flood protection. It also would cut federal funding for monitoring toxic substances, pushing the responsibility onto states -- which have fewer resources to do the work.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Geological Survey also are targeted with significant cuts in the White House budget. The National Weather Service, for instance, would lose about 250 positions, and funding for weather forecast models, hydrological models and climate research would be cut, according to Ars Technica.

If Congress allowed the cuts to go through, it would be a severe blow to Louisiana and other states vulnerable to rising seas and eroding shorelines. There is reason to hope that won't happen.

"The good news is that Trump proposed a similarly draconian budget last year, and Congress ignored it. ... Still, as a window into Trump's view of the role of science, the documents present a grim picture," John Timmer, Ars Technica's science editor, said.

There is one positive development for Louisiana in the 2019 budget proposal. President Trump abandoned his push to take away the oil and gas royalties promised to Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states.

His budget a year ago proposed killing the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, or GOMESA. That would have been devastating to Louisiana's work to slow coastal erosion and rebuild lost land.

The federal government for decades has kept all of the oil and gas royalties produced by drilling off Louisiana's coast, leaving the state to bear the brunt of environmental damage caused by pipelines. Former Sen. Mary Landrieu finally persuaded Congress in 2006 to give Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas a 37.5 percent of new revenue.

The law went into effect in 2007, but until now it was restricted to two small portions of the Gulf.

The real payoff was delayed until 2018. And as that date edged closer, first President Barack Obama and then President Trump tried to take back the money. Neither succeeded, but it is a relief that the Trump administration seems to have given up on it.

Louisiana Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy both issued statements celebrating the GOMESA victory. It is very good news.

"GOMESA funding for Louisiana coastal restoration projects is vital for our nation's economic and energy security, and we made that clear to (Interior) Secretary (Ryan) Zinke when he visited our state in December," Sen. Cassidy said. "I'm glad the administration heard us loud and clear and decided to support offshore revenue sharing."

Sen. Cassidy, who serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise also were able to get nearly $300 million in additional funding for coastal restoration for Gulf Coast states in 2020 and 2021 in the tax bill that passed in December.

The money was needed to offset dramatically lower estimates for royalty payments than the state was expecting.

Instead of getting $140 million per year in oil and gas royalties, the Department of the Interior said in October that Louisiana would get only about half that much. Twenty coastal parishes were expecting to split as much as $37 million, but that also was cut in half.

Louisiana is using its share of royalties to pay for its 50-year coastal master plan. The royalty payments won't pay the entire cost, but they are the only ongoing source of revenue for restoration. Paying for those projects is a matter of life and death for some communities.

Now our delegation needs to make sure the rest of the president's budget doesn't undermine our safety.Two women and a dog were killed early Saturday (Feb. 17) in two separate traffic accidents in Jefferson Parish, according to Louisiana State Police.

Jennifer Holpp, 23, was driving a Kawasaki motorcycle on Interstate 10 near the Causeway Boulevard exit shortly after 1 a.m. when she lost control of the motorcycle while rounding a curve and crashed into a concrete barrier, according to State Trooper Melissa Matey.

Holpp was thrown off her bike and over the barrier onto Causeway Boulevard. She was pronounced dead on the scene, Matey said.

Matey said Holpp was wearing an approved helmet when she crashed but was likely driving over the speed limit. It was unknown if she was intoxicated at the time of the accident. Matey said a toxicology test will be done during her autopsy.

Just before 6 a.m., 58-year-old Maria Adams was walking her dog on Boyce Street in Jefferson. As she was crossing Jefferson Highway, Adams and her dog were both struck by a 55-year-old man driving a Chevrolet Silverado. Adams and the dog were both pronounced dead on the scene, Matey said.

The driver of the Chevrolet gave a breath sample, Matey said, and no alcohol was detected in his system.

Both crashes remain under investigation, Matey said.

No further information was immediately available.Uganda has no agreement with Israel to resettle tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers, according to the minister for Refugees, Eng Hillary Onek.



The claims are that Uganda and Rwanda struck an agreement to resettle tens of thousands of refugees and economic migrants from Israel in return for unspecified monetary and military assistance from Israel.

Minister Hillary Onek addressing journalists

Reports suggest that already some of the rejected refugees and economic migrants are actually in Uganda. The affected refugees are mainly from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.



Minister Onek says he has heard claims that Ugandan immigration officials have intercepted the rejected refugees and economic migrants trying to enter Uganda from Rwanda, hastily adding that the police and immigration would be in a better place to comment on the claims.

According to Onek, anyone who attempts to enter into Uganda illegally would be committing a crime and should be dealt with under the law. He adds that Uganda cannot bring in 'burdens' yet the country already has many problems.



Onek also says that the ongoing investigation into corruption and mismanagement of the refugee's humanitarian response will deal with fresh biometric registration of refugees, especially urban ones, and asylum seekers.



He says that the investigations will also cover claims that refugees or asylum seekers have to bribe government officials in order to be offered registration assistance. Addressing journalists at Uganda Media Centre, Onek said police investigators as well as investigators from UN agencies have been given a month to conclude the probe.

He said the investigations commenced about a week ago. Once hailed as 'paradise for refugees', Uganda's refugee programme recently came international scrutiny following allegations of inflated refugee numbers so as to get more aid.

There are also allegations of human trafficking, with young South Sudanese girls and women forcibly taken back to their troubled country.



Onek noted that government has shown the strongest commitment to deal with anyone embezzling refugee's funds and food, something that has tainted Uganda's global image as a generous country when it comes to welcoming refugees.

Onek said the mismanagement could have been caused by increase of refugees in the country in the last two years. This, Onek said led to exponential growth of players involved in refugees affairs hence stretching the existing supervision and coordination capacity in the office of Prime Minister.



In the last two years, the refugee's population has grown from about 400,000 to over 1.4 million. Majority of these came from South Sudan. He said the ongoing biometric re-verification of refugees will ascertain whether these numbers are really correct.



The food distribution that has largely been affected by corruption is handled by international and local NGOs contracted by World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). For instance, Onek revealed that NGOs such as Samaritan Purse and World Vision have been handling food distribution in western Uganda and West Nile respectively.



Hilary Onek explained that food distribution is done monthly depending on available in World Food Programme stores. The role of Prime Minister's office in food distribution is to develop a food log as per registered refugees in the biometric system.



The food log of refugees is handed over to World Food Programme which then hands it over to contracted NGOs to start food distribution.



Minister Onek says Uganda's refugee policy is still among if not the best in the world. He cited Asians, especially from Pakistan who jetted into the country, claimed refugee status, yet they are now engaged in brisk businesses like car imports and sales and are making lots of profits.



He also cited Muslims of the Ahmadiyya sect who claim they are persecuted in the Middle East and Asia in order to acquire refugee status and end up as prosperous business people.BEIJING: China on Saturday warned it would take necessary measures to protect its interests if the US imposes tough trade sanctions against its steel and aluminium exports.



The US Commerce Department on Friday recommended imposing heavy tariffs on China and other countries to counter a global glut in steel and aluminum, laying out an array of possible options in a report to President Donald Trump.



The move gives Trump the opportunity to strike a highly public blow for his America first trade policy  he is due to decide on the measures next month  but has stoked fears of retaliation and a trade war between the worlds two largest economies.



If the United States final decision affects Chinas interests, we will take necessary measures to defend our rights, said Wang Hejun, a director at Chinas commerce ministry, in a statement responding to the US report.



The US report framed concerns about Chinese overproduction in terms of national security and defence  an approach refuted by Wang.



The findings of the investigations (of the US Department of Commerce) are groundless and do not correspond to reality, he said.



Washington should not lightly adopt restrictive measures under the pretext of national security ... a vague formula that can easily lead to abuse, he said.



China produces about half of the worlds steel but supplies less than two percent of the steel imported by the United States.



The US and EU argue Chinese overproduction is heavily subsidised by the state and has depressed world prices, hurting their own domestic production.



Trump on Tuesday accused Beijing of decimating American steel and aluminium industries, saying he was considering all options.AFP



MUNICH: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said that we can proudly say that no organized militants camps exist on the soil of Pakistan.



The Army Chief stated this while addressing the security conference at Munich, Germany on Saturday.



COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa in his address threw light on Pakistans viewpoint on global and regional security.



He said, Pakistan defeated Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban and other outlawed militant groups, and we can proudly say that no organized militant camps exist on Pakistani soil.



The Army Chief said that terrorists have sanctuaries in Afghanistan from where, through their facilitators, attacks are being coordinated against Pakistan.



He said that Pakistan is ready to cooperate for peace and stability in Afghanistan, however, stressed on joint efforts by all the countries to eradicate the menace of terrorism.



COAS Genera Bajwa expressing concerns over terrorists presence in Afghanistan, said that Pakistan has undertaken fencing of its border with Afghanistan and that elimination of terrorism requires global cooperation.



We can proudly say that there are no militant camps in Pakistan, he said, mentioning reports of Daesh (Islamic State) militants regrouping in Afghanistan.



The COAS said that Pakistan has been implementing National Action Plan (NAP) in the war against terrorism.



He said that Pakistan is not just conducting military offensives against terrorists; rather it has also taken action against the financiers.



General Bajwa said the menace of terrorism was fought through joint efforts by the entire nation, noting that clerics from all schools of thought issued a decree against terrorism in the name of religion.INP



May pleads for urgent post-Brexit EU security deal



British Prime Minister Theresa May pleaded Saturday for an urgent deal with the European Union on post-Brexit security cooperation, warning that citizens lives were at stake.



In a speech at the Munich Security Conference, she acknowledged that no deal currently exists between the EU and a third country that captures the full depth and breadth of our existing relationship.



But she said there was no reason both sides could not come up with practical ways to create a deep and special partnership on security.



We cannot delay discussions on this, May said.



She also warned European partners not to put politics above cooperation against crime and terrorism.



This cannot be a time when any of us allow competition between partners, rigid institutional restrictions or deep-seated ideology to inhibit our cooperation and jeopardise the security of our citizens, May told the audience.



She cautioned that if there were no special deal on security by the time Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019, speedy extraditions under the European Arrest Warrant would cease.



And if the UK were no longer part of Europol, the EUs law enforcement agency, information sharing would be hampered  undermining the fight against terrorism, organised crime and cyberattacks.



This would damage us both and put all our citizens at greater risk, May said, urging European leaders to show some real creativity and ambition in coming up with a bespoke UK-EU security pact.



We must now move with urgency to put in place the treaty to protect all European citizens wherever they are in Europe, May said.



Some experts have warned that cooperation on police and security matters could be limited by Britains refusal to fully accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after Brexit.



May appeared to respond to those concerns by saying the UK would respect the remit of the ECJ when working with EU agencies, in return for respect for our unique status as a third country.



But as a country outside the European Union, we will have our own sovereign legal order, so the European Court of Justice will no longer have jurisdiction in the United Kingdom.



European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, in his own speech at the top security gathering in Munich, said the bloc was not at war with the UK and warned against mixing up security with other Brexit issues.



The security bridge between the UK and the EU will be maintained, he said.



But I dont want throw security considerations in the same pot as trade policy issues.AFP



Hotel Business News and Analytics

Important! This article is written by orangesmile.com editors and is protected by copyright law. The article can only be re-used with a direct link to www.orangesmile.com

NEWS BLOCKS:

The UK Enjoys More Visitors from China

The UK is even more popular with tourists from China. There was a steady growth in 2017, and the country is going to welcome even more visitors who come to the UK during their Chinese New Year holidays.



During the first half of 2017, the UK enjoyed 33% more visits from China. The spending was growing even faster  48% up. The total number of visits from China to the UK estimated approximately 330,000 and the spending was 667 million. According to forecasts, these figures will only grow in 2018, so the estimated total number of visits is 349,000 and the total spending of Chinese in the UK is expected to hit 722 million. While these numbers do not look extraordinary, it is important to mention that in the period from 2006 to 2016 the number of visits from China to the UK has more than doubled.



Chinese New Year, which is celebrated this week in the country (February 16), is a prime time for Chinese tourists to travel, and many of these visits will be made to the UK. Moreover, this country hosts one of the largest Lunar New Year celebrations outside Asia. Hotels in Manchester and Birmingham might attract more tourists from Asia as these cities are hosting festive parades, lion dances, and other performances. There are also special events in Durham, Glasgow, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. Of course, London is in the epicenter of the Lunar New Year celebration with special parades conducted on Trafalgar Square and Chinatown.



For the UK, tourism is one of the major sources of income, and China is the largest outbound tourism market in the world. Therefore, there is no wonder why the UK is very interested in attracting more guests from China. VisitBritain has ambitious plans regarding 2018 and is launching a new campaign in China that will show that Britain is a fun place to visit and has many interesting experiences to enjoy. First images and short films have already appeared in China. They show little-known landmarks and unique experiences in Britain and then encourage viewers to Find Your GREAT Britain.



Chinese visitors are among the biggest spenders in the UK. On average, they spend 1,972 per visit, which is nearly three times higher than the average sum across all markets. Chinese visitors also tend to stay longer during their visit in the UK  they spend 10 nights during their British holidays, while the rest prefer to spend six nights.

18.02.2018Stay in touch with the latest news of a worldwide hotel industry. All up-to-date analytics, reports , and news about hotel business trends on OrangeSmile.com.When it comes to innovating in health care, Oregon has stayed true to its trailblazing heritage. The state remade its Medicaid network to address patients' medical, dental and mental health needs with an emphasis on prevention. It jumped at the chance to expand its Medicaid program to include hundreds of thousands of more Oregonians living on the edges of poverty. And it committed last year to provide health care coverage for all children, regardless of citizenship or immigration status.

So it's not surprising that legislators would be positioning the state to become the first in the nation to declare health care access a constitutional right - especially in defiance of the Trump Administration's hostility. Legislators in the House last week passed House Joint Resolution 203, which seeks voter approval to add a new section to the Oregon Constitution establishing the state's obligation "to ensure that every resident of Oregon has access to cost-effective, medically appropriate and affordable health care as a fundamental right." The resolution is now under consideration in the state Senate, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Hillary Borrud reported.

But while HJR 203 is fueled by the best of intentions, amending the constitution is unnecessary, confusing - and even risky from a legal point of view. The Oregon Senate should reject the resolution and remind their House colleagues of their existing power - through the budget decisions they make and the priorities they establish - to pursue these same goals.

One reason Oregonians should be wary of this effort: No one seems to know what adding health care access as a constitutional right would really mean. Several lawmakers describe the proposed amendment as articulating an "aspirational" goal. That's an oddly non-committal attitude for a provision that they want to enshrine in the Constitution.

And what's "aspirational" to some legislators could be seen as an iron-clad commitment by Oregonians who feel they aren't getting access to the "cost-effective, medically appropriate and affordable health care" that the proposed amendment calls for.

Legislative lawyers have acknowledged that if voters approve the amendment, the state could face lawsuits over whether it is meeting its obligations. Considering that the proposed amendment includes several subjective terms, it's not hard to imagine a lot of time, money and energy spent on lawsuits arguing the finer points of what's "medically appropriate" or "cost-effective."

The Legislature is also making promises that it simply can't keep right now, as the League of Women Voters has pointed out. Despite the group's stalwart support of broadening access to health care, the organization opposes HJR 203 for the pragmatic reason that the federal government isn't on board with an expansion and the state can't pay for what it's promising on its own. "The State of Oregon has insufficient income to support its current responsibilities and cannot provide the added cost of health care coverage for all its residents at this time," the League wrote in prepared testimony.

Oregonian editorials

Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.

To respond to this editorial, post your comment below, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor.

If you have questions about the opinion section, email Laura Gunderson, editorial pages editor, or call 503-221-8378.

Certainly, there's value to hearing from voters if they support universal access to health care, as the resolution's chief backer, Rep. Mitch Greenlick notes. Getting that public support is even more important as the federal government looks to gut funding. That support would send legislators a message to dedicate themselves to that goal even in these uncertain times.

But priorities don't exist in a vacuum. Do Oregonians value health care as a constitutional right over, for instance, affordable housing? Would they support funding one to the detriment of another? Oregonians expect legislators to fund both needs thoughtfully - along with education and child-welfare and many other services - without having to specifically direct them with constitutional amendments.

Besides, Oregonians are learning that legislators don't necessarily heed their messages anyway. Voters overwhelmingly passed three ballot measures in 2016 in education and veterans' services, but legislators failed to fully fund a single one of them.

In fact, Greenlick said he believes that even if voters were to reject the proposed amendment, lawmakers would still work toward expanding coverage. Which raises the question again: Why do we need a constitutional amendment? The Oregon Senate should save Oregonians from an expensive campaign and just acknowledge that we don't.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial BoardHarry Hudson may have first found fame as the hilarious kid who kept popping up in Kylie Jenner's snapchats, but the 23-year-old says there's far more to him  and to life itself  than the moments we've glimpsed on social media.

In 2013, Hudson was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's Lymphoma and told he had less than a year to live, an experience which he credits with teaching him to let go of ego and pretense, and instead focus on embracing a message of love and positivity  not in fear of death, but in a spiritual embrace of it.

Related | Harry Hudson Joins Us in the PAPER Penthouse



As Hudson prepares to release his debut album next month, he's been reflecting on how facing the thing humans fear most, death, has altered his perception of the world. His public-facing life, which began with his famous friendships with the Jenners and MSFTS bandmates like Jaden and Willow Smith and grew along with his artistic presence, has allowed him a front row seat to the pathos and obsessions of the current generation.

In stark contrast to his embrace of an eastern-style philosophy and a mindfulness-centered approach to daily living, what he sees around him is the insecurity, jealousy and fear bred by social media and adjacent heavy reliance on external validation. Hudson's mission is to create music, like his new singles " Cry For Love," "Yellow Lights" and "Gone" that leads by example through sharing his own journey to peace.

Hudson visited the PAPER offices during Fashion Week with his band in tow to speak about his work, depression, the cognitive dissonance of fame and why facing your fears is the surest path to clarity:

You have a new short film coming out soon to accompany your album. What was the process of making that like?

We filmed it in Lone Pine, which is like 5 hours up north of LA. It's like this modern day western love story. I'm just a huge fan of western movies. It just takes you to this nostalgic world. It was really important that the music and picture matched to make the perfect combination. It was just really exciting to make because it was a different way for me to tell my story of the album. The album is very much a tale of a dark point in my life to a light point in my life. It's dark the whole album, until the last song where I found who I am, what I want to do in my life, and my happiness. The movie represents the exact same feeling but told in a different story.



Where does the darkness come from?

It was actually after the fact that I beat cancer, I went through a really bad depression. I was just really lost and at a dark point in my life where I considered suicide or considered all of this bad shit, and it made no sense. Doing Xanax and all of that stuff all the time, because I just wanted to numb how I felt. Society was so numbing to me, and everyone was so fake and so insecure. It's not their fault, it's just that they're afraid to live. It's like you beat cancer and you're full of life and you're like, "I wanna live life!" You're going around to everyone hoping they have the same attitude but no one does, and everyone thinks you're so weird. Like, "Why are you so happy?"

So that just made me really depressed, and it was like I didn't want to live in this society, truthfully. I didn't truly love myself. If I love myself I wouldn't care about society. I could wake up everyday, talk to somebody and you'll project an energy. Now, I can talk to anybody. I constantly always meet new people and always make new friends, but before I wouldn't go out of my way to have a conversation because I was prejudging people, like they're probably going to be an asshole. Until the point where I loved myself so much, but I had to find that love. Whatever you project, you're going to get it right back.

Was there something that inspired you to make that change? Was it something you read or was it meditation?

Meditation for sure. A lot of meditation. I was going to this place called Lake Shrine in LA, and I was reading this book called Autobiography Of A Yogi. During that whole time, it was just me figuring out what I wanted. Finding my peace, my stillness, my happiness, and actually coming to a point where I know what I want to do for the rest of my life. I know who I'm going to be for the rest of my life and I'm going to stay consistent because all I want to do is project love. I talk to a monk every Monday, and every night too.

Really? What kind of monk?

He's a yogi. He's been a monk but he doesn't practice as much any more. He's more of a yogi and a spiritual guide. I talk to him every Monday and he gives me new tasks everyday for prayer and meditation. I have to call him every night to talk about the realization that I came to.





How long have you been doing that?

I started this year. I had to train for three months before I got into it because it's very patience driven. You have to do the work every night. If you want to go out, you can't until you've done the work. Until you come to the realization of what he said. So he gives me notes everyday. [ A text pops up from the yogi] Literally, as we speak!

[ Reading the text aloud]: "May your day be full and meaningful. There's a silence and stillness that is ever present. Go within and know this changeless state. Come from it as you speak today. Be in silence beneath your words, be in stillness under the movement of your body and vibrations of your thoughts. Enjoy your blessed life, your ability to live it. Text and call me when you're done. Love you."

So, I have to understand what he just said. That is the perfect example of what it is. Everyday it's a new thing that he gives me. I'll call him at the end of the night and explain what I got from it. He'll say either yes that's it, or no that's not what you're supposed to get out of it. That's changed my life because I have someone who is literally guiding me. I know what actually matters. This is the shit that makes me happy so that's why I do it.





Do you feel like people are responding to that?

People do feel it. It's in my energy. Some people are like, "Dude you seem different, you seem more calm." I'm not worried with stress anymore, I'm good. I get to wake up and make music everyday and be with people I love to be around. I get to travel with them, make good music, have fun, and perform songs that we love. That's what life's about. We're always tested and we always grow. Everything's a test, life is just a lesson. That's the fun part. It's like a chess game where a negative thing might happen, but a positive always comes out.

So much anxiety and depression comes from social media, whether that's the cause or the conduit. How do you deal with that?

I try to do a little bit of both. I'm active because a lot of people who I genuinely want to help are on social media. That's why I have social media to represent love and positivity, and me searching for my own happiness and weirdness. I always post weird pictures of me smiling or me crying. I'll post something of me performing to show people to take a risk and do something that you love to do. But it's just really distracting too. It's really negative. I'll find like my ex hanging out with my friend, and I'm like why am I looking at this? Why am I upset when I could've been outside benefiting myself, writing a song, or going on a hike? Doing something more important than being on my phone. I could've been talking to somebody, but instead I am freaking out and now my energy's pissed off. Now, when a person says hello, I'm like, "Don't talk to me."

I don't want to be that person, because I've been that person. We all have, I believe. That's the distracting part, but there are a lot of benefits too. Life is Yin and Yang and that's what social media is. I just posted something about World Cancer Day the other day. I was like, "If people know somebody that's going through it and need advice, or if someone's going through it and needs advice, DM me. I have so many DMs right now. I'm going to go through those DMs, but it's going to take a while because I didn't think I was going to get so many. That's why I like social media: connecting with people. I'm not different from anybody else. It's just that I'm actually executing what I like to do, and you're following me because you probably want to do the same shit. I'm telling you to love yourself through what I do.

How does this newfound mindset that you have apply to your music?

I think it just makes it more carefree. We'll have three songs done in one jam session. You say how you feel and you can really be honest with yourself. The more I'm honest with myself, the more I can be honest with everyone around me, and therefore a really good song can come out of it, because it's just an honest song. I don't look for anybody's validation. This is my honesty, this is my truth, and you can either fail or pass. I think you can pass if it's the truth. I feel like that's how music is for me.

Who did you work with on this album? Are there any MSFT features or is it just a solo album?

It's just a solo album, but I worked with producers like Teo who's a MSFT, he produced "Yellow Lights." Other than that, there's a producer Tim Suby, this guy Daniel Braunstein. There's a lot of just really good people that I had produce. These are guys that I met on my journey of life.

Do you see yourself sticking with music for the long haul or you want to get involved with other things?

Well music is going to be for the long haul because I think that's the foundation. That's what I love to do and through passion you find purpose. I want to build hospitals. I'm building a teen cancer center in Nashville. That should be like the end of this year. That's one of my dreams to do, so it's starting there. I think I was given that opportunity because of music, and I think there's just a bigger picture. I just want to help as many people as I can, and it starts with music.

What will the cancer center be like?

It's at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. They're building out a cancer center, and I get to design it and build it out with them. I raised money to do that. I'm super excited about that. With Teen Cancer of America and Kylie, we did that together. Me and Kylie kind of kept it under wraps, but she was there with me throughout my whole cancer experience. From that she's always wanted to do something in the cancer community and help. It's cool because we're not trying to promote it, it's just a thing that's going to happen. It's a thing that we're very proud of and excited for because we're just going to give kids the opportunity to express themselves while they're going through cancer. It's going to be fun when it's done. That's legit my dream. For me it's like, fuck everything else. I get to perform music and do something like that! That's my life and that's how I want to live it, where you just give with no intention to get back. I get to be with my friends and play music, can't really ask for more than that.

What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

I think people look at me like a social media kid and associate me with celebrity friends of mine. Imagine just growing up with normal people and somehow everyone starts looking at your friends. You're like wait, what's going on? Then you start getting established with people. I feel like that's where people think I come from  a celebrity or money background. I just like making people happy and the people in my life are actually genuinely happy people. We actually all genuinely love each other. I think that's the misconception, they just put that label on it.

So many of the headlines have been that you're "Kylie's best friend."

Right, and that's cool, that is my best friend and I love that she's successful, but that's not me. I'm Harry, I have my own name and I have my own thing. It's so strange because I knew her before anything crazy, and you don't realize how relevant they are. With anything like that, with Jaden or whoever it is. People are their own people.

How old were you when you met all of them? Because you moved to LA at a young age.

I met them when I was about 17 or 16. Even like walking through Times Square today and seeing their whole billboards, it's just a strange thing to me. It's a weird concept. You can't have a normal fucking meal. It's just really confusing, but I want them to be successful because they deserve it. People don't know what's going on behind the scenes. You just want to judge because everybody is jealous and fearful. You're going to label me and I get it, because you're going to get more clickbait establishing me with the name but I'm just trying to live my life and be happy. I truly have people in my life who are genuine. People need to know that I'm just a normal person as fuck and we're all just normal people. Life is just the weirdest thing of all time.





I think people outside of it just don't really understand how it works.

People don't understand themselves. They just want to throw jealousy and hatred on people, but you don't know what anybody is going through. That's why I don't like phones and social media, because you just want to talk shit about somebody. That's why I'm just under the wraps, and I just make music and have my friends. My friends help me when I need it, and I help them when they need it. It's a family, because we don't have to talk to each other 24/7, but we just know at big moments of our lives we're all there to support each other. That's what friendship is. If something happens we all call each other up. That's anybody in my life.

A lot of people are afraid to go after what they love to do in life. I know people who are 60 and 70 who are like I wish I did what I love and I had someone to push me. Everyone needs that one push. Henry [member of Hudson's band] was talking to a kid last night and he was like, "Give me your number, and I'm going to check in on you." The kid almost started crying and he was like, "No one ever wants to check in on me." That's what we're about! People need love at the end of the day.

I've been through my biggest fear, which is death. I've come face to face with it. I had a life conversation with that, and that's how I grew as a person. So it's like okay, I embraced death, and I was prepared to die. I know what it's going to feel like when I'm dying. I'm blessed to feel that at 20 years old. Like "Oh whoa, I actually did die now I'm back again." Death is a beautiful thing for me. I think it is equally as beautiful as a birth. That's what people don't understand. Once you get to that point in your life, then you can understand a lot.

We don't talk about death at all.

It's a fearful thing. I sound crazy sometimes when I talk, but it's something that I truly feel. I've seen it. Death was my biggest fear in life. I was insecure my first 20 years of living. I was fearful and telling white lies, just wanting to fit in. I came from a weird background, so I would lie to people telling them I didn't. You're going through high school and middle school and you just want to fit in. You don't want to be bullied. It's just one of those things where everyone gets lost. I didn't fully truthfully live my life for myself those years, so now I get the rest of my life to do that.At last year's Whitney Biennial, Dana Schutz's painting, "Open Casket," which depicted the famous photograph of 14-year-old Emmett Till's lifeless body at his funeral after being brutally murdered by four white men in 1955 in Mississippi, sparked a wave of controversy. Calls for the painting to be removed said that a white artist profiting off of black pain was unacceptable, and a group organized by artist Parker Bright protested the work by standing in front of it, blocking it from view, for hours. During the protest, Bright wore a shirt that read "Black Death Spectacle," and images of him blocking the painting became a symbol of the protest.

At the Whitney, a protest against Dana Schutz' painting of Emmett Till: "She has nothing to say to the Black community about Black trauma." pic.twitter.com/C6x1JcbwRa

 Scott Y. (@hei_scott) March 17, 2017

Now, Bright says that his likeness is being used by another white artist, this time at a show in Paris, for profit. The artist Neil Beloufa created a work using the image of Bright, placed on a mirror, to mimic the experience of standing at the Whitney during the protest. The work is currently on display at the Palais De Tokyo, and after posting an impassioned Instagram calling out Beloufa, Bright decided to head to Paris himself to confront the artist in a second protest.

In a GoFundMe campaign that's already surpassed its goal to cover transportation to the gallery for Bright, the artist writes, "I would like to stage another protest inside the Palais De Tokyo in Paris where Beloufa's piece is on display because I believe that Beloufa is appropriating my narrative without consent. This is a form of defamation of me as an artist and arts activist."



The fundraising goal will help Bright "purchase a round-trip ticket, afford living arrangements during my stay, pay for my admission to the Palais De Tokyo to speak to museum curators and speak to the artist, and find ways to reclaim my image and the work that I put forth last year (protest, interviews, and meetings with artist and curators at the Whitney)."

He adds that the protest he performed at the Whitney resulted in constant harassment online, which has caused him "emotional and mental distress" that he still feels today. Bright continues, "Myself and others that were involved with the 2017 Whitney protest put in a lot of hard work (intellectual and emotional labor) to create a conversation about racial injustice within the art world, so it is really unfortunate to see the narrative that I helped create be appropriated and recontextualized without anyone's permission or say in how this work of art is to be experienced."

Image via Instagram

A story out of Japan on Friday stated that "Other smartphone makers, who Samsung had hoped would incorporate OLED panels, have been slow to make the transition due to their expense and are sticking to liquid crystal displays."" Apparently that reality doesn't sell stories, so the Nikkei Asian Review decided to just throw in Apple as being Samsung's problem to make the story a mover.

Smartphone sales fell in China overall in Q4 and yet Apple was able to buck the trend with the iPhone X being the number one smartphone around the world. In fact Kantar reported that iPhone X sales in Urban China were staggering.

During Tim Cook's summary for the holiday quarter he noted: "Our growth was broad based and a key driver was iPhone which generated it's highest revenue ever. iPhone X was the best selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter according to Canalys and it has been our best selling phone every week since it launched."

In late January Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple to end Samsung's exclusive OLED contract and Shift to a new L-Shaped Battery with Increased Capacity." In that report we also noted that China's BOE and Sharp were vying for Apple's OLED business.

Yet despite Samsung overestimating OLED display demand, the Nikkei Asian Review's report adds: "To make matters worse, Chinese OLED panel makers are expanding production capacity, heating up the price competition even more."

But somehow the blame continually shifts back to Apple being the real problem due to cutting back on orders for OLED display for calendar Q1. Even though iPhone demand annually drops after the holiday quarter, somehow it's always viewed by the Nikkei that this is a shock and sign of trouble for Apple.

On February 8th we reported that in Q4 Apple surpassed Samsung to become the #1 smartphone brand in the world. I guess Samsung Display didn't sell as many OLED displays to their own Samsung Electronics division. That very point was echoed by British Research company IHS who stated that "the number of OLED smartphone panels Samsung internally sources for its own smartphones fell year on year in 2017."

Yet in the end, the Nikkei focuses back on Samsung's OLED plant failures as being caused by Apple and forgets the reality that Samsung failed to win OLED orders from Chinese vendors like Oppo, Vivo or Xiaomi. It's quite a hilarious twist. To make it funnier, the Nikkei Asian Review titled their report "OLED panel glut looms as Apple slashes iPhone X production." Oh my, the fake drama has my heart pounding  ha!.





About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.I'm a sucker for slapstick, the genre that was borne in the late 1800's with Shakespeare's play titled the 'Comedy of Errors.' Of course I tuned into the genre with old Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and keystone Cop movies, and then later with England's faulty towers, Benny Hill and America's Jerry Seinfeld with bumbling 'Kramer' Character.' Smack into a door, fall down, I laugh. It gets me every time if it's done well.

Apple has been filming a comedy series in their new Apple Park building with the theme of employees smacking into large panes of inter-office class walls. The thing is it's not destined to be a classic TV series at all. In reality it's simply a series of incidents happening at Apple's new headquarters, according to News Corp.'s MarketWatch. Below is a tweet on the matter from Kenn Durrence, dated January 20, 2018.





The report further notes that "According to documents and sources, Apple has run into a problem at Apple Park: Because so much of the interior is made from glass  the walls and doors, for example  people are walking into the panes, sometimes painfully.

While the issue might seem humorous, there are workplace regulations that Apple could be violating. California law requires that "employees shall be protected against the hazard of walking through glass by barriers or by conspicuous durable markings," but the company has not been subject to citations, according to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration data. If Apple was found to violate the law, it could be subjected to fines and other measures to ensure the company addressed the problem, according to a spokeswoman from the California Department of Industrial relations.

MarketWatch asked Apple for comment on the issue and any mitigations it has sought to enact. Apple did not provide comment in time for publication.

A Creepy Future is close at Hand

This week's second oddest story or perhaps creepiest story in this case, goes to Boston Dynamics' latest robotic security dogs noted in the video below.

In a video posted by Boston Dynamics, the company's SpotMini robot is seen struggling to get past a locked door  until another SpotMini shows up with a special arm that opens the door. The second robot then holds the door open for its robotic buddy. It isn't clear if the robots are acting autonomously or if someone's controlling their movements behind the scenes.

Time reports that "Boston Dynamics' videos never fail to impress  or to terrify, depending on your views of robotics and artificial intelligence. The company's creations may have been the inspiration behind a recent episode of the dystopian sci-fi series Black Mirror in which robotic dogs set out to kill all living things.



However creepy they may seem, In reality the robots like the kind Boston Dynamics makes can have real-world benefits, like the ability to find people stranded in the rubble after an earthquake."

Unfortunately the problem with great tech like this is that we know that in the wrong hands, it's just a matter of time before these robots are weaponized and used as a tool for terrorists.



About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.Chief Justice, Justice Sophia Akuffo has dismissed claims by Professor Raymond Atuguba, an Associate Law professor at the University of Ghana that political appointments have an influence on decisions by the judiciary.



According to the Chief Justice, under the constitution, a judge will be appointed during somebodys time and that somebody will belong to one party or the other.



The decisions taken after such appointments by the judges, she said, were subject to any political interpretation by anyone.



But so long as it is in line with the law and it is sound and follows the facts, the Chief Justice.



She cautioned the professor against comparing foreign judicial systems to Ghanas, saying be careful what youre importing into our environment, they are used to that, we are not.



The insinuation that some decisions by the Supreme Court are in favour of political parties who appoint those judges was the core of the professors delivery in a research he conducted on 100 court cases.



Prof Atuguba claimed that somehow, the Supreme Court lost its way after the first years and the judgments started becoming clear on the lines of party appointments.



Citing the recent Abu Ramadan and Woyome cases, Professor Atuguba noted that the trend was changing again and said: the supreme court is finding its feet again, where it is giving unanimous judgments on the basis of the law and not the source of the appointment.



He was quick to add that the possibility of such a change in the Supreme Court decisions could be attributed to the public interest that resulted in scrutiny and eventually, transparency in how the judgment was delivered.



Overall, the data revealed that 14 out of 22 National Democratic Congress (NDC) appointees, making up 64 percent of the partys appointees to the Supreme Court have given judgment in favour of the NDC.



On the other hand, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had 13 of its 16 judges giving judgments in favour of the party.



Essentially, the NDC, since the beginning of the fourth republic, had appointed 15 percent more justices to the Supreme Court than the NPP, according to the professor.



Professor Atuguba was speaking at the GIMPA law conference held at GIMPA in Accra.



The program which was organized as part of annual conferences presents the platform to gather a community of scholars and academics, experts and practitioners to critically review trends, emerging developments and challenges confronting the law in specific fields.



It was also attended by some key figures in the judicial community such as many lawyers and Justices including Justice Emile Short, Former Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, and Paramount Chief of the Asokore Traditional Area, Dr. Nana S.K.B. Asante, who acted as chairman.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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Featured VideoPeople who eat corn-related foods risk contracting all kinds of cancers, two leading researchers of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have warned.



According to the research findings, the risk level is, however, high among those who take in ewor kple because the metal wears off faster into the dry maize processed by the milling plates manufactured mainly by local artisans from Suame Magazine in Kumasi or Kokompe in Accra.



The lead researcher of the two-fold work, published in 2003 and 2011 respectively in the KNUST journal, Prof. Samuel Kwofie, told The Mirror that the poisonous metal produced what was termed iron overload, which if not expelled from the human system, could lead to all kinds of cancers.



Prof. Kwofie, who is the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering of the College of Engineering of the university, and his colleague Dr Anthony Andrews, the Head of Department, in the first publication compared the local milling plates with that of foreign ones, and found out that the local ones wore off 10 times more than the foreign ones.



The dean said although the local artisans had the skill to produce the plates, they lacked the scientific knowledge and method of processing it.



The 2011 publication, which zeroed in on the local plates, was more revealing and indicated that eaters of ewor kple were at a higher risk of contracting cancers than those who ate banku and others.



Prof. Kwofie said although iron consumption was important to the human body, those produced from the local plates were poisonous and could lead to iron overloads which were injurious to the human body.



Following the findings, the two have started working on a possible solution, but their research appears to have been stalled due to the lack of funding.



Prof. Kwofie is, therefore, urging the private sector and indeed the government to step in to save the countrys workforce, most of who depend on corn-related foods for energy and survival.











Source: Daily Graphic









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Featured VideoNominee for Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has apologised to friends and well-wishers who will not be able to attend his vetting on Tuesday.



Mr Amidu will be appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on 13th February 2018 and according to him, he has already been inundated with endless calls from chiefs, friends and well-wishers from all over the country wishing to attend my nomination approval hearing.



In a statement, he said: "I am sorry I have no control over the number of well-wishers or spectators allowed to personally attend such public nomination hearings. I hope the members of the public who have contacted me for invitation cards will forgive my inability to invite more than the permissible number allowed me".



Read the full statement below.



THE NOMINEE FOR SPECIAL PROSECUTOR IS SORRY THAT ONLY A LIMITED NUMBER OF PEOPLE CAN BE INVITED TO THE PUBLIC HEARING



As the days to the public hearing of my nomination approval by the Appointments Committee of Parliament on 13th February 2018 as the Special Public Prosecutor approaches, I have been inundated with endless calls from chiefs, friends and well-wishers from all over the country wishing to attend my nomination approval hearing.



Unfortunately, the letter written from the Parliamentary Service inviting me to appear before the Committee at its public hearing on Tuesday, 13th February, 2018 at 10:00a.m. in Committee Rooms 1-3, New Parliamentary Office Complex, Parliament House, Accra with an attached Notes for Nominees, which limits the number of supporters of the Nominee that will be allowed at the venue for the Public Hearing. Consequently, only a limited number of invitation cards were given to me for the purpose which I have already distributed on a first call basis whether or not I knew the caller personally. The notes also prohibit drummers and dancers from entering the venue for the public hearing.



Accordingly, I wish to appeal to all Ghanaians who would have wished to attend the public hearing of my nomination approval in person whom I have been unable to send or give an invitation card, to instead participate in my nomination hearing by viewing the event on television should it be telecast live or replayed after the public hearing. This will enable me to comply with the Notes for Nominees attached to my invitation for the public hearing. I am sorry I have no control over the number of well-wishers or spectators allowed to personally attend such public nomination hearings. I hope the members of the public who have contacted me for invitation cards will forgive my inability to invite more than the permissible number allowed me.



One thing I know from the outpouring of support for the Presidents nomination of my humble self as the Special Public Prosecutor is that if the Presidents wishes were put to a national referendum, all the 275 constituencies of the country will return an overwhelmingly positive endorsement for his choice. But the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor Act (Act 959) gives the power of approval to the Parliament and it is important that everyone complies with the Act and the instructions issued by the Committee for the public hearing. Only two outcomes are possible after the public hearing  to approve or disapprove the Presidents nominee. Whatever the outcome, I will have nothing personally to win or lose. I accordingly urge every Ghanaian unable to attend the hearing personally to stay calm and await the outcome. I will forever remain grateful for the outpouring of support across the country on the occasion of the Presidents announcement of my nomination for approval as Special Prosecutor.



Martin A. B. K. Amidu



11th February 2018

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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Featured VideoAudio Attachment: Listen to John Jinapor

Former Deputy Power Minister John Jinapor has called on the government to scrap the Special Petroleum Tax to ease the pressures on users of petroleum products.



The Ministry of Finance on Thursday, February 15, 2018, laid a Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill before Parliament seeking to reduce the Special Petroleum Tax of 15% to 13% to help reduce petroleum prices in the country.



The tax was introduced the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in 2016 to support revenue generation.



Introducing the amendment bill before the House by the Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng; the Minority in Parliament asked the government to completely remove the tax to give relief to Ghanaians as they (NPP) earlier promised during the 2016 electioneering campaign.



Addressing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' on Friday, the former Minister urged government to heed the call by the Minority.



According to him, the new adjustments in the petroleum sector by the Finance Ministry are nothing but a disguise to suggest the government was reducing the prices of petroleum.



He noted that the adjustments will only create more problems for fuel users in the country because though a 13% percent reduction is not reflective of the prices at the pump.



John Jinapor further told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that despite the amendments made by the government "the current price of fuel is far higher than when the NPP took over at the pump. We cant debate it. With all that theyve done, if you go to buy fuel today; the fuel was cheaper during President Mahamas time than Akufo-Addos time.

















Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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Featured VideoPresidents have come from both humble backgrounds and from great wealth, Here's a look at the wealth of our presidents, from the poorest to the richest, as figured by 24/7 Wall Street.

The website looked at historical sources to determine the presidents' assets, such as real estate, estimated lifetime savings based on work history and inheritance, as well as annual salaries, income from royalties on books, company ownership, yields from family estates and other forms of income.

For deceased presidents, the ranking is based on their net worth when it was at its greatest, calculated in 2018 dollars. For living presidents, the estimate is based on current figures. For more on the methodology used, look here.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAMES BUCHANAN: Less than $1 million

15th president

Term: 1857-1861

Buchanan was one of 11 children born in a Pennsylvania log cabin, the son of a merchant who emigrated from Ireland. He graduated from Dickinson College and practiced law in Lancaster before beginning a career of public service. He served in the state legislature, then both houses of Congress. Later he was a diplomat and U.S. secretary of state.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Less than $1 million

16th president

Term: 1861 to 1865

Lincoln is on the penny and the $5 bill, but never had much money himself. Born in a log cabin like Buchanan he worked as an attorney, co-owned a general store that failed and left him debt. After his death, his estate amounted to some property and less than $150,000.

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WhiteHouse.gov

ANDREW JOHNSON: Less than $1 million

17th president

Term: 1865-1869

The son of a tailor, he was a public servant for 20 years, serving as governor of Tennessee and a U.S. Senator.

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AP

ULYSSES S. GRANT: Less than $1 million

18th president

Term: 1869-1877

Grant spent most of his life as a military officer. After leaving office, he and his wife spent considerable money traveling the world. What money he had in savings (more than $100,000) he lost when he was defrauded by an investment fund. His memoir, published after his death, provided his family with a small inheritance.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAMES GARFIELD: Less than $1 million

20th president

Term: 1881

Garfield may have been the poorest man to become president. He was raised by a single mother after his father died in a fire. His lack of wealth, however, drove him to intense study and work, according to an article in Investors Business Daily.

"To some men, the fact they came up from poverty is a matter of pride. I lament it sorely," he said years later. "Cold-hearted men frowned upon me and I was made the ridicule and sport of boys that had fathers and enjoyed the luxuries of life."

He graduated from college with honors, was a classics professor and later president of Hiram College, then tried his hand at law before going into politics.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR: Less than $1 million

21st president

Term: 1881-1885

The son of a preacher, Arthur worked as collector for the Port of New York and owned a townhouse in the city. 1881 to 1885.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

WOODROW WILSON: Less than $1 million

28th president

Term: 1913-1921

Wilson is the only scholar with a Ph.D. ever elected president of the United States. His income came from his salaries as president of Princeton University and governor of New Jersey before he became president.

This undated photo shows President Wilson and his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

CALVIN COOLIDGE: Less than $1 million

30th president

Term: 1923-1929

Coolidge was an attorney and spent almost two decades in public office. Most of his wealth was in his home in Northampton, Mass.

Coolidge died in Northampton in 1933, after declining to run for president in 1928.

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AP Photo

HARRY S TRUMAN: Less than $1 million

33rd president

Term: 1945-1953

Investopedia names Truman one of the five poorest U.S. presidents. He had several unsuccessful businesses, including a haberdashery, that kept him in debt. After his term ended, he and his wife moved into his mother-in-law's home. He became one of the first presidents to receive a pension (about $25,000 annually) and he and his wife were the first recipients of Medicare when it was signed into law.

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Associated Press

WILLIAM MCKINLEY: $1 million

25th president

Term: 1897-1901

Spending his life in public service, McKinley accumulated what wealth he had through his work as an attorney. He went broke when, amid the depression of 1893, a friend defaulted on a loan.

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AP Photo

WARREN G. HARDING: $1 million

29th president

Term: 1921-1923

Harding's wealth came from his wife, daughter of a banker, and the newspaper he owned in Marion, Ohio.

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AP Photo/Jim Cole, File

FRANKLIN PIERCE: $2 million

14th president

Term: 1853-1857

Pierce's wife had some wealth and he worked as an attorney and owned some property in Concord, N.H

This Feb. 12, 2004 file photo shows a statue of the nation's 14th president that's located on the corner of the Statehouse green in Concord, N.H. Pierce is the only native son from the state to become president.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES: $3 million

19th president

Term: 1877-1881

Hays worked as an attorney, was governor of Ohio and owned a home on 25 acres in Ohio.

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AP

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT: $3 million

27th president

Term: 1909-1913

Taft was partner in a law firm with former president Rutherford B. Hayes, president of the American Bar Association and the only president to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. He's shown here walking through the grounds at Harvard University in 1924.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

MILLARD FILLMORE: $4 MILLION

13th president

Term: 1850-1853

Fillmore didn't come from wealth, and his main asset was his house in East Aurora, N.Y., according to 24/7 Wall Street.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: $6.1 million

9th president

Term: 1841

Harrison married into a wealthy family and inherited 3,000 acres in Virginia, but left it to others to manage when he become U.S. ambassador to Colombia in 1828. Bad weather that ruined crops left him unable to pay creditors. He sold off the Virginia land to his brother, but was still in debt when he became president in 1841. He died that year.

This illustration depicts Harrison's inauguration on March 4, 1841. Hatless and without an overcoat he rode horseback from the White House to the Capitol on a wintry day and stood for an hour in a raw wind while delivering his inaugural address. A month later he died of pneumonia. (AP Photo)

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AP

BENJAMIN HARRISON: $6.1 million

23rd president

Term: 1889-1893

The descendant of a signer of the Delcaration of Independence and grandson of President William Henry Harrison, he grew up in rural Ohio, the son of a moderately prosperous farmer. He had no inherited wealth but was a highly paid attorney.

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AP Photo/Library of Congress

ZACHARY TAYLOR: $7.1 million

12th president

Term: 1849-1850

Taylor inherited land in several states and made money in land speculation and investments.

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AP

GERALD FORD: $8.1 million

38th president

Term: 1974-1977

Ford didn't inherit money, but after he left the White House, like most modern-day president, he made money from book advances and from serving on the boards of several companies.

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Associated Press

JIMMY CARTER: $8.1 million

29th president

Term: 1977-1981

Carter took a struggling family farm (his first year was so difficult that he and his wife were forced to live in subsidized housing) and eventually turned it into a successful enterprise. The farm failed, however after Carter was elected president and put the business into a blind trust. After he left office, he made money by writing books. He and his wife have published more than 25.

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AP Photo

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: $9.1 million

34th president

Term: 1953-1961

Eisenhower's career consisted largely of the military, and five years as president of Columbia University. Among his assets was the farm he owned near Gettysburg.

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JAMES POLK: $11.1 million

11th president

Term: 1845-1849

Polk owned a plantation in Coffeeville, Miss., as well as a few dozen slaves, and earned a significant income as speaker of the house and governor of Tennessee.

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Associated Press

RONALD REAGAN: $14.2 million

40th president

Term: 1981-1989

Reagan made money as an actor for more than 20 years, and owned several pieces of real estate, including 688 acres near Santa Barbara, Calif.

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AP Photo/Harvey George

RICHARD NIXON: $17.2 million

37th president

Term: 1969-1974

Massive tax deductions, successful real estate investments, help from friends and sharp tax lawyers enabled Nixon to acquire more wealth while president that he did during eight years as a corporate lawyer, according to a 1973 Knight News Service article. He also made significant sums from series of interviews with David Frost and book advances.

He's shown here in the Oval Office speaking with vice presidential nominee Gerald R. Ford, right, on Saturday, Oct. 13, 1973. At left is Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

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JOHN ADAMS: $21.3 million

2nd president

Term: 1797-1801

Adams owned an estate, "Peacefield," that covered about 40 acres in Quincy, Mass. That, plus a modest inheritance and a thriving law practice all figured into the estimate of his peak net worth.

He at one point faced financial ruin when his London bank collapsed. Fortunately, his son, John Quincy Adams, came to his rescue by selling one of his houses and cashing in several investments to free his father of debt, according to The Saturday Evening Post.

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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: $23.3 million

6th president

Term: 1825-1829

John Quincy Adams inherited "Peacefield" from his father.

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AP Photo/Barry Thumma

GEORGE H. W. BUSH: $26.3 million

41st president

Term: 1989-1993

Born into a wealthy family, Bush made his initial fortune running an offshore oil drilling company.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS/Library of Congress

GROVER CLEVELAND: Less than $1 million

22nd and 24th president

Term: 1885-1889, 1893-1897

Cleveland was an attorney, married the daughter of a wealthy lawyer and owned an estate near Washington D.C. that he sold, making "a clear gain of over $100,000," according to an 1890 article in the Washington Post.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARTIN VAN BUREN: $29.3 million

8th president

Term: 1837-1841

Van Buren was an attorney, served as secretary of state, vice president and president, and owned a 255-acre estate in New York.

He is the first president who began life in the independent United States of America.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAMES MONROE: $30.4 million

5th president

Term: 1817-1825

Monroe inherited what 24/7 Wall Street calls a "healthy" family plantation, but neglected and mismanaged it, and ended up having to sell his estate. He even, at one point, went to Congress, asking them to pay some of his debts. He received $30,000.

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AP Photo/Adam Bird

GEORGE W. BUSH: $39.5 million

43rd president

Term: 2001-2008

Bush made millions in the oil industry. In 1977, he created Arbusto Energy Inc., a Texas-based oil company that later merged with Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. He was co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and in 2017, sold his share of the team for 17 times his initial investment, according to bankrate.com. Since leaving the White House, he has made tens of millions in speaking fees and a book deal.

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AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

BARACK OBAMA: $40 million

44th president

Term: 2008-2017

It's too early to make an estimate of Obama's wealth, but It has been reported that Obama and his wife signed a $65 million deal for the rights to their memoirs, and he is expected to be a sought-after speaker.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHN TYLER: $57.7 million

10th president

Term: 1841-1845

Tyler owned a 1,000-acre tobacco plantation and was married to a wealthy woman. But he fell into debt during the Civil War and died poor.

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AP Photo/Charles Gorry

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: $66.8 million

32nd president

Term: 1933-1945

Roosevelt came from a wealthy family, as did his wife, Eleanor, and they inherited their money. He owned the 800-acre "Springwood" estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., as well as properties in Georgia, Maine, and New York. He spent most of his adult life in public service.

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AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

BILL CLINTON: $75.9 million

42nd president

Term: 1993-2001

Clinton and his wife have said they left the White House in 2001 broke and in debt. That changed quickly, mostly due to book deals and paid speeches. In his first year out of office, Bill Clinton gave 57 speeches. Their 2001 tax return reports $13.7 million in gross receipts for his "speaking and writing" business, NPR reported in 2016. A CNN analysis concluded that the Clintons were paid $153.7 million for speeches between 2001 and 2015. And then there were book deals. He was paid $15 million, for example, for his book "My Life."

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

HERBERT HOOVER: $83 million

31st president

Term: 1929-1933

Hoover, who made his fortunate as a mining company executive, donated his presidential salary to charity. He also owned a mansion in Monterey, Calif.

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AP Photo/John Rous

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: $109.3 million

36th president

Term: 1963-1969

Johnson, who started his career as a school teacher, parleyed investments (and his wife's inheritance) in broadcasting, cattle and personal aviation into his personal fortune.

Johnson is seen here posing with Freckles, a gift from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAMES MADISON: $113.3 million

4th president

Term: 1809-1817

Madison owned 5,000 acres of land and the Montpelier estate in Virginia, and made money as secretary of state and president, but his plantation faltered financially at the end of his life.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANDREW JACKSON: $132.6 million

7th president

Term: 1829-1837

Jackson married into money and made more in the military. His farm included 1,050 acres of real estate.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

THEODORE ROOSEVELT: $139.7 million

26th president

Term: 1901-1909

Roosevelt was born into a wealthy family, and inherited $60,000 (today the equivalent of $1.3 million) upon his father's death. He later lost most of his fortune on a ranch venture and worked as an author to support himself, along with the salaries he received in public service. The house he built on 235 acres in Oyster Bay Long Island is some of the most valuable real estate on Long Island.

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AP

THOMAS JEFFERSON: $236.8 million

3rd president

Term: 1801-1809

Jefferson inherited 3,000 acres of land, several dozen slaves, and owned the 5,000-acre "Monticello" plantation in an era where most wealth was held in land. He also made money in various political positions.

But he went broke toward the end of his life. He lived an extravagant life, according to 24/7 Wall Street, and made loans to people who couldn't repay them. He also inherited his father-in-law's debt.

Jefferson's estate, and is debt, were inherited by his daughter, Martha Washington Jefferson Randolph, who was forced to sell Monticello in 1831, according to The Saturday Evening Post.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

GEORGE WASHINGTON: $587 million

1st president

Term: 1789-1797

In an age when most wealth was in land, Washington owned Mount Vernon, consisting of 8,000 acres of prime farm land, as well as more than 300 slaves. His wife, Martha, also had substantial property. Washington's holdings expanded to include land parcels in the Ohio Valley, New York, and the District of Columbia, in addition to other investments, says The Motley Fool.

This is an undated photo illustration of President George Washington from the Library of Congress. (AP Photo)

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AP

JOHN F. KENNEDY: $1.1 billion

35th president

Term: 1961-1963

John F. Kennedy's His father was one of the wealthiest men in America, but it could be argued that Kennedy was not this wealthy, since he did not live to receive his inheritance, estimated at more than $1 billion. It's an academic exercise, however, as Kennedy lived off a family trust he shared with his siblings.

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AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

DONALD J. TRUMP: $3.1 billion

45th president

Term: 2017-

Trump is by far the wealthiest person to ever serve as president, having built his wealth on his father's real estate company. In addition to a number of New York City buildings, Trump owns more than a dozen golf clubs and many resorts.

Trump broke with precedent in deciding not to make his income tax returns public, so his exact worth can only be estimated.

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Presidents and their dogs

Want to learn more trivia about U.S. presidents? Check out this video about presidents and their dogs.

And find out what's closed for President's Day.

Don't EditMore than 60 people were evacuated from an Old City Philadelphia building as an early-Sunday fire raged through.

The fire broke out around 3 a.m. on the sixth floor of 239 Chestnut St. in a building that houses apartments and stores, NBC 10 is reporting.

At least 140 firefighters were called to the scene, which took hours to get under control.

No injuries have been reported.A 58-year-old woman is dead and her 56-year-old husband was transported to the hospital after an incident police in Berks County say they are investigating as a domestic homicide.

The Hamburg Police were called to a home on the 400 block of N. 5th St. in Hamburg around 5:24 p.m. Saturday where they found two people on the floor inside the home, according to the Pennsylvania State Police at Hamburg.

Suzanne Lenkiewicz is dead, and Gary Lenkiewicz was transported to the Reading Hospital in critical condition.

The state police Criminal Investigation Unit was called in to start the investigation.

There is no word yet on a cause of death or a suspect.By Timothy K. Lewis

There is no difference when a president of the United States or a state senator from Pennsylvania openly defies an American court.

Their actions are equally irresponsible and dangerous, and we must never accept them as anything less.

It is perfectly legitimate for anyone, including politicians and policymakers, to voice their disagreement when a court has spoken.

But to threaten the judges who issued an unfavorable decision, or to simply refuse to comply with a duly issued mandate, falls outside the bounds of appropriate and constitutional conduct.

As a citizen and as a former federal judge, I am alarmed at the trend among state legislatures, governors, and even the President to challenge the independence of our nation's judiciary. I am appalled at the blatant disregard for its historic institutional role as a check on the executive and legislative branches. And I am worried about the implications.

The most recent example is still unfolding in my home state where, last week, Pennsylvania State Senate Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati declared his open defiance to a decision handed down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Court had ruled that Pennsylvania's congressional districts were exceptionally gerrymandered and violated the state constitution.

It ordered the legislature to hand over any redistricting data it had. In response, Scarnati announced that he would refuse to do so because he considered the Court's order to be unconstitutional.

Just how and when Joseph Scarnati became cloaked with the authority to openly defy a mandate of the state Supreme Court because he considered it "unconstitutional" invites an examination of hubris I'll leave to others.

But it gets worse: on Monday, upon learning that the United States Supreme Court had rejected a request by Republican leaders to stay the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's mandate, state Rep. Cris Dush decided to call for the impeachment of the five state court justices who ruled in favor of redistricting.

This is reminiscent of a strategy implemented some decades ago that today lives where it belongs: in infamy.

The late Strom Thurmond's "Southern Manifesto", drafted in opposition to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, also accused the Court of a "clear abuse of judicial power."

In seeking a return to "states' rights" and segregated public schools, which meant a return of the power they had held for so long (a power the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional), the signatories to the Manifesto said almost exactly what Scarnati said last week: "This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court [is] contrary to the Constitution."

Of course, the problem then is the problem now: Thurmond and his Southern Manifesto colleagues were not vested with the authority to say what was and was not constitutional as a final matter.

Neither is Scarnati. Nor, particularly as an elected official, is he vested with the power to decide which Supreme Court decisions he'll obey and which ones he won't.

This act of defiance is just the latest in a disturbing pattern. In North Carolina, the legislature spent the better part of last year trying to pack the courts with their own partisans by putting itself in charge of appointing judges. This was met with fierce resistance by constituents.

In Kansas, the Governor and several members of the state legislature waged a campaign against their state's Supreme Court Justices so they could appoint their allies to the Court. Once again, an informed public responded.

They re-elected each of the targeted Justices.

I believe these resounding responses demonstrate that the public understands the importance of a system of checks and balances. I also believe it shows how seriously the public takes any threat to judicial independence.

Of course, President Donald Trump has launched his own assault on the courts. He has repeatedly attacked the federal judiciary, including personal attacks on judges overseeing cases in which he is a party.

Each of these instances poses a clear and present danger to our democracy. And each undermines the courts' vital role in protecting our democracy.

When elected officials openly attack the judiciary, or even worse, openly defy a court order, they are violating a sacred principle enshrined in our system of government: no one, particularly a public servant who has taken an oath to uphold the law, stands above it.

It is not possible to remain true to that oath while placing the maintenance of political power ahead of a solemn respect for the rule of law.

And we don't have to look far to understand that publically deriding and ignoring court orders is a hallmark of democratic decline.

This tactic has been used in places like Turkey, Hungary and Poland to delegitimize courts and promote authoritarianism. We cannot afford to allow that to happen here and we must remain vigilant in our effort to prevent it.

Our ideological differences will always be the cherished core of our democratic institutions. That pluralism is what defines us. To protect and preserve it, we all have a duty to continue to ensure the independence and legitimacy of our courts.

Timothy K. Lewis was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals at the Third Circuit. He is also on the Advisory Board of The Constitution Project at the Project on Government Oversight.Ontario Conservative leadership candidate Patrick Brown addresses supporters and the media in Toronto on Sunday, February 18, 2018. The former party leader resigned his position after sexual misconduct allegations, only to re-enter race for his vacated position after refuting the allegations. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris YoungThe Canadian government is now seeking a meeting with the Indian politician who has publicly accused members of Trudeau's cabinet of being connected to the Sikh separatist movement. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and children, Xavier, 10, Ella-Grace, 9, and Hadrien, 3, not pictured, visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickKinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion Project's Westeridge loading dock, at centre with green tanks, is seen in Burnaby, B.C., on November 25, 2016. British Columbia's government is appealing a decision that allows Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass local bylaws in constructing its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The National Energy Board ruled in December that the company is not required to comply with two sections of the City of Burnaby's bylaws, which Kinder Morgan had said were hindering its ability to go ahead with a federally approved project. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan HaywardRochester (formerly of Blue Earth)  James C. Olson entered his heavenly home on Feb. 8, 2018 with his family by his side at Chosen Valley Care Center in Chatfield.

Jim was born Aug. 3, 1930, to Jonie and Gladys (Carlson) Olson at home in Bricelyn. He graduated from Frost High School in 1949. He married his wife, Mary June Morgan, on June 26, 1954 in Blue Earth. They had five children.

Jim had a knack for small business. He and his brother Don operated the Broiler Caf in downtown Blue Earth. He worked as a meat cutter for Elmers SuperValu for 20 years. An opportunity to operate a grocery store in Elmore came his way and he worked his way from a two aisle store to a six aisle store. He sold the store in Elmore and purchased the Swim-Inn Drive Inn in Blue Earth for several years before getting back to his roots in meat cutting by purchasing the Blue Earth Locker. After a successful run there he started a new venture on Main Street called Olsons Butcher Block. In 1987, Mary and Jim moved to Rochester where he worked for Just Right Foods, cutting meat for 20 more years.

Jim valued his relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus. He embraced all of His blessings, especially Gods creations. He was an active member of Bethel Lutheran Church and served on various committees.

He enjoyed the outdoors, hunting, and fishing and spending time making memories with his grandchildren. His love for making people laugh with his humor and jokes were notorious among his family and friends. He was very proud of his Norwegian heritage. The angels will all enjoy Jims humor . . . Ole and Lena were walking in to the bar

He is survived by his wife, Mary, of Rochester; daughters, Deb (Gregg) Myers, of Apple Valley, Kari (Jim) Kiehne, of Rochester, Kim (Rich) Rud, International Falls; son, David (Deb) Olson, Blue Earth; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren; brother, Don (Barb) Olson; sister, Betty Fisher; step-brother, Daris (Karen) Mulkin; one half-sister, Rhonda Rae.

He was preceded in death by his parents; half-brother, Matt (Debbie) Olson, and son Steven Olson, also many aunts and uncles.

A celebration of life service was held at Bethel Lutheran Church in Rochester on Friday, Feb. 16, 2018.

Thank you to those who prayed and cared for Jim in his time of illness. To all the Mayo doctors and nurses, Chosen Valley Care Center and Assistant Living staff, and Seasons Hospice staff.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Bethel Lutheran Church, Seasons Hospice or Chosen Valley Care Center.Nancy Bedard of the Quebec's Nurses Union (FIQ),speaks to reporters at a news conference, after appearing at a legislature committee on health, Wednesday, March 25, 2015 in Quebec City. Bedard says the provincial government will be in for a fight if it doesn't commit to improve nurses' working conditions.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques BoissinotFILE - In this Feb. 13, 2018 file photo, Russian athletes Anastasia Bryzgalova, left, and Alexander Krushelnitsky smile as they win bronze medal during the venue ceremony for the mixed doubles curling match at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea. Russian curlers say a coach on their team told them that Krushelnitsky tested positive for a banned substance at the Pyeongchang Olympics. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)FILE- In this June 7, 2017, file photo, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a conference in Athens. Biden is tiptoeing toward a potential run in 2020, even broaching the possibility during a recent gathering of longtime foreign policy aides. Huddled his newly opened office steps from the U.S. Capitol, Biden opened a planning meeting for his new diplomacy center by addressing the elephant in the room. He said he was keeping his 2020 options open, considering it a real possibility. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)A 78-year-old man was brought to the emergency department in October by his family because they were concerned he was acting strangely.

His daughter-in-law explained to me that he was visiting from out of state and had been in good health recently, except for a few days of muscle aches, dry cough, and chills. Several family members at home had recently recovered from colds and his symptoms were attributed to a virus going around in the family.

He woke up that morning feeling quite a bit worse and was uncharacteristically confused. His daughter-in-law was concerned and decided it was time to have him evaluated by a doctor. After arriving at a local urgent-care center, he got out of the car and became significantly more disoriented and too weak to stand. At this point, they decided to come to the emergency department.

I walked into his room and introduced myself. He was a very pleasant gentleman who appeared, at first glance, to be quite well. As I spoke with him, however, I realized he was completely unaware of why he was at the hospital and had no recollection of the morning's events. He had trouble answering my questions, such as the year and the name of the city he was in. His neurological exam was otherwise normal. I confirmed with his daughter-in-law that the confusion was new that day, and that he was previously quite sharp and independent.

What was causing the patient to develop sudden confusion and forgetfulness?

Solution:

Sudden confusion like this patient experienced is called delirium. Although not well-understood, it can often be caused by a new stressor, such as an infection, change in environment, medication, nutritional deficiencies, or trauma. Older adults are at a significantly higher risk for developing delirium, although it can occur in any age group.

But until we knew the underlying cause, we could not treat him.

We performed a chest X-ray to check for pneumonia; it was normal. A CT scan of his brain was normal. Bloodwork was normal. But shortly afterward, I received a call from the laboratory: "Your patient's flu swab came back positive."

Now I had the answer: He was delirious because he had influenza and his body was under stress from the infection. The patient was prescribed an anti-influenza medicine and admitted to the hospital.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 10 million people get the flu annually. Most will feel miserable for a week or so, but will not require hospitalization. Young children and adults over age 65, however, are at high risk for serious complications. These two age groups often have atypical symptoms and as many as 56,000 people die from flu every year, the CDC estimates.

Everyone older than 6 months old should receive a yearly flu vaccine to help avoid getting influenza, lessen its severity if the flu is contracted, and reduce its spread to others. Flu season is October through March, and it is still not too late to get the vaccine. This year's flu season has been especially severe, and it is important to seek care early if you suspect you have the flu.

The patient left the hospital after a four-day stay, and flew back to Wisconsin, where he lives and owns a small business. While he typically gets a flu vaccine every year, he hadn't received it when he came down with the flu this season. Shortly after returning home, he went to his family doctor and got the vaccine. He plans to continue getting a flu vaccine every year.

Eric Garfinkel, D.O., is a second-year resident of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Georgia (formerly of Blue Earth) Dean Richard More passed away peacefully at Redmond Hospital in Rome, Georgia on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018 after a decline in his health following several strokes. He was 82.

Born November 18, 1935, in Blue Earth, Dean graduated from Blue Earth High School. Following a term of service in the United States Marine Corps, Dean married Patricia Pat McClain on Sept. 11, 1955, and began what would be a lifelong career as a salesman, which took the family across the country, where they lived in such places as Oregon, California, and Texas before settling for many years in Indiana and later Tennessee. Dean was everything you might imagine a self-made man to be: driven, hardworking, proud of his family, and loyal to both his church and his country. His hobbies included photography, acquiring his private pilots license and traveling extensively in his Bonanza A36, as well as keeping the grounds of every home he owned groomed to perfection. In his retirement years, he kept busy doing private business consulting and moonlighted as the hotdog man  selling hot dogs from a mobile cart at social events in and around middle Tennessee. He will be remembered well by his friends and family as a pragmatic man who never backed down from a strongly felt personal conviction, and one who, although generous, made it a point to encourage every child and grandchild at the dinner table who wanted seconds to take all you want, but eat all you take.

Survivors include daughters, Reba and Paige, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Pat, one grandchild, and most of his kin.

Dean will be laid to rest in a private ceremony at the Center Valley Cemetery in Chatsworth, Georgia on Feb. 24, 2018.Jennifer Summerfield as Marie Antoinette and Brian McCann as King Louis in Marie Antoinette through March 10 at Curio Theatre Company. Read more

There's not much suspense in David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette: We know the French queen and her nebbish of a husband aren't going to keep their heads when all around them are losing theirs.

Under Brenna Geffers' direction, the Curio Theatre Company's production of Adjmi's deliberately anachronistic take on the French Revolution is quick-paced, unflagging in its energy, and filled with arresting visual imagery. But it's also at times unduly cartoonish and short on the emotions that might make the queen's murder reverberate in the present.

We first meet Marie Antoinette (Jennifer Summerfield) in the company of two of her ladies in waiting, enjoying "a spot of tea," in the English style. The rest of the two-act play charts her downward slide, from absurd extravagance to affected pastoral simplicity and, finally, a humiliating imprisonment that strips her of her finery, her hair, and most of her pretensions. Adjmi references Rousseau, Voltaire and Robespierre, but his treatment of political and philosophical ideas is glancing, at best.

At Curio, projected text (boudoir is misspelled) supplies useful geographic and historical context. We're told of the French people's cresting economic misfortunes (prices rising three times faster than wages) and the country's resulting political instability. In essence, Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI (Brian McCann) fiddle  she with a Swedish diplomat and he with his beloved clocks  while Paris, metaphorically speaking, burns.

At the heart of the play, and certainly of this Curio production, is an uneasy ambivalence toward its title character. The French, it's suggested, have unfairly defamed their Vienna-born queen as "the Austrian whore," inflating her sexual peccadilloes with misogynistic fervor. They also may have misunderstood her famous, supposedly tone-deaf admonition: "Let them eat cake." In Adjmi's tongue-in-cheek telling, it's kindly meant, a corrective to an obsession with healthy eating.

As Marie, Summerfield is a charismatic presence, but her portrayal lacks charm and emotional nuance. She's too often merely shrill and annoying. The character, as written, is ignorant and disdainful, but also, as we're reminded, a victim of circumstances, consigned to an arranged marriage and a role she never chose. A more subtle performance might have wrung more poignancy from the doomed queen's undeniably tragic fate.

By contrast, McCann's Louis is a comic delight, a grown-up child more entranced by his horological hobby than his kingdom or his largely indifferent wife. But, in the end, his very cluelessness  his passivity when action is most required  summons genuine pathos.

There are other nice comic turns in the show, notably Jessica DalCanton's depiction of a sardonic, white-haired sheep, more in the know than the two sovereigns. Liam Mulshine lends authenticity to the seductive Swede and provides the petulant voice behind the royal heir (represented by a large doll).

The playing space is Paul Kuhn's minimalist colonnaded set, supplemented by a few gilded tables and chairs and heaps of gravel. Aetna Gallagher's mostly white, black and red costumes, DalCanton's hair designs, the terrific makeup, Tim Martin's lighting, and Chris Sannino's sound design and music lend the production a quasi-realistic, quasi-poetic feel.

Presented through March 10 by Curio Theatre Company, 4740 Baltimore Ave. Tickets: $15-$30. Information: www.curiotheatre.org or 215-921-8243.To take the uneven pulse of America's youth politics in this fraught year of 2018, I had to climb an exquisite, dark wood-paneled, curved stairway of contradiction. It was Saturday afternoon at Houston Hall  the University of Pennsylvania's student center, a Gothic edifice built at the height of one Gilded Age, in 1896, that now offers pizza and a place to hang out for the children of our current Gilded Age.

But the two dozen or so undergrads from Penn and nearby Temple University gathered here under portraits of a revolutionary who'd once overthrown his government. They were huddled in the Ben Franklin Room to talk about their movement to topple another regime, to impeach President Trump  a grassroots operation backed with $30 million from the California billionaire they'd come to hear, Tom Steyer. There's a lot that could be said about all these ironies  not to mention the irony of kids meeting in the heart of this Ivy League campus to scheme about getting rid of the only Penn alum (Wharton, Class of 1968) to ever reach the White House.

But six gruesome minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, in a high school 1,000 miles away, have changed everything. Less than a week earlier, the story at Penn would have been whether this handful of college kids could cut through their generation's apparent cynicism and apathy about our muddled politics. Now, amid the froth of existential anger over a madman's ability to slaughter 17 high schoolers with a semi-automatic weapon of war, and the older generation's failure to address a wave of school shootings, you had to wonder if these kids were suddenly thrust into the vanguard of a revolution. The main goal of these kids who'd signed up for Steyer's NextGen America is electing a new Congress in November that will impeach Trump, but it was the massacre in Parkland, Fla., that was on everyone's mind Saturday.

"If you're waiting for the old people, if you're waiting for the powerful people, if you're waiting for all of the people in positions where you expect them to take care of us, to take care of you, it's not going to happen," Steyer  a 60-year-old who is now spending a big chunk of the $1.6 billion he'd made as a hedge fund manager to support liberal causes  told the Philadelphia college kids. "If you kids are waiting for the adults in the room to step up, take a look at what those kids in Florida are doing."

Everybody is looking at what these kids in Florida are doing. At practically the same moment that the Penn and Temple kids were eating pepperoni pizza and scrawling reasons to impeach Trump (because "He is infringing on our HUMAN RIGHTS," or because "This is not normal!") on placards, a 17-year-old girl from grief-stricken Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School named Emma Gonzalez was riveting the nation with a plea to America's grown-ups to protect our kids and not their craven political self-interests.

"The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice " Emma told a gun-control rally in Fort Lauderdale. "Companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers nowadays, saying that all we are is self-involved and trend-obsessed and they hush us into submission when our message doesn't reach the ears of the nation, we are prepared to call BS. Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say that tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS."

While Tom Steyer was bringing his well-funded organizational skills to Penn, Emma Gonzalez and her peers in Florida  and a horrific unwelcome gun tragedy  were providing the missing raw ingredient to the so-called youthquake that didn't seem to be happening before this week: The fierce urgency of now.

Indeed, the Florida kids are answering a question that troubled me since the very first anti-Trump protest that I covered 13 months ago: Where were the youth? It's not that I didn't meet any college or high school kids at events marking the so-called Trump resistance, but the leadership and energy seemed to be overwhelmingly over the age of 30, as well as heavily female and heavily white. In that sense, political activism in the age of Trump looked very little like the mass movements I'd seen in my lifetime  from the anti-Vietnam protests of the 1960s to the failed 1989 uprising in Tienanmen Square, when it was students manning the front lines.

On Saturday, I asked some of the kids in the Ben Franklin Room about that. Some told me that a campus letdown  especially after Trump's victory in an election in which young people had been electrified, for a time, by the insurgency of democratic socialist Bernie Sanders  was inevitable.

Haven Lerner, an 18-year-old Penn freshman from Scarsdale, N.Y., said it's "probably disillusionment with the process, that no matter what we do, that it might not work, that the policies that are implemented are going to be terrible, or that special interests are going to control people, or that there's nothing to be done  voting, or protesting, or otherwise. I also think that people might be tired of it (the various Trump controversies), because it's constantly in the news, and college students have a lot of other things going on with their lives "

Americans  young and old  have a complicated history with the notion of political protest. It's a cherished right, but you're only going to see large numbers in the streets when people feel a bona fide existential threat. In the 1960s, kids protested Vietnam because their neighbors and their siblings were coming home in body bags from a war that made no sense. In the case of the Trump resistance, women have been front and center because a nation that would elect a man who openly bragged about being a sexual predator has infuriated them on such a fundamental level. Now, the sight of teenagers hiding in closets to avoid being killed  again!  is having a galvanizing impact on the under-21 generation. This goes beyond politics. It's saving their lives when the adults don't seem to care.

In just three days, nationwide calls for student strikes and mass walkouts to protest gun violence in America and the political stranglehold of the NRA have grown from a whisper to a scream. We are suddenly looking at the cusp of possibly the most powerful student movement in the United States in the last half century. And the timing is perfect. In just nine months, the American people  including the first voters born in the 21st Century  will have an opportunity to elect a Congress that's not in the back pocket of the NRA. And the spillover will be politically toxic for Trump, who was elected with the help of $30 million in mysterious dark money from the gun lobby, and his hope of avoiding impeachment.

"Our largest, most diverse, most progressive generation is about half as represented as it should be," said Steyer, noting that in the last midterm election four years ago, millennials took part at a rate far less than half of voters over 55. "It's not that your generation is not informed and it's not that you're not passionate  it's that you don't believe that the system really works." But he noted that youth voting spiked upward last November in the off-year election in Virginia  and close to a dozen pro-gun Republican lawmakers were booted from office. Both Steyer and the Penn and Temple kids who gathered on Saturday are hoping this lightning will go national on Nov. 6.

Look, the reason that kids think the American political system doesn't work is because it in fact hasn't been working for a long, long time. We have a Congress and a president too cowardly to pass simple gun safety measures that are supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people, but now it feels like everyday citizens are starting to wake up from a bad dream. Political change always seems impossible, until there is a Selma, or a Stonewall Inn  or a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Our empire, and our emperor, haven't been wearing any clothes for a long time. And as Emma Gonzalez said, the kids were the only ones to notice.Teams of rescue workers were attempting to free a teenage boy Saturday night who became trapped in a cave in southwestern Lancaster County.

A 911 call for help came in at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, according to a Lancaster County dispatch supervisor. The trapped boy, believed to be about 15 years old, had gotten wedged and stuck about 200 feet into Wind Cave off Bridge Valley Road in Martic Township.

"There was some sort of organized group," the dispatch supervisor said. "There was a cave guide."

Personnel from the Rawlinsville fire department were dispatched to the scene, followed by workers with the Lancaster County Rescue Task Force. The York County Advanced Technical Rescue Team also was called in to assist. The supervisor said several dozen rescue workers in all were sent to the cave, which is popular with spelunkers.

As of 10 p.m. Saturday, the effort to free the boy was continuing. The supervisor said there were no reports yet of serious injury. However, a police transmission said a director with Lancaster General Hospital was headed to the scene.

Wind Cave, also known as Cold Cave because of its nearly freezing temperatures year 'round, is one of the largest tectonic caves in the eastern United States, according to a Lancaster County tourism website.Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, staff, parents, friends and community leaders gather for a moment of silence in Parkland, Fla., on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in the wake of a shooting that left 17 dead a day earlier. (Taimy Alvarez/Sun Sentinel/TNS) Read more

He wants more security officers and mental-health screenings! She wants more gun control!

Whenever a school shooting occurs, like the attack that killed 17 people in Florida on Wednesday, conservatives and liberals repeat the same tired talking points. Most of all, they talk about all the great things they want to do to protect America's kids.

But nothing is working. So I've got a different idea, about something that the kids can do to protect themselves.

Go on strike.

That's right. If America's high school students staged a nationwide walkout over school shootings, you'd see some real change. Security inside the schools would be beefed up, of course. But Congress would also be forced to take action to prevent people like Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year old Florida gunman, from obtaining a gun in the first place.

That's what has eluded the country across the last two decades, which have left a long trail of carnage across America's schools. Since the Columbine massacre of 1999, our schools have suffered over 40 episodes involving what law enforcement authorities call "active shooters."

And still, nothing. Not even the deaths of 20 elementary-school kids in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 could break the deadlock in Washington and bring meaningful regulations of deadly firearms.

A school strike would. If our nation's kids refused to come back to the classroom until Congress acted, Congress would act. Whatever it did wouldn't be perfect, and it wouldn't satisfy every side in our gun debate. But it would surely be better than what our kids have now, which isn't protecting them at all.

Strikes have happened before, especially during times of political ferment. In the 1930s, most notably, thousands of high school students walked out to protest military training in their schools, cuts to educational funding, and much else.

The next burst of high school strikes took place in the 1960s, triggered by the antiwar and civil rights movements. Here in Philadelphia, 3,500 students walked out of classes in November 1967 to demand the teaching of black history and the right to wear Afro-style clothing. They amassed outside the Board of Education headquarters at 21st Street and the Parkway, where they were confronted by two busloads of police under the direction of then-Commissioner (and future Mayor) Frank Rizzo.

Rizzo reportedly instructed his officers to attack the students' "black asses." By the end of the day, 57 people had been arrested and 22 were seriously injured.

But if the students lost that battle, they also won the war. Shortly after the strike, the Philadelphia School District instructed every school to provide "a well-rounded program of African and Afro-American history and culture." If you want to understand why the city now requires a black history course for all of its students, the 1967 strike is a good place to start.

Into the present, indeed, student strikes and demonstrations have proven an effective political tool. Students in Newark, N.J., walked out for two days in 2014, blockading three local high schools and a major intersection to protest the charter-school reforms promoted (and funded) by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, a New Jersey native. A few weeks later, several hundred Philadelphia students struck in support of their teachers' demand for a better contract.

And it's not just a city thing, either. That same year, students in Jefferson County, Colo.  a suburb of Denver  walked out to condemn a school board resolution instructing history courses to emphasize "patriotism" over "civil disorder." The strike led to the recall of three board members, including the author of the resolution. Clearly, the students had already learned what they needed to know about civil disobedience and the ways it can foster change.

Every American kid needs to know that history, too. "We are children," said one young survivor in Florida, shortly after escaping from the massacre at his high school. "You guys are the adults. Work together, come over your politics, and get something done."

But the adults have proven that they can't protect our children from the scourge of school shootings. Only the children can do that, and only if they take action on their ownand right now. We can't wait any longer.

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author (with Emily Robertson) of "The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools."On the evening of February 14, I wrote a post called Senate May Be Perilously Close to Passing Liberal Amnesty Legislation. The legislation in question was sponsored by the so-called Common Sense Coalition, consisting of eight Republican Senators (Alexander, Collins, Gardner, Graham, Flake, Isakson, Murkowski, and Rounds), seven Democrats, and one Independent.

It granted amnesty for nearly two millions Dreamers and funded a wall. It did nothing about the diversity lottery and nothing meaningful about chain migrations.

The legislation also told the Executive Branch how it should prioritize immigration enforcement. For illegal immigrants guilty only of unlawful presence, immigration officers were to focus on those who arrived after June 30, 2018. Thus, this legislation invited aliens to enter the U.S. illegally for the next four months by effectively assuring them they wouldnt be removed.

Todays Washington Post reports on the vigorous efforts of the Trump administration, and especially the Department of Homeland Security, to kill this bill. David Nakamura and Mike DeBonis report that at 10:30 p.m. on February 14 (around the time my post went up), a senior administration official told a reporter, Were going to bury it.

They did. A White House threat to veto the legislation, coupled with warnings of dire consequences from the Department of Homeland Security, scared off Republican support from other than the eight sponsors.

Nakamura and DeBonis devote most of their story to portraying this assault as a betrayal of the Dreamers by President Trump. It was the White House, they sniff, that emerged as a key obstacle preventing a deal to help the dreamers. They conclude: The episode reflected President Trumps inability  or lack of desire  to cut a deal with his adversaries even when doing so could have yielded a signature domestic policy achievement. . .

Only near the end of their lengthy story do Nakamura and DeBonis mention the overreach by the Common Sense Coalition that produced the administrations fierce opposition. They write:

[A]s the war room of administration lawyers and policy experts examined the 64-page text on Wednesday, it was a handwritten note on the final page that set off the loudest alarm bells. That section dealt with setting in law DHSs priorities for enforcement. Under the proposal, the agency would focus its powers on immigrants with felonies or multiple misdemeanors, who were national security threats and who had arrived in the country after a certain date. Scribbled in the margins was a date: June 30, 2018 [Note: an end of January date in the typed text was crossed out]. The administration team was dumbstruck: In addition to making it harder for DHS to deport all of those already here illegally, lawmakers were opening the door to a surge of new unauthorized immigrants by setting an effective amnesty date four months in the future. No one who has worked on immigration issues in the administration or on the Hill was aware of any legislation that had ever been proposed and scheduled to receive a vote on the floor of the Senate that created an amnesty program effectively for those who arrive in the future, said a DHS official who helped lead the review. That would clearly and unequivocally encourage a massive wave of illegal immigration and visa overstays.

(Emphasis added)

Of course it would. No wonder DHS, which would have had to cope with the massive wave, came out so forcefully against the bill.

Where was the common sense in inviting a rush to illegal entry? And why did Sens. Alexander, Collins, Gardner, Graham, Flake, Isakson, Murkowski, and Rounds sign on to such a proposal.

Perhaps some wanted to maximize the amnesty, while others were too lazy to read to the end of bill or too clueless to grasp the consequences of what they read.

From the Democrats perspective, was the prospective amnesty something they thought they could sneak through or was it a poison pill? Some have speculated that Democrats dont want any deal that includes a wall and would like (or be okay with) a political landscape in which the Dreamers are still in limbo.

Perhaps Democrats saw inclusion of the handwritten note as a win-win. Either they get all those new illegal immigrants ensconced here or they blame the administration for doing nothing for Dreamers.

Todays Post story looks like implementation of the second option.The domain fishinghd.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquireThe indictments handed up on Friday allege that the Russian defendants supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries and Donald Trump in the Republican primaries. Quoting the indictment, Politicos Gabriel Debenedetti notes that Russian specialists were instructed to post content that focused on politics in the USA and to use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trumpwe support them.) The internal quote is derived from a message sent around February 10, 2016, the day after both Sanders and Trump won their respective parties New Hampshire primary.

Sanders issued a statement on the indictment on Friday. Debenedetti observes, however, that Sanders remained silent on the allegation that the Russians favored him over Hillary. In Sanderss case, Russian support would have been overdetermined. The Russians might have loved his Marxism. They might have wanted to pay tribute to his 1988 honeymoon in Burlington sister city Yaroslavl, where he received a briefing on central planning, Soviet style. They might actually have supported Sanderss desire to starve our armed forces.

Sanders doesnt advertise it, of course, but his preferred policies line up perfectly with the interests of contemporary Russia. A loving 2015 Guardian profile by Paul Lewis can assist anyone who wants to fill this picture out. Sanders might have said that whatever paltry resources the Russians devoted to supporting him, they could never have offset Hillary Clintons takeover of the DNC. He must have thought it, but he doesnt want to say anything to suggest that the Russians efforts might not have been all he and his friends otherwise crack them up to be.

I think the Russians supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries and Trump in the Republican primaries because their candidacies sowed confusion (as the Russians sought in the words of the indictment) in ways that became obvious to us all. The same applies to Trumps candidacy against Clinton in the presidential campaign. His candidacy was outrageous. In Sanderss case during the primaries and in Trumps case during the presidential campaign, the Russians efforts were not undertaken to achieve the apparently impossible. They were undertaken to weaken the presumed winners of contests whose outcomes seemed certain.Virgin Group Founder and Virgin Hyperloop One Chairman Sir Richard Branson announced the Framework Agreement in the presence of the Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis to begin the development of the route. This historic signing at the Magnetic Maharashtra event was also attended by Virgin Hyperloop One board members and key investors Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO and Group Chairman of DP World , and Ziyavudin Magomedov, Chairman of Summa Group .

Recognizing the Maharashtra government's contribution to the country's economy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "51 per cent of total investments in India have come to Maharashtra, and the state is attracting global investors. The state's overall development in the past few years is a shining example of change thinking and improving conditions in the country. Maharashtra government was ahead of all other Indian states in terms of infrastructure spend and the state is on its way to achieving its bold vision of a trillion-dollar economy."

"I believe Virgin Hyperloop One could have the same impact upon India in the 21st century as trains did in the 20th century. The Pune-Mumbai route is an ideal first corridor as part of a national hyperloop network that could dramatically reduce travel times between India's major cities to as little as two hours," said Sir Richard Branson. "Virgin Hyperloop One can help India become a global transportation pioneer and forge a new world-changing industry."

The hyperloop route will link central Pune, Navi Mumbai International Airport, and Mumbai in 25-minutes, connecting 26 million people and creating a thriving, competitive megaregion. The high-capacity passenger and cargo hyperloop route eventually will support 150 million passenger trips annually, saving more than 90 million hours of travel time, and providing citizens with greater opportunities and social and economic mobility. The hyperloop system will also have the potential for the rapid movement of palletized freight and light cargo between the Port of Mumbai and Pune, creating a robust backbone for on-demand deliveries, supply chains, and next-generation logistics.

The Pune-Mumbai route could result in USD $55 billion (INR 350,000 crores) in socio-economic benefits (time savings, emissions and accident reduction, operational cost savings, etc.) over 30 years of operation, according to an initial pre-feasibility study completed by Virgin Hyperloop One. The 100% electric, efficient hyperloop system will ease severe expressway congestion and could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 150,000 tons annually.

"With Virgin Hyperloop One, we can create a sustainable infrastructure that will enhance the State of Maharashtra's competitiveness and attract new investment and businesses," said the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. "The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route will be an economic catalyst for the region and create tens of thousands of jobs for India's world-class manufacturing, construction, service, and IT sectors and aligns with Make in India initiatives."

The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project will begin with a six-month in-depth feasibility study which will analyze and define the route alignment including environmental impact, the economic and commercial aspects of the route, the regulatory framework, and cost and funding model recommendations. The feasibility study will build upon the findings of the pre-feasibility study signed in November 2017 between the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority and Virgin Hyperloop One.

The project will enter a procurement stage upon the successful completion of the feasibility study to determine the public-private partnership structure. Construction of the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route would commence after procurement and will be completed in two phases, beginning with an operational demonstration track built between two points on the route. The demonstration track will be constructed in two to three years from the signing of the agreement and serve as a platform for testing, certifying, and regulating the system for commercial operations. The second phase will target to complete construction of the full Pune-Mumbai route in five to seven years. Future projects could also extend the route to link central Pune with the New Pune International Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai with Pune's industrial economic zones.

"The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project will ultimately be executed by a public-private partnership which will save taxpayer money while delivering a transport option that will help the State of Maharashtra support economic growth, improve sustainability, and meet the transport demands," said Kiran Gitte, CEO of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

"We have always believed that India would be a tremendous market for hyperloop. The Pune-Mumbai route is one of the strongest economic cases we have seen to-date," said Virgin Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd. "The State of Maharashtra has made a strong commitment to building the first hyperloop route in India. We are looking forward to partnering with the State as well as our partners to make the Pune-Mumbai route a reality."

For the signing photo, route map, fact sheet, and b-roll click here. Additional media images can be accessed here.

About Virgin Hyperloop One

Virgin Hyperloop One is the only company in the world that has built a fully operational hyperloop system. Our team has the world's leading experts in engineering, technology, and transport project delivery, working in tandem with global partners and investors to make hyperloop a reality, now. Virgin Hyperloop One is backed by key investors including DP World, Caspian VC Partners (part of Summa Group), Virgin Group, Sherpa Capital, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, SNCF, GE Ventures, Formation 8, 137 Ventures, WTI, among others. For more information, visit www.virginhyperloopone.com.

Media Contacts

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SOURCE Virgin Hyperloop OneMUMBAI, India, February 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Pune-Mumbai Route Will Support 150 Million Passenger Trips Per Year And Help India Boost Its Economic Competitiveness Through High-Speed Transportation Innovation and Job Creation

Construction Will Begin With An Operational Demonstration Track

Virgin Hyperloop One today announced the Indian State of Maharashtra's intent to build a hyperloop between Pune and Mumbai beginning with an operational demonstration track.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/643279/Virgin_Hyperloop_India.jpg )



Virgin Group Founder and Virgin Hyperloop One Chairman Sir Richard Branson announced the Framework Agreement in the presence of the Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis to begin the development of the route. This historic signing at the Magnetic Maharashtra event was also attended by Virgin Hyperloop One board members and key investors Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO and Group Chairman of DP World, and Ziyavudin Magomedov, Chairman of Summa Group.

Recognizing the Maharashtra government's contribution to the country's economy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "51 per cent of total investments in India have come to Maharashtra, and the state is attracting global investors. The state's overall development in the past few years is a shining example of change thinking and improving conditions in the country. Maharashtra government was ahead of all other Indian states in terms of infrastructure spend and the state is on its way to achieving its bold vision of a trillion dollar economy."

"I believe Virgin Hyperloop One could have the same impact upon India in the 21st century as trains did in the 20th century. The Pune-Mumbai route is an ideal first corridor as part of a national hyperloop network that could dramatically reduce travel times between India's major cities to as little as two hours," said Sir Richard Branson. "Virgin Hyperloop One can help India become a global transportation pioneer and forge a new world-changing industry."

The hyperloop route will link central Pune, Navi Mumbai International Airport, and Mumbai in 25-minutes, connecting 26 million people and creating a thriving, competitive megaregion. The high-capacity passenger and cargo hyperloop route eventually will support 150 million passenger trips annually, saving more than 90 million hours of travel time, and providing citizens with greater opportunities and social and economic mobility. The hyperloop system will also have the potential for the rapid movement of palletized freight and light cargo between the Port of Mumbai and Pune, creating a robust backbone for on-demand deliveries, supply chains, and next-generation logistics.

The Pune-Mumbai route could result in USD $55 billion (INR 350,000 crores) in socio-economic benefits (time savings, emissions and accident reduction, operational cost savings, etc.) over 30 years of operation, according to an initial pre-feasibility study completed by Virgin Hyperloop One. The 100% electric, efficient hyperloop system will ease severe expressway congestion and could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 150,000 tons annually.

"With Virgin Hyperloop One, we can create a sustainable infrastructure that will enhance the State of Maharashtra's competitiveness and attract new investment and businesses," said the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. "The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route will be an economic catalyst for the region and create tens of thousands of jobs for India's world-class manufacturing, construction, service, and IT sectors and aligns with Make in India initiatives."

The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project will begin with a six-month in-depth feasibility study which will analyze and define the route alignment including environmental impact, the economic and commercial aspects of the route, the regulatory framework, and cost and funding model recommendations. The feasibility study will build upon the findings of the pre-feasibility study signed in November 2017 between the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority and Virgin Hyperloop One.

The project will enter a procurement stage upon the successful completion of the feasibility study to determine the public-private partnership structure. Construction of the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route would commence after procurement and will be completed in two phases, beginning with an operational demonstration track built between two points on the route. The demonstration track will be constructed in two to three years from the signing of the agreement and serve as a platform for testing, certifying, and regulating the system for commercial operations. The second phase will target to complete construction of the full Pune-Mumbai route in five to seven years. Future projects could also extend the route to link central Pune with the New Pune International Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai with Pune's industrial economic zones.

"The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project will ultimately be executed by a public-private partnership which will save taxpayer money while delivering a transport option that will help the State of Maharashtra support economic growth, improve sustainability, and meet the transport demands," said Kiran Gitte, CEO of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

"We have always believed that India would be a tremendous market for hyperloop. The Pune-Mumbai route is one of the strongest economic cases we have seen to-date," said Virgin Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd. "The State of Maharashtra has made a strong commitment to building the first hyperloop route in India. We are looking forward to partnering with the State as well as our partners to make the Pune-Mumbai route a reality."

About Virgin Hyperloop One

Virgin Hyperloop One is the only company in the world that has built a fully operational hyperloop system. Our team has the world's leading experts in engineering, technology, and transport project delivery, working in tandem with global partners and investors to make hyperloop a reality, now. Virgin Hyperloop One is backed by key investors including DP World, Caspian VC Partners (part of Summa Group), Virgin Group, Sherpa Capital, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, SNCF, GE Ventures, Formation 8, 137 Ventures, WTI, among others. For more information, visit www.virginhyperloopone.com.

SOURCE Virgin Hyperloop OneIf you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found herePanaji, Feb 16 : The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on Friday unanimously passed a resolution wishing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar good health and speedy recovery.

Parrikar is in a Mumbai hospital and is being treated for "mild pancreatitis".

Speaking to reporters CLP leader Chandrakant Kavlekar said that ahead of the upcoming budget session the party passed the resolution at a meeting in the assembly on Friday wishing Parrikar well.

"We wished for his health and prayed to God for his quick recovery. This was the first resolution we passed," Kavlekar said, adding that the resolution was moved by former Congress Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane.

The CLP leader also said that the Opposition planned to corner the BJP-led coalition government on issues related to coal pollution, mining closure, etc, when the session begins on February 19.

Parrikar is admitted in Lilavati Hospital. According to a statement issued by his office, the Chief Minister was doing well and was "under observation" and was likely to be discharged in a day or two.

Parrikar was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital on Thursday, a day after he was admitted to the state-run Goa Medical College near Panaji, after he complained of stomach pain on Wednesday night.Patna, Feb 17 : Nearly 1,000 students were expelled for cheating during the Class 12 examinations in Bihar, officials said on Saturday.

Anand Kishore, the Chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), told the media here that more the students were expelled "for adopting unfair means" during the examinations that concluded on Friday.

The examinations had started on February 6.

The chairman said that 25 fake examiners were also caught and FIRs were lodged against guardians for helping their wards to cheat in the examinations.

He claimed the examinations this time were held in a fair manner this time and mass cheating in Bihar was a thing of the past. "It is not possible now."

Nearly 112,07,986 students appeared for the Class 12 exams at 1,384 centres across the state.

Mass cheating has been reported in Bihar for years.

Last year, the Class 12 Arts topper turned out to be a 42-year-old man, who had faked his age to take the test. He was arrested on charges of fraud.Jerusalem, Feb 18 : The Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets targeted a total of six military targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, in response to the detonation of an explosive device on the border fence in southern Gaza.

These specific military targets belonging to the Hamas organization were attacked, Xinhua quoted a statement issued by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF statements said a number of terror sites were targeted in the large-scale attack, including an offensive terror tunnel built by the Hamas organization in the Zaytun neighbourhood towards Israeli territory; a military compound in the area of Deir ElBalah which belongs to the Hamas, including weapon manufacturing sites.

Earlier in the day, the IDF said that an explosive device was detonated against IDF troops adjacent to the security fence near the southern Gaza Strip.

Four IDF soldiers were injured, of which two severely, one moderately and one lightly. All the wounded were evacuated to the hospital to receive medical treatment.

Saturday's incident on the Gaza Strip border is severe, said the Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu in a statement released on Saturday evening. "We will respond appropriately and I send my wishes for a quick recovery to the wounded."

The IDF views with great severity the incident in which popular and seemingly spontaneous demonstrations were used for terrorist activity and an attempt to destabilize the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas is accountable for this incident and its consequences, as well as everything happening in and from the Gaza Strip, above and below ground, said the Israeli army.

The IDF is determined to provide the civilians of Israel safety and security and will do so by all means at its disposal, said the IDF.New York, Feb 18 : Have you wondered how would people react if scientists ever detect alien life in the universe? Humans would be "pretty upbeat" and welcome the news, finds a study.

Various studies have in the past speculated about how humans might respond to this kind of news, but until now, there has been almost no systematic empirical research.

In a pilot study, scientists at the Arizona State University, analysed various media reports of "alien announcements", including the appearance of the "alien" interstellar asteroid Oumuamua, that suggest the potential for alien life in our solar system.

Language in the coverage of these events showed significantly more positive than negative emotions.

"If we came face to face with life outside of Earth, we would actually be pretty upbeat about it," said assistant professor Michael Varnum.

The results are in stark difference to the warnings from scientist Stephen Hawking who thinks aliens will not like being contacted by humans and that if we ever try to contact them they could kill humans.

In another two separate studies, nearly 1,000 people were asked to write about their own hypothetical reactions to an announcement that alien microbial life had been discovered, as well as to write about their reactions on past news coverage of scientific discoveries.

Participants' responses showed significantly more positive than negative emotions, both when contemplating their own reactions and those of humanity as a whole.

The positive effect was stronger in response to reading about extraterrestrial life than human made synthetic life.

The studies suggest that "if we find out we're not alone, we'll take the news rather well," Varnum said.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Austin, Texas.Washington, Feb 18 : To dismiss claims of Russian collusion with Donald Trump's campaign, the US President has leaned on a tweet by a top Facebook executive who said the main intent of the alleged Russian meddling was to divide America, not electing Trump.

"The main goal of the Russian propaganda and misinformation effort is to divide America by using our institutions, like free speech and social media, against us. It has stoked fear and hatred amongst [sic] Americans," Rob Goldman, Vice President of Ads at Facebook tweeted on Friday.

He also applauded special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation of Russian trolls on social media during the 2016 US presidential election.

"The majority of the Russian ad spend happened after the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn't align with the main media narrative of Tump and the election," Goldman said in another tweet.

It did not miss the attention of the Twitter-savvy president who stated that Goldman's thread supports his argument that there was "no collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia-linked meddling on social media.

"The Fake News Media never fails. Hard to ignore this fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman!" Trump said in a tweet on Saturday.

In another tweet, Trump accused the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign while there was none.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!" one of his tweets read.

Facebook and other social media platforms, like Twitter and Instagram, have come under intense scrutiny in past weeks, as more information has surfaced about how Russian actors used those platforms to spread misinformation online, CNBC reported on Saturday.

Mueller's 37-page indictment, released on Friday, revealed the depth of Russian involvement in the US political process.

Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election, charging them with conspiracy to defraud Washington, according to the Department of Justice.

In addition, three defendants were charged on Friday with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft, reported CNN.

"The defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the US, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said.

Mueller had convened a grand jury as part of his ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as any possible connections between Moscow and President Donald Trump's campaign associates.

According to the indictment, beginning as early as 2014, the Russian organisation Internet Research Agency began operations to interfere with the US political system, including the 2016 election.Washington, Feb 18 : US President Donald Trump lashed out at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), describing its failure to follow up on a tip about the Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz as "very sad", the media reported.

The FBI has said that it failed to act on information about the 19-year-old Cruz, who slaughtered 17 people on February 14 at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school in Parkland, reports CNN.

The shooting reignited demands for tougher gun laws, with student survivors gathering in Fort Lauderdale earlier on Saturday to criticise Trump and other lawmakers for their inaction.

But Trump shifted blame to the FBI, saying it was devoting too much time to investigating his presidential campaign.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter," the President tweeted on Saturday.

"This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign -- there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

The FBI has acknowledged receiving two tips that appear to relate to Cruz ahead of the shooting. One was a January 5 call to a tip line from someone close to him -- one that the FBI said it failed to act on, CNN reported.

The information should have been assessed as a "potential threat to life", but the proper protocols were not followed and the FBI's Miami office was not notified, the agency said.

Cruz, who has had a history of mental illness, is currently at the main Broward County jail facing 17 counts of premeditated murder.

His next court date is set for Monday.New York, Feb 18 : A stroke in a baby -- even a big one - may not have the same lasting impact as it could in an adult. Researchers have found that they regain language function in the "opposite side" of the brain if they experience a stroke around the time of birth.

About one in 4,000 babies suffer a stroke shortly before, during or after birth.

The researchers found that a decade or two after a "perinatal" stroke damaged the left "language" side of the brain, affected teenagers and young adults used the right sides of their brain for language.

The findings, presented in a symposium at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting at Austin in Texas, demonstrates how "plastic" brain function is in infants, said Elissa Newport, Professor of Neurology at Georgetown University School of Medicine in the US.

The study found that all the individuals studied, aged 12 to 25, who had a left-brain perinatal stroke, used the right side of their brains for language.

"Their language is good -- normal," she said.

The only telltale signs of prior damage to their brain are that some study individuals limp a bit and many have learned to make their left hands dominant because the stroke left the right hand's functions impaired, the researchers said.

But basic cognitive functions, like language comprehension and production, are excellent, Newport said.

Furthermore, imaging studies revealed that language in these participants is all based on the right side in an exact, mirror opposite region to the left normal language areas.New York, Feb 18 : Socialite Paris Hilton celebrated her 37th birthday at a party in Manhattan with family, including sister Nicky Hilton Rothschild and aunt Kyle Richards, and friends like Paris Jackson.

Hilton posted photographs and videos from her bash, including a selfie of her and the 19-year-old model on Instagram, reports eonline.com.

"Paris and Paris," Hilton wrote.

Jackson's name was inspired by Hilton's.

In 2009, months after the death of Jackson's father Michael Jackson, Hilton said that her family members were close with the King of Pop and that her mother Kathy Hilton was one of his former school friends.

"So I grew up knowing Michael very well and when he had his daughter, he always loved the name Paris and grew up being an uncle to me," Hilton said.

"So he asked my mom if it was okay, and of course she said 'yes' and I think she's such a beautiful little girl and I'm proud we have the same name."

Hilton's fiance Chris Zylka is not seen in her Instagram images from her party, which took place on Thursday.

However, the two celebrated her birthday, which falls on February 17, on a trip to Brazil earlier this week. They partied at a club, where Hilton DJed.Panaji, Feb 18 : Hospitalised Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar may not attend the Assembly Budget Session beginning Monday, even as the Speaker said that a house panel will decide whether the session needs to be curtailed.

Parrikar, who also holds the finance portfolio, is admitted in a Mumbai hospital for treatment of "mild pancreatitis".

South Goa MP and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Savoikar said Parrikar's treatment is headed in the "right direction" and he will continue his treatment in Mumbai on medical advice.

The parliamentarian, however, did not give a specific time frame for his recovery.

"The CM's treatment is moving in the right direction and he is responding to the same. However, he needs sufficient time to recover and be focused on the treatment. Medical experts are taking good care of him. We all pray for his speedy recovery," Savoikar said.

Parrikar was rushed to Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital on February 15 for treatment of "mild pancreatitis". On Saturday, the CMO denied reports that Parrikar underwent a surgery, claiming that his health was improving.

A statement by Lilavati Hospital on Sunday said Parrikar is responding well to treatment and dismissed reports on his adverse health as rumours.

"... various malicious and misleading reports/rumours are floating around in electronic/print media on his health. We categorically deny such rumours. We reiterate that the Goa Chief Minister is responding well to treatment," Ajay Kumar Pande, Vice President of Lilavati Hospital, said in the statement.

Speaker Pramod Sawant told reporters on Sunday that a meeting of the Assembly's Business Advisory Committee had been called on Monday to decide on whether the Budget Session should be curtailed to three days.

"A decision will be taken at the committee meeting on shortening the session to three days. It was due to start on February 19 and end on March 22," he said.

Informed sources said in case Parrikar did not attend the session, the Budget -- scheduled to be presented on February 22 -- would be presented by a senior Minister.

"The decision on who will present the Budget will be taken at the BJP's legislative party meeting at 10.30 a.m. on Monday," Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo said.Shillong, Feb 18 : Attacking the Narendra Modi-led Central government for its failure to ensure security to women across India, Woman Congress President Sushmita Dev on Sunday claimed that most rapes were reported from states ruled by the BJP.

"All the BJP-ruled states are seeing the highest rate of rapes. In Haryana, there were 6 rapes within the span of 10 hours, Prime Minister didn't as much as comment on it," she told journalists here.

"Today, Madhya Pradesh has the highest rate of rapes in the country but the Prime Minister is silent on it. In Rajasthan where rates of rape are also one of the highest, the Prime Minister has never spoken about it.

"Crime against women have gone up all over India, and I can tell you that the BJP government is not at all serious about the security of women," she said.

Dev was responding to Union Minister Smriti Irani, who while campaigning in Meghalaya ahead of the February 27 elections, on Saturday raked up the infamous sex scandal of a minor at guest house run by Meghalaya Home H.D.R.Lyngdoh's son Nathaniel Osbert Rymmai.

Meghalaya Police had arrested four people in connection with the rape case including former Independent legislator Julius Dorphang, who is seeking re-election as an Independent candidate from Mawhati assembly constituency.

"I am shocked to see that a central minister (Irani) visited Meghalaya to highlight the rape of a girl in Meghalaya. I would like to ask her that the 'Biggest Sex Scandal', in the history of India has happened in Gujarat's Kutch, what we call the 'Naliya Kand'.

"It is the biggest sex racket of trafficking in women and sexually abusing women in Prime Minister Modi's own state and in Gujarat, he visited that Kutch region but never mentioned a word about it," said Dev.

"Meghalaya is a progressive state. In the society that we live in Meghalaya, women play an important role and you cannot just raise the issue of one rape in Meghalaya and say that women are unsafe... but, still a rape is a rape, whether it is 1 or 100. We condemn it," she added.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi HoustonJohannesburg, Feb 18 : A brilliant all-round show helped India beat South Africa by 28 runs in the first Twenty-20 International (T20I) at the New Wanderers Stadium here on Sunday.

Put in to bat, Shikhar Dhawan (72) hammered the South African bowlers all around the park and helped India to post a massive 203/5 before pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (5/24) wreaked havoc in the South African batting line-up to take a crucial 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

With this bowling stats, Bhuvneshwar also became the first Indian bowler to take five wickets in each of the three formats (four times in Tests and once each in One Day Internationals and T20Is).

Chasing a challenging target, South African openers J.J.Smuts (14) and Reeza Hendricks got off to a good start. But in the third over, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Smuts to make it 29/1.

Middle-order batsmen Jean-Paul Duminy (3) and David Miller (9) were also dismissed cheaply by Bhuvneshwar and Hardik Pandya respectively.

With the scoreboard reading 48/3, Farhaan Behardien (39) came in the middle and played sensibly along with Hendricks.

The two displayed quality shots and forged an 81-run partnership for the fourth wicket. But just when things seemed good Behardien was sent back to the pavilion by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the 15th over.

After adding a few more runs with new batsmen Heinrich Klaasen (16), Hendricks (70) was caught behind off Bhuvneshwar in the 18th over.

Now with 46 needed in 14 balls, lower-order batsmen Andile Phehlukwayo (13), Chris Morris (0), Dane Paterson (1) and Junior Dala (2 not out) failed to rise to the occasion and only managed to score 175/9 in 20 overs.

Earlier, opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan once again unleashed mayhem in South Africa, with his 72 powering India to 203 for five wickets.

The Delhi left-hander, who hit 323 runs in the six One-Day Internationals (ODIs), blasted 10 fours and two sixes in his 39-ball innings as others batted around him.

After home captain Jean-Paul Duminy put India into bat, India's innings was lifted by a brisk 21 off nine from Rohit Sharma, who got out in the fifth delivery of the second over after edging to wicket-keeper Heinrich Klassen off debutant Junior Dala.

Dhawan's show began after this as he got useful support from Suresh Raina (15 off 7) and Virat Kohli (26 off 20). Till the dismissal of Kohli, who was ruled LBW against spinner Tabraiz Shamsi in the third delivery of the 10th over, India had already scored 108.

Dhawan made the most of the ill-disciplined bowling from Chris Morris, Dala and Andile Phehlukwayo, who were allowing the 32-year-old to free his arms on the leg side.

A failed scoop attempt of a slower delivery from Phehlukwayo ended Dhawan's innings as Klassen dived front to removed the danger.

Later, Manish Pandey (29 not out off 27), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (16) and Hardik Pandya (13 not out) took India past the 200-run mark.Imphal, Feb 18 : The BJP-led Manipur government appeared shaky as the Naga People's Front announced on Sunday that it is likely to withdraw support to it after the Nagaland elections slated for February 27.

"We have decided to withdraw support from the coalition soon. The decision may be announced shortly after the Nagaland elections," said NPF's state President Marung Makunga.

The NPF MLAs has four lawmakers in the 60-member Assembly, where the BJP has only 21 and dependent on other allies for its majority. An NPF lawmaker is a cabinet minister.

"During a public meeting, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh told the NPF members of the Autonomous District Council of Chandel district to join the BJP. Was it a mere joke or mocking our party or showing disrespect to our party?" Makunga asked during a press conference here.

Political observers feel that the parting of ways may be the last straw for the coalition government. Indications are that the High Court is likely to take firm decision on March 13 when the petitions against the appointment of 12 Parliamentary secretaries will be heard.

State Congress president T.N. Haokip said that the eight Congress MLAs who had joined the BJP may have to return or face disqualification proceedings and the party has submitted petitions to Governor Najma Heptulla and Speaker Y. Khemchand in this regard.

Other NPF leaders said that the Chief Minister had announced allotment of crores of rupees for the hill districts as part of his slogan "go to the hills" but nothing has been done after such announcements.

The NPF's announcement comes in wake of the developments in Nagaland where the BJP has sumped the NPF, an ally for over a decade and tied up with a newly-floated party for the state assembly polls.Bengaluru, Feb 18 : Bengaluru city Youth Congress General Secretary Mohammad Haris Nalapad was on Sunday expelled from the ruling party after he allegedly assaulted a young man at a city cafe.

"Nalapad has been expelled from the Congress for six years. Atrocities in any form is not tolerated in @INC Karnataka," tweeted party's state unit President G. Parameshwara.

Nalapad, 24, is the son of Congress MLA N.A. Haris from Shantinagar seat in Bengaluru central.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also tweeted: "Offenders should be punished to the full extent, regardless of who they are. No less. No more."

On a complaint by victim Vidvat's friend V. Praveen, police registered an assault case against Nalapad and five of his friends for thrashing the 24-year-old in Fergy Cafe at the upscale UB City Mall following a verbal duel on Saturday night.

"Vidvat was dining along with Praveen when Nalapad objected to him resting his fractured leg on a chair at the adjacent table. When Vidvat told Nalapad to mind his business, the latter along with his friends thrashed him," Cubbon Park Inspector Vijaya Hadagalli told IANS.

Praveed took a bleeding Vidvat to a nearby private hospital for treatment, as he was punched in the face and chest and ended up with a broken nose.

"Legal action has been taken against those responsible. The victim will be served justice," said Parameshwara in the tweet.

The swift action against Nalapad is seen as an attempt to minimise political damage to the ruling Congress in the Assembly polls due in late April or early May.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) condemned the attack and staged demonstration at the police station, seeking the arrest of Nalapad and his friends.

"I am appalled at, and condemn, the ghastly attack by MLA N.A. Haris' son on innocent Vidvat. @CPBlr Police must arrest the culprit and his goons to restore public confidence in the rule of law. Congress MLA must counsel his absconding son to surrender," BJP state unit President and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa tweeted.Washington, Feb 19 : US President Donald Trump on Sunday criticised Congress, the FBI and the Department of Justice for not investigating the Barack Obama government's 2016 payment of hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran to resolve an international dispute.

"Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 billion in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!" Trump wrote on his Twitter account.

In January 2016, the Obama administration sent Iran $400 million in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies, which were transported from Geneva by plane, Efe reported.

The payment was the first portion of the $1.7 billion that the US promised to pay to Tehran to resolve an international dispute that arose during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. According to the Obama government, the funds belonged to Iran but had been in US custody for decades.

The first payment sparked controversy because the White House did not hand over the money to Iran until an aircraft carrying three US citizens recently released from prison by Tehran left the Middle Eastern country.

The Republican opposition accused the Obama government of having paid ransom to Iran for the release of the Americans, something the White House denied, saying that it simply wanted to ensure that Tehran fulfilled its promise to release the prisoners before dispatching the funds that were to be returned to Iran anyway.

The payment came as part of the 2015 nuclear deal among the US, Iran and five other world powers and sought to compensate Tehran with $400 million for the Shah government's never-fulfilled purchase of military equipment before the rupture of US-Iranian diplomatic relations, along with $1.3 billion in interest.

Trump has threatened to withdraw the US from the nuclear pact with Iran and has given an ultimatum to Washington's European allies to negotiate -- before mid-May -- a revised agreement that corrects the "defects" of the multilateral pact that ostensibly reined in Tehran's nuclear programme.Steinway & Sons Louis XVI style grand piano

Kaminski Auctions February 3rd and 4th two-day auction of Hilary Musser Interiors LLC, of Palm Beach, Florida collection achieved excellent prices across all collecting genres. The sale featured decorative furnishings from Ms. Mussers personal collection and European and Early American antiques from her former antique shop, Federal Antiques at 20 Federal Street in Nantucket, MA.

Fine art entries saw a Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), landscape, oil on board sell for $8,500, while a portrait of a lady in a white dress, oil on canvas by the Russian painter Ilya Repin sold for $7500.

A watercolor painting of two nudes signed Rodin with the provenance stamp of the Dominion Gallery Montreal and the Darius Tale Yar Khan Gallery London, was finally hammered down for $6,000. While a Leon Bakst (Russian, 1866-1924), watercolor painting of a costume design sold for $5,000.

Furniture in the auction brought excellent results as well. The top- selling lot was an Italian hand-painted terracotta dining table on a wrought iron base measuring 92 inches long that was originally custom-made in Italy. It sold to the audience for $6,000. A pair of Victorian walnut twin beds with inlay and matching nightstands sold for $3,500 to an Internet bidder, while a late 19th-century Sheraton-style Bigelow-Kennard grandfather clock in a mahogany case, with lion-form feet and Westminster chimes sold for $3,500.

Italian marble sculptures continue to do well at the Kaminski sales. An 18th/19th-century Italian marble sculpture of a skull wearing Roman robes was finally hammered down for $3,500 with spirited bidding from the audience and Internet bidders. The second sculpture, a 19th- century Italian marble sculpture of Caracalla the Roman emperor from AD198 to 217, a member of the Severan Dynasty sold for $2,500.

Venini glass continues to bring strong prices at Kaminski as well, with a Carlo Scarpa "Murrine Romane" vase measuring 5 inches high selling for $2,700.

Most of the top lots of the sale made their way across the block on day two with an exceptional Steinway grand piano as the focal point of the collection. The Steinway was advertised heavily in Europe and the United States. Internet buyers and phone bidders from across the globe registered to bid. The rare piano was finely inlaid with cupids, floral decoration, and musical instruments and executed in exotic woods. Built by the Steinway Company in 1922, the piano was originally purchased from Maximilian's House of Grand Pianos and is fitted with a CD player. Strong competition for the rare piece drove the price to $41,000 plus twenty percent buyers premium.

A pair of small, early 20th century Gorham sterling shellfish trays caught the attention of Gorham and fine silver collectors. The dishes came into Kaminski Auctions gallery black with tarnish. A thorough polishing revealed their exquisite detail of shells and intricate coral decoration. The pair were hallmarked and numbered 735 with approximately 12.2 troy oz TW of silver. Measuring one inch high by six inches in diameter they were finally hammered down for $6,000.

A stunning pair of 19th century cast lead dogs on marble bases that resembled golden retrievers purchased originally from Wayne Pratt Antiques sold for $5,000 to the phones.

Ms. Musser was an avid collector of Majolica and at one time owned one of the finest collections in the world. Included in the sale was an antique French majolica tree trunk pedestal with trailing ivy and a white cockatoo perched on the side. It measured 43 inches high by 20 inches wide. Originally purchased from the Au Fond de la Cour Gallery, Paris, it sold for $4750. A 19th C. Majolica tiered revolving oyster server with figural fish and serpent finial, sold for $3,000.

Her collection of ceramics included a 19th-century scroddleware figural steer that serves as a wine cask. It was purchased from the Kentshire Galleries and sold at Kaminski for $4,000. An important pair of Delphin Massier polychrome faience pottery vases with figural butterfly handles, also purchased from the Au Fond de la Cour Gallery, Paris sold for $3250. The vases were and pictured in 'Massier, L'Introduction de la Ceramique Artistique Sur La Cote d'Azur'catalog and the catalog accompanied the lot.

Two steamer trunks brought strong prices with a Louis Vuitton trunk, circa 1870s/80s, #20741, owned by W. B. Housley, Bute Court Hotel, Belgrave Blvd, Torquay, U.K. and a Goyard steamer trunk marked "Malles Maroquinerie," both selling for $3250 each.

An exceptional silverplate and antler flatware service for twelve with an assembled collection of additional serving pieces sold for $3,000.

Kaminski Auctions is pleased to announce its next auction will be a two-day sale Saturday and Sunday, March 3 & 4, 2016. Day one will feature an outstanding collection of paintings, furniture, and jewelry from the estate of Dr. Carl Katz of Cinncinati, Ohio, while Day two features a collection of designer rugs from various Palm Beach, Florida estates. All rug lots are sold unreserved. There is a huge selection of rugs including famous names like Stark, palace size oriental rugs including Oushaks, Kermans, Tabrizs, Serapis, Sultanabads, Portuguese needlepoints, fine custom Aubussons and much more. Preview days for this auction are MondayFriday, February 26-March 2, 2018, 10:00 AM- 5:00 PM and day of sale beginning at 8:00 AM at the Kaminski Auctions gallery, 117 Elliott Street, Rt. 62, Beverly, Massachusetts. Preview is open while auction is live. For more information go to http://www.kaminskiauctions.com and sign up to bid with KaminskiLIVE.Elizabeth Dipp Metzger, founder and president of Crown Wealth Strategies, a comprehensive wealth strategies firm in El Paso, TX serving clients nationwide. As a Financial Professional, Lizzie provides clients with an integrated retirement and insurance strategy focused on maximizing value over the course of their lifetime. Lizzies focus is physicians, professionals, and business owners in the affluent market. Lizzie provides holistic strategies for retirement, college funding, business planning, and wealth accumulation. She has received the NAIFA Quality Award from the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA), the industrys leading trade association. This is her seventh consecutive year achieving this honor.

The NAIFA Quality Award recognizes insurance and financial advisors who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to excellence in service to their clients and industry. Candidates are evaluated based on their education and earned professional designations; commitment to quality service as exhibited through persistency and letters of recommendation; and dedication to their industry exhibited by their willingness to serve as NAIFA volunteer leaders and their stated commitment to NAIFAs Code of Ethics; as well as their ability to meet production standards. Agents who win this award have tangible evidence signifying that the products they sell will meet with their clients needs.

Lizzie Dipp Metzger enjoys helping people meet their financial goals. With experience as an adviser and over 17 years of previous experience as a business owner, Lizzie understands the financial challenges most individuals and business owners face today and works diligently to research and provide the right solutions for them.

Lizzie Dipp Metzger is a Financial Adviser offering investment advisory services through Eagle Strategies LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Crown Wealth Strategies is not owned or operated by New York Life Insurance Company or its affiliates.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:'God if you are here and you are watching [Ebony's] enemies, God I want you to strike so that they will know that you are alive,' he said.

He accused the media of publishing negative stories about the late artiste instead of supporting her.

"Ghanaians when will you support your own? When will you support your own artistes? The media men who are here are the same people who insulted Ebony, he said.

READ MORE: Ebony to be buried March 17READ MORE: Ebony to be buried March 17

Shatta Wale appeared at Ebony's one week memorial service where he accused the media of running down Ebony when she was alive.

He said the media disrespected her because of her provocative dressing, questioning what the media was doing at her memorial service.

He said: "Ghanaians when will you support your own? When will you support your own artistes? The media men who are here are the same people who insulted Ebony.

They said she doesnt respect, she has shown her breasts, she had shown her private parts, and instead of supporting her, they rather tried to bring her down, HYPOCRITES!

READ MORE: Afia Schwarzenegger blasts counsellor Lutterodt over remarks against EbonyDespite a warning from the pilot, a fight between the men then broke out, causing the flight to be diverted to Vienna Airport . Police boarded the plane with dogs and removed two sisters and the two men after the pilot made a report about passengers on the rampage.

The women are now taking the Dutch budget airline to court after being removed from the flight, and claim they have done nothing wrong. Nora Lacchab, 25, a law student from Rotterdam, and her unnamed sister, say being removed was humiliating are now seeking to legal action.

The two women, who are of Dutch and Moroccan descent, were returning to Amsterdam after a week holidaying in Dubai. Nora told De Telegraaf: We had nothing to do with the whole disturbance. We distance ourselves from that. Do they sometimes think that all Moroccans cause problems? Thats why we do not let it sit.

We had no idea who these boys were, we just had the bad luck to be in the same row and we didnt do anything. All I will say is that the crew were really provocative and stirred things up. All four passengers have since been released, and were not arrested as they had not broken an Austrian laws.

However, they have all been banned from Transavia Airlines, who say that the two girls were also involved in the fight.

In a statement they said: Our crew must ensure a safe flight. When passengers pose risks, they immediately intervene. Our people are trained for that. They know very well where the boundaries are.

Transavia is therefore square behind the cabin crew and the pilots.The controversial young musician lost her life in a terrible accident together with her childhood friend and PA, Franky Kuri and one air force official, Francis Atsu Vondee on the Sunyani- Kumasi road when they were returning from Sunyani.

According to Ghpage.com, Adwoa Nyamekye told Kumasi-based Nhyira FM that she had seen the ghosts of the three deceased hovering around the accident scene, and Ebony's alleged ghost said she had been waiting to find somebody through whom she could send a message to Ghanaians.

The woman is reported to have claimed in the radio interview that Ebony said she died a sudden death and as a result, her spirit is restless. She allegedly added that the days ahead would be bedeviled with many mysterious deaths, hence the need for Ghanaians to focus their attention on getting closer to God for grace, instead of talking about her death, which is a spilled milk.The escalation of war the against illegal miners comes on the heels of water rationing in some parts of the country by the Ghana Water Company Limited (GCWL).

READ MORE: Ghana risks importing water by 2020

The water distribution company has repeatedly cautioned that galamsey activities on the nation's river bodies may lead to water shortage.

"Some of the water bodies on which the riverine operations are being undertaken include River Birim, River Ankobra, River Offin and the Bui dam, a statement signed by the Director of Public Regions, of GAF, E Aggrey-Quashie said.

GAF said the exercise is "destroy all floating mining equipment and flush out the illegal miners in order to halt the ongoing pollution of rivers and water bodies."

The latest exercise, the statement noted, is being done in conjunction with the operation vanguard, the anti-galamsey taskforce set up by President Nana Akufo-Addo to combat the menace..

Currently personnel from the Ghana Navy, Army Engineers and units within the five (5) regions in conjunction with Operation Vanguard personnel are conducting simultaneous and robust military operations to destroy all floating mining equipment and flush out the illegal miners in order to halt the ongoing pollution of rivers and water bodies. The objective of the operations is to sustain the gains made by Operation Vanguard," according to the statement.

The statement also adds that although 1000 illegal miners have been arrested and their equipment seized by the Operation Vanguard, "GAF deems it necessary to step up the riverine operations in order to maintain the improved security situation and curb the menace by the illegal miners on the river bodies in Eastern, Ashanti, Western, Central and Brong Ahafo Regions.This, of course, is not the first time students would be suspended in Nigeria by University management, but the refusal of these students to apologize to the school management over the allegations led to a big fuss.

At the end, the management had to lift the suspension and recall the students following interventions from well-meaning Nigerians.

In this interview with Pulse, Ogbidi Osamudiamen, who was the student union president of the University before his suspension speaks about the suspension saga and the ban of fellowship at the University of Benin.

Pulse: Why did you refuse to apologise to the management to be recalled by the management?

Ogbidi: The whole story is centred around what can be termed our stubbornness for not agreeing with the management on the increment in the tuition fee in the university. And the only way they thought they could punish us is to rusticate the five of us - the SUG members who are trying to defend other students. So they rusticated us and since they made the decision, there has been clamour that we should be reinstated. It was at this point the management said that before they can be reinstated, we have to apologize and we told them that we cannot apologize, because if we apologise it means we have done something wrong and by implication, it means we are guilty of whatever they accuse us of.

And we told them the highest we can do is to appeal to judgment that rusticated us in which on Thursday the letter of appeal has been submitted mandating the management to reinstate us.

Pulse: Have you always been having issues with the management before you were suspended for planning to disrupt convocation ceremony?

Ogbidi: There has never been any issue. We have had series of engagement with the management. Sometimes in September 2017, they increased transportation fare, we felt the increment was too high that we had to oppose it and immediately it was reversed. In the midst of increment in school fee, hostel fee, transfer fee among other thing. They also increased transportation fee again. So when we accumulated all the increment, it got us pissed of and we had no choice than to conduct a general assembly and that was when the students on their own insisted they dont want increment. We notified the management about this and the protest came up after the expiration of the 24 hours notice and that was it.

Pulse: Why are five students suspended out of all the SUG members?

Ogbidi: 15 students make up the SUG body. 10 from the executive and five from the parliament, and among the 15, four of us are from the executive arm who are the President, the Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General and the PRO were rusticated while the last one is a student activist. He is not an SUG member, so what happened to the remaining ones is a mystery I can't tell, why they are not rusticated I can't tell because we were all present at the protest.

Pulse: Could it be that only the five of you were always at the forefront of engaging the management to always reduce prices?

Ogbidi: I can tell you we are all union members. Any decision that is taken is agreed upon by the union members. The fact that only five of us were rusticated does not mean the five of us are at the forefront, every other member of the excos were also there present.

Pulse: A member of your cabinet said UNIBEN management has a history of victimizing students, would you say your suspension confirms this?

Ogbidi: Well, it is a tradition. Whenever we are faced with any issue with the management, the first thing they remind us of is that we are students before we became union leaders and that is the reason you hardly see any student who dares challenge the authority of the management. But when I was campaigning as SUG president, I said that anybody who wants to make a change must be ready to make a sacrifice.

Pulse: Did the management involve the SUG members before banning fellowship on campus?

Ogbidi: Unfortunately, when that decision was carried out, we had already been suspended. We were suspended in December 2017 and the fellowship groups were banned in January?

Pulse: Would the SUG have taken any step to challenge the banning of fellowships?

Ogbidi: We always try to oppose any decision that is not favourable to the students because we are representative of the students. Before you ban the fellowship, you should have thought of the effects of such decisions. First, you are going to create a fertile ground for cultism. When you remove God from campus, you bring in the devil and by implication you increase immorality, you increase cultism. You know the University of Benin is overtime known for cultism.

Pulse: Do you think it is in the interest of the management to promote cultists in the school?

Ogbidi: It is not in their interest but their action now may be sending the wrong message to the public.

Pulse: The management stated reasons for banning fellowships and some of them is that there are too many fellowship groups using lecture rooms for their activities. Dont you think those reasons are genuine?

Ogbidi: Good, banning fellowship and making reforms of fellowships on campus are two different things. This is an academic environment for crying out loud.

You can bring in heads together to chat a way forward before every challenge becomes a problem. Now, if you ban fellowship, it means you are going to restrict so many things and approve so many other things. But when you come up with the word reform it means you are going to reduce the number of fellowships on campus. We have fellowships that are very big and we have those that depend on the students to survive. Fellowships like the Redeemed Christian Fellowship is under the Redeemed Christian Church of God and by the virtue of the capacity of the church, they will be able to provide a piece of land to do their fellowship on campus instead of using classrooms.

ALSO READ: 5 things you should know about UNIBEN fellowship ban

Ogbidi: If you approached the RCF with this, they can afford it. There are halls and the Redeemed Christian Fellowship I just mentioned now make use of the university staff school for their events, I believe they paid for that place. So if we can have fellowships that can afford to pay for buildings or halls outside the jurisdiction of students, not classrooms, then allow them to be. We have big fellowships that can afford to pay for halls so instead of them using classrooms, you look for ways to harmonise them, to harness them into the bigger fellowships.

Pulse: Do you think UNIBEN still has enough space to allot to all fellowships?

More than enough. If you go to other schools, that is how it is being done. They have worship centres, management can decide to isolate the worship centres away from the classrooms. That is what should be done, you dont just ban fellowships, what should now happen to students who rely so much on God on campus?

Pulse: According to the management, you and four others were suspended because you were planning to disrupt convocation ceremony.

Ogbidi: How can somebody who had the convocation with them disrupt the event? As the president of the students union, I was requested to join them in procession during convocation. Now to be frank with you I have pictures of that event. At the auditorium, I processed with them, so how could you disrupt a convocation that you participated in, it is not possible. We didnt disrupt the convocation. In fact, it was very peaceful. The convocation was held on the 21st of November and ended on Saturday of that week. And they suspended us in December.

Pulse: Why did the student union protest in November 2017?

Ogbidi: One of the issues that caused the protest is the inclusion of union dues in the tuition fee increment. There was a consensus among the 15 union members that the union dues should be universally paid and it is a thousand naira. But the only issue we had with the management was that, they added the union dues to tuition fee for the staylites. And we told them not to add it to it because the students wont understand it. They will think we have compromised that we have sold them out.

Pulse: Has the tuition fee hike become effective?

Ogbidi: Before they suspended us, the protest on the 23rd of November 2017, was a cry and fight against the already established increment in school fees and the protest by implication led to the suspension of the increment. 7

Pulse: Were the students part of the protest, or it was just the SUG members?Her mother who could not control her tears appealed to the government to construct the road to avoid recurrence in the future.

She said "I appeal to the government, head of institutions and the road contractors across the country to do their works with due diligence to avoid unnecessary accidents that claim lives on our roads. If the contractor on this road (the spot of the accident) has sped up work, my daughter might not have died."

Ebony and three other persons were on board a Jeep with registration AS 497-16, travelling from Sunyani to Kumasi when a head-on collision with a VIP bus heading towards Sunyani from Kumasi occurred.

The driver of the vehicle escaped death, however, the other occupants -- a military officer identified as Francis Atsu Vondee and lady identified only as Frankie -- died later at the Bechem Government Hospital after they were rushed to the Hospital, DSP John Adusei, Mankraso District Commander has said.

READ ALSO: Unreleased gospel video of Ebony surfaces online

The driver of the vehicle Ebony Reigns was travelling has revealed that the accident happened because he had tried to save a Sprinter Bus from crashing.He tweeted this in reaction to the news that the young comedienne will be featuring in a Hollywood movie produced by Disney Studios.

Emmanuella revealed the happy news today via her Instagram page, sharing a photo of herself on set at the Disney Studios.

Meanwhile, Saraki, on his Twitter, asked Emmanuella to visit the Senate house so they can discuss the development of young talents in the creative industry.

See his post below:

This news can only be good for business and business has never been better for this young talent.

Child celebrities

Already an Ambassador for yoghurt drink, FreshYo, at age seven, Emmanuella has been making steady strides in the entertainment industry.

She has also appeared in ad campaigns for Nickelodeon and Wikipedia.

The child actor also became the youngest recipient of the Afro-Australian Music & Movie Awards (AAMMA).

7-year-old Emmanuella aka Not My Real Face bagged two awards at the event held in Sydney Australia. She came home with the Best new comedienne and the princess of comedy, making her the youngest person to win the prestigious awards.

From Youtube to Disney movies

Emmanuella is without a doubt, the biggest star on the Nigerian Youtube space, with the popular Mark Angel Comedy show she stars in.

2016 in Nigerian comedy got a new, unexpected visitor. A girl, not based in Lagos like most entertainers, and most of all, she was a kid, with all the odds stacked against her.

However, her fan base grew quickly, from Nigeria, to the Philippines, to even bagging awards in Australia.

She quickly became so mainstream that parents send Mark Angel videos to their kids and by the end of 2016, the Youtube channel already crossed a total of 100 million views.

With over 900k channel subscribers, one new Mark Angel episode easily does 1 million views in a week.She was confirmed dead barely days after she was evacuated back to Nigeria.

Towabola who hailed from Ogun state, was among the 5th Batch of returnees from Libya on board Medview Airline.

Naij reports that the deceased had arrived back in Nigeria, sick and died on Wednesday, February 14, after two days of medical treatment at University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

The head of media and public relations, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Sani Datti, said on Friday, February 16, She arrived sick and was immediately taken in a waiting NEMA Ambulance to University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital where she was admitted.

She was treated with vomiting, general weakness of the body, abdominal pains and associated illness.

She, unfortunately, died early on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2018, two days after admission in hospital.

He noted that the parents of the deceased have been contacted and arrangements are currently being made for the transportation of her remains back home.

A government sworn to protect its citizens

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to protecting Nigerians in distress globally and to tackle the menace of child trafficking.

Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said this while receiving a 14-year-old victim of child labour from South Korea in Abuja on Friday, Naij earlier reported.

The 14-year-old girl who hails from Imo state was taken to South Korea in September 2015 by her mothers sister who promised to further her education but subjected her to manual labour.DPRK News Service, a Twitter account that is a well-curated parody account by two Americans, took shots at Nigeria as the success of the movie keeps growing.

On Sunday, February 18, 2018, the fictional account in it's character tweeted about the North Korean leader exchanging greetings with Wakanda ambassador.

"Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un exchanges comradely greetings with newly arrived ambassador from Wakanda ."

The Twitter account went further to tweet: "Newly arrived "ambassador" from Wakanda "Rico B. Suave" is arrested and expelled to home country of Nigeria, on grounds that Wakanda is fictional nation."

DPRK News Service is a parody account that accurately depicts not only life in North Korea, but in the Western world as well.

Patrick and Derrick (they are not too keen on revealing their last names) are the brains behind DPRK News Service. They also run another parody account called Pope Hat.

According to Patrick and Derrick, their famous Twitter account not only drags North Korea but also criticizes Western culture as well. Their tweets are so spot on that people believe them.The suspect was convicted by a Fort Bend County jury of fatally stabbing and killingEvelyne Epiepang in her Houston home in 2015.

Fort Bend Countys Chief Family Violence Prosecutor, Amanda Bolin, said Epiepang called the Fort Bend County Sheriffs Office around 5 pm on April 8, 2015, to report that her ex-boyfriend had been threatening to kill her and she wanted him out of her house.

After Alohaneke left, sheriffs deputies took a report from Evelyne before she left to stay with her friend, Veronica.

At about 7 p.m., Evelyne learned that Osa has back at her home and was banging on the front door.

Houston Chronicle reports that Evelyne called the sheriffs office for their assistance once again but before deputies arrived, Evelyne and Veronica went back to Evelynes home thinking Osa was gone.

According to the reports, Osa appeared behind Evelyne and Veronica as they entered the house and locked the door behind him.

An argument reportedly ensues and the convict pulled a knife from under his shirt.

Attacking Veronica first, Osa cut her face and stabbed her so hard in the arm that it fractured a bone.

The convict later attacked Evelyne and stabbed her over 30 times.

Evelyne managed to call 911 sometime during the attack, during which her screams and pleas as she died were recorded.

ALSO READ: Man stabs wife to death 40 times on suspicion of cheating

After killing Evelyne, Osa asked Veronica to go ahead and call the sheriff because he had completed his mission.TheCable reports that both admitted and outpatients have fled VitalCare Hospital situated at 21B, Phase 3, Kubwa, Abuja.

Dr. Jimade is alleged to be the leader of a robbery syndicate specialised in armed robbery and car snatching in Abuja.

On Tuesday, February 13, 2018, the police paraded five members of the robbery gang that were allegedly associated with Jimade.

It was reported that the hospital's head doctor was declared wanted by the police on the same day.

Dr Jimade's alleged gang

Five persons namely Sunday Okhomode, 30; Meshak James, 23; Amusu Koku, 28, Kunle Obajemi, 49 and Suleiman Isa, 26, were paraded by the police as members of the gang led by VitalCare Hospital boss.

ALSO READ: Armed robber mistakenly shoots partner during robbery

Two amongst the members of the robbery gang are an expert in changing chassis numbers; and a goldsmith who buys stolen jewelries from the gang.

Discovered in the hospital, according to the police, were four pistols with eight rounds of live ammunition as well as a face mask.

The 23-year-old Meshak James, had told the police during investigation that he worked in the hospital as a cleaner.

Last robbery

The gang's last hit was a robbery at a house in Maitama, Abuja in November 2017.

During the robbery, Jimade's alleged gang allegedly stole a BMW X6 vehicle, large quantities of gold and other valuables worth millions of Naira.

According to the police, investigations by the commands special anti-robbery squad (SARS) later led to the arrest of the five suspects.

The vehicle, as well as five other vehicles also allegedly stolen by the gang, were also recovered.

James confesses to robbing with Dr Jimade

The 23-year-old Meshak James, who had said he once worked as a cleaner at the VitalCare Hospital, confessed to robbing alongside Dr. Jimade.

ALSO READ: Lagos police arrest robbers who posed as law enforcement officers with fake guns

James confessed to following Jimade as a result of the challenges he was facing, being stranded in Abuja.

I was not robbing before, but why I decided to follow him (the doctor) was because he promised to rent a house for me and furnish it because I have no place to stay in this Abuja, James was quoted as saying.What you get is a series of arrests that culminates on February 18, 1997, with an attack by over 1000 soldiers on Kalakuta, home to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, his mother, the activist and matriarch of the Kuti clan, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, his children and his band of misfits.

On that day, 41 years ago today, Nigerians, Lagos to a larger extent and the residents of Kalakuta Republic, in particular, got front row seats to the carnage, disregard for life and destruction with which the Nigerian militarys participation in government is associated till this day.

Born to an Anglican minister and school headmaster and a civil rights leader with such a fierce-some reputation that she was known as the Lion of Lisabi, Felas transition from model young man to the anomalous voice of the masses remains the subject of conversation and study.

His remarkable switch in interests in university is common knowledge, more so to highlight his audacity in choosing an unlikely path.

He was sent to London to study Medicine but, clearly aware it was no his way, as we say, enrolled in the Trinity College of Music instead. Even then, Fela seemed a good boy by certain standards.

According to JK Braimah, one of his best childhood friends, [He] was a nice guy, a really beautiful guy. But as square, as they come. He didnt smoke cigarettes, let alone grass. He was afraid to fuck! We had to take his prick by hand, hold it and put it in for him, I swear!

"My music is a weapon"

10 years later, Fela was holding concerts at his bar and performance arena, Afro-Spot. His music, which he and Tony Allen had christened Afrobeat was a manifesto; a statement of the troubles that Nigerians and Africans faced, the state of the nation and a way out.

A large part of this featured attacks on Nigerian politicians, businessmen and the military rulers of the time who Fela accused of treating the people like lesser beings and mortgaging the nations future to foreign interests.

As one would expect, they paid attention, but it came to a head when, in 1977, Fela released Zombie, a mordant, unsparing attack on the Nigerian military and the culture that the institution had built and inculcated into its soldiers.

Using the zombie as a metaphor, Fela described Nigerian soldiers as a bunch of robots with no spine, waiting on orders from above as they marched like toy soldiers.

In 12 minutes and 24 seconds of saxophone and percussion-driven pummeling, Fela ridiculed the Nigerian military, making fun of everything from their zombie-like obedience to the music they marched to.

The song was one of Felas most instant hits but from early on, it was clear that the Nigerian army was not a fan of it.

There are reports that soldiers would flog and punish record stores found playing the song in the loud manner that Lagos-based stores would do at the time.

On the 18th of February 1977, over 1000 soldiers gathered at Kalakuta, Felas abode at No. 14A Agege Motor Raod, Idi-Oro, Mushin.

There are varying reports of what had instigated this visit.

The soldiers claimed that they had come in search of one of Felas boys who had fought a Lance Corporal over a traffic violation and then fled into the commune.

Mabinuori Kayode Idowu, a member of Felas Young African Pioneers and the author of Fela: Why Blackman Carry Shit wrote in his book,  In reality, the soldiers had come for deeper vengeance; Felas refusal to participate in FESTAC, the publication of the YAP News condemning the introduction on our roads of an army horsewhip culture, and the uncompromising views as expressed in his (Fela) lyrics were the reasons behind the attack on Kalakuta Republic.

"Them kill my mama"

Either way, after they were refused entry into the compound, the soldiers pulled down the gates and went on a rampage.

They set about chasing and flogging everyone in sight, destroying property, including recording and performing equipment, stashes of recorded music and valuable records.

In a matter of hours, soldiers had ravaged the entire building to the ground. Some of Felas wives would allege that they had been raped.

Many would carry the scars of blows till their death. But in the most inhumane of their many competing actions, some of the soldiers climbed up to the second story room where Felas mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, an Amazon if there ever was one, was living.

No one knows what transpired but as Yeni Kuti would later tell, they were in shock when they saw the Lion of Lisabi thrown out of a second-story window. She would later die from her wounds.

Members of Felas entourage were detained in prison where, for some, the torture continued. Eventually, nearly everyone regained their freedom.

The government's attitude to the event was evident from the next morning. State-owned media avoided reporting the issue like a plague. Soldiers could be seen seizing and destroying copies of Punch and other newspapers which reported the incident.

For a pariah whose morals had limited his immediate influence to little more than a cult following, the attack on Kalakuta Republic won Fela public sympathy and support.

The question was simple; why would the army attack him if he wasnt speaking the truth?

The Kutis did not let the matter pass like a cool evening breeze. Claiming 25 million Naira, a suit was instituted against the army through the familys lawyer, Mr Tunji Braithwaite.

He would push the matter as hard as he could but he would eventually lose the case.

"Justice only ever serves the living"

Pained and slighted, Fela, with his entourage in tandem, carried a replica of his mothers coffin to Dodan Barracks, then the governments seat of power. After they were refused entry by armed soldiers, the coffin was left at the gate, a message for Obasanjo and Yaradua.

Obasanjo would establish a commission of Inquiry to investigate the case. After weeks of considering evidence, it returned that unknown soldiers were responsible for the attack.

The blows to Felas livelihood and family life had now been met with government-sanctioned contempt.

He found release for his pain, the only way he knew how, in music. Weeks after, he put out two more songs, Coffin for Head of State describing his trip to Dodan Barracks, and Unknown Soldier, per the commissions verdict.

Fela would continue his evangelism, till his death two decades later. But many say he was never the same after that day in Kalakuta.

His attempts to establish a connection to his mother led him deep into the occult. Believing he could not die, he refused to take medication when he began to develop welts on his skin, ultimately dying of aids months later.

But perhaps what is more worthy of note is that no one, civilian or military faced any form of sanction for the attack on Kalakuta.

One wonders what the man would think; that we do not care at all or that we have resigned to the same fate he fought with his life to warn us against?Idris made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen on Saturday in Gusau after a condolence visit over Thursdays attack in Birane village, Zurmi Local Government area in which over 40 people died.

The IGP also said the police had set up a committee to investigate the incident and suggest measures to end such attacks.

Idris added that the Federal Government has approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen in 2018, to further strengthen security in the country

We believe the recruitment would assist in the government efforts to address security challenges facing the country.

We are here to commiserate with Zamfara State Government, Zurmi Emirate Council over this incident.

We received complaints of shortage of personnel from the stakeholders; we are going to deploy additional three units of police mobile to the state to strengthen the state police command in tackling security challenges.

We are going to set up a committee to investigate the incident aimed at avoiding the re-occurrence of the menace in the future; the committee is coming to this state next Monday Insha Allah.

He commended the state government for its support to the police and urged stakeholders to assist all security agencies with relevant information to tackle the security challenges bedevilling the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IGP was received by the state Deputy Governor, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala at Government House, Gusau.The President made the commendation in a congratulatory message issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Saturday.

President Buhari, who congratulated the management and staff of the FRSC as the organisation celebrated 30 years of its establishment, commended the vision of its founding fathers in Feb. 1988 in response to the unacceptable level of road crashes in the country.

He noted with delight that after three decades of operations, the Corps reduced road crashes from an alarming 40,881 in 1976 to 5,993 in 2016 and 4,418 in 2017.

He further lauded the significant reduction in the emergency response time of the Corps from 50 to 15 minutes to accident scenes on the nations highways.

The President commended the FRSCs deployment of international best practices and use of technology in its uniform licensing scheme, tracking, vehicle plate numbering and other services.

The recent United Nations commendation of Nigerias road safety action plan, affirms the Federal Road Safety Corps leading role not only in West Africa but the entire African continent, he said.

He pledged the Federal Governments continued support to the FRSC to enable the organisation achieve the goal of United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety of 50 per cent fatality reduction by 2020.

He said this would thereby place Nigerian roads among the league of 20 global safest roads by the target year.

While declaring that road safety is a shared responsibility, the President enjoined the FRSC to intensify its public education role.According to him, the theme of this years Temple Fair is to further strengthened Sino-Nigerian exchanges and cooperation in all fields

2018 Chinese New Year is being celebrated by Chinese across the globe to mark the start of the Lunar Year of the Dog and the Spring Festival.

The annual cultural event, Happy Chinese New Year has become a recognised brand, welcoming our guest and friends to experience cultural traditions associated with the celebration and enjoy art performances, he said.

Xuda said that the Chinese New Year celebrations are emblematic of the cultural tradition, heritage and aesthetic aspirations of the Chinese nation, abounding in distinctive Chinese symbols of great emotional appeal.

He noted that the tradition of such celebrations in China dated back to more than 4000 years.

He said the the celebration also included the display of Chinese New Year couples, fireworks, preparing `jiaozi and family reunion, among others.

The highlights of the event was the Chinese Cultural presentation by the 12 China Corners Schools in the Federal Capital Territory.

The schools include Model Secondary School, Maitama, Government Secondary School (GSS) Byazhin, GSS Gwarinpa, GSS Jabi, GSS Apo and GSS Mpape.The group said in Kaduna that such initiatives would help in spreading love and understanding among various communities in the country.

Mr Daniels Akpan , Kaduna State Coordinator of the Network, said this during a discussion programme tagged `YALI Love Story, organised to share love stories to motivate youths towards community development.

The youth should volunteer to start doing something good for their communities.

We want to show love by sharing our experiences, which would motivate our young brothers and sisters to start something that will impact positively on their communities.

The youth have the power to bring change that would impact greatly on their communities Akpan said.

Miss Oluwadara Adekunle, an entrepreneur, said she ventured into agric business, helping farmers market their farm produce.

According to her, young people should not be driven by making profit only in business, but must also have the passion to make impact on the lives of people around them.

We all know that businesses are set to make profit, but that shouldnt be the only thing driving youths into businesses but the passion to make impact to people, community and society at large.

Mr Jonah Yahya, a community development expert, said community services do not necessarily require money, as there were numerous activities one can volunteer for which would make positive impact on the people.Safiyanu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that 120 wells were drilled in the first phase in January, while 150 were drilled in the just-concluded second phase.

According to him, each of the wells gulped N150,000.

Safiyanu said that 12 tube wells were drilled in 10 local governments, while Daura and Kankiya got 15 wells each considering the high number of irrigation farmers there.

He said that each well had a water pumping machine with a pipe attached to it to facilitate maximum utilization, adding that a total of N22.5 million was invested in the facilities.

Safiyanu said that the senators goal was to promote agriculture, boost food security and generate employment.

The senator has promised to empower more people to ensure self-reliance and minimise indolence, he added.

Malam Nuhu Hassan, a resident of Daura and one of the beneficiaries, commended the senator for the kind gesture which he described as very encouraging.Tinubu said this in a statement released by his Media Officer, Mr Tunde Rahman, on Saturday in Abuja.

The death of Prof. Akinwunmi Ishola saddens me. It is a huge loss.

Prof. Ishola earned reputation for his writing and work in the promotion of Yoruba language. To his credit are many celebrated works like Efunsetan Aniwura, Oleku, Kosegbe, Saworoide and Agogo Eewo

Coming not too long after the death of Alagba Adebayo Faleti, we have lost another Yoruba literary scholar and culture icon.

Though late Prof. Ishola was younger, both of them were like Siamese Twins. Both were playwrights and authors. Both worked relentlessly for the promotion of Yoruba culture and tradition.

Alagba Faleti was born in Agbo-Oye in Oyo State and Prof. Ishola in the capital, Ibadan, both earned their stripes and lived in Ibadan.

I commiserate with the family of Prof. Ishola for this loss. I mourn with Gov. Abiola Ajimobi. May the soul of Prof. Ishola rest in peace,  he said.The report further revealed that to rid the state of solid wastes, Visionscape has turned to local private waste operators for help in evacuating the wastes from residential areas.

It was further reported that in a meeting between consultants of Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria and Visionscape, it was agreed that the firm would send draft terms as a template to engage individual members.

This is coming despite the advertorials in national dailies calling for Expressions of Interest for the short haul transportation of municipal and solid waste in Lagos state.

Visionscape's challenges is to rid off an estimated 14,000 metric tonnes (about 490 trailer loads) of solid wastes is generated in Lagos daily, according to the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).

Visionscape justifies engagement of PSP operators

Olabode Opeseitan, a spokesperson for Visionscape, has justified the engagement of PSP operators individually by the Visionscape group.

Opeseitan said the decision to invite individual PSP operators is on the grounds that some of the operators possibly felt that their union officials were trying to short-change them.

Opeseitan also said the call for Expressions of Interest for the short haul transportation of municipal and solid waste by Visionscape was one of the moves by the company to have an out-of-court settlement with the PSP operators.

ALSO READ: Governor Ambode to make Lagos among worlds cleanest cities

There is a contract that says that residential evacuation of waste can only be done by Visionscape and Visionscape has therefore mapped out plans to do that.

They looked at the volume of waste generated in the 57 local councils, including the riverine communities, everything is based on that plan," Opeseitan said.

Opeseitan also noted that the company has the capacity has the capacity to mop up the total waste in Lagos but blamed the seeming incapability on the companys difficulty to bring in its equipment into the country.

We have the capacity, Visionscape is a globally acclaimed company in the area of waste evacuation and what they are doing is the total package  they are not only bothered about taking the waste off the streets but also the landfills where it would end up.

Ambode issues 20-day ultimatum for markets clean up

Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, has expressed displeasure with the present state of various markets across the state, and issued a 20-day clean-up exercise to rectify the situation.

The governor instructed leaders of the various markets to prevail on their members to clean up their dirty surroundings or risk closure of their markets.

ALSO READ: Hold your nose, Lagos is now one huge garbage city

Why is Lagos suddenly so dirty?

It all began when the Lagos State government sacked its previous waste collection and disposal company, PSP.

A new company called VisionScape, was hired to replace PSP (Private Sector Participation).

However, with VisionScape still trying to settle in amid teething problems, garbage heaps are chasing Lagosians off roads and streets.Babangida, who hosted members of the PDP National Working Committee led by its National Chairman, Uche Secondus urged the party to provide a better choice for Nigerians at next general elections.

According to a statement by PDPs spokesperson, Kola Ologbodiyan, Babangida said the party's ongoing rebranding and repositioning would brighten the partys chances at the polls next year.

Ologbondiyan said the former military president expressed satisfaction with the rebranding so far achieved by the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

ALSO READ: This is what IBB, ex VP discussed in Minna

What Babangida told PDP leaders during visit to Minna

I am happy at your assurances that there will be no imposition in all your primary elections. It is all about choice and you have promised to provide the best choice, he said.

Your Reposition, Rebrand and Regain agenda is working and I mean particularly the rebranding. Some people believed that having been in government since 1999, the PDP will find opposition difficult but you are carrying on well and providing a better alternative.

You have also not abandoned the people in times of crisis. I monitored your activities in Benue, Taraba and you just said your party has sent members to Zamfara to commiserate with the people. Surely you have made the people the centre of your return and they will not forget you because you were with them in time of sorrow.

Babangida cant be quiet as Nigeria drifts apart - Secondus

The PDP National Working Committee led by its National Chairman, Uche Secondus has said Babangida cannot be quiet as Nigeria drifts apart.

He said: As a leader, you made the welfare of Nigerians the thrust of governance. You were also concerned about the peace and unity of this nation. You created and built people as well as institution.

Today, our nation is drifting and as leaders you cannot afford to keep quiet and watch on the sides. Leaders like you must come together and take a firm position on how to save our nation from the precipice.

PDP remains the only alternative platform based on our experience more so because we have learnt our lessons. We have resolved to play by the rules and operate within the confines of our partys and the Nigerian constitution.

ALSO READ: Here are 10 quotes from IBB's advice to Buhari

We are rebranding and repositioning to make our party open to all and regain the land for the people. We are determined to give opportunities to the youths and our women. We also want to mentor a new generation of young Nigerians that will take our nation to the next millennium, Secondus said.Oyegun made the call at a grand rally to welcome Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members who defected to the APC on Saturday in Lokoja.

The National Chairman said the President was God sent to heal the wounds of Nigerians adding that his administration has made tremendous improvement in the socio-economic and political development of the country.

He said that the administration has diversified the Nigerian economy from being oil-dependent to being an agriculture-based.

He said there was an ongoing expansion of the rail network and power generation has stabilised at 7,000 Megawatts from 3,000 megawatts at the inception of the administration.

It is only the beginning of good things that are yet to come, he said.

Oyegun urged Nigerians not to listen to detractors of the President but be patriotic and support him to achieve more and make life worth living for every Nigerians.

Kogi will be one of the major sponsors on the day President Muhammadu Buhari decides to go for second term. They say we are quarrelling, they say we are fighting, but credible people are trooping into APC, he added.

He advised Kogi people to support the administration of Gov. Yahaya Bello, saying the governor has positively affected every facet of the state economy.

I am happy to be here today. I noticed one of the billboards when I was coming in saying, A New Dawn for Kogi State.

Kogi People, I want to congratulate you for having an energetic governor in Yahaya Bello. This is a governor that is a good organiser, restless, energetic and full of ideas. I can feel a new energy in Kogi State, Oyegun said.

Speaking Gov Yahaya Bello urged Buhari to run for a second term in 2019.

We urge Mr President to run and fly in 2019. Twenty-four APC governors are ready to support you under the leadership of the National Chairman of the party, Mr John Oyegun.

Bello welcomed PDP members from the three senatorial districts of the state who defected.

He said the APC was where they belonged in the first place adding, come and sin no more.

He urged those still in PDP to come back home.

Prof. Stephen Ocheni, Minister of State for Labour and Employment said the crowd was a testimony of the strength of the party in the state.Shaaban, an ex-member of the House of Representatives, stated this on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria, Kaduna State.

He said that crisis in a political party was an ingredient of democracy, adding that politics was all about solving crisis.

Therefore, crisis in political parties is normal but it all depends on how best a party resolves such crisis, he said.

Shaaban, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Chief Bola Tinubu to chair the reconciliation committee.

Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu is capable and suitable for the post. I am confident that he will definitely deliver the goods successfully.

On his political ambition, Shaaban said his politics always incline toward the masses, identifying their needs and devising measures to address such problems.

I am among the founding fathers of the ruling party, APC. As far as I am concerned, it is where we started, where we stopped and where we shall continue.

There are of course a lot of agitations, people are saying that I should come out and contest, and we have been getting ourselves ready.

I belong to the masses and my politics is for the masses; where they go is where I belong, he assured.

On the 43rd anniversary of Emir of Zazzau, Dr Shehu Idris, which was celebrated recently, Shaaban said the Emirs reign was a blessing not only to Zazzau Emirate but Kaduna State and Nigeria at large.

These 43 years are years of blessing to the people of Nigeria. Remember how many primary schools, secondary schools and tertiary institutions we have before the emir was turbaned?

Now, how many schools do we have? Apart from that, how many institutes do we have presently in Zazzau emirate? All these achievements were witnessed under His Royal Highness, Dr Shehu Idris.The Chairman of the Forum, Alhaji Murtala Maihula, who made the call in Jalingo at rally organised by the youths from the 16 Local Government Areas of the state, said that the country was better off under the leadership of President Buhari.

He added that many programmes and projects had been initiated to improve the fortunes of the ordinary Nigerians.

According to him, the present administration was fighting corruption vigorously to save the country from collapse and for which, he said, it deserved a second term to consolidate these laudable achievements.

The chairman maintained that despite his health challenges, President Buhari has been able to bring development into sectors such as railway transportation, power, agriculture and also provided employment opportunities to millions of Nigerian youths.

Maihula explained that the gigantic project ever, the Mambilla Hydro-Power Plant was being executed in Taraba state by the Buhari administration.

He added that the people of the state and youths in particular have no option than to encourage Buhari to contest again in 2019.

The Multi billion Naira Mambilla Hydro-Power Plant is the most expensive project ever initiated by any government in Nigeria and that project is being executed by the Buhari government in Taraba state he said .

He said that aside from calling on Buhari and Osinbajo to contest, the youths also urged the TUC president, Mr Bobboi Kaigama, to contest for the governorship of the state come 2019.

We are confident that Kaigama will not only work for the unity of our state but also deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state , he added.

Also, Taraba state coordinator Buhari/ Osinbajo for 2019, Alhaji Yakubu Gwamna, called on president Buhari to ignore letters and insinuations from certain sections of Nigeria advising him not to contest in 2019.

According to him, such calls were not in the interest of Nigerians, who worked very hard to vote him to power in 2015."Looking at our common interests, we are committed to stopping the expansion of such forces that promote international organised crime in terrorism, extremism, illegal drug trafficking, cyber crime and various forms," Modi said

"We want to see our region and the world free from terrorism."

There was no mention of financial assistance or providing weapons to help Afghanistan fight militants by either leader.

They did not name Pakistan but it has long been accused of supporting insurgents in Afghanistan.

India has been a key supporter of Kabul's government and has poured more than $2 billion into the country since the Taliban were toppled in 2001.

In 2016, India offered $1 billion in economic aid to strengthen various sectors in the war-torn nation including education, health and agriculture.

Modi said both countries wanted to increase economic cooperation, regional connectivity and improve energy security to reach landlocked Afghanistan and central Asia via the southern Iranian port of Chabahar.

The port, which was inaugurated in December, has been touted as a way for India to establish trade routes that bypass its rival Pakistan.

India has been a key purchaser of Iranian oil and gas, and maintained trade ties even as international sanctions were imposed on Tehran over its nuclear programme between 2012 and 2016.

However, local Indian media have reported frustrations over delays in awarding a contract to develop a major gas field known as Farzad B in the Gulf.

India's foreign ministry said Saturday that "discussions continue" on Farzad B.

The two leaders also signed agreements for avoidance of double taxation and the implementation of an extradition treaty from 2008.

As part of a lease contract, India will help Iran run a multi-purpose container terminal at Chabahar for 18 months.The Kiminini MP warned that he should be careful because Jubilee will not be in power forever.

Tuju should stop behaving like Jubilee will be in power forever. He should know that the government of today is the opposition of tomorrow, he said.

He called on the Jubilee government to obey court orders saying that they would not sit and watch the independence of the judiciary threatened.

Raphael Tuju wrote a letter castigating Chief Justice David Maraga for what he termed as an attempt to burn down Kenya following the August 8 controversial presidential polls.Newshub News Desk

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We're sorry, this article is not currently availableInstead of mechanically consolidating all labour laws into one, provisions of all labour laws should be relooked in terms of their substance. The irrelevant and archaic provisions have to be fixed, says Aparajita Gupta.

'I propose to frame a uniform Employment Code for the state, containing all the labour laws in force in the State.

"The proposed Employment Code shall set out the framework for terms of employment and service of all the workers except domestic workers and agricultural labour and a strong, independent and separate labour judiciary.'

These words of the finance minister, J&K, from his Budget Speech 2018-19 will go down in history as starting a new chapter in labour law reforms.

The problems with the present laws have been voiced often.

To begin with, we have multiple labour laws at the national and the state level due to constitutional division of legislative powers.

Multiplicity is also due to laws regulating workers in different sectors.

We also retain some pre-Independence laws like the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855; Trade Unions Act, 1926; Payment of Wages Act, 1936; Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 and so on.

Since they were made in a different era they are being amended. Many feel some provisions of even post-Independence laws are outdated.

Some point out that allowing outsiders to be part of trade unions and multiplicity of such unions create problems.

Others have raised an issue with difficulties in retrenching workers and closure.

They argue that rigid labour laws have been one reason holding back India from generating more formal jobs.

Industries instead are turning to contract labour and staying small to avoid "regulatory cholestrol" (Economic Survey 2015-16). This reduces the protection for workers.

There are also issues in applicability of these laws to service sector employees.

Currently, most of them are using laws governing shops and establishment.

Compliance has its own problems: There are multiple authorities and processes to follow. Slow dispute resolution has been identified as another bottleneck.

Efforts have been made in the past to consolidate and reform these laws.

For example, in 1968, the National Commission on Labour drafted a single code. A similar exercise was done in 1994 by the National Labour Law Association with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

In 2002, the National Commission on Labour gave a report on reforming labour laws.

Coming to the present, at the Union level, reforms are being undertaken by the labour ministry.

Some States like Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have also reformed some labour laws and processes.

The recent announcement by J&K goes a step ahead to give us a model that can then be replicated.

Since the proposed Employment Code of J&K is not yet out, it would be interesting to look at how such a code can be made.

First, it would be a great idea to draft on a clean slate.

Instead of mechanically consolidating all labour laws into one, provisions of all labour laws should be relooked in terms of their substance.

The irrelevant and archaic provisions have to be fixed.

Second, a single Employment Code will enable workers, employers, trade unions, labour authorities and other users to get all information at one place.

Third, law per se should only contain the main provisions including the ones that cant be delegated to rule making authorities.

Everything that relate to the modalities should be in the rules. This will make changes easier.

Fourth, the prime pinister recently spoke about Ease of Living for people.

Keeping this vision in mind, it is not too much to ask for a law that is understood by the people.

At present, lot of workers and at times employers are unable to decipher labour laws without legal help.

The US saw the plain English movement aimed to do away with unnecessary complicated language in laws. The UK followed suit.

It is time India drafts its laws simply and labour laws can be a good starting point.

Simple and clear drafting will also reduce disputes relating to interpretation.

Fifth, one needs to ensure a fine balance between interests of different stakeholders including workers, employers, trade unions and authorities.

For example, too much rigidity favouring workers or too much flexibility favouring businesses will sound the death knell for the economy.

Sixth, some reforms worth considering include a labour law covering all employees with few exceptions, laying down only minimum standards for employment and allowing flexibility, making collective bargaining efficient and reducing multiplicity of authorities and procedures.

Incorporating the suggestion of the Economic Survey 2016-17 on social security ' affording greater choice to workers which would foster competition amongst service providers' would also help.

Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters.

Aparajita Gupta is a lawyer and Young Professional with NITI Aayog, Government of India. The views expressed are personal.CEA offers three compelling arguments in his case for privatisation of government-owned banks.

Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, Arvind Subramanian, has called for increasing privatisation of public sector banks and implementing stricter banking rules.

His views come against the backdrop of recent developments in a few PSBs. While Punjab National Bank detected fraudulent transactions amounting to more than $1.77 billion from one of its branches in Mumbai, Bank of Baroda has decided to shut down its South African operations after a scandal was unearthed. The country's largest government-owned lender, the State Bank of India (SBI) had also reported loans frauds.

Addressing the Madras Management Association (MMA) Annual Convention in Chennai on Saturday, Subramanian said two key questions arose on the way forward for the banking industry: first, if not now, when? second, if not this, what?.

While stating that the internal controls in a bank had broken down for whatever reasons, the CEA wondered what happened to the external controls exercised by the regulator and the supervisor.

To avoid such scams from recurring in the future, he advocated privatisation of a larger number of public sector banks, and also sought more stringent scrutiny on the part of the banking regulator.

Subramaniam said there were three reason for greater privatisation. The first one is that public sector ownership serves as a handicap in bank recruitments, human resources procurement and governance, especially when they need more freedom to compete with private sector lenders. The second reason is that the decision making in Indian government is almost paralysed due to the four 'C's -- courts, CBI, CVC and CAG.

"Good decision-making is affected by these government structures, and we need to relieve the pole overhanging the public sector. One way would be more private sector participation," he said.

The third argument is that the private sector has been a creator of wealth at least in the past three-and-a-half years.

Dwelling on the 4 'R's (recognition, resolution, recapitlisation and reforms) meant to support the banking system, Subramanian said, We failed to recognise the fifth R, which is regulation of the banking system.

He said a lot of progress had been made in the recognition of bad and stressed assets in the past 2-3 years, and the government is now coming close to putting a finger on the exact quantum of such assets in the banking system. However, he cautioned the audience that the actual number is 20-30 per cent more than what has been recognised at any given point of time.

The other two 'R's, resolution and recapitalisation have been under execution and are progressing well. However, Subramanian said ban recapitalisation must be accompanied by checks to ensure that the issues related to NPA aren't repeated and that NPAs are well managed. Another pressing factor is the haircut that the banks will take and the general question is whether such a step will be worth the effort.

On the fourth 'R' (reform) the government is putting a lot of money in this area to ensure its effectiveness. Greater privatisation could be one way to ensure the success of reforms, and those who argue for better governance over privatisation have to examine whether their recommendations can guarantee a better system pf governance than has been achieved in the past.

Going forward, we should have less public lending to private sector and the way to achieve that is to have more private sector participation in the banking system, Subramanian asserted.

On the fifth 'R', which is regulation, he said, While the internal controls have broken down in the (banking) system, for whatever reason, what about the external controls that were exercised by the regulator and the supervisor? What was happening there as well? That is an important question we need to ask going forward, when we think about the fifth 'R'.

In terms of reviving banks, two questions need to be addressed: If not now, When? If not this, What? I hope in the days and months ahead these questions will become important and if that is done we have a very good shot at India continuing to be (regarded as), or regaining the status of the fastest (growing economy) in the world, he said.

Photograph: PTI Photo.The venue for Saturdays meeting was shifted at the last minute from the headquarters of the India Banks Association in Cuffe Parade to avoid media glare.

Image: A security guard stands guard inside a Nirav Modi showroom during a raid by Enforcement Directorate. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters.

Bankers on Saturday went into a huddle to reconcile claims after the Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) scam hit Punjab National Bank (PNB).

PNB has put the value of outstanding claims in the fraud involving billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi at over Rs 110 billion ($1.77 billion).

Bankers declined to speak about either the outcome or their future course of action after a two hour-long meeting held at State Bank of Indias head office in Nariman Point, a business district in South Mumbai. Executives of the Delhi-based PNB joined the meeting through video-conferencing.

The venue for the meeting was shifted at the last minute from the headquarters of the India Banks Association in Cuffe Parade to avoid the media glare.

Those who attended the meeting included Usha Ananthasubramanian, managing director and chief executive of Allahabad Bank and chairman of the IBA,

D Mahapatra, managing director and chief executive of Bank of India, NS Kannan, executive director of ICICI Bank, and B Rajkumar, deputy chief executive of the IBA.

Prior to commencement of the meeting, public sector bank executives had said the aim was to know each banks position, seek ways to reconcile claims, and find ways to decide on liabilities.

Along with the entities owned by Nirav Modi, banks have also begun to recall loans to the Mehul Choksi-owned Gitanjali Gems and group entities. Choksi has also been named as an accused in the fraud. Besides steps to avoid a hit on their books, banks have begun to review their systems and processes to ensure that potential fraud is identified and corrective action taken.

Abhijit Lele in Mumbai

Banks relied on India Ratings' A- outlook to lend to NiMos Firestar

Fitch-owned India Ratings (Ind-Ra) gave an Ind A- outlook to Nirav Modis flagship company, Firestar International Private Limited (FIPL), even though the firm was suffering from a high-leverage, off-balance-sheet exposure. Indian banks, including Punjab National Bank (PNB), relied on this rating to lend huge sums to the company.

Ind-Ras officials said they were in discussions with the company till December 2017, for they needed more information, and placed FIPL and other group companies on rating watch with negative implications on Thursday, a day after PNB informed the stock exchanges about its loss. An Ind-Ra official said, as a policy, the company does not comment on issuer-specific ratings.

In February 2016, CARE Ratings had red-flagged FIPLs deteriorating financial health. CARE then downgraded the companys debt instruments worth Rs 24.6 billion. The rating agency also warned about Firestar Diamonds, a subsidiary of FIPL based in Hong Kong, saying the company may not be able to repay its loans unless its parent company steps in as a guarantor.

But, on June 7, 2016, CARE said it had withdrawn the ratings assigned with immediate effect to the bank facilities of FIPL, following the receipt of a no-objection certificate from the lenders. This was mainly because FIPL decided to rely on Ind-Ras better ratings.

While CARE raised the red flag in February 2016, Ind-Ra in March 2017 said it had rated the companys debt instruments at IND A- with a stable outlook. This put FIPLs financial performance in line with Ind-Ras expectation, indicated by a stable consolidated Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) margin of 5.8% in 2015-16 compared to the 5.7% in 2014-15.

Ind-Ra said in the first half of 2016-17, the company reported a consolidated revenue of Rs 68.95 billion and lower profitability margin of 4.4%. Consequently, gross interest coverage was low at 2.8 times.

Ind-Ra expects the companys consolidated financial profile to remain moderate over FY17-FY18, with fixed charge coverage of around three times, Ind-Ra said in March 2017.

It also said FIPL enjoyed operational synergies between its B2B businesses -- cut and polished diamond trading, jewellery manufacturing, and retail -- which provide ease of sourcing, distribution and economies of scale.

Moreover, the companys operations are strategically located to facilitate higher profitability in tax-free regions of the UAE, along with low-cost manufacturing in India, access to global participants and consumers in Hong Kong and the UAE markets, and quality diamond procurement from Belgium. A majority of the companys sales and procurements are global. Hence, unhedged receivables comfortably cover its payable position, thus, maintaining a natural hedge on a stand-alone level, it said. This rating was not revised until the scam hit the headlines.

Dev Chatterjee in MumbaiAt least 200 shell firms and benami assets have come under the scanner of the investigative agencies that are probing the Rs 11,400-crore alleged fraud at the Punjab National Bank, involving diamond czar Nirav Modi, his relative and business partner Mehul Choksi and others.

The Enforcement Directorate, which continued its searches against Modi, Choksi and their companies for the fourth day on Sunday , is also moving to attach at least two dozen immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ED on Sunday raided at least 45 premises, including jewellery showrooms and workshops, across the country.

As many as 29 properties -- of Modi, his family members and companies -- that have been provisionally attached by the Income Tax department, are being assessed by the ED under the PMLA. A few more assets will be attached soon under the anti-money laundering law, a senior ED official said.

He added that the ED and the I-T department had zeroed in on about 200 dummy or shell companies in the country and abroad that were being used to route or receive funds as part of the alleged fraud.

It is suspected that the shell firms were being used by the accused to launder money and create benami assets in the form of land, gold and precious stones, which is now being probed by the tax department.

Both the ED and the IT department had formed special teams to investigate the case, sources said.

The ED has seized diamonds, gold jewellery and other precious stones worth Rs 5,674 crore till now in the case.

The I-T department on Saturday attached nine bank accounts of Gitanjali Gems, its promoter Mehul Choksi and others in connection with a tax evasion probe against them.

It had also attached 29 properties and 105 bank accounts of Modi, his family members and firms owned by them.

Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint by the PNB, that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is also looking into the matter.

Officials of other banks also being probed

Officials at overseas branches of other banks, where the fraudulently issued Letter of Undertakings were encashed, are under scanner, sources said.

Officials of Hong Kong branches of Indian lenders including Allahabad Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank, UCO Bank and Axis Bank are part of the entire fraud which continued for 7 years.

As per the guidelines, the tenure for the encashment of LoUs for the jems and jewellery sector is usually of 90 days and not 365 days -- the maturity period of most of the LoUs linked with the PNB fraud, sources said, adding that the deviation from the usual practice should have raised alarm in the minds of officials working at the Hong Kong branch of other lenders.

But surprisingly this did not happen till last month when PNB refused to honour LoU fraudulently issued by some of the staff at its Brady House branch in Mumbai, sources said.

Had someone raised the alarm earlier, the quantum of fraud could have been lower, sources said, adding that it is like alert citizen informing police about some nefarious activity to authorities for the further action.

As many as 11 Indian banks have operations in Hong Kong. Branches of Allahabad Bank, UCO Bank, Union Bank of India, Axis Bank, SBI, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Indian Overseas Bank are present in the city state.

Among the lenders having a branch in Hong Kong, countrys largest lender SBI has already announced an exposure of $212 million to the PNB fraud involving Nirav Modi-promoted companies.

At the same time, another public sector lender Union Bank of Indias exposure stood at $300 million, while UCO Bank has to realise $ 411.82 million.

Allahabad Bank suspects it exposure of around Rs 2,000 crore.

Image: A man talks on a phone as he walks past a Nirav Modi showroom during a raid by the Enforcement Directorate in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/ReutersFour Canadian ministers of Indian origin are traveling with Prime Minister Trudeau.

Abhishek Waghmare and Subhayan Chakraborty report.



IMAGE: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their children Ella Grace, Hadrien and Xavier arrive in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touches down in New Delhi, state and business delegates from both countries are looking at week-long discussions on trade and bilateral relations.

Of the imports worth $4.1 billion (Rs 26,399 crore) from Canada in 2016-2017, pulses -- yellow peas, green peas and red lentils (masur) -- amounted to $1.1 billion (Rs 7,082 crore), more than a quarter of the total, making pulses the central point of the forthcoming trade discussions.

The worth of import of pulses from Canada have come down to about $500 million (Rs 3,219 crore) in 2017-2018, owing to government caps and duties on imports following a supply glut in 2016-17.

The same restrictions this year as well are putting Canada's pulse exporting industry and African pulse growers in a fix.

While pulses would feature both at the dining table and discussions, India and Canada will be looking at realising broader aims of trade expansion and investment promotion.

Currently, both countries are engaged in negotiations of the proposed Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or the free trade pact.

Talks on the FIPPA had earlier been stalled by India's decision to conduct negotiations for all investment pacts under the framework of the model Bilateral Investment Treaty issued by the government in 2015.

"Canada's prime concern is with the clause that in case of an investor-State dispute, a foreign investor can seek international arbitration only when all domestic legal options are exhausted," a senior government official said.

"While India feels this is required to keep control on litigation and reduce the chances of extremely high penalties from international tribunals, most developed nations believe the Indian legal system to be slow and corrupt," the government official added.

India's domestic markets had a deluge of pulses in the last two years: 23 million tonnes and an import of 6.6 million tonnes in 2016-2017, and an equal amount of production is estimated in 2017-2018 with 5 million tonnes of imports already reported till December.

India effectively had 58 million tonnes of pulses against a consumption of about 45 million tonnes for two years; a large excess, due to which the government put a cap on import of tur (red gram) at 200,000 tonnes and moong (black gram) and urad (green gram) at 300,000 tonnes in total, and also hiking import duty on yellow peas and chana while opening up exports of all pulses.

Yellow peas, with a 50 per cent import duty, form the bulk of Canadian pulses imports.

"Transparency, predictability and clarity in trade policy with regard to pulses is the most important point we are trying to put forward in the upcoming meetings," Gordon Bacon, CEO at Pulse Canada, the country's biggest pulses association, said.

Canada does not appear in the top 25 trade-friendly countries of India, with total trade amounting to about $6 billion (Rs 38,634 crore) in 2016-2017 and about $4.5 (Rs 28 crore) million in April-November 2017-2018, just 1 per cent of India's total trade.

"Apart from predictability, we expect that the cargo enroute should be exempt from the changed import policy, and fumigation -- a method of applying gaseous pesticides in the cargo vessel to prevent pest proliferation in India -- regulations should be science-based and country specific," Bacon added.

On the trade front, both governments urgently want to conclude the CEPA talks since trade volumes remain woefully low.

Despite Canada's southern neighbour, the USA, being India's largest export destination, bilateral trade has remained low with the Great White North.

Two-way trade was only $6.1 billion in 2016-2017, down two per cent from the year before.

Raw diamonds and gold are also important Canadian imports.

Exports from India are extremely broad-based with no commodity constituting more than eight per cent of all outbound trade.

Medicines, shrimps and prawns and jewellery are the major export items from India.

India had placed a conditionality that the trade pact cannot be discussed until both nations reach a possible conclusion on the investment deal.

There are 18 members of Indian-origin in the 338-strong Canadian parliament, while four of them are ministers, all of whom are participating in business forum and government-level discussions in Mumbai and Delhi.The visit by Gen Rawat, Ajit Doval and Vijay Gokhale was the first such high-level trip from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff.

Manash Pratim Bhuyan/PTI reports.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month on a rare visit during which they held extensive talks with the top brass of the Bhutanese leadership on strategic issues including the situation in Doklam, authoritative government sources said.

The sources said that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation issues with a focus on Chinas increasing military posturing and infrastructure development in the key Doklam plateau.

The visit took place between February 6 and 7 and positive outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, they said.

The visit by Gen Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first such high-level trip from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff and it was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides.

The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians about the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed Doklam tri-junction by the Chinese army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on August 28.

China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. India argues that since it is a tri-junction involving the three countries, it also has a say in the issue, specially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks.

Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India.

The sources said several other key officials of the army and the ministry of external affairs were also a part of the visit. Asked about the foreign secretarys visit, a diplomatic source called it routine.

This was Gen Rawats second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 km-long border with China. Last month, he had said the time had come for the country to shift its focus from the western to the northern frontier.

Army sources said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area.

The Indian Army has also been strengthening its troop level in certain key sectors along the Sino-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure.

Previously, Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year while then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited the neighbouring country in October last. In November last, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, had visited India.

Image: This was Gen Rawats second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 km-long border with China. Photograph: Kamal Kishore/PTI PhotoProtesters blocked roads and held rallies in several parts of Gujarat on Sunday, including in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, and Patan in Mehsana district against the failure of the authorities concerned to prevent suicide by Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vanakar on Friday, police said.

The protests were held after police detained Dalit leader and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani, and over 70 others, in Saraspur area of Ahmedabad on Sunday morning when they tried to stage demonstrations over Vanakars death.

City crime branch officials claimed that Mevani did not behave properly with the police during his detention.

However, the MLA tweeted he was pulled out of a car by police in a very uncivilised manner.

Vanakar, 62, had set himself ablaze outside the Patan Collectors office on February 15 seeking allotment of land to a Dalit family. He died of burn injuries at a private hospital in Ahmedabad the next day.

His body is still lying at Gandhinagar civil hospital as his kin refused to accept it.

Earlier on Saturday, Mevani appealed to Dalits to gather at Sarangpur circle on Sunday morning for protests.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) J K Bhatt said Mevani did not co-operate with police for maintaining peace in the city.

Many Dalit leaders of the city had assured us that peace will not be disturbed during protests. Unfortunately, Mevani didnt give any such assurance. So, as a precautionary measure, we have detained him today, Bhatt told reporters.

He said police also detained around 70 people from Sarangpur and Vadaj areas of Ahmedabad city.

Mevani and other detainees will be released at a proper time, the JCP said, adding two companies of anti-riot Rapid Action Force and three companies of the State Reserve Police have been deployed in the city.

Though the state government on Saturday announced that it will accept the key demands of Vanakars family, including allotment of land to Dalits, Mevani had sought that the government issue a circular conceding the demands.

After his detention, Mevani claimed through his tweet that police misbehaved with him when he was on his way for a peaceful protest at Ambedkar statue in Sarangpur.

Mevani, who represents Vadgam (SC) seat in Banaskantha district, claimed he was detained after being pulled out of his car.

He also accused the police of damaging the car keys when he was heading to Sarangpur.

Responding to his allegation, Bhatt cited a video clip circulating on social media which purportedly shows Mevani confronting a policeman and trying to sit in his car after pushing him away.

You can see how Mevani behaved with the policeman who was only doing his duty. Mevanis behaviour was not proper. No matter what he did, police showed absolute restraint, Bhatt said, adding that violence will not be tolerated.

Since Mevani is a sitting MLA, the crime branch will send a report to the Speaker of the assembly, Bhatt said.

After the news about Mevanis detention spread, some unidentified people set a car on fire in Vadaj area of the city, police said.

The states police control room said protesters tried to block roads in Patan, Gandhinagar and in Unjha town of Mehsana district, which is the hometown of Vanakar.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had on Saturday announced constitution of a judicial commission under a retired high court judge or form a Special Investigation Team to probe Vanakars death.

Patel had said that a member of the family of the deceased will be given a government job.

Image: Patidar leader Hardik Patel along with MLA Alpesh Thakor, Jignesh Mevani and relatives of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vanakar at the Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar on Saturday. Vanakar set himself on fire on Thursday after failing to secure land for two Dalit families who had been doing the rounds of the revenue department to get land ownership transferred in their names. Photograph: Santosh Hirlekar/PTI PhotoInvestigations into the escape of dreaded Lashker-e-Tayiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from a busy hospital has brought to the fore lapses at different stages, especially the failure of the prosecution wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police as well as the state home department over hurriedly issuing orders for transfer of the accused to a central jail from Kathua in the Jammu region, it has emerged.

Piecing together events before the escape of 22-year-old Jhatt from the SMHS hospital on February 6, it has been found that the accused had moved a habeas corpus petition before a single bench of Jammu and Kashmir high court in Srinagar which ordered his lodging preferably in a jail in Kashmir division on November 19, 2016.

After the high court order, the state home department issued a stand alone order dated January 27, 2017 directing for compliance of the direction of the high court and shifting Jhatt, a Pakistani national who infiltrated into the Kashmir valley in 2014 for spreading terrorism, from Kathua jail to the central jail in Srinagar with immediate effect.

The order was issued on behalf of states principal secretary (Home) by the then Special Secretary Dilshad Shaheen.

A senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, feels that there was an undue haste in the case of Jhatt and explained further that such hardcore terrorists could have been easily booked under the Public Safety Act and lodged again in a jail outside the Kashmir Valley.

The second course that could have been taken was to challenge the single bench order of the high court and reason out that he (Jhatt) should be kept away from other inmates as he was a highly motivated terrorist, said the official, who has been dealing with terror-related cases.

The high court order was also not specific about any prison in the Kashmir division and had left it to the governments to choose an appropriate jail, he said, adding Jhatt could have been kept at Anantnag prison in South Kashmir which is more secure or at Humhama jail where hardcore terrorists are often kept. The high court was vague about the choice of prison.

In November last year, a communication marked as urgent to Principal Secretary (Home) was sent by the then Director General of Prison S K Mishra, asking him to shift some of the prisoners including Jhatt to a jail in Jammu division and also highlighted the need to segregate them completely from each other.

In view of inputs received with regard to anti-national activities of the militancy related prisoners lodged in central jail, Srinagar from time to time through police and (security) agencies, there is urgent need to shift these prisoners to the jails in Jammu division in order to segregate them from each other. This will help in preventing the already deteriorating security atmosphere in the Valley and prevent indoctrination of young offenders, Mishra, a 1985-batch officer who is the seniormost IPS officer of the state, said in his letter.

Mishra, who was shunted to the post of Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Jammu and Kashmir Police Housing Corporation after the escape of Jhatt, did not answer the phone or messages sent to his mobile phone.

Notwithstanding silence from the state home department, Mishra issued an order for shifting 17 Pakistani nationals accused in cases of terrorism and drug cases to be shifted outside jails in Jammu division but it could not be complied with because of the Home departments order of January.

Mishra made another attempt in January this year when he shot off another letter to Principal Secretary Home in which he highlighted that presence of Pakistani hardcore terrorists was hampering the smooth functioning of the jails in the Kashmir Valley.

....the prosecution wing of the police department needs to defend such shifting orders as and when the trial courts desire to lodge them in the Kashmir based jails again.

It is, therefore, requested that necessary directions may kindly be issued to prosecution wing of police department to defend the shifting orders of the prisoners before the trial courts, the letter dated January 13, 2018 said.

Messages to state Home Secretary R K Goyal on his phone remained unanswered.

Jhatt escaped from the SMHS hospital after he was handed over a pistol with which he killed two policemen accompanying him to the hospital. The case is now being probed by the National Investigation Agency which took over the case from the Jammu and Kashmir police. The central agency has also taken custody of five accused arrested in the case.

Image: Lashker-e-Tayiba terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt escaped from the SMHS hospital after he was handed over a pistol with which he killed two policemen accompanying him to the hospital.A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.Russian indictments prove Trump won fair and square

Peeling back the layers of Hillary Clinton's deceitThe GOP memo proves the 'deep state' is realAfter 18 months of Russia, Russia, Russia, we finally meet a cast of real Russians. But par for the convoluted course, they were pretending to be Americans.The indictments obtained by special counsel Robert Mueller on Vladimir Putins attempts to create discord in the 2016 election and eventually support Donald Trump are important both for what they say and what they dont say.They offer huge victories for Trump  and thus more defeats for Hillary Clinton  but they dont close the books on everything about 2016.The very good news for the president is that the indictments are firm in saying that any Americans contacted by the 13 charged Russians, including Trump campaign associates, did not know they were dealing with Russians.The indictments also state forcefully that despite their social media efforts, which ranged from creative to clumsy, the Russians had no impact on the election results.Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced those findings in a flat monotone that belied their significance.There is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity, he said. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.Those are dramatic statements by any measure.Trump: Indictment of Russians proves 'no collusion'Rosensteins statements should end Clintons disgraceful claim that Trump stole the election.She lost the old-fashioned way  by being a terrible candidate. Case closed, though Im sure Clinton and her legion of dead-enders will find excuses to keep alive her campaign of victimhood....... Americas political nightmare continues.Report: Army, committees attack Saudi enemy forces in battlefronts over 24 hour [18/February/2018]



SANAA, Feb. 18 (Saba)  The army and popular forces have attacked Saudi enemy force and its mercenaries in battlefronts on Saturday, inflicting them heavy losses, according to military reports combined by Saba News Agency on Sunday.



In the border province of Jizan, artillery shelling targeted gatherings of Saudi soldiers in Qamer village and Maqrin site.

Also in Jizan, a Saudi-paid mercenaries tank was destroyed by a guided missile in Randha site, killing all its crew.



In Najran border province, gatherings of mercenaries were shelled by artillery east of Ajasher site, ambulances were seen rushing to the targeted site.



In Taiz province, dozens of mercenaries were killed and injured when the army and committees carried out two offensive operations from two sides on the mercenaries sites in western coast front.



In Osaifirah district of Taiz, an infiltration attempt was foiled toward the army and popular forces site, killing and wounding dozens, while artillery shelling targeted mercenaries gatherings and fortifications in the same district.



Also in Taiz, two of Saudi-paid mercenaries were gunned down.



In Hajjah province, mercenaries gatherings were targeted by artillery north of Medi desert.



In Lahj province, a mercenaries infiltration attempt was repelled in Qubaida district, killing and wounding dozens.



In Marib province, eight of Saudi-paid mercenaries were shot dead in several areas of Serwah district.





Writing by Sameera al-Mahdi







SabaArmy attacks Saudi army and its mercenaries in battle front lines [18/February/2018]

SANNA, Feb. 18 (Saba)  The army and popular forces waged an offensive against Saudi army and its mercenaries in the battle front lines over the last 24 hours, killing and injuring dozens, a military official told Saba on Sunday.



In Jizan border province, the artillery of the army and popular forces targeted groups of Saudi soldiers and destroyed a tank of themercenaries, killing and wounding several of them in Qamar village, al-Ramdhah and al-Qaran sites.



In border province of Najran, the army and popular forces launched an artillery shelling on gatherings if mercenaries in eastern al-Ashjer sites.



In Taiz province, tens of the mercenaries were killed and injured when the army and popular forces waged a military operation on their sites in western coast.



Also in Taiz, the army and popular forces foiled an attempt of infiltration of the mercenaries and killed and wounded dozens in Osifarh area.



Separately, in Medi desert in north of Hajjah province, Saudi-paid mercenaries' groups were targeted by the artillery shelling of the army and popular forces.



Meanwhile, the army and popular forces repelled an attack of the mercenaries toward al-Qabaitah area, killing and injuring dozens.



In Marib province, the sniper unit of the army and popular forces shot dead eight mercenaries in various areas of Serwah district, the official added.



SabaRe: Govt. and debts

Nope. It is these noisy activists - hypocrites who live on freehold lands both in Apia and abroad - who cannot stomach their family members turning customary land into something which they can increase their own positions in life.

They would rather those customary lands are left doing nothing forever.

As long as nobody benefits they are happy because they do not want others in their own families getting ahead in life.

However, would those hypocrites ever go back and help develop those customary lands for their families? Nope.

Will they go back to the village and help be a solution rather than loudly complain from afar? Nope.

They want those customary lands to remain idle. 80% of the country to remain idle.

The cynic in me says that those hypocrites only want those customary lands to do nothing so those family members in the villages continue to have to rely on them living on freehold lands because that is where the real power in a family lies.

Those who have money (those living on freehold lands) have influence and power over those in the family who do not have money (living on customary lands).

PS JeffreyPrime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi welcomed some special visitors to his office last week.

During a short ceremony, the New Zealand-based Russian Federation Ambassador Valery Tereschenko and a delegation of four officials presented their bid to the Prime Minister to be the host country for the 2025 World Expo.

A presentation of the candidacy of the city of Ekaterinburg to host the World Expo between 2nd May and 2ndNovember 2025 under the theme Changing the World: Inclusive Innovations for Our Children and Future Generations was made by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ekaterinburg Bid Committee.

Two other countries have requested Samoas support for their bids. The election for the host country will be made in June 2018.Former Head of State, His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi, has reportedly admitted he was pressured into signing the Land Title Registration Act in 2008 when he was in office.

He apparently made the admission in New Zealand last week during the Pacific Law, Custom and Constitutionalism Conference I, held at the Auckland University where he was the keynote speaker

During the conference, the former Head of State and Prime Minister was asked about the issue.

Tui Atua is quoted by Radio New Zealand as saying he was pressured into signing the controversial land law, which many critics of the Government fear will alienate customary land.

And now he is calling for the law to be repealed. He said he signed the Land Title Registration Act in 2008 before realising there should have been a referendum on it.

He said he was told the Act would not affect customary land rights. But Radio New Zealand goes on to report the Head of State as saying Samoans need to understand the legislation affects their customary rights and they must do everything to keep their land.

"There is a very insistent call to try and identify what it is that makes us the people that we are and once we find that, how to find the match with western theology, philosophy, politics because you have to live with others in the world, you have to relate to them in so many ways," he said.

The L.T.R.A. is an act to provide for:

 the establishment and maintenance of a Register of title to land;

 the establishment of ownership of interests in land by registration;

 the recording in the Register of information in respect of transactions with land;

 access to information recorded in the Register; and (f) matters incidental to the above.

One of the biggest critics of L.T.R.A, Fiu Mataese Elisara, was also among the speakers at the conference.

In his address, he expressed concerns about the law.

Samoans rightly claim customary lands and traditional resources through ancestral ownership - a birthright respected as lawful and brings with it authority and sovereignty, he said.

We are therefore stunned that the dangers posed by L.T.R.A. are serious, tantamount to forever losing our customary lands and resources! Yet we have never authorized, nor given up, any of our ancestors-given rights of ownership.

Fiu goes on to remind about the importance of being vigilant about land laws.

In the context of our customary land tenure systems, it is remiss of us if we allow ourselves to be pressured into premature laws and agreements by the momentum of contemporary land grabbing and land reform processes, he said.

Or content ourselves with forced decisions which paper over indigenous non-negotiable realities and fundamental disagreements. Resistance from locally affected peoples and communities is widespread as they increasingly assert their rights to self-determination and veto over forced globalization, colonization, the exercise of governments and corporate powers."

Citizens are demanding accountability as condition for their free prior and informed consent!

(Fius paper will be published in full in tomorrows Samoa Observer.)

Other prominent Samoans who spoke at the conference include Judge Ida Malosi of the NZ District, Family & Youth Courts, Sister Vitolia Moa of S.M.S.M and the C.E.O of Samoa Law Reform Commission, Teleiai Dr. Lalotoa Mulitalo.Last week Friday, a story titled Maldives faces Chinese land grab over unpayable debts surfaced on the front page of the Samoa Observer.

In light of the recent debate and controversy about Samoas foreign debt, customary lands and concerns about the future of this country, the story couldnt have arrived at a better time, in our humble opinion.

Its a timely reminder for us all.

Mind you, not everyone will see it the same way.

Some people in authority, especially the Government who have been doing everything possible to downplay the issue, will naturally reject the story as just another idiotic piece of journalism.

They will probably say the same thing about yesterdays front-page story titled Former Head of State worries about customary lands and all the coverage of the L.T.R.A. law and more. Which is fine, people after all are entitled to their own opinions.

In any case, you too can be the judge.

Now according to the story in question from the Maldives, massive debts are threatening to force the Maldives to cede territory to China as early as 2019.

The warning has been sounded by the former President Mohamed Nasheed who is worried about a Chinese takeover of his island nation.

We cant pay the $1.5 to 2 billion debt to China, Nasheed told the Nikkei Asian Review. He goes on to argue that the Indian Ocean country, known mostly as a tourist destination, takes in less than $100 million a month in government revenue.

As of January, obligations to China accounted for nearly 80% of the Maldives foreign debt, according to Nasheed. Much of the money went into infrastructure, including roads, bridges and airports.

But these are vanity projects, according to Nasheed: roads going to nowhere, airports that [will sit] empty.

All the while, the Maldives debts are accruing interest at high rates, Nasheed said.

The story goes to say that the Maldoves must start making payments on this debt by 2019 or 2020. If the Maldives falls behind, China will ask for equity from the owners of various islands and infrastructure operators, and Beijing will then get free hold of that land, he said.

Without firing a single shot, China has grabbed more land than the East India Company at the height of the 19th century, Nasheed said, alleging that the Asian economic powerhouse has taken over 16 islands already under the Maldives current president, Abdulla Yameen.

This land grab exercise hollows out our sovereignty, he argued.

Once ports have been built on the islands, these commercial infrastructures can very easily become military assets, according to Nasheed.

Such conversions are very simple, he said, pointing to a naval base China established in the East African nation of Djibouti last August -- its first military installation abroad.

Now lets stop there.

The rest of the story is pretty bleak but you get the picture.

There will be people of course who would ask what do the Maldives and Samoa have in common? And what does this have to do with us?

Well there are a lot of similarities.

The biggest denominator is the fact we are a group of islands just like the Maldives and our debt to foreign rulers  including China  is increasing by the day.

And isnt it interesting that the Maldives debt has been racked up building infrastructure, including roads, bridges and airports. Doesnt that sound awfully familiar to what is happening in Samoa today?

All these issues are somehow interconnected.

Our debt, status of the economy, alienation of customary land, political decisions and fear of a new type of colonialism that is coming through chequebook diplomacy. We see it so often, some times on a daily basis. They are all related since it concerns the future of this nation and our people  including the unborn.

The question is; are we paying attention? Do we care? Whatever your answer, the undeniable truth is this: we have been warned Samoa.

Have a wonderful week, God bless!Dear Editor,

Re: After 24 years the government wakes up and Samoa Observer still there

I applaud Gatoaitele Sano Malifa and the staff of the Samoa Observer.

At times when the opposition was so weak, they could not even place the governments feet in hot water.

But the Samoa Observer newspaper did!

Many Samoans may not know it, but whilst the opposition parties could barely breath a voice of dissent over the last three decades, they and these disorganised political parties across the floor owed huge debts of gratitude to the C.E.O. and staff of the Samoa Observer for holding the government of the day accountable.

Ropati VA local chef, who is employed at the Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital, is fighting for his life at the hospital.

He is in critical condition after he was set upon and assaulted outside of the hospital last week.

The incident has left his family, Police and hospital staff horrified.

Police Spokesperson, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo, confirmed the sickening attack.

He said the Police are investigating.

I can confirm that two 18 year olds have been charged with assault and causing injury, he told the Samoa Observer.

The Police are still continuing with their investigation of what really happened on the day.

The Police declined to discuss the details of the assault.

That is all I can say for now until the Police have completed their investigations.

It was not possible to get an official comment from the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital.

But the Samoa Observer was told that the victim is on life support because his injuries were severe.

Sources claim the attack was unprovoked and that the man is lucky to be alive.

The victim is believed have roots in Talimatau while the accused are from Tanugamanono, which is not far from the hospital.A Vision Plan for Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido would include the construction of three roundabouts at the intersections of Broadway, Kalmia and Maple.

Plan also calls for wider sidewalks, removal of street medians (and the eucalyptus trees that grow in them) and diagonal parking along one side of the street.

The plan would cost $15 million.

Four blocks of Grand Avenue in the heart of Escondidos historic downtown district will change dramatically should a plan be implemented in the coming years that includes wider sidewalks, removal of street medians, diagonal parking, and the construction of three roundabouts.

Last week, the Escondido City council gave the go-ahead to staff to pursue two grants that would give the city $5 million to began the transformation, a process that ultimately will cost $15 million.

Final designs have not been finished, but the vision plan for Grand Avenue between Escondido Boulevard and Juniper Street would be built in several phases, said Julie Procopio, the citys director of engineering services.

The first two phases would be covered by the grants with the first calling for the widening of sidewalks along one side of the street between Maple and Kalmia streets. The second phase would include construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Broadway and Grand as well as more sidewalk widening.

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The plan came about as a result of several well-attended meetings the city held last year. A committee formed during those meetings fully supported the roundabout idea, Procopio said.

They felt the roundabout at Broadway provided a key focal point for what they consider to be the heart of our downtown, she said.

Two other, slightly smaller roundabouts would also be built in later phases at the intersections of Kalmia and Maple streets.

The members of the city council indicated they especially liked the roundabout idea because it would slow traffic along Grand Avenue.

What I think we can accomplish with this kind of a vision and design is slowing traffic down and creating some more parking thats right in front of some of these restaurants and shops, Councilman John Masson said.

My goal is to slow people down there. If youre trying to get to the other side of town, dont take Grand. Take Second and Valley, which are one-way thoroughfares with lights timed to get you through town.

The plan also includes adding about 70 new parking spaces along the street which currently has only parallel parking. Diagonal parking spaces would be built on one side of the street with parallel parking on the other, alternating between blocks.

The traffic medians in the center of the street would be removed as part of the preliminary plan, as would the eucalyptus trees that grow on the medians, making room for 20-foot-sidewalks. The eucalyptus trees have been a problem along Grand for years due to falling limbs.

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The eucalyptus are non-native, invasive species that arent happy or healthy there, Councilwoman Olga Diaz said. The trees need to go and we know they need to go.

Councilman Mike Morasco said the plan would ultimately lead to more trees in the downtown area and he said the roundabouts would be great focal points for trees and other landscape designs.

He said the whole idea is to create something different from what we have on Second and Valley Parkway. The idea is to almost create a walking, living and partially drivable mall-type of scenario that is going to enhance pedestrian activity.

Hundreds of condominium and apartments have already been approved for the downtown area and thousands more are in the planning stages. Members of the council said it will be those new residents who will make Grand Avenue vibrant and will spur the creation of more restaurants and other businesses in the area.

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We will have a lot more residents down here and I think were going to see a lot more pedestrian activity on our Grand Avenue, Morasco said.

It wont be until the end of the year when the city will know if the grants have been approved. If they are, there will be ample time to hold more meetings to get the publics feedback on the designs, Procopio said.

The grants would come from the San Diego Association of Governments Smart Growth Incentive Program, which are designed for just such municipal projects. The Maple Street Plaza project was partly funded by the same mechanism, as is a pedestrian bridge project over Spruce Creek at the transit center that is now in design.

Unrelated to the grant applications, the Escondido Charitable Foundation has agreed to fully fund the construction of a welcoming structure that would span the intersection of Grand Avenue and Centre City Parkway, marking the entrance to the historic downtown center, Procopio said. An anonymous member of the foundation has donated $1 million to complete the work.

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A couple public speakers during Wednesdays City Council meeting said they opposed making any changes to the appearance of Grand Avenue.

Procopio, however, said the vision plan has the support of numerous organizations and business owners on the street. The Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Business Association and other groups have voiced support, she said.

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jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjonesSan Pasqual High School students give new meaning to dog training classes, as they walk around campus with Labrador service dogs in tow.

The students are raising the animals through their school agriculture department, for the San Diego chapter of the nonprofit Paws 4 A Cause, which trains guide dogs for the blind.

I have him all the time, said Maggie Goodson, who is raising 18-month-old Sempre, a black Labrador retriever. He goes to school with me, he goes home with me. Anywhere I go, he goes.

The school has offered the program for three years, and has produced 10 service dogs during that time, said Sharon Buetow, a co-leader for Paws 4 A Cause. Four puppies and one young adult dog are in training now at the campus. Students at Valley Center and Ramona high schools are also participating in the program.

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Paws 4 A Cause uses only Labrador retrievers and golden retrievers, and breeds the dogs for intelligence and obedience. Students typically start as sitters, signing up to care for a dog when a classmate raising the animal cant watch it. That includes during certain classes, such as P.E., ceramics and wood shop, or during out-of-town trips. Once students become experienced as sitters, they can become raisers and train an animal themselves.

Students participate through the schools FFA (Future Farmers of America) program, and gain class credit for their work. The dog training project, however, is a 24-hour per day commitment that goes far beyond normal coursework.

Its been difficult, and I had to give up a lot of things that I did, but it has all been worth it because youre doing something to help someone in need, said sophomore Jenise Gonzalez, 15, who is raising Al, a 23-week-old black Lab puppy. I had to give up going out with my friends. The dog was not ready. I stayed home a lot. Now hes at the point where I can take him out to socialize.

Caring for the dog is an exercise in responsibility as well as an opportunity for community service. For the first four to five months, until the dogs get their final vaccinations, students carry the animals from class to class. They teach them household manners and basic commands.

As any parent of a toddler can tell you, potty training is the hardest part. The animals must not only be house-trained, but also able to relieve themselves on command  a task that can take months.

Teaching the playful puppies to stay focused is also key, so raisers work on training the dogs to resist distractions.

At San Pasqual High School service dog in training Al sits patiently with Jenise Gonzalez, his puppy raiser with Paws 4 A Cause (Charlie Neuman )

When hes out walking with his owner, being distracted could guide the blind person to a wrong destination, said Ariana Fuentes, 16, who is raising Frasier, a 5-month-old yellow Lab.

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Maggie Goodson said that even as a puppy, Sempre wasnt distractible. But she acknowledges that it can be hard for other students and teachers to avoid his quirky charms during class time.

When I got him as a puppy, he was tiny and small, Maggie said. I would put his blanket down and he would go to sleep. A couple times in class, he started snoring while teachers are lecturing. My teachers are all obsessed with him.

As he got older, she said, Sempre remained calm and focused. When she attended a state FFA conference last year, he was at ease among thousands of teenagers, and slept on a blanket beside her during a concert.

The only drawback of raising a service dog, she said, is also the most rewarding part  the knowledge that shell soon hand him over to his eventual owner. If he passes his final training, Maggie will get to meet his owner, and then transfer Sempre during a graduation ceremony.

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I hope that the blind person will have the same connection (to Sempre) that I do, and that he helps them a lot, she said. Hes super loving, caring and mellow. Hes all I could ever ask for in a dog.

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deborah.brennan@sduniontribune.com Twitter@deborahsbrennanNorth County Transit District is on track to meet a federally mandated Dec. 31 deadline to install a high-tech safety system designed to control speeds and prevent deadly train crashes and derailments.

Amtrak, though, is not and that could throw a wrench into the NCTD system.

The new Positive Train Control system requires multiple rail systems to electronically mesh as one. Coaster, Amtrak, freight trains and other railway carriers must communicate seamlessly, a process that requires months of testing followed by federal certification.

Executives at Amtrak, the nations largest passenger-rail service, said this week that while they have installed the new system on their trains and tracks, in some Western states, including California, Amtrak trains must cross some independently owned railroads that have not yet installed the new safety system.

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That makes it impossible for Amtrak to test the overall system, including its link to NCTD.

We are reaching out to everyone on the coastal rail corridor to find a solution, NCTD Executive Director Matthew Tucker said when the subject came up at Thursdays transit district board meeting in Oceanside.

NCTD owns the railroad tracks from the Orange County border to the Santa Fe Depot in San Diego. The transit district operates Coaster commuter trains between Oceanside and San Diego, Sprinter light-rail trains between Oceanside and Escondido, and Breeze bus service throughout northern San Diego County.

Amtrak officials have said they may cease operations on railways that dont have the new safety system, but Tucker said thats unlikely to affect service in San Diego County.

The Positive Train Control system is designed to automatically stop trains when there is imminent danger of a collision with another train or a derailment because of excessive speed, temporary speed restrictions or a misaligned track switch.

The system has been installed and is being tested on all NCTD Coaster trains and with other agencies trains that operate on the districts railroad tracks, said Eric Roe, deputy chief operations officer of rail systems for the district.

This is one of the biggest safety enhancements in the rail industry in a century, Roe said.

NCTD has spent $87 million to install the high-tech safety system mandated by the federal government 10 years ago and under construction since 2011. The transit district is now testing interoperability with Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSE) freight trains, which already use the system outside San Diego County.

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Orange Countys Metrolink commuter trains, which serve Oceanside over the the NCTD-owned tracks, also already use the safety system when outside San Diego County and are being tested to be sure they can safely link with the local system when they cross the county line.

Pacific Sun Railway, a local company that subcontracts with BNSF, also has installed the system on its locomotives and is prepared to join the NCTD system, Roe said. Pacific Sun, which operates mostly at night when passenger trains arent running, is based at Stuart Mesa on Camp Pendleton and delivers military hardware on the Marine Corps base, and lumber and other commodities to Escondido, Mira Mesa and other points along the route.

The Sprinter passenger line, which NCTD operates between Oceanside and Escondido, is not required to have the new safety system because it is a different type of train than the Coaster commuter rail, Roe said. The Sprinter is considered light rail, like the trolley system in San Diego, and does not fall under the federal Rail Safety Enhancement Act that requires the system.

Only eight of the 37 railroads nationwide that are required to have the system on their own tracks have completed certification as of December, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

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Despite the challenges we have with Amtrak, we are still among a small group of railroads that have reached the point where we are today, Tucker said Thursday.

Positive Train Control uses digital technology to collect information from various sources including Global Positioning Systems, onboard train systems, and wayside monitoring devices to automatically warn and, if necessary, stop any train that appears to be in danger.

Its a very complex system of systems, Roe said. To make it work on a single train is complicated, he said, but to make it work with multiple railroads, thats what makes it super complicated.

Congress, in response to several fatal rail accidents between 2002 and 2008, passed the Federal Rail Safety Enhancement Act of 2008 that mandated intercity passenger, commuter and any freight lines carrying hazardous materials to install the Positive Train Control system by the end of 2015. In late 2015, when it appeared few transit companies would make the deadline, the deadline was extended to the end of 2018.

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Digital security is an important part of the system, Roe said.

It is a closed system, he said. We are not connected to the open internet, and all the radio transmissions are encrypted.

Still, the system is not autonomous and cant drive the train. An engineer remains in charge of the locomotive.

At the end of the day, the engineer is the one operating the system, he said.

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The federal rail act also provided almost $1 billion in funding to implement the system, along with additional money for testing, grants and loans.

A small part of the funding came from state and local taxes, including the TransNet half-cent sales tax approved by San Diego County voters.

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philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehlThe 2017 movie Hidden Figures tells the story of African-American women at NASA who figured out the complex math equations required to get astronauts safely into space and back. Among the human computers was Miriam Mann, recruited to the still-segregated space agency in the 1940s, whose granddaughter, Duchess Harris, is coming to San Diego for two events tied to Black History Month and Womens History Month. Harris is a professor in the American Studies Department at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., and co-author of the young-adult book Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA. Her grandmother isnt identified by name in Hollywoods re-telling, but her spirits there: Mann once removed a sign that read Colored Computers from the NASA dining room. And when the sign went up again, she removed it again.

Duchess Harris author events: 1 p.m. Saturday. Central Library, 330 Park Blvd. (geared to students); and Feb. 26, 7 p.m., Copley Library, University of San Diego. Free. Registration: sandiego.librarymarket.com (Central Library event) and sandiego.edu/events (USD event).

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john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-2236Francisco Cantus memoir, The Line Becomes a River, is about the four years he spent as a Border Patrol agent working in the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Mother Jones calls it the best book on immigration you will read this year.

The Tucson writer will be at Warwicks on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Q: Youve been obsessed with the border for a long time, even studying it in college. What was the source of that obsession?

A: My mom was a park ranger and what that meant for me growing up is that I was always close to the outdoors, to these wild places. Then I left Arizona, I left the Southwest, for college and I was far away from a lot of these things that were familiar to me. Studying immigration and border policy began as a way of studying international relations but in terms of a landscape that made sense to me.

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When I was formulating all these questions and obsessions with the border in college, something always felt like it was missing, and part of what I think that was was a knowledge of the outdoors and a sense for the border as a landscape  a lived landscape that had its own culture, not always acknowledged in these policy debates.

I really wanted to witness and understand those day-to-day realities of the border. When I graduated, I wanted to go back home, to the Southwest, and to be out in the desert and know what it felt like day in and day out, in the hottest days of the summer and the coldest nights of the winter, and the Border Patrol when I looked at all of the options seemed like one of the only ways to do that.

Q: What hopes did you have for the job when you started?

A: I naively thought that since I had all this knowledge of the border from college, since I was fluent in Spanish, since I had studied abroad in Mexico, I would be able to do good in the Border Patrol. I thought I would be able to bring those things to the job and make that experience less traumatic for the people I would be encountering. I even got training as an EMT so I could very directly administer aid to people who were dehydrated or injured.

I think the reason that was naive is that after doing that work, you realize that at the end of the day, even if you are helping someone who was lost in the desert, youre still taking them back to a cell and youre sending them back to the place that theyre literally risking their life to flee.

Q: Was there a particular moment when that hit home?

A: There was this one woman who was left behind by her group. She was a middle-aged woman and I guess she was lagging. My colleagues encountered her and since I was an EMT, I took her back to detention.

She had these big blisters on her feet and I was bandaging and cleaning them, and I remember as I was doing that I looked up at her and she was watching me very tenderly. I had her foot in my hand and I remember her thanking me. It was the first time someone had said anything like thank you.

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It was a really hard moment for me because I was like, Dont thank me. Sure, Im putting bandages on your feet, but you have children and a husband here and you just risked your life to flee and Im the one who is here to put you in a cell and send you back.

Its hard to feel good about something like that. I think she even called me a humanitarian and I think in that moment I was like, I am not a humanitarian. This is not a humanitarian thing.

Q: Those feelings you had then, and theres another incident in the book where you literally give a migrant the shirt off your back  were you able to openly share those emotions with your Border Patrol colleagues?

A: The Border Patrol is the largest law enforcement agency in the country. There are 18,000 agents. Its bigger than the FBI. I encountered and witnessed people who I think were bad at their job and who were cruel to people, but I also witnessed a lot of people who were the kindest, most compassionate humanitarians I know. You have everything under the sun.

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Its complicated, you know? One part of this book was looking back at my time in the Border Patrol and thinking about the different ways I was lending these parts of myself and my identity to enforce these policies that I now see as flawed, or violent even, and inhumane.

Of course Border Patrol agents arent making those policies, but in the book I tried to grapple with my own culpability, all the ways myself or any individual can or cannot be extracted from the institution they worked for.

Q: Did you know you were going to write a book when you started working there?

A: I didnt. I joined the Border Patrol thinking that working there would unlock all these questions I had about the border. I had this idea that I would be equipped with all these answers and that I would be able to go on to become an immigration lawyer or a policy maker, that I would have all these insights because of that work.

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But the need to write really arose after I quit and had a little bit of distance and perspective from the job. At that point, writing really became a way for me to make sense of what I had seen and what I had done.

It began on a very personal level as just a way of reckoning with the work I had done and with the person that I saw myself as, that I wanted to be, versus the institution that I had been a part of and all those things that I had perpetuated.

Q: You stay away from the political debates about walls and chain migration and dreamers. Why did you write it that way?

A: When I looked back on my time in the Border Patrol, more than the drug busts or car chases or keeping out someone with an extensive criminal record, that stuff really faded away and what stuck with me were these interactions I had with crossers.

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For me, thats where I wanted to start, with those human moments. I think of the dead body I encountered in the desert. I think of this mans 19-year-old nephew and friend whove traveled 2,000 miles to get to this place and seen a man die before their eyes in the desert from dehydration  I think of those individuals and I hope the reader carries that with them, too.

The issue that seems to be missing from our debate is the fact that people are dying in the desert. I really see that as a humanitarian crisis that isnt acknowledged to the degree that I think it should be. We dont acknowledge or mourn these peoples deaths. We dont name their bodies. Theres still an inability to recognize that these statistics and these numbers are each representative of an individual, of a single person.

To me thats unacceptable. I think thats the first thing that should be changed before these larger issues even come up.

The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantu, Riverhead, 256 pages

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john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-2236TORONTO, Feb. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Despite recent headlines about disappointing math scores in provincewide testing across Ontario, some secondary schools are bucking the trend, according to the Fraser Institutes annual Report Card on Ontarios Secondary Schools released today.



This years report card finds that 37 high schools in Ontario have shown statistically significant improvement over the last four years in Grade 9 academic math and 47 schools have improved in applied math.

If struggling schools want to improve math results, they can find out what works for improving schools and, wherever possible, adopt these proven methods, said Peter Cowley, director of school performance studies at the Fraser Institute.

Crucially, the improving schools are located across Ontarioin both urban and rural areasand serve different types of communities and students.

For example, the fastest-improving school in academic math is Stayner Collegiate Institute near Collingwood, which improved its average score from 2.0 to 2.8 out of 4. The fastest improver in applied math is C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute in Torontos Jane and Finch area, which improved its score from 1.8 in 2013 to 3.2 (out of four) in 2017.

Likewise, schools as far north as Kapuskasing and Sioux Lookout have improved in math, as have schools in Windsor, Welland, rural communities outside of Ottawa, and in downtown Toronto.

Moreover, some schools serving large numbers of special needs students have also shown statistically significant improvement in math. For example Geraldton Composite High School in northern Ontario is one of the top 10 fastest improvers in academic math even though 52 per cent of its students have special needs.

These schools are proof that no one city and no one type of student or socioeconomic situation has a monopoly on improvementits possible for every school to improve, whether in math or any other area of the curriculum, Cowley said.

This years report card, available at www.compareschoolrankings.org, ranks 747 anglophone and francophone public and Catholic secondary schools (and a small number of independent and First Nations schools) on seven academic indicators based on results of annual provincewide Grade 9 math and Grade 10 literacy tests.

10 fastest-improving secondary schools in Ontario for Gr. 9 academic math (fastest at the top)

School Location 2013 math rating

(out of 4) 2017 math rating

(out of 4) Stayner Collegiate Stayner 2.0 2.8 Kapuskasing Kapuskasing 1.9 2.4 South Lincoln Smithville 2.6 3.2 Queen Elizabeth Sioux Lookout 2.6 2.9 Essex Essex 2.6 3.0 Cite des Jeunes Kapuskasing 2.7 3.1 Ecole Secondaire

Catholique Champlain Chelmsford 2.4 2.9 Geraldton Composite Geraldton 2.8 3.1 Centennial Secondary Welland 2.6 2.9 St. Patrick Secondary Toronto 2.7 3.1

10 fastest-improving secondary schools in Ontario for Gr. 9 applied math (fastest at the top)

School Location 2013 math rating

(out of 4) 2017 math rating

(out of 4) C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate North York 1.8 3.2 West Ferris Secondary North Bay 1.5 2.9 West Elgin Secondary West Lorne 1.3 2.6 Galt Collegiate Cambridge 1.7 2.9 Nipigon Red Rock Red Rock 1.6 2.9 Russel Russel 1.2 2.3 Ecole Secondaire

Catholique Jeanne-Lajoie Pembroke 2.5 3.3 E. L. Crossley Fonthill 2.0 2.9 Ecole Secondaire

Catholique St. Charles

Garnier Whitby 2.2 2.8 Blessed Mother Teresa Toronto 1.9 2.6

MEDIA CONTACT:

Peter Cowley

Director of School Performance Studies, Fraser Institute

Cell: (604) 789-0475

Office: (604) 714-4556

E-mail: peter.cowley@fraserinstitute.org

Bryn Weese

Media Relations Specialist, Fraser Institute

Cell: (604) 250-8076

Office: (604) 688-0221 Ext. 589

E-mail: bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org

Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Like us on Facebook

The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institutes independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org



An Iranian passenger plane crashed in the mountains of southern Iran on Sunday, killing all 65 people on board, officials said.

Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 was flying from Tehrans Mehrabad International Airport to the southern city of Yasuj and crashed in the vicinity of the 14,000-foot Dena mountains, airline officials said.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop aircraft used for short distances, went down about 50 minutes into the 350-mile journey, said a spokesman for the airline, Mohammad Taghi Tabatabaei.

Officials earlier said 66 people were aboard the plane, but the state-run IRNA news agency reported later that one person listed as a passenger had missed the flight. There were 59 passengers and six crew members on the flight, the news agency said.

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The cause of the crash was not immediately known, although airline officials blamed bad weather in the mountains. Rescue workers said they were having difficulty landing air ambulances near the crash site due to heavy fog.

State-run Iranian media reported that the same aircraft  one of six in the airlines fleet  suffered from technical problems during a flight out of Tehran 23 days ago, forcing the pilot to return to Mehrabad.

The Iranian Students News Agency reported that the captain of that flight, Hojjatollah Foladi, was flying the plane that crashed Sunday.

Aseman Airlines, a semi-private carrier and one of the countrys largest, flies mainly to domestic destinations but also operates international flights to Istanbul, Dubai and Kuwait City.

Hobbled for decades by sanctions and trade restrictions, Irans domestic airline industry maintains one of the worlds oldest passenger fleets.

Poor condition of aircraft is often cited as a reason Iran suffers from one of the worlds worst air safety records. Since 1979, about 1,700 people have died in more than 90 aircraft-related accidents, according to the Flight Safety Foundation.

Since the lifting of most international sanctions in 2016 following the agreement Iran struck with world powers to curb its nuclear program, the U.S. manufacturer Boeing and its European rival, Airbus, have each agreed to sell Iran scores of passenger planes.

The Trump administration has threatened to block the transactions, arguing the aircraft could be used by the Iranian military.

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#BREAKING

Feb 18 - Yasuj airport, #Iran

Families of passengers aboard the Tehran-Yasuj plane awaiting news about their loved ones.

Some of the passengers' names are seen here. pic.twitter.com/wsjdBi72j8  Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) February 18, 2018

Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from Iran

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UPDATES:

6:55 a.m.: This article has been updated with a revised report of the number of people aboard the plane.

2:35 a.m.: This article was updated with staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 12:45 a.m.Swirled in cannon smoke from a 21-gun salute and washed in the applause Iwo Jimas survivors have come to anticipate during their annual reunions at Camp Pendleton, one of the 27 veterans stood out.

Wearing a crimson garrison cap, his chest spangled with a giant silver medal rimmed in turquoise, Thomas Begay stared at the wreath commemorating the scores of dead from that World War II battle 73 years ago, but his mind wasnt fully on the spectacle.

He was thinking about fellow Navajo code talker Teddy Draper Sr., who died Dec. 14 at 96 years old. His death came nine days after fellow Arizonan George B. Willie Sr. passed. He was 92.

There were 33 of us assigned as Navajo code talkers but now there are no more. Theyve died, said Begay, 92, who is believed to be the last surviving member of the 5th Marine Divisions famed bilingual radio unit on Iwo Jima.

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He softly spoke to the Union-Tribune on Saturday after making the long trek from Albuquerque to California with retired Army lieutenant colonel Ronald Begay, the son who used to sit on his lap at these reunions.

He made a longer trip in World War II. It took him from boot camp in 1943 to the black sands of Iwo Jima on H-Hour, Feb. 19, 1945.

By the time hed splashed ashore with the 27th Marines, his regiment already had lost two code talkers and he figured his odds were good to be the next.

One was killed by a sniper. The other was a direct hit with a mortar, said Begay, recalling 38 days of hell and only one hot meal, when I was getting off the ship.

They werent alone. Of the 110,000 GIs who stormed Iwo Jima -- mostly Marines and Navy corpsmen  nearly one out of every four became a casualty, including 6,821 killed in action.

Begays 27th Marine infantry regiment recorded 566 killed and 1,706 wounded.

I got scared. I got really scared. My body, the whole thing got numb. I had no feeling. I was walking with my radio and it was hard, man. Its huge and youre by yourself and theyre trying to kill you, he said.

Begay whispered about how Marines slapped corrugated metal across beach sand so they could scamper past the gunfire to safety.

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He drew the route his 5th Marine Division took across the island, from raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi to the final Japanese suicide counterattack across a valley they called Bloody Gorge.

There also was the sickness that put him in a transport ships hospital after he left the island, probably malaria.

He pointed to the Congressional Silver Medal awarded to him and 300 other Navajo code talkers by President George W. Bush in 2001. The Marines estimate that they recruited about 400 Navajos into the program and 13 died in combat.

But mostly he wanted to bear witness to those initial 33 Navajos dragooned into the top secret code talker program inside Camp Pendletons 5th Marine Division in 1942 and 1943.

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It started with 29 Navajos. They arrived on May 5, 1942 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.

After graduating, they received special instruction at Camp Elliotts Fleet Marine Training Center  now part of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar  in how to encrypt messages and operate radios before moving on to Camp Pendleton.

They were met by a handful of Navajos who didnt even know theyd been selected for the job.

I didnt want to join the code talkers! I signed up for aerial gunnery school, said Begay. I went to boot camp and they gave me a PFC stripe. I went to Camp Pendleton and walked into a barracks and I didnt know any of them.

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I turned to the sergeant and said, I think you made a mistake. I signed up to be an aerial gunner. I dont want to be a code talker. I dont know the code! I dont know anything about code talking!

He said, Too bad. If you leave, desert, were going to shoot you. If you refuse or disobey an order, were going to bust you to private and put you in the brig. So I was threatened. I had no choice.

But Begay was a natural  smart enough to learn a 20 code primer the sergeant made him memorize the first day but also highly immersed in Navajo language and culture.

Born near the New Mexican hamlet of Two Wells in 1926, Begay was herding 2,000 sheep by the time he turned 6. He didnt speak English until he was 13, when he was sent to school in Arizona, about three years before he joined the Marines.

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My mom said, Youre name is Thomas. When the white man comes, say Thomas. So whenever someone came up to me and said something in English, I said Thomas, Begay recalled.

That pastoral upbringing was key to mastering the code.

The first part of the cipher relied on a phonetic alphabet linked to unwritten Navajo nouns. The other was a list of borrowed phrases the radiomen used to describe Japanese weapons and units.

For example, S in the phonetic alphabet was dibeh  Navajo for sheep. L was dibeh-yazzie, lamb. Y was tsah-as-zih, the yucca shrub prized for its fibers used in sacred ceremonies and the roots, which were boiled into soap.

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A Japanese bomber became the Navajo noun for buzzard. A fighter was a hummingbird. A submarine, iron fish.

When Begay and his fellow code talkers seamlessly stitched the letters and words together in radio traffic, it boggled Japanese code crackers but allowed American commanders to openly plot through their Najavo translators how to beat their enemies.

It was so successful on Iwo Jima that for two decades past the war Begay and his fellow code talkers werent allowed to divulge the classified programs existence, a promise they kept but one that delayed widespread acclaim for their role in helping to win the war.

Shortly before Saturdays service, Begay spoke of his eternal pride in being a Marine and marveled at the sacrifices he saw on Iwo Jima.

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But he also recalled the pain he and fellow Indians like Ira Hayes -- the famous Akimel Oodham Marine who helped raise an American flag atop Suribachi on the first day of battle  endured in uniform.

They made fun of us, said Begay, breaking into a chant white Marines used to lampoon them. You know. It was really sad, how some people are so mean.

Begay never quit serving his country. A year after his discharge from the Marines, he enlisted in the Army.

In late 1950 he found himself weighted down by a radio, scrabbling behind an artillery forward observer as they dodged Chinese sniper fire.

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He said, Just follow me. Ill tell you. I had a grease gun but they were trying to get us, Begay said.

After his Army tour and two years of correspondence classes, he became a line officer in the U.S. Department of Interiors Bureau of Indian Affairs. He rose to helm the Chinle Agency, where he was responsible for the Navajo Nation tribal trust program.

He retired in 1984, finishing four decades of distinguished federal service in and out of uniform.

Before he left Saturdays ceremony, he lingered a few moments to talk alone with Kathy Painton.

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Shes the vice president of the 5th Marine Division Association, one of the nonprofits that has organized reunions and kept the memory of the dead alive in the souls of younger infantrymen.

Last year, they brought 15 Iwo Jima veterans to meet grunts training in Hawaii for different wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Painton was a baby when Iwo Jima was fought. Her dad, 25-year-old Private 1st Class George Addison Dunn of Danville, Illinois, died there.

She still wears a silver heart pendant he bought for her before he shipped out, the Marines eagle, globe and anchor insignia carved across it.

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Theyre turning it over to us now, she said. Its only us. Well carry on their memory.

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Military Videos  On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France  at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal

cprine@sduniontribune.comWhen Maylette Brown saw news reports about a deadly freeway crash near Rialto, one of the cars looked familiar to her.

Brown, who was on her way to visit her parents in Twentynine Palms, called her stepfather, Duddley White.

He didnt pick up.

As the hours passed, she kept calling. By 8:30 p.m., the calls were going straight to voicemail.

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At 10:30, I got the phone call from the sheriffs department in Twentynine Palms, said Brown, 44, of Winchester. I just told them I knew, I felt it, and I just wanted to make sure.

White, 74, was one of five people killed when a concrete truck traveling eastbound on the 10 Freeway near Rialto swerved through the center divider shortly before 1 p.m. Friday. The truck careened into the westbound lanes, crashing head-on into a smaller truck and four other cars and sparking a fire, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Five people, all occupants of vehicles struck by the truck, were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The truck driver, who was not identified, sustained only minor injuries and was not hospitalized, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Spencer Badal.

(Paul Duginski )

The cause of the crash remains unclear. The victims were severely burned, and none have been positively identified yet, Badal said.

The crash left several vehicles overturned and charred in the roadway, shutting down some lanes for more than 12 hours, authorities said. The freeway was not fully reopened until roughly 8 a.m. Saturday, Badal said.

CHP investigators will conduct a full mechanical review of the truck, but Badal said those hoping for answers will likely have to wait.

Their report will take a considerable amount of time, he said.

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The concrete truck was registered to Western Concrete Pumping, a company based in Vista in San Diego County, according to Badal. An employee who answered the phone at the companys office declined to comment. The company was formed in 1986 and does business in California, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arizona, according to its website.

Brown said her stepfather, who raised her from a young age, was a retired machinist and avid billiards player who cared for her mother in Twentynine Palms. A consummate handyman, White still performed repairs on all the family vehicles. He was driving home from a hardware store when the wreck occurred, Brown said.

He was well-known, very respected, she said of her fathers reputation around Twentynine Palms.

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.

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james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.CITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council will meet in special session at 6 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers at 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive for a report on city investments. The council will also consider giving $25,000 in Housing Trust Funds to support the North County Regional Bridge Housing System to help the homeless. The County of San Diego will then give a presentation on its proposed master plan update for McClellan-Palomar Airport and the accompanying draft environmental impact report.

DEL MAR

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The Del Mar City Council is scheduled to meet in special closed session to discuss property negotiations at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers, 2010 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Suite 100. In regular session at 4:30 p.m., the council will consider updates to its campaign regulations; and discuss Downtown Streetscape Design and consider proceeding with Phase One.

ENCINITAS

The Encinitas City Council has canceled its regular meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

POWAY

The Poway City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers, 13325 Civic Center Drive, when it will consider a request for permits to establish an escape room business in a multi-tenant building at 12544 Kirkham Court. The council will also consider a request for rezoning parcels on Angsten Lane from single-family to apartments.

VISTA

Climate Action Plan update

The Vista Planning Commission is holding a community meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 200 Civic Center Drive to discuss updating the citys Climate Action Plan. City staff will make a presentation on Vistas revised greenhouse gas inventory and future projections, updated reduction targets, existing measures in the adopted 2013 plan to reduce gases, and possible new reduction measures. The commission will take comments from the public. Call Community Development Director John Conley at (760) 643-5388 or email jconley@cityofvista.com.

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Bub Williamson Park Community Workshop

The city of Vista is hosting a community workshop at 6 p.m. Thursday at Grapevine Elementary School, 630 Grapevine Road, to share updated designs for Bub Williamson Park, which was built in the 1980s. Residents are invited to contact Tony Winney in the City Managers Office if they cant attend the workshop but would like to comment: (760) 643-5200 or twinney@cityofvista.com.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

ESCONDIDO

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The Escondido Union School District board will meet for a board study session at 6 p.m. Thursday at the district office, 2310 Aldergrove Ave., to discuss the 2018-19 projected district budget and the LCAP re-prioritization.

SAN MARCOS

The San Marcos Unified School District board will meet in closed session to discuss labor negotiations at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the North County Regional Education Center, 255 Pico Ave. In regular session at 6:30 p.m., the board will discuss and adjust proposed attendance boundaries; hear a budget update, and a presentation on the Alvin Dunn International Baccalaureate middle years program. The board will also receive the initial contract proposal from the San Marcos Educators Association.

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laura.groch@sduniontribune.comCITY COUNCILS

CARLSBAD

The Carlsbad City Council met in closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the council held a hearing on a four-story, mixed-use building with a garage, retail and commercial office space and five apartments at 2995 State St., but the vote to approve or deny was a tie. The item was moved to the March 27 meeting for reconsideration. The council also heard a presentation from SANDAG on the Poinsettia Station Improvements Project, and a report from the city Parks and Recreation Department on open play fees.

ENCINITAS

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The Encinitas City Council met in special closed session Wednesday to discuss labor negotiations. In special session, the council approved a draft Rail Corridor Vision Study, and asked staff to return with more information. In regular session, the council postponed until March 14 a hearing on two appeals of the Planning Commissions approval of the Westmont of Encinitas Assisted Living facility in New Encinitas. The council held a hearing and approved, with modifications, two draft ordinances defining Accessory Dwelling Units and Junior Accessory Dwelling Units. A motion to place the issue of district elections on the ballot failed.

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido City Council met in closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation and property negotiations. In regular session, the council approved amending part of the citys zoning and municipal codes to regulate all cannabis and marijuana-based land uses and activities. Because of new state laws, the city must change the wording of its local laws if it wants these activities to continue to be illegal in Escondido. The council also approved: changing the name of Short Street to Estancia Place; extending a lease agreement with Heritage K-8 Charter Schools from Dec. 31, 2030, to June 1, 2046; the Grand Avenue Vision Plan and applications to SANDAG for the Smart Growth Incentive Program. The council approved creating an Irrevocable Pension Trust with Public Agency Retirement Services, and an initial deposit of $1,984,000 from the General Fund into the trust to pre-fund pension obligations.

SAN MARCOS

The San Marcos City Council met Tuesday and approved a letter to the state Senate opposing SB 827, which would eliminate local zoning controls on height, density, parking minimums, and design review on properties within a certain distance of major public transit infrastructure. The council approved the annexations of several properties into Community Facilities Districts. The council heard a mid-year update on the general fund and agreed to amend the fiscal year 2017-18 operations and maintenance budget and capital improvement project budgets. A closed session to discuss property negotiations followed.

SOLANA BEACH

The Solana Beach City Council met in closed session Wednesday to discuss litigation. In regular session, the council held hearings and approved a request for permits to remodel at 601 W. Circle Drive, but with the condition that the vegetation meets the fence. The council continued a hearing to March 14 on a permit to convert a building to a cafe with outdoor patio and parking lot at 435-439 S. Cedros. A new AT&T wireless tower and enclosure on the roof of a building at 201 Lomas Santa Fe was approved, but with conditions.

VISTA

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The Vista City Council met in closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation. In open session, the council held a hearing and approved amendments to an agreement with Wakeland Grove for 81 units of senior affordable housing at 815 Civic Center Drive. The council heard an update on medical marijuana and discussed options for permitting medical marijuana retailers, delivery, cultivation and testing. The 5-0 decision was to retain the status quo  commercial marijuana uses of all types are prohibited  and to have staff return with more information, including for a possible public forum and a possible ballot proposal. A request from Solutions for Change for a $5 million financial commitment and support for a proposed housing project was denied.

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

BONSALL

The Bonsall Unified School District board met in closed session Feb. 8 to discuss student discipline and litigation. In open session, the board adopted a resolution to re-fund general obligation bonds for a savings of $119,000 to district taxpayers. The board agreed to a provisional appointment process to fill a board trustee seat vacated by Dr. Erin English. (Information on applying for the seat is at www.bonsallusd.com.) The board approved its Single Plan for Student Achievement for Bonsall Elementary, Bonsall West Elementary, Sullivan Middle School and Vivian Banks Charter School, and an update to the previously-approved plan for Bonsall High School. An item on management and confidential stipends for 2017-2018 was moved to the March 8 meeting. A three-year contract for $14,726.25 with Synovia Solutions to install child safety alert systems on district school buses was approved. The board also met Monday to discuss a community survey for a potential bond election, and to decide what questions to ask the community.

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ENCINITAS

The Encinitas Union School District board met in special session Monday for a workshop on board governance and district goals. The board also met in closed session Tuesday to discuss litigation and labor negotiations. In regular session, the board approved a lottery for inter-district transfers. Discussion of the Comprehensive School Safety Plans was tabled to the Feb. 22 meeting.

ESCONDIDO

The Escondido Union High School District board met Tuesday and approved a new course proposal of Advanced Graphic Design and revisions to the curriculums of Pre-Engineering & Design, Architectural Design, Advanced Architectural Design, and the Response-Ability Training Program. The board also adopted a resolution calling for Full and Fair Funding of Californias Public Schools. The board also discussed a report regarding a new pool and formation of a pool committee to evaluate the report and make recommendations; and agreed to research moving to an earlier start time to the school day.

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FALLBROOK

The Fallbrook Union High School District board met in closed session Monday to discuss labor negotiations and litigation. In open session, the board heard a presentation by the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, and approved the 2017-2018 School Accountability Report Cards and Comprehensive School Safety Plans for Fallbrook High, Ivy High and Oasis High.

OCEANSIDE

The Oceanside Unified School District board met in closed session Tuesday to discuss labor negotiations and personnel. The board heard an update of its special education audit, as well as a District Parent Advisory Committee update. The board approved the California Street Academy of Science and Engineering, a single-pathway high school program at the Lincoln Middle School campus. An agenda item on a contract for network cabling was postponed.

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SAN DIEGUITO

The San Dieguito Union High School District board met Feb. 8 for a budget workshop. The board then met in closed session to discuss student discipline, and property and labor negotiations. In regular session, the board reviewed its initial proposal to open negotiations with the California School Employees Association, San Dieguito Chapter #241, and received the initial proposal from the CSEA #241.

SAN PASQUAL

The San Pasqual Union School District board met in closed session Tuesday to discuss labor negotiations and personnel. In regular session, the board reviewed and accepted the 2016-17 School Accountability Report Card. The board also voted to approve the tentative contract agreement from negotiations and it will be taken to open session in March.

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VALLECITOS/RAINBOW

The Vallecitos School District board met Tuesday and heard a presentation by Eric Berg, San Diego County Office of Education school facilities planning specialist, who updated the board on the schools septic system and kitchen oven projects, as well as Proposition 39 future projects. The board also heard a presentation from Fallbrook High School Child Nutrition Services director Judi Reynolds.

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laura.groch@sduniontribune.comSan Diego will accelerate and revamp the citys approach to relocating overhead utility lines underground.

Inaccurate schedules and other problems have created community backlash.

City officials recently discovered they have 25 percent more lines to bury than they knew.

San Diego is accelerating how quickly it buries utility lines across the city, shrinking the size of projects to boost efficiency and creating more accurate schedules so neighborhoods know when to expect such work.

Projects will also more closely follow San Diego Gas & Electrics circuitry to avoid the fate of Sherman Heights, where undergrounding was completed years ago but utility poles remain in place to serve other parts of the electricity grid.

Neighborhoods generally embrace undergrounding projects because they boost aesthetics, increase property values, reduce fire risk and ease the maintenance of utility wires.

Some neighborhoods, however, have rebelled against undergrounding because of construction hassles, the citys inability to stick to schedules and unattractive utility boxes blocking sidewalks when projects are complete.

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The revamped approach, which includes a new master plan the City Council is expected to approve later this year, aims to solve many of those problems while also giving residents more input into the process.

Community leaders say its crucial that city officials honor a recent commitment to allow resident input before the design for an undergrounding project is finalized.

San Diegos revamped approach may also help alleviate the citys struggle to spend the 3.5 percent surcharges it has been collecting from ratepayers since 2003 to cover the work.

The surcharges raised about $30 million per year after they were put in place in 2003, but that has climbed to more than $60 million per year as utility bills have risen and the local population has grown.

San Diegos utility undergrounding account has accumulated more than $158 million in reserves, an amount city officials hope to shrink by doubling the number of projects they tackle each year.

City officials also recently discovered they have 25 percent more utility lines to bury than previously thought  1,250 miles versus 1,000. The updated number is based on more accurate information provided by SDG&E.

The city has buried 428 miles of power lines since the project began in 1970, so the remaining 1,250 miles wont be buried until well into the next century if the pace doesnt quicken.

Before the surcharge, San Diego was burying utility lines at a rate of about 8 miles per year. Since the surcharge, the rate has doubled to about 15 miles per year.

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The city plans to soon double that rate to about 30 miles per year, James Nabong, the citys new manager for the program, told the City Councils Environment Committee last week.

We are currently looking at ways to accumulate more work volume at a faster pace, Nabong said. The good news is the available revenue streaming in to fund the program will support a higher rate of undergrounding conversion.

In addition to moving faster, the city is shrinking project areas and making sure they are based on SDG&E circuitry.

David Moty, chairman of an umbrella organization for the citys neighborhood planning groups, said by phone that smaller projects seem like a smart idea.

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That makes it less likely for a project to get out of control, or for them to run into some insurmountable problem, he said.

The new approach will also use community or neighborhood names for each project, in contrast to a previous practice of using numbers and letters to identify projects.

The updated master plan will also include a five-year implementation plan, which will give residents a more accurate estimate of when undergrounding will happen in their neighborhood.

The existing master plan, which dates back to 2009, provided estimates much further into the future that rarely ended up being accurate.

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We need a new master plan because the schedule in the old one didnt hold water, said Moty, adding that a five-year horizon makes more sense. When they do give you dates they are more sure of them, and beyond that they just dont give you dates any more because they couldnt maintain them.

Basing work on SDG&E circuitry, instead of geography alone, will also help avoid problems like those faced in Sherman Heights.

Because areas chosen there for undergrounding didnt match up with the circuitry, power poles have had to remain in place there to avoid cutting off electricity to nearby areas within the same power grid.

Moty said a revision to the process thats arguably more important than any other is the recommendations of a volunteer task force in 2016 that planning for undergrounding projects include resident input early in the process.

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City and SDG&E officials embraced the new approach when it was unveiled, but Moty said it hasnt yet been implemented.

Its about the community getting ahead of the design before the design is finished so they can suggest things, he said. Ive been telling the planning groups youre part of this process, dont pass up the opportunity to have a say in the design.

The new process was prompted by backlash against the utility boxes neighborhoods get after the overhead poles are removed.

From Kensington to parts of La Jolla and Point Loma, neighborhoods have lobbied city officials to delay planned utility undergrounding projects because they dislike the square metal boxes.

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The main complaints are that they often get placed in the middle of sidewalks where they reduce walkability and become magnets for graffiti.

Its a tradeoff, Moty said. If the poles were really obtrusive and the boxes arent, youve got a plus. If the poles had previously been hidden and the boxes are obtrusive, youve got a minus

If residents can see the designs before construction begins, they can request modifications or decide against moving forward, Moty said.

The revamped approach wont affect any undergrounding projects already in the citys pipeline, but it will apply to all future projects, Nabong said.

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Neighborhoods listed in the first year of the five-year implementation plan are in La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Midtown, Mission Hills, North Park, Bay Terraces, Chollas View, Skyline, Clairemont, Lake Murray, Serra Mesa, Logan Heights, Fairmont Village and Southcrest.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrickEstimados amigos,

Les doy cordialmente la bienvenida a este Blog informativo con articulos, analisis y comentarios de publicaciones especializadas y especialmente seleccionadas, principalmente sobre temas economicos, financieros y politicos de actualidad, que esperamos y deseamos, sean de su maximo interes, utilidad y conveniencia.

Pensamos que solo comprendiendo cabalmente el presente, es que podemos proyectarnos acertadamente hacia el futuro.

Gonzalo Raffo de Lavalle

Las convicciones son mas peligrosos enemigos de la verdad que las mentiras.

Quien no lo ha dado todo no ha dado nada.

Helenio Herrera

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.

Karl Marx

If you know the other and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Sun Tzu









We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.



Paulo Coelho

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.Astronomers using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope on Mauna Loa in Hawaii have captured images of the Tesla Roadster launched into space as part of SpaceXs Falcon Heavy test.

ATLAS is an asteroid impact early warning system being funded by NASA and developed by the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.

It consists of two telescopes, 100 miles (161 km) apart, which automatically scan the whole sky several times every night looking for moving objects.

ATLAS was not looking for Elon Musks Tesla Roadster  it was found during routine observations and automatically identified as a near-Earth object.

Our mission is designed to look for things coming toward Earth, but this time investigators found something going away from Earth, said University of Hawaii astronomer Dr. Larry Denneau, principal investigator for the ATLAS project.

As a fan of what SpaceX is doing, it is fun to be a part of advances in science.

The Tesla Roadster was seen as a moving object in four separate observations.

After it was detected by the automatic software system, its positions were submitted to the International Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center, which is responsible for determining the orbits of asteroids and other small solar system objects.

The object was immediately identified as the recently launched Tesla Roadster.

ATLAS orbit determination software pinned down the orbit from the four observations, measuring it about 500,000 miles (805,000 km) from Earth, speeding away at about 8,000 mph (3.6 km/sec).

We were lucky to catch the Roadster before sunrise during our regular observing, Dr. Denneau said.

This really demonstrates the power of our system to find small objects that could hit Earth, and accurately measure their orbits to see if theyre dangerous.This item is available in full to subscribers.

Attention subscribers

We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.

If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.

If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.

Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.Crystal Serenity arrived in Sydney on Friday during a 112-day voyage that left Los Angeles for Rome on January 23.

Crystal Symphony arrived Saturday on a 114-day voyage that left Cape Town on January 7 for Fort Lauderdale.

It was a historic occasion when both ships sailed out of Sydney together on Sunday afternoon, with Serenity heading up the east coast of Australia, where she will make a maiden call at Cooktown, and Symphony proceeding to New Zealand.

On Saturday night the 350 passengers from both ships making a full world voyage were invited to a gala dinner at the Sydney Town Hall, the largest and most ornate late 19th-century civic building in Australia.

A highlight of the evening was a recital on the grand organ which was installed in 1890 and described as the finest organ ever built by an English organ builder.

Karen Christensen, svp and md Australia and New Zealand, showcased last years multimillion-dollar makeover of Crystal Symphony on Saturday during a media tour and dinner in Waterside, the former Crystal Dining Room.

Christensen said Crystal Serenity, which will overnight in Sydney on February 8 next year during a 2019 world voyage from Los Angeles to Monte Carlo, will undergo refurbishment later this year.





Press Release

February 17, 2018 De Lima pushes for Debt Management System to save PH from debt trap To avoid a recurrence of the Marcos era debt trap, Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has filed a measure establishing a Comprehensive DebtManagement System that will ensure transparency and accountability on all government borrowings. In filing Senate Bill (SB) No. 1675, De Lima said Congress should exercise its oversight powers to scrutinize all foreign and domestic borrowings negotiated, contracted, or guaranteed by President Duterte. "It behooves us to remember that it is unlikely that any administration goes into a borrowing spree with the intent to fall into a debt trap," she said. "Therefore, assurances aside, there remains a need to institute reforms and safeguard to avoid a recurrence of the Marcos era 'death trap,'" she added. Under SB No. 1675, also to be known as the Comprehensive Government Debt Management Reform Act, the State shall pursue a Comprehensive Debt Management System that will "holistically manage all government borrowings through a unified government debt management policy." De Lima explained that the debt management policy should be "characterized by a stable and consistent long-, medium- and, short-term debtmanagement and planning" and be able to "recognize the common pitfalls of poor government debt management," among others. "The foregoing problematic aspects of public debt exposes the country and its people to the risk of imprudent debt accumulation," she said. She also noted that the need for a holistic debt management system is made even more urgent in light of the current administration's push for a "golden age of infrastructure," which is expected to push the government's debt level to even longer debt servicing timeframes. "There is a need to make sure that the government's spending and debt management policies match the country's macroeconomic, social and other overall policies," she said. It must be noted that the present Duterte administration plans to roll out more than eight trillion pesos in public infrastructure projects from 2018 to 2022 funded mostly by foreign loans and overseas development assistance (ODA). In her proposed measure, De Lima also underscored the need for a Congressional Oversight Committee on Debt Management to ascertain if the President's borrowings and are done for the best interest of the country and its people. It is also part of the mandate of the committee to review all existing laws, and implementing rules and regulations, and executive issuances relating to foreign and domestic borrowings. "The Committee is empowered to require all government agencies concerned, including the Office of the President, to submit all pertinent information and data on foreign and domestic borrowings; Provided, however, that information or data that are privileged shall be furnished the Committee only in Executive Session," she noted.Press Release

February 17, 2018 AMIDST PCSO SQUABBLES, GORDON SAYS FOCUS ON WHAT PCSO CAN DO Amid the recent controversy facing the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office over alleged overspending for its annual Christmas Party, Senator Richard J. Gordon decried the dispute among the PCSO management, citing the importance of the PCSO as the agency that provides assistance to the poor. Gordon, who chairs the Senate Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises, pointed out that the PCSO is mandated to generate funds for national health programs and charities through sweepstakes, races, lotteries and other similar activities. "Dapat nang tigilan ng mga opisyales sa PCSO ang kanilang awayan. Ang tagal-tagal na nito. Kesa mag-away pagtuunan na lamang nila kung paano higit na matutulungan ang mga naghihikahos nating kababayan. Doon na lang sila magpaligsahan at magpagalingan, matutuwa pa ang mga kababayan nating nangangailangan. We talk about the PCSO having a lavish party but we don't talk about what the PCSO does for the country's poor," he said. The PCSO controversy arose after newly-appointed board member Sandra Cam accused General Manager Alexander Balutan and PCSO Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz of lavish spending on the Christmas party. She alleged that PCSO spent P10 million for a lavish Christmas party held at a five-star hotel. For their part, Balutan said the PCSO only spent P6-million on the party, adding that the 1,580 PCSO employees deserved the party because they worked hard to increase the earnings of the agency. This was echoed by Corpuz, who resigned last month citing health reasons. As of April to June 2016, PCSO was able to allocate, under their Individual Medical Assistance Program (IMAP), a total of P788,985,636.57 for 64,173 individuals nationwide for various medical related assistance. A total of P705,653.24 worth of medicines were also given to beneficiaries nationwide. For the same quarter of 2016, a total of 6,574 walk-in and referred indigent patients and 4,743 PCSO officials, employees, and their dependents, availed of their free basic medical and dental consultation. They also launched Health Capability Building for Informal Dwellers in Resettlement Areas which benefitted 1,160 relocated residents in Trece Martirez, Cavite during the second quarter of 2016.Press Release

February 18, 2018 ANGARA WANTS DIALYSIS WARD IN EVERY PROVINCIAL GOV'T HOSPITAL With kidney disease fast becoming one of the leading causes of death in the country, Senator Sonny Angara wants all provincial government hospitals to establish, operate and maintain a dialysis ward or unit and provide free dialysis treatment to indigent patients. Under Senate Bill No. 1329 or the proposed "Dialysis Center Act" which he filed recently, Angara said the planned dialysis ward or unit in national, regional and provincial hospitals must be equipped with complete dialysis machine, equipment and supplies. "This will ensure that dialysis treatment will be available, accessible and cost-effective especially to those living in rural areas," Angara said. He lamented that kidney patients had to travel all the way to urban cities just to avail themselves of dialysis treatment, which is needed on a regular and sustained basis. "The optimum frequency of dialysis is three times a week but because of its high cost and inaccessibility, some patients settle with less but with their health deteriorating more progressively," Angara noted. "Worse, some patients have died without given a chance to undergo dialysis because they could not afford it," he added. Once the bill is enacted into law, each government hospital will be given two years to set up its own dialysis unit. Any hospital chief, administrator or officer-in-charge who fails to comply with the law could face hefty fines of up to P100,000. The Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH) is tasked to promulgate the necessary rules and regulations to implement the law's provisions. The DOH had earlier expressed alarm over the rising cases of kidney disease, the country's sixth leading cause of death in 2013. Based on the data from the DOH's Philippine Network for Organ Sharing, close to 23,000 patients underwent dialysis treatment due to kidney failure in 2013, a huge jump from the 4,000 cases recorded in 2004. This figure does not include those suffering from kidney failure, but who are not able to undergo dialysis treatment due to its high cost and inaccessibility, especially in the rural cases. It is estimated that about 3.51 million Filipinos aged 20-79 have diabetes in 2015. Angara said his proposed measure was in line with the government's efforts to reform the health sector and provide Filipinos with comprehensive health services. "The aim of this bill is in consonance with the constitutional mandate to make health services available to our countrymen at affordable cost. For more efficient delivery of healthcare services to the Filipino people, the immediate approval of this proposed measure is earnestly sought," he said.Sen. Bam to CHED: Heed Senate's call to implement free college law ASAP

Senator Bam Aquino urged the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to heed the Senate's call to implement the free college law in the second semester of school year 2017-18 to help alleviate the plight of Filipino families.

Last Monday, the Senate unanimously adopted Sen. Bam's Resolution No. 620, which rallied the Upper Chamber to express a united front in support of the full implementation of the free college law.

"Nagkaisa ang Senado na manawagan sa CHED na gawing libre na ang tuition pati miscellaneous fees sa SUCs, ipatupad na ang batas as soon as possible," said Sen. Bam, the principal sponsor and co-author of the Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act

"Hindi nila napatupad sa napagkasunduang timeline, kaya ang kompromiso natin ay refund. Dapat lang ibalik ng mga SUC ang anumang tuition fee at miscellaneous fee na siningil nila sa mga estudyante," Sen. Bam added.

Sen. Bam reiterated that during the bicameral conference committee for RA 10931, representatives from both Houses of Congress expressly agreed on the legislative intent to implement it by the second semester of 2017-18.

In addition, Sen. Bam reminded CHED of its assurance during the budget deliberation for RA 10931 that the P41 billion budget for its implementation was sufficient to cover the tuition and other fees in SUCs starting second semester of 2017-18.

"May pondo na, ito ang gusto ng parehong executive at ng legislative, nararapat lang na ipatupad na ng CHED ang libreng kolehiyo," said Sen. Bam.

Principally sponsored by Sen. Bam, the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act provides free tuition and miscellaneous fees to students in SUCs, local universities and colleges (LUCs) and TESDA-run vocational schools. Under the law, students of both public and private college and universities can also apply for scholarship grants and student loans.

The measure was languishing in the legislative mill for years before it was passed during Sen. Bam's time as chairman of the Committee on Education in the 17th Congress. This was Sen. Bam's 19th law in his four years as senator.Press Release

February 18, 2018 Win to CHED: Ensure strict compliance with tuition hike rules Senator Win Gatchalian is calling on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to ensure strict compliance with rules and regulations regarding the utilization of tuition and other school fees as it prepares to consider the applications of hundreds of private higher educational institutions (HEIs) hoping to impose fee hikes. "CHED must ensure that the income raised from any tuition fee hikes it might approve are invested in higher salaries for teachers and non-teaching personnel, and in essential educational equipment and infrastructure. The tuition hikes should not be allowed if they will only line the pockets of school owners," said Gatchalian, the vice-chairman of the Senate Education Committee. According to CHED Memorandum Order No. 3, Series of 2012, 70% of income raised by increases in tuition and other fees shall be allocated to the payment of salaries, wages, allowances and other benefits of teaching and non-teaching personnel, while 20% shall be allocated for the maintenance and modernization of buildings, equipment and payment of other costs of operations. Only a maximum of 10% is allowed as a return on investment for stockholders in private proprietary HEIs. In particular, the senator highlighted the disparity in salaries between teachers in the public and private sectors, noting that entry-level teachers in private schools only earn approximately P13,000 per month - around P6,000 less than their counterparts in public schools. He said that private HEIs should first allocate any additional income to close this "unfair" salary gap. Gatchalian also reminded CHED to observe the utmost transparency during the consultative and decision-making processes required before any tuition hike is approved. "Students, parents, teachers, and all other stakeholders must be given a genuine opportunity to participate meaningfully in this process. Otherwise, any increases will be considered oppressive and illegitimate," he said as he urged CHED to release the complete list of schools that have applied for tuition hikes. The senator also called on CHED to fast-track the full implementation of the provisions of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (Republic Act 10931) that provide financial aid to students in private HEIs, noting that the Tuition Education Subsidy (TES) created by Section 7 of the law also includes private school students. "It would be unfair to students and parents if the proposed tuition fee hikes were approved without first making sure that the system to provide expanded financial assistance is already 100% operational. We must remember our primary goal: to make tertiary education more accessible and affordable for all Filipinos."Press Release

February 18, 2018 Win commends ERC for lowering system loss cap Senator Win Gatchalian over the weekend commended the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for lowering the cap on the allowable rate of system losses that can be passed-on to consumers in their monthly electricity bills. "Lowering the recoverable system loss rate is a pro-consumer action that will reduce electricity rates and force electric companies to make their operations more efficient. I commend the ERC for making this move," said Gatchalian, who is the chairman of both the Senate Energy Committee and the Joint Congressional Power Commission. System loss refers to the difference between the electric energy delivered to the distribution system (energy input) and the energy delivered to the end-users and other entities connected to the system (energy output). ERC has mandated a staggered decrease in the maximum allowable pass-on charge, from 12% of total system losses in 2018 to 8.25-12% in 2022 for electric cooperatives, and from 6.5% in 2018 to 5.5% in 2021 for private distribution utilities. The system loss caps set by the ERC are within the same neighborhood as those provided under Senate Bill No. 1623, otherwise known as the Recoverable System Loss Act, which was approved by the Senate on third and final reading last month. If passed into law, Senate Bill No. 1623 would set a standard cap of 10% for electric cooperatives, and 5% for private distribution utilities, respectively. Gatchalian, who is the principal sponsor of the Recoverable System Loss Act, said that the enactment of his bill into law would further strengthen the mandate of ERC to closely monitor pass-on system loss charges and ensure accountability for non-compliance. SB 1623 mandates the ERC to conduct a periodic review every three (3) years to determine whether the caps should be reduced further. This, the senator said, would compel ERC to safeguard consumer interests on a more regular basis, noting that it had been eight years since the body last lowered recoverable system loss rates. Gatchalian's bill would also require ERC to conduct an annual review of system loss charges to ensure that only allowable costs within the caps stipulated are being recovered. The review shall be based from the quarterly mandatory report submissions by the DUs to ERC, which should contain their Segregated System Losses. Administrative sanctions shall also be handed down to ERC officials who failed to discharge their responsibilities or comply with the requirements detailed in the measure. "The strict compliance and constant review mandated by the Recoverable System Loss Act will compel electric companies to improve their infrastructure in order to avoid further losses, thus making delivery of electricity across power lines more reliable and efficient. In the end, this will result in lower electricity rates for consumers," Gatchalian said.Press Release

February 18, 2018 ARMM ASSEMBLYMEN SUPPORT GORDON'S BILL HONORING LAPU-LAPU The regional legislative assembly of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has expressed support for Senator Richard J. Gordon's Senate Bill No. 108 which seeks to honor Lapu-Lapu as the first Asian to beat a colonial invader by declaring April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day. Members of the assembly stayed in the Senate Plenary during the deliberation on the bill until it was passed on second reading to show their support and commended Gordon for giving importance to the Visayan-Muslim hero. "We deeply appreciate Sen. Gordon's act of giving recognition to Muslims' contributions to Philippine history. The good senator has always been supportive of us, Muslims. As chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, we can also count on him for assistance whenever disasters, both natural and man-made, strike. We are really very grateful to him," they said. Those who attended included, assemblymen from Sulu : Hanibal Tulawie, Mashruper Daud, Nedra Burahan, Rizal Tingkahan, Rudjia Anni, Irene Tillag; and assemblymen from Basilan:. Rhonie Hantian, Ali Ismael, and. Haber Asarul. Senate Bill No. 108 seeks to declare April 27 of every year as a special working public holiday throughout the country to commemorate the victory of Lapu-Lapu and his men over the Spaniards led by Ferdinand Magellan in the historic Battle of Mactan on April 27, 1521. Gordon explained that Lapu-Lapu embodies the line in the Philippine National Anthem, "sa manlulupig, 'di kapasisiil," because Lapu-Lapu was the first successful defender of the Philippine shores. He was a native Muslim of Mactan and the earliest known indigenous Visayan Muslim chieftain and datu in the island of Mactan. Unlike Rajah Humabon of Cebu and other chiefs of the neighboring islands, Lapu-Lapu refused to acknowledge the Spanish sovereignty over the islands and convert to Christianity. "Lapu-Lapu had strong principles and was a peaceful leader until invaded, possessing the qualities of courage, bravery, strength, honor, and integrity, which should be emulated by every Filipino. Thus, in keeping with the Filipino tradition of commemorating momentous events in national history, this bill proposes the declaration of April 27 as a special working public holiday to be known as Lapu-Lapu Day or Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu, as a fitting tribute to the courage displayed by Lapu-Lapu and his men in the Battle of Mactan," the senator said.Freightways reported a gain in first-half revenue although profit fell on the impact of a year-earlier one-time gain and a narrower earnings margin at its express package and business mail division.

Profit fell to $31.4 million in the six months ended Dec. 31 from $34 million a year earlier when Freightways recognised a $4.5 million one-time gain, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Sales rose 7.1 percent to $292 million.

Freightways has steadily increased sales and earnings in each of the past seven years and the company said today the markets it operates in "remain positive", supporting year-on-year earnings growth for 2018. It is the first earnings report delivered by Mark Troughear, who replaced long-serving Dean Bracewell from Jan. 1.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at express package and business mail (EP&BM) rose 6.8 percent to $39.8 million in the first half as revenue grew 7 percent to $217 million. The ebitda margin shrank to 16.8 percent from 17.2 percent.

Information management (IM) sales climbed 7.3 percent to $76.3 million and ebitda rose 9.6 percent to $17.3 million, as its ebitda margin widened to 19.1 percent from 18.8 percent. The smaller IM business makes up 26 percent of revenue but 29 percent of ebitda.

The results include Australian State Waste Services and its related entities, a group that provides medical waste services in Sydney and surrounding regional areas, for an initial payment of A$6 million. The acquisition, which was effective on Sept. 1, includes a potential maximum earn-out payment of A$4 million, measured as at June 30, 2021.

The company didn't give a breakdown of the Medical Waste contribution although it was expected to immediately boost earnings. Total assets rose by $28 million in the first half, including $9 million of intangible assets from the waste business. Its gearing ratio was little changed at about 40 percent.

It will pay a first-half dividend of 14.5 cents a share on April 3, with a record date of March 16, up from 13 cents a year earlier. The payment is tax-paid.

Freightways shares fell 0.3 percent to $7.51 and have dropped 8.5 percent in the past 12 months while the S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 14 percent.

(BusinessDesk)

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Evolve Education shares fell 20 percent to 60 cents after the early childhood education group gave its second full-year profit warning and said it is likely to write down goodwill on acquisitions and cut its dividend.

Net profit before one-time items is expected to be $11 million to $12 million in the 12 months ending March 31, down from previous guidance of $14 million to $15 million, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Profit on that basis was $15.9 million in 2017. Including a $3 million settlement with Inland Revenue over goods and services tax payable by its Porse business, net profit would be $8 million to $9 million, it said.

"Obviously it is another downgrade and the market is likely to treat it quite harshly," said Grant Williamson, director at brokerage Hamilton Hindin Greene in Christchurch, who added the stock could fall further over the session. He noted that the company has been accumulating new operations and "that takes a long time to bed down," he said.

The earlier guidance had been contingent on meeting budgeted growth in net enrolments, particularly in the January to March period and that growth wasn't sustained into February, it said. Latest management figures showed that total like-for-like early childcare centre (ECE) net enrolments were 2 percent lower than in the same period last year.

We had a strong start to the year with a surge in net enrolments in January, but this has tapered off in the past three weeks," said Mark Finlay, who was named interim CEO in August after Alan Wham left the company. "Essentially we have tracked just below 2017 levels whereas we were targeting a significant gain in child numbers."

He said there was "a wide disparity" in the performance of its ECEs around the country. Some were operating at full capacity with waiting lists and others hadn't attracted enough enrolments to make a profit. The company was reviewing the performance of its ECEs and "will be taking firm steps to improve overall performance through sensible rationalisation."

Given the prospect of lower earnings, Evolve now expects to pay a final dividend of 2 cents a share, down from 2.5 cents in 2017. The company said it will fund the settlement with IRD out of cash reserves. It previously had the $3 million in its accounts as a contingent liability.

Evolve has intangible assets of $212 million on its balance sheet, mainly goodwill from acquisitions of ECE centres and Porse. "At this time it is too early to conclude on the outcome of the impairment testing, as six weeks of the key enrolment growth period remains," Finlay said. "However, with enrolments for home-based childcare currently tracking below the same period last year, and in the absence of any signs of improvement, it is likely that an impairment may be required."

Evolve said any impairments "will have only a marginal impact on the overall financial strength of the company, and Evolve will continue to remain well within its banking covenants with substantial undrawn credit lines available to it."

Evolve shares have declined 39 percent in the past 12 months while the S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 14 percent.

(BusinessDesk)

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The New Zealand dollar fell, after failing to break through levels it hasn't topped since August last year, on stronger US economic data and concerns the US may provoke a trade war with its biggest trading partners.

The kiwi fell to 73.78 US cents as at 8am in Wellington from 73.88 cents in New York on Friday and down from as high as 74.38 cents in Asia last Friday. The trade-weighted index was at 75.49 from 75.54 in New York.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey printed at a stronger-than-expected 99.9 in February while January housing starts and building permits for January were both higher than forecast. Meanwhile, the Commerce Department recommended that US President Donald Trump impose tariffs on aluminium and steel imports, a move that could spark retaliatory measures by China and other trading partners. With holidays in China and the US, though, the week may be off to a quiet start, traders said.

"The NZD got close to, but failed to breach, the 0.7440 level of technical resistance before peeling off to close the week around 0.7390," said Jason Wong, currency strategist at Bank of New Zealand, in a note. On potential US tariffs, "the concern is that imposing tariffs will result in retaliatory measures from other countries, triggering an economically harmful trade war."

Traders in New Zealand will be watching for the BuskinessNZ-BNZ performance of services index for January, due out today, after the manufacturing PMI rose 4.5 points to a seasonally adjusted 55.6 in January. In a relatively quiet week for scheduled economic events, the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting on Thursday will come into focus, traders said.

The kiwi dollar traded at 93.17 Australian cents from 93.18 cents in New York on Friday. It traded at 52.63 British pence from 52.57 pence. It was at 59.45 euro cents from 59.42 euro cents and rose to 4.6805 yuan from 4.6779 yuan. The kiwi edged up to 78.49 yen from 78.39 yen.

(BusinessDesk)

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More than 78 per cent of Tripura's 2,536,589 voters exercised their franchise in a peaceful manner, said state Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti.

Agartala: More than 78 per cent of the 2,536,589 voters in Left-ruled Tripura exercised their franchise in a peaceful manner in order to elect a new Assembly on Sunday even as a large number were still standing in queues when the official voting hours concluded, said officials.

The polling percentage might, however, increase since a large number of voters were still in queues at 10 PM on Sunday night in approximately 100 of the 3,174 polling stations across Tripura.

The voter turnout in Tripura Assembly election by 9 PM on Sunday was 78.56 percent, Tripura Election Commissioner G. Kameswara Rao said.

"The voter turnout till now is 78.56 per cent. Voting is still underway at few polling stations," the official said.

According to election department officials, men and women, including new voters, queued up in large numbers outside polling booths across Tripura long before polling began at 8 AM.

A total of 292 candidates, including 23 women and many independents, are in the fray. Counting of votes will take place on March 3.

An official said, "More than 78 per cent electorate had cast their votes until 4 PM. Although the pre-scheduled voting hours ended at 4 PM, voters in huge numbers were still queuing up at several polling stations across the state."

There were snags in Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) that were reported across 180 polling stations, thereby resulting in slow balloting.

Not just voters, but also candidates and leaders of all political parties expressed ire over malfunctioning EVMs-VVPATs.

Balloting was held in 59 of the 60 Assembly constituencies. Polling has been deferred to March 12 in Charilam (Reserved-Tribal) seat due to the demise of sitting MLA and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma last week.

Of the 3,174 polling stations, as many as 47 were entirely handled by women personnel. In all, 2,536,589 people, including 1,250,128 women and 47,803 first-time voters, were eligible to vote.

The ruling CPI-M fielded a total of 56 candidates, leaving one seat each to its Left Front partners Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc, and Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The Trinamool Congress fielded 24 candidates.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contested 50 seats, leaving nine seats for its ally -- the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT).

The Congress fielded candidates in all 59 constituencies. However, its official nominee Sukumar Chandra Das in Kakraban-Shalgarha Assembly seat (Reserved-Scheduled Caste) withdrew his nomination and joined the BJP.

Of the 60 seats, 20 are reserved for tribals and 10 for Scheduled Castes.

According to sources, 50,000 paramilitary and security personnel were deployed to ensure peaceful polling. Besides two air-surveillance teams were deployed on helicopters.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- She was showing up to school late, and sometimes not at all. The Tottenville High School sophomore's grades were slipping and she was at risk of dropping out.

She ended up in the principal's office where she found a sympathetic ear rather than a reprimand.

"I'm going to be your adoptive dad from now on," Joseph Scarmato told her. "I'm giving you a wake-up call every morning at 6, beginning tomorrow."

Joseph Scarmato, left, principal of Tottenville High School since 2014, visits with David LaMorte, assistant principal for the performing arts. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

The plan is working. The 15-year-old has been on time for her 8 a.m. class and recently scored 100 on a math test. She's thinking of joining the cheerleading team.

A little tough-love goes a long way at the 3,900-student Huguenot school.

Principal Scarmato has led Tottenville since 2014, but it's been part of his life for a lot longer. His three daughters are Tottenville graduates, and he lives within walking distance of the sprawling 11-acre campus on Luten Avenue.

Ariel DiGregorio and Olivia Youssef are creating puppets in fashion and design textile class. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

"A lot of kids don't have that family structure" to succeed in high school, he says. "In a large school, kids can fall through the crack."

Scarmato brings to Tottenville the skills he honed as a founding principal of the High School for Medical Professions in Canarsie, Brooklyn, where the enrollment is under 500. He knows how to foster a small-school atmosphere in a big school.

Sometimes all it takes is just showing up.

His 12- to 14-hour days that begin in his office at 6 a.m. include as many sporting events and afterschool programs as possible. "The kids see that I'm here for them and I'm their advocate," he says.

Margaret MonteLeon teaches computer science at Tottenville High School. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

And he's not afraid to tackle challenges head-on.

During his first year on the job, he introduced a dress code and eliminated multiple sessions to make the school day consistent for all. In his second year, he reassigned classrooms to cluster grade levels and cut down on lateness.

BUILDING CAREERS

Tottenville students can choose from nine Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs that include advertising and design, finance, computer science, culinary arts, dental office careers, dental technology, the law and justice, health and medical assisting and automotive technology.

John Souaid, Andy Abdenour and Gabriella Cicero prepare eggs in culinary class. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

All teachers in the three-year CTE programs are state-certified. Students can gain industry standard credentials and receive an endorsement on their diplomas recognized by post-secondary programs and colleges.

On a recent Monday morning, Joseph Caputo was teaching his dental technology class about safety procedures in the lab. His students use wax and acrylic to create dentures, then trim and polish them with pumice on bench lathes.

In Steven Saliski's finance class, students were learning about saving for retirement by reducing discretionary expenses. The program includes trips to the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank and the Philadelphia Mint.

Steven Saliski lectures about retirement planning during a finance class at Tottenville High School. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

Finance students can apply for a six-week internship with a major financial company or non-profit organization.

"We get them out of the building," says Saliski, who worked on Wall Street before joining the Tottenville faculty 15 years ago. "They learn the world is a bigger place than Staten Island."

And in John Hundley's mock trial class, which is part of the Law & Justice Academy, students were studying details of a fictitious case of disorderly conduct. They use MacBook Pros to write their case work and practice in a courtroom adjacent to their classroom.

Tottenville High School junior Adrianna Siwek is a student in the Law & Justice Academy. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

"There's a lot of reading, and it's a real powerful way to get kids to dig in and analyze a text," says Hundley, who has taught at Tottenville for 22 years.

The mock trial team competes at citywide and statewide levels. Job shadows and visits to a courthouse to meet with judges extend learning outside the classroom. With 200 students, Law & Justice is the school's biggest CTE cohort.

Tottenville partners with St. John's University and Wagner College to offer Early Start, an afterschool program that gives juniors and seniors the opportunity to take classes on both campuses. Three credits earned in business law, hospitality management, microbiology or theater are transferrable to other schools.

Victoria Williams rehearses in Elizabeth Schubert's music class. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

The arts are big at Tottenville as well. The marching band performed in the Stapleton Heritage Parade and will soon embark on an annual bus trip to Disney World; the symphonic band recently scored in a statewide competition in Rochester, and the jazz band is preparing for upcoming performances at Temple and Fordham universities.

Tottenville students are eligible to receive a chancellor-endorsed arts diploma, boasts David LaMorte, assistant principal for the performing arts.

WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE

Born in Brooklyn, Principal Scarmato moved to Sicily with his family when he was 11. He attended middle school and two years of high school in Italy, then moved back to Brooklyn to finish high school.

Members of the marching band color guard rehearse in the Tottenville High School lobby. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

After earning a bachelor's degree in astronomy from Stony Brook University in 1983, he started working for Shearson Lehman Hutton in Manhattan.

During the commute one morning, a poster on the subway advertising teaching positions inspired a career change. The next year, his first appointment teaching science was at Montauk Junior High School in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

Twelve years later, he transferred to New Utrecht High School where he was named assistant principal of science.

Joseph Caputo teaches about safety procedures during a dental technology class. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

After an administrative position with the Department of Education and a year at the New York City Leadership Academy, he led the High School for Medical Professions for five years. He is now midway through his fourth year as Tottenville principal.

It takes a big staff to run a big school. Scarmato, who also holds a master's degree from Brooklyn College, oversees 400 employees, including 200 teachers, 12 assistant principals, 11 deans, 11 guidance counselors and 88 paraprofessionals.

High-energy and highly organized, the 52-year-old walks miles through the building each day, picking up occasional litter and discarded water bottles in stairwells, redirecting straying students to the lunchroom or a classroom and checking in with teachers and deans.

Music teacher Elizabeth Schubert, left, and Principal Joseph Scarmato, right, join students Danielle Cianciotto and Thomas Zapata outside music class. (Staten Island Advance/Claire Regan)

A giant dry-erase board behind the desk in his first-floor office headlined "Keep calm and focus on priorities" lists appointments with the PTA, the safety team, the Nest team (for students on the autism spectrum), the attendance team, department heads and new teachers.

A session dubbed "Cup 'o Joe with Joe" gives staff one-on-one time with the principal every Friday -- no appointment needed.

A spike in SAT scores and a jump in the graduation rate from 84 percent in 2014 to 89 percent in 2017 reflect Scarmato's big impact in a short period of time.

"We're aiming for 90 percent this year" in the graduation rate, he quickly adds.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Students across the United States are planning a school walkout to protest gun violence in the aftermath of the fatal school shooting in South Florida on Feb. 14.

Organized by the same group behind the Women's March, the #Enough! National School Walkout encourages students, teachers, school administrators, allies and parents to take part in a protest at 10 a.m. on March 14.

The walkout will last 17 minutes, to remember the 17 lives lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Women's March Youth EMPOWER is calling for school communities to take part in the #NationalSchoolWalkout to "protest Congress' inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods," the organization said.

The walkout will demand Congress pass legislation to keep those safe from gun violence at schools, on the streets, in homes and in places of worship.

"Students and staff have the right to teach and learn in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in their classrooms or on their way home from school," the Women's March wrote on its website. "Parents have the right to send their kids to school in the mornings and see them home alive at the end of the day."

STATEN ISLAND RALLY

Staten Island Women Who March is planning a rally on Monday at noon at Congressman Dan Donovan's office in New Dorp. Staten Island teachers, students, community and faith leaders will call for leadership and action from Donovan and his party.

Follow Annalise Knudson on Twitter.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Raise your glass today in honor of National Wine Day.

That's right, you have an excuse to drink wine today.

Whether you prefer a dry chardonnay or ripe Merlot, grab a bottle of your favorite vino and toast to this holiday.

Here's how people are celebrating:

National Drink Wine Day, you say? Looking back at the time American wines beat French ones: https://t.co/xKfEqYkyTt  #DrinkWineDay  National Museum of American History (@amhistorymuseum) February 18, 2018

Tbh can #nationalwineday be everyday? But let's be real we don't need a day to celebrate with wine   Jenna Andrews (@TheJennaAndrews) February 18, 2018

Alaska Airlines is offering passengers free wine for National Drink Wine Day: https://t.co/FqMYI1FLbj pic.twitter.com/VpX0oNUfmo  Food & Wine (@foodandwine) February 17, 2018Page Content

On Friday evening a group of Sint Maarten students including youngsters that evacuated from Sint Maarten after the passing of Hurricane Irma, were invited to come to the Sint Maarten House in The Hague. Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin & Minister of Finance Michael Ferrier wanted to inform the gathering of what could be considered as an extremely positive outcome of their visit to the Netherlands.





During the short presentation Prime Minister Romeo Marlin emphasized to the students the importance of returning home once they have completed their studies. Its a pleasure to see students being interested in whats going on in Sint Maarten and taking the opportunity whenever a Minister is present, to come and be informed. The Prime Minister gave a brief summary of her activities while in the Netherlands including meetings with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and State Secretary Raymond Knops. Prime Minister Romeo-Marlin continued by encouraging the students to focus on their studies, getting the necessary experience, but to come home because home needs you, especially now!





Minister Ferrier when addressing the gathering told them, We are resilient we are a proud people; we do not wait for others to start to help ourselves, we just go! When bad things happen, you must dust yourself off and keep going! Be passionate about what you do and know your limitations. Be the best you can be in whatever job you land. 





In conclusion the students and youngsters were treated to prepared snacks and drinks and they had an opportunity to network and interact with the Ministers present by exchanging their thoughts, personal experiences and ideas.





Photo caption  Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin and Minister of Finance Michael Ferrier socializing with Sint Maarten Students in Holland







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Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.

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Numbers collator and website manager Edwin Briggs, a CAT judge since 2003, said the category judges had most difficulty deciding this year was best actress in a leading role in a musical. "The judges have never seen such a strong field and had great difficulty narrowing it down to a 'reasonable' number." As it was, they ended up with 12."

He said it was "the year of Wicked" - with productions in Orange, Albury, Griffith and Wagga Wagga - that contributed to this. The Stephen Schwartz musical about the witches of Oz based on Gregory Maguire's novel calls for strong performers in the two leading roles of Elphaba and Galinda.

"We made sure people saw all four productions so they could compare the strengths of all four productions."

The winner of best actress in a leading role in a musical, however, was Anastasia Feneri as Roxy Hart in So Popera Productions' Chicago. The Wollongong company's mounting of the Kander and Ebb musical about crime and show business won five other awards: best ensemble, best director of a musical, best musical director, best director of a musical and best production. So Popera's Beauty and the Beast won two awards: best costume design for a musical or variety show and best set designer for a musical, variety or dance production, bringing the company's total to eight.China said proposed US tariffs on imported steel and aluminum products are groundless and that it reserves the right to retaliate if they are imposed. The US recommendations, unveiled by the Commerce Department on Friday, aren't consistent with the facts, Wang Hejun, chief of the trade remedy and investigation bureau at China's Ministry of Commerce, said in a statement posted on its website. China's coal and steel sectors employ about 12 million workers. Credit:Bloomberg Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the US may impose quotas on imports of aluminum and steel, including a tariff of at least 24 percent on steel imports from all countries. While it's the strongest indication yet that President Donald Trump's administration is ready to take action on its protectionist agenda, Ross said "it wouldn't surprise us" if the measures were challenged. The US already has excessive protections on domestic iron and steel products, according to Wang. "If the final decision impacts China's interests, China will certainly take necessary measures to protect its own rights," Wang said.

American steel companies and steelworker unions have been pushing Trump to follow through on his promise to protect the industry. China's trade partners have complained for years that its industry unfairly benefits from state subsidies, and dumps its products at below-market prices. While China only accounts for about 1 percent of US steel imports, it could challenge US action at the World Trade Organisation, a process that could take years. China has long been at the epicenter of global over-production of steel. But the trade dynamics are shifting as aluminum exports take centre stage. In January, China boosted its shipments of the lightweight metal for a third month, as domestic supplies spill overseas, while steel cargoes shrank to the lowest in nearly five years as strong domestic growth mops up production and environmental curbs trim capacity. Rather than tariffs on all imports, Trump may opt for a more "surgical" approach, Ross suggested at a meeting with lawmakers this week. On steel, for example, the president could go with the recommended option that would levy a tariff of 53 percent on imports from 12 countries - a list that includes China, Russia, India and South Korea - but allow exemptions for allies such as Japan, Germany and Canada. Japan is viewing this as more of a security issue, said Yasuji Komiyama, director of the metal industries division at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The Commerce Department may invoke a seldom-used section of the 1962 Trade Act, which allows the president to impose tariffs without congressional approval. Komiyama said steel and aluminum shipped to the US from Japan don't pose any threats to American security. "This an issue within the US government. Nothing has been decided and therefore the Japanese government doesn't have any further comment," he said.Domain executive chairman Nick Falloon says the real estate classifieds company is in "great shape", despite a fall in profit and allegations of bad behaviour in the workplace.

The newly-listed business remains without a chief executive after Antony Catalano's surprise resignation in January which led to the appointment of Mr Falloon who is also chairman of major shareholder Fairfax Media.

Domain Group executive chairman Nick Falloon described the company as being in "great shape". Credit:Peter Rae

The company gets most of its revenue from home sellers listing their properties on the site through real estate agents. Domain reported a 2 per cent drop in total listing for the first six months of the financial year at its interim results on Monday.

Property listings tend to track the real estate market, with Sydney and Melbourne experiencing record high numbers of homes for sale during the height of the boom a year ago.Australian oil and gas is drawing increased foreign M&A interest. Credit:Warren Hackshall They are being driven by booming Australian LNG export levels  the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science has forecast LNG exports to reach $35 billion in value in 2018 alone  as around 70 per cent of all gas is forecast to leave Australian shores as new LNG terminals come online, and relatively low sovereign risk coupled with a geographic proximity to traditional Asian buyers and newly emerging markets in south-east Asia provides fewer operational headaches and eager customers. As the race for Australian gas plays has been heating up over the last few months, it has raised the question of who is next on the block, especially as the pool shrinks. Shaw and Partners analyst Stuart Baker said recent mergers and acquisitions have taken many attractive players and assets off the market. M&A and asset purchases will tighten the market and companies looking to secure uncommitted volumes will be faced with a shrinking opportunity set, Mr Baker said.

Three energy companies have been touted repeatedly as potential targets, Cooper Energy, Comet Ridge, Senex Energy and Central Petroleum; but it is Senex Energy that is emerging as the standout. The company has undertaken a strange journey in recent years, from making a takeover bid for AWE in 2013 to running at less than half AWEs value this year, yet, for a business that has seen a 2018 year to date share price growth of more than 40 per cent and 12-month share price increase of 22 per cent it has flown under the radar, but why? WHAT MAKES THE GRADE? Not every company can make the grade, as there is emerging a select  if not exactly spoken  criteria that whet the appetite of acquirers. Firstly, it should have either access or the ability to access Australias east coast gas market.

Access to the east coast gas market is a key driver. As the east coast gas market settles down, and domestic marketing arrangements have been put in place in the wake of a forecast major gas shortage  avoiding the government triggering a mechanism which would have severely restricted gas exports  the market is beginning to look more positively on those able to feed into the eastern gas network. Domestically, the future is positive as ongoing heatwaves will see demand for electricity remain strong in summer, and heavy investment into intermittent renewables  coupled with a decline in coal-fired power  means gas is becoming increasingly important as a peaking energy source. Senex has exposure across all its major projects, which are located in the oil and gas-rich regions of the Surat and Cooper basins in Queensland and South Australia. In the South Australian Cooper Basin, Senex holds around 15,000 square kilometres of oil and gas tenements.

Senex also has a tie-in with the now Beach Energy-owned Lattice Energy through its unconventional gas joint ventures, located relatively close to the Moomba gas interconnector and associated major oil and gas pipelines. In Queenslands Surat Basin, Senex has two major projects, the Western Surat Gas Project (WSGP) and Project Atlas. At the fully-owned WSGP, Senex has net proven and probable reserves of 438 petajoules of gas. It is aiming to supply about 50 terajoules of coal-seam gas to Santoss GLNG operations daily  or around a petajoule of gas every three weeks  from its Surat Basin project over the next two decades. Project Atlas is unique as it was the first acreage tendered by the Queensland government which is required to sell all gas produced on the domestic market.

It believes the project contains around 201 petajoules of gas and could produce around 30 terajoules a day, with first gas expected next year. Senexs guidance for the 2018 financial year is between 750,000 and 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent. An eye for exploration is needed for smaller companies, as the market forecasts a lack of new supply in the coming years. Credit:Greg McKenzie Potential targets should also have growth opportunities, so a focus on  and appetite for  exploration is key in order to lift supply. As Shaw and Partners analyst Stuart Baker states, there have been no big gas discoveries to rescue the supply side''.

Despite the obvious crunch looming now for some years, the industry has only now responded as it takes time to mobilise the capital and plan the work programs required to drill, test, appraise, and develop the fields for production, Mr Baker said. This can take years. Last year Senex was awarded a 58 square kilometre petroleum acreage in Queenslands Surat Basin and was also granted funding for further exploration and drilling under South Australias Plan for Accelerating Exploration (PACE) Gas program for its Vanessa gas project in the Cooper Basin, as it seeks to continue expansion and production. Broker backing mounting The disconnect between potential and value  similar to that seen with AWE and its Waitsia gas project  has brokers and analysts bullish on the company.

Credit Suisses view is that now is the time to make a move for Senex Energy. It said that Senexs Project Atlas has a higher enterprise value per proven and probable reserves ratio compared to AWEs Waitsia gas project, stating that around 210 petajoules are yet to be included as reserves. We think that Senex offers spectacular value for corporates and equity investors alike, Credit Suisse investor notes said. We are surprised to have seen such little reaction in the Senex share price to the material M&A activity over at AWE. In Morgans February Investment Watch, it also listed Senex as one of its high conviction stocks, which are companies it believes offers the best risk-adjusted return through 2018.

Wood Mackenzie oil and gas analyst Saul Kavonic said the gas merger and acquisition market will pick up in 2018, especially if it has access to the east coast market. Anyone with a proven or plausible gas project supplying into the tight east coast market will also become attractive, putting Senex on the radar, Mr Kavonic said. Later than expected coal seam methane production will have flow-on effects for Senex's Project Atlas asset. Credit:Michele Mossop Citi Research also has faith in Senexs wider Western Surat Gas Project, and the current management was also seen as a plus for investment. We see managements stewardship of capital as excellent, which along EIG Global Energy Partners funding capacity should prevent dilutive equity raisings, it said in investor notes.

However, Citi believes if Senexs WSGP project follows the broader coal seam methane (CSM) trend of achieving production later than forecast then it may impact Atlas. The time taken for every other CSM field to achieve positive production/cost outcomes has exceeded investor patience, Citi said. Any negative performance of WSGP may also affect market sentiment towards Atlas. However, it predicts the possibility of gas offtake contracting this year to support growth. Ultimately, it is still very early days for WSGP, and we note that there are often teething problems in bringing on coal seam methane fields, and so we caution investors that there may yet be bad news mixed in with the otherwise good news we expect over the next 6 to 12 months, Citi said."The public response has been phenomenal," Ms Parker said. With a passion for the cafe's history, she is disappointed with what she believes has been a lack of support for tourism from the Blue Mountains City Council and state government. She said tourist buses are not properly accommodated in Katoomba. Despite the must-see attraction of the Three Sisters, Ms Parker said Katoomba "is struggling". Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill said the council had spent millions on tourism including on its tourist information centre in Katoomba and tourist buses could park there. He said he was "very sad" the Paragon was closing. Paragon cafe business owner Robyn Parker. Credit:Effy Alexakis A council spokeswoman said it had invested in redevelopment of the Echo Point Visitor Information Centre, an upgrade of the Glenbrook Visitor Information Centre and development of new trails and upgrades of tourist parking and toilet facilities.

"Arrangements for bus stops are determined by the Local Traffic Committee which is a multi-agency committee that includes NSW Police, RMS and council," the spokeswoman said. "The council has made representation to the NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage regarding the condition of two heritage-listed properties in Katoomba including the Paragon. This followed a resolution of the council in November 2017." A spokeswoman for the Office of Environment and Heritage said the building that houses the Paragon cafe is listed on the State Heritage Register. She said the department is aware of concerns regarding the building and is "working with the owner". "Under the Heritage Act 1977 there are minimum standards of maintenance and repair for a heritage-listed property," she said. John Landerer, a Sydney corporate lawyer and director of Conset Investments, which owns the Paragon property, said he was addressing the department's concerns.

He said he had spent half a million dollars on maintenance in recent years and was planning to paint the facade. He said another tenant would replace Ms Parker when she left. Mr Landerer said he owned "a number" of Paragon business names and that Ms Parker would not be taking the Paragon name away with her. "It will not be closing," he said. "It will continue with a new tenant and the Paragon name." Fairfax Media has previously reported that the Landerer company represented the owners of Craig-y-mor in their successful bid to demolish the century-old Sydney harbour-front mansion.

Macquarie University historian Leonard Janiszewski and documentary photographer wife Effy Alexakis have documented the evolution of Greek cafes in Australia. "Without the Paragon, given its national renown and historical significance, the loss will be felt not just in Katoomba," Mr Janiszewski says. Jack (Zacharias) Theodore Simos, who migrated to Australia from the Greek island of Kythera, opened the business in 1916 and originally called it the Paragon Cafe and Oyster Palace. The Simos brothers with their sister and baby nephew in 1928. L to R - Peter, baby Con, Jack (Zacharias), Rene (Irene), and George. Peter and George assisted Jack with the onsite production of hand made bread, cakes, pastries, chocolate and other confectionary. Credit:Photo courtesy J Mottee, In Their Own Image Archives It soon became known for its American-style confectionery and ice cream and by 1921 it was known as the Paragon Sundae and Candy Shop with Jacks brothers, George and Peter, helping make the confectionary and pastries.

"With the fitting of a soda fountain, American-made freezers for ice cream and milk, and a number of major architectural renovations, Jacks goal was to develop the Paragon into a high-class food-catering enterprise," Mr Janiszewski said. "Katoombas Orphan Rock, a geographical outcrop, became the businesss logo, representative of the stand-alone commercial excellence to which Jack aspired." Jack married his wife Mary (nee Panaretos), who was born in America and whose parents were also from Kythera, in 1930 and she continued running the cafe for 11 years after he died in 1976. Mary died 17 years ago. Their son Theodore was not destined to take over the cafe business. He became a NSW Supreme Court judge. The banquet hall at the Paragon in 1938.As someone who has been in and out of hospitals all my life I could not agree more with John Watkins ("Without them our lives would be poorer", February 17-18). I have always been in the public system and the care, sympathy and warmth of all the staff, both doctors and nurses, is without equal. No matter what their ethnic background, their professionalism is beyond reproach. These people truly are the unsung heroes that cope with all sorts of trauma, abuse and drama on a daily basis but carry on regardless. These are the people who deserve a national day more than anyone.

Phill Clark, Eureka This struck a chord with us as we've been watching this week the care being given to a member of our family seriously injured after a fall. Day and night the nurses at the John Hunter Hospital have worked with skill and gentle concern to bring about healing. We certainly agree with John Watkins that without such loving care "our lives, at what is often our lowest ebb, would be immeasurably poorer". How important then that these nurses should receive appropriate salaries and not be left unable to afford accommodation close to the hospitals that depend so much on their vital services.

Zeny Giles, New Lambton

As a palliative care nurse working in Western Sydney for over 20 years, I have been saddened and disheartened by the changes in our service and our ability to care for our patients and their families. Your beautiful piece really lifted my spirits and reinforced the privileged role we play in caring for people during some of the most difficult times in their lives. Thank you.

Mary Hollins, North Parramatta Murray Darling is our responsibility It's no use blaming politicians or bureaucrats for what's going wrong with Murray Darling waters (Stand-off at the heart of river basin future", February 17-18). We need to look closely at ourselves. We castigate any politician who questions the belief in growth as the answer to all our economic concerns. Yet growth means more demands on every resource, including water. We try to label those who espouse reductions in our immigration targets as perhaps only racist. We let the big organised religions endlessly promote the virtues of higher birth rates. We don't try to stop more and more land being given over to cotton and rice production even though we know how much water these crops need. Australia has long been dubbed "the dry continent", yet we keep demanding that our farmers produce more for us to consume or export by sucking up the reserves of the Great Artesian Basin or by generously irrigating from the Murray and all its tributaries. Then we pretend there should still be enough left for the environment.

William Hamilton, Lorn

As the chair of the MurrayDarling Basin Authority (MDBA) I write in defence of the authority's unimpeachable independence and strong expertise base. The article rehashed a long list of well-worn grievances that critics of the Basin Plan have made over the past two or more years. The claims have been addressed many times and add nothing new or valuable to the public debate on the MurrayDarling Basin. I urge people to remember that the Basin Plan is a huge reform and represents a seismic shift in how we think about the rivers, how we operate them and how we share their water. It puts the environment's needs on a par with those of irrigators and other water users. The MDBA's job is to independently assess all lines of evidence the Basin Plan requires us to  environmental, social and economic  to make recommendations for the best policy settings. We do this, using the best available hydrology, environmental, social and economic advice and research. It is disappointing that our commitment to transparency, extensive engagement and the publication of multiple options leads to criticism rather than understanding of the complexity of the decision. The MDBA is, as it has always been, a fiercely independent statutory authority and one that I am proud to chair. We remain steadfastly committed to delivering a Basin Plan that secures a strong future for all Basin interests.

Neil Andrew, Chair, MurrayDarling Basin Authority The current squabble over water rights in the Murray Darling Basin goes back over a 100 years and brings back some memories of conversations with a retired senior public servant in the mid 1950s when I was at school in Canberra. One of his comments was that if the Murray-Darling is looked after and not allowed to become political it will always stay the lifeblood of the eastern states. It was many years later, long after his death, I discovered that he served on the River Murray Commission in the late 1930s before he came to Canberra for another job, building the nation's capital as secretary of the Department of Works and eventually Permanent Head. His name was Percival.A.Gourgaud and a very astute gentleman indeed. He was also my grandfather.

Michael Bounds, Yattalunga If you do not want to be horribly depressed about the condition of the land and waterways of the Murray-Darling Basin I suggest staying away from Google maps. Some of the water colours actually look toxic even from a satellite photo. A case must be able to be at least initiated from these images.

Stuart Johnston, Allambie Heights Credit where it's due I wish this paper and other media would give the Barnaby thing a rest and concentrate on something positive. For instance, the hundreds of RFS volunteers from throughout the state who have descended on Mt Canobolas outside of Orange, forgone their wages to help people in need, protect their property from a fire that had the potential to wipe them out after the main fire has died down and left the media spotlight. They will be there night and day blacking out the remaining hot spots. Not to mention the helicopters working non-stop dowsing spot fires ahead of the front. Also the outstanding airmanship when the Very Large Air Tanker Nancy Bird came in low and fast dropping her load and saving the communication towers for ambulance, police and the RFS for all of western NSW. The skill of the crew was unbelievable and would have done the Dam Busters proud

Chris Hanbury, Forbes

Credit:Wolter Peeters Food for thought A Victorian school, Canterbury Girls Secondary College, has banned uber-eats from delivering food to their students. The trivial part of this story is the idea of food being delivered rather than in the lunch box or at the canteen. Most school canteens now have healthy alternatives as well as the usual unhealthy "fried" foods. Lunch should not be an event for social media impact. The serious concern, highlighted by recent American events, is the potential concerns of delivery people wandering around schools without having signed in at the front office or showing their working-with-children card. These people are effectively strangers and maybe it's time to remember the stranger-danger warnings. Seriously, a vegemite sandwich and an apple will do for lunch.

Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill Where's our Bezos? The article by Patrick Hatch on former Myer boss Bernie Brookes, about how to save department stores, shows how current thinking on retail is no longer the way forward ("Myer chief executive Richard Umbers has left the under-siege department store", February 15). Australian retailers have been on the back foot so far as the Internet is concerned and they must embrace the technology if they hope to continue successfully in retail. New models must be adopted  with pain for many retailers if they don't. One only has to look at the vision shown by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, who started as a bookseller. He saw the explosion of the Internet and leveraged this to start his online bookstore. He now has the world's largest Internet sales online company. He is worth $120.4 billion and is the world's richest man, surpassing Bill Gates. Australia does not seem to have people with such vision.

Jennifer Creighton, Modanville East

Train service off the rails Don't worry about the problem train service from Chatswood to Beecroft, Barry Willis (Letters, February 17-18), the government is on to it. Later this year it will solve the problem by stopping the train service altogether, and putting you on a bus to Epping while it rebuilds the line to take new single-deck trains with fewer seats, and when that's done, you can catch three trains to get you home from Town Hall to Beecroft, instead of one, but I'm sure they will all be perfectly co-ordinated.

Doug Walker, Baulkham Hills When and why did I transmogrify from a passenger to a customer on NSW Public Transport?

Maggy Todd, Hardys Bay With all the recent road tragedies it is hard to believe that a major cinema chain would advertise a popular make of cars and motorcycles driving at high speed on almost empty roads. Obviously sponsorship outweighs social responsibility.

Vicky Marquis, Glebe Gone fishingMolan insists - as he did in a robust conversation with me - that when the context for these videos showing violence by Muslim youths was drawn to his attention he disavowed Britain First. He had not heard of the anti-Muslim, whites-supremacist, racist organisation. He was not going to apologise, as did Donald Trump over a similar episode. I have no apologies. I have no regrets, he says. However, the Molan stumble - attributable possibly to political naivete and a certain stubbornness in his refusal to acknowledge an error  did not justify attacks by the Greens on his war record, including his command of Coalition forces in the bloody siege of the Iraqi rebel stronghold of Fallujah in 2004. Linda Reynolds also served. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

This is a separate issue from whether you agreed with the rush to war in Iraq. Molan was not responsible for that expensive folly. Greens representative Adam Bandts remarks outside parliamentary privilege  subsequently withdrawn - in which he accused Molan of being party effectively to a war crime in Fallujah were ill-advised. This in turn invited a hysterical push-back from commentators on the right who like nothing better than a pretext to beat up on the "verminous" Greens. Leaving all this aside and returning to the reasonable question of what value those with a service background bring to national politics, its worth noting that, by my count, seven members of the current national parliament, including Molan, have military backgrounds. These include, apart from Molan, Liberals Andrew Hastie from Western Australia who served in the Special Air Service Regiment in Afghanistan, Linda Reynolds, also from Western Australia, who has had a long career in the Army Reserve, David Fawcett from South Australia whose experience, included that of an army test pilot, and Stuart Robert from Queensland a career army officer for a decade.

Labors Mike Kelly from New South Wales had a long military career, including service in Iraq. Independent Andrew Wilkie from Tasmania served as an infantry officer for more than a decade before going to the Office of National Assessments. Wilkie distinguished himself at ONA by opposing the rush to war in Iraq on grounds that were subsequently validated. What is noteworthy about the above individuals is their views run the gamut from the uber hawks Molan and Hastie to the dovish Wilkie. These viewpoints represent, to an extent, those of the wider community. In that sense, you could argue it is useful to have some military expertise in the parliament at a time when the countrys security challenges have become more pressing, given the rise of China and concerns about America's retreat from its global responsibilities.

Molan has been particularly outspoken about Australias defence preparedness, including such basic issues as lack of a strategic fuel reserve. On the other hand, it is also worth noting generals have a tendency to fight the last war. Finally, it might be worth reflecting on the contributions of servicemen to the national parliament from the Boer War on. An excellent paper by the Parliamentary Library  Commonwealth Members of Parliament who Served in War  finds that more than 30 per cent or at least 265 of those elected before 1970 had war service, including four prime ministers: Stanley Melbourne Bruce, wounded in the Gallipoli campaign; Earle Page, a doctor on the Western Front; and John Gorton and Gough Whitlam, a fighter pilot and navigator respectively in the RAAF. All this prompts a trivial pursuit question: which cabinet in the countrys history was comprised totally of those with war service? Answer: the Whitlam Labor duumvirate of 1972 when Whitlam and Lance Barnard divided cabinet responsibilities. Whitlam flew missions against the Japanese. Barnard, a gunnery officer in the 9th Division, was wounded in 1942 at El Alamein.Controversial Queensland MP George Christensen has been reported to police after posing with a handgun on social media.

On Saturday, Mr Christensen posted a photo of himself aiming a gun on Facebook along with a post saying, "You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?"

After a flood of critical comments, he amended the words accompanying the picture to say: "You gotta ask yourself, do you have a sense of humour, greenie punks? Obviously not." He eventually deleted his post.

Mr Christensen's Facebook post. Credit:Facebook

The post comes just days after 17 people were killed at a shooting in a high school in the US.When I first joined the Canberra office of John Howard, not long after he lost the Liberal leadership to Andrew Peacock in 1989, I was relatively naive to the infamous culture of Parliament House.

My first inkling came after a journalist visited our office to see if the new backbencher had anything interesting to say. After the reporter left empty-handed, my new boss enquired whether the journo had yet asked me out. Well no, I replied, why would he? Im married. To which my boss responded, well I dont imagine that will stop him.

I learnt over the next four years that the scribe was only one of several people working in the building known as a notorious pants man. And that extra-curricular sexual relationships abounded in the hothouse environment  involving not only journalists and staffers, but also politicians, parliamentary staff and even a Comcar driver or two.

This should hardly be surprising. Its natural for people to become attracted to each other when they spend a lot of time together in high energy, high stress environments.

Theres no doubt Parliament House is the epitome of this type of setting. On sitting weeks the buildings occupants  particularly ministers and their staff  run on little more than adrenaline and coffee from the time the first morning news bulletins hits their screens, through question time and the gauntlet of afternoon interviews, until the evening news bulletins have concluded.When life, or Malcolm Turnbull, hands you lemons - head to London Fashion Week. Which is exactly what Foreign Minister Julie Bishop did over the weekend to fete Australian designer Kit Willow at a cocktail function at Australia House.

Despite being deputy leader of the Liberal Party and putting her hand up, Ms Bishop wasnt called home to run the country as acting prime minister while Turnbull heads to the United States this week. So instead she made like Elizabeth Taylor (minus the drinking), put on some lipstick, pulled herself together and continued with her international itinerary by slipping into her unofficial role as Fashion Minister.

Forgetting about Barnaby and Canberra's bad tailoring, Foreign Minister welcomed Sydney designer Kit Willow to London on Sunday.

Together with Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer, Bishop hosted the best of British fashion including stylist for actress and activist Emma Watson, Rebecca Corbin-Murray and Sydney designer Willow and her label KITX. Willow is in London this week to represent Australia at Buckingham Palace after being selected to take part in the inaugural Commonwealth Exchange Program.

Willow will be granted an audience with Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge after being selected by Eco-Age creative director and founder of the Green Carpet Challenge, Livia Firth.It's only February but come the end of the European collections which kicked off in London over the weekend, fashion's photo pits may be empty.

Some of the biggest names in high-fashion editorial photography, including Princess Diana's personal photographer Patrick Demarchelier, David Bellemere, Greg Kadel and Seth Sabel, have had allegations levelled at them in a new investigation by The Boston Globe's Spotlight team.

For the assignment, published over the weekend titled "Beauty and the Ugly Truth", reporters spoke to more than 50 models about their experiences, many of which were peppered with sexual harassment and misconduct. Some also alleged their agents enabled the abuse.

Demarchelier was Princess Diana's "personal photographer". Credit:Robert Pearce

"If people really understood what goes on behind the glamour of the industry, they would be mortified," Australian model and actress Abbey Lee Kershaw said before adding that she is "one of the lucky ones".Australia's oldest parliament will pay tribute to its oldest nations with an historic plan to place an Aboriginal message stick in a building teeming with Anglo tradition.

Smoking ceremony at NSW State Parliament as the Aboriginal Languages Bill is brought to the Legislative Council last October. Credit:Nick Moir

John Ajaka, the President of the NSW Legislative Council, this week began consulting with members on a plan for a permanent place for a message stick presented to mark another historic moment for the house: the first time it was ever addressed in Aboriginal languages last October.

The question is where the carved stick, which for a millennia was a means of communication and a mark of safe passage for its bearer, should be displayed.

Labor's caucus late last week unanimously endorsed placing it at the centre of the chamber alongside parliament's Black Rod, a signal, its deputy in the house said on FriA critical incident team will investigate the death of a 30-year-old man who collapsed as police attempted to arrest him in Sydney's inner-west on Sunday afternoon.

Police said they attended Carillon Avenue, Newtown, at about 1.30pm after the man fled a nearby hospital, where he was being held under the Mental Health Act.

Officers from the Inner West police area command found him and attempted to arrest the man.

However, he resisted arrest and collapsed at the scene before being taken to hospital, where he later died.

A police spokeswoman could not confirm whether or not a taser was used on the man.Campaigners from a group called Save The Roxy Theatre are pleased it will be preserved and give Parramatta another theatre. "A beautiful venue could be protected forever now," campaign representative Clare McCann said. But Mr Tod insisted that no details had been provided on how the theatre would be protected from damage while the tower was built and how excavation would take place in a former river bed. With a Medal of the Order of Australia for helping save the Capitol Theatre and other historic venues, he has previously called on the state government and Parramatta council to acquire the site by swapping it for a council car park behind the theatre. Mr Kingston, the former managing director of investment bank Rothschild who owns the Roxy through the K Capital Group, said the site was not suitable for a substantially bigger theatre. "You can't turn it into a 1500-seat theatre," he said. "Physically it cannot happen. The room isn't there."

Built in 1930, the Roxy was run as an ornate cinema by both the Hoyts and Village chains before it closed in 2003. Les Tod, said the proposed development missed the chance to create a world-class venue for 1500 people that could host large-scale theatre, concerts, musicals and Bollywood spectacles. Credit:Isabella Lettini After buying the theatre, Mr Kingston converted it into a live music venue with bars and restaurants, winning a heritage award, before shutting it in 2014. "It wasn't the best use for the property," he said. "I've been working with council and heritage consultants to come up with the right use. Mr Kingston said the development would respect the Roxys history  retaining the facade and restoring the annexes out front for restaurants, the ground floor for shops and the theatre for live events.

And while the tower was being built, the theatre would not be touched. The beautiful thing is that I own three metres on either side of the building," he said. So to put in the tower above, you just put columns down on the outside ... then the [new] building sits above the heritage building without touching it." Because there was ample parking nearby, Mr Kingston said there was no need to excavate on the site. "The plan is create the pre-eminent leisure facility for both the residents and the business people not just of Parramatta but also western Sydney," he said.A man has been charged following a brawl in a car park in Sydney's northern suburbs that left another man on life support with a fractured skull.

Emergency services were called to a premises on Mona Vale Road in Terrey Hills after an altercation between "a number of people" in the early hours of Sunday.

A 43-year-old man was found unconscious on the ground with a critical head injury.

He was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital.Former Gold Coast cop and whistleblower Rick Flori is calling for action over allegations a senior police officer took illegal disciplinary action against him for leaking footage of a police bashing in 2012.

The former Queensland police sergeant was found not guilty of misconduct on Wednesday after he leaked footage of officers bashing a handcuffed man at a Gold Coast station basement in January 2012.

Former Queensland Police officer Rick Flori. Credit:AAP

The footage was run by News Corp that year and an internal investigation led to a search of Mr Floris home where the CCTV vision was found on an SD card.

He said he had released the footage of Noa Begic's arrest in 2012 to cast a spotlight on illegal practices within the police force.The search for a missing Ipswich mother and daughter has ended, five days after the pair disappeared from a shopping centre in the area.

Police issued a public plea for information at the weekend after Tara Inglis, 28, and her 18-month-old daughter could not be found following their last known sighting, near the Booval Fair shopping centre.

But on Sunday night, police announced the mother and daughter had been found safe and well.

Police believe Ms Inglis and her daughter are still in the Booval area. Credit:Queensland Police Service

Prior to that, Ms Inglis was last seen pushing her daughter in a pink pram between 3 and 4pm on Tuesday near the intersection of Brisbane Road and South Station Road in Booval.The state election campaign is going to get personal, with Liberal candidates told to directly target "Comrade Andrews".

The Victorian Liberals are set to launch ferocious personalised attacks on Premier Daniel Andrews, in an attempt to paint him as a liability for Labor.

Internal Liberal strategy briefings show the Liberals will target Mr Andrews heavily, running the risk of a dirty election campaign featuring two leaders trying to destroy each others reputations.

But Labor campaign planners have told Fairfax Media they believe Mr Andrews personal brand is strong in regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne. They say their research refutes suggestions the premier is disliked.As thousands of Melburnians flocked to the CBD to witness White Night, four men set off on their own overnight adventure.

The party headed about 100 kilometres east of the city to explore the subterranean darkness of the Labertouche caves.

The 36-year-old Drouin man, 36-year-old Endeavour Hills man, 32-year-old Pakenham man and 43-year-old Pakenham man left about 6pm on Saturday night. But they didn't return when they thought they would.

The SES Warragul team was called out at 12.45am to floodlight the caves as Police Search and Rescue tried to find the missing men.

They were found safe and well just after 7.30am.Police are investigating after two people lost their lives in separate accidents on Sunday. Credit:Kerrie Armstrong

A man and a woman died in separate crashes on Victorian roads within hours of each other on Sunday.

Police are on the scene following a fatal collision in Tynong North, 63 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.

It is believed a car exiting Brew Road onto the Princess Highway collided with an eastbound utility about 6.40pm.

The female driver was treated by emergency services, but she died at the scene. She is yet to be formally identified.An 18-year-old man has been charged in relation to a horrific family violence incident in Perth's south east.

Police were called to a Gosnells home at about 5.15pm where officers found the 68-year-old woman with a serious head injury.

The woman is in a stable condition. Credit:Peter Bennetts / Fiona Stanley Hospital Design Collaboration

She was rushed to Fiona Stanley Hospital for treatment, and is currently in a stable condition.

The 18-year-old was initially arrested in relation to the incident, but was formally charged with grievous bodily harm on Sunday morning.However, according to City of Nedlands Mayor Max Hipkins, who is also a town planner, the WAPC has requested the draft document be altered "60 times" to accommodate an additional 9,000 dwellings  including higher density around primary schools and in the heart of suburbia, leaving residents reeling. He said the proposed changes would in some parts pave the way for multi-storey apartment developments (R160) to be built on blocks beside single storey homes (R10)  representing a 16-fold increase in density. "[The WAPC-directed changes] came as quite a shock... the most significant change was a requirement for a more dispersed pattern of higher density zones impacting on many more existing land owners and residents," Mr Hipkins said. "What we're talking about is a lot more density further back from the highway... right down to the river. "No thought appears to have been given to increased traffic on local roads... no thought appears to have been given to safety concerns around local schools... there are obvious deficiencies in minimum open space and other building set back requirements to protect privacy and maintain greenery."

Mr Hipkins said he was not against responsible infill, but the WAPC's directive to the council contradicted its own density targets for the area and lacked vision. "There is no indication of how increased density can be satisfactorily accommodated in our beautiful low-density city," he said. "It is possible to achieve high densities in a landscape setting but no guide is provided in this respect. Other cities are doing it, why aren't we?" WAPC chair Eric Lumsden said its recommended modifications to the City of Nedlands' planning scheme would help provide housing diversity to meet the needs of current and future residents.

"The City of Nedlands had not reviewed its local planning scheme for more than 30 years," he said. "These modifications will bring the scheme in line with current state planning policies regarding residential density by providing the opportunity for a greater range of housing options, including smaller lots and dwellings, and intensity of developments in appropriate locations. "The state government is committed to the target of 47 per cent minimum infill, however infill development is dependent on a range of complex factors and so does not always progress in a predictable or linear way." City of Nedlands residents are petitioning against the WAPC-driven changes to the local planning scheme, which is open for public comment until March 29. Neighbouring council the Shire of Peppermint Grove, which has Perth's lowest population growth rate, gazetted its local planning scheme number four in March 2017.

Under the policy, the majority of the council is zoned low density (R10 or R12.5) with pockets of higher density R80 coded zones along Stirling Highway. Excluding these R80 zones, dwellings in the remainder of the area cannot be more than two-storeys and battleaxe sub-divisions are banned. By contrast, councils on the urban fringes of Perth have been building density into their suburbs as housing stocks continue to grow. The Shire of Serpentine-Jarradale, which was once largely a semi-rural residential area, is the fastest growing council in Perth and has doubled its population in the ten years to 2016 from 13,246 people to 27,654. Shire president Michelle Rich said accommodating the growth in suburbs like Byford, had both its challenges and opportunities.

"As more people move to the shire, our suburbs have grown, as has demand for services and infrastructure," she said. "It's meant we've had to be really agile in planning for the needs of current and future residents. "Perhaps the biggest change locally can be seen in Byford, which has gone from a comparatively small suburb to a real hub of activity and vibrancy. "Home to 8,400 residents in 2011, Byford now has a population of close to 15,000 and embodies the kind of progress we've seen across the Shire."

An additional 1.5 million people are expected to live in the Perth and Peel areas in the next 32 years, requiring an estimated 800,000 new homes. Perth has traditionally been a sprawling suburban city, with homeowners favouring detached family homes on quiet streets over inner city apartment living. A quick scour of Perth's housing landscape reveals the different approaches local councils are taking in attempts to increase Perth's density  battleaxe blocks, more units and townhouses near major transport routes and high rise apartments. Committee for Perth chief executive Marion Fulker, the former executive director of the Urban Development Institute of Australia WA Division, said Perth's lack of shared vision when it came to urban planning, had created a reluctance from communities to embrace change. "Keeping suburbia as it is is very important to Perth people, but it's about how we create pockets of urbanicity within the suburban nature of Perth," she said.

"We need to find appropriate locations for density, rather than just trying to put density wherever you can get it because if you do it badly, the community will be outraged and they will remain outraged because they will always have that example to point to." The WAPC's blueprint planning document, Perth and Peel @ 3.5 million, has remained in its draft stages for three years. Loading Planning Minister Rita Saffioti has previously said the report was expected to be finalised in the coming months.Germanys foreign minister has rejected Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative, warning that it is not in the interests of democracy or freedom, and that the West needs to offer an alternative.

In a blunt speech Sigmar Gabriel also accused China  alongside Russia - of constantly trying to test and undermine the unity of the European Union, seeking to influence individual states with sticks and carrots.

He said China was using its $5 trillion One Belt, One Road (OBOR) infrastructure fund to promote a value system different from the West.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum last year.

It was Gabriels last major speech as foreign minister  he will lose the role in the proposed new German coalition government despite being one of the countrys most popular political figures.The most important Tibetan pilgrimage site, the Jokhang Temple in old Lhasa, was ablaze on Saturday night but few details have been released by the Chinese government about the extent of the damage.

The 7th Century Tibetan building, which sprawls over 2.5 hectares, is protected by law and is listed for its "outstanding universal value" by the United Nations cultural protection agency, UNESCO.

Jokhang Monastery, one of the oldest Tibetan monastery in Lhasa, western China's Tibet province, in 2007. Credit:AP

London-based Tibetan expert Robert Barnett told Fairfax Media: "The Jokhang is widely regarded as the most sacred site in Tibetan Buddhism, with thousands of pilgrims travelling across the plateau for centuries to reach there and still doing so today, when allowed to."

"It was the earliest Buddhist temple to be built in Tibet and is seen by many Tibetans as the symbolic heart of the country and of its cultural heritage."Another student, Emma Gonzalez, said the students want to talk to political leaders, including Trump, about gun control. "We want to give them an opportunity to be on the right side of this," said Gonzalez. Emma Gonzalez, a senior who survived Wednesday's shooting and has focused their anger at President Donald Trump. Credit:AP The students appeared on multiple Sunday morning political shows to discuss their views and goals in the wake of the shooting, and made clear they are going to target lawmakers up for election this year who they view as standing against their cause. "At this point, I don't even know if the adults in power who are funded by the NRA, I don't think we need them anymore because they are going to be gone by the midterm election," Gonzalez said.

A protest against guns on the steps of the Broward County Federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Credit:AP "There's barely any time for them to save their skins, and if they don't turn around right now and state their open support for this movement, they're going to be left behind because you're either with us or you're against us at this point." Another student, David Hogg, ripped Trump for suggesting in a tweet Saturday night that Democrats had let them down by failing to pass gun-control legislation when they held Congress. Loading "We've seen a government shutdown, we've seen tax reform, but nothing to save our children's lives,'' said Hogg. "Are you kidding me? You think now is the time to focus on the past and not the future to prevent the deaths of thousands of other children? You sicken me."

Trump tweeted on Saturday night that it was "not acceptable" that the FBI failed to stop the Parkland shooting - arguing the agency was too focused on probing Russian interference in the 2016 election and should get "back to basics." Carly Novell, a student who hid in a closet for two hours during the attack, responded angrily to the president: "You know what isn't acceptable? Blaming everyone but the shooter and the lack of gun control in our country. You even blamed the students. We did report him; we tried. But how were we supposed to know what would happen? Your lack of sympathy proves how pitiful of a person you are." While the student activists repeatedly expressed optimism and hope for constructive conversations and changes to US gun laws, the politicians who appeared on Sunday's TV talk shows expressed great skepticism. Loading Democrat Senator Christopher Coons said he doubted anything would happen until voters force changes.

"I am not optimistic that until there is real action by the American public to demand change in Congress that we're going to see real action to confront gun violence out of this Congress," he said. Republican senator Tim Scott, said the issue raised by the Florida shooting is that the FBI could have prevented the shooting, and added he thought Congress "will get something done this year" on the gun background check system. Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich said the students "are absolutely right when they say that politicians have not been responding to any of this," and blamed congressional dysfunction. Kasich, speaking on CNN, said gun rights advocates should consider "common-sense" regulations. "Would you feel as though your Second Amendment rights would be eroded because you couldn't buy a goddarn AR-15?'' he demanded. "These are things that have to be looked at, and action has to be taken."

Kasich said he doubted Congress would take any action, but said he held out hope that state and local legislatures might. The rallying calls appeared to do little to persuade Mr Trump to consider tighter gun laws. In a late night Twitter posting, he instead chastised the FBI, which days ago admitted it had failed to act on a tip-off about Cruz. Mr Trump wrote: "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!" Ruben Gallego, a Democrat congressman from Arizona, called the US leader a "psychopath". "You are such a psychopath that you have to make even the death of 17 children about you. America will regret the day you were ever born," he wrote.

More details have emerged about Cruz's family life. Lynda Cruz, his adoptive mother who died last year, bore the brunt of outbursts so angry and violent that she called the police on multiple occasions. After she died, Cruz was taken in by James and Kimberly Snead from whose home he plotted the deadly rampage. The couple described him to the South Florida Sun Sentinel as quirky, immature and depressed but that he seemed to be growing happier. The evidence against Cruz is so overwhelming, the only question left for the courts if he is convicted is whether he will be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison. The fate of the 19-year-old, who faces 17 counts of first-degree murder, will depend on his mental state and the wishes of the victims' families, which have a say in how the prosecution proceeds. Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, whose office is representing Cruz, said there were so many warning signs that Cruz was mentally unstable and potentially violent that the death penalty might be going too far. Finkelstein said Cruz would likely plead guilty if prosecutors opt not to seek the death penalty.Washington: A Baltimore County jury awarded $46.8 million ($US37 million) in damages to the family of Korryn Gaines, a black Maryland woman killed by county police in an August 2016 standoff that also injured her 5-year-old son.

The six female jurors decided in less than three hours that Corporal Royce Ruby, the Baltimore County officer who fired the fatal shots, violated the civil rights of Gaines, 23, and her son, Kodi.

Korryn Gaines. Credit:Instagram

Ruby shot and killed Gaines on August 1 during a confrontation in Randallstown, a suburb northwest of Baltimore City. Police serving a warrant for failure to appear in court over a traffic case kicked in the door to Gaines' apartment to find her waiting with a shotgun. The ensuing six-hour ordeal ended when Ruby opened fire, killing Gaines and injuring Kodi.

The civil suit decision awarded more than $40.4 million ($US32 million) to Kodi, $5.7 million ($US4.5 million) to his toddler sister, Karsyn, and nearly a million dollars among Gaines' parents and estate, court documents said.US campaigners have taken inspiration from the 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to call for gun control in the wake of the latest school shooting which claimed 17 lives.

The placards were driven around Miami on Friday local time to put pressure on its Republican senator after the high school massacre this week in Florida.

US campaigners have used billboards to call for gun control in the wake of the Florida high school shooting. Credit:Press Association Images

The signs, reading "Slaughtered in school", "And still no gun control?", "How come, Marco Rubio?", echoed the Oscar-nominated film where a mother challenges authorities over justice for her daughter who was raped and murdered.

The protest was organised by activist group Avaaz, which highlighted the campaign donations Rubio has accepted from gun advocates the National Rifle Association (NRA).Beirut: Six civilians suffered breathing difficulties and other symptoms indicative of poison gas inhalation after an attack launched by Turkey on the Kurdish- controlled enclave of Afrin, local doctors and Syria's state-run news agency report.

Jiwan Mohammed, a doctor at Afrin's main hospital, said on Saturday the facility was treating six people who had been poisoned who arrived on Friday night from the village of Arandi after it was attacked by Turkish troops.

Another doctor, Nouri Qenber, said the victims suffered shortness of breath, vomiting and skin rashes. One of the victims had dilated pupils, he said, quoting one of the rescuers. Both spoke to The Associated Press via messaging service.

Pro-Kurdish demonstrators protest against Turkish military operations in Afrin, a city located in northern Syria, during a rally in front of the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva. Credit:AP

State-run news agency SANA and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also quoted local doctors in their reports.The CEO: Mikhail Bystrov Bystrov is a retired St Petersburg police colonel who, according to the indictment, joined the company in February 2014 and became its highest-ranking official. He also led shell entities that were used to conceal its activities, including one called Glavset, a database and information company. It shared an address  55 Savushkina St  with the Internet Research Agency. (The troll farm has since moved to Optikov Street, according to the local press.) The troll farm soon drew notice in Russia: news outlets reported that it employed 250 people in 12-hour shifts to provide a round-the-clock flow of pro-Kremlin posts and comments, praising Putin and excoriating President Barack Obama and President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine. Monthly salaries ranged from $1,300 ($US1,100) for a junior analyst to $1,700) ($US1,400) for a blogger to $5,300 ($US4,200) a month for senior management. Bystrov, who is believed to be 59, has avoided reporters and declined interview requests. The Executive Director: Mikhail Burchik

A young tech entrepreneur, Burchik, 31, joined the company in October 2013 and became its executive director, the No 2 official, by March 2014, according to the indictment. According to online records, he registered a company in 2009 called Add1.ru that was behind a 2014 hoax. In that hoax, a young woman in aviator sunglasses calling herself Zoe Foreman spent hours spamming politicians and journalists about a horrific  and fictitious  chemical plant explosion in Louisiana. "I have heard of it, but I don't work in this organisation," he told journalist Adrian Chen, who wrote about the troll farm in 2015 for The New York Times Magazine. He said he had bought and sold many internet domains and didn't remember them all. Burchik also won government contracts to publish local municipal newspapers, organise lectures and do some video reports. Throughout the troll farm's operations to interfere in US politics, including the election, "Burchik was a manager involved in operational planning, infrastructure and personnel," according to the indictment. The business news website RBC reported Friday that Burchik claimed not to know English well enough to understand what he had been accused of. "If a few hundred million Americans are so worried about the activities of a regular Russian small-business man from the IT-sphere doing website development, then it seems the situation in the country is completely grave," he said.

Burchik told Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Russian tabloid, that he was not concerned about being detained while travelling abroad. "I love my country. In Russia there are many beautiful places where you can go," he said. Burchik has worked on several small government projects in St. Petersburg. In 2015 he was awarded a contract worth about $25,000 ($US20,000) to develop and publish a newspaper called Dvortsovy Ukrug, for the administration of one of St Petersburg's municipal districts, according to government documents. That same year, another municipal district government awarded him a similar contract to prepare a film about its activities. And in 2012, he won a $5,700 ($US4,500) contract for organising a program for promoting "tolerance and prevention of drug addiction" for local schools. The Travellers: Anna Bogacheva and Alexandra Krylova Bogacheva and Krylova obtained visas to visit the United States in 2014 "under false pretenses for the purposes of collecting intelligence to inform the organization's operatives," according to the indictment. They are said to have embarked on what amounted to a three-week reconnaissance tour, visiting California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. Along the way, they bought SIM cards, cameras and drop phones and discussed "evacuation scenarios" and other security measures.

According to the indictment, Bogacheva oversaw the data analysis group for the "translator project." A woman with the same name was listed in 2013 on the website of ITMO, a prestigious science university in St. Petersburg, as a doctoral candidate. She worked there from 2011-2014, as an engineer in the eScience Research Institute, according to a university spokeswoman. Many of the school's graduates have gone on to work for the Russian government or for large tech companies. Bogacheva also owns IT Debugger, a company that says it has worked with "difficult clients." Krylova became the No 3 person at the troll farm, according to the indictment. According to what appears to be her LinkedIn profile, she is a graduate of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, where she studied with the faculty of advertising and public relations. She was the head of the Federal News Agency, which is believed to be Prigozhin's flagship media outlet. The agency is known for its exclusive coverage of Russian private armies on Syria's front line. The IT Expert: Sergey Polozov

Polozov ran the troll farm's IT department and oversaw the purchase of space on computer servers inside the United States to set up virtual private networks that masked the agency's Russian location, according to the indictment. After a co-conspirator travelled to Atlanta in November 2014, he gave Polozov a summary of his trip and expenses. According to business records and Polozov's page on the Russian social network Vkontakte, Polozov runs a software company called Morkov, which was registered in 2013, and began to recruit web developers and programmers in early 2014. "In need of people with knowledge of website promotion for full-time work," he wrote in a Vkontakte post May 28, 2014. "If interested, send me a personal message. You can send your resume immediately." On Vkontakte, he shared political jokes at the expense of Russia's rivals and neighbours. One post he shared in June 2015 quoted Chechen writer German Sadulaev: "The greatest possible mistake is to neglect the Russians. Consider them weak. Offend them. Never offend the Russians. The Russians are never as weak as you think they are. God forbid you expel the Russians or take something from them. The Russians always come back. The Russians will come back and take back what is theirs. But when the Russians return, they do not apply force proportionally. They destroy everything in their path."

The 'Translators': Maria Bovda and Robert S. Bovda Not much is known about the Bovdas, including their relationship. According to the indictment, she was the head, and he the deputy head, of the "translator project," the troll farm's campaign to target Americans with messages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, starting in April 2014. The project employed hundreds of people and, by the summer of 2016, was spending $1.2 million a month. It hid activities through a web of shell companies. According to the indictment, Bovda and Bovda both worked for the troll farm for about a year, from November 2013 to October 2014. The America Specialist: Dzheykhun Aslanov Loading According to the indictment, Aslanov oversaw many of the operations targeting the U.S. election. An investigation by RBC, a news magazine, found that Aslanov was in charge of the "American department" of the troll farm. It reported that Aslanov arrived in St. Petersburg in 2000 from his hometown Ust-Kut, in the Irkutsk region. His Vkontakte profile says he graduated from the Russian State Hydrometeorological University in St. Petersburg in 2012, and a university page indicates that he studied economics and wildlife management.

The RBC report says that he spent several months in the United States in 2009, visiting New York and Boston. His work at the troll farm included registering legal entities in the names of his employees. His name appears in public records as general director of Azimut  which, according to the indictment, was used to funnel money to the troll farm  and of the Reputation Management Centre. According to its website, the Reputation Management Centre first determines what kind of reputation a client has online through media monitoring, and then creates bots that improve its image through positive posts, "drowns negative reviews in a sea of favourable information about the company" and "creates hype" around it. The Others: Irina Kaverzina, Vadim Podkopaev, GlebVasilchenko, Vladimir Venkov Kaverzina grew worried after Facebook revealed last September that it was cooperating with authorities to look into Russian advertising on the platform. "We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke)," she wrote to a relative, according to the indictment. "So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues," she added. "I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people." Podkopaev was an analyst for the "translator project." He conducted research on the United States and drafted social media messages for the organisation, according to the indictment.Munich: Amid anxiety about President Donald Trump's approach to global affairs, US officials had a message for a gathering of Europe's foreign policy elite in Germany: pay no attention to the man tweeting behind the curtain.

US lawmakers  both Democrats and Republicans  and top national security officials in the Trump administration offered the same advice publicly and privately, often clashing with Trump's Twitter stream: the United States remains staunchly committed to its European allies, is furious with the Kremlin about election interference and isn't contemplating a preemptive strike on North Korea to halt its nuclear program.

But Trump himself engaged in a running counterpoint to the message, taking aim on social media at his own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, for not tell the Munich Security Conference that the results of the 2016 election weren't affected by Russian interference  a conclusion that is not supported by US intelligence agencies.

The determination to ignore Trump's foreign policy tweets has been bipartisan.Blockchain revolution comes to world of humanitarian aid



New York, Feb 18 (AFP) Feb 18, 2018



Blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency bitcoin, is taking root in a sector far from finance: the world of humanitarian aid.

By offering refugees a virtual identity, reassuring donors that their money is being well spent, or rushing funds where they are needed most, aid charities are experimenting with the technology in the hopes that it can improve their work.

"We are at the very beginning. There is a lot of hype," said Christopher Fabian, leader of UNICEF's Ventures Fund, which invests in open source technology solutions.

At the end of 2017, UNICEF -- the UN agency dedicated to protecting children -- brought together Russian-speaking blockchain experts in a meeting in Kazakhstan.

The goal? To develop a "smart contract" that would facilitate transactions between the organization and its numerous partners for deliveries and payments, if certain conditions were met.

"It totally failed, but we learned a lot from that and will do the same challenge this year in Mexico," Fabian admitted, adding that he could envision a host of future projects using blockchain for the "social good" -- even if most of them will fail.

But the agency is thirsty for innovation.

Its French office has also launched an operation dubbed Game Chaingers (for blockchain), which challenges tech geeks and gaming enthusiasts to install on their computers software aimed at creating Ethereum, a virtual currency, to help Syrian children.



- Syrian refugees -



Blockchain allows users to create and spread information across a large network of computers, which its proponents say lends it both transparency and security. And the applications for the technology are multiplying quickly.

For aid and development groups, blockchain can come in all shapes and sizes.

Aid donors could, for example, trace their contributions as they spread across an organization. The platform Disberse, supported by a network of 42 humanitarian groups, already road-tested this application by tracking money sent by a British association to four schools in Swaziland.

In theory, the technique can reduce transaction costs, fight corruption by making everything transparent, and allow a better record of where food aid is directed, or make sure that medicines are not counterfeited.

Those in charge of programs that directly send money to people in need also see it as a way of more easily controlling the disbursement of funds or avoiding use of financial intermediaries such as banks, which might also take a cut.

"In the old days, we were delivering aid at the back of the truck," said Alex Sloan, a consultant at the World Food Programme's Innovation Accelerator, which works with start-ups and others to help fight hunger.

"Now, we are moving toward distributing cash to our beneficiaries, in the form of actual cash, through vouchers, e-cards, et cetera."

Sloan's organization has already field-tested a pilot project in Jordan's Azraq refugee camp, where Syrian refugees can use iris-identification technology at a cash register to buy food and supplies.

The amount of money is then passed on via a blockchain-based computing platform.

The program is currently private and used only by the WFP, making it more of a database project than a real blockchain.

But Sloan said it could serve as a "tool to bring different partners and organizations together to collaborate and make the industry much more effective."



- 'Scary implications' -



The expansion of blockchain is not without risk.

Besides the technical constraints, such as the need for an internet connection, blockchain poses some basic questions about governance and data protection.

How to ensure, for example, that key information about refugees is not hacked by dictatorial regimes? Who authenticates the data? Which countries accept virtual portfolios?

"It's hard to navigate the regulatory environment or the lack of it," said Rosa Akbari, technology advisor at the US charity Mercy Corps.

Her group recently teamed up with tech giants Microsoft and Accenture for the ID2020 Alliance, working on a virtual identity model to help refugees.

"We need to have more understanding of what is going on and we want to have a seat at the table," said Akbari.

Blockchain has enormous potential but still has a long way to go, she said.

In fragile states, and dealing with people facing great hardship, "there could be some scary implications if we don't do it responsibly," she said.

jum/jh/it/sst

ACCENTUREIsrael arrests Palestinians 'planning attack on defence minister'



Jerusalem, Feb 18 (AFP) Feb 18, 2018



Israel arrested six Palestinians suspected of planning attacks targeting Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman and other Israelis in the occupied West Bank, security agency Shin Bet said Sunday.

Shin Bet said the six were affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group and were active in the Bethlehem area where they sought to carry out shootings against Israeli civilians and security forces.

In addition, some of the group had been planning to target Lieberman's vehicle when he travelled to his home in a West Bank settlement.

According to a Shin Bet statement, the suspects had been "trying to obtain explosives to make a bomb, and even reached out to terror elements in (Gaza) for funding."

"Upon failing to acquire the materials, they decided to create a fake device to receive recognition for their action and enable further attacks," the statement read.

The six will be charged in an Israeli military court later Sunday.

In 2014, Shin Bet said it had apprehended a Hamas group planning to assassinate then-foreign minister Lieberman by firing a rocket-propelled grenade at his convoy.Artificial intelligence poses questions for nature of war: Mattis



Washington, Feb 18 (AFP) Feb 18, 2018



Artificial intelligence and its impact on weapons of the future has made US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis doubt his own theories on warfare.

A question on the subject prompted the retired Marine general to give an impromptu seminar on his theory of war Saturday to reporters returning with him from a week-long tour of Europe.

Recalling his own writings, he differentiated between the essential nature of war, which is unchanging because it is human, and war's character, which is changing.

"The fundamental nature of war is almost like H2O," he said. "It's equipment, technology, courage, competence, integration of capabilities, fear, cowardice, all these things mixed together into a very unpredictable fundamental nature of war."

"The character of war changes all the time. An old dead German called it a Chameleon because it changes to adapt to its time, to the technology, to the terrain," he said, referring to the 19th century military strategist Carl von Clausewitz.

Mattis explained that today drones are piloted remotely, but tomorrow weapons may be able to learn on their own, adapt and fire themselves.

"The most misnamed weapon in our system is the unmanned aerial vehicle. It may not have a person in the cockpit, but there is someone flying it, someone over his shoulder, and actually more people flying it than a manned airplane," he said.

"If we ever get to the point where it is completely on automatic pilot, we are all spectators. That is no longer serving a political purpose. And conflict is a social problem that needs social solutions, people -- human solutions."

He said he did not know what artificial intelligence will do to warfare, "but I am certainly questioning my original premise of the fundamental nature of war that does not change.

"You have got to question that now. I just don't have the answer."London, Feb 18, 2018 (SPS) - The Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) hailed Friday, Swedens opposition to the European Commissions sought mandate to start negotiations with Morocco for a new fisheries agreement, which includes the Western Sahara territorial waters.

Swedens position seems to have evolved towards one that is more compliant with international law and the CJEU ruling, said the Coordinator of Western Sahara Resource Watch, Sara Eyckman, cited in the WSRWs communique.

It is good to see Sweden take a firm position, Eyckman continued, expressing the hope to see this it translate into national policy by issuing clear guidance to Swedish companies not to engage in Western Sahara.

As a reminder, Sweden announced that it will vote against the validation of the European Commission mandate to open negotiations on a new protocol to the EU fisheries Partnership agreement with Morocco, which includes the Sahrawi territorial waters. (SPS)

062/SPS/APSKarapetyan issues directives galore, but whos listening?

Four months ago, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan told Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan to continue the steps being taken in the Armenian capital as part of the Clean Armenia program that Karapetyan had recently heralded.

Margaryan has been dragging his feet. On February 13, the mayor and his cronies tried to quash an attempt by Yerkir Tsirani council members to focus attention on the ongoing problem of sewage and waste odors in the Noubarashen neighborhood. The two Yerkir Tsirani members  Marina Khachatryan and Sona Aghekyan  were attacked and physically removed from municipal council session.

The embarrassing fracas could have been prevented had Minister of Emergency Affairs Davit Tonoyan, Minister of Nature Protection Artsvik Minasyan, Minister of Territorial Governance and Development Davit Lokyan, Minister of Agriculture Ignati Arakelyan, Minister of Health Levon Altunyan, State Water Resources Committee Director Arsen Haroutyunyan, and Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan heeded the directives issued by the prime minister on October 26, 2017.

Those directives were two-fold:

1. Take steps to prevent the mixing of irrigation and sewage water, and to eliminate cases where wastes are emptied into irrigation water. When necessary, to call those committing such acts to account as specified by the law.

2. To draft a set of proposals, and to present them to the Government, to prevent such cases as noted above and regarding pollution compensation, by December 26, 2017

Hetq has examined the 264 directives issued by Prime Minister Karapetyan in 2017. In 90 of these, Karapetyan called on the heads of government agencies, provincial and local government bodies, to propose solutions for the water issues cited above and for other problems.

Karapetyan also issued directives regarding job creation, business development, spurring manufacturing, among others.

More specifically, he issued 40 directives on state governance, 34 on the environment, and 24 on business.

Photos by Narek Aleksanyan

State Governance: Directives were issued to facilitate administrative policy, especially regarding investments. The prime minister also wanted various community services (garbage collection, lighting, medical) to be transferred to the private sector. A few directives dealt with making the reporting process of state agencies more transparent. The prime minister also issued directives for the implementation of prior directives.

Environment: Many of these directives dealt with trash collection and disposal as part of the Clean Armenia project. Several directives also dealt with illegal logging, prevention of illegal water usage from Lake Sevan, and measuring the damage caused by hydro-electric plants.

Business: The prime minister called for greater cooperation with Russian state agencies and the formation of an Armenia-Russia Investment Foundation to spur the business sector in Armenia. He called for the inclusion of Russian capital in the planned Meghri free trade zone. Karapetyan instructed all provincial governors to offer proposals regarding community investment and fostering tourism. He also instructed the State Revenue Committee to audit the books of small and medium sized business only in the most extreme cases.

Prime Minister Karapetyan issued 45 directives addressed to Minister of Territorial Administration and Development Davit Lokyan in 2017. Here are the numbers received by other top officials.

So many directives. But are they just words on paper? Hetq promises to investigate.Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan left for Germany today to attend the 2018 Munich Security Conference (MSC) which opened yesterday.

Sargsyan will participate in a panel discussion this evening on the topic: In or Out? The Countries In-Between Russia and Europe.

The MSC began in 1963 and is a major global forum for the discussion of security policy.

Update: Sargsyan's statement HERESix children live with their parents in a small apartment in Gyumri, Armenias second largest city.

Gyulnara is twelve, Hasmik is ten, Vardushik is eight, Hamlet is six, Spartak is three and Ani is two.

"We are poor but can understand everyone. But the rich do not understand us," says Hasmik, and looks away.

Her younger sister Ani, aged two, sits on a bunch of cardboard the kids have collected to be burned instead of fire wood.

Ani

Hasmik is in the 5th grade. She knows how difficult it was for her parents to come up with the 1,070 drams ($2.2) needed to enter the Mathematical Kangaroo school competition. The girl says that they managed to collect the 1,000 drams, leaving them 70 drams short. But they paid the entry fee. Her mother, Jemma Tovmasyan, notes that Hasmik is quite good at mathematics.

Jemma, 31, says she had a lot of difficulties in her parents house, too. They were five children, and her mother worked in the fields.

Their two-room apartment, which lacks a kitchen, is full of smoke, since the stoves exhaust pipe is damaged. There are very few items of furniture inside. The piano is for Gyulnara. She attends a music school. Jemma says she studies well. Overall, her three daughters study well at school. They only have trouble learning foreign languages.

Jemma, Gyulnara and Hasmik

Jemma's husband comes in. He can hardly stand. Hes an alcoholic. Jemma says her mother-in-law, who used to live with them, suddenly died in January. Thats when the man turned to drink. Once, he had to be rushed to intensive care. The doctors told him to stay away from the bottle.

A sewing machine sits near the window. In the evenings, Jemma and her husband sew gloves. They sew 100 pairs  month, selling most of them to the bakeries for 100 drams a pair, earning 10,000 drams per month.

The familys state allowance is 62,000 drams ($129).

10-year-old Hasmik says she dreams of having a desk. It is difficult to write on a small table in the living room, and the noise of the little ones is quite disturbing. She dreams of having a house and her own room, in order to write and read quietly. "We all sleep next to each other, which is not convenient at all," she says.

Jemma says we can never really understand their situation: one needs to live in the same conditions to be able to understand.

Hasmik

Hasmik adds, "Sometimes we wear clothes found next to the garbage bins. If they are not good enough, we burn them." The stove is fired up all year long with whatever is available. Its to heat the apartment and to cook. Its damp in the apartment, and the clothes and the bed get wet.

Hamlet, Spartak and Vardushik

"The children in our previous class were very rich. There was a girl, Milena, whose family had a big store. She wanted to make my classmates not play with me. When she moved, everything became better," says Hasmik.

Gyulnara adds that in her previous school the rich children in the class did not want to play with the poor. It was difficult for her, but then she changed the school and now her classmates do play with her.

Hasmik says the teacher treats the poor and rich children differently; shouting at the poor, while making jokes with the better-off children.

Jemma says that they dont have much money, but when they see beggars, they give coins.

Gyulnara asks Hasmik to tell the story about an old man. Hasmik says one day they went to the store to buy some bread, and saw an old man digging in the garbage bin in the street. They thought he was looking for food. After buying the bread for themselves, they still had 50 drams left, so they bought a bun for the old man. But when they exited the store, he was gone.

Gyulnara, Hasmik and Vardushik have many dreams. They want to attend gymnastics classesbut cannot afford the monthly 5,000 drams fee.

The children accompany us to the nearest bus stop. We speak about goals and dreams again.

I tell Hasmik that Im looking forward to her victory in the Kangaroo contest. Shes a bit uncertain about winning.

Hasmik doesnt know what profession she will choose when she grows up, but one thing is certain - she wont discriminate between rich and poor; shell help everyone.

Photos by Narek AleksanyanSYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse teen admitted to obtaining a gun and accidentally firing it after a shooting in the Near West Side resulted in the death of another teen, according to court records.

Dwight J. Murray, 17, of Syracuse, was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, according to a felony complaint filed in City of Syracuse court. Murray was arrested after 18-year-old Niko Santana was shot Feb. 9 at 443 Shonnard Street and died.

Murray obtained the gun, a 9 millimeter semi-automatic Hi-Point Luger, from a "source," court records said. After arriving at a friend's house, Murray admitted to accidentally firing the loaded gun, court records said. The 17-year-old led police to the weapon and police found evidence to corroborate the gun was loaded, according to court records.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A teenager was stabbed in the side Saturday afternoon on Syracuse's West Side.

The Syracuse Police Department responded to the 1500 block of Bellevue Avenue around 1:45 p.m. after a caller reported a stabbing. A wounded 17-year-old boy had walked to a home Bellevue Avenue and asked for help, said Sgt. Richard Helterline, a police spokesman.

The stabbing may have happened during a fight near Hoefler Street and Bellevue Avenue, Helterline said. The teen was stabbed in the side of his abdomen, he said.

American Medical Response transported the teen to Upstate University Hospital. His injury does not appear life-threatening, Helterline said.

Police asked anyone with information about the stabbing to call (315) 442-5222 or submit tips anonymously through the SPD Tips app.The owners of Tops Friendly Markets are preparing to file for bankruptcy protection, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The report indicates Tops could file as early as this month. The grocery store chain operates 178 stores in the Northeastern United States, including 14 stores within 15 miles of the City of Syracuse, and employs more than 15,000 people.

Bi-Lo LLC, which owns Winn-Dixie, another grocery chain, is also expected to file in March, according to the report. Competition with big-box stores and online grocers have hurt sales across the industry, Bloomberg reported.

Sales dropped for Tops when the United States government cut food-stamp subsides, whose users account for 10 percent of the chain's annual revenue, according to the Bloomberg report.

Since 2007, Tops has been owned by three separate groups.

Ahold, an international food retail conglomerate based in the Netherlands, sold Tops to Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 2007. In 2013, Tops' management bought out Morgan Stanley Private Equity.The union president representing 12,000 Tops employees says the grocery chain is still meeting its obligations for worker benefits, but the union is "monitoring the situation daily."

On Saturday, Bloomberg cited unnamed sources saying that the chain was considering bankruptcy in the face of its $1 billion in debt and other stresses on the grocery industry.

Tops officials declined to comment on the Bloomberg report.

UFCW Local One president Frank DeRiso issued a statement in response to the Bloomberg story, saying the union has been meeting with financial advisers for several months to stay on top of the finances of Tops.

The union will have another meeting this week to discuss the situation, De Riso said.

In the meantime, Tops is meeting all of its contractual obligations for workers' health care, pensions and 401Ks, he said.

"The contract for UFCW Local One's 12,000 Tops members is in full effect. We are monitoring this situation daily and will keep members informed of new developments," he said in the statement.

The union did not immediately respond to a request for further comment Sunday.

The report indicates Tops could file as early as this month.

The grocery store chain operates 178 stores in the Northeastern United States, including 14 stores within 15 miles of the city of Syracuse, and employs more than 15,000 people.

Since 2007, Tops has been owned by three separate groups.

Ahold, an international food retail conglomerate based in the Netherlands, sold Tops to Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 2007. In 2013, Tops' management bought out Morgan Stanley Private Equity.

A retail consultant told the Buffalo News that he thinks Tops won't file for bankruptcy anytime soon. That's because the chain is in the middle of a strong sales season, and it has plenty of assets it can sell off before considering bankruptcy.

"It could happen. It shouldn't happen. Do not expect it to happen, because Tops has a number of valuable assets that it could sell," Burt P. Flickinger III told the newspaper.Researchers have successfully grown sheep embryos that contain human cells, a breakthrough that may someday save the lives of many patients who need an organ transplant.

Pablo Ross, from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues announced at this week's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas that they have grown sheep embryos with human cells.

Growing Sheep Embryos For Organ Transplant

Researchers have been using genome editing technique to produce animal embryos that do not develop pancreas. The objective is that human cells introduced to these embryos would grow to replace the missing organ.

Researchers have already worked on pig embryos but there are several advantages for using sheep embryos, one of which is that these can be easily produced by IVF. Fewer sheep embryos are also required for an experiment.

"For a pig we typically transfer 50 embryos to one recipient," said Ross. "With the sheep we transfer four embryos to one recipient."

Sheep also have heart and lungs that are similar to those of humans. They also produce organs that are about the right size for the human body. Depending on the organ a patient needs, organs are typically matched using characteristics, which include the size of the organ needed.

"The sheep is a good model for many human conditions," Ross said. "The size of the sheep organs is similar to human size, some of the organs are physiologically similar between sheep and humans and a lot of cardiovascular research is done in sheep because it has some similarities to humans in terms of heart shape."

Ross and colleagues transplanted human stem cells into the preimplantation embryos of sheep. The embryos are then allowed to grow for a week before these were implanted into a surrogate sheep. The researchers are currently allowed to let these chimeric embryos develop for 28 days so the surrogate animal is slaughtered after 21 days.

About one in 10,000 cells in the sheep embryos that the researchers developed are human. Nonetheless, they said that more work is needed to raise the proportion of humans cells in the chimera.

Thousands On The Organ Transplant List

Growing the human organs inside animals offers hope of revolutionizing organ transplantation by increasing the supply of organs and possibly develop genetically tailored organs that can significantly reduce odds of transplant rejection.

More than 76,000 individuals in the United States are on the organ transplant list. It will take years for them to get to the top of this list. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 7,000 patients who needed an organ transplant died in 2016. Some patients who were lucky to receive transplants see organs rejected.

To date, more donated organs come from deceased donors.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The Bi-Lo grocery chain, the parent company for Winn-Dixie and others, could file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy as soon as next month, according to a report from Bloomberg.

As part of the move, the company is planning to close nearly 200 stores, according to a source who spoke to Bloomberg, who asked not to be identified because the process isnt public.

However, Bloomberg reported that Bi-Lo could "still find a way to restructure its debt out of court." The company had previously discussed a debt-to-equity swap with its creditors, according to the report.

Bi-Lo has previously filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Winn-Dixie has approximately 500 locations spread between Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and Mississippi.

With low margins and ample competition, the grocery business has always been challenging. But now the industry is contending with a more aggressive push by big-box retailers and Amazon.com Inc., which acquired Whole Foods last year to give it a larger brick-and-mortar presence, the Bloomberg report reads.

Bloomberg previously reported that Bi-Lo was considering filing for bankruptcy last fall.

For the full Bloomberg report, click here.The wife of the French Settlement police chief was arrested Saturday night on counts of driving while intoxicated, speeding and driving with a suspended license, Louisiana State Police spokesman Bryan Lee confirmed.

Tammy Daenen, also known as Tammy Brignac, was arrested by Louisiana State Police while driving on La. 16 east of La. 444 around midnight in southern Livingston Parish, Lee said.

Daenen, 50, is married to French Settlement Police Chief Harry Brignac.

She is currently involved in a dispute with the village's board of alderman over whether she is allowed to drive a village patrol car, despite refusing to provide her driver's license information.

Lee said she was not driving a patrol car when she was arrested.

French Settlement officials seek legal opinion on police chief's wife's use of patrol car When the wife of French Settlements chief of police was seen driving his patrol car in the villages annual Christmas parade last month, it r

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Asked about the allegations Sunday morning, Daenen confirmed she was arrested for DWI but contested that her license was suspended in advance of the stop.

"Yes, I got a DWI," she said. "No, my driver's license was not suspended up until last night."

Daenen, a school crossing guard, maintained the reason she won't give her driver's license information to the village is because the officials are "crooked." She said she would be willing to give it to the insurance company.

Brignac, the police chief, has said his wife has driven the patrol car only on a few occasions, including the Christmas parade last year, but the mayor and a member of the board of aldermen said she has driven it routinely, including to work.

Check back for updates.Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionThe latest plans for school construction over the next decade arent sitting well with East Baton Rouge Parish School Board members who represent south Baton Rouge.

Those members pressed school leaders to accelerate the building of new schools in that fast growing but school-scarce part of the parish when the plans were presented at a retreat on Saturday.

The areas with the most children are being placed last in the plan, said Connie Bernard, whose District 8 includes much of south Baton Rouge but has only three public schools.

As the board met Saturday at Southern University for its full day retreat, Superintendent Warren Drake and his staff presented 22 Recommended Named Projects that the school system is looking to build between 2019 and 2029. The promised new schools in south Baton Rouge would open no earlier than 2027, nearly a decade from now.

The construction will occur only if voters renew a 1-cent-sales tax earmarked for education  a public referendum that is scheduled for April 28. About half of the revenue from the sales tax goes to school construction. That portion of the tax is expected to generate $417 million for that purpose over the next decade. The board plans to vote on Thursday on which construction projects it will ask voters to support.

Plans for improving 32 low performing schools in Baton Rouge to be debated Saturday The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board is holding an all-day retreat Saturday at Southern University to talk about how it plans to improve 3

Saturdays retreat also included a presentation on the school systems evolving plans to improve its 32 lowest performing schools, particularly 21 neighborhood schools. The school system has until March 1 to submit its strong evidence-based plans for improving its persistently struggling schools and perhaps be eligible for millions of dollars in grants to fund those plans. Those plans are required by the federal 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act.

But talk of school construction dominated Saturdays discussion.

Im worried that were going to be behind the growth curve in the southeast part of the parish, Mike Gaudet, whose District 7 abuts Bernards district. All these schools (in that area) are bursting at the seams, and subdivisions are going up right and left.

Gaudet suggested delaying three projects currently ahead in line  major repairs to Broadmoor Middle and Mayfair Lab, and reconstruction of Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts  so the new south Baton Rouge schools, estimated to cost $70 million, could be built years earlier. The latest plan also calls for setting aside $10 million to buy land for these new south Baton Rouge schools.

Board member Jill Dyason said that was too little money to build a new elementary, middle and a high school for the area.

I dont think that $70 million is going to provide the capacity we need, Dyason said.

Baton Rouge school construction plans still have these pieces missing as vote looms As a Feb. 22 vote nears, East Baton Rouge Parish school leaders are busy preparing a final wish list of $417 million worth of construction pro

Dyasons District 6 includes Woodlawn, the heart of the breakaway school district movement that culminated in the St. George incorporation movement that fell short in 2015. The St. George movement, which organizers have threatened to revive, loomed in the background Saturday but was spoken of only indirectly.

We really need six schools, Dyason said, alluding to the number of new schools that St. George supporters years ago promised voters theyd build if they ever won the authority to run a public school district.

Kenyetta Nelson Smith, who represents north Baton Rouge-centered District 3, was dubious. She noted that the School Board has approved new charter schools, BASIS Baton Rouge and IDEA Innovation, that will open in south Baton Rouge this fall and those schools will draw hundreds of children, limiting the demand for new neighborhood schools.

Nelson-Smith suggested waiting before building a new middle and high school in the area, a delay that would free up cash flow and perhaps allow an earlier start.

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Why not just build an elementary school and build up from there? she said, sparking a few nods in the room.

Dyason responded that doing that wouldnt alleviate crowding in the schools that already serve south Baton Rouge. She said the school system needs to build schools for all grades right away as well as redraw attendance zones across the parish as a way of right-sizing schools.

I understand the attraction of doing just an elementary, but we have needs at the middle and high school level now, she said.

Board members from north Baton Rouge, who had previously raised concerns about how much money was being directed to south Baton Rouge in earlier drafts, were mostly quiet on that subject Saturday.

Eyes on the prize: East Baton Rouge parents pushing for schools in the $417 million construction program About 100 people showed up Tuesday at Scotlandville High School for the first of four final community forums aimed at shaping school construct

One project that several board members urged Drake to rethink is the plan to close Broadmoor Middle, spend $15 million to renovate the 57-year-old school and then hand the 1225 Sharp Road campus over to the popular Baton Rouge Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet, or BR FLAIM. BR FLAIM parents lobbied heavily at 10 recent community forums to have a home big enough to house middle school students as well as its current elementary students.

Board member Evelyn Ware-Jackson said the board should stick with its decision a year ago to have BR FLAIM relocate to the former Valley Park Junior High, 4510 Bawell Street, and quit using it as a swing space where other schools send kids while their home campuses are rebuilt.

Dyason suggested keeping open Broadmoor Middle even though the school has less than 400 students. She suggested expanding its attendance zone to include some students who now go to Woodlawn Middle, which has more than 900 students.

Dyason also suggested adding a new art program at Broadmoor Middle to attract even more students and naming it after recently deceased school board member Buckskin Bill Black. Black was a big champion of a similar program at the middle school that was closed over a decade ago as part of the resolution of the 51-year-old school desegregation case.

+2 Baton Rouge TV star, community leader 'Buckskin Bill' Black dies One of Baton Rouges most beloved figures, William Bill Black, known to most as Buckskin Bill, died Wednesday, according to family members.

Board member Dawn Collins questioned moving the foreign language immersion students now at Westdale Middle School to a relocated BR FLAIM at Broadmoor Middle. She said such a move would hurt Westdale Middle and is opposed by many parents there now.

Drake said hed re-examine the proposal, but said the foreign language program at Westdale Middle lacks space to expand.

If you keep it at Westdale theres no way to grow it, Drake said. Were thinking big picture here.

As Saturdays retreat concluded, Drake said he will be meeting with his leadership team Monday to go over what board members said and think again about the projects and the construction schedule. He said they will subsequently update the project list and send it to board members as soon as possible.

The superintendent also urged board members not to let their current differences to spill over into the election campaign that will precede the April 28 vote.

I know we have One Team, One Mission  the motto Drake has used since he took over as superintendent in 2015  but I think we need to have one voice as well, he said.

We are not all going to get what we want, and were not going to all get it when we want it, Drake cautioned.The foul-smelling debris piled up at the end of driveways after the 2016 flood didn't just disappear; it got shipped to Ronaldson Field, the landfill about a mile and a half west of the Baton Rouge Zoo, and just across the street from residents in the community of Alsen.

After the storm, neighbors raged that soggy carpets and drywall were decomposing in their backyards. The landfill was temporarily permitted to receive those materials at a site that ordinarily accepts only limited construction and woody material. But the problems with Ronaldson Field go back years, even decades farther, Metro Councilwoman Chauna Banks said.

+6 A messy debate: which East Baton Rouge landfill is best equipped for flood debris? The dumping of flood debris at a landfill in the north Baton Rouge community of Alsen has reawakened contentious debates about where debris sh

The landfill's 10-year permit comes up for renewal this year. Alsen residents and environmental groups are taking the occasion to launch a campaign to convince the state to clamp down or shut down Ronaldson Field.

They worry about the smell, the fire risk, the possibility of chemicals being released into the air and water and the attraction of snakes and other vermin.

Officials at the privately-owned landfill declined to be interviewed but issued a statement saying their facility fills a public need.

"Ronaldson Field fulfills a vital role in ensuring that the growth of East Baton Rouge and its surrounding parishes are not hindered due to a lack of landfill space for the economical disposal of construction and demolition debris materials," operations manager Beau Brian wrote.

"The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality conducts compliance inspections at Ronaldson Field on a routine basis. Literally dozens of compliance inspections have been conducted at the facility during and since the August, 2016 flood."

State environmental officials confirmed that Ronaldson Field is currently in compliance with all their requirements, and there hasn't been any enforcement action against the site in recent memory.

Banks doesn't dispute that the facility is in compliance. She's focused more on the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, which she described as being "negligent" in performing its regulatory duties.

In a Feb. 5 letter to DEQ secretary Chuck Carr Brown, she said the department's response to odor complaints, water and air monitoring, pest control, fire safety and waste inspection is inadequate.

"Something is wrong, and we just need to get to the bottom of it," she said in an interview.

The Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the local chapter of the Sierra Club have also taken up the fight.

Residents feel ignored as Ronaldson Field has expanded even as they worried about potentially hazardous run-off or contaminated dust blowing off the site, said Michael Orr, who wrote to DEQ on behalf of LEAN.

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Willie Fontenot, of the Sierra Club, contended that storm waste was disposed of improperly, putting the site at a risk of fire. Also, no one has thoroughly considered if an alternative site would be more appropriate to safeguard the health of residents and the environment, he continued.

The environmental organization and local councilwoman have called on DEQ to host a public hearing so they can air their grievances. They appear to have secured at least that much.

"I can pretty much guarantee there will be a public hearing," on the permit application and that the department will respond to all concerns, DEQ assistant secretary Elliott Vega said.

The department and the landfill operators are still collecting all the necessary documents to review the permit application, Vega said, but he anticipates hosting a public forum within the year.

Vega said the department "is pretty doggone good" at ensuring landfills comply with environmental regulations.

He and press secretary Greg Langley pointed out that the state limits how much space can be open to dumping before it must be covered over with dirt to mask the smell and prevent vermin.

Ronaldson also must submit water each month to be tested for pollutants. However, Banks, in her letter, points out lapses in discharge reports since the August flood that she finds suspicious. DEQ officials say sometimes when there isn't much rain, water just doesn't run off the site so there's nothing to test.

DEQ may also monitor the air, although they haven't done so recently at Ronaldson Field. The department may also tell a landfill to use deodorants or burn off or redirect noxious gases, Langley said.

Residents may report a complaint by calling (888)-763-5424. Banks said residents of Alsen and St. Irma Lee report that complaints are handled slowly and inconsistently.

There are also some restrictions that apply to some landfills but not to Ronaldson Field because it ordinarily is limited to construction and demolition debris and woody waste  "sticks and bricks" in DEQ parlance. Ronaldson was temporarily permitted to take furniture, carpets and drywall after the 2016 flood.

A general use landfill would now have to include 200 feet of buffer zone between waste and the property line. But because Ronaldson Field usually handles less foul-smelling material, it must only be set back 50 feet, Vega said.

As the permitting debate rolls on, Ronaldson Field is losing a noteworthy client  the East Baton Rouge government. Under a new contract starting March 1, Waste Management will begin to accept the city-parish's vegetative waste at the North Landfill, said environmental services director Adam Smith.

The city-parish has yet to strike a contract with a firm to haul debris from demolitions, such as when public works employees tear down a condemned building. However, the last firm also took their debris to the North Landfill, and whoever eventually wins the contract may select their own landfill.The plan to widen Interstate 10 in Baton Rouge would not only add a lane in each direction.

It also would make huge changes to some of the exits along the 3.5-mile corridor between the Interstate 10/12 split and the Mississippi River bridge.

Gov. John Bel Edwards outlined his proposal last month, and state officials hope to start construction in 2019 or 2020 using federal bonds that the state would repay over 12 years.

Many details of the project are unclear.

"We can't speak with certainty because we are in the process," said Shawn Wilson, secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development. "We can only tell you what the next phase is."

However, major changes are envisioned from the "new" bridge eastbound after nearly two decades of proposals, controversy and false starts.

Mississippi River bridge to Dalrymple

This section of the corridor is one of the biggest traffic chokepoints in the Baton Rouge area.

Motorists leaving the bridge and heading into Baton Rouge now have two eastbound lanes  briefly. The outside lane requires drivers leaving the bridge to quickly exit at little-used Washington Street.

That often sparks panic by motorists, who then force their way one lane over, and out of the Washington Street-bound lane, to continue eastbound on I-10.

Under the plan, what is now the Washington Street exit lane off the bridge would become the new eastbound lane that carries travelers through town to the I-10/12 split.

Motorists still would have the option of exiting farther east at a new, combined Washington Street/Dalrymple exit.

"That way, you will have two lanes coming from I-110 south and two lanes coming off the bridge," said Eric Kalivoda, deputy secretary for DOTD.

The current configuration narrows I-10 eastbound to three lanes after motorists leave the bridge.

In addition, the overhaul would add an eastbound I-10 path from Dalrymple, which has been discussed for years.

Motorists can currently use an on-ramp from Dalrymple to get to I-10 westbound. That would not change.

What is new is motorists on Dalrymple also would have the option to take a short frontage road toward Washington Street, cross under the interstate and loop around to a new, eastbound I-10 on-ramp.

"It would be a Texas turnaround," Kalivoda said. "Very similar to the one we have at Government Street, where you can turn around and go to the casino."

State Rep. Patricia Smith, D-Baton Rouge, who generally backs the governor's plan, said some concerns in the past about widening I-10 from residents in the Washington Street area have disappeared.

"The houses are occupied by renters because the majority of homeowners have died," Smith said.

Perkins Road overpass

Business owners in the area have long criticized I-10 widening plans and predicted that adding new lanes would destroy restaurants, bars and shops.

Kalivoda said the state may not need any right of way for that section of the widening.

The work can be done, he said, without putting more restaurants and bars literally under a revamped I-10.

The key? Closing the on- and off-ramps at Perkins, which would create space on both sides of the existing interstate.

"In removing those ramps, and of course we own the right of way that the ramps currently occupy, that gives us the room to widen and add additional through lanes," he said.

Most of the widening will be done on the outside of the roadway.

Lanes have to be 12 feet wide.

Acadian Thruway

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At Acadian Thruway, the westbound on-ramp and the eastbound off-ramp would be lengthened.

Both would be done after the Perkins Road on- and off-ramps are removed.

The westbound on-ramp to I-10, which is near TJ Ribs, is especially troublesome, and some motorists avoid it.

"It is a very short on-ramp," Kalivoda said. "But we can't really lengthen it because the Perkins Road on-ramp is in the way."

The eastbound auxiliary lane between Acadian and College is expected to remain.

Some soundwalls in the area will be relocated on mostly state-owned property to allow for the widening.

College Drive

At College Drive, the widening means there will be four eastbound lanes crossing the College Drive overpass, and the College Drive on-ramp will make five.

Significantly, a new elevated express ramp will be added on I-10 for westbound drivers headed to College Drive.

The current pattern is this: Westbound motorists on I-10, after they pass Essen Lane, see that the interstate narrows from three lanes to two near the ramp for eastbound I-12.

That often results in motorists trying to wedge into traffic to avoid heading east on I-12.

The changes would eliminate the triple lane change that westbound I-10 drivers have to make to exit at College Drive.

No changes are planned for those headed to eastbound I-12 from westbound I-10, officials said.

+5 I-10 widening? Some residents fear project's potential effect on Baton Rouge businesses Gov. John Bel Edwards' $350 million plan to widen Interstate 10 from the Mississippi River bridge to the I-10/I-12 split in Baton Rouge has re

What's next

Traffic through the entire corridor was built in the 1960s for around 80,000 vehicles per day.

Instead, more than twice that number use it daily.

According to projections, more than 200,000 vehicles will be using it daily by 2032, boosting travel times by up to 80 percent.

Wilson has said the work will take at least five years and more likely six or seven years, which means 2025 for completion or more likely 2026 or 2027.

The governor's proposal has cleared the House and Senate transportation committees.

It next faces action in the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, possibly this month, and then the State Bond Commission.

Baton Rouge-area lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, generally support the governor's plan.

"It is the best opportunity we are going to have to get something done," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville.

The I-10 work is the biggest part of a $600 million undertaking, including up to $110 million to finish an I-10 connection from Loyola Avenue in Kenner to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Also, work is about to begin on an earlier announced project in Baton Rouge to add a new exit off I-110 South. Southbound motorists on I-110 will be able to get off at Terrace Avenue and get to the Washington Street area without using the Washington Street exit, which would be used for eastbound cars and trucks leaving the bridge. The Terrace Avenue work is expected to take about 18 months.

The aim is to allow motorists on I-110 South to exit left rather than having to cross multiple lanes to exit right at Washington, which causes backups.

The larger interstate widening plan envisions the state repaying the bond money annually from a portion of annual federal highway aid.

Sen. Bodi White, R-Central, is among supporters of the effort.

"If we don't do that, we will never get to alleviate the traffic problem in Baton Rouge," White said.The Louisiana Legislature could end up relying on charging sales taxes for items that the state previously said it wouldn't apply them to, like specialty Mardi Gras items, business utilities, ballet tickets and zoo admissions, as it looks to solve the state's latest fiscal crisis.

As lawmakers prepare to head into a special session Monday to address a looming $1 billion budget shortfall, no definitive plan has been formed but several legislators have zeroed in on the state sales tax as the most likely avenue for raising a sizable amount of revenue.

The state has temporarily been charging some sales taxes on many items that were once exempt  a component of the 2016 effort to beef up the state's anemic coffers. Those new sales taxes are set to expire June 30.

But legislators may opt to continue collecting those taxes and more as part of the latest effort to shore up the state's finances.

Legislation is still being drafted and filed, so it's unclear exactly how many of the state's nearly 200 sales tax exemptions are at stake. Together, they were valued at about $2.8 billion that the state was not charging before the changes in 2016.

Rep. Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, said under the proposal he plans to make, the state would allow a one-cent temporary sales tax hike that was also part of the 2016 plan to expire in June and then remove most exemptions from the 4 percent sales tax that is left. In the State Capitol, the removal of exemptions is often referred to as "cleaning pennies."

"The problem you have is the Republican line of thinking, in general, is that a sales tax is the fairest tax because everyone pays. But in our case, not everyone pays," Havard said.

Coupled with the temporary tax hike, the Legislature began charging sales taxes on items that previously had not been taxed, including tickets for cultural and sporting events, rare coins, breast feeding equipment and other items that had been protected in state law over the years. They were briefly taxed at 5 percent from April 2016 through June 2016, but have been at a lower 3 percent rate since July 2016.

This is the Legislature's fifth special session in two years  all dealing with the state's seemingly never-ending cycles of budget shortfalls.

The latest comes as the temporary tax measures are set to expire June 30.

Havard said he sees the "cleaning pennies" approach as a viable alternative, a competing push to extend the one-cent sales tax hike, which some other members favor.

"We told (constituents) it would be temporary and it looks like we will now be in the position of keeping a portion of the penny or all of it," Havard said. "I'm not going into a session without having an alternative to keeping the penny or some portion of it."

Havard said that he thinks that the state's current exemption system sets up winners and losers.

Learn more about how Louisiana might require Medicaid recipients to work for coverage Louisiana is on track to become one of the next states to seek approval to require some Medicaid recipients to work to keep their health care 

"A sales tax isn't a fair tax if everyone isn't paying," he said.

He said that the utilities issue, in particular, strikes a nerve.

Currently small business owners pay 4 percent sales tax on utilities, while large corporations pay 2 percent.

"The mom and pops and small businesses get screwed every time," Havard said. "I think it should be fair."

Havard said he thinks the state should keep existing exemptions on machinery, equipment and agriculture supplies. "Everything else, I think, is something we need to really look at," he said.

Havard said that he has talked to colleagues who have been generally supportive of the idea.

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Gov. John Bel Edwards calls lawmakers into special session starting Feb. 19 Louisiana lawmakers will return to the Capitol this month for another special session to try to shore up the state's finances. Again.

Stephen Waguespack, the president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, said it was too early to say whether his group, which wields a powerful sway with lawmakers as the largest voice of the business community, would support such a proposal because no legislation had been drafted.

"We're committed to being at the table and working in good faith with anyone," he said. "We don't know exactly the direction it's going."

But Waguespack said, in general, charging sales taxes when they have previously been exempt, can cause problems for businesses.

"I understand for a politician's purpose it's cool to talk about 'cleaning pennies'. But what does that mean?" he said. "If you tax the input it ends up being factored into the cost of the product and it goes to the consumer."

The biggest obstacle to any push for more revenue rests in the House, which is Republican controlled and has positioned itself as an opponent of Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat.

Ohio Checkbook website wows business crowd at Louisiana Association of Business & Industry conference The movement to create a more user-friendly budget transparency website in Louisiana keeps growing, and its backing likely got a hefty boost t

With the special session just hours away, neither House Republicans nor Democrats had come to a clear agreement on whether it would successfully pass anything. Edwards has said that he doesn't believe that the Legislature will pass a budget during the regular session that begins March 12, without an infusion of additional revenue because the cuts would be too drastic. That would force another special session after the regular session ends June 4. A budget must be approved by July 1 or there would be a state government shutdown.

Edwards had urged lawmakers to adopt other changes, including compressing the state's income tax brackets and extending sales taxes to some services  both items that House Republicans have said are unlikely to pass and therefore, for the most part, off the table before the special session even begins.

Edwards deputy chief of staff Richard Carbo said the governor stands by his position that broadening the tax base is the best path forward.

"The fastest growing sector of our economy is in the sale of services; not the sale of goods, which is why Gov. Edwards has proposed eliminating exemptions on the sales tax and broadening the base to include services," he said. "In turn, we would be able to lower the overall rates. A broader sales tax base with a lower rate and fewer exemptions would more closely reflect where Louisianas economy is going and would put us on par with our neighboring states."

House Democratic Caucus chair Gene Reynolds said that he thinks that there could be a temporary extension of part of the sales tax hike as part of the overall budget-balancing act.

"I think renewing the whole penny is out of the question," he said.

Lawmakers still disagree on how large the deficit will be in the coming budget cycle. The revenue estimating panel that decides how much money the state can spend holds its next meeting in March. Its last update didn't factor in what the state will save under a new federal tax rewrite, which could whittle more than $200 million off the shortfall.

The special session must end by March 7.

"All of the popular things are still out there and on the table," said Reynolds, D-Minden. "I don't think most of us would have a problem with cleaning the pennies."

House GOP Caucus chair Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, said he is "optimistic" about the special session's prospects, but wouldn't comment on legislation that he hasn't seen draft bills for. "We will know more next week when we see the bills that are filed," he said.

Republicans have put together a list of items that they want for any revenue to be approved  a new budget transparency cite, a new spending cap and a set of measures that would impact Medicaid recipients. Though none of them would immediately save money, the governor included them in the special session call because the House GOP wants to link each to a spending measure.

"Anything will have to be accompanied by the spending reforms," Harris said.Gov. John Bel Edwards listens to a question from a member of the media, Wednesday, March 29, 2017, flanked by La. Dept. of Revenue Secretary Kimberly Robinson, left, at a press conference to announce details of his tax and budget reform proposals for the 2017 regular legislative session.House Republicans spurned tradition and elected one of their own, New Iberia Republican Taylor Barras, shown here at center, as speaker after Gov. John Bel Edwards won election. The House GOP caucus has promised to push for fiscal and tax reform, but leaders have been hesitant to put out their own comprehensive blueprint, drawing criticism from Edwards. Barras is flanked here by Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, who chairs the House Republican Caucus, and Rep. Polly Thomas, R-Metairie.Those wanting to visit Lebak regency in Banten may want to drop by to Multatuli Museum on Jl. Alun-Alun Timur No. 8, Rangkasbitung.

Kompas.com reported that the museum was built to commemorate Eduard Douwes Dekker, a Dutch writer who went by the pen name Multatuli.

Occupying a 1,842-square-meter building, the museum has seven rooms, which are divided into four themes, presenting the history of colonialism in Indonesia, Multatuli and his works, the history of Lebak and Banten, as well as the current development of Rangkasbitung.

In regards to the collection, the museum showcases historical items owned by Eduard Douwes Dekker, including the first edition of Max Havelaar in French.

A post shared by George Sicillia (@george_sicillia) on Feb 11, 2018 at 2:36am PST

Read also: East Java transport museum adds new US 'muscle' to car collection

Published in 1860, the novel describes the starvation and corruption under the Cultivation System in the Dutch East Indies. Max Havelaar is regarded as one of the 50 greatest events in Dutch history, which managed to shock people in the Netherlands.

In addition to the first edition of Max Havelaar, the museum also showcases Multatulis face paintings, an old map of Lebak and some archives. It also displays letters between Multatuli and Dutch East Indies' officials about the condition of Lebaks residents at that time.

Furthermore, the museum is also equipped with an audiovisual room, allowing visitors to learn about history through modern technology.

Lebaks head of heritage and museum of the Education and Culture Agency, Ubaidillah Muchtar, said the museum would also gradually host Max Havelaar book discussions. (jes/kes)An 18th-century cello worth more than a million euros was returned to an award-winning French musician on Saturday after she was robbed at knifepoint in a Paris suburb earlier in the week.

"I received an anonymous call late in the morning saying that my cello was inside a car in front of my house. I found it in the back seat," soloist Ophelie Gaillard told AFP.

One of the car windows was broken and the musician said she quickly grabbed the instrument, which is "in good condition", before notifying police.

An attacker had held her up at knifepoint outside her home on Thursday, forcing her to hand over the cello, as well as her mobile phone, before fleeing on foot in the northeastern suburb of Pantin.

"The theft was very violent, I have not been able to sleep for two days. I am so relieved to have found it. I'm coming out of a two-day nightmare -- it's a miracle," she said.

Read also: Paris Grand Palais to get half-billion-euro facelift

The police confirmed the cello had been found and a source close to the investigation by the BRB unit in charge of armed robberies said: "It's not an instrument that can be sold to a fence on the corner".

After the robbery on Thursday, Gaillard appealed for help from the public on Facebook, posting pictures of the instrument.

The cello, which was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million), was made in Udine, Italy in 1737 by luthier Francesco Goffriller, son of Venetian master cello-maker Matteo Goffriller.

The cello case also contained her bow, which she said was made by acclaimed 19th-century French bowmaker Jean Pierre Marie Persoit "around 1825 in Paris".

In 2003, Gaillard was named the best new instrumental soloist at the French classical music awards.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Ankara, Turkey  Sun, February 18, 2018 07:11 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c60f72d 2 World Turkey,chemical-attack Free

Turkey has "never used" chemical weapons in Syria and accusations that it had done so during its offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia are "baseless", a Turkish diplomatic source said on Saturday.

Turkey last month launched military operation dubbed "Olive Branch" supporting Syrian rebels with ground troops and air strikes against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia viewed as "terrorists" by Ankara.

The Turkish source was reacting to claims by the head of Afrin hospital in northern Syria that six men were treated late Friday after shelling during the offensive and had symptoms that were in line with exposure to toxic agents.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said shelling from either Turkey or allied factions hit Al-Sheikh Hadid, west of the town of Afrin, and left six people with "enlarged pupils" and "breathing difficulties".

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP he could not confirm whether toxic gases were used.

But the Turkish source said Ankara took the "utmost care" regarding civilian safety and that the claims Turkey was responsible for an alleged gas attack were "baseless".

"Turkey never used chemical weapons," the source added. "(These are) lies... this is black propaganda."

Turkey says the YPG is linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by the United States and the European Union.

But the YPG has been working closely with Washington to oust the Islamic State extremist group from Syria, which has strained relations between the two NATO allies.

The Observatory says at least 78 civilians have died during Turkey's operation but Ankara repeatedly insists it is taking all the necessary measures to protect civilians.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Munich, Germany  Sun, February 18, 2018 18:16 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c61e4d3 2 World Israel,drone,Syria,war,Iran Free

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Saturday over aggressions by what he called Iran and its "proxies" in Syria, while showing what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace.

Saying he had "a message to the tyrants of Tehran" during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, he warned: "Do not test Israel's resolve."

He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called "a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down."

Israel has said it shot down the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

During the strikes, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Israel's response marked the first time it publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

Calling Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the "smooth-talking mouthpiece of Iran's regime," Netanyahu said: "Mr. Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, it's yours."

Again referring to Zarif, who is expected to speak later in Munich, the Israeli leader said: "No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Iran's involvement in Syria."

"He lies with eloquence."

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drone's debris.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agencies)  Sun, February 18, 2018 21:47 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c62683d 2 World Fidel-Castro,trudeau,relationship,conspiracy-theory Free

The Canadian government has denied multiple claims that Fidel Castro was the father of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Canadian government denied the report this week, the Associated Press reported. The Associated Press published the report as part on ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online.

A theory that Castro was Trudeau's father has widely been shared on social media after Castro's death in 2016, when Trudeau caused an uproar over remarks praising the late Cuban leader.

The theory once again spurred the internet after Castro's eldest son Fidel "Fidelito" Angel Castro Diaz-Balart, killed himself earlier this month. According to various reports, Fidelito left a suicide note behind where he addressed the 46-year-old Prime Minister as his 'half-brother'.

Justin Trudeau was born on December 25, 1971, to the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife, Margaret.

Trudeau was born a little more than nine months after the marriage of his parents and more than four years before Margaret made a much-publicized first trip to Cuba and met Fidel Castro.

Cuban government had never made the claim regarding Trudeau and had never substantiated the existence of any such suicide note.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Beijing, China  Sun, February 18, 2018 09:48 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c614bba 2 World Tibet,fire,religion Free

A fire broke out Saturday at one of the most sacred sites for Tibetan Buddhism, Lhasa's revered Jokhang temple, state media said, but no casualties were reported and the extent of the damage remained unclear.

The official Xinhua news agency said the fire began at 6:40pm but was soon put out at UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has more than 1,300 years of history and lies at the heart of old Lhasa.

"The fire was quickly extinguished, there were no casualties and order is normal in the area," said the state-run Tibet Daily, adding that Tibet's top Communist party official Wu Yingjie had rushed immediately to the scene.

Images posted on social media of the blaze showed the eaved roof of a section of the building lit with roaring yellow flames and emitting a haze of smoke.

But on Twitter, which is blocked in China, Tibetans abroad noted that photos and posts about the fire were quickly being censored.

Robert Barnett, a London-based Tibetologist, tweeted that sources in Lhasa "claim police have threatened anyone distributing pictures or unofficial news about the fire."

The blaze comes as Tibetans across the country are celebrating Losar, the traditional Tibetan New Year that began Friday, the same day as the Chinese lunar new year.

The temple had been closed to the public on Saturday, Xinhua cited a schedule put forth by local authorities as saying before the holiday began.

China has ruled Tibet since the 1950s, and has been accused of trying to eradicate its Buddhist-based culture through political and religious repression.

Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy extensive freedoms and argues that it has brought economic growth to the region.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris  Sun, February 18, 2018 09:52 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c615646 2 World TariqRamadan,rape,Islam,scholars Free

Prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, who was remanded in custody in France on rape charges earlier in the month, has been hospitalized due to multiple sclerosis, his support group said Saturday.

The 55-year-old Oxford University professor, who will now undergo an independent medical evaluation to determine if he is to remain in jail before trial, was sent to hospital on Friday night, a source close the case confirmed.

"His state of health is getting worse, particularly since the judges refused to issue a visit permit to his wife and children yesterday," a source close to Ramadan said on Saturday.

Another source close to the case said he would remain in hospital at least until Sunday.

Ramadan's lawyers said that their client's condition was "not compatible with detention", based on an initial medical examination on Tuesday.

Charged with rape and rape of a vulnerable person, Ramadan had been held at the Fleury-Merogis prison near Paris since February 2.

A court ordered Ramadan be detained ahead of his trial, saying he was a possible flight risk and fearing potential pressure on women who testified anonymously.

A Paris appeals court ordered the medical evaluation on Thursday and postponed its ruling on his detention until February 22 after Ramadan went to the hearing in an ambulance.

- #MeToo campaign -

The arrest of the influential academic -- a regular on TV debates with more than two million Facebook followers -- has rocked the French Muslim community.

Two Muslim women have accused Ramadan, a Swiss citizen whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement, of rape.

They went public with the allegations late last year when women began sharing accounts of sexual harassment and assault as part of the "Me Too" and "Balance Ton Porc" (Expose your pig) campaign triggered by the revelations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Ramadan, who took leave of absence from Oxford in November after the allegations surfaced, is the most high-profile figure to be held in France since the campaign began.

Henda Ayari, a 41-year-old feminist activist who previously practised an ultra-conservative brand of Islam, claims Ramadan raped her in Paris in 2012.

Another woman, a 40-year-old disabled Muslim convert going by the alias "Christelle", claimed he raped and beat her in the southeastern city of Lyon in 2009.

The married father of four has rejected the accusations saying he is the victim of a smear campaign.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Munich, Germany  Sun, February 18, 2018 08:39 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c613e40 2 World BenjaminNetanyahu,Israel,Poland,Holocaust Free

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday lashed out at "outrageous" remarks by his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki, who said the Holocaust had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish.

The Israeli leader, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, in a statement condemned "an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people".

"The Polish Prime Minister's remarks here in Munich are outrageous," he said, adding that he intended to speak to Morawiecki "forthwith" about the matter.

Morawiecki's claim about the Holocaust's perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a controversial law passed by Poland's senate this month.

The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

- 'Unbelievable' -

Appearing at the Munich Security Conference, Morawiecki was questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbours were planning to denounce them.

The journalist, Ronen Bergman, asked if by recounting this, "I am a criminal in your country?" -- garnering a round of applause from the audience.

Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."

He reiterated that the point of the law was to defend Poland's honour by making clear that people knew "there were no Polish death camps... There were German Nazi death camps."

"But we cannot agree with mixing perpetrators with victims, because it would be first of all an offence to all the Jews and all the Poles who suffered greatly during the Second World War."

Several attendees later took to Twitter to assail the remarks.

Bergman himself tweeted that the Polish premier's answer was "unbelievable".

Francois Heisbourg, a London-based diplomacy expert, called the reference to "'Polish perpetrators like there were Jewish perpetrators'" a "shameful response".

Noa Landau, a correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, denounced an "outrageous scene", noting the audience's silence after Morawiecki's comments.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kiev, Ukraine  Mon, February 19, 2018 01:46 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c6270ca 2 World Ukraine,protest,politics Free

Thousands of supporters of deported former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili marched through the streets of Kiev on Sunday, demanding the impeachment of the Ukrainian President.

An AFP correspondent saw some 10,000 people taking part in the rally, though the ministry of internal affairs put the number at around 3,000 participants.

Protesters carried banners portraying president Petro Poroshenko with a red line drawn over his face. The demonstrators chanted "Impeachment!", "Resignation!" and "Poroshenko is a thief!"

Former Georgian President Saakashvili, 50, who had been living in exile in Ukraine, was detained by masked men at a restaurant in central Kiev and deported to Poland on Monday.

The state border guard service said he had been residing in Ukraine "illegally" and was sent to the country where he initially came from.

On Tuesday, Saakashvili gave a press conference in Warsaw and said he had been blindfolded and rushed first by van, then by helicopter to Kiev international airport.

On Wednesday an opposition leader, who is married to a Dutch woman, arrived in the Netherlands.

Kiev resident Galina Zagoruiko, one of the angry protesters on Sunday, said; "people can't stand it anymore - that nothing changes and everything just gets worse".

As many others, she had come to support a political party founded by Saakashvili.

Saakashvili, a former governor of Ukraine's Odessa region, was once an ally of Poroshenko, but then became one of his greatest foes.

Kiev accuses Saakashvili of trying to stage a coup sponsored by allies of former Kremlin-backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych -- a charge he strongly denies.

Ukraine stripped Saakashvili of his passport, but he nonetheless continued to challenge the government, organising frequent protests demanding Poroshenko's ouster.

With the help of his supporters, he broke through the Polish-Ukrainian border in September last year, and was briefly detained in December in Kiev.

Saakashvili is wanted by the Georgian government on multiple criminal charges, which he says are politically motivated.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Agra, India  Sun, February 18, 2018 17:30 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c61c8d5 2 World India,Canada,justin-trudeau,state-visit Free

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday toured the Taj Mahal with his wife and children as he began a week-long visit to promote trade and investment with India.

Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their three children posed for a family portrait before marvelling at the legendary marble monument frequently visited by foreign leaders during roadshows to India.

It was Trudeau's first visit to India since taking office in 2015. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and efforts to expand trade will dominate an agenda also covering energy, education and infrastructure.

"Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries," Trudeau tweeted before embarking on the trip.

Trade between Canada and India has doubled in the last decade to just over $8 billion in 2016, a figure which India's foreign ministry says "does not reflect true potential".

Canada is home to more than 1.2 million Indians -- more than three percent of its population -- and Trudeau is joined by Sikh members of his cabinet for the visit.

The delegation will walk a diplomatic tightrope in Punjab where Trudeau will visit the Golden Temple -- the holiest site in Sikhism, and the scene of a bloody massacre of religious separatists in 1984.

For decades Sikh separatists have been agitating for an independent state, and last year Punjab's chief minister accused Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan -- who joins Trudeau on this trip -- of being sympathetic to their cause.

The Canadian premier will meet Indian political leaders, civil society figures and corporate executives between ceremonial visits to religious sites and national memorials.

Trudeau is scheduled to visit Modi's home state of Gujarat on Monday before jetting off to India's financial capital of Mumbai for talks with CEOs and business leaders the next day.

After visiting Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday, Trudeau will meet Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi following a welcome at the presidential palace and a wreath-laying at Mahatma Gandhi's memorial.

Modi visited Canada in 2015 and addressed a crowd of 10,000 from the Indian diaspora in Toronto.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Sun, February 18, 2018 21:10 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c625bdd 2 World trump,Russia-meddling,election,White-House Free

President Donald Trump, hitting out at the probes and congressional hearings into Russian election meddling, said Sunday Moscow is succeeding beyond its "wildest dreams" if its intention is to sow discord within the United States.

"They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!" Trump said in an early morning tweet.

If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

It was one of a series of tweets posted by Trump in the wake of the indictments filed Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller against 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

The indictments lay out in detail an elaborate effort by Russians using social media and agents on the ground to accentuate political divisions to sway the election in favor Trump and against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Trump has so far refrained from directly taking on Russia even though US intelligence chiefs warned that the interference was continuing and likely to target the upcoming US midterm elections.

"If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams," Trump said.

In another tweet minutes before, he said: "I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said 'it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.'"

"The Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!"Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java  Sun, February 18, 2018 10:41 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c615bc4 1 National accident,road-accident,public-minivan,bogor,West-Java,fatal-accident Free

Two people died and two others were severely injured when a public minivan they were traveling in was hit by a mixer truck in Bogor, West Java, on Saturday.

The vehicle hit by the truck, which was moving at a high speed on Jl. KH Abdullah Bin Nuh, right across the Bubulak slaughterhouse in Sindang Barang subdistrict, was totally damaged.

Bogor Police chief Sr. Comr. Ulung Sampurna Jaya said the public minivan serving the Kampus Dalam-Cinangneng route was transporting those who had just attended a wedding ceremony of their relative.

The truck was directly behind the public minivan and moving at a high speed before hitting it, Ulung said.

In an attempt to avoid a crash, the truck driver reportedly turned the wheel sharply to the right, causing the truck to overturn and hit the public minivan.

Two passengers, Karna, 50, and Aca, 63, who were both Ciampea village residents, were killed at the scene. Meanwhile, two others were severely injured and were rushed to Hermina Hospital to receive medical treatment. (ebf)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Leila Macor (Agence France-Presse) Miami, United States  Sun, February 18, 2018 11:05 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c617536 2 World gun-control,mass-shooting,Florida,US Free

Pistols, rifles and ammunition are on display at a gun show in Miami, where Mike Vallone is buying an AR-15, a firearm at the center of debate on gun control as the weapon of choice of several mass shooters.

Why would the 55-year-old, who already owns about 50 guns, want another one?

"Because I choose to own them. I have the constitutional right to own them and I choose to exercise that right," he told AFP on Saturday.

Vallone was visiting the gun show three days after a 19-year-old massacred 17 people at his former high school with an AR-15 in Parkland, about an hour north of Miami.

The semi-automatic rifle was also used to carry out mass shootings in Las Vegas (58 dead), Sutherland Springs, Texas (26 dead) and Newtown, Connecticut (26 dead).

The media "makes it look like it's evil," Vallone said, holding the $600 gun he is about to buy. "This does nothing by itself. This takes a human being to take the rifle, point it and shoot someone."

Every mass shooting reveals the deep fissures in American society between those who favor fewer restrictions on guns and gun ownership, and those who demand greater controls. The "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is guaranteed under the US Constitution's Second Amendment, which was adopted in 1791.

"The focus on gun control is an error and it won't stop someone determined to commit crimes," said Vallone, raising a common argument among pro-gun advocates.

"I own guns, I choose to own guns, I choose to carry guns. That's my choice. It's not for everyone, I absolutely agree with that. Everybody needs a background check, I'm having a background check right now," he said, pointing at the gun vendor who was looking at a laptop.

In the US, adults with a clean criminal record can generally buy a gun, as was the case with Nikolas Cruz in Parkland. Regulatory loopholes also allow for certain gun sales without background checks.

The issue is deeply political -- on one side, the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) aggressively lobbies lawmakers to maintain the status quo.

On the other side, advocates for stricter gun controls say a criminal record check is not sufficiently thorough and often misses red flags that don't rise to the level of criminal charges, such a mental health problems.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

- Popular show -

Florida Gun Shows, which holds events in major cities throughout the state every week, opened its Miami show on Saturday.

"Legislation is great to talk about, as long as it doesn't infringe upon your rights," said George Fernandez, a spokesman for the gun show, defending the Second Amendment.

Some 140 exhibitors had their wares on display in booths, many decorated with alligator heads.

One vendor displayed knives made from giraffe bones. Another seller highlighted the advantages of tasers and stun guns: "You don't need to go through the paperwork to carry it, you can just take it."

The line to enter the exhibition hall was long and made up mostly of men, with some holding small children by the hand.

Meanwhile, student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland rallied in the nearby city of Fort Lauderdale. Brandishing posters with messages like "Never again" and "Gun control now," they demanded that politicians tackle the issue that surfaces after every mass shooting.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," 18-year-old student Emma Gonzalez said in a fiery address to several thousand people.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Cecilia Yap (Bloomberg) Manila, Philippines  Sun, February 18, 2018 18:52 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c61f841 2 SE Asia China,Philippines,cooperation,oil-and-gas Free

The Philippines and China are in talks to jointly pursue oil and gas exploration in disputed waters of the South China Sea, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Friday.

I can tell you we are pursuing it aggressively because we need it, Cayetano told reporters. The Philippines will finalize within three months a legal framework that will allow for joint exploration, he said.

Philippine and Chinese officials met in Manila this week to discuss joint initiatives as the two nations seek to look past contentious maritime issues. China claims almost all of the South China Sea, while the Philippines in 2016 won an international tribunal ruling that rejected Chinas assertion to the territory. Manilas ambassador to Beijing, Chito Sta. Romana, on Feb. 15 said a group studying the possibility of a joint exploration may come out with its findings as early as this year.

Cayetano said the government is committed to exploring for new sources of energy as the Malampaya gas field, which supplies several Philippine power plants, will eventually run out of supply.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Bangkok, Thailand  Sun, February 18, 2018 17:26 1305 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c61c2e5 2 SE Asia Thailand,poaching Free

Thai officials will test human faeces found at a campsite in a wildlife sanctuary to try to prove their case against a tycoon accused of poaching a leopard.

Construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta has denied poaching charges levelled against him and three others.

They were arrested earlier this month in the sanctuary in western Thailand where rangers stumbled on their camp and found guns and animal carcasses.

Rich and influential Thais have a habit of avoiding justice.

The junta which seized power in 2014 is on the back foot over a luxury watch scandal that has engulfed the defence minister, and allegations that the ex-police chief borrowed nearly $10 million from a fugitive brothel owner.

Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, head of a special task force with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said the discovery of the excrement was important because it was near the campsite and he did not believe Premchai would wander deep into the woods for such a purpose.

He said the excrement was suspiciously close to spent bullet casings and the location where the panther was skinned.

"It can prove that he was there, he cannot say he was not there," Chaiwat said, adding that the waste would be tested for Premchai's DNA.

Premchai, president of Italian-Thai Development Company which built Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport among many other major projects, denied poaching after his arrest.

He and his camping colleagues have been bailed while the case is under investigation.

The Thungyai Naresuan national park where Premchai was arrested is in tourist-friendly Kanchanaburi province.

The slain animals at the campsite were a black leopard, a Kalij pheasant and a red muntjac or barking deer -- protected species under Thai conservation law.A playground featuring giant balloon art in the heart of Singapore will return next month.

The Art-Zoo Inflatable Park @ i Light Marina Bay will be back with a new line up of 15 giant inflatable clusters for visitors of all ages.

Created by Jackson Tan, the playground is inspired by his memories of visiting and drawing the animals at Singapore Zoo. Art-Zoo is designed to encourage visitors to explore nature through accessible and interactive art.

Read also: Tired of orchard road try military tourism in singapore

This year, we have created a new line up of giant inflatables with characters from our natural habitat, where some species are at risk of becoming endangered, extinct, or exist only in our imagination. I hope Art-Zoo will inspire visitors to not just have fun and stretch their imagination, but also do their part for conservation, said Tan.

The second edition of Art-Zoo will be a large art inflatable playground right in the city center. Other than real-life characters, Tan also created mythical creatures from his imagination.

Read also: Singapore is world's most welcoming city for tourists travel index

The zoo will be open daily 5 p.m to 10 p.m. from March 9 until April 1. Entry tickets can be bought from artzooworld.com or at the gates.

For a sneak peak, the public can visit the Art-Zoo Preview Tour at Bedok Mall, Bugis+, JCube, Plaza Singapura, Raffles City and Westgate in Singapore. (wen/kes)As usual, the week has been full of distressing news, which can often make us feel angry, upset or guilty.

It can seem inappropriate to be having fun or enjoying life when terrible things occur, yet in a world where so many bad things seem to happen, it would be exhausting to allow each tragedy to affect how you live.

Indeed, in a time of so much sadness, it feels more fitting than ever to look for the positives and find that light at the end of the tunnel. As such, weve come up with a list of things to brighten up your week.

1. Students of Douglas High School refuse to be victims

In the aftermath of the Parkland Shooting, there was a different response to the tragedies of the past. The students didn't ask for privacy, they didn't say it was too early to talk about gun control, they didnt ask for people to respect their grief. Instead, they got in front of the news cameras and the social media trends and made sure their voices were heard.

They demanded the attention of politicians and held them accountable for their actions. They called B.S on the lies and hypocritical, stereotypical excuses and condolences that are so popular following shootings. They grabbed the attention of the public, organised a march, and promised to become a threat to any politician who supported the NRA.

After so many senseless tragedies, a movement full of anger and grief, a well as hope and determination, finally seems on the horizon.

2. Its now even easier to show your friends some love

A new site called DescribeMe, created by Tim Armoo, is helping to tackle mental health problems by encouraging young people to describe their friends in just three words. A site where people sign up and can anonymously describe their friends in three words, it aims to help people feel better about themselves or support those who are going through a hard time.

Aroma told Metro that  a friend and I built something to help other 21-year-olds like us who suffer from depression.

While a simple concept, he said that the comments made him smile and that we figured that if people knew how positively their friends think of them, theyd feel better about themselves.

It seems his aim has been a success, as receivers (of the anonymous descriptions) have told Tim and his team how much hearing good things about themselves has improved their mental state.

This already positive story is even more heartwarming and encouraging when you consider in what way mental health is typically discussed. As Tim points out, in this doom and gloom environment around teenage mental health, we could do with a pick me up story about how a group of young people are trying to help other young people feel better about themselves.

3. Get inspired to workout by this sweet old lady

My mom trains this 93 year old and its the cutest thing ever. Her laugh and smile makes her young #blessed pic.twitter.com/oeRWylrLV4  jo (@joana_zanin10) February 15, 2018

Finding it hard to feel motivated to work out? Well, look no further, as weve found the perfect video to get you in the mood. Not only will it have you dashing for your gym clothes, this adorable video will also put a skip in your step and a smile on your face!

A 93-year-old woman has taken over the internet after a video of her personal training session was posted online. Sitting on a chair in what appears to be a studio, this sweet old lady can be seen grinning from ear to ear as she works out to music.

Stomping her feet and moving her arms, the sight of this workout is enough to brighten even the most miserable day!

4. Calling all Vegans, hot dogs are back on the menu!

Ikea has announced its intention to launch a vegan hotdog, which should be in European stores from this August.

Everyone knows Ikea is the place to go for that ultimate comfort food (Swedish meatballs, anyone?), however, if youre vegan you would previously have found yourself out of luck. Not anymore though, as the company has just announced its development of the Veggie Dog, which is going to be 100% vegan. Yay!

The Swedish company assured customers that while this development is part of the companies move to provide more sustainable and healthier options, it is in no way a marketing ploy or cheap cash grab.

Indeed, the Managing Director at Ikea Food stated himself that there is no point in creating a more sustainable option for our customers if it isnt tasty. Instead, they genuinely do seem to want to create affordable, delicious plant-based food which is better for both you and the environment.Southern Pines, NC (28387)

Today

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.New apartments in honor of longtime dentist in downtown Watertown

New apartment building being named in honor of dentist who practiced there for over 50 yearsRobert Plant's been a busy man lately, he recently released his new album 'Carry Fire' and he's just began his tour with the Sensational Shapeshifters.

He's also been writing the latest chapter of a musical journey that began 50 years ago with Led Zeppelin.

In a new interview he talked about the secret of his lengthy career.

He told the Toronto Sun, the key is to "stay in the groove of ceaseless creativity. When I sang the way I did when I was 17 or 18, when Bonzo, my buddy, played the way he did with me, we just did what we did. And thats what I do now, and I think thats the way forward."

Plant also discussed how music changes as time goes on and that "means the way you play either has to be tempered according to that, or in my case, I couldnt give a hoot. I just do what I do. Thats it. Its a good time to be me because I havent dropped the ball at all. I just keep trying to open up the inside of, I suppose, a combined gift. Because the band and myself have sort of got this thing going on, which is really powerful."

Plant also says he has no plans to retire.

"Theres no such thing as knowing when," he said. "Look, theres so many different ways of expressing ones self and doing what I really love to do. The thing about retirement is that you can retire for a month or a week or a day or you can just go to the movies and call that retirement and come up inspired. Send some of these people to some beautiful places where there is lovely music, and theyll probably change their mind."

Source: Ultimate Classic RockMontreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 21C. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. Low 12C. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.Zoe Recruitment is an HRconsultancy company that exists to contribute to the transformation ofproductivity and work ethic, by linking talent to business/organizations, andplacing people right. At Zoe we believe this then forms the foundation forsustainable business and on a larger scale, economic growth. Zoe would like torecruit for a valuable client.If anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...Just a week after an Iranian-built drone penetrated Israeli air space and was shot down, followed by an IAF retaliation against Iranian targets in Syria and the latter downing an F-16i a powerful explosive device was detonated against soldiers who were trying to remove a Palestinian flag from the Gaza border fence.

Golani Brigade and Combat Engineers were operating along the fence, and the latter checked for an explosive device but failed to detect the powerful bomb. The blast left three Golani soldiers and an officer injured, two in serious condition and two moderate. They were transported to the trauma unit of Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva.

It became clear that a protest along the fence on Friday was a cover for terrorists who planted the bomb where the flag, realizing soldiers would be sent to remove the flag. It is not being reported at this time how the device was detonated, possibly by cellular telephone.

The explosion, which took place at about 3:30PM on Shabbos afternoon, was followed by rocket fire from Gaza during the evening and nighttime hours.

First retaliation came from tank fire:

The immediate retaliation from the IDF came in the form of tank fire, which took out a Hamas observation tower used to spy on IDF troops movements.

No fatalities or serious Injuries Bchasdei Hashem as a rocket slams into a home:

These attacks continued during the night as well, with a home sustaining a direct his in once case. Bchasdei Hashem, there were no injuries or fatalities, however, a number of persons were transported to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon for treatment of hysteria, due to the rocket fire and explosions.

The Israel Air Force retaliated during the night:

Clearly the tank fire earlier in the day was not going to be Israels entire response and the air force during the night struck 18 terrorist objectives in Gaza. Fighter planes targeted the Hamas objectives while Red Alert warnings were being heard in southern Israeli communities.

Update from Soroka Hospital on the condition of the wounded soldiers:

The Soroka Hospital Spokesmans Office on Sunday morning 3 Adar reported all of the wounded soldiers were operated on during the night. All four sustained an array of injuries that required intervention by orthopedics, plastic, vascular surgeons, optical and other specials. Two remain in serious/stable condition and they are in a intensive care unit. The condition of the other two was upgraded to light Baruch Hashem.

The following additional update was provided by senior ICU physician Dr. Uri Gelenta during the early afternoon hours Sunday. The soldier suffers from a severe hand injury and other injuries to his extremities. He underwent surgery during the night. After the surgery he was transferred to an intensive care unit

His condition stabilized, he regained consciousness and is breathing on his own.

Another victim, also arriving in serious condition, is intubated and connected to a respirator and remains in the general intensive care unit. Two others remains in moderate condition.

At the request of the family that lives in Jerusalem and his father who serves as a doctor at Hadassah, he was transferred from Soroka.

Another seriously injured, breathing and anesthetized, is hospitalized in a general intensive care unit and two others in moderate condition.

PM Netanyahu responds:

In his brief message from Munich, where he is on an official state visit, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated, Todays incident on the Gaza Strip border is severe. We will respond appropriately. I send my wishes for a quick recovery to the wounded.

Photos:

The photos show explosions in Gaza from the IAF retaliatory raid as well as the home struck by a rocket.

Children playing on a large mound of dirt, one of the remains of one of the objectives hit by the IAF.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem/Photo Credit: IDF Spokesman Unit)MBABANE  The Swaziland National Association of Teachers election race is on. While the rest of the country will be embarking on the National Elections to be held later this year, SNAT will also be in the process of electing a new National Executive Committee (NEC).

This year the organisation will be overhauling its entire National Executive Committee (NEC), Board of Trustees (BOT) as well as all other bodies that are within SNAT structures.



Each NEC member has a four year term in office. Prior to the coming election, every two years, the elections of certain positions within the NEC were carried out.

During the last conference held in 2014, it was resolved that the elections to be carried out in 2018 within the organisation would be conducted differently. Unlike in the past years, the Times SUNDAY has been made to understand that the election of members to fill certain positions within the NEC will not be staggered this year but an entire new NEC would be voted in and they would serve for four years.



In the past, every two years new members were elected into the NEC to replace those whose term of office have expired. For example; when a new president was elected, the Deputy President, would have two years in office and still have two more years to serve.

This development was confirmed by the SNAT Secretary General Zwelithini Mndzebele when contacted by the Times SUNDAY. He said that staggering of elections has been stopped. This is one of the resolutions made during the SNAT national conference of 2014, he explained.



He said all members were informed that the last staggered election would be carried out in 2016 and those who were elected into office including himself, were informed that they would only be there for two years. Everyone who wants to be a member of the NEC in 2018 will be elected as all positions will be vacant, he said.



Mndzebele urged all teachers to partake in the process in their numbers as participation would ensure that the right candidates are nominated. He further advised teachers to ensure that they elect responsible members as they have always done, who will ensure service delivery to the masses.

SNAT has a mandate to improve the profession, socio-economic status of teachers, enhance collective bargaining for teachers and encourage maximum participation and dynamic provision of quality education to the learner.[February 17, 2018] ImmVRse Collaborates With Imperial College to Lead Research on Impact of VR on Neural Activity

LONDON, Feb. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The next frontier is truly the mind. To explore our vast galaxy, one of the most useful avenues has been Virtual Reality (VR). What makes VR so special is its ability to allow you to transport into another world without literally having to move an inch. That said, even though the body is not moving, the brain is enormously stimulated, triggering significant amounts of neural activity. There are many VR research projects currently ongoing. University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies has a MedVR lab dedicated to exploring various aspects of medical science such as medicine, psychology, neuroscience and physical and occupational therapy. They are researching the use of VR to assist people with phobia and trauma to cope in a controlled environment. At the University of Washington, they have done extensive research on VR with regards to managing physical pain. Various training programs have been created and the highly successful game known as "Snow World" which immerses burn victims in the world of snowball fights with a snowman. This was especially designed with child burn victims in mind. Additionally, engineering students at Stanford University have created a virtual reality technology called SUSIE (Senior-User Soothing Immersive Experience) for seniors who cannot leave their homes so that they may be able to experience the outdoors whilst physically being homebound. In this manner, VR can not only create jobs, but also help save lives. ImmVRse believes that concentrating on research and development projects by forming a close partnership with universities will unlock the next chapter of this remarkable technology. The company has a tied partnership with Imperial College London to conduct VR-Neuroscience research. Clinical Research and Innovation (CRI) is a brand new course in the early years of a medical degree at the Imperial School of Medicine. The purpose of this course is to teach students to conduct research analysis in addition to studying theories. ImmVRse will be working with some of the most talented students from the medical school to study "The Impact of Virtual Reality on Neural Activity." The objective of conducting this research is to comprehensively understand the impact of VR on humans  their cognitive experience, feelings, opinion and also physical reactions. This research experience will be supervised by CRI Theme Lead, Dr. Saleh. The VR research team will be led by the CEO of ImmVRse, Farabi Shayor. Six students  Ela, Shivam, Mai, Ruhi, Rachel andFrancesca will be joining ImmVRse in conducting the research. The students will be using medically approved 12 channel Electroencephalography (EEG) headsets to monitor electrical impulses and neural activity. The participants are expected to wear VR headsets and interact with both passive and active VR whilst their EEG graphs are logged and analysed.



The outcome of this research will deliver robust scientific conclusions in relation to the effect of VR on humans. Essentially, ImmVRse hopes to build upon existing studies to unlock the complexities of the human brain, whilst proving that VR has the potential to become a major breakthrough consumer technology in the coming decade. The ImmVRse Team

ImmVRse is backed by an ensemble of experts from a range of sectors, including relevant technologies, IT Management, VR, computer security and blockchain development. Some of its key team members include: Farabi Shayor, CEO Farabi has over 10 years experience in developing market deliverables, brand identities and financial analysis focused on cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Farabi comes from a mix of finance (BSc) and marketing (MSc) backgrounds and is now leading a small team from Imperial College London to conduct R&D on VR-Neuroscience. https://www.linkedin.com/in/farabishayor Limon Rahman, COO & Co-Founder Limon is a highly driven entrepreneur with practical hands-on experience, forming successful businesses in numerous fields. Additionally, with 15 years of experience within financial control and management, including overseeing budgets over $300m. https://www.linkedin.com/in/limon-rahman-1a156638. Adrian Chan, Head of Marketing Four years' experience in Marketing and Journalism, previously Co-Founder of MadBuzzHK, proficiency in online content development. Adrian achieved an MSc in Marketing Communications and Advertising. https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-chan-1a290060 Mark Higgins, Chief Information Officer Mark has 20 years' experience in IT project management, and is highly experienced in managing multi-million dollar IT infrastructure, disruptive technologies and application projects. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-higgins-66962237 Peter Gostincar, Chief Technical Officer Peter has over 8 years of experience as a developer and is highly skilled in managing large-scale software and android app development projects with some of the largest companies in the EU. He is proficient in JS, Python PHP, JAVA, and SQL. https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergostincar To learn more visit the Website: https://immvr.se

Meet the Team: https://immvr.se/team

Chat with us: https://t.me/immvrse

Read the full Whitepaper: https://immvr.se/whitepaper

Connect on Facebook: https://facebook.com/immvrse Media Contact

Contact Name: Adrian Chan

Contact Email: adrian@vrtuali.se ImmVRse is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest. Related Links ImmVRse Bitcoin PR Buzz View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/immvrse-collaborates-with-imperial-college-to-lead-research-on-impact-of-vr-on-neural-activity-300600459.html SOURCE ImmVRse

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 18, 2018] TUV Rheinland: Wireless Offensive until 2020

COLOGNE, Germany, Feb. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its global wireless strategy for 2020, the global testing service provider plans to invest more than EUR40 million in its wireless area in the next three years. These funds will be used to develop the testing facilities for future technologies, such as eCall and NB-IoT, and increase wireless laboratory capacities as a whole. TUV Rheinland experts already operate laboratories for wireless communication technology and IoT products in Europe and the USA, as well as in Japan, Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan and India. With this investment program, TUV Rheinland is strengthening its position on the rapidly growing global IoT market and continuing its successful course in this area. "We already reached several milestones of our wireless strategy in 2017 with the acquisition of our wireless laboratory in Lund, Sweden, and the opening of our new laboratory in Silicon Valley, which -- as the 'TUV Rheinland Center of Excellence Wireless / IoT' is now responsible for wireless testing in the North America region, among others. The same applies for the integration of 4ffCom, with which we have been able to offer our customers their own fully automated testing solutions (comprehensive testing environment, CTE) since last year and which is an excellent addition to the services we offer. Our next objective is to become the global one-stop-shop service provider for wireless communication technologies," explains Stefan Kischka, Vice President of Wireless/Internet of Things at TUV Rheinland. The laboratory network in Europe is currently being strengthened with further investments in Cologne, Nuremberg, Leek, Milan and Lund/span> in order to become also a strong partner in the IoT Ecosystem in Europe.



Complete range of wireless communication technologies for various industries Today, TUV Rheinland is one of the leading testing service providers and pioneers in the entire field of wireless communication technologies. For example, the testing service provider set up the world's first WiFi lab. The experts from TUV Rheinland were also involved in Bluetooth technology right from the start. Furthermore, TUV Rheinland is also the global leader when it comes to short-range wireless, i.e. WiFi, Bluetooth or ZigBee for smart home applications, where it checks whether the corresponding devices comply with the wireless communication protocols.

One-stop-shop service provider for wireless communication technologies The company is also a member of numerous committees dedicated to various wireless technologies, using its expertise to provide support with the standardization process, joint development of technologies, and contributing to the testing and certification of products before they are launched on the market. These committees include the 5G Automotive Association, LoRaWAN Alliance, Zigbee Alliance, Global Certification Forum (GCF/ PTCRB), CTIA, Wi-Fi Alliance, SIGFOX Alliance, Wi-SUN Alliance, Bluetooth SIG Alliance, Thread Group, openADR, Echonet Lite and many more. This way, the testing service provider is always close to manufacturers and users around the world and can offer its competence in the field of wireless communication standards. "For us, direct communication with our customers and partners is also important. Major industry events provide the perfect opportunity for this, such as the Mobile World Congress (hall 8, booth E31) in Barcelona, embedded world (hall 3/3, booth 433) in Nuremberg, and Light + Building (hall 4.1, booth B40) in Frankfurt in the coming weeks. We will be present at all three events, offering expert talks as well as direct personal interaction. If you would like to find out more about us in advance, please visit our recently launched landing page at www.tuv.com/wireless," continues TUV Rheinland expert Kischka. To become the global one-stop-shop service provider for wireless communication technologies, the testing service provider plans to expand its "Wireless/IoT" team by around 220 staff by 2020. For more information, visit www.tuv.com/wireless. TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group employs 19,700 people around the globe. Annual revenue is more than EUR1.9 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all industrial sectors and areas of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, and oversees projects, processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, the company operates a global network of approved labs and testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. Website: www.tuv.com.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Harley-Davidson stands by plans to close plant despite plea from Missouri congressional leaders Harley-Davidson Inc. said it is standing by its plans to close a motorcycle assembly plant in Kansas City, ending about 800 jobs there, despite a plea by Missouri congressional leaders who reminded Harley of the millions of dollars in incentives the state has provided the company over the last two decades.

Follow-up on a Friday call for mercy on local workers . . . Here's a look at outright rejection of a bi-partisan effort to keep the motorcycle maker in town as the company now focuses on electric bikes and bigger overseas markets. Checkit:KCTV5: "Police are investigating after multiple people were shot in Kansas City, KS. Kansas City, KS Police Chief Terry Zeigler tweeted around midnight that officers were in route to a shooting in which several people (were) shot.

KMBC reports that after news broke officers were on their way to a shooting at 16th and Minnesota Ave.

Gunfire deets that news & police are still sorting out . . .Here's what's confirmed . . .Developing . . .Trejo shares thoughts on KCMO and Planet Comicon KC 2018 - Dos Mundos Bilingual Newspaper Interview by Chara This weekend (Feb. 16-18), Kansas City, Mo., will host the area's largest comic expo - and a Latino celebrity will be part of it. The expo is Planet Comicon KC 2018. It'll take place at Bartle Hall, 301 W. 13th St., Kansas City, Mo.

A worthwile interview with a TKC hero who took a moment to speak with community news. Take a look:A Republican candidate for one of Missouri's U.S. Senate seats says he personally spoke with the winner of his campaign's rifle raffle before awarding an AR-15 to a stranger in a tiny town in Georgia. Austin Petersen, a former Libertarian contender now running for the GOP nomination to face Sen.Hundreds of highly ranked executives from the Greek entrepreneurship community and the sector of corporate responsibility participated in the 2018 award ceremony

Hellenic Responsible Business Awards were announced for the third consecutive year on Thursday, February 15, at the Hellenic Automobile Museum at a ceremony which was organized by Boussias Communications and the Marketing Week magazine.

Hundreds of highly ranked executives from the Greek entrepreneurship community and the sector of corporate responsibility participated in the 2018 award ceremony of the Hellenic Responsible Business Awards for companies, initiatives and NGOs with outstanding achievements on social, cultural humanitarian and environmental actions. Academic members, experts in their field and representatives of institutions supporting the awards were members of the selection board who assessed the candidates.

Responsible Business Awards respond to the need for Greek entrepreneurship to bring together models of cooperation that the country needs today more than ever.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism reportThe diving park expands across a 15-acre area, with 190 X 315 meters dimensions and includes artificial reefs as well as two shipwrecks

The Committee for the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Region of Crete has given a positive recommendation on the environmental terms of the Environmental Impact Assessment of the project: "Diving Park in the Marine area of Ormos Bros Gialos, Apokoronas, Chania."

The diving park is located in the coastal area of Bros Gialos bay, outside the Natura 2000 region and the project is managed by the Municipality of Apokoronas.

The diving park expands across a 15-acre area, with 190 X 315 meters dimensions and includes artificial reefs as well as two shipwrecks.

For the secure operation of the diving park, scuba diving surface floating points and boats will be used while separate diving areas and routes will be charted so that the Park can simultaneously accommodate as many groups of visitors as possible

The first route is 370 meters long and 20 meters deep, exploring the first wreck as well as a group of five reefs.

The second route is 350 meters long and 20 meters deep, exploring the second wreck as well as a group of 8 reefs,

The third route 250 meters long and 20 meters deep exploring a group of 8 reefs.

The Diving Park service will be based on the ports of Georgioupoli, Almirida, Kalives Marathi and Bros Gialos.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism reportBahrain-based Nass Industrial Services said it has achieved a major milestone with the successful completion of the fabrication of 50 pot superstructures for Aluminium Bahrain's (Alba) Potline 6 project.



The pot superstructures are an integral part of the potroom operation and are based on the Dubal DX Ultra Technology design that is being employed at the Line 6 smelter, said the company in a statement.



Commenting on the achievement, Gian Franco Stefanoni, the general manager of Nass Industrial Services, said: "We are very pleased with our progress in this project. Alba, Bechtel and Dubal teams have visited the Nass Industrial Services facility in Hidd last month to celebrate this achievement."



"This has been a milestone project for us, as it clearly demonstrates our teams competencies and capabilities," he added.



Established in 1972, Nass Industrial Services has progressively expanded today to become one of the major mechanical and structural engineering contractor in the region, having successfully accomplished numerous extensive and prestigious projects.-TradeArabia News ServiceAn Iranian passenger plane crashed into a mountainous area in the central part of the country on Sunday killing all 66 people on board, said media reports, citing a spokesman for Iran's Aseman Airlines.



The plane was flying from Tehran to the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 485 miles south of the Iranian capital, reported BBC.



The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near the remote mountain town of Semirom, 620 km south of capital Tehran, stated the report citing Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai.



The flight, which crashed at Mount Dena, was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members, Tabatabai told state TV.



"All emergency forces are on alert," an emergency services spokesman said.



Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.



The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area, which was quite foggy at the time of the crash. Authorities said they would be investigating, it added.In the first of this series of two articles we looked at the impact of new technology on financial services. I wrote that technology, particularly digital technology, almost always starts as a way to do something you already do more efficiently than you already do it.



A spear is more efficient than a rock for hunting deer. In the same way, a simple computerised ledger with manual input is more efficient than a man in fingerless gloves writing in a big book with a quill pen. And blockchain is way more efficient than a basic single-site computerised ledger.



Greater efficiency by necessity means that fewer people are needed to achieve the same output. One hunter with a spear is more efficient at hunting deer than ten with rocks. So nine hunters are now out of a job and sit in the cave complaining. Or so technophobes have been saying since (probably) the Neolithic.



But, its not long after adoption that smarter users begin to realise that technology can actually enable us to do new things  things we couldnt do with the old technology.



With spears our nine unemployed hunters are now able to hunt elephants  something they couldnt do with rocks. The tribe has more food, grows and becomes larger. And this is the promise of technophiles. They say: technology has always brought dislocation but then new jobs emerge and the economy rebalances  often at a higher level of productivity.



Weve seen these dislocations in recent years in media, publishing, leisure, retail, transport and more. There are many fewer travel agents than 20 years ago  but an infinite number more social media coordinators.



The common theme across most recent dislocations of employment (recent being since the agricultural revolution) has been the automation of routine manual tasks by machine. From seed drilling, through weaving to highly complex manufacturing, human performance of repetitive manual tasks has been gradually replaced by machine performance.



The fintech revolution is underpinned by AI, big data and cloud computing. They enable, increasingly, the performance of routine cognitive tasks by machine or, more correctly, by software algorithms run on machines. And the machines are programmed to learn  this doesnt mean they are sentient, just that they can use massive data sets from billions of repetitions to refine their algorithms still further.



And yet, in areas where human interface is required they still fall heavily short of maximal efficiency. Google and Facebook, despite billions of investment, still manage to serve up ads which are, at best, only passably relevant. Theyre marginally better than previous models of advertising placement  but they are by no means perfect.



Returning to finance and fintech. It is highly likely that many of the internal functions of financial institutions currently performed by humans will be run by algorithmic technology in the future. Credit decisions, security, inter-institutional transfers, securities trading, asset allocation and many many more aspects of finance will be impacted. After all  these functions are all about moving information from one place to another. And digital technology suits that.



So, core financial functions wont provide much new employment in the future. However, a whole raft of new roles is and will continue to emerge. In management consultant speak there are in non-routine, cognitive tasks. Tasks at which machines are poor and humans are excellent (or much better at least). Simply put these tasks can be broken down into: what should the machines be doing, are they doing it and how do our customers feel about it?



Business and policy leaders are now very much alive to the unintended outcome of large-scale technological interactions. Fake news bots are now a recognised threat. There have also been well-documented examples of algorithms in financial institutions perpetuating discrimination against certain demographic groups in the granting of credit. These malgorithms have produced highly negative outcomes not intended by their programmers.



Humans are needed to define clearly the beneficial outcomes beyond efficiency that algorithms are to produce. They are needed to monitor the data to ensure that those outcomes are being produced and to make changes when theyre not. They are needed to provide an ethical dimension to the instructions given to machines.



But beyond such high-concept needs there is also a real need for humans to be expert at assisting machines to interact with other humans. To ensure that messy and irrational humanity gives the right data to AIs and that the output of that AI is suitable for humans. Humans are needed to sell to, to advise and to guide other humans through the forest of data and analysis being provided by machines. They are needed to ensure that what the machines are serving to their customers is what the customers want.



Maybe, one day, bankers and financiers will become robots. All capital will be allocated efficiently and all risks managed without interaction of humans. But that day is a long way away.



Before then, those who are developing truly digital financial ecosystems need to be training people in governance, oversight, monitoring, sales, advisory and customer service for the digital marketplace. The financial market of the future must have humanity at its heart. It must serve customers beyond machines and a purpose beyond pure profit. It can only do that if guided by people.



The GCC Financial Forum 2018 - co-hosted by Euromoney Conferences and the Economic Development Board of Bahrain - will be held in Manama on February 20 and 21.





About the author



Richard Banks is consulting editor to Euromoney Conferences. The opinions voiced in this article are his alone.The Government of Italy, building on a long-standing relationship of nearly 14 years, has re-awarded visa processing services contracts to VFS Global in Cameroon, Ghana and Saudi Arabia for another four years.



VFS Global is a leading outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide.



Additionally, VFS Global was recently awarded a three-year contract to provide proficiently managed Italy visa services to the residents of Libya after participating in an official tender published by the Embassy of Italy in Libya, said a statement.



As further reinforcement to VFS Global's position as a reliable and trusted market leader in the consular services domain, the Embassies of Italy in Ghana and Egypt have also awarded contracts for legalisation services to VFS Global for four and three-year periods respectively, it said.



These contract wins, in addition to the recent contract signing with the Federal Foreign Office of Germany for visa processing services in 10 countries in the Middle East and Africa and the three-year global visa processing services contract signing with the Norwegian Government, comes as a further enhancement to VFS Global's operating presence in the Middle East and Africa regions.



In September 2017, VFS Global also signed a four-year visa processing services contract with Embassy of Italy in Kuwait, it added.



Chris Dix, head - business development, VFS Global, said: We are extremely excited and privileged to take our partnership with the client Government of Italy to the next level. The re-awarded visa services contracts in three locations, the new visa services contract win in Libya and the new Legalisation Services contracts in Ghana and Egypt stands testament to the trust bestowed onto us by our esteemed client government.



As always, we remain committed to the continued delivery of world-class and seamless services to our applicants in the visa and consular services domain on behalf of the Government of Italy, he added.



VFS Global has been serving the Government of Italy since 2004 and currently offers Italy visa services in 30 countries across the world through a network of 68 Visa Application Centres. VFS Global currently provides Legalisation Services on behalf of the Government of Italy in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Egypt, it stated.  TradeArabia News Servicemonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Gurugram, February 18

US President Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to arrive in Gurugram on Monday to endorse his luxurious residential project, the Trump Towers.

Trump Jr, who is the executive director of the Trump Organisation, will arrive on a Boeing 757, which is nicknamed as Trump Force One, The New York Times reported.

Trump Jr. is scheduled to speak at the Global Business Summit in Delhi, which will be held on February 23 and 24.

He will also visit Kolkata, where the construction of a project with 137 luxury units will begin soon.

In Mumbai, he will oversee a 78-story Trump Tower with 400 residences, which is under construction and is scheduled to be completed by next year.

Trump Jr. will also visit Pune, where a fourth Trump-branded project has been built.

In an interview last week, Trump Jr. stated that he had spent nearly a decade cultivating relationships in India and that his company was now seeing the response of that effort.

According to business partners in India, many units in the Trump Towers are selling about 30 per cent per square foot higher than the current market rates. Trump Jr.'s visit to India this week is expected to reinforce the trend.

Talking about his trip earlier this month, Trump Jr. said, India is such an incredible country and our brand has enjoyed tremendous success in the region for many years. This trip is a celebration of all we have achieved, including the launch of the Trump developments in Kolkata and Delhi which have been underway for many months."

"The teams in India have been working very hard to deliver residences that are truly second to none and I am looking forward to visiting these spectacular projects very soon, he added.

India is Trump Organisation's biggest international market, with four real estate projects underway in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, and Gurugram.

The towers are being built by local partners- M3M, a National Capital Region (NCR) real estate company and Tribeca Developers of Mumbai.

The Trump development encompasses two towers with a total of 254 ultra luxury units, each selling for up to $1.5 million, according to the Trump Organisation.

Among other features of Trump Towers are a temperature-controlled indoor swimming pool, a spa and fitness centre, a fine-dining restaurant, business centre, and in-residence catering.

Trump Jr.'s visit to India comes after his sister, Ivanka, visited Hyderabad in November last year to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. ANIROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, February 18

In a major blow to the special investigation team (SIT) of the Haryana Police investigating the case of violence in Panchkula after verdict against Sirsa dera chief on August 25 last year, the local court has dropped attempt to murder and sedition charges against all 53 accused.

In a recent order, the copy of which has now been made available, Additional District Judge Rajan Walia has ordered: In the present case, this court has perused the file and found that the prosecution has alleged that the mob had attacked the police and pelted them with pebbles/stones and damaged the roadways buses. There is nothing on the file to prove the ingredients of Section 307, IPC, merely alleging that accused persons had attacked the police personnel, so mere attacking is not enough rather the prosecution is required to prove that as to how prima facie offence is made out as there is no injury to any police personnel which can be considered dangerous to life.

The Court further says: Merely pelting pebbles from some distance cannot be considered that it is an attempt to murder and it is not prima facie fell under Section 307, IPC. So offence under Section 307, IPC, is not made out against the accused persons.

On sedition charge:

The court states: Overt acts, such as collection of men, arms and ammunition, itself do not mean that they are waging a war as there is distinction between riot and waging of a war as the purpose and intention that constitute offence whether the object is of general public nature or not, is a material question. Now in the present case, the object was not of general public nature. More so, according to Section 196 CrPC, no court can take cognisance of any offence punishable under chapter VIth of the IPC and the present offences under Section 121 and 121A fall under Chapter VIth of the IPC, and the court can only take cognisance with the previous sanction of the Central Government or the State Government. So, the sanction has not been obtained either by the prosecution from the Central Government or the State Government to prosecute the accused persons.

Finally, the accused were discharged from the offences punishable under Section 307, 121 and 121-A, IPC. During violence in Panchkula on August 25 last year, 36 persons were killed and more than 200 injured.

The court says since the remaining offences are triable by a magistrate, the present case is sent back to the Area Magistrate/CJM, Panchkula, for further trial.

Dera chief aids among accused

Top aides of dera chief, Panchkula dera in-charge Chamkaur Singh and media coordinator Surinder Dhiman Insan, are among the accused.

Case historyMK Bhadrakumar

MK Bhadrakumar

THE situation in the Maldives brought to the fore once again the dilemma of how far India should interfere or whether to interfere at all in its neighbouring countries in South Asia. The predicament used to be acute in the past in regard of Nepal and Sri Lanka, where India has had a long history of interference in their internal affairs  until fatigue set in lately.

In Nepal, India had patronised and manipulated almost all political constituencies at one time or another, set them against each other or dumped them unceremoniously when they ceased to be of use. But in a chastened mood, Delhi adopted a hands-off policy when the recent elections took place and allowed the democratic process to gain traction, finally. The result has been a landslide victory for the communist parties. Delhi didn't attempt to drive wedges between the two main communist parties or undermine their resolve to merge with each other. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Kathmandu in a goodwill gesture even before the communist government took over. And all this despite the false narrative that electoral politics in Nepal takes the form of a contestation between pro-India and pro-China forces.

In Sri Lanka, the regime that came to power three years ago after the ouster of the pro-China President Mahinda Rajapaksa stands thoroughly discredited. In the recent local council elections, Rajapaksa was back with a bang with a crushing victory. Again, Delhi has been on a learning curve and realises that there hasnt been any difference between the present and previous regimes in Colombo in their policies toward China. The most audacious expansion so far of Chinese presence in Sri Lanka took place under the present pro-India regime, which handed over Hambantota Port last December to China Merchant Port Holdings on a 99-year lease in a $1.4 billion deal. Delhi watched helplessly. Ironically, it was left to pro-China Rajapaksa to put up resistance to the dilution of state sovereignty in a part of his political backyard. Meanwhile, two Indian counter-offers to balance the Chinese presence in Sri Lanka  management of Trincomalee Port and Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport  are gathering dust in Colombo. Truly, the regime change project in Sri Lanka three years ago with the single-minded objective of exorcising Chinese presence on the island has floundered.

When it comes to the Maldives, the picture is more hazy. India appears to have worked closely with the Anglo-American project to install the pro-West former President Mohammed Nasheed back in power, replacing pro-China Abdulla Yameen. The China bogey once again surged in the Indian (and Western) discourses. The two Indian statements on the situation in the Maldives following the controversial ruling by the chief justice of the Supreme Court on February 1 were intrusive and threatening. But there has since been a perceptible course correction  an easing of the pressure on the pro-China regime in Male. For 12 days already, Delhi has not spoken. On its part, through a steady stream of pronouncements, the Chinese foreign ministry has conveyed a willingness to work jointly with the international community to facilitate inter-Maldivian dialogue. Of course, the good part is that India refrained from a military intervention in the Maldives, which would have been a flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter and fraught with serious negative consequences. Any attempt by Delhi to coercively assert its authority over the Maldives would only have undermined Indias efforts to become a pole of attraction in the region.

However, the basic issue remains  Chinas expanding presence in the region that constitutes Indias immediate neighbourhood. It lies at the core of Indias angst. The West is fuelling this angst in its own interests. And the pervasive Sinophobia that has been whipped up within India  with patronage in no small measure by the Indian security establishment and the nationalist forces that mentor the government  prevents a realistic assessment. For a start, we completely overlook that Indias small neighbours who zealously safeguard their national sovereignty from our intrusive policies toward them will be no less vigilant about any predatory Chinese agenda.

China will continue to pursue an active foreign policy in the South Asian region and its pursuit of economic engagement across the region, including India, is poised to accelerate. Our entreaties to the neighbouring countries to reduce their engagement with China fall on deaf ears.

The increasingly sophisticated middle class elites in these countries view China as a driver of growth for their tepid economies and a check on Indian hegemony. Yet, ironically, they are far from convinced that China is the metropolis. Therefore, the future of Indias standing in the region will significantly depend on the states ability to secure a civic identity to its citizens. Using the instrument of nationalist mobilisation may be a short-term approach to avoid political challenges, but in the external domain, it creates disquiet. The point is, Indias neighbours do not necessarily concur with the notion of India being the main guarantor of security in its immediate neighbourhood. Our elite assumes that India can prevail in a globalised world only if it succeeds in cementing its regional hegemony. But there is a contradiction, since status-quo thinking is unsustainable in the globalised world.

Indias foreign and security policy is, quintessentially, pragmatic and geopolitically focused rather than value-based. Indias overriding foreign policy goals are to establish itself as one of the important global powers, but, curiously, Indias understanding of multilateralism in international affairs is a mere variant of multipolarity involving a handful of big powers  a selective and instrumental use and understanding of multilateralism. That is Indias predicament, too. India supports multilateralism as long as it affirms its great power status. Alas, such thinking is deeply rooted in the mindsets of the elite and accounts for the rigid zero-sum game approach shaping Indias attitude towards its small neighbours.

In the past, China has tried to show respect for Indias dominance in the region. PM Modis assumption of office in 2014 visibly raised expectations in Beijing. In a comparable situation in Central Asia, China has deferred to Russia on security and political matters due to the overriding concern that instability in the region will be detrimental to Chinas economic interests and could threaten its stability. China appeared to have nurtured a similar attitude vis-a-vis South Asia  be it Nepal, Sri Lanka or Afghanistan. But unlike Russia, India did not show interest to test the efficacy of strengthening regional stability in league with China. Meanwhile, attitudes noticeably hardened since the Doklam faceoff. Nonetheless, the Maldives could provide a beginning.

The writer is a former ambassadorPrabhakar Kulkarni

Prabhakar Kulkarni

Senior journalist and columnist

Public and private banks in the country have direct relations with people. Depositors' and investors' amounts and public money provided to banks by way of recapitalisation for institutional survival in times of crisis of bad debts, are indicative of direct and indirect involvement of people. Any action in the matters of the current crisis of fraudulent deal of about Rs 11,000 crore disclosed now and previous bad debts of more than rupees twenty lakh thousand crores needs to be in public interest and people need not suffer for the fraudsters involved in the deals.

The PNB which is now flashed as a centre of the fraud and other banks are the institutions in which people have faith. All banks are being kept sound and safe by common people who deposit their money with the hope that their money is safe in banks. But bank officers and directors who rule banks, who are normally supposed to work as per rules and regulations, are not always following them strictly. They are susceptible to money baits and are directly or indirectly involved in corrupt deals.

The central regulatory authority of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is supposed to keep vigilance on these banks. But the RBI has no strict regulatory mechanism to keep track on various transactions in large network of banks' branches in various areas in the country. In fact, the RBI should have a sort of district or regional outreach with representation of people and experts around the area for due direction and vigilance on branches in the areas concerned. Failure to create such a mechanism seems to be one of the main reasons why scams and frauds, besides irregular disbursal of big loans and subsequent willful defaulters, have now surfaced creating a grave crisis.

In a fresh directive by the RBI, banks are asked to settle bad loans within 180 days, failing which banks will be fined or will face penalties. The restructuring facility is abolished and banks are asked to take insolvency proceeding if the defaulters fail to pay. In fact, bank officers have already resorted to restructuring of the defaulted loans, thereby being lenient to the defaulters. That they should not again resort to the same technique is quite a commendable restriction.

But now banks are warned of the penalty. In fact, public sector banks are owned by the government, which means indirectly by people in the country. Banks are institutional entities and, therefore, need not be punished for bank officials' failure or that of the director board. From sanctioning loans, that too of big amounts, to further restructuring and providing more facilities, the whole process is the prerogative of bank officials. Big defaulters (like Vijay Mallya) are wooed and offered loans on the pretext of 'consortium of finance' and sanctioning process, which is fully at the bank officers' discretion.

If such loans turn bad or borrowers turn in to willful defaulters, the responsibility lies on those who have sanctioned the loans. Their flaws or leniency, if any, in sanctioning such big loans need not be forced on institutions, but should be treated as their faults and they should be considered liable for action. If the banks as institutions are held responsible and action taken as fine or penalty, it amounts to penalty which people have to pay from the public exchequer.

Bank officers in almost all branches in the country are having two different criteria while sanctioning loans. The big loans to corporate bodies are sanctioned merely on a 'proposed project' under the concept of 'project finance' and that too by way of groups of banks under the concept of 'consortium of finance'. All big defaulters in both the public and private banks are found to be those who are given big loans under 'consortium of finance'.

The same concept of group finance or even that of 'project finance' is not considered if an educated unemployed person offers a project or wants finance for starting a project. He is asked to produce proof of his prospective success in the project or is turned down by officials with conjectural interpretation that such a project will not be successful. Small-scale industrialists, farmers and common borrowers are normally denied credit facilities on one pretext or the other.

So, if bankers are at fault in frauds and bad debts and in the sanctioning process, their liability should not be forced on institutions which are public and ultimately indirectly owned by people in the country. Deposits and public funding are the basis of banks' existence and hence they should be kept safe from any action against irregularities committed by officers and the concerned directors of banks, if they are found behind the alleged frauds and bad debts.

Penalise bankers at fault, not public

The recapitalisation of Rs 2 lakh crores or more amount is public money and that too is unduly a burden on people. If bank officers and the director boards who have sanctioned big loans without due care and restrictive rules (which are normally observed in cases of small loans like credit reports or Cibil credit recommendation), why should people or an institution as a whole suffer by way of penalty? Locate those who are responsible and find out what and where matters went wrong and impose fine if the individuals, whether directors or bank officers, are found liable for action.singhking99@yahoo.com

It was heart-wrenching to witness the sack-cloth-and-ashes departure of Jacob Zuma, the once-indomitable poster boy of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. There is no shortage of heroes in the history of resistance against racism in South Africa. In a galaxy of leader-statesmen of the calibre of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Ahmed Kathrada, Mac Maharaj, Tokyo Sexwale and Walter Sisulu, Jacob Zuma had to be extra special to carve out political space for himself. His decade in the notorious Robben Island prison and years as a militant-on-the-run earned him the number two position in the ANC hierarchy. Zuma nearly spoilt it on becoming Deputy President when he was charged of rape and bribery. However, unlike a populist leftist party snapping at its heels now, ANC faced no credible opposition then and Zumas demagogic skills as a vote-catcher earned him a reprieve.

The fighter in Zuma helped him bounce back. But the goatherd who espoused radical economic transformation presided over a regime that became a byword for high unemployment, recession and high levels of inequality. Zuma still managed to cling on mainly because his legacy brought in votes. But the worm turned and Zuma became a political liability when the ANC performed poorly in the 2016 local elections. South Africas ombudsman further turned in the screws when he accused Zuma of state capture with his businessmen cronies.

Zuma had dropped the baton handed over by his predecessors Thabo Mbeki, who had tried to restructure the economy, and Nelson Mandela who politically reconciled South Africa after decades of violence. South Africa today no longer pulls the same weight it did a decade back. Zumas successor Cyril Ramaphosa was in the political shadows for a while but is no novice. The Mandela-era leader is expected to restore the damage caused by Zumas free-spirited ways, including in foreign policy. India once figured high in South Africas foreign policy calculus and could do so again if Ramaphosa displays his skills as a negotiator to provide greater dynamism to BRICS when South Africa assumes its presidency in June this year.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Panipat, February 18

All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) chief Yashpal Malik claimed today BJP ministers and party leaders were responsible for arson and violence during the Jat stir in February 2016.

The AIJASS would gather Patels, Marathas and other communities engaged in agriculture throughout the country to demand reservation, he said.

Malik was addressing Jats in Ugrakheri village of Panipat district to observe Balidan Divas.

As we came to know about Amit Shahs rally in Jind on February 15, we immediately decided to organise a tractor rally to disrupt the BJP rally. Due to unity of the community, the state government was ready to compromise on our demands, he said.

The government has assured us on our demands on February 11, he claimed.

Malik alleged senior BJP leaders were behind the arson and violence in 2016 to divide society. We were cheated by our own people in 2016, he said.

Malik alleged that the February 2016 incidents were launched as part of a political conspiracy by the BJP leaders on February 14 after a meeting at Sampla in Rohtak.

I have asked the government why no action has been taken against the BJP functionaries and their relatives responsible for the violence in 2016, but the government has no reply, he asserted.editorial@tribune.com

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

With the BJP having already exhibited its strength through party president Amit Shahs rally in Jind on February 15, Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ashok Tanwar and INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala are planning to show their political prowess through rallies.

Since Assembly polls are likely along with the General Election next year, political parties seem to be vying with each other to exhibit their strength and score brownie points over one another.

With their political differences obvious to party workers, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar have announced their separate programmes.

Despite a fracture in his foot, Hooda will launch his rath yatra from Hodal in Palwal district on February 25. Tanwar will begin his statewide bicycle rally from Kalka on March 5.

Sources close to Hooda have said the former Chief Minister plans to visit all 90 Assembly segments of the state during the rath yatra. Though doctors have advised me complete rest after getting my foot plastered, the pain people of the state have been suffering for the past more than three years is bigger, he said.

Tanwar plans to visit all Assembly segments during his bicycle tour. By reaching out to people in their villages, I will be in a better position to understand their problems and expectations from the next government, he said.

Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala will hold a rally in Delhi on March 7 on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue. Despite orders of the Supreme Court, the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state are not interested in construction of the canal. By holding a rally in Delhi, we will show the Centre that people of Haryana will not tolerate any more injustice, he said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, February 18

All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) president Yashpal Malik today told a gathering of Jats that the state government would soon the fulfil the demand for reservation.

The government has approved the grant of reservation to Jats, he said during a Balidan Divas function in the districts Jassia village.

The function was organised in the memory of Jat youths killed during the quota agitation in February 2016.

Malik explained to the gathering the recent agreement with the state government, because of which the AIJASS called off its agitation on February 15.

He later told the media, The government is serious on reservation. The BJP has assured that our concerns will be addressed in a time-bound manner. We hope that the party keeps its word.

On being asked about the time frame for the acceptance of their demands, he said there were different deadlines for different demands. The government is on the job to fulfil the demands.

He reiterated that certain ministers had incited violence during the Jat quota agitation in February 2016 as the BJP rule wanted to create a caste divide in the state to further their vested interests.

The 2016 agitation was a handiwork of an uncle of Cabinet Minister Om Prakash Dhankar and some khap leaders. BJP leader Manish Grover, who was later made the Minister of State for Cooperatives, was also involved in the conspiracy, Malik alleged.

He asked Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu to withdraw cases registered in connection with the arson and violence at his Rohtak residence and other premises.

Malik added, The agitation will be re-launched if the demands are not met.

Meanwhile, a word of warning

Sonepat: All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti president Yashpal Malik on Sunday threatened to start an indefinite agitation if there was delay in fulfilling the demands, including reservation. He was addressing participants in Balidan Divas event organised near Lath-Joli villages in the district. Malik asked them to keep their tractor-trolleys ready as these might be required in the future. As a precautionary measure, 10 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed in Gohana. ocamansharma@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Palwal, February 18

A gangster, who was arrested from Uttar Pradesh on February 13, died under mysterious circumstances on Sunday.

Pawan alias Hariya was in police custody and was produced in a court when he reportedly complained of pain. He was declared brought dead by doctors at Palwal civil hospital around 3pm.

Hariya, a resident of Bhainsrawli village in Faridabad, was arrested on the night of February 13 from Uttar Pradesh.

Carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh, he was wanted in 42 cases of crime committed in Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi.

One of his associate was gunned down in an encounter by Faridabad police on February 8.

A team of three doctors of civil hospital will conduct the post-mortem.editorial@tribune.com

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, February 18

A special CBI court here has acquitted former Haryana DGP MS Malik and two others in a case of alleged irregularities in the recruitment of constables.

The two others are DSP Arun Kumar, who is about to retire, and former DSP Udey Shankar. As the prosecution agency failed to prove the charges, the court acquitted the accused on Saturday.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Malik, who is a member of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), and the two others, charging them with cheating, criminal conspiracy, forgery and corruption.

On December 13, 2004, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had handed over the case to the CBI. On June 19, 2006, the investigating agency had registered a case at its Chandigarh branch.

The CBI had submitted that in 2003-04, the selection board was formed for 150 posts of constable from the SC category in the Haryana Armed Police (HAP) and 350 posts of temporary constable in the Government Railway Police (GRP). It was formed on Maliks orders. The selection board comprised then SP (Railways) Ravi Azad, Arun Kumar and Udey Shankar.

Azad had died during the course of investigation.

The CBI had submitted before the court that on July 4, 2004, before the declaration of results, Azad had visited Maliks house in Chandigarh. There, Malik had handed him a list of candidates for selection as GRP constables.

The investigating agency had informed the court that Azad had even directed his subordinates to take out application forms of certain candidates whose names were dictated by him from the list. The subordinates then arranged the names district-wise.

The CBI had submitted the PET (Physical Efficiency Test) registers were prepared later after adjusting the marks of certain candidates.

The CBI had informed the court Azad had asked his subordinates to put the loose record, the list of eligible candidates found in PET registers and interview marks list in his official car. The records were later set on fire, it had submitted.editorial@tribune.com

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, February 18

The state government has invited suggestions from the hotel associations to prepare road map for promotion of tourism in Himachal Pradesh. A meeting of the hotel associations was held yesterday with director tourism and other officials of the state.

Sanjeev Gandhi, general secretary of the Upper Dharamsala Hotel Association, while talking to The Tribune, said that it was a welcome step on the part of the state government. It was for the first time that the state government was trying to involve the hoteliers in formulation of the policy for the promotion of tourism. We have given our suggestion and hope that the government would include some of these in the policy to be framed, he said.

In Kangra region the hoteliers and other industry related with tourism has been requesting the state government to cash in on the brand The Dalai Lama. The hoteliers have alleged that earlier the Dalai Lama used to hold most of its teaching at McLeodganj. The teaching used to attract tourists from across the world and used to give lifeline to the tourism industry of Dharamsala throughout the year.

However, over the years, the Dalai Lama has moved his teaching out of Dharamsala. In the last few years, the Bihar government has invited the Dalai Lama and he is hosting his teachings in Bodh Gaya that attract thousands of foreign tourists. Bihar Chief Minister had specially come to Dharamsala to invite the Dalai Lama for teachings in Bodh Gaya.

Deepak Kumar, a resident of Dharamsala who is associated with tourism industry, said that despite the fact that the Himachal government was hosting the Tibetan government in exile and McLeodganj was the home of the Dalai Lama outside Tibet, no endeavour has been made by the state government to urge the Tibetan spiritual icon to hold his teachings here. In case Kala Chakra teachings of the Dalai Lama were held at Dharamsala, it could give a booming business to the tourism industry of entire Kangra district, he said.

During his first winter sojourn in Kangra district in last month January, new Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had met the Dalai Lama at his residence in McLeodganj. The Chief Minister had said that he would take up the issue of holding teachings of the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala. However, no statement in this regard has been issued either by the establishment of the Dalai Lama or the state government.

The hotel association of Dharamsala has also requested the state government that certain activities should be created in the area under the Smart City scheme to retain the tourists. Presently the tourists stay in Dharamsala region for just a couple of days as there was no activity for children or adults. The hotel association is of the view that the tourist stay can be increased in case some recreational activities are created in the region.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 18

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has demanded disbanding of truck unions in the state because of their unethical and monopolistic practices.

Presenting its budget wish list to the state government, the CII has demanded immediate action to this problem, apart from mooting sustainable growth of the industry through a reform-based agenda.

The state government should focus on strengthening ease of doing business (EoDB) initiatives, investment in infrastructure and harnessing of competitive advantages. This will go a long way in growth and sustenance of the industry in the state beyond 2020 which marks the sunset of the incentive package that propelled industrialization, said Rajesh Saboo, chairman, CII Himachal Pradesh State Council.

The state ranks 17th nationally on the key EoDB parameters as per the latest rankings issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion with ineffective single window clearance making a huge difference. Being a land locked state, infrastructure is another big area of concern and the state government should invest as well as promote investments in this critical sector.

Major roads traversing through the industrial corridors of the state should be converted into four- lane highways. Apart from this, the government should impress upon the Centre to extend rail connectivity to the state which will not only give a boost to the industry but will also promote tourism. Besides, tourism is yet another employment generating sector in the hill state, added Saboo.

Power incentive, which used to be the unique selling point of the government and has attracted industry to the state, is no more available on competitive rates. The state government should announce a more competitive power tariff with no further escalation for at least a period of next five years. This will not only help industry to grow and flourish but will also act as an enabler for sustaining the existing industry, observed IMJS Sidhu, Vice Chairman, CII.

The CII also called for a renewed and refreshed version of the state tourism policy with special focus on health and wellness sectors, adventure tourism, rural and orchard tourism.laxmi@tribune.com

TO replace the corrupt inspector-raj of the Medical Council of India with the new provisions in the National Medical Commission Bill is foolhardy as a majority of colleges, especially the private ones, need some kind of regulation. Currently, there are more private colleges - 221 with 24,690 MBBS seats - than government ones - 205 with 27,490 MBBS seats. In 1980, there were 112 medical colleges with only 12 in the private sector.

The NMC Bill, 2017 was introduced in the Lok Sabha last month, but was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee following a spate of objections by doctors all over the country. The Bill envisaged replacing the corruption-tainted Medical Council of India (MCI) by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

Going into the background of the Bill, an expert committee headed by Dr Ranjit Roy Chaudhuri had in 2015 suggested revamping medical education and practice in the country by reconfiguring the MCI's functioning. Subsequently, a NITI Aayog Committee headed by its vice-chairman Arvind Panagaria, but without a single doctor member, submitted a preliminary report that formed the basis of the Bill.

Debatable conclusions

A perusal of the report suggests that many of the conclusions on which the Bill is based upon were themselves debatable. It was suggested that district hospitals should be expanded into medical colleges and private hospitals be allowed to impart postgraduate education by utilising the large pool of doctors who have 'migrated' to the private health system. It seems that the committee did not realise that mere availability of specialists is not enough, and postgraduate training is not apprenticeship with one or more doctors. It is based on a defined curriculum with didactic lectures, seminars, bedside discussions, journal clubs and practical training.

Even now many private hospitals run the National Board of Examination Course but most of these courses have abysmal levels of training. The idea of expanding India's poorly staffed district hospitals with 'no' infrastructure into medical colleges, suggests that the committee members had little idea of the ground reality.

Laissez-faire

The Bill also proposes to facilitate privatisation of medical education. In 2016, in a departure from earlier practice, NITI Aayog removed the mandatory 'not-for-profit' clause and 'not to resort to commercialisation' precondition for getting permission to establish medical colleges. The NMC Bill actually goes one step further and dilutes the requirements for setting up medical colleges and allows the existing ones an unsupervised free hand.

Not only that, the fees of 60 per cent of the seats would also be decided by the colleges resulting in escalation of fees many times. This would deprive thousands of deserving, but poor students from pursuing a career in medicine. Instead of enhancing public investment in medical education, the NMC proposes the exact opposite. It actually legitimises profit-making in medical education and makes it a tradable commodity. One shudders to think what would be the impact of such a provision, when the nation is already rocked by unfair practices of some of Delhi's premier private hospitals.

Unholy pact

Currently, there are more private colleges than government ones. Most of them are run by trusts or societies owned by politicians. Whenever reforms in medical education were proposed earlier, they were shot down by the politician-doctor nexus. To replace the corrupt inspector-raj of the MCI with new provisions in the NMC Bill is foolhardy as a majority of colleges especially the private ones need stronger regulation. They would hoodwink the government by claiming non-existent faculty and infrastructure and even falsifying the number of tests and surgeries being conducted.

The constitution of NMC has also raised many eyebrows. A majority of its 25 members will be nominated by the government and bureaucracy. Only five part-time members will be representatives of registered medical practitioners and they too will not be a part of any of the four autonomous boards. In the past all the corruption in the MCI had emanated from private medical colleges. One would imagine that any nominated body would be prone to pressures, pulls and influences from politicians and bureaucrats.

NEET idea

There are indeed, some positive provisions in the Bill. Holding a common entrance examination (NEET) and a licentiate examination at exit is a good idea. It should be followed by a common curriculum across the country and it could lead to improved standards in medical education.

The second positive is splitting one MCI body into four independent boards for undergraduate education, postgraduate education, medical registration and medical assessment and rating to regulate each of these different aspects. However, it would have been better to add a fifth board on public health, because that remains the most neglected aspect of our health system.

The Bill has faltered on medical research as the NMC is charged to regulate medical research. This supersedes the role of agencies like ICMR and departments of Science and Technology and Biotechnology among others.

Dangerous liaisons

The most contentious issue coming out of NMC is the bridge course of six months for practitioners of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) which will enable them to practise allopathy. This is dangerous as it would put the lives of patients in danger. What an MBBS doctor learns in five-and-a-half years cannot be taught in six months to people of a different aptitude and intellectual background. This would also be an insult to genuine trained practitioners of say Ayurveda or homoeopathy. It would also have legal implications.

No doubt, the concept of the NMC is a step forward from the days of the MCI, but in its present form the Bill fails on many fronts. While the NITI Aayog committee had correctly identified what all are wrong with medical education in India, the remedies suggested by the ensuing Bill are not enough to cure them all.

THE NMC BILL

The purpose of the Bill is to modernise medical education and practice. It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 29, 2017 to repeal the IMC Act and dissolve the archaic Medical Council of India (MCI).

Dateline

May 2010 -- Government superseded the IMC Act, 1956 through an ordinance for one year to reform medical education system through a newly constituted Board of Governors. Eventually, the ordinance lapsed, the IMC Act could not be amended and MCI came back to govern the medical education.

July 2014 -- a committee under Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhuri was constituted. In February 2015, it proposed to form a National Medical Commission (NMC) through a new Act with four autonomous boards.

September 2015 -- The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare took up the matter, submitted a report in the Rajya Sabha in March 2016 saying, MCI "repeatedly failed on all its mandates".

May 2016 -- While hearing a case related to dental education, the Supreme Court also reinforced sentiments expressed by the Standing Committee.

March 2016 -- A committee headed by NITI Aayog's Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya was constituted, which submitted the draft Bill on August 7, 2016.

Flaws in MCI

Unable to maintain uniform education standards

Devaluation of merit in admission to institutions

Doubtful medical college inspections, grant of recognition or de-recognition

Missing focus on teaching quality, training and skills

Proposed system

NMC to regulate fees 'up to' 40% of seats in private medical institutes

National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission

Another exam to obtain the medical licence

A bridge course to enable AYUSH doctors to practise allopathy

Criticisms

Primarily a nominated body with control of politicians, bureaucrats

Bridge course will encourage backdoor entry; it is unscientific and dangerous

Examination for medical licence will cause unnecessary stress

Private institutions will extort high capitation fees for 60% seats

Vague scrutiny of private medical colleges

The writer is the Professor of Gastroenterology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarhshalender@tribune.com

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 17

Incredible, but true. Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir are preparing the ground to book victims of border shelling for sedition following their outburst against BJP leaders for abandoning them at the crucial time.

Shockingly, the local police are collecting evidence to book grieving sons of a deceased ex-serviceman who had criticised the saffron party leadership for treating border residents as cannon fodder to reap political benefits.

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Suresh Kumar Choudhary of Kamore Camp in Sambas Ramgarh sector and son Punit had sustained serious injuries in Pakistan shelling on January 19. Suresh, 50, died on February 5 allegedly because of non-availability of medical facilities,

Overcome by grief, the deceaseds sons Punit and Prashant reportedly made derogatory remarks against the BJP leadership while regretting they had voted for the BJP that had promised to restore peace and tranquility in border areas.

A video that went viralshowed the mourning family members using abusive language for the BJP leadership for abandoning them in their hour of grief. We have reports that some persons raised anti-national slogans at the cremation. We have taken note of it in the DDR (daily diary report), " a senior police officer at the Ramgarh police station told The Tribune.

He said a formal FIR was yet to be registered but cops had been told to collect evidence and book the culprits for sedition. Those involved in sloganeering will be identified and subsequently an FIR registered, he said. Humiliated by border residents, a furious BJP leadership has decided to stifle dissent in Jammu area, sources claimed.

Meanwhile, Panthers Party leader Harsh Dev Singh has slammed the move.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Islamabad, February 18

Prime Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider has instructed authorities to give state funerals to those killed due to alleged firing by Indian troops across the Line of Control.

Haider on Saturday accused the Indian Army of targeting civilians, including women and children, The Express Tribune reported.

All deputy commissioners have been instructed to ensure the best treatment of the injured as well as funerals of martyrs with state honour, he said, alleging that Indian troops recently targeted a school van killing its driver.

He also appealed to the Government of Pakistan to raise the issue of ceasefire violations at the Line of Control allegedly by the Indian Army in the UN Security Council.

Pakistan must raise the issue of targeting of civilians, schools and hospitals in the Security Council, he added. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 18

The construction of the permanent campus of Jammu Regional Centre, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), at Rajinder Vihar in the Bantalab area is likely to start in 10-15 days, said an official.

Sources said the Jammu Development Authority (JDA) had forwarded the lease document to the Housing and Urban Development Department in September 2017 for completion of formalities after which a team of the Construction and Maintenance (C&M) Division of IGNOU, New Delhi, had visited the site.

They added that once the final decision is taken, the C&M Division is likely to entrust the construction to the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) at the 14.5-kanal plot at Rajinder Vihar in the Bantalab area.

The sources said the temporary campus at the Government SPMR College of Commerce lacked space to accommodate the ever-increasing number of students. The enrolment of aspirants for programmes, diplomas and certificate courses has registered a sharp increase in the recent years. The college authorities also have urged the Regional Centre to vacate its building.

The total enrolment at IGNOUs Jammu Regional Centre, which was around 40,000 a few years ago, has now reached almost 50,000 with a network of 66 learning centres across the region. It includes 16 regular study centres, 22 programme study centres, 24 special study centres and four jail study centres.

The construction of the permanent campus is likely to start within 10-15 days as some procedural formalities are yet to be completed. We are also aware of the inadequate space in the temporary office at the commerce college where it is becoming difficult to accommodate the students, an IGNOU official said.

Surge in students numbersinghking99@yahoo.com

Agartala/New Delhi, Feb 18

Around 78 per cent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the single-phase Tripura Assembly polls today, 14 per cent lower than the previous state elections. The BJP is trying to dislodge the Left Front after an unbroken 25-year stint in power. The votes will be counted on March 3.

A total of 292 candidates, including 23 women, are in the fray. The polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was peaceful with thousands of Central paramilitary forces fanning across the north-eastern state. The voter turnout till 9 pm was 78.56 per cent, said Tripura Election Commissioner G Kameswara Rao later tonight.

There were reports of malfunction in electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some polling stations which were rectified.

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Polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPM candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week. The constituency will go to the polls on March 12.

In the last Assembly elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 91.82 per cent, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it was 84.32 per cent, said Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain.

He said two crude bombs were detected and disposed of by security personnel.

The voter turnout was likely to rise as long queues were seen at polling stations even after 4 pm, the time for the voting to conclude. Under the electoral laws, voters standing in queue at the scheduled time for voting to conclude are allowed to exercise their franchise.

Additional CEO Tapas Roy said initially there were problems with several EVMs, which were fixed.

The BJP has emerged as the key challenger to the CPM-led Left Front, which has remained unvanquished in the last five Assembly elections. Manik Sarkar, one of the most enduring icons of the CPM, has helmed the state for the last four terms.

The Congress, which has been marginalised in Tripura, was last in power between February 1988 and March 1993. It is contesting 59 seats.

The BJP, which has been rapidly expanding its footprint in the North-East, with the party already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, has forged an alliance with Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), an anti-Left party. The BJP has fielded candidates for 51 seats, while its ally is contesting nine seats.  PTI

NCP candidate shot dead in Meghalaya

Shillong: Jonathone N Sangma, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate for the Williamnagar Assembly seat in Meghalaya, and his two security guards were killed in an attack by militants who exploded IEDs and fired on his convoy in the Garo Hills area on Sunday. The attack occurred around 8 pm while Sangma was returning after campaigning. The poll is scheduled for February 27. TNSsinghking99@yahoo.com

Tehran, February 18

All 65 persons on board an Iranian passenger plane were feared dead today after it crashed into the countrys Zagros mountains, with emergency services struggling to locate the wreckage in blizzard conditions.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 left Tehran for the city of Yasuj, some 500 km to the south, the airlines public relations chief Mohammad Tabatabai said. The ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service since 1993, disappeared from radar around 45 minutes after takeoff from the capitals Mehrabad airport.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, as well as six crew members, Tabatabai said inititally, but it was later confirmed that one passenger had missed the flight.

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Emergency services were yet to find the precise location of the crash as emergency teams battled severe weather.

President Hassan Rouhani ordered the transport ministry to set up a crisis group to investigate the crash and coordinate rescue efforts.

Decades of international sanctions have left Irans airlines with an ageing fleets of passenger planes which they have struggled to maintain and modernise.

Asemans three Boeing 727-200s are almost as old as the countrys 1979 Islamic revolution, having made their first flights the following year. Iran has suffered multiple aviation disasters, most recently in 2014 when a Sepahan Airlines plane crashed killing 39 persons just after takeoff from Tehran, narrowly avoiding many more deaths when it plummeted near a busy market.

Meanwhile, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences over the deaths, moments after he launched a blistering attack on Tehran as tension between the arch enemies reached new heights over Irans activities in Syria.  Agenciesamansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 18

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval quietly travelled to Bhutan earlier this month on a rare visit during which they held extensive talks with the top brass of the Bhutanese leadership on strategic issues, including the situation in Doklam, authoritative government sources said.

The sources told PTI that the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation issues with a focus on China's increasing military posturing and infrastructure development in the key Doklam plateau.

The visit took place between February 6 and 7 and "positive" outcomes emerged from the meetings between the key Indian officials and the Bhutanese government, they said.

The visit by Gen Rawat, Doval and Gokhale was the first such high-level trip from India to Bhutan after the Doklam standoff and it was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides.

The visit came three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians about the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed Doklam tri-junction by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off ended on August 28.

China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. India argues that since it is a tri-junction involving the three countries, it also has a say in the issue, especially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks.

Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India.

The sources said several other key officials of the Army and the Ministry of External Affairs were also a part of the visit. Asked about the foreign secretary's visit, a diplomatic source called it "routine".

This was Gen Rawat's second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months. Gen Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000-km border with China. Last month, he had said the time had come for the country to shift its focus from the western to the northern frontier.

Army sources said China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area.

The Indian Army has also been strengthening its troop level in certain key sectors along the Sino-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure.

Previously, Rawat had visited Bhutan in April last year while then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited the neighbouring country in October last. In November last, the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, had visited India.  PTIuttara@tribuneindia.com

Mumbai, February 18



The BJP-led government's budget reforms have created a new work culture and are transforming the socio-economic landscape of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Sunday.

The government, he said, is working in the times of disruption and discontent.

"Our budget is not limited to outlay, its focus is on outcome. Our reforms in budget making and presentation have created a new work culture and are transforming the socio-economic landscape," he said.

Modi was speaking after inaugurating the 'Magnetic Maharashtra' Global Investors Summit in suburban Bandra.

"We are moving in a direction where the state is policy driven, governance is performance driven, government is accountable and democracy is participative," he said.

"We are working in times of disruptions and discontent," Modi added.

In the last three and half years, the government has transformed the country from being a fragile five' nation to one now aspiring $5 trillion GDP, he said.

"I am sure that Maharashtra will become the first trillion dollar economy in the country. Maharashtra's development is representative of changes in the country," he said.

A country progresses only when it has a vision and works for inclusiveness, Modi said. "Potential, policy, planning and performance leads to progress." He said the government in the last three years has repealed 1,400 laws and the new ones are being written with the intent of simplification, not to complicate (things).

On investments, he said there is a healthy competition among states to attract investments as per their strengths.

"What started with Gujarat is visible all across the country now. I congratulate Maharashtra government for the work on ease of doing business and making it easier for investors," he said.

The 'Samruddhi corridor' (between Mumbai and Nagpur) will help boost agriculture and agriculture-based industries, he said.

On the Centre's development initiatives, Modi said, "We will create 1.5 lakh wellness centres in bigger gram panchayats".

Besides, Modi said, 10.5 crore people have been accepted under MUDRA scheme and Rs 4.60 lakh crore has been disbursed to small businesses. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 18



Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and kids Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien, on Sunday visited the Taj Mahal in Agra.

The Canadian Prime Minister will also be visiting the Wild Life Century (Elephant Conservation Center) in Mathura's Churmura today. Due to Canadian Prime Minister's visit, the sanctuary will remain shut for two hours.

Also read:

The week-long state visit to India, which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi, would provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with the Indian leaders in government and business, promote empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India's close economic ties.

Both the sides will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries, and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

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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 Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham. ANIeditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 18

Asserting that democracy is his partys core value, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today lauded that the BJP and its earlier avatar Jana Sangh had always been on the fore front of all the agitations in the interest of the country since Independence.

In a speech at a function here to inaugurate the new building of his partys central office, the Prime Minister said because of the core value, the BJP takes along its allies successfully and has never wavered from its founding ideals, which is full of patriotism.

Modi said there were many leaders associated with the Congress during the struggle for freedom, but later parted ways to propagate their political values and founded new parties. The Jana Sangh was founded because after Independence a need was felt to have one or two more strong national parties, he added.

After Independence, Bhartiya Jana Sangh and then the BJP led all agitations held in national interest in the country. And we are proud of it, the PM told a gathering, which included party chief Amit Shah, a host of Union ministers and its office-bearers. He went on to add that exactly because of this the BJP is dyed in the colour of patriotism and is always willing to struggle and sacrifice for the cause of the nation.

At a time when some of his allies, including the TDP, have spoken about their differences with the BJP, Modi also recalled the work of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government.

On the occasion, Modi also said different views of different political parties made the bouquet of Indian democracy beautiful but a lot needed to be done about the way they were constituted and function.

BJP HQs biggest in world, claims Shah

With an area of over 1.70 lakh sq ft, the BJP's new headquarters is bigger than the office of any other political party in the world, party president Amit Shah said on Sunday at the inauguration of the office. The office is located at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in Delhi and it makes the BJP the first major political party to shift its office outside Lutyens Bungalow Zone, following a Supreme Court directive asking parties to relocate from there.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 18

In light of the massive Rs 11,300 crore ($1.8 billion) scam allegedly involving jeweller Nirav Modi that has hit state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), industry chamber Assocham said on Sunday that the government should surrender its majority control of banks, which should be allowed to function like private sector lenders.

In a regulatory filing earlier this week, PNB said it had detected the gigantic fraud in one of its Mumbai branches, putting the quantum of fraudulent transactions at $1,771.69 million.

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The amount is equivalent to eight times the bank's net income of about Rs 1,320 crore ($206 million).

The PNB's fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,300 crore should act as a strong trigger for the government for reducing its stake to less than 50 per cent in the banks which should then be allowed to work on the lines of private sector lenders with a full sense of accountability to their shareholders protecting interest of depositors, Assocham said in a statement here.

The public sector banks (PSBs), ironically, are slipping from one crisis to the other and there is a limit the government can keep bailing them out at the cost of taxpayers' money, even if it is the principal shareholder in these lenders, it said.

The industry body said PSB senior managements spend bulk of their time "receiving and implementing directions from the bureaucrats even for innocuous issues."

In the process, the core banking functions, including all important risk mitigation and management, take a back seat.

The problem has become more grave with banks adopting new technologies which can prove both boon and bane, it added.

In this connection, a Special CBI Court in Mumbai on Saturday remanded to police custody till March 3 three accused persons in the case.

The three includes a retired PNB Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat and an authorised signatory of the prime accused Nirav Modi's group companies.

Besides these, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named 10 other directors and officials as accused in the scam.

Once the government equity in the banks is reduced below 50 per cent, there would be much more autonomy along with accountability and responsibility of the senior management, Assocham said.

The boards should then be truly taking the policy decisions while the CEOs would run the banks with full authority, coupled with the commensurate responsibility, instead of looking towards the bureaucrats for directions," it added.

Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat in a statement urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take the lead to "engage with the industry in finding ways to do clean business in the entire financial sector, be it the public sector or private sector banks or even the non-banking finance companies."

In this regard, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramaniam has also advocated more private participation in public sector banks.

Speaking at an event in Chennai on Saturday, Subramaniam said while the government was going for recapitalisation of public sector banks, the scrutiny, monitoring and disciplined deployment must be ensured only through greater private participation in banks.

According to him, there should be less public lending to private sector and the mode to achieve that is to have higher private participation in the banking sector.

He said more privatisation could be the way forward since there was no guarantee that better governance recommendations of banks, instead of privatisation, would be implemented effectively.

IANSuttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, February 18

Punjab National Bank officials used to take percentage commissions in lieu of issuing letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit to diamond czar Nirav Modi and his partner Mehul Choksi and their firms, according to the probe into the Rs 11,300 crore banking scam.

The fresh revelation in the banking fraud has come after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) questioned former PNB Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat, and Hemant Bhatt, the authorised signatory of prime accused Nirav Modi's group of companies.

They were arrested on Saturday and have been remanded in police custody till March 3.

According to CBI sources, the arrested bank officials during interrogation disclosed that for every LoU, a percentage of the amount was fixed depending upon the amount to be sanctioned.

The commission collected from the client was then distributed between all employees of PNB involved in the scam, the sources said.

The agency on Saturday questioned six people in the case. However, CBI officials refused to share the names of all the people being questioned.

Those questioned on Saturday have named a few more officials who are likely to be questioned in a day or two, an official said.

The CBI official said the arrested accused were also questioned about their modus operandi.

The agency is also examining if other officials of the bank had access to SWIFTglobal messaging service to move money internationallywhich they used to make entries in core banking solution (CBS) to process daily transactions.

"It was used by many officials including Shetty by using passwords in the capacity of verifier/authoriser enabling the fraudulent Swift messages," the source said.

The involvement and connivance of more staff members and outsiders, including Nirav Modi and Mehul Chowksi, at this stage is being probed.

The agency sources claimed that it was not possible for two bank employees to commit a fraud on this scale without the knowledge of other officials.

The action is based on a CBI case registered against Nirav Modi on Wednesday in connection with a fraud involving Rs 6,498 crore.

The CBI on Thursday registered fresh FIRs against 10 directors of the Gitanjali Group of companies for causing alleged loss of Rs 4,886.72 crore.

The FIR also named two former bank employees said to be directly involved in the fraudulent transactions.

The fraud, which includes money laundering, allegedly involved the Firestar Diamonds group in which the CBI last week booked Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal Modi and their uncle Mehul Choksi.

On Sunday, the ED carried out searches at over 45 locations across the country including four places in Delhi.

Six properties in Mumbai belonging to the jeweller have also been sealed. IANSsinghking99@yahoo.com

New Delhi, February 18

Punjab National Bank officials used to take percentage commissions in lieu of issuing Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit to diamond czar Nirav Modi, partner Mehul Choksi and their firms, according to the probe into the Rs 11,300-crore banking scam.

The fresh revelation has come after the CBI questioned former PNB Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty, single window operator Manoj Kharat, and Hemant Bhatt, the authorised signatory of prime accused Nirav Modis group of companies.

According to CBI sources, the arrested bank officials disclosed that for every LoU, a percentage of the amount was fixed depending upon the amount to be sanctioned.

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The commission collected was then distributed among employees of PNB involved in the scam. The involvement of more staff members was being probed.  PTI

Overseas bank staff under scanner too

Officials at overseas branches of other banks are under scanner, say sources. The encashment of LoUs for gems and jewellery sector is usually of 90 days and not 365 days  the maturity period of majority of LoUs linked with fraud. The deviation from usual practice should have caught the attention of officials working at the Hong Kong branch of other lenders, say sources.

200 shell firms being probed

At least 200 shell firms and benami assets have come under the scanner of the investigating agencies. The Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department had zeroed in on 200 dummy or shell companies in the country and abroad that were being used to route or receive funds as part of the alleged fraud, say officials. PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Kolkata, February 18

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday demanded a thorough probe into the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case alleging other banks are also involved in the scam.

Claiming that the over Rs 11,000 crore PNB scam involving billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi was only a fraction of a mammoth fraud on the Indian banks, Banerjee asserted that it took place during demonetisation.

Big money laundering happened during demonetisation.

There are more banks involved. The full truth must come out, the Trinamool Congress supremo said in a tweet.

The BJP-led NDA government had demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016, in a bid to curb circulation of black money.

Alleging that key officials were changed in some banks during demonetisation, the Chief Minister also demanded investigation into the people who replaced them and those involved in effecting the transfers or removals.

A huge political slug-fest is on between the BJP and the Congress over the PNB scam with both parties blaming each other for allowing Nirav Modi and his associates in the fraud to flourish during their respective tenure. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 18

The total voter turnout stood at 76 per cent in the single-phase Tripura Assembly polls on Sunday, against the last Assembly elections when the polling percentage was recorded at 91.82.

Voting was today held in 59 of the total 60 seats as polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week.

The constituency will go to polls on March 12.

The BJP, an also-ran until now in the north-eastern state, is making a determined bid to demolish the red bastion of 25 years, with stalwarts like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah leading the charge.

The saffron party, which had forged a pre-poll alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), had fielded 51 candidates. The IPFT, an anti-Left party, contested from the remaining nine seats.

The Congress went it all alone in Tripura this time and contested from 59 seats. The party had not fielded a candidate from the Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

There are 25,73,413 registered voters -- 13,05,375 male and 12,68,027 female -- in the state.

The number of voters under the third gender category in the state is 11 and that of the new voters 47,803.  PTIuttara@tribuneindia.com

Yash Goyal

Jaipur, February 18

Rescuers have pulled out ten more bodies from a building that collapsed in a cylinder blast in Ajmers Beawer town, taking the death toll in Fridays incident to 19, police said.

Seven of those pulled out on Sunday were women, among them the mother of a newly wed man. The blast occurred late on Friday night when wedding rituals were underway at the house.

Authorities have sent 19 people who were wounded to hospitals in Ajmer and Beawer.

An army unit from Nasirabad is helping NDRF and SDRF teams with rescue operations, a defence spokesman Colonel Manish Ojha said.

Police said all those suspected missing have been accounted for, but authorities will continue to clear the rubble.

The blast was powerful enough to damage 12 adjoining buildings and houses, two cars and a few bikes in Nand Nagar area.

Police said that cooks at the wedding had been transferring LPG gas from one cylinder to another when it went off.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of those died and Rs 50,000 to the wounded.

The chief minister, who was accompanied by health minister KC Saraf, had to face the ire of residents of the area over power outage they have been facing since the incident.

Police have registered an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code in connection with the incident.



amansharma@tribunemail.com

Raipur, February 18

Two policemen were killed and six others injured in a gun-battle with the Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Sunday, a top official said.

The encounter took place in a forest under the Bhejji police station when a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and local police was out on an "area-domination operation", Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.

As the team was passing through the forest between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, around 500 km from state capital Raipur, it came under heavy firing from the ultras, leading to the gun-battle, the DIG said.

The exchange of fire lasted for over two hours, he added.

"Assistant constables Madkam Handa and Mukesh Kadthi of the DRG were killed and six other jawans were injured," the DIG said.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel as well as the bodies of the slain jawans were brought to Bhejji.

The injured jawans were being airlifted to Raipur, the DIG added.

In another incident along the stretch between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, where a road construction project is underway, the Naxals killed Anil Kumar, the supervisor of the private contractor, and set vehicles engaged in the road construction work ablaze, Sundarraj said.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 18

Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) chief and Atam Nagar MLA Simarjit Singh Bains accused Congress leader and former aide Kamaljit Singh Karwal and the latters supporters of attacking him in Ward 49 today. Karwal denied the charges.

Bains said he had arrived for a meeting at the house of businessman Ashok Singla in Model Town Extension, when Karwal, along with Congress candidate Rajinder Kaurs son Gurpreet Gopi and about 500 supporters barged in and attacked him.

We were holding a talk when the Congressmen, armed with sticks and pistols, attacked us. It was an attempt to murder me. They also damaged vehicles of my supporters. It is sheer goondagardi by the Congress. CCTVs installed in the area should be checked, Bains said.

I have complained to the Election Commission. We will also move the court seeking to appoint an election observer from another state for the February 24 Ludhiana MC elections, he added.

Karwal said: Singla had applied for the Congress ticket, but it was given to another applicant. Local MP Ravneet Singh Bittu was scheduled to visit Singlas house at 4 pm as the latter wanted to support the party nominee. But Bains and his supporters reached there at 3:45 pm.

Nobody attacked Bains and his men. Instead, they attacked us and injured one of our supporters, Karwal claimed. Singla refused to comment on the incident.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashwani Kapoor said when Bains visited the house, the Congressmen had also reached there. Only a heated exchange took place. No one was attacked, he added.

Writes to PM for security

Simarjit has written a letter to the PM, saying that he and his MLA brother Balwinder Singh Bains are receiving threat calls. We dont have any faith on the security provided by the state," he said, requesting the deployment of personnel of central agencies for their security.

AAP flays assault, threatens stir

Chandigarh: Leader of the Opposition Sukhpal Khaira condemned the attack on Simarjit Bains. He said this was the latest modus operandi of the Congress government to intimidate its political opponents through violent means. He said if the police did not arrest the Congress goondas, AAP and LIP would gherao the Commissioners office on Monday. tnsamansharma@tribunemail.com

Kuljit Bains

The Sikh population in India is around 1.9 per cent. In Canada it is 1.4 per cent. That is a bit of trivia that may actually help to put in perspective the significance of politics over the community that seems to overshadow the Trudeau visit to India. In both countries, the Sikh community is vibrant and productive. Accordingly, the communitys issues have drawn the attention of the respective governments equally. The only difference is on how the two governments approach those issues.

To reduce the myriad of issues to the most essential, the dispute is over the said demand for Khalistan, a separate homeland for Sikhs. For the Indian Establishment it is the suspicion that there is a resurgence of Khalistan activism in Canada, while for Canada the concern is the way some of its Sikh citizens, if not the entire community, are looked upon with suspicion by India, including the Punjab Government. The Canadian Governments view is that raising a demand in itself is legitimate, as long as it does not call for violent means. Most among the Indian leadership believe even mention of the K word is cause for alarm.

It needs to be understood that Canada is right now building a new politics based on hitherto unseen levels of liberalism. And the Sikh issue is only a small part of that. The country has opened itself to the world for immigration, based largely on economic or humanitarian parameters. That, by default, but not without realisation, opens it to a host of new ethno-political issues. Apparently, that is a risk the Canadians have considered worth taking. Of course, vote politics plays a significant role in this  and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can well be accused of that  but then that is precisely what democracy is.

Over the past year, certain developments have been flagged by Indian security agencies  Canadian gurdwaras banning the entry of Indian officials; Trudeau attending Khalsa Parade; increased mention of Khalistan among Sikh gatherings in Canada; even the targeted killings in Punjab. But what needs to be seen is the number of people actually involved in such activities, and the response they evoke among the masses, both in India and Canada. That support, anyone who has inputs from both countries will tell you, is close to nothing, at least for Khalistan.

On their part, India, and Punjab, would do well to come out of the historical view of Sikh militancy, out of the Bhindranwale shadow, so to say. Militancy cannot be started by a few people being killed, or a few incendiary speeches. The police can well take care of that. There have to be graver underlying causes. And that is what Punjab should be more concerned about. Make sure separatists do not find a fertile ground in the state.

The most potent seed for communal trouble is suspicion, a lack of trust. And that is best overcome by talking. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has painted himself into a corner vis-a-vis the Canadians, and perhaps that has triggered similar egos on the other side too. National and state interests cannot be held ransom to personal issues. Both Canada and India, especially Punjab, stand to gain significantly if they were to open themselves to each other. And the dividend for Punjab would be far more on a social plane than economic.

India has to realise there are Sikhs in Canada who have some real grievances, or even reasons for bitterness. As things stand, it may not be feasible to address many of those, but it can surely be ensured rancour is not carried into the future. People have the right to bemoan their pain, and even condemn those they hold responsible. The Canadian Government, on its part, has the duty to ensure no support to any illegal, especially violent, means is allowed on its land to the Khalistan movement, which is indeed happening currently even if on the margins.

Both sides have to communicate their concerns, and do the best to address each others fears. The current reticence may cause to be lost a historical opportunity to not only address the Punjab-Canada mistrust but also some of the historical Sikh suspicions. A warm handshake would be enough to make a beginning.shalender@tribune.com

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 17

More than 6,000 fake degrees, each sold for anywhere between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. That was the business the Council of Paramedical, Punjab, a fake body being run in Mohalis Phase VII, did in just one course. It is turning out to be a fraud worth hundreds of crores.

The council, that offered degrees/diplomas in 41 courses, managed to evade action for 10 years.

As per eight registers confiscated by Punjabs Board of Ayurvedic and Unani Systems of Medicine (BAUSM), a government body with which all ayurvedic doctors are registered, the fake council issued 6,136 BAMS degrees.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Sanjeev Goyal, Registrar, BAUSM, said: The fraudsters charged about Rs 1 lakh for diploma and Rs 2 lakh for a degree certificate, as alleged by the complainants. As per conservative estimates, the BAMS fraud comes to Rs 60 crore.

The BAUSM had conducted a surprise check on the council after it received queries from various government departments on the authenticity of the degrees/diplomas submitted by job aspirants. A senior health official said there had been numerous instances where job applicants had submitted fake certificates.

Besides the BAMS, the council had been offering courses in nursing, dentistry, veterinary sciences and for lab technicians. It was offering MBBS (biochemic systems) that could be done in just two years.

The fraud was going on over a decade. Except issuing public notices that the council was not recognised by the Punjab Government, the Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) did nothing to stop it from issuing fake certificates.

It was only last year that the DMER sent a detailed report to the state DGP and sought action against the fraudsters. But the police failed to act and the fraud continued for yet another year. It was last month that the state polices Special Operations Cell, acting on a fresh complaint, conducted a raid at the councils office in Phase VII, Mohali, and arrested one of the accused.

When contacted, Varinder Pal Singh, Assistant Inspector General of the cell, said the scam was widespread and they were on the trail of the kingpin.singhking99@yahoo.com

THE moral of the story, for our purpose, is obvious. In England even the Premier is not above making a mistake, and when he does make it, he does not think it inconsistent with his dignity to rectify it. In India even the junior most officer of Government thinks and is encouraged by the extremist Anglo-Indian Press to think that he is infallible, that like the King he can do no wrong, and that even if he did wrong it could never be his duty to acknowledge it. The heavens would fall if he did, and the prestige of the mighty British Raj would be gone. Absurdity could not further go.laxmi@tribune.com

Jotirmay Thapliyal

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 18

The court of Additional District Judge Vinod Kumar in Dehradun acquitted Dr RK Gupta, who ran a clinic in Rishikesh and was allegedly charged of using prohibited drugs as part of his medicines for treating epilepsy patients.

The decision comes in reversal to a CJM court decision in Dehradun that sentenced him to five years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 more than a month ago. Dr Gupta subsequently filed an appeal against the decision in the court of Additional District Judge Vinod Kumar in Dehradun following which he was acquitted.

According to defence counsel, after hearing the arguments, the court of Additional District Judge Vinod Kumar, who is also special judge Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act cases, found the claims made by witness against Gupta were inappropriate and thus acquitted him. However, on the other side, reacting to the judgment, the prosecution held that they would study the judgment and go for an appeal in the High Court.

Dr Gupta ran Neeraj Clinic in Rishikesh and claimed to treat epilepsy that attracted a large number of patients from across the country. In 2004, an NRI woman from Canada complained about the content of medicines being provided by Dr Gupta to his patients, alleging that it included prohibited drugs.

Following this, Dr Gupta was arrested on August 3, 2004, and brought to Rishikesh from where he managed to flee with the help of his supporters. Subsequently, he was arrested on August 14 from Dehradun. A case was registered against him for allegedly administering psychotropic substances to his patients.

Further, the court of Additional District Judge also acquitted 14 others, who were allegedly accused for helping Dr Gupta flee from police custody in 2004. A team of the IMA in 2000 had declared him a quack.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Munich, February 18

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran over aggressions by what he called Iran and its proxies in Syria, while showing what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace.

Saying he had a message to the tyrants of Tehran during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, he warned: Do not test Israels resolve. He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called a piece of that Iranian drone, or whats left of it, after we shot it down.

Israel has said it shot down the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

During the strikes, Israels F-16 fighter jet was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Israels response marked the first time it publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

Calling Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the smooth-talking mouthpiece of Irans regime, Netanyahu said: Mr Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, its yours. Again referring to Zarif, who is expected to speak later in Munich, the Israeli leader said: No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Irans involvement in Syria. He lies with eloquence. The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drones debris.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu offered his condolences over the 66 people killed in an Iranian plane crash, just moments after he launched a blistering attack on Tehran's government. "I take this opportunity to send condolences to the families of the 66 civilians that lost their lives in the plane accident today," Netanyahu said. "We have no quarrel with the people of Iran, only with the regime that torments them," he added.  AFP

Israels myth of invincibility has crumbled: Iran

Munich: Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday the shooting down of an Israeli jet after it bombed an Iranian site in Syria had shattered Israels so-called invincibility. Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbours, Zarif told the Munich Security Conference, accusing Israel of mass reprisals against its neighbours and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon. He was responding to Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the conference hours before. What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility (of Israel) has crumbled, Zarif said of Netanyahu's remarks, which followed the February 10 downing of an Israeli F-16 jet from anti-aircraft fire on Iran-backed positions in Syria.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Munich, February 18

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would act against Iran, not just its allies in the Middle East, if needed, reiterating that Tehran was the worlds greatest threat.

Holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone after its incursion into Israeli airspace earlier this month, Netanyahu told the Munich Security Conference: Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck.

We will act if necessary not just against Irans proxies but against Iran itself, he said.

Addressing the Munich event for the first time, Netanyahu urged gathered US and European officials and diplomats to counter Iran immediately, displaying a map showing what he said was Irans growing presence in the Middle East.

He said Iran was increasing its power as the US-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria regains territory from militants.

The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, Netanyahu said.

This is a very dangerous development for our region. Tensions surged on February 10 when anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

That was the most serious confrontation yet between Israel and Iranian-backed forces based across the border. Reutersgspannu7@gmail.com

Lahore, February 18

Pakistans ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday accused the countrys judiciary and powerful military of conspiring against him and asserted that he was not afraid of them.

Speaking at a big rally in Punjabs Sheikhupura district, the 67-year-old, Sharif, said both the judiciary and military had become his enemies and want to take revenge against him.

They have become my enemies and they want to take revenge against me. But I want to tell them that I am not afraid of them and I will face their every conspiracy, Sharif said.

He urged his supporters to help him defeat the forces (of military and judiciary), asserting that they had been playing havoc in the country for the last 70 years.

Sharif and some of his family members are facing charges relating to their ownership of posh properties in London.

He resigned as prime minister in July after the countrys Supreme Court disqualified him over undeclared income in the Panama Papers case.

Three cases were registered by the NAB against Sharif, his children and son-in-law in the court on September 8.

You and I have become part of this cruel system during the last 70 years. But the time has come to take on this system and change it, he said, warning that the cruel system is posing a serious threat to the country.

Sharif also vowed to avenge his disqualification in this years general election and make those accountable who ousted him.

I was sent to jail because I held nuclear tests. That was my crime. And this time I was ousted because I brought USD 56 billion investment to the country under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), overcoming load-shedding and eliminating terrorism from the country, he said.

Sharif said he would change the destiny of the country if his party wins the elections.

Sharif has held several rallies in different parts of Pakistan since his ouster.

He has targeted the judiciary for removing him from the office of the prime minister and also come up with give respect to the ballot slogan.  PTIsanjiv@tribunemail.com

Islamabad, February 18

Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa has claimed that there are no safe havens for terrorists in his country and asked the US to stop blaming Islamabad for its failure in Afghanistan.

Speaking at the three-day Munich Security Conference, the army chief categorically denied the existence of terrorist sanctuaries on the countrys soil and recalled the steps taken to prevent unauthorised movements across the porous border, the Dawn reported.

Gen Bajwa said Pakistan was being attacked from terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil. He also emphasised the need for repatriation of 2.7 million Afghan refugees currently residing in Pakistan.

We understand their (Kabul's) predicament and therefore we do not blame them, but instability in Afghanistan is also hurting us badly. And it is happening despite the presence of the most powerful alliance in Kabul, he said.

Pointing to the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic State safe havens, he said terrorists had established sanctuaries on the Afghan soil along the border with Pakistan.

Speaking on the operations launched against terrorists, he said that besides kinetic operations, a lot of emphasis had been put on cutting off their financial sources.

Last month, the Trump administration suspended nearly $ 2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan accusing the country of not doing enough in the fight against terrorism. However, despite the United States administrations tough stand against Islamabad, Pakistan has categorically denied the allegations of supporting terrorism.  PTIuttara@tribuneindia.com

Washington, February 18

US President Donald Trump attacked the FBI and lawmakers probing alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and said an excessive focus on Russia led federal investigators to miss signs that could have prevented the deadly school shooting in Florida last week.

In a series of tweets over the weekend, Trump accused former President Barack Obama of failing to do enough to stop Russian election interference and belittled Representative Adam Schiff, of the House intelligence committee that is investigating Russia's actions. Trump labeled Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the panel, a leaking "monster".

Trump also said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was "spending too much time" looking into whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

The tweets follow the announcement on Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller had charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies with a conspiracy to tamper in the 2016 US election.

The indictment says Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages and staged political rallies while posing as Americans, among other charges. But the indictment was silent on the question of whether anyone from the Trump campaign coordinated or worked with Russians.

Russia has denied meddling in the US election and Trump has denied any collusion.

In a tweet on Saturday night, Trump criticised the FBI for missing warning signs in the case of Nikolas Cruz, 19, who is charged with killing 17 people on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

More than a dozen people were wounded in the deadliest shooting at a US high school.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," Trump said on Twitter.

"They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion," added.

Cruz was investigated as far back as 2016 after slashing his arm in a social media video, and saying he wanted to buy a gun, but authorities determined he was receiving sufficient support, newspapers said on Saturday.

The FBI acknowledged on Friday that it failed to investigate a warning that Cruz possessed a gun and the desire to kill. Reuterspardeepdhull@gmail.com

Aboard USS Carl Vinson, February 18

US forces are undeterred by Chinas military build-up on man-made islands in the South China Sea and will continue patrolling the strategic, disputed waters wherever international law allows us, said a Navy officer aboard a mammoth US aircraft carrier brimming with F-18 fighter jets.

Lt. Cmdr. Tim Hawkins told The Associated Press on board the USS Carl Vinson that the Navy has carried out routine patrols at sea and in the air in the region for 70 years to promote security and guarantee the unimpeded flow of trade thats crucial for Asian and US economies.

International law allows us to operate here, allows us to fly here, allows us to train here, allows us to sail here, and thats what were doing and were going to continue to do that, Hawkins said today on the flight deck of the 95,000-ton warship, which anchored at Manila Bay while on a visit to the Philippines.

When President Donald Trump came to power, Southeast Asian officials were uncertain how deep the US would get involved in the overlapping territorial claims involving China and its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, was a vocal critic of Chinas increasingly aggressive actions, including the construction of seven man-made islands equipped with troops, hangers, radar and missile stations and three long runways.

China claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety and has challenged the US naval supremacy in the western Pacific.

Were committed, Hawkins told reporters. Were here. The Trump administration has outlined a new security strategy that emphasized countering Chinas rise and reinforcing the US presence in the Indo-Pacific region, where Beijing and Washington have accused each other of stoking a dangerous military buildup and fought for wider influence.

Washington stakes no claims in the disputes but has declared that their peaceful resolution and the maintenance of freedom of navigation are in its national interest.

US officials have said American warships will continue sailing close to Chinese-occupied features without prior notice, placing Washington in a continuing collision course with Chinas interests.

In January, China accused the US of trespassing when the US guided missile destroyer USS Hopper sailed near the Chinese-guarded Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing wrestled from the Philippines in 2012, despite its proximity to the main northern island of Luzon.

After voicing a strong protest, China said it would take necessary measures to protect its sovereignty.

The nuclear-powered Carl Vinson patrolled the sea prior to its Manila visit but did not conduct a freedom of navigation operation, Hawkins said. Thats not to say that we wont or we cant, but we have not, up to this point, he said.

There are reports that the Carl Vinson will also make a port call in Danang in Vietnamanother critical rival of Chinas ambitions in the South China Seaas the first American aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, but Hawkins declined to provide details of future trips.

China has also opposed the Philippine militarys deployment of a Japanese-donated Beechcraft King Air patrol plane in late January to Scarborough, a Philippine official said on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly. Chinese officials have relayed their objection to their Philippine counterparts, the official said.

China and Japan have their own territorial rifts in the East China Sea.

There was no immediate comment from Philippine military officials about Chinas opposition to the surveillance flights at Scarborough.

US and Chinese officials have said they have no intention of going to war in the disputed sea, but their governments have projected their firepower and clout in a delicate play of gunboat diplomacy and deterrence.

Were prepared to conduct a spectrum of operations, whether thats providing humanitarian assistance, disaster relief in the time of an emergency, or whether we have to conduct operations that require us to send strike fighters ashore, Hawkins said.

We dont have to use that spectrum, but were ready to, in case we need to. The US Navy invited journalists today on board the 35-year-old Carl Vinson, which was packed with 72 aircraft, including F-18 Hornets, helicopters and surveillance aircraft.

President Rodrigo Duterte has tried to back down from what he said was a Philippine foreign policy that was steeply oriented toward the US, but has allowed considerable engagements with his countrys treaty ally to continue while reviving once-frosty ties with China in a bid to bolster trade and gain infrastructure funds.

China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have long contested ownership of the South China Sea, where a bulk of the trade and oil that fuel Asias bullish economies passes through.  APProfessor Nguyen Mai, former Vice Chairman of the State Committee for Co-operation and Investment (now the Ministry of Planning and Investment)

The world is witnessing the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which is opening up many opportunities for countries across the globe, including Vietnam. However, some have commented that while Vietnam is indeed being industrialised, it still has a way to go and should focus on implementing the Second Industrial Revolution first, instead of thinking about the 4IR.

In fact, Vietnam has been integrating itself deeply into the worlds economy, with aspirations to elevate itself amongst global value chains and various achievements to show for it. Currently, Vietnam is conducting the Second Industrial Revolution with the construction of social and technical infrastructure, while also implementing the Third Industrial Revolution with the development of IT, automation systems, and the Internet. The country also actively engages with the 4IR in order to grab opportunities to catch up with regional and global development.

In May 2017, the prime minister issued a decree on strengthening the local capacity to approach the 4IR, offering many solutions on creating breakthroughs in infrastructure and IT application, improvement of the countrys business climate, selection of key strategic products for national development, and the formation of startup ecosystems.

Impacts on foreign direct investment

The government must be a regulator and facilitator equipped with modern information tools. This will create a favourable climate for the innovation of enterprises and people.

The 4IR requires Vietnam to alter its policies in order to further lure in foreign direct investment (FDI). While Vietnam still puts top priority on attracting FDI into high technology and environmentally-friendly technology, education and training, research and development (R&D), healthcare, and infrastructure, the country considers the 4IR an effective gateway to add further value to the sectors of IT, electronics, Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cloud computing, big data, mechanics, automation, and biotechnology.

To materialise its green growth goals, Vietnam should not endorse more FDI projects in the production of cement or steel, and oil refining. It should limit this type of FDI through a considered selection of investors, and attract modern, more efficient technology into power plants. It should also have more incentives for projects to build renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and tidal.

Localities with a relatively high development level should attempt to attract FDI into sectors and products that have a high content of knowledge and added value, and should not attract labour-intensive and environmentally-unfriendly projects. This will enable Vietnam to build its new growth model.

Meanwhile, localities with a low development level should build their infrastructure works to narrow the development gap between them and the countrys big economic hubs. They should also have

specialised policies for labour-intensive projects in the garment, textile, and footwear sectors. It is also necessary for them to take advantage of their potential, developing tourism and services, and connecting with FDI firms in neighbouring areas as to attract investment into their modern technological and service sectors.

While continuing to allure FDI from small- to medium-sized enterprises, the country needs to pay more heed to luring capital from the worlds leading transnational corporations operating in the high technology sector, and constructing big R&D centres to create high-quality products that have high added value and can compete on a global level.

Proving Vietnams eligibility as an attractive investment destination, Samsung Group has selected Vietnam as their global mobile phone manufacturing base, generating an export turnover of $50 billion last year and accounting for a staggering 25 per cent of the countrys total export turnover.

Vietnams FDI incentive policy should be suitable to the effectiveness of each project. Those projects enjoying incentives must be listed as projects prioritised for development.

In need of bigger reforms

According to a report issued in June 2017 by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, the US-based Cornell University, and the Institute for Economic Analysis and Decision-making, Vietnam was ranked 47th out of 127 nations in terms of global innovation, up 12 places from the previous year.

Within ASEAN, Vietnam stayed ahead of Thailand and was seen as having great potential for developing a knowledge-based economy.

According to experts, in order to effectively assess the impacts of the 4IR, it is necessary to conduct appropriate scientific research to precisely assess effects in each industry and its products. The results of this would be key to building a national development strategy with apt goals and without wasting resources.

Dam Bach Duong, head of the Ministry of Science and Technologys Department for High Technology, has proposed that Vietnam actively take specific action with considerable amendments. Examples of this include the improvement of the National Committee on Application of Technology and Informations operations, as well as supporting enterprises in IT application in order to catch up with the latest global technological trends.

Duong said that efforts must be made to focus on researching and applying new technologies like IoT, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and big data. This would maintain and develop enterprises competitiveness, help them save operational costs, and produce a higher quality of products that can contribute to environmental protection.

Vietnam also ought to attract investment into the manufacturing and assembly of machinery equipment and digital spare parts, enabling the application of digital technologies to industrial sectors and improving the countrys export structure via the development of high-tech and supporting-industry products.

It is fundamental to build a development strategy for the automation industry and high technology sectors, with special incentives and preparations for progress. These include the close co-operation between science and technology on one side and business and production on the other; the boosting of technological renovation in private enterprises; the strong application of new technologies; the boosting of international co-operation

in R&D and technological transfers; and the prioritisation of financial assistance for organisations and individuals with excellent scientific and technological achievements.

The first early studies on the global 4IR have all stressed the selection of some specific sectors for investment, which can be expanded to other sectors. For example, regarding IoT, Vietnam should first begin by building smart edifices instead of smart cities, because of its limited resources and technologies.

The determining factors for forming a 4IR development strategy include joint efforts from leading experts, which can help specify goals along the way.

Conclusion So, to take advantage

of new opportunities and weather all challenges in implementing the 4IR, much remains to be done.

Specifically, the government needs to change its management method. The government must be a regulator and facilitator equipped with modern information tools. This will create a favourable climate for the innovation of enterprises and people.

Enterprises are experiencing new trends in modern technology that have created new production methods and radically changed production chains. This requires enterprises to improve their corporate governance capacity, technologies, and product quality. They also must reduce operation costs to adapt to the new 4IR-led development environment.

Scientific research and training organisations must also radically alter their operational methods in order to adapt to 4IR requirements. They need to update their technology and equipment with the view of meeting enterprises growing demand in technological renovation. Importance must be attached to the application of the worlds state-of-the-art technologies in Vietnam, connecting institutes with enterprises on a win-win basis, and creating technological incubators  adventure investment funds, which are aimed at supporting new enterprises and startups.

Meanwhile, people must also partake in the countrys renovation process in order to create more value-added products which can compete with products on a global scale. People also need to be given favourable conditions to enjoy high-quality goods and products sold online via premium services.

In short, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is now growing nationwide, and has significant impacts across all sectors, enterprises, and people. Thus, it is necessary for the government, enterprises, organisations, and general population to modify themselves in order to develop Vietnam into a modern industrial nation.

The Venezuelan-born designer will continue as house ambassador but will no longer design her uptown girl collections



Carolina Herrera surrounded by workers from her atelier at the close of her final runway show, Autumn/Winter 2018

Indigital

With elegance and grace, Carolina Herrera ended her four-decade career by displaying 20 pristine white blouses - one of them her own. As the models ended the show in richly coloured long taffeta skirts and a variety of shirts from mannish to feminine, the designer handed over her namesake brand to her successor Wes Gordon, although she will continue to play a role in the company she founded

Her successor presented her with a bouquet and, with the atelier's hand workers at her side, Herrera said farewell to emotional clients, warm-hearted family members and Calvin Klein. The fellow designer, long since retired, sang Herrera's praises.

"I have so many memories. We are friends for over forty years. We used to go out so often in the 1970s to clubs, to restaurants. Carolina was always the lady. She was always the grandest, most beautiful and gracious woman in the room. She is great and what a testament, the clothes were gorgeous - the colours, those magical colours - and fabrics."

Caroline Herrera Autumn/Winter 2018

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Klein also paid tribute to Herrera's spirit of enterprise, "The business she built, it's just been great. She was always there for American design."

Caroline Herrera Autumn/Winter 2018

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The retirement of the grande dame of uptown dressing had been pushed by Puig, the fragrance giant which is behind Herrera's enormous brand and she is expected to continue as an ambassador, particularly in South America, where she still has ties to her birth country Venezuela.

Caroline Herrera Autumn/Winter 2018

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The winter 2018 show began, as it ended, with white shirts - one with a black skirt, the other with trousers - and there was a sense that the chosen successor was already loosening up the more formal pieces. The changes came too in vivid colours, with citrus orange and yellow giving a fresh tang to mid-calf coats and dresses.

Caroline Herrera Autumn/Winter 2018

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There was also a print of big cats  black and white tigers and panthers  creating a vibrant pattern.

Caroline Herrera Autumn/Winter 2018

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Like most women designers, Herrera, 79, had designed primarily for herself, her life with husband of 50 years Reinaldo Herrera Guevara whom she married in 1968, and a coterie of followers. Although, they were often less adept than the founder at mixing the sporty pieces with the formal. The brand was founded in 1981, a year after she moved to New York, where she began to design for international ladies, using her own aristocratic connections from her Caracas years. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis become one of her clients, along with First Ladies Laura Bush and then Michele Obama, who wore a vast blue-skirted gown with a black lacy top to greet French president Francois Hollande at the White House in 2014.

Caroline Herrera Autumn/Winter 2018

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Until last year, Herrera had worked with French designer Herve Pierre, who was unceremoniously thrown out by Puig after 14 years.

With descendants of the Upper East Side families now living downtown or even moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn, it is difficult to imagine how Herrera's intrinsic elegance can be adapted to changed circumstances. But, at least her departure was handled with grace - rare in the current fashion world.Neighbors -- shocked -- as a man in their neighborhood

is arrested for inappropriately touching a six year old girl.

Officials say the suspect is being held at the Limestone County jail -- but neighbors I spoke with say they're absolutely shocked to hear something like this would happen in their neighborhood.

"Well, it surprises me - I'm shocked, this is a pretty good neighborhood," said Barry Mckinney.

Mckinney doesn't live far from where Athens police say a six year old girl was inappropriately touched.

"I guess it goes to show we don't know whose living around us,"

The man Athens police say touched the young girl is Santiago De La Cruz Ramos. Investigators say it happened on North Malone street sometime over the weekend.

Ramos has been charged with sexual abuse of a child under 12.

"My prayers just go out to the family of the child,"Mckinney said.

Police say ramos and the victim are not related.On Thursday we told you about State Representative Will Ainsworth and his plans to introduce legislation to arm teachers after they go through training.



WAAY 31 asked Governor Kay Ivey about her opinoin on the bill and she said she is not commenting on that potential legislation, but she is willing to work with legislators to make our schools safer.

She didn't elaborate much, but she did have one idea about what she would like to see change.

"Metal detectors coming through the doors, like we have to go through at the airport. For openers," said Governor Ivey.

Governor Ivey isn't the only person weighing in on this topic.

The Alabama Education Association told WAAY 31, The proposed legislation has yet to be filed so we are reserving comment until we have the opportunity to read and review the bill. However, AEA is looking forward to working with Rep. Ainsworth to ensure the safety of all students and staff in Alabama schools, said AEA President Sherry Tucker.

A teacher with the AEA told WAAY 31 everyone is entitled to a safe work environment and that these senseless acts must be stopped.Authorities say a suspect in the fatal shooting of a 4-year-old girl sitting in a car with young siblings and her grandmother in northeastern Ohio has been arrested.

Police say 31-year-old Darnell Bitting was arrested around 4 p.m. Saturday in Akron.

Akron police spokesman Lt. Rick Edwards says the shooting happened around 10:30 p.m. Friday after the children's mother pulled in front of a house to retrieve belongings and broke windows when no one answered the door.

Edwards says a man stepped outside with a rifle and fired one shot at the car, striking the 4-year-old, who was sitting in the back seat.

She was pronounced dead at an Akron hospital. The other children are girls ages 3, 6 and 7.

Police have not identified the girl or her mother.Thousands of people gathered Saturday morning to mourn a decorated Chicago police officer, who was gunned down while on duty this week.

A line of mourners wrapped around the street as they waited to enter the Nativity of Our Lord Church for the funeral service of Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer, according to ABC station WLS. Bauer's wife, Erin, and their 13-year-old daughter, Grace, stood on the church steps to greet family, friends and law enforcement officers as they went inside.

Grade did the first reading for her father's funeral Mass. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, police Capt. Mel Roman as well as John Escalante, who retired from the department in 2016 and is now the police chief at Northeastern Illinois University, were among those who delivered remarks about the fallen officer.

"Chicago is blessed to have known and been served by Paul Bauer," Emanuel said. "Chicago will never forget his grace and his goodness."

After the funeral mass, a sea of officers in blue as well as local citizens lined the procession route from Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood to the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in honor of the slain officer and the loved ones he leaves behind.

Bauer was shot and killed after engaging with a suspect near the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago on Tuesday.

There was a report of a suspicious person spotted by a police officer who was patrolling the grounds by the Thompson Center, otherwise referred to as the State of Illinois Building, which has businesses on the first floor and a food court on the floor below. An officer made initial contact with the suspect but the person fled, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told a press conference Tuesday.

Bauer spotted the suspect and engaged him, but was shot multiple times, Johnson said.A lingering southerly change brings with it the first signs summer may be ebbing as Sydney faces what could potentially be the coldest day of the year so far.

The maximum temperature forecast for the city on Tuesday was 23 degrees, just one degree warmer than January 31 - the coldest day of the year thus far, Bureau of Meteorology spokeswoman Rebecca Kamitakahara said.

Overnight showers were expected to clear before dawn, making way for a cloudy day with windier conditions expected along the coast, although that will ease later in the afternoon, Ms Kamitakahara said.

The cool change follows a very hot and dry start to the year, and a very humid past fortnight with temperatures mostly in the high 20s and 30s. However the southerly winds are expected to keep conditions mild until the end of the week, when temperatures are expected to climb back into the mid to high 30s.Senior Liberals want Mr Joyce to stand down over the affair, after nearly two weeks of damaging headlines that have halted the government's momentum and plunged the Coalition into a full-blown political crisis.

The future of the Coalition agreement between the Liberal and National parties has been put at risk by Mr Turnbull's public attack on Mr Joyce's "shocking error of judgment" and Mr Joyce's blistering counterattack in which he called the Prime Minister "inept" and accused him of causing more harm.

In his first public comments since his high-stakes face-to-face meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister on Saturday, Mr Turnbull said their talks were "frank and warm, friendly, good, constructive".

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has sought to quell the civil war inside the Coalition sparked by Barnaby Joyce's extramarital affair but has pointedly refused to apologise for his scathing criticism of the Nationals leader.

Nationals MPs are now openly canvassing a leadership change  which would install a new deputy prime minister  but it remains unclear whether the party room will take the rare step of removing Mr Joyce.Mr Turnbull insists he can still work closely with Mr Joyce, despite their extraordinary public war of words."There are no issues between the Liberal and National parties at all. None at all," he said. "It's always very important to meet, to work through the various challenges and issues that we face but the important thing is Barnaby and I are working closely together as we always have."

But Mr Turnbull did not resile from his comments, saying he did not apologise to the Nationals leader because "there's nothing to apologise for". Mr Joyce was furious Mr Turnbull waded deep into his personal life with his comments.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten repeatedly used the word "inept" as he dissected the conflict during a speech to the Labor faithful in Tasmania. "This is the real scandal here: the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister care more about themselves than they do about the needs of Australians," he said.

Labor frontbencher Richard Marles said it was unprecedented to have the nation's leaders at each other's throats, calling it a "totally dysfunctional state of affairs".

"It would seem to me Barnaby has to go but I know one thing: one of them has to."Just one in five Australians trust the federal government to do the right thing more often than not  but we've still got more faith in politics than most Americans, a new international poll has found.

And despite the supposed disillusionment of the Coalition's base under Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, conservative voters in Australia are a lot happier than their Republican cousins  and almost as likely to trust major institutions as Labor voters.

Low on trust: people vote during the 2016 Australian federal election. Credit:Edwina Pickles

Conducted by the United States Studies Centre and YouGov in December, well before the latest crisis between the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, the poll asked more than 1000 voters in each country how often they felt they could trust their leaders in Canberra and Washington.

In Australia, 28 per cent of Coalition voters said they trusted the government all or most of the time  compared to just 9 per cent of Republicans, despite their party controlling the White House and Congress.The Panlocks said they knew the laws would take time to take effect, but significant work still needed to be done to raise awareness of the legislation and the devastating impact bullying can have, calling for more support at government level. A law was created in Brodie Panlock's name to bring bullies to justice. People need to understand their rights. That you have got rights and you dont have to put up with these sorts of things and its not acceptable, Mr Panlock said. When Brodies Law has been used, like in Nicholas case, it can be life-saving. Mr Myintoo had noticed her son had changed from the quiet, goofy boy who loved to play video games with his mates.

He really withdrew. He became very angry all of the time and I thought it was just part of getting up so early, she said. She remembers noticing bruises on his body when he got out of the shower and she remembers a burn on his arm. He told me some story about being up in the roof. I remember asking him 50 questions about it and he was like Dont worry about it, just forget it, then hed get angry with me, she said. He changed, big time, from the boy that left school - the moody teenage boy that youd still get a conversation out of - to not being able to recognise him. He had lost his purpose.

It reached a boiling point and Nicholas texted her during the day: I cant do this anymore...Ive got to quit, Ive got to quit. When he got home that night, he showed his mum the relentlessly abusive texts his boss had sent him. Youre f***ed, was one text his boss sent when he tried to call in sick. Are you in tomorrow so I can organise labour! You f*** me up today!!! Lazy c***. "If I come out and things are not done you will get a scone."

He then opened up about the assaults. I just remembered this isnt real, this isnt real," his mother said. "I lost it, not at him, just at this man. This is my son, Ive protected him all these years from people like him and here was this man, who was my husbands friend ... I feel guilty that I dropped him off there every day, oblivious to what was going on. Nicholas quit after his disclosure and his mother took him to a doctor, which kicked-off a WorkSafe and then, a police investigation. By this point, Nicholas - sleepless because of nightmares and suffering from crippling post-traumatic stress disorder - was on suicide watch. He thought he must be worthless, that he must be useless, that he let his parents down and he didnt see the point of living. Thats when my nightmare began, Ms Myintoo said.

Hope came when Nicholas boss, Tommy Liu, was charged with three sets of stalking offences, which, in a last minute plea bargain, saw him sentenced for stalking with intent to cause mental harm. Jodie Myintoo pushed for justice for her son Nicholas, pictured in the background. Credit:Eddie Jim Prosecutor Ross Treverton read aloud Nicholas powerful victim impact statement in the Frankston Magistrates Court last August. My family trusted this man. I remember my Mum telling Tommy one Easter Thank you for taking my son on. I wanted to scream This man abuses me daily, Mum'! "I am not sure of my future. I feel useless as I was told daily. I feel inadequate to this world. I lock myself away. My mum does not let that happen. I trust no one."

He wanted to end his life, Nicholas wrote, and he felt he had let his family down. I wanted an apprenticeship, I wanted to make my mum and step-dad proud. This man alone was too much, he wrote. This is my first ever job, I had no idea this is what a boss does to someone ... I just want to feel normal again. Mr Liu's barrister told the court the behaviour his client inflicted on his apprentice was the same Mr Liu endured himself when he first started. It was commonplace. That importantly, does not justify it and we are no longer in an era where this behaviour should be tolerated, he said.

Mr Liu, who had no criminal history, was sentenced to a 15-month community corrections order with no conviction recorded. He is still able to work and take on apprentices. The regulating body, Energy Safe Victoria, cannot take action unless an electrician is convicted for a crime and jailed for more than six months. And WorkSafe, who had issued him with improvement notices, withdrew its investigation after police were able to prove a criminal case. What the court case did do, she said, was empower Nicholas. The now 21-year-old still battles PTSD and is re-training to go back to work. He cannot, Ms Myintoo says, go back to a trade. He can barely stomach looking at a work site. But without Brodies Law, Ms Myintoo said she doesnt know if her son would still be alive. We would have not got justice. It helped knowing this man didnt just get away with it, if there was nothing there, I dont know whether he would be here today, she said.Lahore: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Saturday sentenced a suspected serial killer to death for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl, a prosecutor said.

The girl's murder ignited nationwide protests over allegations of government inaction, and a media campaign led to his arrest after years of him being on the loose.

Police found Zainab Ansari's body in a garbage dumpster in Kasur district near the eastern city of Lahore in mid-January, four days after she was reported missing.

Mohammed Amin shows a picture of his seven year-old daughter, Zainab Ansari in Kasur, Pakistan. Credit:AP

Residents of the area have said the murder was the 12th such incident in a year. Police investigators said later that they had matched DNA from eight girls' bodies, including Zainab's, with the convicted killer, Imran Ali, 24.Last Hanukkah, a team of undercover private investigators in Israel watched as a former Melbourne school principal accused of child sex abuse hosted her children and grandchildren in her apartment.

Unbeknown to Malka Leifer, the 54-year-old Australian wanted on 74 counts of suspected sexual abuse during her tenure as principal of Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, the investigators were studying her everyday life only 20 metres away - gathering surveillance footage.

Tsafrir Tsachi led the 10 person undercover team in Immanuel, an ultra-Orthodox settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, tracking Leifers movements. On Hanukkah, they watched Leifers son lighting candles on a menorah, as part of the Hebrew ritual.

The moment is part of over 200 hours of surveillance footage caught over a 10-day period.Business Bites

by Richard Coulson

First published in The Tribune February 15, 2018

Immigration-i.e. Haitians

The headlines about the round-trip of Jean Romy Jean-Charles, and his continuing uncertain certain legal status, tell us again how much we worry about ONE Haitian found in our country. Brits or Swedes or Poles don't bother us , but over 11,O00,000 Haitians loom less than 200 miles from our nearest border, en-route to Florida, dwarfing our 400,000 Bahamians -who may include already include as many as 60,000 of our neighbors already living here, legally or legally.

Not only nearby, but POOR!, so desperate that they arrive by wrecking their decrepit craft on our beaches, crammed by the hundreds into wooden shells . A recent lecturer here from Europe cited figures forecasting that while the population of emerging markets will increase by 3.6 billion by the end of the century, in the rich countries it will grow by just 32 million. Facing those numbers, exclusionary policies just don't work to staunch the flow from poor to affluent, from sub-Sahel Africa crossing the Mediterranean to the coasts of Europe.

Will Haiti exert similar pressures on our country? Both Government policy and our personal views seem mesmerized by this fear. So what's our solution? More detention centers, more barbed wire? More police taking time to check documents before mass round-ups? More 100-foot patrol boats that run aground navigating our shoals? More chartered aircraft for forced repatriation? All to see it happen again and again? It might be feasible, but at what cost? - both in money spent weakening our budget and in human rights violations staining out Christian reputation.

Few hard facts justify our fears. Population is projected to rise annually at 1.2% per annum to a total of 475,000 in 2040. Twenty-five per cent of the growth is forecast to come from immigration, and a substantial share will certainly be Haitians. But our Department of Statistics shows net immigration of only about 400 people per year, and only 10% of births are to non-Bahamian mothers -hardly enough to undermine our proud cultural heritage.

I have heard innumerable apocryphal stories that Haitians overwhelm our free public services . But a Larry Smith "Pundit" column from 2010 shut the alarm bell, reporting that 8.8% of school children were Haitians, as were 11% of Hospital admissions, while 12,500 were registered at N.I.B contributing $3.5 million while receiving only 1.8% of benefits.

Most able-bodied Haitians apply for work permits, but it cannot be seriously argued that they steal jobs from Bahamians. They do not commit our prominent murders, and cannot be traced to terrorism or money-laundering.

Their real negative is simply the personal stigma of shabbily dressed foreigners who struggle with our language. Forty years ago a leading white mogul confided in me, "Of course I love the black man- I deal with him every day. But he can't run a business!". That's how blacks of today often feel about Haitians. And they too will be proved totally wrong.

The evolution could come much faster if we shifted every dollar spent on apprehension and expulsion to education and job training -surely giving a much higher return on investment in human capital. I once enjoyed a bouyant celebration at a major Haitian church in Southeast Nassau. Despite my limited Creole, I could chat with families who were sporting their Sunday best on the weekend break from labor-with or without work permits.

*****

Aliv Unveils

No longer can ALIV be called secretive. It has just published a superb document that tells everything but the ages of Director Ross McDonald's two dogs. It's the polished and professional 99-page Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) for the $15 million of 8% 10-Year Preference Shares to be issued by local company Be Aliv Limited and placed by RoyalFidelity. Someday it could be the template for a public offering.

Prospective "Accredited Investors" can focus on the key points, that show ALIV as a start-up venture, now nearly two years old, competing with BTC for the country's mobile telephone business, already making an impact with individual users and now heading for the business market. It's no fly-by-night: it was capitalized at about $136 million, provided by Government, with 51.75% of the equity, and Cable Bahamas, with 48.25% and the management contract, and has raised about $80 million in debt financing. It's now fully operational in six of our major islands and soon to open in three more. It estimates its present market share as about 29% of potential users and is aiming towards 50%.

Like any start-up requiring heavy initial investment, the PPM's comprehensive "Investment Risks" makes clear that ALIV is not yet profitable, with negative net income, raising the obvious question about servicing the new Preference Shares. As long as revenue increases and EBITDA (basically, cash flow) continues its upward path reaching a projected positive level in 2019, the objective should be met, guided by the wide experience of ALIV's senior executive cadre leading its 186 non-union employees.

Of course, investors must be aware that the Shares are subordinated to all ALIV's present debt, and note the full disclosure that a senior bank loan is planned, a five-year credit of $19.5 million to be secured by a lien on all the company's assets.

These factors are compensated by the dividend rate of 8%, compared to interest less than 3% on the latest Government bond issues, our closest approach to a risk-free security. A subscriber to $50,000 of Shares (the minimum) will receive a $2,000 dividend semi-annually for the first five years, and for the last five years annual principal repayments of about $10,000 plus dividends on the declining principal -an attractive return in these days of minuscule interest on bank deposits.

This financing has no direct bearing on the equity net worth of ALIV, a question of great interest to Cable Bahamas and its thousands of BISX shareholders. That will only be resolved when Government, at last, gets around to selling its roughly $70 million ALIV equity stake held through its opaque HoldingCo2015 Limited..

How that's done will have to await a future column.

*****

Where are Tourism Boosts?

Ministers Symonette and D'Aguilar, businessmen now in Government, have both hit on the private sector for not doing more to encourage tourists to circulate in downtown Nassau-and incidentally to make urban life more fun for us residents.

A good start now has been announced with Government's approval of a harbor- front boardwalk to be built and funded by a group of private property owners. Twenty years ago I took the photos for a Tribune supplement illustrating the dilapidated eyesores still standing in this Zombie Zone. In my next column I will point the finger at what can be demolished, rebuilt, renewed or beautified, with the stimulation of a teeming boardwalk.

*****

Our Leaders at Night

The Cable Beach spot favored by our sharpest dudes and foxiest chicks was playing host to two famous retirees enjoying the music-separately. At a table by the window presided Perry, now leaner and calmer, while waaay down the bar Hubert the First wagged his sturdy jaw. Pressing the flesh is what they love, in or out of office.

There was no sign of Hubert the Second. It seems the worthy Doc has little taste for night-time cavorting. Too busy writing long speeches a bit short on charisma.

___________________________________________________________

Mr. Coulson has had a long career in law, investment banking and private banking in New York, London, and Nassau, and now serves as director of several financial concerns and as a corporate financial consultant. He has recently released his autobiography, A Corkscrew Life: Adventures of a Travelling Financier.Cards hold off Mets 7-6 in 11 to move into playoff positionWilliamson, WV (25661)

Today

Mostly cloudy with scattered thunderstorms mainly during the evening. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with scattered thunderstorms mainly during the evening. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.NEW RICHMOND  Mingo Central erased an early 6-0 deficit and went on to claim[Read More]21 Jan 2013 update 19 Jan 2014

(By Saadut)

Frosty winter days were menacingly uncertain as it had been almost a year now that popular resistance had been gradually spreading in Kashmir. Start of January bought with it news of expanding Indian forces across the valley; pouring in since the onset of winter and were gradually taking over everything. Since the incidents of 1989, the collapse of the civil administration in Kashmir had been complete, coupled with continuance of decades of political indifference. Even during the 1989 kidnap and release of Rubiya Syed, the role of state government was already relegated to the shadows; New Delhi gradually taking the reins here.

After gathering protests against Indian rule, curfews in Kashmir had become common place. The curfew of 17th January imposed in most places continued without any break, and was gradually enforced across. I used to be mostly home for winter holidays during that January owing to the uncertainty outside with sporadic curfews happening. From 17th January the change was more visible, milkman stopped to arrive, there were bigger paramilitary patrols walking past even in inner areas of old Srinagar. On 18th January the muezzin (who lived within the mosque complex) would call for prayers with hardly any people making it to the mosque in our locality due to restrictions. For all my life I had been watching Kashmiri Pandits walking at the break of dawn towards the Sharika Temple on Hari Parbat (Kohimaraan) from Pandit dwellings south and south east of the hill. And even in earlier curfew days these devout Pandits would not be stopped and on such days their morning presence would seem to me the only sign of human freedom. But 18th January, 1990 seemed different, the number of morning devotees walking towards the Sharika temple had diminished; from my window it seemed as if the paramilitaries had closed doors on them too. The few familiar faces who did make their morning spiritual rendezvous looked harried and almost ran in their pace.

On 19th January the curfew was stricter (we had some very brief relaxations on 18th evening) and the feeling was eerie, as if something was overbearing on those gray cloud laden, wintry skies. The muezzin again called to very thin attendance. During the day heard security forces had already started to round up some young men. Nane Goor (Nana the milkmans son) with a flatly uneven nose, a tall man with a strong build, lived just by the three way intersection, one road of which led up the water way shores of interior Srinagar (these waterways branch out of Dal lake). A big mosque was at one edge of the intersection where Muslim households thinned while from the opposite side major Pandit habitations expanded. While they had coexisted for ages like this, social limits were set by mutual respect. The milkmans son was one of the random boys arrested by paramilitaries, and there was visible fear taking over these localities. Soon news of Jagmohan taking over as the governor of J&K was received and the first night of Jagmohans tenure curfew was sealed in totality. With overwhelming forces out in the streets, Dad even forbade us to peep out of windows. We were one of the few homes in our locality to have a landline telephone then, and calling up relatives portrayed the same situation everywhere. Srinagar (and most of Kashmir towns) had been choked. Next day found that many areas had been reporting house searches and arrests by paramilitary forces, except for Pandit dominates areas. On 19th curfew continued with some attempts by people to break it at various places in Srinagar, since they were already living by bare minimum, short of essential supplies. Ghulam Qadir who belonged to a north Kashmir village and worked in the police department, was known to my father whom he revered a lot. On 19th afternoon, he called Dad on telephone and among other things (inquired about the need for any essentials he could arrange for us) narrated about the movement of state road transport vehicles during the curfewed night of 19th January, ferrying many Pandit households out. This came as a shock to Dad, who had many Pandit friends living in these areas. He called up one of our close family friend living in civil lines, a prominent Pandit educationalist and was relieved that they were safe and did not intend to migrate.

20th January was no different from the previous day, same restrictions and same suffocation. Governor Jagmohans warning  I have promised you a clean administration. But if anybody creates a law and order problem, Meray Haathon say Aman ka patta Khisak jaye ga (the cards of peace Im carrying will slip away from my hands) had already set course to things in Kashmir. By evening I heard that a Kashmir university scholar who had been researching about Gandhian ways and values had been shot at and killed by Indian paramilitaries; this was their tribute to his Gandhian quest.

By the following night of 20th January and wee hours of 21th January many areas of Srinagar had been cordoned off and house to house searches were taking place. Nether were Kashmiris used to such searches, nor were the paramilitaries known to follow any search protocol; from the congested areas of central city soon news came that not only had the paramilitaries randomly arrested hundreds of youth, they had also molesting scores of women folk. The news of arbitrary arrests and molestation of women infuriated people. Soon protestors broke these cordons, and started pouring from various city locations, proceeding towards the city centre. Since the majority of protests were originating from central and old city they were taking the old city bridges route when they reached the Gawkadal Bridge. Till the swelling protests had reached Gawkadal bridge there was no attempt by the security forces to stop these protests, but once they were crossing the bride and the protest head poured into Maisuma (GawKadal chowk), light machine guns and automatic weapons were unleashed by Indian paramilitaries upon the unsuspecting protestors without any warning. Soon there was utter chaos; those at the front of these protests were shots down while protestors on the bridge jumped into the river only to be chased by bullets of Indian paramilitaries there too. CRPF were clearly shooting to kill, firing from both sides of the bridge at this crowd. A young brave heart, Abdul Rauf Wani saw one CRPF personnel aiming his barrel at the protestors, and in trying to save other people put himself before the gun; the CRPF official emptied the whole magazine on him. 52 people were killed on the spot while more than 250 were critically injured (some succumbed in later days). It was reported that when local police came to take the bodies of dead and injured, the CRPF did not allow them for many hours. Among the dead and injured were children, women, and men of all ages.

Kashmir has been shook by the ghastly Gawkadal massacre of 21st January by Indian forces. At home we all sat in silence, frozen to disbelief. While I still comprehended this mournful stillness, Dad murmured yemavv hasa dyut naar saarsie ! (They India has set everything on fire here). The very next day on 22nd January 1990, the beastly act of Indian forces was to repeat once again, this time at Alamgari Bazaar. People had again come out to protest the previous days incidents and Indian forces had again fired indiscriminately on peaceful demonstrators, killing 10 and injuring scores of others. The anger and helplessness of people was overwhelming.

The gun of Indian forces was being unleashed in full force on civilians in Kashmir. Just two days after the Alamgari Bazaar massacre, on 25th January, 1990, Indian forces (BSF) again shot at protestors in Handwara, killing 25 people and injuring dozens of others. This time also protestors had been allowed to pass and converge into the main chowk where they had been unsuspectingly been fired upon with the clear aim to kill.

Jagmohan had started his tenure on an unrelenting bloody note in Kashmir. Was the joining of Jagmohan as governor of J&K, the ferrying of Pandits on the 19th January night, starting of massive house to house searches in Muslim habitations on 20th January (amid curfews), Gawkadal massacre on 21st January, Alamgari Bazaar massacre on 22nd January and Handwara massacre on 25th January mere coincidences? Surely Jagmohan did not leave New Delhi for Kashmir, one Friday (of 19th January) on a one suit packed short notice and get down to work just by instinct. In the aftermath of the Rubiya Syed kidnapping (8th December 1989) and the release of militants (13th December 1989), India had realized the limited reach of the anarchic state political apparatus in Kashmir. Remember it was not the state government that had primarily dealt with the Rubiya Syed kidnapping but New Delhi (senior IB officials including Ved Marwah (then Director General NSG) had come to Kashmir to deal with the situation even before CM Dr Farooq had, who was then out of Kashmir). Hence planning for Kashmir management was already a priority for New Delhi, with the local government out of frame for them. The decision on Jagmohan would have been deliberated upon and discussed by New Delhi; even Jagmohan would have some time before he chalked out his plan of action for Kashmir. Decisions of such magnitude dont happen in flight of moments and the Governor would have already been working to a charted course here and that course was visible right after he joined office here.

Pandits migrated due to fear factor that was growing among them, but the culpability of Jagmohan in this migration is not any less. Many Pandit gentlemen claim that slogans heard from mosques on 19th January night forced them to flee, but slogans were being chanted for almost a year now in Kashmir (and 19th was a curfewed night). Why did the migration happen on 19th only then? There was no other incident proceeding to the night of 19th January that would provide the impetus to this mass migration (prominent Pandits and Muslims were killed by militants on dates far from this date), on the contrary there was full curfew in place. The coincidence of this date with other incidents of January 1990 is too astounding and visible. Some people also claim religious persecution was the reason that Pandits migrated from Kashmir, but nothing can be far from the truth than this. Had religious persecution been the cause, then thousands of other Pandit families and almost all of Sikh families would not have chosen to stay back and thousands of Muslim families would also not have migrated. Pandits, like other minorities, lived as a closely knit unit and their internal social network was very strong in Kashmir. The collapse of state authority in Kashmir exposed them to fears which were adequately exploited by everybody. With the tactic understanding of the new state machinery, passages of exodus were encouraged and facilitated. This was clearly done with the idea that popular resistance in Kashmir would be erased within months by military might and then the return of Pandits would be made possible. Arranging for transport during curfews and hurriedly gathering belongings to out of Kashmir destinations clearly proved that these migrations were planned for short durations only. One Pandit writer notes in his book (neighbor Mr Kaul, at the bus stop said) Pandita saeb, you dont worry. The Army has come now, and it will all be over in a couple of months, he had said.

This is not to say that some Pandits were not threatened by some militants, but there were more Muslim households in Kashmir who were threatened and targeted during the same time And those of minorities who chose to stay in Kashmir (Pandits and Sikhs) continued living in their old places, facing the unfolding conflict in Kashmir just as their Muslim neighbors did.

I remember after hearing about the start of Pandit migrations, how a number of renowned citizens of Srinagar sought appointment with Governor Jagmohan for stopping the migrations, for seeking security assurances for Pandits and how the appointment was denied after hearing the reasons for which they sought it. In a recent LitFest that I attended, a renowned Kashmir Pandit couple went on record about how senior government functionaries called them up in early 1990s asking them to migrate; they bluntly refused and continued living in Kashmir. The renowned Pandit family was also clear about the role Governor Jagmohan played in migration of Pandits from Kashmir. Jagmohans intentions became clear later, when in an interview to Current, May 1990, he stated, Every Muslim in Kashmir is a militant today. All of them are for secession from India. I am scuttling Srinagar Doordarshans programmes because everyone there is a militant The bullet is the only solution for Kashmir. Unless the militants are fully wiped out, normalcy cant return to the Valley.

The January 1990 happenings of Kashmir and their glaring coincidences are questions of Kashmiris that have never been answered by India, not because India does not have answers but because these answers are not convenient for India. How did all these incidents fall into place, with quick sucession, only after 19th January? How did all state enforced massacres in Kashmir unfold after 19th January only (and in continuity after that date)? Why did the state refuse to provide security to Pandit dwellings (understanding well that for the concentration of Pandit dwellings it was easy for the state to provide them security)? How did the arrangements of movement with the tactic support of govt machinery happen to Pandits in Srinagar and major towns on a curfewed night (rural Pandits migrated on their own)? Why did the massacres enforced by security forces seem to be a part of plan enacted right after 19th January, a go ahead for such measure clearly would have come from the top? Why did enforced disappearances by the state happen after January 1990 and why was only the majority community target for such war crimes?

Surely Kashmiris know the answers for these questions, but India keeps living in denial mode as it continues to be a state and a perpetuator in this conflict.

But for how long will truth be denied by India?On Friday, Theodore Schlossman was found guilty of five misdemeanors and his Felony charge of Possession of Controlled Substance was certified to Grand Jury.

According to Virginia Beach officials, Schlossman was found guilty of Fleeing from Law Enforcement, DWI: 1st Offense, Obstruct/Resist: Threat/Force, Refuse Breath Test 1 Offense and Safety Belt Violation.

The incident began when Virginia Beach Police stopped Theodore Stephen Schlossman on Tuesday, September 5, 2017, in the 900 block of Norfolk Avenue around 9 p.m.

When police attempted to arrest Schlossman for DWI, he began to resist and released his dog from his vehicle.

According to Virginia Beach Police, the dog became aggressive towards the officer, forcing the officer to fire his weapon, shooting and killing the dog.MARCY- CrossFit Mohawk Valley hosted the second annual Heartstrong event.

This brought more than 100 people to the fitness center to participate in a workout for a donation. They were asked to do exercises like sit-ups and wall sits, in teams of four.

Everyone was encouraged to wear red in support of heart health.

The chair for the event said getting the heart pumping is good for everyday health. "Most professionals and doctors will agree that fitness and moving is good for the heart, so anytime that you are up and moving and pumping the blood and making sure your limbs are going is always healthy," said Adam Lawless.

The crew ended up raising $1,366.



China News on Women





Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home pageJRL condemns rally supporting rapist, murderer



SRINAGAR: The Hindu Ekta Manch (HEM) has called on people to boycott the Gujjars community of nomad Muslims and has sought that the purchase of milk products and live stock from them should be stopped.This comes after the arrest of a special police officer (SPO) in rape and murder of Gujjar girl Asifa. The meeting over the issue was held by HEM which was attended among others by the Vice Chairman of OBC Welfare Board, Rashpal Verma, and MLA Hiranagar Kuldeep Verma. The district president of Kathua Congress Committee and ex-MLC Subash Gupta was also part of the Hindu Ekta Manch meeting.The HEM leaders decided to socially boycott the nomads in Hiranagar. No one will sell any land to nomads (Muslims). Whosoever will be found even giving them fodder will have to face social boycott, said one of the speakers at the meeting on Frdiay at Parshu Ram Temple.

Kashmiris observe Jammu Martyrs Day

They appealed the people that they should not buy milk or live stocks from the nomads. They want to change demography of the area and we will not allow them. We should unite to stall their business activities too, added speakers added.

The speakers tried to convince people during the HEM meeting that an attempt is being made to change demography of Samba and Kathua while calling them to wake-up towards the habitations of nomads in twin districts.

However, Hindu Ekta Manch, leader Vijay Kumar Sharma denied that they have boycotted nomads or stopped their water.

OBC Vice chairman, Rashpal Verma, told Rising Kashmir that he attended the meeting of Hindu Manch. I only suggested people to meet Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, he however said.

Admitting that he attended the meeting, ex-MLC and senior Congress leader Subash Gupta told Rising Kashmir that HEM leaders approached me with a request to attend the meeting. They have also involved youth. Though, we are of the opinion that the accused in rape and murder case of Asifa Bano should be put behind the bars but innocent people also not be harassed for the sake of investigation, said Subash Gupta.

Gupta said that he has asked the BJP leaders who were in the meeting that they should raise the issue with the government and dont make public hue and cry. We are living peacefully with other communities and should remain in peace. We should not support any attempt to disrupt peace.

Nomads have been facing threat to their lives in Hiranagar especially Rasana and Kootah. They have threatened the nomads to leave these places, said youth Gujjar leader, who is taking up fight for justice of Asifa Bano, Talib Hussain.

Hussain said the residents of Rasana have been denied water from the community water tank in the village. Vijay Sharma, leader of Hindu Ekta Manch and Sarpanch Kootah are provoking people and threatened the nomads to leave the places. In yesterdays meeting, they have decided not to allow any stay of nomads in Kathua and Samba districts, said Hussain. He said that they have threatened the nomads of consequences like Gujarat in Hiranagar if they continue to live there and did not vacate their inhabitations.

Earlier the nomads were not allowed by a baton wielding saffron group to bury Asifa at a grave yard. The Hindu Ekta Manch has threatened agitation in the district against the arrest of the rape accused persons and SPOs Deepak Khajuria and Surinder Verma.

These two SPOs were arrested by the team of Crime Branch and they are also the process of taking more in custody for their questioning.

Meanwhile, resistance leadership comprising Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik in a joint statement said the rally is actually a glaring proof of the fascist mindset of the ruling class in India and Jammu and Kashmir. The leaders emphasized that organizing and allowing rallies in support of rapists and killers with full police protection had testified that the so-called rulers were hand in glove with the criminals. The leaders warned that anyone aiming at repeating the1947 saga should remember that Kashmiri Muslims would spill their blood to save their Jammu brethren at every cost.

Release photojournalist Kamran Yousuf: CPJ tells India

On the other hand, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Indian authorities, including the National Investigative Agency (NIA), to drop charges against Kashmir photojournalist Kamran Yusuf immediately and to free him.Indias National Investigative Agency is way out of its league and has no business defining what a real journalist should cover, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator. Kamran Yousufs work taking photographs of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir is a public service in the best spirit of journalism. He should be freed immediately, he added.Yusuf, a freelance journalist based in Kashmir, was arrested on September 7 last year following an FIR levelling charges of terror funding against him.In observations filed by the NIA in court, the agency had said that Yusuf was not a real journalist as he not covered any inauguration, statement of political party or developmental activities of the government, which, according to the NIA is the moral duty of a journalist.The accusations against Yusuf include charges of stone pelting incidents at various locations in the Kashmir Valley. The NIA had also said that he was in regular touch with anti-national elements.In January this year, the global journalists body had said, Indian authorities must stop abusing their power and using heavy-handed tactics to go after a photojournalist who was merely doing his job.[SHAFAQ SHAH]SRINAGAR: Of the people killed in the Handwara Massacre of 1st October 1991 , police have failed to trace the identity of three victims. State Human Rights Commission has now asked police to publish the names of untraced victims in local newspapers so that their families would come forward and identify them.In a petition filed by the chairperson International Forum for Justice and Human Rights, Ahsan Untoo, regarding the killing of 22 civilians in Handwara before the commission in 2013, the Director General of Police (DGP) submitted a report before the commission in November last year stating that 14 persons were killed in Handwara on October 1st 1990.

But the DGP didnt mention in the report whether the next of the kins of the killed civilians were compensated.

The State Human Rights Commission had directed the government to file a comprehensive report regarding the compensation paid.

1990: Handwara Massacre

And in its recent report the police have identified 11 people killed in the massacre, and their next of kins provided the ex-gratia relief, but have failed to identify the three victims  Ghulam Rasool Sofi S/O Ab Rehman R/O Arampora, Gh Rasool Hajam S/O Karim R/O Handwara and Shahzad Ahmad Pir S/O Gh Din R/O Handwara  that were killed in the massacre.

The commission asked the police to publish the names of the victim in the local newspaper so that their families can identify them.

On Ist October 1990, according to the police report, police personnel namely Abdul Hamid, Ali Mohammad, Farooq Ahmad, Sonaullah and Mohammad Maqbool were deputed in Handwara town for patrolling duties. In the meantime, fire engulfed the town and some police personnel tried to reach police station Handwara, but it was cordoned off by 76Bn of BSF (Border Security Force) under the command of Ratan Raveen.

The BSF personnel forcibly entered inside the police station and threatened the police nafri to kill them and set ablaze the police station, reads the report submitted the CID wing of J&K police to the SHRC.

Constable Ali Mohammad, Ghulam Nabi Shapoo (revenue clerk Handwara), Nazir Ahmad Khan of Chogal, Nazir Ahmad Dar of Braripora, Ghulam Rasool Malik of Khanbal, Ghulam Rasool Sofi of Kupwara, Ghulam Rasool Hajam, Mohammad Hayat Najar, Mohammad Amin Banday, Ghulam Nabi Mir, Mst Azize, Mehrajud-din Tantray and Shahzad Ahmed Pir, all from Handwara were killed in BSF firing, says the report.

Source: Greater KashmirA jury returned a verdict Friday of more than $37 million against Baltimore County, Maryland, in a civil lawsuit brought by the family and estate of a woman killed in an armed standoff with county police, according to the attorneys for the family of Korryn Gaines.

Gaines, 23, was shot and killed in August 2016 after an hours-long standoff with police in Baltimore County. She was trying to livestream the encounter with police, authorities said at the time.

Her son, Kodi, then 5, also was shot twice, said Kenneth Ravenell, an attorney for the boy's father, Corey Cunningham, and the child.

"We know this is a blessing from God that the jury understood that the police actions in this case were inappropriate, that the police officer's use of excessive force and the shooting were unjustified and unreasonable," Ravenell said.

"We hope this sends a message to all police officers across the country that the citizens are tired of the police abusing their rights and abusing the citizenry."

During the trial, the plaintiffs "argued that the force was excessive because the shot that the officer took was unnecessary and unreasonable because the officers were all safe in the location where they were located," Ravenell said.

According to The Baltimore Sun, throughout the course of the trial, attorneys for Baltimore County and Officer Royce Ruby argued that the officer "reasonably feared he or others could have been injured or killed by Gaines," who was armed with a gun.

James Ruckle, an assistant county attorney representing Ruby and the county, told jurors during the trial that "police officers are allowed to use deadly force if they believe there is an imminent threat of death or bodily injury to themselves or other officers," according to the Sun.

A representative for Baltimore County said the county "is disappointed with the verdict and is reviewing all of its options, including an appeal."

"A mother died, a child was unintentionally injured, and police officers were placed in mortal danger. By any account, this was a tragic situation," said Ellen Kobler, the county's deputy communications director, on behalf of County Attorney Mike Field.

The jury awarded $32.85 million to Kodi Gaines and an additional $23,542 for his medical expenses, and $4.53 million to the woman's daughter, Karsyn Courtney, according to Ravenell. It also awarded $307,000 to Korryn Gaines' mother, Rhanda Dormeus; $300,000 to her father, Ryan Gaines; and $300,000 to Gaines' estate.

Both Ravenell and Gordon said no punitive damages were awarded in this case.

"We feel like Korryn is smiling down from heaven. The jury was very attentive, and the award was fair and just," said J. Wyndal Gordon, an attorney for the Gaines estate and other family members.

"This victory is for everyone who ever kneeled for justice, who stood for justice, who fought for justice, who won for justice and for those who even lost for justice," said Gordon. "This win is for everyone who believes that all citizens are entitled to constitutional policing and should not be subjected to excessive force."

According to attorneys for Gaines' family, Maryland has caps on governments' liability. "Maryland does have a cap on non-economic damages but the federal constitutional claim, 42 U.S.C 1983, has no cap on damages," said Ravenell.

"There are no caps on federal constitutional violations," said Gordon. "Because (Ruby) was found liable under both state and federal statute, there are no caps on damages."

Shawn Vinson, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, said the department had no comment about the verdict. Ruby is still a member of the Baltimore Police Department.

Gaines' death came as controversy mounted over police shootings of African-Americans around the country, including the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, the following year.

Armed standoff

On August 1, 2016, three warrant service officers went to serve a man and a woman in the Randallstown area near Baltimore.

Upon arriving, the officers heard the voices of a man, a woman and a crying child inside the apartment.

They waited outside the door for about 10 minutes, Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson said shortly after the shooting. Then, one officer obtained a key to the apartment.

The man, Kareem Courtney, was wanted on an assault warrant, while Gaines was wanted on a bench warrant over failure to appear in court to face traffic charges, police said.

Gaines had a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, which she pointed at police, Johnson said.

The officers called for a tactical team and waited.

Not long into the standoff, Courtney left the apartment with a 1-year-old child and was arrested.

That left Gaines and then 5-year-old Kodi in the home.

"Gaines was posting video of the operation as it unfolded," Johnson said.

Gaines vacillated between agitated and calm during the encounter, he said. Several times she pointed the shotgun at officers.

At around 4 p.m., after hours of standoff, the woman threatened officers verbally and with the weapon, according to the police account.

"If you don't leave, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you," Johnson quoted Gaines as saying.

One police officer fired a shot and Gaines fired back with buckshot. Officers responded with three shots, hitting Gaines.

Police didn't say why the first officer fired.

Kodi was hit in the arm and in the cheek during the crossfire.

At the time, authorities said Gaines was trying to livestream the incident on social media.

During the standoff, police requested that Facebook deactivate her account on the service and on Instagram, which Facebook owns, Johnson told reporters after the shooting.

The Facebook account, which allows livestreaming, was taken offline, but two one-minute videos were still on her Instagram account the day after the standoff.

The videos were posted just before Gaines was shot.

In one video, a tactical officer appears in the doorway of an apartment. There is talking that is hard to discern but there is no apparent conversation between the officer and Gaines. The video was subsequently taken down.

"While we understand that being a police officer is a tough job, the message here is either do the job correctly or get out of police work," Ravenell said Friday.PUTNAM COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A Rockville woman is facing charges after officials say she struck a police vehicle.

It happened Saturday morning, just after 10 o'clock in Greencastle, Indiana.

Indiana State Police say a sergeant was in the Elm Street area and noticed a disturbance between four people inside a vehicle. Officials say when he went to investigate, the vehicle suddenly lunged forward and hit the ISP pickup truck.

After detaining the individuals, police found Jami Busbin, 48, Rockville, had approximately two grams of Spice and two items of paraphernalia.

Busbin was arrested and taken to the Putnam County Jail. She faces charges of Possession of a Look Alike Drug and Possession of Paraphernalia. Police also issued an additional traffic citation for unsafe lane movement.

The other individuals were released from the scene.

Prior to her arrest, police say Busbin was medically checked at the Putnam County Hospital.BLOOMINTON, Ind. (AP) - Bloomington's police department is facing criticism for buying an armored truck that opponents argue will militarize the college town's police force.

Residents who oppose the new quarter-million dollar truck that's being built for the department's critical response team questioned Police Chief Mike Diekhoff about the purchase last week.

Protesters then halted Mayor John Hamilton's annual State of the City address on Thursday by shouting and using a megaphone to voice their unhappiness about the vehicle, which will be outfitted with metal plating and have bulletproof glass.

The Herald-Times reports the department has been without an armored car since 2012, when its truck became too unreliable to use and maintain.

Diekhoff has said the civilian-grade armored vehicle will only be used by specially trained officers who respond to high-risk calls.

Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - A unique book sale hopes to encourage more reading in the community.

The Sisters of Providence held their annual Winter Book Sale on Saturday at Linden Leaf Gifts.

It's not your typical book sale. All books are donated throughout the year by people in the community. The books themselves are not priced, but instead, you pay with a free will donation.

"The generosity of the community is what drives the book sale and it gives the opportunity for learning and reading," said Ryan Sheehy, Linden Leaf Gifts, "Especially in these winter months when you're just kinda hanging out inside with nothing to do."

The sale is also a way to recycle books.

Sisters of Providence says after you read a book from the sale, you can donate it back to the event!BRAZIL, Ind. (WTHI) - Mardi Gras comes to Clay County.

The celebration is part of the YMCA's annual fundraiser.

Proceeds from the event will help with their financial assistance program.

Party goers celebrated with live music, an auction, and good eats.

Organizers say the main goal is for people to learn more about the Clay County YMCA.

"We want to make sure that everybody has access to the YMCA. From summer camp, to after school youth sports, and our memberships. We just want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to participate," said Nicole Fry, Clay County YMCA executive branch director.

The YMCA invites you to participate in activites by monetary support or volunteering.(CNN) -- In 2016, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the Zika virus caused birth defects in babies born to women who had been infected while pregnant. This was the first mosquito-borne disease known to cause birth defects.

Since then, images of babies with underdeveloped heads, born to pregnant women infected with Zika virus, have touched hearts around the world.

Now, a study suggests that two viruses that are related to Zika can cause similar birth defects.

West Nile and Powassan viruses caused fetal death in infected pregnant mice, the researchers say.

"All of these viruses are spread by insects, and all of these viruses are currently spreading in the Americas," said Dr. Jonathan Miner, senior author of the study and an assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"Powassan and West Nile virus are flaviviruses, in the same family as Zika virus," he said. These viruses are transmitted by infected ticks and mosquitoes.

Miner and his colleagues decided to experiment on an assortment of four viruses plus Zika to "determine whether certain traits of these viruses may be unique to one family or another," Miner said.

Damage to fetuses

Miner and his colleagues studied the effects of four emerging viruses that are spread by either mosquitoes or ticks: West Nile, Powassan, chikungunya and Mayaro. Found in Brazil, chikungunya and Mayaro can cause arthritis and are classified as "alphaviruses," a category separate from flaviviruses.

The researchers injected each one of a group of wild female mice with one of the four viruses during the sixth day of their pregnancies. One week later, the researchers examined all the rodent fetuses and placentas.

Signs of viral infection were seen in all the placentas and fetuses. However, West Nile virus levels were 23 to 1,500 times higher than levels of the other viruses within the placentas.

In the fetuses, West Nile levels surpassed the other viruses by even more: 3,000- to 16,000-fold.

Through a microscope, the researchers also saw severe damage in the brain tissue of the West Nile-infected fetuses. By comparison, the brain tissue of chikungunya-infected fetuses appeared healthy.

No fetal deaths occurred in mothers infected with chikungunya or Mayaro, but the same could not be said of the mice infected with the flaviviruses.

"We found that West Nile virus caused injury to the fetal brain and intrauterine growth restriction, and that both West Nile virus and Powassan virus led to fetal death in mice. This is similar to what has been observed after congenital Zika virus infection in mice," Miner said. Nearly half of the fetuses of mice infected with West Nile or Powassan died within 12 days of infection.

"We cannot say for certain whether these infections would lead to a birth defect in mice," he said. "However, what we found is consistent with what we and other scientists have observed with congenital Zika virus infection in mice."

Mice are by no stretch of the imagination human, as the researchers acknowledge.

Could West Nile or Powassan virus penetrate the placenta and infect a human fetus?

Human tissue experiments

Carolyn Coyne, co-author of the new study and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said the researchers' next series of experiments were based on the fact that "a virus must first cross the placenta, which forms the sole barrier between maternal and fetal blood," to reach a human fetus.

So the team infected explants -- tissues kept alive in a nutrient medium -- from human mothers and human fetuses with either chikungunya, Mayaro, West Nile, Powassan or Zika virus.

All three flaviviruses (Zika, West Nile and Powassan) efficiently replicated in the human placental tissue, while the alphaviruses (chikungunya and Mayaro) were unable to multiply in the same way.

This suggests that all three flaviviruses "could possibly breach the placental barrier to reach the fetus in humans," Coyne said. "Some of these viruses may be teratogenic, which means that they can induce harm to a developing fetus."

Microcephaly, in which a baby's head does not develop properly, is not the only outcome of a Zika virus infection in a pregnant human mother, Miner noted. "There are many outcomes of Zika virus infection including pregnancy loss, intrauterine growth restriction, blindness, brain calcifications and other problems."

Dr. Paul E. Jarris, chief medical officer at the nonprofit March of Dimes, called the study "very helpful."

"It's, of course, not conclusive with regards to humans, and so I think we have to keep that in mind -- not to overstate what it says," added Jarris, who was not involved in the research.

Jarris noted that along with these experiments, the researchers asked whether the Zika virus had been unnoticed but causing birth defects all along -- or had the virus recently mutated, and that's why abnormalities occurred in recent years?

Analysis based on previous research suggests that the Zika virus, first identified more than half a century ago, has been slightly increasing rates of birth defects since its discovery, the authors of the new study found.

It is the Aedes species mosquito that infects humans with the Zika virus. According to the World Health Organization, there is scientific consensus that Zika virus causes Guillain-Barre syndrome in humans and microcephaly in children born to infected mothers. The virus could be associated with other neurological complications as well.

"We need to do more research here," Jarris said. He added that mosquitoes and ticks are just "bad actors; I think we need to be concerned about them in any case." The same mosquito that spreads Zika spreads dengue, and "dengue can be a deadly disease," he said. "Yet one more reason that you need to avoid mosquito bites and tick bites as well as get rid of standing water in your backyard and take other precautions to keep mosquitoes from breeding."

Durland Fish, professor emeritus of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health, said this is an "interesting study with enough significance" to demand human study follow-up. Fish was not involved with the research.

Although what happens in a mouse experiments does not always lead to the same result in humans, Fish said, by comparing several viruses in a mice model, scientists can learn about the "innate qualities of the viruses themselves."

More research would lead to more knowledge, but much is already known about these flaviviruses.

West Nile and Powassan

Scientists first isolated the virus that takes its name from the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. Commonly, it is found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia, according to the WHO.

The virus is transmitted between birds and Culex mosquitoes, which can infect humans, horses and other mammals.

Outbreak sites of West Nile virus can be found along major bird migratory routes. Originally, infections were seen only in Africa, parts of Europe, the Middle East, West Asia and Australia. Once introduced into the United States in 1999, though, West Nile virus became widely established from Canada to Venezuela.

Most people infected by West Nile never know it happened: About 80% of the thousands infected each year in the US do not develop symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, one in five infected people develops a fever and other symptoms, including headache, body aches, joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea or rash. Most of these patients will recover completely.

And one in 150 West Nile-infected people -- about 1,000 people a year in the US -- develop life-threatening brain infections such as encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord). In some cases, these infections cause neurological problems for life. Rare though it may be, some patients will die.

West Nile's less-traveled cousin, Powassan, is both dangerous and on the rise in the United States. Powassan virus takes its name from the town in Ontario where it was first identified in 1958. Over the past decade, there have been only 100 cases reported in the US.

Spread by ticks that feed on deer, raccoons, foxes and weasels, this North American virus can be found in midwestern Canada as well as in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region of the US. Additional rare cases have been reported in far eastern Russia, where it is spread by a cattle tick.

Like West Nile, Powassan infections often go unnoticed by those infected, according to the CDC.

Those who experience symptoms may suffer from fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion, seizures or memory loss, while half of the patients who develop symptoms will also experience long-term neurologic problems such as headaches or memory loss.nPatients with severe illnesses caused by Powassan often need to receive respiratory support in a hospital, intravenous fluids or medications to reduce swelling in the brain.

If both West Nile and Powassan infections have occurred in the United States, why haven't we seen these viruses causing birth defects or miscarriages?

"It is possible that there has been a low incidence of pregnancy complications associated with these viruses that has gone overlooked," Coyne said. Or the complications may not be obvious at birth; for instance, they may be "developmental delays that did not present for several years after birth," she said. "It is unlikely that they would ever be linked with an infection that occurred in utero."

And if these viruses caused a pregnancy loss, that also would be difficult to notice and tie to an infection, since miscarriage rates are high and causes are "generally unknown," Coyne said.

Fish said that, for now, people shouldn't be too concerned by these two virus cousins. West Nile and Powassan viruses are relatively rare, though "incidence may increase, and they could become more important," he said.

"These disease threats are out there, and because of globalization and environmental change, there will most certainly be more," Fish said. "We should be much better prepared for such 'natural' epidemics, as they probably pose a more serious threat to human health than bioterrorism."

TM &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- It was all about health Saturday at Cascades Park for the 27th annual Tallahassee HIV-AIDS walk.

Big Bend Cares hosts the event, offering free HIV testing and resources. It's also a fundraiser for HIV prevention and education in the Big Bend. The goal is to support those fighting HIV and celebrate those who have successfully battled the virus.

Elise Trotman was diagnosed with HIV when she was 20 years old. She says her white blood cell count was so low, doctors told her she was too far along and would likely not beat the virus. Now, 14 years later, the virus is not active in her body. Elise Trotman, Big Bend Cares Client Representative, says,"For me, HIV changed my life. My life started after that, it didn't end."

She took 14 pills four times a day for a year to boost her cell count. After doctors said her immune system was not strong enough to fight the HIV virus, she proved them wrong. Trotman hopes her recovery will inspire those currently fighting HIV and that's exactly the message of Saturday's walk.

Trotman's battle is one many can relate to. The Centers for disease control and prevention states, in 2016 the annual HIV diagnosis number dropped by 5%, but work still needs to be done. Event coordinators say it's important to educate teenagers so they know how the virus is spread.

For more information about HIV testing in the area, click here.A global focus

Nepals geo-strategic position makes it the fulcrum in the balance of regional and global politicsTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A bill that would have allowed certain school employees to concealed carry on campus has been withdrawn from consideration by a Senate committee.

Senate Bill 1236 was filed by Senator Dennis Baxley December 11, 2017, just over two months before 17 people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

SB 1236 would have allowed school officials to designate trained armed volunteers at schools. Employees would have had to get approval from the principal or district superintendent before carrying a gun on campus.

The bill was scheduled to be heard next week, but was pulled Friday night.

The gun control advocacy group 'Moms Demand Action' says they made more than 2,500 phone calls and sent about 1,700 emails asking legislators to block the bill.

"What happened in Tallahassee this week proves yet again that the gun lobby is simply no match for moms who are fighting to protect their kids,'' said Gay Valmont, a volunteer leader with the Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action.

18 states already allow adults to carry a loaded gun on school grounds, with certain permissions. Bills similar to SB 1236 have been filed in four other states, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)- Every third weekend of February, citizens band together to hold the annual Wakulla County African American Heritage Festival.

Dozens of people paraded down Crawfordville highway to celebrate Black History Month on Saturday.

Many organizations from all over Wakulla County drove floats, engaged with local residents and handed out candy during the parade. There were also activities and performances at Hudson Park.

"Everyone gets together and comes out and we do a parade, they have vendors and everything. So to give out and to return back to the neighborhood. So it's a good thing," said Wakulla County Resident Janice Sellers.

Philadelphia Eagles Linebacker Nigel Bradham also attended the festival. The hometown hero and Super bowl champion was presented an award from the Wakulla Christian Coalition, honoring his accomplishments.

Bradham says he's honored and blessed to be part of Saturday's festivities. He hopes he can inspire others in his hometown and across the world to achieve their dreams.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 02:50:48|Editor: yan

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JUBA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Saturday said there has been progress in the just concluded second round of peace revitalization process to end more than four years of conflict.

"This phase was a successful phase that we managed to sign some of the provisions which were agreed upon in Chapter 1 and 2," said the Minister of Information Michael Makuei. "We agreed on most of the provisions on governance and security arrangements, except that we did not agree on some of the issues as well as in terms of the permanent ceasefire."

The two parties also agreed to continue with the Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) up to the time when they sign a permanent ceasefire, Makuei said after returning to Juba from Addis Ababa.

The CoH has been violated on several occasions by the warring parties since coming into force on Dec. 21.

Makuei said a demand by 14 opposition groups for the resignation of President Salva Kiir's government and the dissolution of all institutions of governance including the security organs was rejected at the talks.

A proposal by regional leaders under IGAD for the creation of four deputy presidents has been rejected by the government, he said.

"The government is saying we are maintaining the status quo," Makuei said.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013, after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to fighting that pitted mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 04:21:00|Editor: Liu

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Federal authorities have said that a U.S. man stole late last year a thumb of a Chinese terracotta warrior statue being displayed at a Philadelphia museum in state of Pennsylvania.

According to an arrest affidavit filed Friday, Michael Rohana, a 24-year-old man from state of Delaware, was attending a party held at the Franklin Institute on Dec. 21 last year when he made his way into the museum's special exhibit "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor."

The FBI said that Rohana used a cellular telephone as a flashlight, looked at various exhibits displayed in the then-closed showroom, stepped up onto a platform supporting one of the statues, and took a selfie with it.

Rohana, according to the affidavit, put his hand on the left hand of the statue, appeared to break something off from the Calvaryman's left hand and put it in his pocket, and then left.

Museum staff noted the missing thumb on Jan. 8 and a special agent from the FBI's Art Crime Team tracked down Rohana days later and showed up at home in Bear, Delaware to question him about the finger, authorities said.

In front of his father, Rohana admitted it that he had stashed the thumb in his desk drawer.

A U.S. attorney has decided to charge him with theft of a major artwork from a museum, concealment of major artwork stolen from a museum, and interstate transportation of stolen property.

He was arrested and released on a 15,000-USD bail, on the condition that he hand over his passport, consent to drug testing, and refrain from leaving the country before trail.

It was not immediately clear whether he had retained a lawyer.

A spokeswoman for the museum said that the statue will be repaired, adding that a security contractor did not follow standard procedures the night of the alleged theft.

The statue that temporarily lost its left thumb, called the Cavalryman, dates back to 210 and 209 B.C. It is one of 10 elegant Chinese Terracotta warrior statues currently on display at the Franklin Institute. The special exhibit will run through March 4th.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 05:06:06|Editor: Liu

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter jets targeted a total of six military targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, in response to the detonation of an explosive device on the border fence in southern Gaza.

These specific military targets belonging to the Hamas organization were attacked, according to a statement issued by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday evening.

The IDF statements said a number of terror sites were targeted in the large-scale attack, including an offensive terror tunnel built by the Hamas organization in the Zaytun neighborhood towards Israeli territory; a military compound in the area of Deir ElBalah which belongs to the Hamas, including weapon manufacturing sites.

Earlier in the day, the IDF said that an explosive device was detonated against IDF troops adjacent to the security fence near the southern Gaza Strip.

Four IDF soldiers were injured, of which two severely, one moderately and one lightly. All the wounded were evacuated to the hospital to receive medical treatment.

Saturday's incident on the Gaza Strip border is severe, said the Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu in a statement released on Saturday evening. "We will respond appropriately and I send my wishes for a quick recovery to the wounded."

The IDF views with great severity the incident in which popular and seemingly spontaneous demonstrations were used for terrorist activity and an attempt to destabilize the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas is accountable for this incident and its consequences, as well as everything happening in and from the Gaza Strip, above and below ground, said the Israeli army.

The IDF is determined to provide the civilians of Israel safety and security and will do so by all means at its disposal, said the IDF.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 05:41:10|Editor: Jiaxin

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A Palestinian receives medical treatment in a hospital in Rafah town in southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 17, 2018. Two Palestinians were injured in Israeli multiple airstrikes on facilities belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local sources said. (Xinhua/Khaled Omar)

GAZA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Two Palestinians were injured in Israeli multiple airstrikes on facilities belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local sources said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, the Gaza health ministry spokesman, told reporters that two Palestinians were injured in an Israeli tank shelling on eastern Rafah town in southern Gaza.

No injuries were reported according to paramedics, but severe damage was caused to homes of eastern Gaza residents.

Al Qassam Brigades militants said on their wireless transmission sound devices that they fired anti-craft missiles against Israeli war jets and forced them to leave Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas Spokesman in Gaza Hazen Qassem blamed Israel for causing escalation in Gaza.

"Hamas will continue to resist and the Israeli attacks won't break our people's determination," he said.

Earlier in the afternoon, an Israeli tank fired a shell at a Hamas military post in Gaza in retaliation for the same incident.

Meanwhile, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Israeli army vehicle, which wounded three Israeli soldiers.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 05:46:14|Editor: yan

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TUNIS, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed on Saturday launched a five-year national strategy to promote handicraft with a funding of 50 million dinars (20.7 million U.S. dollars).

"The five-year national plan aims to generate about 100,000 jobs by 2022, in addition to increasing the ratio of graduates to investors from 10 percent to 25 percent," said Chahed during his two-day visit to the southwestern province of Tozeur.

According to the prime minister, the strategy will strengthen the capacities of more than 3,000 artisans in the country by encouraging the creation of professional groups and upgrading 200 handicraft enterprises.

It aims to increase the investments in the sector from 18 million dinars to 30 million dinars, and raise the contribution of handicraft to GDP to 6 percent, said Chahed.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 06:36:21|Editor: yan

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by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Kangal dog, huge and adorable and possibly the best herd-protecting dogs in the world, is a national icon in Turkey, but their existence is now at risk due to dwindling sheep farming.

But their main mission and even existence is at risk because sheep farming which was once a primary source of income has been hit by modern technology or bad economy and sheep flocks decrease by the year.

The huge watchful dogs of intimidating size are farmers best friends and are capable of killing wolves, jackals, bears and scare also sheep thieves.

"This is the best herd protecting dog breed. They are not shepherd dog. They protect the sheep," Yahya Ozdemir, a breeder from the Kangal town, told Xinhua.

The 37-year breeder, who works in a state-owned farm, explained that he always had an interest for this fearless dog since he was a boy in his remote village of the rugged high plateau, 350 km east of the capital Ankara.

"We breed only pure blood Kangals, the typical livestock guardian dogs of Anatolia. We have 50 of them right now," explained Yahya, adding that a couple of female and male pups sell for 1.75 Turkish Liras (450 U.S. dollars).

"It's forbidden by law to export these hard-working animals but some unscrupulous breeders always find a way to sell puppies to foreigners even when they know that they are going to be fined for this," he said.

Starting at the age of four or five months, the dog is exposed to a wolf's pelt to sharpen its ability to recognize the predator once he will be in charge of livestock.

Kangals, known to be independent and resilient to extreme cold weather, can grow up to 2 meters standing up and weigh 70-80 kg. The massive dogs with remarkably big paws usually have a collar with large spikes to protect them from neck bites.

But nowadays, explained Yahya, because of industrial farming, flocks have gotten smaller, which reduced the need for the Anatolian lion as a fullly-fledged working dog.

"We now receive call from cities from people who want a watchdog for their homes rather than shepherds and the overall numbers of Kangals watching livestock is declining," noted Yahya.

But there seems a new job opportunity for the Kangals as the Turkish Armed Forces have started to use them this year at border posts as security and also drug enforcement dogs.

"If you train a Kangal it will have the intellect of a six-year-old child. They are quite intelligent," Yilmaz Toprak, a veterinarian from Kangal town who knows everything about the native breed, told Xinhua.

Istanbul police forces have already hired Kangals for special forces duties, but the humidity is an adverse factor for this supersized breed which prefers the cold and the continental climate, according to Toprak.

Turkish riot police is also training Kangals to replace German shepherds. Despite their formidable appearance, these dogs are very protective and loyal to their owners.

They are also used for psychological therapy for metally challenged children.

There are also other types of dogs which are typical to the Anatolian region. Thethe Aksaray Malaklisi, Anatolian bandogs, and Anatolian whiteheads, according to official data.

Even though exporting Kangals is prohibited, Kangals are very appreciated in the U.S., Australia and some parts of Africa where they are guarding livestock.

There are also people seeking to buy Kangals to use them in dog fights, strictly prohibited in Turkey.

Kangal dogs are by nature defensive rather than aggressive and it takes human intervention to turn them into a wild dog.HELSINKI, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Finland has found itself beleaguered by concerns that it may have violated human rights when processing the asylum applications, since an Iraqi was reportedly killed in Baghdad weeks after being deported from Finland.

Afghanistan asylum seekers are to stage several demonstrations against deportation in several places across Finland over the weekend.

A gathering of 400 protesters in central Helsinki on Saturday aroused a war of words with a counter demonstration nearby. More demonstrations are scheduled in four more cities on Sunday.

Last Monday, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported that an Iraqi asylum seeker was shot dead on December 17, 2017, three weeks after being deported from Finland. Finnish Minister of Interior Kai Mykkanen claimed that the asylum application had gone through all legal proceedings in Finland.

Three days later, Mykkanen admitted that the current processes and availability of legal aid in assessing the grounds for asylum need to be investigated. He underlined that he would not take further stands before such an investigation is made.

News reports reached Finland this week that French courts have stopped the authorization of sending refugees to Finland.

Under the Schengen passport treaty, asylum seekers apprehended elsewhere in the Schengen area should be sent back to the Schengen country they first enter. But several local courts in France have determined that asylum seekers sent to Finland may not have enough legal protection.

Similar French decisions have targeted Norway and Sweden.

Outi Korhonen, professor of international law at Turku University, said earlier this week that the political opinion climate should not be allowed to affect juridical considerations.

"The courts must consider whether the applicant would be in danger in his or her country of departure. This will be an individual assessment of the applicant, totally irrespective of how many other applicants there are or what Finland can afford", she told national broadcaster Yle.

Commenting on the stands taken in France, Korhonen said that in countries where large number of asylum seekers arrive, judges have carried out this debate long before, and the criticism against the situation in Finland can be attributed to that background.

Marjaana Laine, the leading lawyer for the Finnish refugee aid association, said the Finnish policy of repatriation is not on a solid ground. She told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that in her opinion the legal security of asylum seekers has been impaired in Finland.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Mykkanen said that during his first week as interior minister he has been surprised with the polarization in Finland about asylum seekers. He reminded that the Finnish constitution guarantees certain rights also to those arriving in Finland, but he added that those "just wanting to improve their quality of life through coming to Finland" should not be allowed to remain.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 07:44:42|Editor: Liu

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Photo taken on Feb. 17, 2018 shows elephants at the Elephant Festival in Xayaboury, Laos. The Elephant Festival was held in north Lao province of Sayabuly with 69 elephants attending the activities during the festival. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)East Rukum locals demand Golkhada as district headquarters

Following the division of Rukum district into east Rukum and west Rukum in the new administrative structure, the residents of east Rukum are having differing opinions regarding the headquarters of the newly formed district.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 07:46:31|Editor: Mengjie

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese community in Alaska state in the U.S. northwesternmost region is well prepared for an opportunity of marking the Chinese Lunar New Year with Alaska Governor Bill Walker, who is seeking more collaboration between his state and China, a leader of an overseas Chinese association said Saturday.

Samson Ning, president of the Alaska Chinese Association, told Xinhua that Walker Sunay will attend a two-hour celebration party for the Year of the Dog, which began on Feb. 16, with members of local Chinese community at an auditorium, which will feature the performance of traditional Chinese musical instruments, Chinese Wushu (martial arts), singing and dancing, as well as lion and dragon dance.

Ning said Walker has shown great interest in expanding Alaska's relations with China, particularly in the sector of energy resources.

On Friday, Walker and his wife Donna visited a 34-year-old Chinese school in Anchorage and spent a joyful moment with more than 50 teachers and schoolchildren in celebration of the Chinese lunar new year.

Walker also visited the Alaska Chinese Association and held an hour-long meeting with senior officials of the association.

He spoke positively of the association's efforts to bolster Chinese education and bring about a diversified and prosperous culture for the Chinese community in recent years.

Walker said Alaska has expanded its cooperation with China in various sectors, including the China-Alaska joint exploration of liquefied gas resources in the oil-rich U.S. state, scholarship programs for the exchange of students, and the goal of launching a direct flight from Anchorage to China.

In Beijing last fall, Walker signed an agreement for the joint development of an Alaska liquefied natural gas export project with major Chinese companies.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 08:01:33|Editor: Mengjie

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HOUSTON, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Asia Society Texas center in Houston held Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday afternoon with local Americans and Chinese participating in all kinds of activities and performances.

In the celebrations, activities such as Chinese calligraphy, handkerchief dance demonstration, paper cutting and dog masks making were enjoyed by children and their families.

Born in Mexico, Teresa took part in the activities with her Romanian friend Andrea. Teresa told Xinhua that she is fascinated about Chinese culture and art.

"This is my first time to an event like this. It's interesting and I can learn new things about the great country of China," she told Xinhua.

Holding a big camera, Andrea is a huge fan of photograph. She said that Houston is a place full of diversity that brings people with different culture background together.

At the event, Huaxing Arts Group presented a collection of Chinese music and dance. From modern interpretations of traditional tunes to classic folk dances, the performance highlighted a variety of performers and dance styles, including a Dai peacock dance, a Tibetan drum dance, and a sand painting performance, among others.

Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit institution with major centers and public buildings in New York, Hong Kong, and Houston, and offices in other nice cities worldwide. It is an educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 08:21:35|Editor: Mengjie

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazil will establish a public security ministry to tackle rising crime, President Michel Temer announced on Saturday.

The ministry will oversee the Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, National Penitentiary Department and the Secretariat of Public Security, which until now have been supervised by the Justice Ministry.

Temer made the announcement after meeting in Rio de Janeiro with military and regional officials over the increasing militarization of security tasks in the state, the country's top tourism destination.

"We are not going to stop here. Shortly, by next week or the one after at the latest, I want to create the special Ministry of Public Security, which will coordinate public security nationwide, obviously without interfering with the capacities of each federated state," Temer told reporters at a press conference.

"The situation in Rio de Janeiro also creates problems in other states, because if things aren't working here, they're not likely to work in the rest of the country," he said.

Temer did not take questions or say who he had in mind to run the ministry.

On Thursday, Brazilian Defense Minister Raul Jungmann condemned the violent crime marring Rio's famed carnival celebrations, calling it "inadmissible and unacceptable."

He pledged to take additional steps to prevent the spate of assaults and robberies targeting carnival goers after various media outlets aired footage of gangs rampaging through tourism hotspots, such as Ipanema and Copacabana, mugging revelers.

The Justice Ministry will continue to devise preventive policies to combat the illicit drugs trade and related issues.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 09:11:45|Editor: Mengjie

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VIENTIANE, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Yunnan Provincial Investment Holding Group has signed an agreement with the government of northern Lao Sayabuly Province to build the Asian Elephant Species Protection, Breeding and Rescue Center.

The agreement was signed on Saturday on the sidelines of the International Elephants Festival and Visit Laos Year 2018 in Sayabuly province.

The deal aims to protect, breed, rescue and provide assistance to popularize the endangered animals particularly Asian elephants and to promote tourism in the province.

Yunnan Provincial Investment Holding Group was welcomed by the Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit to invest in the elephant protection center in Laos. He also expected more investment in Lao infrastructure and other sectors, said a press release issued by the Chinese company.

The local government will give strong support to the project which is expected to promote local tourism. The development of the industry may make Sayabuly a landmark tourism city for Chinese visitors, said the Lao president.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 09:46:52|Editor: Mengjie

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Fu Ying, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, attends a panel discussion on nuclear security during the 54th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)

MUNICH, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- China hopes that peace talks can be reopened to solve the most urgent Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, a senior Chinese diplomat said at the ongoing Munich Security Conference here on Saturday.

"There should be negotiated settlements to address the security concerns of all parties," Fu Ying, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, said during a panel on nuclear security.

A serious lack of trust between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) made it impossible for any bilateral or multilateral agreement to be implemented and dragged the peninsula into a vicious circle of escalating tensions, Fu said.

China supports the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and agrees that sanctions are necessary, she said, adding that China has fully complied with the UN Security Council resolutions concerning sanctions on the DPRK.

"But in the meantime, China also hopes that peace talks can be initiated, can be reopened," Fu said.

Sanctions only work when the door to negotiation is open, she stressed.

Fu said she noticed that a good opportunity has emerged recently when South Korea and the DPRK use the PyeongChang Winter Olympics as a platform to reach out to each other.

She hoped that the United States could seize the opportunity and restart the talks in order to bring peace back to the region.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 10:06:58|Editor: Liu

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TRIPOLI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Libyan military forces of the UN-backed government on Saturday held a military exercise with live ammunition near the northwestern Libyan city of Misurata.

"Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad M'etig attended the tactical training exercise with live ammunition at the military airport of Al-Nmowa in Sdada area, in the presence of the Chief of the General Staff, Major General Abdulrahman Taweel, and a number of military officials," the prime minister's media and communication office said in a statement.

"The exercise, which lasted for more than three hours continuously, aimed to increase the combat capability of the ground forces, in partnership with the Libyan air force," the statement said.

The audience appreciated the exercise, hoping such tactical maneuvers could be continued as they boost the morale of the Libyan troops, the statement added.MEXICO CITY, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- As many as 42 million people living in southern and central Mexico felt the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit the region late Friday afternoon, Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) said on Saturday.

The quake, whose epicenter was off the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca, caused no deaths, but sparked anxiety, especially among those still recovering from the fatal temblor that struck the same region in September, killing scores and toppling buildings.

In Mexico City on Friday, residents ran out of apartment buildings, businesses and shops after an early warning system sounded the alarm, giving people about a minute to escape.

At a press conference, Leonardo Ramirez, who is in charge of seismic monitoring at the UNAM's Engineering Institute, said the quake was the severest within a 100-km radius of the epicenter, off the coast of Pinotepa Nacional in southeastern Oaxaca.

In addition to Oaxaca and Mexico City, the quake, which lasted some 60 seconds, also rattled the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan, Puebla and Mexico.

About 200 homes sustained damage, mainly along Oaxaca's Pacific Coast, where 1.3 million households were left without electricity, officials said, adding that electricity had been restored to 97 percent of the area by Saturday morning.

Friday's quake was caused by the Cocos plate slipping beneath the North American plate, said Xyoli Perez, head of Mexico's National Seismological Service (SSN), recalling that the same region has been hit by six major earthquakes in the past five decades.A man uses rupee to buy things at a shop near Broach, India, Aug. 21, 2013. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

NEW DELHI, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- India's premier investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday arrested a former deputy general manager and two others in fraudulent transition cases worth about 1.77 billion U.S. dollars at India's state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB), officials said.

The former deputy general manager Gokulnath Shetty is one of the key accused in the case.

"Shetty and two others have been arrested and they will be produced before CBI special court in Mumbai later in the day," an official said, adding that "the other two persons are bank's single window operator Manoj Kharat and Hemant Bhat, authorized signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms."

On Wednesday PNB reported transactions worth approximately 1.77 billion U.S. dollars had been illegally transferred to select customers from a single branch in Mumbai.

The main accused billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, his wife Ami Modi, brother Nishal Modi and his business partner and uncle Mehul Choksi have fled India.

Indian government on Friday suspended passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi for four weeks on the advice of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The foreign ministry asked the two to respond within one week, failing which their travel documents would be suspended completely.

Reports said ED and CBI are conducted searches at premises of Nirav Modi and his franchise Geetanjali Gems' showroom across India in connection with the scam.

Meanwhile, India's opposition parties are targeting government over the issue for failing to prevent the bank fraud.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 13:02:16|Editor: Liu

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LHASA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Barkhor, a bustling market street in the heart of Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, was reopened to the public Sunday after a temporary closure following a fire.

The fire broke out at 6:40 p.m. Saturday in part of the Jokhang Temple, which is located in the center of the Barkhor. It was soon put out and no casualties have been reported.

The Jokhang Temple is open. It will be closed from Feb. 19 to 22 as scheduled, when its monks mark the New Year holiday. The Tibetan New Year was celebrated last Friday, coinciding with the Spring Festival this year.

The temple is renowned in Tibetan Buddhism. It has a history of more than 1,300 years and houses many cultural treasures, including a life-sized statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha when he was 12 years old.CANBERRA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Authorities have issued a red alert cyclone warning for Western Australia (WA) state.

Tropical cyclone Kelvin made landfall on Sunday morning, bringing with it winds of up to 250 km per hour (kph).

In a warning issued on Sunday, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services told residents of northern WA that they were "in danger and need to act immediately."

"There is a possible threat to lives and homes as a cyclone is approaching the area," it said.

Residents of the Pilbara and Kimberley regions were told to remain in the safest parts of their house, away from windows, or stay in evacuation centers.

Further south, a yellow alert was put in place warning of winds up to 150 kph until mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Heavy rainfall was also expected to come with the storm with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warning that there was a high chance of flooding.

"I think we've already seen one of the strongest impacts of this system that Tropical Cyclone Kelvin will have -- is the rainfall we've seen in Broome," BOM senior forecaster Andrew Burton told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Sunday.

"We've had 370.6 millimeters up to 9:00 a.m. (Saturday) and that rainfall is continuing, so they look like they're on track to get to their wettest year ever."

The deluge has forced the closure of some roads with more to follow, including major arterial roads and highways which are the only way to access some towns by car.

"From a flooding perspective, it's a bit of a perfect storm," Main Roads regional manager Andrew Pyke said.

"We've got a lot of water sitting on the Roebuck plains area now and a lot of water happened in the last 24 to 48 hours in the Broome area, and there is more water coming down with the passing of this cyclone."

"It is quite difficult. There's certainly been significant damages of some roads in the Kimberley with the water that's flowed over the roads. We are very concerned," said Pyke.Electricity theft down in Lalitpur

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the state-owned power utility, has achieved fair bit of success in curbing electricity theft in Lalitpur district. In the last few weeks since NEA upped the ante against locals of the Lalitpur district involved in electricity theft, the power utility has collected around Rs1.5 million in fines.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 13:32:22|Editor: Liu

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BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Minor juvenile delinquency cases have declined for nine consecutive years and remain at a low level, according to a work team on preventing juvenile delinquency.

The team said that extra attention should be given to youth who might be harmed by extreme religious thoughts, drugs, and cyber crime.

The team will promote socialist core values and the rule of law, improve drug prevention systems involving schools, families, and the community, and clean up the internet to fight drug and online crime.

Left-behind children in rural areas need increased care and some youth becoming involved in porn, gambling, drug abuse, abduction, and school bullying in some regions has aroused social concerns, said Chen Xiaojun, an official with the team.

Fu Lei, an official with the Cyberspace Administration of China, said that the administration will strengthen controls to prevent youth from becoming addicted to online games.

The administration will curb the spread of the "Blue Whale" game, which incites youth to self-harm and promotes suicide, as well as content involving school bullying and child abuse, said Fu.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Communist Youth League of China have signed a cooperative agreement in this field.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 13:32:22|Editor: Liu

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Libyans gather on Martyrs' Square in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 17, 2018. Tens of thousands of Libyans on Saturday gathered in the capital Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, a symbol of the protest in 2011, carrying Libyan flags to mark the 7th anniversary of the outbreak of the Libyan uprising. (Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

by Mahmoud Darwesh Nawas Darraji

TRIPOLI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Many Libyans have regretted the uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi seven years ago as it caused long-term insecurity and political division, as well as an economic crisis in the oil-rich country.

Tens of thousands of Libyans on Saturday gathered in the capital Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, a symbol of the protest in 2011, carrying Libyan flags to mark the anniversary that falls on Monday.

"The Libyan people have suffered a lot because of political differences. Some politicians have tried to incite military action against some cities because of political divergence. This has damaged the social fabric in many cities and areas," Shawosh told Xinhua.

Miloud Shawosh, a 50-year-old civil servant, attended the gathering with his wife and three children.

"We are a highly interdependent tribal society. There is a familiarity and relationship between many segments of society. Unfortunately, some people were working to destroy this interconnected fabric, but we have recently showed our support for reconciliation and peace," he said.

Twenty-year-old university student Noura Shebani told Xinhua, "The "revolution was a great disappointment for us. Outsiders and stakeholders jumped on the backs of the martyrs and casualties. They promised us to improve living conditions and give back our stolen rights to us. But all that has happened is lies, leading us to an abyss."

Since the fall of Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been struggling to form a security service capable of countering the armed militias, which outnumber the regular forces. The north African nation has also been plagued with political division.

Fatima Tajouri, who lost her two sons in 2011, said "When my children went to Sirte in early October, they told me that their lives were a sacrifice for every Libyan to live a decent life. Unfortunately, many Libyans failed us by misrepresenting the revolution with their practices and presenting a negative image of us after we lived in dignity."

"I am sad that my dearest sons died, but even sadder about the threat of losing Libya, because I am afraid that all will be lost at once," the mother said, holding a picture of her two sons.

Faraj Erheil, a 58-year-old physician, believes that the "sacrifices of young people for the revolution should be remembered in order to avoid the mistakes that once led us to an unknown fate."

"Our youths did not revolt against Gaddafi's regime with a new injustice as a replacement; they revolted for their dignity and stolen rights. However, unfortunately, we failed to preserve the gains of the revolution," Erheil told Xinhua.

Despite the lasting political and economic crises, the Libyans have also cherished hope for a better future.

Shawosh said the revolution, despite its failure, still has a chance. "We are determined to complete the journey towards establishing a desired state."

"Many cities and tribes have reconciled and put their differences aside, because they know conflicts will not serve anyone," Shawosh added.

Tajouri said that she was optimistic that the revolution will achieve all its goals someday.

"We will not lose Libya ... We will work hard for the sake of our country, take back our place, serve justice, and reject war and hatred. We are at a stage where we cannot afford to lose any precious Libyan," Shebani said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 14:12:28|Editor: Liu

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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s senior Mars rover, Opportunity, recently used its navigation camera to take the component images of possible "rock stripes," NASA said Saturday.

In recent images from the Mars exploration rover, the ground texture resembles a smudged version of very distinctive stone stripes on some mountain slopes on Earth, which result from repeated cycles of freezing and thawing of wet soil, though it might also be due to wind, downhill transport, other processes or a combination, according to NASA.

As the rover, which landed on Mars in January 2004, reaches the 5,000th sol, or Martian Day, of what was planned as a 90-sol mission, it is investigating a channel called Perseverance Valley, which descends the inboard slope of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.

On some slopes within the valley, the soil and gravel particles appear to have become organized into narrow rows or corrugations, parallel to the slope, alternating between rows with more gravel and rows with less.

"Perseverance Valley is a special place, like having a new mission again after all these years," Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis was quoted as saying in a news release.

"We already knew it was unlike any place any Mars rover has seen before, even if we don't yet know how it formed, and now we're seeing surfaces that look like stone stripes. It's mysterious. It's exciting. I think the set of observations we'll get will enable us to understand it," Arvidson said.

The origin of the whole valley is still indefinite. Mars experts remain uncertain about whether this texture results from processes of relatively modern Mars or a much older Mars.

Team scientists are analyzing various clues that suggest actions of water, wind or ice. They are also considering a range of possible explanations for the stripes.

Other lines of evidences have convinced researchers that, on a scale of hundreds of thousands of years, Mars goes through cycles when the tilt or obliquity of its axis increases so much that some of the water now frozen at the poles vaporizes into the atmosphere and then becomes snow or frost accumulating near the equator.

"One possible explanation of these stripes is that they are relics from a time of greater obliquity when snow packs on the rim seasonally melted enough to moisten the soil, and then freeze-thaw cycles organized the small rocks into stripes," Arvidson said.

"Gravitational downhill movement may be diffusing them so they don't look as crisp as when they were fresh," the investigator said.

Perseverance Valley holds rocks carved by sand blowing uphill from the crater floor, and wind might also be the key to sorting larger particles into rows parallel to the slope.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 14:27:32|Editor: Mengjie

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WUHAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Zhou Yiqiao, a veteran bridge engineer, was happy to see a new bridge over the Yangtze River open to traffic in the central city of Wuhan in late December.

The Zhuankou Yangtze River Bridge, 8.6-km-long and 46-meters-wide, is the widest bridge over the Yangtze River.

Zhou's given name Yiqiao, literally meaning "the first bridge" in Chinese, was given by his grandfather in memory of the start of construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1955, the first bridge across the Yangtze that runs from the plateau region in the west to Shanghai in the east for about 6,300 km.

"My grandparents often took me to the construction site when I was a child," Zhou Yiqiao said.

Zhou's father designed one of the eight piers of the bridge, which was operational in 1957.

"It started at a time when the People's Republic of China was just established and bridge construction technologies mainly relied on Russian expertise," Zhou Yiqiao said. "My father and his colleagues worked in really hard conditions to complete the project."

Zhou's father then joined the building of Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, the first heavy bridge designed and built using Chinese expertise.

Following his father's footsteps, Zhou studied bridge engineering in college and became a bridge designer.

Zhou Yiqiao said he had witnessed tremendous progress in China's bridge building technology over the years.

Currently, Wuhan has nine Yangtze bridges open to traffic. Every day more than 700,000 vehicles cross the river using these bridges, greatly easing the city's traffic.

There are 135 bridges across the main stream of the Yangtze, about 30 of which are under construction, according to Liu Ziming, chairman of the China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group (CRMBEG).

"Nowadays, we play a leading role in setting international standards for bridge design and building in the world," said Mao Weiqi, CRMBEG deputy chief engineer.

The major Chinese bridge builder has built more than 2,000 bridges worldwide, with a total length of over 2,000 kilometers, equal to a round trip distance between Shanghai and Beijing, according to Mao.

Padma Bridge, which will be the longest bridge in Bangladesh, is being built by the group. Expected to be completed in 2018, the bridge will link the southwestern part of the country to northern and eastern regions.

"Our bridge building technologies have gone abroad and these bridges are connecting us with the world," Zhou said.

For Simon Haworth, a British entrepreneur, he and his family are also building a "bridge" connecting China with the rest of the world.

Haworth set up the Dynasty Biotechnology Company in a bio-industry park in Wuhan in 2012.

In the 1870s, his great-great-grandfather Henry Haworth established a silk trading company in Shanghai. In 1887, Henry sent his first son Harry to learn business there.

In the 1960s, Simon's grandparents visited China twice. His grandmother kept a diary which recorded their experiences.

"One of the most important trips they had was in Wuhan. They were taken to the first bridge over the river, " Haworth said. "In my grandma's diary, she talked about how proud people were of the bridge."

Just like his great-great grandfather, Haworth has also sent his eldest son, George, to Shanghai, for an internship. He calls it another "echo of history," - two fathers doing the same thing for a similar purpose, and born of the same optimism about China.

When Haworth came to Wuhan for the first time, the city had seven bridges over the Yangtze.

"In recent years, the city's infrastructure such as the newly built Yangtze bridge, the high-tech industrial park and high-speed railways, have been well improved," he said.

In 2016, China released a guideline build the "Yangtze River Economic Belt" that aims to create a new economic engine for China, with core roles for Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing.

In 2016, Wuhan utilized more than 8.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign capital, up 16.1 percent year on year.

"After the release of the guideline, we are confident that foreign investment will have a better development prospect," Haworth said. "Now we have more opportunities to use Wuhan as a bridge and a hub to bring bio, clean and agricultural technology businesses from Europe and the U.S. to China."

Haworth's company is also involved in cultural exchanges between China and Britain. The project, run by Dynasty Youth Exchange, sends Chinese teenagers to the UK and vice versa for both to experience different cultures and promote communication between the two countries.

"I want to do some work to sweep aside misunderstandings and prejudice between China and the UK," he said. "I think it is like a bridge I am building between China and the world. My task is to use the exchange of sciences and culture to build the bridge connecting Wuhan, China and the outside world."KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Up to three dozen armed militants have been killed and dozens others injured as government forces stormed Taliban hideouts in Miwand district of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province over the past 24 hours, provincial police chief Abdul Razeq said Sunday.

The government forces, according to Kandahar's police chief, launched operations against Taliban militants in several villages of Miwand district on Saturday and so far 36 insurgents have been killed and scores others injured.

Taliban militants have failed to take 16 bodies left behind on the battle ground, Razeq said.

In the operations backed by air power, no security personnel has been hurt, he added.

Taliban militants haven't commented yet.KABUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- An unmanned plane has targeted a drug lab of Taliban in the western Farah province, killing eight militants and destroying a drug lab of the outfit, the official media outlet Bakhtar News Agency (BNA) reported Sunday.

"Eight Taliban militants were killed and their drug factory was destroyed after the Coalition Forces Drone raided Ashkam village in Bakwah District of the western Farah province very recently," BNA said in the report.

Without providing more details, the agency said that the government is determined to get the poppy growing country rid of the illicit drug menace.MANILA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- One hundred seventy-seven more distressed Filipino workers from Kuwait arrived in Manila on Sunday, bringing the number of repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to 1,700.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the OFWs, the majority of whom are household service workers who availed of the Kuwaiti government's amnesty program, were repatriated from their employers in the Gulf state.

"Many of the distressed OFWs are victims of illegal recruitment who entered Kuwait through neighboring countries," the DFA said.

The DFA continues to negotiate with the Kuwaiti government for an extension of the amnesty program which will allow undocumented OFWs to process the documents needed to work legally in Kuwait.

The repatriated OFWs will be leaving for their home provinces after receiving 5,000 pesos (96 U.S. dollars) in financial assistance from the DFA.

The Philippine government has recently launched an aggressive campaign to educate and inform Filipinos about human trafficking to prevent them from falling prey to unscrupulous groups and individuals who take advantage of Filipinos who wish to work abroad especially in the Middle East.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a total ban on new deployment of Filipino workers in Kuwait after the body of a Filipino was found in a freezer in an abandoned apartment unit.

But the Department of Labor and Employment later clarified that those with existing contracts on vacation in the Philippines can still go back to Kuwait.

Duterte's order prompted the Philippine embassy in Kuwait to quickly respond to reports of abuses from distressed OFWs.

The number of distressed OFWs has increased in recent years, prompting the embassy there to set up a temporary shelter for OFWs who escape from abusive employers and who seek refuge in the embassy.

"The DFA and the embassy continue to work closely with the Kuwaiti government in protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of OFWs in Kuwait," the DFA said.

The most recent batch of repatriated OFWs are among the 10,000 overstaying OFWs that DFA and the embassy are working hard to repatriate as soon as possible.

There are approximately 250,000 Filipinos working in Kuwait, 75 percent of which are domestic helpers, according to government records.

Despite the grim plight of workers in Kuwait, the government said some 300 Filipinos continue to apply for work in Kuwait every day.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 16:18:43|Editor: Jiaxin

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An Indian man prepares gulal or colored powder, which will be used for the upcoming Holi Festival, at Uttar Chara village, some 110 km away from Kolkata, India, on Feb. 17, 2018. Holi Festival, also known as Spring Festival of Colors, usually falls in the later part of February or March, and it is celebrated by Hindu residents around the world by throwing gulal at each other. (Xinhua/Tumpa Mondal)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 16:13:00|Editor: Jiaxin

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Artists perform Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) "Jin Shan Temple" at Chicago Symphony Center in Chicago, the United States, on Feb. 17, 2018. As part of Chinese New Year celebrations, a troupe of southwest China's Chongqing Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) Theater, and the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra from east China's Zhejiang Province presented traditional Chinese opera and music to U.S. audience at the Chicago Symphony Center on Saturday. (Xinhua/Wang Ping)

CHICAGO, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- As part of Chinese New Year celebrations, a troupe of southwest China's Chongqing Chuanju (Sichuan Opera) Theater presented traditional Chuanju excerpts to a U.S. audience at the Chicago Symphony Center on Saturday.

The 2,500-seat center is a full house, with applause and cheers erupting from time to time.

The Chongqing Chuanju Theater presented five excerpts in the first half session of the show. The local dialect of Sichuan and the Chinese humor posed no obstacles to the audience understanding the plots of the play.

"The Taming of the Gambler," a story depicting how a wife educates her gambler husband with some afflictions and combining Chinese humor with acrobatics, has sparked rounds of applause and laughters constantly.

"Jin Shan Temple," another traditional Chinese fairy tale, has performers dressed in full traditional costumes and make-up and featured such stunts as fire-spitting and face-changing, when a performer instantly switches masks by raising a hand, swinging a sleeve or tossing the head.

"I had read a lot about the face-changing, and I enjoyed seeing that. It was wonderful to see all the colorful costume, the make-up, the music," John Trowbridge told Xinhua, "I'm really enjoying it very much."

Henry Trowbridge, son of John Trowbridge, was impressed by the acrobatics. The teenager especially liked the part when the performers flip.

It is not the first time for Susan in her 60s to watch Chuanju. "I've seen the joker blowing candle before, and face-changing, I know there are masks."

"I like when they change the masks, and I like the costumes, I like the colors of the costumes," Susan stressed.

The Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, from east China's Zhejiang Province, took up the second half of the performance. Familiar tunes of a variety of folk Chinese operas including Huangmei Opera, Shaoxing Opera, Beijing Opera, Henan Opera and Qin Qiang Opera have reminded overseas Chinese of their homeland.

The orchestra also presented to the audience Uighur folk song of "Lift Your Veil," and popular song "Crossing the River."

Zhou Lifang, director of the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra, said the goal of the orchestra is to "endow symphony with Chinese characteristics and Chinese music with world tune."

This is the fourth year for the Chicago Symphony Center to stage a grand performance on the event of the Chinese New Year.

Chinese Consul General Hong Lei hailed the show an opportunity for Americans to have an understanding of the Chinese culture.

"The aspiration for good life is exactly the same (for both the Chinese and American peoples)." He hoped that it could be a yearly event.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to present some of the best artists from China in a program of traditional Chinese music," said Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) President Jeff Alexander.

"This concert is a very special annual event for our audiences and has become a marvelous musical celebration for Chinese New Year at Symphony Center," he said.

The show is just one of many Chinese New Year celebration activities launched in the city of Chicago.

In the coming two weeks, the Art Institute of Chicago will co-work with the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Shanghai Museum to open an exhibition named "Mirroring China's Past: Emperors and their Bronzes."

A Chinese Arts and Culture Documentary Film Festival will be held at the Chicago Culture Center and the Chinatown in Chicago will hold a Chinese Lunar New Year Parade.

Chicago Bulls will for the first time present Chinese dragon and lion dances during their home game with Philadelphia 76ers.

Chicago is the first city in the United States to launch Chinese New Year celebrations in the name of a municipal government, and 2018 will be the fifth year for the city to mark the Chinese New Year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 16:18:04|Editor: Liu

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said Sunday it stuck 18 Hamas targets in Gaza, responding to an explosive device that wounded four soldiers along the fence between Israel and the Palestinian enclave.

Palestinian medical sources said that at least two Palestinian youths were killed in the strikes, according to the official Palestinian news agency of WAFA.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that the strikes, carried out on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning, were made in retaliation to an explosive that denotated near the fence when a military patrol arrived to remove a "suspicious flag."

Four soldiers were injured.

Shortly later, the Israeli air force launched a large-scale attack. The assault included airstrikes of a tunnel built by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs Gaza, in the Zaytun neighborhood in Gaza city; a military compound near Deir el Balah in the central Gaza Strip; and a military compound in the area of Khan Yunis in the southern Strip. Additionally, a tank targeted two observation posts, the military said.

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) views with great severity the incident," the spokesperson said.

"The Hamas terror organization is accountable for this incident and its consequences, as well as everything happening in and from the Gaza Strip, above and below ground," the spokesperson added.

The incident came amidst a looming humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, a territory that has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since 2007.

Israel seized the Gaza Strip, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Middle East war and has kept its control over the territory despite international criticism.Ganja narratives of Nepal

Ganja has been intertwined with culture in Nepal, making the authorities attempts to control it all the more difficultSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 16:28:06|Editor: Liu

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TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian passenger plane with 66 people on board crashed on Sunday morning, Press TV reported.

The ATR turboprop aircraft belonging to Iran Aseman Airlines took off from the capital Tehran at 05:00 a.m. (0130 GMT), heading to central Yasuj city, but crashed near Semirom into the Zagros mountains.

The plane crashed only 185.2 kilometers before reaching Yasuj, said Pir-Hossein Koulivand, the head of Iran's Emergency Medical Services. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 16:48:12|Editor: Liu

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- A new stretchable bandage-like electronic sensor, designed to be worn on the throat, will be a game-changer in treatment of stroke recovery, said a U.S. study released Saturday.

The sensor, developed by engineering professor John Rogers at the Northwestern University in the midwestern U.S. state of Illinois, can stick directly to patients' skin, moving with their body and providing detailed health information about heart function, muscle activity and quality of sleep.

The stretchable electronics are precise enough to be used in advanced medical care and portable enough to be worn outside the hospital, even during extreme exercise, according to Rogers's study.

"Stretchable electronics allow us to see what is going on inside patients' bodies at a level traditional wearables simply cannot achieve," Rogers said.

He explained that the top priority is to make them as integrated as possible with the human body.

The throat sensor measures patients' swallowing ability and patterns of speech, which makes it possible to diagnose aphasia, a communication disorder associated with stroke.

The sensor can distinguish between patients' voices and ambient noise by measuring vibrations of the vocal chords in a way totally different from traditional methods adopted to monitor patients' speech function.

Throat is a very sensitive area of the skin, and Rogers's team developed novel materials for this sensor that bend and stretch with the body, minimizing discomfort to patients.

The wireless sensors removed barriers of traditional health monitoring devices in clinical settings. Patients can wear them even out of hospital so that doctors are able to understand how their patients function in the real world.

This helps doctors "develop better strategies with our patients to improve their speaking skills and speed up their recovery process," said Leora Cherney, a scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, a Chicago-based research hospital in Illinois, which is a research partner with Rogers's lab in developing the throat sensor.

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is "helping us move our technology from the research lab to the real world, where it already is making a positive impact on the lives of patients," Rogers said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 17:18:17|Editor: Liu

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli police arrested Sunday morning senior managers from Bezeq, Israel's largest telecom company, after the Israel Securities Authority discovered new information during its corruption probe into the company.

A joint statement released by the police and the Israel Securities Authority confirmed that senior executives with Bezeq were arrested, including two close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The statement added that the fresh arrests came "in light of the evidence that the Securities Authority found in the investigation of the case, which raised suspicions of additional offenses."

The new details were under a gag order, the statement said.

The Securities Authority, which regulates the Israeli stock exchange market, has been investigating Bezeq over the past months over suspicions of fraud and financial reporting offenses. Bezeq officials, including a former chairman, had already been arrested.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 17:23:19|Editor: Liu

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CAIRO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Egypt expressed understanding of Ethiopia's request to delay the upcoming tripartite negotiations with Egypt and Sudan over Ethiopia's grand dam currently being constructed on their shared Nile River, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The tripartite ministerial meeting was scheduled for Feb. 24-25 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, but Ethiopia's ongoing political unrest and anti-government protests, which led its prime minister to resign, might be behind the delay.

"The Egyptian Foreign Ministry understands the conditions that might have led Ethiopia to request delaying the meeting and we hope they will be cleared very soon," Egyptian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement Sunday.

Ethiopia and Sudan eye massive benefits from the construction of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), also known as the Renaissance Dam, while Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the Nile River water.

The presidents of upstream country Ethiopia and the two downstream partners Egypt and Sudan have recently met in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 30th African Union summit and agreed to avoid misunderstandings by joint cooperation on common interests.

"Egypt looks forward to commitment to the time frame set by the three leaders to settle the outstanding technical disagreements, given that the Renaissance Dam issue affects the interests of the three states," Abu Zeid said on Sunday.

He stressed that the dam issue requires immediate action "in order to reach solutions that preserve the interests of all."

Ethiopia's current protests have been triggered by the country's two biggest ethnic groups Oromia and Amhara who say that they have for years been marginalized by the government.

The country has recently imposed a state of emergency and martial law in an attempt to contain the unrest.

Egypt's ties with Ethiopia have seen ups and downs since the latter started the dam project in April 2011 while Egypt was suffering turmoil following an uprising that toppled veteran President Hosni Mubarak.

When President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014, he showed understanding of Ethiopia's aspiration for development through the GERD that would produce around 6,000 megawatts of electricity to the country.

On the other hand, relations between Egypt and Sudan have been tense over the past years on various issues including a territorial dispute over the border region of Halayeb and Shalateen, which are currently under Egyptian control.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 17:58:29|Editor: Liu

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MANILA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- A junior army officer and four soldiers were wounded on Sunday in an attack in the southern Philippines, a military spokesman said.

Capt. Arvin Encinas said the troops were aboard a military truck on an "administrative mission" when attacked around 7:30 a.m. in Meta village in Datu Unsay town in Maguindanao province.

He said an improvised explosive device went off as the truck approached a bridge.

"They were mobile and as soon as they reached the bridge in barangay meta, they were hit by IED explosion. There was no firefight, it's merely an IED explosion aimed at our troops," Encinas said.

The military blamed the attack on Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a group of about 300 militants that also pledged allegiance to the Islamic State extremists.

Encinas said the attack was a revenge to the ongoing military offensive against the BIFF that started in August last year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 18:18:33|Editor: Liu

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GAZA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Hamas movement blamed on Sunday both the U.S. and the Israeli administrations for Gaza's escalating humanitarian crisis.

Hamas also rejected in a statement the U.S. claim of responsibility of Hamas, saying the U.S. allegations are a green light for Israel to "continue its aggression against our people."

It accused Israel of continuing the policy of U.S. administration that bears responsibility for "the tragedies that have afflicted the Palestinian people since occupying the Palestinian lands."

Last week, the United States accused Hamas of funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in aid meant for the people of Gaza toward buying weapons and materials to build attack tunnels and fortifications.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Israel claims that Hamas uses Gaza underground tunnels to stockpile weapons and infiltrate into the occupied lands.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 18:23:35|Editor: Liu

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KABUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Two militants of Haqqani militant group were killed following an airstrike in Afghan province of Paktika on Sunday, said the command of special forces.

"Two members of Haqqani network were killed as a result of an airstrike launched by Afghan Special Operations Forces in village Daah Manai, Barmal district, Paktika province," Operational Coordination Group Afghanistan (MoD-OCGA) said in a statement.

The sortie occurred at around 12:52 p.m. local time, the statement said, adding that "more information about the incident will be shared with the media as appropriate."

One vehicle was also destroyed by the strike, the statement noted.

As a Taliban-linked group of militants, the Haqqani network mostly operating in eastern provinces and capital Kabul, and has been responsible for many high-profile attacks against security forces.

The network, which was designated as a terrorist group by the United States in 2012, has yet to make comments.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 18:33:36|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's private investment funds amounted to 11.76 trillion yuan (about 1.85 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of last month, up by 660 billion yuan in January, data from the Asset Management Association of China (AMAC) showed.

The sector picked up speed from a 100-billion-yuan increase in the previous month.

Funds for securities expanded to 2.61 trillion yuan as of January, up by 320 billion yuan from the previous month, while those for private equities and venture capital stood at nearly 7.09 trillion yuan, AMAC data showed.

By the end of January, the number of private fund managers climbed to 22,883, up by 437 from the end of 2017, despite total employees in the sector shrinking 33,700 year on year to 238,300 as of December 2017.

In November last year, draft guidelines unified rules covering asset management products issued by all types of financial institutions, requiring them to set leverage ceilings.File photo shows soldiers prepare to march during a parade marking the 50th anniversary of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) in Kinshasa, capital of the DR Congo, on June 30, 2010. (Xinhua/Shu Shi)

KIGALI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) said it handed over on Saturday bodies of three soldiers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) who were killed in Tuesday's fire exchange between the armies of the two countries.

The commander of RDF's Second Division, Eugene Nkubito, said the soldiers died in a fire exchange when they attacked an RDF position in Rwanda's northern district of Musanze.

The handover took place at the border of Rwanda and DR Congo in Rwanda's northern district of Rubavu. It was witnessed by military experts of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), Nkubito said.

There is need for regular meetings of heads of military forces from both countries to diffuse any tensions which may lead to fighting, said Nkubito in Rubavu on Saturday.

A DR Congo army officer, who identified himself as Col. Lumba, thanked the RDF for the handover and also stressed the need for regular meetings of army leadership from both countries to avoid similar incidents in future, Nkubito said.

On Friday, experts from EJVM, a group of military experts from 11 member states grouped under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region visited the area of the incident following a meeting with RDF on Thursday in Rwanda's northern district of Musanze.

At the meeting, Rwanda asked the EJVM to investigate the motive behind the attack.

On Wednesday, a spokesman of the Armed Forces of DR Congo (FARDC) said heavy fighting took place late Tuesday between the FARDC and "elements of the Rwandan army (RDF)" at the foot of Mount Nikeno in its province of North Kivu.

DR Congo also reported the incident to the ICGLR and "demanded unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan army from its soil," the FARDC spokesman said.

There have been border skirmishes between DR Congo and Rwanda over the years.

In 2014, Rwanda accused the FARDC of firing a rocket on its territory in Bugeshi Sector, Rubavu district, Western Province. The rocket did not cause any casualties.

In 2013, Rwanda said FARDC fired over 60 projectiles on Rwandan territory, killing and injuring civilians, including women and children.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 18:48:40|Editor: Mengjie

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday accused the Popular Resistance Committees, an armed group in Gaza, for perpetrating an explosion that wounded four soldiers near Gaza.

No organization had claimed responsibility for the incident, in which an explosive device attached to the fence between Israel and the besieged Palestinian enclaved detonated on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking with the Hebrew-language Ynet news site on Sunday, Lieberman said the Popular Resistance Committees, a small Gazan militant organization, was in behind the incident.

He vowed to hunt the perpetrators. "We will assassinate those who carried out the attack," the minister said.

In response to the incident, the Israeli air force launched a large-scale attack, striking 18 targets in Gaza on Saturday evening and before dawn on Sunday, according to a military statement. The strikes targeted sites belonging to Hamas, the Islamist organization that runs Gaza, the military said.

Palestinian medical sources said that at least two Palestinian youths were killed in the strikes, according to a report by the official Palestinian news agency of WAFA.

The sporadic gunfire or rocket attacks from Gaza over the past years were mostly perpetrated by opposition organizations. However, the Israeli military maintains that Hamas should be hold accountable for any hostility that comes from the strip.Lagan inferno: Father dies, son gets injuries

A person died and another was injured when a fire engulfed a house in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-12, Logan, in the wee hours of Saturday.File photo shows security personnels patrol on the street in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Jan 29, 2011. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. embassy in Ethiopia on Saturday urged Addis Ababa to reconsider its decision to institute martial law.

In a statement posted on its website, the U.S. embassy said the decision to impose martial law in Ethiopia on Friday reverses positive steps taken to create a more inclusive political space, including the release of thousands of prisoners.

"We strongly disagree with the Ethiopian government's decision to impose a state of emergency that includes restrictions on fundamental rights such as assembly and expression," the statement said.

Ethiopian National Security Council (ENSC) on Saturday urged citizens to respect the state of emergency that came into effect on Friday.

The Council of Ministers imposed the state of emergency on Friday, saying it was to protect the country's constitution, citizens and their property from the ongoing violent demonstrations in some parts of the country.

The U.S. embassy statement said that "the challenges facing Ethiopia, whether to democratic reform, economic growth, or lasting stability, are best addressed through inclusive discourse and political processes, rather than through the imposition of restrictions."

"We strongly urge the government to rethink this approach and identify other means to protect lives and property while preserving, and indeed expanding, the space for meaningful dialogue and political participation that can pave the way to a lasting democracy," the statement said.

Ethiopia has been facing incessant protests since 2016, especially in three most populous Oromia, Amhara and Southern regional states.

The unrest has raised concern over the stability of Ethiopia.Source:Xinhua| 2018-02-18 19:49:48|Editor: Mengjie

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An actor performs a stunt standing on knife in Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 18, 2018. A variety of temple fairs were held across the country during the Spring Festival holiday. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaohai)RIGA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Bank of Latvia Governor Ilmars Rimsevics has been detained in the early hours of Sunday amid a new bribery probe launched by the Baltic country's anti-corruption watchdog, the local media reported.

Earlier on Saturday, the Latvian Corruption Prevention Bureau's operatives conducted searches at Rimsevics' office and residence outside Riga.

The head of the Latvian central bank returned to Riga from a foreign trip on Saturday evening and was driven by his lawyer to the Corruption Prevention Bureau's office where he was interrogated for nearly eight hours.

According to public media reports, Maris Martinsons, a businessman involved in various construction and payday loan businesses, has also been detained in connection with the probe, reportedly on suspicions of organized graft.

Neither the Corruption Prevention Bureau nor Rimsevics' lawyer have given any comments to the media as yet.

Latvia's Diena daily reported on Saturday that the anti-corruption bureau's new criminal investigation against Rimsevics and Martinsons concerned organized graft, extortion and mediation of bribery. Investigators suspect that an organized criminal group, which has been operating in Latvia for quite a long time, has been using its members' office powers and political influence to extort bribes, including from credit institutions.

Latvian Economics Minister Arvils Aseradens commented on public radio Sunday that Rimsevics' arrest poses serious risks to Latvia's international reputation. The law enforcement agencies are doing their job, the minister said, adding that he only learned about the Bank of Latvia governor's detention from media reports.

Aseradens believes that if Rimsevics is indeed implicated in organized corruption, the best solution for him would be to resign, especially because being under arrest, he is unable to perform his duties as head of the central bank.

Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis said on Twitter he was going to call a meeting of the National Security Council on Monday to address the "situation in the banking sector".Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 20:33:58|Editor: Liu

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Tourists visit the Bund in east China's Shanghai, Feb. 17, 2018. The Chinese people enjoy their week-long holiday for the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Feb. 16 this year. (Xinhua/Zhuang Yi)

BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Some 287 million tourists travelled in China during the first four days of the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, up 11.1 percent from the same period last year, new data showed Sunday.

Tourism revenue rose 11.6 percent to 352.7 billion yuan (55.61 billion U.S. dollars) in the four days, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said.

On Sunday alone, some 73 million tourist trips were made across the country, up 15.3 percent, while tourism revenue rose 16.6 percent to 94.4 billion yuan.

Some 385 million tourists are expected to travel around China during the holiday spanning from Feb. 15 to 21, an increase of 12 percent, the CNTA forecast earlier this month.

China earned 5.4 trillion yuan from tourism in 2017, an increase of 15.1 percent.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 21:04:03|Editor: Mengjie

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KATHMANDU, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Shuang Qi Tour Pvt. Ltd, a tour agency dealing with Chinese tourists in Nepal, has been organizing a 15-day trip for 1,000 Chinese tourists in the country since last week.

A bulk arrival of Chinese tourists making trip to Nepal during Chinese Lunar New Year that began on Friday is big business opportunity for the tour company which organizes trips for around 6,000 tourists in a year.

During the New Year also known as Spring Festival, all of China goes on vacation either within the country or outside. A total of 6.5 million Chinese are expected to travel overseas during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, according to a report by China Tourism Academy and Ctrip.

Nepal, a next-door neighbor, is benefiting greatly from Chinese holidaymakers going abroad. "We have received very good flow of Chinese tourists for this Chinese New Year," Bishwesh Shrestha, managing director of Shuang Qi Tour, told Xinhua on Saturday.

Similar is the experience of Saathi Travel Agency, the first travel agency bringing Chinese tourists to Nepal. "We are organizing a trip for around 200 Chinese travelers during this week alone," Kishor Raj Pandey, chairman of Saathi Travel, told Xinhua on Saturday.

With the company organizing trip for around 300 Chinese travelers a month on other occasions, the number of Chinese visitors managed by the company in a week is a significant jump.

With inflow of Chinese tourists during the festival growing, Nepal's hotels are crowded with Chinese travelers.

Hotel Annapurna, a five-star hotel in Kathmandu, said that around 10 percent of hotel rooms are occupied by Chinese tourists currently, while on other occasions the rate is 3-4 percent.

"We have got very good booking from Chinese tourists until February end," said Atma Khanal, sales executive at the Hotel.

Travel agencies said that all the airlines conducting flight from China to Nepal have been almost fully booked for the next two weeks.

In order to show Nepal's hospitality to Chinese tourists, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in coordination with Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal and Department of Immigration has made arrangement of distributing postcard written 'Happy New Year' in Chinese language to the Chinese visitors at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

"We have also arranged people who can speak Chinese language at the airport to ease the Chinese visitors," said Deepak Raj Joshi, chief executive officer of NTB.

Based on ongoing arrivals and booked seats in the airlines, the NTB expects arrivals of at least 30,000 Chinese tourists over the next two weeks.

This will be the major boost to Nepal tourism sector as Nepal expects at least 150,000 Chinese tourists by air in 2018, according to NTB. Nepal received a total of 104,664 Chinese tourists in 2017, according to Nepal's Department of Immigration. China is the second largest source market for Nepal's tourism sector.

Travel and tour operators said that Nepal could attract even more Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival if more flights are arranged between the two countries and more Chinese cities are connected with flights.

These Chinese airlines currently operate from Lhasa, Kunming, Chengdu and Guangzhou to Kathmandu but Chinese capital Beijing and major financial city Shanghai are still out of direct air connectivity with Nepal.

Joshi said they have also planned to make arrangement of chartered flights between various Chinese cities and Nepal.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 21:04:03|Editor: Yurou

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the 54th Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 18, 2018. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif bickered on Sunday here at the 54th Munich Security Conference. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)

MUNICH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif bickered on Sunday here at the 54th Munich Security Conference.

"Israel will act not only against Iran's proxies, but also Iran itself if necessary," Netanyahu said in an earlier speech, adding that Iran is "the greatest threat to the world" and that "we will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck."

Netanyahu recalled the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich and the 1938 Munich agreement, telling security conference "we will never allow a rewriting of history. We will not forget. We will not forgive. We will always fight for the truth."

During his speech, he brought with himself a part of an Iranian drone shot down above Israel, yelling to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif "Do you recognize this? You should. It's yours. Don't test Israel's resolve."

Netanyahu also described Zarif as "smooth talking mounthpiece of a regime" who "lies with eloquence a liar with eloquence."

Zarif said in his later speech that what Netanyahu said earlier "does not even deserve a dignity of response" and described Netanyahu's words as "delusional attempts".

"Our turmoil in this interconnected world will be everyone's turmoil," Zarif added, saying "if Iran's interests are not secured, Iran will respond seriously."

In addition, Zarif noted that no country can claim completely innocent referring to arms race in the region.

Over 500 participants from around the world attended the major annual gathering for international security issues from Feb. 16 to 18, amid uncertain transatlantic relations and challenges to the liberal international order, mainly protectionism and nationalism.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 21:34:06|Editor: Yurou

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Munich Security Conference Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger makes the closing remarks during the 54th MSC in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 18, 2018. The 54th Munich Security Conference (MSC) closed on Sunday, leaving "a lot more work ahead" in addressing global security issues. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)

MUNICH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The 54th Munich Security Conference (MSC) closed on Sunday, leaving "a lot more work ahead" in addressing global security issues.

Under the motto of "To the Brink, and back?", over 500 participants including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, British Prime Minister Theresa May and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, attended the three-day major annual gathering for international security issues.

"When I opened the conference on Friday, I hoped we could delete the question mark from the motto," MSC Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger said in the closing remarks, "but now I am not fully sure we can do that."

During the three-day event, an array of global security issues, such as conflicts in the Middle East, nuclear issue of Korean Peninsula, trans-atlantic relations, European Union's efforts for deeper defense cooperation, were discussed.

Wonderful visions, ideas, resolutions and initiatives were shared, such as China's One Belt One Road Initiative and a new security treaty between the European Union and Britain after Brexit.

Ischinger continued, after this year's conference, we have known "what the new challenges are, ...what we want to avoid," but concrete steps to implement all the visions and ideas should be done after the conference.

"There is a lot more work ahead," said Ischinger.

Founded in 1963, the annual MSC has become a forum dedicated to promoting peaceful conflict resolution and international cooperation and dialogue.

The 55th MSC will be held on Feb. 15-17, 2019.ABUJA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria's army chief Tukur Buratai on Sunday ordered troops to capture the leader of terror group Boko Haram, alive or dead.

Buratai said it has come to the end of the military operation aimed at clearing remnants of Boko Haram from their stronghold in the northeast region, except the capturing of Abubakar Shekau, who is both the spiritual head and supreme commander of the terror group.

"We must move across to wherever this criminal, Shekau, is and catch him red-handed. I want you to get him," the army chief charged the troops in Camp Zairo, previously the largest camp of Boko Haram in the northern state of Borno.

Last year, Buratai gave troops a 40-day ultimatum to capture Shekau but they failed in the bid.

Last Thursday, the army offered a bounty of 8,310 U.S. dollars on Shekau's head.

The military said it had chased the terrorist leader out of Camp Zairo since December 2016.

The Nigerian army said it has "reliable information" that Shekau now disguises as a woman in his attempt to escape from the theater of operation by troops.

Boko Haram has been trying since 2009 to establish an Islamic state in northeastern Nigeria, killing some 20,000 people and forcing displacement of millions of others.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 21:39:08|Editor: Mengjie

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SHANGHAI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai municipal government issued a notice Sunday afternoon on its official Wechat account, advising visitors against flocking to over-crowded tourist attractions.

The Oriental Pearl Radio and TV Tower, Shanghai Museum, and Madame Tussauds wax museum were among a number of tourist sites that had or were about to reach their maximum capacity Sunday afternoon, according to a real-time monitoring system launched by the municipal authorities.

Through the system based on big data analysis, tourists in Shanghai can keep an eye on the size of the crowds in more than 70 tourist attractions in the city and make sensible decisions to avoid the crowds during the holiday.

Shanghai received some 2.54 million visitors during the first four days of the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, according to Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 21:49:09|Editor: Yurou

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India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel carry the boby of a victim at the site of a building collapse triggered by a cylinder blast during a wedding function at Beawar town of Ajmer district, Rajasthan state, India, Feb. 18, 2018. Rescuers in India's western state of Rajasthan Sunday continued their search in the debris of a collapsed building and retrieved nine more bodies, taking death toll to 18, officials said. (Xinhua)

NEW DELHI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Rescuers in India's western state of Rajasthan Sunday continued their search in the debris of a collapsed building and retrieved nine more bodies, taking death toll to 18, officials said.

The building collapse was triggered after two cooking-gas cylinder exploded Friday night during a marriage function at Beawar town of Ajmer district, about 185 km west of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.

"Today nine more bodies have been recovered and death toll has thus gone up to 18," a senior police official said.

According to police, the blasts occurred as a result of leakage in one of the cooking gas cylinder used during the marriage function to prepare food. The blasts brought down the building and also damaged adjacent houses.

Officials rushed in teams of disaster response personnel and army to carry out rescue work. The rescuers were sifting through mangled heaps of concrete and steel to search for bodies.

The state's Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has announced a compensation of 3,112 U.S. dollars to each family that has lost a member in the blast.Nepse in buoyant mood, up 33.92pts

Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index surged 33.92 points to close at 1,424.95 points last week, as investors were buoyed by the formation of new government led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 22:09:11|Editor: Liu

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MOSCOW, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message of condolences to his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, over the crash of an Iranian jet, the Kremlin said Sunday.

An Iranian passenger plane crashed into the Dena mountain in central Iran's Isfahan province on Sunday morning, killing all the 66 people on board, the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran confirmed.

"The president emphasized that Russia grieves together with those who lost families and friends in the tragedy and wished them courage and strength in this dark hour," the Kremlin press service cited Putin as saying.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 22:14:14|Editor: Liu

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by Qiao Jihong, Yuan Shuai

MUNICH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- During the 54th three-day Munich Security Conference (MSC), which ended here on Sunday, European Union countries focused discussions on how to build a collective frame for their own security.

TRANS-ATLANTIC UNCERTAINTIES

Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office over one year ago, the trans-Atlantic ties have been burdened by uncertainties.

In the realm of security, European countries started to feel unsecured as Trump's administration kept pushing them to increase their defense spending to meet the goal of 2 percent of GDP.

Trump criticized European leading power of Germany, for example, multiple times for its far low defense spending.

At MSC, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced her country's plan to increase defense spending, while criticizing Trump's proposed deep spending cuts to diplomacy, development aid and the United Nations could threaten international security as much as a failure to invest enough in military.

"Trust of European countries in the U.S. commitment to their security is diminishing after repeated disappointment," Gu Xuewu, director of Center for Global Studies at the University of Bonn, told Xinhua.

Transatlantic relations will be tested by lack of trust, he added.

FRANCO-German INITIATIVE

As trans-Atlantic relations became uncertainties, Germany and France, the two biggest European countries, intended to strengthen their cooperation.

Speaking to the security elite audience at MSC, defense ministers of both countries pledged to redouble their military and foreign policy cooperation efforts and called on more European countries to cooperate in addressing common security challenges.

"Europe has to up its pace in the face of global challenges from terrorism, poverty and climate change," von der Leyen said. "Those who want to must be able to advance without being blocked by individual countries."

She was echoed by her French counterpart Florence Parly, who said that any such deepened cooperation would be complementary to the NATO alliance, which itself was based on the principle that members contributed differently depending on their capacities.

But Gu warned as Germany and France deepen their cooperations, worries of the U.S. about its European allies' loyalty could rise.

PESCO UNDER QUESTION

In December 2017, 25 European Union countries agreed on the defense initiative "Permanent Structured Cooperation" (PESCO), a pact that pledged to develop common defense projects, pool money, assess resources and make collective decisions and deployments.

"We made a huge step forward ... we have a legal frame around the European Defense Union for the very first time," said von der Leyen.

She said the involved countries plan to come up with the first PESCO projects by the middle this year.

But questions even concerns about PESCO lingered. Some argued that since cooperation and coordination of all EU countries are essential, it would be hard for PESCO to make any further progress.

The readiness of the required financial commitment as well as political still remain a big question mark.

In addition, PESCO arouse uneasiness of the U.S. and NATO.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned that Europe's push for deeper cooperation in defense could cause waste of duplication.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed EU's efforts to strengthen the bloc's defense cooperation at MSC, but he warned that EU cooperation should not replace NATO, but instead strengthen "the European pillar within NATO".

Founded in 1963, the annual MSC has become a forum dedicated to promoting peaceful conflict resolution and international cooperation and dialogue.

The 55th MSC will be held on Feb. 15-17, 2019.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 22:34:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RAMALLAH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Sunday slammed Israel for attempting to deduct from the Palestinian tax revenues the financial allocations for the families of Palestinian "victims of Israeli occupation."

Eassa Qaraqe, head of PLO Detainees Affairs Commission, told Xinhua that the Israeli move is "against human rights, violates international humanitarian law, and proof that Israel is anti-democratic, racist and anti-human."

Qaraqe made the remarks after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a tweet on his personal twitter account that an Israeli ministerial committee approved his bill proposing to deduct the money allocated for the Palestinian victims' families from the Palestinian tax revenues collected by Israel.

"Whatever pressure and political blackmail this law would be, we are committed to our position and the position of the Palestinian leadership, that we will not let go of the families of those killed, detained or injured and will continue to deal with them as victims of Israeli occupation," he said.

The families of the Palestinians who are detained, wounded and killed by Israel usually receive a monthly payment from the PLO funds.

Qaraqe said that those Palestinian families are "protected under the international law and the Geneva Conventions," adding that the Palestinians will not be "subject to unjust Israeli laws."

After the approval by the ministerial committee, the Israeli bill proposed by Lieberman, which is one of three on the same topic, will be discussed soon at the Knesset (Parliament).

Under the Oslo accords, Israel collects tax revenues on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and transfers the money to PA on a monthly basis. Israel often withholds the transfer as a way to apply pressure on the PA.RABAT, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Morocco will host the fifth Islamic Conference of Ministers in Charge of Childhood on Feb. 21 to discuss measures to ensure a better and safer childhood, it was announced Sunday.

The conference, to be held in the capital Rabat, is part of a series of specialized Islamic conferences held by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in coordination with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the competent parties in the hosting countries, the ISESCO said.

The upcoming conference will bring together various ministers from the OIC states, as well as representatives of regional and international governmental and non-governmental organizations concerned with childhood issues, it said.

The agenda of the two-day conference includes reviewing several documents related to childhood issues, including a main document on the forms of violence against children.

The conference will also present a report about the research on the state of children in OIC member states.

ISESCO has held four sessions of the Islamic Conference of Ministers in Charge of Childhood since 2005.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 22:39:20|Editor: pengying

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BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday offered condolences to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif over the crash of an Iranian passenger plane earlier in the day, in which all the 66 people aboard were killed.

In his message, Wang expressed deep condolences to the victims who lost life in the air tragedy and extended sincere sympathy towards their families.

An ATR-72 aircraft belonging to Iran Aseman Airlines on Sunday morning crashed in a foggy and mountainous region of southwestern Iran, killing all 66 people on board, Iran's Civil Aviation Organization said.

The twin-engine plane had disappeared from radar about 50 minutes after taking off from the capital city of Tehran, with 60 passengers and six crew members on board.

Due to rainy and misty conditions, rescue services couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountain Range and failed to locate the wreckage, state IRIB TV reported.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 23:14:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RAMALLAH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Sunday urged the United Nations to work towards achieving peace and stop the Israeli settlement expansion.

In a statement, the ministry blasted the Israeli government for considering the U.S. biased position "as a green light to increase settlement expansion so that it can seize more of the occupied Palestinian land, judaize it and impose it as a non-negotiable fait accompli."

In the latest of Israel's moves to expand settlement, Israel recently approved to build a town for Jewish settlers near Qalqilia, as well as the construction of 3,000 new settlement units in Gilo settlement in southern Jerusalem.

The ministry said, in light of this American bias and Israel's "destructive colonial expansion that destroys the chances of achieving peace," it demands the UN Security Council take necessary measures to implement the resolutions on the situation in Palestine.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to hold its monthly meeting on Tuesday, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will make a speech for the first time.

His aides said Abbas' speech will express the Palestinian position on the peace process, and the willingness to work through a multilateral mechanism for peace negotiations.

The U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been stalled since 2014.

On Dec. 6, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced to recognize the disputed holy city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordered to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

The Palestinians hope to establish a future independent state with East Jerusalem, taken over by Israel in the 1967 war, as its capital.

In angry response to the U.S. move, the Palestinians have held violent clashes with Israeli security forces, while announcing that the U.S. has disqualified itself as sponsor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and its role should be replaced by a multilateral peace mechanism.MOSCOW, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- An unidentified gunman opened fire during a celebration of Russia's traditional holiday Maslenitsa at a church in the town of Kizlyar in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, killing at least four women and injuring a number of others, local media reported Sunday.

Policemen and security members were among those wounded, Interfax news agency cited an informed source as saying.

The attacker was reportedly eliminated on the spot.

According to the source, there were originally two attackers, a husband and a wife, but the woman had fled before the man started shooting.

Maslenitsa is one of Russia's most important religious holidays, which is celebrated during the eighth week before the Orthodox Easter.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 23:34:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RAMALLAH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian government on Sunday blamed Israel for the latest military "escalation" in the Gaza Strip that killed two Palestinians.

"The Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip is a dangerous escalation," Palestinian government spokesperson Yousef Al-Mahmoud said in a press statement.

Two Palestinians were killed later on Saturday after Israeli artillery fired at a group of young people in east Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The Israeli strike was part of a large-scale attack launched by Israeli military on 18 targets in Gaza overnight Sunday, according to an Israeli military statement.

It was in response to rocket fire from Gaza and the blast of an explosive device attached to the fence between Israel and Gaza on Saturday, in which four Israeli soldiers were wounded.

Al-Mahmoud called the latest incidents as part of "a continued escalation policy that the (Israeli) occupation takes against the Palestinian people and lands."

Moreover, Al-Mahmoud stressed the importance of realizing the internal Palestinian reconciliation in order to counter the Israeli practices.

Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007 and considered it a hostile entity right after Hamas militia violently seized control of the territory and routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces.KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least 80 people were trapped inside cable cars for nearly four hours at Malaysia's northern resort island of Langkawi after the system malfunctioned, officials said Sunday.

State news agency Bernama quoted Langkawi Development Authority chief executive officer Azizan Noordin as saying that 89 tourists had arrived at the base station about 9:30 p.m. local time after being trapped inside the cable cars for about four hours.

Technicians were sent to replace a faulty bearing in the system, which had been the cause of the breakdown, he said.

Local fire and rescue department said in an earlier statement that personnel were dispatched after being alerted in the evening. Early information indicated that some 800 people were stranded at the station on the top of the hill apart from those stranded midair.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-18 23:54:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia will grant visas free of charge to foreign scientists and experts, in a move that especially aims at improving its health sector, local media reported Sunday.

Ahmed Al Aamiri, secretary general of the Saudi Health Council, on Sunday praised the decision made by the cabinet last week, the Ajel online news website reported.

Aamiri said the new visa policy was approved as part of various health initiatives suggested by the council to promote the health sector.

The new visa, which will be provided only to those who have proven their competency in different fields, is expected to attract top foreign experts who will take part in the research programs in the kingdom.

The experts, especially health specialists, could contribute to the major steps the kingdom has been taking to implement various reforms, the report said.

Especially, they will help Saudi deal with serious medical issues, including preventing the spread of contagious diseases such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus that caused many deaths since 2012.PM Oli to move into Baluwatar today

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is moving into PMs official residence in Baluwatar, Kathmandu on Sunday.TRIPOLI, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Taieb Baccoushe, secretary-general of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), on Sunday urged the UN-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj to end the deadlock of the union by holding a summit.

Baccoushe made his remarks during a meeting with Serraj in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

"Baccoushe said he hoped to call upon the prime minister to hold a Maghreb summit to end the deadlock in the union, with Libya presiding over it," the prime minister's media office said in a statement.

Baccoushe added that the union's secretariat had not ceased to work and is conducting studies and proposals that would serve the desired integration among AMU member states, the statement said.

Serraj expressed regret for the deadlock of the AMU, while adding that he would make practical efforts through consultation to overcome the obstacles preventing the holding of a summit.

Serraj also hoped that the union members would respond to his efforts to hold the summit in Tripoli, so that it "will be the beginning of genuine activation of the union's institutions."

The AMU, consisting of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, was established in 1989 in Morocco to promote economic and cultural cooperation among member states.MOGADISHU, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Traders in Somalia's largest market, Bakara, on Sunday boycotted business over what they termed as punitive tax measures imposed by the government.

Traders told Xinhua that they will keep off from the Mogadishu-based market until the federal government scraps the 5 percent mandatory sales tax it imposed recently.

"As you see the market has closed and we will continue until the government responds to our complaint about the tax," Abdisamad Mohamed, one of the traders, told Xinhua.

"We are not refusing to pay taxes but this is heavy burden for our business," Mohamed said. "We are requesting the government to take steps to lower it."

Another trader, Shariff Abdullahi, said the imposition of taxes had stalled business as traders cannot collect their goods from the port in Mogadishu.

"We have imported goods from the port and we cannot pick them because of the taxes the government has imposed," Abdullahi said.

However, Somali Finance Minister Abdirahman Beileh has maintained that taxes must be paid to enable the government to offer services.

Beileh told the media last week that the government had arrived at the decision and that it was not optional.

"Today I clarified the purpose of the sales tax and the importance of paying legally mandated taxes to the Somali people. The payment, collection and budgeted utilization of these funds is a must for Somali development," Beileh said. "We must finance our future. This is the bottom line."

Somali parliament late last year passed a 274 million U.S. dollar budget for 2018, and Beileh noted that the government would bolster efforts to mobilize domestic tax collection to finance the budget as the country seeks to cut dependence on foreign donors.

The government has not yet responded to the ongoing strike.BANJUL, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The President of the Republic of The Gambia, Adama Barrow, on Sunday urged citizens to embrace diversity and tolerance for peaceful coexistence.

"We can only continue to enjoy a peaceful atmosphere if we embrace our diversity, and as citizens selflessly contribute to making The Gambia the best it can be," Barrow told hundreds of Gambians in Banjul marking the 53rd anniversary of the country's independence.

"We will always have our differences but we must learn to respect those differences," he said.

Gambians must remember that despite political, ethnic, economic, gender differences, the commonness is that each is a Gambian.

"We have won the war against dictatorship, which is the easy part. Maintaining the peace for our democracy to thrive will be our utmost challenge," Barrow said.

"This will require patience, tolerance, and even mistakes will be made, but we will correct them as we work towards perfecting the new Gambia," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 01:14:52|Editor: ZD

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People are seen at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 18, 2018. An Iranian passenger plane crashed into the Dena mountain on Sunday morning and all the 66 people on board were killed, Abed Zadeh, Chief of the Civil Aviation Organisation of Iran confirmed. (Xinhua/Ahmad Halabisaz)

TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Bad weather hindered Iranian rescue teams' search for the wreckage of an Iranian passenger plane that crashed on Sunday in central Iran.

The searching operations in the Zagros mountains were slow due to the rain and strong wind, Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for Iran's emergency services, was quoted as saying by Press TV.

All people on board, including 60 passengers and six crew members, were killed in the crash, according to the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran.

The Iran Aseman Airlines plane took off from the capital at 08:00 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) and disappeared from the radar screen 50 minutes later, in an area that is about 14 miles (22.4 km) from its destination Yasuj city.

The ATR-72 aircraft, with the flight number 3704, has been in service for 25 years.

A total of 20 emergency teams were dispatched to the region as a result of the coordination among the crisis management agencies of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province and three adjacent provinces.

Dariush Karimi, the Red Crescent deputy of Isfahan Province, said bad weather condition and the rough mountainous geography of the area would hinder their search.

Besides, there would be snow fall later in the day, the Meteorological Organization of Isfahan Province said.

Following the incident, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday offered their condolences to the families of victims.

Some Iranian officials suspected that the cause of the crash is that ATR-72 aircraft has not been designed for the altitudes with freezing weather condition, therefore the pilot had to fly lower before crashed into the mountain.

The height of the mountains in Zagros Range reaches almost 4,000 meters which in winter season is inappropriate for the passage of the ATR-72 plane.

Iranian aviation officials said the cause of the incident will be announced after the black box of the crashed plane is recovered.

Over the past decades, the Iranian air fleet has encountered a number of disastrous accidents due to the malfunction of aged planes.

Following the international nuclear deal in 2015, which resulted in the removal of western and UN sanctions against the Islamic republic, Iran has signed major deals with giant airplane manufacturers, including Boeing and Airbus, to renew its old air fleet.

In December 2016, Iran sealed a contract with Airbus to buy 100 aircraft worth over 18 billion U.S. dollars. Iran has received three Airbus commercial planes since the conclusion of the deal.

Meanwhile, Iran Air finalized another agreement with the U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing to purchase 80 commercial planes.

In April 2017, Iran signed a contract with the French-Italian ATR company to purchase 20 ATR 72-600 planes valued at 400 million dollars. Since then, Iran has received a total of eight ATR turboprop planes.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 01:29:54|Editor: ZD

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Turkish artillery shell toward Syria from the town of Reyhanli, province of Hatay, Turkey, on Feb. 12, 2018. Thirty-one Turkish soldiers have been killed and 143 others wounded since Ankara launched military operation in northern Syria last month, Turkish military said on Monday. The Turkish military campaign against Syria's Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave in northern Syria has so far killed 180 civilians and wounded 413 others, according to a statement released Monday by the Kurdish forces. (Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian army and the Kurdish-led forces have reached an agreement on the army's entry into the Afrin enclave where Turkey is launching a military offensive, a report said Sunday.

The Syrian army will enter Afrin on Monday, Sheikho Blo, a Kurdish commander, was quoted by the Rudaw Kurdish news outlet as saying.

The presence of the Syrian government in Afrin will only be militarily, as the political and administrative issues are yet to be concluded, according to the report.

Blo said the Syrian army will be deployed on the border areas between Afrin and Turkey, adding that the Syrian army will not enter the city center of Afrin.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said the deal reached between the Syrian army and the Kurdish forces is designed to stop the Turkish military campaign, which started on Jan. 20, against Afrin.

The UK-based watchdog group said the negotiations are still ongoing between both sides pertaining the administrative issues in Afrin and the weapons of the Kurdish militias in that area.

However, the Syrian army and the Kurdish Protection Units (YPG), which is in control of Afrin, have not yet commented on the reports about the agreement.

Turkey launched the cross-border military operation in Afrin in a bid to oust the YPG, regarded by Ankara as a terror group affiliated with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, from the region.LONDON, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The widower of British MP Jo Cox who was murdered in a terrorist attack confirmed Sunday he has resigned from two charities he helped to set-up after her death.

The decision by Brendan Cox follows details of sexual assault published by the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

Cox admitted to the newspaper that his behavior in the past had caused hurt and offence, but he denied claims, reported to police for inappropriate touching in the U.S. that he assault a woman while he was attending a course at Harvard University in 2015.

Both charities, the Jo Cox Foundation and More in Common, confirmed they had accepted his resignation. The allegations cover a period when his wife was still alive.

Jo Cox, a Labour MP, was shot and stabbed close to her office in West Yorkshire by a far-right extremist during the European Union Referendum campaign in 2016. Her slaying in the street in broad daylight sent shockwaves through Britain's political establishment, with MPs from all parties rallying around her husband.

Cox left the British aid charity Save the Children following complaints by women about his behavior.

In a statement released Sunday, Cox said: "While I do not accept the allegations contained in the 2015 complaint to the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I do acknowledge and understand that during my time at Save the Children I made mistakes."

Cox, who lived in a house boat on the River Thames with the couple's two sons, said some of the allegations against him were a massive exaggeration. But he acknowledged that he had at times overstepped the line.

The Mail on Sunday's headline read "Jo Cox's husband Brendan confesses to inappropriate behaviour amid new allegation that he drunkenly 'grabbed a woman by the throat' as he is forced to quit the murdered MP's charities". It reported how Cox, weeping openly, apologised for the 'hurt and offence' he has caused to women, and said that he was 'deeply apologetic' for his behavior.

The Mail, which had earlier reported the Harvard incident, said Cox's confession came as the newspaper uncovered shocking new details of a second sexual assault he allegedly committed. The accusation, said the Mail, related to his time with Save The Children in the year before his wife was killed by a far-right fanatic during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.

The incident, said the Mail, led to Cox being forced to leave the charity in 2015. Save The Children's CEO Justin Forsyth, a close friend of Cox and former aide to Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, resigned from the charity four months later.

British aid charities have come under scrutiny following reports that Oxfam staff had paid prostitutes for sex in Haiti while working their following the 2010 earthquake.A bullet train drives in Liuzhou City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Li Xin)

MUNICH, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's success serves as one of alternative options to those proposed by the West, "Yet China is not interested in the so-called 'competition of systems'", Chinese congresswoman and senior diplomat Fu Ying wrote in a signed article to the special edition of German Times for the Munich Security Conference being held from Friday to Sunday.

In the article, Fu Ying, chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, said that China has no intention to export its political system and ideology.

The security challenges in today's world are globalized and should be addressed in global cooperative way, she wrote.

BUILD COMMUNITY WITH SHARED FUTURE OF MANKIND

The U.S.-led Western world has been attempting to westernize all the globe by exporting its own values and models, according to the Chinese diplomat. Those attempts have not only failed to address old problems but have also created new ones, she said.

China, as part of the world, will only develop well in a peaceful international environment, she said, adding that China reiterated that peace and development remain the call of our day, while admitting that the world faces growing uncertainties and destabilizing factors.

China's diplomatic goals in the new era include promoting the creation of a new type of international relations, with more prominence given to lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity and a call for the building of a community with a shared future of mankind, Fu continued.

"These are not only our expectations for the world's future, but also a necessity for our domestic development," she wrote.

CHINA NOT TO EXPORT DEVELOPMENT MODEL

But as China becomes stronger, questions and worries outside of China emerged.

What does it mean when China vows to "move closer to center stage"? Does it mean China is prepared to replace the United States and playing a "leading role"? When China offers "Chinese wisdom and a Chinese approach", is that tantamount to China exporting its development model?

Fu answered to these worries by saying "We wish to play a role in world affairs and make an even greater contribution to mankind. But it must be done within our means and in a manner consistent with our values."

She emphasized that China has only offered a new option to countries that seek rapid development while retaining their independence, "but this does not mean that China's model and ideology are to be exported."

BASIC COMMON PRINCIPLES ON SECURITY NEEDED

Regarding the security interests of countries, there are differences between the United States plus its alliance and the countries not belonging to any alliance, she said, adding, "It is therefore important that all countries work together to set out some basic common principles."

Fu said, what China is advocating is in response to "the call of the times".

If China and the United States, also Europe, Russia and others as well, can begin exploring the basic principles of major dispute resolution, this will not only help maintain overall stability in relations between the major powers, but will also facilitate the resolution of hot-spot regional issues, according to Fu.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 02:35:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Osama Radi, Saud Abu Ramadan

GAZA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The recent rising tensions between Israeli military and Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip, the worst since 2014, are unlikely to escalate into another large-scale conflict, analysts said Sunday.

The Israeli army announced on Saturday that four of its soldiers were injured when Gaza militants detonated a roadside bomb close to the fence of the border between the coastal enclave and Israel.

In return, Israeli war jets and tanks struck targets in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians, wounding two others and destroying 18 military facilities and tunnels.

This was the worst clashes between Israel and militants in Gaza since the end of the large-scale Israeli military offensive in 2014, analysts noted.

There are renewed fears that the rising tensions could escalate to another large-scale conflict, at a time when the peace process between Israelis and the Palestinians hit a snag especially after the U.S. government recognizes the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite angry Palestinian protests.

Adnan Abu Amer, an Israeli analyst, told Xinhua that the bombing on Saturday was "an unusual event in recent years since the 2014 war on Gaza," as it showed that the militants had coordinated with the Hamas rulers in Gaza.

However, Abu Amer ruled out that Israel would take the initiative at this stage to launch a large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

"In my evaluation, the thing won't exceed the routine and regular Israeli army retaliation against militants' attacks," he said.

Since 2008, Israel has waged three large-scale military air and ground offensives on the Gaza Strip to attack the militant groups, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement, in an attempt to prevent them from firing rockets and digging tunnels underneath the border into Israel with an aim to carry out attacks and abduct soldiers.

Saturday's military escalation between Israel and Gaza militants coincided with the visit of a senior Hamas delegation headed by its political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Cairo, Egypt since last week.

Israeli war jets carried out a series of intensive airstrikes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad posts, training facilities, weapons storehouses, and one tunnel that was going from Gaza into Israel.

Recently, tensions between the two sides keep flaring up, as shown in the firing of about 20 rockets on the southern part of Israel, which responded with airstrikes since U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Dec. 6 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The eastern areas of the Gaza Strip, close to the fence of the borders with Israel, have been witnessing weekly protests every Friday, leaving scores of Palestinians killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire.

Another Israeli expert, Yukhai Ofer, predicted that the Saturday clashes could prompt the Israeli army to "change its approach" against Palestinian protests near the border fence.

He said the latest explosion has alerted Israeli army about the danger of the Palestinian demonstrations as the militants are using protester to plant explosive devices along the border.

Israeli army spokesman Ronin Manlis accused Hamas of trying to turn the border area into an arena for confrontation, stressing that the army would not allow it.

Palestinian factions have announced recently that they are organizing mass rallies for next month near the border fence as part of its plan to pressure Israel to end more than 11 years of an blockade on the enclave.

Mustafa Ibrahim, a political analyst from Gaza, said he expected the Israeli army in the coming days to take "stricter measures to prevent protesters from reaching the fence, which could increase tensions."

Ibrahim points out that the Israeli army will most likely deploy its forces along the fence and increase the bombing strikes to deter the Palestinians.

"It is likely that Israel is trying to postpone the next aggression on the Gaza Strip and play on the time factor to complete the construction of the underground wall under the fence of the borders," he said.

Ibrahim, a specialist in Israeli affairs, said Israel now thinks its priority is dealing with the threat from the northern front, namely from Syria and Lebanon, ahead of Gaza.

"The war there will be more dangerous and costly, and Israel believes that, by playing the time factor, things in Gaza may continue to calm," he said.

In the meantime, the tensions in the Gaza Strip cannot be separated from the tense Palestinian ties with the United States, since Trump's declaration of his decision on Jerusalem.

Akram Atallah, a writer and a political analyst from Gaza, told Xinhua that the U.S. desires to end the Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, while Israel harbors the longstanding desire to disarm the Gaza Strip.

He warned that the factors exist for an explosion of the situation between Israel and the Gaza Strip, in light of many regional developments, including the tensions on the Israeli frontiers with Lebanon and Syria, the the upcoming presidential election in Egypt.

But he added that the security that has been achieved on the border between Gaza and Israel has eliminated a mass explosion so far, and the recent exchange of threats with the use of force between the two sides could be in fact an alternative to actually using it.by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing political unrest in Ethiopia is likely to affect the pace of its negotiations with Egypt on the technical studies related to Ethiopia's under-construction giant dam on their shared Nile River and its post-construction filling process.

While Ethiopia and Sudan eye massive benefits from the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5-billion-cubic-meter annual share of the Nile River water.

"Flexibility of Ethiopia's dam talks with Egypt depends on the degree of political instability there," said Amany al-Taweel, director of the African Unit at Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

She explained that the situation regarding the dam issue will remain the same as long as the Ethiopian government is able to handle the unrest and restrict it to the level of ineffective protests, even if they continue for a long time.

"If protests escalate to a point of overwhelming the state institutions, this will surely affect the dam talks and the GERD construction rate might slow down due to possible disorder and confusion," the expert told Xinhua.

Egypt's ties with Ethiopia have seen ups and downs since the latter started the dam project in April 2011 while Egypt was suffering turmoil following an uprising that toppled veteran President Hosni Mubarak.

When Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014, he showed understanding of Ethiopia's aspiration for development through the GERD that would produce around 6,000 megawatts of electricity to the country.

In March 2015, the leaders of upstream Nile Basin country Ethiopia and the two downstream partners Egypt and Sudan signed an initial cooperation deal on the principles of sharing the Nile River water and the construction of the GERD, which will be Africa's largest dam upon completion.

"Since Sisi came to office, he has adopted a cooperative, win-win approach of handling the GERD issue," said Taweel, citing the positive results of the latest visit of Ethiopia's outgoing Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn to Cairo and the convention of the Ethiopian-Egyptian joint cooperation committee.

"So, we cannot describe the bilateral relations between Egypt and Ethiopia as tense in general, but they are just at odds when it comes to the dam issue," she added, describing the Ethiopian position regarding the dam negotiations as "ambiguous and evasive."

Ethiopia's current protests have been triggered by the country's two biggest ethnic groups Oromia and Amhara who say that they have for years been marginalized by the government.

The presidents of Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan have recently met in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the 30th African Union summit and agreed to avoid misunderstandings by joint cooperation on common interests.

The meetings of a tripartite technical committee on the GERD have been fruitless over the past sessions and a new ministerial meeting scheduled for Feb. 24-25 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum has been delayed upon Ethiopia's request due to its current political instability.

Egypt expressed understanding of Ethiopia's request to delay the upcoming tripartite negotiations, yet the Egyptian Foreign Ministry urged for immediate address of the GERD issue "to reach solutions that maintain the interests of all."

"The Ministry looks forward to the adherence of the timeframe determined by the three leaders to settle the existing technical disputes; especially as the Renaissance Dam issue affects the interests of the peoples of the three nations," said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid in a statement Sunday.

Egyptian veteran diplomat Ahmed Haggag, former assistant secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), explained that Ethiopia hosts several ethnic groups with different languages, which makes it difficult to run the country's affairs from the center in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia has been facing incessant protests since 2016, especially in the three most populous regional states of Oromia, Amhara and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP).

"Oromia constitutes to about 40 percent of Ethiopia's population and Amhara to some 25 percent and they feel marginalization by Dessalegn's government," Haggag, also Egypt's former ambassador to Kenya, explained.

Haggag believes that the ongoing political instability in Ethiopia is likely to delay the pace of negotiations regarding the dam.

"Dessalegn's resignation may lead to delaying the GERD negotiations, as upcoming tripartite ministerial and technical meetings to be held in Khartoum have already been delayed as per Ethiopia's request." the ex-diplomat told Xinhua.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 03:10:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed Sunday when a car bomb went off in Syria's predominantly-Kurdish city of Qamishli, a Kurdish source told Xinhua.

The car bomb ripped through the Ice Factory street in a western neighborhood of Qamishli, the source said. Further details are still forthcoming.

The blast is not the first to target that area, as the Islamic State (IS) group has previously targeted Kurdish positions in Qamishli in the northeastern province of al-Hasakah.PM Oli orders review of Deuba govts decisions

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has instructed Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi to put all the decisions taken by the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government on hold.KHARTOUM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Violent clashes took place between two factions of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)/northern sector at Blue Nile area on the border with South Sudan, a faction statement said on Sunday.

The SPLM/northern sector has recently fragmented into two factions, one led by Abdel-Aziz Al-Hilu in South Kordofan area and the other led by Malik Agar in Blue Nile area.

"Our forces have battled with attacking forces belonging to Abdel-Aziz Al-Hilu faction," said the SPLM/northern sector, Malik Agar's faction, in a statement on Sunday.

"The forces of the two factions have engaged in violent clashes since Saturday 5:00 p.m. Sudan local time. the battle is still continuing," the statement said.

Aqar's forces have destroyed a tank and two equipped vehicles belonging to the attacking forces, according to the statement.

"This aggression comes at a time when Abdel-Aziz Al-Hilu signed on a joint declaration on cessation of hostilities with the government. It is really unfortunate that he orders his supporters to direct their guns towards their previous companions in a lost battle," noted the statement.

The SPLM/northern sector has recently been suffering from internal divisions which, last July, resulted in the removal of the movement's Chairman Malik Agar and appointment of his former deputy Abdel Aziz al-Hilu in his place.

The two factions have entered into armed confrontations several times before.In this file photo, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman delivered a speech at the 53rd Munich Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, Feb. 19, 2017. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)

JERUSALEM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli security agency Shin Bet said Sunday it has thwarted a plot by Palestinian militants to carry out a bombing attack against Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Six members of a Palestinian cell associated with the Islamic Jihad militant group were arrested "in recent weeks," Shin Bet said in a statement.

The cell members, all residents of the West Bank, planned to carry out shooting attacks against Israeli civilians and security. Some members even plotted to attack Lieberman's convoy when he returned to his home in a West Bank settlement, it said.

The investigation revealed that they tried to acquire explosives and contacted militants in the Gaza Strip regarding financing.

After failing to receive financial support from Gaza, the cell members thought they might better succeed if they planted an improvised explosive device along the minister's route.

However, the attack was never carried out due to the minister's heavy security, Shin Bet said.

It added that the case was the latest in a string of attempts by Palestinians from the West Bank "to leverage their links with their Gazan counterparts in order to commit attacks."

Israel and the Palestinians have witnessed a resurging wave of violence since U.S. President Donald Trump's recognition of the disputed holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 04:00:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- At least six people were wounded Sunday in a bomb blast in downtown Baghdad, while the police arrested head of a criminal gang in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, security source said.

The incident took place in the evening when a bomb detonated outside a massage center near Maysaloon Square in eastern Baghdad, wounding six people and damaging nearby buildings and shops, Captain Abdullah al-Hashimi from the Interior Ministry's operations office told Xinhua.

In a separate incident, Ali al-Daiyni, head of Diyala's provincial council, told Xinhua that a police force acted on intelligence reports and raided a safe house of a criminal gang and arrested their suspected leader, known as Amir (commander) of abduction.

The gang leader was wanted for involving in 38 kidnappings, murders, extortion and rape in various parts of the province, Daiyni said.

The incidents came despite dramatic decline in violent attacks in the country during the past few months, particularly after the Iraqi security forces dislodged the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants from all Iraqi areas.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 04:35:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JERUSALEM, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Gaza militants fired a rocket towards southern Israel on Sunday night after Israel launched massive airstrike retaliating an earlier fire from the besieged Palestinian enclave.

"A projectile was launched at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip," a military spokesperson said in a statement.

The fire triggered sirens in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council in the Negev desert and the southern city of Sderot.

No injuries or damage were reported.

The fire was the latest in a recent flare-up between Israel and Gaza.

It was the second time that militants from Gaza fired a rocket towards Israel over the past 24 hours. On Saturday night, a rocket hit a residential home in Sha'ar Hanegev, causing damage to the building but no injuries.

Earlier on Saturday, an explosive device attached to the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip detonated, wounding four Israeli soldiers.

In retaliation, Israel said its fighter jets attacked "18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organization."

At least two 17-year-old Palestinian youths were killed in the attacks, according to Palestinian medical sources.

The explosive was believed to be implanted by a small Gaza-based opposition group but the army said it holds Hamas accountable for any hostility from the Strip.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-19 04:40:22|Editor: Yurou

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Revelers participate in the annual carnival parade in Limassol, Cyprus, on Feb. 18, 2018. Cyprus' southern coastal city of Limassol held its annual carnival parade on Sunday, just 36 hours after a heavy downpour had turned many roads into muddy torrents. (Xinhua/Zhang Zhang)

NICOSIA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus' southern coastal city of Limassol held its annual carnival parade on Sunday, just 36 hours after a heavy downpour had turned many roads into muddy torrents.

As tens of thousands of revelers cheered and danced on the main avenue of the city other people were still trying to empty flooded premises of muddy water. However, Limassol residents did not let the flooding on Friday night and Saturday spoil their carnival parade, a century-old tradition.

Cypriot parliament had to change the legislation to bring a two-round presidential election forward by two weeks so that the voting would not interfere with the carnival reveling.

Weather conditions on Sunday were perfect for the event, as the cloud had moved away overnight and the place basked in glorious sunshine.

"This is a great day, we are expecting tens of thousands of people to participate in the carnival. I believe it is going to be the best carnival ever in Limassol," Mayor of Limassol Nicos Nicolaides told Xinhua.

Talking about the first Chinese group taking part in the long history parade, Nicolaides said, "Limassol is a multi-culture city, people of different descents live here. We are very glad to have our Chinese friends participating in the parade, they are a very active part of our society."

According to town hall officials, a record crowd gathered in the city to watch over 130 costumed groups on floats and on foot.HOUSTON, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese historical play "Farewell my Concubine" performed by local Chinese artists was on stage in the U.S. city of Houston Saturday night.

Practicing for about a year, the artists wanted to pay tribute to the play writer and Nobel Literature Laurette Mo Yan who turned 63 years old on Saturday. It was also a special gift for Houston's Chinese community on the special occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

There were four leading roles in the play, three of them were amateur actors. One of the actors Gao Yong told Xinhua that everyone participated in the drama play spared no efforts to present the show.

"The leading female actress had a serious road accident a few days ago and was still recovering. But she was not hesitate to be on stage," he said.

Fascinated by the play script at the first sight, director Zhu Anping said during the practice, he encouraged the actors to deliver the story according to their own interpretation.

"Farewell my Concubine" tells the story of Xiang Yu, the self-styled "Hegemon-King of Western Chu" who battled for the unification of China with Liu Bang, the eventual founder of the Han Dynasty some 2,200 years ago.How is the unemployment rate calculated?

The official unemployment rate used by state and federal agencies is calculated by dividing the number of jobless residents by the number of residents in the labor force. The labor force is defined as anyone who is working or looking for work.

Jobless numbers do not distinguish whether a resident is employed in the same region. For example, an employed Yakima County resident may be working for a company in Prosser in neighboring Benton County.

To add to the complexity, many politicians and policy makers now cite alternate unemployment calculations, which may be different based on who is considered unemployed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures six alternative measures that go from U1 to U6:

 U1: The percentage of those seeking work who are unemployed for at least 15 weeks, or nearly four months.

 U2: The percentage of those seeking work who lost jobs or are completing temporary work.

 U3 (the official unemployment rate): Total unemployed of those looking for work.

 U4: Total unemployed of those looking for work, plus those who are not looking for work for a reason related to the current job market (discouraged workers).

 U5: Unemployed and discouraged workers included in U3 and U4, plus those who are not looking for work but would like to secure employment and have looked in the last 12 months.

 U6: This rate is the highest because it includes not only all residents who are not looking for work, such as stay-at-home parents and students, but also those who are working part-time but want full-time work.

In Washington state, the U-6 unemployment rate as of the end of the third quarter of 2017 was 9.4 percent, about 5 percentage points higher than the official unemployment rates for July, August and September (the same time period), which were 4.4 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

Employment Security does not calculate alternative unemployment rates at the county level.

Labor economists say using the U-6 rate is not ideal because it includes people who are not working due to reasons not related to the economy, such as a desire to stay at home with children or attend college.Province 6 Cabinet gets full shape

Province no 6 Chief Minister Mahendra Bahadur Shahi has expanded the provincial Cabinet to full shape on Sunday. CM Shahi inducted four ministers from CPN-UML and two ministers from the CPN (Maoist Centre).Health News

Washington, DC - Pilgrims Pride Corp., a Waco, Texas establishment, is recalling approximately 101,310 pounds of ready-to-eat breaded chicken patties that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically rubber, the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced.

The ready-to-eat breaded chicken patties were produced and packed on September 6, 2017. The following products are subject to recall:

30-lb. boxes with six 5-lb. clear bags containing GOLD KIST FARMS, Fully Cooked Whole Grain Home-Style Breaded Chicken Patties, with a case code of 72491050xx and a product code of 665400.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number P-20728 inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to institutions nationwide.

The problem was discovered after the firm received a customer complaint on Feb. 13, 2018. Pilgrim's Pride distributed the product to institutions, including schools. Although the product was sold through the USDA commodity program, the introduction of the foreign material was due to an equipment failure at the facility.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.

Customers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls .

Consumers with questions about the recall can contact James Brown, consumer relations manager at Pilgrims Pride Corp., at 1-800-321-1470. Media with questions about the recall can contact Cameron Bruett, head of media relations at Pilgrims Pride Corp., at (970) 506-7801.Terracotta Warriors which guarded the tomb of China's First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, on loan from China are displayed in The World Museum, Liverpool, Britain February 6, 2017. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Federal authorities have said that a U.S. man stole late last year a thumb of a Chinese terracotta warrior statue being displayed at a Philadelphia museum in state of Pennsylvania.

According to an arrest affidavit filed Friday, Michael Rohana, a 24-year-old man from state of Delaware, was attending a party held at the Franklin Institute on Dec. 21 last year when he made his way into the museum's special exhibit "Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor."

The FBI said that Rohana used a cellular telephone as a flashlight, looked at various exhibits displayed in the then-closed showroom, stepped up onto a platform supporting one of the statues, and took a selfie with it.

Rohana, according to the affidavit, put his hand on the left hand of the statue, appeared to break something off from the Calvaryman's left hand and put it in his pocket, and then left.

Museum staff noted the missing thumb on Jan. 8 and a special agent from the FBI's Art Crime Team tracked down Rohana days later and showed up at home in Bear, Delaware to question him about the finger, authorities said.

In front of his father, Rohana admitted it that he had stashed the thumb in his desk drawer.

A U.S. attorney has decided to charge him with theft of a major artwork from a museum, concealment of major artwork stolen from a museum, and interstate transportation of stolen property.

He was arrested and released on a 15,000-USD bail, on the condition that he hand over his passport, consent to drug testing, and refrain from leaving the country before trail.

It was not immediately clear whether he had retained a lawyer.

A spokeswoman for the museum said that the statue will be repaired, adding that a security contractor did not follow standard procedures the night of the alleged theft.

The statue that temporarily lost its left thumb, called the Cavalryman, dates back to 210 and 209 B.C. It is one of 10 elegant Chinese Terracotta warrior statues currently on display at the Franklin Institute. The special exhibit will run through March 4th.Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs

07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0)

Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na...AHMEDABAD: Protests continued in several parts of Gujarat following the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar. Agitating over his death, protesters blocked roads and held rallies. A vehicle was also torched by the protestors in the middle of a road in Ahmedabad.

The tragic death of the 60-year-old Dalit activist was over governments alleged failure to regularize land tilled by a landless labourer.

Protesters torched a vehicle in #Gujarat's Ahmedabad agitating over death of a Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar on 16 Feb. Vankar had performed self-immolation on 15 Feb in Patan pic.twitter.com/NkUFa56S7Z  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

On Thursday, Vankar had immolated himself inside the compound of Patan Collector's office. He succumbed to his burn injuries late on Friday.

He was initially rushed to a local hospital before being moved to the Apollo Hospital in Ahmedabad.

Earlier today, Gujarat Dalit leader and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani was detained by the state police in the wake of the Ahmedabad bandh call given by him over the activist's death.

Mevani had convened Dalit protesters to converge at a statue of Dr BR Ambedkar in Sarangpur, but before he could reach the area, his car was stopped Saraspur. He was detained by the Gujarat Police to ensure no untoward incident takes place.

Another Dalit leader, Naushad Solanki, was also detained by the police. Apart from them, at least 25 members of Bhim Shakti Sena were detained to stall the bandh call.

The family of the Dalit activist, who had immolated himself, had refused to accept his body after it was brought for post-mortem to Gandhinagar civil hospital.

Hundreds of Dalit protesters had gathered outside the hospital to support the family which was demanding the setting up of a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter and re-granting of land which had been allotted to Dalits across the state but whose ownership titles had not been regularised.An FIR has been registered against Bengaluru district youth Congress leader for allegedly beating up a person in a restaurant in the Karnataka capital. The FIR names youth Congress general secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad and 10 others for the alleged violence in UB City of Bengaluru.

The Congress later suspended Mohammed for six years, informed G Parameshwara, president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

The party leader has also been accused of threatening the victim, identified as Vidyut, at a hospital where he was admitted for treatment.

Accused Congress leader is the son of Shantinagar MLA NA Haris.

He was appointed the general secretary of the youth Congress after emerging victorious in an election held by the Congress for the post in May 2017. He was also the executive director of the Nalapad Group of Companies.

The police are reportedly questioning the restaurant owner and other people who were there at the time of the incident.

In 2016, his brother Umar was accused of assaulting a man outside a pub in Shantinagar area of Bengaluru. Reports said that the police had refused to file an FIR in the case. The pub owner was quoted in reports as saying that Umar was not involved in the incident.New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit on Sunday said that she will always stand by her party even though she was always ignored by the top leadership.

Dikshit, a three-time chief minister of Delhi, said that the central leadership of Congress always "denied her big role in electoral campaigns".

The Congress veteran made these remarks in an interview to a news agency.

79-year-old Congress leader said that despite being named Congress' star campaigner in elections that came after the 2013 assembly polls, she was not given any big responsibility for canvassing.

Dikshit, however, said she had no regrets as she never complained about it.

"I do what I am told. I belong to Congress and the Congress is my party. I can do anything for Congress. They ignored me for years but I never complained," Dikshit added.

Sheila Dikshit, who has been very critical of Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken, also recalled how the latter came to her house after the party's 2015 electoral drubbing.

"Before this press conference, Maken came to my house three or four times, requesting me to join the media briefing," she said.

"There is no dilemma in my mind. We have to work for the Congress. I don't have personal issues with anyone. I went there to do something good for the party and the results were good too. But when elections were held they did not call me," Dikshit said.

Hitting out at Maken, she said, "In democratic politics, the most important thing is reaching out."

President of political party has to work for it throughout the day, communicate with everyone & know about everything. If Ajay Maken is saying that he needs to correct things, it's a good thing. Let's see what he does. His style had done lot of damage to Congress: Sheila Dikshit pic.twitter.com/iVMLeP0A2C  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

It is to be noted that despite differences Dikshit and Maken had addressed the joint press conference after the 2015 drubbing.

On former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely return to the party-fold, Dikshit said, ''The one who has been with the ideology of Congress will always find it difficult to be in BJP. They are the stark opposite of what Congress is."

Lovely is believed to be a close aide of Dikshit.

Referring to question about the AAP government, Dikshit said, "Either you will see their advertisements or you'll see them talking about their work. But the ground reality is very different."

"The party did not fulfill its promise of providing free water and cheaper electricity to Delhi's citizens. Arvind Kejriwal has been exposed," she said.

(With Agency inputs)Rapti River welcomes 25 Gharials

Nature conservationists and a zoological society have released 25 Gharials into Rapti River. The National Trust for Nature Conservation, Chitwan and Zoological Society of London in Nepal released the crocodiles on Friday to help preserve the endangered species of crocodiles.NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of lower judicial officers, who were barred from appearing in an examination for appointment of additional district judges (ADJs), and asked the Delhi High Court to register their applications.

Some lower judicial officers including judicial, executive and metropolitan magistrates have assailed Rule 9 (2) of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service Rules which bars them from appearing in the examination to be held on April 15 for the appointment of entry-level ADJs.

"We direct the High Court of Delhi to register the applications of the petitioners and intervenors, if they are otherwise in order, ignoring the objections regarding seven years practice and in case they are otherwise eligible as per the three aspects referred to above," a bench of justices Kurian Joseph and M M Shantanagoudar said.

The bench, however, made clear that this was only "a provisional arrangement."

"Mere participation does not confer them with any right to claim any equity. The eligibility for appointment will be decided at the time of final hearing of the matter," the bench said.

It issued a notice to the Delhi High Court Registry on pleas including the one filed by Nitin Raj, Special Railway Magistrate at Ambala, through lawyer T V George and Dushyant Kumar.

The pleas alleged that judicial officers, who are in service for last seven years, have not been allowed to take up the higher judicial service examination.

They also said that the judges, who have a combined service of practice as a lawyer and judicial service of seven years, are also not allowed to appear in the higher judicial service examination to be conducted by the Delhi High Court.

The plea raised the issue "whether a subordinate judicial officer, the cumulative years of whose antecedent practice as well as period of service in the subordinate judicial service add up to 'not less than seven years' is not eligible for appointment by direct recruitment to the post of district judge (entry level) in the Delhi Higher Judicial Service".

Besides seeking nod to appear in the Higher Judicial Service Examination, one of the pleas also sought declaration of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service Rule as "unconstitutional to the extent it excludes the persons having experience in the field of law of more than 7 years cumulatively as an antecedent advocate and as a judicial officer from being considered as eligible to appear" in the examination.Mumbai: Mumbai's famous Lilavati Hospital on Sunday denied all rumours about Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's health and said that he was responding well to the treatment.

The hospital issued a statement in which it termed all reports about the Goa Chief Minister as ''misleading and malicious''.

''It has been brought to our notice, various malicious and misleading reports/rumours are floating around in the electronic/print media with regard to the health of Hon Chief Minister of Goa. We categorically deny all such rumours,'' the hospital said in the statement.

The hospital further reiterated that the BJP leader is currently being treated and was responding well to the treatment.

The statement was signed by Ajay Kumar Pande, Vice President, Lilavati Hospital And Research Centre.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Mumbai to inaugurate 'Magnetic Maharashtra' Global Investors Summit in suburban Bandra, also visited the Lilavati Hospital to enquire about Parrikar's health.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at #Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre to meet Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar pic.twitter.com/j35xbHoUvC  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Parrikar was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai on February 15 reportedly after his health deteriorated.

Parrikar's office also yesterday issued a statement stating that the Goa Chief Minister will be attending the Assembly Session.Gujarat Dalit leader and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani was on Sunday detained by the state police in the wake of the Ahmedabad bandh call given by him in protest against the death of Dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar, who had immolated himself on Thursday.

Mevani had convened Dalit protesters to converge at a statue of Dr BR Ambedkar in Sarangpur, but before he could reach the area, his car was stopped Saraspur. He was detained by the Gujarat Police to ensure no untoward incident takes place.

Another Dalit leader, Naushad Solanki, was also detained by the police. Apart from them, at least 25 members of Bhim Shakti Sena were detained to stall the bandh call.

The family of the Dalit activist, who had immolated himself, had refused to accept his body after it was brought for post-mortem to Gandhinagar civil hospital.

Hundreds of Dalit protesters had gathered outside the hospital to support the family which was demanding the setting up of a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter and re-granting of land which had been allotted to Dalits across the state but whose ownership titles had not been regularised.

Talking to reporters, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the land in question would be transferred in the name of the family member.

"We will also constitute a judicial commission under a retired high court judge or form an SIT for investigation, as per the decision of the family, and we will take strict action against those responsible," Patel said.

"A member of the family will be given a government job, and the family will be given Rs 8 lakh as per the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, out of which Rs 4 lakh will be handed over immediately," Patel told reporters.

"The government will, at the earliest, also regrant land which was allotted to beneficiaries across the state but were been given the titles of the land," he added.

(With PTI Inputs)New Delhi: Several months after the peaceful resolution of a border stand-off with China, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had made a quiet visit to Bhutan during which they discussed the situation in Doklam with the Bhutanese leadership.

Besides Doklam, the trio also reportedly held discussions on China effort to build a strong defence infrastructure around the plateau, PTI quoted highly placed government sources as saying on Sunday.

The sources claimed that the trio visited Bhutan nearly two weeks back during which the two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation with a focus on Chinas increasing military posturing and infrastructure development around the Doklam plateau.

The visit, according to sources, took place between February 6-7.

The sources said several other key officials of the Army and the Ministry of External Affairs were also a part of the entourage.

Asked about the Foreign Secretarys visit, a diplomatic source called it routine.

The meeting between the Indian and the Bhutanese officials was held in a positive atmosphere, the government sources said.

Besides Doklam, there were deliberations on how to further strengthen defence and security cooperation between the two countries.

Importantly, this was the first visit by top Indian officials to Bhutan after the Doklam stand-off and was kept under wraps by the Bhutanese and Indian sides.

The trio left for Bhutan three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of an investors summit in Guwahati.

The sources said the Bhutanese side apprised the Indians of the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam from June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped construction of a road at the disputed Doklam tri-junction by the Chinese army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam.

The face-off ended on August 28. China and Bhutan are engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area.

India has argued that it has a say in the issue, especially in the backdrop of a 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries, that have till now held 20 rounds of talks.

Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China. As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India.

This was Gen Rawats second visit to Bhutan in the last nine months.

Gen Rawat has been calling for adequate focus by India on its nearly 4,000 km-long border with China.

Rawat said this in light of reports that China has been keeping its troops in north Doklam and significantly ramping up its infrastructure in the area.

The Army has also been strengthening the presence of its troops in certain key sectors along the Sino-India border besides enhancing border infrastructure.

In November last, Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck had visited India.

(With PTI inputs)NEW DELHI: A day after Arvinder Singh Lovely got back into the Congress fold, senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit hit out at party's Delhi chief Ajay Maken. The former Delhi chief minister said that Maken has done a lot of damage to the party.

Offering a word of advice to the Delhi party chief, she said: "President of a political party has to work for it throughout the day, communicate with everyone and know about everything. If Ajay Maken is saying that he needs to correct things, it's a good thing. Let's see what he does. His style had done a lot of damage to Congress."

This is not the first time that she has hit out at the Delhi Congress chief. She had earlier said that she was 'disappointed' with him because he does not consult with anyone and does not reach out to anybody. "In democratic politics, the most important thing is reaching out," she had said.

President of political party has to work for it throughout the day, communicate with everyone & know about everything. If Ajay Maken is saying that he needs to correct things, it's a good thing. Let's see what he does. His style had done lot of damage to Congress: Sheila Dikshit pic.twitter.com/iVMLeP0A2C  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

She had even held Maken responsible for Lovely's exit from the party in 2017. Calling his exit a setback then, she had said that there must have been some misunderstanding with the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Maken after which he left the party.

After Lovely rejoined the Congress after a 9-month stint with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Dikshit expressed happiness and said it's never too late. "The one who has been with the ideology of Congress will always find it difficult to be in BJP. They are the stark opposite of what Congress is," she said.

Applauding the party principles, she had also said "I am quite happy that he has come back. He (Lovely) has realised that in the end, our own home is the best."

Lovely, who had switched loyalty to the BJP rejoined the Congress on Saturday. He had joined the BJP in April, 2017 but came back to the Congress fold within a year. Since being elected in the Delhi Legislative Assembly in 1998, Lovely has never lost an election. He was re-elected for the fourth time into the assembly in 2013 from Gandhi Nagar constituency.NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become the first major national party to move out of the Lutyens' Bungalow Zone into a new modern office enabled with the latest communication technologies.

The new party headquarters located at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party veteran LK Advani. Party president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and other senior party leaders were also present at the event.

The PM congratulated the party president and his team for completing the work of the office in stipulated time and for getting a new home to the BJP. "I want to thank Amit Bhai and his entire team, that worked hard to complete the work on the BJP HQ within the desired time frame," the PM said.

The new party office is located at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and will make BJP the first major national party to shift its office outside Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, following a Supreme Court directive that party offices should be relocated from there. The BJP's shift may put pressure on other parties to follow suit as almost all of them have been functioning for decades out of bungalows.

The foundation stone of this sprawling office had been laid in August last year. A Mumbai-based architecture company has designed the office. The premises has three buildings fitted with modern communication tools, enabling party office-bearers to co-ordinate official works with their counterparts in states and local levels in real time.

The BJP had been working from Ashoka Road office till now and is likely to move operations to the new multi-storeyed modern construction by next week. BJP's Ashoka Road office and the Congress office at Akbar Road are part of the pool of government residences. The Supreme Court had hence asked all parties to move out of those offices.

The BJP relocating out of the Ashoka Road office may put pressure on other parties to follow suit.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kickstarted his India visit with a visit to Taj Mahal in Agra with his family on Sunday. Trudeau visited the iconic monument along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and kids Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien.

Canadian Prime Minister #JustinTrudeau, along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and kids Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien, visits Agra's Taj Mahal. pic.twitter.com/4vUmxf1gx6  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 18, 2018

The 46-year-old Canadian PM arrived in New Delhi on Saturday for a week-long visit on the invitation by his 'friend' Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his visit, Trudeau is expected to visit Jama Masjid in the national capital, Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Gujarat and the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Before embarking on his maiden India visit, Trudeau had tweeted, "Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries."

Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries. pic.twitter.com/Jg6UmL9y4S  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 16, 2018

The visit is aimed at 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 statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Cooperation in security and counter-terrorism, as well as an exchange of views on global and regional issues of mutual interest, will also form important components of the visit.

PM Modi will hold bilateral talks with Trudeau on February 23 following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed.

The trip comes nearly three years after PM Modi visited Canada in April 2015. The last visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to India was in November 2012.

Notably, the ties between India and Canada have been on an upswing. Approximately 1.4 million Canadians are of Indian heritage and India is Canada's second largest source of immigrants. Canada is also a leading education destination for Indian students, and India is the second largest source of international students, an estimated 124,000 in 2017, as per official figures.

Trudeau, Canada's second youngest prime minister, is the son of Pierre Trudeau, the distinguished late Canadian prime minister.Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday expressed confidence that the country's economy is fast moving towards becoming a USD 5 trillion economy over the next few years.

The Prime Minister said that ''sustained, comprehensive and holistic development'' were the drivers of the economic growth.

PM Modi made these remarks after Inaugurating the first mega global investors summit ''Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018" in Mumbai.

Speaking at the occasion, PM Modi said, ''the country is on the firm path of development simultaneously with the development of the states.''

"We are working towards becoming a member of the Five Trillion Dollar club," he added.

We believe potential, policy, planning and performance leads to progress: PM Narendra Modi in Mumbai pic.twitter.com/1xaFJzbtMT  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Hailing Maharashtra, the PM said that it would soon become the first state in the country to become a Trillion Dollar economy.

He said this while addressing a robust gathering of over 200 captains of Indian and global companies at Bandra Kurla Complex here.

Modi noted that his government has taken a slew of measures to ensure all-round development of the country with an ecosystem comprising a development-friendly, investor-friendly governance with minimal governmental interference.

''Most of the states are now policy-driven, governance is performance-driven with full accountability, a transparent ecosystem, various norms are being eased, the government is changing laws where needed, and scrapped more than 1,400 old or outdated laws, and for new or modified laws, care is being taken to ensure they are simplified,'' he said.

In recent years, various states have also competing among themselves to attract maximum foreign investments as per their needs and requirements, including Assam, he said.

On Maharashtra, Modi said during the past three years, this state has initiated unprecedented measures to lure foreign investors on all fronts, led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"The state's reforms have transformed business, huge improvements in its rating in Ease of Doing Business, changed the work culture, problems are being resolved in a time-bound manner, de-bottle-necking has been achieved with inter-departmental cooperation, all of which have reflected on its development," he said.

He added that last year Maharashtra led other states on various parameters in infrastructure development rankings, it got 51 percent of all FDI in India, during the Make In India initiative of February 2016, it secured more than Rs 400,000 crore investments and work on half of them is underway.

Besides, the state has initiated mega-infrastructure projects like Navi Mumbai International Airport, Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, 350-km of Metro Rail and similar Metro Rail in other cities like Pune and Nagpur, taking up the 700-km Mumbai-Nagpur Communication Expressway, etc, which will create between two to two-and-half million jobs and give a fillip to rural development.

Modi also cited the various measures and budgetary provisions to construct roads, bridges, metro rails and airports across the country, to help realize "the aspirations of the people" and fulfill the vision of a 'New India'.

During the summit, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced plans to launch the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' in the state with an investment of Rs 60,000 crore and collaboration of over 20 global conglomerates.

The company will invest more than Rs 60,000 crores along with a coalition of global companies over the next 10 years in this collaborative initiative, he said.

Ambani said this in his address at the 'Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018' inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(With IANS inputs)AGRA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is on a week-long state visit to India, toured the Taj Mahal  the world famous iconic monument of love in located in Agra.

The Canadian leader went to see the architectural marvel with his wife and children.

Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their three children - Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien  and they posed for a family portrait before marvelling at the legendary marble monument frequently visited by foreign leaders during roadshows to India.

#WATCH: PM of Canada #JustinTrudeau, along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and children Xavier, Ella-Grace & Hadrien at Taj Mahal in Agra. pic.twitter.com/DqnxoTqfni  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 18, 2018

The Trudeau family had reached there around 10.30 am to visit the historic monument.

He later described it as "one of the most beautiful places in the world" in his entry in the visitor's log book.

Message by Canadian Prime Minister #JustinTrudeau in the visitor's book at Taj Mahal in Agra, pic.twitter.com/8ku5zb15FP  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 18, 2018

"For me to be able to be here on an official trip while bringing my kids with me to share this is really special and being able to enjoy this as a dad with my kids is really nice," he said.

For me to be able to be here on an official trip while bringing my kids with me to share this is really special and being able to enjoy this as a dad with my kids is really nice: Canadian Prime Minister #JustinTrudeau on his Taj Mahal visit pic.twitter.com/P1k3q9sUdZ  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 18, 2018

The sanctuary was shut for around two hours to the public in view of Trudeau's visit.

However, Taj Mahal was soon opened to other tourists as soon as the Canadian PM left the venue.

It is Trudeau's first visit to India since taking office as Canada's PM in 2015.

He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and efforts to expand trade will dominate an agenda also covering energy, education and infrastructure.

"Wheels up for India and a busy visit focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries," Trudeau tweeted before embarking on the trip.

Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries. pic.twitter.com/Jg6UmL9y4S  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 16, 2018

Trade between Canada and India has doubled in the last decade to just over $8 billion in 2016, a figure which External Affairs Ministry says "does not reflect true potential".

Canada is home to more than 1.2 million Indians - more than three percent of its population - and Trudeau is joined by Sikh members of his cabinet for the visit.

The Canadian delegation will walk a diplomatic tightrope in Punjab where Trudeau will visit the Golden Temple - the holiest site in Sikhism, and the scene of a bloody massacre of religious separatists in 1984.

The Canadian Premier will meet political leaders, civil society figures and corporate executives between ceremonial visits to religious sites and national memorials.

Trudeau is scheduled to visit PM Modi's home state of Gujarat on Monday before jetting off to the country's financial capital - Mumbai - for talks with CEOs and business leaders the next day.

After visiting Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday, Trudeau will meet PM Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi following a welcome at the Presidential Palace and a wreath-laying at Mahatma Gandhi`s memorial.

PM Narendra Modi had visited Canada in 2015 and addressed a crowd of 10,000 from the Indian diaspora in Toronto.Here are the top headlines on Sunday morning:

1. PNB fraud: Arrested bank officials not co-operating in CBI probe, say reports

The arrested bank officials have disclosed that the commission in exchange of issuing the LoUs was distributed between all PNB employees who was involved in it. Read more



2. No government scheme benefits if you vote for Congress: MP minister's threat to voters

Yashodhara Raje Scindia made the statement while campaigning for the BJP ahead of Kolaras Assembly bypoll. Read more



3. Navi Mumbai airport to Magnetic Maharashtra, PM Modi set for a busy day in Mumbai

PM Modi is also scheduled to have a closed-door meeting with CEOs of as many as 50 global companies. Read more



4. Mystery of 'Screaming mummy', that baffled experts for 132 years, solved

Archaeologists across the mummy of a young man  his hands and feet bound, face contorted in extreme pain. Read more

5. Amitabh can do what Aamir and Shahid cannot, uploads 'resume'

Big B posted a light-hearted Tweet on Saturday, uploading his resume. Read more

6. Tripura Polls 2018: Over 25 lakh voters to decide fate of 292 candidates

As Tripura goes to vote on Sunday, all eyes are riveted on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left Front. The voting will continue till 4 pm. Read more

Siraha hospital gasping for blood

Lack of blood bank and blood transfusion centre in Siraha bazaar, the district headquarters of Siraha, has left health workers at the district hospital struggling with the growing number of patients in need of blood.New Delhi: Pakistan has billed India Rs 2.86 lakh as route navigation charges for Indian Air Force aircraft used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a stopover in Lahore and visits to Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and Qatar, an RTI response shows.

The data gathered by activist Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra. Through his RTI application, show that till June 2016, Indian Air Force aircraft were used for the Prime Minister's visits to 11 countries  Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Qatar, Australia, Pakistan, Russia, Iran, Fiji and Singapore.

Batra gave a copy of the RTI responses, received from August last year to January 30, 2018, to Press Trust of India. During one such visit on December 25, 2015, PM Modi had a brief stopover in Lahore at the request of then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The stopover took place when Modi was returning from Russia and Afghanistan.

For this, a bill of Rs 1.49 lakh has been issued as route navigation charges, records accessed under the RTI Act from the Indian High Commission in Pakistan show.

PM Modi was received by Nawaz Sharif with a warm hug at the tarmac of the Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, when he made the unexpected stopover on his way back home following a day-long trip to Afghanistan after concluding a two-day visit to Russia.

PM Modi was accorded a red carpet welcome as the PM's special Indian Air Force Boeing 737 plane touched down at 4.50 pm. He then took a helicopter to Sharif's Raiwind palatial residence on the outskirts of Lahore to attend Sharif's birthday celebrations.

A bill of Rs 77,215 was imposed as route navigation charges by Pakistani authorities when Modi used an IAF aircraft to visit Iran on May 22-23, 2016, and Rs 59,215 when he visited Qatar on June 4-6, 2016, the RTI response shows. For both visits, he flew over Pakistan.

The records were part of a response collected from various missions of India on the expenditure incurred on the visits of Modi on IAF aircraft between 2014 and 2016.

According to the data collected, a total of about Rs 2 crore has been spent on foreign visits of the Prime Minister during the period for the use of IAF aircraft. Generally, an Air India aircraft is hired for the foreign visits of the VVIPs  the President, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister  for which the national carrier sends the bill.

The bills for the Prime Minister's visits are borne by the External Affairs Ministry. The bills submitted by Indian missions in these countries include charges for fuelling, ground handling, airport charges, dearness allowance paid to the staff, hotel stay, catering and mobile for the crew, transport hiring, captain's imprest and other charges.NEW DELHI: An investigation is underway into the multi-crore fraud that was uncovered at the Punjab National Bank, but there is not much information that the officials have been able to get out of Gokulnath Shetty, the retired deputy bank manager, and two other officials who were arrested on Saturday.

"Arrested accused are not co-operating in the investigation. The involvement and connivance of more staff members and outsiders, including billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the managing director of Gitanjali Gems Ltd, is being probed," news agency ANI quoted officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

During the investigation, the arrested bank officials reportedly disclosed that for every Letter of Undertaking that was issued to the company of Nirav of Nirav Modi, a percentage of the amount was fixed depending on how much needs to be sanctioned. It is also reported that the commission in exchange of issuing the LoUs was distributed between all employees of PNB who was involved in it.

Also Read: How Gokulnath Shetty's retirement proved crucial in unearthing the PNB scam

Along with Shetty, the CBI also arrested Manoj Kharat, the single window operator (SWO) and Hemant Bhat, the Authorised Signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms on Saturday.

It had emerged that fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) were issued from the Mumbai branch of PNB in favour of Hong Kong branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank to facilitate Rs 280.7 crore fraud by Nirav Modi and others.

As per the FIR lodged with the CBI, Shetty with the help of his other colleagues had transmitted SWIFT instructions to the above-mentioned banks for raising buyers credit and for funding the Nostro accounts of PNB, without due procedure. The LoUs were issued on behalf of Diamond R US, Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds.

Banking sources have said in some banks the SWIFT system, which is used for international transactions, and the core banking system works independently of each other. In PNB's case, it said the outstanding LoUs were not available on its core banking system run on Infosys`s Finacle software, thus the LoUs issued went undetected.

PNB has accused three companies - Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R US - it said belong to Nirav Modi. PNB also named Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra  companies promoted by another jeweller, Mehul Choksi, who is Modi's uncle.NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has on Monday been conducting raids at 45 locations across 15 cities in connection with the multi-million Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

In West Bengal's Kolkata, ED conducted search operations at six locations of Gitanjali and Nakshatra jewellery outlets.

The Directorate also raided inside Shoppers Stop at Alpha One Mall in Gujarat's Ahmedabad.

A search team of ED also raided an outlet of Gitanjali Group in Shoppers Stop at Elante Mall in Punjab's Chandigarh.

The search operations come days after PNB, the second largest public sector bank in India, detected Rs 11,400 crore scam in one of its branches in Mumbai.

It had emerged that the fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) from the Mumbai branch of PNB were issued in favour of Hong Kong branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank. These letters helped facilitate Rs 280.7 crore fraud by jewellery designer Nirav Modi among others.

As per the FIR lodged with the CBI, Shetty and Kharat had transmitted SWIFT instructions to the above-mentioned banks for raising buyers credit and for funding the Nostro accounts of PNB, without due procedure. The LoUs were issued on behalf of Diamond R US, Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate has been raiding the premises of Nirav Modi across the country. It conducted further searches at 21 locations and seized diamonds, gold, precious stones/ metals and jewellery worth Rs 25 crore (Book Value). According to ED, the total seizure value till now is Rs 5674 Crore.

"ED conducted further searches at 21 locations across India in Nirav Modi case and seized diamonds, gold, precious stones/ metals & jewellery worth Rs 25 crore (Book Value). Total seizure till now is Rs 5674 Crore," Enforcement Directorate had said.

A case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against him and other accused has been registered. Nirav Modi is currently believed to be in a hotel in New York.

On Saturday, a Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had sent Gokulnath Shetty, the then deputy Manager (now Retd) of the Punjab National Bank in 14-day police custody till March 3 in connection with the fraud.

Along with Shetty, Manoj Kharat, the single window operator (SWO) and Hemant Bhat, the Authorised Signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms were also sent to the police custody.The voting for Tripura Assembly elections is currently underway for 59 seats. The voter turnout till 11 am was recorded at 23.25 per cent.

The state is witnessing a fierce battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Left Front  CPI (M), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)  has been in power in the state for the last 25 years, with incumbent Chief Minister Manik Sarkar at the helm for the past 19 years.

The voting is being held in 59 seats, out of the total 60. CPIM candidate for the Charilam constituency Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma died six days ago. The assembly constituency will now go to polls on March 12.

In few constituencies, voters queued up at polling booths before 7 am.

In few hilly and tribal areas, women huddled in large numbers outside poll booths in their colourful traditional attires.

Voting will end at 4 pm in all the 3,214 polling stations in the state, election office sources said.

A total of 25,73,413 registered voters  including of 13,05,375 males and 12,68,027 females  will decide the fate of 307 candidates. The number of voters under the third gender category in Tripura is 11 and that of the new voters is 47,803.

The BJP entered a pre-poll alliance with tribal political outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), while the Congress is contesting the polls alone.

Counting of votes will be held on March 3.

The campaigning for the Tripura Assembly elections concluded on February 16.

Earlier, the Election Commission appointed ITBP Director General R K Pachnanda the special observer for the election in Tripura. The CPI(M) has dubbed the move as "unusual". The party also objected to his closed-door meeting with the state BJP president.

We have seen several world leaders visiting Taj Mahal in Agra. From British royal Princess Diana to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we have seen portraits of all bigwigs sitting on a bench and posing for the shutterbugs in front of the iconic monument. But when it comes of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it had to be different.

The Canadian Prime Minister, who arrived in India on Saturday, visited Taj Mahal in Agra on Sunday morning with his family - wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and kids Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien.

#WATCH: PM of Canada #JustinTrudeau, along with his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and children Xavier, Ella-Grace & Hadrien at Taj Mahal in Agra. pic.twitter.com/DqnxoTqfni  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) February 18, 2018

In a video posted by news agency ANI, Trudeaus three-year-old son, donning a blue hat and a blue shirt, is seen running towards him. Trudeau then takes him in his arms and then plays with the kid.

The 46-year-old Canadian PM arrived in New Delhi on Saturday for a week-long visit on the invitation by his 'friend' Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During his visit, Trudeau is expected to visit Jama Masjid in the national capital, Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Gujarat and the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Before embarking on his maiden India visit, Trudeau had tweeted, "Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries."

The visit is aimed at 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 statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Cooperation in security and counter-terrorism, as well as an exchange of views on global and regional issues of mutual interest, will also form important components of the visit.

PM Modi will hold bilateral talks with Trudeau on February 23 following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed.

The trip comes nearly three years after PM Modi visited Canada in April 2015. The last visit of a Canadian Prime Minister to India was in November 2012.SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said that guns can never do away with the tension prevailing in the militancy-hit state. Instead, only talks can solve the problems.

While speaking to the media, Mufti urged for peace in Jammu and Kashmir. She said that the conditions at the border are not good. Both India and Pakistan should talk.

Calling for ceasefire, she further said that peace should be given an opportunity.

"Guns cannot solve any problems, only talks can solve problems. Conditions at the border are not good, Both the countries should talk and there should be ceasefire. Peace should be given an opportunity," she said.

The appeal from the J&K CM comes amid a spurt in terror attacks across the state as well as unending border clashes between Indian and Pakistani militaries.

Last week, Mufti had called for holding talks with Pakistan to end the bloodshed in the state.

"Dialogue with Pakistan is necessary if we are to end bloodshed (in the state)," she had said in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

The PDP leader, however, was quick to add that she will be dubbed "anti-national" by media for making such an appeal.

"I know I will be labelled anti-national by news anchors tonight but that doesn`t matter. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are suffering. We have to talk because war is not an option," the J&K CM had said.SRINAGAR: One Army jawan on Sunday was injured in a ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Karmarha sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch.

Pakistan Rangers initiated the unprovoked and indiscriminate firing earlier today. There have been no casualties in the shelling.

The injured jawan has, meanwhile, been shifted to the Army hospital in Poonch.

Pakistani troops have been continuously shelling on the areas along the LoC.

Last week, following the Sunjuwan Army camp attack, Pakistani troops had launched mortars shells in Khadi Karmara forward areas in Poonch.

Earlier today, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that guns can never do away with the tension prevailing in the militancy-hit state. Instead, only talks can solve the problems.

Speaking to the media, Mufti urged for peace in the state. She said that the conditions at the border are not good so in order to make situations better, both the countries - India and Pakistan should talk.

"Guns cannot solve any problems, only talks can solve problems. Conditions at the border are not good, Both the countries should talk and there should be ceasefire. Peace should be given an opportunity," she said.

A total of 18 people, including ten security personnel and eight civilians, were killed and over 75 injured in Pakistani shelling along the LoC and the IB in Jammu region this year.Jharkhand: A mother and her daughter were forced to consume human excreta and undergo head tonsure by neighbours on suspicions of practising witchcraft.

The shocking incident took place in Dulami village under Sonahatu police station in Jharkhand's Ranchi.

The incident came to light after the victims  65-year-old woman Karo Devi and her 35-year-old daughter Basanti  approached the police on Friday, February 16.

The victims named 11 people from their village as the culprits.

After the preliminary investigation, the police have arrested all the 11 persons.

A few days ago, a distant relative of the victims fell sick and passed away. Soon after, two more relatives fell sick. The accused and their families blamed the mother-daughter duo for the death and alleged that they practice witchcraft, said the police.

The accused persons dragged the mother and daughter out of their house and made them eat human excreta, said the police. They were later taken near river banks where their heads were tonsured.

In the last 17 years, reports claim that over 500 women were harassed and murdered on suspicions of practising witchcraft.

In 2016, a 35-year old tribal woman from Kalyanpur village in Bokaro was stripped in public, tonsured, forced to eat human excreta, because she supported a man branded by a witch doctor.KANNUR: Two CPI(M) activists today surrendered to the police in connection with the recent killing of Youth Congress leader Shuhabib at Mattanoor in the district, police officials said.

Akash and Rijin Raj, both in their thirties, went to the police station at Maloor, near Mattanoor, with a few other local CPI(M) workers and surrendered to the authorities, they said.

The development comes in the backdrop of the Congress sharpening its attack on the ruling CPI(M) over the killing of its functionary on February 13.

Congress Kannur strongman and former Lok Sabha member K Sudhakaran had announced a 48-hour fast in front of the Collectorate here from tomorrow as part of its agitation against the delay in arresting those behind the killing.

Shuhaib, the Mattanur block Youth Congress secretary, was at a roadside tea shop with two other party members, Riaz and Naushad when they were attacked.

The Youth Congress leader was critically injured and died after being taken to the Indira Gandhi Co-Operative Hospital at Thalassery, the police said, adding that the condition of those injured was stable.

Police suspect the assault could be related to incidents of violence in the area last week.Alappuzha: The Democratic Youth Federation of India and Kerala Students Union has called for a bandh in Alappuzha town. This comes a day after clashes broke out between the two student union groups on Saturday.

Tension prevailed after the groups alleged each other of destroying the union flags and festoons during a march.

The issue began after KSU workers reportedly destroyed hoardings and posters of the CPI(M) at various places in Alappuzha town.

Angered by development, DYFI members barged into a KSU event in the evening.

Clashes ensued between the two groups, which left members of KSU injured.

The police later resorted to lathicharge to defuse the clashes.

Reacting to police lathicharge, KSU workers pelted police vehicles with stones.

Alappuzha District Congress President M Liju alleged that DYFI workers marched to the venue with sticks, pelted stones and also damaged the cars of Congress leaders, including that of Kodikunnel Suresh, MP.

He alleged that several KSU activists were injured in the stone pelting by the DFYI activists.

Two workers were injured and were admitted to General Hospital. Some media persons were also injured in the stone pelting.

Liju said that KPCC President M M Hassan was among those present at the venue when the incident occurred.

With PTI inputsThe interview

I had barely put my first step forward to ascend the stairs when I heard her voice, Baba! Eh Baba!Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated for a busy day in Mumbai on Sunday. As part of his Mumbai itinerary, the Prime Minister will inaugurate three-day Magnetic Maharashtra summit, lay the foundation stone of Navi Mumbai International airport and inaugurate new container terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru port.

Apart from this, PM Modi is also scheduled to have a closed-door meeting with CEOs of as many as 50 global companies.

The Magnetic Maharashtra summit, officially called Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018 is expected to see attendance of over 150 global CEOs as well as business tycoons from India. The event will also be attended by Ambassadors and Consul Generals of different countries.

Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Maharashtra expects to sign a record 4,500 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and investment intentions worth Rs 10 lakh crore.

The government has reportedly short-listed sectors such as infrastructure, chemicals and petrochemicals, textile, electric vehicle, gems and jewellery.

Apart from the Magnetic Maharashtra Summit, the Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of Navi Mumbai International Airport, the first phase of which is expected to be completed by December 2019. This is the deadline set by the Maharashtra government. The airport is likely to handle 10 million passengers annually post completion.

Before his departure from Mumbai, PM Modi will also inaugurate the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Mumbai. The prime minister will later leave for Mysuru in Karnataka.

On February 19, he will address via video conferencing the World Conference on Information Technology, being held in Hyderabad. He will also visit Shravanabelagola for the Bahubali Mahamasthakabhisheka Mahotsava.

At a function at the Mysuru Railway Station, he will dedicate to the nation, the electrified Mysuru-Bengaluru railway line. He will flag off the Palace Queen Humsafar Express between Mysuru and Udaipur, besides addressing a public meeting in Mysuru later in the day.MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone of a new international airport in Navi Mumbai which is likely to relieve the burden on the Mumbai airport. Giving a green signal to the project, Modi said that the issue had been pending for years when he assumed office.

"This is not the only project that is pending. When I assumed office I realised there were several such projects. That is why we began a Pragati initiative and gave priority to completion of projects," he said.

He hailed the fact that there has been a tremendous growth in India's aviation sector. "There is a sharp increase in the number of people flying. This makes quality infrastructure in the aviation sector of prime importance," he said.

Taking credit for the growth in aviation, he said his government "had the honour of bringing an aviation policy that is transforming the sector".

Stressing on the need of building a better infrastructure, he said: "Globalisation is a reality of our times and to keep pace with globalisation, we need top quality infrastructure," he said. He also added that the Central government is devoting significant efforts towards the development of waterways.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) ally Shiv Sena is upset for not being invited for the ground-breaking ceremony of the Navi Mumbai International Airport. Sena legislators claimed that the BJP-led Maharashtra government deliberately did not invite local MP and MLA of the Sena for the event.

"It is a state-organised event, taking place at the hands of PM Modi. The airport is located in Raigad district, in my constituency. Our MP, Shrirang Barne, represents the same area in the Lok Sabha, and still we both were not invited which is a violation of protocol," local Sena MLA Manoj Bhoir alleged.

A Shiv Sena spokesperson had said that none of its ministers or legislators were attending the ceremony. Local Sena leader and former Thane Mayor Sanajy More said that though his party welcomed the airport project, the BJP was excluding Sena leaders from the function for the sake of politics.NEW DEHLI: Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland has withdrawn from the Delhi High Court a plea against invocation by the Indian Navy to buy 56 naval utility choppers.

Of its Rs 3-crore bank guarantee deposited to bid for a tender floated

The company withdrew the plea as the Centre had encashed the bank guarantee after the high court revoked its stay preventing the government from invoking it.

The submission on behalf of the Italian company was made before Justice Jayant Nath who "dismissed as withdrawn" the civil suit of the helicopter manufacturer.

The high court on October 17 last year had revoked its stay on the invocation of the bank guarantee.

The order came as the Italian company had neither deposited the amount of Rs 3 crore in the court nor given a guarantee of a nationalised bank or banks such as ICICI, Axis Bank or HDFC as directed by the high court.

The court had earlier made it clear that not complying with its directions would lead to revocation of the interim stay order.

The amount of Rs 3 crore was deposited by the company along with the pre-contract integrity pact, which was one of the conditions of the request for technical and commercial proposal (RFP) issued to it by the government.

The integrity pact, signed in 2013, said that if a successful bidder violated the agreement, it would entail forfeiture of the bank guarantee.

Central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, appearing for the Centre, had earlier told the court that the bank guarantee was invoked and full payment of the amount was demanded as the company had allegedly violated the integrity pact.

In its petition challenging the invocation of the bank guarantee, the company had said that the government in its invocation letter did not say that the RFP has already been withdrawn.

The company had claimed that it was not informed of any alleged breach of the integrity pact and that once the government had withdrawn the RFP, it had no right to seek enforcement of the bank guarantee.

It had said that the government instead was obligated to return the bank guarantee.

The company, in its plea, had also alleged that by invoking the bank guarantee, the government was trying to "unjustly enrich itself".AGARTALA: The voting for 59 seats in Tripura Assembly elections concluded peacefully on Sunday with an overall voter turnout of more than 78 per cent.

"Voter turnout till now (around 9 pm) is 78.56 per cent. Voting is still underway at few polling stations. Voting slips were distributed till 4 pm and those voters are at the booths," the Election Commission told ANI.

"No incidents of violence were reported from anywhere in the state. Two crude bombs were recovered which were disposed off," the EC added.

The polling of one constituency has, however, been rescheduled because of the demands of one candidate. The polling will be held on March 12.

"In one constituency, the polling will be held on 12th March as it was rescheduled because of demands of one candidate," the EC said.

The Tripura Assembly polls for the first time experienced VVPAT machine in all 3,214 polling booths.

"VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura," it said.

Following complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, the Commission replaced 12 ballot units.

"There were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, many were found to be false. 12 ballot units were replaced," it added.

A total of 292 candidates are in the fray, including 23 women and many Independents.

There are a total of 25,73,413 registered voters  including of 13,05,375 males and 12,68,027 females. The number of voters under the third gender category in Tripura is 11 and that of the new voters is 47,803.

The result will be declared on March 3.

The state is witnessing a fierce battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Left Front  CPI (M), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)  has been in power in the state for the last 25 years, with incumbent Chief Minister Manik Sarkar at the helm for the past 19 years.

The voting is being held in 59 seats, out of the total 60. CPIM candidate for the Charilam constituency Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma died six days ago. The assembly constituency will now go to polls on March 12.

In few constituencies, voters had queued up at polling booths before 7 am. In few hilly and tribal areas, women had huddled in large numbers outside poll booths in their colourful traditional attires.

The BJP entered a pre-poll alliance with tribal political outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), while the Congress is contesting the polls alone.

The campaigning for the Tripura Assembly elections concluded on February 16.

Earlier, the Election Commission appointed ITBP Director General R K Pachnanda the special observer for the election in Tripura. The CPI(M) has dubbed the move as "unusual". The party also objected to his closed-door meeting with the state BJP president.The results of the Patna University students union elections, which were held after a gap of six years, were declared late on Saturday night amid violence by supporters of the candidates. And the result also came as a surprise to some, as Divyanshu, who contested as in independent candidate after denial of ticket by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), won the elections.

Divyanshu won the Patna university students body election by a margin of only 112 votes, with 1862 votes in his favour and his nearest rival, Jan Adhikar Partys Gautam Kumar getting 1750 votes. The second runner-up for the position of president was Mitu Kumari of AISA-AISF, who got 1168 votes.

The vice president spot was, however, bagged by the ABVP. Yoshita Patwardhan of the ABVP defeated Anushka Arya of AISA-AISF by more than 850 votes.

The counting of votes was, however, marred by violence between supporters of the candidates. Initially there were scuffles between groups, but later the supporters resorted to stone pelting and vandalised public property. Some of the miscreants resorted to firing as well, reported Prabhat Khabar.

Here are the results:

Divyanshu  President with 1862 votes

Yoshita Patwardhan  Vice president with 1768 votes

Sudhanshu Bhushan  General secretary with 1647 votes

Azad Chand  Additional secretary with 1545 votes

Treasurer  Nitish Patel with 1206 votes

The polling for the Patna University students union elections were held on Saturday and a voter turnout of 42.56 per cent was recorded. Of over 19,000 students in the university, as many as 8458 exercised their right to vote.New Delhi: Fatima Sana Shaikh has been generating buzz ever since she started shooting for Aamir Khan's film 'Thugs of Hindostan'.

The 25-year-old is known to be active on social media. Recently, she shared one of her photos on her Instagram account and what caught our attention was her right eyebrow. In the photo, Fatima appeared to have done her right brow.

Though, it is not yet confirmed if this is her look for her upcoming movie or is she met with an accident. Nonetheless, the actress did not attempt to hide her eyebrow in her photos.

Check out her pics:

Dance rehearsals A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Feb 6, 2018 at 1:35am PST

In the meantime, we found that this was not the only photo in which Fatima's brow appeared different. In another photo, that she shared on December 23 last year, her eyebrow appears to have been shaved.

A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Dec 22, 2017 at 2:04pm PST

#thuglife #toh A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Feb 6, 2018 at 1:02am PST

The 'Dangal' fame actress was in news earlier she faced trolls for sharing a photo of herself in a swimsuit on the social media. Fatima, who rocked a beautiful black monokini on the beaches of Malta, was slammed by the haters for wearing an 'indecent' attire during the holy month of Ramadan.

A post shared by Fatima Sana Shaikh (@fatimasanashaikh) on Jun 6, 2017 at 10:20pm PDT

The actress' Instagram account turned into a battleground again after she shared a picture of herself in a saree. This time too, she got vigorously trolled for her 'disrespectful clothing' and was named 'shamefull' by many.

Rumours also did rounds of Fatima not getting along her 'Thugs of Hindostan' co-star Katrina Kaif during the shoot.

Meanwhile, 'Thugs of Hindostan', an upcoming Indian epic period action-adventure film, also features Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Shashank Arora and Ila Arun. The film is set to be released during Diwali this year.Jaipur: The death toll in the cylinder blast in Rajasthan's Ajmer district reached 19 as 10 more bodies were recovered from under the rubble on Sunday.

According to PTI, all those who were missing since the blast in Beawar town on Friday night have been accounted for.

However, the authorities said that the rescue operations will continue.

Rajasthan: Army columns helped clear debris, recovered nine bodies from a building that collapsed in Beawar on Sunday pic.twitter.com/9UkEvSU451  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Army personnel and the national and state disaster response force teams are involved in the rescue operations, which will continue till the entire rubble is removed.

The twin cylinder blast on Friday night led to the collapse of a double-storey building, Kumavat Bhavan, which was hosting a pre-wedding function for Hemant Patlecha.

While nine bodies were recovered on Saturday, 10 more bodies including that of the bridegroom's mother, Achuki Devi, were found on Sunday.

Seriously injured patients who were earlier referred to Ajmer, have now been shifted to Jaipur.

The 19 dead included three children - Lakshat, 1, his brother Kartavya, 2, and Khushi Devda, 2. Some of the other deceased have been identified as Nirmala Devi, Monica, Hemlata, Basant Raj and Hitesh.

Ajmer Collector Gaurav Goyal has directed officials to deal strictly with those found filling cylinders illegally.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each to the family members of those killed in the blast and a financial help of Rs 50,000 each to the injured, an official spokesperson said.

Raje took stock of the rescue operation, met the family members of those killed and announced the compensation from the chief minister's relief fund on Saturday.

An additional compensation of Rs 1 lakh each was given by the Shree Cement company to the kin of the deceased, she said.

Compensation will also be provided to the owners of the houses damaged in the explosion after an assessment, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Patlecha, displaying strength and resilience, reached Jodhpur with a few relatives to exchange wedding vows with Ritu in a brief, low-key ceremony amid the prevailing sadness.

(With PTI inputs)Salem: Apparently disappointed with the Supreme Court ruling in the Cauvery water sharing dispute case, the Tamil Nadu government on Sunday said that it would consult legal experts before going for an appeal.

"As far as the appeal is concerned, the Tamil Nadu government will take action after going through the verdict and consulting legal experts," Chief Minister K Palaniswami said in response to reporters' queries.

The Chief Minister added that even though the apex court's decision to reduce the quantum of water to Tamil Nadu from the inter-state river was disappointing, certain other rulings of the court, such as no state could claim ownership to rivers, were welcome.

The Supreme Court, while delivering its verdict on the vexed Cauvery river dispute, had on Friday said the water of a river was a "national asset" and a beneficial gift of nature and that no state could claim "exclusive ownership" over it or deprive others.

The court had also said the water of the inter-state river was common and equal to all, through whose land it ran, and that no one could obstruct or divert it.

Delivering its verdict on the dispute involving the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, besides Kerala and Puducherry, the court had raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and reduced the share of Tamil Nadu.

It had compensated Tamil Nadu by allowing it to extract 10 tmcft of groundwater from the river basin, saying the issue of drinking water had to be placed on a "higher pedestal".

The allocation for Kerala and Puducherry continued to remain at 30 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) and 7 tmcft respectively.

Several political parties including AIADMMK and DMK, and veteran Tamil actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan had expressed disappointment over the top court ruling.

Rajinikanth said that the Supreme Court verdict reducing the quantum of water to Tamil Nadu from Cauvery river was "very disappointing".

"Since the final verdict by the Supreme Court on the Cauvery water sharing amounts to further affecting the livelihood of the farmers in Tamil Nadu, it is very disappointing," he said in a tweet.

Rajinikanth further said that the Tamil Nadu government should take steps to file a review petition on the matter.

On the other hand, film star Kamal Haasan, who is set to embark on his political journey, appealed to both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to maintain amity in the wake of the SC judgement on sharing of Cauvery waters between the two states.

(With Agency Inputs)Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader has once again lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Centre and in state, accusing the ruling party of diverting public attention on Chai and Pakoda.

BJP governments in centre and state do not want discussion on development issues but it is diverting public attention on Chai and Pakoda, said the Samajwadi Party leader in view of byelections in Gorakhpur, scheduled to be held on March 11.

He further said, (I) appeal to the public of Gorakhpur to give a message to the nation in the upcoming Lok Sabha byelection.

The bypoll in Gorakhpur was necessitated as its Lok Sabha representative Yogi Adityanath was elected to the state Assembly after becoming the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

Yogi Adityanath had won the Gorakhpur seat as a BJP candidate for five terms, winning the polls in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. His closest competitor in most of these elections has been candidate from Samajwadi Party.

Congress is the only party that has declared its candidate for the bypoll. The party has fielded Dr Surheeta Chatterjee Kareem, a gynaecologist, from Gorakhpur. From Phulpur, where bypoll is happening as Keshav Prasad Maurya was elected to the state Assembly after being appointed the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has named Manish Mishra as its candidate.An Iranian passenger plane with 66 persons on board crashed into the country's Zagros mountains on Sunday. All the passengers and crew members on the flight died in the crash.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members.

The Aseman Airlines flight was flying from Tehran`s Mehrabad airport in the morning (0430 GMT) to Yasouj in Isfahan province. The plane was a twin-engine turboprop ATR-72.

It crashed into Dena mountain, part of the Zagros range, around 23 kilometres from Yasuj, some 500 kilometres south of the capital, said Mohammad Tabatabai, director of public relations for the airlines. Zagros is the largest mountain range in Iran, Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

"After searches in the area, unfortunately, we were informed that the plane crashed. Unfortunately, all our dear ones lost their lives in this incident," said Tabatabai.

Rescue operations was hampered due to the severe weather conditions and hilly terrain of the region.

"Given the fact that the area is mountainous, it is not possible to send ambulances," Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national emergency services told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

A helicopter, sent to the area for rescue services, could not land at the site of the accident, he added.

Meanwhile, Relief and Rescue Organisation of Iran`s Red Crescent said it has dispatched 12 teams to the region.

"An ATR aircraft of Aseman Airlines with 60 passengers and about six crew disappeared from radar this morning," Aladin Borujerdi, head of parliament`s national security and foreign policy commission, told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Decades of international sanctions have left Iran with an ageing fleet of passenger planes which it has struggled to maintain and modernise.

It has suffered multiple aviation disasters, most recently in 2014 when a Sepahan plane crashed killing 39 people.

With agency inputsThe land of the free

Nepalis may immigrate to the United States for various reasons, but they always take their identity alongSYDNEY: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has held crisis talks with his deputy Barnaby Joyce to heal a dangerous rift that is threatening the ruling coalition's one-seat majority.

A source with knowledge of the talks told Reuters that the pair met for an hour on Saturday and agreed to move on from a public spat over Joyce's extra-marital affair with his former press secretary, who is now pregnant.

The source requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak on the record, and would not give specific details of what was discussed.

Turnbull, who introduced a ban on sexual relationships between ministers and their staff on Thursday, said Joyce had shown "shocking error of judgment".

He told Joyce to take leave and consider his position, leaving Finance Minister Mathias Cormann as acting prime minister while Turnbull visits the U.S. next week.

The Senate on Thursday passed a motion for Joyce to resign, saying he had breached standards of behaviour expected of a minister.

Joyce hit back on Friday, saying the prime minister`s "inept" comments had caused further harm.

Joyce leads the rural-based National Party, the junior partner in the centre-right government led by Turnbull`s Liberal Party, a political alliance that has existed since 1923.

Turnbull refused to comment on Joyce`s criticism but the tiff fueled pressure on him to sack his deputy, which would have put the coalition government`s razor-thin majority at risk ahead of the prime minister`s overseas travel.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott took a thinly-veiled swipe at Turnbull earlier on Saturday, saying in a televised interview from Melbourne that one party shouldn`t give another party public advice.

"If a member of parliament has something to say to another member of parliament he or she should knock on the door or pick up the phone," he said.Munich: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Tehran over aggressions by what he called Iran and its "proxies" in Syria while showing a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace.

Saying he had "a message to the tyrants of Tehran" during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, he warned, "Do not test Israel's resolve."

He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called "a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it after we shot it down."

Israel has said it shot down the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

During the strikes, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Israel's response marked the first time it publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

Calling Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the "smooth-talking mouthpiece of Iran's regime," Netanyahu said, "Mr Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, it's yours."

Again referring to Zarif, who is expected to speak later in Munich, the Israeli leader said, "No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Iran's involvement in Syria."

"He lies with eloquence," the Israeli leader said.

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drones debris.

(With AFP inputs)Cairo: In 1881, archaeologists came across Deir El Bahri valley which hid the mummies of some of the greatest Egyptian pharaohs - Rameses the Great, Seti I and Tuthmosis III.

Five years later, they came across the mummy of a young man  his hands and feet bound, face contorted in extreme pain.

Named as the 'Screaming Mummy', this Egyptian corpse baffled scientists and discoverers for more than a century.

After 132 years, experts may have finally solved the mystery behind the 'Screaming Mummy', which is currently on display in Cairo's Egyptian Museum.

Based on DNA analysis, scientists now claim that the "Screaming Mummy" could be Prince Pentewere  son of a pharaoh Ramses III who ruled between 1186 BC and 1155 BC.

Furthermore, scientists claim, that the prince was likely hanged for plotting his father's murder.

An ancient papyrus record from Egypt refers to a prince sentenced to be hanged to death for conspiring against his father. The marks around the neck of the screaming mummy appear to confirm this account.

In mummification, the internal organs of the corpse are removed, before embalming a body carefully in fine linen.

The 'Screaming Mummy' instead, was left out to dry and wrapped in sheepskin which was considered impure by ancient Egyptians.

Pentawere reportedly conspired with his mother Tiye, the second wife of Ramses III, to murder the king.

It is not clear if Ramses III was killed in the plot, but there are indications that he was stabbed in the neck.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo has put on display the "Screaming Mummy" of the son of a pharaoh who may have been hanged for plotting his father's murder.An Iranian passenger plane with 66 persons onboard has crashed into the country`s Zagros mountains on Sunday.

All the 66 passengers died in the crash, confirmed Irans Aseman Airlines spokesman to state television.

Irans Emergency Service has confirmed that the plane which was en route from Tehran to Yasouj has crashed south of Isfahan province in central Iran.

"This plane has crashed in the Semirom area and all emergency forces are on alert. The plane had 50 to 60 passengers," Pir Hossein Koolivand told the Fars news agency.

There's no word yet on why the aircraft crashed.

Tehran is a small town in Yasuj, Isfahan province while Semirom lies in the mountainous southwestern region of Iran, around 480 kilometres (300 miles) south of the capital.

"An ATR aircraft of Aseman Airlines with 60 passengers and about six crew disappeared from radar this morning," Aladin Borujerdi, head of parliament`s national security and foreign policy commission, told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Rescue operations are likely to be delayed as the crash took place in the hilly region.

"Given the fact that the area is mountainous, it is not possible to send ambulances," Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national emergency services told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

He further added that a helicopter had been sent to the area.

With agency inputsBEIJING: One of the most sacred locations in Tibetan Buddhism, the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa, caught fire on Saturday but there were no reports of any casualties and the extent of the damage was unclear.

The official Tibet Daily said part of the monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a history of more than 1,000 years, caught fire in the early evening.

"The fire was quickly extinguished, there are no casualties and order is normal in its environs," the newspaper said on its WeChat account.

Tibet`s Communist Party chief Wu Yingjie has gone to the scene to oversee operations, it added, without giving other details.

Other state media outlets showed pictures of flames leaping into the sky and water being sprayed on them by the fire services.

China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since Chinese troops marched in in 1950, in what Beijing terms a "peaceful liberation".

The Chinese government routinely rejects accusations from rights groups and exiled Tibetans about repression of the largely Buddhist Tibetans, saying its rule has brought prosperity to what was once a poor and backward place.

Beijing has also made a great show of the amount of money it has spent to preserve and protect traditional Tibetan culture, including the many temples and monasteries that dot Tibet.Open source

From the beginning of the day on February 17, illegal armed groups attacked the Ukrainian positions 10 times in the area of the antiterrorist operation. As a result of the fire of militants, none of the servicemen of the Armed Forces suffered. This is reported by the press center of the headquarters of Donbas conflict on its Facebook page.



In the Luhansk direction, according to the report, the militants used 82-mm mortars and 122-mm artillery systems at Ukrainian support points near Luhansk.



Not far from Troitske, the militants fired from 120-mm mortars and arms of the IFV.



"After lunch, the invaders stepped up in the Krymske area, where they repeatedly fired at Ukrainian defenders from mortars, heavy machine guns and small arms," the report said.



In the Donetsk direction, the militants fired from prohibited weapons near Pisky. In particular, they used 120 and 82 mm calibermortars and also fired from the tank armament.

Related: Poroshenko: Negotiations with Russia possible only after restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrityAfter big cyber attacks, mainly WannaCry and Russian NotPetya, German Foreign Minister views them as the greatest challenge

Germanys Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen thinks that cyber attacks are the greatest challenge threatening global stability now, as she told CNBC in an interview.

"I think it's the cyber threats because whatever adversaries you can think of and even if you talk about Daesh (the terrorist group) they use the cyber domain to fight against us, she said.

According to her, the next decade will be devoted to strengthening the cybersecurity and countering cyber attacks.

Previously, the White House, the Foreign Ministry of the UK, and Danish Minister of Defense Claus Hjort Frederiksen had publicly accused Russia of NotPetya cyberattack. Russia called the accusations ungrounded and not proven.

NotPetya cyberattack hit Ukraine on July 27. It was a large-scale cyber attack that affected dozens of companies and enterprises across Ukraine, having contaminated a few ministries and the Boryspil Airport, among others.Reuters

With the help of sanctions, it is possible to force the Russian Federation to show flexibility in the issue of the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas. This opinion was expressed by the former NATO head, adviser to the president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaking to Ukranian journalists, Ukrinform reports.



"It is very important to maintain pressure on Russia. American decision to tighten sanctions, hand over weapons to Ukraine has increased pressure on Russia, and we need to keep it to make Russians really move forward, including in the matter of the peacekeeping mission," the politician said.



"First, Ukraine and Russia must come to an agreement on the composition of the peacekeeping force. I would certainly like to see NATO members in it, but obviously Russia will be against it, so we advise that, for example, Finland, Sweden, Austria will make their contribution, "- said Rasmussen.



"I doubt that there will be any development of events until presidential elections are held in Russia. Now Putin's proposal with a very small mission and without a strong mandate two months ago will not lead to a solution of the problem in eastern Ukraine ", he added.



As you know, Sweden declared its readiness to participate in the peacekeeping mission in Donbas, if Russia and the West agree to this.



As a non-NATO country, Sweden was proposed as a possible leading country in the peacekeeping mission in the report on Rasmussen's order.



It is noted that the report was presented to officials, including US special representative in Ukraine Kurt Volker on Saturday.

Related: Two American destroyers enter Black Sea112 Agency

Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Volodymyr Drinfeld and his co-author Alexander Beilinson received the Israeli prize of the Wolf Fund for Mathematics. This was reported by the press service of the National Academy of Sciences.



Scientists work at the University of Chicago (USA). They were awarded for a series of innovative works on algebraic geometry, which are "of paramount importance" for theoretical physics, in particular string theory.



"The result of the fruitful cooperation of the two mathematicians, marked by the Wolff Prize, is the identification of deep connections between modern abstract mathematics and physics by studying the important algebraic structures working in quantum field theory, which in turn is the theoretical basis of modern particle physics" reads the message.



The results of the study are described in the book "Chiral algebras".



At the moment, the prize of the Wolf Foundation has already been awarded to 329 scientists and artists from around the world. Laureates receive awards from the hands of the President of the State of Israel.



The award includes a money amount of $ 100,000.

Related: Poroshenko to participate in court proceeding over Maidan crimesAfter this representatives of the nationalist organization headed to the building of the representative office of Russian cooperation

112 Agency

On Sunday, February 18, members of the Ukrainian Nationalists Organization crush banks of Russian origin. This is reported by the 112 Ukraine TV channel.



In particular, they stoned the windows in the building of "Sberbank" on Sahaidachnogo St. After this representatives of the nationalist organization headed to the building of the representative office of Russian cooperation in the center of Kyiv.

Yesterday nationalist organizations members broke into the building of the Russian Center of Culture and Science in Kyiv.

"Activists of C14, Right Sector, Tradition and Order and other nationalist organizations came to Russian cooperation building. Interesting "souvenirs" were revealed, the report says.



As reported, during the incident in the premises were children from the theater studio, who rehearsed the play "The Inspector General". In total, there were about 100 people in the building at that time.

Related: Ukraine and Russia should come to agreement on composition of peacekeepers, - RasmussenTwo men rape girl, 16, in Bajura

Two men raped a 16-year-old girl in Budhiganga Municipality-7 of Bajura district, police said. The victims family members on Saturday lodged a complaint at the District Police Office, stating that two local men overpowered the victim and raped her on Thursday.The diplomat reiterated that the Czech government continues supporting Ukraines aspirations to join the EU

The Czech Republic supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine and preserving sanctions against Russia, as Martin Stropnicky, Czech Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister, told Ukraines Foreign Minister in the framework of the 54th Munich Security Conference.

Having noted the active political dialogue between the countries, the parties discussed the agenda of Ukrainian-Czech cooperation, the statement of Ukraines MFA says.

It is noted that the diplomat reiterated the Czech governments continuing support for Ukraines aspirations to join the EU.

In October 2017, the Czech leader offered Russia to pay for Crimea with money or gas, and thus consider the issue solved. These words caused indignation and concern among those supporting Ukraine. However, despite the openly pro-Russian stance of Czech president Milos Zeman, many common Czech citizens condemn Russias actions in Crimea. Protests took place in Prague after his statement about Crimea.On Sunday, Feb. 18, Kyiv commemorates the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred - those who were murdered during the Euromaidan protests in the fall and winter of 20132014. About 500 people gathered to commemorate the victims.

In Kyiv, a prayer and a memorial for the perished heroes have started. Around 500 people gathered here, in the alley of the Heavenly Hundred. These are the relatives of the Heavenly Hundred and their brothers from the Maidan. They come here with flowers, light candles, remember the times when they were together at Maidan, remember how they fortified the barricades, how they hid in the St. Michael's Monastery. Many of them tell that right after the Revolution of Dignity they went to defend their Motherland to the East, our reporter said.

At 14:00, there will be a Petal march, and at 20:00, candles will be lighted. It is expected that President Petro Poroshenko will attend the memorial.

The Heavenly Hundred is the collective term for those who died in the confrontation with Yanukovych-times forces during the Euromaidan. Feb.18-21, 2014, were the most tragic times of the Revolution of Dignity when 73 protesters died. At that time, special forces officers and snipers shot at people on Maidan. Snipers were placed on the rooftops of the buildings in downtown Kyiv and Berkut forces had AK-47 assault rifles.Open source

Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko announced the upcoming open court hearings over ex-Interior Minister Aleksandr Zakharchenko and ex-Security Service Head Aleksandr Yakumenko and their deputies who are accused of crimes that led to Euromaidan killings. Prosecutor General said this today at the opening ceremony of the exhibition to the Heavenly Hundred heroes.

I want to tell you the most important thing. I have been waiting for this opportunity for a while. Hundreds of investigators and prosecutors had worked on this, and it finally happened. The Kyiv court granted the inquiry for a special pre-trial investigation and consecutive sentencing of those whom we suspect of organizing the killings of the Heavenly Hundred. Finally, the inquiry has been granted, and Yanukovych, Zakharchenko, Yalymenko, Totsky, Ratushniak, Fedchuk, and others will be handed over to the court based on 300 volumes of evidence right after the process over Yanukovychs state treason ends, he said.

He said the court hearing will be open and they would show who tortured and killed the best part of Ukraine in February (of 2014, - 112.int).

As it was reported earlier, the President Poroshenko said he had decided to participate in the court proceeding investigating the Maidan crimes of 2014.Kurt Volker says that its hot war in Donbas now and the issue is urgent

Open source

Deploying a UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas would be the best way of protecting Russian-speaking people there, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine said in the framework of the Munich Security Conference at the Ukrainian Lunch.

Kurt Volker says that its hot war in Donbas now and the issue is urgent.

He emphasized that Russia insists that it allegedly supports the efforts of the militants in Donbas because it wants to protect Russian-speaking people there.

The best thing that we could do protect people, to create security and peace would be to have a UN-mandated peacekeeping force there. That would effectively end the conflict and then create a space where the Minsk agreements can be fully implemented, he said.The Commander of Ukrainian Navy commented on the information dispersed by the media, which says four marines were murdered as part of military hazing

Social media

Commander of Ukrainian Navy Ihor Voronchenko denies that the information that four marines were killed near Shyrokyne because of military hazing, as he said in a video address.

Some media named military hazing the main reason for this crime. The facts that we have now dont confirm this information, he said.

On Feb. 15, four Ukrainian Marines were found dead in their house not far from Shyrokyne, Donetsk region. Two Ukrainian servicemen were detained on suspicion of the crime.

Ukrainska Pravda wrote that, according to their sources, the marines were shot in their sleep because of being victims of systematic military hazing.

A source in Ukraines Ministry of Defense gave similar information to Novyny N.PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan extended condolences to his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani as a passenger plane operating the Tehran-Yasuj flight crashed in the Isfahan Province killing all 66 people on board.

President Sargsyan offered deepest condolences and sympathies to the people of Iran and extended words of compassion to the families of the victims, the presidents office said.

66 people on board a Aseman Airlines passenger plane that crashed Sunday in a mountainous region of Iran have been killed, executives of the airline told local media.

The ATR plane operated by Aseman Airlines disappeared from radar screens some 20 minutes after take-off from Tehran, local media said.

The aircraft operating a domestic flight crashed in the Kohangan Village near the Padena region, 120 Km from Semirom in Isfahan Province. According to preliminary reports the plane attempted an emergency landing in farm fields before it crashed.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers and 6 crew members.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan extended condolences to Irans first Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri on the fatal plane crash in the Isfahan Province, Iran, the PMs office said.

On behalf of the Armenian government I extend condolences to you and the good people of Iran on the Tehran-Yasuj flight disaster. At this difficult moment, we express our support to the brotherly people of Iran, wishing patience to the families of the victims, PM Karapetyan said in a letter.

66 people on board a Aseman Airlines passenger plane that crashed Sunday in a mountainous region of Iran have been killed, executives of the airline told local media.

The ATR plane operated by Aseman Airlines disappeared from radar screens some 20 minutes after take-off from Tehran, local media said.

The aircraft operating a domestic flight crashed in the Kohangan Village near the Padena region, 120 Km from Semirom in Isfahan Province. According to preliminary reports the plane attempted an emergency landing in farm fields before it crashed.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers and 6 crew members.The Argentine Ministry of Defense has announced via a decree its intention to acquire new capacity of air defense, to increase capabilities to defend and control its airspace. In November 2018, Argentina will organize the G-20 meeting and would like to improve protection during the event especially against air threats.



Soldiers Marine Infantry of Argentine Navy using RBS 70 short-range anti-aircraft missile system (Picture source www.zona-militar.com)

According to the military website www.zona-militar.com, Argentina could purchase RBS 70 NG latest version of the short-range air defense systems RBS 70 developed and manufactured by the Swedish Company SAAB. Currently, Argentine armed forces are equipped with Skyguard anti-aircraft 35mm gun GDF-002 and some 20/30mm anti-aircraft cannons.

The Argentina army is also equipped with 3 shelter-mounted surface-to-air missile ROLAND 2 SAM system designed to engage enemy aircraft flying at M1.2 or less between a minimum altitude of 10 m and a maximum altitude of 5,500 m and between a minimum effective range of 500 m and a maximum range of 6,300 m.

In late September 2016, Swedish Company SAAB has announced that it had procured a $44 million order for the RBS 70 SHORAD (Short Range Air Defense) without disclosing the customer but the military magazine Janes reported that the buyer country could be Argentina. According, to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) Arms Transfers Database, in 2009, Argentina has ordered 30 RBS-70 NG air defense system.

The first version of the RBS 70 is already in service with the Marine Infantry of Argentine Navy since 1990.

The RBS 70 NG is based on the RBS 70 with new-generation sighting system, high precision, unbeatable range and unjammable laser guidance. The RBS 70 NG was presented for the first time to the public during the DSEI defense exhibition in September 2011, London, United Kingdom. The RBS 70 NG uses the new BOLIDE missile which can defeat a wide range of targets, including ground and surface targets. BOLIDE has an intercept range of 8,000 m and altitude coverage of more than 5 000 m.Works at Bhairahawa int'l airport fail to gather pace

Works at the construction site of Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa have failed to gather pace, raising doubts over completion of the project even in 2019.Now that it is fully apparent, to all who have the ability to pay some modicum of attention, that Imposter President Biden has extreme cognitive issues, in addition to being an inveterate liar: Can OUR Republic continue with this Executive Office that has completely failed, so many times, on far too many issues here at this early date in this abysmal presidency?

No, Joseph R. Biden is completely unqualified, morally and cognitively, to represent real Americans, and lead this Republic of disparate peoples.

Yes, Joseph R. Biden has started whispering again, even softer now than before; so, I know he still cares, plus, OUR media will soon stop reporting on Afghanistan in favor of OUR Socialist issues.An owner, officer, operator or manager must complete any training or testing to comply, or is likely either to expend 10 hours or to purchase professional advice to understand and comply with the rule in the first year, Business opportunities are restricted, including but not limited to any limitation on previously offered goods or services or any restriction on ancillary business activities, Taxes or fees assessed on transactions are likely to increase, Prices charged for goods and services are restricted or are likely to increase because of the rule, Specially trained, licensed, or tested employees will be required, Operating costs are expected to increase, or Any capital investment is necessary to comply with the rule.

Increased customer charges for goods and services, Decreased market value of goods and services produced, provided, or sold, Increased costs resulting from the purchase of substitute or alternative products or services, Reduced productivity due to decreases in employment, Lost business opportunities due to capital costs, time lost for creative and entrepreneurial effort, or any restrictions on investment choices or market entry, Any other impacts suggested by the Rules Ombudsman, the agency head's appointing authority, or interested persons.

Government red tape slows down the economy . That is a consistent finding in economic research literature. Federal regulation has been estimated to cost the U.S. economy over $1.9 trillion in 2017 . State regulation has been estimated to cost the North Carolina economy as much as $25.5 billion in 2015 Those are unseen losses. They represent the absence of economic productivity that would be there but for the red tape. Policymakers who understand this aspect of red tape should be interested in cutting red tape and keeping regulatory burdens light and up-to-date.In previous research updates, I discussed a Florida regulatory reform , called legislative rules ratification, that appears to achieve basically what North Carolina legislative leaders are seeking to do with the " rules throttle " approach in the conference report for House Bill 162 . One of its merits is that it sparked good communication and cooperation between the legislature and the rulemaking agencies.Part of the Florida reform concerns when agencies should prepare a "statement of estimated regulatory costs" (SERC) of a proposed rule. The line is $200,000 in aggregate regulatory costs is likely within its first year. Those costs can be direct and indirect costs, but here's where the cooperation starts.The law also says agencies are "encouraged to prepare" a SERC, even when the proposed rule isn't considered likely to hit that $200,000 threshold where it would be required. But how to make a good-faith effort of estimating regulatory costs? There are so many moving parts involved.As described in the Florida Bar Journal in 2015, the rulemaking subcommittee of the legislature worked with the agencies, the business community, and affected parties in order to provide recommendations for "improved guidance for agencies preparing SERCs." A bill was drafted to codify them but only passed one chamber. Nevertheless, discussion and legislative staff analysis of the bill proved valuable in themselves.The legislative packet to outline the discussion to guide agencies in drafting statements of regulatory costs broke out three subcategories of where red tape could have adverse impacts: on small businesses, across a broad array of economic measures, and in compliance costs. The questions they asked under each subcategory are instructive to anyone interested in how red tape interferes with economic growth.For example, here are the circumstances considered regarding adverse impacts of red tape just on small businesses:Should agencies acknowledge an adverse impact on small business in each of the following circumstances?Here are the circumstances they considered regarding red tape's adverse effects on "economic growth, job creation, employment, investment, business competitiveness, productivity, innovation, and small business":Should agencies be required to consider the following in evaluating such impacts?The packet even had 13 separate circumstances of regulatory impact owing to compliance costs.Even though the bill ultimately only passed the state House (unanimously), the Florida Bar Journal found its guidelinesand the broader discussionI think it has utility beyond those things.This deep dive into how government red tape can affect private enterprise, in so many different ways, can help policymakers in North Carolina and elsewhere realize just how far-reaching regulatory impact can be. It's eye-opening, and because of that, it could lead to more reforms.For anyone interested, there's a good list of potential reforms at the end of my report on " Regulatory Reform ."I love Jen Wang's work: her debut graphic novel Koko Be Good was thought-provoking and challenging and beautiful; "In Real Life," her adaptation of my story Anda's Game took the tale to places that delighted and surprised me -- today, Firstsecond publishes The Prince and the Dressmaker , which I believe will be her breakout graphic novel.

The Prince and the Dressmaker is the story of Frances, an aspiring dressmaker, and Prince Sebastian, heir to the throne of Belgium and the most eligible bachelor in the elites of Europe at the apex of the industrial revolution, just as the role of royalty is shifting precipitously.

Prince Sebastien is under nearly unbearable pressure: to wed, to assume leadership. But he's also under pressure thanks to his dark secret: some days, when Prince Sebastien looks in the mirror, he sees a woman. He has been stealing his mother's dresses for years and privately dressing in them, with the help of an extremely discreet and devoted servant.

One day, Frances finds herself summoned by Prince Sebastien, and, as she discovers his secret, she also finds in him her most willing patron, canvas, and audience, the first person to truly understand her artistic passion.





The two conceive of an artistic and personal partnership, with Frances helping the prince fashion a second identity as Lady Crystallia, who quickly becomes the toast of Paris and the most mysterious and best-dressed figure in high society. As the pair's collaboration deepens, so does their friendship  and then it ruptures, when Frances has to confront the fact that she can't be known as Prince Sebastien's tailor and Lady Crystallia's tailor without compromising the prince.





What follows is a wrenching and beautiful story about gender identity, passion, friendship, selling out, keeping your integrity, and the surprisingly capacious limits of parental love.





Of course, it's a Jen Wang book, so it is also gorgeous, with emotive character design, beautifully conceived settings, and a visual rhythm that paces the book so, so masterfully.





I was reduced to happy tears by this book. It is the greatest work yet from a creator with a string of great works in her history.

If you're in Los Angeles, you can come see Jen and I discussing The Prince and the Dressmaker at Chevalier's Books on March 15.

The Prince and the Dressmaker

[Jen Wang/Firstsecond]News / National

by Staff reporter

Retired Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), Augustine Chihuri is embroiled in a messy maintenance wrangle, B-Metro can exclusively reveal.In court documents exclusively obtained by this publication, Sithulisiwe Mthimkhulu based in Bulawayo laid bare her intimate and steamy escapades with her former boss which led to the birth of an eight-year-old girl who is in Grade Four.Details of Rtd Comm Gen Chihuri's extraordinary busy love life are contained in a maintenance suit in which Mthimkhulu filed at the Bulawayo Maintenance Court under case Number 191 /18 while demanding a lumpsum maintenance of US$ 272 242 from the former police boss for the upkeep of his child.The matter is set to be heard on 26 February.In her summons Mthimkhulu revealed that the retired police boss worked for nearly 37 years as a commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and earning over $4 500 per month hence he would be able from his terminal benefits to pay or meet her lumpsum claim of US$ 272 242.She poured her heart out indicating that the former police boss was using his position to victimise and subject her to all sorts of humiliation and embarrassment whenever she visited or contacted him over the upkeep of the child."I am the applicant in this matter and the information contained herein is within my personal knowledge and belief.Where I state issues of law, it will be at the advice on my legal practitioners of record and whose advice I accept."Respondent Augustine Chihuri was the commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police since 1981, while I was his subordinate. He has since retired but I am still in the force. Respondent and I have a child together born on 2 July 2009. When it was time for us to go and get the child's certificate, the respondent refused. I ended up doing it all on my own and that is why the child bears my surname and not his.'Over the years and ever since I was pregnant, the respondent has been neglecting to take care of his daughter.Whenever I needed money I had to call him and, even then he would not do anything. I would then have to go to his offices to look for him. He would then use his position to victimise and subject me to all sorts of humiliation and embarrassment."He would, after he has said all that is in his mind and treating me as he so desired, give me some of the money. If I did not ask, he would keep quiet. Calling him and going to his office almost every month to beg for money, be victimised and humiliated became part of my routine," reads her summons in part.According to Mthimkhulu when she initially decided to take the matter to court Chihuri pleaded with her that they should go for an out of court settlement and she agreed."I agreed as I fully understood his reasons for doing so. He was my boss and also the Commissioner-General of the entire police force in Zimbabwe. He had engaged some legal practitioners in Harare to assist him and I could not, in those circumstances, doubt his sincerity in seeking to have the issue resolved amicably, "she revealed.Mthimkhulu claimed fearing that she was going to take the legal route, Rtd Comm Gen Chihuri in May last year agreed that he would pay US$650 monthly being maintenance for the child, US$349 monthly for medical aid, US$3 655 termly, being school and boarding fees for the child. He also agreed to buy all school uniforms and school accessories and expenses as well as school trips.Rtd Comm Gen Chihuri reportedly paid until October before he stopped communicating with his alleged mistress- Mthimkhulu."In November 2017 I waited and no maintenance was deposited to my account. December 2017 came and went by with nothing being paid for the child and it was the same story in January 2018. I then started getting worried."Respondent still could not be reached on his cellphones. The child needed uniforms, clothes, food and also to have her medical aid and school fees paid. Respondent was not communicating with me-no email, no phone and no text."I then decided to consult my legal practitioners of record. A letter was drafted and sent to respondent's Harare residence via courier marked 'private and confidential''. I believed that he deserved his privacy one way or the other."To my surprise, the security guards had been instructed not to entertain anyone or receive anything. The letter was returned to my legal practitioners and they have it on file with the relevant endorsement on why it was not delivered."After consulting further with my legal practitioners, I then advised them to contact the legal practitioner who assisted the respondent in May 2017 leading to our out of court settlement. I am advised by my legal practitioners, which advice I accept, that after some telephone discussions, the legal practitioner concerned requested that my letter be e-mailed to him and he would try his best locate the respondent."The letter was emailed on the 19th of January 2018. The respondent later and through the same legal practitioner responded with proof of payment of fees, medical aid and maintenance which payments had not been communicated to me," Mthimkhulu further claimed in her summons.She said it became clear to her that the father of her child didn't want to communicate with her as he was reportedly avoiding her calls."As I stated earlier on, respondent is now retired and will obviously receive a package. He worked for nearly 37 years as a commissioner-general of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and earning over $4 500. He will no longer be getting any monthly salary from which he was and would pay for the child."There is no salary that, when he fails to pay, stop order can be effected. It is now difficult if not impossible to get hold of him. I used to access him through his office. He no longer has one which I know of. Previously I would walk in and discuss matters affecting our child despite all the victimisation. Should I need anything for the child, given the circumstances as outlined above, the child will be most affected. It will, therefore, be in the best interests of the child if respondent is ordered to pay me money enough to sustain the child until she turns the age of 18 years or become self-supporting."Currently, the child is doing Grade Four. She has three years and two terms to finish primary school. She will then have six years to complete secondary school. This means she will need to have her medical aid covered and using current rates, it means at $369 per month. This makes up a total of US$43 542."She will need maintenance and at current rates if prices do not spiral out of control she will need US$76 700, ie calculated at us4 650 per month. Her uniforms and school accessories at current rates will be US$23 600 for the next nine years."School and boarding fees are currently at US$ 3 655. They will obviously go up when it comes to high school.However, using these rates, she will need US$105 885 until she finishes her Upper Sixth Form. University fees at approximately US$6 000 per year, over four years and to cover all her other accessories at university will total US$ 24 000."As the child grows, being a girl, her needs will increase. I will not be able to choose clothes for her. She will be having her own choices and preferences. She will need a cell phone and other gadgets that are costly. She is now used to a certain standard of life that respondent has introduced her to."She is now accustomed to it. The above total of US$ 272 242 is just but the minimum. I believe it will be fair to the respondent and in the best interest of the child if the respondent is ordered to pay a lump sum of US$ 272 242. I believe this amount will enable the child to continue enjoying the standard of life he introduced her to and is used to".She said the respondent agreed to pay the money without any coercion and he was the one who insisted that his child should be on such an 'expensive" medical aid and should go to a boarding school."I respected and agreed to that. He was well meaning and being responsible as a father. I will be able to also take care of her other needs and with contribution from the respondent be able to cater for the child."I will have been saved from chasing after the respondent. He is well able, from terminal benefits and as someone with a number of immovable assets, to pay this money. The child is in need of maintenance and the claim is not avoidable," declared Mthimkhulu.News / National

by Staff Reporter

HARARE - MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe yesterday poured scorn on the party's national council's decision to name Nelson Chamisa as successor to Morgan Tsvangirai.Khupe broke her silence for the first time since she publicly opposed Tsvangirai's plan for an opposition Alliance to take on Emmerson Mnangagwa at the forthcoming polls.Tsvangirai's longest serving deputy said the national council meeting that enthroned Chamisa at the party's Harvest House headquarters in Harare was "unAfrican, uncultured and barbaric" and brought out the worst in the MDC.This comes after Chamisa, 40, was chosen to lead the country's largest opposition party, which was thrown into crisis by the death of the former prime minister in South Africa on Wednesday.Tsvangirai had battled against colon cancer since 2016.The decision to enthrone Chamisa was made by the national council - the MDC's highest decision-making body in between congresses.Of the 215 members in the national council, 190 attended the emotive meeting."Chamisa has been appointed to act in place of Morgan Tsvangirai for a period of 12 months, which is in line with the constitution of the party, so he is the president of the party," vice national chairperson Morgen Komichi told reporters on Thursday.Khupe and another MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri boycotted the national council meeting in a move that betrayed the intensifying infighting in the opposition party.Khupe said she was not amused with the haste in which Chamisa moved to seize power.Earlier, Khupe had clashed with Chamisa in angry scenes at Tsvangirai's Highlands mansion, with the confrontation stunning mourners.Khupe reportedly fumed at Chamisa, accusing him of being "power-hungry"."May I state on good authority that the family and indeed the majority of the party leadership stands distanced from any and all of the disturbing cheap politics we have witnessed since the passing on of president Tsvangirai," Khupe said in a damning statement yesterday."As a deputy president who unanimously received her mandate to serve as president Tsvangirai's second-in-charge at our 2014 MDC national congress, I would have failed in my duty and in reverence of his memory if I did not call to order the misguided comrades behind these unAfrican, uncultured and barbaric chain of events that have sought to draw attention away from the tragic loss to our party and country."Khupe said she would like to appeal to all party members, organs, and the people of Zimbabwe to "focus on the responsibility of preserving the memory of our departed founding president, and to calmly wait for further information on how we will proceed with the journey to the final resting place for the late president Tsvangirai.""This information will be made available by Tsvangirai's family and I on our return from South Africa," she said.Khupe, who issued the statement as MDC vice president and leader of the opposition in the Parliament of Zimbabwe, said she was in South Africa to organise the repatriation of Tsvangirai's body back home."I profusely apologise to all who may have been offended by the uncharacteristic representation of our party at such a time as this, and wish to assure the nation that MDC is guided by a constitution that was born in a Zimbabwean cultural context of Ubuntu/Hunhu - that sacred age-old code of self-dignity and respect for the departed," she said.Khupe said: "I left Zimbabwe this morning and have arrived in South Africa as I continue to work with the family in giving our fallen gallant hero a befitting farewell. Hopefully, we will be able to repatriate the body of the late Right Honourable . . . Tsvangirai back home in the next day or two."Relations between Tsvangirai and Khupe soured in 2016 when the late veteran leader appointed two additional vice presidents - Chamisa and Mudzuri.The move was widely interpreted as a no-confidence declaration by Tsvangirai in his long-serving deputy, who heightened the stand-off by opposing the now late MDC leader's legacy project for an MDC Alliance, arguing the MDC does not need an Alliance to win an election in the three Matabeleland provinces, sentiments that made her a force to reckon with among like-minded party faithful who include influential figures such as Lovemore Moyo, the party's national chairperson and Abednico Bhebhe, its national organising secretary.MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, who is rooting for Mudzuri to take over, has threatened to call an extraordinary congress after Tsvangirai's burial to choose a new leader for the party.He said he tried to stop the national council meeting but was snubbed.Mudzuri has secured the support of Tsvangirai's main family members.On Monday, the so-called Order of The Vanguard - a militant youth group - stopped the former Harare mayor from addressing a press conference at Harvest House.Since then, the Harvard-trained engineer has been conducting his business from Tsvangirai's Highlands mansion and insists he is the acting MDC president.Chamisa has, on the other hand, captured Harvest House.Yesterday, Chamisa's spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka responded angrily to Khupe's scathing statement, saying there was nothing unAfrican about the national council conclave."The national council met and took binding resolutions," Tamborinyoka told the Daily News."All we are concentrating on now is giving the president a send-off befitting his dignity and stature. Anything else is an unnecessary sideshow. Brand Tsvangirai does not deserve all this. It's very African to meet when you have a bereavement of an icon such as . . . Tsvangirai."According to the MDC constitution, the national council can convene to pick a new leader.Article 18 of the amended MDC constitution, under Powers of the National Council, says: "The national council, notwithstanding anything contained herein shall have the absolute discretion of determining the manner and process of any selection, including the power of making any appointment for any position."Chamisa claimed in a statement yesterday that the MDC "has deployed vice president . . . Khupe to South Africa to collaborate with the family and work towards the repatriation of the body of our hero, president Tsvangirai.""I will remain at the president's residence with some members of the Tsvangirai family to receive dignitaries and other mourners who will grace our president's family home in honour of this gallant patriot," Chamisa said.He said following the decision of the national council yesterday, he has set up a special committee in charge of logistics and other matters to do with the funeral.Led by the party's deputy national chairperson, Komichi, the committee also comprises deputy secretary-general Paurina Mpariwa, deputy organising secretary Amos Chibaya, national youth chairperson Happymore Chidziva and national women's assembly chairperson Karenyi-Kore.It will work in close liaison with the Tsvangirai family.News / National

by Staff Reporter

HARARE - Morgan Tsvangirai's ex-wife Locadia Karimatsenga paid her last respects to the late former prime minister and leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on Thursday.Clad in black, Locadia - who is now an apostle at the Nation of Glory Ministries in South Africa - described Tsvangirai's death as a personal loss and a blow for young people who looked up to him as their role model and leader.A former trade unionist, Tsvangirai was the face of Zimbabwe's democracy struggle against the repressive rule of then-president Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party.A few months before his passing on, when Mugabe was ousted in a military intervention and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa as president, Tsvangirai urged the new government to create a conducive environment for holding credible, free and fair elections this year.Since forming the MDC in 1999, Tsvangirai led it in numerous elections. Zanu PF and Zimbabwe's military responded with waves of violence against his supporters.At the peak of the former prime minister's battle with cancer of the colon, Locadia revealed she had totally forgiven Tsvangirai for everything she held against him and had been praying that he gets back to full fitness."I am deeply hurt by Morgan's death," Locadia told the Daily News after she paid her last respects to the former trade unionist's mother in South Africa at the home of Tsvangirai's son Edwin."I offer my deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all those across the world whose lives were touched by his unfettered resilience."It's the end of an era, but certainly not an end of his legacy. I pray that the MDC leaders come together and stop quarrelling among themselves. That is what Morgan would have wanted," she said.Asked what her view was regarding the fracas between her ex's wife Elizabeth and Tsvangirai's family, Locadia was cautious."It's something I am not privy to, but if there is any hostility, I urge unity," she said.Locadia and Tsvangirai became the subject of frenzied media coverage in November 2011 after she wed Tsvangirai for a hefty bride price at a private ceremony in Mazowe.The marriage did not last the distance after Tsvangirai sensationally claimed that he had "lost confidence" in the relationship. She later made an application to the courts seeking to stop his wedding with Elizabeth.The relationship acrimoniously ended in 2012, but she told the Daily News last year that any differences she may have had with the MDC leader was water under the bridge.Besides church, Locadia is also involved in philanthropy in the densely-populated township of Diepsloot.News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Zanu PF factional fights over land issues were recently reported in Epworth at Overspill area in ward 7.Zimbabwe Peace Project in its latest report said it is alleged that Zanu PF provincial commissar for Harare Kudakwashe Damson's two children were injured in a suspected arson attack which also destroyed property."Reports are that Damson had been assigned by the province to spearhead a land audit in Overspill area where suspected G40 activists and land barons had allegedly benefitted vast tracts of land taking advantage of former Zanu PF political commissar Savior Kasukuwere who was local government minister by then," said ZPP."Suspected G40 activists who were against the land audit allegedly threw an unidentified substance which detonated at Damson's home leaving his two children injured. The incident was reported as an attempt to block Damson from carrying on with the land audit in the area."ZPP said it is alleged that there was chaos during a residence development meeting chaired by Zanu PF MP Zalerah Makari in Epworth at Epworth local board in ward 7.News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) joins other media stakeholders in the world in commemorating the World Radio Day."As we mark the important role which radio plays in promoting development and democracy, radio remains one of the most powerful and mostly preferred medium even in the face of alternative media," reads the organisation's statement."As we commemorate this day, under the theme, Radio, Sport and Cultural Diversity, it is our concern is that there is no movement in terms of improving the broadcasting media situation in Zimbabwe. The supposed public broadcaster ZBC remains captured by the state and closed to the generality of the Zimbabwean citizens with an editorial thrust which is highly partisan while no community radio is licenced.This presents a sorry broadcasting media state which defeats the whole idea of opening up Zimbabwe for business as is currently being pushed by the new Government."The theme for this year is well considered especially if one looks at the developmental role which radio plays particularly community radio. Community radio is strategically positioned to promote our cultures and sport if it's given space and a conducive operational environment."There is no doubt that licenced community radio stations operating within the confines of a democratic and progressive media law and regulatory framework, will contribute to a better Zimbabwe which we all dream about," said ZACRAS."The clarion call by His Excellency President Mnangagwa to open up Zimbabwe for business must be accompanied by opening up the media space especially freeing the airwaves so that more players can be given space. The broadcasting media has remained a preserve of a selected few and only those close to the ruling elite for a long time regardless of calls by various media stakeholders and advocates for the government to liberalise the airwaves. It is ZACRAS' position that the opening up of the airwaves which will see the licensing of the community radio initiatives that are scattered in the country, will be a practical demonstration of the new administration's intention to do things differently.""While the pledge for democratic, free, fair and credible elections by President Mnangagwa is encouraging and a step in the right direction, the practical steps should include reforming key aspects of the electoral environment and the media is central. Citizens have no reason to believe that there is now a new way of doing things when the media environment and the narrative remain unchanged. It is therefore, in our view, of paramount importance for the government to attend to issues of broadcasting diversity and pluralism so that our broadcasting media is democratized and the generality of Zimbabweans and those who live in Zimbabwe can participate in it freely."ZACRAS said therefore we call upon the government of Zimbabwe to:-realign media laws including broadcasting media with the constitution,-institute a democratic community broadcasting regulatory framework which promotes citizen participation, expedite the call for the applications for community broadcasting licensing, and cease harassment and intimidation of community radio practitioners by creating a conducive operational environment.1. Yes. COVID-19 can only be stopped through vaccinations. A mandate is needed.

2. Yes. This is a major step, but were facing a national emergency. It is a justifiable move.

3. No. The government is right to promote vaccinations, but not to require them.

4. No. This is government overreach and legally questionable. A mandate is wrong.

5. Unsure. Its in the publics interest, but mandates infringe on individuals rights.

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by Stephen Jakes

MDC-T supporters have criticised Nelson Chamisa and his cabal for rushing to appoint him as Acting President just soon after the party leader Morgan Tsvangirai died and was yet to be buried saying he desplays character of a too much power hungry leader."Please respect Morgan. Watch this, MDC Spokesman Obert Gutu announced that there was to be a Press Conference at Mr Tsvangirai's residence in Highlands on Thursday. All Media are inivited," grumbled an MDC-T supporter.Another MDC Vice President Thokozani Khuphe tweeted to say "Hazvisirizvo zvavapo. The true leader will come and will be announced at the fullness of time. The power hungry faction should have waited until after the burial of Tsvangirai to anoint a preferred candidate. African tradition instructs us to resolve Leadership only after the bereaved has been buried."Both Vice President Thokozani Khuphe and Elias Mudzuri the other MDC Vice President did not attend the National Council meeting that saw the appointment of Vice President Nelson Chamisa as the Acting President this morning at Harvest house.News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A Chief in Rushinga has been accused of cheating villagers by making them contribute money to fuel his newly government acquired vehicle for personal use.The chiefs recently got new vehicles from government which has been described as the fulfillment of former President Robert Mugabe's promises by the new president Emmerson Mnangagwa.Zimbabwe peace Project said a Chief in ward 21 of Rushinga presiding over Nyamanyanya area, known as Nicholas Chaora Muzika or Makuni has been accused of using deceptive methods to fundraise for fuel after receiving a vehicle from the government."Reports are that on 28 January Muziki instructed village heads to collect $0.50c per individual as tribute towards holding a celebration ceremony in appreciation and acknowledgment of the gift from the government. Defaulters were reportedly told that if they fail to pay the dues, they will be forced to pay an unspecified fine for defying the Chief's orders," said ZPP."This left villagers concerned as they accused the Chief of using dubious plans to raise money for fuel expenses."News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A ZANU PF supporter has been slapped with a lawsuit by a villager who is demanding payment of $10 000 as compensation for damages for pain and suffering, which he endured after he was assaulted early this month.The villager, Abel Mauchi, who resides in Matuvi village under Chief Makore in Gutu in Masvingo province, filed the summons on Friday 16 February 2018 demanding $10 000 from Matora Masiiwa, who assaulted him after he refused to surrender his voter registration slip containing his serial number and other data.In the summons filed by Mauchi's lawyer Collen Maboke of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the villager said he collapsed and was hospitalised at Gutu Rural District Hospital after he sustained some injuries from being assaulted by Masiiwa on Friday 09 February 2018. Mauchi said he met Masiiwa at Mutendeure Shopping Centre in Gutu in Masvingo province while on his way from attending a workshop organised by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace held at St Xavier Gono Parish in Jerera, where Masiiwa interrogated Mauchi on why he had not attended a meeting where Musiiwa and Pedzisai Manzunzu were collecting serial numbers of voter registration slips from some villagers.Mauchi said he was threatened with assault by Musiiwa after he advised him that his request was illegal since no one should disclose their serial numbers and any other information on their voter registration slips to anyone. Thereafter, as Mauchi was leaving for his homestead, he was tracked by Musiiwa, who twisted his left hand and began assaulting him with clenched fist and booted feet. Musiiwa only stopped assaulting Mauchi when he realised that he had collapsed. Mauchi sustained some injuries which include swelling on the left side of his abdomen from the assault.The villager is demanding that Musiiwa pays him a total of $10 000 of which $9 800 is for damages for contumelia and $200 for special damages together with costs of inconvenience caused upon Mauchi. Musiiwa was scheduled to appear in court on Friday 16 February 2018 after he was arrested and charged with assault as defined in Section 89 (1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.Already, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has condemned the practice of forcibly demanding voter registration slips or details such as serial numbers from registrants and equated such demands to intimidation, which is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.By instituting anti-impunity civil proceedings against Musiiwa, ZLHR seeks to deter acts of human rights violations and reduce impunity and increase accountability of both State and non-State actors for human rights violations against human rights defenders.News / National

by Staff reporter

THE Hwange Colliery Company has dragged Police Commissioner-General Tandabantu Godwin Matanga to the High Court seeking an urgent order to force him to give orders to the police to eject people who have been protesting at the company's premises in Hwange.Wives of employees of the company besieged the company offices protesting that the coal mining firm pay their husbands their outstanding salaries. In the urgent chamber application for an interdict filed through its lawyers, Mawere Sibanda Commercial Lawyers on behalf of the company, Hwange cited Comm-Gen as the first respondent and Officer-in-Charge of Hwange Police Station as the second respondent. In the application, Hwange Colliery is seeking the court to force the police to evict the protestors."The applicant having sought the assistance of the police by engaging the second respondent who is in charge of the police station closest to the applicant's main office. The second respondent having refused to intervene in the demonstrations therefore left the applicant with no other remedy except to approach this Honourable Court, as its business operations are being disrupted by the said demonstrators. The applicant accordingly hereby approaches the Honourable Court for urgent relief as set out in the draft herein," read part of the chamber application.The company said they want police bosses to discharge the functions of their office in terms of the Public Order and Security Act (Posa) as the regulating authority by dispersing the "unlawful" gathering of demonstrators. The company wants the protestors to be prevented from disrupting coal mining activities.According to the application, Hwange's business activities at the main office have been disturbed since 29 January by a group of demonstrators purporting to be the the wives of the company's employees."The demonstration by the said persons being illegal in that they are on the Applicant's private property, although not employed by the Applicant and they have no permission for the court or from the Applicant, itself to be to be demonstrating on the Applicant's private property," read the application.In his founding affidavit deposed together with the application, company secretary and legal representative Mr Allen Masiya said the company was also seeking an interdict against the demonstrators."The demonstrators did not have any court order or clearance for carrying out their protest. To make matters worse, because they are not the applicant's employees, they did not have applicant's permission to enter the premises. However, despite efforts of the applicant's security personnel to deny the demonstrators access, the groups forcefully entered the premises and surrounded the applicant's administration building. They began disrupting the day- to-day operations of the applicant, by singing, dancing and making threats against applicant's managing director. To date, and as I depose this affidavit, the protestors are still stationed at the administrations building, with others scattered around the applicant's premises," he said.The High Court is set to hear the case on Tuesday.Wives of HCCL employees have been demanding that the coal mining company fulfils its pledge to pay them outstanding salaries, after agreeing to a scheme of arrangement last year. Hundreds of women camped at the management office in Hwange where they used tree branches to block management from entering the premises. Some of them have been sleeping at the premises as part of their demonstration.Opinion / Columnist

On February 15, 2018, I got up to the news that our dear leader, President Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had passed on the previous night. As is my custom, I had gotten up to do some reading on developments in our country and around the globe. I had just completed reading about political developments in South Africa, which eventually culminated in President Jacob Zuma tendering his resignation in the aftermath of the political pressure from his own party, the African National Congress (ANC) and South Africans as a whole. It was in those circumstances that I saw a special report to the effect that our Great Save' had left us.Now, I am only an ordinary man and I am not qualified to write authoritatively about our dear departed leader. I believe there are people who are more qualified to do so than I am. Nonetheless, I know he influenced us in a number of ways and personally, he left an indelible imprint on my mind and there never has existed a single individual in the history of Zimbabwean politics, who has had this sort of impression on me. There have been great leaders in Zimbabwe but still, Tsvangirai was that towering political figure " the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie" (John 1: 27).Tsvangirai has exited the Zimbabwean political scene that he so enriched. It's sad that he left at a time when we needed him most. However, "Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names" (Proverb). We are confronted with watershed elections in 2018 and the MDC Alliance had entrusted Tsvangirai with its leadership. It is my humble expectation that the alliance leaders, namely; Nelson Chamisa, Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube, Jacob Ngarivhume and any other sincere and committed politician that I might have omitted, will carry on with the struggle till its logical end is realised. And, you can, therefore, very much imagine the sadness and grief that is associated with a profound loss of this nature.Personally, I am shaken and deeply hurt. In September 1999, I was a mere 16-year old boy doing Form 3 at Hermann Gmeiner Secondary School in Bindura, Mashonaland Central when the MDC was formed. Following the formation of the party, it had a felt presence in Mashonaland Central province where atrocities would later be committed against members of the newly-formed MDC by rotten, malodorous and unscrupulous elements of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party then led by coup ousted President Robert Mugabe. ZANU PF is that political party that has been single-handedly responsible for the socio-political and economic destruction of our country.Because of its felt presence in Mashonaland Central province and other provinces across the country, the MDC instantly became a vibrant political entity that inspired generations of people whose lives had been minimised by the whimsical actions of ZANU PF. By the time of the February 2000 referendum on the Zimbabwe Constitution, the MDC had become the party of choice for students, workers, and intellectuals. Its great showing in the bloody June 2000 parliamentary and March 2002 presidential elections could be partly attributed to its ability to organise and mobilise under Tsvangirai's able leadership. Even in the face of adversity, the MDC did extremely well in the harmonised elections of March 2008 thus forcing Mugabe and the military to thwart any possibility of a free, fair and credible runoff election in June 2008. You are morbidly aware, dear readers, of the untold atrocities that our people had to go through towards that sham election of June 2008. The peace and brief improvement in our lives experienced between February 2009 and July 2013 was because Tsvangirai was a just Zimbabwean politician upon whose merit Zimbabwe was kept from entire destruction.Since its formation in 1999, the MDC made it possible for young people like myself to believe that we had something to offer to our country. It was people like Tsvangirai who inspired that hope and service to our country. Thus, despite his departure, we remain political zealots with deep faith that the MDC will change our lives for the better. This is the dream that saw Tsvangirai and others like him sacrifice so much so that we may all be proud of our country again after it had been ruined by the likes of Robert Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa who replaced his mentor via a military coup. Tsvangirai has left, but the struggle isn't complete. He played his part and urged us to unite. In Tsvangirai, I saw a humble servant of our people. He worked tirelessly to dry our tears. He showed compassion and shouldered our burdens with humility. Although gone, his legacy lives on. Tsvangirai has left behind a committed and dedicated life and a light that will remain lit on the paths of men.Going forward, his suitable replacement is needed and I have taken note of the recent scrambling for his position. In his later days, three centres of power had emerged in his party and there can be no doubt whatsoever that Chamisa is Tsvangirai's desired replacement. This is something that the party has since affirmed following his death. There are, however, elements that were opposed to the unity that Tsvangirai fostered. These Janus-faced politicians are sowing divisions just to destroy the party that Tsvangirai worked so hard to unite and build. If not careful, Elias Mudzuri, Thokozani Khupe, Douglas Mwonzora and Obert Gutu may as well be seeing the end of their political days. I see them falling, no more to rise. Their political obituaries might have come with Tsvangirai's death!After all is said and done, we need to fight the next election as a united party and in honour of all those we have lost and others who bear the scars of this struggle for freedom, justice and democracy. Sincere condolences to the Tsvangirai family and all democrats who were inspired by the selfless life of service that Morgan Tsvangirai lived. May his dear soul rest in peaceful repose! The struggle continues unabated!Opinion / Columnist

Luke Tamborinyoka is the presidential spokesperson and Director of Communications in the MDC-T. He writes this in his official capacity.

Facts are stubborn. It is trite to state that the story of this country cannot be written without according veneration to the name of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.For there is no debate he deserves his own space in the national narrative for the significant role he has played in shaping the country's post-liberation politics.Fate is a capricious woman and the whole journey was never planned, as he often said. It was mother fate that often tended to throw him to the deep end.As he always told me, it all started during midnight conversations at the national labour federation's elective congress in Gweru in 1988. He did not even want to run for office and most delegates at that Congress, including Tsvangirai himself, had tipped veteran journalist Charles Chikerema to clinch the powerful post of secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.The post had once been held by Albert Mugabe, the former President's brother and everyone at the congress was convinced that Chikerema, yet another relative of Mugabe, would ascend to the powerful post. But the conversations on that ominous night on the eve of the elections in Gweru expressed doubts on whether Chikerema would be able to able to wean off the ZCTU from the firm clutches of government, where previous leaders had unwittingly left the ZCTU.President Tsvangirai, then a leader of the mineworkers' union, eventually agreed to run after fellow delegates had made persuasive arguments about the unsuitability of Chikerema. The delegates had their misgivings on whether the veteran scribe would give the ZCTU its deserved autonomy from government control.It was almost morning when Morgan Tsvangirai finally agreed to run for the post of secretary-general, which he won a few hours later, setting the stage for 30-year tenure in the national limelight as a doyen of the country's democratic struggle.When I heard the news at exactly 17:37 hours on Wednesday, I mused over this journey that started in 1988 had painfully ended 30 years later, only 24 days before his 66th birthday.It was a journey in which he was prejudiced of the Presidency following his watershed victory in the elections held on 29 March 2008. Given his mammoth love for the country and its people, he humbled himself and settled for the junior post of Prime Minister.He was to rescue the country from a debilitating crisis and poise the nation for stability, growth and development in a mere four years as premier of Zimbabwe. Driving a stability and growth agenda through the Government Work Programme, Tsvangirai showed his competence on the wheel of government during his four year stint in government.As the nation stood on the cusp of a crucial election in which he was expected to win resoundingly, mother Fate again intervened. This time, cruel fate took him to the grave, leaving a despondent nation shell shocked.He was a man I knew so well. To me, he was a father, a man I served for over a decade.A boss.A friend.We travelled the world and across the country together. We spent many times talking about the country and the people he so much loved.Tokyo, Washington, London, Canberra, Beijing, Paris, Berlin, the Swiss Alps in Davos and many other world capitals, I had the privilege of accompanying him as his spokesperson. During those trips across the globe, he often charmed the world and gave revered speeches to bemused audiences, especially during his stint as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and leader of the country's opposition.In the country, we travelled together from Plumtree to Chipinge, from Nyanga to Chirundu and from Mt. Darwin to Binga down in the Zambezi escarpment as he engaged in his favourite pastime - meeting ordinary people and getting their input into how the democratic struggle ought to be prosecuted. The last time was the period between January and February 2017 when we spent one-and-half months traversing the country and getting the people's feedback on the MDC Congress resolution to enter into a formidable political alliance with other players.We sat together until late in the night after that tour as we penned his piece after that highly informing jaunt. The piece, in keeping with his natural disposition as a listening leader, was entitled "I heard You."He was a boss any rational person could wish for; the only boss I know who could afford to attend funerals of relatives of his underlings, as he did when he came to my rural home in Domboshava for the burial of my grandmother, Martha Tamborenyoka Gombera.He would wait to give an ear to everyone, whatever their station in life. He often had tiffs with his security personnel, whom he always wanted to relax their tight protocols and allow ordinary people to shake his hand and speak to him.Party members and ordinary villagers would come from Mt. Darwin and be granted an ear at his residence whether in Strathaven or in Highlands; even against the advice of security personnel who would often wanted to refer the party members to their respective provincial leaders.Not with Tsvangirai, who would insist he wanted to get the untainted, raw information from ordinary supporters, undiluted by the strictures of officialdom and bureaucracy. That was vintage Tsvangirai. Always a man of the people.His death came as a shock.especially against the background of my last two moments with him.The first of our last two personal and direct engagements was on Friday, 5 January 2018 after his meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.It was at that meeting at his residence that he intimated to me the details of his discussion with Mnangagwa. At the same meeting, he told me to tell the world that he was about to leave the country and he would leave Vice President Nelson Chamisa as acting President and he asked me to call Chamisa. After their brief indaba with VP Chamisa, he told me to communicate to the world that VP Hon. Engineer Mudzuri would be acting President.Present in the meeting that Friday afternoon was President Tsvangirai himself, his wife Elizabeth, his brother Manaseh Tsvangirai and his uncle, Sekuru Zvaipa.It is ironic that after that communication, VP Khupe took issue with me, saying that as the elected VP, she should always act in the President's absence. I referred her queries to the President, under whose authority and direction I had done the communication.Ironically, a month later, VP Mudzuri was to dispute my communication of the President's directive that VP Chamisa was acting President.My last face-to-face meeting with my boss was on Monday, 8 January 2018, the day before he left for South Africa, never to come back alive. He had asked me to draft a belated New Year's message to the people of Zimbabwe, in which he was hinting at his imminent retirement.He told me that it was important to signal to the world that he would not hold the nation at ransom; that he would not hold on to the party presidency if his doctors told him his health would not permit him to withstand a rigorous campaign.He perused his script and certified that I distribute it, only for the same script to cause a major furore in the party, with some misguided elements lying that the statement did not have president Tsvangirai's blessings.It is important to state that present at the foyer of his Highlands residence as he authenticated that statement hinting at a possible retirement was his brother Manasseh and Jameson Timba, who later arrived as the President and I were finishing validating his script, in which he hinted at handing over the baton to others. It was a possibility which he said he would only confirm upon his return.Sadly, he will return with his body lying in the soft requiem of death; the inimitable raspy and raucous laughter never to be heard again at Harvest House.Yes, he left for the infirmary in South Africa on Tuesday, 9 January 2018, never to return alive to the country and the people he loved so much. He regularly phoned and at one point asked me to come over to South Africa so we could discuss a lot of issues, including the book that I was assisting him to write - Service and Sacrifice. It is a book that I pledge to complete in the next few months in honour of this loving man who had so much faith and trust in me.I told then acting president Mudzuri that president Tsvangirai wanted me in South Africa. The then acting president promised to facilitate my trip before logistical impediments were thrown in the way to ensure that the trip never materialized.He called to express his regrets that I had failed to turn up in South Africa. On Wednesday, 7 February 2018, he called again using a hospital staffer's cellphone and told me that he had learnt that the other party leaders in the presidium had left the country for a meeting in Cape Town, leaving only VP Chamisa. He asked me to communicate that VP Chamisa, the only VP in the country then, would be acting President until he (president Tsvangirai) returned from South Africa.In any case, this is the Presidency we are talking about, a whole institution which has its own unique ways of operation in which the whims of an individual staffer cannot just hold sway.Even the chief of staff Hon., Sessel Zvidzai and the party's head of security and intelligence, Hon. Giles Mutsekwa can testify to the veracity of the President's position when it comes to who was acting President at the time of his death.President Tsvangirai told me from South Africa that his health was slowly failing him and that the thrust of the book - Service and Sacrifice - should change into a valediction and not to remain as a simple story of the party's capacity to deliver to the people as shown during the inclusive government.I felt tears swelling in my eyes before assuring him that he would be fine and he would rejoin us in the struggle soon.Alas, that was never to be.My father.My boss.My friend.He was a close friend who would at times call me and my wife to offer advice and to assure me that he took cognizance of my loyalty and committed service to himself. He once invited me and my wife to his house and he shared many of his thoughts in a convivial atmosphere. Present in that meeting in June 2017 was my friend, Sydney Masamvu.As the party and the nation mourns, I cannot help but reminisce on the many moments we shared; the many thoughts he intimated to me on controversial subjects such as family politics, succession and his vision for the future.In our last conversation, he told me he had instructed medical staff to keep me informed about his health and that is how I kept in contact with staff at the infirmary until I received the tragic message that he had passed on.In this his final moment, I urge the leadership to give this man a befitting send-off. I sincerely hope that this needless cockpit stampede will be put in abeyance, at least in the veneration of this doyen of our struggle.His will remain a story of fortitude and tenacity and there is no doubt that he has left ineradicable footprints on the sands of history.Thanks for the memories, Pakuru.Go well, gallant son of Zimbabwe.Opinion / Columnist

Zimbabweans owe Tsvangirai some gratitude for supporting maintaining democracy but It feels as if he was doing it to become a dictator himself. Ironically the constitution of the MDC is the most undemocratic and chaotic piece of paper. Tsvangirais death brought up great fissures within MDC. Where the family of Tsvangirai suddenly decides who should take over from Tsvangirai. As long as the party has Tsvangirai's name in it it becomes a family property.The Tsvangirai Chete chete mantra has plunged the party in a big pool of destruction. The MDC will never remain the same MDC has shown us a vivid illustration of the unity of purpose that characterizes this party when it is at its worst. It was that unity of purpose that drove MDC leaders to be rumour mongers in their quest for snatching leadership reins from Chamisa. It was that unity of purpose that laid the foundations of division within MDC. It is that unity of purpose that is the key to OPPOSITION progress in the years ahead.Rumours and scandals were spread around in a bid to disqualify the youthful Chamisa. Tsvangirais family was made believe that Chamisa was sexing Tsvangirais wife. This rumour was spread with specific purpose of demonising Chamisa and hoping to drum up the support for Mudzuri an Khupe.It was well known Khupe never worked well with Tsvangirai but on Tsvangirais death Khupe shared more tears that bereaved.Unity of purpose was used negatively in the case of MDC.We can see concrete examples of that unity of purpose in so much of MDC public spats.Unity of purpose guides MDC's collaboration for democracy, human rights and good governance, to fly away into the thin air. It drove their collective efforts for peace and security -- including being champions of democracy to vanish into thin air.The same applies to efforts to build enduring peace in parties recovering from the loss of a leader. The leader who had hoped to keep the party as his personal property yet he claimed to be democratic.Throughout history, political parties that reaffirmed their enduring spirit, have come together to work towards their mutual gain. In a nutshell, that is the simple meaning of unity of purpose. But MDC has transformed it into a confusion and dying party now left in the hands of rumour mongers scandrous bigots power hungry hypocrites and dangerous leaders.People may use different paths but all travelling the same journey; holding on to the ideals that are important to all of them. Unity of purpose also means the ability to identify, negotiate and resolve differences. MDC is now bedevilled by lack of these qualities, hence its perennial problems. It behooves on members of the MDC to take advantage of opportunities, to participate, promote collective responsibility, and foster a strong sense of belonging. Honesty and hard work; shared understanding and support for each other; sense of identity teamwork and social solidarity; high level of involvement in political projects; courage and fair play; mutual co-operation and tolerance; emotional support for members; and loyalty and patriotism. All these values, if held sacrosanct, and if people had pulled in one direction, MDC would have certainly achieve unity of purpose, which is the sum total of a stable political party. In the MDC such values have been devalued to nothing like the legs of the snake. It is because theirbpriorities are wrong. Right now the process of mourning Tsvangirai is not given the importance it deserves, yet it is the only process that can heal the wounds and bring about order and mutual respect among party members. But what is a good MDC brand or a beautifully written Constitution when the people are at each other's throats? Unity of purpose is the ultimate goal and aspiration of any party.First and foremost, let us accept that there is still unresolved anger, hatred, fear, worry and stress which continue to haunt MDC arising from different episodes of their history.Of what use is it, to build a big party which can go up in smoke in one day as violence flares up within MDC the nation is reminded that MDC only brings violence and no progress. It does not stand for a single democratic value. Chamisa was a cart before the oxen. He was appointed then the constitution was amended. The idea of giving a party your name shows the greatest hypocrisy being paracticed by MDC. Politics must know that it pays more dividends to invest in peace. The violence shown by MDC. Reconciliation is focused on building relationships between antagonists. The relational dimension involves the emotional and psychological aspects of the fighting parties. As a concept and praxis, reconciliation endeavours to reframe the conflict so that the parties are no longer preoccupied with anger or seeking revenge. The prime objective, which is, achieving unity of purpose, is how to seek innovative ways to create time and space within various levels of the populations for long lasting reconciliation to be implemented. This is imperative in order to address, integrate and embrace the painful past, and the shared future, as a means of dealing with the present.So MDC should not start talking about unity of purpose before it is at peace with each other. They have neither the unity and they are not convinced for what purpose. All the challenges they have faced and continue to suffer emanate from unresolved past grievances. They are a people spell bound by a curse. MDC therefore needs to come to terms with its past in order to achieve unity of purpose. Zimbabweans are known for their resilience. ZANU PF will win it will walk through this dog's breakfast being created by MDC.As the elections come closer MDC will be preaching rigging. They have nothing they are offering to any person. All their supporters are being fed with imaginary fear. ZANU PF shall attain unity of purpose come hell or Chamisa. MDC is now breaking into pieces. It will be buried together with its leader. Already it is fighting itself it is now using thugs called vanguards to prohibit others to attend the office. They again are using Tsvangirais stepmother muzvari Manyonda to divide the party further. MDC is surely in a horrible fight with itself. If it is brutally bruised it will then blame ZANU PF for its loss in the coming elections. ZIMBABWE must unite and remove this cancer called MDC. Zimbabwe should not be led by a Movement of Democratic ConfusionVazet2000@yahoo.co.ukJudith Bergman is a columnist and political analyst





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..15 February '18..Israel is in the midst of a terror wave few people outside of Israel know about, because the international media is not reporting about it.Although it is rarely described as such even in Israel, the terror wave has been ongoing for twenty-nine months  from September 2015 and until the present. In January 2018, according to the latest figures from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there were a total of 332 terrorist incidents, resulting in one murder and 16 injured. The incidents included 2 stabbings/attempted stabbings; 2 shootings; 1 ramming attack; 4 roadside bombs; 251 stone-throwing attacks and 45 Molotov cocktails.Most of the mainstream media, which is constantly obsessing over fake news, is not reporting any of these terrorist attacks, which is ironic, as nothing could possibly be more fake than deliberately omitting to report news. Especially because the omission only happens in order to advance the specific and insidious agenda of portraying Israel as the aggressor and the Arabs as perpetual, oppressed victims.According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since 13 September 2015, 62 innocent people have been killed in terrorist attacks and 899 people have been wounded. There have been 192 stabbing attacks and 139 attempted stabbings; 173 shooting attacks and 61 vehicular (ramming) attacks. In addition, riots and other types of attacks occur almost daily: rock throwing (6481), roadside/pipe bombs (187) and Molotov cocktails/grenades (1320). Furthermore, in the south, Hamas & Co. has launched innumerable rockets and mortar shells on Israel from Gaza, 64 of which have fallen in Israel. In 2017, 54 terrorist attacks were successfully carried out, while 400 terrorist attacks, including 13 suicide attacks and 8 kidnappings, as well as 1,100 potential lone-wolf attacks, were prevented.Meanwhile, organizations pretending to care about human rights (very selective human rights, they do not include the human rights of Israeli Jews) such as Amnesty International, obsess over the fates of professional terrorists such as Ahed Tamimi, who provokes and terrorizes IDF soldiers for a living. It is therefore not surprising that a crucial piece of news went unreported by most news organizations, namely that the Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida  translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)  admitted in a January article that 161 Arabs from the PA carried out stabbing attacks against Israelis in 2015-16.Why is it newsworthy that the PA officially admitted that its citizens carried out stabbing attacks? Because back in 2015-16, the PA falsely claimed that Israel was fabricating the stabbing attacks and, as documented at the time by PMW,  planted knives  next to the dead bodies of innocent Palestinian victims after having executed them in  cold blood .The media and the international community naturally believed Abbas. He knew he could count on major news outlets not to question why Arab terrorism against Israelis was spiking. Instead, the media pulled the ragged old cliches of the mysteriously self-igniting cycle of violence out of the old bag, while Israels legitimate self-defense against the stabbings, shootings and rock throwings was reported in negative terms and sometimes in terms taken straight out of Abbas own playbook. One particularly egregious CBS headline from 2016 said, . The headline referred to a terrorist attack committed by three Arab terrorists armed with guns, knives and bombs, on two border policewomen at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem. One of the police officers, 19-year-old Cpl. Hadar Cohen, was killed in the attack.At the time, Mahmoud Abbas even asked the U.N. Human Rights Council to dispatch a commission of inquiry to the region After all this genuinely fake news about the terrorism committed against Israel, you might be inclined to think that the international media, as well as the Western establishment  which has lately become so obsessed with countering fake news  would simply rush at the speed of light to correct its mistakes, would you not? To report the breaking news that the PA has finally admitted that it orchestrated the terrorism.Predictably, that has not happened. Nor has the EU reconsidered its promise to strengthen its support of the PA, as EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini recently promised Abbas that the EU would do, while proudly boasting that It is unlikely that the admission of terrorism published in the PA daily even interests anyone in the international mainstream media, which has long ago ceased to report actual news. Instead, it serves specific political agendas. In the words of the Jewish radical and anti-Semite, Ilan Pappe, Who knows what facts are? We try to convince as many people as we can that our interpretation of the facts is the correct one, and we do it because of ideological reasons, not because we are truth-seekers.____________________In 2017, Davidoff Cigars released two limited extensions to its Davidoff Discovery Pillar (Black) Label series. The first was a series of 6 x 60 line extensions, and the second was a culebra offering featuring three of the Discovery Pillar blends. These blends included Davidoff Nicaragua, Davidoff Escurio, and Davidoff Yamasa blends. A culebra is a group of three panatelas twisted together to form a snake-like entity. The origins of the culebra can be traced back to Cuba, but there are many conflicting stories about the creation of the culebra unit. While some culebra entities consist of three twisted cigars of the same blend, when it comes to the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition, each unit contains a twisted panatela from each of the three blends from the Davidoff Discovery Pillar (Black) Label. Today, we take a look at one of the panatela components of the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition which will be referred to in this assessment as the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra.

One can infer the release of the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition is the by-product of a corporate strategy implemented by former Davidoff CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard. During his time at Davidoff, Hoejsgaards strategy focused on product innovation. The most famous product that resulted from this strategy was the introduction of the Davidoff Nicaragua in 2013. This was a project where Davidoff Master Blender Henke Kelner was challenged to blend an all-Nicaraguan tobacco  something he had not done up until that time. This cigar would become a huge success for the company  and ultimately became a springboard for the Escurio, Nicaragua Box Pressed, and Yamasa lines.

While Davidoff Yamasa is a mostly Dominican-centric blend, it is not short on innovation. It is highlighted by a wrapper and binder that Davidoff grows in the Yamasa region of the Dominican Republic. This is a region that has been described by Davidoff as a harsh and unforgiving swampland where others have failed to grow tobacco. Kelner put in a two-decade effort to succeed in growing tobacco in this region where others had failed. Ever-focused on the science of the land around him, Kelner led an effort that included raising the pH levels of the soil and utilizing crop rotation and transplanting  thus making the region capable of producing excellent tobacco. While Davidoff has used tobacco from this region for several years, in 2016 the company built a line around it that would be known as Davidoff Yamasa.

This is not Davidoffs first culebra release. The company had a previous offering with the Davidoff Special C. In that culebra offering, the three panatelas were identical blends. For the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition, each of the panatelas is a different blend.

Without further ado, lets explore the Davidoff Yamasa component of the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The Davidoff Yamasa Culebra shares the same blend components as the rest of the Davidoff Nicaragua line.

Wrapper: Yamasa (Dominican Republic)

Binder: San Vincente from Yamasa (Dominican Republic)

Filler: Nicaragua (Condega, Esteli), Dominican (Piloto, Mejorado)

Country of Origin: Dominican Republic (TABADOM)

Vitolas Available

The Davidoff Yamasa has been produced in six sizes:

Culebra: 6 1/2 x 33 (Limited Production)

Petit Churchill: 4 x 48

Robusto: 5 x 50

Toro: 6 x 52

Piramides: 6 1/8 x 52

6 x 60: 6 x 60 (Limited Production)

The Yamasa Culebra is sold as a part of the Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition, which also contains the Escurio and Nicaragua panatelas. Each Davidoff Culebras Limited Edition is packaged in an individual coffin containing the three twisted panatelas  one from each of the Discovery Pillar blends. The coffins are then available in 8-count boxes. In a nutshell, each coffin has one Davidoff Nicaragua Culebra panatela and each box has eight of them.

Appearance .

The three panatelas of the culebra are twisted together in a classic Cuban style. There is a black ribbon tying the three panatelas together on each side of the culebra. Like any culebra, the individual panatela components arent the most attractive, but when all three are tied together, its a work of art.

One thing that is unique is that each of the panatelas has a footer band to easily identify the blend of the panatela. These bands are similar to the secondary bands found on the Davidoff Escurio, Davidoff Yamasa, and Davidoff Nicaragua lines. In the case of the Davidoff Yamasa, it has a red color with black trim. On the band, it says YAMASA in white font. To the left and right is a black colored Davidoff Yamasa star logo.

The wrapper of the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra has a chocolate brown color. There was some oil on the surface. This was a classic culebra component that was basically a scrunched panatela vitola. As a result, the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra had a bumpy surface. There were some visible veins and visible wrapper seams

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to lighting up the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra, I used a straight cut to remove the cap. Once the cap was removed, I proceeded with the pre-light draw. The dry draw delivered a mix of chocolate and cedar notes. While it was a simple profile, I still found this to be an excellent pre-light draw. At this point, I removed the footer band of the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra, lit up the cigar and moved on to the smoking phase.

Flavor Profile

The Davidoff Yamasa Culebra started out with a mix of milk chocolate, natural tobacco, cedar, and black pepper. Early on, the chocolate notes moved into the forefront. The natural tobacco and black pepper notes settled into the background. During the first third, the cedar notes were also in the background but at times surfaced in the forefront. Meanwhile, the retro-hale produced a mix of cedar and black pepper.

Later in the first third, the natural tobacco notes started to creep into the forefront with the chocolate notes. As the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra moved into the second third, the cedar notes settled in the background. The chocolate notes would remain primary, but as the Yamasa Culebra moved deeper in the second third, the natural tobacco notes became more prominent. Meanwhile, there still was some black pepper on the tongue and it still remained a part of the retro-hale.

By the final third of the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra, the natural tobacco took over as the primary note. The chocolate, cedar, and black pepper were all complementary notes. This is the way the cigar experience came to a close. The resulting nub was firm to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Panatelas in a culebra are typically under-filled so they can be twisted together. The Davidoff Limited Edition Culebra falls into that category. Like my experience of the Davidoff Nicaragua Culebra, I was quite surprised how the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra scored for both but and draw. Burn-wise the Yamasa Culebra stayed on its burn path and maintained a straight burn line. The resulting ash wasnt overly firm, but it wasnt loose or flaky either. The ash itself had a salt and pepper complexion to it. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.

The draw to the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra was outstanding. It maintained the right amount of resistance, making this an enjoyable smoke from start to finish. Considering culebras are usually under-filled, this also surprised me.

Strength and Body

Strength and body-wise, I found the Davidoff Yamasa Culebra to be one of the bolder offerings in the Davidoff Yamasa Collection. This is a cigar that started off medium to full in strength and body. I found the intensity levels to remain relatively constant throughout the smoking experience. At the same time, I found both attributes to balance each other nicely with neither overshadowing the other.

Final Thoughts

While I go into every cigar review with a blank slate, its hard to ignore what a culebra brings to the table. Very simply, you are not going to get an optimum experience with a blend that is put into a less-filled, scrunched panatela. My experience with the Davidoff Nicaragua Culebra was less than spectacular, so I admit I didnt have high expectations for the Yamasa Culebra. In the end, the Yamasa Culebra really surprised me, as it scored quite well. Every blend seems to tell its own story in a different size. The Yamasa Culebra provided a very enjoyable smoking experience. It wasnt the most complex, but it was flavorful and enjoyable. It made me think how good this blend would be in at traditional panatela.

The Yamasa Culebra component is one I would recommend to a more seasoned cigar enthusiast and its one I would smoke again. In terms of this cigar, you are going to have to buy the whole Culebras Limited Edition coffin containing the three blends and that will run you $55.50. In my opinion, if you are into the adventure and fun of trying a culebra with some of Davidoffs best blends, this is one worthy of trying.

Summary

Key Flavors: Chocolate, Natural Tobacco, Cedar, Pepper

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium Minus

Strength: Medium to Full

Body: Medium to Full

Finish: Excellent

Rating

Value: Try a Sample

Score: 91

References

News: Davidoff Culebras Features Discovery Pillar Blends

Price: $55.50 (3 Unit Culebra containing 3 different blends)

Source: Purchased

Brand Reference: Davidoff

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop, except where noted.Press Release: The Botswana Prison Service wishes to inform the public that the execution of the death penalty passed on Joseph Poni Tselayarona, 28 years, of Magokotswane ward in Molepolole, was carried out today, Saturday February 17, 2018 at Gaborone Central Prison in the early morning hours.





This follows a death sentence which was imposed on him by the Gaborone High Court on the March 10, 2017 for the offence of murder.





The High Court convicted Tselayarona for the murder of his girlfriend, Ngwanyanaotsile Keikanne and her three-year-old son, Miguel Keikanne in 2010 at Molepolole.





He was sentenced 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend and handed a death penalty for the murder of the son.





He later appealed the judgment but was dismissed on the November 23, 2017 by the Court of Appeal.





Wamorena Ramolefhe, Assistant Commissioner of Prisons

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeFebruary 6th marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, or Cutting. The United States stands in solidarity with governments and communities around the world working to end this human rights abuse, said State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert in a statement released on February 6th.

According to UNICEF, at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting. If current trends continue, an additional fifteen million girls are at risk of being subjected to the practice by 2030. Although it is illegal in most countries, these laws are not always enforced.Female Genital Mutilation is often performed in communities where the value and status of women and girls lags behind that of men and boys.

The United States partners with a broad range of stakeholdersfrom policymakers and health practitioners to religious leaders and youth activiststo work against Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting, and to raise awareness of the harm it causes to societies, Ms. Nauert said. U.S. Department of State officials continue to engage diplomatically with host governments and through bilateral and multilateral partners to end this practice.

In 2017, the Department contributed $5,000,000 to UN efforts combatting of Female Genital Mutilation, and its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices include country-by-country information on the prevalence of the practice and international efforts taken to combat it.

Building on investments made in previous years to address the problem, we continue to advance initiatives to support survivor-centered programs in countries where Female Genital Mutilation is most prevalent, Ms. Nauert noted.

The Departments programs promote the abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation and work with communities and civil society organizations to increase their capacity to implement laws and legislation prohibiting it. This fiscal year, USAID is launching a three-year pilot activity in Kenya aimed at combatting the practice of Female Genital Mutilation, and child marriage by tackling the root causes and social motivators that drive these practices, including womens lack of agency, unresponsive health services, inactive protection networks, and limited economic opportunities for women and girls.

The advancement of women and girls is essential to peace, prosperity, and security, said Ms. Nauert. The U.S, she said, remains committed in our efforts to combat all forms of gender-based violence, including of Female Genital Mutilation, and Cutting and we renew the call for zero tolerance to end this harmful procedure that affects women and girls in far too many places across the globe.Reports from Tehran say human rights lawyer Mohammad Najafi, has been indicted on nine charges.

Najafi has been ivestigating the death in custody of Vahid Heydari, a young man who died in jail following his arrest during the protests in January.

He died in a cell at a police station in Arak, in Irans Central Province. Iranian authorities portrayed his death as suicide, charging that he was a drug addict in possession of illegal substances at the time of his arrest.

Consequently, when a member of parliament said that Najafi has conducted research that proved Heydari was neither a drug addict, nor a dealer, the Iranian Judiciary charged the lawyer with several accusations.

Najafis defense lawyer, Payam Derafshan, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that previously the indictment contained eight charges, but another accusation was added to the indictment during the final investigation.

Accusations against Najafi include, organizing a group to disrupt the countrys security, membership in a group planning to disrupt security, propagating against the regime, insulting the Supreme Leader, spreading lies, and sending information abroad, said Derafshan.

He said there are no evidence to back these accusations, adding that there is in fact just one accusation repeated in other forms.

Derafshan added that security forces have put pressure on other detainees to confess that Mr. Najafi has encouraged them to take part in the protest gatherings, but the inmates refused to do so.

He added that the arrest warrant for Najafi has been extended following its expiration last week, and that he has been transferred from his cell to the public ward in Arak prison.

Najafi was arrested outside his home on January 15.

Najafis lawyer, Payam Derafshan, says that the intelligence office in Shazand, a small town near Arak, has fabricated several cases against Najafi during recent years.

Meanwhile, international human rights watchdogs revealed that several civil liberty activists in Shazand have been arrested at the same time as Najafi.

In another development, Ali Baqeri, a political activist in Shazand, who had disclosed that the dead inmates family members had been threatened was also arrested.All 65 people aboard an Iranian passenger plane are feared dead after the aircraft crashed in a mountainous area of the central province of Isfahan.

The plane came down in the Zagros mountains near the city of Semirom while flying between Tehran's Mehrabad airport and the southwestern city of Yasuj, the national emergency services said on February 18.

The plane was carrying 59 passengers, four crew members, and two air marshals. Earlier reports said the plane had 60 passengers, but Iranian officials later said one ticketed passenger missed the flight.

The plane was said to be a twin-engine turbo prop ATR 72 operated by Iran's Aseman Airlines.

Airline spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 440-meters high, and that all on board the flight were killed in the incident.

However, he later told the ISNA news agency, "We still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane."

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it had dispatched 12 rescue teams to the area.

Foggy weather has prevented a rescue helicopter from reaching the crash site, state TV reported.

"Given the fact that the area is mountainous, it is not possible to send ambulances," said Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national emergency services.

Semirom lies around 480 kilometers south of the capital.

European airplane manufacturer ATR said it had no immediate information about the crash.

Aseman Airlines, headquartered in Tehran, is Iran's third largest airline. It specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country but also flies internationally.

Decades of international sanctions have left Iran with an ageing commercial passenger aircraft fleet that it has struggled to maintain and modernize.

Only after Tehran signed a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 could it order new planes from Airbus, ATR, and Boeing. About a dozen of the new planes have been delivered so far.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, and APBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

Azerbaijans postal operator Azerpost LLC intends to create its own e-commerce platform, the company told Trend.

According to the company, the negotiations on the project implementation are being conducted with specialized companies from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

"The matter rests in the companies offering services for creating e-commerce platforms, Azerpost said. The creation of an electronic platform is included in the plan of the company's actions for 2018-2020.

The plan of actions is based on the strategic roadmap for the ICT development where the key and priority issues are the development of Internet-banking, mobile banking and popularization of non-cash payments, Azerpost said. Being a state structure, Azerpost must support the set goals and our main task is to create this platform.

Moreover, the negotiations about the possibility of connecting Azerpost to the e-commerce project of the Turkish postal operator www.epttavm.com are also underway.

"Today, all purchase-sale transactions through www.epttavm.com are carried out exclusively within Turkey, as well as logistics, Azerpost said. The essence of our negotiations with the Turkish postal operator is for Azerpost payment cards to be used for purchases through this platform and the ordered goods to be delivered to Azerbaijan."Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.18

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Trends exclusive interview with Bulgarias Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

Question: How do you assess the current level of economic relations between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria? What are the prospects for increasing the volume of bilateral trade turnover between the two countries?

Answer: Bulgaria attaches great importance to its relations with Azerbaijan and considers the country as a priority partner given the wide prospects for developing cooperation in various fields of mutual interest. The Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership signed in March 2015 reflects the common will to further strengthen our ties.

Taking into account the excellent relations between our countries and the established legal basis for cooperation, we consider that the volume of bilateral trade does not meet the potential of Bulgaria and Azerbaijan and we would like to intensify our trade and economic relations, including through the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation.

I am fully convinced that there is great potential for cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of diversification of energy resources and routes of supply.

On January 16, 2018, within my visit to Baku, I was honored to attend, together with my Azerbaijani colleague  Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, the official ceremony of opening the first ever scheduled air service linking Baku to Sofia. I am persuaded that this direct line will contribute to the development of the bilateral business and economic ties, and will promote tourism in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan.

Q.: Bulgaria will chair the Council of the EU in 2018. What will be the priorities of Bulgarias chairmanship? Which issues related to EU-Azerbaijan cooperation will be in focus of Bulgarian chairmanship?

A.: We believe that the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU is an additional opportunity to expand the cooperation between our Bulgaria and Azerbaijan.

The Western Balkans is a key foreign policy priority of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council. It is vital to reaffirm the European perspective of the region.

Our main priorities are: "The Future of Europe and Young People - Economic Growth and Social Cohesion"; "European Perspective and Connectivity for the Western Balkans"; "Security and stability in a strong and united Europe"; "Digital economy and skills of the future". They follow from the Trio Estonia-Bulgaria-Austria programme and are attuned with the European Commissions legislative agenda for 2018.

We strongly support the Eastern Partnership as a strategic dimension of the European neighborhood policy and key factor for stability in Eastern Europe. The Bulgarian Presidency pays also special attention to the Danube and Black Sea region.

Bulgaria welcomes the progress of the negotiations on a new comprehensive agreement between the European Union and Azerbaijan, which will set up a new stage in the relations between them.

Q.: Currently, the Southern Gas Corridor project, which envisages Azerbaijani gas supply to Europe, is well underway. Bulgaria will also receive this gas via the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB). How do you assess Azerbaijans role in ensuring the energy security of Bulgaria and Europe in general?

A.: Bulgaria is interested in the implementation of strategic energy and transport infrastructure projects linking the EU and Azerbaijan such as the Southern Gas Corridor. We highly appreciate the role of Azerbaijan for the energy security and natural gas supply diversification of Bulgaria and Europe. Azerbaijan is not only a major gas source, but also holds a key role in the realization of the Southern Gas Corridor which will guarantee Europes energy security.

Bulgaria and Azerbaijan enjoy very good partnership in the energy field. An expression of this partnership is the contract concluded between Bulgargaz and SOCAR for the supply of natural gas to Bulgaria starting from 2020. We expect the construction of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) to start in June 2018, and the extension to Turkey to be ready by July. Thus, the delivery of the contracted 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually from the Shah Deniz Stage 2 to Bulgaria will be guaranteed.

Q.: Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia launched Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in late 2017. Is Bulgaria interested in using Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway for transporting its goods?

A.: We consider Baku  Tbilisi  Kars railway line as a strategic transport project, which could bring benefits not only for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey but also for Bulgaria and other European countries.

The railroad will facilitate the economic cooperation between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan.

As you know, the EU welcomed the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line in a special statement with regard to the further improvements of the transport links between Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Central Asia.

Q.: Which preferences can Bulgaria offer to Azerbaijani businesses for attracting their investments in the countrys economy? Which spheres in Bulgaria are the most promising for Azerbaijani investments?

A.: We would like to develop the bilateral trade and economic relations and to make the most of the opportunities for joint investment. In this regard, we would welcome a stronger interest of the Azerbaijani investment policy towards our country. Bulgaria's membership in the EU creates prerequisites for joint production and supply of goods for the EU and neighboring countries. Despite the negative effects of the global financial and economic crisis, Bulgaria succeeds in maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability. We have the most favorable taxes in the EU and a highly skilled workforce.

The government also applies a number of additional incentives to encourage foreign investment. There is great potential in sectors such as energy - gasification and gas distribution, building, tourism, including real estate, agriculture and food industry, pharmaceutics , etc.

Q.: Bulgaria has always supported Azerbaijans fair position in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. How do you see the ways of resolving this conflict?

A.: The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh has no military solution and may only be resolved through a political settlement. Bulgarias position of principle is that the conflict can be solved only through negotiations and the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group and its co-chairs, with the assistance of the European Union, as well as through active dialogue between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani.

I was deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties as a result of a passenger plane crash in your country, the President said in his message.

On the occasion of this tragedy, on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and the whole people of Iran, the head of state said.A delegation of the Ministry of Defense and Aerospace Industry (MOAP) of the Republic of Kazakhstan paid a working visit to Bishkek where it held a number of meetings with the heads of Kyrgyzstan defense agencies, Kazinform reports.

Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan Beibut Atamkulov met with Chairman of the State Committee of Defense of Kyrgyzstan Mirbek Kasymkulov.

The parties discussed the issues of interaction in the sphere of defense industry, activation of inter-factory cooperation and the outlooks of mutual supplies of military products.

In particular, the Kazakhstani delegation offered cooperation in maintenance of aviation equipment and helicopters and offered the Kyrgyz side defense products and services manufactured by Kazakhstan's defense factories.

The parties also discussed the possibility of delivery of Kazakhstan's multipurpose helicopters (Eurocopters Kazakhstan Engineering LLP) for the needs of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Kazakhstani delegation also offered Kyrgyz partners joint use of Kazakhstan's space based systems for prevention and liquidation of emergency situations.

The proposed cooperation in the space industry also assumes exchange of information and experience in remote Earth sensing and training of space personnel.

Also, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan's Minister met with Head of the General Staff of Kyrgyzstan Rayimberdi Duyshenbiyev.

The sides discussed the status of military and technical cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and noted positive dynamics in the development of cooperation.

Minister Atamkulov invited Kyrgyz colleagues to participate in the V International exhibition of military and technical equipment "KADEX-2018" which will take place on May 23 - 25, 2018 in Astana.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

According to the Iranian energy ministry, Iran's power plants generated over 271.91 TWh (terawatt hours) of electricity since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 21, 2017) until Jan. 26.

The output was almost 7 percent more compared to the same period of the preceding year, according to the latest weekly data published by Iran's Energy Ministry.

Irans electricity export increased by 13 percent to 7.11 TWh from the beginning of the current fiscal year to Jan. 26, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Iran imported 3.438 TWh of electricity during the period, registering a 9-percent fall compared to the same period of the preceding year.

Irans thermal power plants produced 257.738 TWh of electricity in total during the reporting period, while 14.174 TWh of the country's total electricity accounted for hydroelectric power plants.

The nominal electric generation capacity of the country has increased by 1,915 megawatts (MW) to 78,343 MW since the beginning of the current Iranian fiscal year.

Gas power plants (27,532 MW) share 35.14 percent of the generation capacity. Meanwhile the shares of combined-cycle (20,270 MW) and steam power plants (15,829 MW) account for 25.87 and 20.2 percent, respectively.

Nominal electric generation capacities of hydroelectric plants (11,811 MW) and Bushehr nuclear power plant (1020 MW) are equal to 15.1 and 1.3 percent of electric generation capacity, while the share of renewables stands at only 0.41 percent or 322 MW.

The country is expected to add 1,249 MW to its electric generation capacity by March 2018 - of that 632 MW will be renewables share, according to the report.

Iran plans to increase its nominal electric generation capacity to 80,000 MW by summer 2018, and to 100,000 by 2025, 1,000 MW of which should be produced from solar energy.

Households consumed 34.9 percent of Irans generated power during the first eight months of the current fiscal year (March 20 - Nov. 21, 2017), while the industry sector and agriculture sectors consumption from the countrys electricity generation stood at 30.4 and 16.1 percent, respectively.

Street lighting and commercial consumption accounted for 1.6 and 7.4 percent of the overall consumed electricity in the period.

The length of Medium-Voltage Lines of Irans distribution network is 420,000 kilometers, while the length of Low-Voltage Lines stands at 359,000 kilometers.

Number of the countrys transformers is 675,000 with overall capacity of 117,018 megavolt-amperes.

The country increased gas delivery to its power plants by 10.7 percent to 58.5 billion cubic meters, while gas oil supply to this sector decreased by 12.9 percent to 3.61 billion liters in the mentioned period.

The Iranian power plants also consumed 3.035 billion liters of fuel oil in the period to Jan. 26, 5.1 percent less year-on-year.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 18

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

An Afghan trade official has said that the members of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) have agreed on creating Kabul-Tehran-Istanbul transportation corridor.

The head of the transit department at Afghanistan's Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Sayyed Yahya Akhlaqi, has said that the agreement was made during the 28th Meeting of the Regional Planning Council (RPC) of ECO last December, IRNA news agency reported.

He added that the 9th Transit Transport Coordination Council (TTCC) of ECO in Islamabad discusses the technical solutions to launch the new transportation corridor.

The three-day meeting which has been launched since February 13 in Islamabad brings together experts from ten state members to discuss transit cooperation.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a "large-scale attack" on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday, in a flare-up sparked after Israeli soldiers were wounded by an explosive device along the Palestinian enclave's border, i24NEWS reports.

Israeli jets pounded 18 Hamas targets throughout the Strip in two waves of air strikes over a 24-hour period.

"Eight targets were attacked in a military compound near Deir el Balah, which belongs to the Hamas terror organization, including weapon-manufacturing and training infrastructures," an IDF statement released early Sunday read.

An earlier statement said the fighter jets had targeted "six military targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas, including: a terror tunnel in the Zaytun area and military compounds near Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis".

Two Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strikes, the Gaza health ministry said, identifying the fatalities as Salam Sabah and Abdullah Abu Sheikha, both 17, from Rafah.

According to Palestinian eye witnesses, the two were killed by shots near the border.Venezuela will stage defensive military drills on Feb. 24 and 25, President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday, according to Xinhua.

"I have instructed the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB)... to undertake a comprehensive, multidimensional defense operation of our national territory -- the 2018 Independence military drill," Maduro said.

The president made the announcement from Vargas state, where he presided over a ceremony where the Simon Bolivar School Ship set sail for several Latin American countries.

The annual military drill aims to "fine tune" the country's defense readiness, said Maduro.

"We are going to fine tune all the troop movements, we are going to fine tune all the tank movements, all the missiles, all the airplanes, helicopters and, above all, we are going to fine tune the taking aim of the nation's soul," said Maduro.

The armed forces will be coordinating with the military reserves, national militia and civilian population.

"We will never allow an imperialist foreign military boot to touch the sacred ground of our Venezuelan nation," said the president.As many as 42 million people living in southern and central Mexico felt the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit the region late Friday afternoon, Mexico's National Autonomous University (UNAM) said on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

The quake, whose epicenter was off the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca, caused no deaths, but sparked anxiety, especially among those still recovering from the fatal temblor that struck the same region in September, killing scores and toppling buildings.

In Mexico City on Friday, residents ran out of apartment buildings, businesses and shops after an early warning system sounded the alarm, giving people about a minute to escape.

At a press conference, Leonardo Ramirez, who is in charge of seismic monitoring at the UNAM's Engineering Institute, said the quake was the severest within a 100-km radius of the epicenter, off the coast of Pinotepa Nacional in southeastern Oaxaca.

In addition to Oaxaca and Mexico City, the quake, which lasted some 60 seconds, also rattled the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan, Puebla and Mexico.

About 200 homes sustained damage, mainly along Oaxaca's Pacific Coast, where 1.3 million households were left without electricity, officials said, adding that electricity had been restored to 97 percent of the area by Saturday morning.

Friday's quake was caused by the Cocos plate slipping beneath the North American plate, said Xyoli Perez, head of Mexico's National Seismological Service (SSN), recalling that the same region has been hit by six major earthquakes in the past five decades.Donald Trump has blamed the FBI for the mass school shooting in Florida claiming the agency is preoccupied by the investigation into his team's ties with Russia, Mirror.co.uk reports.

The US President has been criticised for his response to Wednesday's tragedy, failing to mention gun control in his remarks following the atrocity that left 17 staff and students dead.

Trump briefly met victims of the shooting and local police on Saturday before attending a fundraiser at his Florida mansion in Mar-A-Lago.

But late in evening he decided to hit out at the FBI in a tweet over the Parkland massacre.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," he wrote.

"They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"Feb. 16, 2018--Women who work as cleaners or regularly use cleaning sprays or other cleaning products at home appear to experience a greater decline in lung function over time than women who do not clean, according to new research published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

In "Cleaning at Home and at Work in Relation to Lung Function Decline and Airway Obstruction," researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway analyzed data from 6,235 participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. The participants, whose average age was 34 when they enrolled, were followed for more than 20 years.

"While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact," said senior study author Cecile Svanes, MD, PhD, a professor at the university's Centre for International Health. "We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age."

The study found that compared to women not engaged in cleaning:

Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), or the amount of air a person can forcibly exhale in one second, declined 3.6 milliliters (ml)/year faster in women who cleaned at home and 3.9 ml/year faster in women who worked as cleaners.

Forced vital capacity (FVC), or the total amount of air a person can forcibly exhale, declined 4.3 ml/year faster in women who cleaned at home and 7.1 ml/year faster in women who worked as cleaners.

The authors found that the accelerated lung function decline in the women working as cleaners was "comparable to smoking somewhat less than 20 pack- years."

That level of lung impairment was surprising at first, said lead study author istein Svanes, a doctoral student also at the Department for Clinical Science. "However, when you think of inhaling small particles from cleaning agents that are meant for cleaning the floor and not your lungs, maybe it is not so surprising after all."

The authors speculate that the decline in lung function is attributable to the irritation that most cleaning chemicals cause on the mucous membranes lining the airways, which over time results in persistent changes in the airways and airway remodeling.

The study did not find that the ratio of FEV1 to FVC declined more rapidly in women who cleaned than in those who did not. The metric is used when diagnosing and monitoring patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The study did find that asthma was more prevalent in women who cleaned at home (12.3 percent) or at work (13.7 percent) compared to those who did not clean (9.6 percent).

The study also did not find that men who cleaned, either at home or at work, experienced greater decline in FEV1 or FVC than men who did not.

The researchers took into account factors that might have biased the results, including smoking history, body mass index and education.

Study limitations include the fact that the study population included very few women who did not clean at home or work. These women, the authors wrote, might "constitute a selected socioeconomic group." The number of men who worked as occupational cleaners was also small, and their exposure to cleaning agents was likely different from that of women working as cleaning professionals.

"The take home message of this study is that in the long run cleaning chemicals very likely cause rather substantial damage to your lungs," istein Svanes said. "These chemicals are usually unnecessary; microfiber cloths and water are more than enough for most purposes."

He added that public health officials should strictly regulate cleaning products and encourage producers to develop cleaning agents that cannot be inhaled.

###

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About the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM):

The AJRCCM is a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Thoracic Society. The Journal takes pride in publishing the most innovative science and the highest quality reviews, practice guidelines and statements in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. With an impact factor of 12.996, it is the highest ranked journal in pulmonology. Editor: Jadwiga Wedzicha, MD, professor of respiratory medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute (Royal Brompton Campus), Imperial College London, UK.

About the American Thoracic Society:

Founded in 1905, the American Thoracic Society is the world's leading medical association dedicated to advancing pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. The Society's 15,000 members prevent and fight respiratory disease around the globe through research, education, patient care and advocacy. The ATS publishes three journals, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

The ATS will hold its 2018 International Conference, May 18-23, in San Diego, California, where world-renowned experts will share the latest scientific research and clinical advances in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine.Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science have demonstrated the feasibility of their "organ-on-a-chip" platform in studying how drugs are transported across the human placental barrier.

Some maternally-administered medications can enter the fetal bloodstream, but how the placenta determines which molecules can get through is still poorly understood. The ways of testing this process are limited. Animal models don't capture important details of human physiology, most in vivo research can't be ethically performed, and placentas donated after birth are only viable for a few hours, making it difficult to properly conduct complicated transport experiments.

A small number of drugs have been tested via this "ex vivo placental perfusion" method, however. By comparing the results of transport experiments conducted on their placenta-on-a-chip, the Penn team demonstrated their benchtop system could be an effective stand-in for a living organ in such research.

The study was led by Dan Huh, Wilf Family Term Assistant Professor in Bioengineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Cassidy Blundell, a graduate student in the Huh lab. Other lab members, Yoon-Suk Yi, Lin Ma, Emily Tess, Megan Farrell and Andrei Georgescu, contributed to the study. They collaborated with Lauren M. Aleksunes, an associate professor in Rutgers University's Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.

It was featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.

The Penn team's placenta-on-a-chip is a small block of silicone that houses two microfluidic channels separated by a porous membrane. The researchers grow human trophoblast cells on one side of the membrane and endothelial cells on the other. The layers of those two cell types mimic the placental barrier, which determines what passes from the maternal to the fetal circulatory systems.

By adding different molecules to the blood-like fluid flowing through the "maternal" microfluidic channel, the researchers can measure the rate at which they transfer to the "fetal" channel and how much they accumulate in the barrier itself.

The ability to test this process on human placentas is in high demand. Pregnant women are excluded from clinical drug trials, and animal models have severe limitations. Those limitations were tragically demonstrated in the case of thalidomide, where a morning sickness drug able to transport across the human placental barrier led to tens of thousands of birth defects and deaths.

Current state-of-the-art transport experiments are conducted on donated human placental tissue, but hooking up a living organ to the testing apparatus is a messy, finicky proposition.

"Ex vivo placental perfusion is a great method," Huh said, "but it has a pretty high failure rate, and the experimental set-up is complicated: it's prone to leaks and needs a high level of expertise. Most pharmaceutical companies are not going to be able to test their drugs using this method."

To validate their placenta-on-a-chip as a testing platform, Huh and his colleagues compared the transport of two drugs that have been studied via ex vivo placental perfusion: heparin, an anticoagulant, and glyburide, used in the treatment of gestational diabetes.

Heparin is understood to be too large a molecule to pass through the placental barrier, and the team's placenta-on-a-chip also bore out that result. Glyburide is considered safe to use during pregnancy, thanks to specialized efflux transporters expressed by the placental tissue that prevent maternally administered drug molecules from reaching the fetus. The placenta-on-a-chip was able to emulate this protective mechanism.

"We're getting close," Huh said. "This study has given us confidence that the placenta-on-a-chip has tremendous potential as a screening platform to assess and predict drug transport in the human placenta."

Further research and validation studies will be necessary before the placenta-on-a-chip sufficiently replicates its in vivo counterpart for the purposes of clinical testing.

"For example, the fluorescent marker we use changes the size and shape of the drug, which has an effect on transport," Blundell said. "Going forward, we'll be working with our pharmacologist collaborator, Lauren Aleksunes, and her lab to simulate more realistic situations."

Beyond pharmaceuticals, the Penn team's placenta-on-a-chip would be useful for better understanding the health impacts of a variety of things that could potentially cross into the fetal bloodstream.

"We'd like to use this system to test things beyond drugs, such herbal supplements, vitamins, and a whole host of things that women might take over the course of pregnancy," Blundell said.

###

The final peer-reviewed version of the paper was featured on the cover of the January 28, 2018 edition of the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, after initial electronic publication in November 2017.

The research was supported by the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, and the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Director's New Innovator Award 1DP2HL127720-01 and grants R01ES020522 and P30ES005022.Description

"Hot Peas n Butter, the Nickelodeon and Noggin TV favorites whom the Los Angeles Times lauded for their hot and mellow multicultural groove, is a NYC based multicultural family music band, known for their Latin-influenced, catchy songs for kids.

Theyve been featured on Nick Jr. and Jacks Big Music Show TV, partnered with St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital, won multiple Parents Choice Awards, are mainstays on Sirius Radios Kids Stuff, and brought many thousands of fans to their feet on their national tours! By combining an interactive, invigorating approach to performance with mature, multicultural music, Hot Peas n Butter has developed a distinct way of inspiring care and creativity in kids and adults alike!"Defense investors rejoiced after the November election, sending shares of prime contractors up between 36% and 56% in the months that followed on anticipation that Republican control of the White House and Congress would mean an uptick in spending.

After several false starts, the Pentagon funding picture for the next few years is finally coming into focus. Lawmakers during the first week of February averted a government shutdown, reaching a two-year spending deal that would raise spending caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act by $165 billion for defense in fiscal 2018 and 2019, plus an additional $140 billion allocated for off-budget war funding.

An F-35 in flight

Spending on Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter is a Pentagon priority. Image source: Lockheed Martin.

The spending plans have a Cold War ring to them, with an emphasis on the United States' need to keep pace with ongoing buildups in Russia and China, along with continuing its counterterrorism efforts. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters Feb. 11 the Pentagon budget is designed "to bring us back to a position of primacy" while replenishing missile stocks and expanding military capability.

To some extent, the level of certainty that comes with a two-year deal makes the entire industry a winner, because it allows companies to plan accordingly instead of adjusting to ever-changing continuing resolutions every few months. And certainly funding will be flowing into coffers throughout the industry. But even in an expanding budget, priorities have to be established, and some areas are going to come out ahead of others.

RTN Chart

Defense primes' stock movement since the 2016 election. data by YCharts

Here's why Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), and Leidos Holdings (NYSE: LDOS) all appear to be among the big winners as defense spending increases, and a word of caution on Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII).

Winner: The plane makers

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As expected, Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is one of the top priorities coming out of the budgeting process, with the Pentagon setting aside $107 billion to buy 77 of the fighters in the 2019 budget request. Though the fighter has been plagued by delays and the Pentagon in January said the final evaluation process, which is necessary before full-rate production starts, will not begin until late 2018, it's clear this jet is still a major priority for the military.

Another somewhat maligned aircraft, Boeing's KC-46A Pegasus tanker, is also among the winners, with the Air Force requesting $3 billion for 15 of them in 2019. And funding for development of Northrop Grumman's B-21 Raider bomber was increased from $2 billion in 2018 to $2.3 billion in 2019. That number will ease concerns of company execs, and from Air Force officials who in January had warned that absent an increase in funding the B-21 program could be delayed.

There is also an uptick in funding for drones and drone development, including General Atomics' MQ-9 Reaper, a replacement for the older-generation MQ-1 Predator with more capacity to carry a weapons payload and provide more precise close-air support to ground efforts.

Winner: munitions

Ongoing conflicts have taken their toll on U.S. weapons stockpiles, and the Air Force in the coming years hopes to buy bombs as fast as the industry can produce them to replenish its supplies. The government hopes to purchase more than 48,000 bombs and missiles in fiscal 2019, a 20% increase over the 40,000 to be purchased this year.

Items on the shopping list include Boeing-made guided bombs, Lockheed-designed AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, and small-diameter bombs including a modernized version developed by Raytheon (NYSE: RTN), as well as a range of other rockets and missiles.

Missile defense is also up 25% compared with the last administration's fiscal 2019 projection to $9.9 billion, to be spread across Raytheon, Lockheed, and other contractors. Over the next five years, the Pentagon expects to invest about $47 billion on missile defense, about $14 billion above the last five-year plan estimate.

Winner: Leidos and the Beltway Bandits

When Mattis talks about capabilities, he doesn't just mean advanced weapon systems. Modernizing government IT systems -- and keeping pace on cyber-espionage and other top-secret efforts -- is just as important, yet under sequestration the Pentagon and other agencies were often forced to put tech upgrade efforts on hold. With a new, longer-term budget in hand, a lot of pent-up demand for IT services is ready to be unleashed.

That's probably the scenario General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) was considering when it agreed on Feb. 12 to buy IT specialist CSRA for $9.6 billion, and it should provide support for a range of so-called Beltway Bandits, including Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, and CACI International.

While all those companies should be beneficiaries, Leidos, which is among the largest and most diverse pure-play government IT firm, appears particularly well positioned to capitalize and could be among the big winners to emerge from the budgeting process.

Caution: Huntington Ingalls and the shipbuilders

Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of a 355-ship Navy, a massive increase from the current 275-ship fleet and the impetus for shares of shipbuilding specialist Huntington Ingalls to outperform its more diversified contracting rivals since the election. The Navy will grow under the current budget guidelines, perhaps to 300 ships, but the odds it will hit that 355-ship number anytime soon seem remote.

The Navy is requesting $21.9 billion for new ship procurement in 2019 for 10 new vessels, an increase of just one ship over the nine requested in 2018. That's enough to keep shipyards busy making advanced products including two Virginia-class attack subs and three Arleigh Burke destroyers. A commitment to buy one aircraft carrier every five years remains in the long-range plan, keeping the crown jewel of Huntington's Newport News, Va., yard in business.

So while there is no reason to panic over Huntington Ingalls' future, it does appear that the most optimistic hopes for the company were overstated. Management, to its credit, is unlikely to be surprised by this outcome: The company has been forecasting flat revenue through at least 2020.

More From The Motley Fool

Lou Whiteman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.China has curbed activity in heavy industries in the country's northeast in an effort to reduce surplus capacity and lessen the heavy smog that typically blankets the region during the winter months (AFP Photo/-)

China on Saturday warned it would take necessary measures to protect its interests if the US imposes tough trade sanctions against its steel and aluminium exports.

The US Commerce Department on Friday recommended imposing heavy tariffs on China and other countries to counter a global glut in steel and aluminum, laying out an array of possible options in a report to President Donald Trump.

The move gives Trump the opportunity to strike a highly public blow for his "America first" trade policy -- he is due to decide on the measures next month -- but has stoked fears of retaliation and a trade war between the world's two largest economies.

"If the United States' final decision affects China's interests, we will take necessary measures to defend our rights," said Wang Hejun, a director at China's commerce ministry, in a statement responding to the US report.

The US report framed concerns about Chinese overproduction in terms of national security and defence -- an approach refuted by Wang.

"The findings of the investigations (of the US Department of Commerce) are groundless and do not correspond to reality," he said.

Washington "should not lightly adopt restrictive measures under the pretext of 'national security' ... a vague formula that can easily lead to abuse," he said.

China produces about half of the world's steel but supplies less than two percent of the steel imported by the United States.

The US and EU argue Chinese overproduction is heavily subsidised by the state and has depressed world prices, hurting their own domestic production.

Trump on Tuesday accused Beijing of decimating American steel and aluminium industries, saying he was "considering all options".* Aseman Airlines plane crashed 50 minutes after take-off

* Plane was carrying 59 passengers, six crew

* Rescue helicopters to search crash site due to bad weather (Adds airline s65 on board, search continues, relatives' quote)

DUBAI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - All 65 passengers and crew were feared dead in a plane crash in central Iran on Sunday after the domestic flight came down in bad weather in a mountainous region.

A spokesman for Iranian carrier Aseman Airlines had told state television everyone was killed, but the airline then issued a statement saying it could not reach the crash site and could not "accurately and definitely confirm" everyone died.

The airline had also initially said 60 passengers and six crew were on board the twin-engined turboprop ATR 72 that was flying to the southwestern city of Yasuj. But it later said there were a total of 65 people on board, as one passenger had missed the flight.

The Aseman-operated plane crashed near the town of Semirom after taking off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi told ISNA news agency.

As night approached, bad weather prevented helicopters searching the probable crash site but emergency workers were scouring the mountainous area by land, the television said.

"It is getting colder and darker and still no sign of the plane," said a television reporter accompanying rescue teams searching snow-covered areas in Mount Dena which has more than 40 peaks higher than 4,000 metres (13,000 feet).

Media reports said the plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport in the southwest of the capital. It mainly handles domestic flights.

Worried relatives of passengers gathered at Yasuj airport.

"I kept telephoning all morning but they (the relative) wouldn't answer. So I called my brother and he said they will get here, it (the plane) is not behind schedule yet," a young woman told a reporter for state television.

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"I told him it is raining here. He said no (meaning, don't worry). He called later and said the plane had crashed."

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani issued messages of condolences. The president asked the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.

Iran has suffered several plane crashes in the past few decades. Tehran says U.S. sanctions have long prevented it from buying new aircraft or spare parts from the West. The crashed ATR was 25 years old, officials said.

A deal with world powers on Iran's nuclear programme has lifted some of those sanctions, opening the way for Iranian airlines to update their creaking fleets.

Aseman signed a deal last year to buy at least 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets. National carrier IranAir has ordered 80 planes from Boeing and 100 from Airbus.

Based in the southern French city of Toulouse, ATR is a joint venture between Airbus and Italy's Leonardo

Earlier air disasters include the crash of a Boeing 727 passenger plane in 2011 which killed 78 people in the northwest of Iran, and the 2009 crash of a Caspian Airlines Tupolev aircraft bound for Armenia which killed all 168 people on board.

One of Iran's worst air accidents happened in February 2003 when an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran, killing all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew. (Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Keith Weir and Edmund Blair)Remember when we first heard that a Tesla Roadster thats speeding through space at 25,000 mph would not crash into Mars, but instead just fly past the red planet? Well it turns out thats actually great news for scientists who are worried that microorganisms inside Elon Musks car could have jeopardized their studies of Mars. But now researchers have conducted various simulations to determine where the Roadster might ultimately end up, with Earth being the cars most likely destination. Venus and the Sun are also potential targets, but Earth is the most likely among them. Thankfully theres no cause for concern, and well explain why.

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NASA goes to great lengths sterilizing spacecraft designed to land on Mars, in order to make sure theres no chance of Earthly microbes contaminating the surface, the Planetary Societys Jason Davis wrote before launch. Such a contamination could harm existing life and muddle scientific efforts to search for said life.

Three researchers from the University of Toronto have already written a paper that says the Roadster isnt likely to hit Mars. Titled The random walk of cars and their collision probabilities with planets, the paper is based on the study of Teslas trip through space.

Earth is the most likely place the car will crash, followed by Venus, and then the sun, lead author of the study Hanno Rein told Business Insider.

Dont worry though, because theres no chance that any of us will see the Roadster crash into Earth or any other planet.

Every 30 years or so, it will come relatively close to the Earth, Rein said. This causes a change of a few percent in some of the orbital parameters. The distance to the sun would change slightly, for example, and the orbits eccentricity.

The Roadster will come within one Earth-moon distance from our planet in 2091. After the third flyby, the Roadster will get a somewhat chaotic trajectory through space, and thats because the car spends plenty of time near Earths orbit.

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The researchers ran hundreds of simulations spanning 3.5 million years from today and concluded theres a 6% chance for the Roadster to crash into Earth, and a 2.5% chance to hit Venus. Weve not seen any single collision with Mars in 240 simulations, though we continue to run them and see what happens, Rein said. The likely outcome is that it will crash, in tens of millions of years, into Earth or Venus or the sun.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.comFormer Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has drawn a new accusation of bank fraud from U.S. Special Counsel Robert Muellers office, according to court documents made public on Friday.

The new accusation, related to a property Manafort owns in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, comes on top of the indictment against Manafort last October for money laundering and failure to register as a foreign agent.

12_09_17_Manafort

Reuters

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In a court filing amid legal wrangling over Manaforts $10 million bail package, prosecutors from Muellers office said Manafort submitted false information to a bank for a mortgage on one of three properties he is now proposing to pledge as security for his release.

The proposed package is deficient in the governments view, in light of additional criminal conduct that we have learned since the courts initial bail determination, the prosecutors said in the filing, which disputes Manaforts latest bail offer.

That criminal conduct includes a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies, including criminal conduct relating to the mortgage on the Fairfax property, which Manafort seeks to pledge.

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Prosecutors said in the redacted filing that they had evidence that Manafort secured the $9 million mortgage from the Federal Savings Bank through false representations, including doctored profit and lost statements that overstated the propertys income by millions of dollars.

The document does not level any new specific criminal charges against Manafort over the accusations.

Manaforts attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Story continues

The earlier charges against Manafort stem from Muellers probe of allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Separately on Friday, Muellers office charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies with a criminal and espionage conspiracy to tamper with the election and sow discord in the U.S. political system.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekFILE PHOTO: A driver operates a tractor to pile wheat grains at the drying house of the Solgonskoye farming company near the village of Talniki, southwest of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin/File Photo

By Maha El Dahan

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran is negotiating a wheat import deal with Russia that would allow it to increase flour exports to neighbouring Iraq, the secretary general of the Iran Federation of Food Industry Associations told Reuters on Saturday.

The deal would involve importing around 100,000 tonnes of Russian wheat per month for private millers who would then produce flour for export.

Kaveh Zargaran said talks were ongoing and he expected the deal to be finalised in a couple of months.

"Last week we were in Moscow to negotiate about it and after we are done we will start in a few months," Zargaran said.

"We have a little financial problem to resolve but after it we will be able to go through with the deal," he said without elaborating.

The Eurasian Economic Commission, an organization for a free customs zone which Russia shares with its neighbours, is leading the negotiations, a member of the talks later confirmed to Reuters.

Arkady Zlockevsky, head of Russia's Grain Union, a non-state farmers' lobby group, said the talks were part of broader negotiations about a free trade zone between Iran and Russia. Russian private firms are considering wheat supplies to Iran as part of the talks, he said.

"Russia is ready to start supplies in the nearest days. The question is on the Iranian side and how quickly their firms will manage to adapt to the processing regime, because Iran was not buying our wheat since March 2016," Zlockevsky, who is taking part in the talks, said.

Iranian private millers are not allowed to use domestic wheat for flour exports.

Russia, among the world's largest wheat exporters, has ample supplies waiting for the deal. "They are negotiating with the Iranian private sector," Zargaran said.

Iraq's flour imports are currently dominated by Turkish supplies.

"It will be difficult for Iranian flour to compete because of the kind of quality of Turkish flour which the Iraqis are used to, that is why they have to import high-protein Russian wheat in order to make flour that will sell in Iraq," an industry source said.

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Iran has exported some of its durum wheat this year from an ample domestic crop to Oman, Italy and Iraq. But Zargaran said this was not a trend that was expected to grow.

"Our policy is not really to export, though, it is for self-sufficiency," he said.

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Additional reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow; Editing by John Stonestreet and David Holmes)American Outdoor Brands (AOBC), the company that manufactured the semiautomatic weapon that Nikolas Cruz is accused of using to kill 17 people at a Florida high school, has been diversifying by making a foray into outdoor products.

In 2016, when the company was known as Smith & Wesson, it paid $85 million in cash for Taylor Brands, a designer and distributor of knives and specialty tools.

Several months later, the Springfield, Mass., company changed its name to American Outdoor, reflecting a diversified focus. Then, last July, the company engineered a deal closer to its gun roots when it acquired Gemini Technologies, a maker of gun silencers.

As the Associated Press reported, Cruz is accused of using a Smith & Wesson M&P15 semiautomatic rifle, derived from Colt Manufacturings AR-15, during Wednesdays shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Colt adapted the semiautomatic AR-15 from the M16 rifle, which was first used during the Vietnam War. Other companies began making versions of the AR-15 when Colts patent protection lapsed in the 1970s.

A National Rifle Association blog referred to the AR-15 as Americas most popular rifle.

The stock of American Outdoor has dropped 19% over the past year. The consensus forecast of six analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters is for the company to report in the next few weeks quarterly earnings per share of 8 cents, compared with 66 cents a year earlier.

As FOX Business reported Thursday, under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, manufacturers, dealers and sellers of firearms and ammunition are generally protected from civil lawsuits related to criminal use of their products. The rule does include six exceptions under which civil suits may go forward.



Related ArticlesIranian President Hassan Rouhani shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) during a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) during a photo opportunity ahead of their meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, India, February 17, 2018. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

By Manoj Kumar

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India and Iran on Saturday signed agreements including Tehran leasing to New Delhi operational control of part of the Iranian east coast port of Chabahar for 18 months.

The $85 million project, just 90 km from the China-sponsored Gwadar port in Pakistan, creates a transit route between India, Iran and Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan.

India is trying to develop Chabahar as a way to gain access to the markets of central Asia as well as Afghanistan.

But progress is slow because of concern that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration in Washington may eventually scrap the Iran nuclear deal.

A leasing agreement giving operational control to India of Shahid Beheshti port - phase one of the Chabahar port - was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Later, addressing a joint press conference with the Iranian president, Modi said both countries wanted to expand bilateral ties and cooperation in economic development.

"We will support the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan rail link so that Chabahar gateway's potential could be fully utilised," Modi said.

"We want to expand connectivity, cooperation in the energy sector and the centuries-old bilateral relationship."

Other agreements included a double taxation avoidance treaty, extradition, and cooperation in the farm sector.

Rouhani, who arrived in Hyderabad on Thursday, will later address industrialists.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Andrew Bolton)(Updates with quote, context)

MUNICH, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would act against Iran, not just its allies in the Middle East, if needed, reiterating that Tehran was the world's greatest threat.

Holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone after its incursion into Israeli airspace earlier this month, Netanyahu told the Munich Security Conference: "Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck.

"We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," he said.

Addressing the Munich event for the first time, Netanyahu urged gathered U.S. and European officials and diplomats to counter Iran immediately, displaying a map showing what he said was Iran's growing presence in the Middle East.

He said Iran was increasing its power as the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria regains territory from militants.

"The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza," Netanyahu said.

"This is a very dangerous development for our region."

Tensions surged on Feb. 10 when anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

That was the most serious confrontation yet between Israel and Iranian-backed forces based across the border. (Reporting by Robin Emmott and Thomas Escritt)Beijing (AFP) - Beijing began the Year of the Dog Friday with eerily silent streets, as the usual thunderous bursts of firecrackers and fireworks were silenced by a strict ban that sacrifices tradition in the name of an anti-pollution campaign.

Overnight, police patrolled deserted neighbourhoods in the Chinese capital -- normally abuzz with excitement as the country welcomes the arrival of the Lunar New Year.

"I never imagined it would be this quiet! It's usually packed," said a Beijing resident surnamed Wang who had been out in the city centre following a traditional New Year's Eve family dinner.

A migrant worker from neighbouring Hebei province surnamed Zhu said that without the firecrackers, "the magic of the New Year is gone".

The low-key celebrations were in stark contrast to previous years, when the streets were crammed with Beijingers setting off firecrackers and the sky was lit by near-constant firework displays, unleashing a deafening thunder until dawn.

But the tradition, conceived as a way to ward off evil spirits, has this year been targeted by authorities anxious to lower winter pollution levels.

Some 440 Chinese cities have banned the use of firecrackers and fireworks -- which are also set off during weddings or when moving house -- since last year. Beijing introduced a ban in December.

"Like all Beijingers, I have been lighting firecrackers since I was a child. But times have changed (...) air quality is what matters most to people now," said a man who gave his surname as Zhang.

The government has launched a huge campaign to reduce pollution during the winter, ordering polluting factories to leave Beijing and its surroundings, and designating "no-coal zones" where more than three million homes have abruptly switched to gas or electric heating.

In 2017, the level of PM2.5 particles -- which penetrate deep into the lungs -- in Beijing over the New Year was 26 times higher than the level recommended by the World Health Organisation.

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But on Friday the sky was a brilliant blue.

"It (the ban) is a good thing, given the disastrous state of the environment," said Xi, a young student, before adding: "Even if it deprives us of a little pleasure".

- Peace and quiet -

Safety is another reason behind the ban. Every year there are numerous accidents caused by pyrotechnics, many of which are of poor quality in China.

Dong Weiwei, a resident who had volunteered to patrol his street, stood ready to alert police should he see anyone flouting the new regulations.

"In the past I have seen people wounded, an eight-year-old child whose finger was blown off by a firecracker explosion," he said.

In southwestern Yunann province, a fireworks explosion killed four people and injured five others Thursday night, state media said.

The ban has made some happy, including Zhu Ye, an elderly Beijinger who took advantage of the peace and quiet to take her dog Xiao Mi for a nighttime walk.

"I no longer liked it at my age... with the fireworks and firecrackers everywhere, we didn't dare to go out," she said.

"But this year, there are not many people in the streets and I am finally able to walk my dog."

Ahead of New Year celebrations, hundreds of millions of Chinese travel back to their home towns, often on crowded trains, making it in the world's largest annual human migration.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong a spectacular fireworks display scheduled to mark Lunar New Year was cancelled as the city mourns victims of a deadly bus crash.

A speeding double-decker overturned in northern Hong Kong on Saturday evening, killing 19 and leaving more than 60 injured, some critically.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said residents were grieving and wanted "to express their sombre mood".

In Shanghai thousands flocked to temples to pray for good fortune.

While in Nepal, exiled Tibetans living in Kathmandu carried images of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as the community -- estimated to number in their thousands -- gathered to celebrate Lhosar, the Tibetan Lunar New Year, with traditional music and food.Russians accused of conspiring to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly staged rallies in key states to support him, including one in Florida in which someone was paid to portray Hillary Clinton in a prison uniform while standing in a cage built on a flatbed truck.

The Russians were also accused of promoting discord after the election by simultaneously holding New York rallies, one in support of Trumps victory and another under the name Trump is NOT my President! according to an indictment released Friday by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller. There was a separate post-election, anti-Trump rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Members of the Trump campaign unwittingly aided the Russians for some of their pre-election events, including by providing signs, after the defendants posed as Americans and contacted the campaign through bogus social-media accounts, according to the indictment.

To conceal the fact that they were based in Russia, defendants and their co-conspirators promoted these rallies while pretending to be U.S. grassroots activists who were located in the United States but unable to meet or participate in person, according to the indictment.

Pretending to be Americans, the Russians persuaded people in the U.S. to attend their events, and sometimes paid their expenses, according to the indictment. They allegedly used social-media names including Facebook group Being Patriotic and Twitter handle @March_for_Trump. Two such rallies were held in New York in July 2016, under the names March for Trump and Down with Hillary, it said.

One Facebook group called United Muslims of America was allegedly created by the Russians to plan a rally called Support Hillary. Save American Muslims in July 2016 in Washington.

The group arranged for one American to hold a sign depicting Clinton and a fake quote attributed to her saying, I think Sharia Law will be a powerful new direction of freedom, according to the indictment.

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Florida is a particular focus in the indictment. The Russians are accused of staging a series of coordinated rallies; for example, one on Aug. 20, 2016, was held under the banner Florida Goes Trump. Members of the Trump campaign who worked on local community outreach unwittingly aided that effort, while the Russians paid to advertise the rallies on Facebook and Instagram, prosecutors said.

Following on their successes in Florida, the Russian campaign replicated its efforts to produce rallies in New York and Pennsylvania, according to the indictment.

The Russians allegedly communicated with a Texas-based grassroots organization that advised them to focus their efforts on purple states such as Colorado, Florida and Virginia that could be swayed to vote for Trump.

The Russians tried to cover their tracks after the election by deleting or destroying data including emails and the bogus social-media accounts theyd set up, according to the indictment.The 37-page indictment issued yesterday by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller alleges that Russian agents used a multitude of tactics to attack Donald Trump's presidential rivals and sow mistrust of the American political system. Prominent among those tactics was one that journalists, intelligence agencies and cybersecurity experts have been sounding the alarm on for nearly two years - the manipulation of public opinion through social media.

Those early concerns focused on 'fake news,' some of it produced by profit-hungry websites simply looking to generate clicks. But the Mueller indictment echoes subsequent findings that masses of false or misleading social media activity was engineered by Russia's Internet Research Agency, as part of a plan to "defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit" beginning as early as 2014.

According to Mueller's indictment, the Russia-backed operators of social media groups and accounts posed as Americans, including by using "the stolen identities of real U.S. persons" and servers and computing infrastructure located in the United States. The indictment claims the Internet Research Agency employed "hundreds of individuals for its online operations."

The IRA, according to the indictment, created social media accounts intended to look like real Americans. One tactic was distributing lists of U.S. holidays to the 'specialists' running the accounts, so they could post holiday-appropriate content. The operatives were instructed to target the most hot-button political issues, by talking about and starting groups centered on immigration, police misconduct, race, and religion.

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These tactics of impersonation succeeded to a sometimes stunning degree. One Russia-controlled Twitter account, @TEN_GOP, claimed to represent the Tennessee Republican party, and garnered 100,000 followers. disclosed last year that Russia-generated content reached as many as 126 million Americans on its platform. One apparent key to the effort's success was sheer relentlessness - the indictment says the IRA's social media specialists were divided into day shifts and night shifts, and made posts that aligned with U.S. time zones.

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Again echoing prior reports, the indictment specifies that these efforts primarily supported the Trump campaign and disparaged Hillary Clinton. The Mueller team obtained documentation of an 'internal review' of an IRA-controlled Facebook group called "Secured Borders," whose operator was dinged for creating a "low number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton". Other accounts and groups created by the IRA had names including "March for Trump" and "Clinton FRAUDation."

Other tactics were more subtle. One IRA-controlled Instagram account called "Woke Blacks" encouraged politically active African-Americans, who were generally more supportive of Clinton, to abstain from voting altogether. Another account aimed at African-Americans promoted the candidacy of the Green Party's Jill Stein, in an apparent attempt to pull votes from Clinton. The indictment also cites a number of paid social media ads denigrating Clinton, bought with Russian money funneled through PayPal accounts set up using false U.S. identities.

These online efforts fed into real-world activity, including promoting a series of Trump rallies in Florida. The indictment says that effort involved direct communication with the Trump campaign and grassroots pro-Trump groups in August of 2016 - though under the pretense of fake U.S. identities.

The actual impact of this meddling on the elections outcome is hard to firmly quantify. But it was enabled both by the hands-off stances of social media companies, and by what the New Yorker's Evan Osnos calls the 'news illiteracy' of many Americans  an inability to identify trustworthy news sources, or spot red flags like grammar and spelling errors. Those problems make it all too plausible that, if drastic action isn't taken now, the same tactics will be deployed again to disrupt this year's midterm Congressional elections.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.comThe semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle used in the Parkland, Florida school shooting Wednesday was manufactured by American Outdoor Brands Corp., according to Jonathon Fishman of the Broward County Sheriffs Department.

The company was formerly known as Smith & Wesson Corp. Seventeen people were killed and 14 injured in the attack.

Gunmakers have faced litigation in the past when their weapons were used in mass shootings. Survivors of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut sued the manufacturer of the rifle used in that instance, a Bushmaster AR-15. The suit was dismissed because a judge ruled the manufacturer was protected by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which prevents firearms companies from being held liable for crimes committed with their products. The plaintiffs attempted to revive the suit last fall.

American Outdoor Brands saw stocks jump 4.3 percent in early trading on Thursday morning, as is common during a mass shooting, but was up only 1.6 percent by the afternoon. Smith & Wesson also manufactured a firearm owned by the gunman who attacked a Colorado movie theater in 2012.

American Outdoor Brands didnt immediately reply to a request for comment on the matter made after regular business hours.U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recommended on Friday that the United States implement new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports in order to safeguard the countrys national security interests.

After conducting an investigation, the department found that the volume and circumstances of imports threaten to impair the national security.

As potential remedies, the Commerce Department is recommending a 24% tariff on all steel imports from other countries, a tariff of at least 53% on 12 countries, including China, India and Brazil, and a quota on steel imports from all countries equal to 63% of each countrys exports to the U.S., as measured by 2017 levels. All of these measures aim to increase U.S. steel manufacturing capacity, according to the Commerce Department. They would not nullify tariffs and duties already enforced by the U.S.

President Donald Trump will ultimately be responsible for signing off on these recommendations. He has until April 2018 to make his decision.

Some tax groups are already voicing opposition to Fridays report. FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon suggested costs associated with these tariffs would be passed along to the consumer and wipe away the benefits of the tax reform act passed in December.

These new recommendations come amid a slew of contentious trade cases handled by the administration. Earlier this month, the U.S. government enacted a 30% tariff on imported equipment used in solar panels, a decision that divided the industry. The administration also called for a 20% tariff on the first 1.2 million imported washers for the current year, and will increase that fee to 50% for each additional unit.

While the U.S. government approved a 300% tariff against Canadian planemaker Bombardier in response to a trade complaint brought by U.S. plane manufacturing giant Boeing (NYSE:BA), the U.S. International Trade Court ultimately voted against its implementation.

The U.S. has also enforced a number of measures aimed at preventing steel and aluminum dumping, recently placing two countervailing duty orders against China.

Story continues

Meanwhile, the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is still being negotiated and while substantial progress has been made on a new draft, discussions have largely stalled over a number of contentious issues. A Canadian official this week said the trio of countries had made little progress on the major issues because the U.S. was concentrating on its own needs, according to Reuters.

Related ArticlesBy Paul Carrel BERLIN (Reuters) - Support for Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) hit a record low, a poll showed, and the party's leader-in-waiting said she had "no Plan B" should members reject a coalition deal with Angela Merkel's conservatives. The SPD's 464,000 members vote in a postal ballot beginning on Feb. 20 on whether the center-left party should go ahead with the agreement its leaders clinched last week to renew their power-sharing alliance with the chancellor's CDU/CSU bloc. "I am convinced we will get a majority," Andrea Nahles, who senior SPD officials this week endorsed as the party's future leader, told Der Spiegel magazine in comments published on Saturday. "I don't have a Plan B." Nahles made the comments after a survey conducted by pollster Infratest dimap from Feb. 13 to 15 showed support for the SPD fell to 16 percent, an all-time low and just one percentage point ahead of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The SPD has slid further into disarray since its leaders struck the coalition deal, blighted by bitter divisions over whether to team up again with Merkel, a loss of confidence in outgoing leader Martin Schulz and discontent over the succession process. "The past days were very difficult, that is true, and that is reflected in such numbers," said Nahles. "But I am very hopeful we can that we can now start moving forward." The turmoil in the SPD has led to calls from some politicians in Merkel's conservative bloc to drop the coalition plan and form a minority government instead. On Tuesday, the SPD appointed Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz as interim leader and recommended Nahles as Schulz's longer-term successor. Nahles has campaigned for a re-run of the coalition that has been in power since 2013, and last month helped secure party delegates' backing for the negotiations with a barnstorming speech. But the result of the members ballot, due on March 4, is wide open. Many in the party harbor misgivings about sharing power with Merkel, believing the party should rebuild in opposition after suffering its worst result in last September's election since Germany became a federal republic in 1949. An influential member of Merkel's conservative bloc said on Friday she should form a minority government, arguing the Social Democrats would not be a reliable partner. The Infratest dimap poll for broadcaster ARD put support for Merkel's conservative bloc at 33 percent, with the ecological Greens on 13 percent, the radical Left party as on 11 percent and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) on 9 percent. (Writing by Paul Carrel; editing by John Stonestreet)FILE PHOTO: A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, U.S. on February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

(Reuters) - Uber Technologies [UBER.UL] is preparing to sell its Southeast Asia ride-hailing business to Singapore-based Grab in return for a substantial stake in the company, CNBC reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

No deal has been reached yet and the timing of any deal is uncertain, the report said. (http://cnb.cx/2ELxfmZ)

Reuters reported in November that SoftBank Group's multi-billion dollar investment in Uber had opened up the possibility of combining it with other ride-hailing assets that the Japanese group owns.

Uber declined to comment on the report.

(Reporting by Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)(Adds Nord Stream 2 comment from U.S. official)

By Andrea Shalal

MUNICH, Feb 17 (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday he favoured easing some sanctions imposed on Russia if a ceasefire could be implemented in eastern Ukraine with the help of U.N. peacekeepers.

Gabriel said it was "not realistic" to insist on full implementation of the Minsk peace accords before offering some sanctions relief.

He said he realised his view differed from the official position - that sanctions could only be eased when the Minsk peace accord was fully implemented - but said it was in the world's interests to break the current impasse.

A Russia-backed separatist insurgency led to fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed around 10,000 people since 2014.

While the Kremlin denies providing military support for separatists there, the European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Russia for backing the rebels and for annexing Crimea from Ukraine.

Full-scale combat largely ended in 2015 after France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine sponsored a ceasefire agreement in the Belarus capital Minsk, but casualties are still reported on a near daily basis.

Russia last proposed bringing U.N. peacekeeping forces into eastern Ukraine.

Gabriel said that, while there were fundamental differences over that plan, it was "one of the few realistic options" for trying to end the violence, and Germany would push for progress on it at the United Nations.

"We need progress urgently because the world is becoming more dangerous," Gabriel told a meeting also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a Security Conference in Munich.

Russia was an indispensable partner in global efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Gabriel added, citing North Korea's efforts to develop a nuclear capability.

Gabriel, a former economy minister, and Lavrov said they aimed to expand bilateral trade, which rose 20 percent last year.

Story continues

The two ministers are due to hold a face-to-face meeting later on Saturday, but plans for a four-way meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Friday also including France and Ukraine collapsed after a scheduling conflict.

Gabriel also defended plans for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that would connect Germany and Russia under the Baltic Sea, a project bitterly opposed by Poland, Ukraine and Baltic states on concerns it would increase Europe's dependence on Russian gas and could cut off Ukraine from gas transit fees.

He said Germany intended to ensure continued use of the existing transit pipeline through Ukraine, and he believed Russia was open to that possibility.

The United States would continue to oppose the pipeline, said U.S. Energy Department Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette.

"It is pretty clear that there is no economic basis for (it)... For Europe's national security, we feel that is a very dangerous proposition," he told reporters in Munich. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; editing by John Stonestreet)There's no question that the stock market achieved fantastic gains during President Trump's first year in office, with the S&P 500 index rising nearly 24%. Healthcare stocks performed even better. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLV), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that attempts to track an index of top healthcare stocks in the S&P 500, racked up a gain of nearly 27% during President Trump's first year.

But why did healthcare stocks soar so much during the first year of the Trump administration? Some of the gains stemmed from the president's words and actions -- but there were also other major drivers.

President Trump waving from Air Force One

Image source: WhiteHouse.gov.

Sum of the parts

Healthcare doesn't just include one type of business. When an industry makes up nearly one-fifth of the U.S. economy, it's too big to be that limited. The components of the Healthcare Select Sector SPDR ETF illustrate this point. Within the top 10 holdings of the ETF, you can find five distinct kinds of healthcare businesses.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is the largest health insurer. Through its Optum business segment, UnitedHealth also runs one of the largest pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) in the United States. If you're looking for a bellwether stock for healthcare payers, UnitedHealth Group is it.

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) ranks as one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The drugmaker's top prescription drugs include cancer drug Ibrance, anticoagulant Eliquis, and rheumatoid arthritis treatment Xeljanz. Pfizer also currently has a consumer healthcare business, which markets over-the-counter products including Advil, Preparation H, and Robitussin, but is considering selling or spinning off the business unit.

Another top 10 holding of the Healthcare Select SPDR ETF is Medtronic (NYSE: MDT). The company develops and markets a broad range of medical devices, such as advanced surgical technology, insulin pumps, transcatheter aortic heart valves, and much more. Medtronic's current product lineup includes over 140 different types of medical devices and other medical technology.

Story continues

The ETF's biggest stake, currently representing nearly 11% of the fund's investments, is Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). J&J ranks as the single largest healthcare company in the world, with operations including pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare, and medical devices.

It's important to understand this variety of healthcare businesses. Why? Different types of businesses benefited from or were negatively affected by different factors during President Trump's first year in office.

The Trump effect

There were three major ways that President Trump affected the performance of healthcare stocks during the first year of his term. One was a success for the president, another was a major failure, and the third was related more to what he didn't do.

The success was President Trump's signing into law the first major tax reform in the U.S. in decades. This tax reform included significant corporate tax cuts as well as allowing companies to bring cash parked overseas back to the U.S. at lower rates.

Document with title

Image source: Getty Images.

But did this tax reform really cause healthcare stocks to rise, since the law wasn't passed and signed until December? Actually, yes. I think that the mere anticipation of corporate tax reform served as an important catalyst for stocks in general throughout the year.

The major failure for President Trump, though, was not delivering on his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare. This lack of success helped insurers like UnitedHealth Group. Many insurers had already pulled out of state Obamacare exchanges before Trump took office. However, the Medicaid expansion part of Obamacare was a moneymaker for the health insurance industry. Keeping more people on the Medicaid rolls as the result of the failure to replace Obamacare was good news for health insurers.

Then there's what President Trump didn't do. Before taking office, he stated that pharmaceutical companies were "getting away with murder" and committed to shake things up. In particular, then President-elect Trump promised to "create new bidding procedures for the drug industry." Those comments caused drugmaker stocks to fall. But the President's words didn't turn into action. As a result, biotech and pharma stocks enjoyed big gains overall during the first year of the Trump administration.

Smaller -- yet bigger -- stories

Of course, the reality is that the U.S. economy isn't driven entirely by what the president or the government in general does. Most healthcare stocks moved up or down as a result of how their businesses performed and what their future prospects are. Some of that is driven by laws and regulations, but certainly not all of it.

UnitedHealth Group, for example, saw its stock soar more than 50% during President Trump's first year in office. Tax reform helped, but strong demand for insurance and Optum products was also important to the company's success.

A major catalyst for Johnson & Johnson was its acquisition of Swiss drugmaker Actelion. The pulmonary hypertension drugs gained with the buyout helped boost J&J's revenues considerably. In addition, the company did a good job protecting its top-selling drug, Remicade, from biosimilar competition while also enjoying strong sales growth for products like Darzalex and Stelara.

Some healthcare stocks lagged behind. Pfizer underperformed peers, primarily because of headwinds for its essential health segment. Medtronic stock didn't generate gains as impressive as many others did, with the company facing some negative impact after Hurricane Maria affected its manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico.

When combined, these individual stories for companies had a greater impact than the "big" stories in Washington. President Trump rightfully deserves some credit for the tremendous performance by healthcare stocks, but definitely not all of it. That's likely to be the case in the remaining years of his presidency as well.

More From The Motley Fool

Keith Speights owns shares of Health Care SPDR and Pfizer. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Johnson & Johnson. The Motley Fool owns shares of Medtronic. The Motley Fool recommends UnitedHealth Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Afghanistans political crisis has deepened after a second provincial governor defied a presidential order for his removal.

On February 17 President Ashraf Ghanis office approved and announced the appointment of new heads for five provinces, including Samangan in the north, as part of efforts to improve local Afghan governance.

But Abdul Karim Khedam, who has been governing Samangan for about a year, denounced and dismissed his ouster by the president as unacceptable.

I condemn this unfair decision and consider it against the wishes of people of Samangan," he said on February 18.

The central government appointed Abdul Latif Ibrahimi as the new governor of the northern Afghan province. He is a former member of the Hezb-e-Islami party of ethnic Pashtun former jihadi commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Addressing a news conference in the provincial capital, the ousted governor vowed to continue to work as the governor of Samangan.

Khedam defended his decision to remain in office and said the final authority to determine his political fate rested with the Turkemen tribe he represents in the province as well as with his political party, Jamiat-e-Islami, which shares power with Ghanis national unity government.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah represents Jamiat-e-Islami along with other party leaders in the ruling coalition and the party largely comprises ethnic Tajiks. President Ghanis support comes from the majority ethnic Pashtun community.

Khedam is the second provincial governor to have contested his firing order.

Atta Mohammad Noor, who has governed neighboring Balkh province for more than 13 years, was fired by Ghani in December. But Noor refused to accept his dismissal until the central government meets certain demands and continues to govern the relatively peaceful and prosperous Afghan province.

He, like Khedam, belongs to the Jamiat-e-Islami party and has also accused Ghani of appointing officials to key government posts on ethnic grounds, charges the president and his aides reject as baseless.

Beginning on February 27, Noor has vowed to lead a rally of about 20,000 vehicles packed with his supporters for a three-day protest in Kabul to press the central government to deliver on commitments Ghani made when he formed the coalition government with Abdullah in 2014.

The planned protest coincides with an international conference the Afghan capital will host February 28 where the government says it will present a plan to promote peace and reconciliation with Taliban-led armed opposition groups.

The U.S. mediated a political deal between rival presidential candidates, Ghani and Abdullah, and established the unity government, ending months of political turmoil in the aftermath of the controversy-marred 2014 presidential as both men claimed victory.

However, Washington, while pledging support for the Ghani government, has emphasized internal matters needed to be resolved by Afghan leaders themselves.

The deepening political troubles are seen as detrimental to the internationally backed efforts of the Kabul government to promote a political settlement with the Taliban insurgency to end the deadly conflict in Afghanistan.

The crisis also is likely to undermine efforts to organize long-delayed parliamentary elections later this year and presidential polls due next year.

Jamiat leaders, including Abdullah, have raised concerns over a multi-million dollar plan to issue new electronic identity cards ahead of the elections.



The controversy stems from the use on the new card of the term Afghan for nationality. The term in the past used to refer to Pashtuns in Afghanistan and members of other ethnic groups believe that since the cards will carry the persons tribal identity the use of Afghan is redundant.



The tensions underscore ethnic-based sensitivities in the Afghan society and unless resolved will likely delay the parliamentary polls, officials warn.

The United Nations said last week war-relative civilian casualties stood at over 10,000 in 2017 and anticipated more bloodshed in the coming fighting season.

-- By Voice Of AmericaAll sixty-six people aboard an Iranian passenger plane are feared dead after the aircraft crashed in a mountainous area of the central province of Isfahan.

The plane came down in the Zagros mountains near the city of Semirom while flying between Tehran's Mehrabad airport and the southwestern city of Yasuj, the national emergency services said on February 18.

The plane was said to be a twin-engine turbo prop ATR 72 operated by Iran's Aseman Airlines.

Airline spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 440-meters high, and that all on board the flight were killed in the accident.

However, he later told the ISNA news agency, "We still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane."

The plane was carrying 60 passengers and six crew members.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it had dispatched 12 rescue teams to the area.

Bad weather has prevented a rescue helicopter from reaching the crash site, state TV reported.

"Given the fact that the area is mountainous, it is not possible to send ambulances," said Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national emergency services.

Semirom lies around 480 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.

European airplane manufacturer ATR said it had no immediate information about the crash.

Aseman Airlines, headquartered in Tehran, is Iran's third largest airline. It specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country but also flies internationally.

Decades of international sanctions have left Iran with an ageing commercial passenger aircraft fleet that it has struggled to maintain and modernize.

Only after Tehran signed a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 could it order new planes from Airbus, ATR, and Boeing. About a dozen of the new planes have been delivered so far.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, and AP5-Year Average Target of 413,000 Ounces of Annual Production, AISC $696

MONTREAL, Quebec, Feb. 15, 2018 - SEMAFO Inc. (TSX:SMF) (OMX:SMF) today announced positive pre-feasibility study (PFS) results at Mana, the addition of 188,000 ounces of reserves, primarily at Siou underground, and an increase of 203,000 ounces of reserves at Boungou. As a result, the Corporation is providing the following consolidated five-year operational targets.

Table 1 - Five-Year Operational Targets

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2019-2023

Average Production1,2,3 Mana ('000 oz) 192 213 213 213 214 209 Boungou ('000 oz) 226 226 201 186 180 204 418 439 414 399 394 413 AISC1,2,4,5 Mana ($/oz) 906 1,079 887 823 660 871 Boungou ($/oz) 419 405 527 606 626 516 643 733 712 721 643 696 Operating Cash Flow (at $1,300/oz) Total Revenue ($M) 543 571 539 518 512 2,683 AISC ($M) 268 321 295 287 253 1,424 275 250 244 231 259 1,259

1 Mana results are based on the Mana PFS by Micon International Ltd., presented in Appendix 3.

2 Boungou results are based on the updated mine plan presented in Appendix 4.

3 Assumption: Mineral reserves were estimated using a gold price of $1,200/ oz.

4 All-in sustaining cost is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS and represents the total cash cost,

plus sustainable capital expenditures and stripping costs per ounce.

5 The Mana AISC in the PFS has been updated for this analysis. The costs in the PFS are comparable to current costs except for the US/Euro

exchange rate, which has fallen ~10%. Roughly 75% of the AISC is based on CFA, which is linked to the Euro. The AISC has therefore been increased by 10% for the 75% of the cost base.

Highlights of Mana Pre-feasibility Study

Siou underground reserves stand at 3,035,000 tonnes at 5.29 g/t Au for 515,800 ounces

Siou open-pit reserves stand at 1,579,000 tonnes at 3.57 g/t Au for 181,200 ounces

Mana added 188,000 ounces of reserves before depletion, mainly from Siou underground

Mana annual production will average over 200,000 ounces between 2019 and 2023 at an all-in sustaining cost of $810 per ounce at a gold price of $1,200

Pre-production capital expenditure of $51.7 million, to be financed with existing cash

Underground operations eliminate the need to mine 62 million tonnes of open pit waste

Mineral reserves at Mana stand at 18.2 million tonnes at a grade of 2.92 g/t Au for 1,710,300 ounces at year-end 2017 based on a gold price of $1,200 per ounce

Mana Pre-feasibility Study

The Mana PFS provides a revised mine plan for all of Mana, including the Wona-Kona open pit, Siou open pit and Siou underground (see Appendix 3). An updated mineral reserves and resources statement for Mana is provided in Appendix 1.

The PFS investigated the potential for extracting the deeper zone of the Siou deposit using underground mining operations, mainly long-hole stoping. Access to the operations will be through a single portal and a 5.5- by 5.5-meter ramp at a 14-gradient slope. The location of the portal will allow mining in the northern part of the Siou pit to continue uninterrupted. The ultimate size of the underground mining operation will be more than 600 meters along strike by 200 meters deep. Figure 1 illustrates the underground mining layout for the Siou mine.

To view Figure 1 - Underground mining layout for the Siou mine click here: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2357d3e5-87a2-4dbc-9bd4-b105d3b03ac1

The PFS is based on a 2,000-tpd operation using contractor mining with discussions already ongoing with potential contractors. The underground mining costs are estimated at $70 per tonne milled. The 18-month development period is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2018.

Table 2 provides an overview of the major milestones for development of Siou underground.

To view Table 2 -Timeline for Development of Siou Underground, click here: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a1214c37-5f2f-49c6-8912-25c625afa09e

The mineral reserves and resources were estimated as at December 31, 2017 in accordance with the definitions adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum and incorporated into National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).

The PFS for the Mana Mine was carried out by an in-house team whose work was reviewed by qualified persons from Micon International Ltd. Micon International Ltd. has reviewed this press release for accuracy and compliance with NI 43-101. Further details will be presented in a NI 43-101 compliant report to be filed on SEDAR within 45 days of the date of this press release.

Boungou Reserves & Resources Update

The 2017 infill drill program at Boungou added 203,000 ounces of reserves and 201,000 ounces of measured and indicated resources. The additional reserves have been pit-constrained at a $1,200 gold price and are included in the updated reserves and resources statement in Appendix 2. As at December 31, 2017, mineral reserves at Boungou stood at 11.2 million tonnes at 4.11 g/t Au for 1.5 million ounces of gold. The additional reserves support an average production profile of over 200,000 ounces per year between 2019 and 2023 at an average AISC of $516 per ounce. The updated Boungou mine plan is presented in Appendix 4.

An internal trade-off study was conducted on the West Flank in order to determine whether open pit or underground was the optimal mining approach. Open-pit mining provided better returns compared to an underground mining method. The remaining underground resources are included in the measured and indicated category, but are not included in the mine plan. Given the open-pit option, no pre-feasibility study is necessary.

The mineral reserves and resources were estimated as at December 31, 2017 in accordance with the definitions adopted by the Canadian Institute of Mining Metallurgy and Petroleum and incorporated into National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101). Mineral reserves and resources estimates for the Boungou Mine were carried out by an in-house team under the direction of Michel Crevier P.Geo MScA, Vice-President, Exploration and Mine Geology and SEMAFO's Qualified Person.

Conference Call

The Corporation will hold a conference call on Friday, February 16 to discuss the pre-feasibility results for Siou underground and the multi-year plan. Interested parties are invited to join the call and webcast at 8 a.m. EST.

Tel. local & overseas: +1 (647) 788 4922

Tel. North America: 1 (877) 223 4471

Webcast: www.semafo.com

Replay number: 1 (800) 585 8367 or 1 (416) 621 4642

Replay pass code: 8085779

Replay expiration: March 15, 2018

About SEMAFO

SEMAFO is a Canadian-based mining company with gold production and exploration activities in West Africa. The Corporation operates the Mana Mine in Burkina Faso, which includes the high-grade satellite deposit of Siou, and is targeting production start-up of the Boungou Mine in the third quarter of 2018. SEMAFO's strategic focus is to maximize shareholder value by effectively managing its existing assets as well as pursuing organic and strategic growth opportunities.

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions and accordingly, actual results and future events could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. You are hence cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include words or expressions such as "targets", "assumptions", "will", "assumes", "estimated", "milestones", "expected" and other similar words or expressions. Factors that could cause future results or events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements include the ability to meet our consolidated five-year operational targets, the ability to meet Mana annual production to average over 200,000 ounces between 2019 and 2023 at an all-in-sustaining cost of $810 per ounce at a gold price of $1,200, the ability to be in line with all assumptions contained in the PFS, the ability to meet all milestones for the development of Siou underground, the ability to execute on our strategic focus, fluctuation in the price of currencies, gold or operating costs, mining industry risks, uncertainty as to calculation of mineral reserves and resources, delays, political and social stability in Africa (including our ability to maintain or renew licenses and permits) and other risks described in SEMAFO's documents filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. You can find further information with respect to these and other risks in SEMAFO's 2016 Annual MD&A, as updated in SEMAFO's 2017 First Quarter MD&A, 2017 Second Quarter MD&A and 2017 Third Quarter MD&A, and other filings made with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com . These documents are also available on our website at www.semafo.com . SEMAFO disclaims any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law.

The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of SEMAFO under the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. This information was publicly communicated on February 15, 2018 at 5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

For more information, contact

SEMAFO

John Jentz

Vice-President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations

Email: John.Jentz@semafo.com



Ruth Hanna

Analyst, Investor Relations

Email: Ruth.Hanna@semafo.com



Tel. local & overseas: +1 (514) 744 4408

North America Toll-Free: 1 (888) 744 4408

Website: www.semafo.com













Appendix 1 - 2017 Reserves and Resources

Mana, Burkina Faso1,2,3

DEPO

SITS DECEMBER 31, 2017 PROVEN

RESERVES PROBABLE

RESERVES TOTAL

RESERVES Ton

nage Grade

(g/t Au) Ounces4 Ton

nage Grade

(g/t Au) Oun

ces4 Ton

nage Grade

(g/t Au) Oun

ces4 MANA1.2.3 WONA-

KONA 6,

062,

000 2.33 453,500 6,

280,

000 2.22 448,

900 12,

342,

000 2.27 902,

400 NYAFE 265,

000 5.81 49,600 6,

000 3.96 700 271,

000 5.77 50,

300 FOFINA 33,000 4.66 4,900 3,

000 3.94 300 36,

000 4.49 5,

200 SIOU OP 1,

400,

000 3.78 170,200 179,

000 1.92 11,

000 1,

579,

000 3.57 181,

200 SIOU UG 1,

047,

000 5.10 171,600 1,

988,

000 5.38 344,

200 3,

035,

000 5.29 515,

800 YAMA - - - 651,

000 1.75 36,

600 651,

000 1.75 36,

600 ROMPAD 317,

000 1,84 18,800 - - - 317,

000 1.84 18,

800 TOTAL 9,

124,

000 2.96 868,600 9,

107,

000 2.88 841,

700 18,

231,

000 2.92 1,

710,

300 DEPO

SITS DECEMBER 31, 2017 MEASURED INDICATED TOTAL

RESOURCES Ton

nage Grade

(g/t Au) Ounces4 Ton

nage Grade

(g/t Au) Oun

ces4 Ton

nage Grade

(g/t Au) Oun

ces4 MANA1.2.3 WONA-

KONA 1,

331,

000 2.05 87,800 21,

623,

000 2.55 1,

775,

600 22,

954,

000 2.52 1,

863,

400 NYAFE 286,

000 3.94 36,300 223,

000 5.97 42,

700 509,

000 4.83 79,

000 FOFINA 293,

000 4.25 40,000 253,

000 4.45 36,

100 546,

000 4.34 76,

100 YAHO 5,

738,

000 0.91 168,500 11,

636,

000 0.88 330,

800 17,

374,

000 0.89 499,

300 FILON 67 26,

000 2.72 2,300 9,

000 3.59 1,

000 35,

000 2.93 3,

300 FOBIRI 469,

000 1.80 27,100 114,

000 1.52 5,

600 583,

000 1.74 32,

700 SIOU OP 67,

000 0.63 1,400 56,

000 0.65 1,

200 123,

000 0.66 2,

600 SIOU UG 513,

000 3.23 53,200 787,

000 3.25 82,

300 1,

300,

000 3.24 135,

500 YAMA - - - 99,

000 1.56 4,

900 99,

000 1.54 4,

900 TOTAL 8,

723,

000 1.49 416,600 34,

800,

000 2.04 2,

280,

200 43,

523,

000 1.93 2,

696,

800





DEPOSITS DECEMBER 31, 2017 INFERRED Tonnage Grade (g/t Au) Ounces4 MANA1.2.3 WONA-KONA 3,466,000 2.96 329,600 NYAFE 151,000 5.87 28,400 FOFINA 67,000 4.20 9,100 YAHO 223,000 0.78 5,600 FILON 67 6,000 6.32 1,100 FOBIRI 578,000 1.39 25,800 MAOULA 2,628,000 1.62 137,100 SIOU 2,093,000 3.86 259,900 YAMA 58,000 1.33 2,500 TOTAL 9,270,000 2.68 799,100

1 The Corporation indirectly owns 90% of SEMAFO Burkina Faso S.A. which directly holds the interest in the Mana Mine reserves and resources.

2 Mineral reserves and resources were estimated using a gold price of $1,200 and $1,400 per ounce, respectively.

3 All mineral resources reported are exclusive of mineral reserves.

4 Rounding of numbers of tonnes and ounces may present slight differences in the figures.

Appendix 2 - Consolidated Reserves and Resources

PROPERTY Mana1.2.4.5.6 Tapoa1.2.4.5.6 Yactibo1.3.4.5.7 Total (Boungou Mine) (Nabanga Project) MINERAL RESERVES Proven Tonnes 9,124,000 1,584,000 - 10,708,000 Grade (g/t Au) 2.96 6.45 - 3.48 Ounces 868,600 329,000 - 1,197,600 Probable Tonnes 9,107,000 9,611,000 - 18,718,000 Grade (g/t Au) 2.88 3.72 - 3.31 Ounces 841,700 1,150,000 - 1,991,700 TOTAL MINERAL RESERVES Tonnes 18,231,000 11,195,000 - 29,426,000 Grade (g/t Au) 2.92 4.11 - 3.37 Ounces 1,710,300 1,479,000 - 3,189,300 MINERAL RESOURCES (exclusive of reserves) Measured Tonnes 8,723,000 62,000 - 8,785,000 Grade (g/t Au) 1.49 1.86 - 1.49 Ounces 416,600 4,000 - 420,600 Indicated Tonnes 34,800,000 4,768,000 - 39,568,000 Grade (g/t Au) 2.04 2.66 - 2.11 Ounces 2,280,200 408,000 - 2,688,200 TOTAL M&I Tonnes 43,523,000 4,830,000 - 48,353,000 Grade (g/t Au) 1.93 2.65 - 2.00 Ounces 2,696,800 412,000 - 3,108,800 Inferred Tonnes 9,270,000 855,000 1,840,000 11,965,000 Grade (g/t Au) 2.68 2.08 10.00 3.76 Ounces 799,100 57,000 590,000 1,446,100

1 The Corporation indirectly owns a 100% interest in all of its permits. except for the permits held by SEMAFO Burkina Faso S.A. and SEMAFO Boungou S.A., respectively, in which the Government of Burkina Faso holds a 10% interest.

2 Mineral reserves and resources at Mana and at Tapoa (Boungou Mine) were estimated using a gold price of $1,200 and $1,400 per ounce. respectively.

3 Mineral resources at Yactibo Permit Group (Nabanga project) were reported above a 5.0 g/t Au cut-off grade.

4 Rounding of numbers of tonnes and ounces may present slight differences in the figures.

5 All mineral resources reported are exclusive of mineral reserves.

6 As of December 31. 2017.

7 As of June 30. 2015.

Appendix 3 - Mana Consolidated Life of Mine Plan

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 TOTAL

LOM SIOU UG Ore

processed (t) - 65,

000 654,000 704,000 704,000 705,

000 204,

000 - 3,

036,

000 Head

grade (g/t) - 5.23 5.61 4.97 5.34 5.35 4.92 - 5.29 Recovery (%) 96% 96% 96% 96% 96% 96% 96% - 96% Gold

recovered (oz) - 10,531 113,

206 107,

953 116,

055 116,

450 31,

041 - 495,

237 Cash

operating

cost

per tonne ($/t) 1 - 22 106 93 93 81 79 - 90 SIOU Waste (t) 12,

835,

000 15,

205,

000 - - - - - - 28,

040,

000 Ore

processed (t) 711,

000 867,000 - - - - - - 1,

578,

000 Head

grade (g/t) 3.5 3.63 - - - - - - 3.57 Recovery (%) 96% 96% - - - - - - 96% Gold

recovered (oz) 76,

734 97,212 - - - - - - 173,

945 Cash

operating

cost

per tonne ($/t) 1 70 68 - - - - - - 69 WONA Waste (t) 21,

126,

000 22,

566,

000 32,

189,

000 19,

822,

000 16,

602,

000 8,

050,

000 3,

203,

000 6,

286,

000 129,

844,

000 Ore

processed (t) 1,

411,

000 1,

277,

000 1,

646,

000 1,

683,

000 1,

683,

000 1,

698,

000 1,

337,

000 1,

606,

000 12,

341,

000 Head

grade (g/t) 2.31 2.53 2.31 2.4 2.2 2.2 2.35 1.97 2.27 Recovery (%) 81% 81% 81% 81% 81% 81% 81% 81% 81% Gold

recovered (oz) 85,

050 84,

047 99,

234 105,305 96,

553 97,418 81,

786 82,

371 731,

764 Cash

operating

cost

per tonne ($/t) 1 60 66 70 52 47 35 30 33 49 Other (Nyafe

+ Yama

+ Rompad + Fofina) Gold recovered (oz) 19,

694 - - - - - 52,

378 - 72,

073 MANA

CONSOLIDATED Waste (t) 34,

066,

000 37,

771,

000 32,

189,

000 19,

822,

000 16,

602,

000 8,

050,

000 14,

772,

000 6,

286,

000 169,

558,

000 Ore

processed (t) 2,

475,

000 2,

209,

000 2,

300,

000 2,

387,

000 2,

387,

000 2,

403,

000 2,

463,

000 1,

606,

000 18,

230,

000 Head

grade (g/t) 2.62 3.04 3.25 3.16 3.13 3.12 2.78 1.97 2.92 Recovery (%) 87% 89% 88% 88% 89% 89% 75% 81% 86% Total Gold

recovered (oz) 181,

478 191,

790 212,

441 213,

258 212,

608 213,

868 165,

205 82,

371 1,

473,

019 Cash

operating

cost per

tonne ($/t) 1 63 65 80 64 61 49 41 33 58 Sustaining

capital ($) 10,

319,

000 8,

000,

000 18,

523,

000 13,

016,

000 7,

000,

000 3,

000,

000 3,

000,

000 - 62,

858,

000 All-in

sustaining

cost ($/oz) 2 968 843 1,004 825 766 614 685 702 809 Initial

capital

expenditure -

Siou UG 14,

496,

000 37,

175,

000 - - - - - - 51,

671,

000 Gold @

1,200/oz Revenues

- Gold sales 217,

773,

000 230,

148,

000 254,

929,

000 255,

910,

000 255,

130,

000 256,

641,

000 198,

246,

000 98,

845,

000 1,

767,

622,

000 Total

all-in

sustaining

expense ($) 175,

684,

000 161,

695,

000 213,

341,

000 175,

916,

000 162,

905,

000 131,

251,

000 113,

224,

000 57,

791,

000 1,

191,

807,

000 Operating

cash-flow ($) 42,

089,

000 68,

453,

000 41,

588,

000 79,

994,

000 92,

225,

000 125,

390,

000 85,

022,

000 41,

054,

000 575,

815,

000

1 Cash operating cost per tonne is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS and is calculated using total operating costs related to tonnes processed (which includes capitalized stripping activities) over tonnes processed.

2 All-in sustaining cost is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS and represents the total mining operation expenses (which includes capitalized stripping activities), plus sustainable capital expenditures.

2018

(pre

prod

uction) 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 TOTAL

LOM Boungou Waste

(t) 13,

485,

000 6,

803,

600 24,

934,

000 24,

887,

000 25,

211,

000 26,

499,

000 21,

872,

000 20,

457,

000 649,

000 164,

797,

600 Ore

process

sed

(t) 180,

000 449,

000 1,

343,

000 1,

343,

200 1,

343,

200 1,

343,

200 1,

343,

200 1,

343,

200 1,

343,

200 1,1

63,

800 11,

195,

000 Head

grade

(g/t) 1.85 4.87 5.58 5.60 4.99 4.61 4.46 3.00 2.10 2.00 4.11 Reco

very

(%) 90.1% 93.3% 93.7% 93.7% 93.5% 93.5% 93.5% 91.0% 91.0% 89.6% 92.9% Total

Gold

recov

ered

(oz) 9,

646 65,

592 225,

757 226,

600 201,

486 186,

142 180,

086 117,

895 82,

527 67,

051 1,

362,

783 Cash

operating

cost

per tonne

($/t)1 75 67 66 76 81 81 79 52 38 66 Sustain

ing

capital ($) 2,

758,

000 3,992,

000 3,

892,

000 4,

000,

000 4,

000,

000 4,

000,

000 4,

000,

000 4,

000,

000 4,

000,

000 34,

642,

000 All-in

sustain

ing

cost

($/oz)2 555 419 405 527 606 626 934 895 719 570





1 Cash operating cost per tonne is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS and is calculated using total operating costs related to tonnes processed (which includes capitalized stripping activities) over tonnes processed

2 All-in sustaining cost is a non-IFRS financial performance measure with no standard definition under IFRS and represents the total mining operation expenses (which includes capitalized stripping activities), plus sustainable capital expenditures.





Attachments:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a7664122-92f4-40d3-93c7-e42d321c2d9bcpw wrote:

Hi all, I am really interested to hear feedback on my chances at Stanford (as well as general application advice). I shared this same information in a 'chances at Harvard' thread as well as these are my two ideal schools. Providing a lot of info to give a full-ish picture. Truly appreciate anyone that takes the time to read through the information and provide feedback.



Background and nationality: 24 y/o white male from midwest (not aiming for B-School until 25), Economics B.A from the University of Minnesota, first-generation college student, youngest of 3 siblings & the only to graduate High School, there's slightly more information that portrays a clearer adversity story.



(Interested to hear feedback if I should use this angle, I personally am not a giant fan as I feel like it comes off as 'poor me', but I do know schools like the adversity stories...)



GPA: 3.62/4.00

GMAT: 720 (48Q/41V/7IR) (do I bother retaking.. I hit 740+ a couple times on practice test. I personally feel it's not worth it, I'd like my profile to compelling enough as to not rely on an arbitrary 20 points on GMAT.)



Work experience and leadership: Strategy consultant at a smaller 100-150 practice within a much larger, well-known professional services company (similar to Big 4). It is fast growing. Received early promotion. Lots of project experience with top 50 tech companies.



At my company, I primarily led the charge to establish a partnership with a local non-profit that supports individuals related to my possible adversity story noted up above (mental illness/homelessness of members in my family). I continue to participate in this monthly program/volunteering opportunity.



Prior to this, I had college internships with the U.S. International Trade Administration (domestically and internationally) where I supported the export growth of small U.S. businesses.



Additionally, in college, I was the president of a social-fraternity of 100+ members. Is this experience worth sharing? I personally found it to be an incredibly valuable experience, but I understand the stigma that exists with fraternities.



Extra-Curricular: As mentioned above, I volunteer at a local non-profit. For this same non-profit, I have participated in a pro-bono consulting project to analyze & improve their long-term sustainability.



Outside of this, I am looking to get more involved in the community around me over the next two years. Currently considering Rotary club and other non-profits, but as I haven't done this yet, don't add weight to it.



Other:

Career goal/reason for MBA - since I started taking my career seriously, I have been very interested in venture capital/private equity (w/tech focus). I want an MBA to acquire finance skills, but more importantly to open doors to this incredibly difficult industry. Alternatively but still related, I am interested in corporate development/strategy at the major tech firms.



One of my recommendations will come from a current manager who fought hard to get me promoted early and will write a glowing rec. She is a very experienced consultant with experience from big name consulting firms and an MBA from top 25. I am unsure of 2nd rec.



I am curious to hear thoughts on how adcom's would view a job change at this stage of my career. I have been reached out to by other management consulting companies for offers $120k+, which is a significant bump from my current salary. These jobs are also located in a major city that is both closer to my parents and more desirable to live. The project work is also more diverse. Would a career change look bad or is it irrelevant?



Cheers!





Specializing in candidates with GMATs under 720 or low GPAs



Try our free Admissions Chances Calculator -



All statistics verified by Ernst & Young - https://ARINGO.com/  MBA Admissions ConsultingSpecializing in candidates with GMATs under 720 or low GPAsTry our free Admissions Chances Calculator - https://aringo.com/mba-admission-chances-calculator/ All statistics verified by Ernst & Young - https://aringo.com/aringo-mba-admission-statistics/ Signature Read More

Your profile definitely stands out and you have a lot of material to work with. Your disadvantage, however, is your age and therefore, your lack of work related achievements and promotions etc. So I am not sure you should apply to the top schools just yet. Why are you thinking of applying now already?I think changing jobs to a job that will give you the opportunity to boost your CV for MBA application purposes would be wise now, rather than applying now. So rather than looking at other aspects of job opportunities that come your way, have that in mind when making a choice._________________New Delhi, Feb 18 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s new headquarters in the national capital.

The new headquarters is situated in 6, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg.

Earlier the headquarters was in 11, Ashoka Road in the heart of Delhi for decades.

BJP veterans LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi along with several top party leaders and ministers were present at the inauguration event.

Addressing the audience, Modi said: "Is this the BJP office or my office? Every party worker should think this is my office... This office isn't for the party's roadmap, it is for realising the hopes and dreams of the party workers... the soul of this office is the party worker."

Modi was quoted by NDTV.

The PM even thanked BJP President Amit Shah for completing the new headquarters on time.The MEK differs from the Regime in both their interpretation and implementation of Islam, with the MEK seeing Islam a modern and tolerant religion, which is perfectly attuned to modern society, and believing that this is the only true interpretation of Islam.

In 1982, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi, said: The Islam we want is nationalistic, democratic, progressive, and not opposed to science or civilization. We believe there is no contradiction between modern science and true Islam, and we believe that in Islam there must be no compulsion or dictatorship.

It is from this that the MEK derives its political beliefs, which directly contradict the intolerant and extremist Sharia Law of the mullahs, and why the MEK has widespread support among the Iranian people and people all around the globe.

Lets look in more detail at how the MEKs interpretation of Islam and how it shapes their political beliefs.

Islam is a dynamic religion

The MEK believe that Islam is a forward-thinking religion that embraces the future and does not stand in the way of social progress and that Islam welcomes scientific and technological advances that can improve the world.

The MEK explains that during Prophet Mohammads 23-year mission, some Quranic verses were declared resembling and thus enterpreted to reflect the social advancements that had taken place. Therefore, Islam is not a religion that is stuck in the past but rather, one very much rooted in the present.

The MEK also do not see Islam as a prescriptive religion with the Quran as some sort of legal text that overrules a judicial system put in place by humans. The MEK point out that less than 10% of verses in the Quran are edicts, thus humans must be free to make their own laws for the time that they live in. The MEK advise that the Quran even emphasises that these edicts can change over time.

On the other end of the scale, the mullahs see edicts as unchangeable dogma, which must be obeyed. This is something that the MEK see as un-Islamic.

Islam is a democratic religion

The MEK believe that democracy is inherent to Islam, pointing to verses in the Quran and teachings of the Prophet Mohammad that say that free will and individual responsibility is how we separate humans from animals and that Gods will is only realised through democratic governance.

In 1980, Massoud Rajavi said: Freedom is a divine blessingAnyone trying to restrict human freedom has neither understood Islam nor mankind and the [anti-monarchist] revolution.

reedom is indispensable to the survival of mankind as human beings. Otherwise, human beings would be no different from animals and could not be held responsible for anything.

That is the reason why the MEK see the ballot box as the only stipulation for holding political office, as a free and fair election is an expression of the free will of the people.

The mullahs, on the other hand, rig their elections, have an unelected head of state, and promote a version of Islam that rejects free will, individual choice, and democracy, which the MEK sees as undemocratic and un-Islamic.The third Monday of February is known as Presidents Day in the United States. For nearly 100 years, America honored its first president, George Washington, on February 22. That was his birthday. But the date was not a national holiday until 1968.

That year, the U.S. Congress passed a measure known as the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. The measure meant that some public holidays would always fall on a Monday. Today, the country honors its first president on the third Monday in February -- and not on Washingtons real birthday.

And the holiday is now commonly called Presidents Day. Many say it also honors Abraham Lincolns birthday. The nations 16th president was born on February 12.

The federal government, however, still recognizes the holiday as Washingtons Birthday.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act gives workers a three-day weekend. It also gives shops and marketers a chance to have special Presidents Day sales.

Presidential Facts and 'Firsts'

Last year, Donald J. Trump made history when he took the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States. At 70 years old, he became the oldest elected president. Before Trump, Ronald Reagan was the oldest person to take office. He was 69 years old when he became president in 1981.

As the first billionaire president, Trump also replaced John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, as the richest man to serve as president.

Kennedy still holds the record for the youngest person to be elected president. He was 43 when he took office. Kennedy is also the youngest president to die in office. He was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, Texas. He was 46 years old.

Another presidential assassination actually put the youngest person in the office of the president. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, then the vice president, became president at the age of 42. He took office after William McKinley, the 25th president, was shot and killed in Buffalo, New York.

The first president to die in office, though, was William Henry Harrison. The countrys ninth president only served 32 days, the shortest time of any president.

Another Roosevelt holds the record for the longest time in office. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president, held office for 4,422 days. After his death, the 22nd amendment was passed. It limited a person to two four-year terms as president.

Most Americans know that the two Roosevelts were related. But they may not know how, exactly, they were related. Here it goes.

Franklin Roosevelts wife, Eleanor Roosevelt was also his fifth cousin once removed. And Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, was Eleanors uncle. That makes the two presidents distant relatives.

But they were not the first relatives to both serve as president. That title belongs to the Adams. John Adams was Americas second president. His son, John Quincy Adams was elected as the nations sixth president.

The Bushes are the other father-son presidential pair. George Herbert Walker Bush was elected as the 41st president. His son, George W. Bush, was the countrys 43rd president.

Not everyone can run for president.

The U.S. Constitution says that a person must be at least 35 years old. A person must also have lived within the United States for at least 14 years. And they must be a natural-born citizen.

But the meaning of natural-born citizen is not exactly clear. People read the rule in different ways.

The first natural-born American president was not George Washington or John Adams. It was Martin Van Buren, the eighth president. He was born in 1782, six years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

All seven presidents before Van Buren, and William Henry Harrison, the ninth president, were not natural-born citizens. They were born before 1776, when the American states were still British colonies.

Hai Do wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

uniform - n. staying the same

cousin - n. a child of your uncle or aunt

assassinated. - v. killed usually for political reasons

distant - adj. used to describe a relative who is not closely related

pair - n. two people who are related in some way or who do something together

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

Bats are the only mammals that can fly a great distance, but they have another ability. Many bats live a very long time for an animal their size.

European researchers are studying bats to understand why they live so long. They hope to make discoveries aimed at fighting the aging process in human beings.

Last week, the group of scientists said they had identified important biological qualities in some bat species.

The group studied bat chromosomes, a line of genes found in the nucleus of cells. The scientists were most interested in structures connected to the ends of the chromosomes. They are called telomeres.

Telomeres protect the ends of chromosomes, which shorten each time a cell divides. Scientists believe this shortening process causes cells to break down. They say this is what causes aging.

A report on bats was published this month in the journal Science Advances.

Among the leaders of the study was Emma Teeling, a biologist with University College Dublin in Ireland.

Teeling said studying long-living mammals that have developed ways to fight aging is an alternative way to identify the molecular basis of extended health spans.

She added that studying bats enables scientists to learn more about the processes that drive healthy aging.

The European researchers studied 493 bats from four bat species. The group used information that had been gathered over more than 60 years.

Of these animals, the greater mouse-eared bat generally lived the longest, an average of 37 years.

The scientists said this and a related species, which are grouped together under the name Myotis, had telomeres that did not shorten with age.

Another Myotis bat holds the record for oldest age, reaching 41 years.

The scientists findings suggest that these bats cells have the ability to maintain and repair their telomeres. This, they said, helps guard against the aging process.

Based on its body size, a bat like the greater mouse-eared bat would be expected to live four years. But, these mammals have been found to live nearly 10 times longer than that.

The scientists found that only 19 species of mammals live longer than humans when their body size is considered. Eighteen of these are bats. The only exception is an unusual African rodent, the naked mole rat.

Im Mario Ritter.

The Reuters news agency reported this story. Mario Ritter adapted the report for VOA Learning English with additional materials from the study. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

mammals  n. animals that produce milk, have hair and have a high body temperature

alternative  adj. another way or possibility

species  n. a group of people or animals that belong together or have some shared qualities

maintain  v. to keep up or protect in an existing state

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.A ban on electric bicycles in New York City is hurting delivery workers who depend on them to earn a living. Many of the workers are immigrants.

Electric bicycles, or e-bikes, have foot-powered pedals like other bicycles. But they also have electric-powered motors to assist riders in moving the bike forward. Most e-bikes reach speeds of about 32 kilometers an hour, but some can go much faster.

Aimin Liu often uses an e-bike to deliver up to 40 Chinese food orders all across Manhattan each day. He is 60 years old. He says an e-bike makes his job much easier.

My legs are no good. I'm not capable of riding a regular bike. Both of my feet hurt. I have arthritis on both sides.

Although it is legal to own e-bikes in New York City, it is not legal to operate them. Officials there cite the dangerous use of e-bikes on streets and sidewalks as reason for the ban. Last year, the city announced severe measures meant to hold e-bike riders and restaurants that employ the riders responsible.

E-bike operators can now be fined $500 for violating the ban. Police can also seize the bikes.

Aimin Liu says he fears he might physically collapse if he tried to complete his daily work using a normal bicycle. He also estimates he could only deliver about half the number of orders.

Many of New York's delivery workers are Chinese immigrants in their 50s and 60s. Their job requires them to work quickly and for long hours in order to earn enough money to live on.

Delivery worker Deqing Lian said it is important to perform quality work because their job also depends on tips.

Sometimes we go to places that are very far. If we're too slow the customers will be unhappy.

He added that when delivery workers are too slow, some people refuse to pay for the food. This makes the workers supervisors angry.

Liqiang Liu is an e-bike delivery worker and spokesperson for the New York Delivery Workers Union. He says being caught violating the ban and having the bike seized would cause costly delays for workers.

All told, we're looking at four to five days off. So when you're looking at the loss of four to five days worth of pay - on top of the $500 fine - we're easily looking at an economic loss of over $1,000.

Do Lee is with the Biking Public Project, which provides assistance to bicycle-related workers in New York City. He says the citys ban on e-bikes is unfairly targeting low-paid workers who largely come from the citys Latino and Asian communities. He does not accept the argument that e-bikes present a danger to citizens.

However, many New Yorkers are quick to blame e-bike riders for not being safe.

They never stop on red lights, said New York resident Lana Rayberg. They go in any direction.

New Yorker Bill McGowan says he has mixed feelings about e-bikers in the city.

I'm very sympathetic because I know how hard they work and how they have got to be as productive as they can possibly be. But they should have some more awareness and consideration for pedestrians.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Ramon Taylor and Ye Yuan reported this story for VOA News. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

delivery  n. the act of taking something to a person or place

pedal  n. control on a piece of equipment that is pushed with a foot

capable  adj. able to do something

arthritis  n. illness that causes parts of the body where bones meet to become painful and often big

restaurant  n. place where you can buy and eat a meal

tip  n. an extra amount of money given to someone who performs a service for you

customer  n. someone who purchases a product or service

resident  n. someone who lives in a particular place

awareness  n. the state of knowing that something (a situation, condition, or problem) exists

pedestrian  n. a person who is walking in a city, along a road, etc.Three activist groups have sued the government over new guidelines on a U.S. law that protects against sexual violence at colleges and universities.

The groups Democracy Forward, the National Womens Law Center, and the National Center for Youth Law brought the legal action.

They say new guidelines for the federal law, called Title IX, weaken support for students who say they have been sexually assaulted at American colleges. Title IX is a law that bars discrimination at U.S. colleges and universities.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced the changes last September.

The legal action comes one day after the sentencing of Larry Nassar, a former doctor and employee of Michigan State University. A judge sentenced Nassar to life in prison for the sexual assault of many female athletes.

Skye Perryman is a lawyer with Democracy Forward. She told VOA that the changes made in September will have a bad effect on those who might experience sexual violence.

Individuals whove experienced sexual misconduct, sexual violence, and sexual assault on campuses have been chilled in their ability to bring claims because they do not believe that the system will protect them, she said.

The organizations have said however that the Title IX law has not changed.

Catalina Velasquez is with the group End Rape on Campus. She told VOA, The only thing that has changed is the way the administration will interpret Title IX protections through the Department of Education.

She added that the Department of Education guidelines are still worrying and need to be discussed urgently.

To change the law would require a new legislation to be written, proposed, and approved by the U.S. Congress.

The accused deserve a fair trial

Colleges and universities that receive federal money are required to offer a clear way for students and employees to make complaints about sexual assault. The Title IX rule also requires them to hold fair, open school investigations. In addition, they must provide special medical services for victims.

Last September, the Education Department removed 2011 guidance on what colleges should do when they receive accusations of sexual assault. Education officials said the policy failed to provide fairness to both the accuser and the accused.

After releasing the new guidelines, Devos said that schools must continue to deal with these crimes. She added that, The process also must be fair and impartial, giving everyone more confidence in its outcomes. She said that those accused of assault at schools should receive fair treatment.

Parts of the 2011 guidance required schools to permit both the accuser and accused in harassment and assault cases to appeal findings. It also said universities should complete assault investigations within 60 days.

New rules for Title IX

Both of these, and other rules have been removed since September. The guidelines permit informal mediation between the accuser and the accused instead of a formal process, if both parties agree.

Many female college students said they did not know about the new rules. They said they did not trust their universitys system to deal with sexual assault claims.

The Association of American Universities released a study on sexual assault in 2015. It said that only 25.8 percent of students reported that they were very or extremely knowledgeable of where to report a sexual assault at their school.

I was one of those students, said Emily Franklin. She is a former student who said she was raped during her time at St. Scholastica College.

She said the first thing she did after was wash herself and clean her room, things that victims are not supposed to do. I had honestly not heard of rape kits, I didnt know the processI never received any of that training at my school, she said.

Franklin graduated in May 2016. She has brought a complaint against her school for a Title IX violation with the help of SurvJustice. They are an organization that provides legal support on the issue of sexual violence.

The Education Department reports information on cases related to Title IX. The investigation into Michigan State University is one of hundreds of cases for Title IX violations related to sexual assault at U.S. universities and colleges.

Im Phil Dierking.

Esha Sarai Originally wrote this story for VOAnews.com. Phil Dierking adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

How do you think universities should handle sexual assault cases? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

assault - n. the crime of trying or threatening to hurt someone physically

chill - v. to cause (someone) to feel afraid

complaint - n. a statement that you are unhappy or not satisfied with something

harassment - n. to make repeated attacks against

interpret - v. to understand (something) in a specified way

impartial - adj. treating all people and groups equally

kit - n. a set of tools or supplies that a person uses for a particular purpose or activity

misconduct - n. behavior or activity that is illegal or morally wrong

outcome - n. something that happens as a result of an activity or process

sue - v. to use a legal process by which you try to get a court of law to force a person, company, or organization that has treated you unfairly or hurt you in some way to give you something or to do somethingTwo scientists work together to test a geo-radar that was built to make a map of the planet Mars. They pull the flat box across rocky, sandy ground. They are wearing spacesuits, just like astronauts do in space. The bright white on their protective equipment stands out against the color of the sand and dirt.

When the geo-radar stops working, the two walk back to their vehicles and use a radio to contact scientists at a nearby base camp for guidance. They are unable to speak directly with their command station, which is far away in the European Alps. Communications from there are delayed 10 minutes.

The scientists are not on the planet Mars. They are in a desert in southern Oman, near the borders of Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The desert looks so much like Mars that scientists chose it to field-test technology for a manned space flight to the red planet.

Efforts to send astronauts to Mars

The United States government and a few American companies have established programs to send astronauts to Mars. Former U.S. President Barack Obama and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have both declared that astronauts would walk on the planet in just a few decades.

China is joining the U.S. and Russia in space with its own Mars program. And aerospace companies like Blue Origin have published plans for future bases, ships and spacesuits.

Last weeks successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket puts us in a completely different realm of what we can put into deep space, says Kartik Kumar. He is an analog astronaut.

Analog astronauts carry out tests in preparation for a Mars space flight. The next step after the rocket test, Kumar says, is to deal with non-engineering problems, such as how to react to a medical emergency in space.

These are things I think cant be underestimated, Kumar noted.

Testing for possible Mars mission

Most of the work to prepare for interplanetary trips is being done on Earth. Our planets deserts provide some of the best environments to field-test equipment and people for the trip to Mars.

From space, the Dhofar Desert is a flat, brown area. Few animals or plants can survive in this part of the Arabian Peninsula. Temperatures can top 51 degrees Celsius.

On the eastern edge of a seemingly endless sand dune is the Oman Mars Base. The base is a huge, self-contained area in which people live and work. It is surrounded by shipping containers, which serve as laboratories and living space for the crew.

The deserts surface looks so much like Mars that it can be hard to tell the difference, Kumar said. Its salt domes and riverbeds, he said, look like a lot of what we see on Mars.

Omans government offered to host the Austrian Space Forums next Mars simulation. The offer came at a meeting of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Gernot Groemer, commander of the Oman Mars simulation, said his group quickly accepted.

Scientists from across the world sent ideas for experiments. The project quickly grew to 16 scientific experiments, including testing a new spacesuit called Aouda.

The spacesuit weighs about 50 kilograms. It is called a personal spaceship because one can breathe, eat and do complex science inside of it. The suits visor can show maps, communications and sensor information.

Unusual test sites

The Soviet Unions 1957 launch of Sputnik led to a space race with the goal of putting people on the Moon.

But before the American space agency NASA got there, astronauts like Neil Armstrong trained while suspended on pulleys, or lifts, to simulate one-sixth of Earths gravity.

Scientists used hostile environments in places like Arizona and Siberia to test space capsules, landers, and suits  simulating dangers found beyond Earth.

Among many Mars scientists, a favorite book is Packing For Mars, by Mary Roach. The book notes that test space stations have been built underwater off the coast of Florida, in dark and cold deserts in Antarctica, and in volcanic craters in Hawaii.

NASA scientists used the Mojave Desert in the western U.S. to test vehicles meant for Mars. The scientists also found out a lot about how humans can adapt to different environments.

Humans adaptability in an unstructured environment is still far, far better than any robot we can send to space, said Scott Hubbard, who once led the U.S. space agencys Mars program.

Hubbard added that people, not just robots, are important to exploring Mars.

I'm Anna Matteo. And I'm Pete Musto.

Samuel McNeil reported this story for the Associated Press (AP). George Grow adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________ QUIZ Quiz - Mars on Earth: Tests in Desert of Oman Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

spacesuit  n. a protective covering with life supporting equipment to make life in space possible for its wearer

decade  n. a period of 10 years

realm  n. an area of activity of interest; a field of influence

analog  adj. involving a device or process in which information is represented by physical amounts

simulation  n. something is made to look or feel like something else

capsule  n. a small container or a small part of a spacecraft

adapt  v. to change behavior in reaction to ones situation

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.Now, the VOA Learning English program Words and Their Stories.

There are several kinds of citrus fruit. The most common are limes, oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and lemons.

Out of all of them, it is the lemon that has found its way into a number of English language expressions.

While eating an orange or grapefruit can be pleasant, we don't usually eat plain lemons. Lemons are really sour. The acid in them makes it really hard to eat them raw. Lemons are so acidic they can actually take the protective enamel off your teeth.

So, biting into a lemon does not bring a smile to your face. In fact, when someone is unhappy she may have a puckered look on her face. In this case we can say she looks as if she just sucked on a lemon. We can also call this person a sourpuss. This is a person who always complains and always looks unhappy.

With its really sour taste, sucking on a lemon is unpleasant. So, telling someone to "Go suck a lemon!" is a way of showing your anger. It's not really nice and sounds childish. But there are worse things you could say!

While we dont usually eat lemons raw, they can add taste and vitamin C to food and drinks. But in everyday speech, the word lemon usually represents something poor, bad or broken.

For example, if you hand someone a lemon, you have given them something that is broken or doesnt work. This expression means that you have cheated them. A "lemon" can also mean an unsatisfactory answer.

As we said, a lemon can be something you bought that does not work. It is defective. Americans often use the word lemon to describe a newly-bought, but defective vehicle.

Let's say you go to an automotive dealership and buy what you think is a good car. On the streets around the dealership, it runs perfectly. But on the drive home, everything goes wrong. The gas pedal sticks. The engine starts smoking. Then it just stops running in the middle of the road!

You have bought a lemon.

As you watch the tow truck take away the car for repairs, you call the dealership and demand your money back. The salesman says with a laugh, "No way! All sales are final!"

Now, many people would get angry. Not only do you not have a car, but you have lost a lot of money. But you don't get upset. You find a way to make this situation work for you.

After all, you are a person who looks on the bright side. Your life's belief is: When life give you lemons, you make lemonade!

Here, the term "lemon" means a problem or difficulty in life. Lemonade is a cool refreshing drink. You could say it is the prize you get by overcoming difficulty with your good attitude.

So, we use this expression to describe a situation where something goes wrong but the person in the situation chooses to turn it into a positive experience. People who turn lemons into lemonade we call optimistic. They have a can-do attitude!

This is a common phrase and we use in many different situations. Sometimes we don't even need to say the whole thing. If you simply say, "When life gives you lemons ..." people will know what you mean.

So, back to our broken car story. You take the lemon of a car you bought at the dealership and you make lemonade.

First, you learn about your rights as a buyer under a measure known as the lemon law. In the United States, this requires an automobile manufacturer or dealer to replace, repair, or refund the cost of an automobile that proves to be defective after purchase.

Under the lemon law, you will get your money back. But don't stop there. Why make a glass of lemonade when you can make a whole pitcher!

You warn friends and neighbors about that car dealership. You write an article for the local newspaper about lemon laws. The newspaper receives many emails and letters from people who had similar experiences. Knowing their rights, they also demand their money back for the lemons that were sold to them. The newspaper is so happy with the amount of responses that it offers you a part-time job writing stories about consumer issues.

You've turned a bad experience into something good and you've helped others. Life gave you lemons and you made lemonade.

And that's the end of this weeks Words and Their Stories.

I'm Anna Matteo.

Have you ever had to make lemonade from the lemons life gave you? Or do you have a similar expression in your language? Let us know in the Comments Section.

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.

Anna Matteo wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Peter, Paul and Mary sing the song Lemon Tree at the end of the piece.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

citrus  n. a juicy fruit (such as an orange, grapefruit, or lemon) that has a thick skin and that comes from a tree or shrub that grows in warm areas  often used before another noun

sour  adj. having an acid taste that is like the taste of a lemon

acid  n. chemistry : a chemical with a sour taste that forms a salt when mixed with a base / acidic  adj. containing acid : having a very sour or sharp taste

pucker  v. to pull the sides of (something, such as skin or cloth) together so that folds or wrinkles are formed : puckered  adj.

defective  adj. having a problem or fault that prevents something from working correctly : having a defect or flaw

optimistic  adj. having or showing hope for the future : expecting good things to happen : hopeful

positive  adj. good or useful

can-do  adj. having or showing an ability to do difficult things

attitude  n. the way you think and feel about someone or something

refund  n. to give back money that someone paid for something (such as a product that was returned or a service that was not acceptable)

consumer  n. a person who buys goods and services American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.Anadarko Petroleum Corporation engages in the exploration, development, production, and marketing of oil and gas properties. It operates through three segments: Exploration and Production, WES Midstream, and Other Midstream. The company explores for and produces oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs). It is also involved in gathering, processing, treating, and transporting oil, natural-gas, and NGLs production, as well as the gathering and disposal of produced water. The company's oil and natural gas properties are located in the United States onshore and deepwater Gulf of Mexico; and Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Colombia, Peru, and other countries. As of December 31, 2018, it had approximately 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent of proved reserves. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas.

Read More7 hours ago

Weber Inc. Is As Cheap As It Will Get

Record Demand Drive Results For Weber Inc. Grill maker Weber Inc. (NYSE: WEBR) made a splash in the market this summer when the company IPO'd. Price action has been vigorous in the wake of the initial sale and we think it will continue to be so.

Read ArticleThe following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: @Credentials Inc., ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bahamas) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Global Benefits (UK) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits Limited (DIFC UAE), Aetna Global Holdings Limited, Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Inc., Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Hong Kong) Limite, Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Inc., Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Korea Ltd., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Multi-Strategy 1099 Fund LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Continental Insurance Company, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., American Health Holding Inc., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L. (R.C.S. Luxembourg), CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Claims Administration Corp., Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care Workers Compensation Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Rehabilitation Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, Digital eHealth LLC, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California Inc., Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., FOCUS HealthCare Management Inc., First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, First Script Network Services Inc., Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Group Dental Service of Maryland Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssuance Pennsylvania Inc., Healthagen LLC, Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Life and Health Insurance Company, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, MetraComp Inc., Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare LLC, NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky Inc. (Oh, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Holdings Inc., NeighborCare Inc., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services Inc., NeighborCare Services Corporation, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Holding Company, Omnicare Inc., Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania East LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Holdings Inc., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Pt. Aetna Global Benefits Indonesia, Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Spinnaker Bidco Limited, Spinnaker Topco Limited, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare L.L.C., Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. It firm operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Wealth & Investment Management, and Other. The Community Banking segment offers complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and automobile, student, and small business lending. The Wholesale Banking segment provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States and globally. The Wealth and Investment Management segment includes personalized wealth management, investment and retirement products and services to clients across U.S. based businesses. The Other segment refers to the products of WIM customers served through community banking distribution channels. The company was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo on March 18, 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Read MoreFiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, manufactures, distributes, and sells vehicles, components, and production systems. The company operates through five segments: North America, LATAM, APAC, EMEA, and Maserati. It provides passenger cars, SUV vehicles, trucks, and light commercial vehicles under the Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Abarth brands; and luxury vehicles under the Maserati brand, as well as related service parts and accessories, and service contracts under the Mopar brand. The company also provides cast iron components for engines, gearboxes, transmissions and suspension systems, aluminum cylinder heads, and engine blocks under the Teksid brand; and designs and produces industrial automation systems and related products for the automotive industry under the Comau brand name. In addition, it provides retail and dealer financings, and leasing and rental services; and factoring services. The company sells its products directly, or through distributors and dealers in approximately 130 countries. The company was formerly known as Fiat S.p.A. and changed its name to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. in October 2014. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. was founded in 1899 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various personal and commercial banking products and services in Canada and the United States. It operates through three segments: Canadian Retail, U.S. Retail, and Wholesale Banking. The company offers personal deposits, such as chequing, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases through auto dealer network. It also provides credit cards; real estate secured lending; auto finance; consumer lending; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, private banking, investment advisory, and trust services to retail and institutional clients; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to companies, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,085 branches, 3,440 automated teller machines, and 1,223 stores, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreKinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The firm engages in the operation of pipelines and terminals that transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other products and stores petroleum products chemicals and handles bulk materials like ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Product Pipelines and Kinder Morgan Canada. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment engages in the ownership and operation of major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems, natural gas and crude oil gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities. The CO2 segment focuses on the production, transportation and marketing of CO2 to oil fields that use CO2 as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields to increase production. The Terminals segment consists of the ownership and operation of liquids and bulk terminal facilities located throughout the U.S. and portions of Canada that trans load and store refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, ethanol and bulk products, including coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer,

Read MoreRandgold Resources Limited is engaged in gold mining, exploration and related activities. The Company's activities are focused on West and Central Africa. The Company operates through the gold mining segment. The Company operates various mines, such as Morila, Loulo, Gounkoto, Tongon and Kibali. The Company is exploring in African countries, such as Mali, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Company also holds an interest in the Massawa project. The Company holds Morila Limited, which holds interests in the Morila mine in Mali. As of December 31, 2016, Morila mine has produced 122,370 ounces (oz) of gold. The Company holds a controlling interest in the Loulo mine, located in Mali, through Societe des Mines de Loulo SA (Loulo). The Loulo mine is mining from over two underground mines. As of December 31, 2016, Loulo mine has produced 350,604 oz of gold. It has a controlling interest in the Gounkoto mine through Societe des Mines de Gounkoto SA.

Read MorePakistan has sent troops to Saudi Arabia on a training mission after it refrained to do so in the past years, but the Pakistani military clarifies that the troops will not be deployed in conflict zones outside the kingdom.

Riyadh and Islamabad have been close allies for decades. The Saudis have been pressing Pakistan for the troop deployment since the outbreak of the Yemen conflict in 2015. The Pakistani parliament rejected such a request.

The deployment of a contingent in Saudi Arabia triggered the criticism of Pakistani lawmakers who rebuke the government for bypassing their resolution and making unilateral decisions to the detriment of the country.

Opposition members in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, also slammed the decision and sought clarifications to make sure the troop deployment in Saudi Arabia would not contravene Pakistans neutrality outlined in the parliamentary resolution.Netflix has revealed its ISP Speed Index for January, with Cool Ideas retaining top spot.

South Africas ISPs achieved an average speed of 2.61Mbps, improving the countrys rank to 49 out of 59 countries.

The index is a measure of prime-time Netflix performance on particular ISPs, and not a measure of overall performance of the networks.

Netflix said it calculates the average bitrate of Netflix content, in Mbps, streamed by its members per ISP.

We measure the speed via all available end-user devices. For a small number of devices, we cannot calculate the exact bit rates, and streaming via cellular networks is exempted from our measurements, said Netflix.

Netflix recommends a 5Mbps connection for full HD streaming, which may explain why the average speeds are all below the 5Mbps mark.

The top 10 ISPs for prime-time Netflix streaming are listed below.YEREVAN.  The Karabakh issue can be resolved only when Azerbaijan gets down to reality, abandons its unrealistic expectations from the talks outcome, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said in response to Azerbaijani delegate during the Munich Security Conference panel .

The question of the first secretary of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Germany was so long that he was interrupted by a moderator.

I want to ask you a question from the outset; my question is a bit rhetorical: How do you think to settle the Karabakh issue if your countrys president makes territorial claims against Yerevan, the 2800th anniversary of which we will be celebrating this October?

The Karabakh issue can be resolved and, though I have some doubts about it, you can return to Karabakh or the surrounding regions only when your countrys government gets down to reality, abandons its unrealistic expectations from the talks outcome.

You want to live freely; you want to live in Karabakh. Believe me that the people of Karabakh, too, want to live in freedom on their historic homeland where they have a millennia-old legacy, and they do not want you to destroy that heritage, President Sargsyan said.

President said it is well known why some regions of Azerbaijan came under the control of Nagorno-Karabakhs self-defense forces.

You know that the Karabakhi people just held a referendum in a civilized manner and appealed to the USSR Supreme Soviet to hand over the autonomous region of Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan to Armenia in the manner prescribed by the then applicable law of the Soviet Union.

Instead, the Azerbaijani authorities tried to squeeze Karabakh peoples legitimate demands and wishes. By the way, I must say that at that time all European structures had a very positive attitude as they stated: Yes, Nagorno-Karabakh has the right to self-determination. Unfortunately, honey is not served out in war. I hate the war. But it turned out that we had to create a security zone to protect ourselves, Sargsyan emphasized.

Once again, I would like reiterate from this reputable podium that we are prepared for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue should you show good sense - I do not mean the people of Azerbaijan, I mean the leadership of Azerbaijan - and actually proceed to negotiations realizing that the problem can only be resolved through compromises. I do not want to take time off; I just want to say that it is time to sober up.

Yerevan has 2800 years of history; the Armenians have been living in their historic homeland for over 5,000 years now, and Azerbaijanis or other peoples can not break the will of the Armenian people. Thank you for your questionnaire.YEREVAN.  Armenia has not secretly negotiated with anybody, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said during the panel at the Munich Security Conference.

Sargsyan answered to the question by Ian Bremmer, the president and founder of Eurasia Group, who asked about Armenias decision to dump the association agreement with EU and whether it was done due to Russian pressure.

The question seems rather strange as we have repeatedly stated that we have always been open and honest with our partners, especially in issues related to integration processes. When we started our negotiations with the EU, our Russian counterparts, our allies were aware of it, while our European partners were aware that we were negotiating with the Eurasian Economic Union to join the then Customs Union. We could see that it was possible. And when the principle of and, and was replaced by that of either, or we proved unable to sign such an agreement. That is, it was the European Union rather than Armenia to give up the signing of the Association Agreement, President said.

Armenia has suggested signing part of the agreement, namely the political component, if possible, but the European partners said no, President said, adding that just a few weeks later, they signed such an agreement with Ukraine.



We understand very well Armenias opportunities and Ukraines possibilities, the role of Armenia and the role of Ukraine; nevertheless, it was strange for us. So we did not give up the idea of signing such a cooperation arrangement, and thank God that the European Union made a relevant decision later, which was confirmed at the Riga summit. It was a differentiated approach. And under that differentiated approach, we managed to sign a document with the European Union.

I want to emphasize once again that we have not secretly negotiated with anybody, we have not made any decisions under pressure from anyone, and as I noticed, our historical experience shows that trying to gain temporary benefits from conflicts leads to big tragedies. We had gone through one and did not want to run the risk of another tragedy.YEREVAN.  Our problem is not only Azerbaijan; we have a problem with Turkeys support of Azerbaijan, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said during the pnael of the Munich Security Conference.

His remark came in response to the question of Ian Bremmer, president and founder of Eurasia Group, who asked about the relations between Russia and Turkey and their impact on Armenia.

I know that our opportunities are increasing every year, because the world is beginning to understand how much the Armenians are tolerant and in what difficult geopolitical conditions they are living.

Our problem is not only Azerbaijan; we have a problem with Turkeys support of Azerbaijan. And I have to state that Azerbaijan is lulling itself into a false sense of Armenias isolation. It is myth, nothing but myth, things stand otherwise. If Armenia had been isolated, it would not have boasted a higher average salary than Azerbaijan, which has so much oil, gas and other resources. I can cite other indicators as well, but I am confident that we can not just be isolated, he said.Home | News | General | Sultan of Sokoto, Egbere Emere Okorie Eleme, other monarchs brainstorm on community policing

By Etop Ekanem

Members of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, NCTRN, have showered encomium on HRH Appolus Chu, the Egbere Emere Okori 1 Eleme for promoting unity among ethnic groups in Nigeria.

The HRH Appolus Chu, the Egbere-Eleme Okori Eleme Kingdom, flanked by fellow traditional rulers during the visit

The monarchs, who were in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital for their 9th General Assembly, spoke when they visited Appolus Chu at his palace.

They expressed delight over the monarchs efforts to unite the various ethnic groups in Nigeria.

The Attah Igala, HRH Michael Idakwo, Ameh Oboni II, who spoke on behalf of the group, appreciated Appolus Chu and the people of Rivers State for hosting them at a period of ethnic mistrust in the country.

We have had very exhaustive deliberations at the conference of traditional rulers and we are exhausted both physically and mentally but one of us, the EgbereEmereOkori 1 Eleme, HRH Appolus Chu, decided to give us a special treat, he said.

And he has built our image beyond our expectations in the way he has offered us this unprecedented hospitality in his new palace. For those of us who came by air and even those that came by road, from all over the country, our presence here is due to the ingenuity of one of us, the EgbereEmereOkori 1 Eleme.

In his response, Appolus Chu stressed that the coming together of the monarchs was to promote unity among Nigerians.

Speaking on the theme for the 9th General Assembly tagged, Community Policing as a Catalyst to Crime Prevention  The Role of Traditional Rulers, which was addressed by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris Kpotum, the monarch said: This is very relevant at this time because of the security situation and crises in the nation.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Mohammad SaadAbubakar III and Chairman of NCTRN, who had earlier expressed gratitude to Rivers State for hosting the monarchs, noted that the meeting would not have been held at a better time than now as they all were aware of the challenge of insecurity facing the nation.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Club guard arrested for illegal detention of EKEDC Staff

A guard with a very popular nightclub in Victoria Island, Lagos, was arrested by the police over illegal detention of some members of staff Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC, within the premises of the club.

Detained EKEDC operation vehicle

An eye witness report said the Eko Disco staff had gone into the premises of the night club on revenue collection duty after discovering it was owing the company a huge sum of five million naira.

The report added that on sighting the Eko Disco staff and knowing their mission, club guard and some other workers in the club, locked the gate on the men and the operational vehicle that conveyed them to the place.

All entreaties for the gate to be opened were said to have been rebuffed by the guard and his colleagues. The detained men had to call the Head Office in Marina from where the police were alerted before going to the night club to free the detained men.

Confirming the incident, a source at the Ahmadu Bello Police Station said, investigation into the incident was ongoing and all involved in the illegal act would be arrested and charged to court accordingly.

Speaking on the incident, Eko Disco spokesman, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, said the company would not tolerate any form of harassment of its staff while on official duty no matter how highly placed the persons involved might be.

He advised members of the public against such acts and reiterated that the company would explore all possible legal avenues to bring perpetrators of attack on its staff to book in accordance with the law of the land.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Lagos councillors seek more independence to guarantee good governance

By Temitope Akinbami

Epe, the home town of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, hosted the 377 councillors of the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 LCDAs of Lagos State during which they elected their new leaders for 2017- 2021.

Akinwunmi AmbodeAmbode

The meeting was held at Epe Local Government Secretariat and had in attendance a member of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Turbo Abiodun, royal fathers, LGA Chairmen from Epe Division and representatives of the state government.

In his inaugural address, the new President of the Forum of Councillors, Hon. Nurudeen Alowonle Alimi, from Igbogbo Bayeku Local Government Area, appreciated his colleagues for giving him the opportunity to lead, saying he will not disappoint them. He promised to use his leadership of the forum to promote good relationship among LGA legislatures, the executives and the administrative staff in Lagos.

We shall ensure prompt delivery of dividends of democracy to the people at the grassroots and not play politics with the interest and needs of the state, Alimi said.

We are the overseers at the grassroots. We know the challenges. We are appealing that as parliamentarians at the LGA level, we should be independent as that is the only way the effective performance of our mandates of oversight of the executive and the making of good laws can be guaranteed. The state and federal governments should do all in their power to make local government legislatures independent.

The forum Chairman pleaded for the creation of more LCDAs in Lagos to further get government closer to the people.

Tobun Abiodun, member, Lagos State House of Assembly representing Epe Constituency 1 and who represented Governor Ambode at the occasion, urged the forum members to live up to their responsibility by promoting good governance at the grassroots.

On his part, Hon. Solomon Gbinigbin, Leader of Yaba LCDA, advocated a law that will guarantee the autonomy of the legislative arm of the LGA in terms of budget while saying the good works Ambode is doing in Epe should extend to other local governments in the state.

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Loading...Home | News | General | We are going to have a modern defence establishment in Sambisa forest - Nigerian army

- The chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, has urged the army troops in Sambisa forest to ensure they capture the insurgency leader, Abubakar Shekau

- Buratai relayed President Buhari's congratulatory message to the troops on the capture of the notorious forest

- He said the army plans to convert the site into a military training ground with sophisticated equipment soon

The chief of army staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, during a recent operational visit to the army troops in Sambisa forest said the army will transform the settlement into a training area.

Charging them, he said the troops should ensure they capture the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau who is currently at large either dead or alive, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports.

READ ALSO: Herdsmen crisis: Police, Afenifere back Soyinka on use of hunters, vigilante groups

Tukur Buratai remarked: Mr President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces says congratulations to you all for recovering Sambisa Forest. We are going to transform this place, apart from making it a training area.

"We are going to have a modern defence establishment in terms of the provision of basic requirements for your comfort and indeed for your operations. We are already making sure that the first set of facilities are brought here.

NAN reported that 3,000 troops would be inducted into the Operation Lafiya Dole this week, to replace those who had stayed for quite a while in the Operation Lafiya Dole.

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The troops destroyed the camp in January, 2018 in an operation tagged Deep Punch II and are now dominating the general area of the forest.

Other locations visited by Buratai are Bita, Tukumbere, and all settlements within the forest but almost deserted due to the insurgency.

He, however, directed principal officers, who accompanied him, to visit other locations and frontlines.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that Tukur Buratai, had charged troops to capture Abubakar Shekau, the factional leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group, alive or dead. Buratai, a lieutenant-general, gave the charge at Camp Zairo, the former command and control centre of the terrorists' group in the Sambisa forest during an operational visit to troops.

In 2017, the army chief gave troops a 40-day ultimatum to capture Shekau and the army recently offered a N3 million reward for information on him.

Nigerian Air Force operations against Boko Haram - On NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Capture Shekau dead or alive - Buratai charges troops

- The chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, charged the counter-insurgency troops to capture Abubakar Shekau, dead or alive

- He congratulated the troops for recovering the Sambisa forest and Camp Zairo

- Promising special packages to the troops to boost their morale, he charged them to go on patrol every day to capture the remaining insurgents who are on the run

The chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, has again charged troops to capture Abubakar Shekau, the factional leader of the Boko Haram terrorist group, alive or dead.

Buratai, a lieutenant-general, gave the charge at Camp Zairo, the former Command and Control Centre of the terrorists' group in the Sambisa forest during an operational visit to troops.

In 2017, the army chief gave troops a 40-day ultimatum to capture Shekau and the army recently offered a N3 million reward for information on him.

Troops finally destroyed the camp in January in an operation tagged Deep Punch II and are now dominating the general area of the forest.

The military sacked Shekau from the camp in December 2016 but the terrorists later re-grouped to launch pockets of attacks.

READ ALSO: 2019: Big trouble for PDP as 34,826 members defect to APC

Other locations visited by Buratai are Bita and Tukumbere, all settlements within the forest but almost deserted due to the insurgency.

Let me say congratulations. But, we must move across to wherever this criminal  Shekau is and catch him red-handed. I want you to get him.

Mr President, Command-In-Chief of the Armed Forces says congratulations to all of you for recovering the Sambisa Forest.

As far as we are concerned, we have come to the end of this operation (clearing the forest of remnants of terrorists).

What is remaining now is the Lake Chad waters only and we hope to do that (clear terrorists from it) also very soon.

Meanwhile, you all know these criminals are still on the run; these guys are on the run, you must make sure that you get them wherever they are around this area.

You must not allow them to escape. Every day, you must go on patrol, lay ambush for them and you go on raids.

This is the time we have to consolidate and ensure that this place  Sambisa forest, is safe and never for these criminals to come back to it, Buratai charged the troops.

The chief of army staff said he was in Sambisa and Camp Zairo to confirm the capture, destruction, and domination by the gallant troops.

I am glad that the troops have done the country proud and they have done Mr President proud by not only capturing the Camp Zairo within the forest but also consolidating on this success.

It is a thing of pride and I want to say that we are proud of the Nigerian troops. We are proud of members of the armed forces, the Air Force, Navy, Police, DSS and indeed Civilian JTF, who have provided the needed service, he said.

Buratai described the Sambisa forest as strategic and assured that the military would secure it against terrorists.

We are going to transform this place, apart from making it a training area.

We are going to have a modern defence establishment in terms of the provision of basic requirements for your comfort and indeed for your operations.

We are already making sure that the first set of facilities are brought here, the army chief said.

To the troops, who captured the camp, Buratai promised them a special package to boost their morale.

We are going to have some special packages for all of you that penetrated this forest.

We will make sure that your morale is high by making the necessary provision for you to be comfortable, he added.

On rotation of troops, he said plans were on to rotate those who had stayed long in the theatre of operation.

This is in our plan. I know that some of you were inducted here right from the depot but we are doing something for you to be properly deployed and properly accommodated as well.," he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that 3,000 troops would be inducted into the Operation Lafiya Dole this week, to replace those who had stayed longer.

In an interview with newsmen after the visit, Rogers Nicholas, the commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, said with the capture of camp Zairo the soul and mind of Boko Haram have been broken in Sambisa forest.

They dont have a place to hide. We are still going round to make sure that some of them that are hiding in holes, we intend to fish them out, Nicholas, a major-general, said.

He said on assumption of duty in 2017, the chief of army staff tasked him to capture Camp Zairo and clear Boko Haram from the Sambisa forest.

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Troops have finally cleared the forest of remnants and we are presently occupying camp Zairo as well as all the little settlements and camps within the forest, he said.

Dauda Mohammed, a staff sgt., and one of the troops, who participated in the operations that finally destroyed camp Zairo and cleared the forest of remnants of terrorists, attributed their success to the Almighty God.

The success is from God. God Almighty is the one that gave us the success which all of us are happy to be here. The Sambisa is cleared, Mohammed said.

During the visit, the army chief directed principal officers, who accompanied him to visit other locations and frontline.

Accordingly, the chief of training and operations, Maj.-Gen. David Ahmadu visited Bama, Borno southeast to find out the needs of the troops and encourage them.

The director of military intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Tarfa,visited Dikwa, Borno northeast while Maj.-Gen. A.T. Hamman, the Provost Marshal, visited Gubio, Borno northwest.

NAIJ.com previously reported that the Nigerian army debunked claims that Shekau escaped to Cameroon.

The director of army public relations, Sani Usman, said the army does not know the whereabouts of the terrorists' leader.

In a statement issued on Friday, February 16, in Maiduguri, Borno state capital city, Usman said the report is misleading.

He said the Nigeria army is still in a manhunt of the terrorists' leader as N3 million was placed as a bond on Shekau.

Survivors of Boko Haram on NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | We need state police to tackle Nigeria's security challenges - Osinbajo's aide

- The federal government has said that it will seek the consent and support of state governors on the push for the creation of state police

- Laolu Akande, the media aide to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, stated that the consent of state governments was necessary especially in the area of constitutional amendment for the proposal

- Akande said that creating state police is important in tackling security issues in the country

The federal government on Saturday, February 17, said it would seek the support of governors and the National Assembly on the issue of creating state police across the country.

Laolu Akande, Vice President Yemi Osinbajos media aide, stated that their support is vital to allow for constitutional amendments. He said that the key aim of establishing state police was to tackle the countrys many security issues.

READ ALSO: Nigerians pay average price of petrol at N191/litre - NBS

In his conversation with The Punch, Akande said: We have advocated for state police and it is gathering quite a bit of groundswell. As it gets widespread support, especially among the state governments and the National Assembly, we will be able to achieve the necessary constitutional amendments.

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For now, the main focus is to expand the implementation of community policing, which is to achieve virtually the same purpose of police personnel being very familiar with and working in close association with their local communities. As you know, there is already a presidential order issued for community policing to begin.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that the chairman of the Lagos chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Fatai Ibu-Owo, had expressed opposition to the creation of state police, stating that the country is not politically mature enough for such development.

In an interview on Saturday, February 17, Ibu-Owo said Nigeria is not politically ready for such concept due to the desperation of politicians.

Is the Nigerian police your friend? On NAIJ.com TV

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Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Governors will use state police to kill opposition rather than fight security challenges - NCP

- The National Conscience Party (NCP) has expressed opposition to the creation of state police in the country

- Among other reasons, the party said Nigeria is not politically advanced enough to have state police

- It advised the federal government to strengthen the Nigeria police by providing necessary facilities to deal with the countrys security challenges rather than creating state police

The chairman of the Lagos chapter of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Fatai Ibu-Owo, has expressed opposition to the creation of state police, stating that the country is not politically mature enough for such development.

In an interview on Saturday, February 17, Ibu-Owo said Nigeria is not politically ready for such concept due to the desperation of politicians, the Cable reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that he also said state policing would not solve the security problems in the country.

READ ALSO: 2019: Big trouble for PDP as 34,826 members defect to APC

He said: We at NCP are opposed to the idea because the country is not ripe for such, especially in a country where politicians can be desperate.

We believe that if states are allowed to have their own police, politicians would manipulate them to fight or crush the opposition, rather than fight security challenges. Just like governors are using the state electoral commissions to achieve their political whims and caprices in their respective states.

Ibu-Owo added that state police will threaten the unity of the country.

State police is not good for a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country like Nigeria. They could be used to dangerously settle ethnic scores, and this is not good for the unity of the country, he said.

He suggested that the way forward is for the government to strengthen the police by providing it with the required facilities to deal with the countrys security challenges.

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He further blamed unemployment and poverty, especially among the youth for the rising insecurity.

NAIJ.com previously reported that Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi state said the creation of state police will begin the implementation of true federalism in the country.

He stated this on Tuesday, February 13, at the end of the high table dialogue on ethical values and national security in Abuja.

The event was also used to launch the Integrity and Service Programme (ISP) of the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration.

Are Nigerian Policemen the worst in the world? on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | 475 Boko Haram suspects regain freedom

- About 475 detained Boko Haram suspects, have been released by the Federal High Court sitting at Wawa Cantonment

- The suspects were freed after the prosecution failed to establish any evidence between them and the Boko Haram group

- The freed suspects were arrested at different states and moved to a detention facility at a military base in Kainji, Niger state

The Federal High Court sitting at Wawa Cantonment in Niger State on Friday, February, 16, released a total of 475 detained Boko Haram suspects and sent them to their state governments for proper rehabilitation, The Punch reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, who made this disclosure via a statement signed by his media aide, Salihu Isah issued on Sunday, February 18, said the suspects were freed after the prosecution failed to establish any link between them and the insurgency group.

READ ALSO: Nigerian army set to convert Sambisa forest into training ground

Malami noted that the suspects were arrested and detained on the basis of information that they either belonged to the terrorist group or that they concealed vital information that would have helped security agencies to prevent the commission of acts of terrorism by members of the sect.

He said the prosecution could not charge them with any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them.

Therefore, the suspects were released on motion exparte pursuance of section 35 (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), he said.

Malami further revealed that the freed suspects were arrested at different states and moved to a detention facility at a military base in Kainji, Niger State.

Aside ordering the immediate release of the suspects from detention, the high court directed that they should be properly rehabilitated at any appropriate center to be provided by their respective states, before being re-united with their families.

The AGF further said: Those suspects who are mentally deranged or challenged with their health are to be provided medical attention at any appropriate medical or other mental health facilities.

The states were also to provide appropriate training in the manner and for the period that the state deemed appropriate and reasonable.

Among the list of the group released was a pathetic case of a female suspect, Lubabatu Yakubu who was arrested in 2014 by the officials of the Department of Security Services (DSS) in Numan town, Adamawa state, two days after marriage and divorced by her Boko Haram husband.

Lubabatu was accused of her affiliation with Boko Haram husband.

Another suspect, a young mother cuddling her three months old baby, Mariam Mohammed, a Shua Arab from Borno State was released. She was lured into the Boko Haram sect and taken to Sambisa forest by her elder brother and married off to his friend at eleven years old.

She was arrested by soldiers of the Joint Task Force (JTF) in 2014 while trying to escape the Boko Haram enclave in the Sambisa Forest.

Taye Hamza and Kehinde Hamza are both identical twins from Oyo State based in Bauchi State. They were amongst the lucky ones released.

The twins who are mechanic by profession were arrested in 2010 by the DSS at their workshop in Bauchi State for servicing a vehicle belonging to the dreaded Boko Haram member.

A 35 year old, Haruna Yahaya who was earlier sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for participating in the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State on Monday, was on Friday handed down an additional 15 years jail term.

On Friday, the court sentenced him to additional 15 years imprisonment for being a mastermind of the said abduction.

The presiding judge ordered that the Mondays and Fridays sentences imposed on Yahaya, who hails from Potiskum in Yobe State, would run consecutively.

It implies that the convict will have to spend 30 years in prison, the AGF added.

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According to an earlier report by NAIJ.com, the federal government on Monday, February 12, resumed trial of suspected Boko Haram insurgents detained in various locations of the country, The Punch reports.

It was gathered that a press statement by the special adviser to the AGF on media and publicity, Salihu Isah, said on Sunday that the second phase of the trial at the Kainji detention facility in Niger state would begin on Monday.

The statement said: Resumption of trial arose from the conclusion of investigation of over 1,000 suspects as ordered by the court during its proceedings of October 2017 by the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

Police parade gang leader of Badoo Cult group in Lagos - on NAIJ.com TV.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Please dont give up on Nigeria - Envoys tell US-based Nigerians

- Members of Nigerian community in the United States of America have been urged not to give up on the Country

- Nigerian envoys in New York made the appeal

- They noted that some of the challenges plaguing the country before now but said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had made giant strides in overcoming

Nigerian envoys in New York have appealed to Nigerians in the U.S. not to give up on their country but continue to support efforts by leaders to develop it.

Nigerias Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Samson Itegboje, Acting Consul-General in New York Tanko Suleiman and minister, Economic and Investment, Mr Nicholas Ella, gave the advice.

They spoke at a Town Hall organised by the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) USA to sensitise the Nigerian community about the homeland.

Itegboje said the town hall was taking place at a time of a national rebirth where all hands must be on deck to bring about a new Nigeria.

READ ALSO: APC doomed if Tinubu fails to resolve party crises - Shehu Sani

The ambassador noted some of the challenges plaguing the country before now but said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had made giant strides in overcoming the overwhelming challenges.

The Nigerian envoy challenged thOsei-Asibey in diaspora to be involved in the countrys affairs saying this is the time to latch into the Nigerian space. It is big enough to accommodate everybody.

Mr Nicholas Ella, Minister, Economic, Nigerian Consulate, New York and Amb. Samson Itegboje, Nigerias deputy permanent representative to the UN at NIDO USA Town Hall in New York. Credit: NAN

Now is the time to say that if our voices must be heard, then we need to invest into governance and contribute our quota to the development of our country.

We must all now join hands towards attaining a height where national interest must be exalted far and above personal, ethnic, religious and regional interests.

You must leave your comfort zones and go on a search for a new formidable national identity. We must demarcate between the Nigeria we have and the Nigeria we desperately need.

And we must work assiduously towards the establishment of a glorious nation where men and women are not judged by tribe, religion or geographical locations.

Similarly, the Consul-General, in his remarks, tasked NIDO on the need for Nigerians to be united within and outside the country and to put national interest above ethnic, religious and sentiments.

Suleiman also stressed the need for data of Nigerians in the Diaspora so as to easily make the records of accomplished Nigerians available for service to their fatherland.

The envoy said the Federal Government was very interested in the expertise of those in Diasporas and had, therefore, established the Diaspora Commission.

He urged them to take advantage of the Commission, saying the Federal Government would not have appointed a Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters if it was not interested in Diaspora affairs.

Some Nigerians at the NIDO Town Hall at Nigeria House, New York. Credit: NAN

Suleiman said many of the challenges inherited by the President Muhammadu Buharis administration were being surmounted adding that in the next few years, much of the efforts would have yielded fruits.

The minister, Economic/Investment, in his address, urged Nigerians who encountered investment challenges when they travelled home to come through the Consulate so as to ease their doing business.

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Ella urged NIDO to reach out to Nigerians wherever they are, adding that the Consulate was now better equipped to facilitate investment opportunities through the relevant government contacts.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had earlier reported that a group of accomplished Nigerian professionals in the US have expressed their eagerness to come home and invest in the Nigerian economy to fast-track the development of the country.

Some of the professionals, who spoke at the inauguration of the Nigerians-American Business Forum in Florida, said they were determined to use their wealth of experience to develop their fatherland, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

They said many of them started out from Nigeria where they had free world-class education and were able to compete and succeed on the global stage, adding it is now time to give back to their country.

What is working well and what needs improvement in Nigeria? - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that with President Muhammadu Buhari piloting the affairs of Nigeria, the country is in very safe and competent hands, and that there is no cause for alarm.

The minister said this at a mini town hall meeting with the staff of the Nigerian Embassy in Madrid, Spain, and a cross section of Nigerians living in the European country on Saturday.

A statement issued by the Special Assistant to the minister, Mr. Segun Adeyemi, which was made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday, quoted Mohammed as saying that contrary to the fake news being peddled on the social media, Nigeria is making steady progress, especially in revamping the economy, tackling insecurity and fighting corruption.

He said these are three cardinal programmes of the Buhari administration

Mohammed said, Dont believe everything you read on the social media. Nigeria is neither at war nor in crisis.

Contrary to what you may be reading on the internet, the Buhari administration is putting Nigeria on a solid footing, after the years that were eaten by the locust.

He said naysayers were spending millions of naira to distort the true situation of things in Nigeria and to make the (Buhari) administration look bad.

The minister said the administrations achievements should be evaluated against the background of the tough challenges that it has faced since coming to office on May 29, 2015Home | News | General | 40,000 litres of fuel meant for Gombe diverted as DPR launches investigation

- Alleged diversion of 40,000 litres of fuel meant for Gombe is currently being investigated by the department of petroleum resources

- The fuel tanker which was loaded in Lagos was intercepted at Funtua, Katsina state, by members of the IGP Special Task Force on Petroleum and Illegal Bunkering

- DPR had confiscated the tanker and the product had been discharged at the NNPC Mega station for sale to motorists at official pump price

The department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), northwest zonal office, Kaduna, says it is investigating alleged diversion of 40,000 litres of fuel meant for Gombe.

The head, down stream, of the zonal office, Yahaya Maishera, said this while releasing the fuel at the NNPC Mega Station on Saturday in Mando, Kaduna.

Maishera said the fuel that was loaded in an unidentified Tanker was loaded in Lagos on February 6.

He said the fuel tanker was intercepted at Funtua, Katsina state, by members of the IGP special task force on Petroleum and Illegal Bunkering.

READ ALSO: Professor Ango Abdullahi defends herdsmen

He said the tanker, whose weigh-bill documents which were suspected to be fake, indicated that the product was loaded in Lagos on February 6 with Gombe as its destination.

The official said the tanker, was however, intercepted in Funtua while heading to Gusau, Zamfara, on February 9.

According to him, the DPR had launched an investigation to get the transporter as well as the marketer, allegedly involved in the diversion of the product.

He said the department had confiscated the tanker and the product had been discharged at the NNPC Mega station for sale to motorists at official pump price.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fuel was released under the supervision of the officials of the DPR, those of the PPMC and members of the IGP Task Force.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Eket field office, sealed up 15 filling stations in Akwa Ibom state over alleged fraudulent activities including diversion of products and sales above the N145 government-approved price.

Tamunoiminabo Kingsley-Sundaye, the operations controller of DPR, disclosed this in Eket on Tuesday, February 13, during surveillance operations in the state.

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NAIJ.com gathered that Kingsley-Sundaye mentioned locations of the sealed filling stations across the state to include Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Obot Akara and Uyo.

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Loading...Home | News | General | President Buhari's degrading of Boko Haram justifies my defection to APC  Gulak

- Ahmed Gulak, a former aide to Ex- President Goodluck Jonathan, speaks on his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC)

- Gulak noted he was forced to leave the People Democratic Party (PDP) due to lack of internal democracy

A former aide to Ex- President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak has said that Buhari governments degrading of Boko Haram terrorists was enough to justify his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Gulak who hails from Adamawa state on Saturday, February 17, officially decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling APC.

READ ALSO: 2019: PDP loses top members to APC in Niger state

The one time political adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, claimed he was leading 42,000 people to the ruling APC.

He said they were forced to leave PDP by impunity and lack of internal democracy.

His words: Members of the PDP numbering 42,000 across the 21 local government areas including party executives have today wished to formally dump PDP and join APC officially.

With this development, we formally bury PDP in Adamawa state. Though we are not like others, who kept decamping when their dreams and ambitions were not met.

Constitutionally we have the right to leave and join any other party. Former President Obasanjo had earlier left PDP and tore his party membership card.

So also former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; it could be recalled had first left PDP and joined AC that later metamorphosed to ACN. From ACN, Atiku returned back to PDP that he first left and before you know the former vice president again cross-carpeted to APC and now left to PDP again.

So everyone has right to change if they feel disenchanted and we have made consultations with our people who asked us to move to APC.

Salihu Mustapha, APC northeast chairman, said the decamping was a result of the good work of the APC administration.

All federal roads have been awarded for rehabilitation while some have reached concluding state of bidding for awarding by federal government, he said.

Reacting, the state PDP chairman of the party, Tahir Shehu, said their defection would be a big relief to the PDP, saying, most of them were lured by Governor Jibrilla Bindow for juicy position while others have skeleton in their cupboards, and they were afraid of EFCCs hammer.

In a previous report by NAIJ.com, no fewer than 17 chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their supporters defected to All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday, February 17, ahead of President Muhammadu Buharis visit to Adamawa on Tuesday.

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The PDP chieftains include Ahmed Gulak, the Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Felix Tangwami, Chief Medan Teneke, Alhaji Sahabo Aliyu and Alhaji Saidu Aliyu.

Other defectors were Chief Lazarus Gugu, Alhaji Mustafa Maigari and Alhaji Yusuf Dan-Umma, among others.

Age requirement reduction by the Senate; Good or Bad for Nigeria? - on NAIJ.com TV:

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Loading...Home | News | General | Embargo: Adamawa state governor reserves 2019 governor's seat for himself

- The governor of Adamawa state, Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow has said that the 2019 governor's seat is reserved exclusively for him

- However, Ahmed Gulak, the former political adviser to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), said that there is no such rule in the ruling party's constitution

- Gulak stated that he and his supporters will partner with the party only in accordance to the its regulations

A bit of tension ensued on Saturday, February 17, at the old secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamawa state, when Ahmed Gulak, former political adviser to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), with his supporters.

Gulak, in his address to APC factional members loyal to Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow who had assembled to welcome him to the party, said the constitution of the APC permits new members to contest elections, The Guardian reports.

READ ALSO: Boko Haram: 475 suspects arrested nationwide regain freedom

But perceiving Gulak's intention to contest the governorship election in 2019, Bindow, represented by his chief of staff, Abdullraman Abba Jimeta, told the new defectors that there is no vacancy at Government House and that nobody should think of contesting the office on the platform of the APC.

Bindow said: Let me say this before some people would start thinking of contesting for the office of governor. There is no vacancy. We welcome you all to our party and will consider you in all our activities. But the governors office is a no-go area until 2023. So, be aware of this now.

Gulak, in reaction, said: I have read the APC constitution several times and there is no barrier to new members to contest elections. It is unlike in the PDP where new members need a waiver from their state leadership and if they hate your face, there is no waiver for you.

Gulak, believed to have interest in the governorship ticket, told the party leadership that he and his group would partner with APC on equal terms in accordance to the provisions of the partys constitution.

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In his response to Gulaks defection from the PDP, Abubakar Tahir Shehu, the Adamawa state chairman of the party, referred to him as a political prostitute. He said the departure confirms that sanity has been restored to the opposition party.

Shehu said: We in PDP know that Gulak left the party in 2015 after the presidential election. It is a shame that a man like Gulak will be talking of due process when he conspired with others to take our governorship primaries in 2015 to Abuja and imposed an APC member, Nuhu Ribadu, on the party. We decided to vote against our party to prove to Gulak that he has no political value. He is a huge liability to any party he joins.

Earlier, NAIJ.com reported that no fewer than 17 chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their supporters defected to All Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday, February 17, ahead of President Muhammadu Buharis visit to Adamawa.

The PDP chieftains include Ahmed Gulak, the special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Felix Tangwami, Chief Medan Teneke, Alhaji Sahabo Aliyu and Alhaji Saidu Aliyu.

APC is the worst party in Nigeria, I regret being a member -On NAIJ.com TV

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Loading...Home | News | General | Professor Ango Abdullahi defends herdsmen, says their actions are justified

- Professor Ango Abdullahi says herdsmen are being unjustly treated in Nigeria

- The former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University also accused Nigeria media of being selective in their reportage

- He claimed that government also denied them justice by not going to arrest those that are killing them

Spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and a former vice chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Professor Ango Abdullahi, has defended herdsmen menace in a recent interview he had with a national newspaper.

Abdullahi who spoke with Vanguard Newspaper accused Nigerians of bias against the herdsmen. He said many people are not ready to defend the rights of the herdsmen.

"But I tell you, what is happening today is that politicians are dividing this country on the basis of political interests and people are paid to protect the affairs of these politicians. And journalists are also falling into the same trap of tribalism and all sorts of divisive measures.

"I tell you, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba have no problems with one another. Go the markets, check out personal relationships among ethnic groups but everything is being tribalised because of politics. Go to the big markets at Onitsha, Aba, Kaduna or Kano and you will not see what you are reporting. Everybody is one, but politicians who want to win elections are the problems.

READ ALSO: APC doomed if Tinubu fails to resolve party crises - Shehu Sani

"These politicians operate at different levels; from ward to local government, state and federal, they poison the peoples minds and interpret everything with ethnic and religious bias.

"They take advantage of the ignorance of the people and brainwash them. Some of the reports in the newspapers do not help issues. A man in the rural area reads some of these things and swallows them. Now, journalists who are supposed to be denying the politicians lies are working for them," he said.

The former vice chancellor also accused Nigerian press of bias against the herdsmen. He accused them of beinhg selective in their reportage.

"Everybody is talking about Benue but who is taking about Taraba? Did you report the 743 people that were murdered in Mambilla? Did you people report the 953 people that were murdered in Kaduna? Did you report the 500 people that were killed in Southern Kaduna?

"Did you report the Fulani that were murdered in Numan and so on? You did not, but politicians are pushing you to report the 73 that were killed in Benue and this is what is heating the policy and the several hundreds of people that died in other places have died in vain.

"So, I am accusing the press of bias and for engineering some of the difficulties we are having today? The herdsmen crisis is politically driven. We have been having herdsmen for over 200 years or 300 years ago in Nigeria, particularly we in the North. I havent seen how this crisis between farmers and herdsmen would lead to attacks and loss of lives.

Going further, he justified the menace of the herdsmen, saying that they were only protecting themselves against attacks.

He said: "The truth is, if you want to kill me and I have a chance first, I will kill you, or you do want people to be killed and not defend themselves? By your reporting, you have denied them justice and government also has denied them justice by not going to arrest those that are killing them. So, they defend themselves."

When asked if the attack on Olu Falae in Ondo state was justified, or if the former secretary to the Federal Government had offended the herdsmen, Abdullahi pointed that his own uncle too was kidnapped so Falae's case should not be different.

"My uncle was kidnapped last week in Kaduna, my cousins children were also kidnapped and they had to go and find N2.5 million to pay. Why is Olu Falae case different? Because he was Secretary to the Federal Government? He is a Nigerian just like my uncle and my cousin whose children were kidnapped.

"The right of every citizen is important under the law. Why is he so special?

"What about the impunity of the people killing herdsmen? The herdsmen in Nigeria are reacting to the injustice meted out daily to them?"

Abdullahi while justifying the menace of the herdsmen insisted that Nigerians are biased against the pastorialists:

"You people, you Nigerians, including you who are biased, who are not prepared to protect the rights and interests of herdsmen. They are killed but not reported, that is not acceptable. I want to get this right."

When asked if he was trying to justify menace by the herdsmen, he declared:

"I am justifying it very strongly because herdsmen are being unjustly treated in this country."

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that Professor Ango Abdullahi the national chairman of Northern Nigeria Union said President Muhammadu Buhari should not expect an automatic ticket for 2019.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Police IG sends 3 more mobile force units to Zamfara

- The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has deployed additional three units of Police Mobile Force (PMF) to Zamfara

- To supplement the personnel of the Zamfara police Command, 7 units were recently deployed to the state

- This move by the police IG is to forestall further loss of lives after reports that bandits suspected to be cattle rustlers had killed about 18 persons

The Inspector-General of Police (I-G), Mr Ibrahim Idris, has deployed additional three units of Police Mobile Force (PMF) to Birane village in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara, to forestall further loss of lives.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that bandits suspected to be cattle rustlers had on Feb. 14 killed 18 persons in Birane village.

READ ALSO: 2019: PDP loses top members to APC in Niger state

NAN also reports that seven PMF units were recently deployed to the state to augment the personnel of the Police Command there.

A statement by the Force spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood, said that Idris gave the directive after a visit to the state to carry out on-the-spot assessment of the incident.

He said that the I-G, who was accompanied by the AIG Zone 10, Sokoto, and commissioners of police in the zone, held a stakeholders meeting with the people.

Moshood said that that a joint investigation team headed by the Assistant Inspector -General of Police in charge of intelligence at the Force Headquarters was also dispatched to the state.

He said that the team was under a definite and strict mandate to arrest and bring to justice the perpetrators of the killings and investigate the remote and direct causes of the mayhem.

They are further directed by the I-G to arrest and disarm all suspected bandits, militias and criminal groups in possession of prohibited firearms and restricted weapons in the region, he said.

Moshood said that the I-G had also placed Commissioners of Police, their Supervising Assistant Inspectors-General of Police and all Personnel of the Force in States Contiguous to Zamfara on red alert.

According to him, normalcy has been restored in the area and the situation is under control.

The spokesman assured the people of Zamfara and other states in the country of adequate protection of their lives and property.

The Force, therefore, encourages them to go about their lawful activities without fear or apprehension but support and cooperate with the Police personnel deployed in their localities, he said.

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In a previous report by NAIJ.com, Nigeria's Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Kpotun-Idris has arrived Zurmi in Zamfara state.

The area was recently invaded by suspected bandits leaving 41 persons dead.

On Saturday, February 17, IGP Idris left Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos and arrived Katsina and then proceeded to Zurmi by road to assess the situation.

Nigerian herdsmen vs Nigerian farmers - on NAIJ.com TV.

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Loading...Home | News | General | 2019 PDP primaries: I am happy there will be no imposition of candidates - IBB

- Nigeria's former military leader, Ibrahim Babangida, says he is happy that imposition of candidates would not be allowed in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

- Babangida also expressed satisfaction with the rebranding so far achieved by the party ahead of the 2019 general elections

Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, says he is happy with the promise of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders that imposition of candidates would not be allowed in the party.

A statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, quoted Babangida as making the assertion in Minna, Niger State while receiving members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) on Saturday.

Babangida receiving the PDP NWC led by its National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, also expressed satisfaction with the rebranding so far achieved by the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.

READ ALSO: APC doomed if Tinubu fails to resolve party crises - Shehu Sani

I am happy at your assurances that there will be no imposition in all your primary elections. It is all about choice and you have promised to provide the best choice, he is quoted as saying.

Commending the elective National Convention of the PDP, the former president noted that not a few Nigerians believed that the national convention would hold, but, however, the outcome was successful.

Your reposition, rebrand and regain agenda is working and I mean particularly the rebranding.

Some people believed that having been in government since 1999, the PDP will find opposition difficult, but you are carrying on well and providing a better alternative.

You have also not abandoned the people in times of crisis.

I monitored your activities in Benue, Taraba and you just said your party has sent members to Zamfara to commiserate with the people.

Surely you have made the people the centre of your return and they will not forget you because you were with them in time of sorrow, Babangida is quoted as saying.

The statement also quoted Secondus, while speaking earlier, telling Babangida that Nigerias former leaders must rally together to save the nation from the current situation.

Secondus lamented the killings and economic hardships which Nigerians contend with on daily basis, and the level of division in the country.

As a leader, you made the welfare of Nigerians the thrust of governance.

You were also concerned about the peace and unity of this nation. You created and built people as well as institutions.

Today, our nation is drifting and as leaders you cannot afford to keep quiet and watch on the sides.

Leaders like you must come together and take a firm position on how to save our nation from the precipice, he said.

The national chairman said that the PDP remained the only alternative platform based on its experience, and because it had learnt it lessons.

Secondus said that PDP leaders had resolved to play by the rules and operate within the confines of the partys and the Nigerian constitution.

We are rebranding and repositioning to make our party open to all and regain the land for the people.

We are determined to give opportunities to the youths and our women.

We also want to mentor a new generation of young Nigerians that will take our nation to the next millennium, Secondus is quoted as saying.

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He urged all Nigerians to rally with the repositioned PDP to restore the nation once more to the path of peace, national unity and economic prosperity.

NAIJ.com previously reported that consultations for the 2019 general elections have begun in earnest as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national leadership of has been consulting with elders of the party in recent times.

The party's National Working Committee lead by the national chairman of the PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, visited the home of former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd), in Minna, Niger state. Read more:

Nigerians want PDP back in 2019 - Goodluck Jonathan declares at PDP Caucus Meeting - on NAIJ.com TV.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Katsina State elders ll soon reply Obasanjos letter  Masari

The Katsina State Elders Forum will soon reply former President Olusegun Obasanjos letter asking President Muhammadu Buhari not to seek re-election in 2019, Gov. Aminu Masari said on Sunday in Daura.

Governor Masari

The elders forum will consider the possibility of replying the recent letter by President Olusegun Obasanjo to Buhari.

We intend to place an advertorial in the national dailies to respond to the issues he raised, Masari told newsmen, shortly after he led the elders on a condolence visit to President Buhari in Daura.

Newsmen report that Obasanjo, in the letter, assessed the performance of the President since he assumed office on May 29, 2015 and advised him to step down in 2019.

But Masari, who did not state the views of the elders on the issues raised by Obasanjo, said that the forum had studied the letter and would respond to its contents.

The response will not be long in coming; it will be very soon, he said.

Masari said that the elders were in Daura to condole Buhari over the death of his two sisters  Hajiya Aisha Mamman and Hajiya Halima Dauda  and described their demise as very saddening.

We came to formally commiserate with the President and also pray for the repose of the souls of the deceased.

We also told the President to accept the development as destined by the Almighty, he said.

Among the elders who condoled the President were Justice Mamman Nasir (rtd), Brig-Gen Ahmed Daku (rtd), Justice Sadiq Mahuta and Alhaji Dahiru Mangal.

Others included the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Farouk Umar, traditional title holders, among others.

NAN

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Loading...Home | World | Africa | Villager sues Zanu-PF thug for $10 000 over assault

A ZANU PF supporter has been slapped with a lawsuit by a villager who is demanding payment of $10 000 as compensation for damages for pain and suffering, which he endured after he was assaulted early this month.

The villager, Abel Mauchi, who resides in Matuvi village under Chief Makore in Gutu in Masvingo province, filed the summons on Friday 16 February 2018 demanding $10 000 from Matora Masiiwa, who assaulted him after he refused to surrender his voter registration slip containing his serial number and other data.

In the summons filed by Mauchi's lawyer Collen Maboke of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, the villager said he collapsed and was hospitalised at Gutu Rural District Hospital after he sustained some injuries from being assaulted by Masiiwa on Friday 09 February 2018. Mauchi said he met Masiiwa at Mutendeure Shopping Centre in Gutu in Masvingo province while on his way from attending a workshop organised by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace held at St Xavier Gono Parish in Jerera, where Masiiwa interrogated Mauchi on why he had not attended a meeting where Musiiwa and Pedzisai Manzunzu were collecting serial numbers of voter registration slips from some villagers.

Mauchi said he was threatened with assault by Musiiwa after he advised him that his request was illegal since no one should disclose their serial numbers and any other information on their voter registration slips to anyone. Thereafter, as Mauchi was leaving for his homestead, he was tracked by Musiiwa, who twisted his left hand and began assaulting him with clenched fist and booted feet. Musiiwa only stopped assaulting Mauchi when he realised that he had collapsed. Mauchi sustained some injuries which include swelling on the left side of his abdomen from the assault.

The villager is demanding that Musiiwa pays him a total of $10 000 of which $9 800 is for damages for contumelia and $200 for special damages together with costs of inconvenience caused upon Mauchi. Musiiwa was scheduled to appear in court on Friday 16 February 2018 after he was arrested and charged with assault as defined in Section 89 (1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.

Already, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has condemned the practice of forcibly demanding voter registration slips or details such as serial numbers from registrants and equated such demands to intimidation, which is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

By instituting anti-impunity civil proceedings against Musiiwa, ZLHR seeks to deter acts of human rights violations and reduce impunity and increase accountability of both State and non-State actors for human rights violations against human rights defenders.

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Loading...Home | World | Africa | Chief accused of cheating villagers in fuel money

A Chief in Rushinga has been accused of cheating villagers by making them contribute money to fuel his newly government acquired vehicle for personal use.

The chiefs recently got new vehicles from government which has been described as the fulfillment of former President Robert Mugabe's promises by the new president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Zimbabwe peace Project said a Chief in ward 21 of Rushinga presiding over Nyamanyanya area, known as Nicholas Chaora Muzika or Makuni has been accused of using deceptive methods to fundraise for fuel after receiving a vehicle from the government.

"Reports are that on 28 January Muziki instructed village heads to collect $0.50c per individual as tribute towards holding a celebration ceremony in appreciation and acknowledgment of the gift from the government. Defaulters were reportedly told that if they fail to pay the dues, they will be forced to pay an unspecified fine for defying the Chief's orders," said ZPP.

"This left villagers concerned as they accused the Chief of using dubious plans to raise money for fuel expenses."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa

Loading...Home | World | Africa | Govt hailed for reducing domestic violence

Gender activist has commended government and its partners for increased awareness on domestic violence issues that have seen more cases being reported.

Statistics show that one in three women in the country have experienced physical violence since the age of 15, a figure which confirms that violence against women is still high.

Chairperson of Women of Valour Memory Mamhiyo applauded government and non-governmental organisations for the role they are playing in reducing cases of domestic violence through continuous awareness campaigns that have given communities the confidence to report these vices.

Zimbabwe has enacted laws which protect both women, children and men from perpetrators of abuse and violence.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa

Loading...Home | World | Africa | Mnangagwa consoles Tsvangirai family

President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his government will fulfil its promises to the Tsvangirai family by paying the hospital bills left in South Africa and availing planes that will ferry the body of the late former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to his rural home in Buhera for burial.

Mr Tsvangirai succumbed to colon cancer on Wednesday last week and his body arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday and lied in state at the One Commando Barracks in Harare.

Before a church service at 2.pm today at Mabelreign, President Mnangagwa, his wife Auxillia Mnangagwa, the two Vice Presidents, Kembo Mohadi and Retired General Constantino Chiwenga visited the Tsvangirai residence at Highlands to pay their condolences.

Addressing mourners, Mnangagwa said the state will fulfil all its promises so that the former Prime Minister can be afforded a befitting send off.

"I visited Mr Tsvangirai last month and made some promises to him and I will not renege on those promises. The government will help settle hospital bills as already promised. The body arrived yesterday and I sent my representatives to receive it at the airport. As you all know, all those that the government chooses to honour, we let them lay in state at a special place, at One Commando Barracks and that is what happened to Mr Tsvangirai. Now it is up to you, if you given us the programme, we will avail planes to take Mr Tsvangirai's body home," said President Mnangagwa, also revealing that the late former Prime Minister was his uncle.

Earlier, Mr Tsbangirai's niece had revealed that they had left a 2 million rand hospital bill in South Africa.

The President's speech was also unifying, calling for Zimbabweans to respect each other and set political differences aside especially in times like these.

"We must respect each other. Politics will remain there and people fighting but we are all one people. Myself and my party are saying let us be united and work together. All these differences are not different from a scenario in a family where one says let's do dry planting and the other says let's wait for rain. What is important in this case is that both are seized with the desire to farm for their family," he said.

"Each of us has their days of life, if we still have time on this earth, let us all work for our country so that our legacies will remain. We must understand that we are all Zimbabweans, I don't think there is any political party in the country that has the agenda to make people suffer," Mnangagwa added.

The President also said he is overwhelmed by condolence messages from many people mostly outside the country following the death of Mr Tsvangirai, who he described as a person who has travelled his difficult journey until the end.

Members of various political parties, among them the MDC-T leadership, former Vice President and NPP leader Joice Mujuru, former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara were in attendance.

The body of Mr Tsvangirai will be taken to Robert Mugabe Square in Harare for a send off tomorrow before being flown to Buhera for burial on Tuesday.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Africa

Loading...I wish him well and hope that he's able to reach a place of equilibrium soon.

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Good for him. I think it must be difficult to be in this situation because it has such an impact on everyone else you work with as well as yourself, but I'm glad they can stop production.

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That sucks. But he's lucky he can at least get that time off. There have been so many times when I called in sick but was having a really bad depression day yet I still felt guilty for not going to work.

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Aww hope he feels better, good for him and take yo time 

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Good for him. I wish I would have been able to take a break earlier and not in so much denial, I ended up in the hospital for 10 weeks and needed 26 weeks to be able to function again.



Thanks goodness, I'm in Germany, I got 80% of my salary and free medical help, including a 3 year therapy. Now I'm stable and mostly fine.



Edited at 2017-05-01 03:47 pm (UTC)

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This would never happen in the US

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right?? that sentence seems so unreal. here you're lucky to have a job that'll pay for one therapy session, let alone three solid years worth of sessions.

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Has nothing to do with my job. Everyone has the right to get good healthcare over here. It's not what it used to be, but it's still much better than almost everywhere else.

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Right, and the only way you'd get anything like that in the US is through a job. :( There's no universal safety net for people's wellbeing here. It's sick.

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that wouldn't happen even in the uk

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It's horrible that there is no health-care for most US people.

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mte, you're lucky to get any paid time off at a job in the US. :(

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Omg realy. Im happy u got the help u needed bb stay well

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Thank you!



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depression is a bitch. i'm glad he can take time off to deal with it!

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that's really good of them, and i like that the rep's statement was candid and normalizing. i hope he feels better soon.



i loved this show until they killed off rhona mitra's character  i wish they'd bring her back. she and eric dane had perfect tv chemistry smh

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I wish I could afford to go to inpatient treatment for depression. I think it would be helpful to get away and only focus on my mental health. Oh well.

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good on the producers for actually letting him take this time instead of forcing him to keep working or firing him, and good for him for wanting to take the time he needs. a lot of people (myself included) just kinda... trudge along through their depression, go through the motions, which is unpleasant, to put it lightly, and endlessly exhausting.

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idk what to say, but i wish him the best

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Very best of luck to him. Doing this sort of thing is never easy but it's always for the best.



I've been inpatient for anorexia(+2 suicide attempts) since January and I just had to extend my Medical Leave of Absence from medschool (I should be discharged before May is over but I still have Intensive Outpatient and Outpatient to do..) I'm terrified about how this will affect my future but also this is like my last shot at an actual semblance of recovery... so yeah, everything is just one big mess..



/tldr/csb.



Edited at 2017-05-01 05:24 pm (UTC)

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I hope everything works out for you <3

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Your future is going to be amazing because you're going to be an awesome doctor. Taking the time you need to recover is so important. You're so strong for dealing with this and thats going to reflect in your work. I'd rather have a doctor who's been through medical shit and knows what it takes to get through and has compassion because of that, rather than a doctor who can't relate.

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Good luck bb <3

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hoping you have a wonderful life and find your place in the universe

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oh man, i hope he has a good support system around him. i'm really impressed that the show stopped production to give him a break, good for them!

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i'm glad he is able to get the help he needed. i had to get to an incredibly bad place before i could get myself on any path to wellness

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LinkGonna try to post pics of the fashion and interviews if I can find them.

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Edited at 2018-02-18 06:47 pm (UTC)

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Andrea looks good but she has gotten so skinny and she's always over tanned now

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kristin scott thomas looks perfect

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jlaw looks miserable (i would too, in that ugly dress). angie looks surprisingly stunning, her best red carpet in years. kristin scott thomas is the definition of perfection, i'm amazed at her ability to remain a goddess at any age.

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Wait that's seriously Jennifer Lawrence?

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Kate Winslett or Jennifer Lawrence?

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no

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aw I like it. lol

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What is this midwestern housewife look

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It's like dELiA's formal wear

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Lupita looks AMAZING.

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their bodies look amazingggg, I don't like either dress though

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Lupita's is amazing! I've never seen her in a bad dress!!

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Lupita looks beautiful as usual, I'd like that dress more if those parts weren't jutting out at the hip though.

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um, no, lupita's dress is terrible.

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Damn, Lu. DAMN

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lupita looks amazing

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this is angular done right. jlaw's designer take note

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I don't like Lupita's dress but it looks amazing on her/she makes it work

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lupita looking like a goddess as always



and with lily james.... if you got nothing nice to say best to say nothing at all. so I'll hush my mouth

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lupita's dress is rad

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Both look absolutely stunning! I'm not totally in love with the bits jutting out from Lupita's hips, but if anyone is going to make it work it's her.







Also, I watched The Exception the other week and Lily James's body was incredible.

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looks great. would remove the jutting at the hips.

the top half is flawless.

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love Lily

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I love it, I think it looks like armour

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i hope God's Own Country wins something.

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It's between that and Lady Macbeth for Best Debut (Dunkirk will get British Film i think)

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dunkirk isn't nominated for best british film

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bizarrely, GOC isn't nominated for best debut. although it should be.



it is nominated for British film though.

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I don't know why the fuck I have to wait another month before it opens here. I'm in Northern Europe, it ain't that far!

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Jamie Bell seems like a good dude but he has got to be hella pretentious based upon his marriage history.

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him going back to ERW after Manson was odd

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lmao ia with this

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is that gemma arteton on the top right? her haircut looks sexy

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damn Jolie looks stunning

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angelina looks amazing. letitia is so qt

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Angie looks damn good

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Gemma Arterton is so gorgeous !!!

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Salma always look like she's squinting off at something in the distance like "is that my exit coming up omg I have to get over"

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lol, ikr? i do love her dress though

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Yay Octavia!

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I really like this on her.

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Angelina looks good!

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She's been looking good ever since she dumped Brad's ass!

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So elegant

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i don't remember the last time she looked so good

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oh wow, old angie is back!

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she looks amazing

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look amazing. moreso than she has in ages

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No one brings the glamour like Angie in this current era.

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she looks like a literal greek goddess.

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I love her.

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Fantastic

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Look what happens when you drop a man. You get all of your flavor back!

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Timinem doesn't look nearly as consumptive as usual.

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i dont like saoirses dress, but im not repulsed by it either, so. a step up?

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Lady Bird gals, what are y'all doing

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i would like saoirse's dress better w/o the sheer stuff and it just ended at the feathers. lupita is a goddess. idk what natalie is wearing. ilh as a brunette, i wish she'd go back

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Yeah, she should have just went with a mini. She's young so it'd be a nice change from the usual gowns for these affairs.

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ia, the dress would look better without the sheer at the bottom

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Wherever did Natalie Dormer go

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i always forget sally hawkins isn't pj harvey whenever i see her then i get momentarily sad that she still hasn't starred in a biopic about her life and most likely never will.

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Jack Lowden is such a babe. I miss his ginger beard though.

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Any pictures of Kate Middleton, please?

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She was in a dark green dress I believe the DailyMail are already going in on her!

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Of course, like it's super easy to get high fashion black pregnancy dresses last minute

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Is she even allowed to make any political statements?

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Damn, People is slamming her hard for her dress choice, JFC.

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Female actors will be bringing activists to the red carpet at tonight's BAFTAs - Marai Larasi will be joining nominee Tessa Thompson pic.twitter.com/1sOl7abc5C  Sky News (@SkyNews) February 18, 2018





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In all the pics Jennifer Lawrence looks so miserable! :-/

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She totally does lol. She might have been told not to smile, as soon as I saw the pics it reminded me of this:

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she looks gorg in those gif sets.



she looked so good with that hair. i miss it.

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aw lol this is funny

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I say it every time, but her stylist truly hates her.

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srsly. dnw

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Looks like they don't get to sit with their guests during the ceremony SeatingLooks like they don't get to sit with their guests during the ceremony

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Frances is there? i haven't seen her on the red carpet

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Due to be there, maybe she pulled out or snuck round the photogs

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I would keep my sign and wave it around like a loon when the camera was on me.

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The Duchess of Cambridge, in line with royal protocol which forbids members of the British royal family from taking a political stance on public issues, wore a dark green dress #BAFTAs https://t.co/ghjPgv0mby pic.twitter.com/7IThMCsoGb  Variety (@Variety) February 18, 2018



I know she didn't follow the dress code and wear black but she looks really pretty! I love the dress.

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ooo I didn't know that

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she still managed to get a black sash there so that was clever. she looks good

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royals always stay out of politics

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I think the dark green is a good way to respect the cause but stay out of the politics

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it's kind of a shame that wanting women to be able to live their lives free of sexual assault is seen as a 'political stance'...I mean, I get that it is but it's also the bare minimum of human rights

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I agree. Royals are trash, she should have made an excuse and stayed home.

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mte that was my only thought. this isn't politics. this is our lives.

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that green is a great color on her

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So why is Will in a black suit? He's just gonna let her burn all by herself isn't he?

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LinkUS Defense Minister Jim Mattis, seen here at a news conference at NATO headquarters February 15, 2018, is puzzling over the impact artificial intelligence will have on the nature of war

Artificial intelligence and its impact on weapons of the future has made US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis doubt his own theories on warfare.

A question on the subject prompted the retired Marine general to give an impromptu seminar on his theory of war Saturday to reporters returning with him from a week-long tour of Europe.

Recalling his own writings, he differentiated between the essential nature of war, which is unchanging because it is human, and war's character, which is changing.

"The fundamental nature of war is almost like H2O," he said. "It's equipment, technology, courage, competence, integration of capabilities, fear, cowardice, all these things mixed together into a very unpredictable fundamental nature of war."

"The character of war changes all the time. An old dead German called it a Chameleon because it changes to adapt to its time, to the technology, to the terrain," he said, referring to the 19th century military strategist Carl von Clausewitz.

Mattis explained that today drones are piloted remotely, but tomorrow weapons may be able to learn on their own, adapt and fire themselves.

"The most misnamed weapon in our system is the unmanned aerial vehicle. It may not have a person in the cockpit, but there is someone flying it, someone over his shoulder, and actually more people flying it than a manned airplane," he said.

"If we ever get to the point where it is completely on automatic pilot, we are all spectators. That is no longer serving a political purpose. And conflict is a social problem that needs social solutions, peoplehuman solutions."

He said he did not know what artificial intelligence will do to warfare, "but I am certainly questioning my original premise of the fundamental nature of war that does not change.

"You have got to question that now. I just don't have the answer."

Explore further Pentagon successfully tests micro-drone swarm

 2018 AFPCircadian clocks are found within microbes and bacteria, plants and insects, animals and humans. These clocks arose as an adaptation to dramatic swings in daylight hours and temperature caused by the Earth's rotation. But we still don't fully understand how these tiny biological clocks work.

During the 62nd Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, held Feb. 17-21, in San Francisco, California, Andy LiWang at the University of California, Merced will present his lab's work studying the circadian clock of blue-green colored cyanobacteria. One type of cyanobacteria, called spirulina, is high in vitamins and minerals and is used as a natural food dye for candy and gum.

LiWang's group discovered that how the proteins move hour by hour is central to cyanobacteria's circadian clock function. "And now it's becoming clear that the same is true for eukaryotic [animal] clocks," LiWang said.

Cyanobacterial circadian clock proteins are unique because they can be reconstituted within a test tube in the absence of live cells. Researchers made a solution of these proteins and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), food for the proteins, to create a circadian clock that functioned for weeks.

LiWang's structural biology lab uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the parent technology for MRI, to study the protein structure and dynamics of biological molecules and then uses the structures to gain insights into their function. "We also examine how the proteins wiggle, flex, and shape-shift, because these motions ... are also critical to their biological function," LiWang said.

LiWang's lab also collaborates with X-ray crystallographers like Carrie Partch at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because X-ray crystallography is a powerful technique to capture static structures of proteins and their complexes at atomic and near-atomic resolution.

"A big surprise for us was the extent to which internal motions of circadian clock proteins dictate ... their function," LiWang said. "Static X-ray crystal structures of individual proteins, mostly solved by other labs, were invaluable to our work but told only part of the story."

Cyanobacterial clock proteins aren't exactly the same as the clock proteins of animals or human clocks, but proteins serve as the cogs, gears and springs of all circadian clockworks and the overall function of the proteins is similar.

"Because clock proteins need to keep time, there should be some basic principles of biological timekeeping shared between all clocks regardless of whether the proteins are the same or not," LiWang said. "Our structures of the complexes of the circadian clock proteins of cyanobacteria provided important mechanistic insights, but are static snapshots of a system that's continuously moving and changing hour by hour," said LiWang.

Explore further Visualizing assemblies of the proteins that direct cyanobacterial circadian rhythms

More information: 231-Pos, Board B1 "Ticking mechanism of a biological clock" is authored by Andy LiWang. It will be displayed at 1:45 p.m. PST, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, in the South Hall ABC of the Moscone Center South. Abstract: 231-Pos, Board B1 "Ticking mechanism of a biological clock" is authored by Andy LiWang. It will be displayed at 1:45 p.m. PST, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, in the South Hall ABC of the Moscone Center South. Abstract: plan.core-apps.com/bpsam2018/a  1290aae09439cc42e19dRomeo, a Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare), alone in his tank at the Natural History Museum in Cochabamba, Bolivia

In the end, Romeo the lonesome Bolivian frog found more love than he could have imagined.

A campaign to raise $15,000 by Valentine's Day to fund a search for Romeo's Juliet before he croaks generated $25,000, an environmental group said.

Romeo is the last known frog of his kind. Given the normal life span of Sehuencas water frogs, he has only about five years left to live, giving urgency to his love quest.

Texas-based Global Wildlife Conservation teamed with dating website Match and the Bolivian Amphibian Initiative to raise money for Romeo's last shot at romance.

"People from around the globe showed their love this Valentine's Day for the world's loneliest amphibian," the environmental group said in a statement dated Friday.

"We are overwhelmed by the support from Match and all of the donors who generously let Romeo into their heart this week," said Arturo Munoz, founder of the Amphibian Initiative, a project of Cochabamba Natural History Museum, where Romeo resides.

"Thanks to the help of everyone that donated, we hope that our next big announcement will be that we found Romeo his Juliet and established a conservation breeding program to save his species from extinction," Munoz said in the statement.

The #Match4Romeo campaign, in which the frog got his own Match profile, generated donations from 32 countries. The profile included a video of the beady-eyed bachelor scampering around in his tank, and lunging at a worm.

Munoz said earlier that when researchers collected Romeo a decade ago they knew that Sehuencas water frogs were "in trouble" but they had no idea that they would not be able to find another one, let alone a partner with which he could mate and preserve the species.

Climate change, habitat loss and other threats have taken their toll on the frogs, like many other creatures.

Munoz said Romeo started to call for a mate about a year after he was brought into captivity a decade ago, "but those calls have slowed in the last few years."

Scientists don't want Romeo to meet the sad fate of "Lonesome George," a childless Galapagos tortoise who died in 2012, taking his entire subspecies with him.

With the money raised, the Amphibian Initiative plans to make 10 expeditions to locations where the species was once common, as well as to similar habitats where nobody has looked before.

The expedition teams plan to start their search as early as June in the eastern Andes forests.

Romeo will be waiting.

 2018 AFPOrmat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.

Read MoreThe Facebook message from the totally authentic American began as follows: Hi there! Im a member of Being Patriotic online community.

Addressed to one of the senders fellow grass-roots organizers in Florida, the message went on: Listen, weve got an idea. Florida is still a purple state and we need to paint it red. If we lose Florida, we lose America. We cant let it happen, right?

Wrong! The phrase should really be, If we lose Florida, we lose the White House. Or maybe we lose the presidency. Certainly not we lose America. No one would ever write we lose America thereits unnatural. Same goes for We cant let it happen, right? The correct article wouldve been this, not it. And the right? at the end just sounds  weird.

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Actually, it sounds like something a Russian person would say. Most likely in a friendly tone, one just barely concealing a sinister sneakiness.

On Friday, the office of special counsel Robert Mueller released a 37-page indictment targeting 13 Russian operatives who stand accused of insinuating themselves into the 2016 presidential election. The cornerstone of their operation was the online impersonation of highly energized American votersmostly supporters of Donald Trump.

Muellers indictment contains a number of primary source documents related to the investigation of Russian meddling in U.S. politics. The message I quoted above was sent from a Facebook account that had been stolen from a real U.S. person (Muellers phrase) named T.W. Understandably, the people who received the message werent on the lookout for treacherous Russians. Why would they be? The small errors in syntax and the slightly sideways use of idioms didnt raise any red flags.

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With the benefit of hindsight, the Russian origins of that message seem obvious to me. I moved to the United States from Moscow at age 5, and I know what Russian people who dont speak fluent English sound like. Their mistakes and verbal tics are distinctivemost famously, they tend to skip the articles the and aas is the mood they conjure with their choice of words. At its essence, English-broken-by-way-of-Russian evokes the fragile intimacy that exists between unlucky, beleaguered people: Hey bah-dee, the Russian speaker tells someone who isnt really his buddy, this is hell of election, right?

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The documents collected by Mueller contain some truly choice examples of Russian-inflected English. Take, for example, a post published on Instagram by a sock puppet account with the username Woke Blacks. (I have to admit Im impressed the Russians knew woke. But using blacks in that way  lets just say Im not surprised a Russian person did that.) Heres the post, per the indictment:

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[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then wed surely be better off without voting AT ALL.

The lesser of two devils is a very funny malapropism. While Im not sure its a specifically Russian mistake (my mom told me theres not a Russian phrase that translates literally to the lesser of two devils) you can see how that English expression might trip up a non-native speaker.

I was also struck by a particular hype and hatred. This is not a real phrase! My sense is that a Russified version of the word hype is now commonly used by Russians in conversationits rendered as  and is one of many English words that have been imported, grotesquely, into Russian vernacular since the fall of the Soviet Union. But in Russian,  seems to mean something closer to lie than it does in English, which would explain its deployment here.

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My favorite bit of Englussian from the Mueller indictment comes from the same fake Florida resident I mentioned earlier:

We are currently reaching out to local activists and weve got the folks who are okay to be in charge of organizing their events almost everywhere in FL. However, we still need your support. What do you think about that? Are you in?

Its subtle, but the use of about that gives it away. Say it aloud, and youll realize an American would have left it at, What do you think?a phrase that might strike a foreigner as too imprecise to be proper English. What do you think about what? About that! (Also, when was the last time you heard someone who wasnt in an action movie say, Are you in? Probably when a Russian guy said it to you on a dark street corner.)

But perhaps the most egregious example of non-native English to come out of the Russia investigation is this tweet:

After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters - worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.

That ones not from the Mueller indictment, thoughit is from the Twitter account of Donald Trump.This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

The indictments filed by the special counsel on Friday forcefully punctuates the warnings of intelligence chiefs that Russia has been in the business of interfering in U.S. elections and has no intention of closing up shop. Robert Mueller has also added extraordinary detail. Russian entities have spent millions and employed hundreds to carry out this work. The Internet Research Agency, apparently directing the program, is now revealed to have been among the largest Super PACs operating in the 2016 elections. This is now clearly one of the major campaign finance scandals in American history.

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After the indictment became public, President Donald Trump rushed to Twitter to pronounce that no collusion had occurred. He has taken comfort in the indictments history of these activities, which show that they began as early as 2014. He should have continued reading, thought harder, and worried more. It is unlikely that his lawyers have picked this time to celebrate.

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To be sure, the Russians had multiples objectives in 2016, one of which was to sow discord among the electorate. But eventually, they organized and funded an intense program to support Donald Trump and disparage Hillary Clinton. The indictment is conclusive on a critical point: The Russians were all in for Trump. We have one half of the pairing needed to show a political alliance of a presidential campaign and foreign interest.

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The indictment does not settle the question of whether, for purposes of the criminal laws, the Trump campaign or its associates were willing allies. It suggests only that at the grass-roots level, among state parties and on the ground in various locales, some Trump campaign supporters were unwitting co-conspirators duped into collaboration with Russians posing as Americans. The prospect of Trump campaign complicity, at the organizational or staff level, has always hinged on the knowing participation of the candidate himself or key strategic personnel at the national level.

They did know that the Russians were eager for Trumps election and to help with his election. And as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the press, there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. It seems that more from Mueller lies ahead: Rosentein was careful to stress that the special counsels investigation is ongoing. Indeed, just moments after Rosensteins public remarks, the Justice Department released the plea deal of an American apparently caught up in the Russian illegal activities.

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That the Trump campaign may have had incomplete information about the full scope of the Kremlin political intervention does not excuse the part known to them, or any actions they might have taken to actively collaborate. And it seems almost certain that they appreciated that the Russians were engaged in underhanded and illegal activities: the theft of thousands of Clinton emails. How much more the Trump campaign knew or did to enhance the effectiveness of the Russian effort remains unknown. The answer will determine whether the campaign, the president or any of his senior associates will face legal consequences.

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In imagining what the next turn in this investigation might reveal, it is important to pay close attention to the indictments account of Russian intelligence-gathering in the United States.

Like any organization spending substantial sums on a political objective, they worked hard to master the American electoral terrain and figure out what worked and what didnt. The Russian operatives were learning about purple states from American sources. This was a sophisticated enterprise. It in this context that the Russian meeting with the campaign staff in Trump Tower, and later Donald Jr.s communications with WikiLeaks, assumes greater significance.

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It would have been much to the advantage of the Russians Project Lakhta to have explicit and implicit blessing from the candidate. The Project management would also have benefited from receiving from the candidate and his campaign any signals useful in perfecting their program. Some of these signals have come to light, such as Donald Jr.s recommendation to a Russian intermediary for a late summer release of Clinton dirt.

The record is not yet clear on all that the Trump campaign may have communicated about what it hoped to gain from Moscows intervention. Steve Bannon, interviewed for hours by Mueller, has publicly discounted the chance that the president would not have known about the June 2016 visit from Kremlin emissaries to Trump Tower. It has been reported that the president directed the misrepresentation of the facts of the meeting, but it is not yet clear what level of knowledge he had in advance of the meeting or, if afterwards, when. But, beginning with the Papadapolous encounter with Russians telling him of thousands of stolen Clinton emails, through the Trump Tower meeting and the Donald Jr. contacts with WikiLeaks, the Russians unquestionably should have appreciated that the Trump was glad to have their help.

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The indictment situates these contacts within the wider and mostly clandestine intelligence gathering operation that the Russians conducted to achieve the most effective possible impact on the presidential campaign. The Russians were more transparent in their direct encounters with the national Trump campaign. And the campaign was not unwitting. Those on its staff who were engaged in direct discussions with Kremlin representatives were not low-level grassroots organizers, but included the then campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a veteran of five presidential campaigns, and the presidents own son-in law. The Russians were explicit about their aims when they needed to be, and the Trump team responded favorably. The next phase of the investigation may bring out in more detail the nature and scope of that response and establish whether there are Americans, and/or the Trump campaign organization, that will share in the liability for the multi-million dollar, illegal operations of the Russian Super PAC.

More from Just Security:

Impunity for U.S.-Funded Warlords in Afghanistan

The Age of Unregulated Social Media Is OverSecuring financing for a small business can be incredibly complicated. Traditional banks and financial institutions have a lot of requirements that are more difficult for independent businesses to meet. Cali Finance Group aims to make it easier for businesses in California by offering a variety of different financial products and services to meet everyones individual needs.

You can read more about the business and its offerings in this weeks Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does

Offers loans, debt resolutions programs, and consultations for individuals and businesses.

CEO Isaac Hwang told Small Business Trends, One of our positive attributes is providing a variety of financial options. Most of our counterparts offer programs that are tailored to their advantage and do not offer an explanation of why they are offering a specific type of program. Unlike our counterparts, our company believes that each finance option should tailor to the customers needs and we offer free consultations to make sure our future clients know the improvement & steps that they would need to take.

Business Niche

Taking a more service-based approach.

Hwang says, Contrary to our competitors, we are a finance company that specializes in providing our services to individuals and businesses with challenged credit scores, sub-par documents, and other challenging factors that traditional financial institutions would deny. Our company is known for helping our customers overcome $1 million dollar credit card debt alone and offering low-cost consultations that accommodate all areas of ones finance.

How the Business Got Started

By witnessing financial related hardships.

Hwang says, The defining moment that propelled me to start my company was when I witnessed that many lives were degraded due to poor financial decisions and dishonest finance swindlers. Through those decisions, I saw not only the degraded lives of our present generations but also the impacted lives of our future generations. Therefore, I came to believe that every individual is capable of attaining financial literacy to overcome debt, strive for a better future, and have the proper tools to overcome any financial hardships.

Biggest Win

Getting started in the first place.

Hwang explains, With all things in life, the beginning is always the most important factor and the first win a business experiences. The starting process illustrates overcoming the first failures and complications a business encounters. Therefore, the setup of a business is the most meaningful victory and opens a door to numerous of possibilities.

Biggest Risk

Breaking into a competitive industry.

Hwang says, The biggest risk our business ever took was tackling a competitive industry that represented 7.3 percent ($1.27 trillion) of the U.S. gross domestic product. With many tycoons in the industry, our company worried that many customers would not give a chance to a startup finance company. Our company was unsure how long it will take future customers to realize the beneficial advantages that our company offered. Fortunately, our customers noticed our dedication and advantages which led to numerous of referrals, adding more financial services, and ensuring the future of our company.

Lesson Learned

Good things take time.

Hwang says, One thing that I would do differently is learning how to be patient. In the beginning, all entrepreneurs are passionate in making everything perfect, not making any mistakes, and expecting quick results. I, for one, embodied those flaws and failed to realize sooner how all the things that I hoped to accomplish will be achieved in due time. I stressed and pestered myself without realizing the accomplishments that I have achieved so far. Therefore, my advice to other entrepreneurs would be to have some leeway and be patient in all aspects because we are in it for the long run.

How Theyd Spend an Extra $100,000

Providing more information.

Hwang explains, I would use it to hold more seminars for people who are in need of improving their financial literacy and overcoming their financial hardships. I believe that the seminars would vastly improve our society as a whole and secure their financial futures.

Favorite Quote

Dont let your happiness depend on something you may lose.  C.S. Lewis

* * * * *

Find out more about the Small Biz Spotlight programThe secret mountain view over half of Slovakia

When the weather is suitable, mountains over 100 km away can be seen.

More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

Sport, fresh air and charming views: these are the ordinary benefits offered by Slovak mountains. However, if the weather is clear, sometimes it is possible to see a very long distance. At the right place and time, technology also helps, such as binoculars for checking the view and a camera with a telephoto lens to capture it, Presov Korzar reported.

Slubica

In eastern Slovakia there are several places with great views. Higher peaks dont necessarily mean you can see farther, Presov Korzar wrote.

Branisko, on the border between Saris and Spis, is a smaller mountain range only about 1,000 metres above sea level but perfect for views. The range is situated north-west and views are possible only to the west as Slanske vrchy, with approximately the same altitude, is situated to the east, Presov Korzar reported.

The best viewing place on Branisko is Slubica, with an altitude of 1,129 metres. It is possible to see the High Tatras, Spis region, and Low Tatras up to Dumbier, but also Velky Choc above Ruzomberok and Mala Fatra, 133 kilometres away, Presov Korzar wrote.

The weather suitable for such a far view happens only two or three times a year, mainly on winter mornings, Presov Korzar reported.

Rajtopiky and Rozsochy

The northern peak of the range, Rajtopiky (1,036 metres above sea level), offers similar views to Slubica. It is possible to see Kralova hola (55 km away) and Dumbier and Derese (95 km away), Presov Korzar wrote.

Another viewing place is Rozsochy (1,080 metres above sea level) on the northern part of Branisko. From here it is possible to see more of the Low Tatras, however, the West Tatras are hidden. Mala Fatra is covered by the Tatra peaks and Velky Choc is still significant, Presov Korzar reported.

Paradoxically, the highest peak of Branisko, Smrekovica (1,199 metres above sea level), does not offer such interesting views due to the forest. Interesting views are also possible from Zelena skala (976 metres above sea level) on the western part of Smrekovica, Presov Korzar wrote.

Author: Dominik Sabol

18. Feb 2018 at 7:20 | Compiled by Spectator staffThe Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Banking and Markets, and Global Wealth Management segments. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small businesses and commercial customers, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides Internet, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 952 branches and approximately 3,540 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,400 branches, 5,200 ATMs, and 22 contact centers internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of The Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc..ConocoPhillips engages in the exploration, production, transportation and marketing of crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and liquefied natural gas on a worldwide basis. It operates through the following geographical segments: Alaska; Lower 48; Canada; Europe, Middle East and North Africa; Asia Pacific; and Other International. The Alaska segment primarily explores for produces, transports and markets crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. The Lower 48 segment consists of operations in the U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment is comprised of oil sands development in the Athabasca Region of northeastern Alberta and a liquids-rich unconventional play in western Canada. The Europe, Middle East and North Africa segment consists of operations and exploration activities in Norway, the United Kingdom and Libya. The Asia Pacific segment has explorations and product operations in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. The Other International segment handles exploration activities in Columbia and Argentina. The company was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

Read MoreCenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, and Refining and Marketing segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen in northeast Alberta. Its bitumen assets include Foster Creek, Christina Lake, and Narrows Lake, as well as other projects in the early stages of development. The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, and Clearwater operating areas of British Columbia and Alberta, as well as various interests in natural gas processing facilities. The Refining and Marketing segment transports and sells crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs. This segment owns a 50% ownership in Wood River and Borger refineries located in the United States; and owns and operates a crude-by-rail terminal in Alberta. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil China Petroleum & Petrochemical Company Limited, ExxonMobil Development Africa B.V., ExxonMobil Development Company, ExxonMobil Egypt (S.A.E.), ExxonMobil Exploracao Brasil Ltda., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway AS, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Romania Limited, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Tanzania Limited, ExxonMobil Finance Company Limited, ExxonMobil Financial Investment Company Limited, ExxonMobil France Holding SAS, ExxonMobil Gas Marketing Europe Limited, ExxonMobil General Finance Company, ExxonMobil Global Services Company, ExxonMobil Golden Pass Surety LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Company Holland LLC, ExxonMobil Holding Norway AS, ExxonMobil Hong Kong Limited, ExxonMobil International Services SARL, ExxonMobil Iraq Limited, ExxonMobil Italiana Gas S.r.l., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., ExxonMobil LNG Services B.V., ExxonMobil Lubricants Trading Company, ExxonMobil Oil Corporation, ExxonMobil PNG Limited, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical BVBA, ExxonMobil Petroleum & Chemical Holdings Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, ExxonMobil Production Norway Inc., ExxonMobil Qatargas (II) Limited, ExxonMobil Qatargas Inc., ExxonMobil Ras Laffan (III) Limited, ExxonMobil Rasgas Inc., ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, ExxonMobil Russia Kara Sea Holdings B.V., ExxonMobil Sales and Supply LLC, ExxonMobil Technology Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Finance Company, ExxonMobil Ventures Funding Ltd., Fujian Refining & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Golden Pass LNG Terminal Investments LLC, Golden Pass LNG Terminal LLC, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures LLC, Imperial Oil Limited, Imperial Oil Resources Limited, Imperial Oil Resources N.W.T. Limited, Imperial Oil/Petroliere Imperiale, Infineum Italia s.r.I., Infineum Singapore Pte. Ltd., InterOil Corporation, Jurong Aromatics Corporation Pte Ltd, MPM Lubricants, Marine Well Containment Company LLC, Mobil Australia Resources Company Pty Limited, Mobil California Exploration & Producing Asset Company, Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, Mobil Chemical Products International Inc., Mobil Corporation, Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc., Mobil Erdgas Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Mobil Exploration & Producing Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil International Petroleum Corporation, Mobil Oil Australia Pty Ltd, Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Southeast Inc., Mobil Oil New Zealand Limited, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Producing Texas & New Mexico Inc., Mobil SerLimited, Mobil Venezolana De Petroleos Inc., Mobil Yanbu Petrochemical Company Inc., Mobil Yanbu Refining Company Inc., Mountain Gathering LLC, Mozambique Rovuma Venture S.p.A., Palmetto Transoceanic LLC, Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas Global Company LDC, Permian Express Partners LLC, Phillips Exploration LLC, Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited, Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited (II), SPI Limited, Saudi Aramco Mobil Refinery Company Ltd., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., SeaRiver Maritime Inc., South Hook LNG Terminal Company Limited, Tengizchevroil LLP, Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l, Trend Gathering & Treating LLC, Wolverine Pipe Line Company, XH LLC, XTO Delaware Basin LLC, XTO Energy Canada, XTO Energy Inc., and XTO Holdings LLC.The following companies are subsidiares of Dominion Energy: 96WI 8me LLC, Alamo Solar LLC, Align RNG Arizona LLC, Align RNG Arizona-Snowflake LLC, Align RNG California LLC, Align RNG California-Corcoran LLC, Align RNG Grady Road LLC, Align RNG LLC, Align RNG Magnolia LLC, Align RNG North Carolina LLC, Align RNG North Carolina-Bowdens LLC, Align RNG Utah LLC, Align RNG Utah-Milford LLC, Align RNG Virginia LLC, Align RNG Virginia-Waverly LLC, Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Azalea Solar LLC, BOE Holdings Inc., Blackville Solar Farm LLC, Blue Ocean Energy Marine LLC, BrightSuite Home LLC, BrightSuite Inc., BrightSuite Solar CT Inc., BrightSuite Solar SC Inc., BrightSuite Solar VA Inc., Buckingham Solar I LLC, CEA Americus LLC, CEA CO-Fort Morgan LLC, CEA Clovis LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Colorado LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Georgia LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Idaho LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Nevada LLC, CEA Dairy RNG New Mexico LLC, CEA Dairy RNG Texas LLC, CEA Greely LLC, CEA Mason LLC, CEA TX-Dimmitt LLC, CID Solar LLC, CNG Coal Company, CNG Power Services Corporation, Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, Catalina Solar 2 LLC, Clean Energy Asset USA LLC, Clean Energy Enterprises Inc., Clipperton Holdings LLC, Consolidated Natural Gas Company, Correctional Solar LLC, Cottonwood Solar LLC, Cove Point LNG LP, Cove Point LNG Limited, DE Arlington Solar LLC, DE Fluvanna Solar LLC, DE Hanover Solar LLC, DE Henrico Solar LLC, DE King William Solar LLC, DE Louisa Solar LLC, DE Newport News Solar LLC, DE Powhatan Solar LLC, DE Virginia Beach Solar LLC, DECP Holdings Inc., Dairy RNG Holdings LLC, Dairy RNG NY LLC, Dairy RNG NY-Curtin LLC, Dairy RNG OH LLC, Denmark Solar LLC, Dominion ACP Holding Inc., Dominion Alternative Energy Holdings Inc., Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, Dominion Capital Inc., Dominion Cogen WV Inc., Dominion Energy Fuel Services Inc., Dominion Energy Gas Distribution LLC, Dominion Energy Generation Marketing Inc., Dominion Energy Inc., Dominion Energy Kewaunee Inc., Dominion Energy Marketplace LLC, Dominion Energy Nuclear Connecticut Inc., Dominion Energy Overthrust Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Payroll Company Inc., Dominion Energy Questar Corporation, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline LLC, Dominion Energy Questar Pipeline Services Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings II Inc., Dominion Energy RNG Holdings Inc., Dominion Energy Services Inc., Dominion Energy Solar CA LLC, Dominion Energy Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc., Dominion Energy Southeast Services Inc., Dominion Energy Technical Solutions Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies II Inc., Dominion Energy Technologies Inc., Dominion Energy Terminal Company Inc., Dominion Energy Wexpro Services Company, Dominion Equipment III Inc., Dominion Equipment Inc., Dominion Fairless Hills Inc., Dominion Fowler Ridge Wind LLC, Dominion Gas Projects Company LLC, Dominion Generation Inc., Dominion Greenbrier Inc., Dominion High Voltage Holdings Inc., Dominion High Voltage MidAtlantic Inc., Dominion Investments Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline Holdings Inc., Dominion Keystone Pipeline LLC, Dominion MLP Holding Company III Inc., Dominion Mt. Storm Wind LLC, Dominion Nuclear Projects Inc., Dominion Oklahoma Texas Exploration & Production Inc., Dominion Person Inc., Dominion Privatization Florida LLC, Dominion Privatization Georgia LLC, Dominion Privatization Holdings Inc., Dominion Privatization Kentucky LLC, Dominion Privatization Maryland LLC, Dominion Privatization Pennsylvania LLC, Dominion Privatization South Carolina LLC, Dominion Privatization Texas LLC, Dominion Privatization Virginia LLC, Dominion Products and Services Inc., Dominion Projects Services Inc., Dominion Resources Capital Trust III, Dominion Retail Gas Holdings Inc., Dominion Solar Construction and Maintenance LLC, Dominion Solar Gen-Tie LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings I LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings II LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings III LLC, Dominion Solar Holdings IV LLC, Dominion Solar Projects A Inc., Dominion Solar Projects B Inc., Dominion Solar Projects C Inc., Dominion Solar Projects D Inc., Dominion Solar Projects I Inc., Dominion Solar Projects II Inc., Dominion Solar Projects III Inc., Dominion Solar Projects IV Inc., Dominion Solar Projects V Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VI Inc., Dominion Solar Projects VII Inc., Dominion Solar Services Inc., Dominion State Line LLC, Dominion Voltage Inc., Dominion Wholesale Inc., Dominion Wind Development LLC, Dominion Wind Projects Inc., ESCT-SA-Suffield LLC, Eagle Holdco Solar LLC, Eagle Solar LLC, Eastern Shore Solar LLC, Enterprise Solar LLC, Escalante Solar I LLC, Escalante Solar II LLC, Escalante Solar III LLC, Four Brothers Solar LLC, Fremont Farm LLC, Granite Mountain Holdings LLC, Granite Mountain Solar East LLC, Granite Mountain Solar West LLC, Greenbrier Marketing Company LLC, Greenbrier Pipeline Company LLC, Greensville County Solar Project LLC, Hardin Solar Energy LLC, Hecate Energy Cherrydale LLC, Hecate Energy Clarke County LLC, Hope Gas Inc., Imperial Valley Solar Company (IVSC) 2 LLC, Indy Solar Development LLC, Indy Solar I LLC, Indy Solar II LLC, Indy Solar III LLC, Innovative Solar 37 LLC, Iron Springs Holdings LLC, Iron Springs Solar LLC, Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas, Maricopa West Solar PV LLC, Moffett Solar 1 LLC, Moorings Farm 2 LLC, Mulberry Farm LLC, Mustang Solar LLC, PSNC Blue Ridge Corporation, PSNC Cardinal Pipeline Company, Pavant Solar LLC, Phone House, Pikeville Farm LLC, Prairie Fork Wind Farm LLC, Public Service Company of North Carolina Incorporated, QPC Holding Company LLC, Questar Corporation, Questar Energy Services Inc., Questar Field Services LLC, Questar Gas Company, Questar InfoComm Inc., Questar Southern Trails Pipeline Company, Questar White River Hub LLC, RE Adams East LLC, RE Camelot LLC, RE Columbia Two LLC, RE Kansas LLC, RE Kent South LLC, RE Old River One LLC, Richland Solar Center LLC, Ridgeland Solar Farm I LLC, SBL Holdco LLC, SCANA, SCANA Communications Holdings Inc., SCANA Corporate Security Services Inc., SCANA Energy Marketing LLC, SCANA Pharmacy LLC, SRFI LLC, Scana Corporation, Scott-II Solar LLC, Seabrook Solar LLC, Selmer Farm LLC, Siler Solar LLC, Sol Madison Solar LLC, Somers Solar Center LLC, South Carolina Fuel Company Inc., South Carolina Generating Company Inc., Southampton Solar LLC, Summit Farms Solar LLC, Sussex Drive Solar Project LLC, TA - Acacia LLC, TWE Myrtle Solar Project LLC, The East Ohio Gas Company, Trask East Solar LLC, Tredegar Solar Fund I LLC, VP Property Inc., Virginia Electric And Power Company, Virginia Power Fuel Corporation, Virginia Power Nuclear Services Company, Virginia Power Services Energy Corp. Inc., Virginia Power Services LLC, Virginia Solar 201 Projects LLC, Wakefield Solar LLC, Wexpro Company, Wexpro Development Company, Wexpro II Company, Wilkinson Solar LLC, Wrangler Retail Gas Holdings LLC, and Yemassee Solar LLC.CA, Inc., doing business as CA technologies, develops, markets, delivers, and licenses software products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Mainframe Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, and Services. The Mainframe Solutions segment offers solutions for the IBM z Systems platform, which runs various mission critical business applications. Its mainframe solutions enable customers enhance economics by increasing throughput and lowering cost per transaction; increasing business agility through DevOps tooling and processes; increasing reliability and availability of operations through machine intelligence and automation solutions; and protecting enterprise data with security and compliance. The Enterprise Solutions segment provides a range of software planning, development, and management tools for mobile, cloud, and distributed computing environments. It primarily provides customers secure application development, infrastructure management, automation, and identity-centric security solutions. The Services segment offers various services, such as consulting, implementation, application management, education, and support services to commercial and government customers for implementation and adoption of its software solutions. The company serves banks, insurance companies, other financial services providers, government agencies, information technology service providers, telecommunication providers, transportation companies, manufacturers, technology companies, retailers, educational organizations, and health care institutions. It sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through various partner channels comprising resellers, service providers, system integrators, managed service providers, and technology partners. The company was formerly known as Computer Associates International, Inc. and changed its name to CA, Inc. in 2006. CA, Inc. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of The Allstate: AIMCO Private Fund I Holding LLC, AIMCO Private Fund I LLC, AIMCO Private Fund II LLC, ALIC Reinsurance Company, ALINV Mosaic LLC, ANIHI Newco LLC, AP Real Estate LLC, AP Riverway Plaza LLC, AP Timber LLC, Allstate Assignment Company, Allstate Assurance Company, Allstate County Mutual Insurance Company, Allstate Digital Ventures LLC, Allstate Distributors L.L.C., Allstate Enterprises LLC, Allstate Exchange Services LLC, Allstate Finance Company Agency Loans LLC, Allstate Finance Company LLC, Allstate Financial Advisors LLC, Allstate Financial Corporation, Allstate Financial Insurance Holdings Corporation, Allstate Financial LLC, Allstate Financial Services LLC (1), Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Global Holdings Limited, Allstate Indemnity Company, Allstate Insurance Company, Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, Allstate Insurance Holdings LLC, Allstate International Assignments Ltd., Allstate International Holdings Inc., Allstate Investment Management Company, Allstate Investments LLC, Allstate Life Insurance Company (2), Allstate Life Insurance Company of Canada, Allstate Life Insurance Company of New York, Allstate Motor Club Inc., Allstate New Jersey Insurance Company, Allstate New Jersey Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Non-Insurance Holdings Inc., Allstate North American Insurance Company, Allstate Northbrook Indemnity Company, Allstate Northern Ireland Limited, Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Allstate Settlement Corporation, Allstate Short Term Pool LLC, Allstate Solutions Private Limited, Allstate Texas Lloyds, Allstate Texas Lloyds Inc., Allstate Vehicle and Property Insurance Company, American Heritage Life Insurance Company, American Heritage Service Company, Answer Financial Inc., Answer Marketplace LLC, Arity 875 LLC, Arity International Limited, Arity LLC, Arity Services LLC, CE Care Plan Corp, Castle Key Indemnity Company, Castle Key Insurance Company, Complete Product Care Corp, Current Creek Investments LLC, E.R.J. Insurance Group Inc. (3), Encompass Floridian Indemnity Company, Encompass Floridian Insurance Company, Encompass Home and Auto Insurance Company, Encompass Indemnity Company, Encompass Independent Insurance Company, Encompass Insurance Company, Encompass Insurance Company of America, Encompass Insurance Company of Massachusetts, Encompass Insurance Company of New Jersey, Encompass Insurance Holdings LLC, Encompass Property and Casualty Company, Encompass Property and Casualty Insurance Company of New Jersey, Esurance Holdings Inc., Esurance Insurance Company, Esurance Insurance Company of Canada, Esurance Insurance Company of New Jersey, Esurance Insurance Services Company of Canada, Esurance Insurance Services Inc. (4), Esurance Property and Casualty Insurance Company, First Colonial Insurance Company, Identity Protection Strategic Solutions LLC, InfoArmor Aggra Inc., InfoArmor Inc., Insurance Answer Center LLC (5), Intramerica Life Insurance Company, Ivantage Insurance Brokers Inc., Ivantage Select Agency Inc., Kennett Capital Inc., NBInv AF1 LLC, NBInv AF2 LLC, NBInv AF3 LLC, NBInv AF4 LLC, NBInv AF5 LLC, NBInv AF6 LLC, NBInv AP1 LLC, NBInv AP2 LLC, NBInv AP3 LLC, NBInv AP4 LLC, NBInv AP5 LLC, NBInv AP6 LLC, NBInv AP7 LLC, NBInv AP8 LLC, NBInv APAF1 LLC, NBInv Riverside Cars1 LLC, NBInv Riverside Management LLC, North Light Specialty Insurance Company, Northeast Agencies Inc. (6), Pablo Creek Services Inc., Pafco Insurance Company, Pembridge Insurance Company, PlumChoice Business Services Inc., PlumChoice Inc., Protection Plan Group Inc., Right Answer Insurance Agency LLC, Road Bay Investments LLC, ST Product Care Corp, Signature Agency Inc., Signature Motor Club Inc., Signature Motor Club of California Inc., Signature Nationwide Auto Club of California Inc., Signatures Nationwide Auto Club Inc., SquareTrade Australia Pty Ltd, SquareTrade Canada Inc., SquareTrade Europe Limited, SquareTrade Holding Company Inc., SquareTrade Inc. (7), SquareTrade Insurance Services Inc., SquareTrade Limited, SquareTrade Protection Solutions Inc., SquareTradeGo Inc., Tech-Cor LLC, and West Plaza RE Holdings LLC.Red Hat, Inc. provides open source software solutions to develop and offer operating system, virtualization, management, middleware, cloud, mobile, and storage technologies to various enterprises worldwide. It offers infrastructure-related solutions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, an operating system platform that runs on hardware for use in hybrid cloud environments; Red Hat Satellite, a system management offering that helps to deploy, scale, and manage in hybrid cloud environments; and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, a software solution that allows customers to utilize and manage a common hardware infrastructure to run multiple operating systems and applications. The company offers application development-related and other technology solutions, such as Red Hat JBoss Middleware, a solution for developing, deploying, and managing applications; integrating applications, data, and devices; and automating business processes in hybrid cloud environments; The company's application development-related and other technology solutions also includes Red Hat cloud offerings, a software solution that enables customers to build and manage various cloud computing environments; Red Hat Mobile, a software development platform that enables customers to develop, integrate, deploy, and manage mobile applications for enterprises; and Red Hat Storage, a software solution that enables customers to manage large, unstructured, or semi-structured data in hybrid cloud environments. It also provides consulting, support, and training services; and realtime operating system, distributed computing, directory services, and user authentication. Red Hat, Inc. has collaboration with Juniper Networks Expand to provide a unified solution for enterprises designed to manage and run applications and services. The company was formerly known as Red Hat Software, Inc. and changed its name to Red Hat, Inc. in June 1999. Red Hat, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Te Wharekura o Mauao has confirmed Matua Heywood Kuka has been appointed as the Maori immersion schools new Tumuaki (principal), succeeding Matua Koa Douglas.

Located in Bethlehem, Te Wharekura o Mauao provides tikanga Maori education for Year 7 to 13 students, and having recently welcomed an additional 70 students, will have a school roll of 240 this year.

Mr Kuka has been with the Wharekura since its inception in 2010 and prior to his appointment, was the schools Associate Principal Tumuaki Awhina.

Im extremely honoured to accept this position as the new Tumuaki at Te Wharekura o Mauao, says Heywood.

I have a real connection with this school. My father, Tame Kuka, was the founding Tumuaki here, and my son has gone through as a student.

Heywood says as Tumuaki, his aspiration is to carry on the work and vision that local tipuna and kaumatua had for the school.

Their vision was about our tauira being proud of who they are and where they come from, being proud of being Maori and of our traditions, being fluent in te reo, and being able to succeed in the mainstream world.

Im really excited about the way forward. We have a strong teaching group, our community is 100 percent behind the school, and our philosophy brings out the most in our tauira.

My goal is that each student who leaves this place can stand resolute in this community, and in the world, knowing they can be whoever they want to be and take their culture with them.

In 2016, Te Wharekura o Mauao introduced a new curriculum that encourages students to choose their own learning path, based on what they are passionate about. School attendance has since soared and the number of NCEA Merit and Excellence results have significantly increased.

This school is something I thoroughly believe in  its about students having a place to learn in their own way.

We are challenging mainstream traditions here - flipping everything on its head. We are making sure that the centre of everything is the student and what they want. They are leading their own learning, and its working, says Heywood.

Te Wharekura o Mauao Chairman Graham Cameron says Heywood represents a new generation in Maori and educational leadership for Tauranga Moana.

We are very excited to see Matua Heywood step up as Tumuaki of this school.

Over the last few weeks we have seen him in action, as acting principal, and its only emphasised to us that we have made the right decision.

Graham says the Board spent a lot of time working out what they wanted in a new principal.

We wanted someone strongly connected to Tauranga Moana, and who would help build up Maori and educational leadership within our rohe  that is very important to us as a wharekura.

We also needed someone committed to carrying on the passion-based learning we have implemented and helping students achieve quality standards in the areas they want to learn in.

Matua Heywood is deeply immersed in his marae, hapu and iwi, and truly committed to this school. We are all excited about the future of Te Wharekura o Mauao.Anabel & Jorge Valente share with us their best travel finds in CAPE VERDE and tell us how the Mandingas reveal the African heritage of the archipelago.

Traditional ritual of the Mandingas of Ribeiro Bote during the Carnival in Sao Vicente

The Mandingas had been initiated in the 40s by Jose Moreno also known as Capote. He and his friends were known not only for having founded the Mandingas in Sao Vicente, but also for being very enthusiast of all popular festivities.

Video by Jorge Valente

During Carnival the King of the Mandingas, Capote, stood out and gained popularity. Nowadays Carnival in Soncente, as the locals call their island, wouldnt be Carnival without the Mandingas.

African heritage

They represent the African heritage of the Cape Verdean people. Disguised and painted with black oil they chant and dance African rhythms. Shortly after the new year the Mandingas announce the biggest party of the year in Sao Vicente, the Carnival.

For an entire month before Carnival on Sundays, they head to the city of Mindelo and fill the streets with their followers and their batucadas, Afro-Brazilian drums. Since the 40s the Mandingas have come to gather more participants, and nowadays their parades draw huge crowds.

Ribeira Bote

The most famous Mandingas of Cape Verde are the ones from Ribeira Bote. They have become a Trademark of the Carnival in Mindelo. The Mandinka People. It is most probable that the Mangingas in Cape Verde are a representation of the Mandinka people, a West African ethnic group with an estimated population of eleven million (source Wikipedia).

 Diariesofmagazine.com

They mostly live in Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Mauritania. It is thought that the Guinean Mandinka tribes, brought in through the slavery trade, caused an impression on the Cape Verdeans who started then imitating their rhythms and dances.

Check out this other video about Cape Verde

After an epic journey through South America with their motorbike Anabela and Jorge Valente decided to launch Diaries of.

More than making the readers travel around the world whilst reading it, Diaries of intends to inspire the readers to see the world for themselves. Will you catch the travel bug?Two men have been credited with cultivating cherry-like apricot and cherry blossoms typical of northern Vietnam in Da Lat City.

>> Untold stories of Da Lat  P5: Billeting army officers wives

>> Untold stories of Da Lat  P4: The Haunted House on Prenn Pass

>> Untold stories of Da Lat  P3: Royal partition

>> Untold stories of Da Lat  P2: Stone villa of Nguyen Kings concubine

>> Untold stories of Da Lat  P1: Nguyen Dynastys trusted retainer

Muoi Loi hoa dao (Cherry Blossom) Valley, tucked away at the end of a small alley on Le Hong Phong Street, is a household name among residents and tourists.

The arboretum is known for a variety of cherry blossom breeds that are normally found at the famous Nhat Tan Village in Tay Ho District, Hanoi.

Nhat Tan Village provides gorgeous sights and yields the flowers for decorative purposes around Tet (Lunar New Year) every year.

Da Lat, a charming resort town in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, has also been dubbed a flower city.

Its temperate climate, however, is quite inauspicious for the cherry blossoms, which thrive and bloom best in warm weather.

The founder of the unique arboretum is veteran farmer Bui Van Loi, also known as Muoi Loi, who passed away in 2009.

Bui Van Sang, Lois son, has created new hybrid cherry blossom varieties. Photo: Tuoi Tre

From cherry-like apricot

During his lifetime, Loi considered himself a successor to Nguyen Thai Hien, another seasoned farmer who was credited for cultivating mai anh dao (cherry-like apricot blossoms).

Hien (1898-1956) painstakingly turned the wild trees into the ones that line several local streets these days.

The blossoms, scientifically known as Prunus Cesacoides, are an elegant blend between hoa dao (cherry blossoms) and hoa mai (apricot flowers), and resemble cherry blossoms in their shape and pinkish color.

They make stunning sights on the streets and charm locals and vacationers alike when scores of flowering trees indigenous to the area are simultaneously in full bloom around the end of the year and continue to blossom until after Tet.

Hien moved from a central province to Da Lat in the early 1920s. He was a public greenery superintendent tasked with growing ornamental trees on streets around iconic Xuan Huong Lake and in villa courtyards during the former political regime.

According to Nguyen Thai Hai, Hiens son, Hien spent weekends studying the wild cherry-like apricot trees and bringing them to downtown Da Lat in 1927.

He then proposed growing the stunning flowering plants along local streets and solitarily chose the spots for the plants.

During the revamp of Hoa Binh Market in 1935, Hien ordered that the slope meandered from Ong Dao Bridge to the market.

He also decided that the street where Eden Cinema (now Ngoc Lan Cinema) was should be lined only with cherry-like apricot trees.

He gave instructions to prune the branches in order to restrict the trees height and boost their width.

Since then, the cherry-like apricot blossoms, which Hien named mai anh dao, have become the citys signature flower, whose delicate petals that are fluttering in the breeze accentuate the towns charisma.

The hybrid cherry blossoms are pictured at Muoi Loi Hoa Dao Valley, nestled in Da Lat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. Photo: Tuoi Tre

To hybrid cherry blossoms

During his lifetime, Loi, who founded Muoi Loi Hoa Dao Valley, revered Hien as his own father and highly appreciated Hiens monumental pioneering work, which laid the foundation for his valley later.

Loi went on with creating his own new varieties of cherry blossoms by dexterously refining Hiens cherry-like apricot flowers with cherry blossoms from Hanois Nhat Tan Village, which typically bloom in warm climate during the end of the lunar year.

Lois unprecedentedly cultivated fruit, which served as a cultural bridge between Hanoi and Da Lat, who lay approximately 1,500km apart, was the result of hard work.

He left his hometown in the central province of Quang Nam for Da Lat in 1958 and followed his vocation of farming flowers and vegetables to the very end of his life.

Loi knew many had previously failed in their attempts to bring Nhat Tan cherry blossom trees southward.

Determined to germinate the variety in Da Lat, he took a flight with a strong cherry blossom tree from Nhat Tan on board.

Upon landing in Nha Trang, a resort city in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, he hurriedly took a carriage to Da Lat, approximately 140km away.

Loi did not reach home until dusk.

Since his neighborhood had no access to electricity back then, Loi lit candles and painstakingly grafted pieces from the Nhat Tan tree into his cherry-like apricot trees right in the same evening to ensure the survival and growth of the germs after days of traveling.

The innovative farmers hybrid plants were in full bloom at his valley for Tet in 1998, with the flowers being pink and red in color and having thick petals.

The new variety catapulted Muoi Loi Hoa Dao Valley to instant fame.

Loi also received a trophy as an appreciation for his contribution to sustainable agriculture at an international exposition held in Ho Chi Minh City in 2000.

Professor Vu Tuyen Hoang also spoke highly of Lois achievement, which culturally linked Hanoi and Da Lat City with several fruitful blooming seasons.

One year after Lois death in 2009, his valley earned a record as the countrys first cherry blossom valley in southern Vietnam.

Bui Van Sang, Lois son who is a major in information technology, was set on bringing his fathers achievements to new heights by creating more breeds and properly timing harvests for Tet.

Even though Muoi Loi Hoa Dao Valley fetched a high price due to its location in the downtown area, Sang unwaveringly refused to sell it.

I really cant stand seeing the sprouting houses encroaching on and erasing the valley that my father had dedicated his entire life to, he explained.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!All 66 people on board an Iranian passenger plane were feared dead on Sunday after it crashed into the country's Zagros mountains, with emergency services struggling to locate the wreckage in blizzard conditions.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 disappeared from radar around 45 minutes after takeoff from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, the airline's public relations chief Mohammad Tabatabai told state broadcaster IRIB.

It was the third disaster to strike Iran in recent months, after an earthquake that killed at least 620 people in Kermanshah in November and 30 Iranian sailors were lost in an oil tanker collision off China's coast last month.

The ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service for 25 years, left the capital around 0800 (0430 GMT) and was heading towards the city of Yasuj, some 500 kilometres (300 miles) to the south.

After conflicting reports on fatalities and the location of the crash, officials said rescue teams were still not able to find the wreckage.

"We still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers," Tabatabai told the ISNA news agency.

He said the plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, as well as six crew.

Jalal Pooranfar, regional head for Iran's emergency services, told the ISNA news agency rescue and relief teams had been sent to the possible area of the crash.

"But the helicopter could not continue its path due to snow and blizzard," he said.

Seyed Noor Mohammad Mousavi, head of the local Red Crescent office, told the IRNA news agency a drone had been dispatched to help find the wreckage.

A total of 120 people from 30 different emergency teams were sent to help with the search, another Red Crescent official said.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent a message of condolence, saying the news had "left our hearts overwhelmed with sadness and sorrow", according to state television.

Ageing fleets

A man who missed the doomed flight told reporters of his mixed emotions.

"God has been really kind to me but I am so sad from the bottom of my heart for all those dear ones who lost their lives," the unnamed man told the Tabnak news agency, which showed a picture of his unused ticket.

Decades of international isolation have left Iran's airlines with ageing fleets of passenger planes which they have struggled to maintain and modernise.

Aseman's fleet includes at least three ATR-72s that date back to the early 1990s, according to the IRNA news agency.

A spokesman for ATR, which is part-owned by Europe's Airbus, told AFP the company was "researching the details" of Sunday's crash.

President Hassan Rouhani ordered the transport ministry to set up a crisis group to investigate the crash and coordinate rescue efforts, ISNA reported.

Aseman's three Boeing 727-200s are almost as old as the country's 1979 Islamic revolution, having made their first flights the following year.

Iran has suffered multiple aviation disasters, most recently in 2014 when a Sepahan Airlines plane crashed killing 39 people just after take-off from Tehran, narrowly avoiding many more deaths when it plummeted near a busy market.

Lifting sanctions on aviation purchases was a key clause in the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015.

Following the deal, Aseman Airlines finalised an agreement to buy 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets for $3 billion (2.4 billion euros) last June, with an option to buy 30 more.

However, the sale could be scuppered if US President Donald Trump chooses to reimpose sanctions in the coming months, as he has threatened to do.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences over Sunday's crash, just moments after he launched a blistering attack on Tehran's government.

"I take this opportunity to send condolences to the families of the 66 civilians that lost their lives," Netanyahu said at the Munich Security Conference.

"We have no quarrel with the people of Iran, only with the regime that torments them," he added.

The US Treasury Department, which must approve aviation sales to Iran, has done so for 80 Boeing jets destined for national carrier Iran Air as well as 100 Airbus planes for Iran Air.

The first few Airbus jets have already arrived in Tehran.An increasing number of newborn children in Vietnam have immensely benefited from lifesaving breast milk shared on social networks by complete strangers over recent years.

The infants were born premature, are allergic to milk available at the market, or have lost their mother to medical complications.

Nguyen Anh Quy, 31, a resident in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City posted a notice on a milk-sharing forum with a membership of over 4,000 to donate her breast milk to other women in need.

She shared she had more than enough milk for her 20-day-old baby, and was willing to give others two liters of her own milk every day.

Quy chose to give her milk to a father whose newborn was kept in intensive care at a hospital located approximately four kilometers from her home.

The short distance guarantees the milk stays fresh and is hygienically ensured, she explained.

The husband traveled to Quys place every day for several days and stored three or four packs of her fresh milk in a thermos container.

Pham Ngoc Oanh, 29, who was nursing her two-month-old daughter, also donated her milk to other desperate mothers.

Over a month later, the little girl received milk from three different mothers.

Due to the generosity of the forum members, Oanh now has enough of her own milk to feed her baby.

Milk bank

An increasing number of mothers have sought milk from the online communities and Vietnams first human milk bank despite initial hygienic concerns.

The baby of Tran Thi Hoai Thuong, from Da Nang, survived his first days on the milk from the milk bank, established in February 2017 by the municipal Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital.

The bank is expected to store enough breast milk to help feed between 3,000 and 4,000 premature or diseased infants across Da Nang and Vietnam every year.

The milk supply is donated by healthy mothers across the country and is pasteurized and tested for diseases before being kept in sanitized storage for future use.

My baby, born around 2.5 months premature, failed to cry and weighed merely 800g upon delivery. The nurses carried him away instantly, Thuong recalled.

Thanks to the medical staffs counseling and support, the young mother managed to yield her own milk and even donated her breast milk to the bank.

Thuong has acquired useful tips on how to collect and store breast milk properly and has so far contributed over 50 liters of her own milk to the bank.

An expert provides instructions on how to collect breast milk at the Da Nang Pediatrics and Obstetrics Hospital's human milk bank. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Since launching nine months ago, more than 2,300 babies, including motherless newborns and those with no access to breast milk have thrived on a total of over 1,350 liters of the milk donated by 147 mothers.

According to Dr. Tran Thi Hoang, deputy director of the Da Nang Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital and head of the milk bank, funding comes from Margaret A. Cargill and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, which aim to promote breastfeeding in Vietnam by providing lactation support for Vietnamese mothers.

Technical support for the international-standard milk bank is provided by global health innovation organization PATH and the Alive & Thrive initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the governments of Canada and Ireland.

Medical staff at the facility are professionally trained and equipped with modern tools to guarantee correct operations and the safety of its milk supply.

Without insurance coverage, families must pay a certain sum for access to the invaluable nutrients, which is also one of our prime concerns, Dr. Hoang said.

The Alive & Thrive initiative is currently working with partners to expand the model to other cities and provinces, with Tu Du Hospital, an established obstetrics infirmary in Ho Chi Minh City, to be next on the line.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Tu Anh, head of Tu Du Hospitals neonatal department, revealed the facility had long intended to set up such a milk bank.

The infirmary welcomes more than 65,000 newborns each year, with over 15 percent suffering from premature delivery, birth defects and respiratory problems.

These children are in dire need of breast milk, which optimizes digestion and disease prevention.

More than half of the prematurely delivered newborns lack access to breast milk during their time at the hospital.

Dr. Anh stressed the need on strictly adopting hygienic procedures in collecting breast milk to minimize risks of infantile disease contraction.

Newborns drinking bottled breast milk are not able to fully develop their senses or IQ at the same rate as their breastfed peers.

Frozen breast milk also has a lower content of fat, vitamin C, antibody and fat digesting enzymes, Dr. Anh noted.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!The intensity and the ferocity of the attack makes you wonder, what did we do? We murdered babies in their cots? Certainly, the scale and the intensity of the attacks feels out of proportion to the level of culpability. To read these words, from Oxfam CEO Mark Goldring, you would think that some loon was making blatantly false allegations against one of the biggest charities in the world. That is not the Case though, what has been alleged is truly mortifying and should be taken deadly seriously. Of course, Mr Goldring is right, the accused didnt murder Haitian children, they just (allegedly) paid them for sex.

And that cannot go unanswered.

There must now be a full and proper investigation and the usual standards upheld, for there is no other way to obtain justice, into what is going on in these charities. But, the horrifying implications of what this means, that millions of us who donate, buy cards and second-hand books from Oxfam have possibly funded sexual abuse, mean that we must demand a change from Oxfam.

Higher standards

Mr Goldring has suggested that his words are being manipulated and that people are unwilling to listen to explanations. What does he expect? These allegations are deadly serious and Oxfam looks ridiculously turgid in response. And, that is the sad thing. We have already seen that donations are plummeting and celebrities are distancing themselves.

The accused won't suffer, the poor will.

Certainly, this organisation does an awful lot of good work, work that is undeniably admirable, for many in the developing world. It will take a massive undertaking within Oxfam to change this situation, the entire culture must be overhauled if people are to be won back over. Rightly so, for who would want to support a body that has facilitated such activities?

We are told not to give money to beggars, now we cannot trust charities to spend our money in the correct way. What a terribly dark development this is.

'thou shalt not harden thine heart'

With Oxfam now coming under scrutiny, it seems prudent to evaluate its relationship with government. Oxfam has been the recipient of International Development funding, which has been halted by Penny Mordaunt, and this only further undermines the Foreign Aid policy.

Certainly, it is in need of revision not only by weaning charities off government support. Firstly, the arbitrary 0.7% of GDP target should be scrapped, if only because it results in money being shovelled into the furnace at the end of the year to meet it. It should be obvious that funding the Cambodian Ken Dodd, or whatever it is that the press picks up on, will alienate the public. Secondly, the department should be folded into the Foreign Office to shrink the size of government and tie in spending with foreign policy objectives. Furthermore, we would do better to use this money to invest in developing countries and thereby bring tangible benefits to them and to silence the naysayers by producing a return for the taxpayer.

We need not be tight-fisted when Britain can benefit from foreign aid as well as assisting the economic futures of potential trade partners in the post-Brexit world. In the same way that we must not begin to treat charities as something to be suspicious of and thereby deprive the poor and needy of vital works. To avoid that, Oxfam needs to prove that it has learnt from this situation because 'God loveth a cheerful giver', but that does not mean that we should unquestioningly hand over money to condemn others to sexual exploitation. That is not charity, that is just cruel.climate change is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges now facing humanity. It threatens not just the environment and our way of life, but our very existence. But given the way we are responding, you wouldn't know it.

Scientists have warned us that we must keep warming below 2C in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Many think this estimate is too high. And yet if we continue on our current path, we are set to exceed it. Drastic cuts in emissions will be required if we are to have any hope of remaining below this point.

Powerless to act?

Unfortunately, too many of us - especially politicians - act as if there's no point in even trying. People often trot out the line that renewables are not reliable enough to replace Fossil Fuels. The implication seems to be that since there's nothing we can do, we might as well just carry on as we are - never mind the fact that several countries are already running wholly or mostly on renewables.

We act as if ruining the Earth is preferable to changing the way we do things. Of course, the reality is that we will have to change anyway when the fossil fuels run out. But if we wait until then, our fate will be sealed.

I find it extremely hard to believe that with all our advanced scientific knowledge and technology, we are powerless to stop climate change.

Whenever I hear someone say that we can't meet our energy demands with renewables, I think about how we managed to send people to the moon with computers less powerful than a modern mobile phone. This was possible because the will and the motivation were there, and so we were prepared to invest time, money and manpower in it.

Cant or wont?

If we can accomplish something as huge as going to the moon, then given enough funding and resources, we could channel that same passion into tackling climate change. The problem is, the people who have the power to make a difference don't have the inclination to do so. Many politicians receive money from fossil fuel companies, for example.

And powerful corporations lobby against even the most moderate climate change legislation.

It's not that we can't tackle climate change - its that we won't. And though some of the blame certainly does lie with corrupt politicians and unethical corporations, we ourselves must accept some of it too. We make environmental destruction profitable, because we fund it with our purchases. Though very few of us are able to live completely sustainably, most of us could be doing more than we are. For one thing, we could stop supporting animal agriculture, the leading cause of climate change.

It was our drive to grow and develop at all costs which got us into this mess in the first place. Now, we must use that same determination and innovation to get us out of it. Climate change already kills an estimated 400,000 people every year. We can't afford to bury our heads in the sand any longer.You may not have noticed, but its been bedlam in Washington for the past three days as the US federal Government has actually been shut down. The hashtag #TrumpShutdown began trending, because its all US President Donald Trump and his stupid border wall plans fault. As usual, the Democrats and the Republicans were divided on the issue of immigration.

They needed to come to an agreement on where the government spending should go with regards to immigration issues by a deadline three days ago or the government would have to be shut down, and of course, the Democrats and the Republicans, with President Trump in the middle of it all, came nowhere near to an agreement.

Trump and the Republicans wanted to spend the money on bolstering border patrol and making headway towards the construction of that stupid wall along the southern border between the US and Mexico.

The Democrats wanted to spend the money on helping dreamer immigrants to settle in America and follow the American dream and the plaque on the Statue of Liberty that says everyone can come in, no matter who they are or where theyre from, and basically everything that America is built on. Dreamer immigrants, of course, are undocumented migrants who came to the United States as babies or small children with their parents. In other words, they didnt choose to be immigrants  they just are.

Government shutdown over as agreement reached

The Democrats and the Republicans have finally reached an agreement on the immigration issue, albeit very begrudgingly, so the federal government is now back up and running. The shutdown meant that no non-essential government employees could go into work and continue operations, who said that during the shutdown, they felt like they were being used as pawns, but after their little three-day vacation, theyre all back in the office now.

The deal that the two parties have made is in favour of the Republicans views that the money should be spent on helping border patrol to keep immigrants out, rather than to help immigrants that are already in America to settle down there.

However, this is only a short-term deal and it will expire on 8 February, after which there will be a vote on immigration legislation.

The Democratic officials are hoping that, in the long run, they will win. It aint over yet. As long as that Senate vote is upcoming and its in the bag and the fate of the dreamer immigrants is not yet totally decided, then theres still hope. Its like the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi with the little kid who has the Force. Thats what dreamer immigrants are. They are the future. Their fate will determine if Trumps America truly has no soul. If this February vote goes well, then things could be looking up.

Donald Trump is pleased the Democrats gave in

Chuck Schumer, who leads the Democrats in the Senate towards the light and is one of Donald Trumps worst enemies, had to announce the concession on Monday after making a deal to fund the government for an additional three weeks on the condition that after those three weeks, there would be a vote on the immigration issue.

Another condition of the deal was that Chip, the health insurance program that provides coverage to over nine million children in the US, would be extended for a further six years.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to these conditions, and here we are. McConnell will put down an immigration bill in three weeks if the Republicans and Democrats cant reach an agreement by then. Its likely that they wont reach an agreement, since the whole reason they are Republicans and Democrats is that their views on immigration are opposites.An 18-year-old Briton has pleaded guilty at his trial to ten offences under the computer misuse act. As reported by Telegraph, the then 15-year-old Kane Gamble received access to secret information about US reconnaissance operations in Afghanistan and Iran while to trying to hack computers of former CIA head John Brennan and several other high-ranking US officials. The computer-savvy teen, who founded in 2015 his own online hacking team, Crackas With Attitude (CWA), is currently on conditional bail and will be sentenced by Mr Justice Haddon-Cave at the Old Bailey.

Pretending at one point to be no less than the acting head on CIA, Gamble is accused of gaining unauthorised access to details of intelligence operations planned in Afghanistan and Iran. After his two-year hacking spree, Gamble boasted to have "access to all the details the Feds use for background checks," which he gained without leaving a semi-detached council house he shares with his mother in Coalville, Leicestershire.

Social engineering instead of hacking

Even though Mr Gamble managed to get access to his victims' social media and banking accounts, as well as to the databases of organisations like CIA, FBI and the Russian visa centre in the US, neither he nor his CWA team did actually hack them.

The tactic used instead was what computer security experts call "social engineering," where he gradually built up an increasingly detailed picture of information of a legitimate user, with which he was able to manipulate third parties into granting him access to data classified or restricted. According to the materials of the trial, the teen persuaded Verizon call centre staff that on the phone was no one else but John Brennan, the then director of the CIA.

After the FBI had discovered a breach of their database and changed the password, he called an FBI helpdesk and convinced them that speaking was Mark Giuliano, then the agencys Deputy Director, so he was able to change the password again and to regain access to the system. Gamble's other targets included Jeh Johnson, the then US Secretary of Homeland Security and Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence.

Teen mocked victims and manipulated their personal data

Not satisfied with accessing their personal data, Kane Gamble was constantly mocking his victims. He shared their personal details on public domains, inundated their computers with pornography, and even remotely controlled devices like TVs and tablets in their homes. Victims had no choice but to frantically contact technical support and request changing their passwords, only to be followed up by Gamble doing just the same, contacting the helpline allegedly on their behalf, changing passwords and regaining access to their accounts. According to John Lloyd-Jones QC, prosecuting, the accused later posted sensitive information on Twitter and Wikileaks while taunting the spy chiefs about the scope of access he gained. The court heard that the teenager called repeatedly Jeh Johnson's wife, asking her: "Am I scaring you?" while her spouse was left messages threatening to "bang his daughter."Stocks in London were slightly firmer by midday on Monday thanks to strength in the mining sector and a flurry of M&A activity, as investors looked cautiously ahead for rate decisions from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England and braced for Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger Article 50.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.3% to 7,365.74, with heavily-weighted miners providing much of the upside amid rising metals prices.

There are no major UK data releases due, but market participants will be eyeing a vote in the Commons later, with MPs likely to overturn amendments made by the House of Lords. Prime Minister Theresa May could trigger Article 50 as early as Tuesday.

Oanda analyst Craig Erlam said traders appeared to be in wait-and-see mode at the start of the week, most notably focusing on the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

The Fed is widely expected to raise the funds rate by 25 basis points to between 0.75% and 1.00%.

"The clearly coordinated effort to convince investors that a rate hike is firmly on the table on Wednesday, from a position in which it appeared out the question, has almost worked too well with markets now almost fully pricing one in," he said.

"The UK will also be in focus this week but it may not necessarily be the Bank of England monetary policy decision or the jobs data that grabs our attention. With Theresa Mays end of March article 50 deadline fast approaching, parliament is set to debate two amendments to the bill added by the House of Lords that would guarantee the rights of EU nationals in the UK and give parliament a vote on the final Brexit deal. The vote is particularly important for investors as it would theoretically reduce the possibility of a hard Brexit, the only downside being that in turn it may weaken Mays negotiating position."

On the corporate front, M&A news was in full swing. Housebuilder Bovis Homes surged as it said it was in merger talks with Galliford Try, after it rejected a 1bn offer from Redrow.

Meanwhile, shares in Amec Foster Wheeler rocketed as it agreed the terms of an all-share offer from oilfield services company Wood Group that values the engineer at around 2.2bn.

Under the terms of the deal, Amec shareholders will receive 0.75 new Wood Group shares for each of their shares. This represents a value of around 564p per Amec share and a premium of around 15.3% to the closing price of Amec's shares on Friday.

HSBC was higher after saying it has hired ex-Prudential boss Mark Tucker to replace Douglas Flint as chairman of the world's fourth largest bank.

Lifted by M&A rumours last week, BP gushed lower as oil prices retreated after data from Baker Hughes on Friday showed the number of active rigs drilling for oil rose by eight to 617 last week, marking the eighth weekly rise.

Allied Minds retreated as its co-founder and chief executive Chris Silva stepped down with immediate effect, to be replaced in the short term by non-executive director Jill Smith.

Saga was in the black after UBS upgraded the stock to 'buy' but Homeserve was hit by a downgrade to 'underperform' from Jefferies.

Standard Life was weaker after Berenberg cut the stock to 'hold', while Domino's Pizza fell after a downgrade by Citigroup.

On Thursday, the Bank of England's latest rate announcement is due, although no changes are expected.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,365.74 0.31%

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,022.97 0.32%

techMARK (TASX) 3,472.53 0.26%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,439.00p 5.81%

Anglo American (AAL) 1,194.50p 4.73%

Capita (CPI) 569.00p 4.50%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,298.50p 3.78%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 773.50p 3.41%

BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,278.50p 2.73%

Glencore (GLEN) 317.60p 2.27%

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,000.00p 2.26%

easyJet (EZJ) 995.00p 1.84%

Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,556.00p 1.57%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BP (BP.) 462.85p -1.67%

BT Group (BT.A) 337.80p -1.36%

Standard Life (SL.) 375.40p -1.21%

Pearson (PSON) 668.50p -1.18%

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 242.90p -0.86%

RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 588.00p -0.68%

Unilever (ULVR) 4,011.00p -0.61%

Centrica (CNA) 221.50p -0.58%

GKN (GKN) 369.50p -0.54%

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 7,283.00p -0.52%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 557.50p 13.96%

Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 915.00p 10.51%

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 257.40p 8.15%

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 169.90p 4.62%

Saga (SAGA) 201.80p 4.24%

Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 473.40p 4.11%

National Express Group (NEX) 371.80p 3.42%

G4S (GFS) 304.60p 3.39%

Wood Group (John) (WG.) 777.00p 3.32%

Hunting (HTG) 554.00p 3.26%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Homeserve (HSV) 527.00p -5.89%

Evraz (EVR) 200.90p -5.68%

Indivior (INDV) 329.00p -4.53%

Sophos Group (SOPH) 269.60p -3.68%

AA (AA.) 262.20p -3.43%

Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 334.90p -3.38%

Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,240.00p -2.36%

Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 127.70p -2.22%

Essentra (ESNT) 553.00p -2.12%

Dignity (DTY) 2,513.00p -1.64%In a tweet on Saturday, First Lady Melania Trump decided to acknowledge "Random Act of kindness Day." In response, Donald Trump was quickly mocked due to the first lady's message.

I encourage everyone to test the power of kindness on #RandomActsofKindnessDay. Its an opportunity to teach our children the importance of taking care of one another.  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 17, 2018

Melania on Twitter

It's no secret that reports have been circulating about alleged issues between Donald Trump and Melania Trump. It started back when the story broke that Trump allegedly had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels back in 2006, just after he was married to Melania while she was pregnant with their son Barron.

Reports have also claimed that Trump's personal lawyer paid Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair. The latest story about Trump's reported infidelity claims he had a year-long affair with adult model Karen McDougal in 2006.

As expected, the president has denied the allegations, writing them off as "fake news." Despite this, Melania Trump has showed signs of frustration, ranging from canceling her plans to accompany the president on a recent foreign trip, while also arriving separately to several functions. Fast forward to present day and Melania has decided to once again throw subconscious shade at her husband, this time in the form of a tweet about kindness.

"I encourage everyone to test the power of kindness on Random Acts of Kindness Day. Its an opportunity to teach our children the importance of taking care of one another," she tweeted, in an ironic post due to Trump's reckless behavior on social media.

Quick shots

Not long after Melania Trump sent out her post, critics of the president wasted no time firing back.

"Just encourage your husband and we will be alright," Tony Posnanski tweeted out.

She forgot to end with "Bleh. Bleh bleh.  Patrick Mueller (@pjmcpo) February 17, 2018

Dear Melania: End the humiliation. Divorce the cheating loser. American women will have your back.  Christy Marx (@christymarx) February 17, 2018

Just encourage your husband and we will be alright.  Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) February 17, 2018

"Dear Melania: End the humiliation.

Divorce the cheating loser. American women will have your back," a tweet read. "Remember when you pushed the birther conspiracy theory, you opportunistic trash-lady?" yet another Twitter user wondered.

Definitely not appropriate time for this comment. There are dead children and you have done nothing but smile in the photos of your visit.  MAGGIES (@MAGGIESWANN1) February 17, 2018

How about you start with @realDonaldTrump showing kindness or any empathy We arent the ones smiling and only talking to doctor and responders during a visit to a entire community in grieving! You really need to start at home before addressing the Nation!  Skyleigh1 (@Sky_Lee_1) February 17, 2018

"How about you start with Donald Trump showing kindness or any empathy.

We arent the ones smiling and only talking to doctor and responders during a visit to a entire community in grieving! You really need to start at home before addressing the Nation!" a follow-up tweet noted. "Definitely not appropriate time for this comment. There are dead children and you have done nothing but smile in the photos of your visit," a social media user wrote. The backlash continued as the opposition to the entire White House showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon.Over the last week, the biggest story to dominate the news cycle has been the mass shooting at a Florida high school. While many have once again called for better gun control legislation, Donald Trump has decided to deflect the blame onto a familiar target.

Just like they dont want to solve the DACA problem, why didnt the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didnt want to, and now they just talk!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018

Trump on gun control

On Wednesday afternoon at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, former student 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz walked into the building and opened fire.

By the time Cruz was taken into custody by police, he had killed 17 people, while injuring many others. The story stopped the country in its tracks, taking over the headlines and reigniting the debate over the issue of gun control and mental health. As expected, those on the political left pushed for gun control, while their conservative counterparts brushed off the issue.

These are the faces of the 17 people killed in the #FloridaSchoolShooting.  May they rest in peace. https://t.co/qp90vbyvuq pic.twitter.com/d0B6Ia2Q7S  ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) February 16, 2018

For President Donald Trump, he addressed the nation in a speech not long after the events took place, not mentioning guns once while making sure to add the usual "thoughts and prayers" routine.

Since then, Trump has taken time to briefly stop over to meet with victims in Florida, before taking to Twitter to attack Barack Obama and Democrats while spending time as his Mar-a-Lago resort. "Just like they dont want to solve the DACA problem, why didnt the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration," Trump tweeted, while adding, "Because they didnt want to, and now they just talk!"

Instant backlash

Following Donald Trump's remarks, critics wasted no time firing back on social media.

"So you do something. The ball is your court and you have home court advantage. Accomplish this and you MAY actually earn my vote one day," one tweet read.

You're the president now , so pull up you're man pants and start doing something for a change , instead of blaming others for your shortcomings. Mr.not the real president.  Philosophy (@morovis00687) February 17, 2018

You are the most Vile Incompetent Corrupt Disgusting Human Being to ever walk this planet. How dare you take these deaths and this important issue with your blood stained hands from your & @GOP #NRA contributions and try and blame the Ds. #ShameOnYou #ImpeachThisSonOfABitch  Pamela Stone (@Pamelastonenyc) February 17, 2018

"You are the most Vile Incompetent Corrupt Disgusting Human Being to ever walk this planet.

How dare you take these deaths and this important issue with your blood stained hands from your & GOP NRA contributions and try and blame the Ds," a Twitter user wrote. "You're the president now , so pull up you're man pants and start doing something for a change , instead of blaming others for your shortcomings. Mr.not the real president, a follow-up tweet noted.

Oh my god, why don't you do it then? You know how much they'll have to praise you then?  Punxsutawney Phil (@calizoned) February 17, 2018

So do something about it, Art of the Deal.#IMPOTUS



Before you die in jail you could do one decent thing, like that dirty cop in the Equalizer



try it, just for variety  Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) February 17, 2018

Well now that you (GOP) have control of the house and senate, and it sounds like you ARE in favor of stricter gun control laws, take action!  Shaun Rawlins (@MaxSavage75) February 17, 2018

"Before you die in jail you could do one decent thing, like that dirty cop in the Equalizer, try it, just for variety," a social media user noted. "Oh my god, why don't you do it then? You know how much they'll have to praise you then?" an additional tweet stated.After another mass shooting resulted in the deaths of 17 innocent people, the political divide was quickly evident. In response, Donald Trump has decided to put the full blame of the shooting at the doorstep of the FBI.

Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

Trump on FBI

Over the last year, the biggest political story has been the investigation into Russia's hacking of the 2016 presidential election, and whether or not Donald Trump was in cahoots with the Kremlin.

While the president has repeatedly claimed there was "no collusion" between himself and Russia, various sources say otherwise. Over the last week, 13 Russian nationals were indicted on charges of meddling with the 2016 election, which Trump attempted to use to vindicate himself of any wrongdoing. To double down on his defense, Trump is now targeting the FBI for not preventing the mass shooting at school in south Florida last week.

General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

It was last Wednesday when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida with a loaded weapon in his hands.

By the time he was apprehended by police, Cruz had killed 17 people and injured many others. In the days that followed, it was revealed that the FBI didn't follow protocol on the leads they were given which may have prevented the shooting. During a tweet on February 17, Trump decided to use that to his advantage.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter," Donald Trump tweeted, before adding, "This is not acceptable." "They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion," Trump wrote, while concluding, "Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

Trump's double down

In a follow-up tweet, Donald Trump went on to accuse Democrats and Hillary Clinton of colluding with Russia, once again pushing back against the allegations.

"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems," he wrote.

"Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!" Donald Trump stated in his final tweet as of press time. With the Russian investigation heating up and special counsel Robert Mueller appearing to be hot on the president's heels, only time will tell how it all plays out and what Trump's next response will be.While Donald Trump Jr. is not a part of his father' administration, he often finds himself making comments that rub many the wrong way. In response, Alec Baldwin decided to hit back at the president's son.

Baldwin on Trump

Not long after Donald Trump kicked off his campaign for president, members of his family were outspoken in support of their father. While Melania Trump has remained mostly noncontroversial in her role a first lady, Ivanka Trump has found herself inside the White House as a special assistant, with a similar role of adviser going to son-in-law Jared Kushner.

On the outside, Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have come to the defense of the president on more than one occasion. In recent weeks, Donald Jr. has followed in his father's footsteps in using social media to push out his views, including ripping into Oprah Winfrey following her speech at the Golden Globes, attacking the media over the "Fake News Awards," and claiming his dad's administration helped create the "Year of the Woman." As expected, the younger Trump received backlash from many, with actor Alec Baldwin calling him out during a tweet on January 19.

To @DonaldJTrumpJr :

What do you know about honor?

Your father lies, cheats and steals every chance he gets, even when he does t have to.

He f**** every keyhole he can find and pays people to shut them up.

Your opinion is worthless.

Hes got to go.

Hes gonna go.  ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) January 19, 2018

Taking to the offical Twitter account of his AB Foundation on Friday night, Alec Baldwin singled out Donald Trump Jr.

and hammered into him his thoughts about the current administration. "To @DonaldJTrumpJr :What do you know about honor?" Baldwin rhetorically asked.

"Your father lies, cheats and steals every chance he gets, even when he doesn't have to," Alec Baldwin went on to write. "He f**** every keyhole he can find and pays people to shut them up," the veteran actor added, telling Donald Jr.

"Your opinion is worthless." "Hes got to go. Hes gonna go," Baldwin concluded. As of press time, neither Donald Jr, nor any member of the Trump family has responded to Baldwin's tweet, though the president was aggressive in his thoughts about the actor during the election cycle due to his portrayal on "Saturday Night Live."

Baldwin's take

This isn't the first time that Alec Baldwin has been outspoken in opposition to Donald Trump.

In addition to playing a satirical version of the president on "Saturday Night Live," the actor has attended several anti-Trump rallies since the election of 2016, and has used Twitter on occasion to speak out. Baldwin is expected to return to "SNL" to reprise his role of the former host of "The Apprentice" at some point over the next few weeks.If you want to live with someone who is truly happy all the time, do not live with a woman. Such is the sage marriage advice Amadeo Fusca dispenses in his return to Newarks NJPAC this weekend (Feb. 17 and 18) for four performances of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from VenusLive! at Victoria Theater.

In an exclusive interview held in his dressing room after the Saturday matinee, he told Blasting News that the show has taken him to some 50 cities. Two years ago I had 18 days rehearsal and then I did my first performances right here at NJPAC on Valentine Days weekend.

Now Ive done the show more than 240 times. The show has taken him to all corners of the country. Ive been to Florida six times, Texas seven times.

Wait, Mars? Venus?

Author John Gray made a mint from a series of books on the Mars/Venus theme, offering relationship advice. The first, titled Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, sold 50 million copies and was translated into 50 languages. That was in the 1970s and 80s, so Grays advice now reads a bit dated. But the show effectively updates the books.

Amadeo Fusca uses his own name as the shows only character, married to Sarah. They have at least one child, five-year-old Dominick, and they all live together in Brooklyn five or six years into the marriage.

The actors hyperkinetic presence and physical comedy, complete with split-second changes between his persona and Sarahs, are alternately hilarious and sentimental.

Dating, marriage & bedroom secrets: Nothings off limits in Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus LIVE at #njpac! https://t.co/N9HbiDB3yc pic.twitter.com/Ij17yTynbK  njpac (@NJPAC) 12 February 2018

Born to act

I had the best parents for this.

My brothers and I grew up watching movies all the time. Amadeo Fusca is the youngest of three boys. We watched the Academy Awards together. It was what the family did. When I showed an interest in acting, my parents always pushed me along. It was never Why are you doing this? but, rather, Keep doing this; its so cool.

Role models

Whom does Amadeo Fusca admire?

He has his eye on fellow standup comedian Sebastian Maniscalco, whose physical stage activity he finds intriguing. What about stage or screen stars? According to him, Mark Rylance is, like, the greatest actor of all times. He was phenomenal in Jerusalem, as Rooster.

The 2009 Jez Butterworth play won Rylance Great Britains 2010 Laurence Olivier Award and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. I also admire Sterling K. Brown, who won this years Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Series.

Excited to be performing @MarsVenusLive @NJPAC this Saturday and Sunday February 17th and 18th for 4 Shows in the beautiful Victoria Theater pic.twitter.com/WJmQ7bRoKK  Amadeo Fusca (@apfusca) 12 February 2018

Comedy show producer

Wearing his third hat as standup comedian/actor/producer, Amadeo Fusca curates The Comedy Blender, a monthly program at Manhattans Triad Theater that gives him and some of top talent in comedy the chance to showcase their talent in a variety show format.

With all the distractions that go with producing, Fuscas says of his stage appearances in the show, Im always the worst part of that show. Thats also intended to suggest the level of talent on display.

Back to Mars

The format of Mars/Venus is more like scripted improv, says Amadeo Fusca. He brandishes a good singing voice, which he puts to use semi-seriously throughout. (It would be a pleasure to catch him in a musical.) By the show of hands, he discovers audience demographics: How many of you have been married five years? Ten to 20 years?

Twenty to 30? How do you still breathe? he quips.

I enjoy the audience interaction. The audience obviously enjoys it too. Women in the audience are the most raucous at laughter time, and they were the first on their feet to reward the actor with a standing ovation. Men tend to play it cooler, but exit chatter betrays equal enjoyment by both genders.

Up next?

After Sundays final two NJPAC performances, Amadeo Fusca takes the show to Delray Beach, Florida. Up ahead, the show will run six weeks in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, the next Comedy Blender presentation is Nov. 9. Something says he will continue honing both shows for quite some time.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from VenusLive!: Just two more performances at Victoria Theater, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street, Newark, New Jersey.Briana DeJesus has been dealing with a lot more than just recovering from surgery lately. The "Teen Mom 2" star has also been dealing with quite a bit of boyfriend drama. Considering she doesn't even have a man right now, it's easy to see why that could be aggravating.

Now, Briana is speaking out again about her Relationship Status and her dealings with ex-boyfriends Devoin and Dre. She also issued a warning for Javi, who can't seem to just walk away after breaking things off again after a nightmare trip to Miami.

Briana insists she's single again

This isn't the first time this week that Blasting News has heard from Briana DeJesus. Again, the "Teen Mom 2" star is trying to clear her name and insists that she is single and not hooking up with either of her ex-boyfriends.

That doesn't mean she isn't friendly with them. Right now, Devoin is actually living with Briana while she recovers so that he can help out with their daughter Nova. As far as Dre, she says they're just friends and nothing more. This is the same thing Briana said earlier this week after she was seen spending Valentine's Day with Dre. Apparently, the whole ordeal has caused quite a bit of drama with Javi and Briana just wants it all to stop.

"Im not dating anyone," Briana told Blasting News exclusively again "I dont owe anyone money. I paid off the dog. Dre is a friend. Devoin is here to finally be a father to Nova."

What's the deal with Javi?

So last month, Briana and Javi got a dog together. Since their split, there has been some contention about the adorable pup and who would pay for it.

That's right, Bri and Javi didn't actually pay cash for the English bulldog puppy named Bubba.

However, Briana made it clear that the dog is paid for and even provided us with receipts to prove that she and Javi have been arguing about it. Bri also threatened to share more of Javi's receipts if he doesn't just leave her alone.

"Javi needs to stop being bitter about the break up and about Devoin and about Dre," Briana said. "He texted me about why I got a teddy bear and why I got my nails done and why Devoin is living with me now. He needs to stop harassing me and go worry about the relationship between Kail and him. I dont want nothing to do with Javi. I am completely over it and ready to move the f**k on. If he continues to harass me I will leak all texts and info."

It looks like Briana DeJesus is ready to leak plenty of juicy info about Javi Marroquin if he keeps texting her now that they are broken up.

Just like she said, the two split and she is done. They don't have any kids together and the dog is paid for. The two should be able to part ways with a clean break and just move forward from here. Considering that they are both still filming "Teen Mom 2" though, that probably won't be the case. Either way, we'll be here with all of the tea on these MTV reality stars.The rumors are flying about next season of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta." Radar Online shared that it sounds like Kenya Moore could end up being replaced by kim zolciak-Biermann. The crazy thing is these two don't get along at all, so that would be like a pretty big slap in the face to Kenya.

Details emerge about this replacement

The fact that Kenya Moore went off and got married in secret upset Bravo. She could have done this just fine as long as she had taken the cameras along with her, but they didn't even know what was going on or get the chance to film any of it.

This could have been ratings gold for "RHOA," but they didn't even get it on film. Kenya actually blocked her new husband from filming totally.

Now it sounds like this could end up costing Kenya her job on the show and it could also end up with Kim Zolciak-Biermann coming back full-time again. Kim was actually back this last season, but only as a part-time member of the cast and not on each episode. If she was to replace Kenya, it would probably be in a full-time role. A source actually said, "Kenyas going to be replaced with Kim, who will most likely come back to the show as a full-time housewife and not just a friend."

Could Kim Zolciak-Biermann bring in the ratings?

Kim is known to bring drama to the show.

Her fans love her spin-off "Don't Be Tardy" and it doesn't look like that show is leaving. This last season Kim wasn't on all of it, but it was enough for her to bring in the drama. Kenya lashed out at her saying, "Why is Kim so obsessed with me and why is she so angry. If shes so happy with her 10 kids and her husband, why is she so focused on me?"

The viewers really do love Kim and when they have brought in new faces it just didn't work.

She has fans that will watch just for her and they also know she will bring in drama, which is great for ratings. The fans are just going to have to wait and see what Bravo decides to do, but it is pretty obvious that some kind of shakeup is coming and this could be exactly what they need. It is pretty normal for a housewife to change now and then, but this would be a bit different and you know that Kenya would not be happy about it.

Are you shocked by the rumors that Kenya Moore could end up being replaced by Kim Zolciak-Biermann? Do you feel like this would be a good way for the show to go? Sound off in the comments below on your thoughts, and don't miss new episodes of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" when it returns to Bravo for a new season.1 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Premier Oil in the last twelve months. There are currently 1 hold rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "hold" Premier Oil stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in PMO, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.

View analyst ratings for Premier Oil or view top-rated stocks.Iron Bridge Resources Inc. engages in the exploration, development, and production of natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids in Western Canada. It primarily operates in the Montney light oil fairway at Elmworth in West Central Alberta. As of December 31, 2017, its total proved plus probable reserves included 26.11 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company was formerly known as RMP Energy Inc. and changed its name to Iron Bridge Resources Inc. in November 2017. Iron Bridge Resources Inc. is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. As of October 5, 2018, Iron Bridge Resources Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Velvet Energy Ltd.

Read MoreSeadrill Ltd. engages in the provision of offshore drilling services to the oil and gas industry. It operates through the following segments: Floaters, Jack-up rigs, and Other. The Floaters segment encompasses drilling, completion, and maintenance of offshore exploration and production wells. the Jack-up Rigs segment includes drilling contracts relate to jack-up rigs for operations in harsh and benign environments in shallow water. The Other segment represents management services to third parties and related parties. The company was founded on May 10, 2005 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Prudential Financial: 210-220 E. 22nd Street SSGA Owner LLC, AIG Edison, AIG Star, AREF Cayman Co Ltd., AREF GP II Pte. Ltd., AREF GP Ltd., ASPF II - Feeder Fund GmbH, ASPF II - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, ASPF II Management GmbH, ASPF III (Scots) L.P., ASSURANCE, AST Investment Services Inc., Adlerwerke CB Investment LLC, Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Habitat S.A., Administradora de Inversiones Previsionales SpA, Aoba Life Insurance Company, Asia Property Fund III GP S.a.r.l., Assurance IQ LLC, Assurance Intelligence LLC, BSC CP LP, Braeloch Holdings Inc., Braeloch Successor Corporation, Brazilian Capital Fund GP Limited, Broad Street Global Advisors LLC, Broome Street Holdings LLC, CB German Retail LLC, CLIS Co. Ltd., COLICO INC., Campus Drive LLC, Capital Agricultural Property Services Inc., Chadwick Boulevard Investment Holdings Co. LLC, Cibecue LLC, Coconino LLC, Colico II Inc., Columbus Drive Partners L.P., Commerce Street Holdings LLC, Commerce Street Investments LLC, Coolidge LLC, Coral Reef GP, Coral Reef L.P., Coral Reef Unit Trust, Cottage Street Investments LLC, Cottage Street Orbit Acquisition LLC, DHFL PRAMERICA LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY LIMITED, DICKENS AVENUE HOLDINGS VI LLC, DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (Ireland) L.P., DICKENS AVENUE PARTNERS VI (US) L.P., Don Cesar Investor LLC, Dryden Arizona Reinsurance Term Company, Dryden Finance II LLC, EVP II GP S.a r.l., EVP II Sweden Resi I GP S.a r.l., Edison Place Senior Note LLC, Essex LLC, EuroCore GP S.a r.l., European Value Partners GP S.a.r.l., Everbright PGIM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Flagstaff LLC, GA 1600 Commons LLC, GA 333 Hennepin Investor LLC, GA BV LLC, GA Bay Area GP LLC, GA Bay Area Investor LLC, GA Belden LLC, GA CLARENDON LLC, GA Cal Crossings LLC, GA Collins LLC, GA E. 22nd Street Apartments Holdings LLC, GA East 86 Street LLC, GA JHCII LLC, GA MENLO PARK INVESTOR LLC, GA Manor at Harbour Island LLC, GA Metro LLC, GA Mission LLC, GA TRITON INVESTOR LLC, GA W Paces LLC, GA/MDI 333 Hennepin Associates LLC, GIBRALTAR BSN HOLDINGS SDN BHD, GIBRALTAR INDIA SOLUTIONS LLP, Gateway Holdings II LLC, Gateway Holdings LLC, German Retail Income CP LP, Gibraltar BSN Life Berhad, Gibraltar International Insurance Services Company Inc., Gibraltar International Service LLC, Gibraltar Reinsurance Company Ltd., Gibraltar Universal Life Reinsurance Company, Glenealy International Limited, Global Portfolio Strategies Inc., Gold GP Limited, Gold II L.P., Gold L.P., Graham Resources Inc., Graham Royalty Ltd., Green Tree GP, Green Tree L.P., Greenlee LLC, Halsey Street Investments LLC, Hirakata LLC, IVP Fund GP LLC, Impact Investments Bridges UK S.a.r.l, Inter-Atlantic G Fund L.P., Inversiones Previsionales Chile SpA, Inversiones Previsionales Dos SpA, Ironbound Fund LLC, Jennison Associates LLC, Kyarra S.a r.l., Kyoei Annuity Home Co. 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Ltd., PGIM Agricultural Investments GP LLC, PGIM Agricultural Investors LP, PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Fund L.P., PGIM Broad Market High Yield Bond Partners LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management (Feeder) VI LLC, PGIM Capital Partners Management Fund VI L.P., PGIM European Financing Limited, PGIM European Services Limited, PGIM Financial Limited, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund II L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives Fund L.P., PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives GP LLC, PGIM Fixed Income Alternatives II GP LLC, PGIM Foreign Investments Inc., PGIM Holding Company LLC, PGIM INDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM INDIA TRUSTEES PRIVATE LIMITED, PGIM Inc., PGIM International Financing Inc., PGIM Investments LLC, PGIM Japan Co. 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Ltd., Prudential Trust Company, Prudential Universal Reinsurance Company, Prudential Workplace Solutions Group Services LLC, Prudential do Brasil Seguros de Vida S.A., Prudential do Brasil Vida em Grupo S.A., Prudential/TMW Real Estate Group LLC, Pruservicos Participacoes Ltda., QMA JP EM All Cap Equity Partners LLC, QMA LLC, QMA Wadhwani LLP, Quartzsite LLC, Residential Services Corporation of America LLC, Rio CP LP, Rock European Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock Global Real Estate LLC, Rock Kensington Limited, Rock Marty GP S.a r.l., Rock Oxford S.a r.l., Rock UK Real Estate Holdings S.ar.l., Rock UK Real Estate II S.a.r.l., Rockstone Co. Ltd., Rosado Grande LLC, Ross Avenue Energy Fund Holdings LLC, Ross Avenue Minerals 2012 LLC, SCP Apartments LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERS VI GP LLC, SENIOR HOUSING PARTNERSHIP FUND VI GP LLC, SHP IV Carried Interest LP, SHP V Carried Interest L.P., SMP Holdings Inc., SVIIT Holdings Inc., Sanei Collection Service Co. Ltd. (Kabushiki Kaisha Sanei Shuuno Service), Senior Housing Partners IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partners V LLC, Senior Housing Partnership Fund IV L.L.C., Senior Housing Partnership Fund V LLC, Sterling Private Placement Management LLP, Stetson Street Partners L.P., Strand Investments Limited, TBG Insurance Services Corporation, TENSATOR HOLDINGS LTD, TF Proveedora S.C., TMW ASPF I Verwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, TMW ASPF Management GmbH, TMW Management LLC, TMW Real Estate Group LLC, TMW Realty Advisors LLC, TMW USPF Verwaltungs GmbH, TRGOAG Company Inc., The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy (US) Fund GP LLC, The Prudential Assigned Settlement Services Corp., The Prudential Brazilian Capital Fund LP, The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd., The Prudential Home Mortgage Company Inc., The Prudential Insurance Company of America, The Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd., The Prudential Real Estate Financial Services of America Inc., The WMF Group, Thurloe Commercial Guernsey Limited, Times Square Center Associates, USPF V - Verwaltungs - GmbH & Co. KG, USPF V Carry LLC, USPF V Co-Invest LLC, USPF V Investment LP, United States Property Fund VI GP S.a r.l., Vailsburg Fund LLC, Vantage Casualty Insurance Company, Wabash Avenue Holdings V LLC, Wabash Avenue Partners V L.P., Wadhwani Capital Limited, Waveland Avenue Holdings I LLC, Waveland Avenue Partners I (Ireland) L.P., Waveland Avenue Partners I (US) L.P., Wellness Services Ecossistema De Bem Estar Ltda., Wellness Services SRL, Yamato Life, and Yavapai LLC.Image of Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, now hangs in Fire & Rescue stationsSam Scotts refractions of Georgia OKeeffes landscapes sparkle across his watercolors like tiny windows.

Two cases of these 7- by 10-inch compositional jewels bisect the main gallery of the Georgia OKeeffe Museum, surrounded by and resonating with OKeeffes larger New Mexico landscapes across the walls. Sam Scott: Journey to Center will hang through March 26.

The museum occasionally invites artists to exhibit projects amid OKeeffes iconic masterpieces. The resulting aesthetic dialogue is in part a solution to visitor complaints about past exhibits that once cleared the galleries of its namesakes work to make room for more contemporary artists. Scott is a Santa Fe painter known internationally for his monumental abstract oil paintings collected in the U.S. and Europe. Both the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Center for Contemporary Art have exhibited his work. Inspired by the same high desert terrain that captivated OKeeffe, Scott created the sequence in vibrant hues reverberating with her passion and energy, as well as his own.

He felt a kinship to OKeeffe and the land, museum curator Carolyn Kastner said. He thinks about it as a gift; that they came to him.

His yellow is all his own. I just love how his primary colors pop out.

Scott was relaxing in Ojo Caliente when inspiration struck. The results came as little rhapsodies in facets of yellow, blue and red.

Once in a while, grace steps in, he said.

I could speak at once to the land, to time, to the sky, to the light to the journey from youth to old age, from heaven and earth  frost, dew, wind and the vast space and the beautiful light of our land in northern New Mexico, he said.

As he put brush to paper, he never thought consciously of creating an homage to OKeeffe, Scott said. But pairing his work with hers reveals otherwise.

It was kind of serendipity that with the sightlines when you look up at the wall, there are a lot of correspondences, he said. There are two different similarities across time.

He turns to watercolor for its transparency.

Its like cloisssone enamel  jewels filled with light, he said. They seem like a string quartet against the oils, which I think are more symphonic.

Like many New Mexico artists, Scott acknowledged OKeeffes influence, as well as that of the Taos painters and the modernist Marsden Hartley in his painting.

He has donated all 20 works to the museum.

I just couldnt bring myself to think of these as commercial, although with the OKeeffe provenance it is a sure sale, he said.

He always downsizes his watercolors.

My standard operating procedure for watercolor is 7-by-10, he said. I can carry my studio in my pants. I work in plein air (outdoors). In fact, my entire reputation in France is based on my watercolors.

I think of them as big little paintings; they have a lot of punch.Ivan Salazar knew his role in Stomp would be physical.

Its part of the reason he wanted to be part of the ensemble.

Each show is filled with a combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy, all by using items such as trash cans and push brooms.

The show was created in Brighton, England, in 1991. It is the result of a 10-year collaboration between its creators, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas.

In 1991, Cresswell and McNicholas previewed the show at Londons Bloomsbury Theatre and presented the premiere at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh. From 1991 to 1994, the original cast played to capacity audiences around the world, from Hong Kong to Barcelona, from Dublin to Sydney.

The touring culminated in a sellout season at Londons Sadlers Wells Theatre.

In the summer of 95, two more American productions were created for the sole purpose of U.S. touring, which continues to this day. U.S. casts have also performed Stomp in Chile, Brazil and Korea.

Since then, Stomp has been performed in more than 350 cities and 36 countries.

Salazar has been on tour for the past seven months.

Being a newer cast member, hes been learning the ropes.

Its always really fun to have a new group of people to perform with, he says. Whats great about this show is that if you watched two shows back to back, each would be different. Were allowed to do solos, and were allowed to dress how we want within the culture of the show. Were allowed to make personality choices. We feed off of each other.

Salazar is from Tecate, Mexico, and hes always had a passion for movement and music.

He joined Chris Rubios percussion movement group and has performed throughout Southern California, from street corners to stadiums.

I didnt grow up with a theater background, he says. Im mainly just a drummer. Its really great to capture the audiences imagination.

After months of performing, Salazar says he has a favorite number.

Its the broom number at the beginning, he says. That number is enjoyable to me. We do a lot of stuff with shopping carts and plumbing materials. Its challenging, and thats what I enjoy most about it.A year ago local paper artist Vicki Bolen decided to try an experiment  recruit the public to help her make enough ceramic dishware to raise money for charity.

Twelve months, 100 people and more than 600 bowls and plates later, Bolen has what she hopes are the makings of a successful fundraiser. There are blue ones, black ones, red ones, yellow ones, multi-colored and many other color dishes and they will all be for sale early next month.

Bolen came up with her idea early last year and put out the call for participants. She held the first bowl-making session in March 2017. The sessions were held in Bolens Little Bird de Papel studio, a small, pale blue, rectangular building with an iron screen door along Mountain Road not far from Rio Grande Boulevard.

The Soup Is Love Project will culminate March 2-4 with the sale of the kitchenware made by the community. Bolen said anyone who spends $20 or more will get a bowl of soup. The event will take place at Bolens studio from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with Kosmos Restaurant providing the soup.

The money raised will be donated to OFFCenter Community Arts Project, an organization that provides an open studio for anyone in the community to come and create art.

Bolen is a native of California and came to New Mexico from Texas in 2002. She was once an executive with Cost Plus World Market but became a full-time artist upon moving to the Land of Enchantment. She now travels the country with her husband attending art shows to sell her work.

To recruit people for her project, Bolen created a group on a social media platform called MeetUp, which allows people to plan events around a common interest. The public responded. She said the sessions, which were held one weekend a month, attracted up to 12 participants sometimes. Participants ranged from novices to professional artists.

Bolen provided the clay, other supplies and technical assistance. She asked participants for a $5 donation to cover supplies but it was not required. A friend of Bolens donated the use of her kiln to fire the pottery.

The OFFCenter studio is located on Park Avenue SW in Downtown Albuquerque. The centers executive director, Bob Allen, said the organization was founded 20 years ago to provide a therapeutic outlet for anyone, regardless of income or artistic experience.

The basics, what we need are food and water, and shelter helps as well, he said. But people also need a way to express themselves in a way that is creative.

The center gets approximately 45 to 60 people a day, many of them homeless or those who have no experience as an artist. The center provides not only art supplies, but free workshops in card making, writing, painting, drawing, guitar, ukulele, and knitting and crocheting circles.

Anyone can hang their art in the centers gallery and there are monthly shows featuring works by the centers patrons and local artists.

The diversity of the people here is incredible, Allen said. Here its all about offering opportunities and making art available to everyone.

If you go

WHAT: Soup Is Love Project

WHEN: 4-7 p.m. Friday, March 2; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, March 3-4

WHERE: Little Bird de Papel studio, 1222 Mountain NWWASHINGTON  Mitt Romneys extensive resume has many Republicans looking to him to take on a role in the Senate as a political and moral counterweight to a president many in the GOP see as divisive and undignified.

First he has to get elected.

The 2012 GOP nominee for president announced Friday he is running for the Utah Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Romney, 70, is among the best-known names in U.S. politics. He has been a successful businessman, governor of heavily Democratic Massachusetts, Olympics rescuer and, more recently, one of his partys fiercest critics of President Donald Trump.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who often has taken on Trump, was quick to welcome Romney, his rival in the 2008 White House race.

In a tweet Friday shortly after Romney announced his Senate bid, McCain said Romney has shown the country what it means to lead with honor, integrity and civility. The people of #Utah and the nation need his strong voice, resolve and service now more than ever.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said Romney would bring the prestige of his previous roles to the Senate.

I think he will be a plus-plus in the Senate, Shelby said, calling Romney a thoughtful man and a leader who at 70 is senior enough to be an elder statesman.

Shelby, 83, has had his differences with Trump. He publicly opposed a GOP nominee backed by Trump in Alabamas closely watched Senate race last year, declaring before the election that the state of Alabama deserves better than Roy Moore, a former judge accused of sexual contact with teenage girls decades ago.

Romney has the stature to make similar declarations when  or if  they are needed, Shelby said. I know the governor and I think he would support good ideas, Shelby said.

Romney, a heavy favorite to win the Senate seat, will step in immediately as a leader in the Senate, said Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, who got to know Romney when both served as governors and when he co-chaired Romneys presidential campaigns in Idaho.

He has broad experience, he has the prestige. Hell jump right in, Risch said.

Those expectations are based largely on Romneys record, rather than recent accomplishments. Romney has not served in elected office in more than a decade and lost bids for president in 2008 and 2012.

Trump has seized on Romneys failed presidential bids, saying in 2016 that Romney choked like a dog.

Its not clear how Romney will relate to the president as a candidate or as a senator, should he win. While he denounced Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, Romney softened his stance after the election and put himself forward as a candidate for secretary of state before Trump looked elsewhere.

Since then, Romney has spoken up from afar. He called out Trump after a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, and lashed out again last month when Trump used an obscenity to describe African countries during a White House meeting on immigration.

The poverty of an aspiring immigrants nation of origin is as irrelevant as their race, Romney tweeted, adding that comments attributed to the president were inconsistent with Americas history and antithetical to American values.

Despite those criticisms, Democrats say Romney and Trump are not all that different.

While Mitt Romney desperately wants to separate himself from the extremism of the current administration, the basic policies of Trumps GOP were his before they were Donald Trumps, said DNC spokesman Vedant Patel, citing the recently enacted GOP tax cuts and efforts to repeal former President Barack Obamas health care law.

Patel called Romney another multimillionaire looking out for himself, his rich neighbors and the special interests.

If he does go after Trump, Romney will find himself among a dwindling breed in Congress. McCain, who is suffering from brain cancer, has not appeared in the Senate since before Christmas, while fellow Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake is retiring at the end of the year. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., also has had public disputes with Trump, but has not criticized Trump in months and is reportedly reconsidering plans to retire.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Romneys 2012 running mate, said Romneys unparalleled experience, conservative leadership and lifetime of service will serve him and Utah well in the Senate.

Romney has my unwavering support, and the people of Utah will be getting an accomplished and decent man when they make him their next senator, Ryan said.

Kirk Jowers, the former chairman and general counsel of Romneys leadership PACs, said Romney will always be a straight shooter and will support the president when he takes actions that are good for America.

If President Trump says or does something that he finds offensive or divisive, unnecessarily divisive, then I think you will continue to hear Romney as the voice of reason and conscience in the Republican Party, Jowers said.

___

Follow Matthew Daly: http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDCA serial survivor of scandals, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be in trouble once more after police recommended a range of bribery and other charges against him in two separate investigations. Yet the law doesnt require him to step down until convicted, the process could drag on for months, and the determined, loquacious leader is digging in his heels.

For now, his coalition is lining up behind him, but public opinion could change that. If his Likud Party concludes he has become a liability, minnows could quickly turn into sharks and the party could replace him and retain power with the existing coalition.

Police say there is sufficient evidence to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, accusations he rejects.

Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit, a Netanyahu ally, now must decide whether to adopt any of the police recommendations to prosecute. If Mandelblit drags his feet long enough, Netanyahu may even be able to call a new election before he faces trial. Indeed, he said this week he will run again in elections that must be held by the end of 2019.

Opinion polls published after Tuesdays police report showed contradictory and perhaps fluid sentiment: Roughly half of Israelis think Netanyahu should resign, but Likud in general maintains its lead.

If he survives, he could well emerge even more powerful, perhaps vindicated in his longstanding claim that Israels establishment obsessively conspires against him.

But if he goes, the Middle East equation will be reshuffled and new possibilities would open up.

Netanyahu, who will soon become the longest-serving prime minister in total in Israels history, has been a singular figure in a variety of ways. Perhaps more than anything, he attaches to a fatalistic disposition that sees peace with the Palestinians as impossible for now. Barring a late about-face, he would be remembered as the silver-tongued hard-liner who never made the shift to peacemaker that many hoped for.

WHAT MAKES NETANYAHU SPECIAL?

Central to everything in Israel is the fate of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories captured in 1967 from Jordan and Egypt and claimed, with support of most of the world, by the Palestinians for a future state that would share the Holy Land with Israel.

Most of Israels establishment supports such a partition, including former security figures who spent their lives keeping Palestinian resistance at bay. Israels business community, academics, artists and judiciary generally seem to lean the same way.

Netanyahus right-wing bloc has tried to prevent or at least delay and diminish any pullout from the territories, throughout the decades of efforts by various governments in that direction. The arguments range from religious ones involving Gods promise of the land to the Jews to practical concerns about the danger of handing over strategic highland overlooking central Israel, especially at a time when the Middle East is so unstable.

But the right has struggled to articulate a vision on how to preserve the Jewish state when the combined Arab and Jewish populations in Israel and the territories are about evenly divided.

Will the Palestinians suffice forever with their disconnected autonomy zones established after peace efforts in the 1990s? If they demand outright annexation and the right to vote, as some Palestinian officials already are suggesting, Israel will be forced to choose between preserving its democracy or its Jewish majority.

Amid the stagnation, the government continues to add Jewish settlers to the West Bank, making a future partition even more difficult in what the center-left opposition considers nothing less than a suicide mission.

Netanyahus ability to keep this policy ship afloat despite vehement opposition in key quarters, while also enabling Israel to prosper, has required intellectual depth, diplomatic dexterity and political acumen that would be hard to replace among his potential Likud successors. He has used his eloquence and native-level English  acquired during years in the U.S.  to further a host of international projects, most prominently trying to undo the nuclear deal with Iran.

Widely respected if not always admired, popular with his base yet toxic to opponents, Netanyahu has gripped attention like few Israeli leaders before him. Adding to the brew are the bizarre scandals that have beset his family, from household servants suing his wife for various abuses over the years to a lewd recording that emerged last month of his adult son joyriding to strip clubs with a government driver in tow.

WHAT IS THE POLITICAL REALITY IN ISRAEL?

Israel is bewilderingly fractious and complex, but essentially its divided between a rightist bloc composed of Netanyahus Likud, plus other nationalist and religious parties, versus a leftist bloc of more moderate parties plus a grouping representing the Arab minority of some 20 percent.

The right has in recent years appeared to build up a narrow but consistent natural advantage based on two factors. First, the Jewish religious sector, also totaling about 20 percent, has a high birthrate; second, Netanyahu has been effective in arguing that previous governments failures to close a deal despite far-reaching territorial offers has exposed the Palestinians as irredeemably hostile and intransigent.

In recent years, Netanyahu also has promoted an agenda seeking to overhaul Israels hard-earned but brittle liberal democracy. To some, he is a member of the emerging pantheon of illiberal-yet-elected global leaders, finding parallels from Russia to Turkey to Hungary and even Donald Trumps United States. In some ways, having for decades made a bogeyman of the elites, he preceded all those cases.

His cronies have tried to curb the judiciary; hamper the work of liberal nongovernmental organizations; denigrate the media; and argue that the arts, when critical, are tools of turncoat liberals.

These messages resonate with his base, especially the significant chunk of Middle East-descended Jews. They lean conservative and traditional and have long resented Israels founding European-descended and more secular establishment.

The irony is that Netanyahu is himself a European-descended professors son who grew up amid privilege, served in an elite military unit, wrote books and has always promoted capitalistic policies that spurred growth but also benefited the rich.

If Netanyahu goes, he will leave his successor a toxic cocktail of resentment and division, not just between Jews and Arabs, but among the competing groups that constitute Israels Jewish majority.

The highly partisan, good-versus-evil rancor was clear in the reactions this week. Likud lawmaker Miki Zohar said the public knows that this is an attempted coup. Yair Lapid, head of the opposition Yesh Atid Party, accused Netanyahu of seeking to make Israel a country where honest people are scared of speaking the truth.

WHAT COULD HAPPEN IN THE REGION?

A decade ago, when Netanyahu led the opposition, he argued that then-premier Ehud Olmert could not stay in office while facing a police investigation, claiming a leader sunk up to his neck in interrogations could not govern properly. Olmert stepped down under withering pressure, cutting off peace talks that seemed close to a breakthrough for the Palestinians. He ended up in jail.

After Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria last weekend in response to an aerial incursion by an Iranian drone, some opponents speculated that Netanyahu might try to heat up the security situation as a diversion.

But things could break the other way as well. About 15 years ago, Israel was led by another right-winger, Ariel Sharon, also facing corruption allegations. Sharon stunned observers by turning against the occupation of the Palestinians and leading a unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip. Many people believe the move, welcomed by the same elites who once spurned Sharon, contributed to the decision not to prosecute him.

Todays wild card could be the deal of the century touted by Trump, who is believed to be working on a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and forge a wider regional rapprochement between Israel and the major Sunni Muslim nations. Cynics would say progress along such a path, with Netanyahu taking genuine risks for peace, could give prosecutors pause.

___

Follow Dan Perry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/perry_dan .SAN DIEGO  Several Camp Pendleton-based Marines have been found guilty in recent weeks of crimes including rape and child pornography, with other similar cases still pending in the military criminal justice system, records show.

The cases are coming to light after a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the San Diego Union-Tribune over the past four months. Documents released by the Marines revealed that some of the most serious cases were tied to senior leaders like former Chief Warrant Officer E. DeLeon Jr.

At a Camp Pendleton court-martial last month, a military judge convicted DeLeon of possessing and distributing child pornography. The judge sentenced him to seven years behind bars, but a pretrial agreement capped his imprisonment at five years.

Highly redacted records trace DeLeons crimes back to Nov. 26, 2016, at Camp Pendleton, when he distributed a digital image of a child engaging in sex. Three days earlier, he had communicated to an unidentified person his desire to molest a little girl, an act he thought sounds amazing, according to his records.

Camp Pendleton Lance Cpl. M.F. Currington was found guilty of abusing anabolic steroids and sexually abusing a child. He was sentenced to three years in prison. Curringtons charges stemmed from a late 2016 investigation into steroid and drug paraphernalia possession, according to records.

Another Camp Pendleton Marine, Lance Cpl. B.J. Morton, also was convicted last month of possessing and distributing child pornography. He was demoted to private and given a bad conduct discharge.

He was jailed Aug. 14 after investigators accused him of possessing three videos and other sexually explicit images of children, according to his records.

Several cases involve Marines accused of sneaking into other service members rooms to assault or grope them.

For example, Lance Cpl. J.P. Hill was convicted last month of sexual assault causing harm, abusive sexual contact and making an indecent recording. He crept into the room of a fellow Marine at night to assault her and photographed her when she was naked, according to records.

He was sentenced to two years in prison, demoted to private and given a dishonorable discharge.

L.M. Schmidt, a Marine assigned to Yuma, Arizona, was charged Aug. 17 with entering an unnamed service members barracks to touch the persons hips to gratify his sexual desires, according to the court records.

Another Yuma Marine, Sgt. C.S. Panatta, is accused of raping a child under 12 there in 2016. Commanders also filed two charges tied to alleged lewd incidents involving another child under 16 around the same time.

He faces a third set of charges linked to child abuse that allegedly occurred in 2014 and 2015 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, in San Bernardino County. Hes accused of beating a child with a fly swatter, punching a childs face, slamming a child in the head with a door and attempting to suffocate a child with a pillow, according to records released to the Union-Tribune.

Panatta has been in pretrial confinement for a year.

Another Marine assigned to an aviation unit, P. Wiredu of Miramars Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 3, was charged in 2015 with committing three 2013 rapes in or near San Diego, according to heavily redacted records released to the Union-Tribune.

Marine officials declined to comment.State lawmakers across the country are weighing a host of bills aimed at preserving drivers licenses and other benefits for undocumented immigrants who may lose the protected status long afforded them by the federal government.

Immigrants from Central America, Haiti and Sudan will see their temporary protected status expire over the next 18 months, while the fate of 690,000 participants in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program remains deeply uncertain after bills to protect dreamers failed in Congress this week.

Participants in either DACA or TPS generally qualified for drivers licenses and in-state college tuition even in states where those privileges are otherwise unavailable to undocumented immigrants. Now, with the programs in jeopardy, lawmakers in about a dozen states are arguing that those immigrants should not be pushed into a shadow economy after living in the United States for decades.

Because of the change in national rhetoric, its going to be a really interesting year at the state level, in terms of how states are going to portray themselves as welcoming or not welcoming to certain immigrant populations, said Ann Morse, who oversees an immigration project at the National Conference of State Legislatures. There is a real public debate going on that is just getting started.

Some jurisdictions, including Maryland and the District of Columbia, already provide drivers licenses and in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants who dont have federal protections but are longtime residents.

In other states, the attempted local fixes to President Donald Trumps hardened immigration policies vary in ambition. Some stand little chance of passing in Republican-controlled legislatures, while others are driven by Democrats who are in the majority in their statehouses and are seeking to create safe havens.

In Iowa, Democrats are pushing a Dream Act that would allow in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants, similar to laws that already exist in Maryland, California and Illinois.

In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, issued an executive order last month preserving drivers licenses for DACA recipients whose protections expire, while legislation in the state Assembly seeks to keep driving privileges and state-funded Medicaid benefits for immigrants from Central America, Haiti and Sudan who had been granted TPS.

Marylands General Assembly is considering a bill that would make it easier for people who benefited from DACA or TPS but havent lived in the state long to take advantage of the states Dream Act.

Democrats in Virginia introduced three bills seeking to preserve drivers licenses and in-state tuition for those populations, though Republicans in control of the General Assembly did not let the bills out of committee.

We want productive people who are putting forward benefits to the Commonwealth, said Del. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, who sponsored an in-state tuition bill aimed at DACA recipients and argued the bills will help Virginia businesses fill jobs. This legislation would just make it better for everybody.

Immigrant advocates say the White Houses tougher stance on immigration has sown fear across the country, even as recent federal court rulings have forced the federal government to continue renewing DACA work authorizations. With proposals to legalize dreamers failing in Congress on Thursday, state officials and advocates are bracing for a surge of immigrants vulnerable to deportation in their midst.

In California, which last fall passed a law to become a sanctuary state, officials are allocating portions of $45 million in annual immigration-related funding for legal assistance to people fighting to remain the country and to help DACA recipients apply to renew their status.

The vision thats been pursued in California is one of inclusivity, where were making sure that immigrants remain part of our state and are eligible to work here and contribute, said Layla Razavi, policy director at the California Immigrant Policy Center.

Alexandria, Virginia, resident Manuel Lopez and his daughter Xiomara Lopez, 23, have been nervously tracking the federal debate and efforts in Virginia to preserve their state-issued drivers licenses if they lose their protections from deportation.

The father has had TPS since 2001, when a 7.6 magnitude earthquake ripped through El Salvador, killing nearly 1,000 people.

His daughter, who joined him in the United States later, successfully applied for DACA in 2012.

Both work at a supermarket and see the potential loss of their drivers licenses as an obstacle to keeping their jobs.

This is having a huge impact on our family, Manuel Lopez said. The anxiety has kept me from sleeping at night.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that although such cases can garner sympathy, any immigrants who have not been granted legal permanent residency by the federal government should know that their standing in the United States is tenuous.

If a persons immigration status changes, Camarota said, state governments should not be subverting federal law.

Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the Legal Aid Justice Centers Immigrant Advocacy Program in Virginia, said its unrealistic to think that several hundred thousand immigrants whove come to consider themselves American will pick up and leave once their status changes. If theyve been contributing members of society, he said, state lawmakers should help them hold on to their jobs or continue attending college.

Its not like theyre losing their legal status because they committed crimes, Sandoval-Moshenberg said.

Luis Andrade, who is also from El Salvador, says he is unsure what hell do when the temporary legal status hes renewed repeatedly since 2001 expires in September of next year. He expects he would have to shut down the food-truck business he owns in Woodbridge, Virginia, if he loses his drivers license and a federal work permit that is tied to his legal status.

Andrade, 43, used to work in construction and was proud to help rebuild the Pentagon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

We were there at 4 a.m. the next day looking for people who were trapped, he recalled.

He saved enough to set up his food business, which sells Mexican and Central American food to office workers out of three trucks in Woodbridge.

These days, he said, his mind is mostly on his two sons, ages 5 and 10.

They ask me: Papi, are you going to leave? Will you take us? Weve never been to El Salvador,' he said. I tell them: We have to wait and see.'If youre at all tempted to wade into the world of cryptocurrency investing, the New Mexico Securities Division has some words of warning.

Cryptocurrencies and investments tied to them are high-risk products with an unproven track record and high price volatility, Mike Unthank, superintendent of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, said in a recent advisory. Combined with a high risk of fraud, investing in cryptocurrencies is not for the faint of heart.

The value of bitcoin jumped last year from below $1,000 to almost $20,000 in December before falling back to around $9,000 currently.

Cryptocurrencies are a medium of exchange created and stored electronically in blockchain, a distributed public database that keeps a permanent record of digital transactions.

They arent insured or controlled by a central bank or other government entity, cant always be exchanged for other commodities and are subject to little or no regulation, the advisory said.

Common varieties are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. The currencies, unlike traditional money, have no physical form and are not backed by tangible assets.

A survey of state regulators, conducted by their professional association, showed that 94 percent believe there is a high risk of fraud connected to cryptocurrencies. The survey drew unanimous agreement that more regulation is needed to protect investors.

Here are some red flags when it comes to investment fraud, according to the states Securities Division:

 There is no such thing as guaranteed investment returns, and there is no guarantee that the cryptocurrency will increase in value. Be wary of anyone who promises a high rate of return with little or no risk.

 An unsolicited sales pitch can be the sign of a fraudulent investment. Cryptocurrency investment opportunities are promoted aggressively through social media. Be wary of an unsolicited communication about an investment you didnt ask for and thats from a sender you dont know.

 The old standby advice when it comes to scam prevention: If the project sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Watch out for exaggerated claims about the investments future success.

 Look for pressure to act immediately. In particular, beware if someone pushes you to get in on the ground floor of a new tech trend. Instead, take your time about researching any investment opportunity.

 Watch for unlicensed sellers or unregistered firms. The Securities Division can help investors research the background of those selling or advising the purchase of an investment. Call 1-800-704-5533 or go to redflagsnm.com.

  

If youre hiring an accountant or tax professional to prepare your returns, you can verify whether they are properly licensed by the state by going to the state Regulation and Licensing website at rld.state.nm.us.

Professionals must provide their Preparers Tax Identification Number upon request, said Attorney General Hector Balderas.

Always make sure the preparer signs the return upon completion; it should never say self-prepared, and consumers should never sign a blank return, Balderas said in a news release.

Also know that an accountant or tax professional is not permitted to deduct fees from your refund or otherwise reduce what the IRS owes you for their own benefit, he said.

If you hire someone to prepare your taxes, ask questions because reputable tax preparers will be happy to answer them and will work to get you the refund you are owed, Balderas said in the release.

Other things to keep in mind this tax season:

 Do not allow your refund to be deposited in someone elses bank account, no matter what the purported reason.

 A reputable tax professional or preparer should never quote a specific refund or generally promise a high amount of money without carefully reviewing the previous years tax return and the current household financial picture.

Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-255-9210.PARKLAND, Fla.The carnage at Stoneman Douglas High School shared all of the horror of Americas worst mass shootings.

But one scene was unusual  the shooter Nikolas Cruz being led away alive in handcuffs.

Of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern history, 19-year-old Cruz is the only shooter to survive. Gunmen in Orlando, Virginia Tech, Las Vegas and Sandy Hook either killed themselves or were shot dead by police.

Philip Lazarus, director of Florida International Universitys school psychology program, said being able to interview a mass murderer can provide useful information. He once asked an Alabama teenager whose rampage was curtailed only by a jammed gun to rate his level of depression before the shooting.

He said, I had no feeling. I was like a robot. I was numb. There was no feeling going on, so I cant give you an honest answer to that,' Lazarus recalled.

Lazarus said the interview gave him a better understanding of the despair many school shooters feel.

But often those interviews just produce more questions than answers, said Scott Poland, a professor of psychology at Nova Southeastern University who has led crisis teams that responded to school shootings.

Many of them could never really give much information that could help people understand, he said. The search for answers from the shooters themselves has really been quite frustrating.

Research has shown that almost all mass shooters are suicidal, said Adam Lankford, a criminology professor at the University of Alabama who has written extensively on the subject.

A lot of offenders who actually survived wanted to or expected to die, he said.

Officials placed Cruz on suicide watch after he was arrested about a mile from the school. The shooter fired more than 100 rounds in a roughly three-minute span, killing 17 and wounding 15 others.

A timeline compiled by the Broward Sheriffs Office shows about an hour and 20 minutes passed between when the first shot was fired and Cruz was arrested.

After the shooting, the gunman left with students fleeing the school and purchased a drink at a Subway inside a nearby Wal-Mmart. Then he stopped at a McDonalds and sat there for a while. He left the fast-food restaurant and was arrested by police.

Lankford examined 185 mass shooters from 1966 to 2010. About half died in their attacks. Shooters are more likely to either kill themselves or be shot by police when their death count was higher, he said.

Of those who died, 80 percent killed themselves and the remaining 20 percent were shot and killed by police, according to Lankfords study. Researchers note that while mass shooters typically have suicidal thoughts, most people who are suicidal are not violent.

When a shooter survives, it means court proceedings and more publicity for the gunman.

Experts say that can prolong grieving and make healing harder. But for some people, they might find relief in being able to express their pain to the gunman

When the attacker dies, especially if we know hes suicidal, he is in some sense getting away with it, Lankford said. Hes getting what he wanted.

Cruzs lawyers say they will offer a guilty plea in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said, Its in nobodys best interest to go through a circus of a trial.

Perhaps, what would help grieving families the most is some kind of meaningful change that would prevent future tragedies, Lazarus said. It would help them to know their loved one didnt die in vain.

That would be more important than knowing the exact mental condition of the perpetrator, Lazarus said.CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that Justin Quintana was determined to be not guilty by reason of insanity.

A man will be set free Sunday from a state hospital more than 10 years after he was charged with gunning down his mother, a New Mexico State Police officer, in Las Cruces.

Justin Quintana was sent to the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M., found incompetent to stand trial after the December 2007 slaying of his mother, 43-year-old Susan Kuchma, who had been with New Mexico State Police for five years.

I cant say without any certainty that an individual like this  able to pull the trigger and kill a State Police officer, which is his own mother  wont murder again, State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said.

On Friday, a judge and two prosecutors with the 3rd Judicial District Attorneys Office accepted an August 2017 plea agreement, determining that Quintana was not guilty by reason of insanity. Quintana never went to trial.

Beforehand, the New Mexico Department of Health had asked the state Supreme Court to overturn Quintanas long-term commitment to NMBHI and, on Jan. 8, the Supreme Court granted that request.

With this case, the Supreme Court ruled the defendant was placed at our facility in a way that did not adhere to the rule of law, NMDOH spokesman Paul Rhien said. We cannot hold an individual without lawful authority.

Attorney General Hector Balderas office drafted a letter last week to Lynn Gallagher, secretary of the NMDOH, that said the order of acquittal prohibits any state prosecuting authority, including the AGs Office, from pursuing further criminal action.

This case should be in the hands of a judge and a jury and we will never see that, Kassetas said.

The letter asks the NMDOH to petition for an extended commitment for Quintana, who police said exhibited signs of mental illness before he shot his mother in the head with her own gun. At the time of his arrest, Quintana told police the gun went off accidentally.

Patrick Kuchma, Kuchmas husband and a retired State Police officer of 21 years, said he believes NMDOH is making a huge, huge, mistake.

She wanted to get him help, he said of his late wife. If he doesnt take his medication, the same kind of thing can happen to somebody else.

Kuchma said Quintana will be released into a halfway house in Albuquerque, with little supervision to be sure he takes his medication. Meanwhile, Kuchma said Quintanas treatment guardian will be in Las Cruces.

Theres a 220-mile difference there  I just dont see this being effective, he said.

The Department of Health has a solemn responsibility to protect the public from individuals whose mental health condition creates an unacceptable risk of harm, the attorney generals letter said. We fear Mr. Quintana may pose a threat to the community.

The letter said the AGs Office is deeply concerned that the NMDOH did not ask for its help in pursuing an extended commitment and cites a lack of communication from the NMDOH.

Rhien said the department is in the process of responding to the letter and, in response to the AG Offices reference of a lack of communication, said its important to note that the AGs Office has been involved with this case from before the Jan. 8 hearing. It provided legal representation to the Las Cruces District Court judge who accepted the 3rd Judicial District Attorney Offices stipulation to acquit.

The letter said any premature or inappropriate release of a dangerous individual after an initial evaluation is solely the responsibility of the NMDOH and its treatment providers.

I can only pray that any arrangements made for the treatment of Mr. Quintana are appropriate and sufficient, the letter said. Rest assured that if any danger to the public went unaddressed, the Office of the Attorney General will be zealous in pursuing accountability.

Kassetas, who knew Kuchma well, said he was disappointed and concerned, and he called the case a complete letdown of the legal system.

Ive seen several of these cases and, usually, when someone goes into a mental health facility and ultimately they are deemed to be competent, then they would stand trial for the very charges that they were put there in the first place, he said.

Police say Quintana was the one who dialed 911 in the early morning hours of Dec. 13. Officers found him waiting near Kuchmas body.

At the time, he told police he took his mothers gun from her home and later called her to ask that he be taken to a nurse.

Police say Kuchma, who was off duty, came to Quintanas home but left after he showed her the gun.

Quintana told police he followed Kuchma and accidentally shot her once in the head after the gun slipped.

A State Police officer was murdered, by her own son, and that individual will never see the inside of a courtroom and that is a travesty of justice, Kassetas said. That is a sad day for law enforcement and New Mexico State Police.President Donald Trump released his long-promised national infrastructure plan last week, and it was promptly obscured by his own federal budget proposal  released on the same day  and an intense immigration debate in the U.S. Senate.

What was supposed to be infrastructure week in Washington was further disrupted by yet another internal White House crisis, this one triggered by domestic abuse allegations against a top aide. Washington ended the week absorbing news of Special Counsel Robert Muellers announcement on Friday of 13 indictments against Russian nationals for meddling in the 2016 elections.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate went home for their traditional week-long Presidents Day recess this weekend and wont return to work in Washington until the week of Feb. 26. When I asked one top Republican staffer on Capitol Hill about plans to take up Trumps infrastructure plan, the aides first reaction was that it wasnt even on the radar.

But just because the presidents proposal received scant attention upon its rollout doesnt mean it wont get some play in the weeks and months ahead. The White House  eager to add another achievement to the passage of major tax reform in December  is likely recruiting GOP lawmakers to carry Trumps infrastructure plans to Capitol Hill. Itll be a tough sell with Democrats, but Republicans, including Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico, generally praised the presidents proposal even while voicing some concern about paying for it.

Trumps proposal calls for $1.5 trillion to spruce up American highways, bridges, airports, rail, telecommunications and other infrastructure. The White House suggested Congress pony up $200 billion in federal money, which could be used to match funds with cities and states on major projects. The proposal also suggests significant deregulation to speed environmental approvals.

Capitol Hill Democrats  including most in New Mexicos delegation  trashed the Trump plan. They characterized it as giveaway to private industry, an egregious rollback of environmental regulations, and too heavy a burden for cash-strapped states and cities. Sen. Tom Udall, who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the plan a wasted opportunity  that is completely off the mark when it comes to the needs of large rural states like New Mexico.

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said Trumps plan rests on the fallacy that we can shift the vast majority of the financial burden onto cash-strapped state and local governments.

But one conservative Democrat with a deep stake in the infrastructure game  state Sen. John Arthur Smith, who chairs in the Senate Finance Committee in the New Mexico Legislature  was not so quick to dismiss the proposal. In fact, in the waning days of the 30-day session Smith introduced a bill that would raise New Mexicos gasoline tax by a nickel in the event  and only in the event  that Congress passed Trumps plan. The idea is that New Mexico would have some cash on hand  $73 million per year if the nickel gas tax hike passed  for road and bridge improvements if the presidents plan became a reality.

Smiths bill cleared the state Senate easily but didnt get a vote in the House before the 30-day session adjourned last week. In an interview Friday, Smith suggested Washington politicians not be so quick to reject a federal proposal to meet states halfway on infrastructure projects.

We talk about a federal balanced budget, but yet we keep harping for money from the feds, Smith said. I think the state has a responsibility to step to the plate also. I dont think this state or any state should be out with their hands out all the time. I think the state has to be a player also.

Smith wanted me to be clear  he is not a Trump supporter. But he thinks his infrastructure plan is at least worth a look.

I think its a responsible plan, Smith said. I travel the roads as much as anybody, and I dont disagree with him on the infrastructure needs.

E-mail: mcoleman@abqjournal.com. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.The legislative session is over, and if theres one thing it showcased its that our citizen Legislature can set aside political differences and come together to do whats best for constituents.

The work lawmakers did over those 30 days will make a real difference in the lives of everyday New Mexicans, instituting key reforms for New Mexicos guardianship system, providing money to Albuquerques district attorney to bolster prosecution efforts and approving a measure that will make it easier to establish crisis-triage centers throughout the state. Analysts say those crisis centers could decrease drug overdoses, alcohol-related deaths and even suicides.

That just scratches the surface on the 111 bills that made it through the Legislature this year.

Of course, most of the legislation adopted must still be acted on by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, but she has signaled that she supports much of what has been sent to her desk for her signature.

While the last regular legislative session devolved into an ugly standoff between Democrats and Republicans, this years session was a study in bipartisanship from the beginning.

Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate worked quickly to add New Mexico to a multistate compact that allows nurses licensed elsewhere to continue practicing here. The bill was on the governors desk within days of lawmakers convening, and Martinez signed it just hours after it was sent to her.

That victory appeared to set the tone for the rest of the session, and our state is better for it.

Among the most significant measures that were approved this session, and that the governor should sign into law, are:

DA FUNDING: The budget approved by lawmakers allocates $4.6 million more in funding for the 2nd Judicial District Attorneys Office. DA Ra u l Torrez, a Democrat, had sought an increase of about $5.4 million to bolster prosecution efforts given the spike in crime Albuquerque is experiencing. While Torrez didnt get everything he asked for, this budget comes close.

RAISES, RESERVES: The proposed $6.3 billion budget also contains 8.5 percent pay raises for State Police and corrections officers as well as smaller raises for rank-and-file state workers and teachers. And it sets aside more than $632 million, roughly 10 percent of state spending, in cash reserves. Maintaining healthy reserves is critical in a state like New Mexico that relies heavily on oil and gas revenues, which have been and will continue to be volatile.

CRISIS TRIAGE CENTERS: A Senate bill that would make it easier to operate a crisis-triage center in New Mexico. Proponents say it will open the door for people living with mental illness or battling addiction to get prompt access to treatment during a behavioral health crisis. Among other things, the bill would provide Medicaid reimbursement for a wider range of short- and long-term crisis services. This legislation is critical to Bernalillo Countys plan to move forward with its planned crisis-triage center.

CRIME PACKAGE: Lawmakers also signed off on stiffer penalties for violent felons caught with a firearm, retention bonuses for veteran police officers, lessening penalties for minor offenses, and provisions aimed at getting inmates struggling with mental illness or addiction the medical help they need after they leave jail.

CARLSBAD BRINE WELL: Lawmakers and the governor have signed off on a proposal that would make up to $30 million available over the next few years to help prevent the collapse of the Carlsbad brine well. Lawmakers included additional general fund dollars and other funding for the project. State officials are prioritizing this project because a collapse could cause serious damage to two state highways, an irrigation canal that feeds nearby farmland, an aquifer, a mobile home park and a church.

STEP THERAPY: This bipartisan measured is aimed at improving the regulations of step therapy  the practice of requiring patients to try and fail on cheaper drugs before more expensive ones. This bill would create an appeals process if a patient is denied his or her ideal drug.

PET FOOD FEE: Lawmakers passed a bill that would impose a modest fee on dog and cat food companies to help fund spay-neuter programs that will reduce the number of euthanasias in the state.

LOTTERY: One Senate bill that made it through decouples tuition costs from the lottery scholarship. The scholarship currently covers about 60 percent of tuition. But this bill would set flat dollar amounts of $1,500 per semester for students attending research institutions, $1,020 at comprehensive institutions and $380 for community colleges. A separate bill  removing a requirement the lottery put at least 30 percent of its gross revenues into the Legislative Lottery Scholarship program  died in Senate Finance Committee.

SPACEPORT: Lawmakers were right to narrow the confidentiality allowed by a bill approved on the last day of the session. At one point, the measure would have allowed the spaceport to keep the identities of its aerospace tenants confidential. Spaceport officials insist the companies need some confidentiality because of the competitive nature of the brand new space industry, and this bill will provide some of that. Lets hope the taxpayer-funded facility can now attract more business.

There was other legislation that didnt make it through.

PERMANENT FUND : Lawmakers were right to reject a proposal to tap into the states largest permanent fund to pay for early childhood programs. The measure would have damaged the financial health of the fund, which already provides hundreds of millions of dollars for schools and other beneficiaries each year. We were also concerned that no detailed plan had been put forth for how the additional $150 million a year for early childhood services would be spent.

Of course, there were also worthwhile measures that didnt make it through, including a host of crime, DWI and tax reforms. But on the whole, lawmakers worked hard to get things done for the people of this state, and we thank them for giving up their time and working together to accomplish so much in such a short amount of time.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.WASHINGTON  Two former U.S. intelligence officials will discuss the cloak-and-dagger world of espionage and the difficult ethical dilemmas it poses for U.S. spies at a lecture in Albuquerque on Feb. 25.

Stephen Slick, director of the University of Texas at Austins Intelligence Studies Project, and Douglas Wise, retired senior CIA operations officer, will wrestle with the question of whether a profession that requires lying, cheating, stealing, manipulating, exploiting and deceiving should have ethical boundaries. In a Journal interview, Slick said every potential intelligence officer must answer that question for themselves, and that their ultimate responsibility is adhering to U.S. and international law.

The panel discussion  part of the Albuquerque International Associations ongoing lecture series  is Sunday, Feb. 25, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the UNM Continuing Education Auditorium.

Slick said the subject of espionage and ethics is popular among his students, who are often contemplating careers in intelligence.

Many are curious about the moral and ethical quality of the paths they may be assigned working for the government, so we explore it, said Slick, who served for 28 years in the CIAs clandestine service, including five assignments abroad. Its something that practitioners in the profession think about quite regularly although it is not very often debated in public.

Slick said ethical questions pervade the field and often mirror those faced by undercover drug agents working for the FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration.

There is, in fact, little difference between a CIA officer overseas recruiting and handling a foreign agent than the way the FBI or DEA might handle human sources in the U.S., Slick said.

Thats where the ethical questions often arise.

If youre going to penetrate and gain information from terrorist organizations, narcotics trafficking organization or organized crime, youre going to have to deal with some unsavory characters to get the kinds of information you need because thats who populates these organizations, he said.

A CIA recruit who isnt willing to deceive in the course of doing his or her work may not be cut out for the agencys fast track.

Some people dont prefer to live a lie day in and day out, and those are people who are not going thrive in the hiring process or in moving up the ranks in the CIA, Slick said.

Asked about his own ethical compass during his time engaged in covert operations, Slick said he took a utilitarian approach to the job.

If its necessary to protect the country Im willing to do it because Im a patriot and I want to see my country survive, he said. That may require some personal ethical compromises on my part but for the greater good, its necessary. Thats the utilitarian model and one that I think applies to most of the intelligence officers Ive served with over the year and it was certainly one that I subscribed to.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

LAS CRUCES  An FBI informant and high level shot caller with the Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang testified in federal court about how and why he ordered a hit on top prison officials from behind bars.

Robert Martinez, nicknamed Baby Rob, took the stand midway through the trial of four gang members for murder and racketeering including the alleged leader of the SNM. At least a dozen gang members turned informants are government witnesses in the first of three trials in federal court stemming from a massive FBI racketeering investigation.

Martinez testified on Thursday he wrote a letter to gang members he referred to as brothers on the street telling them it was time to step up and ordering them to kill two prison officials. In the letter he wrote details you can figure out yourself.

Jurors followed along as Martinez read from the letter he confirmed was in his handwriting projected on a big screen in the courtroom.

Martinez told federal prosecutor Maria Armijo he decided to kill Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel in 2014 because gang members were tired of being in lockdown for a year.

They targeted Dwayne Santiestevan, who was in charge of the Security Threat Intelligence Unit for the corrections system, for making comments about Baca referring to Anthony Ray Baca, the alleged leader of the gang who is on trial.

Bacas attorney questioned Martinez about whether he really believed gang members would carry out the murder or if the threat was merely a way to ensure prison officials moved him out of state.

This wasnt the first time you had used a disciplinary action to get moved, said attorney Theresa Duncan.

We wanted both, to be shipped out and the hit,said Martinez.

Duncan said,You know damn well that isnt going to happen.

Martinez testified he had doubts gang members outside prison walls would carry out his orders. The ones willing to do that were locked up. In the letter he also threatened gang members if they ignored the orders their own relatives would be targeted.

Federico Munoz, nicknamed Playboy, earlier testified he was a loyal soldier for the SNM who killed for the gang in and out of prison. While on parole he murdered a member of a rival gang, a man he didnt know, who happened to walk into a barber shop.

We were in a full blown war. It doesnt matter the location or venue, you have to act on it, said Munoz.

He testified he was ordered by Gerald Archuleta, a Syndicato leader in prison to shoot fellow SNM gang member Julian Romero (who had been released from prison) because Julian began to have a romantic relationship with Geralds wife. Romero survived.

Munoz testified that while he was in prison he and two other gang members killed an inmate and a fellow gang member suspected of being disloyal. I strangled him with a sheet because it was quieter and not as messy.

Defense attorneys questioned Munoz about whether he was getting a lighter sentence in return for his testimony and if members of the prosecution promised to speak to Governor Susana Martinez on his behalf. That was just a pipe dream, said Munoz. The time still runs, he said referring to his sentence for state convictions.

The former gang members testifying for the government provided a look behind prison walls inside the brutal gang, born during the Santa Fe prison riot in 1980, and the generational divide that exists today.

Martinez, a member of the SNM for 30 years, said he no longer trusts fellow gang members and was disillusioned with the younger generation of new recruits who had not earned their bones but were allowed to join because they could provide drugs or had a relative in the gang.

Baby Rob, who entered New Mexicos corrections system in 1988 at the age of 18 and rose through the ranks of the Syndicato to a leadership role, testified he went to prison officials and said, Im done. Im tired of this. I want out. And as proof, he handed over a shank, a crude weapon made in prison.

It was supposed to be a family. In reality were all a bunch of killers, said Martinez.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

During the weekly Tuesday night clinic at an Albuquerque shelter for homeless men, the first client examined by a team of University of New Mexico health sciences students had been hit by a car just 15 minutes earlier.

Fortunately Jesse James Kershner, who had been riding his bike when the car struck him, was not seriously injured. Could be hes acquiring an immunity to collisions with moving vehicles.

Ive been hit by cars about 17 times, Kershner, 36, said as Samuel MacDonald, 22, a first-year medical student at UNM, checked him out for bruises and possible fractures.

Assisting MacDonald with the exam were Anthony Jones, 20, a second-year UNM nursing student, and Juanita Martinez, 29, a first-year UNM physician assistant student.

Anything else? MacDonald asked his fellow students after he finished going over Kershner.

We could do a strength test, Martinez suggested.

Thats a great idea, MacDonald said.

Real problems

Every Tuesday evening, students from UNMs Health Sciences Center  future physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, physical therapists  come together to run a clinic at the Albuquerque Opportunity Center, which offers shelter and other services to homeless men. It is one of several clinics UNM health sciences students provide for various underserved populations in Albuquerque.

At the AOC clinic, supervised by an attending health care provider, the students examine the men and listen to their concerns, which often range beyond medical problems.

Sometimes these guys just want someone to talk to, which is fine, Jadzia Jetty, the fifth-level nursing student coordinating this past Tuesdays clinic, told the UNM volunteers assembled there that evening. But try to keep the visits short because we have lots of people to see.

The students may provide some care themselves or, if necessary, refer patients to the hospital or follow-up visits at a health clinic.

If you need to call 911, go to the front desk, Jetty told this past weeks group of students as they split into teams and set off to see patients.

Lindsay Fox, a faculty member with UNMs Physician Assistant Program, was the attending health care provider at last weeks clinic. She said the clinic not only gives students the chance to practice their medical skills, but also the opportunity to learn from colleagues studying other medical disciplines.

Fox said a vital part of the learning process stems from students interacting with a population  in this case, men accustomed to being avoided and treated without respect  they might not often encounter.

Its grass-roots medicine. Students often have to use whatever they can find  the light from a phone to examine a patients throat, a belt to aid in physical therapy exercises  to get the work done.

It reminds you about why you get into medicine, Fox said. Here you are not flooded with paperwork. This is just taking care of a human being.

Physician assistant student Martinez appreciated that fact.

We work with actors (portraying patients), and they are good, she said. But people here have real stories, real problems.

And often they are problems that cant be treated in the normal way.

Eat well and get a good nights sleep just isnt the kind of advice homeless men are able to heed, said Peggy Murphy, a fourth-year nursing student.

Holistic medicine

The problems are different, but every bit as real, for the clients at One Hope Centro de Vida Health Center on Virginia just north of Central. Operated by East Central Ministries, most of the health centers clients are Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Founded in 2006, the center sees 70 to 100 clients a week. UNM health sciences students, UNM family medicine residents and faculty from UNMs School of Medicine and College of Pharmacy volunteer at the health centers Wednesday night primary care clinic, behavioral health clinics, womens health clinics and diabetes workshops.

Conditions confronting the clients here include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, depression, anxiety and low income.

Alexa Argyres, 25, a fourth-year UNM pharmacy student, has been volunteering at the center twice a month since June.

It is unlike any other clinic, she said. It is more holistic medicine. Its about taking care of the whole person, not just addressing the illness. It is also about addressing the barriers to medical care. Everyone here is really good at knowing the resources that are available and making referrals.

One Hope does not take insurance because it is a community-based, volunteer-run center. Patients pay a $25 fee for clinic visits, but that is sometimes returned so they can afford to buy prescribed medications.

Dr. Arthur Kaufman, distinguished professor of family and community medicine at UNM, started bringing UNM health sciences students to One Hope soon after it opened. He said it gives the students and medical residents a different perspective.

What drug is key if the patient only has $10 or $20? Kaufman said at this past Wednesdays primary care clinic. We get generic drugs at Walmart.

Kaufman said that by volunteering at One Hope, students get a good lesson in investing in a community and sticking with it.

Its a model for a community clinic, he said. We are not just in and out. And its not just training for the students. By dealing with problems here, we dont have as many people hitting the (UNM) emergency room at hideous costs.

Charging batteries

Kaufman said the One Hope experience also teaches students and residents to respect and pay attention to the community health workers who run the center.

These workers are from the community that is being served. They speak the language and understand the full array of problems confronting the community. And they act as liaisons between patients and health care providers.

They dont have the degrees on the wall, but they have the trust of the community, Kaufman said.

Once such person is Lidia Regino, an immigrant from Mexico who has lived in this East Central community since she was 10.

A former director of One Hope, Regino still helps out at the center. She thinks the UNM students get a lot out of their time here.

In some clinics, they are not allowed to see patients, she said. Here, it is very hands-on. Some are doing exit interviews. Its the whole package. Make sure the patient understands the diagnosis, why they got the medicine they did, what the side effects are. They learn to practice medicine in a different way. What can the patient afford? We have pharmacy students looking for coupons.

Tae-young Nam, 29, a first-year medical student, has been volunteering at One Hope since August and finds the experience inspiring and invigoration.

I learn so much here, he said. We are in the classroom the first two years (of medical school). I have never studied so hard. But the clinic reminds me of what I will be doing one day. There is little I can do as a first-year medical student. I get more out of it than the patients I see. It fills my battery.

Stressful lives

At the AOC clinic, Cody Fritts, a third-year UNM medical student, talked with James Christian, a 45-year-old homeless man with diabetes. The disease has resulted in Christian losing the lower part of his right leg, all the toes on his left foot and, recently, his right index finger to amputation.

Christian told Fritts he has been having trouble getting to where he needs to be to get the insulin he should be taking daily.

My biggest issues are not having the money to buy the right kind of food, and stress, Christian said.

Fritts asked Christian what had been causing the stress.

Whatever life throws at me is kind of stressful right now, Christian replied.

Fox said many of the physical complaints from the homeless men at the AOC clinics are musculoskeletal because they spend so much time on their feet and walking. But here, a clients medical history might also include getting stabbed in the heart with a screwdriver.

We lend a professional ear to the things they go through in their day-to-day lives, Fritts said. Some of the stories I have heard here have really shaken my faith in humanity.

But the men and their stories is what keeps him coming back. These men and their stories are among the reasons he wants to be a doctor.

I think we do incredible work here, he said. There is incredible need.QAIM, Iraq  From their outpost on Iraqs westernmost edge, U.S. 1st Lt. Kyle Hagerty and his troops watched civilians trickle into the area after American and Iraqi forces drove out the Islamic State group. They were, he believed, families returning to liberated homes, a hopeful sign of increasing stability.

But when he interviewed them on a recent reconnaissance patrol, he discovered he was wrong. They were families looking for shelter after being driven from their homes in a nearby town. Those who pushed them out were forces from among their liberators  Shiite militiamen who seized control of the area after defeating the IS militants.

It was a bitter sign of the mixed legacy from the United States intervention in Iraq to help defeat the militants. American-backed military firepower brought down the IS caliphate, but many of the divisions and problems that helped fuel the extremists rise remain unresolved.

The U.S.-led coalition, which launched its fight against IS in August 2014, is now reducing the numbers of American troops in Iraq, after Baghdad declared victory over the extremists in December. Both Iraqi and U.S. officials say the exact size of the drawdown has not yet been decided.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders here in western Iraq warn that victories over IS could be undercut easily by a large-scale withdrawal. Iraqs regular military remains dependent on U.S. support. Many within Iraqs minority communities view the U.S. presence as a buffer against the Shiite-dominated central government. Still, Iranian-backed militias with strong voices in Baghdad are pushing for a complete U.S. withdrawal, and some Iraqis liken any American presence to a form of occupation.

That has left an uncomfortable limbo in this area that was the last battlefield against the extremists. Coalition commanders still work with Iraqi forces to develop long-term plans for stability even as a drawdown goes ahead with no one certain of its eventual extent.

HEARTS AND MINDS  AGAIN

Lets go win us some hearts and minds, Sgt. Jonathan Cary, 23, joked as he and Hagerty and the patrol convoy set off from a base outside the town of Qaim, evoking a phrase used in American policy goals for Iraq ever since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

After just a few hours moving on foot across farmland and orchards to a cluster of modest houses, Hagerty realized the families he thought were returnees to the area were in fact newly displaced. Their homes in Qaim had been confiscated by the government-affiliated Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, made up mainly of Shiite paramilitary fighters backed by Iran.

Our end goal is a stable Iraq, right? Hagerty said later, back at the base. But when you see stuff like that, it makes you wonder if they are ever going to be able to do it themselves.

After victories against IS, the PMF has built up a presence in many parts of Sunni-majority provinces, including western Anbar. It formally falls under the command of the prime minister, but some Iraqi commanders accuse the PMF of being a rival to government power.

PMF flags line highways crisscrossing Anbar. At a PMF checkpoint outside al-Asad airbase  a sprawling complex used by both Iraqi and coalition forces  U.S. convoys are regularly stopped for hours while busloads of PMF fighters are waved through.

U.S. Marine Col. Seth Folsom works closely with the branches of Iraqs security forces  Sunni tribal fighters and the Iraqi army  who are increasingly concerned about the rise in power of the PMF. Iran has given no indication of dialing back its support after the defeat of IS extremists.

The biggest question I get now is, how long can we count on you being here?' Folsom said of his conversations with Iraqi commanders and local politicians.

That decision ultimately rests with Iraqs political leadership, he said.

I guess some people could see that as a cop-out, but at the same time its not my place as a lowly colonel to define how long the U.S. presence is going to be.

FORWARD LINE OF FREEDOM

For the senior officers leading the current fight against IS, decades of U.S. military intervention in Iraq has defined their careers.

The top U.S. general in Iraq  Lt. Gen. Paul Funk  served in Iraq four times: in the Gulf war in 1991; in the 2003 invasion; in the surge when some 170,000 American troops were serving in Iraq in 2007; and most recently in the fight against IS.

It will definitely be positive, Funk said of the legacy of the U.S. role against IS in Iraq. People see their young men and women out here defeating evil. Thats a positive thing.

On a recent flight from Baghdad to a small U.S. outpost in northern Syria near Manbij  a trip that traversed the heart of the battlefield with IS for the past 3 years  Funk described the future of the fight as ideological and open-ended.

The problem is people believe its already over, and its not, he said. Beating the ideology, destroying the myth, thats going to take time.

Touching down outside an orchard on the perimeter of the Manbij base, Funk exclaimed: Welcome to the front line of freedom!

Funk predicts the ideological fight could take years and easily require U.S. troop deployments elsewhere. He said that is one reason he believes its so important to visit U.S. troops on the current front lines  to show them the American people believe in their purpose.

We have got to recruit the next generation, he said.

Many of the young U.S. troops interviewed by The Associated Press said they didnt know anything about the Islamic State group when they enlisted.

Rayden Simeona, a 21-year-old corporal in the Marines, enlisted in 2014, when all he knew about the U.S. military was from movies and video games.

I felt like I wasnt going anywhere with my life, I had no idea what IS was. I just knew I wanted to go to war, he said. Once deployed, he said talk rarely broached the big questions of What we are doing here? or Why?

But I do wonder all the time: Why are we spending all this money in Iraq? he said. Theres probably some greater plan or reason that someone much higher up than me knows.

IS THE JUICE WORTH THE SQUEEZE?

Along Iraqs border with Syria, the two Iraqi forces charged with holding a key stretch of territory lack direct communication. Because one force falls under the Defense Ministry and the other under the Interior Ministry, their radios are incompatible.

Instead, the troops use Nokia cellphones in a part of the country where network coverage is spotty to nonexistent.

At the nearby coalition outpost near Qaim, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Brandon Payne spends much of his time filling communications gaps by relaying messages between different branches of Iraqs military.

The coordination is not where we hoped it would be, Payne said. But they do talk to each other, and we see that as a sign of progress.

Tactical shortcomings within Iraqs military are partially what fueled the expansion of the coalitions footprint in Iraq in the past three years. As Iraqi ground forces demonstrated an inability to communicate and coordinate attacks across multiple fronts, U.S. forces moved closer to the fighting and sped up the pace of territorial gains.

Despite the caliphates collapse, those weaknesses have persisted. Iraqi forces remain dependent on coalition intelligence, reconnaissance, artillery fire and airstrikes to hold territory and fight IS insurgent cells.

Payne regularly shuttles between his base, Qaim and the Syrian border, meeting with different members of Iraqi forces to coordinate security and repel IS attacks from the Syrian side.

I would say we are still needed, Payne said. We are getting great results with this model, but you see how much goes into it.

The base, once a small, dusty outpost, now houses a few hundred coalition troops and is a maze of barracks, gyms, a dining facility, laundry services and a chapel.

At some point, someone much higher up than me is going to decide the juice is just not worth the squeeze, Payne said, referring to the cost of such a large outpost in a remote corner of the country.

ROTTEN LEADERSHIP

Iraqi army Lt. Col. Akram Salah Hadi, who works closely with Paynes soldiers at the Qaim outpost, said coalition training and intelligence sharing have improved the performance of his unit. But overall, the U.S. effort in Iraq gives him little hope for the future.

Corruption in the military, Hadi said, remains as bad as it was in 2014, when it was seen as a major reason why entire Iraqi divisions simply dissolved in the assault on Mosul by a few hundred IS fighters.

Young Iraqi soldiers with ambition and talent cant rise through the ranks without political connections. Top ranks are bloated with officers who have bought their promotions. Within his division alone, Hadi said he can think of 40 officers with no military background who attained their rank because of their membership in a political party.

With leadership like this, the rest will always be rotten, he said.

Coalition programs that have trained tens of thousands of Iraqi troops have largely focused on the infantry, not the junior officers needed to lead units and instill a culture of service that will make a professional force.

Folsom, the U.S. Marine colonel, said military power will not root out corruption or heal Iraqs longstanding divisions.

I have a saying out here, he added, You cant want it more than them.'President Donald Trump late Saturday night criticized the FBI for failing to act on a tip that might have prevented the recent massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida, and said the bureau was devoting too much time to its investigation of his presidential campaign.

Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter, Trump said in a Tweet. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!

The presidents comment marks the first time he has weighed in on the bureaus failure to investigate a Jan. 5 tip about 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who this week was charged with shooting and killing 17 people at Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The FBI acknowledged the tip on Friday, saying a person close to Cruz had warned a call taker on the bureaus general tipline that the young man had a desire to kill and might attack a school. The bureau said that information was not passed to agents in the field for investigation  an apparent breach of protocol.

The resources devoted to the Russia case should not have had any direct effect on the FBIs response in Florida because the tip about Cruz, although reported to a call-center supervisor, never reached agents who would do an investigation, officials have said.

Still, the incident comes at a precarious time for the FBI. Conservative lawmakers already had been reviewing the bureaus handling of two hotly charged political matters: the probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election; and the now-closed investigation of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

On Friday, the chairs of three powerful congressional committees that oversee the bureau sent letters demanding briefings on the FBIs Florida misstep, while others lambasted the bureau for its apparent failure.

The fact that the FBI is investigating this failure is not enough, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement. Both the House and Senate need to immediately initiate their own investigations into the FBIs protocols for ensuring tips from the public about potential killers are followed through. Lawmakers and law enforcement personnel constantly remind the public that if you see something, say something. In this tragic case, people close to the shooter said something, and our system utterly failed the families of seventeen innocent souls.

The FBI declined to comment on the various congressional requests.

While lawmakers and federal law enforcement officials assessed their response, state authorities were left to prepare for one of the states highest-profile prosecutions in recent memory. Michael Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, said Saturday that the incident was the type of case the death penalty was designed for, though his office would not formally announce whether it will seek such a sentence so families had time to mourn.

The incident comes at a precarious time for the FBI. Conservative lawmakers already had been reviewing the bureaus handling of two hotly charged political matters: the probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election and the now-closed investigation of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

President Donald Trump has been highly critical of investigators actions in both of those cases, and some in the bureau have worried his persistent attacks might do lasting damage to the premier federal law enforcement agencys reputation.

Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott seized on the FBIs failure to investigate Cruz and called Friday for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.

Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isnt going to cut it, Scott said in a statement.

Scotts call, though, did not immediately seem to gain wide traction. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi a Republican who, like Scott, is an ally of Trump, said on Fox News, The people who had that information and did not do anything with it, they are the ones that need to go.

Republican leaders who oversee the FBI, while highly critical of the bureau, also did not immediately call for the director to step down.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chair of the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Wray demanding that the bureau brief the committees by no later than March 2 on why the agency did not act on a January tip about the suspected shooter and his propensity for violence. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also asked that the bureau brief his committee staffers by the end of next week.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., said of the governors call for Wray to resign: He does not want to talk about gun control, so he is attacking the FBI.

On Friday night, Trump praised the FBI during a visit with law enforcement officials who responded to the shooting.

We had a lot of FBI guys down here quickly. So great job; thank you very much, Trump said to an FBI special agent who was among those at the Broward County Sheriffs Office.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Saturday on Fox News: Director Wray obviously understood that there were mistakes made at the FBI. He made that clear; he took responsibility for it.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he had directed his deputy attorney general, the No. 2 law enforcement official in the country, to look into the matter.

The bureau has in recent years faced significant scrutiny over whether it responds forcefully enough to possible threats. Agents had previously investigated the man who gunned down 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016 but ultimately concluded they could take no action against him. The FBI also had prior contact with the man charged with killing five people at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last year. He had walked into an FBI field office and made bizarre, though not threatening, statements.

Officials believe the Jan. 5 tip about Cruz was passed from a call taker to a supervisor, but it was not forwarded, as it should have been, to agents in the field. The FBIs call center in 2017 received more than 766,000 calls, though law enforcement officials said they do not believe the lapse here was one due to too much volume, but rather a failure to appropriately assess the particular tip.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said police had received about 20 calls for service in recent years regarding Cruz, whom neighbors knew to be troubled. He had been expelled from school, and the administration there sent an email to teachers with a vague suggestion of concern about him.

Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County public defender representing Cruz, said that multiple government agencies failed to prevent what was an avoidable tragedy.

It is the most horrific crime Ive ever seen, Finkelstein said. And I am overwhelmingly saddened that every single system failed, which means to me we dont have a system. . . . If this person didnt get anybodys attention, nobody will.SACRAMENTO, Calif.  The warnings around Nikolas Cruz seemed to flash like neon signs: expelled from school, fighting with classmates, a fascination with weapons and hurting animals, disturbing images and comments posted to social media, previous mental health treatment.

In Florida, that wasnt enough for relatives, authorities or his schools to request a judicial order barring him from possessing guns.

Only five states have laws enabling family members, guardians or police to ask judges to temporarily strip gun rights from people who show warning signs of violence. Supporters of these measures, deemed red flag laws or gun-violence restraining orders, say they can save lives by stopping some shootings and suicides.

Florida, where Cruz is accused of using an AR-15 assault weapon to kill 17 people at his former high school, lacks such a law. He was able to legally own the semi-automatic rifle, even though his mother, classmates and teachers had at times described him as dangerous and threatening, and despite repeated police visits to his home.

Red flag legislation has been introduced by Democratic state lawmakers, but it hasnt been heard during this years session, and its fate is uncertain in a state Legislature controlled by Republicans who generally favor expanding gun rights.

After Wednesdays shooting, Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he will work to make sure people with mental illnesses dont have access to guns, but offered no specifics. Floridas GOP Sen. Marco Rubio  facing criticism from support he has received from the National Rifle Association  is going a step further now.

Rubio said on a Sunday morning show that state legislators should absolutely consider enacting a law enabling family members or law enforcement officials to ask a court to remove guns from a person who poses a danger. Rubio, who once served as Floridas House speaker, told Miami CBS affiliate WFOR that its an example of a state law that could have helped prevent the Florida shooting.

In 2014, California became the first state to let family members ask a judge to remove firearms from a relative who appears to pose a threat. Its legislature took action after a mentally ill man, Elliot Rodger, killed six students and wounded 13 others near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before killing himself.

Californias law also empowers police to petition for the protective orders, which can require authorities to remove firearms for up to one year. Connecticut, Indiana, Oregon and Washington also have some version of a red flag law.

More than a dozen others, including Hawaii, New Jersey and Missouri, are considering bills to enable family members or police to petition the courts to take weapons away from people showing signs of mental distress or violence.

The Florida shooting has revived debate about whether teachers and school administrators should have that authority as well, given that people at Cruzs high school witnessed much of his erratic behavior.

California lawmakers voted to expand their law in 2016 so that high school and college personnel, co-workers and mental health professionals can seek the restraining orders, but Gov. Jerry Brown called the effort premature and vetoed it.

State Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, said he plans to reintroduce the bill.

We need to make sure that when people see signs, they have every ability to do something about getting guns out of the hands of mentally ill and dangerous people, Ting told The Associated Press.

Circumstances similar to those in Florida played out seven years ago in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. Jared Loughner had become increasingly disruptive and erratic at his community college in the months leading up to the shooting, frightening students and causing teachers to request campus police officers be on hand during his classes. Eventually, the school threatened him with suspension.

Soon after, he went to a gun store and legally bought the weapon he used to attack Giffords as she met with constituents, shooting her in the head and killing six people.

Without red flag laws, the main recourse available to family members is to have a troubled loved one committed to a psychiatric institution. Federal law permanently bans anyone who has been involuntary committed from owning guns, but such actions are more difficult to carry out than red flag laws, which are intended to be quick and temporary and have a lower standard of proof.

Without such a commitment, formal adjudication of serious mental illness or a felony conviction, many people can pass background checks and possess guns they already own.

The red flag laws act as a sort of timeout, so someone in psychological distress can get counseling while their fitness to possess a gun is evaluated, said Laura Cutilletta, legal director of the Giffords Law Center.

Its a way to allow for temporary removal of firearms in a situation just like this: where somebody has made threats, where they have been expelled from school because of those threats, theyre in counseling, and parents or the school or whoever it is understands that this person poses a threat, she said.

Many gun-rights activists oppose the laws. They say they can be used to unfairly take away rights from people who have not been convicted of crimes, nor professionally evaluated for mental illness.

The NRAs lobbying arm has said such laws enable courts to remove Second Amendment rights based on third-party allegations and evidentiary standards that are lower than whats required in criminal proceedings.

Connecticut led the way with a 1999 law, passed after an employee shot and killed four executives at state Lottery headquarters. It allows police to remove guns based on probable cause that a person poses a risk of imminent personal injury.

In a study published last year, researchers at Duke, Yale, Connecticut and Virginia estimated that dozens of suicides have been prevented by the law, roughly one for every 10 gun seizures carried out. They said such laws could significantly mitigate the risk posed by the small number of legal gun owners who might suddenly pose a significant danger.

___

Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.

___

Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Sacramento; Gary Fineout and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; and Lisa Marie Pane in Atlanta contributed to this report.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.With the general commotion in Israel over the security flare-up in the north on the one hand and the possible indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the other, one tends to forget a key player in the Middle Eastern region  the Palestinians.

Visiting Ramallah these days, one comes away with a sense of the deep despair the Palestinian leadership is feeling. Faced with the radicalization of the pro-Iranian axis and with a recent surge of violence in the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas finds himself between a rock and a hard place. While he does not want to appear reluctant to join a possible regional cycle of uprising, violence is actually the last thing he is interested in.

A senior PLO source said that he was recently present at a policy meeting in reaction to the US positions. Together with two other confidants, he heard a long monologue from Abbas about the state of the struggle for Palestinian statehood and about his own destiny. The official did not give Al-Monitor a verbatim account of Abbas words, but rather a sense of what they constituted.

According to the source, although Abbas is in a grim mood, he is keeping his fighting spirit. The Palestinian president will not, under any circumstances, agree to any version of a US negotiation plan. He believes that US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu are coordinating together in order to weaken him.

Abbas is disappointed, although he will not admit so publicly, with the mellow reaction of his Arab partners on the new US policy, specifically Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

He follows closely and with some delight the legal troubles that Netanyahu is undergoing, but he believes that with or without Netanyahu, the Israeli right led by the settlers will continue to have the upper hand.

Abbas spoke about a time framework of two years until 2020, which according to the PLO official could indicate a timeline to resignation.

During this two-year framework, Abbas will attempt to achieve a global consensus on a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital. He sees possible key roles for Russia, the European Union and China, especially if the Republican Party suffers losses in the mid-term elections in November, which will weaken Trumps hand.

Abbas, surprisingly to his PLO confidant, did not rule out a violent intifada. If everything else fails, that may be the last resort. Abbas believes that, in such a case, the intifada should be led by Fatah and not by Hamas.

The PLO official said that in this last phase of Abbas political career, the Palestinian leader wants to leave behind a path for Palestinian statehood and to gradually work with the head of his security apparatus on the modalities for a power transition.

A senior Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs official described to Al-Monitor the situation as follows: Ever since 1988, when the PLO accepted the State of Israel, Abbas has been the one reflecting the organizations choice of a diplomatic strategic path to statehood. As such, he had a cardinal influence on PLO leader Yasser Arafat in the Oslo process. Today, with Trumps new positions, the diplomatic option is in deadlock. This has weakened Abbas position in the Palestinian public opinion, and he is now even challenged by the more hawkish Fatah members.

Abbas is also suffering from an image of corruption in favor of his family and cronies.

The senior Israeli official agreed that Abbas has reached the last stage of his political career. He, therefore, will not compromise on any of the core issues related to Palestinian statehood. According to the Israeli official, with Fatah senior figures Marwan Barghouti and Mohammed Dahlan challenging his leadership, Abbas relies on his senior security officers. He is also dependent on the security cooperation with Israel for his political survival. The Israeli official added that Abbas departure will not be lamented in Jerusalem.Before he was summoned to Holot, Israels open-air detention center for asylum-seekers, Gebremeskel Tsehaya, known as Gary, worked as a cook frying falafel and chopping salad at a small restaurant in Tel Aviv. Because Gary is a single Eritrean man, Israels government says he will soon face a choice: accept a plane ticket out of the country or go to prison. African asylum-seekers are a crucial source of labor in the kitchens of nearly every Tel Aviv eatery, and indignant restaurant owners have waged a battle with the government over its intensifying campaign to deport them.

For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly discussed his intentions to expel the roughly 40,000 African migrants currently living in Israel  a population comprised of 27,500 Eritreans, 7,900 Sudanese and 2,600 citizens of other African countries, according to Israels Interior Ministry. But in January, the ministry advanced its plan to deport 20,000 of the population by 2020, starting this April. Migrants began receiving early February notices proclaiming they will face indefinite imprisonment if they do not self-deport within 60 days.

Israels Restaurants and Bars Association said its 800-member businesses employ around 10,000 African migrant workers washing dishes, cleaning and cooking the citys tasty fare  from Thai food to Israels characteristic blend of European and Mediterranean cuisine. With Israelis unwilling to fill such jobs, restaurant owners have been lobbying the government in recent months against deportation, advocating instead that they be granted residency or another more permanent status. Without them, we can't run our businesses, simple as that, Shai Berman, the director of the association, told Al-Monitor. If the chef doesn't come to work, the restaurant can stay open. But if no one is doing the dishes, the work will stop.

Israel is a signatory to the International Refugee Convention of 1951 and effectively recognizes the possible danger of ending Sudanese and Eritrean migrants back to their homelands, but in most of the cases, it refuses to grant refugee status for that reason alone. As of the end of 2017, according to data provided to Al-Monitor by the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority, 15,613 people had submitted requests for asylum. Just 11 have been granted refugee status, a number Israeli organization African Refugee Development Center (ARDC) cites as one of the lowest in the Western world.

Netanyahu argued that the migrants centered largely in south Tel Aviv are in Israel illegally and arrived for economic reasons, pointing to security and safety burdens posed by this population. The government considers them infiltrators  a term originating in Israels 1954 law intending to prevent entry of Palestinian refugees.

The primary targets of deportation, said the Population and Immigration Authority, are single men who have failed to apply for asylum by January of this year or who have had applications rejected. For now, women, children, fathers and migrants with pending asylum applications will be spared. Pending applications amount to 7,437, according to data provided by the authority, and many more have not succeeded in submitting requests. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, cites reasons for this as lack of information, distrust in the asylum system and the fact that asylum-seeker status does not provide greater protection than what infiltrators already enjoy, like welfare services or exemption from mandatory detention.

Restaurant owners decry that they have been unfairly squeezed by economic levies designed to make the lives of both African migrants and their employers more burdensome. The largest blow, Berman explained, was when the High Court of Justice ruled in September that employers must pay a 20% tax on African migrant wages, as they must for other short-term foreign laborers like Filipino caretakers or Thai agricultural laborers. In a legal dispute with the state, restaurant owners had petitioned that migrants be considered Israeli residents.

In May, employers also became required to deposit 16% of African migrants pay into a closed account only to be given to the worker when he or she departs Israel. The workers themselves must deposit another 20% of their paycheck into this fund, significantly slashing their net pay.

What we are saying [to the Knesset] is that the state cannot deport them and we, as the restaurant owners, are the people that fight with the asylum-seekers on our back, said Berman. This is [the Knessets] problem, not ours.

Micha Sol, the owner of Tel Aviv restaurant Yula, suggested that he, like other restaurant owners, had no choice but to avoid paying some taxes required to employ his four Eritrean workers. These laws have made me a criminal, Sol told Al-Monitor. Only new immigrants are willing to do this kind of hard work, like in other Western countries. Theres no solution in the Israeli market because we have almost no natural immigration.

Berman said Israeli reluctance to take the jobs isnt about wages, noting restaurant owners often pay well over Israels minimum wage to dishwashers. Palestinians used to work such jobs, but few have been granted permits after a wave of suicide bombings during the second intifada in the early 2000s shattered already strained social and economic ties between Israelis and Palestinians.

Working in a restaurant requires overnight permits, said Berman, for which Palestinians would have to rent rooms in the city. There is still fear involved, Berman said. Now the government is promising 1,500 such Palestinian permits to replace departing African migrants. Its a start, said Berman. But not a solution; 1,500 jobs dont even begin to fill 10,000.

Joseph Zeira, an economics professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the president of the Israeli Economics Association, argued in 2015 that African workers should be given five-year work permits and resettled in various locations around Israel until their asylum requests are processed. But now, Weve reached the moment of truth, he told Al-Monitor. They are being deported.

He stands by his recommendation, but notes the policys popularity in the Israeli public. A lot of people support deportation because theres no clear alternative, he said. So we need to discuss the alternatives.

Meanwhile, Gary said that he intends to choose prison. If he were to take the flight and the $3,500 stipend from Israel, reports widely speculate he would be sent to Rwanda. Deportation notices say he will be taken to a safe third country  that has developed tremendously in the last decade and absorbs thousands of immigrants.

The ARDC claims, however, that already deported migrants faced significant hardships upon arriving in their new countries in Africa, including arbitrary arrest, demands for bribes or problems accessing the asylum process. In a letter to Netanyahu, the Anti-Defamation League and HIAS human rights groups stressed that some migrants leaving Israel drowned at sea en route to Europe or were tortured by traffickers.

Though protests against deportation have erupted within Israel and abroad, Berman is discouraged at the limited impact the restaurant workers have had. Likewise, Garys boss and restaurant owner laments the looming decision facing his employee. It makes me ashamed to be Israeli, he said on condition of anonymity.

I dont want to go back to the way I came, sighed Gary, noting many of his friends feel the same way. He is 30 and arrived in Israel in 2011 with dreams of leaving life under an oppressive regime and getting an education. Its a tough decision to stay in prison, but its worth it in order to save your life.When Sally Shalabi tells one of her stories, her strong and clear voice resonates with her audience in Jordan. Performing in cultural centers in the capital, Amman, as well as in refugee camps all over the country, the storyteller performs for large audiences, including children and the elderly, with a touch of humor and irony. She also sings, dances and impersonates. She plays the tambourine and sometimes uses an object such as a ring or a hat that symbolizes the story and its protagonists.

As a female storyteller, she changed her stage surname, Shalabieh, by feminizing her family name, Shalabi. She also refers to herself professionally as hakawatieh, a feminine version of the word hakawaty, which means storyteller, even though it is uncommon for such a grammatical change to be made in Arabic. Women get a new role in her stories as protagonists rather than passive characters.

The Palestinian-Jordanian storyteller, who lived in Kuwait until the age of 12, told Al-Monitor, There are some traditional stories where the woman is passive  a pretty woman just trying to get married  and this is not the only narrative we want.

She said that because she is the storyteller, she can change the narrative. "By shifting the dynamics, the stories  and women  have more power and are smarter. We want a smart society, not a society that is cute, she said.

Shalabi borrows from the rich tradition of folk tales  local and global  and brings a new twist to them, by playing with names, characters and elements of the story and turning traditional story settings into new, contemporary ones.

A lot of things happen in storytelling, Shalabi said. I first read the story on my own and then I play with it. I can flesh out a character, I can make the story longer, I can give some of the characters a new voice or a [more interesting] life or I can make a character flat. The story is not on paper, nor in a novel  it is oral tradition, there are feelings and changes; the stories and characters are alive.

Shalabis work needs to be seen against the background of storytelling, which has a long tradition in Jordan and, more broadly, in the Arab and Mediterranean world. Storytelling is a traditional profession in many different cultures. It was a popular community art form that not only entertained, but also ensured social cohesion, cultural production and communal memory. Recently, there has been a return to and appreciation of the original work of storytellers. This is happening at the same time as the revival of oral history, which is regaining a space in the contemporary societies of Arab cultures.

Women had a role in traditional storytelling, as symbolized by the character of Sheherazade, whom we generally connect to both storytelling and the Arab world. The famous queen and storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights has been more widely explored recently by feminist literary criticism. Many contemporary Arab feminist writers such as the Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi reappropriate her powerful role, underlying the strong and smart personality of a woman who has influenced literature, narratives and the concept of storytelling.

During the holy month of Ramadan in 2017, Shalabis weekly performances took place at night, after iftar, the meal which ends the fast, and many people in the audience chose them over the popular TV soap operas.

Storytelling can create a space for imagination, Shalabi said. We went to Syrian refugee camps several times, and we provided a space for childhood simply by creating a story. It is not just the performance that lasts 30-45 minutes; it is remembering, creating and opening the mind. It is not about the values, it is about creating a space for imaginations. Sometimes we forget this space as adults. I tell stories to the children and everyone is expecting the children to have fun. But if you look at the adults, they are engaged, they are listening, they are participating and they are amazed. It is beautiful.

Shalabi sprinkles her tales with contemporary themes such as the dilemma between the changes brought by neoliberalism and efforts to maintain traditional professions in Amman. When in 2014 the greater municipality of Amman decided to remove the street vendors and their small tables  which are called bastas in Jordanian dialect  at which many vendors try to sell their wares downtown, Shalabi decided to create a public performance about this decision that could have left many people unemployed.

She wrote a short story about a young woman who set up her basta downtown. All the vendors are surprised by this womans basta because it is one nobody has seen before  it is Ikea-made. With this public performance, Shalabi showed solidarity with the street vendors and challenged gender norms in public spaces.This is the Battle of Cartagena de los Indias , fought between the Spanish and British empires off the coast of present-day Colombia in 1741. It was part of the War of Jenkin's Ear, a war where Britain's ultimate aim was to break the Spanish empire and impose a British hegemony over the Western hemisphere.

I have always prided myself on being an amateur historian, knowing far more than most people. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out, about ten years ago, that I knew nothing about one of the most important battles in world history, whose ramifications echo down to this day.

The war went poorly for the British and is usually considered a bit of a draw  with a reversion to the status quo ante. Actually, the British were forced to make concessions to the Spanish, including the loss of slave trading rights (called the Asiento) in Latin America.

How often do we hear about Latin victories in America, where it is usually assumed that the English or Americans always won such engagements?

However, when examined more closely, the War of Jenkin's Ear was a complete disaster for Britain. Britain suffered casualties two to three times greater than the Spanish, with a loss of over twice as many ships. Moreover, the British Navy was humiliated, which had great ramifications for European affairs.

The signal event in the war was the British attack on Cartagena, South America, where the British launched a fleet even larger than the Armada that Spain had hurled against Britain a century and a half earlier. In fact, it would be the largest naval armada in history until the Normandy invasion.

After Great Britain declared war on Spain in 1739, Cartagena quickly became the British forces' top target. [Vice] Admiral Edward Vernon soon embarked with what was then the largest transatlantic amphibious fleet ever assembled: a massive train eventually totaling some 150 ships, carrying 8,000 British soldiers and 4,000 reinforcements from the American colonies, the largest contingent the colonies ever had sent from the mainland.

Actually, the National Geographic figures are low. They do not include other British forces. The British were so sure of their upcoming conquest that they struck medals celebrating their anticipated victory.

The British outnumbered the Spanish roughly five to one or more, depending on which source is used. Wikipedia lists the British forces to include:

27,400-30,000 men

29 ships of the line

22 frigates

71 sloops-of-war

80 troop ships

50 merchant ships

Against the British were:

2,700 Spanish regulars

400 Spanish marines

600 sailors

300 militia

600 native archers

6 ships of the line

numerous shore-based guns

Other sources give similar numbers (as this video). What is clear is that the Spanish stood no chance.

Worse yet, the commander of the Spanish forces was Blas de Lezo, a Basque with one leg, one arm, and one eye, due to wounds he had received in wars, often against the British.

But de Lezo, who had lost his leg to British cannon in 1704, was prepared.

To shorten a long story, de Lezo sank the few ships he had to prevent the British from entering the port harbor. He dug a zigzagged trench around Cartagena to withstand British fire. He sent out two Spanish soldiers to feign a surrender and give false information to the British troops. De Lezo then sent out Spanish troops to sneak attack at night. (Click here for a short video.)

British forces made it to the outer defenses of Cartagena before disease and poor supplies took their inevitable toll. The British were forced to retreat. Amazingly, de Lezo had won. One can get a sense of de Lezo's life and the disaster that befell the British from this video.

The fighting had lasted 68 days, ended with the British Royal Navy withdrawing in defeat, after losing 9,500 dead, 7,500 wounded, 1.500 [sic] guns and 50 ships either sank [sic] or badly damaged by enemy fire or disabled or just abandoned for lack of crews. There were nineteen ships of the line damaged, four frigates and twenty-seven transports lost. Of the 3,600 American Minuteman [sic], who had volunteered lured by promises of land and pillage of mountains of gold, only 300 returned; most died of yellow fever, dysentery, and outright starvation. Lawrence Washington, George's brother, was a privileged one who returned back home to renamed [sic] his Virginia plantation Mount Vernon, after Admiral Vernon. The Spanish casualties were: 800 dead, 1,200 wounded, 6 ships lost. The forts and castles of Bocachica, Castillo Grande Castle and Manzanillo battery were completely destroyed. This was horrific for the English, they were completely humiliated. The largest operation of the Royal Navy so far resulted in the greatest defeat of her history.

Vice Admiral Vernon would go on to recapitulate this defeat with a subsequent botched conquest of Cuba.

When news of the gigantic British defeat got back to Europe, Britain was humiliated. Suddenly, Britain's enemies during the War of Austrian Succession were given a respite. Eventually, the British had to accept a rough draw.

British plans for the conquest of Spanish America were thwarted. Lawrence Washington  George's older half-brother  was one of the few colonial troops to survive. Lawrence had to have brought back to the colonies that news that Britain was not as invincible as formerly thought. This no doubt must have consoled George Washington in his darker moments during the Revolution.

It is claimed  and also disputed  that King George II prohibited the publishing of the British defeat, and therein may be a story about the 18th-century British Deep State. The losing naval commander, Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, was treated as a hero and later promoted to a full admiral, while finally being given full burial honors at Westminster Cathedral, with this engraved on his tomb:

He subdued Chagre, and at Carthagena conquered as far as naval forces could carry victory[.]

With such a denial of history, one has to wonder if Edward Vernon was a progenitor of some Democratic politicians.

On the other side, de Lezo would succumb to typhus a few months later. Unbelievably, the Spanish government blamed him for sinking his ships without engaging the English Navy directly. Apparently, humiliating the British was not enough.

De Lezo's grave would be forgotten and lost.

The victory secured American trade to Spain over 60 years. Britain never returned, neither [sic] appeared in front of Cartagena de Indias Bay. Spanish rule of the seas was so hegemonic that not only the Caribbean Sea but the Atlantic Ocean itself became a Spanish lake again. The Spanish could freely fly their flag on the Atlantic Ocean for 60 years. This would not be the same after Trafalgar, when the British became the Lords of the Sea.

But victors write history, and the British who were ascendant in the 18th and later 19th century must have made little note of the battle  as demonstrated by Vernon's tomb. The British Deep State  which had worked to suppress the news  had won. This is why few Americans know of it.

Blas de Lezo's forces, who should go down in history as the equivalent of the men at the Alamo or the Spartans at Thermopylae  even more so, as they won the battle  are barely known outside Colombia. Again, this is no doubt due to British ascendancy in the 19th century.

A similar effect can be seen regarding present American histories of the Napoleonic Wars, where American historians seem to adopt the British view of Napoleon rather than understanding him from the contemporary American viewpoint, which was to view Napoleon with disdain but to remember that Britain, not France, was the enemy.

The Spanish gave de Lezo begrudging recognition over time. His son inherited a peerage. A bust of de Lezo was raised in San Sebastian in the Basque country, and a frigate was named after him. However, it was only in 2014 that Madrid finally gave de Lezo the honor that was due him with a full statue in the Plaza Colon.

What brought de Lezo's memory back was the internet. Videos started appearing, and the world rediscovered the incredible triumph of this preternatural Basque. Slowly, the word is getting out.

Do not kid yourself: de Lezo's victory weakened the British, and probably distantly contributed to the American victory in the Revolution. It also contributed to the failure of the British to lay a full claim on the Falkland Islands until the 19th century, which is why Argentina counter-claims the islands. The British were famous for grabbing major ports on every continent, except South America, where all they got was the backwater of British Guiana...thanks to Blas de Lezo.

What is more important is how we allow official sources to control our view of history and of the world. Since American Thinker readers are an educated lot, I have to assume that some of you knew of Blas de Lezo, but I also have to assume that for some of you, this is the first time you have heard of him. So it was for me, a few years earlier.

This should not be so. Blas de Lezo is actually a giant of history, who was almost forgotten, thanks to Deep States in both Britain and Spain. Consider what else is being hidden from you!

Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish better in high school, lo those many decades ago. He runs a website about the Arab community in South America at http://latinarabia.com and a website about small computers at http://thetinydesktop.com.Barry Farber, the Godfather of Modern Talk Radio

Barry Farber is a legendary and influential figure in the history of modern American media. He is best known for being a pioneering host of intelligent talk radio, on the air almost continuously since 1960 right up to the present time. These days, at age 87, he is still going strong, hosting a nightly live hour-long talk radio program, The Barry Farber Show. It was back in mid-20th-century America  the height of the post-World War II "American Century"  that Farber and a small group of colleagues experimented with and quickly established the enduring popularity of the innovative talk radio format on the highest rated stations in New York City, America's #1 media market. Other pioneers of radio were working the same magic in other American cities, big and small. In the first three decades of radio, programming had centered on music, live and recorded; comedies, dramas, and sitcoms; and frothy variety shows. Political and current events talk programming including interaction on the air with radio listeners was almost totally unknown. That all began to change after World War II.

Farber was well prepared and well positioned for his decades-long career as a "talker." Early on, he displayed a unique and astounding facility for linguistics. He eventually became fluent in at least 25 foreign languages. His expertise with languages was tapped by the U.S. government, including during the Korean War. In 1957, shortly after Farber moved to New York, William Safire  who went on to have a long and distinguished career in media, politics, and journalism  hired Farber as a producer of the seminal Tex and Jinx talk show on New York City's flagship NBC-owned radio station, WNBC. In 1960, at the age of 30, Farber got the chance to host his own talk program on WINS, another top station in New York.

Barry Farber on the air in the 1980s. The rest, as they say, is history. Farber's mellifluous voice, with a touch of an appealing Southern drawl (he grew up in North Carolina), complemented his natural graciousness. His obvious intelligence and familiarity with a wide range of issues including history, philosophy, and the news of the day added to his appeal and quickly endeared him to large mainstream audiences ranging from working stiffs to Upper-East-Side sophisticates in the Big Apple and beyond. Thanks to Farber's broadcasting for years on 50,000-watt clear channel stations that could be heard at great distances at night, when Farber did his shows, he developed a following in many states east of the Mississippi River. Unlike some other more acerbic and confrontational talk hosts who enjoyed ratings success in the 1960s  Joe Pyne, for example  Farber never insulted any of his guests or talked down to his callers. When he was on, he was always a gentleman. In the 1980s, Farber gained an even larger audience when his eponymous program found a home on major national radio networks of the day, including ABC Talk Radio. In 2002, Talkers Magazine, the leading professional journal in the field, included Farber on the top ten of its list of the 25 Greatest Radio Talk Show Hosts of All Time. As a 2006 bio of him at Talk Radio Network put it: As smooth and civilized as Jack Daniels whiskey, and with just as much kick, Barry Farber is one of America's legendary talk show hosts. As a high school student in a NYC suburb one night in 1965, I discovered the Barry Farber Show on WOR AM 710 in New York, the clear channel super-station where Farber spent 15 years on the air. I was immediately hooked  on both Farber and talk radio. I still have old reel-to-reel tapes that I recorded of some of his programs from the 1960s, exploring leading-edge political, social, and cultural issues of the day, including the first credible challenges by critics like attorney Mark Lane to the party line accounts of the JFK assassination. Eventually, I worked in talk radio myself, in college and later as an occasional host and a frequent guest. That experience made me realize that successes like Farber's in the radio business are not as easy to achieve as one might think.

Barry Farber, candidate for NYC mayor, speaks to his supporters on Election Day, Nov. 8, 1977. Farber's only break from a lifetime of continuous broadcasting came in 1977, when he declared his candidacy for mayor of NYC and took some time off from radio. A conservative, he ran initially as a Republican and came in a strong second in his party's primary. In the general election that November, he led the small Conservative Party's ticket. Also competing that year, and ultimately dominating the general election campaign, were future New York governor Mario Cuomo, a Democrat who ran for mayor on the Liberal Party ticket, and Ed Koch, another registered Democrat, who won the election. Together, Koch and Cuomo captured 92% of the vote in that mostly liberal city. One wonders how the future of New York and American history itself might have been different had Barry Farber won the race. Back to the present: For the past decade, Barry Farber has been broadcasting his show weeknights between 8 and 9 P.M. E.T. on the CRN Digital Talk Radio HD channel, which is streamed on the internet and carried on a number of cable TV providers around the country, with free podcasts available at CRN, iTunes, and many other platforms. The Barry Farber Show is a wonderful opportunity, which has been compared to enjoying a glass of fine wine, to hear someone who was there close to the beginning of talk radio and who has never lost his touch to inform and entertain an audience. Listening to Barry Farber is like opening the door to a vibrant and living history of America from the middle of the 20th century onward. At this point, I can't think of anyone who would have more to offer us as we try to understand the history of our times and  just maybe  come together as a people to make America great again.

Two of Barry Farber's bestselling books. Not surprisingly, considering his facility with language, Barry Farber is also a widely published writer. In addition to contributing articles to leading newspapers including the New York Times, he is the author of several books, including How to Learn Any Language and Making People Talk: You Can Turn Every Conversation into a Magic Moment. Amazon currently has two used hardcover copies of the latter book, published in 1987, for sale at $6,890.10 and $9,029.00, not including shipping. Since 2009, Farber has contributed an article per week at World Net Daily. His archive there numbers over 440 articles, published like clockwork every seven days. This is a man with a strong, disciplined work ethic. Like his nightly radio broadcast, his articles are well worth our attention.

Barry Farber today. In November 2014, Farber's original hometown newspaper, the Greensboro, North Carolina News & Record, published a feature article titled "Farber's road to Radio Hall of Fame started here." The piece is rich with biographical detail. It also includes a telling quote by Farber at the end, elicited from him when he was interviewed by his daughters, Celia Farber and Bibi Farber, women of significant accomplishments in their own right, who joined their father on his own radio program on November 7, 2014: I would rather burn out than rust out. I am one of those who will not retire. It is a great gift to all of us that Barry Farber continues to feel that way. Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran reporter and analyst of news on national politics, media, and popular culture. He is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. In addition to his writing, Peter has appeared as a guest commentator on NBC; PBS; the CBC in Canada; and, on January 4, 2018, the BBC in London. For announcements and links to a wide selection of Peter's published and broadcast work, follow him on Twitter at @pchowka.Beware of the Real Russian Threat

One of the memorable anecdotes of Hollywood concerns the film noir The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, because of its complex story. It is a puzzling story, almost incoherent, with its convoluted plot and many double-crossing characters who come and go. Neither the original writer, Raymond Chandler, nor William Faulkner, one of the screenwriters, could fully explain what and why some incidents occurred. The director, Howard Hawks, was particularly concerned with one plot point and telegraphed Chandler with the question "Who killed chauffeur?" Chandler replied, "How the hell do I know?" The same could be asked about the ongoing "Russian collusion" investigation. It is sad to perceive that the behavior of some of the characters, if not as charismatic as Bogart, in the never-ending fantasy of the complex plot of collusion between the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and various Russians, is out-convoluting The Big Sleep. One of the characters in the drama is the indefatigable Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who asserts there is an "abundance of non-classified information that is evidence on the issue of collusion, and some ... on the issue of obstruction." Schiff also points to evidence in the public domain: one meeting in June 2016 between Trump campaign members and a Russian lawyer.

Here comes the congressional facsimile of The Big Sleep to delight Raymond Chandler. Despite his "evidence," Schiff admits, "I've never said there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt." Moreover, he explained he could not go into "specifics" until they are declassified. There are a lot of reasons, he said, why the names of U.S. persons and organizations are not used. The cast of characters in the collusion drama changes almost daily. Some remain in the shadowy background: Carter Page, Bruce Ohr, Sidney Blumenthal, Cody Shearer. More central is Oleg Deripaska, the 50-year-old Russian self-made billionaire; the founder and owner of the Basic Element group of companies, one of the largest diversified industrial groups in Russia; and the president of number of other companies, including United Company Rusal, the second largest aluminum company in the world. He was denied entrance to the U.S. because of alleged links to the mafia. Whether those mafia connections are real or not, Deripaska does have numerous links. One is to Paul Manafort, who was hired by Deripaska to work for pro-Putin oligarchs in Ukraine, 2006-2009. More recently, he is suing Manafort regarding a $20-million investment and fees from a 2008 business deal in the Cayman Islands. Deripaska has international connections. He owns townhouses in Manhattan and has a stake in the Russian language paper V Novom Svete (New World) in New York. He hosted and tried to cultivate British politicians Lord Mandelson and George Osborn, former chancellor of the Exchequer. But his most pertinent dealings are with Christopher Steele, a key player in the collusion comedy of errors. Steele was recruited by British MI6 immediately on graduation from Cambridge, where he was president of the debating society, and became head of its Russian desk. In 2009, he founded his own private investigation agency, Orbis Business International, and in 2015 began working with the Democratic National Committee, creating the "Steele dossier" and planting information on journalists and others. The dossier has still not been publicly revealed here, and the enigma remains: what are its contents, and what or who is the source of the information, true or false, in the dossier? One intriguing puzzle is whether Steele worked with Paul Hauser, an American lawyer in London, who represents Deripaska. Steele's role is not akin to Bogart's, but the respective scenarios are equally complex. Part of it is the link between Steele and Mark Warner, ranking Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, through a man named Adam Waldman, a Washington lawyer who in 2009 registered as a U.S. agent for Deripaska "to provide legal advice on issues involving his U.S. visa as well as on commercial transactions." A year later, he was also an agent for Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Waldman is said to receive $40,000 as a monthly retainer for these services. It was Waldman who on March 16, 2017 texted Warner that "Chris Steele asked me to call you." Russian connections and the appeal of Moscow are not new. Writing during the Blitz over London by Nazi bombers in 1941, George Orwell, attempting to define British culture in his essay "England Your England," wrote that "the intellectuals who hope to see [Britain] Russianized or Germanized will be disappointed. The intellectuals in politics take their cooking from Paris, and their opinions from Moscow." Britain has had its experience with this. The details of the pro-Soviet activities of the Cambridge Five, including Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, all of whom betrayed secrets to the Soviet Union, have become legendary. Surprisingly, in February 2018, allegations have surfaced that in December 1986, an agent from the then-Soviet Bloc country, specifically Czech secret police, met three times with the young member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn, now leader of the Labor Party. Corbyn was and is no spy, but he is alleged to have reported on British security activities, and his hostility to the Thatcher government, and was positive about Soviet foreign policy and its "peace initiative." More important are other allegations, revealed first by British private-sector cyber-security experts, then by the U.K. government on February 15, 2018, and a day later by the U.S.: Russia is directly named responsible for the NotPatya cyber-attack in June 2017. Its primary targets were Ukrainian financial, energy, and government sectors. But its effects spread; it also affected European business and disrupted organizations and is estimated to have cost companies more than $1.2 billion. British government ministers are clear and forthright. The British defense minister, Gavin Williams, blamed Russia for malicious cyber-activity. He commented that we are entering a new era of warfare  a destructive and deadly mix of conventional military might and malicious cyber-attacks. Russia, he argued, is "ripping up the rulebook" by undermining democracy and affecting lives by targeting critical infrastructure and weaponizing information. He pointed out that U.K. intelligence agencies have discovered the involvement of the Russian military. His colleague, British foreign minister Lord Ahmad, also attributed the NotPetya attack to the Russian government, specifically the Russian military. The Kremlin has positioned Russia in direct opposition to the West. Ahmad called on Russia to be a responsible member of the international community, rather than secretly trying to undermine it. Britain was committed to strengthening coordinated international efforts to uphold a free, open, peaceful, and secure cyberspace. The U.S. Congress should learn from this British forthrightness. This is even more the case since Special Counsel Robert Mueller on February 16, 2018 issued his report, and the Department of Justice announced the indictment of 13 Russians and the Russian Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, for involvement in interfering in the 2016 presidential election and in a conspiracy to disrupt the election. Equally pertinent is that no allegation is made that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity, along with no allegation that Russian conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election. Congress, including Adam Schiff, can now concentrate on the cyberspace problem, and the Russian activity within it.As the indictment notes, the U.S. Department of Justice administers the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). FARA establishes a reporting protocol for foreign nationals, including non-government individuals "attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and law." To its credit, the FBI seems to have done a good job tracking Russian individuals and entities that violated FARA even if there was no evidence of collusion with the Trump campaign or Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee emails. If there was a link between any of these groups and the Kremlin, the indictment made no note of it.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller laid out the law clearly in his indictment of numerous Russian nationals and groups for their attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.

Most importantly, perhaps, the Mueller investigation has established that meddling by foreign nationals in a U.S. election is real and problematic. This being so, the DOJ and FBI might want to turn their attention to the role Mexican nationals played in the 2016 election. They will not have to dig deep to find evidence.

A good place to start searching would be the audio the journalists of Project Veritas recorded in their undercover stings of the Hillary Clinton campaign. To make the search easier, James O'Keefe has documented many of these conversations in his new book, American Pravda.

In the course of one sting, Democratic operative Scott Foval explained to Project Veritas's "Steve Packard" how he paid people to incite violence at Trump rallies. "What I call it is 'conflict engagement.' Conflict engagement in the lines at Trump rallies," Foval told Steve. "We're starting anarchy here."

"I'm saying we have mentally ill people that we pay to do [s---]," Foval continued. "Make no mistake. Over the last twenty years, I've paid off a few homeless guys to do some crazy stuff, and I've also taken them for dinner, and I've also made sure they had a hotel and a shower, and I put them in a program." Foval had a particular affection for union supporters. "They'll do whatever you want," he added. "They're rock 'n' roll."

Foval led the Project Veritas team to a man named Bob Creamer, the head of a firm called Democracy Partners. "I'm the white hat," Foval told Steve. "Democracy Partners is kind of a dark hat. I will probably end up being a partner there at some point because our philosophy is actually the same."

For the record, Creamer is a big-time Democratic player. He is married to Chicago-area congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and is close to both the Obamas and the Clintons. According to visitor logs, Creamer made more than 340 trips to the White House during the Obama years, with 45 of those meetings including the president in attendance.

"Bob Creamer is diabolical, and I love him for it," Foval continued. Foval was obliging enough to lay out the campaign's organizational chart. "The campaign pays DNC," he told Steve. "DNC pays Democracy Partners. Democracy Partners pays The Foval Group. The Foval Group goes and executes the [s---] on the ground."

Ever enterprising, Project Veritas managed to get journalist Allison Maass an internship at Democracy Partners. In answer to Maass's question about a practice known generically as "bird-dogging," Creamer explained his group's hardball version thereof. "You're trying to actually confront people," Creamer answered. "The thing that makes the best television is, of course, the target: angry people. That's great TV. Now, Trump  you don't ... maybe you want to get people to do something in advance to cause problems for him, and ... I guess these guys are the DREAMers. They're just pros at this."

"What do you mean by DREAMers?" Angela asked to get Creamer on record.

"DREAMers are the category of people brought here as children, as immigrants," said Creamer, neglecting to say they came here illegally.

"So there's, like, a specific group of DREAMers?" asked Maass.

"Well, there are organizations out there," Creamer responded. He identified a fellow named Cesar Vargas as the best of the organizers. "This crew is spectacular at it," Creamer added. He explained that DREAMers have "a lot more legitimacy" because they are not specifically "operatives of the DNC or of the campaigns." Their presence at rallies, he believed, made for "good optics."

"So Hillary is aware of all the work that you guys do, I hope?" Allison asked.

"Oh yeah," said Creamer. "Yes. The campaign is fully in it."

As Project Veritas learned, Vargas was a New York lawyer, the co-founder of the Dream Action Coalition, and a DREAMer himself. "Only in the Democratic Party could an illegal alien achieve such heights without disguising his illegality," O'Keefe writes. Apparently, Vargas had known Creamer for years.

Here you have it. Organized groups of foreign nationals were actively colluding at the highest levels with the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and quite possibly the Obama White House. There is no mystery, no need to spend millions on high-priced lawyers.

Let the investigation begin.

Image: Michael L. Dorn, Flickr.Shortly after Rod Rosenstein announced the latest series of indictments against Russians largely for posts on social media, the stock market rose and hit its highest weekly gain since 2013. And for good reason  the indictments are idiotic. They would never have been issued by a prosecutor, only a special counsel looking as if he's doing something as his case against his big catch  General Michael Flynn  seems to become less and less certain to lead to conviction.

As Power Line blog notes:

But when all the details are added up a much murkier picture emerges. First, the effort apparently began taking shape as early as May 2014 (and perhaps as early as 2013), an entire year before Trump became a candidate. Then, as they got underway during the primary season, the indictment says (p. 17) that "They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump," and instructions to their online "specialists" to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump  we support them)." It didn't take any kind of special intelligence to perceive that Sanders and Trump represented the two most disruptive candidates in the field. Just think of how the political establishments of both parties would have regarded a Sanders-Trump general election in 2016. Third, the Russian operation organized and promoted numerous pro-Trump rallies, but also attempted to manipulate anti-Trump groups and organize anti-Trump events, especially after the election. On p. 23, for example: "At the same time, Defendants and their co-conspirators, through another ORGANIZATION-controlled group, organized a rally in New York called 'Trump is NOT my President' held on or about November 12, 2016. Similarly, Defendants and their co-conspirators organized a rally entitled 'Charlotte Against Trump' in Charlotte, North Carolina, held on or about November 19, 2016." This is all classic disinformation and grassroots manipulation tradecraft going back to the Soviet era, when we know the Soviets worked diligently and spent lavishly to gin up anti-nuclear grassroots groups in the West, but also manipulated anti-Communist groups behind the Iron Curtain, the better to be able to sow chaos among its enemies. So let's restate the likely explanations. Why did the Russians do this? Because they could. It was useful for them to discover how much they could infiltrate the political process in the U.S., and above all to sow chaos. Actually favoring a Trump victory over Hillary makes little sense on substance, because most of Trump's foreign policy positions  cheaper energy, expanded defense spending by us and NATO, more missile defense  are averse to Russian interests. But an election result that leaves chaos in its wake works perfectly well whether Hillary had won or Trump. In that sense, the Russian operation has been a sweeping success for them. Maybe our media ought to reflect that they are serving Russian interests very well with their rabid sensationalism of the "collusion" story.

Of course, the indictments are unlikely to result in anything, as the Russians are not going to extradite those charged, and we have no jurisdiction over those named. In any event, we do the same thing wherever we can. Just recently, then President Obama, using federal funds, worked to prevent Benjamin Netanyahu's re-election.

My online friend "daddy" posts, "I wonder if Putin is gleefully having his comrades combing thru that list of indictees to see if he can get a photogenic and talkative one to come over to the States and agree to a trial, in hopes of making this whole Keystone Cop's [sic] prosecution Team be seen as the total fools they are. I hope he sends one over who leaked dirt to Steele and Simpson, and who also was tied in to the Uranium 1 deal and met Mueller when he took Uranium samples to Russia for Hillary."

JimmyK echoes my disdain: "These indictments of the Russians is [sic] just theater  no way they would have happened but for the agitation of Hillary and the Dems trying to excuse her horrific candidacy. It reminds me of the arrest of the guy who made the video they tried to blame for Benghazi. Are you kidding me? Some 3rd rate technical violation normally wouldn't register on the FBI radar screen. What a waste of resources, only heightened by the failure on the Fla shooter."

And Janet asks: "Who spent more money ... the 13 Russian nogoodniks on FB & twitter or Robert Creamer hiring thugs to incite violence at Trump events?"

In any event, the indictments were so sloppily crafted that a number of the sites listed as pro-Trump in them were actually pro-Hillary.

It's hard to avoid taking note of the disparate FBI treatment of the winsome Anna Chapman and her gang of Russian spies, who got much closer to Hillary than these bloggers and a couple of agitators who landed briefly here ever got to Trump. They were just hustled out of the country.

Perhaps if Mueller really wanted to investigate improper interference with our elections, he should look in the mirror, for it was he who worked with Lois Lerner and the IRS to hamstring and target the Tea Party to Obama's benefit in the 2012 election.

Indeed, one might plausibly argue that releasing these ridiculous indictments on a Friday before a holiday to be twisted by headers in the usual mainstream media, which created so much chaos for the new administration, is part of a continuing Deep State resistance.

B. Obstruction of Justice

A remaining element in his open-ended fishing license is Mueller's seeking to find obstruction of justice in Trump's firing of Mueller's good friend James Comey, whose memos leaked in part to his friend Daniel Richman are still inexplicably being kept from congressional investigators.

If you read nothing else on the subject, read all of Andrew McCarthy's analysis, which space and copyright restrictions prevent me from reprinting in larger part. Beginning with an analysis of the email Susan Rice sent to herself hours after Trump was inaugurated, he draws a disturbing picture of the Deep State plotting to continue investigating the president, while keeping from him the knowledge of what they were doing, a plot in which Comey played a key part.

He begins by explaining that Susan Rice's email was not to memorialize what had occurred at the meeting among her, Obama, James Comey, Michael Rogers, John Brennan, and James Clapper, but rather to revise the record of the decision to keep from the president the knowledge that the Deep State was investigating him. The FISA warrant was running out, and they wanted to continue probing, even though the central figure was the new president.

That is what Rice's email is really about: not sharing with the incoming Trump administration classified information about the Trump-Russia investigation, such as the basis for seeking a FISA warrant on Carter Page. The dilemma was that the Obama administration had placed "the incoming team"  in particular, President-elect Trump  under investigation. Remember, Obama's law-enforcement agencies believed the Steele dossier. No, the FBI had not been able to corroborate it; but, as former FBI director Comey told Congress, the bureau deemed its author, Christopher Steele, to be a reliable source. Steele, moreover, had collaborated on the project with Nellie Ohr, the wife of Bruce Ohr, Yates's top aide at the Justice Department[.] ... So we arrive at the knotty question for Obama political and law-enforcement officials: How do we "engage with the incoming team" of Trump officials while also determining that "we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia"? How do we assure that an investigation of Trump can continue when Trump is about to take over the government? What is the answer? Let's consider what happened the next day. We've heard the story a million times: After President-elect Trump was briefed by agency leaders on the intelligence community's Russia report, Comey met privately with Trump to brief him on the Steele dossier. But is that what happened? I don't think so. I believe Trump was briefed only on a sliver of the dossier. Remember, the Obama administration presumption was: "We cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia." When we scrutinize Director Comey's carefully crafted Senate testimony from last June, and when we consider the panoply of what a full briefing on the Steele dossier would have entailed  the breadth of the Trump-Russia corruption allegations, the FISA warrant applications and their heavy reliance on the dossier, the fact that the dossier was a Clinton campaign project  it is manifest that Comey did not give Trump the full picture of what the dossier was and how it was being used by the FBI and the Justice Department. Certainly, President Trump was not informed to the same extent President Obama was.

This is why Comey assured Trump privately that he was not under investigation but refused Trump's request that he say so publicly.

In sum, he concludes:

It is getting close to two years with no apparent evidence of an actionable Trump-Russia conspiracy. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to ask: Is President Trump under investigation for collusion with the Kremlin? If not, shouldn't he and the country be told that? And since counterintelligence investigations are conducted to inform the president  the constitutional officer responsible for national security against foreign threats  it is worth asking: What was the difference between what the FBI told the FISA court about the Trump-Russia investigation and what they told the president of the United States about it?

C. Warranted Suspicions of the Integrity and Skill of Our Intelligence Agencies

McCarthy's questioning is echoed in the requests  still pending on jurisdictional issues  by top congressional committee chairs Devin Nunes and Bob Goodlatte of the FISC to turn over the actual FISA requests, obviously because they question whether those they were given by the Department of Justice match what was filed with that court to permit the snooping. Did DOJ modify to hide from Congress the requests it made to the FISC "in order to hide from Congress the trail of a conspiracy against a presidential candidate and an incoming administration"?

All this on the very day we learn that the FBI dropped the ball, despite repeated warnings about the Parkland, Florida shooter  just as it had ignored warnings about the Tsarnaev brothers in the Boston massacre and the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen.

And the CIA is arguing to a skeptical judge that the Freedom of Information Act allows it to selectively release to "trusted"  i.e., favored  reporters classified information and withhold that same information from the public.

Deep State, indeed.An emerging police state that spies on Americans? The left yawns

Ever since the McCarthy era, hasn't it been a cultural norm from the left to holler about the U.S. becoming a police state? A police state that spies on innocent Americans? One that represses free speech and imposes thought which in reality is little different from a Soviet-style totalitarian police state? Aren't camps around the corner for the U.S., too? Hasn't the dark night of fascism been always descending over the United States (for decades), to paraphrase Tom Wolfe, yet lands only in Europe? Police State. Photo by Johnny Silvercloud / CC0 BY-SA 2.0 It's a drum the left has been banging for decades, all out of a supposedly pious 'principle.' Of course we don't spy on terrorists who would kill us! Gentlemen don't read each other's mail! We wouldn't dream of spying on Black Panthers or subversives within so many social movements because their rights might be violated! It's wrong! And the left's auxiliary to this defense of anti-Americans' "rights" was to align with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union which always favors the criminal over the protectors of Americans; calling for the full Marquess of Queensberry rules as far as the state goes. As Weatherman terrorist leader Bill Ayers put it: 'Guilty as hell and free as a bird' and the left has been happy with that. On the matters of state, the culmination of this philosophy was in the Church Commission, which debilitated our intelligence services over few past abuses during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, including what were known as the CIA's "family jewels," which included news of its Keystone Kop effort to get rid of a monster like Fidel Castro by trying to make his beard fall out. A fine summary of the origins of the left's creation of the Church Commission by Thomas J. Farnan can be read at Townhall here.

But as Farnan notes, all that oom-pah-pah from the left over spying seems to have changed. We had the Internal Revenue Service spying on and repressing internal dissidents, which were not people who sought to harm us, as the left's heroes did, but who called themselves the 'Tea Party' and campaigned for lower government spending. The IRS and its minions such as the notorious Lois Lerner, who looks every bit like the warden she was, spied away, admitted their political motivation, and got off scot-free, retiring to their multi-million-dollar beltway manions as their reward. And from the principled left? Silence. Then the deep state got busy spying on Carter Page, a blameless man who has not been charged with anything, for the 'crime' of liking Russia, based on his experience in Russia. A flimsy-as-hell, we-knew-it-was-garbage partisan file document, paid for by the Democratic Party, was used by the FBI as the basis for a FISA warrant, that protection put in by largely the left to keep the government from spying on citizens, and sure enough it was abused, resulting in the utterly unwarranted spying by the government on a U.S. citizen. And from there, more citizens were spied on, many more - including all of the people on the Trump team who got 'unmasked' in mass numbers by Obama officials, one of whom may have stolen Samantha Power's password to use in the unauthorized searches. Obama, was that you? And the response from the left? Absolute dead silence. Abuses left and right and not a voice of principle among them. It's all because they hate Trump that much. They are absolutely blind to the double standard their silence implies. What it means is they can't go to that well a second time if more spying on their favored subversives occurs again. Because they've dropped their principles, that path is now wide open. Two can always play at their games.2) They are quick to arrive at conclusions and hammer then in repeatedly;

and

3) They are extremely sparse in details.

You can read a hundred such articles without understanding what percent of legal migration is due to chain migration, what exactly is chain migration, and how it works. But when you are done reading this article, you will be such an expert that all your friends will turn to you for advice and succor on the subject.

Let's look at total legal immigration in 2015, courtesy of the Center for Immigration Studies :

The data is a little confusing because of how chain migration is defined. Chain migration, which is defined as immigrants bringing in related immigrants, is a subset of family migration, which includes native-born American citizens bringing in immigrant spouses.

For purposes of this discussion, however, I am going to treat all family migration as chain migration, as it covers people being brought into the country who are not vetted for professional capabilities. You may think that bringing in spouses of native born US Citizens shouldn't be considered part of chain migration, but in cases where first generation Americans (such as grown up anchor babies) sponsor spouses, it should be considered part of chain migration.

Another interesting fact to notice about the chart above is that "sons" and "daughters" refer to adult children while "children" refer to, well, underage children. The F-2 category above refers to both kinds.

What we can glean from the facts above is that family based migration accounted for 825,000 legal immigrants in 2015. That's a very large number, and the vast majority of all immigrants admitted in 2015.

The next largest category is refugees, which was 150,000. This number has shrunk radically under Trump, but it is up to each president to unilaterally decide how many to admit every year, so a future president Kamala Harris or Cory Booker could admit 200,000, 400,000 or even more.

Another category is the random lottery, which brought in 75,000 people, again with no vetting for job skills or employability. And finally the last category is employment or merit based, for those who have needed job skills. That number was less than 150,000 in 2015. As you can see, nearly 90% of legal immigrants were not vetted for job skills.

Some key facts from the CIS report:

 Over the last 35 years, chain migration has greatly exceeded new immigration. Out of 33 million immigrants admitted to the United States from 1981 to 2016, about 20 million were chain migration immigrants (61 percent).  Judging from preliminary administrative data, approximately 1,125,000 legal immigrants were approved for admission in 2016, which is about 7 percent higher than 2015, and one of the highest numbers in the last decade.  The largest categories of chain migration are spouses and parents of naturalized U.S. citizens because admissions in these categories are unlimited by law.  According to the most complete contemporary academic studies on chain migration, in recent years each new immigrant sponsored an average of 3.45 additional immigrants. In the early 1980s, the chain migration multiplier was 2.59, or more than 30 percent lower.  Of the top immigrant-sending countries, Mexico has the highest rate of chain migration. In the most recent five-year cohort of immigrants studied (1996-2000), each new Mexican immigrant sponsored 6.38 additional legal immigrants.

What Trump has proposed is to eliminate the lottery system (now around 50,000 slots) and to limit chain migration to spouses and underage children, no parents, no brothers or sisters, and no adult children.

However, that would still allow spouses and underage children. If we assume that 75% of the F-2 category are spouses and underage children, and you add that to spouses of US Citizens who are given visas, that means about 400,000 family based migrants would still be coming into the country every year, without regard to merit, even under Trump's limited chain migration plan. That number would still dwarf the number of employment based visas given out on merit every year. It would still allow hundreds of thousands of new citizens into the country who have not been vetted for job skills.

It would be a vast improvement over what we have now, where some 85% of people entering the country are not vetted for job skills, but is not an ideal long term immigration policy.The Obama administrations CIA Director John Brennan has plenty of questions of his own involvement in the use of the phony Steele dossier to spy on the Trump campaign, but as they old saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. So, he is pushing the narrative that those evil Russians  who were not impeded by Brennans CIA in starting their mission to sow chaos in the election starting in 2014, according to the just released Mueller indictments  did indeed influence the election, and maybe hand the presidency to Donald Trump, making his term illegitimate.

The faltering narrative claiming Russia somehow fixed the election of Donald Trump still has its defenders, but the facts are piling up against them. An unexpected source implicitly has rebuked the medias coverage, even as those withs omething hide double down.

The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesnt align with the main media narrative of Tump and the election. https://t.co/2dL8Kh0hof

Most of the coverage of Russian meddling involves their attempt to effect the outcome of the 2016 US election. I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was *NOT* the main goal.

Very excited to see the Mueller indictment today. We shared Russian ads with Congress, Mueller and the American people to help the public understand how the Russians abused our system. Still, there are keys facts about the Russian actions that are still not well understood.

An implicit rebuke of the ex top spy came from an unexpected source, Tob Goldman, Facebooks VP of advertising:

DOJ statement and indictments reveal the extent and motivations of Russian interference in 2016 election. Claims of a hoax in tatters. My take: Implausible that Russian actions did not influence the views and votes of at least some Americans.

The faltering narrative claiming Russia somehow fixed the election of Donald Trump still has its defenders, but the facts are piling up against them. An unexpected source implicitly has rebuked the medias coverage, even as those withs omething hide double down.

The Obama administrations CIA Director John Brennan has plenty of questions of his own involvement in the use of the phony Steele dossier to spy on the Trump campaign, but as they old saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. So, he is pushing the narrative that those evil Russians  who were not impeded by Brennans CIA in starting their mission to sow chaos in the election starting in 2014, according to the just released Mueller indictments  did indeed influence the election, and maybe hand the presidency to Donald Trump, making his term illegitimate.

DOJ statement and indictments reveal the extent and motivations of Russian interference in 2016 election. Claims of a hoax in tatters. My take: Implausible that Russian actions did not influence the views and votes of at least some Americans.  John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) February 16, 2018

DonkeyHotey / Flickr via Creative Commons

An implicit rebuke of the ex top spy came from an unexpected source, Tob Goldman, Facebooks VP of advertising:

Very excited to see the Mueller indictment today. We shared Russian ads with Congress, Mueller and the American people to help the public understand how the Russians abused our system. Still, there are keys facts about the Russian actions that are still not well understood.  Rob Goldman (@robjective) February 17, 2018

Most of the coverage of Russian meddling involves their attempt to effect the outcome of the 2016 US election. I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was *NOT* the main goal.  Rob Goldman (@robjective) February 17, 2018

The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesnt align with the main media narrative of Tump and the election. https://t.co/2dL8Kh0hof  Rob Goldman (@robjective) February 17, 2018

Do facts matter to Brennan? Even leftists have their doubts.A member of Israel's security cabinet, Minister of National Infrastructures and Political-Security Cabinet member Yoav Galant , recently warned that Israel would "take of the gloves" if there was another confrontation with Iran.

Galant, who spoke at an event in the town of Yokneam, near Haifa, vowed that Israel would dismantle the triangle of evil  Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. He added that last time, during the February 10 confrontation, we were careful. Next time well take off the gloves. Anyone whos asking how big is the power of the State of Israel can read into that experience, the minister said, suggesting: I think the Syrians understand that its not worth their while. Galant noted that today the Iranians are using Syrian land, often against the will of the Syrians, in order to gain assets for themselves. The Iranians want to take over the Middle East, establish an Iranian army in Syria, open a front on the Golan Heights  Hezbollah 2  and use Syria as a springboard to deliver into Lebanon weapons that violate the balance of power. The minister promised, We will not allow any of these things. This is true politically, and you can see the efforts of the government, especially the Prime Minister, in this area.

This is an overt warning to Iran that they risk serious escalation if they try to test Israel again. Indeed, it may be the last warning Iran gets before Israel gets serious about degrading any military capabilities they are building in Syria.

Galant has described the strategic situation in Syria pretty well. With Turkey and Russia keeping the US occupied in Syria, Iran has been slowly building up its assets in Syria, including advanced anti-aircraft systems and possibly precision guided missiles that would be far more accurate than the homemade Qassam rockets used by the Palestinians in their attacks on Israel.

One of Israel's biggest fears is that these advanced weapons will end up in the hands of Lebanon's Hezb'allah, radically altering the strategic situation for Israel.

Newsweek:

Israel has largely attempted to avoid getting entangled in the Syrian civil war, but both Iran and Hezbollahs presence in Syria and Hezbollahs acquisition of advanced weaponry, potentially including a nascent precision strike capability, present a new and significant threat. Indeed, Israel estimates Hezbollah has up to 150,000 rockets and missiles ; a precision targeting capability would be a game changer, allowing Hezbollah to hold vital Israeli infrastructure and population centers at risk with far fewer weapons due to increased accuracy. Of note, during this latest clash, Israel temporarily closed Ben Gurion Airport, its main transportation hub and point of access to the outside world, out of concern about a retaliatory attack. Likewise, Iran and Hezbollah are not looking to escalate in the near termboth are still focused on the conflict in Syria. However, Irans willingness to penetrate Israeli airspace with a UAV, build facilities in Syria and continue attempting to transfer advanced weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite Israeli interdiction efforts, is highly provocative and increases the risk of miscalculation and war.

I don't think very many people doubt that there are red lines for Israel which include these advanced weapons system being transferred into the hands of Hezb'allah. For their own security, Israel cannot tolerate the continued build up and augmentation of Iran's capabilities in Syria.

Is war between Israel and Hezb'allah inevitable?

If war breaks out between Israel on the one hand and Iran and Hezbollah on the other, it almost certainly will be far larger in scope and more destructive than the conflict in 2006. Hezbollah has a more capable military with a much larger rocket and long-range missile force that can strike deep into Israeli territory. For its part, Israel will likely feel compelled to demonstrate a decisive victory on the battlefield, unlike in 2006, and try to eliminate Hezbollahs military capabilities as fully as possible. Hezbollah strikes against key Israeli infrastructure and population centers would likely be met with a ferocious air campaign targeting Lebanese vital infrastructure, along with a wide range of Hezbollah targets. Any Israeli operation would almost certainly include a robust land campaign as well. And unlike in 2006, this conflict probably would not remain contained to Lebanon and Israel. Given the Iranian and Hezbollah presence in Syria, Israeli attacks almost certainly would include targets in Syria as well. Moreover, the presence of Russian, Iranian and U.S. forces in close proximity risks a broadening of the conflict. Israel could formally request U.S. military assistance in the event it is overwhelmed by Hezbollah rocket and missile strikes, potentially putting U.S. forces in contact with both Iranian and Russian ones.

Neither side wants that kind of a war so we are likely to see a low level conflict with occasional strikes by Israel and possible retaliation by Iran. The build up to war will be gradual with Iran probing Israel's defense for potential weaknesses and Israel launching ever more serious attacks on Syrian and Iranian facilities.

War between Iran and Israel is not imminent nor is it likely. But mistakes and miscalculation can quickly turn into war in the right circumstances. Perhaps that's why Israel was being so blunt in its warnings to Iran. The Islamic Republic shouldn't have any false illusions about what challenging Israel means.Johns Hopkins proudly employs convicted killers

The PBS NewsHour (at the 9-minute mark) last night had an inspiring story about a black church that helps ex-cons get jobs. The program focused on a sympathetic obese black lady named Cally Thomas. She's soft-spoken, she dresses well, and she even dyed her hair blonde like Beyonce. We're still somewhat sympathetic even after we learned that Cally Thomas is a convicted killer because, as NewsHour assures us, the murder was "domestic violence-related," so maybe she won't kill anyone else except boyfriends. But then we learn where Cally has a job  as a janitor at John Hopkins Hospital. That's very disturbing. A hospital is full of patients, some of whom are helpless and/or unconscious. It would be easy for them to be assaulted or robbed. Places that have children or helpless people should not employ ex-cons, especially violent ex-cons.

But Johns Hopkins has no problem with that. Between five and ten percent of jobs at the hospital are held by convicted criminals. What's going to happen the first time they get hit by a lawsuit from a patient who was robbed or attacked by one of their staff? Theft of patients' property in hospitals is quite common, and now we have an explanation for it. Ex-convicts should have jobs, of course. But there are plenty of jobs they can get that don't involve vulnerable populations. They can work as janitors, as Cally does (but not in hospitals or schools). They can work in restaurants. They can work in retail, under supervision. They can work in construction, in warehouses, as receptionists, or in low-level administrative capacities in the government They can also work in factories or in service jobs. Here's an interesting list of companies that hire felons, which includes Apple, American Airlines, Trader Joe's, Uber, and Federal Express. Hiring felons is politically correct but not always appropriate. What do you think? Would you want to be a patient in a hospital that employs convicted criminals? If you were going in for surgery, would you bring some pepper spray with you, just in case? Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.But few nations outdo the Swiss in nanny statism. Their national legislature proved that again by banning the practice of putting live lobsters in boiling water. I guess the Swiss can't stand the thought that in the few seconds it takes the lobster to give up the ghost, it might experience pain.

Switzerland regularly ranks as one of the best places on earth to live. Beautiful scenery, picturesque cities, robust, friendly people, and, if you like winter sports, a winter wonderland.

The Swiss banned the manufacture and sale of fois gras, the delicacy where geese are force fed to bursting in order to harvest their enlarged livers. But banning the boiling of live lobsters? That would appear to be another effort to micro-manage society.

USA Today:

A law goes into effect March 1 that bans the common cooking method of tossing a live lobster into a big pot of boiling water, quickly killing the tasty crustacean. That practice is being outlawed because the Swiss say it's cruel and lobsters can sense pain. The first national legislation of its kind in the world calls for a more humane death for lobsters, by rendering them unconscious before plunging them into scalding water. Two methods are recommended: Electrocution or sedating the lobster by dipping it into salt water and then thrusting a knife into its brain. The same law also gives domestic pets further protections, such as dogs can no longer be punished for barking. The measure is part of the broad principle of animal dignity enshrined in Switzerlands constitution, the only country to have such a provision. The constitution already protects how various species must be treated and specifies that animals need socialization.

Treating animals humanely is a noble goal and we shouldn't criticize the Swiss for holding that principle. But not being able to punish a dog for barking? How the hell else is the beast going to learn not to bark at every little nuisance? Dogs are smart but they lack cognitive thinking skills. They are trained by conditioning them to certain behaviors. Usually, rewarding dogs for doing as they're told is enough. But certain behaviors - like continuous annoying barking and doing their business inside the house - must be conditioned out of them. This takes stern words and the occassional mild rap on the rump. In short, there is no way to reward a dog for not doing something.

I'm sure there are many readers who would disagree, and that's fine. But the point is, not giving people an option in how they want to dispose of their lobster or punish their dog is nanny statism at its worst.

What about "animal dignity"? In the case of the Swiss, they have gone around the bend.

That means cats must have a daily visual contact with other felines, and hamsters or guinea pigs must be kept in pairs. And anyone who flushes a pet goldfish down the toilet is breaking the law. The new lobster legislation that boils down to a pain-free death was driven by research, including a study by Queens University in Belfast that found crustaceans are sentient creatures. These studies show that lobsters, like other animals, experience pain and distress, said Stefan Kunfermann, a spokesman for the Federal Office of Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs.

I've been kept by cats for 50 years and I've never seen a cat who would "suffer" because they didn't have daily contact with other cats. In fact, the domestic house cat is not - repeat not - a social cat, although for survival, they have learned in many cases to co-exist with other felines. Young kittens may play with each other, but adult cats who live in multi-cat households tend to carve out their own territories in a house and develop non-violent and non-verbal means to keep other kitties away.

What all this boils down to is trying to make animals into humans and treat them accordingly. It's the apotheosis of anthropomorphism, and while no one faults the Swiss for wanting people to be kind to animals, having the government issue a swollen list of instructions on how they should be treated is ridiculous.Years later, I realized that many people decide whom to vote for based not on policy positions; people decide whom to vote for based on how popular candidates are perceived to be, even looking at the views of complete strangers.

When I was younger, I wondered why a candidate running for office would pay to put up signs featuring the candidate's name. Nothing else  not even the party the candidate was running with, and certainly no policy positions  would appear on the signs. Why would people vote for a candidate knowing nothing about him except his name?

It is in that light that the Russian Facebook and Twitter bot scheme makes some sense. If people see a story about a candidate and then see thousands of likes and hundreds of comments attached to it, they will be more open to voting for, or against, the candidate being mentioned. While I think the Russian propaganda effort was a tiny, tiny drop in the bucket compared to the mainstream media's war on Donald Trump, I at least understand the theory behind it.

What I do not understand is why the media aren't similarly up in arms about fake news polls. Fake news polls do exactly the same thing as fake Twitter accounts. If you see a poll that claims that 90% of people support amnesty for "DREAMers," that's the same thing as seeing thousands of Twitter bots expressing support for one candidate or another, a false attempt to convince you that many other people take a certain political view. Because as we all know, 90% of people do not support amnesty for "DREAMers."

And yet CBS news reports, with all seriousness, that nearly 90% of people do support amnesty for "DREAMers."

An overwhelming majority of Americans supports legal protections for certain undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, according to a new CBS News poll. According to the survey, almost 9 in 10 respondents  87 percent  said they believe that the so-called Dreamers should be allowed to remain in the U.S. if they meet certain requirements, such as working or going to school.

Can that really be true, that all Democrats, all independents, and most Republicans support amnesty for "DREAMers"? This is extremely unlikely. Yet it is reported as a fact, and some people seeing this are undoubtedly swayed, thinking, "Well, if so many people are for it, maybe I should be for it, too." It's the same mechanism that the Russian Twitter bots use to generate support. The only difference is that CBS News is a much more authoritative source and reaches many more people than Twitter bots.

Fake liberal polls have used this technique repeatedly. There as the famous "poll" showing that 97% of climate scientists agree that man-made global warming exists, reported by a no less authoritative source than NASA. The idea that 97% of climate scientists agree on global warming is totally unbelievable to informed people, but so much apparent "consensus" may cause some of the uninformed to agree, too, just as if they were seeing a news story on Twitter with a thousand phony likes.

A third example: the poll saying a majority of Americans believe that boys should be able to use girls' bathrooms.

Some may say Russian efforts are different because Russians are foreigners, whereas our media are American. I say that propaganda is propaganda regardless of its source, and the main difference between the two is that liberal propaganda is much more widespread and much more effective.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.

Image: Elaine R. Wilson, Wikimedia Commons.Amazons advertising unit is like a pimple thats set to grow violently in the near future, according to Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer of WPP, the worlds largest advertising agency by revenue. While speaking on CNBCs Squawk Box last Friday, Mr. Sorrell reiterated some of his previous claims about how hes prepared to invest more resources into advertising on Amazon and expects other businesses to do the same going forward. The London-based company committed $200 million to advertising on the e-commerce platform in 2017, a small sum relative to the $2 billion it invested in Facebook and $5 billion committed to Google over the same period, yet the firm is now planning to pump $300 million into Amazon over the course of this year, Mr. Sorrell said.

While Amazon doesnt have a comprehensive online platform on which people spend over an hour per day like Google and Facebook do, the fact that a significant portion of its visitors are already prepared to spend money makes it an attractive destination for many marketers, WPP believes. As such, Amazon.com is possibly the worlds most efficient platform for transactional advertising and as its grip on the e-commerce industry continues to strengthen, Mr. Sorrell expects its advertising business to follow. Some of WPPs clients are still skeptical about accepting Amazon as a major advertising platform with a global reach but have recently been changing their minds after seeing the initial performance of their marketing efforts, the marketing mogul said, specifically mentioning Nike as one such company.

Advertising still doesnt represent a major business for a conglomerate the size of Amazon but has the potential to eventually surpass the performance of the firms cloud service, many industry watchers believe. As such, Amazon represents a direct threat to Facebook and Google even though its consumer-facing online solutions are much more focused. The company is also presently exploring monetization opportunities in the smart speaker segment which it dominates in the United States but has been reluctant to inject ads into its Alexa-enabled Echo devices so as to avoid annoying consumers, according to recent reports. After over two decades of operating at a loss due to its aggressive expansion, Amazon has recently been enjoying significant profitability for the first time in its history.LG is releasing the Lavender Violet variants of the G6 and Q6 Android smartphones next week, with the tech giant planning to make them available for purchase on Wednesday, February 21. The new handset models will initially debut in LGs home country of South Korea but are expected to become more widely available in the coming months. Originally announced late last month, the Lavender Violet versions of the devices debuted alongside two other new color options: Moroccan Blue and Raspberry Rose. The latter has already been commercialized in select markets and is also set to expand its availability in the near future. The firms last Android flagship can already be purchased with a Lavender Violet finish in the West. The new LG G6 and Q6 models may be confirmed for a global release later this month at this years edition of Mobile World Congress.

While the LG G6 is nearly a year old now, the fact that its receiving a new color variant is in line with the companys new product strategy that did away with major flagship releases on an annual basis, at least as far as introducing new models after an arbitrary 12-month mark is concerned. Instead, the device that was first meant to be the successor to the G6 has recently been canceled, with LGs top management reportedly ordering its development to start again from scratch. The handset in question supposedly wont be advertised as the G7 and will instead adopt a different name, though its presently unclear whether the tech giant opted for a partial rebranding and will release it as the G9 so as to bring its version number in line with that of its rivals or if it ends up completely doing away with the G name.

The next addition to the Android flagship lineup is rumored to be code-named Judy and is reportedly being targeted for a June launch. For much the same reasons, the LG V40 isnt expected to be introduced in late summer like its predecessor but is more likely to debut near the end of the year or around CES 2019. The follow-up to the G6 will reportedly sport a 6.1-inch FullVision screen using an MLCD+ panel with white sub-pixels instead of the POLED module found on the V30 and Googles Pixel 2 XL whose display was also manufactured by LG.An Albuquerque man was shot dead late last month after breaking into the house of a YouTube celebrity couple Megan Turney and Gavin Free. On January 26, one Christopher Giles drove eleven hours from New Mexico to Austin, Texas, in order to break into the couples house around 3:40 a.m. The intruder was armed and presumed to have broken into the house with the intention of killing Mr. Free and possibly Ms. Turney. He developed a fondness of Turney yet resented Free, one detective wrote in an affidavit describing the case. The couple hid and called 911 after being woken up by the sound of breaking glass, with local police first reporting they shot Giles on the driveway of the couples house after hearing a gunshot from his car and returning fire. The initial coroner examination suggested the perpetrator shot himself after encountering the police and succumbed to his wounds shortly after.

Following a search of the dead mans Albuquerque home, authorities believe Giles planned at least one homicide and was mentally disturbed. Giles wasnt able to find the couple in hiding after searching the house and is understood to have fired at least one shot inside their home for unknown reasons. He was pronounced dead on the scene in his Lincoln sedan, with a .45 caliber handgun being found near his hand. The entire episode reportedly played out in approximately ten minutes. The investigation into the matter is still ongoing and Giless possible suicide hasnt been confirmed. The couple wasnt physically harmed during the ordeal, local police verified. Based on the home security footage of the break-in, the authorities in charge of the case concluded Giless only intent was to cause harm to one or more residents, Albuquerque Journal reports. The perpetrators dislike of Mr. Free was documented on his smartphone, based on what are said to be numerous comments and thousands of notes.

Ms. Turney mostly posts YouTube vlogs that talk about her life and deal with relationship advice and anime, whereas Mr. Free hosts a slow-motion video series on the same platform. The couple attracts millions of viewers every month and deals in relatively mild topics detached from the controversies that have recently been engulfing YouTube due to the questionable content some of its stars have been publishing.But first, a quick history lesson. The year was 1970 when Lamborghini development driver Bob Wallace took an example of the Miura to convert it to FIA J racing regulations. This is how the P400 Jota came to be, which differed from the regular car through weight, aero, and a more aggressive tune of the 3.9-liter V12.Lamborghini built less than 10 examples of the Miura P400 SVJ as a result of the know-how gained from the Jota program, with further Miura models converted to SVJ specification by both Lamborghini and a few other specialists from all around the world.More than four decades after the Miura went out of production, the SVJ name is coming back for the ultimate version of the Aventador, the Italian automakers current flagship. Pictured here is an alleged photograph of the dashboard during the start-up sequence, which reads Aventador SVJ. The instrument cluster of the prototype further shows 6,130 kilometers.Posted on social media by @salentov12 , the Aventador SVJ is expected to develop close to 800 horsepower from 6.5 liters of naturally aspirated V12. Thats a lot of get-up-and-go when you think about it, more so if you bear in mind the Centenario produces 770 ponies and 690 Nm (507 pound-feet) of torque from the same engine.Lamborghini still hasnt confirmed anything regarding the Huracan Performante-inspired Aventador SVJ, though all eyes are on the 2018 Geneva Motor Show in March provided that the newcomer arrives at dealers for the 2019 model year. The million dollar question is, whats next in the pipeline after the Aventador goes out of production?Perhaps the best part about the main hue of the car comes from its subtle green tones, with this allowing the machine to stand out even when compared to others of its kind.Speaking of which, the Instagram-based Porsche registry that brought these images to us delivered a pleasing explanation: " These photos [use the Instagram swipe feature] do a great job of showing the shade of green that is signature to Slate Grey 6601,"Zooming in on the sides of the car, we notice the satin aluminum wheels and the matching grey decals. Yet another match is delivered by the yellow Porsche branding on the doors and the hue of the brake calipers, which means the machines comes with carbon-ceramic brakes.Other features of the car include the all-LED headlights, which comes with black inner graphics, as well as interior goodies like the full bucket seats.Unlike many Paint to Sample 2018 GT3s we recently showed you, the one we have here comes in PDK trim.Since we mentioned happy GT3 owners above, we have to remind you that the title perfectly suits Chris Harris. The British journo recently grabbed a 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 Touring Package and has taken to Instagram yesterday to share his joy with the motoring world.CH went for a spec that will certainly make many Porschephiles drool, while also being extremely generous when playing with the options. Oh, and he didn't forget to mention he has cast the GT3 Touring Package in the role of his daily, which means he'll be doing quite a lot of clutch play.SUV

MQB

TDI

In a report titled All Information and Photos of the Spanish Tiguan XL, Auto Motor und Sport suggests that the all-new model will go into production at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany from 2018. Citing well-informed circles, AMuS argues that the name Tarraco suits the seven-seatbest.As mentioned in a story from July 2017, the remaining candidates include Abrera, Alboran, Aran, Aranda, Avila, Donosti, Tarifa, and Teide. When you think about it, settling for Tarraco is curious for the Spanish automaker because the Arona and Ateca begin with A.To whom it may concern, Tarraco is the name the predecessors of the Spanish used for Tarragona, a city in the region of Catalonia, back when the Roman Empire was still around. Located on the Mediterranean Seas coast just south of Barcelona, Tarragona boasts a population of 130,000.The SEAT-branded brother of the Skoda Kodiaq comes as a response to the increasing demand for seven-seat SUVs in Europe, and as expected from an-based model, the Tarraco will be offered with an assortment of TSI andturbocharged four-cylinder engines. 4Drive all-wheel-drive and the Volkswagen Groups DSG transmission are also on the menu as optional extras.As the entirety of the group pushes into electrified territory, it remains to be seen if SEAT will offer the Tarraco with some sort of electrified powertrain in the coming years. A mild-hybrid setup would be nice in the first instance, though a conventional hybrid or a plug-in hybrid drivetrain would translate to even more efficiency.On that note, did you know that Toyota offers something called Tarago in Australia?Pope Francis on Saturday revived a sex abuse advisory commission that had lapsed into dormancy, the AP reports, amid mounting criticism over his support for a Chilean bishop accused of witnessing sexual abuses and ignored them. The initial three-year mandate of the commission ended in December, per the AP.

Why it matters: The controversy in Chile is making life difficult for the first South American pope. The announcement of new members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors came the same day when a Vatican sex-crimes expert was in New York at Francis' request to speak with one of the main whistleblowers in the Chilean cover-up scandal.By Trend

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister in the framework of the Munich Security Conference has met with European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Khan, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend Feb. 17.

During the meeting, issues of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU in the political, economic, trade, transport, energy, humanitarian and other spheres were discussed.

Recalling the visit of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Brussels in February 2017, the minister stressed its particular importance in terms of developing cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU.

Elmar Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan welcomes support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan on the basis of common principles within the borders recognized at the international level by the member countries of the Eastern Partnership of the European Union.

The Foreign Minister also spoke about the upcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan on April 11.

During the talks, importance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the East-West transport corridor in the framework of cooperation in the field of transport and connectivity was emphasized.

Elmar Mammadyarov, informing about the negotiation process on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said that in order to change the status quo and achieve progress in the settlement of the conflict, the Armenian troops must be withdrawn from the occupied territories in accordance with the requirements of the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzPresident of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani.

I was deeply saddened by the news of heavy casualties as a result of a passenger plane crash in your country, the President said in his message.

On the occasion of this tragedy, on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my deepest condolences to you, families and loved ones of those who died and the whole people of Iran, the head of state said.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Three rockets fired by PYD/PKK terrorists in Syria hit Turkeys border province of Kilis Saturday as the Turkish-led Operation Olive Branch across the border in Syria continues, Anadolu reported.

The rockets landed in a vacant area near Kilis village of Kocabeyli, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent on the ground.

No casualties were reported.

Turkish forces immediately responded to the attack by targeting PYD/PKK positions in Afrin, Syria via air and land strikes.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20 to clear PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin in northwestern Syria.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzPaper and film records mark the most common location of data breaches in hospitals, according to a study published in The American Journal of Managed Care.

For the study, the researchers analyzed statistics on data breaches reported to the HHS Office of Civil Rights from 2009 to 2016, alongside hospital characteristics from the Health Information Management Systems Society and the American Hospital Association databases. All healthcare data breaches reported to the OCR affected 500-plus patients.

Hospitals comprised roughly one-third of all healthcare breaches, according to the researchers. Paper- and film-based records, rather than electronic records, comprised 65 percent of hospital data breaches. Network servers were the least common location of breached data, although their breaches affected the greatest number of patients.

The researchers determined a hospital's health IT sophistication and biometric security capabilities were not associated with decreased incidence of data breaches.

"Hospitals should conduct routine audits to allow them to see their vulnerabilities before a breach occurs," the study authors concluded. "Additionally, information security systems should be implemented concurrently with health information technologies. Improving access control and prioritizing patient privacy will be important steps in minimizing future breaches."Glennmont, which raises long-term capital to invest in wind farms, biomass, solar parks and hydro plants (Danny Lawson/PA)

The founders of a major clean energy fund have shrugged off Donald Trumps shift away from renewable power, claiming the global industry is too advanced to be halted by the US president.

Peter Dickson, technical director of Glennmont Partners, said the renewable energy sector was now driving itself after cutting loose from state-backed subsidies and attracting an influx of private investment.

Mr Trump has moved to break up Barack Obamas environmental legacy by pulling America out of the 2015 Paris climate accord and backing carbon-intensive power sources such as fossil fuels.

Despite the US presidents crusade, Mr Dickson said institutional investors were wary of the risks surrounding coal and gas power stations and were more attracted to the falling cost of green energy.

Expand Close Peter Dickson, Glennmont Partners' technical director (Glennmont Partners) Press Association Images / Facebook

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Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Dickson said investors are concerned that fossil fuel power projects could become stranded assets if the global push for decarbonisation sparks regulatory change.

He said: Despite things we hear from President Trump, the policy around renewables has almost gone beyond that point now.

We are at that point where things are starting to become self-propelled and the incentives themselves are no longer coming from Government, but from the economies of scale and the value of the assets themselves.

Glennmont, which raises long-term capital to invest in wind farms, biomass, solar parks and hydro plants, has 937 million euro (831 million) under management. The group is currently eyeing European investments following the launch of a third clean energy fund in January.

Chief executive Joost Bergsma said the profile of its investors had changed since it broke off from BNP Paribas 10 years ago, with medium-sized pension funds joining large institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies.

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The group is also seeing a growing interest from Asian investors, who are keen to broaden their horizons from riskier, high-return, investments towards the type of steady income generated from green infrastructure.

On Brexit, Mr Dickson said a number of firms had domiciled their funds in Luxembourg to shield them from the uncertainty surrounding Britains EU divorce.

He said Glennmont was largely immune to Brexit disruption because the Climate Change Act 2008 means the UKs decarbonisation target will remain in place once the UK quits the bloc.

He added: If it wasnt for that, we would probably be in a more volatile place this year, but that establishes our 2050 target for decarbonisation and we have no choice but to continue along that path.

We cannot doubt that the trajectory we are on remains solid, and with that the UK remains a good market.Stars dressed in black have descended on Londons Royal Albert Hall as the Bafta film awards red carpet gets under way.

Darkest Hour star and supporting actress nominee Kristin Scott Thomas was one of the first stars to arrive as the night kicked off with a performance from Cirque du Soleil.

Actress Andrea Riseborough was joined on the red carpet by Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, co-founder of UK Black Pride, as part of an initiative to fight harassment and violence against women in the film industry, in a move mirroring that of the Golden Globes last month.

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This years event will echo the all-black dress theme seen on the US red carpets in solidarity with anti-sexual harassment campaigns #MeToo and Times Up.

More than 200 leading female stars including Emma Thompson and Naomie Harris signed an open letter published in Sundays The Observer calling for the eradication of sexual harassment across all industries.

A group of women on the #BAFTA red carpet with 'Time's Up' tshirts shout "sisters, united, we'll never be defeated" pic.twitter.com/xVw6L4tcNv  Catherine Wyatt (@catherinehwyatt) February 18, 2018

The letter calls on the stars to use our power as communicators and connectors to shift the way society sees and treats us.

Signatories of the letter are also expected to be joined by activists including Laura Bates, founder of the award-winning Everyday Sexism Project and Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis, two of the Dagenham Girls who walked out of a Ford Motor Company plant after learning they were being paid less than their male counterparts in 1968.

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Fantastical thriller The Shape of Water leads nominations with 12 nods including best film and best director for Guillermo del Toro.

Joanna Lumley will host the awards.Sian Welby attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Rochelle Humes attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Dermot O'Leary and wife Dee Koppang attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

David White attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Edith Bowman attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Lydia Bright attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Tiziana Rocca attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Jackie St Clair attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Edith Bowman attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Victoria Bonya attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Hofit Golan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Amanda Berry attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Singer Rochelle Humes attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Tiziana Rocca attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Tom Taylor attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Rungano Nyoni attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Lucy Cohen attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Lydia Bright attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Edgar Wright attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Katerina Perez attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Tatiana Korsakova attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Kristin Scott Thomas attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Carl Michaelson and Jackie St Clair attend the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Natalie Dormer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Victoria Bonya attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Carl Michaelson and Jackie St Clair attend the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Natalie Dormer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Mark Mangini attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Sian Welby attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Natalie Dormer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Anya Taylor Joy attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Natalie Dormer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

AJ Odudu attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Natalie Dormer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Kristin Scott Thomas attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Anya Taylor Joy attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

US sound editor Mark Mangini poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Natalie Dormer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

US sound editor Mark Mangini poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Octavia Spencer attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Dr. Jane Goodall attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Italian producer Tiziana Rocca poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Al Gore attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Italian producer Tiziana Rocca poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Actress Kristin Scott Thomas attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

British actor Tom Taylor poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Anya Taylor-Joy attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Anya Taylor-Joy attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Tatiana Korsakova attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Patrick Stewart attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Isabell Kristensen attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Former Vice President of the United State Al Gore attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

British director Edgar Howard Wright poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Will Poulter attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

British presenter AJ Ododu poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

British actress Kristin Scott Thomas poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Former US vice President (2L) poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Cressida Bonas attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Will Poulter attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and guest attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

British celebrity Lydia-Rose Bright poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Cressida Bonas attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Singer Rochelle Humes poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Haley Bennett attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Sir Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Lily James attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Jennifer Lawrence attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Lily James attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

US actress Jennifer Lawrence poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

US actress Angelina Jolie poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

US actress Jennifer Lawrence poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

British actor Orlando Bloom poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

US actress Angelina Jolie poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Saoirse Ronan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Emma Roberts attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

British actress Lily James poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Amanda Berry (L) greets Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge as they attend the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Australian actress Margot Robbie poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

British actress Ruth Wilson poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Allison Janney attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

British actor Gary Oldman poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

US actress Annette Bening poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London on February 18, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Daniel LEAL-OLIVASDANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Angelina Jolie and Rithy Panh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Margot Robbie attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Allison Janney attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) held at Royal Albert Hall on February 18, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

The Duchess of Cambridge attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Margot Robbie attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

Angelina Jolie attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire.

The Duchess of Cambridge has stepped out in a dark green Jenny Packham dress for a glitzy night at the Baftas.

Pregnant Kate arrived on the red carpet with her husband the Duke of Cambridge for the awards ceremony.

Most nominees and other guests wore black in support of the Times Up campaign.

Expand Close The Duchess of Cambridge wore dark green to the EE British Academy Film Awards (Ian West/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Stars followed the lead set at the Golden Globes in January and adopted an all-black dress code following a campaign in the wake of the Hollywood sexual harassment scandal.

Upon their arrival, William and Kate met the chief executive of Bafta, Amanda Berry, and a host of other representatives from the organisation.

The Duchess of Cambridge has taken her seat at the Royal Albert Hall for the #Baftas wearing a dark green Jenny Packham dress pic.twitter.com/JfFcxslp6K  Catherine Wyatt (@catherinehwyatt) February 18, 2018

They then took their seats in the front row of the Royal Albert Hall, the central London venue hosting the ceremony.

Later, William, who is president of Bafta, will present the Fellowship award.

It is the highest accolade given by Bafta to someone who has made an exceptional contribution to film, television, or video games.

This year the recipient of the annual prize is Sir Ridley Scott, the British filmmaker behind Hannibal, Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven.

Sir Ridleys latest film, All the Money in the World, had to be recast after its lead actor Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual assault, with Christopher Plummer taking his place.Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A BMW X5 is seized as Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police investigating the murder of Raymond Johnston search a property in the Colinmill area of west Belfast on February 17th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Police have carried out raids of properties in Belfast in connection with the murder of Ray Johnston.

The 28-year-old was shot in the chest at his home in Glenbawn Avenue, Poleglass, at around 8pm on Tuesday February 13. The attack happened in front of his partner and 11-year-old child.

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Officers carried out the planned searches on Saturday night under the Terrorism Act.

The first was in the Poleglass area of west Belfast and the second, in the New Lodge Road area, in the north of the city.

At both addresses, a number of items were taken away for further examination.

A PSNI spokeswoman said the searches were carried out in connection with the murder.

The spokeswoman said: "Police are continuing to appeal for information about the movements of Mr Johnston on the day of the murder and a dark-coloured car that was seen in the area around the time of the incident.

"Anyone with information that could help the investigation should contact detectives on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 1192 of 13/2/18 or ask to speak to detectives at the incident room in Musgrave.

"Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100% anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime."

Last week police issued an appeal for anyone who witnessed a man wearing a blue coat with fur around the hood make off from the scene.

He got into a black car with tinted windows which drove away.

Police have said two gunmen were involved in the murder and that dissident republican activity is one of the lines of enquiry they are pursuing.

Detective chief inspector Geoff Boyce said last week: This was particularly brutal.

The gunmen were in the house for a very short time and did this in front of an 11-year-old child and his partner.Sinn Fein members are to travel to London this week to discuss the fallout at Stormont with Theresa May.

A delegation including newly elected party president Mary Lou McDonald and her deputy Michelle ONeill are expected to tell the Prime Minister that direct rule is not an option when they meet at Downing Street.

Republicans are due to meet with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney in Dublin on Monday to discuss the wrangle.

Ms McDonald said: We will also make it clear to both governments that a return to direct rule from London is not an option.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose 10 MPs are propping up the Conservatives at Westminster, effectively ended talks aimed at bringing the 13-month political impasse to a close on Wednesday when leader Arlene Foster said she did not believe it would be possible to form an Executive.

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Mrs Foster, who has defended the action, also called for the UK Government to set a budget and start making policy decisions about Northern Ireland.

However, the move, which came two days after the Prime Minister visited Northern Ireland, surprised many who had believed a deal had been close on contentious issues such as Irish language, marriage equality and the legacy of the past.

Ms McDonald said: Michelle and I will be telling the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister it is the responsibility of the two governments to implement the agreements on legacy and an Irish Language Act and to provide for marriage equality.The SNP has planned a national day of action as part of a campaign to prevent RBS branch closures.

The bank announced plans to close 62 branches across Scotland, but has since granted a reprieve for 10 premises.

Those branches  most of which are in communities where there is no other branch for several miles 

will stay open until the end of 2018, with an independent review carried out into whether they remain open long-term.

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The SNP said the move did not go nearly far enough, and has vowed to continue the campaign to keep the remaining banks open.

SNP politicians and community campaigners will gather in towns across the country on March 10 to collect petition signatures.

The partys Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: After huge pressure from the SNP and community campaigners, RBS announced a reprieve for 10 local branches  but our fight to save the remaining banks continues.

The SNP national day of action is aimed at keeping the pressure up on RBS.

They have shown they are willing to listen  but their damaging and misguided plans to continue with the closure of 52 branches across Scotland are completely unacceptable and must be challenged.

The RBS branches remaining open until at least the end of the year are in Biggar, Beauly, Castlebay/Barra, Comrie, Douglas, Gretna, Inveraray, Melrose, Kyle and Tongue.Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has hinted Labour could back remaining in a European customs union after Brexit.

Her comments came as former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called on the party to support staying in the customs union after any Brexit transition period.

Ms Thornberry said that weve looked at it and we cannot see a way forward when it comes to Northern Ireland or to tariff free trade across Europe without us being in some form of customs union, that probably looks very much like the customs union that there is at the moment.

.@EmilyThornberry explains why @UKLabour "cannot see a way forward" without a post-Brexit customs union similar to that which we have now. #Peston pic.twitter.com/IUcKHyEKIr  Peston (@itvpeston) February 18, 2018

Ms Thornberry insisted Labour members did have a voice on Brexit policy.

She told ITVs Peston on Sunday: Weve got the national policy forum going on at the moment so there will be a debate.

Asked about whether the majority of Labour members would like the party to sign up to a policy of continued membership of the single market and the customs union, and if the party was on the way to doing so, she said: What we do is we accept the result of the referendum, we have to leave the European Union, if were leaving the EU then we have to negotiate an ongoing relationship with the EU.

We want to have, weve looked at it and we cannot see a way forward when it comes to Northern Ireland or to tariff free trade across Europe without us being in some form of customs union that probably looks very much like the customs union that there is at the moment, and thats our position on that.

As for the single market, you know and I know that its very difficult for us to remain in the single market as it currently is because nobody can pretend that the referendum didnt include a debate on immigration and we want to have fair rules and managed migration when it comes to immigration so we need to negotiate something.

Ms Thornberry said any deal needed to look after jobs and the economy first and foremost, adding: Nobody voted to be poorer and nobody voted to lose their job.

Senior Labour MP Yvette Cooper said the party should back remaining in the customs union.

The Labour party said that we should be in both the single market and the customs union during the transition, I think thats right but I would go further to what happens after the transition because for manufacturing areas, if you care about manufacturing and distribution across this country, Yorkshire, the North and the Midlands, actually we need that customs union, she told Sky News.

I understand that the Shadow Cabinet I think are meeting tomorrow, I hope this is exactly what theyll look at, I hope they will say look we need a customs union and I think there is really strong support for this across Parliament as well.

Commenting on Foreign Secretary Boris Johnsons Brexit intervention this week, leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson told ITVs Peston on Sunday that he walks a pretty fine line in that that speech actually.

Ms Davidson said she wanted to see a comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU to trade with and operate within, to the maximum possible extent the single market, but added that the UK should be able to get trade deals with other countries too.

Falling out on WTO rules, she added, would not be something that would be in the benefit of the country, but added: I dont think anybodys working to a no deal scenario.Chancellor Philip Hammond will ditch the Budget red box for a stripped-down spring statement with no major tax or spending announcements.

The March 13 statement will involve updated economic forecasts but is not expected to contain major policy changes.

Mr Hammond has abandoned the previous system of effectively having two budgets a year, with the March statement now expected to be a short speech lasting around 20 minutes.

A Treasury spokesman said: There will be no red box, no official document, no spending increases, no tax changes.

The spokesman told the Financial Times: The Chancellor will publish updated economic forecasts, we expect the speech to last between 15-20 minutes.

Mr Hammond signalled his approach to the spring statement when he announced his decision to shift the Budget to the autumn in 2016.

He said no other major economy makes hundreds of tax changes twice a year, and neither should we.

From 2018 there will be a Spring Statement, responding to the forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, but no major fiscal event, he said.

If unexpected changes in the economy require it, then I will, of course, announce actions at the spring statement, but I wont make significant changes twice a year just for the sake of it.A teenager has been stabbed to death in West London.

The 19-year-old was discovered fatally wounded near a large number of cars on Logan Place in Kensington at around 3.30am on Sunday.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, becoming the fifth teenager to die from knife injuries in London so far this year.

Police are appealing for witnesses and information after a 19-year-old man discovered with stab wounds in a Kensington street died at the scene. https://t.co/oWXYmrxds1 pic.twitter.com/vQWGEZFjVJ  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) February 18, 2018

Met Police detectives are trying to work out whether the death was linked to a house party on nearby Earls Court Road.

A 19-year-old man was arrested near to the scene in connection with the incident. He has been taken to a west London police station where he remains in custody.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell said: While we are in the very early stages of our investigation, we know there was a party at a nearby address on Earls Court Road around the time of this incident.

We are still working to establish any link, but it does mean the area would have been busy with vehicles and pedestrians at the time.

I want to hear from anyone who was in the area; did you witness an altercation? Every fragment of information is beneficial to our investigation and I would urge anyone who may know something to contact police immediately.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

Expand Close A Police officers outside a house on Earls Court Road (Ryan Hooper/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Police stood guard at two potential crime scenes in the area, with forensics officers appearing to retrieve material from behind a cordon on Logan Place, while a solitary uniformed officer stood at police tape across the threshold of a terraced property opposite.

A woman in the neighbouring property said she only knew of one person living next door, a young man in one of the middle flats.

Another female neighbour, two doors down, said: My father saw police shining torches around the back of the house last night, he said it was as though they were looking for something in particular.

It was the middle of the night when it happened.Uber is looking to change the way it does business (Lauren Hurley/PA)

Uber has announced a series of new safety measures in the UK, including more proactively working with police when incidents are reported and introducing a 24-hour customer support phone line.

The car hailing service is currently appealing a decision by Transport for London (TfL) to not issue the firm a new license to operate in the city after concluding the service was not a fit and proper operator.

Ubers changes also include plans to give customers, known as riders, more access to driver information  including the licensing authority and private hire number of their driver.

The firms UK general manager Tom Elvidge said: With millions of trips across the UK booked through our app each week, the safety of riders and drivers using Uber is a top priority.

Over the last few years weve led the way with pioneering technology which enhances safety like GPS tracking of every trip and our two-way rating system.

But we recognise we can use our technology to go even further in setting a higher standard for private hire and other transport options.

After listening to feedback from drivers, riders, local regulators and the police were introducing a number of new features and changes to enhance driver and passenger safety.

Under the new measures, Uber said it is changing its approach to reporting serious incidents to the police, adding that while it previously encouraged and supported individuals, it will now proactively make reports.

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The firm said it will directly pass police information about any serious incident reported by riders, and will also do so if one of its drivers is the victim of a serious crime and wants the company to act on their behalf.

When denying Uber a new licence last year, TfL cited the companys approach to reporting serious crime as a key issue. Ubers appeal is due to heard in the spring.

Uber said it is also conducting a review of all previous serious complaints to ensure there were no outstanding issues.

The company said the policy is already live in London, and it plans to roll it out across the UK after discussions with other police forces.

The new safety measures announced also include a new 24-hour support line for both riders and drivers to handle any issues around a journey.

Uber said the new and increased driver license details provided to customers would begin next month and said it would enable users to more easily raise any issues with a drivers licensing authority as well as with Uber.

Were determined to change the way we do business, so well carry on listening and plan to make other improvements over the coming months, Mr Elvidge said.

The US firm has been attempting to reshape its image under new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi after the departure of former boss Travis Kalanick and a host of other executives last year, which followed a string of scandals including claims of sexual harassment within the company and a massive data breach.Patients outside the General Hospital in Veracruz, Mexico, after they were evacuated following a powerful quake (Felix Marquez/AP)

A military helicopter carrying officials assessing damage from a powerful earthquake has crashed in southern Mexico, killing 13 people and injuring 15, all of them on the ground.

The Oaxaca state prosecutors office said the chopper crashed into a group of people who had been spending the night outside after a powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the area.

Five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later in hospital.

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The Defence Department said the victims had been waiting for the helicopter, but did not provide more details.

The military helicopter apparently flipped and fell on top of the group of people as it attempted to land.

Mexicos Interior Department said that the helicopter was carrying Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state Governor Alejandro Murat, who were evaluating reports of damage from the earthquake.

Mr Navarrete told local media that as the army helicopter we were travelling in tried to land, the pilot lost control, the helicopter fell and flipped.

You couldn't see anything, nothing else was heard beside the sound that iron makes when it scrapes the earthReporter Jorge Rosales

Jorge Rosales, a local reporter who was aboard the helicopter when it crashed, described harrowing moments as the pilot lost control and the helicopter attempted to land in a swirl of dust.

The moment the helicopter touched down it lost control, it slid  like it skidded  and it hit some vehicles that were stationed in the area, he said.

In that moment, you couldnt see anything, nothing else was heard beside the sound that iron makes when it scrapes the earth.

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The helicopter was attempting to land on a vacant piece of ground in the city of Jamiltepec, about 19 miles from the area of Pinotepa Nacional, the Mexican army said.

The US Geological Survey originally put the magnitude of Fridays quake at 7.5 but later lowered it to 7.2. It said the epicentre was 33 miles north-east of Pinotepa in southern Oaxaca state, and had a depth of 15 miles.

President Enrique Pena Nieto said via Twitter that both officials and crew were unhurt, although the interior department said that they had light injuries.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned an international agreement with Iran, saying it has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

He told Iran that it should not test Israels resolve.

Mr Netanyahu told world leaders, defence officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference the agreement has unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond.

    ,    ?  .          .



Mr. Zarif: do you recognize this? You should. Itas yours. Donat test Israelas resolve. pic.twitter.com/x8NvI9X5Jm  Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) February 18, 2018

Mr Netanyahu, a long-time critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 Munich Agreement that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe.

The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime, he said.

Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly.

Declaring that Irans brazenness hit new highs, he held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was to speak later at the event.

Mr Zarif do you recognise this? You should, its yours, Mr Netanyahu said.

You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran  do not test Israels resolve.

Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran.

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israels resolve.

Israel will not allow Irans regime to put a noose of terror around our neck, he said.

We will act if necessary, not just against Irans proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself.The proposed VCR Park, to focus on cancer research, is intended to reduce the cancer-care cost across the spectrum.

At the Global Innovation Forum 2018 (TGIF) summit in Visakhaptnam, a web-based technology platform, designed to help all stakeholders involved in cancer care to collaborate globally and to synergise their actions in real time, developed by Elixsys Lifesciences, the chief promoter of VCR Park, was unveiled by Dr. Himabindu Gaddipati, its Chairperson and CEO.

The proposed VCR Park, to focus on cancer research, is intended to reduce the cancer-care cost across the spectrum.

The developers believe that a comprehensive cancer related eco-system is not only needed but is the only way to bend the cost curve and make cancer care affordable in India and around the world.

A number of stakeholders, including eminent global scientists, researchers, academicians, doctors, tech start-ups and venture capitalists, attended the summit.Fianna Fail is poised to block moves by a number of banks to sell off tens of thousands of mortgages, according to the Sunday Business Post.

The opposition party is set to invoke its confidence and supply agreement to prevent the sale of distressed mortgages to unregulated vulture funds.Love/Hate star John Connors' claimed the award for Best actor in a leading role category for his role in Cardboard Gangsters at this years Irish Film Television Awards.

The ceremony was aired last night on RTE One and people are still talking about the actor's acceptance speech.

As Connors' took to the podium he thanked the academy for the award, his family - who he described as the best family in the world - and the organisations who had funded the film.

TV3, BAI, and the Film Boards  no, wait. The Film Board didnt fund us, he said.

They didnt understand our approach.

He went on to say despite the fact that he cant get an agent to represent him and no film-makers or casting directors will look past the fact that hes a Traveller, this is still a huge moment for him.

Seven and a half years ago I was sitting in my house, in a little box bedroom in the darkness, contemplating suicide. I believed there was no way out.

He explained that it was a conversation with his brother, Joe about acting, that saved his life.

I discovered this world I never knew existed called creativity. It saved my life, it really did.

Our government is never going to do anything about the mental health crisis. Our reptilian, psychopathic government.

He then signed the speech off with, Creativity can definitely be the mode to healing people before he dedicated the award to his late father who died by suicide.A Danish politician believes there should not be border controls between the Republic and North of Ireland if the public do not want them.

It comes after Michel Barnier revealed last week that border checks would be "unavoidable" if the UK leaves the single market and customs union.Gardai have seized a firearm, ammunition and drugs in a search in Dublin.

The discovery was made when members of the Drugs Unit searched a house on Sheriff Street shortly after 3.30pm this afternoon.

Cocaine with a value of 800 was found at the scene along with a revolver.

A man in his late teens and a female juvenile were arrested at the scene and taken to Store Street Garda Station for questioning.

- Digital DeskThe idea of completing the Dublin Metro by 2027 has been labelled as "farcical" by one Fianna Fail TD.

3bn will be spent on the line which will extend from Swords to Sandyford.By Patrick Flynn

An incident involving an Aer Lingus aircraft at an airport in the UK earlier this month is being probed by air accident investigators.

The incident occurred at Gatwick Airport near London on February 3, 2018, after the Aer Lingus flight had arrived from Lyon in France. There were 164 passengers on board.

All the circumstances of the incident have not yet emerged, but it is understood that the Aer Lingus flight had been cleared to land when a vehicle entered the active runway.

It is not known whether the vehicle entered the runway with or without clearance from controllers.

The UKs Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has launched a probe into what has been rated as a serious incident.

Air accident investigators in France and Ireland have also been informed the occurrence.

The French BEA reported the incident involved an incursion of a vehicle on the runway during the landing roll-out. A roll-out is when an aircraft is slowing on the runway after landing.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport here is also available to provide assistance to the UKs AAIB which is heading up the probe.

An AAIU spokesman confirmed: The AAIU has appointed an Accredited Representative to provide any assistance which the AAIB may request.

An Aer Lingus spokesman confirmed the incident took place and that the airline is "co-operating fully with this investigation."

A spokesman for Gatwick Airport said they could not comment on the matter as there is an ongoing investigation.

"When this concludes we will be in a position to say more, the spokesman added.By David Raleigh

Update 6.20pm: A man is to appear in court Monday charged in connection with the stabbing of another man in Co Limerick.

The victim, aged 21, was in a critical condition in University Hospital Limerick after an alleged assault in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, Saturday evening.

The victim was stabbed in the torso, Garda sources said.

Sources also confirmed that a knife which gardai believe was used in the stabbing had been recovered.

The incident occurred at Maiden Street, in the West Limerick town, around 5pm, Saturday.

A rear yard of a local property was sealed off and a technical examination of the yard was conducted by gardai.

A man in his late 20s, and believed to be from Russia, was arrested and questioned by detectives.

The East European native is due to appear before Limerick District Court charged in connection with the stabbing, gardai said.

The accused is to face one charge of assault causing harm.

Footage from security cameras on Maiden Street and its surrounds were being harvested by gardai and house to house enquiries were continuing in the area.

Appealing for witnesses, gardai stated they were investigating "a serious assault.

One man (21 years) was removed to University Hospital Limerick and is in a critical condition. The scene is currently preserved, they added.

Gardai appealed for any persons who were in the vicinity of Maiden Street or who can assist them with their investigation to contact Newcastle West Garda Station on 069 20650, or the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111

Maiden St in Newcastlewest, Co. Limerick. Pic: Press 22.

Earlier: Gardai recover knife as man left in critical condition in Limerick stabbing

A man is in a critical condition in hospital after he was stabbed during an alleged assault in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, last night.

The victim, aged 21, was stabbed in the torso, garda sources said.

Sources also confirmed that gardai recovered a knife which they believed was used in the stabbing.

Gardai said they were investigating reports that the incident arose out of a personal dispute involving the children of two separate parties.

The stabbing occurred at Maiden Street, in the West Limerick town around 5pm, yesterday.

A rear yard of a property in the town was sealed off by gardai. Gardai confirmed that a technical examination of the yard was being conducted by forensic gardai.

An Eastern European man, aged in his late 20s, was arrested at the scene and is being questioned at Newcastle West Garda Station.

Footage from security cameras on Maiden Street and its surrounds were being harvested by detectives and gardai were conducting house-to-house enquiries in the area.

Appealing for witnesses, gardai stated they were investigating "a serious assault.

One man (21 years) was removed to University Hospital Limerick and is in a critical condition. The scene is currently preserved, they added.

One male (late 20s) was arrested at the scene and is currently detained under Section 4, Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Newcastle West Garda Station.

Gardai appealed for any persons who were in the vicinity of Maiden Street or who can assist them with their investigation to contact Newcastle West Garda Station on 069 20650, or the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111A man has been rescued by the RNLI after a dinghy capsized on Galway Bay this afternoon.

It happened off Hare Island shortly before 1pm.President Michael D Higgins is to visit a refugee camp during a state visit to Greece.

The three-day trip, which begins on Thursday, also includes meetings with the Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, Prime Minister Alexis Tsiparas and other senior political figures.

Thousands of migrants have been stuck in make-shift camps across Greece since a series of Balkan border closures and an EU-Turkey deal on stemming migration.

The President will see first hand the conditions in which they have been living when he visits a camp outside Athens on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Mr Higgins - who will be accompanied by his wife Sabina - will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, where he is expected to give a lecture on the ancient and enduring relationship between Ireland and Greece.

His office has confirmed other engagements include a State dinner, wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown solider in Athens, a breakfast meeting with Irish and Greek business leaders at the Acropolis Museum and a concert performed by Irish and Greek artists at the Megaron Concert Hall organised by Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy.Sinn Fein members are to travel to London this week to discuss the fallout at Stormont with Theresa May.

A delegation including newly elected party president Mary Lou McDonald and her deputy Michelle O'Neill are expected to tell the British Prime Minister that direct rule is not an option when they meet at Downing Street.

Republicans are due to meet with Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Simon Coveney in Dublin on Monday to discuss the wrangle.

Ms McDonald said: "We will also make it clear to both governments that a return to direct rule from London is not an option."

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose 10 MPs are propping up the Conservatives at Westminster, effectively ended talks aimed at bringing the 13-month political impasse to a close on Wednesday when leader Arlene Foster said she did not believe it would be possible to form an Executive.

Mrs Foster, who has defended the action, also called for the UK Government to set a budget and start making policy decisions about Northern Ireland.

However, the move, which came two days after the British Prime Minister visited Northern Ireland, surprised many who had believed a deal had been close on contentious issues such as Irish language, marriage equality and the legacy of the past.

Ms McDonald said: "Michelle and I will be telling the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister it is the responsibility of the two governments to implement the agreements on legacy and an Irish Language Act and to provide for marriage equality."

- PAIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned an international agreement with Iran, saying it has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

He told Iran that it should "not test Israel's resolve".

Mr Netanyahu told world leaders, defence officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference the agreement has "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond".

Mr Netanyahu, a long-time critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 "Munich Agreement" that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe.

"The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime," he said.

"Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war... those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly."

Declaring that Iran's "brazenness hit new highs", he held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was to speak later at the event.

"Mr Zarif do you recognise this? You should, it's yours," Mr Netanyahu said.

"You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran - do not test Israel's resolve."

Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran.

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israel's resolve.

"Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he said.

"We will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself."Update - 11.10am: In a statement, Kim Leadbeater, Jo Cox's sister, said: "This is another very difficult day for our family. The last 20 months have been a constant rollercoaster of emotions which we are still dealing with on a daily basis.

"My priority is and always will be looking after Jo and Brendan's children and supporting my parents, who have already been through so much.

"As a family we will support Brendan as he endeavours to do the right thing by admitting mistakes he may have made in the past, and we respect him for doing so.

"We all make mistakes. Brendan is a wonderful father and I have no doubt about the happiness he brought to Jo.

"My other focus is to wholeheartedly continue the work I have begun through the More in Common movement at a local and national level and to support The Jo Cox Foundation in continuing its valuable work.

"I have a fantastic team of people who have supported me so far and I know they will continue to do so as we focus on creating a positive legacy for Jo. Thank you to everyone for your ongoing support."

7.08am: Husband of murdered MP Jo Cox quits charity roles over 'inappropriate' behaviour

The widower of murdered MP Jo Cox has quit two charities set up in her memory after sexual assault allegations from his past resurfaced.

Brendan Cox denied preying on two women while he was married to the late politician, but accepted "inappropriate" behaviour, saying: "I made mistakes and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence."

He has left posts at More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation after the Mail on Sunday published accusations made by a former colleague while they both worked at charity Save the Children in 2015.

Months later, it is alleged he forced himself on a woman during a trip to Harvard University in the US.

He claimed allegations against him were a "massive exaggeration", during an interview with the newspaper.

But he said: "At the root [of the rumours] was a sense, which is fair, that I could overstep the line."

Labour MP Mrs Cox was fatally shot and stabbed outside her constituency office by a far-right terrorist during the EU Referendum campaign in 2016.

Her husband said in a statement on Saturday night: "I want to apologise deeply and unreservedly for my past behaviour and for the hurt and offence that I have caused.

"In the aftermath of Jo's murder, I promised that I would dedicate my life to two things, firstly loving and protecting our children and secondly fighting the hatred that killed Jo.

"In the last few days allegations from several years ago have resurfaced that makes concentrating on both of those tasks much more difficult.

"For that reason, while away over half-term, I decided to step down from my current public roles for the time being.

"While I do not accept the allegations contained in the 2015 complaint to the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I do acknowledge and understand that during my time at Save the Children I made mistakes and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence.

"This was never malicious but it was certainly inappropriate.

"In the past I have focused on disputing what I felt was untrue in the allegations, but I realise now that it's more important to take full responsibility for what I have done.

"I am committed to holding myself to much higher standards of personal conduct in the future."

The Mail on Sunday claimed Mr Cox drunkenly harassed a female employee at Save the Children in London - allegedly holding her by the throat and making a lurid comment. He left his role at the charity shortly afterwards.

The Coxes married in 2009 and had two children together.

In an interview with the newspaper, Mr Cox refused to disclose what his wife knew of the allegations, but said: "We never pretended that we had the perfect relationship, or the perfect marriage.

"We had difficult times, we had amazing times, but I'm not going to recount conversations I had with her because she's not here."

He conceded that there were "instances" where he made people feel uncomfortable at Save the Children which were viewed as inappropriate, adding: "I think that charge is a fair one."

He continued: "Certainly, I had too much to drink at times.

"I probably behaved in a way I thought was sort of jokey, or flirtatious. I often wasn't being serious, but that was perceived differently by others."

Details of his alleged behaviour at Save the Children comes as charities face intense scrutiny about their handling of sexual exploitation claims.

Oxfam has been plunged into chaos after it emerged that aid workers sent to earthquake-shattered Haiti had used prostitutes in 2011 - an episode the charity is accused of covering up.

A spokesman for the Jo Cox Foundation said: "The board of the Jo Cox Foundation has accepted Brendan Cox's resignation as trustee.

"Since establishing the Jo Cox Foundation, the trustees and staff have admired the integrity, commitment and dedication that Brendan has shown in our work to create a positive legacy for Jo.

"The Jo Cox Foundation was established in September 2016 to channel the energy and determination generated by Jo's life and murder into practical efforts to advance the causes she championed.

"The trustees and staff remain committed to continuing this important work and honouring Jo's life."President Donald Trump has launched another attack on Twitter, this time over an Obama-era payment to Iran.

President Trump said in a tweet that he has "never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7bn (1.36bn) in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!"

[social-twitter]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/965194903142719489[/social]

The Obama administration transferred the money to Iran in 2016, using non-US currency.

The administration said it was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the countries.

An initial payment was delivered the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.

The Obama administration eventually acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran.

Congressional Republicans decried the payment as ransom, which the Obama administration denied.

Mr Trump insisted that he never denied Russia's election meddling and declared that "they are laughing their asses off in Moscow".

While the nearby town of Parkland, Florida, continues to mourn a deadly school shooting that left 17 dead, Russia was clearly at the top of the president's mind. The administration has focused on the fact that the Russian effort began in 2014, before Mr Trump announced his White House run.

He said the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California Representative Adam Schiff - calling him "Liddle' Adam Schiff, the leakin' monster of no control" - "is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election".

Mr Trump appeared to be referring to an interview Mr Schiff did in which he said the previous administration should have set up a "more forceful deterrent" against foreign adversaries considering cyber attacks.

Mr Obama in late 2016 defended his administration's response to the Russian meddling, also saying he had confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin that September, telling him to "cut it out".

Mr Trump also argued that he "never said Russia did not meddle in the election", adding: "The Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!"

The president has repeatedly expressed scepticism over the Russian election meddling. In November, he said he believed the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that there had been meddling. But Mr Trump also said he believed Mr Putin is sincere when he says Russia did not interfere.

Mr Trump also argued that the ongoing investigations are just what the Russians want, saying: "Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!"

- PAAn estimated $330 million in city real estate is set to test the market as two development-ready hotels and a $30 million-plus office look to fire up the sector.

An artist impression of the development on the Novotel hotel site.

Sydney-based investor Greg Shands Barana Group has put the six-level Novotel Hotel on the St Kilda foreshore in Melbourne on the market with price expectations above $100 million.

Barana Group successfully gained a planning permit for the hotel site in 2017 which allows for it to be demolished to make way for 236 apartments in a Metier3-designed project over seven levels.

In Sydney, a private consortium was given the green light to build a $200 million development at 371-375 Pitt Street. It will be a 34-storey, 252-room hotel and ground floor retail.Robyn Malcolm (right) has played bogans, crime bosses and fierce matriarchs. Credit:sellis@fairfaxmedia.com.au Even her nurse, Ellen Crozier, in her first big television series, New Zealand's Shortland Street, was she says "to all intents and purposes a very nice person, a boss and firm and fair and all the rest of it, but she was a rootbag." Or as one critic pointed out, "the slut in the cardigan". While Malcolm's characters are often "unashamedly quite sexualised" they have a kind of wild morality in their amorality. "I was just one of those people that was fortunate enough at the age of 17 or 18 to have unflinching confidence," says Robyn Malcolm. "Most of them are girls on top," she says. "When you look at the amount of exploitation of women that has gone on over the years and particularly of how their sexuality is presented on film and TV, one of the things I have always made sure of is that the female characters I play, their sexuality is upfront. It is on their own terms."

Her more demurely dressed character in Harrow is still "ballsy but a quiet dignified version of ballsy, a quiet authority, in a lovely conservative way. I have really enjoyed playing with this different energy. Last year I did the second season of The Code and played the minister of foreign affairs, so that was a more similar energy to this one. As opposed to matriarchal characters like Julie Wheeler or Cheryl West, who would just kill and die for their families." She is fearless and that is where the authenticity comes from. Kriv Stenders In nearly every quality television production in this country, Malcolm is there somewhere. One of the directors of Harrow, fellow New Zealander Peter Salmon, has worked with her on Agent Anna, Outrageous Fortune and Wanted, where she played Rebecca Gibney's sister. "Robyn has great versatility as an actor," he says. "In Outrageous Fortune [a crime family show that ran for six seasons] she wasn't afraid of looking ugly, she is always searching for the truth. As actors get older they have their way of doing things, but Robyn is just as playful now as she has always been." As an actor, Malcolm is a strong fruity flavour, and, in person, her language is pretty damn salty, but she is far softer than she appears on television; friendly, chatty, an unpretentious warmth.

"I thought it was fake for ages" Salmon says, "but it is very, very genuine. She is so solid, there is no fuss with Robyn." There are none of the barriers actors often put up for self protection. "Honestly," Malcolm says at one point, "I am going through menopause at the moment and my f---ing brain is gone, just gone." But still, at 52, her positivity is infectious, there is still a kind of wonder at what she does. "Every single job I have done in Australia has been absolute magic. There hasn't been a job here that I haven't absolutely adored." Upper Middle Bogan, where she played Julie Wheeler, was "absolutely glorious. We just laughed for 12 hours a day." Director Kriv Stenders first worked with Malcolm briefly on The Principle before casting her in Wake in Fright. "I was struck by her authenticity, that is really rare. She is fearless, and that is where that authenticity comes from. She is not scared of going to uncomfortable places and presenting herself in uncomfortable ways. I loved her gutsiness, going in boots and all and then having a laugh afterwards. She is very grounded and self deprecating," Stenders says.

Malcolm is a single mother with two teenage sons, wrestling like women everywhere, with being a working mother. The problem is that while she has a burgeoning career in Australia she lives in Auckland  and commutes, twice a week while she has been working on Harrow. But every time she decides to move to Sydney or Melbourne she gets a job somewhere else. She is currently shooting The Outpost in the US. "If the kids remain in the security of their world and I have to be tired because I have to do the travelling then that is the way I want it. They needed to come first and they love where they live. I have these amazing nannies and the kids seem remarkably sane. We do their homework on Skype and tell stories and FaceTime each other." Malcolm grew up in Ashburton, a conservative farming town in the South Island. Her socialist family understood when she hightailed it out of there at 16. She instinctively knew that "these people are not my tribe, and I don't think they get me either. I used to wear mad clothes. I got round feeling a bit different by being funny". She dabbled in theatre while doing a degree in English and music at Canterbury University but it wasn't until she started going to professional theatre that she realised "you could make money doing this. I was just one of those people that was fortunate enough at the age of 17 or 18 to have unflinching confidence. Not with other stuff but in the acting world I had equal amounts of desperate abiding love and passion for it, and confidence. I just walked into it and kept walking and didn't look back. But the funny thing is I think I have got half the confidence now that I did at 17". Malcolm spent years working in theatre where early on she was told by an eminent director: "You are going to have a brilliant career playing mothers and whores. I was insulted by that, but I guess when I look back he was right; it is the combination of those two energies I guess." Her tribe turned out to be the "creative, crazy, instinctive, emotional, narcissistic sometimes" people in show business. "Somebody said to me once that film making is like watching your beautiful home burn to the ground  you have got seconds to run inside and save what you can."

Margaret Thatcher had yet to utter her paean to selfish individualism  "there is no such thing as society"  when Caryl Churchill's examination of women, power and class was first staged.

As Thatcher and others since have demonstrated, a woman at the top is no guarantee that the lives of other women and the marginalised will improve. I'm looking at you Aung San Suu Kyi.

In 1982, Churchill's all-female play was innovative in form  with its overlapping dialogue and inverted chronology  ironic in title and prescient in its analysis. Nearly three decades on, aspects of the play feel politically dated, but re-visiting this feminist work when issues of women and power are back on the table has given it renewed currency.

The play begins in the realm of fantasy. Helen Thomson as Marlene  all padded shoulders in sparkly Tory blue  celebrates her rise to the head of Top Girls employment agency with an all-woman feast.Good morning Canberra,

Welcome to another working week! We're looking at a cooler day, according to our friends from the Bureau of Meteorology, with a forecast top of 24 degrees and low of 17. There's also a high chance of afternoon and evening showers with the possibility of a thunderstorm. Pack your brolly!

Let's take a look at what's making news today.

Prescription drugs popular in prisonThe 2016 Census showed 2.9 per cent of Canberra's population was born in China , an increase on 1.8 per cent in 2011.

Oscar Liu, working at the Jasmine House stall based in the festival's China Village, said a growing Asian population had allowed the family-run restaurant to offer some traditional Cantonese favourites.

The 2018 National Multicultural festival on Sunday afternoon. Cheri Ji of the Jasmine House stall makes crystal jelly noodles. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Gungahlin restaurant Jasmine House this year swapped sweet and sour pork for traditional Chinese street food for expats missing home.

Canberra's growing Chinese community was a boon for at least one National Multicultural Festival stallholder.

Neane Luwala 10 spent her Sunday at the 2018 National Multicultural festival. Credit:Jamila Toderas

"We usually do the Chinese-Western mixed food, suited for the local taste, but now we have really traditional dishes as well," Mr Liu said.

"Anyone can come to taste but sometimes it's really spicy with a lot of chillies in the bowl, which looks amazing but some people are scared to try it.

"We welcome anyone to come and try it."

Cheri Ji, shaving jelly noodles from a block of slow cooked bean powder and water, said the Jasmine House dishes had also appealed to Westerners preparing to travel to China.A Queensland-born plum accidentally created by state government researchers could help Australians lower their risk of heart disease, researchers say.

The Queen Garnet plum was created in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries research centre at Stanthorpe about eight years ago in an attempt to grow a disease-resistant plum.

The Queen Garnet plum variety is dark-purple in colour.

Brisbane-based Nutrifruit director Alistair Brown, whose company owns the commercialisation rights to the fruit, said that after a number of cross-breeds, the cracking piece of fruit was born.

It was something they werent purposely looking for but they ended up with and certainly developed it from there, he said.Brisbane may be infested with cane toads, but the city's council is trying to keep the pest out of the few coastal Queensland locations that are yet to be invaded.

Moreton Island is considered cane toad-free and the council spends about $30,000 a year trying to keep it that way.

Brisbane is infested with cane toads, but there a few coast locations yet to be invaded.

The poisonous toad is considered a serious threat to other animals and kills native fish and reptiles as it is highly toxic to most animals when swallowed.

The councils environment chairman, David McLachlan, said the council was adhering to Commonwealth legislation to prevent cane toad-free areas becoming infested.Two men have been charged with torture after a 25-year-old Queensland man told police he had been assaulted and held against his will for several months south of Brisbane.

A 25-year-old Logan man went to the Beenleigh police station about 4.15pm on Sunday before being taken to hospital with cuts and bruises, particularly to his face.

According to police, he reported being assaulted at a home in Kingston the previous night, before detailing being held against his will for a number of months.

A 20-year-old and a 23-year-old have been charged with torture and acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

It is understood the 23-year-old and the alleged victim were flatmates.All Gold Coast beaches and a large portion on the Sunshine Coast have closed as Tropical Cyclone Gita continues to generate "large and powerful surf conditions" along the south-east coast.

The wave heights exceeded expectations on Sunday, with the Gold Coast recording peaks in excess of 4.5 metres at Palm Beach and almost 6 metres at Tweed Heads. The Sunshine Coast recorded between 3.5 and 4.5-metre peaks.

The Bureau of Meteorology expected an easterly swell of 2-2.5 metres with seas about 1-1.5 metres on Sunday, with similar dangerous surf conditions expected to last until at least Tuesday.

It was a similar story on the Sunshine Coast, with BoM predicting an easterly swell of 2-2.5 metres with seas about 1-1.5 metres on Sunday. The swell was expected to increase slightly to 2.5-3 metres on Monday before dropping to between 1.5 and 2 metres on Tuesday.Queensland Rural Fire Brigade Association general manager Justin Choveaux A Queensland Fire and Emergency Services media spokeswoman said rural fire services volunteers were considered workers who were covered by workplace, health and safety legislation. Which means they are covered by insurances like public liability and workers compensation, the spokeswoman said. However, Mr Choveaux said "there are no baddies in this story", but the issue was more complex than simply considering volunteers as workers. The Rural Fire Brigades Association website points out: Brigades need to have a sound legal basis that defines the relationship between themselves and the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Department; themselves, contractors and suppliers.

This is in addition to the large amounts of brigade owned equipment that is purchased and disposed of. From firefighting equipment, portable radios, chainsaws through to fridges, office chairs and specialised rescue equipment which is owned by brigades, and not the QFES, their website clarifies. Its not a simple problem of black and white, Mr Choveaux said as he drove from Gympie to Emerald on route to Townsville, Cairns, Atherton and Mt Isa to gauge the views of his brigade staff. In 2011 Crown Law said the rural fire brigade is not part of the Queensland Fire Service, Mr Choveaux said. It said a rural fire brigade is an unincorporated service. It is like a third party. So the Crown Law advice said the Queenslands Fire Services effectively outsource the hazard reduction and all the things the rural fire brigades do, ostensibly to a third party.

Serious questions of how to provide insurance and legal to Queenslands volunteer rural fire brigades began in 2011 after Crown Law advice found they were a collection of unincoporated bodies. Unincorporated associations cant enter into contracts, Mr Choveaux said. So they cant get insurance. So that is what has happened. And it has been like this for a long, long time. QFRS deputy commisioner Mike Wassing said all equipment was covered by insurance if it is included on the asset register of the individual rural brigade.

Mr Wassing said that included equipment raised totally from fundraising. "If an item is listed on the brigades asset register it is covered by insurance, regardless of whether it is being used, transported as part of a brigade activity or stored at the brigade station when it is damaged or lost,"he said. Mr Wassing said there is no minimum value requirement for an asset to be listed on the register. "The QFES recognises that some small items may not appear on the list," he said. "In cases where items that were not listed on the asset register were damaged or lost, QFES reviews the case and if it deems that the item is required for brigade business, it will cover the cost of repairs or replacement through its standard operating costs."

Rural fire brigades are still supported by the Queensland government (around $50 million per year) and they now have 114 paid positions. Queensland Rural Fire Brigade deputy commissioner Mike Wassing to receive detailed recommendations for change in May 2018. But they are not part of the Queensland government, because they are considered a collection of 36,000 unpaid volunteers, according to Crown Law. After seven years, representatives from 1400 rural fire brigades will finally present their recommendations to fix the situation to Mr Wassing on May 27. From there, recommendations will go to Queenslands Fire Commissioner Katarina Carroll, who was the state's former assistant police commissioner in charge of security when Brisbane hosted the G20 in 2014.

It is the biggest review of Queenslands 36,000 volunteer firefighters since Newman Government minister Ted Malone in 2013 reviewed Queenslands volunteer fire brigades. One of Mr Malones recommendations was for a dedicated deputy commissioner in charge of Queenslands 36,000 rural fire brigade volunteers. Labors new Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford, who joined the Victorian volunteer fire brigade at 17 years of age, said the Palaszczuk government would ensure the states volunteer firefighters worked in the best possible environment. Queensland's new Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford with North Queensland rural fire volunteers.A 16-year-old youth who allegedly threatened police while armed with a knife before being shot by officers at an Ipswich house on Wednesday, has been charged.

The teenager was charged with acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm after allegedly trying to stab his father during an argument in Danube Street, Springfield just before 2.30pm.

Police shot a 16-year-old at Springfield, alleging he lunged at them with a knife. Credit:Nine News

The youth was charged on Saturday afternoon following his release from Princess Alexandra Hospital, after suffering gunshot wounds.

The teenager's father was charged with three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm after the alleged fight with his son.Victoria Police arrested dozens of people for a range of offences including assault, robbery and drugs as thousands crowded into Melbourne's CBD overnight on Saturday for White Night.

Despite the arrests, police say they were "very happy" with the behaviour of late night revellers at the festival. Given the number of punters, they said, there were only 31 arrests.

Among the many authorised light shows was a "renegade" projection over the facade at Flinders Street station.

An anti-Adani projection over Flinders Street station. Credit:Courtesy Twitter: @AudreyCooke77

Police did not confirm if they arrested the Anti-Adani protesters responsible. There was a group of eight involved in the protest and their projector was confiscated on the night.At the beginning of this month, I appeared before the federal parliamentary committee tasked with a number of questions, including political donations and campaign advertising. I politely proposed that politicians, when trying to regulate these matters, might be seen as both poacher and gamekeeper. I suggested that a citizens jury might help with that. What we heard in response was that the committee thinks a jury process could help with another problem: section 44.

By now, we all know that section 44 constrains federal parliamentarians to undivided loyalty, and that they, of no fault of their own, can be plunged into a citizenship saga at any time, by other countries.

Larissa Waters was one of the Australian politicians plunged into a citizenship saga. A referendum on section 44 may not have a good chance of success. Credit:AAP

In addition, section 44 prohibits a candidate from having an office for profit under the Crown (being a teacher, for example, is not permitted) and also bars those having a pecuniary interest in a government activity (such as being a landlord of an Australia Post shop). These are difficult issues to resolve, bedevilled by detail.

Where New Zealand, for example, can settle this through the courts and Parliament, we require a referendum. Its widely recognised that referenda have a low success rate: eight in 44, or less than one in five since federation. Now think about holding a referendum that relates to what appears to be politicians' poor paperwork. Good luck with that.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has refused to say whether he was misled by Barnaby Joyce over the Nationals leader's affair with a staffer, saying he was aware of rumours about the relationship but never had it confirmed to him by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Turnbull also said he would expect a minister to resign for breaching his new rule against sexual relations with staffers and questioned why Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has not endorsed the revised code of conduct.

Appearing on Melbourne radio station 3AW after several days of public hostility between him and Mr Joyce, the Prime Minister said the pair had "put whatever tensions there were behind us".

"Barnaby at no time said to me that he was in a sexual relationship with this woman, with Vikki Campion. He never made that admission, I suppose, to me. I cannot recall when I first heard a rumour about it but probably about the same time, possibly later, than others," Mr Turnbull said.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended his criticism of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's extramarital affair as "absolutely the right thing to do" and in line with the expectations of most Australians.

Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy were interviewed by Sixty Minutes earlier this year - before news broke of the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's relationship with his former staffer, Vikki Campion.

Mr Turnbull agreed to make additional comments to the program following his description of Mr Joyce's actions on Thursday as a "shocking error of judgment" that caused "terrible hurt and humiliation" to his family.

Mr Joyce responded on Friday by describing Mr Turnbull's comments as "inept", leading to a meeting between the pair on Saturday in an attempt to salvage their working relationship.Two of Australia's largest consultancy firms have failed to lodge submissions to a public inquiry on the use of consultants despite raking in billions of dollars in taxpayer funding.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG are the only two of the big-four firms to have made submissions to the inquiry, which was called after an audit found spending on contracts outside the public service had spiralled to $47 billion for 2016-17.

The big four have earned close to $2 billion in taxpayer funding on consultants since 2013, angering the public sector union who claim that private interests are profiting from public services, with consultants and other service provoders in some departments such as Defence now outnumbering employees.

The big four firms. Credit:Ryan Stuart

Australian Electoral Commision data released in February showed while the big four had benefited from taxpayer funded contracts they had also emerged as some of the biggest political donors in the country, contributing up to $800,000 to the Labor and Liberal parties since 2016.

One-time senator Ricky Muir will seek to reignite his political career with a campaign to win the marginal Latrobe Valley seat of Morwell.

After months of speculation the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party confirmed the former timber workers preselection, saying his interests in four-wheel driving, dirt bike riding and, of course, shooting and fishing, made him an excellent candidate.

Former Senator Ricky Muir has confirmed he will stand for the seat of Morwell in the Victorian election. Credit:Michelle Slater/Latrobe Valley Express

Mr Muir conceded he did not live in the electorate, but said he understood how local issues affected those communities as Gippsland electorates were "intertwined".

"As there is [not] one lower house seat to cover all of Gippsland I have made the decision to stand in the marginal seat of Morwell where I may be in a position to offer voters who are dissatisfied with the major parties an alternative voice," he said.Dakar, Senegal: An attack by three suicide bombers has left at least 18 people dead and more than 20 others wounded at a fish market outside the sprawling Nigerian city that gave rise to the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, officials and news reports said Saturday.

The bombers set off explosives Friday at the market, about 24 kilometres from the centre of the city of Maiduguri. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they were similar to scores of others in and around the city in the past few months.

Burnt out cars following an attack in Maiduguri, Nigeria in 2017. Credit:AP

The attackers were all female, according to The Associated Press, and the victims were mostly women and children, local news outlets reported. Boko Haram has been known to deploy young women and children as suicide bombers, in addition to sending men to attack mosques, markets and other places where crowds gather.

The police commissioner of Borno state, Damian Chukwu, said at least 18 people died and 22 others were wounded in the attack Friday, according to Reuters. Hospital officials said two patients later died of their injuries.After a powerful earthquake struck Mexico Friday afternoon local time, survivors near the quake's epicenter gathered in a field, planning to spend the night sleeping under the stars or in vehicles instead of in damaged homes vulnerable to aftershocks.

And then, a second crisis hit. This time, it fell from the sky.

A military helicopter carrying officials assessing quake damage was about to land nearby when the pilot lost control. A few seconds later, it crashed to the earth - directly onto several vehicles packed with survivors.

Thirteen people on the ground died and 15 people were injured, according to the state prosecutor's office in Oaxaca, where the crash took place. The dead included at least three children.Berlin: German police are investigating an Australian-born British woman for suspected incitement after she questioned the Holocaust during a far-right protest in the eastern city of Dresden.

A spokeswoman for Dresden police says Michele Renouf was one of two people being investigated for remarks made at the neo-Nazi rally on Saturday commemorating those killed in the 1945 Allied bombing of the city.

The neo-Nazi rally in Dresden on Saturday. Credit:Monika Skolimowska

Videos of the rally posted online show Renouf saying the only Holocaust perpetrated in Europe was against German civilians. Publicly denying the Nazis' well-documented murder of an estimated six million Jews is a criminal offence in Germany.

Dresden police spokeswoman Jana Ulbricht said on Sunday that officers ordered the rally dissolved after determining that two speakers had broken the law.Latest News How one broker settled $25m in just one month Helen Avis talks us through her miracle month of mortgage settlements, and gives top tips on how to get more business done

GetCapital secures $87.5m in mezzanine funding Lender secures mezzanine from Canberra-backed fund

Former Yellow Brick Road CEO, Matt Lawler, has joined broker firm Loan Market as executive director and head of distribution and advice.

Besides his stint at YBR, Lawler has previously worked as executive general manager at NAB Broker and as executive general manager of advice at MLC.

Loan Market Group said the appointment is part of its vision to move from being lending providers to 'modern day branch managers', helping clients across lending, financial planning, asset finance, insurance, superannuation and investment.

Lawler will drive network expansion and support existing franchises while managing the companys transition into a fully integrated service offering, which includes the company's financial planning arm, Wealth Market.

Loan Market became a franchise business in 2014 and currently has 520 brokers in Australia.

Executive chairman Sam White said the company is increasingly seeing demand for solutions beyond a single mortgage product.

"Whilst it is clear that mortgage broking and financial planning are still largely two separate professions, the modern day branch manager will need to be fully equipped with the knowledge and specialist resources to help clients achieve their overall goals, he said.

"Matt's leadership will drive the integration of Loan Market, Wealth Market and other products within our brokers and advisors businesses, White told Australian Broker.

The company expects to see a strong flow of new brokers joining its network and targets to grow its number of brokers by 20% this year.

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Mike Felton sits down with Australian Broker to discuss his first year as CEO of the MFAA



Mike Felton has been the head of the MFAA for just over a year now, and he still lies awake at night thinking about brokers and their businesses.



Felton has steered the association through an exceptionally busy and tumultuous year on the regulatory front following the publication of ASICs Review of Mortgage Broker Remuneration and Stephen Sedgwicks Retail Banking Remuneration Review, and through the formation of the Combined Industry Forum (CIF) and its package of reforms.



In an interview with Australian Broker, Felton recalls sitting down and reflecting on the industry before taking the job. It occurred to him then that while it was an important industry full of smart and dedicated people, it could also be an industry divided.



I realised very early on that that type of situation going into a year of unprecedented regulatory change was a great risk, so a lot of my early focus was not only on realigning the MFAA but on ensuring that I did all I could in an attempt to unite the industry in the way that it has approached this task, he says.



He took an active role in uniting the industry through the establishment of the CIF, an unprecedented collaboration between multiple stakeholders, including lenders, brokers, member associations and consumers.

We do represent the entire industry, but we are cognisant of the fact that individual brokers generally do not have their own seat at the table Mike Felton, CEO, MFAA

That coming together of the industry was without a doubt the highlight of last year from my perspective, he says.



Now back from summer break, Felton is ready to go to bat for the industry once again, and it doesnt look like his and the MFAAs work is going to let up. In February and March, the association is hosting a number of PD days that feature a regulatory panel discussion to delve into the changes in further detail; the banking royal commission, which will now include brokers; the ongoing implementation of the CIF reforms; and the creation of an ASIC-approved industry code.



Despite whats to come, Felton says the MFAA will continue to aggressively advocate and engage with all stakeholders in the industry, including brokers, aggregators, lenders and consumers, to drive sustainability and growth.



We do represent the entire industry, but we are cognisant of the fact that individual brokers generally do not have their own seat at the table.



Behind the CIF reforms

Following the release of the ASIC and Sedgwick reviews last year, the industry was at a crossroads.



It faced the potential of considerable change with a wide variety of outcomes, many of which could have been potentially negative for the industry, Felton says.



Self-regulation was considered the best way forward, and so the CIF was born in May to develop a package of industry-led measures to address ASICs concerns.



Self-regulation is a highly empowering process in that we as an industry get the opportunity to use our collective knowledge and experience to have the first crack at promoting stronger consumer outcomes and thus protecting our own long-term interests, Felton says.



The CIF had to act quickly to prove to the government that it was serious about its own initiative. Meeting for the first time on 9 June, the group held monthly meetings thereafter and formed specialist working groups. Six months later, on 11 December, the group released its six-point reform package.



Those six principles include a standard commission model that avoids financial incentives that encourage consumers to borrow more than they need or will use by basing commissions on facility drawdown net of offset; ceasing volume-based and campaign-based commissions paid by lenders and aggregators; and providing ASIC and consumers with clearer information and data on loans written and commissions paid.



Several remuneration models were assessed, including a consumer-paid fee for service, base commissions paid on LVR, and a flat lender fee, but these were deemed to have unintended consequences.



We walked a fine line here between trying to ensure that brokers were awarded for the economic value that they produce, but at the same time meeting the non-negotiables that were put forward by ASIC, Felton says.



One of those was ensuring that lenders did not structure their incentives in a way that encouraged the creation of larger loans with large initial offset balances.



In its submission to Treasury, the MFAAs initial position was to ensure brokers were rewarded in circumstances where funds held in an offset account were subsequently used. However, Felton says the collective view of the CIF was that that did not sufficiently address ASICs recommendation on the matter. The group opted for upfront commission to be paid on utilisation of the facility limit drawn down and net of offset account balances.



While everyone recognises that the use of offset is a legitimate choice for customers, one that minimises interest and tax, we had to deal with the guidance provided by ASIC, Felton says.



The CIF stakeholders had to work together and compromise, which is what these processes are all about, he says. In the end, they came up with reforms that Felton believes will have a manageable impact on brokers.



More broadly, while the changes relate to improved governance and standardisation of various documents, and processes will take time to implement, the end result should save time and strengthen the industry in the long term.



The implementation process

While the preparation of the CIF report was a significant task, the bulk of the work still lies ahead, Felton says. The CIFs reform package is expected to be implemented in its entirety by the end of 2020.



In the meantime, there are shorter-term milestones to be achieved. This year, the group will provide further detail on the reforms, consider unintended consequences, and begin implementing changes to commission structures and the eligibility of non-monetary benefits, as well as implementing a public reporting framework. While doing so, it will continue to consult with various stakeholders.



As these are steps the industry has taken on its own as part of self-regulation, they do not need government approval to begin. However, while the CIF can make recommendations, in accordance with competition law it cannot dictate how lenders should proceed. Its now up to the banks to put the CIFs principles into practice.



Whilst the CIF has provided common principles as to how industry participants may address risks highlighted by ASIC when it comes to commission structures, it is up to each individual lender to decide how they will apply those, Felton says.



ANZ is the only major bank so far that has publicly announced its amendments to remuneration, which will see the bank pay brokers an upfront commission of 62.5 basis points effective 1 February, up from the current 57.5 basis points.



Under the new structure, ANZ will no longer give brokers volume-based incentives. Its trail structure remains the same.



Forging ahead

Its not only going to be a busy year for the MFAA but also for brokers. Felton recommends brokers read the CIF report and watch the video the group has prepared to ensure they understand the proposed changes. The video is available to members on the MFAA and FBAA websites. He also suggests brokers actively engage with their association, aggregators and lenders to take advantage of the resources available and to remain abreast of the changes and their likely implementation.



As the industry evolves and demonstrates what its capable of through self-regulation, Feltons ability to be a scrupulous mediator will likely be more important than ever.The Sensex and Nifty are likely to focus on global cues and the unfolding bank fraud saga for the week starting tomorrow. Markets are likely to see volatile trade due to the expiry of futures and options contracts on Thursday.

The benchmark indices ended lower in a volatile week after showing signs of recovery in the second half amid global markets recovering from the effects of higher US bond yields.

While the Sensex closed 286 points lower to 34,010, Nifty fell 93 points to close at 10,452 points on Friday.

Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit expects a lesser volatile week ahead. F&O expiry will be in focus as it will be interesting to see how many will be inclined to roll over, given the fiscal end as well as March being a long expiry month.

"The market has corrected by 5% from the recent all time high and we can assume that a large portion of this consolidation is finding a floor in the short-term. But investors are cautious given widening of trade deficit, rise in bond yields and global volatility," Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

The PNB fraud also dampened sentiment since February 14 when it came into light. Bank stocks were the most hit, especially of SBI, PNB, Union Bank, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, which have direct exposure to the fraud.

Shares of Gitanjali Gems , firm owned by Nirav Modi's uncle Mehul Choksi tanked another 20% after the detection of Punjab National Bank's Rs 11,400-crore fraud. Gitanjali Gems is one of the companies charged by investigating agencies for colluding with Nirav Modi in carrying out the fraud.

The stock closed 9.35 points lower to 37.55 level on BSE. The stock fell 40.25 percent on BSE since Wednesday . Its market capitalisation has fallen by Rs 300.1 crore.

"Repercussion of the scam in a large public sector bank reverberated through markets and led to some nervous investors selling off their positions," said V K Sharma, Head - Private Client Group (PCG), HDFC Securities.

Sentiment also turned weak after the country's trade gap soared to $16.3 billion in January on account of a 26.1 per cent increase in imports to $40.68 billion due to increased inbound shipments of crude oil, as per data released by the commerce ministry.

India's exports grew by 9 per cent to $24.38 billion in January, helped by a healthy growth in shipments of chemicals, engineering goods and petroleum products.

Besides domestic developments, the movement of funds and crude oil prices are expected to dictate the market sentiment this week.

Market commentator Ambareesh Baliga in a piece on Reuters said:

The coming week is expected to be volatile due to expiry of derivatives contracts on Thursday. With the results season almost out of the way, investor focus will be on global cues and the unfolding bank fraud saga.

The last few weeks of correction in Indian markets has resulted in massive losses, especially for retail investors who were chasing momentum in mid and small-caps.

There seems to be a pattern of distribution where frontline indices are holding steady within a band while the mid and small-caps continue to correct heavily. However, this should provide a good opportunity for an entry in the near future.Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the long overdue airport project at Navi Mumbai on Sunday. PM Modi said, "Issue of Navi Mumbai airport has been pending for years. And, this is not the only project that is pending. When I assumed office I realised there were several such projects. That is why we began a Pragati initiative and gave priority to completion of projects."

"In our country, nearly 450 planes are operational. 900 new planes will be bought this year. Aviation sector is moving ahead," he further said.

Sources familiar with the project development told Business Today that GVK group, the diversified infrastructure major working on the project, is confident that first phase of the airport with the capacity to handle 10 million passengers per annum will be ready in another four years.

This is despite the fact that land acquisition for the project is not complete yet. A small plot in the middle of the project site remains to be acquired. The group is confident of getting this done as the local administration seems keen to cooperate. Almost 3000 acres, which is bulk of the land for the project, has already been acquired with the key runway region totally clear.

For connectivity with Mumbai, which is not the responsibility of the airport development company or the state administration, contracts have been placed with Larsen & Toubro and Tata Projects for the trans-harbour link, billed as India's largest sea bridge.

On the key issue of financing, biggest challenge for any of the debt-laden infrastructure majors in the country today, GVK does not seem to anticipate problems. The first phase of Navi Mumbai Airport is expected to cost around Rs 6,000 crore. The internal accruals of the current Mumbai International airport are sufficient to take care of the equity requirements. Going by the project cost, this would incur equity requirements to the tune of around Rs 1,200 crore. For rest, GVK would raise debt from the banks and, going by our sources, the banks seem more than willing to participate.

The Hyderabad-headquartered GVK Group had led the consortium that modernised and re-developed Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in 2006. Mumbai International Airport Pvt Limited (MIAL), the same consortium, has a 74 per cent stake in the Navi Mumbai International Airport. This greenfield airport is being constructed at Ulwe Kopar near Panvel, and like the current international airport, will get both international and domestic flights. It has become necessary as the current airport, handling 48 million passengers a year, is nearing its full capacity of 55 million passengers per annum. It is anticipated that it will reach full capacity by the next year or so, making the new airport necessary. The company signed the concession agreement in January this year and in February last year, its bid was accepted.

For GVK, which has nearly stopped bidding for new projects and is focused on looking at various ways to prune its debt - its total debt today is around Rs 23,000 crore. Though when calculated, as per the new Indian accounting standard IndAs, it comes to around Rs 15,000 crore. The Navi Mumbai airport project is the only major project it is taking up recently. This perhaps has to do with the economics and its potential of the project, apart from GVK having the first right of refusal in the project.It is now clear that Nirav Modi has changed his status in the Indian documents from resident Indian to Non Resident Indian (NRI). This happened sometime last year. It is not known whether Indian banks, especially the Punjab National Bank, were aware of their borrower's status shifting to a NRI. All along, Modi was classified as Indian promoter of his borrowing companies that were issued the letter of undertakings (LoU). Many other banks also had a fund and non-fund based exposure to his other companies.

There are already reports of Modi taking up the citizenship or permanent resident status of some other country. Currently, Modi has companies in US, UK, Russia, UAE, Belgium, Armenia, etc. There is a suspicion that he must have siphoned off bank funds to a country where he plans to hole up.

The documents where Modi clearly states that he is a NRI have been filed with the Registrar of Companies.

A certified copy of the resolution by the shareholders of ANM Enterprises Pvt Ltd, a company owned by Modi, clearly mentions him as NRI with an address in Dubai, UAE. The address gives a flat no 2202, Al Shera Towers, Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai, UAE. This resolution is dated November 06, 2017. This begs the question of why he has given a Dubai address. Does Modi plan to take shelter in UAE?

Meanwhile, the Ministry Of External Affairs (MEA) has already suspended Modi's passport for four weeks. His wife is a US citizen and his brother Nishal is a Belgian national.

There is a further proof of his changed nationality in the ANM Enterprise Pvt Ltd filing which says Nirav Modi holds 9,990 shares of the company, which is 99.90 per cent of its total equity capital. There is a footnote which says 9,990 shares held by Nirav Modi were issued to him while he was resident in India.

Similarly, another company, Firestar International, that Modi was trying to take public to raise more funds, has classified him as NRI in financial year 2016-17. The filing for 2015-16 puts him as a promoter 'Resident in India' with some 6,17,52,055 shares with 51.32 per cent holding. Whereas the filing for 2016-17 classifies him as promoter in the NRI category with 6,17,52,055 shares with 49.92 per cent holding.

Nirav Modi also re-designated himself from director to a non-executive role during the year 2017. Was there a ready script - take up a new citizenship elsewhere and never return to India to repay the banks?Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing.

You are our people. You Care. We Care2.In order to get to a point in your career in which you can give an Academy Award speech, you have to be a pretty good artist. But in many ways, giving an Oscar acceptance speech is an art form in and of itself. You have to thank the right people  definitely dont forget anyone important, like your spouse or your mom  but cant waste time by naming too many people. You have to show that youre happy you won  no one wants to see someone ungrateful up on that stage, right? But you cant be too happy, or else you look like youre an egomaniac. Its a balancing act, and over the years, plenty of stars have memorably failed to walk that line without a major stumble.

Theres been Cuba Gooding Jr.s enthusiastic victory lap, Roberto Benignis chair-leaping bravado, and Sally Fields legendary You like me! There have been moments that brought film fans to tears, and others that left us scratching our heads. In some cases, these Oscar speeches have helped define the artists careers more than the works of art they were being rewarded for. Here are 10 of the best (and worst) Oscar speeches weve ever seen.

Best: Barry Jenkins

It will undoubtedly be the most talked-about moment in Oscar history  and with good reason. In the closing moments of the 89th Academy Awards, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway incorrectly announced that the Best Picture trophy had been awarded to this years frontrunner, La La Land. Moments later, as the films creative team stood on stage, they were informed that, in fact, Moonlight had won.

Cue chaos and shock on the part of both camps, as well as Beatty, Dunaway, and host Jimmy Kimmel. La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz showed incredible grace as he conceded the award to the Moonlight team. And after a few more moments of confusion, a clearly stunned Barry Jenkins  who directed the newly minted Best Picture and had already won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay  took to the microphone.

Despite all the confusion, and the fact that his film had just made Oscar history in more ways than one, Jenkins spoke quickly and eloquently for his team. Even in my dreams, this could not be true, but to hell with dreams. Im done with it, because its true. It was a statement that captured his own personal journey with the film, undoubtedly, but also one that spoke to how surreal the moment was. Then, he capped off his brief speech by acknowledging the film that everyone thought had won.

It seems like a bit of an understatement to call the moment unfortunate for all involved. But the fact that Jenkins was able to pull himself together and honor his film, in the midst of the circus around him, was truly remarkable.

Worst: Melissa Leo

There are moments when its clear that an actor or actress is truly shocked that they won an Oscar. But after The Fighters Melissa Leo won a trophy in 2011 for Best Supporting Actress, she seemed so stunned that she was unable to keep a coherent thought together. She stopped midway through her speech to comment on the people in the balconies before rattling off a list of people she wanted to thank for several more minutes.

Leo had launched her own For Your Consideration campaign, which was controversial in some Hollywood circles, and as a result, her speech was viewed by some as a bit of a show. Whatever the reason for her erratic speech, it certainly didnt come across well.

Best: Lupita Nyongo

Lupita Nyongo gave one of the best performances in recent memory in 12 Years a Slave. So it was particularly satisfying to see her scoop up the Best Supporting Actress trophy at the 2014 Oscar ceremony. The actress was the epitome of poise and grace during her acceptance speech  and she used the moment to not only personally thank those who supported her, but to acknowledge the inspiration behind her performance. Notably, Patsey, the young woman she portrayed.

Nyongo, who was born in Mexico and raised in Kenya, ended her speech saying that children all over the world should see her win as a reminder to keep dreaming. All in all, her speech was as close to perfect as you can get on Oscar night: sincere, emotional, humble, and uplifting.

Worst: James Cameron

Everyone deserves to celebrate a hard-fought win. But there was something off-putting about James Camerons self-congratulatory speech when he accepted the Oscar for Best Director in 1997. Obviously, Titanic was already a huge success; but given the hoops Cameron had to jump through to make the movie, it probably felt very good to watch it rake in accolades, too.

Still, by the time Cameron walked onto the stage to the dulcet tones of My Heart Will Go On, we all knew he was a winner. So when he pumped his fists in the air and shouted, Im the king of the world! it caused more than a few eye rolls. It felt like the state champions taking an extra victory lap. Perhaps even worse, it felt like a moment right out of one of his movies  rehearsed, and completely inauthentic.

Best: Halle Berry

Halle Berry made history in 2002 when she won Best Actress for her work in Monsters Ball. As the first black actress to take home the award, she knew that the moment was bigger than her. And she did a wonderful job of acknowledging all the women who came before her, by calling them out on the stage.

Berry was clearly overcome with emotion, both for what the win meant personally and historically. Despite that pressure, her speech was both eloquent and heartfelt  one that set a precedent for all future Oscar history makers to come.

Worst: Warren Beatty

Warren Beattys name was a trending topic immediately following the 2017 Academy Awards, thanks to the role he played in the La La Land/Moonlight mishap. In 2000, the actor and director was given the honorary Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Oscars. This award is traditionally given to an artist whose career has spanned decades.

His acceptance speech, it seemed, lasted almost that long, too. Beatty spoke kindly of those hed worked within the industry, of his wife and children, and of the impact that being an actor had on him personally. Thats all well and good, and he certainly deserved his moment in the spotlight. But all told, Beatty spoke for roughly seven minutes, a sizeable chunk of time by any standard, but especially when it happens smack dab in the middle of an already excessively long telecast.

Best: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

Twenty years ago, no one had heard of Batfleck, or Jason Bourne. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were just starting to become household names when they won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for their film, Good Will Hunting. The two young actors were clearly shocked, and tried to remain composed as they began reciting their thank yous.

Then, they started to unravel a bit, and by the end, they were jumping up and down and shouting out names at random. By the time theyd thanked the entire city of Boston, the theater was in stitches, and their enthusiasm felt contagious, even through a TV screen. Since then, both Affleck and Damon have gone on to become A-listers, each with their fair share of huge successes and disappointing failures. But in that moment, anyone watching their win probably felt like they were watching two young actors become stars.

Worst: George Clooney

George Clooney is, for many of us, the epitome of modern Hollywood. Hes suave, charming, talented, and self-deprecating  and he clearly has no problem in the confidence department. All of those qualities were on display when he accepted the Best Supporting Actor statue at the 2005 Oscars for his work in Syriana.

Unfortunately, the actor managed to somehow become a living, breathing caricature of himself in that moment. The speech started out fine, with a joke about how he wasnt going to win the other award he was up for that night, Best Director. By the end of the speech, though, he was patting all of Hollywood on the back for being the only group of people that acknowledged important social issues. It may have played well in the room, but at home it sounded more than a little arrogant  especially since he was completely ignoring the important work that organizations all around the world do for those issues.

Best: Tom Hanks

When Philadelphia hit theaters in 1993, it was one of the first Hollywood films to openly address HIV, AIDS, and homosexuality. So, in many ways, Tom Hanks gave a groundbreaking performance as Andrew Beckett, a lawyer fighting for his dignity after he was unfairly dismissed by his employers when they learned he was gay and HIV positive.

Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for his work in Philadelphia, and he was sure to acknowledge the themes in the film during his acceptance speech. Given the fact that the topic was still controversial, his acknowledgment of the gay community and those that had died as a result of contracting AIDS was a bold and empathetic gesture. While it may not seem like much today, at the time it was a clear statement of support from one of the most well-liked public figures in America  which hadnt happened many times before.

Worst: Jack Palance

In 1992, Jack Palance won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his comedic turn in City Slickers. He was 73 years old, and clearly proud of that fact  because he basically made his entire acceptance speech all about his age. Now, ageism is a documented issue in Hollywood, but its not one that will be solved by doing one-armed pushups on the Academy Award stage. Palance seemed to think it might, though. He also apparently thought that crudely insulting his fellow castmates and talking up his own awesomeness was the best way to prove that he was, in fact, worthy of the statue he had been awarded.

And the Oscar for the most self-obsessed speech of all time goes to 

Follow Katherine Webb on Twitter @prufrox.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!City council approves premium pay for police officers, firefighters

Pueblo will use $1.1 million of its ARPA funds to give premium pay to police officers and firefighters who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic.Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need will shell out 3.6 million British pounds to help 2,000 Christian refugees returning to Iraq's Nineveh Plains rebuild their homes after the Islamic State was defeated in the region.

The money given by ACN will help in the renovation of 1,500 houses in Qaraqosh while 500 homes in Bartella, Bashiqua, and Bahzani will also be rebuilt. The Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic Churches established the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee to supervise the rebuilding project, The Tablet detailed.

The NRC has completed the renovation of almost 3,000 houses in the region since it began in March 2017. ACN financed the rebuilding of 784 of those homes.

ACN's Middle East head Father Andrzej Halemba expressed joy at the return of 35 percent of the Iraqi Christians. However, he acknowledged that there were still challenges to surmount, including the ISIS extremist ideas that had already penetrated some sections of the community.

"It will be possible to achieve the greater objective a namely, to restore 6,000 houses a only if we provide concrete aid together with other players and only if this region is not left to its own devices," Father Halemba added. "This would enable at least each second displaced person of the Christian minority to return."

Meanwhile, Iraq's minister of planning, Salman Al-Jameeli, said $88.2 billion is required to rebuild the areas destroyed in the battle against ISIS. They will need to allot $22.9 billion for the short term reconstruction projects and $65.4 billion for the medium term, CNN reported.

Al-Jameeli's statement was issued during an Iraq donors' conference held in Kuwait on Feb. 13. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was present during the conference, asked for the help of the anti-ISIS coalition in rebuilding Iraq.

In addition, Tillerson said leaving Iraq and Syria in their devastated conditions would open these places to situations that let the extremist group take over large swathes of land. He also shared the U.S. would allot another $200 million for the stabilization efforts in Syria.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

There is a t-shirt that has a picture of a Bible and a gun surrounded by the words "Two things every American should know how to use... neither of which are taught in schools."

The mixing of God and guns seems to be a uniquely American recipe. But it's not a good one. More people died this week in America, victims of yet more mass shootings. And the same conversations about gun laws, gun rights, mental health and how this is now normal in our country continue. But another mass shooting will occur today, and tomorrow and the day after that. We average more than one per day.

There are important moral, legal and social facts that can be brought to bear on this debate. Here, however, I'll discuss some religious arguments related to gun laws, in part because so many people attempt to combine guns and God, Christianity and a Colt .45. I think a strong religious argument in favor of more restrictive gun laws can be made, grounded in Christian ethics.

First, both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament consistently conceive of God as being especially concerned with the poor, the outcast, the weak, and the vulnerable (see Isa. 32:15-18; 60:17-18; Rom. 14:17; and James 1:27). Gun violence is especially prominent in economically depressed areas. It is also prevalent in cases of domestic violence, where women and children are vulnerable and the victims. Surely these are good reasons, from a Christian moral perspective, to have more restrictive gun laws.

Second, the New Testament consistently opposes violence. As New Testament scholar Richard Hays puts it in The Moral Vision of the New Testament, "From Matthew to Revelation we find a consistent witness against violence and a calling to the community to follow the example of Jesus in accepting suffering rather than inflicting it." The New Testament teaches non-violent love for one's enemies (Mat. 5:38-48), that it is the role of government to "bear the sword," not individual persons (Romans 13), and that followers of Jesus should accept even the theft of their own possessions rather than using violence to defend them (Heb. 10:32-34).

I would add that it is hard to imagine Jesus, if he were present in our culture, carrying a gun. And as the exemplar for Christians, this is significant. Some deny this claim, based on a passage from chapter 22 of Luke's gospel. Prior to his betrayal and arrest, Jesus tells the disciples "If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one." Gun advocates interpret this as a justification for the status quo. But when they do this, they ignore the context of the passage. Later in the chapter, a follower of Jesus uses a sword against a servant of one of the religious leaders involved in the arrest. Jesus tells him, "No more of this!" Moreover, the context of the passage reveals that the point of the exhortation to purchase a sword is to fulfill an Old Testament prophecy, not to use for violence against others.

I'm not a pacifist, and I am not an advocate for outlawing all guns. I think there are good arguments in support of the claim that we possess a right to self-defense. But this doesn't justify the current gun laws in the U.S. Common sense and Christian ethics lead to the conclusion that we need more restrictive gun laws in the United States.

Many are opposed to this, for a variety of reasons.

First, many pro-gun advocates argue that an unarmed citizenry will be helpless against a tyrannical government. While it is possible that tyranny may arise in our nation, this seems unlikely, given the existence of democratic institutions and a strong tradition of adherence to the rule of law. Moreover, when we take into account the military might of the United States government, it is not clear how an armed populace would prevent such tyranny. If such tyranny did arise, the people could successfully resist only if they had a stockpile of weapons capable of matching the state's firepower. It is not clear how a stockpile of guns would deter a drone attack, for example.

If the justification for the continued prevalence of guns in America is to deter or resist a possible future tyrannical state, then by the same reasoning there would also be a right to possess fighter jets, missiles, and perhaps even weapons of mass destruction, all of which would be needed to truly deter or reverse such tyranny. But surely this is wrong, because of the potential harm to innocent victims if these weapons were widely possessed.

Some argue that gun laws don't work, pointing to places like Chicago. It is true that Chicago, a city which has very strict gun laws, also has a high level of gun violence. However, the case of Chicago does not support the claim that restrictive gun laws are ineffective. Instead, it shows the need for more widespread laws. People who want guns can simply go outside of Chicago, obtain them with ease, and bring them back into the city. Consider the fact that between 2008 and 2012, Chicago police recovered 1,375 guns that were used in criminal activities. Almost 20 percent of these guns came from a single store, Chuck's Gun Shop, located a few miles outside of the Chicago city limits in Riverdale, Illinois. Strict gun laws in one city will be ineffective if the laws of the state in which that city is located are lax, as is the case in Illinois.

Third, the data show that strict gun laws reduce violent crime. For example, there is a correlation between restrictive laws and lower homicide rates with and without firearms, both within the United States and internationally. Moreover, a recent study published in the Southern Medical Journal found that the presence of a gun in a home is twelve times more likely to lead to the death of a member of the household or a visitor than an intruder.

Finally, consider a fact about the nature of rights: most are not absolute. That is, there are limits to their scope, and one of the most significant reasons to limit the exercise of a right is that doing so will prevent serious harm to others. This is why the right to freedom of speech does not include the right to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Most rights are conditional. The right to drive a car in is conditional upon successfully taking written and road skills tests. We should do something similar with gun rights.

What laws might be effective? Perhaps some or all of the following: a criminal and mental health background check, an assault weapons ban, a required safety course, competency with a firearm demonstrated via a skills test, a regular renewal requirement, a minimum age requirement of at least 21 (and perhaps older), and some form of gun liability insurance. This allows for those who are competent to own and use firearms for both sport and self-defense, and connects the right to own a firearm with the ability to properly and sensibly use it. This would make it more likely that each individual gun owner will be responsible, and that fewer people will die from gun violence.

For Christians who want to have a consistent pro-life ethic across all of the issues related to life and death, the status quo is unacceptable. There is much more to do than simply craft better gun laws, and there is likely no way to guarantee that such things will never happen again. However, we can certainly reduce the number of these tragic events. As followers of Jesus, we have the responsibility to try.

Michael W. Austin is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Eastern Kentucky University. He is currently working on a book entitled God and Guns in America, to be published in 2019. You can connect with him at michaelwaustin.com, on Twitter @michaelwaustin, and on Facebook.'Scandal' and 'How to Get Away With Murder' news, spoilers: Annalise Keating, Olivia Pope join forces in special crossover episode

With the new trend on television being crossovers by fan-favorite characters, "Scandal" and "How to Get Away With Murder" are set to release an episode that will see Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) crossing paths with Annalise Keating (Viola Davis). ABC has announced that the special crossover episode will air on their "Thank God It's Thursday" lineup.

"Grey's Anatomy" and "Station 19" will kick off the crossover special on March 1 at 8 p.m. EST, while the "Scandal" and "How to Get Away With Murder" programming will follow at 9 and 10 p.m. EST, respectively. The special "Scandal" episode will be titled "Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself" and is expected to be a tension-filled episode wherein Pope will be seen moving out of the White House. In the midst of it, she will meet the ruthless criminal defense attorney played by Davis.

Together, they will work on fast-tracking a judicial reform class action to the United States Supreme Court. However, since Pope's storyline on "Scandal" has been deeply mired in controversy as of late, it seems the two lead characters might just have many challenges to face as they seek support from both their allies.

The "Scandal" episode will end with the resolution of the case hanging in the balance, as the episode leads to "How to Get Away With Murder's" "Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" episode. It is set to focus on the crucial meeting between Annalise and Olivia as it becomes a pivotal moment in the escalation of the class action case to the higher courts. Actress Liza Weil's "Bonnie" will also discover information about "Simon," played by Behzad Dabu. This discovery might lead to an expose as to what really occurred during the night he was shot.

"How to Get Away With Murder" co-star Aja Naomi King will also play a pivotal role in the "Scandal" episode, which is under the writing credits of Raamla Mohamed and directing helm of Tony Goldwyn. "How to Get Away With Murder's" "Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania" episode" was written by Morenike Balogun and Sarah L. Thompson and was directed by Zetna Fuentes.'Keeping Up With the Kardashians' news: Surrogacy issues and infestation cause siblings to bug out

Fresh at the heels of the big baby-related announcements from the Kardashian-Jenner family, the latest episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" centered heavily on Kim Kardashian-West's surrogate issues. After working hard to keep the secret under wraps, she was spotted at a new doctor's office together with her surrogate for baby Chicago Kardashian-West. As a result, gossip news outlets started spreading the news instantaneously, causing Kim to dish about her stress to sister Khloe Kardashian over Chinese food.

Sharing the news with husband Kanye West, Kim stated that she feared for the safety of her surrogate following the added spotlight on their situation. Legal action was threatened to ensue as Kim hoped for the media attention to die down. As she attended the Harper's BazaarIcon Party, Kim was bombarded with surrogacy-related questions, which she evaded by postponing comments until she and Kanye were both "ready."

Elsewhere on the Kourtney Kardashian side, something else caused much stress: a tarantula infestation. Kourtney gave the exterminator company an earful after complaining that they hardly did anything to rid her home of the creepy crawlers and insisted that they rectify the situation. She was told that given the mating season for tarantulas, this would be a difficult task to accomplish.

Kourtney's ex-boyfriend Scott Disick went on a bonding trip with Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner as her companion for the New York Fashion Week extravaganzas. They witnessed Kylie Jenner receive an award for Fashion Icon of the Decade from The Daily Front Row.

Disick and Kris also bonded over discussions regarding the former's love life at the moment. This bonding session continues until the next episode that will air on Feb. 18 wherein Scott is expected to bring up the idea of putting together a legacy video for Kris. Scott realized that the Kardashian-Jenners know very little about Kris' history and he wishes to commemorate her life for all of them to see. As Kylie keeps making waves as a supermodel, her anxiety keeps pulling her back at Milan Fashion Week.

"Keeping Up With the Kardashians" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EST on E!Nikolas Cruz tells police that 'demons' inside his head gave him instructions on how to carry out Florida mass shooting

Florida Valentine's Day shooter Nikolas Cruz owned up to his crimes of murder when his statement was taken under police custody in the said state. The 19-year-old, who was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, said that voices in his head prompted him to do what he did.

On Feb. 14 Cruz started shooting people in South Florida High School with a AR-15 type weapon. The crime left 17 dead and more than a dozen people wounded. The shooter was immediately caught and was in police custody hours after the incident.

Now that Cruz confessed to the crime, he also confessed that there were "voices" in his head when the crime happened. The said voices were supposedly giving him instructions on what to do and how to conduct the attack, as Cruz claimed.

Local law enforcement agency described the voices as "demons."

Cruz was already known to be a loner in his school and his passionate interest in weapons was no secret to his teachers and classmates. Some described him as depressed and different. One called him a "psycho."

Mostly, Cruz was described by his acquaintances as someone "alone in the world." He was taken in a by a family attorney when his biological mother died, and he was battling depression at a young age. His stepmother thought he was doing well with therapy.

However, Cruz remained to be an outcast, as evidenced by his posts on social media.

After the tragic shooting, Broward hospitals accepted 17 wounded patients. As of right now, one of those patients is in critical condition, seven in fair condition, and one in good condition.

Cruz's public defender Melisa McNeil said that Cruz was filled with regret regarding his actions.

"He's sad. He's mournful. He's remorseful. He is fully aware of what is going on, and he's just a broken human being," the attorney said.Pope Francis renews commission on sex abuse as key survivor gives 'eye opening' testimony

Pope Francis renewed a commission on clergy sexual abuse on Saturday, confirming a US cardinal as its head, as the Vatican promised to give victims a greater say in its work.

It came as the key witness in the case of a Chilean bishop accused of covering sexual abuse said on Saturday he gave 'eye opening' testimony to a papally mandated investigator and hoped it would lead to the truth.

Juan Carlos Cruz met in a church on Manhattan's Upper West Side for about four hours with Archbishop Charles Scicluna and said afterwards that 'for the first time I feel that someone is listening'

The renewal of the commission and the confirmation of Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston as its head comes as the pope is dealing with the abuse scandal in Chile that has created one of the greatest image crises of his papacy, which marks its fifth anniversary next month.

The first, three-year mandate of the commission ended in December and its future had been uncertain.

Its first term was marred by two high-profile resignations, that of Marie Collins of Ireland and Peter Saunders of Britain. Both were victims of clergy sexual abuse when they were young and both stepped down in what they said was frustration over lack of change and insufficient cooperation by top Vatican officials.

A Vatican statement said victims of sexual abuse were among the members but that it was up to them to decide to disclose this outside the 16-member international commission, made up of nine new members and seven returning ones.

It said plans were at an advanced stage to create a group made up of victims of sexual abuse known as the International Survivor Advisory Panel (ISAP) to offer consultation on 'abuse prevention from the survivor's perspective'.

The mandate of the commission, which includes lay academics and psychologists, priests and nuns, is to promote best practise initiatives and educational programmes to protect minors and vulnerable adults in local Catholic institutions around the world.

Its experts come from the United States, Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Ethiopia, India, Italy, Tonga, Germany, Brazil, Poland, South Africa, the Philippines, and Zambia. Ten are non-clerics and eight are women, including three nuns.

Francis has been under fire for remarks he made last month in Chile.

He initially said accusations against a Chilean bishop were 'slander' and told reporters the Vatican had received no concrete evidence against him.

But days later, he appointed the Church's most experienced sexual abuse investigator to look into the accusations that Bishop Juan Barros had covered up crimes against minors.

The investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, starts his work in New York on Saturday when he is due to meet Juan Carlos Cruz, who says he was sexually abused when he was a teenager in Chile by a priest called Fernando Karadima.

Karadima was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years. Karadima denies the allegations and Barros denied accusations that he witnessed Karadima carrying out the abuse.Every bride deserves to have the wedding they've always dreamed of. For one Texan, getting to her goal weight before the big day was required to make her wedding perfect.

Amarillo-resident Haley Smith shed over 100 pounds in about 15 months after her boyfriend Matt Smith popped the question last July.

She didn't post any of the engagement photos to her personal Instagram account, instead she began her transformation journey by #SweatingForTheWedding. She started cataloging her workouts, calorie intake and over-all weight loss journey on Instagram.

MORE WEIGHT LOSS: Miss South Texas' amazing weight loss transformation

Her account quickly turned from selfies with friends to transformation Tuesday posts showing before and after photos of herself and workout videos in the gym.

"I was so reluctant to join a gym and embarrassed to even be inside because I though everyone would be like, 'Damn, that girl obviously doesn't workout!'" Smith wrote in an Instagram post. "It doesn't matter where you are on your journey. You belong in the gym if that's where you want to be."

Throughout the entire journey, her partner Matt was right along with her by encouraging her to get out of bed for her 5 a.m. workouts and joining her in multiple 5 and 10k runs throughout Texas.

RELATED: 5 ways you're sabotaging your weight-loss resolutions

"It's a weird feeling, but I'm proud of how far I've come. I'm not at goal weight or goal size, but I'm going to keep pushing!" Haley wrote on her Instagram.

Saturday, she married Matt and she is so grateful to have him as her husband. "He even loved me enough to propose to me at my highest weight when I was feeling unlovable," Haley told the Daily Mail. "So he has seen me at my best and my worst."

READ MORE: There's no easy way to lose weightAs the Senate begins its debate on immigration reform and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) this week, I will be working with President Trump to determine the best, most effective ways to end illegal immigration, secure our borders and provide a fair solution for DACA. President Trump shares my commitment to enforcing the rule of law, protecting Americans and strengthening America's border security, and together we can fix our immigration system for good.

**

From comprehensive tax reform, to appointing a conservative judge to the Supreme Court, to fully funding and strengthening our military, President Trump is delivering on his promises to America. This week, the President released his legislative proposal for rebuilding infrastructure in America. I look forward to reviewing President Trump's proposal and working with my colleagues in Congress to fix our neglected infrastructure.

***

Time and time again, the Senate has neglected to fully fund our military and delayed by almost 50-days to deliver relief to victims of Hurricane Harvey, and other major disasters in 2017.

While I would have preferred to vote on these measures independently, as the House of Representatives has done repeatedly, Congress passed and President Trump signed into law a 2-year budget agreement that backs our men and women in uniform and delivers on our promise to provide relief to victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

This bill has good parts and bad, but in times like this you either stand with President Trump and our U.S. military or you don't. I chose to vote 'yes' to rebuild America's depleted military at a time when the world is more dangerous than ever. And every opportunity I get to fund our veterans, repeal key Obamacare provisions and deliver crucial Harvey disaster assistance to my families, which this bill does, my obligation is to support it.

As a conservative I don't like the extra spending and I strongly urge the Senate to immediately vote on the House-passed bill that puts Medicaid on a budget and saves over $800 billion -- which will reduce the deficit for decades to come.

The budget agreement includes more tax cuts, crucial help to eliminate the backlog of veterans cases and critical long-term funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

In addition, the bill includes much needed community health center (CHC) funding. CHCs serve an important role in our communities by providing needed medical services to medically underserved and rural areas.

Finally, the bill slashes an Obamacare slush fund and permanently repeals the unpopular Independent Payment Advisory Board-established by President Obama to ration healthcare for seniors by giving unelected bureaucrats the power to withhold Medicare payments to local doctors and other healthcare providers.

***

This past week, hundreds of residents from Grimes, Madison and Leon Counties gathered to receive an update and comment on the proposed Houston to Dallas High-Speed Rail (HSR) project. I strongly oppose the route as designated by Texas Central Rail (TCR) and any attempt by TCR to use eminent domain to take away land from hard working Texans, or use federal dollars to fund this project. While I don't oppose high-speed rail as a concept, and strongly support infrastructure that addresses the dynamic growth of Texas, transportation improvements need to work for local communities, not against them. I remain committed to the fight, and will continue to be a resource for you and make sure that your voices are being heard.VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has reactivated a panel of experts on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church assigned to look into prevention and care for victims, the Vatican said Saturday.

Francis is under fire over his handling of the decades-old worldwide scandal of pedophile priests, including for not immediately renewing the panel's three-year mandate when it expired in December.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors will resume work under the leadership of Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, a statement said.

It will have 16 members, including nine who are newly appointed.

The panel will continue "assist(ing) local churches throughout the world in their efforts to safeguard all children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm," O'Malley said.

New members include abuse survivors who asked to remain anonymous, the Vatican said.

Other survivors were members of the old commission but resigned, claiming it was ineffective.

As she quit March 1, Irish victim and campaigner Marie Collins accused the Vatican's bureaucracy of stonewalling the panel's work, and called it "unacceptable" and "devastating."

In a statement to the National Catholic Reporter, Collins denounced the commission's "lack of resources, inadequate structures around support staff, slowness of forward movement and cultural resistance."

Saturday's announcement came as the Vatican was struggling with the fallout of a child abuse scandal in Chile, revived by the pope's visit to the country in January.

Francis angered victims by insisting they had no "proof" against a bishop who allegedly witnessed abuse and did not report it.

Francis' defense of Bishop Juan Barros sparked an outcry, after which the pope apologized and asked the Vatican's top investigator on sexual abuse, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to look into the case.

The Rev. Fernando Karadima, an influential priest from Santiago de Chile whom the Vatican found guilty of child molestation in 2011, allegedly was protected by Barros.For more than 30 years, residents in the Mount Vernon subdivision Pasadena have been able to stake a claim on a piece railroad history in their own backyard.

Nestled near the back of an exclusive estate once belonging to a former Harris County commissioner and state representative, a passenger railroad car, Southern Pacific No. 129, aka "The Alamo," made its first departure last week since it's official retirement in the mid-1970s.

It will make its home at the Elmendorf Heritage and Railroad Museum in Elmendorf under the ownership of the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum, a nonprofit group which restores and advocates for the preservation of antique railroad history.

For the last several months, the car has been, to paraphrase a Bob Dylan song, a slow train leaving.

"We were making bets if the train was going to finally make it out," said resident Mary Ann Klusman.

One reason for the setbacks has been the weather, according to Marla Rodriguez of the museum.

"Houston is infamous for rain, and it has rained every time that we've made plans to do anything," she said. "It's just been one thing after another."

Rodriguez said the mover had spent nearly a month making the necessary adjustments underneath the trail car for transport.

Faced with a structure that was just under 89 feet long, 14 foot high and weighing nearly 100 tons, the mover was dealing with roughly 23,000 pounds for each set of three wheels on its truck that have to be temporary replaced with conventional wheels for the roadway.

"We have never really moved a train car," Rodriguez said of the museum. "Just getting through the neighborhood was a challenge."

But the car made it out, and to Rodriguez and the museum, The Alamo was worth all the obstacles.

"It's like walking into a page of history," she said.

The car's original red exterior is covered with a light coat of rust.

The Art Deco interior tells some of the car's back story. The ornate mahogany woodwork offset plush velvet furnishings for a glimpse of 1920s luxury travel.

"This was a time that when people went places, they dressed up, wore big hats, and that way of life is long gone," said Rodriguez.

The Alamo was constructed by the Pullman Co. in 1926 for the Galveston Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway for business executives to travel first class across the Gulf Coast region and throughout Texas. The car suited its times, according to Rodriguez, who developed her passion for railroad history as a child collecting model train sets.

"If not for the railroads, I don't believe America would have advanced to what we are," she said. "There is so much of the history that has been forgotten.

"The travel by rail was the most important way to travel and people who could afford to got on a train when you went somewhere. Everything in the car was silver, gold and brass-plated. They spared no expense on these cars. This was lavish and it was a luxury to travel this way."

The car, which was renovated in the 1950s, carried passengers until its official retirement in 1976.

It would sit in Houston until Jamie Bray, who served as Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 2 and was a state representative in the 1970s, and helped create the Armand Bayou Nature Center, acquired The Alamo and moved it to his property in Mount Vernon, which is in the Queens Street area between Shenandoah Drive and Valley Forge Drive.

It was a topic of conversation and a source of pride for his neighbors.

"He loved it and kept it," Rodriguez said.

According to Rodriguez, Bray took meticulous care of the railroad car, leaving most of the interior intact and allowing his neighbors to enjoy it as much as he did.

Longtime Mount Vernon resident Billie Kearney had a window seat to that history for years.

Kearney knew the Bray family, and her own family have fond memories of the railroad car.

Kearney also remembers how Bray would host parties for political friends and neighbors, including sleepovers.

"It was so much fun and absolutely beautiful," she said.

Kearney still can remember The Alamo's vintage charms. With burgundy velvet upholstery offset by mahogany wood, the car was a glimpse of a time when travel was grand.

"Of course, it was a Pullman car, so in the bedrooms, you had your own sink, dresser drawers to put your belongings, mirrors  it was very upscale," she said. As a teenager, Kearney rode on a Santa Fe Pullman to Los Angeles, and it didn't come close to The Alamo's finer attributes, she said.

"It was absolutely beautiful and I wish I had pictures of the interior (as it was)," she said. "I never thought about taking pictures back then."

Bray was proud of the car and wanted people to enjoy it, she said, and sleepovers were like time-traveling.

"I stayed in one of the bedrooms one night, more or less just for the heck of it," she said. "It wasn't the most comfortable bed in the world, as I recall, but it was totally different experience."

Bray died in 2006 and the car remained on his estate, its doors closed; when builders recently purchased the property, they decided to donate The Alamo to the San Antonio Heritage Museum. According to Rodriguez, when she first entered The Alamo, it was like stumbling upon a treasure trove: linens slightly yellowed with age, newspapers dating back decades, tablecloths and napkins with railroad logos woven into the fabric - names like Burlington Route, California Zephyr, Southern Pacific and Milwaukee Road. Opening up each drawer or closet door was a new discovery, said Rodriguez. Once it is settled in Elmendorf, fundraising plans will begin for the car's complete restoration, and that will be another uphill battle, but a worthy one, said Rodriguez.

"We call it 'the Battle for The Alamo,' and she's living up to the Alamo name because the real Alamo did not go down easily," she said. "This one is not giving up either."

For more on The Alamo, No. 129, or to donate to preservation efforts, visit the San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum Facebook page; or contact Marla Rodriguez at 210-763-5202.A high-speed police chase wound through Dickinson and into South Houston before ending in a wreck early Sunday that left three people in the hospital and one man facing charges.

The chaos kicked off around 1:15 a.m., when 28-year-old Juan Antonio Alvizo allegedly refused to pull over as police tried to stop him in the 3500 block of State Highway 3 in Dickinson.

Instead, the La Porte man sped off in his Chevy truck, leading officers on a chase at more than 100 miles per hour, according to Dickinson police.

Just north of Edgebrook in the city of South Houston, Alvizo slammed into a four-door Nissan, injuring all three people inside. A man, woman and 9-year-old girl were all rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, according to police.

Alvizo was taken into custody on suspicion of drunk driving and also taken to the hospital for injuries.

The Galveston County District Attorney's Office agreed to a felony evading charge against Alvizo, who will be arraigned once he's released from the hospital. Dickinson police are at the hospital waiting for his release.

He does not have any prior criminal history, police said. Authorities did not immediately release the names of the victims, pending the ongoing investigation.

High-speed chases have been a source of controversy in recent years, but Dickinson police were quick to explain their policy allows officers to start pursuits whenever a driver tries to avoid apprehension.

PIT STOP: Houston police to start using new driving tactic to end vehicle pursuits

No more than two police vehicles can join a pursuit without supervisor approval, per Dickinson police policy. The department didn't clarify how many officers or units were involved in Sunday's chase, but said the incident would undergo review, as do all pursuits.

Between 300 and 400 drivers, officers and innocent bystanders die every year in the United States during police pursuits, according to federal data. That's roughly one person a day and one officer every six to eight weeks, according to the nonprofit Pursuit Safety.

In a controversial effort to end dangerous chases more quickly, late last year Houston police announced the decision to allow use of a risky new maneuver to stop fleeing drivers. The move - called a Precision Immobilization Technique, or PIT maneuver - requires officers to nudge the back of the evading vehicle, causing it to spin out and stop.

More than 90 percent of police chases nationally are - like Sunday's in Dickinson - for non-violent crimes, according to 2008 data from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.A Houston firefighter has been relieved of duty after he was hit with multiple sex assault charges in Colorado.

Luke McIntosh was let go pending an administrative investigation, the Houston Fire Department confirmed.A 29-year-old man was found shot to death early Sunday inside a southwest Houston apartment.

Police responded to a call for shots fired at the Carlisle Apartments on Forum Park around 1 a.m. Inside one of the units, officers found a man who'd been fatally shot in the chest.

Several people were in the apartment at the time, and they told officers the dead man was a family friend who'd been visiting. It's not clear exactly what happened leading to his death.

"We don't have any witnesses coming forward at this time," Detective Mike Cass told reporters at the scene.

Anyone with information in the case can police HPD at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.This story has been corrected to reflect the correct location of the hotel.

A 4-year-old boy is dead and the mother's boyfriend is in custody after San Antonio police say the child was found dead lying next to the boyfriend at a hotel near the AT&T Center Friday night.

Officers say a woman left her three children in the care of her boyfriend, Michael Cruz Arroyo, 32, at the Days Inn at 4038 Interstate 10, where the couple were staying.

When the woman returned to the room about 7:16 p.m., she told police she found the body of her son next to Arroyo, who police say was intoxicated, on the bed.

Police say the victim had a visible head injury and bruising due to blunt force trauma. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The boy's siblings, ages 1 and 3, according to police, were transported to Christus Santa Rosa Hospital for possible injuries.

Arroyo was taken to University Hospital to be treated for possible toxic ingestion. Though police did not clarify what substance he may have taken.

Arroyo has been charged with capital murder and two counts of an injury to a child, according to a news release.

Police did not give details on how the child died, or how long the children were in Arroyo's care.Thirteen actors portray a dysfunctional Oklahoma family that's coming apart at the seams when the patriarch goes missing, in a production of Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County" Feb. 21-25 at San Jacinto College in Pasadena.

Leading the cast as matriarch Violet Weston is Dobie High School's head theater director, Juliet Weigand.

"This is one of those roles of a lifetime," said Weigand, 43, who lives in Seabrook.

"Violet is 65; so I wasn't sure I would be old enough to get cast as the old biddy, who has lost her husband and is struggling to stay sober," Weigand said.

"Violet loves pills."

Weigand graduated from San Jac with the play's director, Brian Hamlin, a 1993 graduate of Clear Creek High School who is now a professor of theater at the college. "August: Osage County" won both the Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2008.

"I have always enjoyed the play, and I am a big fan of drama that also makes you laugh to cope with awkward, tense situations," said Hamlin, who has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Houston.

"This play also has a lot of opportunities for women," he said, including roles for Violet's three daughters, her sister-in-law, a smart-aleck teenager and a stoic, live-in housekeeper.

"The family is full of abusive and destructive relationships, but I know there is a lot of love, too," Hamlin said.

More Information WANT TO GO? What: "August: Osage County" Where: Powell Arena Theater, San Jacinto College Central, 8060 Spencer Hwy., Parking Lot 4 When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21-24, 2:30 p.m. Feb. 25 Details: 281-476-1828, www.sanjac.edu/theatre-central See More Collapse

"They desperately love each other, but they also can't help but hurt each other."

However, the play is more complicated than a family's cycle of abuse, said Hamlin.

"We all react differently; no two persons break the same.

"If you take three glasses and drop them on the floor, two of them will break, but one will turn into a weapon."

The strongest of Violet's three daughters, Barbara, "stands up for herself," said Hamlin. "She fights back. She fights with her mother."

Barbara is portrayed by Tiffany Vanek of Pearland, whose daughter, Kimber Vanek, attends San Jac and designed the sound for this production.

Meryl Streep played Violet, and Julia Roberts was Barbara in the 2013 movie version of "August: Osage County," with both actresses scoring Oscar nominations for their performances. Tiffany Vanek said she started performing a few years ago when she "decided to push myself out of my comfort zone. This role has been quite the challenge. It's quite tragic.

"It's been a ride."

The title of the play is an homage to the playwright's late mentor, Howard Stark, who penned a poem, "August: Osage County."

The poem was published in "Family Album: a Collection of Poetry" in 1995. For more information, call 281-998-6150 or send a message to information@sjcd.edu.

Rounding out the cast are: Steven Villano, Gerardo Galarza, Sarah Rodriguez, Melissa Rodriguez, Casie Russell, Michelle Seik, Matthew Weber, Efren Calderon, AnnMarie Tapia, Chad Fontenot and Nathan Taylor.

Crew members include: Caylin Salinas, Katy Sammarco, Kimber Vanek, Brittney Marks, Alyssa Bennett, Alexis Mejias, Corey Nance ad Ty James.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.netA gunman is at large after shooting a man walking down the street and narrowly missing a single father who took refuge inside the bathroom with his daughter early Sunday after a bullet tore through their north Houston bedroom window.

"It really could have hit me," said James Dyer. "I was really only 5 feet from where that bullet entered the window."

The gunfire started just after midnight near Northborough and Rushcreek. Around 12:30 a.m., a man was walking along the sidewalk in front of a convenience store when an unknown vehicle drove by and someone inside started shooting, according to police.

The man was hit in the stomach and leg and rushed to the hospital in stable condition. Police did not immediately identify him.

One of the 10 to 15 shots fired nearly hit Dyer, who was in his middle school daughter's bedroom when he first heard a loud noise. He moved over to a window to investigate - and saw people scattering.

"At first it seemed like it was far away," he said. "And then it got very close and very scary."

Dyer and his daughter took cover in the bathroom after realizing one of the windows had been shot out.

"I thought it was the safest location away from windows," he said.

Neither he nor his daughter was wounded. The suspect got away and the motive is unclear.This story has been corrected to reflect the correct location of the hotel.

A 4-year-old boy found dead lying next to his mother's boyfriend at a hotel east of the AT&T Center Friday night died from blunt force trauma to the head and possible asphyxia, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office.

Cash Briones was discovered by his mother when she returned to the Days Inn at 4038 Interstate 10, where the couple were staying.

San Antonio police say the woman had left her three children in the care of the boyfriend, 32-year-old Michael Cruz Arroyo, who police say was drunk at the time of the incident.

RELATED: Mother finds son, 4, dead next to her boyfriend at a downtown hotel

According to public records, Arroyo's last known address was at a far West Side residence.

Briones was pronounced dead at the scene. His siblings, , ages 1 and 3, were treated for injuries at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital.

According to an SAPD news release, Arroyo is now charged with capital murder and two counts of injury to a child. He remains in Bexar County Jail under $1.1 million bail.

A woman on Facebook who identified herself as Cash's cousin was lamenting his death on several posts.

"Your (sic) no longer in pain anymore but just know we love you so much Cash & we are going to miss you like crazy," she wrote.

Authorities have not said where the children's mother had gone or how long she had been away. Police also did not revealed details of the boy's death.When Bimla Nayyar dislocated her jaw in January 2012, her family took her to a Dearborn, Mich., hospital for what was supposed to be a routine surgery. But things went horribly awry after doctors wheeled the 81-year-old grandmother into the operating room.

At some point during their preparations, staff at Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center mixed up Nayyar's x-ray records with another patient's, as the hospital's lawyers would later concede in court. Instead of operating on her jaw, surgeons bored into her skull in search of brain bleeding that wasn't there. She died of complications related to the surgery two months later.

In 2015, a jury awarded Nayyar's family a staggering $20 million. But Michigan's highest court says they can't collect a penny - all because of an apparently bad legal gamble.

In a short, sharply-worded order last week, the Michigan Supreme Court faulted the family's lawyers for arguing that Nayyar's death was the result of ordinary negligence, a claim that places no limits on the amount of money plaintiffs can be awarded.

An earlier ruling in the case had effectively barred the lawyers from pursuing an ordinary negligence claim, the justices wrote. Instead, they should have argued medical malpractice, under which financial awards are capped. They didn't, so the award had to be voided, according to the order.

It was a colossal blunder, wrote Michigan's Chief Justice Stephen J. Markman.

"This case involves a remarkable confluence of what appears to be both medical and legal dereliction," he wrote, "resulting in an extraordinary miscarriage of justice."

The order leaves in place a lower court ruling that overturned the $20 million award.

The lead attorney for Nayyar's family, Geoffrey Fieger, pleaded with the court to restore the award, noting that the hospital had admitted negligence during the proceedings.

"This court would have to suspend all concepts of fair play, justice and truth to ignore the gross injustice that has occurred here," Fieger and co-counsel said in a filing, according to the Associated Press. "For God's sake, do something about it."

But Markman said the attorneys poisoned their case when they "repeatedly asserted" during trial that the claim being litigated was ordinary negligence, even though that claim already was off the table.

"To summarize," the justice wrote, "plaintiff now has no negligence claim and no medical malpractice claim, all despite the fact that (a) defendant-hospital openly admitted negligence, (b) a jury determined that this negligence constituted the proximate cause of plaintiff's death, and (c) a jury awarded plaintiff a $20 million verdict."

Oakwood's attorneys said the family's counsel erred by making an "all or nothing  bad bet" on a negligence claim, according to the Associated Press.

Fieger was not immediately available to discuss the case on Thursday.

One of Michigan's most prominent trial attorneys, Fieger is known for taking on high-stakes, headline-grabbing lawsuits and criminal cases.MUNICH - President Donald Trump's national security adviser said Saturday that the U.S. indictment against Russian nationals showed "incontrovertible" evidence of cyberattacks, a rebuff to Vladimir Putin's foreign minister who dismissed the allegations as "blather."

H.R. McMaster told an audience at the Munich Security Conference that Russia engaged in a "sophisticated form of espionage" against the U.S. in a futile attempt at disruption. He referred the indictment against 13 Russian nationals and a "troll farm" based in St. Petersburg, Russia, accused of seeking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

"The evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute," McMaster said on a panel Saturday. Russian attempts to influence politics in the U.S. and elsewhere are "just not working," he said.

The federal indictment alleged a widespread and coordinated effort to influence the 2016 election in Trump's favor. It alleged that the operation was funded by companies controlled by a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who went on stage in Munich just before McMaster, gave short shrift to the allegations.

"Until we see the facts, everything else is blather," Lavrov said. "I'm sorry for this rather undiplomatic expression."

To back his claim, Lavrov cited comments by Vice President Mike Pence and Jeanette Manfra, an official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Manfra "denied the reports that any country has influenced the election results," Lavrov said.

Manfra said Monday that "we have no evidence - old or new - that any votes in the 2016 elections were manipulated by Russian hackers," according to a statement by the department.

Lavrov added that "the same was said by Mike Pence, just recently." In fact, Pence told Axios news Wednesday that "there were efforts by Russia" to affect the election, but that it didn't work. Americans "can be confident" in the 2016 result, Pence said.

On the panel, McMaster was asked by Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian upper house of parliament, whether he would agree to Russian requests for a dialogue on cybersecurity matters, "which is being rejected all the time by the American side."

"I'm surprised there are Russian cyber experts available," McMaster responded, "based on how active most of them have been in undermining our democracies in the west."Nisian Hughes | Getty Images

The gig economy, in which people make money on digital apps and work on their own schedules, is also sometimes referred to as the "new economy." But not everyone wants to give up the trappings of the "old," especially when it comes to saving for retirement. In a Senate hearing in early February on "Exploring the 'Gig Economy' and the Future of Retirement Savings," economists and business leaders proposed ways to fix the alarming reality that many people in this expanding labor market are not preparing for old age. Just 16 percent of independent workers have a retirement savings plan, compared to more than half of employees who have access to an employer-sponsored one. There is a near-perfect storm of reasons for why retirement saving is difficult for independent contractors, said Camille Olson, a lawyer and partner at the law firm Seyfarth Shaw. (See chart below.) Chief among them: Companies generally don't offer retirement savings accounts to non-employees. "If you're an employee and you want to save in a 401(k), who does it?" said Olson, who spoke at the Senate hearing on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "Your employer does it, and that's why so many people contribute to it. Gig economy workers don't have that option."

Of course, people who are self-employed have other savings options including SEP or SIMPLE IRAs, or a Solo 401(k). But workers may procrastinate on setting up such accounts. "With someone in a contingent worker's role, you have to make all of these decisions yourself," said David John, co-director of The Retirement Security Project at Brookings Institution and an advisor with the AARP Public Policy Institute. "We know that when people don't have choices they're completely comfortable with and understand, they tend to put off that decision." Other hurdles independent contractor's face in saving for their later decades include income that is often unsteady, and a lower average annual salary than their employee counterparts (although gig workers put in fewer hours a week on average).

Redd Horrocks, a voice-over artist who sells her recordings on Fiverr, an online marketplace, left the corporate world  and her ability to grow her 401(k) account with her employer  after three years. She contributes to an IRA now, but finds it hard to plan around her fluctuating income. "When you're a freelancer, it's based on other people's choices," said Horrocks, 34. "You can't say I'm going to work 40 hours a week; it's, how many people are going to order from me? It can really, really differ."

This is going to be a growth part of the debate, both in terms of public policy and innovation. David John Co-director of The Retirement Security Project at Brookings

Horrocks didn't have to think as much about retirement when the company she worked for automatically deducted payments from her checks. "When you have to physically move the money yourself, it's harder," she said. "There's a mental thing where it's like, 'That's going away for the next 30 years'." At the Senate hearing, Olson argued that the laws should be amended to allow companies to offer workers retirement benefits, regardless of whether they're an independent contractor or employee. The current laws draw a hard line between the two, she said, and one of the major tests to see if someone is an employee is whether they receive benefits. "Companies are saying "I can't risk that. If I help them on the retirement benefits side, it's going to come down as a ton of bricks that they're treated as employees'," she said.

Another retirement savings solution on the table for gig economy workers are open "Multiple Employer" plans, in which a single 401(k) plan is sponsored by multiple employers. (Picture a worker who drives for three different ride-sharing companies, and has a percentage of his or her earnings subtracted from each one and then funneled into a single retirement account). These plans could be sponsored by states as well as a cohort of gig economy companies, said John of the Brookings Institution. In addition, some of the states that are working on state-sponsored retirement plans, like Oregon, plan to offer the accounts to independent contractors in the near future, he said. Digital apps are also moving into the void. Lyft offers a service to its drivers called Honest Dollar, and Uber offers a retirement savings option to drivers in some cities through Betterment. Both apps are voluntary, investing platforms. In Casper, Wyoming, certified public accountant Vikki Nunn is working on a solution for her clients, many of whom have lost their jobs as the coal industry declines there. Those clients are often brought back by the companies they worked for as consultants.

If I have to go out and do the research and speak to someone, it's a lot more pressure. Charity Reed works for Uber Eats

One male client who was in charge of safety at a coal mine was laid off in his 50s, she described. He was no longer able to contribute with his employer to his 401(k). "He was losing out on some of his highest-earning years," Nunn said. Nunn's experiences moved her to manage people's solo 401(k)s  a 401(k) for sole proprietors where the saver can make contributions as both the employer and employee. While many larger companies offer these accounts, she said, they can often be too complicated for people to figure out without one-on-one help. John said he expects these solutions to gain steam, as more people join the gig economy. "It wasn't more than a few years ago that this was an unrecognized problem," he said. "This is going to be a growth part of the debate, both in terms of public policy and innovation."Ellen Leanse is serious about getting people to reconsider their use of technology.

We're at a table together at a San Francisco restaurant when she sees me quickly scan a message alert on my phone.

"Did you know it's now going to take you at least six minutes to fully re-focus on this conversation?" she asks.

"That's how long seeing a phone light-up disrupts our thought processes, between six and 23 minutes," she says, staring first at me, then my phone.

My explanation  that a reporter has to be available to answer questions when an editor is working on one of their stories  fails to elicit any sympathy. I turn the device over to hide the screen and get back to our interview.

It doesn't pay to argue about technology use with Leanse, who in rapid succession can cite a half-dozen academic studies to support her belief that hardware and software are impacting consumers in ways that experts are just starting to understand.

"The human brain is built to scan for things that improve our chances for survival, things like warnings of threats or opportunities" for food, shelter or a chance to mate, she explains.

But these days online platforms are prompting us to scan our phones repeatedly for Facebook shares, Twitter notifications and texts from friends, family or impatient editors.

Most of us don't consider that our motivations for doing so have little to do with our ancient survival instincts. Instead, according to Leanse, the use of social media is more about increasing our sense of belonging or affirming a positive self-image.

Therein lies a potential danger  that we humans will begin to focus on a narrower set of experiences, ones that provide us with emotional rewards but make us less creative and less adaptable, Leanse says.

"What we don't know (about the motivations behind our actions) shapes our perceptions as much as what we do," she says.

Designers should be asking about their products: "Does it activate the same neuro processes as other addictive experiences?"President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday night that the FBI was too caught up in the Russia probe to see the signals leading to Wednesday's shooting massacre at a south Florida high school.

The next morning, student survivors from the school shared their disappointment with the president's tweet  and voiced their displeasure much in the same way Trump often does: Via Twitter.

Trump referred to the FBI's admission earlier this week that it failed to investigate a Jan. 5 tip that warned that Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old man who is accused of killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., posed a deadly threat.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," the president tweeted late Saturday night. "They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion."

Yet in response on Sunday morning, students from the south Florida high school blasted Trump's message. Many of the survivors  who in the days following the massacre have voiced strong opinions in favor of gun control  were upset over how the president appeared to link the FBI's failure to stop Cruz to his own troubles stemming from the Russia investigation.

Tayloron_ tweet

Kyra tweet

Morgan tweet

Carly tweet

Aly tweet

Giuliana tweet

Over the past several days, survivors of the shooting and other locals have rallied around the hashtags #NeverAgain and #DouglasStrong to continue drawing attention to the tragedy, and to put pressure on Washington to make changes to gun laws.

Tweet

In the wake of the deadly shooting, the students are also turning to activism and organizing via "March For Our Lives." Participants of the movement plan to take to the streets of Washington, D.C. on March 24 to call for solutions and put an end to mass school shootings.

Throughout the weekend, Trump has lashed out at his critics, political rivals and other U.S. government agencies while tweeting about Russian meddling in the 2016 election and decisions made under the Obama Administration.

--CNBC's Mike Calia contributed to this article.The most dangerous nation for cyber threats is Iran, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC on Sunday, saying that the country had been attacked "repeatedly" by its adversary. Asked who he believed was the greatest single threat in terms of cyber attacks, Al-Jubeir was unequivocal. "The most dangerous nation behind cyber attacks? Iran," Al-Jubeir said. "Iran is the only country that has attacked us repeatedly and tried to attack us repeatedly. In fact they tried to do it on a virtually weekly basis."

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir attends a press conference with US Secretary of State in Riyadh on October 22, 2017. Alex Brandon | AFP | Getty Images

Al-Jubeir's statement was not surprising, given the mounting animosity between the Sunni monarchy and the Shia Islamic republic. The Iranian government did not respond to a request for response to Al-Jubeir's comments, but it has denied accusations of aggression in the past. Speaking at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the foreign minister repeatedly criticized Iran for what he called "mischievous behavior" in the region, with particular reference to its support for Shia militant group Hezbollah, which holds influence in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Sunni monarchy's interests have for decades been diametrically opposed to Iran's, but the past year has seen tensions escalate particularly against a backdrop of proxy conflicts in Yemen and Syria. Al-Jubeir said his country was taking steps to combat the perceived cyber threat from Iran. "We are taking all the steps necessary to provide defenses for our data banks and for our internet and so forth. And we are also taking steps necessary to train our own people in order to be able to engage in offensive operations to make it hopefully impossible for people to penetrate those systems," he said.

Though the minister did not offer specific examples for his claim, cyber experts have pointed to what they see as Iran's increasingly sophisticated cyber-espionage capabilities. Last September, the U.S. Treasury Department added two Iran-based hacking networks and eight individuals to a U.S. sanctions list, accusing them of taking part in cyber-enabled attacks on the U.S. financial system in 2012 and 2013, Reuters reported. Iran denied any role in the cyber attacks although it has also been linked to cyber attacks closer to home too. Hackers believed to be linked to the Iranian government attacked Saudi state oil giant Aramco in 2012, successfully wiping 30,000 computers and paralyzing operations. In addition, security experts have traced a number of subsequent attacks back to Iran, including hacks on Saudi and Western aerospace and petrochemical companies. Cyber security firm FireEye has said it detected coding containing Farsi references in the malware that hackers left behind.Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi delivers a speech during Baghdad Dialogue Conference in Baghdad, Iraq on January 14, 2017. Haydar Hadi | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

With elections just months away, Iraq's prime minister has called on the country's political system to reform itself and move away from its divided past. Haider al-Abadi, who belongs to the Islamic Dawa Party, said the country was previously lost with political parties built along "sectarian, ethnic or other lines." But he added that the country is now building a new momentum that appeals to all citizens, regardless of their ethnicity. "It's a difficult task but we're achieving it," the told CNBC Sunday at the Munich Security Conference.

"This is the first time we're sending a very very powerful message to everyone, our political system must reform itself," he added. 2018 could set to be a year of change with parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on May 12, 2018. This will be the first elections since the defeat of ISIS and reconstruction efforts are a key focus for the current government as more than 900,000 people return to communities demolished after years of fighting. The elections are likely to lead to a confrontation between two major camps, with former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki still fighting for influence. Al-Maliki still leads a powerful Shi'ite parliamentary bloc after being pressured to step down by the international community in 2014 due to failing to deal with the spread of the Islamic State.Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that spending on reconstruction  not arms  was necessary for peace.

Discussing the amount of money spent on conflict in the Middle East, "this is not good for us," Al-Abadi said. "We cannot build our nations with a lot of arms," he added.

Al-Abadi was speaking to CNBC Sunday on the sidelines of the 2018 Munich Security Conference in Germany, attended by politicians from Europe, the U.S. and the Middle East among others, as well as leaders from NGOs and private companies. Iraq received pledges of $30 billion from allies this week, though this was less than its propositioned $88 billion to recover from years of conflict.

Al-Abadi said that he had not met with any arms manufacturers at the conference, but instead had been in talks with civil manufacturing companies.

This is a "good sign that there is now an understanding that without rebuilding, reconstruction, peace and security cannot be achieved  I think this should be the slogan," he said.The Kuwaiti-sponsored conference drew representatives from more than 70 countries, 51 international aid organizations, and several hundred businesses. The enthusiastic gathering of international donors, which culminated in $30 billion worth of pledged investment , represented widespread support for a stabilized Iraq. International leaders have warned that insufficient resources for Iraqi reconstruction could undo all the progress made against ISIS and enable social and economic problems to fuel further sectarian strife.

"We never anticipated this number of companies, investors or would-be investors, governments, to be so enthusiastic about taking part," Al-Abadi said, in reference to an international conference held last week in Kuwait for the rebuilding of Iraq. "This is a sign that there is a trust with Iraq. There is a trust that Iraq is moving to a different direction than before, which is very encouraging for us, and very encouraging for them."

Though the country's reconstruction is in its early stages, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told CNBC Sunday at the Munich Security Conference, he described the progress as "encouraging" and as evidence of trust from the international community in Iraq.

More than six months after Iraq's leadership proclaimed the defeat of ISIS on Iraqi territory, the country is on a path to rebuild and has seen promising signs of international investment for its reconstruction.

Just three months away from elections, reconstruction efforts are the key focus for the government of Iraq as more than 900,000 people return to communities demolished after years of fighting. In Mosul alone, aid organizations estimate it will take a decade to rid the city of its remaining improvised explosive devices and dangerous remnants of war.

Iraqi officials have said that $88.2 billion would be needed to rebuild the war-battered country, with housing among the most urgent priorities. They noted that the $30 billion pledged in Kuwait fell significantly short of that figure, though Al-Abadi described it as very positive regardless.

Still, while the security situation may have improved, many investors are wary of deep-seated corruption and a dense web of red tape and bureaucracy. Transparency International ranks Iraq as the 10th most corrupt country in the eyes of investors.

Asked how the government would reassure investors that their funds would be allocated properly, the prime minister stressed his focus on tackling corruption.

"We are laying down all the legal framework ... I think the worry is corruption, number one, which is hiding behind red tape and bureaucracy. We have established a higher committee which is headed by the prime minister and it has a follow up team to make sure to remove blocks as they are there because of the bureaucracy," Al-Abadi said.

"I think this will be a huge bonus for companies; sometimes they are pressed to pay bribes or something like that. We want to keep away from this, we want every dollar which goes into investment or donation to serve the people, not to go to the pockets of corrupt people."

Al-Abadi appeared confident, despite the significant challenges ahead.

"I think now that the process of engaging investors in Iraq, I am sure in the next few months will be the foundation of this. We've already appointed a committee. Next month is going to be a meeting with major investors to follow up  And I hope that after the election they'll immediately start."Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called on the U.S. to give it the same rights as other nuclear nations in its push to process its own nuclear fuel, revealing that it's currently in talks with 10 other countries should America refuse. Saudi Arabia plans to construct 16 nuclear power reactors over the next 20 to 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. It has invited U.S. firms to take part in the program but acceptance from Washington requires a country to sign a peaceful nuclear cooperation pact. Known as a 123 agreement, it separates civil and military nuclear facilities and aims to block the steps from nuclear fuel production to potential bomb-making applications. Countries like India have already signed up to such agreements with the U.S. Riyadh has previously stated that wants to tap its own uranium resources for "self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel," according to Reuters, and is not interested in diverting nuclear technology to military use. Its regional rival Iran is already one step ahead and is allowed to enrich uranium.

Speaking to CNBC at the Munich Security Conference, Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC that Saudi Arabia was looking at a number of countries that have nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. "We are looking at the issue of the viability of building nuclear reactors in order to produce energy so that we can save the oil and export it in order to generate revenue," the foreign minister said. "The countries that we are talking to are probably roughly 10 countries or so around the world and we have not made a decision yet with regards to which path we will take and which country we will be focusing on more." When pressed on what Saudi Arabia would do if the U.S. failed to back its nuclear energy program, he said: "This is really something that's up to our nuclear energy professionals to deal with, but our objective is we want to have the same rights as other countries."

Transition away from oil

Al-Jubeir said that the world's largest oil exporter was exploring the use of nuclear energy as part of its transition away from an oil-based energy system. In 2006, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes Saudi Arabia and five other Middle Eastern nations announced that it was commissioning a study into the peaceful use of nuclear energy. In 2010 too, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree in which it said: "The development of atomic energy is essential to meet the Kingdom's growing requirements for energy to generate electricity, produce desalinated water and reduce reliance on depleting hydrocarbon resources."European companies engaged in business with Iran are enriching the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and inadvertently fueling its military activities in the wider Middle East, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC on Sunday. "We believe that a large percentage of the Iranian economy is controlled by the Revolutionary Guards and companies associated with the guards. And we believe that any dealings with those companies only serve to enrich the Revolutionary Guards and cause them to cause more mischief within the region and the world," Al-Jubeir said, referencing the billions of dollars' worth of deals struck between European companies and Iran since the lifting of international sanctions in 2015. Tasked with defending the state and Iran's Islamic ideals, the powerful IRGC  the branch of Iran's military founded after the 1979 Islamic Revolution  is widely alleged to support militant activity by groups like Hezbollah around the region, from Iraq and Lebanon to Syria. It is also believed to control around a third of the country's economy. The passing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, which lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear development, saw a wave of new investment and business come into the country from Europe, led by Germany, France and the U.K. European multinationals Airbus, Siemens, Peugeot and Total have all struck major deals in the country worth billions.

Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran September 22, 2011. Reuters

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, America's top national security advisor H.R. McMaster described European nations like Germany doing business with Iran as essentially writing a blank check to the IRGC. Asked if he agreed with McMaster's assessment, Al-Jubeir said yes. "We are talking to our friends in Europe about this. We are letting them know that the nuclear agreement that was signed with Iran is lacking," Al-Jubeir said, describing what he believed were flaws within the agreement's sunset clause (the timeframe for restrictions on its nuclear development) and the thoroughness of United Nations (UN) inspections. "We also believe the nuclear agreement itself does not resolve the issue of Iran's radical behavior which has to do with the ballistic missile resolutions of the United Nations  They also do not deal with the issue of Iran's support for terrorism," Al-Jubeir said. Iran has consistently said it is abiding by all the parameters of the deal, a claim that has been backed up by UN inspectors.

Speaking Sunday to NBC News, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the U.S. was jeopardizing the nuclear deal. "I believe President Trump has tried to walk away from that deal from day one of his presidency, and he has done everything in bad faith to prevent Iran from enjoying the benefits of the deal already. So we believe the United States is already in violation of very serious and important provisions of the nuclear deal," he said. Between the singing of the JCPOA and February 2017, Iran conducted up to 14 missile tests, in violation of UN resolutions. The minister emphasized his government's belief that Iran should be punished for these alleged violations. Sanctions on the IRCG have not been lifted, and many businesses remain wary of investing in Iran because any transaction that touches an IRGC-affiliated entity could be met with severe fines from the U.S.My cousin died of SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, when she was just six weeks old. She was sleeping on her back, there were no bumpers on the crib or any blankets or toys near her  it was just a tragic mystery. More than 3,700 babies died of unexpected causes in their sleep in 2015, according to the CDC.



So when my daughter, Juniper, was born in October, my paranoia levels were at an all-time high. I couldn't sleep. Every noise that Juniper made woke me up and when she was silent, I panicked and had to check to make sure she was still breathing. Even when she started sleeping through the night, I still could not.

Juniper is four months old. Jeniece Pettitt | CNBC

I needed some peace of mind, so I decided to try out the Owlet Smart Sock baby monitor. It's a wireless pulse oximeter, similar to technology that is used in hospitals, that monitors your baby's heart rate and oxygen levels. There is a base station and an app that notifies you if the baby's oxygen and heart rate levels are dangerously low or high. I've been testing out the product for about a month now.

The pulse oximeter in the sock is similar to technology used in hospitals to monitor heart rate and oxygen levels. Andrew Evers | CNBC

The Good

It could save your baby's life.



When Owlet launched, I interviewed a mom who had a premature baby with breathing issues. She swears the sock saved her little boy. The company said they have now sold more than 250,000 units, and though they cannot and do not claim that it can prevent SIDS, there has yet to be a report of a baby dying while being monitored. Instead, there are dozens of testimonials from parents who said the monitor helped them sleep better and notified them when their baby's vitals were at dangerous levels. I had a good experience using the product. It definitely gave me peace of mind. I slept a lot better knowing that a loud, red alarm would go off and wake me up if there was a problem. I've noticed in some of the mom forums I am a part of, other reviewers complain about false alarms. But it seems the company has done a good job fixing these issues that occurred more with the first iteration of the product. I didn't get any false alarms. The sock is designed really well and never fell off, even though my daughter flails about wildly in her sleep.

This is the company's second iteration of the Owlet Smart Sock. It is well-designed and stayed on all night. Jeniece Pettitt I CNBC

The bad

It costs $299. On top of all of the other things that new parents need to purchase, this is too much to swallow. The company helps parents with financing and it is available at major retailers so moms can add it to their baby registry in hopes that it will be gifted to them. Another con, the alarms on the base station can be rather annoying. Yellow and blue notifications tell you when there are connectivity issues or when the battery died on the sock. The first night I used the product, a flashing blue alert went off at midnight because I forgot to charge the sock. It played a loud, obnoxious song, waking my husband and I up. Anything other than a crying baby that wakes up sleeping parents is a very bad thing. I later learned that you can turn the volume off on the yellow and blue notifications. I highly recommend doing this if you purchase the product.

The base station has a variety of alarms that notify the parent of a problem. Andrew Evers | CNBC

And it would be great if the battery lasted longer. You have to charge the sock every day, and when your baby is crying in the morning and has pooped all over the changing table, it is very easy to forget to do this. One other issue that could come up  the blue tooth range between the sock and the base station is fairly short at 100 feet. This was not a problem for us since we live in a small, San Francisco apartment, but for folks with larger homes, they could experience connection issues.

Should you buy it?President Donald Trump, in a late-night tweet, criticized remarks his national security advisor made earlier Saturday about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

H.R. McMaster, who is also a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, told a conference in Germany that there was "incontrovertible" evidence that Russia had meddled in the U.S. election.

He was citing Friday's federal indictments, stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, that said Russian operatives conducted a sophisticated internet campaign to sow chaos in the American political scene.

Trump eventually responded to his national security advisor by saying McMaster left out some details from his comments.

"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems," Trump tweeted late Saturday night.

TRUMP TWEET

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Friday that these particular indictments did not include allegations that the Russian efforts affected the election's results. Trump saw the latest development in the case as a vindication.

The indictments released Friday allege, in part, that the Russians sought to disparage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and help Trump win. The Russian operatives, according to the charges, attempted to convince some Americans to vote for third-party candidate Jill Stein over Clinton, and also sought to discourage minority turnout at the polls.

McMaster's comments Saturday were part of a testy exchange with a Russian delegate at the conference.

"As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain," McMaster said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday dismissed reports of interference as "blather."

Trump has repeatedly denied that his campaign colluded with Russians to sway the election in his favor, and has often called the special counsel's investigation a "witch hunt" and a "hoax." Russian authorities have also rejected claims of collusion.

The president's tweet targeting McMaster came soon after he suggested in another tweet that the Russia probe had somehow distracted the FBI from seeing warning signs leading to Wednesday's shooting massacre at a high school in south Florida.President Donald Trump took his battle with the FBI to a new level late Saturday night, when he tweeted that the bureau was too caught up in the Russia probe and failed to see the signals leading to Wednesday's shooting massacre at a south Florida high school.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," the president tweeted. "They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion."

TRUMP TWEET

Trump was referring to the FBI's admission earlier this week that it failed to investigate a Jan. 5 tip that warned that Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old man who is accused of killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., posed a deadly threat.

The information was not passed to the bureau's Miami field office. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a review of the FBI's handling of the matter. Florida Gov. Rick Scott called on FBI DIrector Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, to resign.

For his part, Wray said earlier this week: "We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy."

The FBI has 35,000 employees, including special agents and various other staffers. A representative of the bureau was not immediately available for comment.

Trump has routinely targeted the FBI for criticism as a probe into potential collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and the Kremlin has cast a shadow over his presidency.

In May, he fired then-FBI Director James Comey, and then told NBC's Lester Holt that he had been thinking about the Russia probe when he decided to sack him. In January, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, whom Trump often accused of political bias, retired from the agency. McCabe also led the FBI on an interim basis before Wray was confirmed to replace Comey.

The president's tweet Saturday night follows a slew of federal grand jury indictments Friday that stem from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to take over the probe last year after Trump fired Comey. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion and has called the investigation a "witch hunt" and a "hoax."

Trump changed his tune somewhat Friday, acknowledging Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. affairs while claiming that the indictments had vindicated him.

"Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President," Trump tweeted late Friday evening. "The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong  no collusion!"

In a press conference Friday, Rosenstein said this particular indictment didn't have any allegation of American involvement or impact on the election. The special counsel accused 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities of meddling in the 2016 election, with the intention of sowing chaos and aiding Trump's push for the White House.President Donald Trump has lashed out at his critics, political rivals, American institutions and even his own national security advisor in a weekend tirade about Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Yet the president spared Russia itself from his harshest criticism.

Trump zeroed in on his predecessor in the Oval Office, Barack Obama, for not doing enough to stop Russian operations intended to sow chaos in the American political system.

"Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing," Trump posted Sunday morning on Twitter.

TRUMP TWEET 1

TRUMP TWEET 2

Trump was referring to comments from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own probe into Russia's election-interference efforts.

Schiff, an outspoken critic of Trump, said Friday that the Obama administration shared some responsibility in the Russia controversy, because it should have been more aggressive and revealed the operation to the public.

"We should have called them out much earlier," Schiff said Friday morning. "While I respect the motive in terms of the Obama administration, they didn't want to be seen as meddling, the American people had a right to know what was going on and could be trusted to do the right thing with it. And they should have defended being more public and aggressive at the time, at least in my view."

Schiff made his comments ahead of several federal indictments of Russian nationals and entities by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

The indictments revealed Friday did not include any allegation that Russia efforts actually had any effect on the outcome of the election, but it did not conclude otherwise, either. The charges allege that the Russians waged "information warfare" on the U.S. political system to aid Trump's campaign.

The latest developments in the case compelled Trump to acknowledge that Russia had interfered. Previously, he described the Russia plot as a "hoax" and the investigation into it a "witch hunt." In his Sunday tweet storm, he stated that he always meant that the "Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!"

TRUMP TWEET 3

Trump's tweets fit a pattern for which he is often criticized  that he avoids directly attacking Russia or its president, Vladimir Putin, over what U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have described as widespread Kremlin interference in the campaign.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration decided not to impose additional sanctions against Moscow, which Congress imposed as payback for election meddling.

In another Sunday tweet, Trump blamed American institutions for playing into Russia's hands in its plot to create chaos and division in the U.S. "They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!" Trump tweeted.

TRUMP TWEET 4

Several Trump appointees, however, have taken a different tack against Russia. Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and other top officials told lawmakers that Russia remained a threat to U.S. elections. "Frankly, the United States is under attack," Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

On Saturday, Trump's national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, explicitly cited the latest indictments as he slammed Russia for its actions in 2016. "As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain," McMaster said at a conference in Germany.

Trump did not appear pleased with his aide's characterization of what happened. Late Saturday night, he tweeted that the Army lieutenant general had "forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H [illary Clinton], the DNC [Democratic National Committee] and the Dems."

The latest developments in the Russia probe also colored Trump's thoughts about the school shooting massacre in south Florida last week. In another late-Saturday tweet, the president linked the FBI's failure to follow through on a tip in early January that the alleged shooter posed a deadly threat to the ongoing investigation into ties between his campaign and Russian operatives.

"They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign," Trump tweeted.If You Go

WHAT: Columbia City Council work session and regular meeting.

WHEN: At 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday, respectively.

WHERE: The work session will be in Conference Room 1A/1B in the Daniel Boone Building, 701 E. Broadway. The regular meeting will be in the council chambers, also at city hall.During the period of Theresa May Mark One  thats to say, the time between her election as Conservative Party leader and last years general election  the Prime Minister made a speech about schools. Part of it was described how universities could help to sponsor or support them. (The Government will be producing proposals tomorrow to further its manifesto commitment to review the funding of tertiary education, and Rebecca Coulson will be writing about its plans and university support on this site tomorrow morning.) The rest of the speech fell into three main sections. May wanted independent schools, like universities, to support and sponsor state ones. She also wanted to lift the restrictions on new faith school and grammar schools places.

The aim of these changes was more good school places  what she called the Great Meritocracy. The speech was overseen by Nick Timothy and reflected much of his thinking: the prioritising of social reform above social mobility and social justice; in other words, targeting policy to help the Just About Managings or, as the speech put it in language that has since been dropped, ordinary working class people. Michael Gove, some of whose reforms Mark Lehain wrote about on this site yesterday, put it differently, but his focus was on the same end: more good school places. So was Nicky Morgans. She furthered the legacy she was left, though with a stress on the whole development of the pupil, rather than solely on standards, exams and results.

This brings us to Justine Greening. A key reason why the Prime Minister sought to move her from Education to Work and Pensions was, very simply, that Greening was visibly uneasy with the faith and grammar school aspects of that Timothy speech. Her replacement by Damian Hinds was one the few successes of Januarys reshuffle  in the sense of a senior Minister moving to the post for which he was actually intended. Unlike Gove who, when first appointed to Environment, began setting off fireworks almost immediately, Hinds has been keeping his powder dry. He gives his first major interview to the Sunday Times today, and the theme of the schools parts of it is back to the future.

The new Education Secretary has already approved the Nick Gibb push to get times tables taught in primary schools, which made no progress under Greening. He wants to take the cap off new faith schools (where there is parental demand and where there is a need for places, I want it to be possible to create those new schools ) and allow existing grammar schools to expand. May Mark Two does not have the same room for Parliamentary manoeuvre as May Mark One, but Hinds will be able to make progress on both of these aims without Commons votes. Greening wanted to prevent parents from withdrawing their children from sex education classes. Hinds will end that approach.

The beaux ideal for Conservative education secretaries is surely to carry out the necessary reforms without unnecessarily antagonising teachers  not an easy task given the long move leftwards in the profession, and the recent squeeze in the growth of funding. The Partys social care proposals got a lot of attention during last years election, to put it mildly, but although school spending gained rather less, it may have been just as decisive. Hinds doesnt touch on the issue in his interview. Nor does he deal in any depth with social mobility, and the plan left to him by his predecessor. But he is evidently in the job he wants. Rather than seeking quick media hits, he has been quietly getting policy in place. If he cant win a hearing among teachers, we doubt if any Tory Minister can.While two-factor authentication (2FA) does not guarantee account security  social engineers can talk their way around it  it is wise to enable that extra layer of security. However, any company entrusted with a phone number for 2FA purposes should not decide to engage users by pushing out any other type of notifications to the phone.

Facebook crossed that line recently, blaming text message spams on a "bug" and has apologized.

Numerous people have been complaining about Facebook spamming them with random notifications via the phone number provided when turning on 2FA. Spam sent included things such as status updates, shared links or comments. If people replied to the spam notification, texted back something like STOP, then their replies were autmatically posted on their walls.

One of the most widely cited examples came from software engineer Gabriel Lewis.

So I signed up for 2 factor auth on Facebook and they used it as an opportunity to spam me notifications. Then they posted my replies on my wall.  pic.twitter.com/Fy44b07wNg  Gabriel Lewis  (@Gabriel__Lewis) February 12, 2018

On Friday, Facebook CSO Alex Stamos apologized for spamming people who signed up for 2FA with non-security related SMS notifications. He rightfully explained that 2FA is an important security feature, while also pointing out that users have control over notifications. The last thing we want is for people to avoid helpful security features because they fear they will receive unrelated notifications.

Stamos wrote:

It was not our intention to send non-security-related SMS notifications to these phone numbers, and I am sorry for any inconvenience these messages might have caused. We are working to ensure that people who sign up for two-factor authentication won't receive non-security-related notifications from us unless they specifically choose to receive them, and the same will be true for those who signed up in the past. We expect to have the fixes in place in the coming days. To reiterate, this was not an intentional decision; this was a bug.

Was it really a bug?

Yet there is some debate as to if this was even a bug. Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew Green tweeted:

A lot of people are suggesting the Facebook SMS spam is a bug. Bullshit. Someone at FB made a deliberate decision to re-engage users by spamming all those mobile phone numbers 2FA users had entered. No bug here at all.  Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) February 14, 2018

Green also pointed out that Facebooks spam looked exactly like real 2FA login attempts when you phone screen is locked, prompting people to check it. He added, This in turn drives decision fatigue for users, which can harm security across all of the accounts they use. Oh, just more FB spam, Ill ignore that.

Other folks are adamant about it being a bug.

As to why peoples replies to the notifications were being posted as status updates on Facebook, Stamos explained that Facebook has long supported posting via text message.

This feature is less useful these days and Facebook is working to deprecate this functionality soon, he said.

Lauren Weinstein, found of the Privacy Forum, and co-founder or both the Network Neutrality Squad and the People for Internet Responsibility, suggested, Whats most revealing here is what this situation suggests about Facebooks own internal privacy practices. Proper proactive privacy design would have compartmentalized those phone numbers and associated data in a manner that would have prevented a bug like this from ever triggering such abuse of those numbers. Facebooks sloppiness in this regard has now been exposed to the entire world.

Weinstein wondered what other systemic privacy design failures would result in bugs that Facebook could exploit to harass innocent users.The way John Fieschi sees it, digital currency is coming, so he may as well embrace it and integrate it into his business now.

Fieschi, who owns EZ2Drive on Federal Road in Danbury with his wife Eda, is now accepting Bitcoin as payment for the used cars on his lot and the services provided by his garage. He believes he is the first car dealer in New England and one of only a handful in the U.S. to accept cryptocurrency.

I feel confident with the technology, Fieschi said. I think in the next five or 10 years everyone will be using digital currency. More stores will start to accept Bitcoin soon.

The eye-catching Bitcoin sign in the window at EZ2Drive may attract the attention of passers-by, but people are not rushing in to use the currency. To date, no one has purchased a car using Bitcoin at his lot.

Bitcoin is a digital, or crypto, currency created in 2009 that is purchased and traded online. There is no bank or government behind Bitcoin as it exists entirely in the digital realm. There are no physical coins or bills as Bitcoins  or fractions of Bitcoins  are purchased and stored in a digital wallet on sites such as Coinbase or Mycelium.

Transactions are made from one computer or mobile device to another.

Because Bitcoin is bought online with no physical proof of purchase, has a fluctuating value and is not backed by a central bank, it is seen by many as blurring the lines between owning currency and playing the stock market. Bitcoin is listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Investors have ridden a roller coaster of highs and lows over the years. It topped $1,000 (the price for one Bitcoin) for the first time in January 2017 and peaked in December 2017 at nearly $20,000. Two weeks ago, Bitcoin hovered around $7,000, and on Friday afternoon it was back up to just over $10,000.

Like stocks, taxes on Bitcoin are treated like capital gains or losses.

The new bank?

Howard Schwartz, executive communications director at Connecticut Better Business Bureau, said the most important thing to keep in mind when considering owning Bitcoin is that there is absolutely nothing backing it.

He said digital currency may be regarded more as an asset than a currency. Other forms of digital currency  such as ApplePay or PayPal  are backed by real U.S. dollars.

Many retailers are reluctant to accept Bitcoin as payment because of its volatility, Schwartz believes.

Interest (in digital currency) is at an all-time high so youd think retailers would be lining up to accept Bitcoin. But retailers are even more skeptical than consumers, he said. What if the value drops right after the purchase? It could be worth a lot now, but it could all change overnight. Both retailers and consumers can be burned by Bitcoin.

Kenneth Weinstein, president and CEO of Newtown Savings Bank, agreed that there is hesitancy to invest in digital currency because it is new and volatile.

Its promising technology, but at this point, its like the Wild West, he said. Its certainly a good attention-getting strategy (for retailers).

Fieschi thinks the day is coming soon when digital currencies will compete with banks on a global scale. Similar to other industries that have changed dramatically because of the internet, he thinks banks should be embracing digital currency and figuring how to co-exist now. Just as Kodak was slow to accept digital photography, he said, banks will suffer a similar fate if they try to stand toe-to-toe with digital currency.

If you fight technology, you will probably lose, Fieschi said. Banks need to adapt because technology will win out. The genie is out of the bottle and is not going back in.

Any currency, whether it is physical or digital, is only good if it is accepted as payment. Thats where Bitcoin has a distinct advantage over the other cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin is accepted at only a handful of places in Connecticut, it is an option for payment on websites such as Overstock.com, Expedia and eGifter, an online gift card outlet. Microsoft accepts Bitcoin for certain online purchases.

Japan declared Bitcoin legal tender last April.

Safe transactions, risky investment

Fieschi said a benefit of accepting Bitcoin for payment is that all transactions are irreversible and trackable. There is no need to worry about counterfeit bills, bounced checks or credit card challenges with no merit  all of which hes seen during his years selling and fixing cars.

Bitcoin is not a currency for drug dealers and other criminals to hide their money, Fieschi said, although that is how many people think of it.

I understand the software and cryptographs behind it. Its strong. There no way to counterfeit it, he said. Bitcoin is not used for illegal transactions. The from and to are very transparent. Its all public information. Thats why big companies dont like it because their competitors can see what they are doing.

Fieschi started investing in digital currency four years ago. At 47, Fieschi admits he is the old man in his digital currency circles.

While Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, there are more than a thousand other ones out there. Some are fairly well known, such as Litecoin and Ethereum, but many are considered potential scams, Fieschi said.

Schwartz said the Better Business Bureau and the U.S. government strongly advise potential investors of digital currency to consult a financial adviser first.

Fieschi agrees that a strong knowledge base is required before investing in cryptocurrency.

Its a mistake to focus only on Bitcoin and ignore the others out there, Fieschi said. You have to be careful because there are a lot of scams with new coins. Do your research carefully. Its new technology so you can be easily fooled. Try to understand it before you invest in it.We send our love, support and prayers to the students, staff, first responders and community members of Parkland, Florida, who have been impacted by the devastating school shooting yesterday.

Here in Newtown, we endured a similar day of terror due to a gunman with an AR-15 and high capacity magazines  weapons that belong in wars and not in the hands of civilians. Like the students in Parkland, our children were petrified, on lockdown, hid under desks and in bathrooms, and ran out of a blood-soaked building with hands on each others shoulders. Parents struggled to find their children. Neighborhoods were on lockdown.

The Parkland school shooting incident was the 18th since January 1, 2018, and the 291st since the Sandy Hook tragedy. We have repeatedly warned other communities that if it could happen in Newtown, then it can happen anywhere. Americans should not be shocked when these mass shooting incidents occur in their communities. The elected leaders in the majority of statehouses, Governor mansions, U.S. Capitol Building and the White House have failed to pass gun control legislation to end gun violence in America since the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Until more Americans hold their local, state and federal elected representatives accountable, our children are not safe in our schools or in any public space. The current president and the Republican members of the 115th Congress have demonstrated that they will not take any action even after two of the deadliest mass shooting incidents in Americas modern history that occurred in the last five months. Any elected official who only sends thoughts and prayers after this latest shooting are willing to sacrifice our children to protect the gun industry profits and they should be voted out in 2018 and 2020.

Nothing is more despicable and dishonorable than elected officials who say now is not the time to talk about gun control and blame only mental illness for these school shootings. The time to talk about gun control was after all previous mass shootings and after bloody weekends in Chicago and other urban communities. People in other nations suffer mental illness but there are virtually no mass shooting incidents or daily gun violence in their nations, due to strict gun control. Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed by guns than people from other industrialized nations. As a nation, we should be embarrassed that we do nothing in this nation to protect our precious children from gun violence.

We know that our elected leaders can do more to end gun violence in America. State legislators can pass laws similar to the ones passed in Connecticut after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Congress can reject the egregious NRA-supported Concealed Carry Reciprocity, the guns for anyone everywhere bill, and pass the following gun control measures.

Background checks on sale of all guns

. Close the Charleston loophole or delayed denial where federally licensed dealers can sell guns if three business days pass without a verdict from the FBI

Fix the National Instant Criminal Background Check system (NICS)

Mandatory waiting period for gun purchases

Gun violence restraining order/extreme risk protection order to temporarily prohibit an individual deemed by a judge to pose a danger to self or others, from purchasing or possessing firearms or ammunition and allow law enforcement to remove any firearms or ammunition already in the individuals possession

Handgun licensing, permitting, training, and registration

Ban bump-fire stocks and other dangerous accessories

Ban future manufacture/sale of assault weapons, regulate existing assault weapons under the National Firearms Act of 1934, and initiate a federal gun buyback program

Limits on high capacity magazines

Make gun trafficking a federal crime

Repeal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to eliminate the corporate gun industry special protection from civil justice law that no other industry enjoys

Restrict and penalize firearm possession by or transfer to a person subject to a domestic violence protection order or a person (including dating partners) convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor

Prohibit firearm sale or transfer to and receipt or possession by an individual who has: (1) been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor hate crime, or (2) received from any court an enhanced hate crime misdemeanor sentence.

Repeal Dickey Amendment to adequately fund government research on gun violence

Child access prevention/safe storage requirement

Provide resources for people with mental illness

Enhance accountability of federally licensed firearms dealers

Microstamped code on each bullet that links it to a specific gun

Smart guns with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or biometric recognition (fingerprint) capability

Limit gun purchases to one gun per month to reduce trafficking and straw purchases

Prohibit open carry

Digitize ATF gun records

Require licensing for ammunition dealers

Since the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy, more than 500,000 Americans have been killed or injured by guns and there have been more than 1,500 mass shooting incidents. Like the opioid crisis, gun violence is a public health emergency. Too many Americans are getting killed in public spaces. With 300 million guns in circulation and weak gun laws, all Americans should ask themselves whos next?Shared branching began with an undeniable idea: Individually, credit unions couldnt provide competitive branch networks. But together, they could. Back in the 1970s and 80s, when shared branching took root, locations were everything  and the economic advantages to cooperative branching were easy to see.

Fast forward to 2018. In an era when digital banking and mobile payments are becoming the norm, are the advantages of shared branching still obvious?

If anything, it should be more valuable than ever to participate in a shared branching network, says Shazia Manus, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at CO-OP Financial Services. Seventy percent of consumers  including Millennials  choose their financial services provider based on branch proximity. About 1,800 credit unions nationwide participate in CO-OP Shared Branch, forming the second largest branch network in the country  ahead of Bank of America and Chase, and second only to Wells Fargo.

Shared branching represents a unique competitive opportunity for credit unions, even as they invest, rightly, in digital transformation efforts that de-emphasize in-person transactions at the branch. Shared branching offers credit unions the unique ability to provide expansive branch access without expanding their individual branch operations, says Manus. Branch economics continue to challenge the financial services industry as a whole. Through this cooperative network, credit unions have a solution that is a true differentiator.

A National Credit Union Branch Network for Today

CO-OP Shared Branch is currently undergoing a revamping and updating that will include technology and service upgrades to integrate the network more seamlessly into the CO-OP ecosystem. Among the benefits will be a streamlined client experience, and improved data analytics and reporting. Fraud detection based on machine learning will provide a significant boost in security. And new approaches to self-service technology and innovation will encourage new ideas from both inside and outside the industry.

Were also listening to our shared branch clients and responding to their concerns, says Manus. Right now, were hearing that credit unions that attract a lot of shared branch traffic are worried about being able to serve their own members effectively. So were looking at our structure and service guidelines to see how we can ensure that participation is sustainable for everyone.

CO-OPs shared branching transformation is part of the companys larger effort to create a unified ecosystem that includes credit and debit processing, ATM network, call center and shared branching  as well as new initiatives that will aggregate data, promote new business intelligence tools, deploy new security technology and unveil a new client experience. The goal is for the totality of CO-OPs networks, products and services to work together as a seamless whole, to create a better experience for clients and their members, and to facilitate continuous innovation going forward.

Shared Branch Saving the Day

We see many ways to bring CO-OP Shared Branch into a new era, says Manus. From upgrading our basic technology to the addition of machine learning tools, were investing our resources and a great deal of thought in the future of shared branching.

This investment is motivated by the ongoing relevance of shared branching, in spite of the many changes that banking has undergone. The move toward mobile and digital transactions isnt lowering consumer expectations around branch access, says Manus. Its creating the expectation that anytime, anywhere access should be a given.

This expectation held true even during 2017s hurricanes, floods and wildfires. We heard story after story of people whose shared branch access saved the day, Manus says. Members were able to access their credit union accounts and get help from credit union employees, even when their own local branch was unavailable.

That value  of people helping people and credit unions helping credit unions  is the heart of shared branching. And while CO-OP is undertaking substantial changes to upgrade the shared branch experience, the core concept behind the network remains constant: Credit unions can compete and grow by working together.

To learn more about CO-OP Shared Branch and how it can help your credit union transform and grow, contact your CO-OP representative or email us at sales@co-opfs.org.President Hassan Rouhani's visit to India once again highlights Narendra Modi government's stepped up engagement with West Asia.

The two countries signed nine agreements and also took India's involvement in the Chabahar port a step forward. The most important outcome of the engagement was perhaps the political message that went out to the world this weekend from Delhi.

In the current realignment of forces in West Asia, India will not take sides. It will tango with Sunni Saudi Arabia as well as Shia Iran. Israel may hate Iran and work tirelessly to clip Tehran's wings but cannot influence India's stand vis-a-vis the latter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have always valued Israel and Modi's bonhomie with Benjamin Netanyahu is evident when the two meet, but this does not mean that Delhi will side with Israel at the cost of its interests. In December, India voted against US' move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and to shift its embassy from Tel Aviv in the UN General Assembly. India could have simply abstained, but it went ahead to vote in favour of Palestine. Despite this, India continues to enjoy good relations with both US and Israel.

New Delhi's deep diplomatic engagement in West Asia is aimed at ensuring its strategic security and ensuring that its economic concerns are met. All those who felt that Narendra Modi was rushing India into the US orbit were left surprised when Modi extended an invitation to President Rouhani to visit and his recent visit to Palestine. Though Iran is enemy number one for both Tel Aviv and Washington, Delhi is ready to sustain its historical ties with Iran. President Rouhani emphasised: "The relations between the two countries go beyond trade and business, they go back in history.''

The US, under Donald Trump, is ready reconsider the 2015 nuclear pact signed with Iran on Israel's plea, which has repeatedly asserted that the deal was a disaster and must be scraped. Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the rightful leader of the Muslim world, is concerned about Iran's growing influence in the region. From calling the shots in Iraq, to supporting Bashar al-Assad in Syria and supporting the Sunni factions in Yemen, Tehran is everywhere.

Israel has long lobbied against the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran with the US, Russia, China, France, the UK and Germany. The landmark agreement, an important milestone for Obama's foreign policy, under which Iran promised to roll back its nuclear weapons programme, was never supported by Trump. He has already refused to certify Iran's compliance to the nuclear agreement and had pushed the matter to the US Congress, where majority of the Republican lawmakers want to impose tough sanctions against Iran.

India, like the rest of the world, continues to support the nuclear deal.

Why Iran is important to India

Apart from energy, India is interested in access to the Chabahar port, which Delhi hopes will allow it to bypass Pakistan to reach Afghanistan and open the way for broader connectivity to Central Asia.Pakistan does not allow Indian goods to transit through its territory if they are meant to be delivered to Afghanistan.

The idea of sending goods through Chabahar is an old one. India has committed $85 million for it, but progress was slow on fears of further sanctions on Iran. But on Saturday the contract for the lease of the Shahid Beheshti Port, a part of the Chabahar project, was signed between an Indian firm, India Ports Global Ltd, and the Iran's Port and Maritime Organisation. The India Ports would take up operation of the existing port for 18 months. Many regard Chabahar as India's answer to China's building and operation of the Gwadar Port in Pakistan's Balochistan province. However, that perhaps is far-fetched as Iran is not Pakistan and unlike China cannot change it into a military dock if required. However, Chabahar can make a major difference to trade and economic activity. India has already sent wheat to Afghanistan using this facility.

After talks with Rouhani on Saturday, Modi said: "We will support the construction of the Chabahar-Zahedan rail link so that Chabahar gateway's potential could be fully utilised."

The Iranian president added that the rail line will be an economic boon for both countries. He also said that both sides "are prepared for joint ventures in gas and petroleum sectors" and sought Indian investments in the industrial and mining sectors.

India and Iran in the past had collaborated in Afghanistan and together with Russia supported the Northern Alliance when the Taliban was in power. The major difference now is that while India welcomes US presence in Afghanistan, Iran is against American troops continuing to remain in that country.

After talks between Modi and Rouhani, nine memorandums of understanding (MoU) were signed, including on avoidance of double taxation, ratification of extradition treaty, expanding trade, traditional medicines and agriculture. MoUs were also signed between trade bodies of the two nations. A provision for investments in rupees has already been made to take care of contingency if dollar payments are stopped because of sanctions.

The fear of sanctions in Rouhani's mind was clear when he devoted his speech at the Observer Research Foundation to the nuclear agreement. He said that Tehran was committed to abide by the 2015 deal and said the US would be making a strategic mistake if it pulled out.

Also read: Love is not haram: How Pakistan celebrated Valentine's DayWith KP Sharma Oli as Prime Minister, Nepal has got its first ever democratically elected government. The country's journey from absolute monarchy to multi-party democracy is a story of innumerable sacrifices and many revolts that were seldom peaceful. The decade-long Maoist movement alone claimed the lives of 17,000 people.

Ten years ago, when the curtains finally fell on Nepal's 250-year-old monarchy, it was undoubtedly the country's gigantic stride into a more just system of governance that promised to end discriminations based on caste, creed and social standing.

While Oli takes over the charge of the Left Alliance government, it will be interesting for Indian readers to have a flashback into Nepal's topsy-turvy journey to being a republic. Like the Rome of the old saying, Nepal too did not become a republic in a day but is a result of a long-drawn struggle of its people. Since the 1950s, there was hardly a decade without one big anti-monarchy movement.

Armed rebellion

While the whole world was celebrating Valentine's Day, Nepal woke up to the news of an armed uprising in its remote parts on February 14, 1996. On February 13 that year, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) declared a war on the government of Nepal with the aim of establishing a Communist rule. Initially, it was seen as an "adventure" of a handful of people who were still dreaming of bygone revolutionary eras of Lenin and Mao. For Nepal's ruling elite news of such a rebellion wasn't new. There had been many rebellions before it. Some of them were crushed cruelly under the heavy boots of the armed forces and some were co-opted into the system.

Then ruling party, Nepali Congress, had led the armed rebellion against the state in 1950s and the main Opposition party, Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), had come out of a Naxal-like armed uprising in Jhapa in 1970s. These rebellions did not bring down the monarchy but successfully negotiated their place in the system. Hence, when the Maoists declared the People's War, the government reacted with a snub. The government described it as a law and order problem and pledged to act accordingly.

The Left leaders too distanced themselves from the Maoists' People's War. Narayan Kaji Shrestha "Prakash", who is now the deputy leader of the Maoist Centre, called it an "ultra Left deviation". Senior communist leader Mohan Bikram Singh, who was known as Nepal's Mao, too described it as an "ultra Left act", which would only help "reactionary forces".

Also, very few people, a small circle of the Maoist Party's top brass, had heard of Prachanda. His catapulting to the top of the party too was accidental. He became the party's general secretary when he was just 35 and unlike other senior leaders he had not yet written very convincing treaties on revolution. Even inside his party, very few believed in his leadership skills.

But once the movement began, it didn't look back. Day after day it not only swelled as masses in remote parts of Nepal joined in. Within 10 years of its initiation, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its People's Liberation Army had control over the 80 per cent of the country's territory.

Regicide and the psychological end of the monarchy

June 1, 2001, is arguably the most important turning point in the history of Nepal. That day, crown prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah, in a fit of mindless rage, killed his father King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and other members of the royal family, save his cousin Paras and few lesser royals. Uncle Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev was not in the Narayanhiti Palace so he survived the massacre.

The massacre hastened the end of the monarchy in the country. There are many theories on the massacre, including a love story, but sadly no official narrative can be referred to as believable. The killing led to people to break with the 250-year-old royalty emotionally. The massacre was so dramatic and surreal that it forced the staunchest supporters of the monarchy to discard it openly. Nepal's hugely circulated newspaper Kantipur published an article by then underground Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai calling people to overthrow the "illegitimate" monarchy. Editor Yubraj Ghimire, managing director Kailash Sirohiya and director Binod Raj Gyawali were arrested on charges of sedition for publishing the article.

The massacre freed the people from psychological confusion. They hated monarchy but loved King Birendra. He was seen as a symbol of Nepal. Even the Maoists, who enjoyed mass support in the rural areas, were trying to forge a secret alliance with the King against the 'corrupt' politicians and ever-interfering India. However, with the killing of the king, ending the monarchy became their top agenda.Royal coup d'etat

In February 2005, King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency and disposed the Sher Bahadur government. He blamed the government for failing to bring peace and promised to do so within three years. He had sacked the Deuba government previously too in 2002 but restored him in 2004 after his appointed prime ministers failed to bring result. But this was too late, too little.

Meanwhile, the Maoists had opened dialogue with parliamentary parties as well as India and had successfully traded their People's War with the end of monarchy. King Gyanendra's sacking and restoring prime ministers had already alienated him from the major political parties, which otherwise, were handy in dealing with the Maoists and negotiating deals with India.

The 12-point agreement

By November 2005, the Maoists and the alliance of seven parliamentary parties had held several rounds of negotiation and reached the 12-point agreement. According to the agreement, both sides committed themselves to jointly fight the monarchy. The Maoists also agreed to end the armed struggle and put their Army under UN supervision.

In April 2006, the Seven Party Alliance began pro-democracy demonstrations in Kathmandu and other parts of Nepal. To support the demonstrations, the Maoists declared a three-month unilateral ceasefire and its supporters swelled the streets of Kathmandu. There was no turning back from here and the rest of the story is just the dates.

Also read: How Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's image was sullied as a negotiator in the Ram Temple disputeBT Group plc provides communications services worldwide. Its Consumer segment sells telephones, baby monitors, and Wi-Fi extenders through high street retailers, online BT Shop, and Website BT.com; and offers home phone, copper and fiber broadband, TV, and mobile services in various packages. The company's EE segment offers 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile network services; broadband, fixed-voice, and TV services; and postpaid and prepaid plans, and emergency services network. This segment also sells 4G mobile phones, tablets, connected devices, and mobile broadband devices from various manufacturers. Its Business and Public Sector segment provides fixed voice, mobility, fiber and connectivity, and networked IT services to retailers, utilities, public sector, healthcare, sports, construction, finance, and educational sectors. The company's Global Services segment offers business communications and ICT services comprising BT Connect, BT Security, BT One, BT Contact, BT Compute, BT Advise, and BT for financial markets. This segment serves approximately 5,500 customers in 180 countries. Its Wholesale and Ventures segment enables communications providers and other organizations to provide fixed or mobile phone services. Its ventures provide mass-market services, such as directory enquiries and payphones; and enterprise services comprising BT Fleet and BT Redcare. This segment also provides broadband and Ethernet, voice, hosted communication, mobile virtual network operator, managed solutions, machine-to-machine, roaming, and media services. The company's Openreach segment engages in the provision of services over the local access network; and installation and maintenance of fiber and copper communications networks that connect homes and businesses. The company was formerly known as Newgate Telecommunications Limited and changed its name to BT Group plc in September 2001. BT Group plc was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreCAE Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and supplies simulation equipment and training solutions to defense and security markets, commercial airlines, business aircraft operators, helicopter operators, aircraft manufacturers, and healthcare education and service providers worldwide. The company's Civil Aviation Training Solutions segment provides training solutions for flight, cabin, maintenance, and ground personnel in commercial, business, and helicopter aviation; flight simulation training devices; and ab initio pilot training and crew sourcing services, as well as end to end digitally-enabled crew management, training operations solutions, and optimization software. Its Defence and Security segment offers training and mission support solutions for defense forces across multi-domain operations, and for government organizations responsible for public safety. The company's Healthcare segment provides integrated education and training solutions, including surgical and imaging simulations, curriculum, audiovisual and centre management platforms, and patient simulators to healthcare students and clinical professionals. The company was formerly known as CAE Industries Ltd. and changed its name to CAE Inc. in June 1993. CAE Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Saint-Laurent, Canada.

Read MoreWirecard AG, a technology company, provides outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payments worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Payment Processing & Risk Management, Acquiring & Issuing, and Call Center & Communication Services. The Payment Processing & Risk Management segment offers products and service for the acceptance or transactions, and the processing of electronic payments and associated processes. The Acquiring & Issuing segment provides settlement services for credit card sales for online and terminal payments, as well as current accounts with prepaid cards and Girocard/Maestro debit cards; processes payment transactions in various currencies; and issues prepaid and debit cards to private and business customers. The Call Center & Communication Services segment offers value added services, aftersales services to customers, and mailing services. The company also provides payment processing solutions that include Wirecard Payment Page, a payment page; credit card processing; direct debit; online banking payment; alternative payment; international payment processing; tokenization; point of sale terminals; and Wirecard Checkout Portal, a payment portal. In addition, it offers mobile payment solutions; risk management solutions, such as fraud prevention, credit worthiness checks, and individual solutions; integration and testing solutions, including enterprise integration, transaction testing, payment hub, customer self-select PIN, and secure mailer solutions; and communication services. The company serves the consumer goods, digital goods, and travel and mobility sectors. Wirecard has strategic partnerships with Poynt, CreditPilot PLC, SunExpress, and Emonvia. Wirecard AG was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Aschheim, Germany.

Read MoreSuburban Propane Partners LP engages in the business of liquefied petroleum gas business. It operates through the following business segments: Propane; Fuel Oil and Refined Fuels; Natural Gas and Electricity; and All Other. The Propane segment engages in natural gas processing and petroleum refining. It also used in residential and commercial applications, industrial applications and agriculture. The Fuel Oil and Refined Fuels segment refers to the marketing and distribution of fuel oil, kerosene, diesel fuel and gasoline primarily to the northeast region of the United States. The Natural Gas and Electricity segment pertains to the generation, transmission, and distribution of natural gas and electricity among residential and small commercial customers. The All Other segment include the sale, installation and service of whole-house heating products, air cleaners, humidifiers, and space heaters to the customer who uses propane, fuel oil, natural gas and electricity businesses. The company was founded by Mark Anton in 1928 and is headquartered in Whippany, NJ.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation.Square, Inc. provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions. The company also provides Square Point of Sale software; Cash App, which provides access to the financial system, allowing customers to electronically send, store, and spend money; Caviar, a food ordering platform for restaurants to offer food ordering, pickup and delivery, to their customers; and Square Capital that facilitates loans to sellers based on real-time payment and point-of-sale data. Square, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Read MoreSuncor Energy Inc. operates as an integrated energy company. The company primarily focuses on developing petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; explores, acquires, develops, produces, transports, refines, and markets crude oil in Canada and internationally; markets petroleum and petrochemical products under the Petro-Canada name primarily in Canada. It operates in Oil Sands; Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Corporate and Eliminations segments. The Oil Sands segment recovers bitumen from mining and in situ operations, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock and diesel fuel, or blends the bitumen with diluent for direct sale to market. The Exploration and Production segment is involved in offshore operations off the east coast of Canada and in the North Sea; and operating onshore assets in Libya and Syria. The Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil and intermediate feedstock into various petroleum and petrochemical products; and markets refined petroleum products to retail, commercial, and industrial customers through its other retail sellers. The Corporate and Eliminations segment operates four wind farm operations in Ontario and Western Canada. The company also markets and trades in crude oil, natural gas, byproducts, refined products, and power. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreAssociated British Foods plc operates as a diversified food, ingredients, and retail company worldwide. It operates through five segments: Grocery, Sugar, Agriculture, Ingredients, and Retail. The Grocery segment manufactures and sells grocery products, including hot beverages, sugar and sweeteners, vegetable oils, balsamic vinegars, bread and baked goods, cereals, ethnic foods, and meat products to retail, wholesale, and foodservice businesses. The Sugar segment is involved in growing, processing, and sale of sugar beet and sugar cane to industrial users. The Agriculture segment manufactures and sells animal feeds; and provides other products and services for the agriculture sector. The Ingredients segment manufactures bakers' yeast, bakery ingredients, enzymes, lipids, yeast extracts, and cereal specialties. The Retail segment is involved in buying and merchandising clothing and accessories through the Primark and Penneys retail chains, which offer womenswear, menswear, children's wear, footwear, accessories, homeware, and skincare products. The company was founded in 1935 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom. Associated British Foods plc is a subsidiary of Wittington Investments Limited.

Read MoreBank of America Corp. is a bank and financial holding company, which engages in the provision of banking and nonbank financial services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth and Investment Management, Global Banking, Global Markets, and All Other. The Consumer Banking segment offers credit, banking, and investment products and services to consumers and small businesses. The Global Wealth and Investment Management provides client experience through a network of financial advisors focused on to meet their needs through a full set of investment management, brokerage, banking, and retirement products. The Global Banking segment deals with lending-related products and services, integrated working capital management and treasury solutions to clients, and underwriting and advisory services. The Global Markets segment includes sales and trading services, as well as research, to institutional clients across fixed-income, credit, currency, commodity, and equity businesses. The All Other segment consists of asset and liability management activities, equity investments, non-core mortgage loans and servicing activities, the net impact of periodic revisions

Read MoreChina Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, an energy and chemical company, engages in oil and gas, and chemical operations in the People's Republic of China. It operates through five segments: Exploration and Production, Refining, Marketing and Distribution, Chemicals, and Corporate and Others. The company explores for and develops oil fields; produces crude oil and natural gas; processes and purifies crude oil; and manufactures and sells petroleum products. It also owns and operates oil depots and service stations; and distributes and sells refined petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel through wholesale and retail sales networks. In addition, the company manufactures and sells petrochemical and derivative petrochemical products; and other chemical products, such as basic organic chemicals, synthetic resins, synthetic fiber monomers and polymers, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, and chemical fertilizers. Further, it is involved in the pipeline transportation and sale of petroleum and natural gas; production, sale, storage, and transportation of refinery, petrochemical, and coal chemical products; import and export of petroleum products, natural gas, petrochemical and chemical products, and other commodities and technologies; research, development, and application of technologies and information; production and sale of catalyst products, lubricant base oil, polyester chips and fibers, plastics, and intermediate petrochemical products; research, development, production, and sale of ethylene and downstream byproducts; provision of geophysical and drilling services, as well as well testing and measurement services; manufacturing production equipment; and coal chemical industry investment management activities. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation is a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation.

Read MoreJMP Group LLC provides investment banking, sales and trading, and equity research services to corporate and institutional clients, and alternative asset management products and services to institutional investors and high net-worth individuals. It operates through three segments: Broker-Dealer, Asset Management, and Investment. The Broker-Dealer segment includes underwriting and acting as a placement agent for public & private capital markets raising transactions, financial advisory services in M&A, restructuring and other strategic transactions. The Asset Management segment involves in the management of pooled investment vehicles, including the company's hedge funds and collateralized loan obligations. The Investment segment includes Company's principal investments in public and private securities and investment funds managed by HCS, as well as any other net interest and income from investing activities, and interest expense related to the Company's bond issuance. The company was founded by Joseph A. Jolson, Gerald L. Tuttle, Jr. and Carter D. Mack in 1999 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Read MoreMettler-Toledo International, Inc. is a supplier of precision instruments and services. The firm manufactures weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, packaging, logistics, and food retailing applications. It also manufactures several related analytical instruments and provides automated chemistry solutions used in drug and chemical compound discovery and development; and also, metal detection and other end-of-line inspection systems used in production and packaging and provides solutions for use in certain process analytics applications. Its operations are conducted by the following segments: U. S. Operations, Swiss Operations, Western European Operations, Chinese Operations and Other. The U.S. Operations segment represents certain of the company's marketing and producing organizations located in the United States. The Swiss Operations segment includes marketing and producing organizations located in Switzerland, as well as extensive R&D operations that are responsible for the development, production, and marketing of precision instruments, including weighing, analytical, and measurement technologies for use in a variety of industrial and laboratory applications. Th

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. 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Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. 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Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.Wall Street analysts have given (OAKS) a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but (OAKS) wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the production and sale of cellulose products, which is a natural polymer commonly used in the production of cell phone and computer screens, filters, and pharmaceuticals. It operates through the following segments: High Purity Cellulose, Forest Products, Paperboard, Pulp and Newsprint, and Corporate. The High Purity Cellulose segment manufacture and market high purity cellulose, which is sold as either cellulose specialties or commodity products in U.S., Canda, and France. The Forest Products segment manufacture and market construction-grade lumber in North America through seven sawmills located in Canada. The Paperboard segment comprises paperboard products. The Pulp and Newsprint segment involves in the production of pulp and newsprint in Canada. The Corporate segment consists senior management, accounting, information systems, human resources, treasury, tax, and legal administrative functions that provide support services to the operating business units. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.The following companies are subsidiares of Brinker International: BI INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LLC, BI MEXICO HOLDING CORPORATION, BIPC GLOBAL PAYROLL COMPANY LLC, BIPC INVESTMENTS LLC, BIPC MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER AIRPORTS LLC, BRINKER ALABAMA INC., BRINKER ARKANSAS INC., BRINKER ASIA INC., BRINKER BRAZIL LLC, BRINKER CANADIAN HOLDING CO. ULC, BRINKER CANADIAN RESTAURANT CO. ULC, BRINKER CB LP, BRINKER CB MANAGEMENT LLC, BRINKER FHC B.V., BRINKER FLORIDA INC., BRINKER FREEHOLD INC., BRINKER GEORGIA INC., BRINKER INTERNATIONAL PAYROLL COMPANY L.P., BRINKER LOUISIANA INC., BRINKER MICHIGAN INC., BRINKER MISSISSIPPI INC., BRINKER MISSOURI INC., BRINKER NEVADA INC., BRINKER NEW JERSEY INC., BRINKER NORTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER OF BALTIMORE COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CARROLL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OF CECIL COUNTY INC., BRINKER OKLAHOMA INC., BRINKER OPCO LLC, BRINKER PENN TRUST, BRINKER PROPCO FLORIDA INC., BRINKER PROPERTY CORPORATION, BRINKER PURCHASING INC., BRINKER RESTAURANT CORPORATION, BRINKER RHODE ISLAND INC., BRINKER SERVICES CORPORATION, BRINKER SOUTH CAROLINA INC., BRINKER TEXAS INC., BRINKER VIRGINIA INC., CHILIS BEVERAGE COMPANY INC., CHILIS INC. a Delaware corporation, CHILIS INC. a Tennessee corporation, CHILIS INTERNATIONAL BASES B.V., CHILIS OF BEL AIR INC., CHILIS OF KANSAS INC., CHILIS OF MARYLAND INC., CHILIS OF WEST VIRGINIA INC., Grady's Inc., MAGGIANO'S OF ANNAPOLIS INC., MAGGIANO'S OF HOWARD COUNTY INC., MAGGIANO'S OF KANSAS INC., MAGGIANOS BEVERAGE COMPANY, MAGGIANOS HOLDING CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS INC., MAGGIANOS OF TYSONS INC., MAGGIANOS PROPERTY CORPORATION, MAGGIANOS TEXAS INC., PEPPER DINING HOLDING CORP., PEPPER DINING Inc., and PEPPER DINING VERMONT INC..The geopolitical and strategic importance of having friendly relations with our smaller neighbours cannot be overemphasised. These should be based on respecting their independence and national pride. If there is a need to put pressure, it should be nuanced and subtle. Any other means indicate that India has lost the diplomatic battle and is resorting to either knee-jerk reactions or being big brother.

Pakistan, which has a long history of troubled relations with us, and China, with whom we have a border dispute and who overlooks the state-sponsored terrorism by Pakistan, needs completely different handling. China is using its economic and military power to encircle India through the string of pearls theory by giving economic sops to its smaller neighbours and managing the establishments and heads in these states with monetary gains. There are indications that we are losing influence in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives; China is making all efforts to put pressure on the only remaining country, Bhutan. It has reached its economic world power status with cheap labour, lax labour and commercial laws and setting up large industrial areas for mass production of goods to kill international competitors. It now wants to consolidate its economic footprint in Pakistan along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and in the Middle East through access from Gwadar Port. India is making progress with some countries beyond its immediate neighbourhood such as Mauritius, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and, more recently, Oman. This is after failing in our neighbours first policy and giving room for China to extend its hold.

The present crisis in Maldives was triggered by its Supreme Court ordering the release of political prisoners and opposition members and convening Parliament, after which Emergency was declared. Two judges were arrested and the order reversed by the other judges. Bribery charges have been pressed against those arrested. The UN, USA, UK, France and India have asked that the Emergency be lifted and democracy restored. Evicting members of Parliament and preventing their entry into Parliament is undemocratic.

There are allegations of attempts at toppling governments, and making of personal fortunes including through sale/long lease of islands, which are likely to be true. Those should not concern India. Yameen says he had to declare a State of Emergency as there was no way to hold the justices accountable. But, then, who will hold him accountable? India has to look at its strategic and geopolitical interests and act in whatever way fit to protect them. Yameen sent an envoy to brief his friends China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia about the present crisis. The trip to India was cancelled at Indias request. There is increasing fundamentalism in the Maldives and reports of jehadis being exported to Syria. A progressive dispensation will be in Indias interest. A population involved in economic activity that the booming tourism industry offers will ensure curbing fundamentalism, which may lead to terrorism affecting India. China on the other hand is not affected by the fundamentalism, extremism/ terrorism in Indias neighbourhood as it is geographically insulated. Turning a blind eye to it is, in fact, to its advantage if it weakens India.

Military intervention which disrupts economic activity and alienates people at large should be avoided as long as there are no moves by China. India needs to use both overt and covert means to ensure that a dispensation favourable to it is in power. Due to geographic proximity, the people of Maldives depend on India for economic activity and for medical treatment. Educational opportunities in India for the people of Maldives should be increased as also Indian tourists visiting Maldives. India has to gain the confidence of the present Maldives government or get a new dispensation in place through coercive diplomacy. It is, however, not easy to decide whom to back and who will lose power: that is where our Foreign Service and diplomats have a role to play. Unfortunately, less importance is given to putting the best people in these smaller countries and the diplomats posted there may not have clarity on policy and intent from the Indian government in power. There are no rules in this game. A diplomatic victory is mandatory!According to a complaint by PNB, the biggest fraud in Indian banking history involved two junior officials at a Mumbai bank branch issuing LOUs to firms linked to Modi and Choksi. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Indian banks could take a hit of at least Rs 17,632 crore from loans and corporate guarantees provided to Punjab National Bank in a Rs 11,400 crore fraud case, the tax department said on Saturday.

As of March 2017, banks had extended loans and guarantees worth Rs 17,632 crore to companies tied to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the tax department said in a note seen by Reuters.

Since then, the loans and guarantees would have increased over the past year and the total hit to Indian banks may well exceed USD 3 billion, according to an internal note prepared by the tax authority on its preliminary investigation into Indias biggest bank fraud case.

According to a complaint by PNB, the biggest fraud in Indian banking history involved two junior officials at a Mumbai bank branch issuing letters of undertaking to firms linked to Modi and Choksi for them to obtain credit from overseas branches of other Indian lenders.

The bank said these fraudulent transactions had taken place over a number of years and amounted to Rs 11,400 crore.

None of these letters of undertaking - essentially credit guarantees - were recorded on the banks internal software system and instead were transmitted through the SWIFT interbank messaging system, thus avoiding early detection of fraudulent activity, the tax note said.

It said that Choksis Geetanjali Gems and its subsidiaries led by Choksi dealt with 32 banks. Among those that offered credit to Choksi and Modi, famous for his chain of stores stretching from New York to Beijing, were the Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, the tax note said.

Union Bank of India, another state-run lender, said on Friday it has an exposure of USD 300 million as a counter-party lender. Axis Bank, a private sector lender, has said it has sold all its exposure related to the fraud.

Among the findings of the tax department was that several firms in which Modi and his uncle were involved had people of limited means listed as majority partners. Those people were not identified in the tax department note.

The total loans in the three firms of Modi, Stellar Diamond, Solar Exports and Diamonds R Us was 39.929 billion rupees, while total capital of the partners was 4 billion rupees, it said.

It said the three firms trade receivables, or the amount being billed to customers, were much higher than total turnover of the three companies involved in the fraud, which shows that goods are being sold for related party and are either over-invoiced or not coming at all.

Modi and Choksi have not made any comment so far. Federal police say they both left India in early January and there whereabouts are unknown.TMZ.com claims that Jennifer Anniston and Justin Theroux, who announced their split recently, may not have been legally married in the first place!

The couple is said to have married in at their Bel-Air mansion in 2015. TMZ.com checked marriage records in L.A. County all the way back to 2010 and there is no record of a marriage license. Theres something called a confidential marriage license, but the couple reportedly did not get one in L.A. County.

While they could have gotten one at one of the 57 other counties in California, Jennifers sources who have known her through the years say that there has been talk for a long time they might not be legally married.

The investigators at the website even approached several divorce lawyers, and apparently, no one has been contacted so far by Jennifer or Justin. Meanwhile, Jennifer-Pitt supporters have reason to get excited as a source for Mirror said, Jen and Brad have remained close since their 2005 split, but she has leaned on him more over the past 15 months.Hyderabad: Speculation around Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikars health continues on social media. Some sources report that he is suffering fourth stage pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is generally diagnosed late and begins by affecting the tissue of the pancreas. The cancer usually occurs when the cells in the pancreas develop mutations in their DNA.

Diagnosis of the cancer is usually very difficult since the organ is deep inside the body and therefore the diagnosis happens during the third or fourth stage. Dr Mohana Vamsy, surgical oncologist, says, The Chief Minister was initially reported to be suffering from mild pancreatitis which is inflammation of the organ. But pancreatic cancer is a tumour in the pancrea that normally begins in the cells that line the ducts of the pancreas. More than the size of the tumour, it is crucial to note where the cancer has spread and which organs it has affected.

Symptoms of the disease are often overlooked. Eminent gastroenterologist and Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, says that the cancer is normally detected when there is an acute loss of appetite and weight along with diabetes.

When all these three symptoms appear together, it is problematic as mostly people with diabetes show increased appetite. Treatment is more difficult when the tumour grows beyond two centimetres, which tends to happen because of late diagnosis.

Doctors advise frequent check-ups for people who get diabetes without having a family history of diabetes. In such cases the cancer can develop within six months. We ask high risk patients i.e. whose family has a history of pancreatic cancer, who have a pancreatic cyst, who have chronic pancreatitis or have had a history of any cancer, to get regularly checked for the disease, says Dr Nageshwar. He also said that the CA 19-9, detection test is used to check for antigens which are foreign substances released by pancreatic tumour cells. However, most patients come for the test when the cancer has crossed the preliminary stage and acute abdomen pain starts.

Another symptom linked to the cancer is jaundice. Dr Anand Kumar, a pancreatic surgeon, says, When the bile duct is blocked by the tumour, it causes jaundice. Most people resort to Ayurveda and other natural medicines, which leads to late diagnosis. By then the disease will have spread to the kidney, liver and bones. Once the disease crosses the pancreatic territory, it is incurable even through surgery. And 99% of the cases are diagnosed when they have spread to the neighbouring organs such as the kidneys.

Medical experts say that the only way to stay safe from the disease is to have regular checkups and to not ignore symptoms by dismissing it as back pain and weight loss.The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that women, around the world, during labour, should be given more time to give birth and have fewer medical interventions. They should also be given more chance to participate in decision making.

Lambasting the unrealistic standards of expecting women in labour to dilate faster, the WHO showed concern over excessive caesarean sections happening these days.

The concern that a populous country like India has been leaning towards induced labour and C-sections to save on time has come under fire several times. We talk to birthing experts and obstetricians about WHOs recommendations.

Dr Shoiba Saldanha, doctor and activist

Not enough well-trained second level doctors

The primary reason for C-section deliveries being on the rise is that private hospitals are run by single obstetricians. Plus, even the patients want to be treated by only that doctor. Thus, group practice is untenable.

Most times, it is just one doctor who attends to Out-Patient Department (OPDs), travels to various hospitals and oversees the delivery of each patient. Hence, it becomes necessary to time the delivery conveniently. This is where caesarean sections become convenient.

Most private hospitals do not have well-trained second level doctors or paramedics who can effectively manage patients while the doctor is not around. Hence, the doctors need to take decisions to operate, which could have been differed with the help of a good, trustworthy team.

Priyanka Idicula, Co-Founder-Director, Birthvillage

Need to place importance on natural delivery

The WHO guidelines must be welcomed wholeheartedly. We need to place importance on natural delivery, and fewer medical interventions.

It is imperative that labour begins spontaneously. Pregnant women should be encouraged to drink and eat healthy, and be given the freedom of movement. Women should be informed about pros and cons of all medical interventions. From a care providers perspective, we will see decreased C-section rates, when we respect our bodies. If both the mother and baby are doing well, it helps to delay the hospital admission, until active labour.

Dr Mala Raj, consultant gynaecologist

Pregnant women deserve to decide on c-section

The WHO recommendation to give more time for women in labour is as per the suggested mantra of watchful expectancy, masterly inactivity. The number of caesarean sections for delivery has increased manifold in last few years. However, the adverse effects of the procedure last throughout the life for any woman, who undergoes a caesarean delivery.

Pregnancy and delivery are natural processes and medical interventions are necessary only once it reaches it crosses the alert line, as per the WHO recommendations. Any pregnant women deserves to decide if she wants to undergo caesarean sections, but it should be advocated by medicos.

Dr. Manjula Anagani, Consultant Gynaecologist, Obstetrician and Laparoscopic Surgeon

Happy that the WHO is thinking about this issue

This is a very welcome recommendation from the World Health Organisation (WHO), but it would be difficult to take it ahead in India. In our country, there are two set of people  one who want a normal delivery; and the other, caesarean. With the current scenario its seen that more and more expectant mothers are opting for C-sections, just for convenience of not enduring pain and to save time. We, the doctors, have very clear rules about a delivery. We can opt for a caesarean delivery only for medical emergency  if the babys or the mothers life is in danger. I am happy that WHO is thinking about it, the start needs to happen somewhere.

Dr Veena Aurangabadwalla, DNB, obstetrics, and gynaecology

Earlier, women engaged in physical work; sedentary lifestyles have reduced spontaneous labour

The WHO recommendations are correct, but the Indian scenario is different due to various reasons. Women should be given more time to give birth, which is a physiological process. Earlier, women engaged in physical work. But the women of today are a victim of sedentary lifestyles. This has led to the reduced number of spontaneous labours.

Pregnant women, and even families, believe that labour has to happen quickly, whether spontaneous or induced. If it doesnt, panic sets in. There has also been an increased incidence of caesarean delivery. C-section is being demanded since they want babies to be delivered at a particular time or day for auspicious reasons. Or some times, women do not want to go through natural labour.

The obstetrician should start discussing and explaining the process of labour to women right from the seventh to eight month. This helps them prepare themselves and their bodies for the labour ahead. This also helps women understand their bodies better when the actual time of labour ensues.In the early hours of Sunday, around 1.30 am, they had a video call on Facebook messenger.

Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, an MBA committed suicide after a video call with her boy friend. B. Haneesha Chowdhary, 24, hanged herself from the ceiling after telling her friend that she was going to commit suicide. Her friend rushed to the spot and took her to the hospital but she was declared brought dead, the Petbasheerbad police said.

Police suspect that a petty issue between the deceased and her friend forced her to take this extreme step. The case is under investigation.

According to the police, Haneesha Chowdhary, hailing from Anantapur district in AP, was an MBA II year student in Shiva Shivani Institute of Management at Kompally and was residing in the college hostel. Since the past one year, she was in relation with one Dakshith, who is studying in a different batch in the same college. Apparently, they were having some issues for the past few days over their relation.

In the early hours of Sunday, around 1.30 am, they had a video call on Facebook messenger. After a 10-minute-long conversation, Haneesha suddenly told Dakshith that she does not want to live and was going to commit suicide. Dakshith reportedly told her to not take such a decision and told her that things will be normal, but within seconds the call got disconnected. Dakshith, who resides in Medchal rushed to the hostel and alerted the college authorities about the issue.

They together went to Haneeshas room and broke open the door. They found her hanging from the ceiling. She was rushed to a nearby private hospital where she was declared as brought dead.

SI M. Venkatesham from Petbasheerbad said that a petty argument could have led to this incident. So far, nothing suspicious has been found from their conversations on Whatsapp and other messages.

Even her parents did not raise any suspicions on the boy. However, a case under Section 174 of the CrPC has been registered, the SI said.Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police raided a rice mill at Keesara and seized huge quantities of PDS rice meant for illegal transportation.

Police arrested the mill owner Y. Sudershan and five others who were involved in the racket. Sudershan was earlier involved in illegal transportation and was arrested in six cases and detained under the PD Act in the past also, said police.

Based on information, police raided the Datta Sai Rice Mill located at Keesara. Sudershan had in the past too engaged in illegal trading of PDS rice that he procured from agents and other sources. The same rice was packed in different bags and supplied to the market for higher price as quality rice.

Police seized rice packed in bags, vehicles used for transporting the rice, rejected rice stocks at the mill in the presence of officials from Civil supplies department, all worth more than Rs 29 lakh. The arrested persons and the seized material were handed over to Keesara Police station for further inquiry.The injured security personnel are being airlifted to Raipur for medical treatment. (Photo: ANI)

Sukma (Chhattisgarh): Two assistant constables and a civilian were killed and six security personnel injured in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Sunday.

Heavy exchange of fire between the troops of 202nd battalion of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and Naxals is still underway near Elarmadgu village which falls under the purview of Bhejji police station.

The injured security personnel are being airlifted to Raipur for medical treatment.

Another helicopter has been deployed to carry the mortal remains of the two jawans.

Special DG, anti-Naxal operation DM Awasthi earlier confirmed that four jawans of District Reserve Guards (DRG) and two jawans of Special Task Force (STF) were injured in the encounter.

Meanwhile, in another encounter near Errabore village in Sukma, one Naxal has been gunned down by the police.Bengaluru: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has reiterated that PhD is mandatory for being promoted to the post of an Associate Professor in any varsity or college in the country. However, according to the set of UGC 2018 Draft Rules, the study leave granted for pursuing PhD will not be added to the teaching experience.

The period of leave taken for pursuing Research Degree (PhD) shall not be counted as teaching experience for the purpose of direct recruitment/promotion, the draft stated.

At the same time, it has also been proposed that it is mandatory that a candidate should score a minimum of 55% marks at the Masters level to be eligible for direct teaching recruitment.

Reacting to these guidelines, Vice-Chancellor of Bengaluru Central University (BCU) Dr S Japhet felt that these would hold academic staff accountable for their contributions to their respective domains.

The period of leave taken to pursue research not being considered as teaching experience will avoid those who have used such provisions as double privileges to repeat so, he opined. On the other hand, Article 17 of the draft rules which mentions the Code of Professional Ethics has been discussed widely among educationists at the moment.

The UGC has proposed that teachers should Refrain from taking part in or subscribing to or assisting in any way activities, which tend to promote feeling of hatred or enmity among different communities, religions or linguistic groups.

They are also expected to actively work towards National Integration, aiding students to develop an understanding of our national heritage and national goals. With regard to their relationship with the guardians of the students, the UGC has recommended that they maintain contacts with them, regularly sending performance reports across to them. Whenever necessary, they should meet the guardians in meetings convened for the purposed for mutual exchange of ideas and for the benefit of the institution, the draft alludes.

The UGC has published the drafted regulation on their official portal and has sought feedback, comments and suggestions from various stakeholders and general public. According to the Commission, the above mentioned can be mailed to ugcregulations2017@gmail.com on or before February 28, with regard to the format provided.BENGALURU: The presence of a whopping 15.42 lakh first time voters in the revised electoral rolls could well force political parties to rework their strategies to woo voters ahead of forthcoming elections to the Legislative Assembly.

The process of revision of electoral rolls would go on till end of February. Nearly 67 per cent of youngsters in the census have enrolled here. While the state has over 22.85 lakh youngsters in the age group of 18-19 years as per the census, over 15.42 lakh voters are already now on the voters list and during this summary revision alone, over 7.72 lakh voters were enrolled, chief electoral officer, Sanjiv Kumar, told the media here on Saturday.

Going by the smallest Assembly segment like Sringeri, which has over 1.62 lakh voters, the state now has young voters who could fit into nine constituencies.

The other interesting aspect which has come to light following revision of electoral rolls is the gradual rise in number of women voters.

In 2013, for every 1000 men voters, there were 958 women voters. This time, going by the tentative rolls, 972 women per 1000 men voters are on the list, a net rise of 14 women voters. In other words, over 6.5 lakh women voters have enrolled themselves this year, he added.Lucknow: Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi was seen reprimanding an official during a meeting in Pilibhit, her Parliamentary constituency. In a video of the incident, the visibly angry minister is heard scolding the officer of accepting bribe. The video shows an angered Maneka Gandhi rebuking the official saying, You are getting fat like a ha****zaada.

Ms Maneka was on a tour of Bahedi in Pilibhit and was talking to the local representatives and the man who was the target of her anger is a supply officer responsible for distributing grains to Below Poverty Line scheme beneficiaries. She was told about the complaints against him which is when she reportedly lost her calm and scolded the officer. She then asked him if it feels good to indulge in corruption.

She said that she will not tolerate exploitation of the poor in her constituency. She said she will demand an inquiry against the officer and will make sure that he gets suspended. Later, while speaking to reporters, Ms Gandhi said Let him make whatever allegations he wants to make against me.RAJAHMUNDRY: A digital mobile mammography vehicle estimated to cost Rs 2 crores will be launched. The mobile van will screen women for breast cancer free of cost from April in Rajahmundry Parliamentary segment covering parts of Godavari districts. Rajahmundry MP M. Murali Mohan and GSL Trust entered into a memorandum of understanding to launch a ultra-modern vehicle designed specially in Coimbatore under the joint aegis of Rajahmundry MP contributing Rs 1.30 crore from his MP LADS and GSL Trust sharing the remaining Rs 70 lakhs.

The MP said that the vehicle would move in villages to screen women for breast cancer and send information online to the experts who in turn will analyse the data and diagnose the disease. He said the vehicle would move in villages for 15 days under the supervision of Rajahmundry MP and the remaining 15 days in a month, under the control of GSL Trust. Basavatarakam Cancer hospital located in Hyderabad earlier catered to the people in the erstwhile AP but after bifurcation of the state, its services were confined to the people living in TS. To overcome the shortage of such a facility, they were launching the digital mobile mammography vehicle.The Congress Steering Committee adopted a resolution asking the PM to tell the nation the reasons for 'failure of the fraud detection ability' of the entire banking sector and the finance ministry. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday launched an all-out attack on the NDA government over the alleged multi-crore PNB fraud involving Nirav Modi, saying a scam of such magnitude could not have taken place without "top-level protection", and questioned the prime minister's silence on the issue.

The Congress president asked PM Modi to explain why it had happened and what steps were being taken to ensure the banking system was safe in India.

"The fact of the matter is that the prime minister has, through his actions, destroyed the financial system of this country. He has demonetised the economy. He has taken money from people's pockets and put it into the banking sector and now his friends and cronies are stealing it from the banking sector and the prime minister is not saying anything," he charged.

The Congress Steering Committee, which functions in place of the Working Committee, also adopted a resolution asking the prime minister to tell the nation the reasons for "failure of the fraud detection ability" of the entire banking sector and the finance ministry.

The Steering Committee, which fixed that the party's plenary session would be held in Delhi on March 16, 17 and 18 to decide the future strategy of the Congress, said the "biggest bank scam" has exposed the complete failure of "regulatory mechanism" and "fraud detection ability" of the banking sector and the failure of oversight by the Reserve Bank of India and the finance ministry.

"The manner in which thousands of crores of rupees of public money was looted with impunity and the complete failure of entire risk management system tell its own story of favours extended and protection granted," it said.

Gandhi said that instead of spending an hour-and-a-half explaining to children how to take exams, the prime minister should explain to the people of India what is going to be done to Nirav Modi and "what is he going to do to make sure that the banking system is safe".

The Congress chief said the defence minister and social justice minister were briefing on the issue, but "the FM and the PM, who are responsible, have not spoken a word about it".

He said he agreed with former finance minister P Chidambaram who said during the meeting that a scam of this level which the prime minister "is ignoring", "cannot have been committed without high-level protection".

"It must have been known to the people in government beforehand. Otherwise, it is not possible because the amount is so huge," he said.

Nirav Modi, 46, a regular feature on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, was booked by the CBI, along with wife, brother and Gitanjali Group promoter Mehul Choksi on January 31, for allegedly cheating the state-run PNB to the tune of Rs. 280 crore.

The bank subsequently sent two more complaints to the CBI on Tuesday, saying the scam was worth more than Rs. 11,400 crore.

The jewellery designer is understood to be a citizen of the country but his brother Nishal and wife Ami are not Indian nationals. They all left India between January 1 and 6, the CBI had said.Idara-e-Adabiyat, is attracting scholars from across the country, for its collection of books and manuscripts. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: A nearly century-old Urdu knowledge centre, Idara-e-Adabiyat, is attracting scholars from across the country, for its collection of books and manuscripts. The centre, established in 1923, by Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zore, who was a reformist, poet and writer. It is located on the Punjagutta road.

The institution is one of the oldest hubs for the promotion of the Urdu language. It houses about 50,000 books dating to pre-Independence era literature. Newspapers of the same era are also preserved and kept here apart from about 2,500 manuscripts. Urdu and comparative literature scholars, historians and social scientists visit this place around the year. The monthly Risala, an Urdu magazine, is also brought out by the institution, informs Professor, S.A. Shukhoor, secretary of the committee which runs the institution.

He explains us about a few literature and poetry books dating back to the 16th and 17th century. At least four books stored in the institution have no other copies left. These rare books consist of both poetry and prose genres, Mr Shukoor said.

The books were digitised with funds provided by a few private organisations and social organisations. But still, some more work is left to be done.

The committee comprises important personalities in the city including Siasat editor, Mr Zahed Ali Khan among others. The intention is to keep one of the oldest Urdu language promotional hubs alive. Funds are a problem, as its a pre-independence institution. When it comes to manuscripts and volumes, several rare books are stocked here. Yet we face problems in garnering funds for running this institution, feels Mr Shukhoor.

He adds that research scholars from various institutions including Maula Azad National Urdu University, University of Hyderabad and English and Foreign Languages University have been accessing Idaras collection.Bengaluru: Experts in international relations put their heads together during a panel discussion of 'Does it have to be India vs China?' at a conclave here on Sunday.

Former Pakistan ambassador to US Husain Haqqani took a pragmatic view, warning India of its lack of preparedness when it is up against China, to counter a more positive view put forth by former national security Shivshankar Menon. The latter had opined that India can tap opportunities, despite the ongoing tussle with China over border issues.

Writer Andrew Small dwelt on the economic situation in China and the debt trap it has created in other countries. "We need to look at the big picture. Doklam is in the news now, but what is China's long

term game? China has an economy which bigger than Indias by five times. Their long term plan is encirclement, that is they want to encircle other countries before the opposite happens," Haqqani said, warning India of its insufficient military spending.

"Pakistan has cast their lot with China and has thought of India as the eternal enemy. India does not understand the long term game of the Chinese. India does not want to fight, but if there is competition, China outspends India 2.5 times in defence. India needs a 50-year plan as well," Haqqan observed.

With respect to encirclement, Menon pointed out that China has a crowded neighbourhood with 14 countries and two friends (Pakistan and North Korea). "China needs the global market. India's external merchandise trade has jumped from 18 per cent to 40 per cent of the GDP since 1991, with focus on eastern trade in the South China Sea. It is therefore about periphery and not competition. India has new friends too in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc. India will co-operate when she can and compete at other places with China. It will be more than just bilateral interplay," Menon explained.

Andrew Small, added that China's market is worsening internally. Most of the private sector is still under China's ruling party, more so than before. Explaining China's strategy with ally countries, Haqqani gave an example of Pakistan and China. "China-Pak relationship is useful in tying down India.

China gets a secondary deterrent from North Korea to threaten South Korea and Japan, so the two countries lose focus on China itself. The same applies to tying down India using Pakistan. It is not that they care for Pakistan's well being," he said explaining their strategy.

According to him, this has already played out in history when India was unprepared during the 1962 war. "India's shortsightedness is its weakness. The fact remains, China has muscle and it is willing to flex it under Xi Jinping. Pak is just a pawn used to keep India at bay. It is time for India to change is approach," Haqqani said.

"India must change from its non-alignment outlook, where they believe everybody is nice. What if everybody is not nice? What will you do then?" he wondered.

Menon on the other hand believes that there are bigger fears than security, as China is an economic superpower. This is not a bad situation, in his opinion, as it creates opportunities for India.

Brushing off the fear factor, Menon said, " What can we do to maximize our interests in the Asia Pacific region? Security is an easier issue to deal with. Maritime interests and terrorism are things that unite the two."

Agreeing that China had an economic advantage, Haqqani said Indian strategic advisors and diplomats need not 'worry', but have to think and plan. "The idea is to have a free and open Indo-Pacific market, which Jinping does not subscribe to. India has to work towards it and it will solve smaller issues like terrorism," he said.

Highlighting China's economic strategy, Andrew said it wants to create debt traps as a counter-bouncing mechanism. "They are using it through Hungary and Greece, which need leverage against Russia. The world needs a good economic alternative to reduce their dependence on China and climb out of the debt trap, created to favour China," he added and asserted that the favour would have to be returned, a point seconded by Haqqani.

Taking the conversation forward, Menon said India treats ties with China like a T20 match, where every move must earn wickets or runs. He felt that India's steps need not be so calculative and concluded, "We need to have a modus-vivendi, which means, we will keep our borders but also work together with China on trade. Now the Modus Vivendi is broken, causing great stress be it the South China Sea or China's presence in our periphery. Does it make sense to seek confrontation with China? India needs to expand its interests and get a life."Bengaluru: On Tuesday, February 20, the 15-day state of emergency declared in the Maldives will be lifted. But the crisis that erupted when the Supreme Court quashed terrorism charges against nine political prisoners, including exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed is unlikely to go away.

"There are restrictions on freedom and our journalists are lying in intensive care, after violence that erupted as recently as last night. In a country like yours, a liberal nation with good books, good food and good movies, this is a crisis indeed. However, this has been our state of being, for a century. To me, this is not an emergency," declared President Nasheed at a thought conclave organized by a leading newspaper in Bengaluru on Saturday.

"In my mind, the crisis stems from two reasons: Land grab and the state within the state," adding, "I ran a Google search on 'land grab' and nothing comes up. Nobody knows what is happening in the Indian Ocean countries."

A couple of months earlier, President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom was welcomed at the Great Hall of the People by Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. This was a landmark moment in the history of the country followed by the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with China. Now, what Jinping described as "familial" bond is being put to the test, with the impact rippling through to India, resulting in what appears to be a scramble for influence in a nation gripped by political turmoil and growing religious fanaticism.

To President Nasheed, however, the true war is being fought "without a single shot fired." The crisis he sees is a nation crippled by ever-increasing debt that places its sovereignty more and more in the hands of China. This is in keeping with Xi Jinping's goals for his country: a more proactive role which will help leverage its economic power and thereby, political influence. "70% of our debt is to China," said President Nasheed. "By 2020, we will have to repay this and we cannot, which means relinquishing our sovereignty."

Under President Gayoom, he says, FDI has taken a dangerous turn, with projects undertaken at huge expense, financed through commercial loans or by creditors. "FDI needs to be backed by a tender process and transparency. Without firing a single shot,, China has grabbed more land than the East India Company at the height of the colonial era. FDI has been weaponised. Instead of rifles, the weapons in the new colonial arsenal are bribery, corruption and dubious industry."

The impact of this were felt - and did not go unnoticed - during President Nasheed's regime. Even so, a Chinese Embassy was set up in the Maldives and the growing jihadist forces were granted freedom of expression. "The wheels were in motion and there was very little I could do," he said. "As for the ISIS presence, I did believe that giving them freedom of expression would allow us to engage and better understand their beliefs. Not doing so might have pushed them underground. If I could go back in time, would i do things differently? Yes. I would."

With the Maldives due for election this year, the actions of the President Yameen are of even greater concern. "One of the most worrying aspects for me is the arrest of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom," said Nasheed. "Since his ascent to power, President Yameen has dismantled the Supreme Court, arrested all the members of the opposition and his predecessor. This has been the trend in the Maldives, one we tried to break." Despite being under tremendous to follow in these undemocratic footsteps, President Nasheed resisted, he says. "We questioned him once but did not harm, threaten or intimidate him in any way." The former president also appealed to India a few days ago, requesting an Indian envoy with the army to come to Male. "This is a defining moment in the Indian Ocean. We must depart from the past now," he explained. "Much has been said about India not having deep enough pockets to make significant investments but I disagree with this. Backed by tenders, I think India's potential for FDI in the Ma

ldives is far more sustainable than that of any other Indian Ocean country."

As his talk neared its end, a journalist questioned President Nasheed's misgivings about China's decision to play a more proactive role in the workings of its neighbours. "This is a strategy the United States has employed to bring about stability across the world," he said. The former President's response was swift, "And has stability been established?"Hyderabad: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Mohammed Ali Shabbir, on Friday accused Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of compromising the interests of Telangana by not mentioning pending issues regarding the state during his recent meeting with central government ministers in Delhi.

The CM demands Rs 40,000 crore from the Centre when he is in Hyderabad, but asks for only Rs 450 crore when he meets Union ministers in Delhi. This was proved yet again during his ongoing Delhi trip, Mr Shabbir Ali said at a press conference here.

KCR is sher (lion) in Hyderabad and billi (cat) in Delhi as he failed to get adequate funding for the state in the Union Budget, Mr Shabbir Ali said mockingly.

While Andhra Prade-shs MPs and its ruling Telugu Desam are vociferously fighting for special status, the Telang-ana Rashtra Samiti MPs and TRS government has failed to voice their protests in Parliament even when just a pittance of Rs 450 crore was granted to the state in the Budget against a demand for Rs 42,000 crore, Mr Shabbir Ali said.

TRS MPs had failed to raise the issues of the Bayyaram steel plant, the Kaleswaram project etc, promised to Telangana in the AP Reorganisation Act, he alleged.

Other areas where the TRS government has failed, according to Mr Shabbir Ali, is in pursuing the 12 per cent reservation for Muslims and 10 per cent for Scheduled Tribes, with the ratification of the bills stuck in Parliament months after they were passed by the state Assembly.

Where is the bill lying? Is it in the home, law or parliamentary affairs ministry? Please tell us as the Congress wants to raise it during the ensuing Budget Session for ratification. Otherwise, the Congress will take the issue to the public and expose the duplicity and deception of the TRS government, he said.

Mr Shabbir Ali indicted the TRS government for failing to provide a good minimum support price for red gram, red jowar and turmeric for farmers in Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad and Khammam districts.

The neighbouring Karnata-ka has given a bonus of Rs 400 per quintal for these crops in addition to the MSP of Rs 5,600 and put up 40 purchasing centres, he added.

Currently there are only three centres and payment takes more than 10-15 days, Mr Shabbir Ali said.Bengaluru: An alleged assault on a youth by a group of men led by Mohammed Haris Nalapad, son of Shanthinagar Congress MLA, N.A. Haris here Saturday night, has taken a political turn with the BJP and AAP workers holding dharnas seeking the arrest of the culprits.

Close on the heels of this incident, to avoid a major embarrassment in an election year, KPCC President Dr G Parameshwar announced the expulsion of Mohammed Haris Nalapad, general secretary of the Bengaluru Youth Congress from the party for six years. Tweeting on this incident, Dr Parameshwar said, Atrocities in any form will not be tolerated in the Congress. Legal action has been taken against those responsible. The victim will get justice".

KPCC Working President Dinesh Gundurao tweeted " Ghastly incident..nobody is above law..police have to take strict action and arrest all concerned, whosoever they may be. Also Mohammed Haris Nalapad will be expelled from the Congress for his involvement in this terrible act. Condemn in the strongest words.

Taking note of the incident, State BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa tweeted I am appalled and strongly condemn the ghastly attack by Hari's son on Vidwath. Bengaluru City Police Commissioner must arrest the culprit and his goons to restore public confidence in rule of law. Congress MLA must counsel his absconding son to surrender.

State JD(S) chief H.D. Kumaraswamy too condemned the assault and said the delay in bringing the culprits to book had given a feeling that the cops were under pressure from the ruling Congress against taking action against the accused. "The accused may be an MLA's son...but none of them are above the law," he added.

Former deputy chief minister and BJP MLA R Ashok and MP P.C. Mohan visited the hospital to enquire about the condition of the victim. Realising the sensitivity of the case, Home Minister R Ramalinga Reddy too called on the injured man and assured prompt action against Mohammed Nalapad and his associates.

Meanwhile, Haris said he would not defend his son as law was the same for everyone. " After coming to know about the incident, I visited the hospital to enquire about Vidwath's condition. I also scolded my son for his behaviour and since then, he has switched off his mobile phone and has not returned home. Police have already registered an FIR against my son, Be it my son or anyone else, the law will take its own course. But, no child must put his/her father in an embarrassing situation like me. I also met Vidwath's parents and offered an apology on behalf of my son. No party must try to derive mileage from this incident.Allow yourself a little irritation. Forget hate or love for a minute. Whether you love him or hate him or will vote for him to the end of eternity or never in a million years, forget that. Allow yourself to be a little irritated with Imran. Because, by God, is he annoying. The Lodhran loss could be a blip or it could be confirmation of what many have long suspected  that Imran cant win, doesnt know how to win. Thats fine. Many have lusted after power, few have achieved it. Imran has over-promised and under-delivered for so long now that a definitive defeat the next time round wouldnt be such a big deal. At this point, Imran winning may be the bigger surprise. But even in defeat, an impact can be had. So you dont get to be in government or Parliament in large numbers, but theres still a chance to shape the governance agenda or the national discourse.

Kinda like the PPP did with the south-Punjab-province gamble. Knowing it was heading for a walloping in the last election, the PPP tried the ethnic card: vote for us and well give you your own province. It was all kinds of stupid. Two Punjab provinces would have doubled Punjabs share in the Senate and representation in the CCI, ECP, NFC and sundry federal bodies. It would have given Punjab two high courts, possibly funnelling more Punjab judges to the SC. If the smaller provinces think they have a bad deal of it right now, two Punjab provinces would have been a whole other headache. But the PPP was desperate, the Seraiki vote was its only chance in Punjab and an election had to be fought. It did cause a change of sorts, though. Alarmed by the possibility of their prized possession being split and concerned that the separatist genie may be difficult to put back in the bottle, the PML(N) began to take south Punjab seriously.

So back to Imran. Imagine he disappears and the PTI implodes. Poof, gone, suddenly, all of it. What would the contribution left behind be, to national politics, to what other parties do, to how the system behaves? Thats whats so irritating about Imran. You cant think of anything. Its all the more frustrating because of how far hes come. From a party of one hes dragged the PTI all the way to becoming the second largest party in the country. Even now, hes still got a realistic shot at power in a few months. But theres nothing. Nothing durable that the PTI has contributed, by design or accident, to the national game.

Sure, Imran has made anti-corruption his signature message, but by narrowly focusing on Nawaz, and occasionally Zardari, he hasnt moved the needle on systemic corruption. Unless Nawaz barnstorming the country like Imran is considered a change. Given the success Nawaz seems to be having with it, if you were the PTI youd probably rather that Nawaz hadnt taken to matching jalsa for jalsa. Electoral reforms were the great possibility. But once it became clear that the PML(N) wasnt about to be ousted, Imran lost interest in electoral reforms. In the end, the electoral reforms package was overshadowed by the Nawaz-as-party-president clause and the repulsive character who arrived in Faizabad.

So vote for PTI or dont vote for PTI, love Imran or hate Imran. But also allow yourself a little irritation. Because for all the noise Imran has made, for all the votes hes won, for all the disruption hes caused, hes managed to achieve virtually nothing. He doesnt seem to know how to win nor has he forced positive change in anyone else or the system itself. Its annoying, irritating and exhausting.

By arrangement with DawnFacebook and Facebook's Messenger Kids app icons are displayed on an iPhone in New York, Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. Messenger Kids lets kids under 13 chat with friends and family. It displays no ads and lets parents approve who their children message. (Photo: AP)

Facebook is forging ahead with its messaging app for kids, despite child experts who have pressed the company to shut it down and others who question Facebooks financial support of some advisers who approved of the app.

Messenger Kids lets kids under 13 chat with friends and family. It displays no ads and lets parents approve who their children message. But critics say it serves to lure kids into harmful social media use and to hook young people on Facebook as it tries to compete with Snapchat or its own Instagram app. They say kids shouldnt be on such apps at all  although they often are.

It is disturbing that Facebook, in the face of widespread concern, is aggressively marketing Messenger Kids to even more children, the Campaign For a Commercial-Free Childhood said in a statement this week.

Messenger Kids launched on iOS to a lukewarm reception in December. It arrived on Amazon devices in January and on Android Wednesday. Throughout, Facebook has touted a team of advisers, academics and families who helped shape the app in the year before it launched.

But a Wired report this week pointed out that more than half of this safety advisory board had financial ties to the company. Facebook confirmed this and said it hasnt hidden donations to these individuals and groups  although it hasnt publicized them, either.

Facebooks donations to groups like the National PTA (the official name of the Parent Teacher Association) typically covered logistics costs or sponsored activities like anti-bullying programs or events such as parent roundtables. One advisory group, the Family Online Safety Institute, has a Facebook executive on its board, along with execs from Disney, Comcast and Google.

We sometimes provide funding to cover programmatic or logistics expenses, to make sure our work together can have the most impact, Facebook said in a statement, adding that many of the organizations and people who advised on Messenger Kids do not receive financial support of any kind.

But for a company under pressure from many sides  Congress, regulators, advocates for online privacy and mental health  even the appearance of impropriety can hurt. Facebook didnt invite prominent critics, such as the nonprofit Common Sense Media, to advise it on Messenger Kids until the process was nearly over. Facebook would not comment publicly on why it didnt include Common Sense earlier in the process.

Because they know we opposed their position, said James Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense. The groups stance is that Facebook should never have released a product aimed at kids. They know very well our position with Messenger Kids.

A few weeks after Messenger Kids launched, nearly 100 outside experts banded together to urge Facebook to shut down the app, which it has not done. The company says it is committed to building better products for families, including Messenger Kids. That means listening to parents and experts, including our critics.

One of Facebooks experts contested the notion that company advisers were in Facebooks pocket. Lewis Bernstein, now a paid Facebook consultant who worked for Sesame Workshop (the nonprofit behind Sesame Street) in various capacities over three decades, said the Wired article unfairly accused him and his colleagues for accepting travel expenses to Facebook seminars.

But the Wired story did not count Lewis as one of the seven out of 13 advisers who took funding for Messenger Kids, and the magazine did not include travel funding when it counted financial ties. Bernstein was not a Facebook consultant at the time he was advising it on Messenger Kids.

Bernstein, who doesnt see technology as inherently dangerous, suggested that Facebook critics like Common Sense are also tainted by accepting $50 million in donated airtime for a campaign warning about the dangers of technology addiction. Among those air-time donors is Comcast and AT&Ts DirecTV.

But Common Sense spokeswoman Corbie Kiernan called that figure a misrepresentation that got picked up by news outlets. She said Common Sense has public service announcement commitments from partners such as Comcast and DirectTV that has been valued at $50 million. The group has used that time in other campaigns in addition to its current Truth About Tech effort, which its launching with a group of ex-Google and Facebook employees and their newly formed Center for Humane Technology.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Five women, four men, and three children were killed on the spot, while another person died in hospital. (Photo: AP)

Santiago Jamiltepec (Mexico): Thirteen people were killed in southern Mexico when a minister's helicopter crash-landed on its way to the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that rattled the region, officials said Saturday.

The 7.2 magnitude quake caused only material damage when it struck late Friday, but it triggered a tragedy in the town of Santiago Jamiltepec in Oaxaca state, where the chopper landed on its side, crushing a van.

Five women, four men, and three children were killed on the spot, while another person died in hospital, the Oaxaca prosecutor's office said.

On board the UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter were Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state Governor Alejandro Murat, who were unharmed.

Dozens of people turned out Saturday to pay their respects to the dead, carrying candles and white flowers, as trumpets and saxophones played in tribute.

Maria Margarita Sanchez lost her son, Lorenzo Zarate, in the accident.

"I can't describe my sadness," the 63-year-old told AFP, covering her face with a scarf.

Navarrete told the Televisa TV network that the helicopter pilot lost control of the aircraft just as it was coming in to land.

A local resident who declined to give his name said many locals had been planning to spend the night outside -- at the site where the chopper crashed -- for fear of being trapped in their homes in case of aftershocks.

The officials had been heading to survey damage near the epicenter of the quake, located 37 kilometers from the southwestern town of Pinotepa de Don Luis, according to the US Geological Survey.

The earthquake damaged about 50 homes in Santiago Jamiltepec, as well as the town hall and church, but no one was killed, the interior ministry said.

Oaxaca state authorities opened shelters for those affected, and nearly 6,000 soldiers and federal police were deployed to help with the emergency response.

Panic and flashbacks

The earthquake came less than six months after two quakes killed hundreds of people in the country.

On September 7, an 8.2-magnitude earthquake shook the nation and killed 96 people, mostly in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas.

Then on September 19 -- the 32nd anniversary of a 1985 quake that killed 10,000 -- a 7.1-magnitude quake hit the country, leaving 369 people dead.

Friday's quake triggered Mexico City's alarm system and caused buildings to sway in the capital. It was also felt in the states of Guerrero, Puebla and Michoacan.

Panicked residents flooded the streets.

"To be honest, we're all pretty upset. We start crying whenever the (earthquake) alarm goes off," 38-year-old publicist Kevin Valladolid said through tears after fleeing his building in La Roma, in central Mexico City.

"We're stressed out, we have flashbacks. So we run out into the street. It's all we can do."

Patients from a nearby hospital were forced outside, some in wheelchairs or carting their IV lines. Similar scenes played out in Veracruz.

Standing in the middle of the street, her eyes glued to her fifth-floor apartment, Graciela Escalante, 72, could hardly speak.

"It was terribly strong. We barely managed to get down the stairs. It was the longest staircase in the world," she said.

"We thought everything was going to collapse again."

Officials in affected states said they were inspecting buildings damaged by last year's quakes, which are especially vulnerable to collapse.

"Obviously people are afraid," said the emergency response chief for the city of Puebla, Gustavo Ariza.

Mexico sits at a spot where five tectonic plates come together, making it particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.Acting on a tip off, the police team raided the hotel and confiscated two pistols and three round of bullets from the Indian nationals, Nepal police said. (Representational Image)

Kathmandu: Two Indian nationals were arrested in Nepal on Sunday for smuggling arms into the country, police said.

Prasad Kushwaha, 27 and Ajay Prasad Kushwaha, 21, were arrested from a hotel room during a raid by a special police team in Gaur Municipality in southern Nepal.

Acting on a tip off, the police team raided the hotel and confiscated two pistols and three round of bullets from the Indian nationals, Nepal police said.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Ajit Prasad Kushwaha, a Nepali national from Birgunj Municipality in southern Nepal was arrested, police said.

They said a pistol was confiscated from him.

The 28-year-old Kushwaha was arrested during a security check by the police, police said, adding that further investigation into the matter was going on.Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, recently suggested that federal public land management decisions are made in a vacuum in Washington. He stated that decisions are made without input from local communities. Perhaps most troubling, he implies that federal land management agencies, i.e. the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, take on the characteristics of "Top-down Soviet-style centralized bureaucracies " that are "known to fail."

As a retired Wildlife Service employee of 38 years, I take issue with Bishop's assertions. Employees of the National Wildlife Refuge System, at the field level or in Washington, are well-trained, honest and conscientious civil servants who take the oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Irrespective of where they work, they do their jobs consistent with the laws and regulations of our nation.

Refuge System employees live, work and contribute to the welfare of their communities. They buy homes, vehicles, clothes and groceries in their communities. Their children attend local schools and their families volunteer and attend church of their chosen denomination. Most take their civic responsibilities seriously and serve to advance community interests. They seek to ensure that their lives and Refuge System lands become woven into the fabric of the communities in which they reside.

Contrary to what Bishop would like us to believe, Refuge System employees have long sought input from local stakeholders, even more so after the passage of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, which mandated public involvement to create management plans for every refuge in the system.

The act provided Refuge System managers considerable responsibility and latitude in working with neighbors, commercial interests and local communities to advance Refuge System objectives. Examples include cattle grazing to improve grasslands, selective timber harvest, environmental education for local schools, birding festivals, youth fishing, hunting opportunities for the disabled and photography programs. The ideas, energy and funding for many of these activities originate within the local communities and are implemented by local staff, local volunteers and local friends groups.

In the wake of the illegal occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016, it is ironic and arguably dangerous that Bishop would use inflammatory language to associate the hard work and dedication of federal employees at any level with "Soviet-style" bureaucracies. This language only complicates the job of field-level employees and increases the risk to them and their families.

Recent history attests to the existence of a radical fringe that feeds off anti-government conspiracy theories and threatens anyone perceived to get in their way. One only needs to recall the photographs of self-styled militias leveling their military-style rifles on federal officers during the Cliven Bundy standoff in 2014.

Likewise, the tragic death of one of the Malheur NWR occupiers is perhaps a byproduct of elevated anti-government fervor. If Bishop is truly committed to solving problems, perhaps he can refrain from using inflammatory words and insinuations that affect the health and safety of federal employees and their families, communities in which federal employees reside and innocent bystanders who become victims of the anti-government fervor.

President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the value of public lands and built a legacy of protecting them. He recognized that public land use decisions, if left in the hands of local communities alone, would succumb to short-term economic exploitation resulting in the destruction of natural and cultural resources through the privatization of public lands.

Given a choice between Roosevelt's vision of public lands for present and future generations versus privatizing federal lands, there is really no choice at all.

Geoffrey Haskett is the president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association. He retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2016 after serving for 38 years in leadership positions including the regional director for Alaska (2008-2016) and chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System (2005-2008).SALT LAKE CITY  Authorities said Friday they suspect an Islamic State group's flag found flying outside a southern Utah high school was likely a prank and not the work of the terrorist group.

The flag was discovered Thursday morning at Hurricane High School, along with graffiti on a school wall that said, "ISIS is comi," said officer Ken Thompson of the Hurricane Police Department. The small city is located near the Arizona border.

The American flag had been taken off the flagpole and was found on the ground, slashed a couple of times, he said. A black and flag with white Arabic letters was on the flagpole instead, said Thompson. Police aren't releasing a picture of the flag because they say it is evidence.

The FBI analyzed an image of the Islamic State group flag police sent them and determined it doesn't believe the terrorist group was involved, Thompson said.

An investigation is ongoing. Police are reviewing surveillance video from the school and at nearby businesses and are asking for any information about the suspected prank, he said.

"We're hoping that's what it is," Thompson said.

He said the incident was completely out of the ordinary for Hurricane, a city of about 15,000 residents where tourists visiting Zion National Park often lodge.

A new American flag was put up and the graffiti removed, and classes went on as scheduled after police determined there was no danger, said Steven Dunham, spokesman for the Washington County School District. He said a few of the parents of the 1,000 students kept their children home.

Dunham said the suspected prank "was in horribly poor taste, especially in light of the tragedy in Florida."SALT LAKE CITY  Rep. Brad Daw is considering introducing legislation that would address "concerns about what we're seeing" with the recent proliferation of ballot initiative campaigns in Utah.

Six separate ballot initiative campaigns are seeking signatures to put their measures before voters in November, tackling issues from fighting gerrymandering to broadly legalizing the medicinal use of cannabis.

Daw, R-Orem, said he is troubled that the campaigns are taking advantage of what was "designed to be a grass-roots process" and are "morphing into something (they) were never intended to be."

"Let's say, in general, there are concerns with what we're seeing.  We're seeing something we've never seen before," Daw told the Deseret News.

The lawmaker believes the use of big money has allowed at least some of the initiative campaigns to put on the misleading aura of a populist grass-roots effort in their endeavors to persuade Utah voters to sign on.

"The people running the (Utah Patients Coalition medicinal cannabis) initiative seem to have a whole boatload of money to spend on PR, signature gatherers and all that stuff," he lamented last month to the Deseret News. "I've got me and the Utah Medical Association (in opposition). We're not rolling in cash."

Daw has a bill request open called "initiative and referendum amendments," but none of the language being considered for the legislation has thus far been publicly distributed.

He declined to elaborate on how the bill would specifically address his concerns about this year's uptick in ballot initiative campaigns. But when asked whether he seeks to restrict the use of paid signature gatherers, Daw shot down that idea, saying doing so would create constitutional issues related to freedom of speech.

Daw was also asked whether his legislation could have some effect on the ballot initiative campaigns seeking signatures this year.

"Probably not too directly," he responded. "I can't see that we could do much there, or even that we want to do much."

Daw said he is also unsure whether the bill arising from his request will be drafted and heard before the end of this year's legislative session.

"(It) just depends on what we see the need is," he said.

A different measure sponsored by Daw, HB225, would make reforms to county and municipality initiatives and referenda, including raising signature requirements for those measures. HB225, which was held in committee this week by the House Government Operations Committee, does not apply to statewide initiatives, Daw said.

It wasn't clear whether similar changes to signature requirements as seen in HB225 could also be a part of legislation from Daw pertaining to statewide voter measures.

Austin Cox, the campaign manager for the Our Schools Now ballot initiative that would increase sales tax by 0.45 percent in 2019 to generate more than $700 million for public education in Utah, said he is in the dark as to what might be in Daw's bill. Speaking generally, however, he said, "I would caution against making (ballot initiative) laws more difficult because they're already difficult and require real public support."

Cox said the requirements for putting a measure before voters in Utah "are probably the most difficult in the nation."

"You've got other states that don't require as rigorous of a signature threshold. You have to have representative support throughout (Utah), you've got to hold public hearings, you've got to avoid the new legislation that's coming from the Legislature," he said. "I think the initiative laws in Utah are already very rigorous."

On learning of Daw's bill request, Utah Patient Coalition campaign director DJ Schanz warned that any measure making it more difficult to get voter initiatives on the ballot would be "doing the public a great disservice."

"This is not an easy process," Schanz aid. "It's not a (frequently) used process because it is so difficult, and only in extreme circumstances when there is overwhelming public support for an issue is it even possible to make it onto the ballot."

The most recent initiative that qualified for the ballot in the state was Utah Clean Water Initiative 1 in 2004, a measure that ultimately was voted down, the lieutenant governor's office said last year. A referendum  which strikes down a law rather than creating one  made the ballot and passed in 2007, when voters nullified school voucher legislation.

Schanz believes "a psychological piggyback effect" may be helping to open the floodgates this year as initiative campaigns decide the time is ripe to turn to Utah voters. He also said that the "very, very costly" process of getting an initiative on the ballot may be somewhat mitigated this year because "there may be an economy of scale" factor at play.

"A number of us are using the same signature gathering company, and it's made it a little more cost-effective than it would be," Schanz said.

Schanz took issue with Daw's assertion that the Utah Patients Coalition is operating with a "boatload of money," and said there is no doubt the push to broadly legalize medicinal cannabis in the state is grass-roots.

"To date, we've raised over $400,000. That's by no means rolling in dough, and the vast majority of that is going to signature-gathering.  Any illusion that we're rolling in dough from outside money, it's completely false. This has been a grass-roots movement from the get-go, and we're proud to say that."

Schanz also said the Utah Patients Coalition has more than 140,000 signatures gathered as of this week. That's far more than the 113,000 total signatures needed to qualify to be on the ballot in November.

But initiatives must also reach certain signature thresholds in at least 26 of the state's 29 Senate districts, and collection efforts will be ongoing likely for about another week, according to Schanz.

Brandon Beckham, director of the Keep My Voice ballot initiative campaign, said he would welcome legislation that addresses what he sees as abuse of the process in which voters have very little knowledge about what they're agreeing to when they sign a petition.

"We're trying to educate people at the door about what they sign," Beckham said of his campaign.

But he said he has reason to believe that other campaigns skirt that process and explain as little as possible, calling it "a very ridiculous process" and "not a way to do law."

"A lot of times  there's just no real education about it. There's just no real factual stuff" explained at the door, Beckham said. "I don't like the idea that some people who don't like the rules in the state can so easily manipulate them."

Keep My Voice and Count My Vote are competing ballot initiatives this year, with the former seeking to remove the ability of political candidates to get on a political party's primary ballot through signature-gathering. Under changes to Utah law passed in 2014, that path to the primary ballot is guaranteed as an option in addition to the caucus and convention system.

The 2018 Count My Vote ballot initiative campaign is seeking to reinforce the dual path to the ballot allowed for under the current system.

Beckham said he would support lawmakers exploring how to tighten the screws on how thoroughly an initiative must be explained by campaigns in order for signatures they obtain to be considered valid.

"It's very easy to manipulate. You can get signatures whether you're a candidate or whether you're an initiative, and the reason is most voters just aren't that involved," he said. "We would be very supportive of having further requirements on the initiative process  (in) a way that facilitates further public involvement for people to actually engage in the bill."

Richard McKeown, executive chairman of the Count My Vote campaign, told the Deseret News that Utah currently has "among the most onerous processes in order to get on the ballot."

"Frankly, I think it should be hard," McKeown said. "I don't have complaint with it being hard because of the philosophy that I believe legislative action is better."

But initiatives are a valuable last resort, he said, "in circumstances where the Legislature finds it awkward, or they're unable, to act."

"I think that's what happened this year is there (are) a bunch of folks who've concluded they can't initiate action through the Legislature and therefore they have proposed initiatives," McKeown said.

While he didn't comment specficiallly on Daw's initiatives bill, McKeown said he's "not sure what you could do to make it harder."

"You've (already) got a significant requirement that  you get signatures in 26 of 29 Senate districts. (That's a) pretty significant geographical spread," in addition to a high overall signature requirement, he said.

Rylee Curtis, manager of the Medicaid expansion ballot initiative campaign called Utah Decides Healthcare, declined to comment on Daw's bill request, saying she didn't know enough about what could be in it in order to do so.

Better Boundaries  a ballot initiative campaign that seeks to fight gerrymandering by establishing an independent redistricting commission  also declined to comment.PLEASANT GROVE  In a scenario that one Utah businessman says is much closer to reality than not, the world will be in need of technology that will ensure our collective safety both for, and from, an explosion of drones expected to be plying the airspace just over our heads.

Utah's Fortem Technologies Inc. is stepping in to fill that need with innovative micro-radar technology that will help thwart drone-based terror threats as well as coordinate the travels of the 7 million drone craft that are expected to be occupying low-altitude corridors in the next three years, engaged in transporting goods, critical medical supplies, inspecting and monitoring hard-to-reach places and yes, even transporting humans.

Fortem CEO Timothy Bean said his company has developed the "smallest, most compact and highest-performing radar system in the world" in TrueView radar for the small airborne vehicles.

"Drone technology has the ability to automate our society and economy to a level we haven't seen," Bean said. "Package delivery, search and rescue, public safety, the agriculture business, infrastructure inspection and so much more will be fundamentally changed ... but having the ability to enable safe drone operations beyond line of sight is the holy grail of that effort."

Fortem's technology, developed by Bean and partner Adam Robertson, adapted technology they acquired from the U.S. Department of Defense. The team improved and miniaturized a unit that was originally the size of a shoebox to the TrueView product that weighs a pound-and-a-half and is of similar proportions to an average pencil box.

Bean said their tiny radar array can "see" in the dark, through clouds and in inclement weather, something impossible to achieve with alternate systems. It's also much more precise.

"Radar is very, very accurate," Bean said. "Optical or radio frequency scanning can be off by 50 to 100 feet."

That pinpoint accuracy is critical for maintaining safe distances for what will be a very busy flying space, the company notes. But it also allowed Fortem to develop a system using its radar array and a drone-deployed net-and-tether system to perform midair takedowns of other craft with nefarious intent.

Fortem's DroneHunter was developed in partnership with the Defense Department and is designed to physically neutralize drones that become a safety threat because of their payload or for occupying no fly zones around airports, installations like nuclear power plants or data centers or, potentially, becoming an attack threat to combat troops or people gathered in open-air spaces. While no noteworthy drone-based attacks have occurred outside regions of conflict, many security experts believe it's merely a matter of time before a civilian catastrophe occurs as a result of a drone-deployed weapon.

"Drone and airspace protection is becoming an increasingly higher priority for critical infrastructure," Bean said.

Last year, the Pentagon hosted a drone-neutralizing contest at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The "Hard to Kill" competition was aimed at zeroing in on the best method to counter drone-based weapons already in use by Islamic State forces in conflict zones in Syria and Iraq. Last fall, Lt. Gen. Michael Shields, director of the Dfense Department's Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency, told the New York Times that drone threats were likely to expand beyond the regions of war.

This isnt just an Iraq and Syria problem; its a regional and global problem, Shields said.

Fortem's DroneHunter system has been deployed on military unmanned aerial vehicles and has recently become available for civilian commercial use.

While the company's technology has helped advance defense strategies, the wider application of TrueView will likely be seen in developing ways to manage the commercial drone airspace, which in the U.S. is likely to fall between the 200-400 feet above ground zone.

Utah is situated to play a leading role in addressing the proliferation of unmanned aircraft. Paul Wheeler is the lead project developer for the Utah Department of Transportation's Unmanned Aircraft Systems effort. He said rapidly evolving drone technology, coupled with the sheer number of new craft expected to be flying in the near future, has put the pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration and state agencies to figure out how to catch up.

"There are a lot of questions to answer as far as managing the expected traffic volume of unmanned aircraft in Utah airspace," Wheeler said. "We may need to build an entirely new system that will not be dissimilar from the current air traffic control that oversees traditional aircraft. We have partnerships in place and the work is underway...and Fortem is a part of those efforts."

Bean explained that the hurdle to overcome is what the FAA calls expanded operations, which encompasses flying beyond line of sight, night flying and flying over people. Bean said work being done by Utah officials mirrors efforts in other states and falls under the auspices of the FAA and NASA. Once federal and state authorities deem safe conditions have been established for expanded operations, the designated drone-zone will soon be occupied with a fleets of the flying craft.

Bean isn't bashful about estimating how significant a role his company may play in this newly blossoming world of drone flight and flight traffic management.

"We need to unleash one of the last natural resources in the world and thats the airspace below 500 feet, and we need to do it safely and securely," Bean said. "And thats what Fortem is going to do."

Fortem's success arc underscores Bean's confidence. Having launched less than two years ago, the privately held company has already attracted $15 million in venture funding and is establishing a global commercial market in addition to its work with the armed services. The burgeoning development efforts for human-carrying drones, or air taxis, is also likely to be an additional boon to the business. Bean estimates his company will hit a $1 billion valuation in just a few years and is also happy to provide a glimpse of what is in store for the average Utahn in a Fortem-driven, autnomous vehicle futurescape.

"The day will come when you will go out to your driveway and get into your VTOL (vertical take off and landing drone), it wont be a car," Bean said. "Type in your destination, maybe Provo to Snowbird, and youll be there in 8 minutes.

"The vehicle will register with a service, like a cellphone provider, and your route will be logged in so youll get there safely with an onboard Fortem radar. On the route there, youll travel a corridor with Fortem radar networked across the airspace, keeping you notified of other vehicles."

And when can we expect this all to come to fruition?

"That level of autonomy is likely happening by 2030," Bean said.SALT LAKE CITY  The third time was a charm for Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, who found support from a House committee on her proposal to repeal the requirement that motorists have vehicle registration in the car.

The House Transportation Committee voted last week to send Watkins' HB161 to the full House for further debate. The bill had been shot down in a previous presentation to the committee.

This time, lawmakers gave it a unanimous thumbs-up.

"We're in a different day and time than we were many years ago," Watkins said.

She said her local sheriff told her officers can use computers in their patrol vehicles to "pull everything up we need to know about that car before we even get out of our vehicles."

Watkins said there is a lot of sensitive information on the registration card that many people would rather not have in their vehicles.In an interview with Economic Times, Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman & Whole-time Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said: "With the improved product and hopefully creative market penetration, we will bring a newer version of the Etios series. As far as the Etios and the Liva are concerned, I think the normal facelift and minor model changes will keep on happening."

With Toyota focusing on the new Yaris, the facelifted Etios Platinum and Etios Liva is expected to be launched later this year. The Toyota Yaris comes with few segment first features which set it apart from its rivals. The carmaker is also looking to bring a locally manufactured small SUV to rival the likes of Hyundai Creta.

Recommended Video - Watch Now! Toyota Yaris India Walkaround; Specifications, Features, Details

The Toyota Etios Series is well accepted in the fleet market for its durability and Toyota's quality. With the third facelift, Toyota should look to add more equipment and features on the inside of the cars. While the driving dynamics are excellent, the lack of equipment level is a bit of a hindrance for the new age car buyers.

DriveSpark's Thoughts About The Third Facelift For The Toyota Etios Series

That said, the profit margin is quite thin for car makers due to the segment's highly competitive nature. With the Toyota Yaris, the carmaker is looking to offer a high level of equipment along with premium features. The Yaris boasts of some segment first features to set to apart from its competition.Louth Fine Gael TD, Fergus O'Dowd, has said County Louth has been recognised as playing a key role in Ireland's Future Development, following on from Friday's publication of the government's National Planning Framework 2040 (NPF2040).

Drogheda and Dundalk have been designated as key centres for economic growth along the Dublin to Belfast economic corridor.

Deputy O'Dowd says that this will put County Louth to the fore when it comes to future planning and investment.

He believes the DART expansion to Drogheda will be critical in reducing the large number of car commuters from the town each morning.

According to O'Dowd, each individual new fast and high frequency DART will be able to carry up to 1,000 passengers in and out of Drogheda, and increase the commuting options for Dundalk residents with more frequent trains planned for the Dundalk-Drogheda route.

He says that this will also be a game changer for inward investment and will bring much needed big business to the County. This will also open up, he says, the possibility of reopening the Dunleer Train station.

The publication of NPF 2040 on Friday was met with met reactions on Friday. Ibec, the group which represents Irish business issued a statement following the publication. In it Ibec CEO, Danny McCoy, said:

The launch of Project Ireland 2040 heralds a new and exciting era for the Irish economy and society. Planning for the future is everyones business.

"We have now clearly moved beyond the economic recovery phase and can look to the next stage of development with real ambition.

However, in a statement released by the Irish Planning Institute following the publication, Mr. Joe Corr, President of the Institute said

Good planning is evidence based. The framework proposed today sets out four cities and five towns outside Dublin as growth centres.

"That is one more than the eight gateway cities in the Spatial Strategy of 2002. The evidence of the past 15 years is that this didnt work.

He went on, We recognise fully the imperative, and indeed responsibility, of public representatives to address citizens concerns.

"From a professional planning perspective however, Ireland 2040 is not following the evidence as we hoped it would in order to become a robust enabling tool to shape and enable future investment in the growth of our society and its economy by both public and private sectors.

"It presents as a framework for politics following politics rather development following planning.

Other key aspects of the plan will include the expansion of the IDA's Regional Property Programme in the North East, which Louth's Deputy O'Dowd believes, will massively beneficial to attract big business to Drogheda and Dundalk.

"The Regional Enterprise Fund will open for round 2 of funding in 2018 with 30 million available which I hope we as an "economic corridor" can take advantage of with fantastic local projects such as the M1 payments corridor", said Deputy O'Dowd.

Key Health plans for the North East include targeted investment in the development of primary care centres and the upgrading and replacement of community nursing units across the region.Alcohol Action Ireland released a statement during the week where it expressed its deep disappointment with the contribution of two Louth TD's to the Public Health Alcohol Bill.

The Dail heard statements during the Second Stage debate on the bill last week, which has been over six years in development, and which Alcohol Action Ireland says has been frequently delayed by industry lobbying 

According to Alcohol Action Ireland, the bill aims to establish a modest pattern of reduction in alcohol consumption that will sustain better public health outcomes and less alcohol related harms for our children, families and communities."

In its statement, Alcohol Action Ireland had this to say about the contribution of two Louth TD's to the debate:

In their contribution, local Deputies Declan Breathnach (FF) and Peter Fitzpatrick (FG), sought to criticise the Bill and advance the interests of the alcohol industry.

Their contribution held little perspective, or concern, for the damage alcohol is causing within their communities; their contribution had no expression of solidarity or commitment to address the utterly avoidable crisis of our harmful relationship with alcohol.

In fact, Deputy Fitzpatrick, remarkably suggested The link between cancer and alcohol consumption is far from settled.

Deputy Fitzpatrick contradicts his own assessment from March 2015 (posted on the Fine Gael website) when he said:



Alcohol consumption in Ireland has doubled in the past fifty years and as a result there are now twice the number of deaths due to cirrhosis of the liver, one in ten first admissions to psychiatric hospitals is alcohol related and alcohol is classed as a major cause of cancer, primarily breast, colon and oesophageal. Alcohol is also a factor in suicide, domestic abuse and accidents.



Research tells us that about 80% of Irish adults consume alcohol and more than half of those are classified as harmful drinkers. Almost 10 per cent of those who consume alcohol are dependent; this means that we live in a country where virtually every family is affected by alcohol.



There is a groundswell of support for the Alcohol Bill, this legislation is badly needed to address the major problem that is alcohol in Irish society. Minimum Unit Pricing is the single most important aspect of this legislation as it will reduce the availability of cheap alcohol consumed by underage, young drinkers, by those who binge drink and by hazardous drinkers.

Alcohol Action Ireland says that this year in Louth it is likely that 25 people will die from alcohol related harm.

It said that "1,400 children will commence, all too early, what the business interests like to call life-time drinking, meantime Droghedas Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital, and its dedicated staff, will grapple everyday with the carnage of alcohols consequences in a chaotic Emergency Department and have over 10% of its beds occupied by those who are battling alcohol related illnesses."



"Over 1,100 young adults in Louth this week will contribute to the fact that Ireland has the highest rate of binge drinking in the EU, while an estimated 32,000 people will continue their harmful relationship with alcohol."



"And what did Louth representatives have to say about this crisis in our communities? Very little; little concern or interest. Deputies Breathnach and Fitzpatricks gravest concerns were for the alcohol industry and sustaining its private interests."



Commenting on Deputies contribution, Eunan McKinney, Head of Communication and Advocacy at Alcohol Action Ireland said:



"The consumers right to know, seemingly must come second to the profit demands of the alcohol industry, who seemingly are reluctant to inform customers of what is contained within its product yet has no difficulty with fulfilling the individual labelling requirements for many other countries including US exports, which must carry a health warning from the Surgeon General.



"Citizens must have to right to know; advancing public health awareness and an appreciation of what we consume, can only be achieved when consumers are accurately informed.

"What is it that alcohol producers are afraid to tell us?"

The legislative process for the Public Health Alcohol Bill commenced in Seanad Eireann in December 2015. It is anticipated, given cross party support, that the Bill may pass all stages prior to the Summer Recess 2018.



The Bill contains a range of measures designed to work together to reduce alcohol consumption in Ireland so reducing alcohol related harm. It will protect children, families and communities from alcohol related harms and create an environment that supports a low risk approach to individual consumption.

In a statement released by the National Cancer Control Programme, the facts relating to alcohol are as follows:Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy has called on Kerry Group to exhaust all avenues possible before proceeding with 31 redundancies at Kerry Foods in Carrickmacross.

The redundancies are said to be as a result of plummeting Sterling exchange rates following the Brexit vote, with the redundancies being sought across a number of areas.

In a statement released this weekend, Matt Carthy said the loss of these jobs would have a severe, negative impact on the workers, their families and the local community.

He said that if job losses were inevitable the company should introduce a voluntary scheme rather than the mooted forced redundancies.

In his statement, Carthy had this to say:

Kerry Foods has been a stable employer of local people in Carrickmacross for many years and a vital component of the local economy.

"Therefore I have written to Kerry Group urging that all avenues are exhausted before they proceed with lay-offs which will, of course, have a severely negative impact on the workers affected, their families and the local community.

As an MEP for Midlands North West and a previous Carrickmacross based Councillor, I know too well of the devastation that high numbers of redundancies can have. There will naturally be concerns that other redundancies may follow.

"As a member of the European Parliament I am eager to be of any possible assistance and I have offered to do anything I can politically to avoid any lay-offs at this crucial time.

If the loss of 31 jobs is unavoidable I would urge the Kerry Group to put in place a voluntary redundancy scheme as opposed to the mooted mandatory redundancy scheme.

"It is clear that a voluntary scheme is the preference of the local workforce and will ensure a healthy and productive atmosphere among the remaining employees.

Kerry Foods is held in high esteem in Carrickmacross and surrounding areas and with the maintenance of good will, the Kerry Group could significantly limit the potential for distress and disruption among employees and the local community.

I am also calling on the government and particularly the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys to intervene in this situation.

"I have been highlighting regularly that border counties such as Monaghan are particularly vulnerable to the threat of Brexit. The Kerry Foods factory in Carrickmacross is right in the Brexit firing line, as it produces frozen prepared meals which are sold directly to Britain.

It has been clear for some time that the Government has no strategy to create or retain employment in the border region. There was only one IDA visit to Co. Monaghan last year.

"Recently, Minister Humphreys recently stated that the Government had contingency plans for Brexit and that the scale of forecast shocks to the Irish economy would not be realised. Many people living in the border region are not yet convinced.

I am calling now on the Minister to directly engage with Kerry Group to offer any support necessary in order to protect all jobs at the Carrickmacross plant. An intervention from the Minister joining my call on the company to avoid forced redundancies would also be helpful at this time.By Michael Svoboda

Typically one of the coldest months of the year, February seems a good time to present a selection of books that explore how climate change is affecting the coldest regions of the world. Eleven of the 13 titles presented below were (re)published between 2000 and 2017; two are slated for release later this month. The last four are collections of photographs by internationally recognized photographers James Balog and Sebastian Copeland.

The descriptions of the books are drawn from copy provided by the publishers. When two dates of publication are included, the second marks the release of the paperback edition of the original hardcover.

1. Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape, by Barry Lopez (Penguin Random House 1986, re-released 2001, 496 pages, $16.95 paperback)

Barry Lopez's National Book Award-winning classic study of the Far North is widely considered his masterpiece. Lopez offers a thorough examination of this obscure worldits terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature.



2. The Future of Ice: A Journey into Cold, by Gretel Ehrlich (Penguin Random House 2005, 224 pages, $13.95 paperback)

This book was written out of Gretel Ehrlich's love for winter and also out of the fear that our "democracy of gratification" has irreparably altered the climate. Over the course of a year, Ehrlich experiences firsthand the myriad expressions of cold. From Tierra del Fuego in the south to Spitsbergen, east of Greenland, at the very top of the world, she explores how our very consciousness is animated and enlivened by the archaic rhythms and erupting oscillations of weather. We share Ehrlich's experience of the thrills of cold, but also her questions: What will happen to us if we are "deseasoned"? If winter ends, will we survive?



See also her 2003 book This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland.

3. Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of a Mysterious Continent, by Gabrielle Walker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2013, 438 pages, $27.00)

Out of our fascination with Antarctica have come many books, most of which focus on only one aspect of its unique strangeness. None has managed to capture the whole storyuntil now. Drawing on her broad travels across the continent, Gabrielle Walker weaves all the significant threads of life on the vast ice sheet into an intricate tapestry, illuminating what it really feels like to be there and why it draws so many different kinds of people. With her we witness cutting-edge science experiments, visit the South Pole, drive snowdozers, drill ice cores and listen for the message Antarctica is sending us about our future in an age of global warming. This is a thrilling trip to the farthest reaches of earth by one of today's best science writers.

4. The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change, by Philip Conkling, Richard Alley, Wallace Broecker, and George Denton (The MIT Press 2013, 232 pages, $25.95 paperback)



Ninety percent of Greenland is covered by ice; its ice sheet stretches almost 1,000 miles from north to south and 600 miles from east to west. But this stark view of ice and snow is changing rapidly. Greenland's ice sheet is melting; the dazzling, photogenic display of icebergs breaking off Greenland's rapidly melting glaciers has become a tourist attraction. The Fate of Greenland documents Greenland's warming with dramatic color photographs and investigates its climate history for clues about what happens when climate change is abrupt rather than gradual. Abrupt climate change would be cataclysmic: the melting of Greenland's ice shelf would cause sea levels to rise twenty-four feet worldwide. Clearly, it is in all of our interests to pay attention.



5. Future Arctic: Field Notes from a World on the Edge, by Edward Struzik (Island Press 2015, 197 pages, $27.00)

In Future Arctic, journalist and explorer Edward Struzik offers a clear-eyed look at the rapidly shifting dynamics in the Arctic region, a harbinger of changes that will reverberate throughout our entire world.  A unique combination of extensive on-the-ground research, compelling storytelling and policy analysis, Future Arctic offers a new look at the changes occurring in this remote, mysterious region and their far-reaching effects.



6. Icebergs: Their Science and Links to Global Change, by Grant R. Bigg (Cambridge University Press 2016, 250 pages, $125.00)

Icebergs are increasingly seen to play key roles in past and present climate change. This book gives a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of icebergs and their interaction with the Earth system, from the physical and biological interaction with the ocean and climate, to how iceberg detritus informs us about past Earth history. Societal and cultural aspects of icebergs are also examined, in terms of the risks and opportunities posed by icebergs in the modern world, as well as how these might develop in the future. With extensive illustrations and key links to online resources, Icebergs is a valuable reference for academic researchers and graduate students studying oceanography, cryospheric science, climatology and environmental science.

7. A Farewell to Ice: A Report from the Arctic, by Peter Wadhams (Oxford University Press 2017, 256 pages, $15.95 paperback)

Peter Wadhams has been studying ice first-hand since 1970, completing 50 trips to the world's poles over nearly five decades. His conclusions are stark: the ice caps are melting. There is now the probability that within a few years the North Pole will be ice-free for the first time in 10,000 years. An ice-free arctic summer will, he argues, have an albedo effect nearly equivalent to that of the last thirty years of warming. A sobering but urgent and engaging book, A Farewell to Ice shows us ice's role on our planet, its history, and the true dimensions of the current global crisis, offering readers concrete advice about what they can do, and what must be done.



8. A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice, by William E. Glassley (Bellevue Literary Press 2018, 224 pages, $17.99 paperback)

Over numerous seasons, William E. Glassley and two fellow geologists traveled to Greenland to gather evidence to prove a contested theory that plate tectonics, the movement of Earth's crust over its molten core, is a much more ancient process than some believed. As their research drove the scientists ever farther into regions barely explored by humans for millenniaif everGlassley encountered wondrous creatures and natural phenomena that gave him unexpected insight into the origins of myth, the virtues and boundaries of science, and the importance of seeking the wilderness within. An invitation to experience a breathtaking place and the fascinating science behind its creation, A Wilder Time is nature writing at its best.



9. The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Fight to Protect the Arctic and Save the Planet from Climate Change, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier (University of Minnesota Press 2018, 328 pages, $22.95 paperback)

The Right to Be Cold is the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by a woman who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Indigenous environmental, cultural and human rights advocates in the world. Raised by a single mother and grandmother in the small community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Watt-Cloutier describes life in the traditional ice-based hunting culture of an Inuit community and reveals how Indigenous life, human rights and the threat of climate change are inextricably linked. The Right to Be Cold is at once the intimate coming-of-age story of a remarkable woman, a deeply informed look at the life and culture of an Indigenous community still reeling from a colonial history, and a stirring account of an activist's powerful efforts to safeguard Inuit culture, the Arctic and the planet.

10. Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, by James Balog (National Geographic Focal Point 2009, 120 pages, $24.00)



The Extreme Ice Survey is the most extensive visual study ever conducted to illustrate the catastrophic melting of glacial ice. The result is a dramatic and timely demonstration of global warming's dangerous consequences from Alaska to Iceland to the Alps. Serviced via foot, horseback, dogsled, skis, fishing boats and helicopters at 15 sites in the Northern Hemisphere and programmed to shoot once an hour, every hour of daylight, each of the 26 cameras captures approximately 4,000 images per year. This stunning collection of photographs was part of an outreach campaign aimed at educating the public about global warming and providing irrefutable scientific evidence of how rapidly our planet's climate is changing.



11. Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers, by James Balog (Rizzoli 2012, 288 pages, $50.00)

Since 2005, renowned nature photographer James Balog has devoted himself to capturing glaciers and documenting their daily changes. His images celebrate some of the most extra-ordinary natural formations on Earth, as well as demonstrate the stark consequences of global warmingfrom Alaska to Iceland to the Alps. As glaciologists for the Extreme Ice Survey, Balog and his team are conducting the most extensive glacier study ever, covering France, Switzerland, Iceland, Greenland, the United States (Alaska and Montana), Nepal, Bolivia and Antarctica. Their high-resolution cameras capture approximately 4,000 images per year. This collection presents the most stunning panoramic photography of glaciers ever published.

12. Antarctica: A Call to Action, by Sebastian Copeland (Earth Aware Editions 2008, 80 pages, $24.95)



Master photographer and Global Green leader Sebastian Copeland issues a global clarion call in his latest book, the sequel to his bestselling Antarctica: The Global Warning. Copeland's awe-inspiring images of the frozen continent capture the beauty of the glaciers, biodiversity, and wild wide seas of the Drake. Along with exceptional new photographs, Antarctica: A Call to Action is a concise and visually compelling discussion about global warming with a hopeful and helpful new take: each of us can make a positive difference through small changes. A highly accessible and hopeful book, Antarctica: A Call to Action will inspire everyone to save this magnificent continent for future generations.



13. Arctica: The Vanishing North, by Sebastian Copeland (teNeues 2015, 304 pages, $125.00)

Few landscapes convey Nature in all of its untamed splendor like the Arctic. Fewer still conjure respect like the seldom traveled and ethereal North Pole. Yet, sadly, this largely pristine and mostly misconceived treasure is now in jeopardy. Sebastian Copeland's noble goal in these pages is to pay homage to this wonderland, and, in turn, to draw awareness to its perilous plight. A polar explorer, an award-winning photographer, and a dedicated environmental activist, Copeland offers us a unique vantage point from which to appreciate the Arctic. Although the vision presented in these pages may be poetic, the book's aims are pragmatic -to seduce and inspire the world in order to help foster a market transformation towards a sustainable future.



Reposted with permission from our media associate Yale Climate Connections.By Patrick Rogers

The winged insects of artist Hilary Lorenz's Moth Migration Project come from Lithuania, Turkey, Bermuda and across the U.S. Made of ink and paper and hand-cut in a variety of shapes and sizes, they aren't real moths and they aren't, strictly speaking, the artist's: Early last year, Lorenz, a printmaker and professor of art and media arts at Long Island University in Brooklyn, put out a call on social media for people everywhere to make prints of the moths that live in their locales and to send their creations to her.

The response was overwhelming. Inspired by the request, schoolchildren in New Zealand sent boxes of paper moths, and a museum in England held moth printmaking workshops and shipped the results to Lorenz's Brooklyn studio. Hand-blocked prints inspired by aboriginal traditions arrived from Australia, and STEM students in Arizona replicated moths native to the American West.

Installation of the Moth Migration Project at 516 Arts in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Hilary Lorenz

By the time Lorenz's Moth Migration Project debuted at 516 Arts in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last August, she had received more than 10,000 submissions. Arranged in thick skeins on the walls and ceiling of the gallery, the streams of paper moths join together in swollen columns, then break apart before trailing off against the white background. Lorenz imbued the static installation with a sense of living, welcoming motion. "There were so many moths, I worried people would feel swarmed," she said. "Instead, they're just sweeping the viewer along in a very gentle way, as if you're being carried through the night."



Commissioned by the Albuquerque gallery for Cross Pollination, a 2017 group exhibition focusing on the Earth's endangered pollinators, Lorenz's crowd-sourced moths evoke both the beauty and the vital function of the insect. Like bees and butterflies, moths play an essential role in the process of fertilization for a vast number of plants, and yet their numbers are dwindling globally as a result of loss of habitat and food sources, especially along their migratory routes. (They also, for the record, have a nasty reputation that's overblown, since the larvae of just a tiny number of the estimated 160,000 species of moth feed on the fibers in clothing and other fabric.)

Lorenz, whose art projects in the past have been inspired by the natural scenery of the Hudson Valley and the birds of Brooklyn, was drawn to moths by the visual potential presented by their nocturnal flight. She was also intrigued by a fascinating fact she once heard. "A ranger in one of the western parks told me that a grizzly bear waking up from hibernation can eat 40,000 of them" in 24 hours, she said. Nevertheless, she was unprepared for the pride and attention that project participants poured into their printed creations. "People make just breathtakingly beautiful moths," she said.

Behind the scenes, the Moth Migration Projectwhich travels to Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre in St. Andrews, Canada, this fall and to Bundaberg Regional Galleries in Queensland, Australia, in 2019has fostered a network that continues to grow. With every moth she receives, Lorenz posts a photo of it on the project's website, plots the source on an interactive map, and sends certificates of participation to every printmaker.

Entomologists and educators have adopted the project as a means of spreading the word about the moths' shrinking numbers. "People are using it as a way of honoring the moths of their particular location, and they are using it to teach the importance of moths as pollinators and how they affect the environment," said Lorenz. At last count, there were 15,000 moths in the database and Lorenz is currently photographing each new entry.

As the project has grown, Lorenz said she has been gratified to see it take on a life of its own, a dynamic that, in a sense, mimics the moth's crucial role as a communicator between species. As one participant, Joyce Stewart of Dripping Springs, Texas, wrote, "In a world of divisiveness, it was humbling to be a small part of a project that had the potential to create a spirit larger than any single community."

Said Lorenz, "People are incredibly hungry for connection, maybe because of the state of the world right now. I feel humble saying this, but people have thanked me for starting the project by saying, 'You are the light, and we are the moths.' It's an incredible compliment."

To learn more about Hilary Lorenz's Moth Migration Project, click here.

Reposted with permission from our media associate onEarth.Researchers discovered that how proteins wiggle, jiggle, and shape-shift by the hour is central to figuring out how circadian clocks work.

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 18, 2018 -- Circadian clocks are found within microbes and bacteria, plants and insects, animals and humans. These clocks arose as an adaptation to dramatic swings in daylight hours and temperature caused by the Earth's rotation. But we still don't fully understand how these tiny biological clocks work.

During the 62nd Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, held Feb. 17-21, in San Francisco, California, Andy LiWang at the University of California, Merced will present his lab's work studying the circadian clock of blue-green colored cyanobacteria. One type of cyanobacteria, called spirulina, is high in vitamins and minerals and is used as a natural food dye for candy and gum.

LiWang's group discovered that how the proteins move hour by hour is central to cyanobacteria's circadian clock function. "And now it's becoming clear that the same is true for eukaryotic [animal] clocks," LiWang said.

Cyanobacterial circadian clock proteins are unique because they can be reconstituted within a test tube in the absence of live cells. Researchers made a solution of these proteins and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), food for the proteins, to create a circadian clock that functioned for weeks.

LiWang's structural biology lab uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the parent technology for MRI, to study the protein structure and dynamics of biological molecules and then uses the structures to gain insights into their function. "We also examine how the proteins wiggle, flex, and shape-shift, because these motions ... are also critical to their biological function," LiWang said.

LiWang's lab also collaborates with X-ray crystallographers like Carrie Partch at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because X-ray crystallography is a powerful technique to capture static structures of proteins and their complexes at atomic and near-atomic resolution.

"A big surprise for us was the extent to which internal motions of circadian clock proteins dictate ... their function," LiWang said. "Static X-ray crystal structures of individual proteins, mostly solved by other labs, were invaluable to our work but told only part of the story."

Cyanobacterial clock proteins aren't exactly the same as the clock proteins of animals or human clocks, but proteins serve as the cogs, gears and springs of all circadian clockworks and the overall function of the proteins is similar.

"Because clock proteins need to keep time, there should be some basic principles of biological timekeeping shared between all clocks regardless of whether the proteins are the same or not," LiWang said. "Our structures of the complexes of the circadian clock proteins of cyanobacteria provided important mechanistic insights, but are static snapshots of a system that's continuously moving and changing hour by hour," said LiWang.

###

231-Pos, Board B1 "Ticking mechanism of a biological clock" is authored by Andy LiWang. It will be displayed at 1:45 p.m. PST, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, in the South Hall ABC of the Moscone Center South. Abstract: https://plan.core-apps.com/bpsam2018/abstract/598979c882021290aae09439cc42e19d

ABOUT THE MEETING

Each year, the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting brings together more than 6,000 researchers working in the multidisciplinary fields representing biophysics. With more than 3,600 poster presentations, over 200 exhibits, and more than 20 symposia, the BPS Annual Meeting is the largest meeting of biophysicists in the world. Despite its size, the meeting retains its small-meeting flavor through its subgroup symposia, platform sessions, social activities and committee programs. The 62nd Annual Meeting will be held at the Moscone Center (South) in San Francisco, California.

PRESS REGISTRATION

The Biophysical Society invites professional journalists, freelance science writers and public information officers to attend its Annual Meeting free of charge. For press registration, contact Ellen Weiss at EWeiss@biophysics.org or the Media Line at the American Institute of Physics at media@aip.org or 301-209-3090.

NEWS RELEASES

Embargoed press releases describing in detail some of the breakthroughs to be discussed at the meeting are available on EurekAlert!, Newswise and Alpha Galileo or by contacting the Media Line at the American Institute of Physics at media@aip.org or 301-209-3090.

QUICK LINKS

Main Meeting Page: https://www.biophysics.org/2018meeting/Home/tabid/7117/Default.aspx Symposia: https://www.biophysics.org/2018meeting/Program/ScientificSessions/Symposia/tabid/7192/Default.aspx

Desktop Planner: http://www.biophysics.org/2018meeting/GeneralInfo/MobileApp/tabid/7473/Default.aspx

ABOUT THE SOCIETY

The Biophysical Society, founded in 1958, is a professional, scientific Society established to encourage development and dissemination of knowledge in biophysics. The Society promotes growth in this expanding field through its annual meeting, monthly journal, and committee and outreach activities. Its 9,000 members are located throughout the U.S. and the world, where they teach and conduct research in colleges, universities, laboratories, government agencies, and industry. For more information on the Society, or the 2018 Annual Meeting, visit http://www.biophysics.org.Disappointing UK retail sales stats on Friday limited the British Pound to Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rates recovery attempts. Investors of the pair are now looking ahead to next week, when key wage growth stats from both Britain and Australia will be published.

After opening at the level of 1.7688 last Monday, GBP/AUD spent the week fluctuating within a relatively tight range. GBP/AUD touched a February low of 1.7579 on Tuesday and a weekly high of 1.7801 on Thursday evening, but trended closer to the weeks opening levels on Friday.

British Pound (GBP) Fails to Hold Gains Versus Australian Dollar (AUD) as UK Retail Stats Disappoint

The Pound to Australian Dollar exchange rate touched on a weekly high on Thursday evening, but the pair shed its gains on Friday morning as the latest UK ecostats failed to meet expectations.

UK retail sales results from January were published on Friday and fell short of forecasts in all major prints.

Month-on-month retail sales were forecast to have improved from -1.5% to 0.5%, but only climbed from a revised -1.4% to 0.1%.

Year-on-year sales were expected to climb from 1.4% to 2.6% but only edged higher from a revised 1.5% to 1.6%.

Analysts perceived the report as indicating that UK consumers were still hesitant to spend, following a disappointing retail report for December 2017.

Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser at PwC, noted that the slower retail activity was likely due in part to the ongoing UK pay squeeze. He stated;

The squeeze on consumer spending created by high inflation and a weakened pound continues. Over the three months covering the Christmas and New Year period (November to January), the volume of retail sales was just 0.1 percent up on the previous three months - the weakest growth we have seen on this measure for nearly a year. While inflation continues to run ahead of pay increases, it is not surprising that consumers are cautious and retail sales growth is sluggish.

This made it easier for the Australian Dollar to push GBP/AUD lower towards the end of the week, despite a lack of particularly strong Australian ecostats in recent sessions.

Australian job market data largely met forecasts in January according to Thursdays report, but higher market expectations of stronger global growth have left risk-correlated currencies like the Australian Dollar appealing.

Pound (GBP) v Aussie Dollar (AUD) Forecast: UK Wage Data Could Affect Bank of England (BoE) Rate Hike Bets

Unless investors remain focused on Brexit developments, plenty of data next week has the potential to influence movement in the Pound.

Wednesday will see the publication of Britains December job market results and January jobless claims data. Of particular importance will be Britains latest wage growth figures.

As UK inflation has surged over the last year, analysts are hoping for wages to catch up in order to soften the ongoing pay squeeze, which has been impacting UK consumer activity.

If UK wage data beats expectations next week it could boost market confidence that the Bank of England (BoE) will take a more hawkish tone on monetary policy in the coming months and could even hike UK rates again as soon as May.

Thursdays UK data could be influential too, as an updated Q4 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) projection will be published.

Still, if uncertainties about the Brexit process or UK government worsen again in the coming week this could weigh heavily on the Pounds potential for gains.

The AUD-impacting events in the next seven days include the Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes (Source), the MI Leading Index (Source), the Construction Work Done (Source), the Wage Price Inde and the CB Leading Index (Source).

Australian Dollar (AUD) Forecast: RBA Minutes and Australian Wage Data in Focus

Australian Dollar trade could be more strongly influenced by Australian news in the coming sessions, especially if the markets risk-on movement cools.

Tuesday will see the publication of the Reserve Bank of Australias (RBA) latest meeting minutes. Any changes in the banks tone could influence AUD movement, but Wednesdays Australian wage data could be even more influential.

While Australias January job market results were largely unsurprising, the nations Q4 wage price data is highly anticipated as the RBA has regularly expressed concerns about Australias wage pressures.

If Australian wage data beats expectations, it could boost market hopes that the RBA could be pressured into hiking Australian interest rates sooner than currently expected which would leave the Australian Dollar stronger.Oxford professor for Islamic studies Tariq Ramadanhas been taken to hospital for treatment for multiple sclerosis, the support committee for the Swiss scholar announced on Saturday.

Ramadan was being held in detention near Paris amid an investigation into rape allegations against him, when he was taken to hospital on Wednesday evening.

The Islamic scholar suffers from multiple sclerosis and has appealed the French authorities decision to keep him in custody. The Paris Court of Appeals ordered an independent medical report on his state of health and postponed their decision to February 22.

+ Read more about the French investigation

+ Read more about the accusations againstTariq Ramadan

During a hearing in court last Thursday, Ramadans lawyer argued, based on a first summary of the medical report, that his clients state of health was not compatible with detention. Tariq had arrived at the hearing in an ambulance.

According to the Swiss News Agency, ATS, a source close to the case confirmed the hospitalisation on Saturday. One of Tariqs personal contacts said that his state of health is worsening, particularly now that the courts refused him once again to see his wife and children.













SDA-ATS/RTS/ln





Swiss retailer Coop is producing bars for Walmarts own-brand chocolate, the SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday.

The chocolate is produced in a newly established production centre near Basel and has been available in Walmart stores since last year, confirmed Reto Conrad, head of production at Coop, to the German-language newspaper.

The amount of chocolate currently exported to the supermarket chain is still low, but Conrad said he assumes that supplies will soon grow significantly.

The chocolate packaging displays the Swiss flag and is labelled as a Product of Switzerland.

Big business

Walmart is a prestigious customer for Coop because the collaboration enables its chocolate to have an enormous reach within the US. Walmart currently has 5,000 stores across the country and turned over more than CHF450 billion ($486 billion) in 2017.

+ Find out in which countries Swiss chocolate is most popular

Whilst the Walmart prices are low, production costs in Switzerland tend to be high. In a statement to the SonntagsZeitung, Coop confirmed that producing the chocolate was indeed relatively expensive but said that their Swiss product targets the high-price segment at Walmart.

The chocolate does not benefit from government subsidies, Coop said, since almost all the bars sold to Walmart contained 60% cacao and no milk. Under the Swiss Schoggilaw (Swiss-German for chocolate law), only manufacturers using milk and wheat in their chocolate products receive export subsidies, to compensate for the high cost of these agricultural ingredients.













swissinfo.ch/ln





Gay cinema pioneer Rupert Everett said his new biopic about legendary literary dandy Oscar Wilde captures him as a "Christ-like" figure who sacrificed himself for the future global LBGTQ rights movement.

Everett penned, directed and starred in his years-long passion project about the flamboyant 19th century Irish writer, The Happy Prince, screening this week at the Berlin film festival.

The 58-year-old British actor focuses in the film on Wildes self-imposed exile after serving two years hard labour from 1895 on gross indecency charges for sex with men.

Such convictions were only wiped from the British books last year for some 70,000 men who had criminal records simply for being homosexual, Everett notes at the end of the film.

The gay liberation movement really started with the Oscar Wilde scandal, Everett told reporters.

Set in Paris, Naples and the north of France, the movie weaves flashbacks from Wildes heyday as the toast of Londons theatre scene with his lifes twilight as a vagabond racked by poverty, alcoholism and illness.

 Run towards ruin 

Wilde, Everett said, eschewed the option of simply going abroad to avoid his prison sentence because he wanted to ensure his own immortality as a martyred gay male writer.

I do find that being a gay performer in cinema theres many parallels between being an outcast or not ever being quite accepted into a milieu. So I think its definitely one of the things that drew me to try to tell the story, Everett said.

Hes an amazing Christ figure to me.

Everett has been a trailblazer in the industry, playing gay characters since the 1980s in movies such as Another Country and My Best Friends Wedding opposite Julia Roberts, while speaking openly about his own homosexuality.

He had already appeared in two films and several plays about Wilde before making his directorial debut with The Happy Prince, which co-stars Colin Firth, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson.

Everett said the film, name for one of Wildes beloved fairy stories, set itself apart from previous depictions, including Stephen Frys 1997 acclaimed movie portrayal, by showing the messier side of the writers final chapter.

He wrote once Why does one run towards ruin, why does it hold such a fascination? I think that is the key to Oscar Wildes pre-Freudian, self-destructive nature, he said.

He walked into danger  that was the kind of cornerstone for me. He had a great Jesus-complex himself, he was fascinated by Jesus and Christianity and Catholicism.

 Assassinated for his sexuality 

Watson, who played his long-suffering ex-wife Constance, said Wildes irresistible charm and wit often saved him in desperate circumstances.

He was somebody it was really difficult not to love, however cruel he was and however cruel the situation was, he had just a fire in him that was so attractive, the 51-year-old British actress said.

I think she (Constance) loved him to the end.

The film project had long looked at risk, Everett said, until he managed to cobble together funding from Germany, Belgium and Italy. The actor speaks French and Italian in the movie along with Wildes polished English prose.

Everett, who has been outspoken in his criticism of ongoing homophobia in the film industry, said the Wilde story nevertheless underlined the strides made since his death.

The LGBTQ community of today can take heart in this millisecond in our two-million-year history of humankind that this has happened  in 100 years which is no time at all that weve gone from a man basically being assassinated for his sexuality to where we stand now, he said.

I think we should take heart from that because its an amazing journey and Oscar is the beginning of it.In central Spain, the arid plains of La Mancha are famous for their windmills and Manchego, a cheese made out of ewe's milk that is one of the best-known representatives of the country's gastronomy.

But local producers there are furious with Mexico which they accuse of crude plagiarism of their cheese, an issue so touchy it has become a point of discord in drawn-out talks for a new trade deal between the EU and the Latin American country.

We have to defend our Manchego tooth and nail, says Francisco Tejado, walking through the factory of Spains biggest cheese producer, Garcia Baquero, in the small town of Alcazar de San Juan, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Madrid.

Tejado, in charge of the ripening stage of the cheese-making process, says he comes to the plant every day to watch, touch, pamper these cheeses, these living foods that are maturing in air-conditioned rooms.

 Two different cheeses 

Manchego is an EU Protected Designation of Origin (AOC) product, which is respected within the bloc but not always further afield.

And in Mexico, in particular, manufacturers have used the names of several European cheeses, including Manchego, to reap profit from crude plagiarism, complains Santiago Altares, head of the group that gives out AOC labels to Manchego producers.

The original and the copy, he stresses, are completely different.

The Mexican Manchego is made from cows milk within seven days, and the authentic Manchego with the milk of ewes of Manchega race, is ripened for at least a month.

Such is the controversy over the matter that it has been one of the issues in talks aimed at sealing a new version of an 18-year-old trade deal between the EU and Mexico.

The Europeans want exclusive right to the Manchego name, along with other products.

But that is a problem for cheese producers in Latin Americas second-largest economy, where Mexican Manchego represents nearly 15 percent of total cheese sales.

So the National Chamber of Dairy Industries in Mexico has said it will continue using Manchego as a name, which it says is generic.

 Struggling region 

Under the portrait of his late father Hersilio who ventured into producing Manchego in 1962, the head of Garcia Baquero tries to be conciliatory, saying the conflict is one of the small elements of friction that mark the globalisation process.

But for us, this protection of Manchego as an AOC product is of utmost importance in a semi-arid, austere, under-populated region, says Miguel Angel Garcia Baquero.

We cant lose the little we have.

The birthplace of Spains celebrated film director Pedro Almodovar, La Mancha is known first and foremost for being the scene of the adventures of Don Quixote, the delusional wanna-be knight who stars in Miguel de Cervantes 1605 novel, in which he eats a lot of cheese.

The Manchego AOC label even includes the silhouette of the wandering knight.

More than 700 Spanish farmers and 65 producers depend on the cheese for their livelihood.

Every year, more than 15,000 tonnes of Manchego are produced  60 percent of which is exported.

But when the $7 Mexican cheese and Spains $14 Manchego hit the American market, the consumer buys the cheapest, says Altares, denouncing unfair competition.

 Export to Turkmenistan 

In the town of La Solana, round cheese blocs weighing one, two or three kilos bathe in vats of salt water belonging to the La Caseta family business.

Our Manchego is artisanal because it is made from unpasteurised milk in machines, says the owner, Paqui Diaz Pintado Borja, 55.

With its 10 employees, La Caseta is a small structure that exports its cheese to Germany, Britain and even Turkmenistan.

In the afternoon, seven workers are busy milking the 1,500 Manchega ewes of their farm.

They have less wool than the others, no horns, but provide a better quality milk, rich in protein, says one of Paquis sons, Antonio Araque.

In the name of all such producers, Altares wants a ban on using the name Manchego in Mexico.

But its going to be complicated because there are many interests at play in give-and-take negotiations between the EU and Mexico, he says.An 18th-century cello worth more than a million euros was returned to an award-winning French musician on Saturday after she was robbed at knifepoint in a Paris suburb earlier in the week.

I received an anonymous call late in the morning saying that my cello was inside a car in front of my house. I found it in the back seat, soloist Ophelie Gaillard told AFP.

One of the car windows was broken and the musician said she quickly grabbed the instrument, which is in good condition, before notifying police.

An attacker had held her up at knifepoint outside her home on Thursday, forcing her to hand over the cello, as well as her mobile phone, before fleeing on foot in the northeastern suburb of Pantin.

The theft was very violent, I have not been able to sleep for two days. I am so relieved to have found it. Im coming out of a two-day nightmare  its a miracle, she said.

The police confirmed the cello had been found and a source close to the investigation by the BRB unit in charge of armed robberies said: Its not an instrument that can be sold to a fence on the corner.

After the robbery on Thursday, Gaillard appealed for help from the public on Facebook, posting pictures of the instrument.

The cello, which was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million), was made in Udine, Italy in 1737 by luthier Francesco Goffriller, son of Venetian master cello-maker Matteo Goffriller.

The cello case also contained her bow, which she said was made by acclaimed 19th-century French bowmaker Jean Pierre Marie Persoit around 1825 in Paris.

In 2003, Gaillard was named the best new instrumental soloist at the French classical music awards.

cld-kap/blb/it/dl/pvhFive women were shot dead in an apparent radical Islamist attack on an Orthodox church in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the assault.

An unidentified gunman fired at worshippers at the church in the town of Kizlyar in the mainly Muslim region, local press reports said.

The regional internal affairs ministry said in a statement that the assailant used a hunting rifle, and that four women were killed on the spot, while the attacker was eliminated.

A fifth woman died of her injuries in hospital, health ministry spokeswoman Zalina Mourtazalieva told TASS news agency.

Two Russian police officers were injured in the attack.

According to a local official the assailant was a local man in his early twenties, the Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian RBK daily quoted an Orthodox priest saying the attacker had opened fire on churchgoers following an afternoon service.

We had finished the mass and were beginning to leave the church. A bearded man ran towards the church shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) and killed four people, Father Pavel told RBK.

He was carrying a rifle and a knife, he added.

 Soldier of Islam 

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

A soldier of Islam, Khalil Daghestani, attacked a church in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan, IS said via the Telegram messaging app.

He targeted them with his gun, killing five of them and wounding four others, it added.

A spokesman for Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill strongly condemned the attack, branding it a monstrous crime aimed at provoking a confrontation between Orthodox Christians and Muslims in the North Caucasus.

Images published by the local press showed the body of a bearded man dressed in military fatigues who was identified as the assailant.

Next to his corpse lay two of his victims, covered in a white shroud.

Dagestan, bordering Chechnya, is one of the poorest and most unstable regions of Russia.

Islamist rebels from the region, which lies immediately east of Chechnya, are known to have travelled to Syria to join IS.

In 2015, IS declared it had established a franchise in the North Caucasus.

It has claimed a number of attacks on police in Dagestan in the last couple of years that have involved guns and explosives, as local security forces battle a simmering Islamist insurgency.

Sundays shooting comes exactly one month before the March 18 presidential election that Vladimir Putin is almost guaranteed to win.A sheep farmer, a stockbroker, a radio presenter: AFP spoke to 15 people across Europe whose careers are already impacted by Brexit more than a year before Britain's departure date.

Here is what they had to say about Brexit:

 British voices in the UK 

Pip Simpson, 51, a sheep farmer from Troutbeck in Westmorland, northwest England:

Since the negotiations have been going on, I feel as though theyve tried to make it as awkward as possible so other countries dont see it as an easy option.

Robyn Ada McKay, 20, a bagpiper studying at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow:

If I want to study in Europe its definitely going to cause a bit of hassle in regards to visas or study permits or living elsewhere.

Lucy Harris, 27, who founded the Leavers of London social network:

Theres a negative backlash to Leavers, because they want to ascribe a certain stereotype to us, which is were all racists, bigots and xenophobes, and were just not.

William Lynch, 63, an oyster farmer on the Northern Irish border near Londonderry, cultivates oysters on both sides for export, chiefly to France:

A hard border would be totally impossible for me with a Northern Ireland company. There would be tariffs shipping the same oysters out. I will close down the business and open a company in southern Ireland.

Richard Stone, 44, the chief executive of London retail stockbrokers Share:

It is important that we do a deal, and relatively quickly in terms of clarifying and giving business certainty. I am reasonably optimistic we will get there, but it will be a painful process.

 EU voices in the UK 

Gosia Prochal, 25, a Polish presenter on the communitys Radio Star, based in Peterborough, eastern England:

Since Brexit, its much more work, because our main mission is to inform people and tell them reliable news. We have many calls, mails and messages with regards to Brexit. People have felt uncertainty since the referendum.

Gabriela Szomoru, 32, a Romanian bookkeeper at a salad farm in Kent, southeast England:

I do see my future in the UK. England is my home now. I am a good citizen and I deserve to be in England. I would love to get citizenship.

Dimitri Scarlato, 40, an Italian composer and conductor lecturing at the Royal College of Music in London:

Brexit changed my perception of living in this country. The only positive outcome of Brexit  I really gained my sense of being European.

Nuria Orduna, 30, a senior design engineer from Barcelona, living in Edinburgh:

If I have to leave, I can go anywhere else and bring my knowledge to another country. Its more going to be a loss for Britain to lose all of this immigrant knowledge, rather than a gain for us to leave.

Laurent Faure, 50, a wine merchant from France and owner of Le Vieux Comptoir bistrot in central London:

Our turnover is down by 15 or 20 percent. So we lose our profit margin. If my turnover doesnt cover my costs, I will have to stop. You have to envisage doing something else  if necessary, leaving England.

 British voices in the EU 

David Rooney, 37, who owns the My Woodie vintage rock bar in Paris:

Brexit was always going to happen. England is not part of the European Union and always had a bad relationship with the EU. Im ready to move back to the UK if thats necessary and thats what it takes.

Andrew Ketley, 41, a business intelligence consultant who moved to Munich last year:

The main impact has been to trigger our permanent departure from the UK. We dont want to live in a country which is tearing itself apart and which is likely to be permanently poorer.

Matt Davies, 32, who works at a call centre in Madrid:

Other people my age, they are starting settling down, they make more long-term plans with their lives, and its very difficult for me to plan anything beyond March 2019 because you just have no idea what is going to happen.

Barnaby Harward, 44, a law firm language editor, who has lived in Warsaw with his Polish wife since 2005:

I decided to apply for Polish citizenship last year. Brexit has possibly been a good thing in helping me to decide finally what Im going to do. Brexit made me feel that my country is not what I thought it was.

Emily Macintosh, 30, a communications officer at the European Environmental Bureau in Brussels:

Brexit has affected my personal life because Ive applied for Belgian nationality. I want to remain a citizen of the European Union, and I want to ensure I have the same rights I did before Brexit.

burs-rjm/dt/rlp/dl/kafSouth Africa has widened a corruption probe into allies of ex-president Jacob Zuma to other countries including India, China and Dubai, the police minister said Sunday.

Fikile Mbalula made the announcement days after South Africa issued an arrest warrant for one of the brothers of the Gupta business family, close associates of scandal-plagued Zuma who was forced from power on Wednesday.

Mbalula told public broadcaster SABC that Ajay Gupta and another four people who are being sought in connection with the case were all out of the country.

While there was no indication that they fled the country fearing arrest, Mbalula vowed that they will be followed up through Interpol with the possibility of extradition to face trial in South Africa.

He said two of the suspects were of Indian descent and one other was Chinese. All are thought to be in India, China or Dubai.

We operate through Interpol, we operate through bilateral (means), if you ever resist there will be extradition. All means necessary will be employed to ensure these people are brought to book, said Mbalula.

He refused to name the suspects except for Ajay Gupta who police last week declared a fugitive.

Local media reports suggested that Zumas son Duduzane, a business associate of the Guptas, is also among those being sought, and some speculated that he could be in Dubai.

The minister refused to say whether Duduzane Zuma is on the police wanted list.

There will be more arrests its not just a witch hunt, he added.

It doesnt matter, if you are a politician  there are no holy cows, there are no untouchables.

In all, 13 people are facing charges linked to allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers was syphoned off by the Guptas. Eight other suspects were arrested last week and have appeared in court.

In his first address to the nation hours after he assumed power on Friday, new South African President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to fight corruption in a direct reference to the accusations levelled at his predecessor Zuma.The fate of state Sen. Carlos Uresti will be placed in the hands of 12 strangers after lawyers in his criminal fraud trial wrap up closing arguments Tuesday.

Uresti and co-defendant Gary Cain have been on trial the past four weeks in the defrauding of investors in an oil field company.

Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra declined two requests to acquit the men, advising their lawyers while the jury was out of the courtroom that there was telling evidence against Uresti and that FourWinds Logistics was a scam from the get-go.

Almost three-dozen witnesses testified over the past month, including former investors, federal agents, friends and former employees. Jurors heard of how Uresti went into business with slick-talking fellow ex-Marine Stan Bates, who pleaded guilty to the alleged fraudulent scheme last month.

Uresti, Cain and Bates were indicted last year on a combined 22 felonies, including conspiring to defraud Harlingen woman Denise Cantu and other investors.

Cantu testified during the trial that she had a sexual relationship with both Bates and Uresti, who helped represent her in a wrongful death lawsuit after two of her children were killed in an auto accident. She invested $900,000 of her settlement money in FourWinds, losing $800,000 of it.

The judge told lawyers in the case last week there was no evidence FourWinds was started with legal, or clean money. He said all of the money used to launch the company was tainted because it was obtained from investors who were lied to by Bates.

Ezra quickly cautioned his observations shouldnt be taken as a ruling about Urestis guilt, but merely as part of his judicial duties in refereeing what went into jury instructions.

It will be up to jurors to determine whether the San Antonio Democrat and Cain knowingly participated in the scheme or if they were unknowing dupes of Bates, the judge noted.

Urestis defense lawyers are expected to argue during Tuesdays closings that the lawmaker acted in good faith with no specific intent to defraud investors.

Urestis lead lawyer, Michael McCrum, says Uresti was hoodwinked by Bates just like the investors and didnt learn of the fraud until after he severed ties with the business, which bought and sold sand used in fracking for oil production before collapsing into bankruptcy in 2015.

The legislator recruited investors, held a 1 percent interest in the company and served as its outside legal counsel.

Federal prosecutors say Uresti and Cain, a FourWinds consultant brought on to reel in financing for the company, became willful participants of the fraud. Investors recruited by Uresti told the jury that he never informed them he was getting a cut of the profits on their investments.

The investors and FourWinds entered into joint ventures, which prosecutors say were securities and required Uresti to register as a securities broker. His lawyers say he merely was a finder, middleman or facilitator and as such didnt need to register.

Some of Urestis friends told the jury they warned the lawmaker that Bates was a complete con man and a shady individual. Uresti still went into business with Bates, who used the senators involvement to give him more credibility in pitching investors, prosecutors say.

Ezra instructed jurors that they may find a defendant had knowledge of a fact if you find that the defendant deliberately closed his eyes to what would otherwise have been obvious.

Urestis lawyers called nine witnesses to the stand over two days, but the lawmaker exercised his right not to testify in his own defense.

Corpus Christi attorney Shelby Jordan, who specializes in corporate bankruptcies, testified on Urestis behalf last week that FourWinds and its investors were victims of the oil crash as much as anyone else. Oil prices peaked at $107 a barrel in June 2014, only to bottom out at about $26 a barrel in February 2016.

When that spigot was turned off, everyone was trapped, Jordan testified. From big players in the industry to newbies, everyone was squeezed across the board.

But prosecutors steered jurors toward Bates fraud that induced investors to pour money into FourWinds in an effort to try to show jurors that Uresti and Cain not only knew about it, but were complicit.

Prosecutors point to a conversation Cain and Uresti had in early spring 2015 as evidence that both men knew that Cantu was given fake documents and false information.

However, Cain confirmed comments he gave to the FBI in July 2016 in which he said Uresti told him of a heated exchange the lawmaker had with Bates in early spring 2015. According to Cain, Uresti was upset after finding out Bates provided Cantu with false information and wasnt buying sand as Bates had claimed to investors.

McCrum said Uresti was trying to protect Cantu  contrary to the prosecutions theory that Uresti knew all along about the fraud.

McCrum showed jurors evidence that Uresti went to a federal judge and personal friend, Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, near the middle of 2015 to get his advice.

While Garcia didnt testify, a summary of what he would have said was read to the jury. In that summary, Garcia said that Uresti approached him saying he wanted to report Bates because Uresti suspected Mr. Bates was committing fraud on others.

Garcia called a U.S. attorney, who provided the name of an FBI agent that Garcia passed along to Uresti.

There has been no documentary evidence  such as FBI reports  provided to the jury that Uresti called the FBI, although Cantu testified Feb. 2 that Uresti told her he was going to do me a favor and contact the FBI because she couldnt get straight answers from FourWinds about her investment. But Cantu added that Uresti instructed her not to tell anyone that he was going to the FBI.Pentagon officials can be forgiven if they think Christmas arrived in February this year thanks to the prospect of a massive defense buildup that would deliver a wish list of big-ticket items to the military.

Billions of dollars in proposed new spending would pay for 60 refurbished M1 Abrams tanks for the Army and a pair of Virginia-class submarines for the Navy. The Air Force would receive four dozen new F-35A Joint Strike Fighters and add 4,700 new airmen, most of them enlisted, who would enter basic training in San Antonio.

And for military-dependent cities and local economies, theres a bonus: No base-closure round.

President Donald Trump unveiled his budget blueprint last week, only days after Congress agreed to lift strict spending caps to allow a $160 billion increase for defense over two years. The pact will raise military spending to $700 billion this year and $716 billion for the fiscal year that starts in October.

Some of that money, $69 billion, would go to a war fund to cover the ongoing deployment of 14,000 troops in Afghanistan and almost 6,000 in Iraq and Syria. Fort Hood has 6,700 soldiers deployed to those countries and Kuwait, South Korea and Europe.

As the red ink rises around Washington, the spending agreement lifts caps on defense and boosts the military budget to a level it hasnt reached in decades. How long that will last will be unpredictable, given the fog of war and the politics of procurement.

Retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a Vietnam platoon leader and author of several books on the military, described the theme of the budget as give everyone what they want, with each service branch receiving funding for major weapons programs.

So the service chiefs ought to be happy, as should the members of Congress with defense contractors in their constituencies, he said. As usual, no one poses questions about what we're getting for our money.

For years, presidential budget proposals often have been declared dead on arrival on Capitol Hill as competing factions protected favored programs. But the bipartisan action to lift the budget caps may signal a shift.

The budget plan includes $24.4 billion for 77 advanced F-35s and 24 F/A-18s carrier-capable fighters, along with the two nuclear submarines, three Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and more money for the Air Forces ongoing development of the B-21, a long-range bomber.

Relatively stagnant defense budgets, which began a slow but discernible rise three years ago, are rooted in budget caps put in place by Democrats and Republicans in 2011.

The current budget boom is a game of catchup for a number of neglected programs, said Michael OHanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

What I see is replenishing funds for a lot of programs that were partially underfunded under (President Barack) Obama ever since the Tea Party Revolution of 2010 really divided the Republican Party  and they werent as committed to defense as they had been previously in the post-Vietnam era, he said.

Local impact

The best-known weapons systems got the headlines, but it isnt clear how the billions in new defense dollars will trickle down to Texas beyond Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where nearly 40,000 enlistees are expected to graduate this year.

The Army, Navy and Air Force train combat medics at Fort Sam Houston, but no one can say if any increase in personnel translates into more students graduating there or any new construction.

Since we only have the top-line numbers, we can't speculate on the president's proposed budget increases nor do we have any way of knowing how it might impact our budget at our level, said Larry Coffey, spokesman for the Medicine Education, Training and Logistics Command at Fort Sam.

The Pentagon reported two years ago that the military carries 22 percent in excess base capacity. The study prompted top officials to urge Congress to shut down more installations through another round of base realignment and closure, or BRAC, a process that in 2001 claimed Kelly AFB and established JBSA four years later.

The closing of 120 bases during five BRAC cycles has saved the military an estimated $12 billion a year.

But despite the savings and a long-running maintenance backlog that continues to drain Pentagon resources, the new budget includes no mention of BRAC and calls for military construction funding to jump from $7.1 billion this year to $9.8 billion in 2019.

In crafting its latest budget, the Pentagon has said it aims to counter growing political, economic, military and information competitions with revisionist powers China and Russia and regional dictators in North Korea and Iran. Defense officials also made mention of transnational threats that include terrorists and criminal organizations.

In the last years of the Obama administration, Russian forces invaded eastern Ukraine, China increased its military presence in the South China Sea and the Islamic State gained prominence in the Middle East, all of which stretched the U.S. military even as defense spending rose. Obama increased troop strength in Europe and reinserted special and conventional forces in the Middle East.

Those things all changed the nature of the budget debate, said Mark Cancian, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan policy research group in Washington. If Hillary Clinton had won, she would have probably asked for more money for defense, too.

Boosting readiness

Trumps budget plan arrived a week after Congress ended the spending caps that military leaders have decried as a threat to readiness.

The measure gave the Pentagon $28 billion more than Trump had sought and was $60 billion higher than the previous year. It sees increases in spending of $23.6 billion for the Army over the current fiscal year, $21 billion for the Navy and $23.9 billion for the Air Force.

The money wont give a big boost to the size of the total active-duty force, which would rise by just 24,100 over the current mark of 1.3 million troops.

The number of Army Brigade Combat Teams and Marine infantry battalions would remain unchanged at 31 and 24, respectively. The Army National Guard would add one BCT. The Air Force would rise from 40 to 42 squadrons and add 35 aircraft to its inventory, bringing it to 4,050 planes.

The proposed budget would give the Army an additional 4,000 active-duty soldiers each year until 2021, topping out at 495,500. The Navy and Air Force would increase by 7,500 and 4,000, respectively, under the proposed budget, while the Marines would get 1,100 more troops.

F. Whitten Peters, who served as Air Force secretary under President Bill Clinton, said he believes the service will use its extra airmen in critical, undermanned specialties, among them aircraft mechanics and cyber-defense specialists. The Air Force, he said, reassigned maintainers for the A-10 and F-16 to get its newest jets, the F-22 and F-35, fully manned.

The other thing that looks pretty good to me is there is a substantial increase in research and development dollars, said Peters, now a Washington lawyer, explaining that the B-21 program still is in its engineering stage.

Retired Army Col. David Johnson, a principal researcher with the Rand Corp., a nonprofit policy think tank based in Santa Monica, California, said the higher troop levels will create breathing room for the Army as it contends with a nonstop deployment cycle.

He predicted the budget will enable the Pentagon to modernize the force as it also works to ensure the long-term readiness of its troops.

Youre not having to shift money for modernization to current readiness, he said, which is what theyve had to do in the recent past.

Cancian, the CSIS defense budget analyst, said the proposed increase shows the administration has put its money where its mouth is and added: The fact that theres even more money for defense than what the president requested surprised all of the budget experts.

The strain of wars

The degree of bipartisan support for the budget suggests lawmakers recognize the strain of the countrys forever wars and believe an urgent need exists to counter what Defense Secretary James Mattis has referred to as a great power competition with Russia and China.

Theres a lot of consensus on strategy, Cancian said. Theres no consensus on Donald Trump, but theres a lot of support for what the Defense Department is doing.

Peters, the former Air Force secretary, said the Armys need for more soldiers and improved weapons was obvious, which is why it got the biggest slice of the Trump defense pie.

But the Air Force has major needs as well after years of war, he said, and the new money will bolster the size of the fleet and help develop systems designed to maintain air superiority in places where Russia and China operate sophisticated air-defense networks.

The Defense Department optimistically projects it will receive $742 billion in fiscal year 2023. But uncertainties lay ahead.

Spikes in defense spending usually come as a result of major wars, with the mid-1980s Reagan-era buildup a notable exception. Spending saw an uptick after 9/11 but has been relatively flat through the mid-point of this decade.

Complicating matters, Brookings OHanlon said, is the fact that the U.S. military is a much smaller force than during the Reagan years  65 percent the size of its Cold War iteration but 110 percent more expensive owing to better salaries and benefits.

OHanlon noted the defense budget fell after the wars in Korea and Vietnam and Reagans time in office. Similarly, spending dropped after the troop surges in Iraq and Afghanistan, but less steeply compared to previous eras.

So maybe the laws of physics have changed a little, and maybe going forward our defense drawdowns will be more modest and our defense buildups will still be vigorous, he said, before offering an important caveat.

On the other hand, we also have a federal deficit thats pushing $1 trillion a year, and I dont know how you make America great again with a trillion-dollar-a-year deficit.Lupe Valdez chokes up a bit as she surveys the little house where she grew up on San Antonios West Side.

Gone are the roses planted by the mother who gave her the opportunity at an education, leaving the bare concrete flower beds built by the father who feared his daughter seizing her chances.

Gone are those parents, who gave up the migrant-farmworker life at her mothers insistence so that Lupe and one of her brothers  the two youngest of eight children  could go to school instead of traveling to Michigan to pick green beans and beets.

Gone is the girl who went from Storm Elementary to J.C. Harris Junior High to the more ambitious Thomas Jefferson High School, in a neighborhood with sidewalks and college aspirations, more than five miles and a world away from her home on Calles Street.

Now Valdez is a 70-year-old former sheriff and candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, another longshot effort in a life filled with them.

Its back to the innocence, she said of visiting the home built by her father. And at the same time, she said, Its painful.

The home, no longer in her family, is not as she remembers it. But she delights in pointing out her fathers handiwork: an oddly diagonal water pipe here, sturdy concrete steps there, kitchen cabinets that strike her as not quite right but beloved nonetheless.

His fix-it skills, a source of pride, were born of necessity and something she emulates. She said her partner laughs because when something breaks, Valdezs response is, We can fix it. We can do something. Patch it together.

We had to survive. We had to survive, she repeats. Thats all we knew.

Valdez survived and thrived, grabbing her chance at an education and embarking on a law enforcement career capped by 13 years as Dallas County sheriff, becoming the first woman and first Hispanic elected to that job. And she was the first Democrat elected to the post in decades.

She left her sheriffs post to compete against eight other Democrats for the near-kamikaze task of taking on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Related: See how other Democratic candidates say they'll take on Gov. Abbott.

In the effort, Valdez has sustained some blows, self-inflicted and otherwise.

Her knowledge of state government has been called into question, with the Dallas Morning News saying she volunteered during an editorial board meeting that she didnt know whether Texas spent $8 million or $8 billion on border security.

Her policy positions are still being developed. She said some specifics might not be available until after I get elected because she wants to continue to hone them with input from experts.

Her ability to excite a natural constituency was in doubt after Houstons GLBT Political Caucus endorsed White, even though Valdez was the first lesbian to be elected Dallas County sheriff.

To compound it, Valdez appears to have little money for a statewide race. She reported having just $83,876 in cash on hand in her latest campaign finance report.

But she has advantages as well.

Her career has given her a successful record of public service and some believe she has the potential to rally the Democratic base as a Latina lesbian with a progressive message. She already has squared off with the border-security-focused Abbott over her jails policies on releasing unauthorized immigrants.

She has a positive energy thats not always evident in her speeches  which are low-key for a statewide candidate  but shines in her visits with individual voters, as she leans in to listen and stays to chat before climbing into her 2012 Toyota Tacoma driven by her staffer to the next stop.

Valdez was sanguine as she welcomed a reporter to her eclectic two-story-home-turned-campaign headquarters not far from Oak Cliffs Bishop Arts District in Dallas. She shares the home with her partner, chiropractor Lindsay Browning, and rescue dogs Quinn, Madge and Vinny.

As she carries a message of opportunity for Texans  including those who may seem as unlikely as she once did to have a chance at success  she is confident that her campaign will get the money and people it needs.

Valdez knows about persevering through tough times.

I came from nothing. I came from nothing. I remember having to figure out whether I could get some gas in the car or whether I was going to walk three or four miles to get to work, Valdez said. We all should have an opportunity. Not everybody will take it. I understand that. But we should have an opportunity.

As for her own opportunity in this moment, she said, Im one of those people that says, Im the candidate, therefore what I need is going to come to me  one way or another, its going to come to me.

Valdez got a key opportunity when her mother, Teresa, insisted that the family quit traveling as migrant farm workers so that her youngest children could go to school in San Antonio. Her mother was born in San Marcos; Valdez is unsure if her father was born in Texas or Mexico.

Her father, Plinio, didnt like the idea because their migrant farm work subsidized their big purchases year to year  a car, a refrigerator, a washing machine. But Teresa Valdez stood firm, and Plinio secured a job with City Public Service, digging ditches.

Her father also objected, Valdez said, when she set her sights on Thomas Jefferson after a substitute teacher told her she was college material. There were high schools closer to home. But she persisted, taking a bus to the school and, she said, hitting the school restroom first on rainy days to clean the mud from her shoes because her street wasnt yet paved.

Both parents resisted when she had a chance to attend college, she said  her father in particular. She went to Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University) in Oklahoma anyway, working as a waitress and buying an old car to get there.

I went totally against their wishes. My dad did not want me to go. My dad was real upset ... When I went to college, he said, Well, I cant help you. And I think that was the pain for my dad, is that he couldnt help me, she said.

After getting her bachelors in business administration, she worked as a youth pastor in Arizona, then as jail staffer in Missouri (I needed a job, she said). She joined the U.S. Army National Guard, serving there and in the Army Reserve, attaining the rank of captain.

She returned to Texas to be near her aging parents and built a career in law enforcement, moving from detention officer at the Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville to a special agent in the General Services Administration, Department of Agriculture, Customs Service and Homeland Security. She got a masters degree in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Texas at Arlington.

She was a good agent, and was what Id call a mainstream player, said John Hensley, her supervisor at U.S. Customs in Dallas for about two years as she investigated a wide variety of federal crimes including money laundering and drug smuggling.

Her career choicebrought more discomfort to her father. He was leery of law enforcement after facing officers wrath for such actions as being caught on the wrong side of town when a job kept him late, she said. But he grew to take pride in his daughters work, showing off her agents badge when she visited the community center where he and her mom went for lunch and dancing.

Her parents died before she became sheriff in 2004, after a tough race in which her sexuality was brought up as an issue near election day, due to backing from a national group that promoted gay candidates.

She never came out to her parents as gay, she said.

I think they knew, but it wasnt as if they would accept that. I do recall that my brother came home to visit with my mom one day. My mom was making tortillas, and my brother said to her - he was sitting at the table, and he said to her, You know Lupes gay. And he told me that she turned around and she walked over to him and said, Dont ever say that again. And my brother said, OK, she said.

Valdez herself didnt accept her sexuality until she was in her 30s, she said, feeling she couldnt do so until I felt it was OK with God, a revelation that she said came at a Metropolitan Community Church Easter service in Dallas.

As she stood to go to communion, she said, she saw two young, good-looking gay men. And in between them were two little girls, dressed in their Easter best. And it was so beautiful. I just stared at it for a minute, and I started crying.

And I guess I must have said it out loud  I didnt mean to  but I said, Oh my God, where have you been? And the woman in front of me turned around and said, Weve been right here. Waiting for you, she said. I was in tears the rest of the service, because I could feel Gods presence in the service ... That was when I accepted who I was and basically said Yes, I am lesbian, and God  as long as you love me. And I constantly heard, I made you, why shouldnt I love you?

She became an active church member, traveling with the Rev. Don Eastman to MCC churches in Mexico, responsible for security at national conferences and starting a womens softball team. Her election as sheriff consumed her time, and she no longer directed conference security, Eastman said. But she was honored by the church, which serves the gay community, for her service after her groundbreaking election as sheriff.

Her experience surely informed her reaction last year to a newspaper photo of a child  she assumed a transgender child  clinging to an adult while the legislative debate raged over an Abbott-backed bill that would have restricted transgender peoples use of public restrooms.

The face was a face of hurt. And I remember saying, what are we doing to our children? We should be guiding them instead of destroying them,. We should be helping them assimilate and teaching them about growing up in a somewhat good society and instead were destroying. That, pardon the expression, I want to say, pissed me off. I just got fed up. I just said, What are we doing? What are we doing with our schools? What are we doing with our jobs? What are we doing with our Dreamers? What are we doing with our minorities?  she said.

The photo is what she mentioned first when asked why shes running for governor, rather than her high-profile tangling with Abbott over immigration during her time as sheriff.

The Abbott skirmishes werent her only battles as sheriff, an office for which she ran after a losing bid for the Dallas County Schools board. She had an uphill fight just to get the job.

Lupe can be underestimated, said Democratic strategist Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project, who was working for the re-election of his then-boss Congressman Martin Frost and other Democrats in 2004 and who hasnt taken sides in the Democratic primary race for governor. When she originally ran for sheriff, I wasnt sure she was the strongest candidate, but I was mistaken. She went neighborhood to neighborhood, and meeting to meeting, and her earnestness came through.

She inherited a jail with problems that prompted monitoring by the U.S. Department of Justice. The department in 2011 credited Valdez and others for working aggressively to address the problems in medical care, mental health care, sanitation and environmental health, allowing the end of court supervision.

Valdez said she also worked to change a good ol boy culture and ensure that people who were brought to jail were treated professionally and with respect.

She was an excellent sheriff, said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins. What she says shell do is what she does.

She didnt please everyone.

The Dallas Morning News said she wasnt transparent enough with inmate death and escape information. She said she was as transparent as the law allowed. Two groups representing employees, the Dallas County Sheriffs Association and Dallas Police Association said she wasnt accessible. The police group has endorsed Abbott.

I think she had a commitment to public service, said Senior Sgt. Chris Dyer, president of the Dallas County Sheriffs Association. He credited her for getting everyone in the same room to get the jail back into compliance and said she was supportive of community events.

But Dyer said he can only think of one time in 13 years that she met with his association, saying that instead they dealt with others under her.When the association once sent her a registered letter, he said, She refused to pick it up from the post office.

Others said she had her top people meet regularly with those groups and additional ones, ensuring all concerns would be aired at a common meeting and she would get the whole picture.

Valdez was among local law enforcement officials who opposed the 2017 sanctuary cities law championed by Abbott that some fear would lead to profiling and is being challenged in court.

She drew Abbotts wrath in 2015 for saying she wouldnt comply with all federal requests to detain unauthorized immigrants past their release date if the immigrants were accused only of minor offenses. She said she still cooperated with the federal government.

Valdez said she believes she acted properly and that Abbotts ire didnt change her policy.

If he wants to believe that I stood down for him let him believe that. Im still standing up, she said.

Whether shell remain standing in her political battle is a tough call, even if she wins the primary. A Democrat hasnt been elected to statewide office in Texas for nearly a quarter of a century, and her campaign sometimes shows the strain of its quick startup.

Besides her lack of big campaign funds and absence of a detailed policy portfolio, she was uncertain of some specifics, such as dates, when asked about her long career. Her campaign provided or confirmed some information later, and the San Antonio Express-News obtained additional information about her military service from the National Archives.

Im sorry, Im 70 years old, she quipped.

As she hits the stretch leading up to the primary and, perhaps, beyond, the fix-it gene from her father may come in handy.

My dad did everything himself, and as you can see, a lot of wasnt done by code, or the way it was supposed to be. Of course, there was no code back then, she said. He just knew what would work, and he would do it.John Eli stood on the tarmac at Stinson Municipal Airport on Saturday morning, clad in an olive green Army shirt, his original dog tag on a chain around his neck.

Fifty years ago, Eli was a 21-year-old Army infantryman in South Vietnam, one of tens of thousands of U.S. troops engaged in some of the fiercest fighting yet seen in what would become known as the Tet Offensive.

Saturdays event at Stinson, Tet 68 Plus 50, was the first hosted by the Tex Hill Wing since it moved its operations from Hondo to the municipal airport, and the first one to focus on Vietnam.

As the American flag fluttered from a Vietnam-era jeep, Creedance Clearwater Revivals Fortunate Son played in the background. Tables on the tarmac were laden with weapons and gear of that era, from radios to M-16s and even an RPG launcher tube.

The event commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, a massive coordinated attack by North Vietnam on South Vietnam that began on Jan. 30, 1968, and ran in some areas until March.

Wing leader Larry Stacy called Saturday a grand experiment for the group, which is part of the Dallas-based Commemorative Air Force, and has traditionally focused on World War II events. Organizers werent sure what to expect, he said.

We got enough (response). Im satisfied that if nobody else came this says, yeah, there are guys who will come out here. The fact that theyre standing out there b.s.-ing says that theyre here and its something good for them, said Stacy, gesturing toward several veterans talking to each other.

For Eli, the event brought back memories of his deployment to Vietnam. A specialist with the 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion, he landed in-country in early January 1968, just a few weeks before the Tet Offensive began. He was based in Cu Chi northwest of the South Vietnamese capital, then called Saigon, and his unit operated in the area from Saigon northwest to the Cambodian border.

It was pretty quiet, Eli said of his first couple of weeks there. He chalked that up to the preparations the North Vietnamese were making for the pending Tet Offensive.

The offensive attacked major population centers in South Vietnam, with North Vietnamese forces assaulting the U.S. embassy in Saigon and forcing a fierce multiweek battle for the old imperial capital city of Hue.

Soon after the Tet Offensive began, Elis company was flown in to shore up defenses at the Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon, which was facing a fierce attack. A few days later, he recalled, he and his company was ordered to split up and ride on top of a group of tanks pushing into Cholon, a Chinese neighborhood in Saigon. Eli and a fellow soldier loaded up on the back of an M60 Patton.

All of a sudden (the tank commander) turns around and says, OK, were going to go up here and turn right on this street. Yall keep your eyes open, and you see that phone over there on the back of the tank? If you see anything, grab that phone and tell us where theyre at. And with that, they all button up the tank.

Eli and his fellow soldier served as spotters or, as he put it, the bait, calling out shooters to the tank commander, who would then direct the tank to engage the enemy.

At the end of 1968, Eli came back to the U.S. after being discharged due to a knee injury, and he enrolled back into the University of Texas at Austin, where he had dropped out before he was drafted.

Four months before Im walking in the woods (of Vietnam) and four months later Im sitting in the classroom, Eli said, adding that you just didnt want anyone to know that you were deployed to Vietnam because of the hostility around the war.

The perception of the Vietnam War and its veterans began to change in the years after the end of Desert Storm in 1991, Eli said, when the troops coming home were celebrated. Up until that point nobody ever talked about it (Vietnam), you werent supposed to talk about it, nobody wanted to hear about it.

Eli, who became a CPA, said many of his longtime coworkers had no idea that he had served.

The guys need to be recognized, he said.With the topic of U.S.-Russia relations making headlines daily, Greenwich will play host to two veteran journalists who have been stationed at National Public Radios Moscow bureau.

But Ann Cooper and Corey Flintoffs intentions in Greenwich could not diverge further.

On Feb. 26, Cooper, NPRs Moscow bureau chief during the final years of the Soviet Union, will give a free talk on foreign policy in the age of Twitter. The event at Greenwich Librarys Cole Auditorium is hosted by the World Affairs Forum.

Then on March 8, Flintoff will deploy his knowledge as NPRs former Moscow correspondent to add to the conversation around the Bruce Museums current exhibit, titled Hot Art in a Cold War, and how it relates to today. His lecture will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the museum, with tickets priced at $35. The exhibition studies the intersections between art and science in the Soviet era.

Though some of Coopers bona fides may come from her time stalking the Kremlin, her resume also includes a stint as executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. She currently is international director at the Columbia University School of Journalism. At the library, her emphasis will be on American politicians and their online practices, though she plans to also explore ripple effects on foreign governments.

Were in this period where there are a number of world leaders  using platforms very, very actively, and in ways that try to stifle their critics, Cooper told Greenwich Time. We dont yet know what the impact is on important issues like foreign policy.

President Donald Trump  whose tweeting patterns have been analyzed at length by politicians and pundits alike  is ground zero for the change in policy-shaping procedure.

Were seeing other leaders emboldened by his rhetoric, Cooper said. Were certainly seeing more usage of the term, fake news, and just an attitude toward journalists that theyre overstepping their bounds. Theres not a recognition that they have a role to play in democracy.

Twitter has far fewer active users than Instagram and Facebook. But, she said, the key to a tweets potency is which demographics pay attention.

Journalists use it, and how many times have you listened to NPR in the morning, or turned on CNN or one of the other 24-hour cable channels, and one of the first things theyre talking about is what Donald Trump tweeted earlier that morning? Cooper said. Hes always understood the media very well. He understands the news cycle. He tweets something early in the morning, and that may become news, at least on 24-hour cable, for the rest of the day, and maybe into the next day.

Cooper decided to get off Twitter herself after reading about how some users buy followers. Beyond those who are gaming the system, there are also bots generating content with no human consciousness behind it.

Its degraded the platform, she said. It really should give everyone pause about what theyre reading, how theyre using it, how other people are using it.

Cooper will focus on the U.S., but Flintoffs talk will be anchored more in Russia, both yesterday and today. Because the lecture is tied to Hot Art in a Cold War, Flintoff has been studying the exhibits catalog. What he sees resonates.

This reminds us of what the Soviet mind was like during the Cold War, and we should remember that people like (Vladimir) Putin are Soviet people, Flintoff said, referring to the Russian president. His outlook is really conditioned by the kind of thing that we see in the exhibition.

Flintoff added that when Putin said the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century, he meant it.

But though the Russian presidents cultural outlook may be molded from his Soviet past, Flintoff said those influences might not necessarily be reflected in Russias government structure. Putins inner circles primary objective is to protect stolen power and wealth they have accumulated during his nearly two decades in office, he said.

I really think that Putins government is a mafia state, Flintoff said. There is no guiding ideology. So if that circle were to collapse, I think Russia would fall into chaos, because there is no communism anymore. There is no system anymore.

Flintoff reported out of Moscow in 2012, during election season, when Putins eventual return to the presidency after a four-year break as prime minister sparked a series of massive demonstrations.

They felt they had been denied real democracy, and there was just this cynical exchange of power at the top, Flintoff said.

But by 2016  another election year  that fury and passion had been snuffed out. Few people were still protesting.

While Flintoff lived in Moscow, he watched as the fake news myth surrounding the foreign press grew stronger. He saw government officials deflect blame onto others for what they did and tell overt lies to the electorate, he said.

While Cooper has noticed copycat behavior by foreign leaders, Flintoff suggested others led the way for Trump.

A lot of the techniques that you see in use by President Trump are commonplace in Russia, Flintoff said.STAMFORD  Most high school students have a favorite class or one that really stands out. However, those who have already graduated usually have a specific class they remember years later for certain reasons.

The Round Table spoke to several Stamford High School staff members to find out what their favorite class was in high school.

With some teachers, their favorite class is predictable since its one they now teach.

But for some like Beth Gillin, the head of the English Department, her favorite class was Twentieth Century American History. She said the class was an elective with her favorite teacher Tony Pavia.

Another teacher who had a different favorite class than what she teaches is Maria Cahill, a teacher in the World Language Department. She loved a class taught by her favorite teacher Jerry McWilliams  his 11th grade English class.

Bill Halmeck, a science teacher, also has a different favorite class than what he now teaches. Halmeck said he enjoyed film class, because there was a lot of animation equipment where you could use clay models and could take speed shots on a camera.

Like some other faculty members at SHS, Jonathan Ringel, an English teacher and adviser for The Round Table, said he enjoyed band because he played percussion.

Similar to Halmeck, David DelGiudice enjoyed a class that was an elective film class. However, his favorite class was calculus, because we had a mathematician and lawyer who was from Turkey. This teacher made each student go to the board and present, which was where he got several ideas for how he teaches his classes today. He enjoyed how this teacher made people get up in front of the class and teach everyone, because it ensured everyone knew how to perform properly.

Jamie VanAcker, a science teacher, also had a favorite class that was the complete opposite of what he now teaches. His favorite course was in history on Contemporary Issues in Modern America.

Other teachers were easier to predict like Donna Kaiser, a chemistry teacher, who said that subject was her favorite class. Kaiser said she had an excellent teacher who was also a magician. She said he used magic to get the class interested.Place Your Advert

Thousands of Active jobseekers are looking for new agricultural positions in 2020. Call us now to discuss the options for advertising your vacancy in our job section.Eight sheep have died and one alpaca injured following a dog attack on livestock in north Wales yesterday.

The attack happened on a farm between Brynford and Pentre Halkyn, Flintshire overnight on the 13th and 14th of February.

Eight sheep died following the attack, with 2 dying at the vets. An alpaca sustained bite mark injuries on its back.

The farmer is a "repeat victim" of livestock worrying (Photo: NW Rural Crime Team)

North Wales Rural Crime Team says the farmer is a "repeat victim" of livestock worrying.

The team tweeted: "This (main story photo) is the aftermath of today's attack in Brynford.

"The unknown dog has trapped and killed some of the sheep in the corner on the left and down an old mine shaft on the right. The white you can see is the remnants of sheep fleece."

North Wales Police are now appealing for witnesses to the attack.

New figures by NFU Mutual how that the cost of dog attacks on livestock rose by 67 percent across the UK in the past two years.

The record level of claims cost the farming industry an estimated 1.6m in 2017, according to the rural insurer.Americans Can Now Apply for Brazilian Visas Online

Brazil is the largest country in South American and is teeming with cultural opportunities and beautiful sights and sounds, from the Amazon to Rio de Janeiros nightlife. Yet the country is still having trouble getting tourists to visitespecially Americans. Even after hosting the Olympics in 2016. So the country is taking a new approach to encouraging tourism by offering online visas.

To encourage Americans to travel to Brazil, the Brazilian government has made obtaining a travel visa easier and more affordable. In the past, applying for a visa meant spending $160 and having to apply in person at a consulate or paying a third party to represent them. Now, the cost of obtaining a visa has dropped to $40 and you can complete the application process onlineno consulate visits required.

The changes that the government has made to make it easier for Americans to apply for visas to Brazil have also been made for those traveling from various other countries, including Canada, Japan and Australia. Other efforts to expand tourist interest in Brazil include allowing foreign investments into airlines to improve services. In addition, the government has said it will make its own investments in other areas to help boost tourist interest and expand growth in the industry.

Although it may be easier to travel to Brazil than it was in the past, visitors are still urged to take precautions. There has been a recent yellow fever outbreak in the country as well as lingering concerns about Zika. And there is still a huge crime problem in many regions of the country.Last year was a transitional one for Enbridge Energy Partners (NYSE:EEP). That created some volatility for investors early on, with units of the oil pipeline MLP getting hammered after the company and its parent Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) announced a series of strategic initiatives to stabilize its cash flow and balance sheet. However, as the company's fourth-quarter results and outlook demonstrate, that plan worked, and it's back on a firm footing. Because of that, the company's now 10.5%-yielding payout should be safe for the long term.

Drilling down into the numbers

Enbridge Energy Partners recently reported a solid finish to 2017:

Metric Q4 2017 Q4 2016 Year-Over-Year Change Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) $430 million $469 million -8.3% Distributable cash flow (DCF) $211 million $221 million -4.5% Distribution coverage ratio 1.30 times 0.83 times 56.6%

The number that sticks out as the most significant is the improvement in the distribution coverage ratio, which is mainly due to the decision to reduce the payout rate to somethine Energy Energy Partners could more comfortably cover with cash flow.

Speaking of cash flow, while it was lower year-over-year, that's mainly because of a change in the makeup of the company's portfolio:

As the chart above shows, the main factor driving the year-over-year decline in earnings is the company's "other" segment. However, that's because it sold its troubled natural gas gathering and processing business to its parent earlier in the year as part of its strategic repositioning program. With those more volatile assets now out of the picture, the fourth-quarter results appear weaker, but they were very stable overall.

That's clear if one takes a closer look at its retained portfolio. While earnings in both the Lakehead and Mid-Continent systems declined versus the year-ago period, there were reasonable explanations for those drops. In the Lakehead System, for example, Enbridge Energy Partners collected lower local tolls and experienced higher operating costs; however, those expenses will be partially recoverable in 2018. Meanwhile, Mid-Continent earnings dipped because the company sold the Ozark Pipeline to MPLX (NYSE:MPLX) for $220 million in cash.

That deal helped pay for Enbridge Energy's acquisition of a stake in the recently built Bakken Pipeline System from Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE: ETP). It was part of a series of transactions that benefited all three companies. In trading Ozark for the Bakken Pipeline, Enbridge Energy bolstered the earnings from its Bakken assets, which should grow further in the future. Meanwhile, Ozark helped diversify MPLX's portfolio and provided it with another cash flow stream to support its payout. Finally, Energy Transfer Partners gained some much-needed cash to help stabilize its financial situation.

A look at what's ahead

While those transactions made last year messy, "2017 was an important transitional year for EEP," according to President Mark Maki. "EEP is now well positioned with one of the lowest business risk profiles in the sector," he asserted. "Following the restructuring announced earlier in 2017, our stable financial results have reflected this enhanced value proposition, and we have finished the year in-line with our guidance expectations." As a result, the company now "look[s] forward to 2018 to continue to provide investors with reliable financial results and stable distributions from one of North America's most strategically positioned liquids pipeline infrastructure assets."

That reliability is evident in the company's guidance. After generating $784 million in DCF last year, the oil pipeline MLP expects to produce between $720 million to $770 million in DCF this year, which will cover its high-yielding payout by a comfortable 1.15 times. What's noteworthy about cash flow going forward is that while there might be some slight variation, it's highly predictable overall due to the long-term contracts that back the bulk of its assets.

Meanwhile, the company continues to make progress on enhancing the long-term sustainability of its payout. First, the excess cash it generates this year will reduce debt further, keeping it on pace to hit its year-end leverage target. In addition, parent company Enbridge continues work on its massive Line 3 Replacement Program. The Canadian pipeline giant has already completed sections of that pipeline in Wisconsin and North Dakota, and expects to receive the necessary approvals to begin work in Minnesota next quarter. That puts the project on pace to be in service by the second half of next year. That's noteworthy because Enbridge Energy Partners has an option to buy a 39% stake in that system. It's one of three options the company holds to invest up to $1.6 billion in acquiring stakes in oil pipeline systems in the coming years to boost cash flow further.

A low-risk, high-yield stock to hold for income

Enbridge Energy Partners isn't a flashy growth stock. Instead, after pulling riskier assets out of its portfolio last year, the company has become a very low-risk income producer. That income stream is quite attractive these days since the MLP's valuation has tumbled during the past year as it worked to complete its strategic repositioning program. However, that decline makes it, in my opinion, just too cheap not to buy.Togo's Popular Lemon Pepper Tuna Is Back

For a limited time, Togo's Lemon Pepper Tuna Sandwich returns to stores

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Feb. 15, 2018 // PRNewswire // - Togo's Great Sandwiches (www.togos.com) the "California Original" known for its big, fresh, and meaty sandwiches, continues to offer exciting menu items with a relentless focus on premium taste and quality. Now featuring 20% more zesty lemon pepper tuna, Togo's seasonal favorite is a welcome flavor for spring. For an even more delicious deal, participating Togo's locations are offering a regular Lemon Pepper Tuna Sandwich and 20 oz. fountain drink for just $6.50 on Fridays through March 23rd.

The Lemon Pepper Tuna Sandwich starts with 100% Albacore tuna, seasoned with tangy lemon and cracked black pepper, then hand-mixed in store with diced celery, red onions and lite mayonnaise. Prepared on artisan wheat bread that is delivered fresh 7 days a week, this exceptional sandwich is served Togo's Style with crisp iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, sweet red onions, tangy pickles and traditional whole pepperoncini.

For cheesy melty goodness, Togo's also offers the Lemon Pepper Tuna Melt on their fresh San Francisco style sourdough bread, toasted with cheddar cheese and served Togo's Style.

"Togo's features signature breads piled high with premium ingredients to create a true sandwich that you won't find anywhere else," states Glenn Lunde, President of Togo's. "The Lemon Pepper Tuna is a perfect example of this commitment with Albacore Tuna prepared using fresh ingredients and a zesty citrus seasoning that will dazzle the taste buds."

Togo's loyal fans can find Lemon Pepper Tuna at over 220 locations for a limited time only.

To find a location, order online, or for more information visit www.togos.com.

About Togo's Eateries, LLC

Togo's was founded in 1971 by a young college student with a large appetite and little money looking to make sandwiches the way he liked them - big, fresh and meaty. Today that spirit of the founder and original sandwich shop continues. Togo's products are still made with only the highest quality ingredients; including fresh Artisan breads, hand sliced premium pastrami, turkey and roast beef, as well as Hass avocados hand-mashed in restaurant every day.

With nearly 250 locations open and under development throughout the West, Togo's is a franchise-based business that offers a terrific opportunity for those new entrepreneurs that would like to own their own business.

SOURCE Togo's Eateries, LLC

###

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DisqusNew Nokia feature phone with model number TA-1048 certified by FCC News oi-Samden Sherpa A Nokia-branded mobile phone with a model number TA-1048 has just passed FCC certification.

Nokia towards the end of January launched a new 4G variant of Nokia 3310 in China. However at the time of the launch the company did not reveal the details regarding the global availability of the device. While we were speculating possible release dates Nokia may be gearing up to bring this phone to other markets in the coming days.

Well, a new Nokia phone with model number Nokia TA-1048 has been certified by the Federal Communications Commission in the US. Now this could only mean one thing, the said device might be arriving soon or we can say that its launch is imminent. We are guessing that the handset which reportedly is Nokia 3310 4G will likely make its global debut at the MWC in Barcelona alongside the Nokia 9 and a couple of other Nokia phones from HMD Global.

Further, the FCC listing also has provided some details about the device. It is listed as a GSM/WCDMA/LTE handset. Now, this is a further indication that Nokia TA-1048 is a 4G feature phone and not a smartphone.

Apart from GSM/WCDMA/LTE mobile phone, the FCC documents state that Nokia TA-1048 supports Dual-SIM (uses MicroSIM) and has a dedicated slot for MicroSD card.

That is all we can make out from the FCC listing. Talking about the specs we are not sure right now what the device will come with but some reports have also said that this device could be another variant of the Nokia TA-1047 which also appeared on Bluetooth SIG and the FCC previously. There have been no images provided as well.

In any case, MWC 2018 is fast approaching and is starting on February 26 so we will get to know everything when Nokia takes the center stage to announce its new products. Besides MWC 2018 will be the perfect opportunity to announce details about Nokia 3310 4G model or TA-1048 and when it will be getting a worldwide release.

Via

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsGOLDEN  Fifteen years after his initial not-guilty plea, 13 years after he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison and three years afteSouth African Faces Death Penalty in South Sudan Espionage Case

By Waakhe Simon Wudu February 16, 2018

A South African man is facing a possible death sentence in South Sudan, after none of the key defense witnesses showed up at his trial on espionage charges and conspiracy to overthrow the government.

William John Endley was a security contractor for former South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar, now the leader of a rebel faction fighting the government of President Salva Kiir. Endley was arrested in August 2016, shortly after deadly fighting flared up between government forces and Machar's bodyguards in Juba.

Endley, a retired South African army colonel, appeared in court Thursday in Juba, but six of his defense witnesses, including First Vice President Taban Deng Gai, Petroleum Minister Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth and Higher Education Minister Yien Oral Lam have been absent since the proceedings began.

Lam told VOA's South Sudan In Focus he had no knowledge of the case.

"This is what I don't know. Even none of the defense [lawyers] met myself. How could I be a witness to a person I don't know and in a case that I am not aware of the circumstances?" he said.

Agel Machar, spokesman for Taban Deng Gai, says the vice president is traveling overseas. He added that he is not in a position to comment on the case.

"I'm not aware of this case. I don't know about it. I'm hearing it for the first time from you. I will have to ask before I can make a comment on it," said Machar, who is not related to Riek Machar.

Endley's defense lawyer, Gar Adel, told the court Thursday that all key witnesses have traveled out of the country. He pleaded for more time to produce them in court at a later date.

Presiding High Court Judge Ladu Armenio rejected the defense's pleas, saying he will announce his final verdict next week.

Adel listed the charges against his client.

"The conspiracy to overthrow the government which is under the National Security Service Act 2014, espionage also contrary to section 57 of the National Security Act, supplying weaponry to insurgents, saboteur or terrorist under the Penal Code, subverting a constitutional government under the Penal Code and illegal entry to South Sudan under the Passport and Immigration Act 2011," Adel told VOA.

Endley first appeared in court last October with co-defendant James Gatdet Dak, Riek Machar's spokesman. The court sentenced Gatdet this week to a 21-year prison sentence to be followed by death by hanging.

Journalists were not allowed to record Thursday's proceedings, and Endley's lawyer had little to say after the court session.

"Today the defense and proceedings closed its case and today the court also closed the defense case, so that means we have come to a closure of the case," he said.

Previous action

Chief prosecutor Deng Acuil told South Sudan in Focus that he has not been authorized to speak to the media about the case.

Adel says if Endley is found guilty, his client could be sentenced to life imprisonment and possibly the death penalty.

He says Endley was performing his duties as a security contractor to help Machar's forces integrate into the South Sudanese Army prior to being arrested. At the time, Kiir and Machar were attempting to implement a 2015 peace agreement.

Endley's first defense team withdrew from the case more than three weeks ago, citing the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement that the government and Machar's group signed in December. The agreement requires South Sudan's warring parties to release all prisoners of war and political detainees.

Endley's daughter, Gweneth Endley, told South Sudan in Focus last year that she had not been able to learn much about the case against her father.

Mawien Makol, spokesman for South Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said last year that Endley violated South Sudan's visa rules. He did not elaborate. At that time, Makol said Endley would be released once the government completed its investigation.

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Little Change Expected in Ethiopia Despite PM Resignation

By Mohammed Yusuf February 16, 2018

Sources in Ethiopia's ruling party tell VOA they expect the country to declare a state of emergency in the wake of the prime minister's surprise resignation this week. However, it is unlikely Hailemariam Desalegn's departure will trigger substantial political change.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn addressed the nation Thursday, saying he would step aside to help the country carry out reforms that will lead to peace and stability.

The country has seen waves of anti-government protests since 2014. Human rights groups accuse security forces of abuses, including torture and as many as 400 killings in response to the unrest. Thousands of people were arrested during the ten-month state of emergency that ended last August.

Opposition leader Merera Gudina, who until recently was among those jailed over the demonstrations, told VOA "there is no need for celebration because it's a change within the ruling party. What the ruling party is up to, we are not sure."

"The prime minister has never been as powerful as the former prime minister," he said, "so very little to celebrate because of the change. In fact, the change can be backward. That's what is worrying us. There is a possibility of taking back the country to a state of emergency or whatever."

Indeed, ruling party officials say the Council of Ministers is expected to declare a three-month state of emergency, with the military in charge until parliament, currently in recess, returns and approves Hailemariam's resignation.

This month has seen fresh protests, including a strike in the Oromia region, a flashpoint since 2014. Protesters have been demanding political and economic reforms.

Analysts say the government's heavy-handed tactics have encouraged other groups and regions to join the protests, even amid conciliatory moves like the government's recent release of hundreds of people detained under the state of emergency.

Gudina said the protesters' demands remain the same.

"People are demanding fundamental change  the democratization of the Ethiopian state, free and fair election, and independence of democratic institutions," he said. "We are behind those demands, but we are worried what the ruling party is up to, we are not sure."

The challenges before Ethiopia's government are real, said Mustafa Ali, a Horn of Africa researcher based in Kenya.

"The competition for power between the ruling elite is not addressed," he said. "The marginalization and the exclusion of key ethnic communities, particularly the Oromo and Amhara, is not going to be addressed. Then it's going to be a very serious challenge in Ethiopia, and it may spill in other countries."

The outgoing prime minister has boasted how his administration has handled the economy since he took office in 2012. Ethiopia is slated to be Africa's second fastest growing economy in 2018.

According to the World Bank, Ethiopia's economy has performed at more than double the regional average over the past decade, growing by 11 percent per year.

The prime minister will remain in office until parliament confirms his resignation.

Eskinder Frew contributed to this report from Addis Ababa.

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At least 18 people killed in new Saudi airstrikes on Yemens Sa'ada province

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 06:54PM

At least 18 people, including women and children, have been killed when Saudi warplanes carried out a number of airstrikes in an area of Yemens northern province of Sa'ada as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its devastating campaign against the conflict-plagued country.

According to Yemen's Arabic-language al-Masirah television network, the Saudi aerial aggression conducted hit the Aqiq area of the Kataf district on Saturday, adding that among the dead were some medics who had tried to save the wounded from the initial strike.

Earlier in the day, another Yemeni lost his life when his water-tank truck was directly hit by a Saudi airstrike in Wadi Moore Bridge on Hawdh Road in the northwestern province of Hajjah.

Since March 2015, the Saudi regime, together with a coalition of its allies, has been heavily bombarding Yemen as part of a brutal campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor. It has been attempting unsuccessfully to reinstall Yemens former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Besides defending Yemen against the Saudi aggression, Ansarullah has also been running state affairs in the capital, Sanaa, in the absence of an effective administration.

The Saudi campaign has killed at least 13,600 people since its onset. Furthermore, much of the countrys infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and factories, has been reduced to rubble in the Saudi war.

According to the World Health Organizations latest tally, the cholera outbreak has killed 2,167 people since the end of April 2017 and is suspected to have infected 841,906.

Additionally, the UN has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as unprecedented, emphasizing that 17 million people were food insecure in the country.

The world body says that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.



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Israel flattened 6 EU-funded structures in West Bank in January: UN

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 05:26PM

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israeli authorities demolished six European Union-funded buildings in the occupied West Bank in January alone under the pretext of lack of building permit.

The UN body further said in its Friday report that all the six structures had been built in the so-called Area C, which constitutes about 61 percent of the entire West Bank and it is directly controlled by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

The so-called COGAT is a unit in the Israeli military that engages in coordinating civilian issues between the Israeli regime, the Israeli military, international organizations, diplomats and the Palestinian Authority. The report also said that at least 44 schools have pending demolition orders in the area.

The COGAT demands permits for new building projects, however, according to the NRC, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an international organization that promotes and protects the rights of people affected by displacement, the majority of planning requests are firmly rejected, leaving international donors and Palestinians alike with no choice but to construct new buildings anyway.

In a separate report on Friday, the OCHA said that the Israeli authorities had razed or seized 25 structures in Area C and occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds on the grounds of lack of building permits, including a donor-funded school.

The UN body added that at least 33 Palestinians, including 18 children, had been displaced and another 135 had been otherwise affected as a result of the latest Israeli measures.

According to the OCHA, of the six demolished EU-funded structures, two were residential and four animal shelters, which had been constructed in the Palestinian Bedouin community of al Jiftlik Abu al Ajaj, in the central Jordan Valley. Another eight EU-funded structures received stop-work orders and faced imminent demolition on the ground they were being built without permit, it added.

In August last year, Israeli authorities destroyed or inflicted heavy damage on at least three educational facilities for Palestinian children in the Area C in the course of two weeks.

Children living in the area often must walk or travel long distances to reach their schools and are exposed to settler harassment or searches at checkpoints. These constraints negatively affect the quality of education in the area and increase the chances of early dropout.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built illegally since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The continued expansion of Israeli settlements is one of the major obstacles to the establishment of peace in the Middle East.

In recent months, Tel Aviv has stepped up its settlement construction activities in the occupied Palestinian lands in a blatant violation of international law and in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

European nations and the United Nations, among others, maintain their strong opposition to settlement building in the Palestinian territories.

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Israeli tanks, warplanes target besieged Gaza Strip following a bomb blast

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 05:25PM

Israeli warplanes and battle tanks have pounded the Gaza Strip after a bomb explosion left casualties among Israeli forces as the Tel Aviv regime goes ahead with its acts of aggression against the besieged Palestinian coastal sliver.

Israeli regime warplanes on Saturday struck at least six positions of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, in a series of airstrikes.

The Israeli military claimed in a statement earlier in the day that it had struck an observation post belonging to Hamas east of Khan Yunis city after an explosive device was detonated on an Israeli military patrol near the border between the occupied territories and the enclave.

There were conflicting reports about the casualties of the border explosion.

Reuters and the Associated Press said that four Israeli troops had been wounded in the blast, while Lebanons Arabic-language al-Manar television network reported that one Israeli trooper had been killed and two others sustained serious injuries in the explosion.

There were no initial reports of injury in the Israeli tank fire against the Gaza Strip.

On December 29, 2017, Israeli military aircraft and battle tanks carried out a series of attacks on the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli assaults hit Hamas positions east of the Tuffah district of Gaza City.

The spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qidra, said in a statement that nobody had been injured by the Israeli fire.

The Israeli army said that Palestinian fighters had fired three rockets at occupied territories, two of which were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome missile system.

Police said the third had rocket hit a structure in a community near Gaza, causing damage but no casualties.

The Israeli military frequently bombs the Gaza Strip, with civilians being the main target of such attacks.

Israel has launched several wars on the Palestinian coastal sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014. The military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians. Over 11,100 others were also wounded in the war.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

The Israeli regime denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages as well as adequate healthcare and education.

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Blasts claim 19 lives in Nigerias Borno State in attack blamed on Boko Haram

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 10:27AM

Some 19 people have been killed and dozens more wounded when three bombers blew themselves up in Nigerias northeastern Borno State, the hardest hit by Daesh-inspired Boko Haram militancy.

Damian Chukwu, police commissioner for Borno State, said on Saturday that the explosions occurred at a fish market about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the center of Maiduguri on Friday evening.

Babakura Kolo and Musa Ari, from the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) assisting Nigerias military against Takfiri militants, also said the bombers were all men.

We have 19 dead and about 70 others injured... Two of the bombers attacked the Tashan Kifi fish market. Then four minutes later, a third bomber struck nearby, said Kolo.

The victims included 18 civilians and one soldier. The Tashan Kifi is an informal market which serves as an eatery, market and also hang-out for residents, the official added.

Kolo further said 22 out of the 70 injured are in critical condition, blaming the attack on the Boko Haram militant group.

There is no question as to who did it: Boko Haram has targeted Konduga several times, he said.

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon as well.

Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri group in 2015, has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the countrys military and government.

The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

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Armenian President, Azerbaijani Diplomat Trade Words Over Karabakh

Carl Schreck February 17, 2018

MUNICH, Germany -- A minor kerfuffle broke out between Armenias president and an Azerbaijani diplomat during a panel discussion at a high-profile security conference in Germany on February 17 as the two men traded accusations over Azerbaijans breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The sharp words came during a Munich Security Conference event focusing on nations in-between Russia and Europe that featured Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip, EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, and Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov.

When the panel moved to questions from the audience, a first secretary at the Azerbaijani Embassy in Berlin suggested to Sarkisian that Armenia could have played a role in regional energy and transport projects if not for the standoff over Nagorno-Karabakh.

If there was no policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenia against Azerbaijan, then probably today, Armenia could have benefitted from those projects, said the diplomat, Sadi Jafarov, invoking an accusation that Baku frequently levels at Yerevan.

The two neighbors have been locked in a conflict over the region for decades.

Nagorno-Karabakh, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, declared independence from Azerbaijan during a 1988-94 war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Three decades of diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the conflict have brought little progress.

Jafarov also denounced what he called the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia. As Jafarov packed both commentary and questions into his turn at the mic, the host of the panel -- Ian Bremmer, founder of the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy -- intervened in an effort to let Sarkisian reply.

We dont have time, Bremmer said, though Jafarov managed to finish his question.

Sarkisian thanked Jafarov for the question before saying that Azerbaijanis leadership needed to sober up and give up on their unrealistic expectations concerning Nagorno-Karabakh.

You want to live freely. I assure you, the people of Karabakh want to live freely, too, Sarkisian said. They want to live in their historical land.

He defended a 1991 referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh to secede from Azerbaijan as a civilized and legitimate expression of popular will, adding that no one can break the will of the Armenian people.

Yerevan and Baku frequently trade accusations of war crimes in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

During a speech at the UN General Assembly in September, Sarkisian accused Azerbaijan of committing"a number of war crimes" against civilians and "prisoners of war" in 2016.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev leveled the ethnic cleansing charge against Armenia during his visit to NATO headquarters in November.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/armenian-president- azerbaijani-diplomat-trade-words-ove r-karabakah/29045740.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Kosovo Celebrates A Decade Of Sovereignty

RFE/RL February 17, 2018

Kosovo is marking 10 years of independence from Serbia with a weekend of events celebrating what President Hashim Thaci called "the happiest moment for all of us as a people."

At a special government session in Pristina on February 17, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj declared that "the state of Kosovo has upheld the people's demand for freedom."

The United States congratulated Kosovo, which is now recognized by 116 countries, while leaders in Belgrade issued pointed reminders that Serbia is not among them.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia nine years after NATO's 78-day bombing in 1999 halted a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in what was then a province of Serbia.

"It was the happiest moment for all of us as a people," Thaci said in a February 16 statement about Pristina's declaration of independence.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson late on February 16 praised Kosovo for "maturing into a more stable, democratic, and inclusive country."

"The United States continues to support Kosovos citizens as they work to strengthen democratic and multiethnic institutions, increase economic growth, and bolster the rule of law on the path toward full integration in the international community," Tillerson said.

The capital of Pristina is decked out in blue-and-yellow Kosovar flags for the weekend of celebrations, including a concert late on February 17 by the Kosovo-born British pop star Rita Ora.

Kosovo has made great strides over the past decade.

Barbados on February 15 became the latest out of 116 countries that recognize Kosovo's sovereignty.

Pristina has signed an agreement with the European Union, the first step toward membership one day. Kosovo also belongs to some 200 international organizations.

But its sovereignty is still rejected by five EU countries, including Spain and Greece, as well as by Serbia and by Russia, whose UN Security Council veto prevents Kosovo from becoming a full member of the United Nations.

Kosovo also faces other big challenges.

Crime and corruption are rampant. Unemployment is high in this country of 1.3 million people, a vast majority of them ethnic Albanians.

The minority Serbs, who were the territory's politically dominant ethnicity before the 1998-99 Kosovo war, live in enclaves.

Although people generally are no longer physically attacked for entering a different ethnic area, tension can be easily sparked. Some 4,500 NATO-led peacekeepers are still stationed in Kosovo to ensure security.

Serbia has rejected Kosovo's statehood, but is pressed by the West to compromise with ethnic Albanians on "good neighborly relations" or jeopardize Serbia's prospects of joining the EU.

Serbian officials say recognition of Kosovo's independence is a red line they are not ready to cross.

"Despite the great support it enjoys from Western powers, Kosovo is far, far from being recognized," Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on February 17. "Without an agreement with Serbia, this issue cannot be solved."

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Reuters on February 16 that any decision on recognizing Kosovo's independence would have to be put before Serbian voters, many of whom consider Kosovo the cradle of their Orthodox Christian faith.

The people would decide, Vucic said, but he said he doubts voters would approve full recognition of their Balkan neighbor.

We have to look at todays reality and to understand relations in the world and relations in Kosovo and to understand that [Kosovo] is not ours as we taught ourselves, but neither is it theirs as they try to show it, Vucic told Reuters.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-marks-10-years -independence/29045295.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Kosovo, Montenegro Announce Deal To Settle Border Disputes

RFE/RL February 17, 2018

Kosovo and Montenegro have agreed on a process for resolving disagreements over a border demarcation deal between the two countries, taking a step that could enable Kosovo to gain visa-free travel to the European Union.

Kosovar President Hashim Thaci and Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic announced on February 16 that they agreed to create a cabinet-level working group charged with correcting "mistakes" in a 2015 demarcation accord that has been blocked by opposition in Kosovo. Montenegro already has ratified the agreement.

"Now there is a possibility to proceed and vote on the deal and open the way to visa liberalization for the citizens of Kosovo," Thaci said, calling on the parliament to schedule a vote on ratifying the 2015 demarcation agreement.

Kosovo's opposition parties have blocked the agreement for years, using tactics such as setting off tear gas in parliament. They claim it would wrongly hand over some 8,000 hectares of territory to Montenegro.

On February 16, Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who previously led opposition to the border agreement, threw his support behind the deal reached with Montenegro.

The European Unions top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, also welcomed the new agreement.

This shows that even complicated issues can move forward," she said at a news conference in Sofia. "Now obviously we not only welcome all efforts in the spirit of good neighborly relations, but also we are ready to support the full implementation of this agreement.

The EU has said Kosovo must ratify the border agreement with Montenegro to gain visa-free access to the bloc. Kosovo is the only country in the Balkans region whose citizens currently need visas to travel to EU member states.

Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina obtained visa-free access to Europe's border-free Schengen zone in 2010.

One Kosovo political party, the Self-Determination Movement Party, said it would continue to oppose the border deal, however, calling the announced deal to work out problems between the two countries "unfair and deceitful."

Meanwhile, the Caribbean country of Barbados on February 16 became the 116th country to recognize Kosovo's independence.

Kosovo's 1.8 million citizens are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the former Serbian province's declaration of independence on February 17.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson late on February 16 congratulated Kosovo on its decade of independence and praised it for "maturing into a more stable, democratic and inclusive country."

"The United States continues to support Kosovos citizens as they work to strengthen democratic and multiethnic institutions, increase economic growth, and bolster the rule of law on the path toward full integration in the international community," Tillerson said.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-montenegro -thaci-announce-deal-settle-disputes-borde -demarcation-agreement/29044972.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Vucic Tells Reuters Serbians Won't Support 'Full Recognition' Of Kosovo

February 17, 2018

Serbs are unlikely to support full recognition of Kosovo's independence in exchange for European Union membership, Serbias president told Reuters on February 16.

Germanys Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on a visit to Pristina earlier this week said that "acceptance of Kosovo's independence" is a condition Serbia must meet if it hopes to join the EU.

While 116 nations have recognized Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia ten years go, Belgrade still regards the former Serbian province as part of Serbia.

Serbian leaders have been seeking a compromise that stops short of full recognition. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Reuters in an interview that any decision would have to be put before Serbian voters, many of whom consider Kosovo the cradle of their Orthodox Christian faith.

The people would decide, Vucic said, but he said he doubts voters would approve full recognition of their Balkan neighbor.

We have to look at todays reality and to understand relations in the world and relations in Kosovo and to understand that [Kosovo] is not ours as we taught ourselves, but neither is it theirs as they try to show it, Vucic told Reuters.

If there is no compromise we will have a frozen conflict for decades. We should not leave that to our children to deal with.

Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999 during the Balkans war and declared independence in 2008.

Vucic told Reuters he believes a compromise on Kosovo's sovereignty is possible, but he said it would require political will in Brussels to reach a compromise, rather than continuing to put pressure on Serbia.

Quoting the Serbian writer Borislav Pekic, Vucic said Serbia should look to the future: We should not kiss the ground our ancestors walked on, but rather the ground our children will walk on.

Based on reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/serbian-president- vucic-tells-reuters-serbians-wont-support -full-recognition-kosovo/29044973.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Israel Returns Fire After Hamas-Staged Explosion at Security Fence

Sputnik News

21:16 17.02.2018Get short URL

Four IDF soldiers were injured, two of them severely, in Saturdays attack at the security point, while the Israelis were patrolling the border.

An Israeli defense forces tank targeted a Palestinian observation post on Saturday in response to an earlier explosion at the security fence in southern Gaza Strip, IDF reported on their official Twitter account.

The casualties were evacuated and treated, Jonathan Conricus, spokesman for the IDF wrote. He went on to state that they hold Hamas responsible for all aggression coming from Gaza, stating that riots and so-called "demonstrations" that the Palestinian fundamentalists tend to organize along the border with Israel are used as a cover to place improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. That was the case with yesterdays riot and todays incident, Conricus said.

The explosion at the security fence left four Israelis injured, two of them severely.

Following Donald Trumps intention to move the US embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, Hamas announced a third intifada, with Palestinians firing missiles on Israeli territory. Israeli Air Forces, for their part, retaliated with airstrikes on Gaza.

The majority of ethnic Arabs hope to see a two-state peaceful solution and re-establishing the pre-Six Day War borders, like it was before Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, as well as the Golan Heights from Syria.

Hamas is an Islamist political and militant group, deemed a terrorist organization by Israel. It has been the governing authority of the Gaza Strip since 2007. The group is seeking the creation and recognition of an independent state of Palestine on the formerly Palestinian territories of Gaza Strip and West Bank.

 Sputnik

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Ghani Vows Repatriation of All Afghans in Pakistan in Two Years

By Ayaz Gul February 17, 2018

Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani has pledged to bring back all refugees in Pakistan in the next 24 months, saying it will put an end to allegations the displaced community is a source of regional instability.

The pledge came as ties between the two uneasy neighbors have deteriorated over allegations the Pakistani military shelters and assists Taliban militants and those of the Haqqani network waging deadly attacks in Afghanistan against local and U.S.-led forces.

Pakistan hosts an estimated 2.7 million Afghan refugees, half of them undocumented, and has been pressing the need for an early repatriation of the displaced population, saying their presence helps Afghan terrorists to melt and morph among them.

In the next 24 months my priority and goal is to bring back all Afghan refugees in Pakistan, President Ghani said in a televised speech Saturday.

We don't want them [Pakistanis] to say refugees do this or do that. [We know] refugees are innocent. So, let us resolve to bring them back to solve this problem once for all, Ghani asserted.

He also promised to make efforts to bring back Afghan refugees in Iran.

Ghani was speaking to a gathering at the presidential place in Kabul marking the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that had forced millions of people to take refuge in Pakistan and Iran.

Critics are skeptical, however, of Ghani's declarations because his government also initiated a refugee repatriation soon after it took power in 2014.

But a lack of jobs and basic services, such as health care and education, as well as allegations of rampant corruption in the relevant Afghan ministry discouraged displaced families from returning at the time, according to international aid workers and refugees.

Even those Afghans who did return home, ended up back in Pakistan or attempted to flee to other foreign destinations, they say.

In his speech Saturday, President Ghani disclosed that Kabul will host an international conference on February 28 where it will table a proposed plan to promote peace with the Taliban to end the violence.

But as he spoke, officials elsewhere in the country said separate insurgent attacks in western Farah and southern Zabul provinces killed at least 13 Afghan forces and overran security outposts there.

The Taliban has regularly attacked Afghan forces, and the violence is expected to intensify in the coming summer fighting season.

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NATO Chief Warns of Growing Nuclear Threat From North Korea, Russia

By Henry Ridgwell February 17, 2018

The head of NATO has said the alliance is determined to avoid a new arms race with Russia, but he warned that Moscow is developing new nuclear weapons that pose a threat to the West.

Russia is modernizing its nuclear capabilities, developing new nuclear systems, and increasing the role of nuclear weapons in its military strategy. This is a cause for real concern, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told delegates Friday at the three-day Munich Security Conference.

Political and military leaders from across the world are gathered in the southern German city to discuss defense issues, amid growing doubts over the future of the current global order.

Stoltenberg said NATO is determined to avoid a new Cold War. He welcomed the European Unions embryonic plans to cooperate more closely on defense, under an agreement signed in December known as PESCO, or Permanent Structured Cooperation.

They are an opportunity to further strengthen the European pillar within NATO and contribute better burden sharing. But with opportunity comes risk. The risk of weakening the trans-Atlantic bond, the risk of duplicating what NATO is already doing, Stoltenberg said Friday.

Trans-Atlantic and European

The United States has echoed those concerns in recent weeks. However, Germanys Defense Minister Ursula Von Der Leyen told the conference that such fears were misplaced.

We want to stay trans-Atlantic in our outlook, but also become more European. A start has been made. Last December we finally launched plans for a European Defense Union. In a way we started out on the political path toward working on a European army.

Washington repeatedly has called for European allies to boost defense spending.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was present Friday in Munich, but will not address the conference.

Mixed American signals

Analyst and Professor James Davis of the University of Saint Gallen in Switzerland, who is participating in the conference, says the U.S. is sending mixed signals to its allies.

Weve got Americans ramping up their presence along the eastern flank of NATO. And so, at the level of commitment, real commitment of American capabilities, there seems to be actually a re-engagement. But at the political level, at the level of political leadership, strategic leadership, I think people sense the lack of voice, Davis told VOA.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the brinkmanship over North Koreas nuclear program can be defused.

I would say the two key stakeholders in relation to this crisis, the United States and North Korea, are able to come together and to have a meaningful discussion on these issues. I believe the United States is ready to do so, and recent statements by the Vice President [Mike Pence] demonstrate that its absolutely essential to keep the pressure over North Korea and to convince North Korea that it is absolutely vital for them to come to the table and to be able to find a way for this denuclearization, the peaceful denuclearization, of the Korean Peninsula to be possible.

U.S. National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster is also to speak at the conference Saturday, and he is expected to address concerns over North Koreas nuclear program and the United States commitment to NATO.

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US Embassy in Ethiopia "Strongly" Disagrees with Country's State of Emergency

By VOA News February 17, 2018

The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia said Saturday it opposes the Ethiopian government's imposition of a state of emergency.

Ethiopias Council of Ministers Friday declared a six-month state of emergency for the country, effective immediately, a day after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn announced he is resigning.

"We strongly disagree with the Ethiopian governments decision to impose a state of emergency that includes restrictions on fundamental rights such as assembly and expression," the embassy said in a statement. The state of emergency, the embassy said, "undermines recent positive steps toward creating a more inclusive political space" and sends a message to the Ethiopian people that "they are not being heard."

Ethiopian Defense Minister Siraj Fegessa ruled out a military takeover Saturday, but said security forces have been told to take "measures" against those disrupting the country's operations.

A government statement said the state of emergency, which Siraj said must receive legislative approval within 15 days, was declared to protect the constitutional order and to protect peace and security. The statement also said that recent ethnic-based violence, killings and destruction of properties were among the reasons behind the decision.

Ethiopia has witnessed waves of anti-government protests over the past few years, stoked by demands for free and fair elections and a more equal distribution of power among the country's ethnic groups. The ruling EPRDF coalition controls all the seats in parliament.

In an effort to ease tensions, the government this week released more than 700 prisoners arrested during the protests and a previous state of emergency. Those released included several prominent opposition leaders and well-known journalist Eskinder Nega, a critic of the government.

Hailemariam, 52, has served as prime minister since September 2012.Speaking on state television Thursday, he said he is stepping down "to be part of the solution and for the success of the reforms and the solutions we have put in place."

His resignation must be confirmed by parliament.

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Lavrov: U.S. Meddling Charges 'Claptrap'; McMaster Says 'Incontrovertible'

February 17, 2018

MUNICH, Germany -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he has no reaction to U.S. indictments on alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections, calling the accusations nothing but claptrap until Moscow sees the facts in the case.

But U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 17 after Lavrov's remarks there, said the FBI indictments show Russian meddling in the U.S. election is beyond dispute.

"We will becoming more and more adept at tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion. And as you can see with the FBI indictment the evidence is now really incontrovertible."

Lavrov made his "claptrap" remark during a question-and-answer session following his February 17 speech at the Munich event.

A day earlier, Washington announced charges against several Russian citizens and firms accused of trying to influence the 2016 presidential election.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced charges against 13 Russians and three Russian companies, including one widely referred to as an Internet troll factory," over the alleged meddling.

I have no response, Lavrov said, adding: Until we see the facts, everything else is just claptrap.

In his speech, Lavrov delivered a laundry list of Russias grievances against the West, including what he called the European Unions support of a coup detat against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally.

Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014 following months of street protests that swept in a pro-Western government.

Russia proceeded to seize Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and back armed separatists in eastern Ukraine, triggering Western sanctions.

Lavrovs speech followed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenkos fiery address to the Munich conference the previous day in which he denounced what he called a Russian global hybrid war.

Lavrov on February 17 dismissed the idea of a global Russian threat as a myth.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/lavrov-calls-us-meddling- indictments-claptrap/29045368.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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U.S. Lawmakers Express Alarm At Alleged Russian Influence Efforts

RFE/RL February 17, 2018

U.S. lawmakers and luminaries expressed alarm at the extensive efforts allegedly made by a ring of Russian operatives to influence the 2016 presidential election, as outlined in a surprise indictment by the U.S. special counsel.

The indictment announced by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on February 16 revealed scores of previously unknown details, disclosing that Russian operatives not only placed social media ads and posts that reached millions of U.S. voters during the election, but they actually visited 10 U.S. "swing" states where the race was particularly close and helped stage political rallies boosting Republican Donald Trump and denigrating his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Republicans and Democrats alike expressed disgust and alarm, with many stating their resolve to take action to prevent such foreign interference in U.S. elections again.

"We have known that Russians meddled in the election, but these indictments detail the extent of the subterfuge," said the speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, calling it a "sinister and systematic attack on our political system."

"It was a conspiracy to subvert the process, and take aim at democracy itself," Ryan said. "We need to follow the facts and work to protect the integrity of future elections."

"[Russian President] Vladimir Putin has been using an arsenal of trolls, disinformation, and propaganda to try to undermine western democracies," said Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"More must be done, including with international broadcasting, to counter this threat. Our midterm elections are rapidly approaching, and we must ensure the sanctity of our political process," he said.

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton -- who the Russian operatives actively sought to smear through media posts and rallies, according to the indictment -- said the charges confirmed what she has "long known."

"Russia went to great lengths to undermine our democracy," Nick Merrill said on Twitter. "No matter your politics, it's un-American. We have an adversary that is laughing at us, who will act again."

Senator Bernie Sanders, who vied with Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and whose campaign was also targeted by the Russian operatives, said: "It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. Putin and the Russian oligarchs. It is absolutely imperative that the Mueller investigation be allowed to go forward without obstruction from the Trump administration or Congress."

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the indictment "hugely significant" on Twitter. "The contours of the conspiracy are starting to be detailed," he said.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, said he would continue to press social media companies like Facebook and Twitter "to be far more aggressive and proactive in responding to this threat."

But he admitted that preventing all such activity on open media sites is likely to prove impossible and citizens of Western democracies must simply learn to be more cautious about what the read online.

"We each bear some responsibility for exercising good judgment and a healthy amount of skepticism when it comes to the things we read and share on social media," he said.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-lawmakers-luminaries- ryan-clinton-sanders-express-alarm-alleged-russian- influence-efforts-2016-election/29045029.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia Dismisses US Election-Meddling Indictments as 'Blather'

By Henry Ridgwell February 17, 2018

Moscow is claiming the charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election are "blather."

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where dozens of world leaders are gathered this weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday questioned the evidence presented by the U.S. Justice Department and special counsel Robert Mueller.

"You know I have no reaction at all, because one can publish whatever one wants," he said. "We see how accusations, statements, allegations multiply. Until we see the facts, everything else is just blather. I beg your pardon for a not really diplomatic wording."

Mueller's investigation has shed further light on Russia's efforts to influence U.S. politics in cyberspace. The indictments suggest that a Russian propaganda arm oversaw a criminal and espionage conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential campaign, by supporting Donald Trump and disparaging his rival, Hillary Clinton.

The indictments have created added tension at the three-day gathering of global political and military leaders in Munich.

Lavrov's appearance at the podium Saturday was followed immediately by that of White House national security adviser H. R. McMaster, whose response also was blunt.

"The United States will expose and act against those who use cyberspace, social media and other means to advance campaigns of disinformation, subversion and espionage," he told delegates.

McMaster said the United States would support Russia's proposition of a cybersecurity dialogue, but only when Moscow is sincere about curtailing its interference in Western democracies.

Effort seen backfiring

"What's happened is in this effort to polarize our societies  to support rightist groups, even the most extreme forms of fascist groups, and then groups on the left, in an attempt to pit Western societies against each other  all that has done is appeal to those big fringes while uniting all of our polities actually against Russia," McMaster said.

Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, also in Munich, said the West must counter Russian interference. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to know the cost of this behavior in the long run will certainly outweigh the benefit" now perceived, he said.

Russian representatives in Munich have sought to present the claims of interference in Western democracies as part of a coordinated campaign of "Russophobia."

In Russia, news of the indictments was met with more scorn.

"There are no official claims, there are no proofs for this. That's why they are just children's statements," Andrei Kutskikh, the presidential envoy for international information security, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

One of the 13 people indicted said that the U.S. justice system was unfair.

Mikhail Burchik was quoted Saturday by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda as saying that "I am very surprised that, in the opinion of the Washington court, several Russian people interfered in the elections in the United States. I do not know how the Americans came to this decision."

Burchik was identified in the indictment as executive director of an organization that allegedly sowed propaganda on social media to try to interfere with the 2016 election.

He was quoted as saying that "they have one-sided justice, and it turns out that you can hang the blame on anyone."

But Moscow is struggling to defend itself in the face of overwhelming evidence, according to Ben Nimmo of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, a specialist in cyber- and hybrid warfare.

'Absolutely damning'

"The fact is that now we have independent Russian media that have named the troll factory accounts; Facebook and Twitter have confirmed the troll factory accounts on Facebook and Twitter. That is absolutely damning," Nimmo said. "There is no possible way you can say that that didn't happen. You now have the Department of Justice further confirming it."

U.S. officials say Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling is not finished. The White House maintains the indictments show there was no collusion between the Donald Trump presidential campaign team and Russian intelligence.

Some information for this report came from Associated Press.

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US Man Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case Connected to Russia Election Probe

By Masood Farivar February 17, 2018

A California man has pleaded guilty to inadvertently selling bank accounts to Russians who were indicted Friday by a federal grand jury for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to set up bank accounts that were then used by the Russians, according to a February 12 court filing.

The special counsel investigating Russian meddling on Friday announced charges against 13 Russian citizens and three Russian entities for interfering in the election.

The indictment alleges that the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based social media company with Kremlin ties, 12 of its employees, and its financial backer orchestrated an effort to influence the 2016 election campaign in favor of President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors charged Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with funding the operation through companies he controls, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, Concord Catering and a number of subsidiaries.

Prigozhin and his businesses allegedly provided "significant funds" for the Internet Research Agency's operations to disrupt the U.S. election, according to the indictment.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the Russian conspirators sought to promote social discord in the United State and undermine public confidence in democracy.

"We must not allow them to succeed, Rosenstein said at a news conference in Washington.

The conspiracy was part of a larger operation code-named Project Lakhta, Rosenstein said.

"Project Lakhta included multiple components  some involving domestic audiences within the Russian Federation and others targeting foreign audiences in multiple countries," Rosenstein said.

Mueller, who has made no public statements about the Russia investigation since his appointment last May, did not speak at the news conference.

Charges against Russian nationals

The indictment charges all the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Three defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and five individuals with aggravated identity theft.

None of the defendants charged in the indictment are in custody, according to a spokesman for the Special Counsels office.

The U.S. and Russia dont have an extradition treaty and it's unlikely that any of the defendants will stand trial in the U.S.

The 37-page charging document alleges that the Russian conspirators sought to coordinate their effort with Trump campaign associates, but it does not accuse anyone on the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russians.

Trump took to Twitter after the indictment was announced to again deny his campaign worked with the Russians.

"Russia started their anti-U.S. campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for president, Trump tweeted. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!"

The indictment marks the first time Muellers office has brought charges against Russians and Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 election.

Muellers sprawling investigation has led to the indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates.Former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russian officials.

Details of indictment

The indictment says the Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. political system started as early as 2014 and accelerated as the 2016 election campaign got underway.

During the 2016 campaign, the Russian operatives posted "derogatory information" about a number of presidential candidates. But by early to mid-2016, the operation included "supporting" Trump's presidential campaign and "disparaging" Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Taking on fake American identities, the Russian operatives communicated with "unwitting" Trump campaign associates and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities," the indictment says.

The indictment describes how Russian operatives used subterfuge, stolen identities and other methods to stage political rallies, buy ads on social media platforms, and pay gullible Americans to promote or disparage candidates.

To avoid detection by U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Russian operatives used computer networks based in the United States, according to the indictment.

"These groups and pages, which addressed the divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists when, in fact, they were controlled by defendants," the indictment reads.

A number of the operatives are alleged to have traveled to the United States under false pretenses to collect intelligence to inform the influence operations.

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Brazil to set up ministry of public security

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 06:02PM

Brazilian President Michel Temer has announced a plan to set up a ministry in his government to deal with public security.

Temer told the media on Sunday that the plans are meant to coordinate efforts for battling violent crimes across Brazil.

We must join forces to combat crime, said Temer in Rio de Janeiro after discussing with local authorities a decree that has placed the military in charge of the state's security operations.

The Brazilian leader, who has suffered fierce criticisms about the inability of his administration to contain rampant crime, said the new ministry would be established in the next few weeks. Temer gave no further details but reports said the Brazilian Congress would approve the initiative next week.

During his talks in Rio de Janeiro, Temer appointed Army General Walter Souza Braga Netto to lead the security intervention of the military in the crime-plagued state of Rio. Netto was also in charge of coordinating security when the city hosted the 2016 Olympic Games.

The military had been partially involved in ensuring security in Rio which is the most populous state in Brazil. It now takes full control after Temers Friday decree and Netto will directly report to Temer and not the local authorities. The mission will continue until end of Temer's term as president on December 31 and even with the formation of a new public security ministry.

Devolving Rios security to the military is also inspired by Temers pledges to fight corruption in the police forces. Experts say the vow is a bid to divert public attention from increasing allegations of corruption that has gripped Temers own administration.

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US using 'large sticks' to convince N Korea to give up nukes: Tillerson

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 05:43PM

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has said that the United States is using "large sticks" instead of carrots to convince North Korea to give up nuclear weapons.

"We're not using a carrot to convince them to talk. We're using large sticks. And that is what they need to understand," Tillerson said in an interview with CBS News which will be broadcast on Sunday.

Tillerson added that the pressure from the US-led economic sanctions is "having its bite on North Korea, and it will bring the country to the table for multilateral negotiations.

Tensions are running high between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's missile and nuclear programs.

The Donald Trump administration claims it prefers a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but it also says that all options are on the table, including military ones.

Washington insists that any future talks should be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something Pyongyang rejects.

North Korea has been under a raft of harsh UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear tests as well as multiple rocket and missile launches. Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.

Some US officials have said North Korea has been making significant advances in its nuclear weapons using the thermonuclear test and progress in its intercontinental missile systems. They have threatened the North with a military response unless it abandons its nuclear weapons program.

Earlier this month, Tillerson said that the recent communication between North and South Korea is a sign that American pressure on North Korea is working. He also said that the US will be ready for talks with North Korea.

"My job as chief diplomat is to ensure that the North Koreans know we keep our channels open," Tillerson said. "I'm listening. I'm not sending a lot of messages back because there's nothing to say to them at this point. So I'm listening for you to tell me you're ready to talk."

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'Billions for Defense': German Government Plans to Increase Its Military Budget

Sputnik News

10:27 17.02.2018Get short URL

Speaking at the 2018 Munich Security Conference, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen touted the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) pact and berated Washington for the planned funding cuts related to the UN and international aid.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with Deutsche Welle that she welcomes the EU's latest steps to develop mutual military collaboration.

She also promised to increase Germany's military budget, in what was hailed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who said that EU cooperation was "not an alternative to NATO," but that it would "strengthen the European pillar within NATO."

"There will be billions for defense because we said we would raise the budgets one by one," Von der Leyen pointed out.

Her remarks came after her speech at the 2018 Munich Security Conference, where she specifically praised EU members for clinching an agreement on the establishment of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) pact.

The document stipulates developing common defense equipment and improving military decision-making between EU countries.

Referring to the US, Von der Leyer also told the 2018 Munich Security Conference that "it is a point of concern to us to see that some of our partners continue to roll back spending on diplomacy, international aid and the United Nations."

 Sputnik

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NATO sec-gen underlines high significance of JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Vienna, Feb 17, IRNA -- Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg speaking at Munich Security Conference on Friday underlined high significance of 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (JCPOA) and called for its full implementation.

After delivering a lecture in the 54th round of Munich Security Conference, he said in response to a question by one of the audience that JCPOA is a significant deal which should be implemented fully.

Elsewhere in his speech, he said that nuclear proliferation is taking shape and nuclear deals including Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) are facing threats.

But we should safeguard the pact, he went on to say.

He also called on Russia to address concerns of the NATO allies in a transparent and fundamental way.

Describing North Koreas nuclear and missile program as a threat to all NATO members, he said that Pyongyang is closer to Munich than Washington. Therefore, it must be forced to abandon nuclear program through diplomatic channels and economic sanctions.

Russia and China as members of UN Security Council and neighbors of North Korea shoulder a heavy responsibility in this respect, he said.

Iran also possesses a proliferation concern. That is why NATO Allies place great importance on the Iran nuclear deal, but to be effective it must be properly implemented. All these developments force us to pay more attention to nuclear threats, Stoltenberg said.

The 54th Munich Security Council opened at Hotel Bayerischer Hof in the German city Friday.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is slated to deliver a speech in the event Sunday evening.

8072**1396

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US to regret any nuclear deal violation: Iran's Rouhani

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 04:05PM

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has once again reiterated the Islamic Republic's full compliance with the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, stressing the United States would undoubtedly regret any violation of the deal.

The Iranian president made the remarks in New Delhi on Saturday while addressing a meeting with researchers and intellectuals of the Indian-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF) about the Islamic Republic's foreign policy priorities.

He said Iran would remain committed to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as long as other sides took no action to violate it.

"If the US violates this pact, we will see that it will regret it. Do not doubt this," Rouhani said, adding that even the American people would soon express their strong protest against any JCPOA breach.

He expressed hope the region and the world would never witness a day that the JCPOA is violated.

The Iranian president said seven countries have agreed on the deal while the United Nations Security Council has endorsed it.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council  the US, France, Britain, Russia and China  plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the JCPOA, which was negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, as the worst and most one-sided transaction Washington has ever entered into, a characterization he often used during his presidential campaign, and threatened to tear it up.

The American head of state has repeatedly claimed that Irans missile program is in violation of UNSC Resolution 2231, which endorses the JCPOA.

Trump has also complained that the JCPOA-related restrictions have an expiration date and that underscores the need to toughen the "embarrassing" deal.

Rouhani said on February 10 the US would make a "big strategic mistake" if it decided to pull out of the agreement on Tehrans nuclear program.

Speaking during a meeting with a group of ambassadors and heads of foreign organizations in Tehran, Rouhani added that the world would see that Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal would be the "US biggest folly in its political relations with the world and particularly with our region."

Miscalculations, root cause of US hostilities towards Iran

Elsewhere in his Saturday remarks, the Iranian chief executive further said miscalculations were the root cause of the ongoing US hostilities toward Iran.

He stressed that the US had made repeated miscalculations since the very first day of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, saying Washington decided to sabotage the revolution but it was forced to express its regret on several occasions.

Despite all the losses the US has faced because of these miscalculations, now another person has assumed office who seeks to hatch a new plot, Rouhani noted in reference to Trump.

The president said, "The outcome of such miscalculations was that the US has failed to adopt appropriate policies vis-a-vis Iran."

Rouhani started a three-day visit of India at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an initial stop in the southern city of Hyderabad on Thursday. He arrived in New Delhi on Friday.

The Iranian president and Indian prime minister on Saturday expressed readiness to expand relations between their countries in all areas.

During the visit, the two sides signed 15 documents enabling the expansion of cooperation in various areas.

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Israel Builds Case for Europeans to Accept Iran Nuclear Deal 'Fix'

By Michael Lipin February 17, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to use the West's pre-eminent annual security conference to argue for tougher Western action against Israel's regional rival, Iran.

Netanyahu is scheduled to make that case in a speech to global leaders and security officials at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.

As he left for Germany on Thursday, Netanyahu said he would present proof of Iran's involvement in a cross-border confrontation between Israel and Syria earlier this month  the most serious clash of its kind since Syria's civil war began in 2011. He also said he would reiterate Israel's determination to defend itself against any threat "without restriction."

Iran has denied Israel's assertion that an Iranian drone launched from Syria infiltrated Israeli airspace on February 10. Israel retaliated by carrying out airstrikes in Syria, triggering return fire from Syrian forces.

Nuclear deal on agenda

Netanyahu also has joined a Trump administration campaign to press European powers to toughen the Iran nuclear deal that they and the previous Obama administration negotiated with Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to European powers last month, saying he would pull out of the deal unless they agreed to new limits on Iran's nuclear and other activities by May 12.

Netanyahu backed the ultimatum. Israel fears the existing deal will enable Iran to quickly develop nuclear weapons when its limitations on Iranian uranium enrichment begin expiring in the 2020s.

Israeli leaders see a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat because of repeated calls by Iranian leaders for the destruction of the Jewish state. Tehran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

Israel's ruling parliamentary coalition and main opposition party dismiss the Iranian assurances.

In an exclusive January interview with VOA's Persian service in Jerusalem, Israeli parliament speaker Yuli Edelstein said he was working constantly to keep Iran's nuclear ambitions on the international agenda.

"We are trying not to let the world believe that in the last couple of years, everything's already fine because a deal was signed and many important players  the United States, China, Russia and European Union  were all behind the deal," Edelstein said. "We have to provide information, and we know for a fact what the Iranians are up to." He said he would communicate that message to EU officials, whom he met in Brussels on Jan. 23.

Netanyahu's former national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, also speaking to VOA Persian at his home in the central Israeli town of Ra'anana, said he believed European powers were receptive to Israeli concerns.

"The Europeans don't feel well with the fact that the Iranians continue to enhance their long-range missile capability," Amidror said. "They also know about terror organizations that the Iranians are building around the world. So they might say, 'OK, we think it's very bad to change the [nuclear] agreement,' but the circumstances might lead the Europeans to understand that there is a need to contain Iran, and the way to contain Iran is by cooperating with the U.S."

Iran denies supporting terror organizations, saying instead that it fights such groups in the region.

Europe's alternate approach

EU officials so far have shown little sign of accepting U.S. demands for changes to the nuclear deal.

In remarks to the media Jan. 11, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said concerns about Iranian missiles and increasing regional tensions were outside the scope of the nuclear deal and should be resolved in other forums.

"The unity of the international community is essential to preserve a deal that is working, that is making the world safer and that is preventing a potential nuclear arms race in the region," Mogherini said. "And we expect all parties to continue to fully implement this agreement."

In another VOA Persian interview in Tel Aviv, the former chief of the Israeli spy agency Mossad, Efraim Halevy, said the EU was right to focus on preserving the nuclear deal, particularly through boosting trade ties with Iran.

"Economically, [the West should] open up areas of commerce, tourism, industry and communication [with Iran], in order to allow the Iranian public at large to benefit from the fruits of the agreement," Halevy said.

But with U.S. officials calling the agreement a "disaster," the Trump administration has said it is working with Britain, France and Germany to "fix" it by the May 12 deadline.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Persian service.

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Former Pakistani Taliban Spokesman to Face Trial in Military Court

By Madeeha Anwar February 17, 2018

A senior Pakistani official has told the country's lawmakers that Ehsanullah Ehsan, the former spokesman of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), both U.S.-designated terror groups, will be tried in a military court.

Responding to a Senate inquiry regarding the fate and status of Ehsan's case, Talal Chaudhry, the minister of state for interior affairs, made the announcement Friday to the upper house of parliament.

Military courts were established in 2015 to provide faster and more efficient trials of suspected terrorists and their facilitators following a deadly Taliban attack on an Army Public School in Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 130 people, the majority of whom were children.

Ehsan was TTP's spokesman at the time of the attack.

"Relevant institutions have decided not to pardon or release Ehsanullah Ehsan," Chaudhry reportedly told the Senate. He assured lawmakers that Ehsan would be tried in accordance with Pakistan's laws.

Chaudhry's assurance to lawmakers came amid speculation that Ehsan might be pardoned or released. On Friday, though, Chaudry tried to put lawmakers at ease by emphasizing that the government has zero tolerance for terrorists.

This was not the first time that questions had been raised about Ehsan's fate in government's custody. Last year in December, a court in Peshawar issued an order, barring Ehsan's possible release. The court instructed the government to keep the suspect in captivity and continue with his interrogation.

Ehsan's capture

Ehsan reportedly surrendered himself to Pakistan's intelligence agency last year in April. He then confessed on a video released by Pakistani authorities that he had been involved in terror activities and took responsibility for orchestrating a series of deadly terror attacks on behalf of JuA and TTP across Pakistan.

In the video, Ehsan also alleged that Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies had provided operational and financial assistance to the TTP and JuA to launch deadly terror attacks inside Pakistan.

Both New Delhi and Kabul denied the allegations at the time and charged that Ehsan's confession had been orchestrated by Pakistan's intelligence agency in an effort to shift the blame to India and Afghanistan.

Who is Ehsan?

Ehsan's real name is Liaqat Ali, and he is from the semiautonomous tribal belt of northwestern Pakistan that shares a border with Afghanistan.

Ehsan reportedly joined Tehreek-e-Taliban in 2008 as a college student and eventually became the mouthpiece of the terror group.

When a faction of TTP parted ways with the terrorist organization and established JuA in 2014, Ehsan became that new group's spokesman.

JuA has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks in Pakistan, including a suicide bombing in Lahore Park during Easter last year that killed at least 70 people, the majority of them Christians.

The United States placed Jammat-ul-Ahrar on a list of specially designated global terrorist organizations in 2016. TTP was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department in 2010.

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Tensions Between Russia And West Simmer In Munich

Carl Schreck February 17, 2018

MUNICH, Germany -- Tensions between Russia and the West over the war in eastern Ukraine and Moscows alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were on full display during the second day of a high-profile security conference in Germany featuring world leaders and top diplomats.

There were few signs of progress on the issue of a potential United Nations peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, while the envoys from Russia and the United States delivered barbs over fresh election-meddling accusations by Washington.

Meanwhile, talks in the so-called Normandy Format -- consisting of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia -- aimed at halting fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Kyivs forces in Ukraines east failed to materialize in Munich as of February 17, reportedly due to a scheduling conflict.

In his speech opening the second day of the conference, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that a UN peacekeeping mission could lead to a step-by-step lifting of sanctions against Russia over its interference in Ukraine.

The European Union and the United States hit Russia with several waves of sanctions in response to Moscows role in the conflict and its 2014 seizure of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, however, said a day earlier that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were unable to come to an agreement on the issue of peacekeepers during their meeting in Munich.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on February 17 that he discussed the proposed UN peacekeeping mission with Lavrov during their meeting earlier in the morning but that he saw little movement.

It remains to be seen if its possible, Stoltenberg said.

The situation in Ukraine is the main reason for the deterioration of the relationship between NATO and Russia and also the main reason why NATO has adopted its military posture in the eastern part of the alliance," Stoltenberg said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in September proposed sending a peacekeeping force along the demarcation line separating Ukrainian forces from the separatists in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

At the time, Ukrainian officials were lukewarm to the proposal, objecting to putting the peacekeepers along the front line of combat rather than at the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Kyiv fears deploying peacekeepers along the demarcation line would cement separatists control over the territory they hold, leaving Russia unencumbered to keep sending troops and arms across the international border.

Gabriel told the conference that all options should be explored to end a war that has killed more than 10,300 since April 2014.

He said earlier on February 17 that it was not realistic to insist on Russias full implementation of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict that have failed to hold -- in order to ease sanctions targeting Moscow.

In a fiery address to the conference on February 16, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on Russia to agree to a peacekeeping force across areas of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists and the uncontrolled part of Ukraine on the Russian border.

At a February 17 lunch sponsored by Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Pinchuk on the sidelines of the Munich conference, Poroshenko repeated his accusation from the previous day that Russian is waging a global hybrid war.

Claptrap And Incontrovertible

In his speech to the conference on February 17, Lavrov delivered a laundry list of Russias grievances against the West, including what he called the European Unions support of a coup detat against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a Kremlin ally.

Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014 following months of street protests that swept in a pro-Western government.

The speech came a day after U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced charges against 13 Russians and three Russian companies, including one widely referred to as an Internet troll factory," for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Responding to questions from the audience after his speech, Lavrov said he had no reaction to the U.S. indictments, but called the accusations nothing but claptrap until Moscow sees the facts in the case.

Speaking after Lavrov, Trumps national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said the FBI indictments show Russian meddling in the U.S. election is now really incontrovertible."

Asked by senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov, who was in the audience, whether the United States should begin a dialogue with Russian cybersecurity experts, McMaster quipped: "I am surprised there are any Russian cyberexperts available based on how active most of them have been in undermining our democracies in the West."

Iranian Proxies

Iran, Syria, Brexit, and Britains future relationship with the EU were also on the Munich conference agenda on February 17.

McMaster warned that Iran is creating and arming a powerful network of proxies in countries like Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

"Whats particularly concerning is that this network of proxies is becoming more and more capable, as Iran seeds more and more...destructive weapons into these networks," McMaster told the conference.

"So the time is now, we think, to act against Iran," he said.

McMaster also said that public reports clearly show that Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces are continuing to use chemical weapons.

Assads government rejects accusations that it deploys chemical weapons.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, meanwhile, told the conference on February 17 that there was no going back on the result of the June 2016 vote on Britains exit from the EU.

"We are leaving the EU and there is no question of a second referendum or going back and I think that's important," May told top European and U.S. officials.

She called for an urgent agreement with the EU on a post-Brexit security deal that would capture the full depth and breadth of our existing relationship.

"We cannot delay discussions on this," May said.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed a "security alliance" with Britain, saying the matter should remain separate from "other questions relating to Brexit."

With reporting by Interfax, AFP, Reuters, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/gabriel-ukraine- peacekeepers-could-lead-easing- russia-sanctions/29045157.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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How New Admiral-Series Super-Frigates Will Help Project Russian Naval Power

Sputnik News

18:47 17.02.2018

The Admiral Gorshkov, lead ship of the new Project 22350 series of frigates, will be commissioned in August, with Admiral-series vessels expected to become the backbone of the Russian Navy's ocean-going presence over the next decades. Military observers Andrei Kotz and Viktor Murakhovsky outline what capabilities the advanced vessels will offer.

The Admiral Gorshkov began its construction at Russia's Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg all the way back in 2006. At that time, it was the first large surface vessel to begin construction since the collapse of the Soviet Union, an event which temporarily threw Russian shipbuilders (and the military industry as a whole) into disarray.

Project 22350 gave shipbuilders the challenging task of developing a fundamentally new frigate, fitted with the latest 21st century technologies, many of them never used by the Navy before.

As RIA Novosti military observer Andrei Kotz recalled, the Admiral Gorshkov was designed with universality in mind, with the "capability to combat surface ships and submarines with equal effectiveness, attack land-based targets with high-precision weapons, resist aircraft of the probable enemy, carry out reconnaissance by taking advantage of its low visibility characteristics, and much more."

The ambitious nature of the project has not been without its problems, the most serious among them being delays to the Admiral Gorshkov's commissioning. The timeframe has been pushed back several times, and the vessel is now expected to be adopted by the Navy in August.

In the meantime, Navy command remains confident about the promising vessels and their capabilities. In 2016, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed that the Russian Navy would commission six Project 22350 frigates by 2025. Before that, the Navy said it hoped to receive over a dozen of the Admiral-series vessels in the near future for service in the Arctic, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean.

'Floating Research Institute'

Speaking to RIA Novosti, Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, said that the Admiral Gorshkov is presently the most technologically sophisticated, modern and impregnable surface ship in Russia's arsenal.

The ship "effectively serves as a research institute," the observer noted. "Since 2006, the Admiral Gorshkov has seen the testing of virtually all of the Navy's latest technologies, from electronic equipment to anti-aircraft missile systems and artillery mounts."

According to Murakhovsky, some of the systems tested on the Admiral Gorshkov were so new that they were still in the experimental design phase of development. Therefore, he noted, it's only natural that a ship like this could not be put together with haste.

"But when it is finally completed, the Navy will be strengthened very considerably," the observer stressed.

Floating Computer

The Admiral Gorshkov's main strike power is provided by its 16 vertical launch system Kalibr/Oniks cruise missile-equipped cell launchers, with air defense assured via 32 Polimet-Redut seaborne missile complex cells. Close-quarters defense consists of two Palash close-in support guns. ASW defense is covered by four Packet-NK torpedo tubes. Finally, a 130mm A-192M naval gun firing 45 rounds per minute provides shore bombardment support. The ship's weapons systems will be controlled by a new digital onboard information and control system, complemented by cutting edge radio-electronic systems to keep tabs on approaching surface ships and submarines.

In effect, Murakhovsky explained, the Russian super-frigate is "a floating computer, capable of solving many tasks virtually without human intervention. The vessel is [also] integrated into the control system of the surface action group, the fleet as a whole and the global information and reconnaissance system being formed by Russia, which includes monitoring of the seas and oceans."

For all its complexity, the Admiral Gorshkov is a relatively fast ship, traveling up to 30 knots per hour, with a range of close to 5,000 nautical miles at 14 knots p/h cruising speed. In autonomous navigation, the 5,400 ton vessel's 180-210 sailors and officers can remain at sea for about a month before needing to resupply.

Construction Full Steam Ahead

To date, four Project 22350 ships, including the Admiral Gorshkov, the Admiral Kasatonov, the Admiral Golovko and the Admiral Isakov, are under construction. The first of the three have been launched and are undergoing trials, fitting out or the final stages of construction work, and are expected to be delivered before 2020. At least four more ships have been ordered.

Severnaya Verf also has plans to build an upgraded version of the Project 22350 design, known as the 23500M. Little officially confirmed information on that project is available, except that it will have an increased displacement of up to 8,000 tons, meaning more space for weaponry, electronics and radar equipment.

According to Murakhovsky, The Russian Navy will require 10-12 Project 22350 ships total to effectively carry out the tasks set for by Russia's naval doctrine.

The Gorshkov and its sister ships will join other vessels being introduced into the Navy as part of its comprehensive modernization program. Between 2018 and 2027, the Navy expects to receive some 35 vessels, 20 of them surface warships, one submarine and 14 supply ships.

 Sputnik

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Turkey denies reports of using chemical weapons in Syria's Afrin

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 02:10PM

Despite reports that the Turkish military has made use of internationally-banned chemical weapons in its ongoing offensive in Syrias northwestern region of Afrin, Ankara denies having carried out a gas attack, arguing it takes the utmost care of civilians.

The Turkish army possesses aircraft, tanks and missiles, and is using weapons banned by international conventions like napalm and shells laced with chlorine, Reizan Hedu, from the Kurdish Self-Defense Forces, told Russias RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday.

Hedu further noted that Turkish troops actually did not advance in Afrin, but engaged in hit-and-run tactics instead.

The remarks came a day after the general director of Afrin Hospital, Jiwan Mohammad, told Syrias official news agency, SANA, that six people had been admitted to the medical facility with symptoms of breathing difficulties, coughing, and burning all over their bodies, which he said were indicative of a chemical weapon attack.

He added that the victims came from al-Mazyaneh village on the outskirts of Afrin.

Mohammad noted that four of the victims were stable, while two others were in a critical condition.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also told Reuters that Turkish forces and their Syrian militant allies had hit the village on Friday with shells. The Britain-based monitoring group also said medical sources in Afrin reported that six people in the attack suffered breathing difficulties and dilated pupils, indicating a suspected gas attack.

Syrian medical teams are reportedly working to identify the type of toxic gas used in the attack.

Meanwhile, a Turkish diplomatic source denied reports about a suspected gas attack in Afrin as black propaganda.

These are baseless accusations. Turkey never used chemical weapons. We take utmost care about civilians in Operation Olive Branch, the source said.

Ankara views the the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group that has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that Afrin should be cleared of terrorists, and demanded the deployment of Turkish troops there during a speech back in November 2016.

This is while US officials regard the YPG as the most effective fighting force against the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in northern Syria, and have substantially increased their weaponry and technology support to the group.

The controversy over a possible Syria border force first started on January 14 when a report emerged on Reuters saying that the military coalition led by the United States in Syria was planning to set up a large border force of up to 30,000 personnel with the aid of its militia allies.

The Syrian government has condemned the brutal Turkish aggression against Afrin, rejecting Ankaras claim about having informed Damascus of the operation.

Damascus "strongly condemns the brutal Turkish aggression on Afrin, which is an inseparable part of [the] Syrian territory," SANA cited a Syrian Foreign Ministry source as saying on January 20, the day Turkey launched the offensive.

Syria completely denies claims by the Turkish regime that it was informed of this military operation, the source added.

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Turkey Fighting Terrorism, Not Waging War in Syria  Prime Minister

Sputnik News

17:55 17.02.2018(updated 17:56 17.02.2018) Get short URL

MUNICH (Sputnik)  Ankara is not fighting a war in Syria but is fighting against terrorism, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday.

"We are not conducting a war against any country. There is not a war in Syria, as we speak. In Syria, its just that there is a fight against terrorism currently. And this is not a fight which is conducted by Turkey only. There are 62 coalition member countries who are conducting this, including Russia, Iran, and Turkey. We are a part of NATO, and we are within the coalition, and we provide air support to the coalition. And in NATO, through our NATO bases we help out with the operations," Yildirim said during the Munich Security Conference.

Terrorists have been using weapons from the United States and Russia, which were either provided directly or which they obtained through illegitimate means, Yildirim continued.

Ankaras actions in Syria are in compliance with the international law and treaties, the Turkish prime minister pointed out.

Turkey launched Operation "Olive Branch" in the northern Syrian Kurdish-held district of Afrin on January 20. Ankara has said its offensive is aimed at clearing the Turkish border with Syria from terrorists. Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Damascus has expressed its opposition to the Turkish operation in Afrin, saying that such actions violated Syrian sovereignty.

 Sputnik

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Kurdish Fighter Claims Turkey Using Napalm, Chlorine in Afrin Operation

Sputnik News

12:36 17.02.2018(updated 12:49 17.02.2018) Get short URL

The Turkish troops have failed to advance in Syria's Afrin district, where they prefer to use the hit-and-run tactics, according to Reizan Hedu, a representative of the Kurdish self-defense forces in Afrin.

Speaking to RIA Novosti, Reizan Hedu, representative of the Kurdish self-defense forces in Afrin, claimed that the Turkish army is using internationally-banned arms in its military operation in the Syrian region.

"The Turkish army possesses aircraft, tanks and missiles, and is using weapons banned by the international convention, [namely] napalm and shells with chlorine," Hedu said.

He added that "they have tens of thousands of terrorists, in addition to the Turkish military."

Hedu also pointed out that the Turkish troops actually do not advance in Afrin, opting to engage in hit-and-run tactics, which he said are typically used by the self-defense forces.

His remarks came as the Syrian state-run news agency SANA

reported that at least six people with symptoms of suffocation had been hospitalized in Afrin after the Turkish military used toxic agents in the village of Aranda.

On January 20, the Turkish army launched Operation Olive Branch against Kurdish YPG forces, which Ankara believes have links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), blacklisted by Turkey as a terrorist organization.

Damascus has condemned the operation as "treacherous aggression" and an assault on the country's sovereignty. Russia, for its part, urges all parties to show restraint and respect Syria's territorial integrity.

 Sputnik

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SDF Claims Syrian Kurds Attacked Military Camp on Turkish Territory

Sputnik News

01:17 18.02.2018Get short URL

The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attacked a military camp on Turkish territory used by troops for preparing Operation Olive Branch in Syria's Kurdish-held Afrin, the SDF media center said on Saturday.

"Our forces carried out a specific military operation against the invaders and their operation desk in Qara Xaneh township in the Turkish state of Hatay, killing 7 terrorists including Turkish soldiers, in addition to a large number of wounded. Therefore, our forces call on civilians to stay away from the military points of the Turkish invasion army and Daesh/ Al-Nusra points, because all of the military points are legitimate targets for our forces," the SDF statement read.

On January 20, Ankara launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin. Ankara has said its offensive was aimed at clearing the Turkish border with Syria from terrorist presence.

Turkey considers the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Damascus has expressed its opposition to the Turkish operation in Afrin, saying that such actions violated Syrian sovereignty.

 Sputnik

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OSCE warns against truce violations in E Ukraine, urges renewed peace efforts

Iran Press TV

Sat Feb 17, 2018 07:03AM

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) warns against an alarming number of truce violations in Ukraines east, which has been the scene of deadly fighting between Kievs troops and pro-Russia forces, calling for a renewed peace process to prevent the outbreak of a major conflict there.

Thomas Greminger, the OSCEs secretary general, made the plea on the sidelines of a conference on international security policy in the southern German city of Munich on Friday.

The OSCE is European security body tasked with monitoring the ceasefire agreement mediated by Russia, Germany and France between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Moscow forces in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, in 2015.

Greminger further said the organization records an average of 1,000 ceasefire violations a day in eastern Ukraine.

This has to stop What we desperately need is another political impulse, the OSCE head said, adding that it should come from the four countries that sponsored the Minsk agreement.

I would look forward to seeing Germany again assuming a leadership role, ideally together with France, and then I think we have a fair chance that the Russian Federation and Ukraine could come along, Greminger noted.

Top officials from the four countries cancelled a meeting that was due to take place during the annual Munich Security Conference, citing scheduling conflicts.

The four sides are now working to set a new time for the meeting before the end of the Munich event.

The armed conflict erupted in Ukraine following the overthrow of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, and intensified after people in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for reunification with the Russian Federation in a referendum in March 2014.

The West brands the reunification as annexation of the territory by Russia. Moscow denies any involvement in the conflict.

Armed confrontation between the pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian military has killed more than 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

At the annual conference, Greminger also warned that a major conflict could break out in Ukraines eastern regions, expressed concern about the warring sides failure to withdraw heavy military equipment from the lines of conflict as agreed in the Minsk ceasefire agreement.

We are definitely standing on the brink of major conflict and I guess we need to find our way back and this is why my key message here at the Munich Security Conference is dialog. I think we need to again listen, to try to understand each other, each others perspectives and then try to come to common solutions, he said.

Greminger said there was a big risk that shelling could inadvertently result in a catastrophic chemical spill at a water filtration plant near the front, noting, The risk is growing that one day you will have an incident that gets out of control.

More than 700 observers from the OSCE currently operate monitoring missions on the Ukrainian conflict but the efforts have so far failed to reduce the tensions.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Pedro Poroshenko called on delegates at the Munich Security Conference to push for the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers across the two regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east, collectively known as the Donbass, which are entirely controlled by pro-Russia forces.

There is a chance for Moscow to show the sense of compromise and agree to UN peacekeepers throughout the whole territory of Donbass including the uncontrolled part of Ukraine on the Russian border, he said.

The deployment was regarded as a first step toward a "face-saving move" to end the fighting in the Donbass region.

Russian, Ukrainian FMs meet in Munich

Separately on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavel Klimkin, held a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Russias TASS news agency reported the two ministers discussed issues linked to prisoner exchange between the conflicting sides in Donbass.

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NATO Chief Sees Little Progress On UN Peacekeepers For Ukraine

RFE/RL February 17, 2018

MUNICH, Germany -- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says he has seen little progress in talks about a UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine.

Stoltenberg made the comments during a February 17 roundtable following his meeting with Russian Foreign Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of world leaders, senior officials, and policy experts.

It remains to be seen if its possible, Stoltenberg said of the proposal to deploy a UN peacekeeping force to end fighting between Russia-backed separatists and Kyivs forces in eastern Ukraine.

Discussions of the proposal ramped up in September after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested deploying such a mission along the line separating the Ukrainian military and the separatists.

But common ground on the issue has proved elusive.

Ukraine and the West worry that a peacekeeping force along the front line rather than the Russia-Ukraine border would cement Moscows control over separatist-held areas and allow Russian fighters and weapons to continue to flow into Ukraine.

Stoltenberg, who described his meeting with Lavrov in Munich as useful, said it was too early to say what kind of solution could be reached on the issue of UN peacekeepers in Ukraine.

He added that the two officials discussed implementation of the Minsk accords -- 2014 and 2015 peace deals that have failed to stem the violence in eastern Ukraine -- and that the conflict in Ukraine is the primary reason for the deterioration of NATO-Russia ties.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-chief-sees -little-progress-un-peacekeeper s-ukraine/29045304.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Lebanese Defense Minister Yaacoub Sarraf said his country was prepared to ward off any strikes by Israel on its territories.

Sarraf made the strong-worded comment after Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, brandished remnant of Iranian drone saying that his country will act if necessary against Tehran and its proxies, including Lebanese Hezbollah militias.

Sarraf told participants at the Munich Security Conference that he had lived with an Israeli drone above my head for the past 15 years but that his country has no belligerent intent against anyone.

During his own speech at the Munich conference, Netanyahu slammed the nuclear deal with Iran, saying it has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

Netanyahu said at the conference, also attended by Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Well, heres a piece of that Iranian drone, or whats left of it after we shot it down. I brought it here so you can see for yourself. Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should. Its yours.

Zarif, who addressed the conference later in the day, dismissed Netanyahus presentation as a cartoonish circus, which does not even deserve a response.February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month, and now is the time to talk to teens about their relationships. We all know those first loves can feel amazing, but for many teens, one in three, those first encounters turn into abusive and often violent relationships.

Teaching the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships at an early age is critical to helping our youth navigate the complexities of friendships, dating and all other kinds of relationships by building skills and tools such as empathy, conflict negotiation and clear communication. Abuse is not limited to physical violence and often includes exerting emotional, verbal and psychological control over the dating partner. For example:

Digital Abuse: A female high school student, who normally excels academically, falls behind in school and one of her teachers notices her dozing off in class. The student reveals her boyfriend texts all night and insists she text him back right away, or else he accuses her of cheating on him.

Isolation and Manipulation: A male high school senior is getting tired of constantly trying to please his girlfriend by spending all his time with her. His friends are annoyed because hes never around and always with her. When he explains how he feels and asks her for some space, she tells him she doesnt think she can go on living without him, like for real.

Verbal Abuse and Threats: A student in a same sex relationship is constantly criticized by their partner and told that no one else would love them like they do. The student is worried about breaking up, no one knows they are gay and the abuser has threatened to out them to friends and family.

Early exposure to abusive or violent relationships increases the likelihood of those types of relationships being repeated as adults. Recognize the signs of abuse:

Changes in physical appearance or eating habits;

Depression and/or mood/overall personality changes;

More Information Resources If you have questions about teen dating violence and prevention, reach out to YWCA Greenwich through our 24/7 hotline at 203-622-0003. YWCA Greenwich is the only state designated and accredited provider of domestic abuse services in Greenwich, and we're also available to counsel parents and others who want to help a loved one who might be in an abusive relationship. On Tuesday, Feb. 27, 6:30-8:30 p.m., YWCA Greenwich will host the Looking In Theatre. The company, made up of teens, will perform a series of short dramatic scenes that explore healthy and unhealthy relationships, followed by a discussion in which the actors stay in character while answering questions from the audience. The goal is to present realistic situations using language young people understand. The event is free and open to high school and college students, parents and service providers who focus on issues teens face. Reserve a seat at www.ywcagreenwich.org/lookingintheatre See More Collapse

Isolation from family/loss of friendships;

Inability to concentrate;

Failing grades;

Excusing a partners behavior;

The relationship progresses extremely quickly;

Excessively texting/calling their partner;

Constant check-ins/texts and photos to prove where they are.

Note that many of these behaviors are a part of normal teenage development and not an automatic indicator of abuse. Its important to look for patterns and/or several of the above occurring at the same time.

Parents and caring adults shouldnt wait to start a conversation about healthy relationships until they suspect abuse. Its crucial to keep the lines of communication open and not give up if your teen shuts down. Its great to model healthy relationships as much as possible and use teachable moments to point out positive relationship behaviors and question unhealthy ones.

If you suspect a young person you care about is in an unhealthy or abusive relationship, dont be afraid to talk to them about it, gently. Its better to point out concerns about specific behaviors (I noticed you tend to ask permission from your girlfriend before making plans with your friends) rather than criticizing their partner (Your boyfriend is smothering you, is he really that insecure?)

If the teen does open up to you: JUST LISTEN. Dont minimize their experience or rush to offer advice or solutions. Avoid the inclination to prohibit them from seeing their partner, as this will likely result in the teen defending their partner and seeing you as the enemy, and will likely not work anyway. You dont have to have all the answers, but you can help them feel supported by letting them know you will figure it out together.Week 7 in review: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 duo goes official

Week 7 was dominated by a pair of smartphones - the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro, with last minute leaks and coverage of the announcement dominating our best read story list.

We also got a bunch of leaks as is typical for this part of the year. The Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 9 proved more popular than the Galaxy S9, while the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s also gained a lot of interest.

It wasn't all unofficial stuff either - Samsung released a bunch of teaser videos for its upcoming flagship pair and sent some of its official accessories to its retail partners.

In other news the Galaxy S8 got its Oreo update rollout halted due to a newly discovered issue that needs patching before the seeding continues.



Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro specs leak in full Redmi Note 5 is the Redmi 5 Plus; Redmi Note 5 Pro is coming with SD636 and iPhone X-like dual camera.





Xiaomi launches Redmi Note 5 and Redmi Note 5 Pro 18:9 displays and 4000mAh battery are common features but the Pro gets a dual rear camera and the new Snapdragon 636.





First Nokia 7 Plus live image leaks The photo reveals the tall 18:9 screen with rounded corners and 2.5D glass.





First live photo of Redmi Note 5 Pro reveals iPhone X-like camera The picture arrives hours after the specs leaked and just a day before the official announcement in India.





Nokia 9 spotted in the wild Someone was out and about, testing its dual camera.





Official Galaxy S9 promo videos tease slow-mo camera, 3D emojis Each 15 second video teases a headlining feature of the upcoming Galaxy S9 flagships.





Samsung Galaxy S9 with Exynos 9810 arrives on Geekbench The phone posts the amazing 3648 for single-core score and 8894 multi-core result.





Nokia 7 Plus and Nokia 1 official images leak Nokia 7 Plus will be on the Android One program, while the Nokia 1 will most likely have a removable back panel.





More specs of Moto G6 family surface: chipset, battery and price The Moto G6 Plus model will upgrade to a Snapdragon 630 chipset, but the Play will have the biggest battery.





Samsung teases reimagined camera on the Galaxy S9 Samsung has a reimagined the way it makes cameras, for the Galaxy S9.





Huawei P20 Plus to come with 4,000mAh battery, always on display The info was found hidden in firmware files, suggests an OLED display for the upcoming large-sized Huawei flagship.

Published on 2018/02/18 | Source

Kim Min-seon has embraced an Asia-wide trend offering cooking classes and market tours for foreigners who want more from their stay than merely sightseeing and shopping.

Advertisement

At OME Cooking Lab, she explains each ingredient's characteristics and cooking processes in English and helps participants with cooking. She provides detailed explanations so that they can make Korean dishes once they go home.

"Our cooking classes include a market tour. Participants love it as they can talk with vendors there and learn about seasonal ingredients", she said.

Before opening her business in spring 2015, Kim attended a language course in China for nine months while in college, so she can teach in both English and Chinese.

"People come from all over", she said, "The U.S., Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, South America and the Middle East. Mostly they're groups of families or friends, but we also get chefs and other people involved in the food business who want to learn about Korean cuisine".

She exchanges e-mails with applicants to decide what dishes to make and sometimes needs to meet specific requests from vegetarians or Muslims.

After just about two years offering cooking classes, she has attracted many foreigners already. "I think that's because I show them how to make Korean food easily using widely available ingredients", she said.

Now she is preparing a book. "I plan to write a cookbook that includes the stories of the participants who are still making Korean food after they returned home. I'm also planning to expand the cooking class nationwide as I want to give students an opportunity to learn about the diversity of Korean cuisines and taste local specialties", she said.Published on 2018/02/18

Catch Time's collection of stunning photographs from the open ceremony of the Winter Games, Wallpaper explores the darkest building in the world in PyeongChang, a US photographer (and his Boston Terrier) falls in love with the Land of the Morning Calm, and Buzzfeed hits the streets to find out what South Koreans really think about their northern neighbours.

Advertisement

"See the Best Photos From the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony"

Did you catch the opening ceremony of the Winter Games last week? Around 3,000 athletes from 92 countries appeared in the ceremony to officially open the 23rd Winter Games. The event itself was spectacular, but if you weren't able to watch it live, no problem; Time has curated 18 high-quality photographs that capture both the style, scale and importance of the event. Many of these stunning photographs are works of art in themselves! Enjoy...

...READ ON TIME

"Step inside Asif Khan's dark pavilion for the Winter Olympics"

The new Olympic pavilion in PyeongChang is special: made from light-absorbing Vantablack VBx2 technology, the new building is the darkest structure humans have ever assembled. The new pavilion's unique feature is the result of Asif Khan, a British-based architect who has been working with the material for a number of years now. "[I]ts matt black material is able to absorb 99 per cent of the light that hits its surface, appearing almost as a black void, even in broad daylight". In this post on Wallpaper, you can catch six photographs of the new pavilion by Luke Hayes, as well as find a short video about this incredible new building.

...READ ON WALLPAPER

"US photographer finds new home and new passion in Korea"

John Steele came to Korea back in 2002 to teach English in Seoul, but his real passion is photography. With his 8-year-old Boston Terrier, " Holly " (who has become somewhat of a star herself: "She's pretty famous in Korea"), John has travelled all around the country snapping up Korea's beautiful natural sights. "I got addicted seeing beautiful landscapes", said John in this interview on WTHR, but he also loves capturing complex city scenes. It is, as writer Scott Swan describes it, "a relationship born in Korea and bonded with a camera".

...READ ON WTHR

"24 South Koreans Say What They Really Think About North Korea"

What does the average South Korean think about North Korea? In this photo gallery on BuzzFeed, Matt Stopera and Lauren Yapalater have compiled the opinions of 24 South Koreans who were asked to write down what they thought of their northern neighbours. Some of the responses include, "North Korea, who are you guys? Can we be friends?", "We were one. Now we are two", and "Although it seems dangerous right now, I think there will be reunification one day. Go team Korea!"

...READ ON BUZZFEEDPublished on 2018/02/18 | Source

Reservations for international flights have jumped as many Koreans plan to take overseas trips during the Lunar New Year break from Wednesday to Sunday.

Advertisement

Korean Air had booking rates of 97 percent for its flights to Europe over the period, while tickets to Australia, Guam, and New Zealand were 87 percent booked, and those to China, Japan, and Southeast Asia 70 percent, industry sources said on Saturday.

At Asiana Airlines, booking rates for tickets to Southeast Asia came to 85.4 percent, 84.6 percent to Japan and 83.3 percent to Europe. The rates spiked up to 96-99 percent for flights to Bangkok, Okinawa, Rome and San Francisco.

Low-cost flights to popular destinations have been almost fully booked too. The bookings on flights to Japan stood at 92 percent and those to Hong Kong and Macau at 91 percent.

Jin Air also had high booking rates for flights to Sapporo (95 percent) and Fukuoka, Guam, and Hawaii (93 percent).

Another budget carrier, Air Seoul, has sold all its tickets to Osaka and Tokyo for the period.

Ticket prices have risen accordingly. At low-cost airlines, round-trip tickets to Okinawa rose from around W300,000 to over W500,000 over the period, while tickets to Guam rose to over W700,000 (US$1=W1,090).Published on 2018/02/17 | Source



The news of a new "Dr. Romantic 2" was released, but without much confidence. The production's chances of actuation are quite dubious.

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"Dr. Romantic 2" (2018)

Directed by

Written by

Network : SBS

Synopsis

A tentatively proposed second season of the popular "Dr. Romantic" is the earliest stages of drama creation.



Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2018vDemolition began Tuesday at the former Antietam Village trailer park

Funkstown officials seeking eviction of trailer-park residents, some of whom haven't paid rent in over a year.The moon has descended on the lawns of Victoria Memorial, much to the delight of the people of Kolkata who were seen thronging the northern gate of the iconic structure to view the spectacle. A touring artwork, the 3D installation of the moon has been made using imagery from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, one of the exhibition organisers said.

The Museum of the Moon is a project of the British Council, supported by the Ministry of Culture. It has been put on display at the Victoria Memorial Hall in the city for weekend visitors, said Debanjan Chakrabarti, the director of British Council East.

The artwork, created in partnership with the UK Space Agency, was unveiled yesterday in the presence of director of British Council, India, Alan Gemmell, the secretary and curator of Victoria Memorial, Jayanta Sengupta, and the director of MP Birla Planetarium, Debiprasad Duari.

The 23-feet-wide replica of the moon is half a million times smaller than the real moon. It has been put together by British artist Luke Jerram, Chakraborty said. This is an important project for British Council, it merges science with art, he said.

The artwork will foster interest about astronomy among the youngsters, the director of MP Birla Planetarium said. It is also interesting that the Museum of the Moon project came to Kolkata 17 days after the total lunar eclipse, Duari added.

Avantika Shah, a Class 10 student in a city school, was among the hundreds who gathered at Victoria Memorial lawns yesterday to watch the giant installation. The surface images of the moon look so lifelike. I will opt for space research in future, she said. The Museum of the Moon project has earlier toured Bengaluru, Mumbai and Udaipur.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreIt was want of proper facts which were supposed to be placed before the Supreme Court that led to the embarrassment of the state government in the rape victim compensation matter on Thursday, say official sources in the Madhya Pradesh government.

Left red faced after the Supreme Courts stricture, the state government is now preparing to place facts before the court regarding compensation provisions, amount given and number of victims compensated. However, officials claim a rape victim is given a minimum of Rs 3 lakh against compensation once the crime is proved.

The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong exception to Madhya Pradesh paying a meager amount of compensation to a rape victim with a reported comment Are you doing a charity? How can you do so? You value a rape at Rs 6500?.

The courts stricture came during hearing on a bunch of petitions regarding compensation to rape victims and concern over women safety in the country after 2012 Nirbhaya incident. The states and union territories are supposed to file affidavits before the court detailing the amount received under Nirbhaya fund, amount disbursed and number of victims compensated. Madhya Pradesh is one of the few states which have filed the affidavits so far.

As per official sources, as many as Rs 1.21 crore have been disbursed so far among the rape victims in the past 3 years. Thus roughly 40 victims have got the amount of compensation whereas the number of victims who were supposed to get the compensation in the past 3 years is 1951.

Also, the amount of compensation is given only on recommendation of the legal services authority at the district and the state level which is headed by the district judge at the district level and chief justice of high court at the state level. Thus, the state government can hardly diktat its terms in provision of compensation, say the official sources.

As per official sources, the government is of the view that there was no proper briefing to the government advocate who placed the facts before the court. Perhaps he was provided with just two figures- the amount of compensation given to rape victims which stands at Rs 12196000 and the number of victims who were supposed to get the compensation in the past 3 years. The number of victims is 1951. Thus, when the amount of compensation was divided by the number of victims it came Rs 6251 per victim.

The official sources said the fact remained that it was only a little more than 40 victims who had got the compensation whereas the rest were yet to be given the compensation. This fact, perhaps, couldnt be placed before the Supreme Court.

When contacted KK Singh, additional chief secretary, Home, Madhya Pradesh government, said, We are going to explain our factual position before the Supreme Court on the date of next hearing. A rape victim is given a minimum Rs 3 lakh as compensation on the recommendation of the legal services authority. We are looking into where was the communication gap.There are a few people who can do style as effortlessly as the Begum of Pataudi, Kareena Kapoor Khan. The actor who is all set to return to the silver screen in Veere Di Wedding has been a whirlwind of activity. From walking the ramp across the world to appearing on magazine covers and shooting for her film, she has been doing it all. She is also a fabulous mother to one-year-old Taimur Ali Khan and is there for her friends also.

It was for the latter, her friend and stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania, that she stepped out on Saturday. Kareena was to attend an event at Anaitas residence and chose a green Indian ensemble for the ocassion.

Kareena will return to the marquee with Veere Di Wedding but wont term it her comeback film. Im hesitant to call Veere Di Wedding a comeback film because I never really went away. Im fortunate enough to still get plenty of great scripts to read, but when Rhea (Kapoor) came to me with this film, I was excited at the prospect of working on a film that is produced by women and stars four strong women, she told a fashion magazine late last year.

Earlier, when Pinkvilla asked Kareena about Veere Di Wedding, the actress revealed, Yeah! It is my wedding in the movie and it will be different. Rhea is going to style me. It will be stylish. And with Sonam - the fashionista in the movie, I surely cannot wear my jeans and t-shirt. Or you never know, I may convince her to come out of her ball gowns and wear jeans and t-shirt. Youll should wait and watch (laughs).Rani Mukerji returns to the silver screen after a long hiatus with Hichki. But as she appeared on Neha Dhupias chat show, BFFs with Vogue, with designer friend Sabyasachi Mukherjee, hiccups were the last thing on her mind. She spoke about her film, daughter Adira and notoriously media-shy husband, filmmaker Aditya Chopra. Here are some interesting moments from the show

How Rani Mukerji met Aditya Chopra

The actor said, After having faced failure for a couple of my films, luckily Mujhse Dosti Karoge happened and thats when I met Adi first time professionally. He told me that Im doing a couple of crap films and that people have pressured him not to take me because they think you dont have the equity for a Yash Raj film but Adi had belief in my talent and me and thought that I was good for the part. My mother and I have been very upfront people always and I like frankness and openness so I like the fact that he was on my face.

The star of #hitchki might make you choke with her confessions and candour.  Catch #RaniMukerji n @sabya_mukherjee on @jeepindia presents BFFs with @vogueIndia powered by @MotorolaIN, beauty partner @mynykaa only on @colors_infinity tonight at 8pm  pic.twitter.com/DVawyrSOMg  Neha Dhupia (@NehaDhupia) February 17, 2018

Why Aditya hated Ranis stardom

The filmmaker hates paparazzi so much that despite being one of the most powerful men in the industry, there are hardly any photos of his in media. Its not as if he is paranoid about the cameras. He just doesnt want to be photographed. He had told me after our marriage, God when I fell in love with you, I didnt stop to think that I was in love with an actress. Now, because of you, people are attaching my pictures to yours as well.

Rani finds Aditya the best director

Rani believes her husband is the best director. When Neha asked Rani if she curses and abuses, she replied saying, Yes, I do. I curse my husband every day; I abuse my husband every day but he does such loving things that the cursing comes out with love! So, in my family when we curse, we curse with love. We dont curse with hate. If I curse somebody, that means I really love that person.

On daughter Adira

I want Adira to grow up normally. [Otherwise] you get unwanted and undeserved attention without having achieved anything in life. I want Adira to be treated like any other child in school. Aditya and I dont want her to be photographed constantly, she said. When the host asked Rani that one quality of her husband she wouldnt want Adira to possess, she said, His immense passion for food!

12 people attended Rani-Aditya wedding

When Sabyasachi was asked How long ago did he know about the wedding (Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma)?, the designer said he knew about it long enough to make the clothes and added jokingly that he takes three hours to make bridal outfits.

He also said people in his organisation used code names while working on the wedding, to which Rani added: I think he did a trial with my wedding, so it went smoothly.

There was a lot of pressure on Virat and Anushka like there was pressure on Rani and Aditya when they were getting married. I think a good designer is like a good doctor, and a good jeweller should also be like a good doctor. They dont talk about their patients, he added.

When Rani was asked how many people attended her wedding, she said: 12.While the views about Katrina Kaifs acting abilities are divided, there are two aspects on which everyone is unanimous  her ability to work hard and her glowing beauty. And it was the latter that caught our eye as the actor shared a photo where she is standing against a sunset. Looking fantastic, it seems she was out for her evening run when she decided to take the photo.

Katrina has her hands full with acting assignments. The actor who is flying high with the success of Tiger Zinda Hai, which had Salman Khan in the lead, is looking at a booked diary  she is in the middle of shooting Thugs of Hindostan that also stars Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Fatima Sana Shaikh as well as Zero with Anushka Sharma and Shah Rukh Khan.

Sunset  A post shared by Katrina Kaif (@katrinakaif) on Feb 17, 2018 at 5:27am PST

Tiger Zinda Hai came after a string of flops for Katrina. Speaking about the film, she recently told IANS, Tiger Zinda Hai has given all of us so many amazing memories to cherish. From it being Salmans (lead star Salman Khan) biggest hit, Alis (director Ali Abbas Zafar) biggest film, to it also becoming my highest ever grosser - we are extremely happy as a team that the film has done so well.

The actor added, The entire team had pushed themselves to make a quality film that entertains audiences and gives them a product that they have never seen before. Im glad the film is getting incredible love from audiences that it totally deserves.Kuch Bheege Alfaaz actor Zain Khan Durrani, a Kashmiri by birth, has said the worst part about growing up in a tumultuous and politically unstable state is that you insidiously get used to the violence around.

He made a strong impact in Onirs latest directorial Kuch Bheege Alfaaz as a poetic romantic dreamer RJ with a guilty secret. Where does this intensity on screen come from? I believe its a lot to do with the character I am asked to play. I have always been an emotional person and that got me to write the poetry I do. Maybe growing up in Kashmir does have a bearing on the emotional aspect of my personality as well, he said.

He grew up watching movies with his father on the VCR. I didnt see a movie on the big screen until Swades in Jammu owing to the fact that there are none in Kashmir. But I think this mode of self-expression was coveted by me deep down within always, said the actor, whose father is a doctor and mother a professor of psychology.

The Burn Hall school, Srinagar alumnus also studied at Zakir Husain Delhi College. As a Kashmiri, what are his thoughts on the violence in the Valley and the violent times we live in? The worst part about growing up in a tumultuous and politically unstable state is that you insidiously get used to the violence around. Almost impermeable but scared and disconcerted within, he said.

On bagging Kuch Bheege Alfaaz, he said, Its been a process of three years in Mumbai. I came to Mumbai by a stroke of destiny in 2014, when a random audition call landed me at the auditions of Onirs Shab, in Delhi. He liked my work and asked me to assist him on Shab. I spent my time learning and auditioning all of this while until Onir mentioned Kuch Bheege Alfaaz to me and that I had to undergo auditions again with FTC (production house F The Couch) and that I did. Only when the producers liked me did Onir tell me that he always wanted me to do the role.

In the film, he is shown to have no qualms in befriending and falling in love with a girl who has a skin ailment. Would he react the same way in real life to a similar situation? I have come to believe that a beautiful face will wither and an intelligent mind can decay, but the soul is where the beauty resides and I want to be cherished for that and hence, I wouldnt want any thing less than that for my loved one, said Zain.

On his future plans, he said, I want to be able to do a wide variety of roles. Content is the new king as it should be so the kind of work that excites me as an audience is what Id like to be a part of as an actor as well.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreRealty major DLF will focus on selling ready-to-move-in flats worth Rs 15,000 crore in the next four years and launch projects for sale only after reaching advanced stage of construction.

Out of Rs 15,000-crore worth of housing units, around Rs 9,000-10,000-crore inventories are in Gurgaon.

The real estate sector, particularly housing, is facing multi-year demand slowdown, resulting in sluggish sales and unsold inventories.

In an investor presentation, the countrys largest realty firm said the company has modified its business model for residential segment.

It will sell completed product or products which are at an advanced stage of completion instead of selling off a plan.

The new business model will help the company in achieving higher realisation besides mitigating regulatory risks and delays beyond its control, DLF said.

Empirically, it has been observed that the price of the finished/completed product is valued significantly higher than what it is priced at the time of the launch, the presentation said.

In the revised model, DLF said the increase in working capital costs would be marginal as construction finance is available at attractive rates, currently at about 9.25%.

The company will focus on selling the completed inventory valued at about Rs 15,000 crore (net of pending construction payments) on its books over the next 3-4 years, the presentation said.

DLF said the company would start development of projects to create completed inventories, which would be open for sales in pace with the demand for its current completed stocks.

The realty firm has initiated the process to start construction of its housing project at Moti Nagar in central Delhi.

This project, with a total saleable are of about 7 million sq ft, is in joint venture with GIC, the Singapores sovereign wealth fund.

GIC had invested nearly Rs 2,000 crore to acquire about 50% stake in this project.

In commercial segment, DLF has already formed a JV with GIC. In the joint venture firm DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), DLF has 66.66% stake while GIC has the rest 33.34% shareholding.

GIC acquired stake in DCCDL from DLF promoters for nearly Rs 9,000 crore. DCCDL holds bulk of rent yielding commercial assets of DLF group.

DLF promoters have already infused Rs 9,000 crore in the company and plans to pump in Rs 2,500 more.

This has helped DLF in reducing debt substantially. At present, DLFs debt stands at about Rs 5,500 crore, while the net debt of JV firm DCCDL is around Rs 16,000 crore.

Its overall net debt stood at nearly Rs 27,000 crore as on September 30, 2017.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted fresh searches on Sunday at over four dozen premises linked to Gitanjali Group chairman Mehul Choksi even as more lapses in Punjab National Banks (PNB) internal processes and inadequate oversight came to the fore in an estimated Rs 11,400 crore fraud.

Interviews with executives from several state-run banks and experts revealed that billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and companies linked to him were able to siphon funds in concert with some PNB executives because of the failure of the bank to integrate its own transaction-recording software with the international financial messaging system.

Modi, law-enforcement agencies were tipped off, might be in Hong Kong where he has considerable financial interests, officials said, though his lawyer Vijay Aggarwal refused to disclose the whereabouts of his client. Aggarwal is in Dubai to formulate strategy with Modis legal associates.

Informers have told us that Nirav Modi in all likelihood is in Hong Kong and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi is in the US, but in the absence of any official confirmation from Interpol, we cannot say anything conclusively, said a senior officer, entrusted with the probe into the PNB scam, who did not wish to be named. When HT contacted Modis lawyer Aggarwal in Dubai, he said, Yes, I am in Dubai to hold meeting in connection with the case and I am in touch with Nirav Modi but I cannot disclose his whereabouts.

Asked about Modis plans to return India, Aggarwal said, My client has not fled from India and he is being hounded by multiple agencies simultaneously. A decision with regard to his return will be taken in due course.

Modi, his wife Ami, brother Neeshal and maternal uncle Choksi left India in the first week of January.

The CBI has sought Interpol help to find Modi and Choksi.

A central bank communication corroborated the failure of the bank to keep its security systems and internal checks up to date. The fraud in PNB is a case of operational risk arising on account of delinquent behaviour by one or more employees of the bank and failure of internal controls, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a release on February 16. The RBI has initiated a supervisory assessment of PNBs control systems.

Officials of Mumbais Brady House branch of PNB, without approvals, issued so-called letters of undertaking, or LoUs, (essentially guarantees) that helped Modis companies raise credit from other banks.

The foreign banks gave the funds to Modi companies on the assurance that PNB will pay up if there is a default.

According to bankers, transactions on SWIFT, an inter-bank messaging facility, must go through a built-in system of audit and reconciliation. These include seeking approval from officials other than those having banking relation with the client, red flags for a sudden spurt in transactions, and a breach of sectoral and group exposure limits, among others. SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Inter-Bank Financial Telecommunication.

PNB has maintained that transactions and messages sent through SWIFT were not recorded in its core banking system software, which typically records daily transactions. This allowed the errant employees escape notice of bank auditors.

Following fresh searches at Gitanjali Group companies, a senior ED official said the agency seized gold and jewellery worth Rs 20 crore. In earlier raids on Modis firms, the ED seized diamonds, gold and precious stones worth Rs 5,674 crore.

On Monday, ED officials will speak to Dinesh Dubey, former independent director of Allahabad Bank, who has alleged that loans were granted to Gitanjali Gems despite his dissent note.

The CBI has arrested three accused  retired PNB deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty, suspended PNB employee Manoj Kharat and Modis alleged accountant Hemant Bhatt.

Bank of India, a public sector institution, issued a circular on Saturday saying that as per the CVCs guidelines, all officers serving in the same post should be rotated and no one should work in the same municipal area for more than five years.

News agency PTI reported on Sunday that the ED and the IT department had zeroed in on 200 shell companies in India and abroad that were being used to receive funds as part of the alleged fraud.

Opposition leaders kept up their attack on the government over the issue. Congress president Rahul Gandhi questioned the PMs silence on the matter.

PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hrs, but wont speak for 2 mins on the 22,000Cr banking scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if youre guilty! Speak up, the Congress leader tweeted. He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding an interaction with students ahead of annual school exams.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee linked the fraud to the governments demonetisation exercise. BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha accused her of spreading lies to protect the Congress.

(Additional reporting by Remya Nair and Deborshi Chaki)The police in India, and at most places across the world, are forever battling with popularity crisis. Society is never gung-ho or full of praise for them. Such is the ungrateful and unrecognised nature of the profession.

A policeman represents the most visible face of governance, it is rightly visible on streets as well. Anything that an unsuspecting cop does in public eye can be scrutinised and criticised. If a cop is found scratching himself somewhere or blowing his nose or simply yawning, he becomes the potential butt of ridicule for the passersby. If he is indulging in unwarranted behaviour, he becomes the first to be vilified. Those who sit behind desks in offices and conduct themselves dishonestly or inappropriately are less likely to get noticed except if anyone comes in direct contact with them.

In this era of social media enabled scoffing and watch dogs in every nook and corner, the plight of police personnel becomes even more pitiable. There is very little they can do without being blown to smithereens in conversations across the land.

As the son of late Mr JP Atray, a celebrated IPS officer of the 1963 batch who died in harness, I was able to gain insight into the ethos and functioning of the police force while I was growing up. The tension across my fathers face was palpable at times as he had to grapple with sensitive issues. He spoke less and always maintained a stoic exterior yet he was considered a warm human being. He always showered love on his family and took time for us despite his busy schedule.

While I was serving as the sub-divisional magistrate and district magistrate, I often found myself involved with law and order duties as it entailed close interactions with many uniformed colleagues, at times in stressful situations.

Both the scenarios left me convinced that the marred image of the police is not entirely fair as it is often skewed. Several police officials are extremely diligent in their duty, their life goal is to give it all to service. They toil behind scenes or in forefront of action spot, they are often not recognised or rewarded. Many a time they are vilified for no fault at all. Honest policemen are considered to be non-existent, but I beg to differ. There are many out there.

Where does the poor constable come from anyway? He comes from our society and represents the people at large. If he falls prey to corruption, then its is the society which is to be blamed. The system within which he works often deals with him harshly. Has anyone ever considered his working conditions? He may have reported for duty at 5am or he may have slept erratically on a bench at the police station with mosquitoes, noise and various smells to keep him company.

Yes, the police force often indulges goofs up! The senior and the junior officers also do some shoddy jobs. But the image of police that the people perceive is much worse than it deserves. The public relations machinery is not able to keep pace with the demands of a potential crisis ridden environment with demanding stakeholders breathing down its neck at all times.

Mr VK Kapoor, former additional DGP, Haryana, is another charming and much admired retired officer. He believes that the problem is of leadership as there is no connection between the top brass and ground-level functionaries.

Few youngsters who wish to join civil services want to become IPS officers. Yet, the image of IPS officers is manned by some of the bravest and most intelligent minds. More lady officers have also added an empathetic hue to the police canvas.

Now is the time to highlight success stories of the police. We should celebrate excellence across ranks and states. A country which takes pride in its armed forces should also be able to take pride in its police. Performance improvement and perception management are the need of the hour here.

(The author can be contacted at vivek.atray@gmail.com)Seasoned Punjabi poet Paul Kaur, 60, long respected for her sensitive poetry challenging the accepted order has attracted attention in recent times for speaking out strongly against the changing mood of the country.

The much-awarded poet, based in Ambala, where she taught Punjabi language and literature at the SA Jain College, was recently conferred with the Bhai Santokh Singh Puruskar for her overall contribution to Punjabi literature. A poet must speak out against what she/he considers erroneous. One cannot be a dumb spectator to times where history is considered a toy that can be exchanged for another, where writers are being silenced, names are being changed and communal polarisation is riding high.

Although the tone of these visibly political poems is different from the metaphor-clothed poetry of what was written in the past by this poet of seven anthologies of verses, yet she says: These poems have brought a lot of response and I am being labelled a poet of resistance, but resistance is the lot of a woman when she enters her mothers womb. If she is a writer she voices them too.

Born in Kalomajra village near Banur, she is the sixth daughter of her parents. I had five elder sisters and after the fifth daughter, two sons were born. I was the accidental eighth and youngest child of the family. To my fathers horror and that of other elders, I was yet another female child, a mistake. My mother had been given a potion to end the pregnancy, but I survived it in the womb. In fact my father, a religious poet, did not talk to my mother for a month and to me for over a year, says Paul.

Ironically, she was to inherit her fathers poetic talent and her first poem was on her father turning his back on her.

Known well for exploring the politics of the personal, how did she turn overtly political? Paul smiles at this query and says: It all started a couple of years ago with a poem called Selfie. The selfie fever had gripped not just the young but even middle-aged politicians! The lines of her poem are gripping: Mera bal, Mera dal, Mera chhal/ Meri kameez sab ton safed/Tuhada nahi sunana, Tuhada nahi vekhna, Tuhada nahi bolna/Main taan karni hai siraf apne man ki baat/Ajj da nayak Selfie da Sardar! (My hair, my lentil soup, the way I walk/My shirt is the whitest/I wont listen to you, wont look at you, will not talk about you/I will just talk about myself/The lead actor today, Sardar of Selfies.

So, following the Chief of the Selfie, came poems like Bhedh-Chaal (Herd mentality) and a moving dirge or Marsiya of the system and the elimination of writer-journalist Gauri Lankesh. Her poem Mughalsarai left a deep impact on many hearts when the iconic junction near Varanasi was renamed Deendayal Upadhyaya Station and people were wondering if the Mughlai parantha would also suffer the name-game fate.

Paul has penned and edited several books, including an anthology of poems by different poets on the Punjab of 1984. Talking of her current poems, she says: I have not made an effort to write them. These have come to me spontaneously. So, Pauls readers now wait for her eighth anthology of spontaneous poems.The Uttarakhand Police have traced 173 missing children in the first 15 days of the ongoing Operation Smile in the state.

The operation is a special month-long drive to trace and rehabilitate children. It started on February 1 and will run throughout the month.

Among the children who have been traced, missing complaints of only 41 were registered. A total of 135 children have been reunited with their families, while the remaining 38 have been sent to child shelter homes. Police said they are trying to find details of their parents.

Six children who have been traced by the police are from other states. This includes two from Uttar Pradesh, two from Delhi, one each from Chandigarh and Haryana.

The figures were released during a meeting called by the additional director general of police (ADGP) Ashok Kumar to review the progress of Operation Smile.

According to police data, maximum number of children have been traced in Haridwar district. Between February 1 and 15, a total of 29 missing children were traced in the district. This was followed by Champawat where 28 children were traced.

The three plain districts of Haridwar, Udhamsingh Nagar and Dehradun contributed 39% of the children who have been traced. This indicates the high crime rate in these districts and the same has also been established in past reports.

Over the years, crime against children in Uttarakhand have been on the rise. According to the reports of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the case of crime against children rose from 489 in 2014 to 635 in 2015. In 2016, the state registered 676 such crimes, an increase of 38% from the figure in 2014.

The NCRB report for 2016 also positions Uttarakhand as the most vulnerable state for children among the Himalayan states.

Nationally, the state was ranked 20th among 36 states and union territories in terms of incidence of crimes against children.By getting a show-cause notice issued to BJP legislator Kunwar Pranab Singh on Saturday, days after his revolt against chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, the party brass has sent a stern message to its Uttarakhand unit that it would brook no indiscipline.

The party brass has also made it clear that it stands behind the chief minister. The former RSS pracharak was nominated as the chief minister on March 18 by the BJP high command following the partys landslide win in the 2017 assembly polls.

The buzz was that Rawat landed the top post owing to his proximity to BJP chief Amit Shah. However, the party high commands decision caused heartburns among top state BJP leaders who were eyeing the top post. Those in the race included the BJP veteran from Kumaon, Prakash Pant, and former Congress strongman Satpal Maharaj, a spiritual leader who later joined the saffron party. They are now ministers in the 10-member cabinet headed by Rawat.

Equally unhappy were most of the 57 party legislators as they failed to find berths in the cabinet. Its since been almost a year but the rumbling of a rebellion among BJP legislators doesnt seem to subside. Its echoes are heard off and on as Rawat is yet to carry out a cabinet rejig to fill the two vacant berths.

The trouble brewing in the party was also evident from the sizeable presence of BJP MLAs in a tea party recently hosted by party veteran Ramesh Pokhriyal, which was skipped by the chief minister.

Reports of Rawat and Maharaj being at odds with each other keep floating around once in a while. The tourism minister is said to be upset with the CM as the latter is giving too much importance to his brother Bhole Maharaj. He is also said to be unhappy as he is often ignored for the events relating to his ministry and the projects mooted by him seldom materialise.

The same goes for 10 other former Congress heavyweights and now BJP legislators who joined the saffron party ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. They are said to be having adjustment problems within the BJP owing to its regimented and disciplined atmosphere.

The 10 rebels also include Singh, the four-time MLA from Khanpur who has been issued the show-cause notice and asked to submit his reply within 10 days. He invited action for accusing the chief minister of protecting corrupt officials. The legislator had also alleged that Rawat was not acting on his request to expel a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) worker Mohammad Sattar from the three-member committee constituted by the CM to run the affairs of the Haridwar Zila Panchayat.

Singh had also accused Rawat of protecting a strong cabinet minister from Haridwar without naming Madan Kaushik. Incidentally, Maharaj also had a row with Kaushik a few moths back. Singh rushed to Delhi to have his grievances redressed by BJP chief Shah but that apparently did not go well with the latter as the partys state unit subsequently issued the notice to him.

We are a disciplined party, so it wouldnt spare anybody who would be found guilty of violating the party discipline, said BJP state unit chief Ajay Bhatt. The show-cause notice issued against the legislator also means that the party stands solidly behind the chief minister, said partys state general secretary Naresh Bansal.New Delhi: The Delhi Medical Council (DMC), as statutory body that governs the practice of modern medicine in the state, will undertake survey to estimate the number of quacks in the city. Till now, the council has been going with a rough figure of 50,000, although officials remain unaware of how the figure was arrived at.

We have been going with this number; however, there is no study or survey to support it. And, I think it is grossly overestimated. A total of 50,000 quacks would mean over 700 quacks in one assembly constituency and one quack for every 400 Delhi residents, which is not possible. We have to learn the extent of the problem first and then plan to make the state quack-free, said Dr Arun Gupta, president of the DMC.

The DMC has invited expression of interest non-governmental organisations and survey and research organisations who can conduct a door-to-door survey and tag quacks to find the actual numbers.

Currently, we work on tip offs and raid clinics we suspect are run by the quack. In many cases, the quacks are tipped off and we are not able to catch them or keep them in because they are well connected with the cops. And, when the cases proceed to court, we have seen the quacks continuing with their practice as the cases drag on, said Dr Gupta.

Once the estimates are done, the DMC with the help of the government will look at plans to rehabilitate the quacks and provide better primary healthcare.

The approach to ridding Delhi of quacks will have to be positive. Once we estimate the number of people practicing like this, we can approach the government to organise short-term free medical technician courses for them, which will bring them into the existing system, said Dr Gupta.

There is a huge need for medical technicians like lab technician, OT technician, X-ray technician as hospitals require more than five times as many medical technicians as doctors, according to Dr Gupta.

Apart from that, the survey will also help the DMC and the government in mapping areas with high density of quacks. The reason quacks flourish in an area is because there is no alternative medical facility available to the people of that area. So, the government will be able to estimate the need for primary health centres in areas where the number of quacks is high, said Dr Girish Tyagi, registrar of DMC.

The DMC will also focus on creating awareness about who is a real doctor and why should people go only to a qualified person.Every Saturday afternoon, a group of doctors, scientists and engineers of Delhi put their stethoscopes and lab coats aside to take up brooms, shovels and pickaxes.

They then go to the Yamuna and get down and dirty to clean the litter lying along its banks. This initiative, they say, will not make the water of the river, bearing the burden of Delhis sewage, drinkable. The idea, instead, is to send a message about the need for conserving Delhis lifeline.

This weekend, Vivek Dixit, senior scientist, department of orthopaedics at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and his friends from other hospitals assembled at the main ghat of Yamuna near ITO bridge at a pre-determined time of 2.30pm.

Shovels and brooms in hand, they got working and within an hour had collected nearly 300 kilos of garbage. The trash was neatly put in plastic bags and transferred on to a municipality tipper, that in turn dumped it at a community bin at Sarai Kale Khan. The tipper made three trips to and fro the Yamuna bank on Saturday.

We know we cannot clean the water of the river. But we can at least clean the garbage strewn on the banks. We cannot always rely on government agencies, said Dixit, 38.

The idea, which has now become a weekly feature, came up a few years ago. Dixit, then employed at Maulana Azad Medical College, while driving through ITO, would notice the eyesore on the river banks on both sides and wanted to do something. As the word spread, a couple of his friends got on board and decided to do something for the river.

Earlier, we thought that people might think that we are doing this for publicity. It took us many months to decide before we hit the banks for cleanup, said Dr Rishi Solanki, 37, who works as senior forensic expert at Aruna Asif Ali hospital.

From a group of three people, the initiative has now brought together nearly 430 people who join in depending on the need to clean the ghats.

Most of us are free by noon on weekends. Some days there are five people and on other days there are 35 people. We do not stop ourr clean up even if there is just one person, said Mayadhar Barik, 43, who works as a junior scientist in nuclear medicine department of AIIMS.

Earlier, the group would clean up the ghats randomly. But that did not fetch results as the garbage heaps would pile up by the time they returned next week. So we decided to select one ghat to make a difference, said, biomedical engineer, Rakesh Mishra.

To make sure the litter doesnt reappear, the group has roped in a few local divers who serve as vigilantes. A local vendor has also donated a boat which comes handy in lifting garbage from inside the water.

The Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers of the country. A 2015 report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has termed Yamuna almost dead because of the filth that it carried. The stretch of Yamuna between Wazirabad barrage to downstream Okhla baragge-- less than 2% of the river length -- receives 70% of the total pollution load of the river, according to CPCB. In October 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) asked Delhi government and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for delaying compliance of orders on the Yamuna cleaning project.

According to Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan and petitioner in the Yamuna cleaning project case, initiatives like these serve a great deal in spreading awareness but a lot still needs to be done.

These efforts should be applauded. But we know it is not going to change the status of the river, said Misra.

endsVeteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit has said that she will always stand by her party even though the top leadership ignored her for a long time and denied her any big role in electoral campaigns.

The three-time former Delhi chief minister said she was named the partys star campaigner in elections that came after the 2013 assembly polls, but was not given any big responsibility for canvassing and that she never complained.

I do what I am told. I belong to Congress and the Congress is my party. I can do anything for Congress. They ignored me for years but I never complained, the 79-year-old leader added.

A few days ago, Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken and Dikshit addressed their first joint press conference after the 2015 drubbing.

Before this press conference, Maken came to my house three or four times, requesting me to join the media briefing, she said.

There is no dilemma in my mind. We have to work for the Congress. I dont have personal issues with anyone. I went there to do something good for the party and the results were good too. But when elections were held they did not call me, Dikshit said.

She said the party leaders need to understand that we are fighting the opposition. They have to understand that our enemy is not Congress. Our enemy is the opposition. The day theyll understand this thing, everything will be all right, Dikshit said.

Recently, former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely rejoined the party months after he quit to join the BJP. Lovely is believed to be a close aide of Dikshit.

When she was asked about the AAP government in Delhi, Dikshit said, Either you will see their advertisements or youll see them talking about their work. But the ground reality is very different.

The party did not fulfill its promise of providing free water and cheaper electricity to Delhis citizens. Arvind Kejriwal has been exposed, she said.Long necks, large chins, flapping ears, crooked noses: welcome to Ugly Models, a London modelling agency of a different stripe, where imperfections are celebrated. Fashion Week has opened in the British capital on Friday, and among the legions of models strutting down the catwalk, several will come from Ugly.

They make eye-catching additions to the perfectly honed or androgynous models that typically feature at fashions annual showcase in London. Its celebrating diversity really and its bringing a bit more light to fashion instead of just using the bog-standard models, said agency owner Marc French.

He describes it as a character model agency  from fat, thin, to large to small: you name it, weve got it. He cited the example of French actor Gerard Depardieu. I mean look at him: hes so full of character and charisma. He becomes sexy because hes so cool and hes so different.

Marc French interviews a potential model. (AFP)

Imperfection is beauty

Founded a half century ago, Ugly occupies trendy open-plan space in west London featuring a baroque sofa, brushed aluminium computers and walls studded with photos of models. A portrait of late rock superstar David Bowie adorns the wall, alongside the quote: Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, which reads like a company motto.

Like any such agency, it manages the careers of its models, putting them in touch with employers of all stripes, from Burberry to Mercedes to Jack Daniels. On a recent weekday, Ugly was organising a casting to complete its catalogue and those in attendance were atypical models. Among them were some tough-looking guys.

Model Chloe Akan poses during a casting session at the agency. (AFP)

Chris, for example, a former soldier with arms as thick as logs, posed shirtless with a 50-year-old brunette in a two-piece suit. Kris Chesney, an ex-rugby player with Toulon and Saracens, is a man mountain at nearly two metres (over six feet) tall and weighing 135 kilogrammes (almost 300 pounds). With his shaved head, tattooed arms, rugged face, and body bearing the marks of countless scrums, he is perhaps an unlikely male model. Its a new journey, something interesting, like a challenge, he said.

Others are on more of a personal mission. Sheerah Ravindren, a petite 22-year-old model just 1.61 metres tall, comes from Sri Lanka and proclaims herself a militant immigrant model. Sporting a bare belly between baggy jeans and black top, she has a right nostril piercing and plenty of positive attitude. Im a woman of colour. Growing up, Ive never seen people that look like me in media, in fashion.

Frances, a disabled model who gets around using a pair of eye-catchingly futuristic crutches, revealed proudly that her disability didnt stop me from doing what I want.

Not here to exploit

For French, what makes a good ugly models is someone who is comfortable in his own skin. We dont want retouching, we dont want people to change the way they look. If someone comes to us a certain way, wed never say itd be better if he was smaller. Its really important. Theres so much pressure on young kids, he said.

The agency is also eager to counter any perception that it cynically exploits its models for their peculiarities. Sometimes weve had companies ring up and said: we want a small person that will kick themselves in the head. Woo... like no  thats wrong, said Lulu Palmer, a booker who is head of new faces. Were not here to exploit people, to take the mickey out of people.

Always on the lookout for new talent, the team admitted the company name can elicit less than enthusiastic responses from would-be models. But, said French, the minute they understand what Ugly is all about then they want to be a model.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreActor Emma Watson has donated one million pounds to a new campaign directed at helping victims of sexual harassment. The 27-year-old actor has contributed the whopping amount to the UK Justice and Equality Fund after nearly 200 female British and Irish stars signed an open letter calling for an end to sexual harassment in the workplace, The Independent reported.

Watson is one of the first donors to the campaign, which was set up by the 190 women who signed the open letter, which was published in The Observer. Actors such as Emma Thompson, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Chan and Keira Knightley, along with a group of 160 academics, activists and charity workers have also signed the letter.

The letter comes ahead of the upcoming BAFTA awards ceremony, calling it an occasion to celebrate this tremendous moment of solidarity and unity across borders by coming together and making this movement international.

This movement is bigger than just a change in our industry alone. In the very near past, we lived in a world where sexual harassment was an uncomfortable joke; an unavoidable awkward part of being a girl or a woman. If you have said times up, if the stories you have read in the papers have resonated and distressed you - join us in shifting the dial. Lets make 2018 the year that time was up on sexual harassment and abuse. This is your moment too, it further reads.

Women attending the Bafta Awards have also said they will be dressed in black on the red carpet in solidarity with Hollywoods Times Up movement.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreFormer star couple Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, who announced their separation earlier this week, might not have been legally married as there is no evidence about their wedding, a TMZ report has claimed.

The actress and actor-filmmaker seemed to be headed for a divorce court following the announcement of their split earlier this week, but based on TMZ.coms records search and sources, they may never have been married in the first place.

Aniston and Theroux announced the end of their two-year marriage and nearly seven-year relationship in a joint statement on Thursday. The pair, who shared a mansion in the upscale Bel Air neighbourhood of Los Angeles, met on the set of the 2008 film Tropic Thunder in Hawaii, and started dating in 2011. In an effort to reduce any further speculation, we have decided to announce our separation, the former couple said in the statement released by Anistons publicist Stephen Huvane.

However, Tmz.com checked marriage records in Los Angeles County all the way back to 2010 and found that there is no record of a marriage license.

Theres a confidential marriage license, but the site was told they did not get one in Los Angeles County.

The celeb couple could have gotten a marriage license in any of the 57 other counties in California, but according to some of Anistons sources who have had regular contact with her for years, theres been talk for a long time they might not be legally married.

Tmz.com also checked with numerous divorce lawyers, and no one has been contacted either by Aniston or Theroux.

It was the second marriage for former Friends star Aniston, who wed Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt in 2000 -- forming one of Tinseltowns most glamorous couples at the time. They divorced in 2005 after Pitt met Angelina Jolie, from whom he is now estranged, on the set of Mr and Mrs Smith. Theroux (Miami Vice, The Girl on the Train) was in a relationship with stylist Heidi Bivens for 14 years but the 46-year-old had never been married before meeting Aniston.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreTwo CPI(M) workers surrendered before the police on Sunday in connection with the murder of Youth Congress leader M Shuhaib, but the Congress cried foul saying they were dummy killers intended to protect the real culprits.

Aakash Thillangeri and Rijin Raj, two active workers of the party, went to a police station near Mattanoor with some local leaders and surrendered, said a senior police officer of north Kerala. Their surrender has exposed the CPI(M) leaderships repeated claim that the party had no role in the brutal murder.

On 11 February, a four-member gang had stabbed Shuhaib (29) after hurling bombs at him. He succumbed to his injuries a day later. The post-mortem report showed he had received 37 stab wounds.

We really doubt their role in the murder. It seems a drama enacted by the party to save its face. Real killers are still roaming around and the police dread to touch them due to political patronage, said Congress leader K Sudhakaran, former MP from Kannur. He has announced an indefinite fast from Monday protesting the delay in arresting the assailants.

The father of the victim also shared similar concerns saying those who had surrendered had nothing to do with the murder. I dont think they are involved. It seems a drama to control growing public anger, said father VP Muhamad, a Gulf returnee. He said he will move the court soon seeking CBI probe into his sons murder.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday toured the Taj Mahal with his wife and children as he began a week-long visit to promote trade and investment with India.

Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire and their three children posed for a family portrait before marvelling at the legendary marble monument frequently visited by foreign leaders during roadshows to India.

(AP)

It was Trudeaus first visit to India since taking office in 2015. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and efforts to expand trade will dominate an agenda also covering energy, education and infrastructure.

Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries, Trudeau tweeted before embarking on the trip.

(Reuters)

Trade between Canada and India has doubled in the last decade to just over $8 billion in 2016, a figure which Indias foreign ministry says does not reflect true potential.

Canada is home to more than 1.2 million Indians  more than three percent of its population  and Trudeau is joined by Sikh members of his cabinet for the visit.

(PTI)

The delegation will walk a diplomatic tightrope in Punjab where Trudeau will visit the Golden Temple  the holiest site in Sikhism, and the scene of a bloody massacre of religious separatists in 1984.

For decades Sikh separatists have been agitating for an independent state, and last year Punjabs chief minister accused Canadian defence minister Harjit Sajjan  who joins Trudeau on this trip -- of being sympathetic to their cause.

(PTI)

The Canadian premier will meet Indian political leaders, civil society figures and corporate executives between ceremonial visits to religious sites and national memorials.

Trudeau is scheduled to visit Modis home state of Gujarat on Monday before jetting off to Indias financial capital of Mumbai for talks with CEOs and business leaders the next day.

(Reuters)

After visiting Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday, Trudeau will meet Modi and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi following a welcome at the presidential palace and a wreath-laying at Mahatma Gandhis memorial.

Modi visited Canada in 2015 and addressed a crowd of 10,000 from the Indian diaspora in Toronto.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, plays with Hadrien as his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau,fourth left, daughter, daughter Ella-Grace, second left, and son Xavier watch during their visit to the Taj Mahal. (AP)At the banquet hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind and attended by dignitaries led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday night, visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ended his speech by saying that Tehran was committed to suppling for all energy needs as well as transportation requirements of India.

Dr Rouhanis speech indicated that Iran was going back to its time-tested friends such as India after a high from 2015 nuclear deal, which is now being questioned by US President Donald Trump.

The operationalisation of Chabahar port, 72 kilometers west of the Gwadar port developed by China, after Indian ratification of the International Road Transport (TIR) convention is going to be a game-changer in India-Afghanistan-Iran relations. In the next three years, India is committed to laying a 600-kilometre railroad from Chabahar port to Zahedan, which will provide seamless export of Indian goods and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan via the Zalranj-Delaram axis without interference from Pakistan.

Zalranj in Nirmuz is connected to Chabahar while Delaram in Farah province has access to the Herat-Kandahar highway in Afghanistan. That Pakistan will do its utmost to play spoilsport is evident from the fact that Taliban looted two of the 25 containers of wheat, sent to Afghanistan from Kandla port last October, near Mazar-e-Sharif.

The development of the Chabahar port with the trilateral trade and transit agreement between India-Iran-Afghanistan will also open the international north-south transport corridor all the way up to Central Asia, Russia and Europe.

In short, if India presses the accelerator and delivers on time, this route has the potential to rival the Chinese one-belt-one-road (OBOR) initiative. Time is of the essence as it took 15 years for India and Iran to operationalise the Chabahar port after it was first proposed during the National Democratic Alliance regime under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While New Delhi put the project on the backburner due to its impact on international sanctions against Tehran at that time, the latter also proceeded slowly based on its own priorities.

During President Rouhanis visit, there were positive developments towards India having a stake in the Farzad B gas field in the Persian Gulf. With the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline not working out due to Islamabads intransigent attitude, the other option is to have a deep-sea pipeline via Chabahar or Bandar Abbas to Kandla port in Maharashtra to extract natural gas from Iran. Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhans presence at the banquet signalled the importance of Iran in the Indian energy security calculus.

From the Indian perspective, apart from Chabahar and the trade corridor, the Iran visit is also a part of New Delhis efforts towards bridging the Shia-Sunni divide in West Asia. Before he hosted President Rouhani, Modi cemented ties with UAE and Oman. Indias ties with West Asia will further be boosted when King Abdullah of Jordan arrives in New Delhi on February 28.The Congress on Sunday expelled youth leader and MLA NA Haris son, Mohammed Haris Nalapad, for six years after reports emerged that he assaulted a person in a pub. Nalapad was the general secretary of the Youth Congress in Bengaluru.

Nalapad allegedly assaulted the person at the pub on Vittal Mallya road around 11.30pm on Saturday, police said. Police identified the assault victim as Vidwath.

The victims friend, Praveen, who was with him at the pub, said, Nalapad walked into the pub and took offence to the way Vidwath was sitting with his leg stretched out. Vidwath told him he was sitting so because his leg was fractured.

According to Praveen, Nalapad was not convinced and had a heated exchange with Vidwath. A while later, a bunch of people came and beat up Vidwath, said Praveen.

The pub is under Shantinagar assembly constituency limits. Nalapads father is the MLA from Shantinagar constituency.

Praveen alleged that the pub management did not come to their aid and he had to rush a bleeding Vidwath to Mallya Hospital, where he is being treated.

Based on Praveens complaint, Cubbon Park police registered a case against Nalapad and 10 others under sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 147 (rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. We are looking for Nalapad and the other accused, said an officer of Cubbon Park police station who asked not to be named.

We are also looking into the allegation that Nalapad went to the hospital late at night to threaten Vidwath and prevent him from filing a complaint with the police, added the police officer.

MLA Haris could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts. News agency ANI quoted him as saying, I dont know where he (Nalapad) iscurrently. Whoever does wrong is wrong, be it the son of an MLA or anyone else. I have always advised my son to never do anything wrong. I will see that my son does not do anything like this again.

State Congress president G Parameshwara said the party would not tolerate such incidents. He tweeted that the victim will be served justice.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah, too, said the guilty would be brought to book.

Offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.@CPBlr will take action as per law and bring the guilty to book. https://t.co/H0Km8zauVz  Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) February 18, 2018

Karnataka is headed for election this year and politics heated up around the assault.

Former CM and state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa tweeted, I am appalled at & strongly condemn the ghastly attack by MLA NA Harris son on innocent Vidwath. @CPBlr Police must arrest the culprit & his goons to restore public confidence in rule of law. Congress MLA must counsel his absconding son to surrender.

Former CM and Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy said, I call upon the government to punish the son of the MLA because it is unacceptable when such people attack the general public.The Modi government has announced a series of steps to alleviate farm distress, promising profitable prices for farmers after a wave of protests in many states. The agrarian crisis could affect the electoral prospects of the BJP in several states where it is in power, despite farm loan waivers. In an interview with Zia Haq, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh listed the governments plan to address the issue. Excerpts:

Farmers have demanded a comprehensive measure of costs called C2 to calculate 50% profits promised in the Budget. What measure of costs will the government settle on?

The government will set MSP at 1.5 times the cost of production, so that there is minimum of 50% profit over cost of production based on the prevailing method used by the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices. By this, all the paid out costs of the farmers, both in cash and kind will come to be taken into account.

Further, imputed value of the family labour will also be accounted for. The CACP is free to recommend profit margin even beyond the threshold level of 50%, as it deems appropriate. With a minimum of 50%, all notified crops will stand to benefit. In particular, millets and oilseeds will benefit, bringing advantage to rain-fed farmers. The National Farmers Commission too had suggested 50% margin on the cost of cultivation.

Unless theres actual procurement or buying of produce by the government, MSPs are at best notional.

The government is committed to honouring the notified MSPs. In the earlier years, governments have only notified the MSPs, without providing for a back up procurement except in a few cases like wheat and paddy. Our government has been focusing on procurement of multiple crops such as pulses, oilseeds and cotton as seen in the last 2-3 years. It is worth mentioning that procurement of pulses, oilseeds and cotton during years 2014-18 has registered an increase of 285% in quantity which is worth 417% times more in terms of value as against 2011-14.

The budget has promised a mechanism soon to ensure farmers will be compensated for market losses. What mechanism are you zeroing in on?

The Niti Aayog and the ministry of agriculture will be working on various procurement interventions. There are two, three models being studied. Essentially the broad policy will be, that if prices fall below MSP, then there will definitely be government intervention to ensure that farmers are compensated adequately in accordance with the notified MSP.

Various alternatives, including that adopted by Madhya Pradesh will be examined for this purpose. Niti Aayog and ministry of agriculture are jointly holding a meeting in March first week with all the states to discuss alternatives. I have already written to all the chief ministers in this regard. We need the states to partner with us in this initiative to support the farmers, in monetizing their produce suitably.

However, our primary aim is to create an efficient market structure in the country, such that farmers get remunerative prices which are above MSP. MSP based procurement should be seen as a fall back mechanism, whereby, the farmers are sure of getting at least MSP for their produce, particularly when markets fail.

MSPs are announced for only 23 crops. Farmers grow many crops for which MSPs arent even fixed. For example, vegetables. What about them?

In case of crops for which MSPs are not notified and if such produce forms more than 10% of a states agricultural output in the previous year and if prices in the market fall below a certain level, then Government shall intervene through Market Intervention Scheme (MIS). Our Government has by amending the Guidelines raised the limit of procurement to 20% of the states annual estimated production from the earlier limit of 10%.

Also read: Policy on agricultural markets to be framed after taking states views, says ministerThe Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought to establish that family members of the then chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had interests in land in Manesar in Gurgaon district that was dropped from acquisition on his orders in 2007, after several acres were bought allegedly at low prices by builders using the Congress governments acquisition plan as a tactic to effect panic sale by farmers.

Besides Hooda, three of his former aides and a number of realty firms have been charged with criminal conspiracy, fraud and corruption by the CBI in the scam, said to be worth Rs 1,500 crore. The case is that the government in 2005 announced to acquire 912 acres for facilities at Industrial Model Township (IMT), Manesar, which led to hasty sale of about 400 acres to builders by farmers fearing measly compensation. The acquisition plan was scrapped in 2007, and licences for housing and commercial development were granted to builders over this land. After coming to power in Haryana, the BJP regime ordered a CBI probe in 2015.

The 163-page chargesheet document submitted before a CBI court on February 2 says investigations have revealed that three companies  Flair Realtors Pvt Ltd, Metropolis Realtors Pvt Ltd and Metropolis Infrastructure Pvt Ltd  purchased about 52 acres land in Manesar that was under acquisition on May 23, 2006. Gaurav Choudhry and Deepak Choudhry were directors of these companies. On August 24, 2007, after acquisition was dropped and companies sought to develop residential colonies, change-of-land-use (CLU) approval for five acres was granted to Flair Realtors and Metropolis Realtors. The fee (Rs 57.39 lakh) was paid to the town and country planning department by Millenia Infrastructure Pvt Ltd in which Sukhinder Hooda (Monu), a nephew of the then CM, was a director. Another director of Millenia, Arvind Walia, is a maternal uncle of Gaurav Choudhry, director of Flair Realtors. Arvind Walia had collaboration agreement with Flair Realtors and Metropolis Realtors for construction of a school on the land for which CLU was granted. Thus, it is revealed that the family members of Bhupinder Singh Hooda had business interest in this CLU, the CBI chargesheet says.

Hooda, when contacted, said, How is Sukhinder involved ? There was no land purchased by him, adding, I have not received a copy of the chargesheet.

Quid pro quo charges on Chhatar

The chargesheet also says that Chhatar Singh, a since-retired IAS officer who served as principal secretary to CM (Hooda), in a suspected transaction sold a 12-marla house (location not clear in CBI document) for Rs 1.5 crore to one Alka Gupta, wife of Ranjan Gupta, of Greater Kailash, New Delhi. Chhatar got the money through cheque in May 2010 but the sale deed was executed five months later, on October 4.

Surprisingly, within 17 days of purchase the same property was sold by Alka Gupta on October 21, 2010, just for Rs 70 lakh to one Birmati of Munirka, New Delhi... Gupta thus bore a loss of Rs 80 crore in the purchase of this property, the CBI has said. This Rs 80 lakh paid apparently more than the market value is being seen as a reward to Chhatar for grant of project licences on the Gurgaon land.

Heres how. The CBI said that it was found that Ranjan Gupta was engaged in real estate business and was a director in Krish Build Tech Pvt Ltd, a group company of Aditya Build Well (ABW), one of the firms booked in the scam. He has business transactions with Atul Bansal, the main beneficiary of the land release and director of ABW Infrastructure to whom six licences on 164 acres were granted. The CBI thus says that loss of Rs 80 lakh borne by Guptas in the deal was nothing but a reward to Chhatar Singh on account of grant of six licenses to Atul Bansal and his companies.

Ranjan Gupta and Alka Gupta had never met Chhatar Singh before this deal. They purchased his house on the request of one Vashisht Goyal. Even at the time of the deal or anytime before the purchase, the Guptas did not visit Singhs property. Investigations have revealed that the former IAS officer managed to sell his property to Guptas through a former Haryana law officer, Sanjeev Bansal, notes the chargesheet.

Chhatar, when contacted, said he did not want to comment as the matter is in court and I am not aware of the contents of the chargesheet.Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma is a busy man. He is fighting a tough battle to ward off the BJP to ensure another term for the Congress in the Northeastern state.

The voting for 60-member assembly is to be held on February 27 and to ensure that the party gets past the majority mark of 31, the 52-year-old Sangma is contesting two seats  Ampati and Songsak, a first for him.

His family members are doing their bit as well.

The chief ministers wife, Dikkanchi D Shira, is seeking re-election from Mahendraganj on a Congress ticket.

Sangmas brother, Zenith, is in the running from Rangsakona and Zeniths wife, Sadhiarani M Sangma, makes her electoral debut from Gambegre. Both are Congress candidates.

The states first familys poll-run in not an aberration. In fact, the assembly election is one big family affair in Meghalaya, where 55 of the 60 seats are reserved for scheduled tribes.

Family and tribal ties, obviously, play an important role in swinging poll fortunes, a trend causing a concern.

So many candidates with family ties getting party tickets just shows that these politicians want to appropriate more powers within the family. Its not even democratic anymore and is kind of oligarchy, said Patricia Mukhim, editor of The Shillong Times.

Another Sangma family  the one of former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma  is in the race. The late leaders elder son James is contesting as the National Peoples Party (NPP) candidate from Dadenggre.

The party, which is an ally of the ruling NDA at the Centre but has not tied with the BJP for the state election, has fielded Jamess sister, Agatha, from South Tura.

In South Tura, there is a battle within the family as well.

Agathas cousin, Aanamika G Momin, is going up against the 37-year-old former MP as an Independent candidate.

Meghalayas richest candidate Ngaitlang Dhar is seeking re-election on NPP ticket from Umroi. His brother and former minister, Sniawbhalang, is looking to retain Nartiang.

Two more family members are in the fray as NPP candidates --- Dhars 25-year-old son, Dasakhiatbha Lamare, from Mawhati and Sniawbhalangs brother-in-law, Wailadmiki Shylla, from Jowai.

Former minister Donkupar Massar is also seeking re-election from Ranikor, but as an NPP candidate. His wife, Grace Mary Kharpuri, is the candidate of rival party the Peoples Democratic Front from Pynursla.

Theres a father-daughter duo in the mix as well. PM Syiem and his daughter, Teilinia S Thangkhiew, are contesting as Hill State Peoples Democratic Party candidates from Mawphlang and Mylliem seats.

Adding to the numbers are former Meghalaya speaker Charles Pyngrope and his son, David Nongrum, both Congress candidates from Nongthymmai and Mawryngkneng.

This kind of family politics is bad for the state and there should be a debate among voters on whether such candidates should get votes. But sadly most voters dont seem concerned, said Agnes Kharsiing, president of Civil Society Womens Organisation, a Shillong-based NGO.

The voters view of the family politics will be known on March 3, the counting day.Some memories, it is said, are carved on stone.

In Chhoti Haldwani, they form a wall of stone, encircling 180-odd families living in the quaint, little village in Uttarakhands Nainital district.

Its the village adopted by a man lovingly called Carpet Sahib in the hills and valleys of the Himalayan state. To rest of the world, he is the legendary hunter-turned-conservationist Edward James Corbett. For most, he is simply Jim Corbett.

The 5-km-long and 5-feet-tall wall was erected by Corbett around 1925 as a buffer between the villagers and wild animals as the area was teeming with tigers and leopards at that time, often attacking cattle and killing humans across the state.

Corbett is credited with killing several man-eater tigers and leopards in Kumaon and Garhwal regions which he had immortalised in such classics like Man-Eater Leopard of Rudraprayag and the Man-Eaters of Kumaon.

Corbett, born and brought up in Nainital, adopted Chhoti Haldwani in 1915 after leaving his job in the railways. He lived in the village briefly before leaving for Kenya where he passed away in 1955 at the age of 79.

Village elders said there has not even been a single instance of a big cat killing a human in Chhoti Haldwani for more than 100 years though such incidents are common across the state, where a growing human population often triggers deadly man-animal conflicts with loss of life on both sides.

A sign in stone thanking visitors who come to this Jim Corbett Heritage Village in Nainital district. (HT File Photo)

Rough estimates put the number of people killed by tigers since 2000  when the state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh  at around 30. During the same period, nearly 300 people have been killed by leopards.

Although big cats (have) killed a few bovines but luckily no villager (of Chhoti Haldwani) was ever killed or injured by a tiger or leopard, said Trilok Singh, 71, whose father Sher Singh frequently accompanied Corbett in hunting expeditions.

The villagers are dependent on the forests for fodder for bovines and firewood and often come across wild animals.

But the villagers still draw from lessons imparted to them by Corbett about animal behaviour and how to deal with such situations (see chart).

Since the village was surrounded by jungle and the movement of wild animals was frequent, therefore Corbett after talking to villagers decided to erect the wall from his hard-earned savings, said Mohan Pande, who heads the Corbett Gram Vikas Samiti, a society to promote eco-tourism.

The village is located about 40 km from the Corbett National Park, an area the conservationist was instrumental in converting into a protected zone.

The village is also one among a cluster of 25 villages on the edge of the thick forests of Pawalgarh tiger conservation reserve  a breeding ground of leopards, tigers and form its prey base.

Pawalgarh was declared conservation reserve in 2015  the year when Corbetts village turned 100. One of Corbetts most fascinating hunting story is recorded in his book, The Bachelor of Powalgarh, about an outsized Royal Bengal Tiger he had killed though it was not a man-eater.

Bivash Pandav and expert on big cats at the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, said Chhoti Haldwani is an example of how human and animals can live in close proximity without disturbing each other. And he attributed this to Corbetts teachings.

Mohan Pandey, who acts as a guide for tourists keen to spot tigers drinking at the Baur river, said he has been trying to spread the word among visitors and locals on the importance of a balancing act between wildlife and sustainability.

As per the 2014 census, Corbett had the highest estimated tiger population at 215, followed by Bandipur (120 tigers) in Karnataka and Kaziranga Tiger Reserve (103 each) in Assam. In tiger population, Uttarakhand with an estimated 340 tigers is ranked second after Karnataka which had 406.

Pandav said the reason for less human-animal conflict in Chhoti Haldwani and its surrounding areas could be attributed to the fact that the forests around Corbett reverse have a rich prey base essential for the big cats.

In the middle of the village, still stands a platform where Corbett used to sit and interact with villagers, sharing his experiences of the forests and giving lessons on protecting the tiger, whom he described as a large-hearted gentleman.

Singh said Corbetts lessons were passed down word-of-mouth to next generation.

And another prized possession of the village is a double-barrel rifle gifted by Corbett to Sher Singh and now owned by his son, Trilok.

But for the villagers, it has outgrown its utility as they dont need to kill wildlife for protection.

Carpet Sahibs wall is enough to ensure their sound sleep at night.Around 11% votes had been cast by 9am on Sunday, two hours after polling opened in Tripura, where the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front faces a challenge from the BJP in its quest for a sixth successive term. (Live updates)

Amid tight security a large number of voters, including women and youth, started queuing up at polling booths early in the morning. Voting closes at 4pm.

Around 2.5 million voters will decide the fate for 292 candidates who are in the race for 59 of the 60 assembly seats being voted for on Sunday.

The voting for Charilam constituency was rescheduled to March 12 after the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma.

Snags in electronic voting machines and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units delayed the start of polling in some stations, reports said.

Additional chief electoral officer Tapas Roy said the complaints had been looked into. VVPATs are fine. No machine is out of order. As people were casting votes through VVPATs (for the first time), they faced some problems, he said.

The CPI(M), which leads the ruling coalition, is contesting 56 seats while partners -- RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI  have fielded one candidate each.

The BJP, which has tied up with the tribal outfit Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT), has fielded 51 candidates. The IPFT, an anti-Left party, will contest the remaining nine.

The Congress is going it alone and is contesting 59 seats. There are around 2.5 million registered voters, of which 1.3 million are males and 1.2 million females.

A total of 3,174 polling stations have been set up. Badharghat, which has the highest number of voters -- 57,394 -- has 70 polling stations, the most for an assembly segment in the state.

On the other hand, Karbook, a seat reserved for scheduled tribes, has the least, 34,699 voters. Twenty seats are reserved for the scheduled tribes.

State director general of police Akhil Kumar Shukla said security measures were in place to ensure free and fair polls.

He said 300 companies of central armed forces were deployed along with state armed personnel and police, while the Border Security Force was keeping a vigil along the 856km-long India-Bangladesh border.

The counting of votes will take place on March 3, with that of Nagaland and Meghalaya that vote on February 27.

(With agency inputs)One of the worst Maoist-affected places in the country, Bastar in Chhattisgarhs Dantewada district got its first business process outsourcing (BPO) centre on Sunday, with about 400 tribal youths being hired to work in it.

Called Yuva, the BPO is managed by a private firm, Sixth Generation Technologies, and will provide customer services to client companies.

The youths, hired on probation at a monthly stipend of Rs 4,000, will undergo training in typing, technologies, and speaking English before they are put on the job.

Project in-charge, Somya Chakraborthy said on confirmation, the youths could be paid more as per the companies that hire them for their services.

At least 10 companies, including two international, have shown interest in using services of Yuva.

Housed in the Government Polytechnic College building, Yuva has taken benefit of the Centres Indian BPO Promotion Scheme to get subsidised infrastructure.

The idea is to provide the tribal youths employment here itself, Dantewada collector, Saurabh Kumar said, stressing that there were difficulties in setting up the BPO, but officials managed to overcome them.

Chakraborthy said the youths will be trained to type 3540 English words per minute as per the industry standard, and speak English fluently, besides handling gadgets and different technologies. Hostel accommodation and food come free during this period. After this, they will be sent to Hyderabad for a final training.

Chakraborthy also said that though there was a capacity for 1,000 youths, initially, 400 were hired on probation. The next phase of the recruitment will start soon, he added.

Initially, it was very difficult to find these youths. Then we came up with an offer for computer institutes in the region that if they provide training to candidates and give them to Yuva, they will be given Rs 1,000 per candidate. This worked and many kids came, he said.

The youths from different parts of Bastar, who are mostly tribals, are selected in this project.

We have candidates from Barsur, Kistagram , Bijapur and Sukma and all come from Maoist-affected areas, an officer working on the project said.

He also said there was an idea to make this a green BPO. We are working on solar projects and soon everything in the BPO will be run on solar plant, he added.A group of Maoists attacked forest guards inside Kanha National Park in Mandla district on February 12, beat them up, snatched their wireless set and mobiles, and set fire to their maps and topography sheets.

Additional director general of Balaghat zone, J Janardhan, confirmed the attack. This is the first time Maoists attacked forest officials in the tribal district of Mandla, situated some 400km east of Bhopal.

Police said the Maoists were from outfits Vistaar Dalam, which has its presence in Balaghat, the only Madhya Pradesh district affected by left-wing extremism, according to the Centres reckoning. Both Balaghat and neigbouring Mandla district border Chhattisgarh.

Police said more than 20 Maoists attacked the forest officials at two outposts in the park.

On a complaint from the forest department, police registered two cases on Sunday.

The Vistaar Dalam is believed to have between 70 and 100 Maoists.

No incidents of Maoist violence were reported from Balaghat in 2017, but 16 were reported in 2016. In January this year, Maoists killed a person after branding him a police informer.

Janardan said forces were on high alert. I inspected the area today. The Vistaar Dalam members are rattled that we have killed five of their members in three separate encounters in the past few months and they are trying to assert themselves again.The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate from Williamnagar seat in East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya, Jonathone Nengminza Sangma, and two of his security guards were reportedly killed in a militant attack on Sunday evening.

Reports said the incident took place around 7.50pm at Samanda, a remote location nearly 245km from state capital Shillong, when the candidate was returning to Williamnagar from poll campaigning. We have reports of an IED blast, which claimed some lives. The details are not available as the police team is yet to reach the spot and confirm, Meghalaya police DGP SB Singh said at 10:00pm.

The 43-year-old had contested from the same seat in 2013 as an Independent candidate. This time, there are eight other candidates from the seat including education minister Deborah C Marak, who is contesting on a Congress ticket. Meghalaya goes to polls on February 27.

Locals say the Garo National Liberation Army, a rebel outfit fighting for a sovereign Garoland, had put up posters in Williamnagar threatening voters with dire consequences if they vote Sangma. We have reports there were seven people in the vehicle when the incident happened. Since there is no mobile network in the area, we are not sure about the exact details, said Meghalaya chief electoral officer FR Kharkongor.

We have reports that there were seven people in the vehicle when the incident happened. Since there is no mobile network in the area where the incident took place, we are not sure about the exact details, said Meghalaya chief electoral officer FR Kharkongor.

Incidentally, Jonathone had filed a case in 2013 against Deborah, the winner from the seat five years ago, accusing her of taking help of a terrorist outfit to intimidate voters during the polls.

Deborah had won the seat in 2013 securing 8,402 votes while Jonathone had come second with 5,525 votes.

Jonathone, who is a matriculate, also had a case filed against him in 2012 under sections 493 and 417 on charges of cheating and cohabitation caused by a deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage.The Opposition kept up the heat on the government on Sunday, asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak up on the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank fraud involving billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi questioned Modis silence on one of the biggest banking scandals in the country.

PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hrs, but wont speak for 2 mins on the 22,000Cr banking scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if youre guilty! Speak up, the Congress leader tweeted on Sunday.

PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hrs, but won't speak for 2 mins on the 22,000Cr banking scam.



Mr Jaitley is in hiding.



Stop behaving as if you're guilty! Speak up. #ModiRobsIndia  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 18, 2018

He was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding an interaction with students ahead of annual school exams.

The Congress has said the scam is much bigger than what is being said and the government had allowed yet another person to flee the country after cheating banks.

Gandhi on Saturday even drew a link with demonetisation, saying the fraud started when the PM banned Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes and when he took out all public money and put it into the banking system.

A day later, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, too, said the same.

Big money laundering happened during DeMo. Key bank officials were changed. Who are these people put in? There are more banks involved. The full truth must come out, she tweeted.

Read: Punjab National Bank hit by Rs 11,400-crore fraud: Heres what we know so far

In a surprise decision, the government had in November 2016 banned 500 and 1,000-rupee notes in a bid to curb black money and fake currency.

Banerjee has asked senior party leaders to launch a campaign in the state to tell people that the Centre was influencing banks to deprive farmers and self-help groups of small loans, while allowing the super-rich to launder money.

We will tell people that this is how Narendra Modi is repaying his debts to industrialists who spent crores in 2014 to get Modi in power, state agriculture marketing minister Tapan Dasgupta said.

Banerjee is one of the most vocal opponents of the Modi government and the BJP, which is looking to expand its presence in West Bengal.

BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha accused Banerjee of spreading lies to protect the Congress. The scam took place in UPA regime and the government at that time let it happen. The UPAs involvement in the scam has become evident from Allahabad Banks former director Dinesh Dubeys statement.

A former nominated director of Allahabad Bank, Dubey has said loans were granted to Choksis Gitanjali Gems despite his objections. A former journalist, Dubey said he was pressured into quitting the board.

Banerjee had no right to speak on corruption because several of her partys top leaders were accused in the Saradha chit fund scandal, he said.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on Saturday hit out at the Congress-led UPA, saying, The original sin was committed in 2011 with help of delinquent officials. Letters of undertaking with currency of 90 days were not put into the core banking system; they were with the delinquent officer who kept files under his control.

The ruling BJP and the Congress have traded charges and blamed each other ever since the PNB lodged complaints about the fraud with the CBI.On 14 February, state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) disclosed that it has discovered $ 1.77-billion (around Rs 11,400 crore) worth of fraudulent transactions at one of its Mumbai branches. In a complaint to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the lender named firms and people associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi to connived with some of its officials to defraud the bank using bank guarantees. For those who came late, here is a primer based on CBIs first information reports and public information available so far:

What is the fraud about?

Two PNB employees sent unauthorised letters of undertakings (LoUs), essentially bank guarantees, to foreign branches of Indian lenders, on behalf of firms related to Nirav Modi and the Gitanjali Group. The LoUs basically told these other lenders: Lend money to Nirav Modi firms so that they can pay for their imports. If they dont pay up, we will make good this payment.

Whats irregular about this?

In the normal course, when an importer goes to a bank to ask for such a guarantee, one of two things happens. One, the bank asks him for collateral before it gives a guarantee. This collateral could be property in his name, or a fixed deposit with the bank. Second, the bank sanctions a credit limit. That means it will evaluate the importer (just like a lender asks for your income proof and address proof before giving you a home loan) and says he is good to be given a loan for a certain amount; but no money actually changes hands.

TRACKING THE CASE As probe into PNB case widens, a look at what led to the loan fraud JANUARY  1: Nirav Modi leaves India

 6: Mehul Choksi, Modis uncle and head of the Gitanjali Group, leaves India

 16: Nirav Modi group representatives approach PNBs branch seeking issuance of letter of undertakings for raising buyers credit. New set of bank officials insist on cash margins, which the group contests

 16-24: Closer scrutiny of books shows earlier letters of undertaking (LoUs, essentially guarantees) issued to the group firms made without entries in banks books and without supporting documentation. PNB holds a series of meetings with the firms, asking them to pay the amounts and provide necessary documentation related to the imports

 25: First set of LoU liabilities related to 3 Modi group firms amounting to Rs 281 crore mature

 29: PNB files a fraud complaint against Modi group firms with RBI. Moves to register FIR with CBI Nirav Modi leaves IndiaMehul Choksi, Modis uncle and head of the Gitanjali Group, leaves IndiaNirav Modi group representatives approach PNBs branch seeking issuance of letter of undertakings for raising buyers credit. New set of bank officials insist on cash margins, which the group contestsCloser scrutiny of books shows earlier letters of undertaking (LoUs, essentially guarantees) issued to the group firms made without entries in banks books and without supporting documentation. PNB holds a series of meetings with the firms, asking them to pay the amounts and provide necessary documentation related to the importsFirst set of LoU liabilities related to 3 Modi group firms amounting to Rs 281 crore maturePNB files a fraud complaint against Modi group firms with RBI. Moves to register FIR with CBI FEBRUARY  4: CBI issues lookout notice against Nirav Modi

 5: PNB informs stock exchanges about the Rs 281 crore fraud involving the Modi group

 7: PNB files fraud complaint against the Mehul Choksi promoted Gitanjali group companies with RBI for Rs 65 crore LOU liability due on February 9. FIR filed against these companies with CBI

 12: Total fraud of Rs 11,394 crore detected involving Modi group firms, Gitanjali group firms and Chandri Paper and Allied Products Pvt Ltd dating to 2011

 13: Bank files fresh FIR with CBI and registers complaint with Enforcement Directorate

 14: Bank informs the stock exchanges of the magnitude of the fraud

 15: ED conducts raids across 17 locations; attaches properties worth Rs 5,100 crore

 16: MEA suspends Modi and Choksis passport; CBI seeks Interpol help amid reports in several media outlets that the billionaire jeweller is in New York

 17: The CBI arrests a former employee of PNB who is believed to be a key figure in the fraud disclosed by the countrys second-largest state-run lender earlier this week. Two other persons are also arrested, including a key employee of Modi. CBI issues lookout notice against Nirav ModiPNB informs stock exchanges about the Rs 281 crore fraud involving the Modi groupPNB files fraud complaint against the Mehul Choksi promoted Gitanjali group companies with RBI for Rs 65 crore LOU liability due on February 9. FIR filed against these companies with CBITotal fraud of Rs 11,394 crore detected involving Modi group firms, Gitanjali group firms and Chandri Paper and Allied Products Pvt Ltd dating to 2011Bank files fresh FIR with CBI and registers complaint with Enforcement DirectorateBank informs the stock exchanges of the magnitude of the fraudED conducts raids across 17 locations; attaches properties worth Rs 5,100 croreMEA suspends Modi and Choksis passport; CBI seeks Interpol help amid reports in several media outlets that the billionaire jeweller is in New YorkThe CBI arrests a former employee of PNB who is believed to be a key figure in the fraud disclosed by the countrys second-largest state-run lender earlier this week. Two other persons are also arrested, including a key employee of Modi.

Read | How Punjab National Bank fell victim to Indias biggest bank fraud

In the PNB fraud case, the bank employees had sent these guarantees in the absence of credit limits and collateral security (in Modis case). Secondly, they didnt make an entry in the banks core banking system  the software used to support a banks most common transactions, which also acts as a record keeper. In some cases, they made a corresponding entry in the core banking system, but for lower amounts.

Why would an importer use this convoluted method to raise money?

There are multiple reasons. For one, he has raised money in foreign currency to pay for goods bought abroad. Second, the cost of such foreign currency borrowings abroad is typically lower.

What happens when the foreign bank or branch receives this guarantee?

When the foreign bank or branch receives the guarantee, for example from PNB, it will give a loan to the importer. That means it will deposit money either in the account of the supplier whos selling goods to the importer, or in PNBs account held with it. The tenure of this loan varies from ninety days up to even five years for capital goods. The money gets used to settle the payment for imports. Then, when the term of the loan is up and the importer makes money from reselling the goods he imported, he will pay this sum to PNB with interest. PNB in turn will settle with the.

What happened in this case?

According to the CBI FIR, in many transactions, the money raised through this guarantees was not used to make payments for imports. But it was used to settle earlier loans taken. In effect, every time a Nirav Modi related firm asked for a bank guarantee it was to settle an older loan taken through a previous bank guarantee. Thus, the amounts piled up to around Rs 11,400 crore.

How was this detected?

According to the FIR, two junior employees of PNB had been sending these unauthorised guarantees for seven years. Then one of them retired. In January, when representatives of Modi firms asked for a fresh guarantee, the new PNB employee in that position asked for collateral security. On being told that this was never asked for in the past, the bank started investigating and found hundreds of guarantees relating to these firms.

You mean no one thought to check this earlier?

PNBs defense is that the SWIFT messaging system used to send these guarantees was not linked to its core banking system. SWIFT stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Experts also said that a concurrent audit  an audit of transactions done as they happen by internal or external auditors  should have caught this. Wont someone look at the money deposited in PNBs overseas accounts? Wont someone reconcile SWIFT messages with the money that was transmitted through PNBs systems? The jury is out on how many people at different executive levels are involved  either directly or because of negligence.

What happens now for PNB?

PNB is left holding bank guarantees worth Rs 11,400 crore which it has to pay to, among others, State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank and Union Bank. These payments are due over the next few months. The bank has tried to shift some of the blame to these banks. In a caution notice to the chiefs of other banks it essentially said this: You should have done more due diligence before giving out loans. Didnt you notice that these guarantees are for one year, much above the RBI allowance of 90 days for the diamond industry?

Other banks arent buying these arguments. They say: We took an exposure on PNB, a state-owned bank (and an implicit bet on the Indian Union) not on a diamond merchant. It is still a gray area on who will actually pay up and how the burden will shared.

So, the banking system will take another Rs 11,400 crore on top of its huge bad loans problem of Rs 10 trillion?

Not necessarily. There will be some recoveries. For instance, the enforcement directorate has claimed it has already recovered gold, precious stones and diamonds worth around Rs 5,500 crore (although that valuation is debatable for an asset like diamonds). In any case, the entire Rs 11,400 crore which was raise for loans would either be in the form of diamonds (in case of genuine imports) or stashed away somewhere in other assets (if it had been diverted). It remains to be seen how much can be recovered.At least 76 per cent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise for the Assembly polls on Sunday in Tripura, where the BJP is trying to dislodge the Left Front after an unbroken 25-year stint in power, officials said.

The polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was peaceful with thousands of central paramilitary forces fanning across the northeastern state.

There were reports of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some polling stations which were rectified.

Here are the highlights:

9.35pm: Voter turnout till now (around 9 pm) is 78.56 %. Voting is still underway at few polling stations. Voting slips were distributed till 4 pm and those voters are at the booths: EC

7.15pm: 76% voter turnout in 41 constituencies, ANI reports.

5.24pm: EC says voter turnout is 74% till 4pm and is expected to go up as people are still waiting in line.

No incidents of violence were reported from anywhere in the state. Two crude bombs were recovered which were disposed off, says Election Commission.

5.23pm: EC says polling has been rescheduled to March 12 in one constituency because of one candidates demands.

5.20pm: There were several complaints of malfunctioning of EVMs, many were found to be false. Twelve ballot units were replaced, says Election Commission during press conference.

5.13pm: The VVPAT was used for the first time in all the polling booths in Tripura: Election Commission

4.10pm: ANI reports 65% voter turnout till 3pm.

3.14pm: A number of EVMs and VVPAT system in the state have been reported to be malfunctioning. Indo-Tibetan Border Police jawans are deployed at polling booth centers in South Tripura and Gomati.

2.05pm: In the 2013 and 2008 Assembly polls, Tripura scripted a record in the electoral history in India by casting 92 per cent and 91 per cent votes respectively.

2pm: An election department official said snags in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) attached with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) in over 150 polling stations, resulted in slow balloting across the state.

1.45pm: It (polling) is going on smoothly. We hope the momentum carries on. There were couple of issues in EVMs in the morning. Our team has resolved the issue. We will be able to complete polling before the stipulated time: Sriram Taranikanti, Chief Electoral Officer Tripura.

1.28pm: The PM had appealed the people of Tripura to come out to vote. We are confident that people will listen to him and join us in our slogan of Chalo Paltai, says BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav.

1.15pm: 45.86% turnout till 1pm.

1.10pm: Tripura BJP chief Biplab Kumar Deb says CPI-M cannot win by threatening voters.

1pm: Congress candidate Birajit Sinha has accused polling officers of misbehavior. He said the DM was called and polling process then continued peacefully.

12.30pm: Chief Electoral Officer of Tripura Sriram Taranikanti said a team of 180 engineers is working to solve EVM snags. He said no incidents of violence have been reported.

12pm: CPI-M candidate Bijoy Laxmi Singha alleges rough behaviour from security staff at Kamalpurs polling booths 54 and 55.

11.33am: 23.25% turnout recorded till 11am, reports ANI.

11.20am: According to reports, voting in various polling booths has been delayed due to technical issues in EVMs. Polling is yet to kick off in constituencies such as Kurti-Kadamtala, Bamutia and Bagbasa. The chief election officer has stated that the replacement of the machines is on.

11am: Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore too has urged the people to vote in huge numbers.

10.41am: CM Manik Sarkars wife said she was confident that the ruling CPI-M would continue to stay in power.

10.20am: BJP national president Amit Shah tweets, I urge all my brothers and sisters of Tripura to come out and vote in large numbers. Your one vote will lay the foundation of a prosperous and developed Tripura.

10.15am: According to an All India Radio, EVM malfunctioning reports have surfaced in a Banamalipur constituency polling booth. In Badarghat constituency, one EVM is also reported to be replaced.

10am: We want a government that can push for development in the state, and understand our problems and requirements, a voter told ANI.

9.50am: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, also an MLA from Dhanpur constituency, casts his vote in Agartala.

Tripura CM Manik Sarkar casts his vote at a polling booth in Agartala, he is an MLA from Dhanpur constituency #TripuraElection2018. pic.twitter.com/UniDo6VGIf  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

9.40am: 11% voters turnout recorded till 9 am.

9.15am: Polling in Agartala, the state capital.

Aerial shots from outside polling booth number 6/20 in Agartala's Bhati Abhay Nagar. BJP's Sudip Roy Barman is the sitting MLA from Agartala. #TripuraElection2018 pic.twitter.com/vX2Jg1gh2Q  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

8.50am: BJP Tripura president Biplab Kumar Deb cast his vote in Udaipur. Deb says, These election results will be historic, we will definitely win. PM & Amit Shah ji called me & gave good wishes.

Tripura BJP president Biplab Kumar Deb casts his vote on Sunday. (ANI Twitter)

8.15am: The CPI(M) dubbed unusual the appointment of a special observer for the Assembly election in Tripura on Saturday and objected to his closed-door meeting with the state BJP president.

8.10am: Manik Sarkar, who is running for his fifth term as the chief minister, led the CPI(M)s campaign addressing around 50 rallies in the state.

8am: Men and women in large numbers queued up in front of many polling stations well before polling opened at 7 a.m. in the entire state. Polling ends at 4 p.m., said Sriram Taranikanti, the Chief Electoral Officer.

7.45am: We want a government that can push for development in the state, say people outside a polling booth in Udaipur.

#TripuraElection2018: People queue to cast their votes at polling booth number 31/34 in Tripura's Udaipur, say, 'we want a government that can push for development in the state.' pic.twitter.com/oeck7Eg76e  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

7.30am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urges people of Tripura to cast their vote.

I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Tripura, particularly young voters, to turnout in record numbers and cast their vote in the Assembly Elections.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 18, 2018

7.15am:The much-awaited polling in this northeastern state will decide the electoral fortunes of 292 candidates, including 23 women. The BJP and the Congress party are looking to root out the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has been ruling the state for the past 25 years.

7.10am: Apprehending troubles by some tribal outfit, a record 50,000 paramilitary and other state security personnel have been deployed while two air surveillance team led by senior officials are conducting surveillance by helicopters, Sriram Taranikanti, the Chief Electoral Officer, said.

7am: Polling begins for 59 out of the total 60 seats.

Voters stand in a queue outside a polling booth in Udaipur, Tripura, on Sunday. (ANI Twitter)

(With inputs from Priyanka Deb Barman)It was a journey down memory lane for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who visited the Taj Mahal with his family on Sunday.

It was Trudeaus second visit to the monument, three decades after he visited it with his father who was then the prime minister of Canada.

About 35 years ago, when I was 11 years old, I came to India on an official trip with my father (former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau). I had come down to Agra from New Delhi to see the Taj Mahal, recalled Trudeau.

Accompanied by his wife Sophie Gregoire and his three children  Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien  Trudeau reached the monument at 10.40am and stayed for over an hour.

Dressed in a blue coat and brown trousers, he was accorded a traditional welcome by officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

For me, to be present on an official trip while bringing my kids with me to share this is really special and being able to enjoy this as a dad with my kids is really nice, the Canadian Prime Minister said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, plays with his son Hadrien as his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, second left, daughter, daughter Ella-Grace, left, and son Xavier watch during their visit to the Taj Mahal, in Agra, India, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018. (AP)

Senior superintendent of ASI Bhuvan Vikram Singh and an official guide accompanied the family as they visited the main mausoleum.

They saw the graves of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal while entering the main mausoleum.

Thank you for the wonderful visit to one of the most beautiful places in the world, Trudeau wrote in the visitors book before walking out of the monument at around 11.50am.

Taj Mahal gates were closed at 9.40am for the VVIPs visit and the monument remained closed for the public till the time the VVIP left, said Singh.

Braj Bhushan, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) commandant of the Taj Mahal unit in Agra, said the Canadian leader and his family were accorded special police protection.

The visit by the Canadian Prime Minister was good. We accorded special police protection to them, which is mandatory for any head of the state, who visits Taj Mahal. They spent quality time at the Taj Mahal and were there for one hour, said Bhushan.

Trudeau, who arrived in India on Saturday, is on a week-long state visit to the country.

(With inputs from agencies)Two CPI(M) activists on Sunday surrendered to the police in connection with the recent killing of Youth Congress leader Shuhabib at Mattanoor in the district, police officials said.

Akash and Rijin Raj, both in their thirties, went to the police station at Maloor, near Mattanoor, with a few other local CPI(M) workers and surrendered to the authorities, they said.

The development comes in the backdrop of the Congress sharpening its attack on the ruling CPI(M) over the killing of its functionary on February 13.

Congress Kannur strongman and former Lok Sabha member K Sudhakaran had announced a 48-hour fast in front of the Collectorate here from Monday as part of its agitation against the delay in arresting those behind the killing.

Shuhaib, the Mattanur block Youth Congress secretary, was at a roadside tea shop with two other party members, Riaz and Naushad, when they were attacked.

The Youth Congress leader was critically injured and died after being taken to the Indira Gandhi Co-Operative Hospital at Thalassery, the police said, adding that the condition of those injured was stable.

Police suspect the assault could be related to incidents of violence in the area last week.Black soot, burnt vehicles, festering wounds  the traces of February 2016s Jat reservation stir are still scattered across Jhajjars Chhawani Mohalla where mobs went on rampage for hours in the absence of police.

Two persons were killed and more than 30 injured in this small colony that witnessed worst of the caste rivalry. Houses built with lifelong savings were gutted and businesses running from generations were robbed at gunpoint.

Two years later, time has only deepened the trauma of the victims who have been left to fend for themselves by the government. While families of those termed rioters by security forces have been given jobs and compensation due to constant threats by the All India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), the kin of victims of the violence have been sustaining on loans while waiting for the governments attention.

The 54-year-old Angoori Devi never stepped out of her house to work till last year when all her resources dried up.

It has been days since I cooked meal at home

Devis husband Krishna Saini was shot dead in front of her eyes during the riots. To support her four kids, she now works on agriculture fields and earns Rs 100 a day. It has been 15 days since I last cooked a full meal at home. I borrow curd and pickle from neighbours to feed chapaatis to my children. I used to live a respectable life when my husband was alive. But now, I find money lenders knocking at my doors every other day for repayment, she said.

Devi got Rs 10 lakh as compensation, which she used to marry her eldest daughter of and for the treatment of her two sons who suffered pellet injuries during the riots.

Angoori Devi and her son holding photo of her late husband Krishna Saini. (HT Photo)

Her eldest son was promised a government job, but was denied joining by Rohtak PGIMS due to a hearing ailment.

I had to pull out my two children from school because I couldnt afford their education. My younger daughter has not recovered ever since she saw her fathers body while my youngest son is trying to find a job to support the family, she said.

Denied job as name mentioned in an FIR

The family of Shyam Saini  second casualty from the colony  is no better. Shyams widow Bharti Devi also got 10 lakh, which she spent likewise. Her son, too, has been denied the promised government job as his name was mentioned in an FIR during riots.

My husband was employed with the PWD. The department credits money once in three months. They tell us that government is short of funds, Bharti rued.

Across the colony live the victims of the unprecedented violence who are disappointed with the governments step-motherly treatment.

My entire house was burnt in the violence. For the compensation, the government is making me run from one department to another, said Amit Saini, an advocate.

Vikas Saini, who was left blind in one eye due to pellet injury, has not received even a single penny from the government so far.

A cheque for Rs 2 lakh came did come to him, but he could not encash it as it was addressed to his nickname. The matter was reported to authorities two years ago, but a revised cheque has not been sent so far.

At least 20 other victims say they have not been paid for the damages they bore.With India likely to receive its first shipment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from the US next month, US energy secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to hold talks with petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and coal and railways minister Piyush Goyal on March 1 with a focus on crude oil, LNG and cleaner coal technologies.

India will annually purchase $2 billion worth of crude and LNG from the United States and is looking to acquire energy storing technology for its long term solar plans.

Senior ministry of external affairs (MEA) officials said that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump met last June, it was decided that India would purchase 7.85 million barrels of crude and 5.8 million tons of LNG in order to diversify its energy basket beyond West Asian countries. The crude shipment of 1.6 million barrels arrived last October in Paradip.

Although secretary Perry is expected to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit, its time and dates are still not confirmed.

In his meeting with petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Perry is likely to discuss the global crude oil situation, including its future prices. Senior officials confirmed that the meeting will also focus on LNG with shale gas not expected to be discussed on priority.

However, during Perrys meeting with Goyal, India is expected to seek access to cleaner coal technologies for extraction as well energy from non-conventional resources. In this context, the Prime Minister has addressed the need for efficient and cheaper energy storage technologies without any adverse impact on the environment. India is looking to collaborate with US companies for energy storage technologies and the possibility of these being manufactured in the country.The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved the renaming of several villages whose names were considered by the local population to be derogatory to a particular gender or community or simply having a negative connotation.

The government is considering applications from several others for the same, according to government officials and documents seen by Hindustan Times.

The documents show that the MHA, which has to sign off on the name changes, received 30 applications from state and Union Territory administrations last year, including eight from Rajasthan and five each from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. It cleared 21 and is still evaluating nine.

A senior home ministry official said on condition of anonymity: The proposals for changing names are first sent by local administration to the state government. The state government does a basic check on whether the proposal is backed by popular public sentiment and if it is, the same is forwarded to the (home) ministry.

According to government officials, some of the villages renamed last year include those with names that are colloquial terms derogatory to women, transgenders or the Scheduled Castes. Some of the villages concerned were small, with a population of around 700, the officials added.

According to the documents, the Haryana government proposed changing the name of Chamar Khera in Hisar district to Sundar Khera. The Chamars are a Dalit community.

The ministry approved the name of another Haryana village, Kinnar, to Gaiba Nagar; the former is considered a derogatory word for the transgender community. Another village in Fatehbad district of Haryana, Ganda, which means dirty in Hindi, was rechristened Ajit Nagar. And the ministry allowed Nachania (a word used to unkindly refer to professional dancers) in Bihar to become Kashipur.

It also approved the change of Rajasthans Chor Basai to simply Basai. Chor means thief in Hindi. Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Nagaland are the other states that sent in applications for a name change.Rajasthan will start postgraduate diploma courses at its district hospitals from March this year to end shortage of specialists in government health care sector. Approved by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the diploma will only be awarded to doctors after they have served at a government hospital for three years, said an officer of the health department.

For 11,000 sanctioned posts, one-third is reserved for specialists (doctors with postgraduate degree), while currently, Rajasthan has a shortfall of 3,000.

Rajasthan is the first state in the country to run two-year PG diploma courses and three-year fellowship programmes at district hospitals. The courses will start on March 1 this year, said health and family welfare training institute principal, Dr Sunil Singh.

The decision, he added, was taken to overcome the shortage of specialists at various government hospitals in the state.

The certificates will be deposited with director public health and will be given to the doctors after they have worked at a government health care centre for three years, Dr Singh said. After three years, the doctors will be free to work in the private sector.

He said that a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Government of Rajasthan and College of Physicians and Surgeons (Mumbai). The courses will be equivalent to the postgraduate degree offered by medical colleges, the only difference being it will run at district, satellite and sub-divisional hospitals.

There are 266 seats in diploma and 12 in fellowship programmes, half of which will be reserved for government doctors.

College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS) has seen 65 facilities in the state of which it has selected 32 facilities, including district, satellite and sub-division hospitals across the state. These facilities have the required infrastructure, equipment and human resources to teach students.

Currently, teachers are being trained at State Institute of Health and Family Welfare in Jaipur, who will, in turn, teach students at their respective hospitals, Dr Singh said.

He added that initially diploma and fellowship will be started for 11 subjects including gynaecology, paediatrics, anaesthesia, medicine, surgery, radiology, ENT, orthopaedics and skin.

Fees for two-year diploma will be Rs 50,200, while for three-year fellowship it will be Rs 70,200.State education minister Vasudev Devnani on Sunday interacted with girl students of three schools in Ajmer and encouraged them to do well in life.

You are architect of your own destiny and should set your goals for life during the school days itself, said Devnani, while addressing the students of Central Girls Upper Middle School, Draupadi Devi Sanwarmal Girls Upper Middle School and Sindhi Delhigate Girls School. Self-confidence is the key to success, he told the girls.

Devnani also talked about education, welfare schemes being run by the government, counselling of girl students and other topics related to career choices for the girls.

Devnani said that students should not put themselves under any stress during the exams, but come to school and appear for exams like any other day. He said the students should study with focus. If you are confident, you will perform well in exam, he told the girls.

Devnani said students should make it a habit to go through the entire question paper and then attempt those questions first that they are confident about. Attempt the questions which you dont know well in the end, he said.

In his concluding remarks, Devnani said that school education is a foundation for the future and students should set their goals keeping their interest, aptitude and capability in mind. The girls should not hesitate to choose a career of their liking and should remember that they can achieve any goal if they have courage, he said.

Senior education department officials and school faculty were present on the occasion.In central Spain, the arid plains of La Mancha are famous for their windmills and Manchego, a cheese made out of ewes milk that is one of the best-known representatives of the countrys gastronomy. But local producers there are furious with Mexico which they accuse of crude plagiarism of their cheese, an issue so touchy it has become a point of discord in drawn-out talks for a new trade deal between the EU and the Latin American country.

We have to defend our Manchego tooth and nail, says Francisco Tejado, walking through the factory of Spains biggest cheese producer, Garcia Baquero, in the small town of Alcazar de San Juan, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Madrid. Tejado, in charge of the ripening stage of the cheese-making process, says he comes to the plant every day to watch, touch, pamper these cheeses, these living foods that are maturing in air-conditioned rooms.

Two different cheeses

Manchego is an EU Protected Designation of Origin (AOC) product, which is respected within the bloc but not always further afield. And in Mexico, in particular, manufacturers have used the names of several European cheeses, including Manchego, to reap profit from crude plagiarism, complains Santiago Altares, head of the group that gives out AOC labels to Manchego producers.

The original and the copy, he stresses, are completely different. The Mexican Manchego is made from cows milk within seven days, and the authentic Manchego with the milk of ewes of Manchega race, is ripened for at least a month.

The Europeans want exclusive right to the Manchego name, along with other products. (Shutterstock)

Such is the controversy over the matter that it has been one of the issues in talks aimed at sealing a new version of an 18-year-old trade deal between the EU and Mexico. The Europeans want exclusive right to the Manchego name, along with other products. But that is a problem for cheese producers in Latin Americas second-largest economy, where Mexican Manchego represents nearly 15 percent of total cheese sales. So the National Chamber of Dairy Industries in Mexico has said it will continue using Manchego as a name, which it says is generic.

Struggling region

Under the portrait of his late father Hersilio who ventured into producing Manchego in 1962, the head of Garcia Baquero tries to be conciliatory, saying the conflict is one of the small elements of friction that mark the globalisation process. But for us, this protection of Manchego as an AOC product is of utmost importance in a semi-arid, austere, under-populated region, says Miguel Angel Garcia Baquero. We cant lose the little we have.

The birthplace of Spains celebrated film director Pedro Almodovar, La Mancha is known first and foremost for being the scene of the adventures of Don Quixote, the delusional wanna-be knight who stars in Miguel de Cervantes 1605 novel, in which he eats a lot of cheese. The Manchego AOC label even includes the silhouette of the wandering knight. More than 700 Spanish farmers and 65 producers depend on the cheese for their livelihood. Every year, more than 15,000 tonnes of Manchego are produced -- 60 percent of which is exported. But when the $7 Mexican cheese and Spains $14 Manchego hit the American market, the consumer buys the cheapest, says Altares, denouncing unfair competition.

Export to Turkmenistan

In the town of La Solana, round cheese blocs weighing one, two or three kilos bathe in vats of salt water belonging to the La Caseta family business. Our Manchego is artisanal because it is made from unpasteurised milk in machines, says the owner, Paqui Diaz Pintado Borja, 55. With its 10 employees, La Caseta is a small structure that exports its cheese to Germany, Britain and even Turkmenistan.

In the afternoon, seven workers are busy milking the 1,500 Manchega ewes of their farm. They have less wool than the others, no horns, but provide a better quality milk, rich in protein, says one of Paquis sons, Antonio Araque. In the name of all such producers, Altares wants a ban on using the name Manchego in Mexico. But its going to be complicated because there are many interests at play in give-and-take negotiations between the EU and Mexico, he says.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreA friend who loved Urdu once told me that if you take the letters of the language and randomly scatter them around, you will still end up with a couplet or two.

I think this also holds true for three simple ingredients  milk, rice and sugar or gur. It never fails to amaze me how these three basic items can lead to such a variety of desserts. Put them together  and you will end up with various kinds of payasams, kheers, payesh or phirni.

Phirni was on my mind for a couple of reasons. I had recently eaten a very nice Awadhi meal, and at the end of it, was dying for some phirni (and there was none). Then, a few days after that, I went to a new restaurant in town, but ate so much that when they said they had phirni on their dessert menu, I had to sadly decline because I felt I couldnt eat another morsel. And that is why I thought I should look up an old phirni place that I had not visited for what seemed like eons.

To get to this shop, enter the main Chitli Qabar bazar from the Jama Masjid side. Walk down 100 or 200 yards, and you will find it on your right. The shop has been around for 60 years or more. When I last went there, possibly 20 years ago, senior Qureshi was in charge. He is no more, and his son, Irfan, now runs it. They also have a catering unit called A.One.Catering.

The shop was set up by Irfans grandfather. They sell milk, curd and phirni and supply phirni in large quantities to those organising a feast. I would say this is the best known shop for phirni in Delhi.

Phirni is essentially a dessert of milk, powdered sugar and ground rice. It sounds simple, but it isnt, for a good phirni depends on how well the three have been mixed, and how well the rice has been ground. You need to soak rice and then grind it. But you have to ensure that the rice is ground to the right consistency  it should not be powdered, nor should it be grainy. You have to then cook this on a slow fire for a long time, stirring all the while so that there are no mini lumps.

Its a lot of hard work, says Irfan. And the milk has to be really good for a good phirni.

The Qureshi phirni has one special ingredient  khoya. They add a bit of the solidified milk to the milk when it is on simmer, and that gives a nice little edge to the dessert  adding to the consistency as well as to the taste. The phirni is thick and smooth, and forms a delicious layer of cream on top. They top the phirni with some flakes of dried nuts. Some people like their phirni flavoured with saffron. Irfan tells me that they do add saffron to their phirni when they get a special order.

I had my first spoonful, and realised that the phirni was as good as ever. Before I knew it, I had polished off a whole bowl.

I went back home singing to myself. The old regrets  of not being able to have some phirni when the soul wanted a spoonful  had been wiped off.

RECIPE: Phirni

Ingredients: 1 litre full cream milk, 100g rice, 150g sugar (or according to taste), 2 green cardamoms

Method: Soak the rice for 30-45 minutes. Drain the water and grind the rice well. Boil the milk, and then lower the flame and add the sugar and the cardamoms. Keep stirring. Wet the rice a bit and gradually add to the milk and sugar. Keep stirring, else lumps will form. Once the milk has thickened to a custard-like consistency, take it off the heat. Put in small bowls and refrigerate.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreThe Bandra police on Saturday arrested a 28-year-old man for raping his 31-year-old colleague repeatedly over a period of six years, after allegedly making a false promise to marry her.

The woman was shocked when she checked his Facebook profile where he had uploaded photos of his marriage following which, she lodged a complaint with the Bandra police.

According to the police, the accused is a resident of Bandra (West) while the complainant is from Andheri.

The duo met in 2011 at their workplace in Powai where they became friends and eventually fell in love.

The accused proposed to marry her and invited her to meet his parents at his home in Bandra.

The complainant got acquainted with his parents but said since her mother was suffering from an illness, she would marry him, once she recovered.

The accused used to often invite her to his home where he forced her to have a physical relationship with him, against her will. He maintained a physical relationship with her from 2012 till 2015 after which they broke up. He even blocked her number.

She then met his father who patched them up. The accused continued to rape her at his home till recently, when he dumped her.

A few days ago when the woman checked his Facebook profile and saw his marriage photos and confronted him, his mother threw her out of their Bandra house.

She then approached the Bandra police station where an FIR was registered last week under section 376 (2) (n) (commits rape repeatedly on a woman) of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 and section 417 (cheating) of the IPC.The Bombay high court is hearing the dispute over the succession to the spiritual leadership of the Dawoodi Bohras, a Shia group which has its headquarters in Mumbai.

The dispute arose when Qutbuddin, the half-brother of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, the 52nd Dai or head of the sect, claimed the title after the latters death in January 2014. He filed a suit in the high court challenging the appointment of the latters son Mufaddal Saiffudin as the next leader. Qutbuddin told the court that his brother had appointed him as his successor five decades ago, when he was elevated to the title of Mazoon, the second rank in the clergy. Mufaddal Saifuddins supporters say he was appointed successor by his father in June 2011 in London where he was recuperating after a stroke.

The main point of contention is the Nass or the ceremony announcing the successor by the Dai and whether it should be done privately or before the community, and if there should be an explicit announcement of the successor - whether the choice of the heir should be put down in writing or announced in the presence of witnesses. Taher Fakhruddin has said that the announcement must be by a direct statement while the other side says that a private appointment is valid according to Bohra doctrine, and there are precedents.

Qutbuddin died in March 2016 and his son Taher Fakhruddin is pursuing the claim as the successor. The spiritual head, called Syedna or Dai, are representatives of Imams  the line of successors to Islams prophet  who went into seclusion after disputes over succession. Though the post was not necessarily passed on as a hereditary title, some families have controlled the office for generations. The title is coveted because it gives control the rich trusts of the one-million strong sect largely made up of traders and professionals. The followers of Qutbuddin now call themselves Qutbuddin Bohras. While the Syedna Mufaddal Saiffudin, manages his communitys affairs from the headquarters in Badri Mahal in Mumbais Fort area and Saifee Mahal, his house in Malabar Hill, Syedna Taher Fakhruddin has made Darus Sakina, his house in Thane, as his office.

This column had discussed how this is not the first time there have been splits in the community. The Dawoodi Bohras broke away from the mainstream Shia sect  which separated from the larger Sunni group after the first dispute over the successor to Islams prophet. A book by Mian Bhai Mulla Abdul Hussain documents splits during the tenure of the 18th, 26th, 28th, 40th and 49th Dais. Other experts have said there have been more breakups.

One breakup led to formation of a group called Jafferias led by their leader who was known as Jafer. In 1897 AD, a preacher from Mumbai named Abdul Husain declared himself as the Dai and his followers were called Mahdibagwallas, as their headquarters is a place named Mahdi Baug. In the 1960s and 1970s, after an agitation against the religious establishment, a group called the Reformist Bohras. This group does not have a spiritual leader but run their affiars through a separate trust.

The disputes from the past are now been discussed in the high court. Last week, the senior lawyer representing the defendant (Mufaddal Saifuddin) asked the plaintiff (Taher Fakhruddin) if there was proof of the 27th Dais succession against the rival claimant Sulayman.

Last week, the plaintiff, when asked if he accepted that the Ismaili treatises on law, doctrine and history, authored by Ismail bin Abdurrasool al-Ujjaini was an authoritative, said that it was not fully authoritative, as the author, who is known in the community as the renegade al-Majdu, revolted against the 40th Dai.

The next set of hearings in the case is scheduled in March and April. Dawoodi Bohras loyal to Mufaddal Saifuddin said that the case was of little interest to them as they believe that their leader is the rightful claimant to the title. Our community is not bothered about what is happening in the courts. They have already decided who is the Syedna, said a Bohra who requested that his name should be revealed.In September 2017, Malhar Kamble, a CA student at KPB Hinduja College, Charni Road, put out a message on a WhatsApp group consisting of his former schoolmates, suggesting that they meet on a weekend to clean Dadars beach. That meeting has now turned into a campaign to clean the dirty beach.

The college students gather every week, mostly on the weekends, to clean the stretch of beach around Chaitya Bhoomi, Shivaji Park. In its 24th week now, their Beach Please campaign has now become a regular reunion of these youngsters.

When we discussed the idea pitched by Malhar, we realised that if we really want to do something for the environment, we cant just be sitting and talking about it on social media. We need to get on the ground and prove ourselves, thats how eventually everyone got involved in this project, said Chinmaya Dige, a Bachelor of Mass Media student from RD National College.

After the Versova beach clean-up, termed as the worlds largest beach clean-up by the United Nations, other beaches in the city in need of a clean-up are getting attention from volunteers. Around 15 volunteers of Beach Please have been funding the clean-up drive by chipping in Rs300-500 per month from their pocket money.

Every week ,the volunteers invite social groups from various colleges to help them with the clean-up. Some students from Vidyalankar Institute of Technology and Usha Pravin Gandhi College have now become regulars, Dige said.

Murtaza Zoomkawala, co-founder of the The Little League, was present on Sunday for the first time for the beach clean-up drive, along with his group of 100 children from slum colonies. We got to know about this initiative through another NGO. When they told me that it was being done by a group of students, I thought I should get these young kids because that way they will be able to take this message back to their families, said Zoomkawala.

The group ends up collecting around one tonne of waste each time they meet, out of which 80% is plastic.

The group has been trying to get the help of the local community in the campaign. As this beach is usually used for performing religious activities, we have gone ahead and tried to speak to people asking them to not dispose flowers and other religious items in the sea. But, a day after festivals is when we collect the most amount of waste, said Kamble, 20, who is in his final year of college.

Appreciating the efforts put in by youngsters, Sunil Saitawadekar, the contractor appointed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to clean Dadar and Mahim Chowpatty, said awareness had increased about environmental problems, which is how a lot of volunteers have now come forth to help the civic body in keeping the beaches clean.

The problem here is all the waste flows down from Mithi river, there needs to be a solution in place to stop that. But, regular cleaning has helped the beach look better as compared to what it was 10 years ago, said Saitawadekar.Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray will not share the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of the global investors summit, Magnetic Maharashtra, said a senior party leader close to him.

Given the current relations between the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena, it was clear to everybody that we should stay away from a function where PM Modi ji will be present, he said. Thackeray, however, is likely to attend day two of the conclave, on February 19, said the party functionary.

The three-day summit will be inaugurated at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) on Sunday evening.

Senior Shiv Sena leader and state industries minister Subhash Desai confirmed that the state government had extended an invitation to Thackeray.

The Shiv Sena also plans to boycott the ground-breaking ceremony for the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport. A senior party leader said that despite the area where the airport is to be built falling under Shiv Sena member and Lok Sabha MP Srirang Barnes constituency, the state government has not invited him to the function.

The ties between the two allies, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been strained for the past few years. Last month, the Shiv Sena announced its decision to go solo in the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The party has been attacking Modi and the BJP over various issues, much to the chagrin of senior BJP leaders.

In the past few days, the Shiv Sena has attacked the BJP-led state government over its measures to prevent suicide attempts in and around Mantralaya. On Saturday, the Sena, in its mouthpiece Saamana, taunted the BJP, saying absconding celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi should be made the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, to finish off the country. The party also alleged that Nirav Modi was a BJP sympathiser and was involved in collecting the partys funds during elections.

The Shiv Sena also asked the government how Nirav Modi, who had fled the country in January, managed to join the group of industrialists who met PM Modi in Davos last month when a complaint against him had been lodged by Punjab National Bank.A 36-year-old motorcyclist was arrested on Saturday after his bike ran over a senior citizen out on a morning walk along the Eastern Express Highway, killing him.

According to the police, the accused, Sudarshan Dhake was headed towards Govandi and was allegedly speeding the motorcycle when he lost control and crashed into the victim.

Dhake, in his statement to the police said he was riding his bike when he accidentally crashed into the victim, Damodar Murti Chandane.

The police officers said that Dhake, who works at a private company in Chembur called up the police control room and leaving his bike on the spot, rushed the victim to Shivaji Hospital in Chembur. However, Chandane was declared dead during the treatment.

Chandane, was a resident of Chembur and a labourer. On Saturday morning, he was walking towards Chembur Naka.

Chandane used to meet his friends there and spend some time reading newspapers at the newspaper stand.

After the morning walk Chandane used to go out looking for work as a contract labourer, said an officer from the Govandi police station.

The police have booked Dhake for rash and negligent driving and death due to negligence.On Sunday, a day after his arrest, Pune realtor DS Kulkarni, popularly known as DSK, was admitted to the Sassoon hospital and later shifted to the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital after he collapsed in police lock-up due to a sudden rise in blood pressure. Doctors of Sassoon hospital said that the sudden rise in blood pressure had affected the blood flow to his brain, leaving him unconscious. Though doctors said that his condition is stable now, DSKs son Shirish alleged that his father had suffered a serious stroke and was still in danger.

DCP (crime) Pankaj Dahane said that the police moved an application before the court and got DSKs police custody changed to judicial custody following his hospitalisation. Weve got seven days reserve police custody of DSK and will utilise it when he is discharged from the hospital. DSK will be interrogated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) once he is out. Till Sunday afternoon, he was on ventilator, he added.

After he was admitted to the Sassoon hospital, the advocate representing DS Kulkarni moved an application before the sessions court saying that the treatment being given at the hospital was not up to the mark and that the real estate developer was in need of good medical treatment at a private hospital.

Taking the deteriorating health of DS Kulkarni into consideration, the court accepted the application filed by the defence counsel and sent DSK to judicial custody. The judge also asked officials of Economic Offence Wing (EOW) to produce DSK before the medical board of Sassoon hospital at 8 am on Tuesday, where he will be examined by a team of expert doctors.

DSKs lawyer Inamdar, said, We got information on Saturday night that DSK collapsed and was unconscious. He was also put on ventilator as he was facing breathing difficulties. The court accepted our application and shifted him to Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital. He has also been remanded in magisterial custody by the court accordingly.

Earlier on Saturday, the Pune police had arrested DSK and his wife Hemanti in Delhi. After being produced before court, the Kulkarnis were remanded in seven days police custody.

Doctors at the Sassoon hospital said that DSKs blood pressure had shot up and that the blood circulation to the brain too was affected. His son, however, said that his fathers condition is serious.

My father seems to have suffered a stroke and Dr Charu Apte (neurologist) has been consulting him over the phone, said DSKs son Shirish, who is the managing director, DSK Developers Limited.

Following hospitalisation, DSK went through all the necessary tests and was under observation at the ICU where his condition was reported to be stable, according to doctors. DSKs lawyer submitted before the court that his client was suffering from high blood pressure and that his bones had become weak after road accidents in the past.

According to the police, at around 12.30 am on Sunday, Kulkarni started complaining about uneasiness. Later, he collapsed on the floor and was rushed to the Sassoon hospital around 12.40 am on Sunday. He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and was put on ventilator for some time. Kulkarni, later, regained consciousness and doctors monitoring his health said that he was showing good signs of recovery.

ACP (economic offences wing) Nilesh More said that the jailed developer lost his balance while talking to police officers in the lock-up at Faraskhana police station, after which he was rushed to the state-run Sassoon hospital.

We told the court that he is normal and fit for interrogation. His lawyer moved an application on humanitarian grounds and accordingly, the court has given him the permission to stay in Deenanath Hospital for one day. DSK has been asked to report before the Sassoon hospital medical board on Tuesday at 8 am where medical experts will give their opinion on his health, he said.

.In a dramatic development, prominent Pune-based builder DS Kulkarni andhis wife Hemanti Kulkarni were arrested in Delhi by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune police a day after the Bombay High Court refused to extend the interim anticipatory bail.

The two were brought to Pune and produced in the court of additional sessions judge JT Utpat who remanded them in seven days police custody. Dressed in a blue t-shirt with pink stripes, DSK and his wife looked tense and remained silent as they entered the courtroom. The duo stood at the back of the court as the proceedings progressed. The two were taken to separate police lock-ups where they will spend the next seven days.

The Kulkarnis were arrested from a hotel room in Delhi in the small hours of Saturday. Chairman of DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd (DSKDL), DSK, as he is popularly known, was facing charges of cheating more than 2,000 investors who had put their money in DSKs construction business through fixed deposits. Complaints of failure of payment started pouring in by the middle of 2017.

The DSK couple was booked under the Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 34 (common intention) and Sections 3 and 4 of the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act. The case was registered on October 28, 2017 at the Shivajinagar police station in Pune after which the EOW (Economic Offences Wing) took over the case.

During the seven days in police custody, the two will be allowed to meet each other at the police commissioners office for an hour everyday.

Following the withdrawal of interim protection by the high court, the city police had dispatched teams to various places to track DSK.

Special Public Prosecutor Pravin Chavan said one of the main reasons for the police custody was to probe into loans of 2,892 crore from various banks, public deposits and investments of 1,153.76 crore, and the advances paid by property buyers. We need to investigate whether any of the amount was used for personal gains, Chavan said.

He added that the police have not yet found the investment documents of the investors.

Ideally, a customer has one identification code in a bank. But Hemanti Kulkarni has three identification codes with Bank of Maharashtra. Police can prove it, he added. Deposits were accepted from six different companies owned by DSK, said advocate Chavan.

The defence lawyer, advocate Shrikant Shivade did not contest the prosecutions demand for police custody. He said, the refund of investor deposits will begin next week.

Around a month-and-a-half ago, DSK had assured the court that they would deposit 50 crore within a fortnight. When they failed to do so, on February 14, the court had extended their interim anticipatory bail after Buldhana Urban Multistate Co-operative Credit Society submitted to the court claiming to have given 12 crore to DSK in lieu of his property.

However, the next day the EOW submitted to the court that the land in question was already mortgaged to the Bank of Maharashtra.

Advocate Shivade argued that the police was not allowing the sale of property which was hampering the process of returning money to the investors. However, the special public prosecutor argued that the duo should have started the sale much before a case was filed and the police was involved.Pune-based developer DS Kulkarni, arrested in a cheating case, was rushed to hospital early on Sunday after he complained of uneasiness and lost his balance in a police lock-up, an officer said.

Kulkarni (67), a high-profile builder popularly known as DSK, and his wife Hemanti were remanded in police custody until February 23 by a local court after they were arrested in Delhi on Saturday.

ACP (EoW) Nilesh More said Kulkarni lost his balance when police officers were talking to him in the lock-up at Faraskhana police station in the city, following which he was rushed to state-run Sassoon general hospital.

A SGH resident medical officer said Kulkarni is currently in the ICU but is stable.

His blood pressure rose up and the blood circulation to the brain too was affected. We have done all the necessary tests and he is currently under observation in Intensive Care Unit and his condition is stable, he said.

More said Kulkarni complained of uneasiness around 12:30am.

Kulkarnis lawyer Shrikant Shivde told the court that his client was suffering from high BP and that his bones became weak after road accidents in the past.

According to prosecution, Kulkarnis firm collected over Rs 1,000 crore in the form of deposits and unsecured loans, which was systematically diverted in pre-planned manner.

Kulkarni and his wife are accused of duping over 2,500 investors of Rs 230 crore over years.

According to a complaint filed with the EOW by one of the depositors, investors put in lakhs of rupees in a deposit scheme of the DSK Developers, but neither received the interest nor the principal amount.A 35-year-old businessman, his wife and two daughters were found dead at their home in Shivane in southwest Pune on Friday night. Officials from the Uttamnagar police station said, it is believed that the husband and wife may have poisoned their daughters before kiling themselves by hanging.

The two poisoned the two girls first. When the girls were dead, the two hanged themselves. The wife hanged herself first and breathed her last before the rope snapped and she fell. The husband put her body on the bed and then killed himself, an official from Uttamnagar police said. Senior police inspector Hemant Bhat of Uttamnagar police station is investigating the matter.

The man, who had a plastic moulding business in the neighbouring village of Nanded had left a suicide note in his pocket in which he had cited crippling debt as the reason for the drastic step, according to the police.

The incident came to light when one of the neighbours called the deceased mans brother who informed the police.

The deceased man was identified as Naresh Suresh Chaudhary, 35; his wife Nilima Chaudhary, 33; and two daughters Shravani Chaudhury, 9 and Shreya Chaudhury, 7. Nareshs elder brother, Ganesh Chaudhury, informed the police.

The bodies of the four were sent to the Sassoon General Hospital for post mortem. The doctors have preserved the viscera of the four bodies to identify the cause of death.

The two girls studied at a nearby school while Nilima used to teach children through private tuitions in a separate room in Uttamnagar, a few kilometer away from their house. The police said that she had stopped teaching recently.

Their relatives live in Uttamnagar. She used to take tuition classes in a room there. The family members did not really speak to anyone in the society. We have been living here since the past 3-4 years and they have been here since the beginning. We only knew them by their face, said a woman from the housing society.

While their deaths have been recorded as accidental, the police are likely to file a case of murder against the two deceased parents.

The family did not really have any friends. Even the brother was not much in touch with the (deceased) man. He says the man has a plastic mounding business in Nanded, the official said. The police are yet to find out whether he had a factory or trading business and the amount of debt he was under.A man celebrating his young daughters birthday, his brother and two other men were electrocuted to death reportedly after consuming alcohol and coming in contact with high-tension power supply lines at Ishwar Colony in Focal Point area of Ludhiana on Friday evening.

The deceased, Amarjit , 31, his brother Sarbjit , 27, their neighbours Ranjit , 30, and Makhanshu, 28, all residents of Ishwar Colony, were killed at a party to celebrate the birthday of Amarjits daughter Sapna, where their families too were present.

Police quoting eyewitnesses said the four men were on the ground floor drinking when they had a verbal spat and one of them was heard saying he was going to touch a power supply line close by and the others dissuading him. Soon after hearing a blast the guests found the charred bodies of Amarjit and Ranjit on the floor. Sarbjit and Makhanshu, who had sustained severe burns, died while being rushed to the hospital.

ASI Surjit Singh, police post in-charge, Sherpur, said it appeared as if one of the four men had touched a power supply cable near a window in the room and the others had been electrocuted trying to save him.

Amarjit was contractor and the three others were labourers at a factory in Kohara.

We thought our house had been hit by lightning

A father and uncle who wanted to celebrate a young girls birthday lost their lives tragically in a moment of foolishness.

Shahntu Devi, who lost her sons Amarjit and Sarbjit in a tragic mishap after they and two others were electrocuted said on Friday that the four had gone to the first floor after the cake cutting ceremony.

The blast that occurred soon after was so loud that for a moment everyone present thought the house had been hit by lightning.

We were dazed and almost blinded by a flash. All electronic appliances were damaged. When we rushed to the first floor we were shocked to see my both sons and their friends lying on the floor, she sobbed.

Amarjit and Sarbjit were the breadwinners of the family, what will happen to their children, she asked.

Amarjits wife is in a state of shock and unable to sleep.Senior citizen parents have the right to get property vacated from their children under the law, the Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled.

The high court was hearing a petition by a Panchkula man, who had contested the deputy commissioners order on his eviction from his parents house.

His mother, a senior citizen, is the owner of the house. After her husband died, she had allowed the man, his wife and children to live in the house. However, they started harassing her, the womans lawyer Sapan Dhir said.

Her son claimed that the property was disputed, and they also had a right to it, since it was built by his father. The son had lost a civil suit before in a Panchkula court, which prompted the deputy commissioner to order his eviction within 30 days. However, he contested the order in the high court, stating that under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, an eviction order cannot be passed.

Once a senior citizen makes a complaint to the district magistrate against the children for vacation of the premises, such summary procedure will ensure benefit of the parents. The children will have no right to resist the eviction only on the grounds that the law does not contemplate eviction of an occupant, the HC ruled.

Eviction is one part of the right to protect the property of a senior citizen, which could be exercised by a senior citizen in terms of provisions of the statute, rules framed and the action plan notified, the HC bench said.

There cannot be any effective protection of property of the senior citizens unless the district magistrate has the power to put the property in their possession and/or to restrain or eject the person who wishes to interfere in the possession of the property of the senior citizen, the HC said, adding that the children can remain occupants till he or she enjoys the goodwill of a parent.

Steady rise in complaints by senior citizens

As per the 2017 National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Chandigarh, tops the country in the list of crimes against the elderly. A total of 145 complaints were filed under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. Of the 105 cases decided, 69 were in the favour of parents, while a compromise was reached in 22. The number of complaints in 2016 were 48, against 26 in 2015.

In Panchkula, the deputy commissioner was hearing as many as 30 cases as of May 2017, while SAS Nagar saw 41 such complaints from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017.

Parents, know your rights

 The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, provides legal provisions for the maintenance and welfare of parents, who are unable to maintain themselves.

 The act provides simple, speedy and inexpensive mechanism for the protection of life and property of the elderly

 Parent means father or mother whether biological, adoptive or step father or step mother, whether or not he or she is a senior citizen.

 Maintenance means provision for food, clothing, residence and medical attendance and treatment.

 A senior citizen can submit an application for maintenance and welfare to the local maintenance tribunal presided by the local sub-divisional magistrate, who can order the children to provide monthly allowances up to Rs 10,000.

 Section 24 of the Act provided for imprisonment for up to three months and/or fine of up to Rs 5,000 if a person abandons a senior citizen he or she is responsible for.

 The complete provisions of the act are available at: goo.gl/ktgq8bAsserting that Sikhs are happy in Canada, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Sunday said they will not raise any community-related issue with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to Amritsar on February 21.

SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal, who chaired a special meeting of senior office-bearers and officials, said they have no plan to hand over a memorandum of demands to the Canadian PM. On previous occasions, the SGPC used to give memorandums to dignitaries on their visits to the Golden Temple.

First, it is not fair to give a memorandum to someone who comes to Sri Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple) to pay obeisance. People themselves visit the shrine with their demands, said Roop Singh, chief secretary of the SGPC, giving rationale behind the decision.

Second, Sikhs living in Canada are happy in every respect. The country is already honouring the Sikhs in a big way. The fact that Canada has four Sikh ministers reflects that, he said.

He said, The fundamental rights of the Sikhs are protected by the Canadian government. There are several gurdwaras in Canada. Besides, Punjabi is a well recognised language there and conditions are favourable for promoting Punjabi culture as well. If the Sikhs do not face any problem there, there is no question of raising any demand with him.

Radical Sikh organisation Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) led by Simranjit Singh Mann and Sikh rights advocacy group Khalra Mission Organisation have announced to hand over a charter of demands concerning the Sikhs to Trudeau.

But Longowal insisted, No individual or organisation will be allowed give a memorandum (to the Canadian PM) as protocol of the visit is strict.

On the organisations demand to take up issues of independent probe into the Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh riots with Trudeau, the SGPC said they want to keep the visit purely religious and not politicise it.

Trudeau and other dignitaries accompanying him will be honoured with panthic traditions, Longowal said.

Trudeau to stay in Amritsar for over 3 hours

District administration officials said after landing at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport at 10.30am, the Canadian PM will go to the Golden Temple via Bhandari bridge and Hall Bazaar. After paying obeisance at the shrine, he is likely to visit the Indo-Pak Partition museum.

Then he will go to the Taj Swarna Hotel near Government Medical College for lunch and leave the city at 2pm.Three days before the launch of his political party on February 21, actor-turned politician Kamal Haasan called on his contemporary and competitor Rajinikanth at his Poes Garden residence in Chennai on Sunday.

Kamal Haasan spent 10 minutes with Rajinikanth and later described it as a courtesy call to seek his best wishes for the political journey that he is scheduled to begin on Wednesday in Ramanathapuram. Kamal Haasan is also said to have invited Rajinikanth to participate in his rally at Madurai on the same evening when he would announce the name of his political party.

It is a courtesy call. Not a political meeting. Rajini wished me good luck, Kamal Haasan said after the meeting when asked whether there could be an alliance with Rajinikanth.

Only time will tell: Kamal Haasan on being asked if Rajinikanth and he are entering into an alliance pic.twitter.com/3E0x813XZU  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Rajinikanth too maintained a similar line, He had come to wish me and I had wished him good luck in all walks of life, he said.

While the short meeting fuelled speculation, political analysts rule out the coming together of the two superstars, given the political positions they have taken. While Rajinikanth is perceived to be closer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has spoken of spiritual politics, Kamal Haasan had declared that he would have nothing to do with the BJP.

In his utterances and actions, Kamal Haasan has taken a left of the centre stand and has hobnobbed with the likes of AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Kamal (Haasan) wants to serve the people of Tamil Nadu. I pray to God that he attains success. He has not entered politics for fame or money but only to serve people of the state: Rajinikanth, after Kamal Haasan met him at his residence in Chennai pic.twitter.com/Q3sVsZ9q9s  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

Kamal Haasan who has been a trenchant critic of the ruling AIADMK, is scheduled to address a public meeting and later unveil his party flag in Madurai and also address a rally.

Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are still three years away.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopIt seems nothing can escape the inexorable spread of light pollution  not even the giant telescopes probing the heavens above northern Chile, a region whose pristine dark skies, long considered a paradise for astronomers, are under increasing threat.

The Atacama desert, 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) north of the capital Santiago, provides ideal conditions where astronomers study the stars in darkness so profound they appear like diamonds on velvet. Scientists estimate that by 2020, Chile  a critically important country for optical and radio astronomy  will host 70% of the globes astronomical infrastructure.

But the ever-expanding use of cheap light-emitting diode (LED) lighting in the booming South American country is starting to concern astronomers desperately trying to safeguard some of the worlds darkest skies. Unfortunately, as we have more and more white lights, the deterioration of the skies has increased by up to 30% compared to the end of the last decade, said scientist Pedro Sanhueza.

The Atacama desert, 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) north of the capital Santiago, provides ideal conditions where astronomers study the stars. (AFP file photo )

Chile takes the problem of light pollution so seriously that Sanhueza heads up an organisation called the Office for the Protection of Quality of the Sky (OPCC). Its main task is to make the people of northern Chile aware of the particularly high night-sky quality and the negative impacts of light pollution. Sanhueza says that though the quality is good, the sky over northern Chile is becoming an area of risk, threatening the profound nocturnal darkness required for the study of phenomena such as solar flares, planetary nebulae, black holes and supernovas.

Fuelling the threat, he adds, are communities such as Antofagasta, Coquimbo and La Serena, where LED lights are increasingly used in homes, streetlights, store signs and billboards. A study published in December in the journal Science Advances has shown that global lighting has increased in both quantity and intensity by about 2% per year from 2012 to 2016.

Urban boom

At the Paranal Observatory deep in the Atacama desert, which houses the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope array  consisting of four telescopes  staff are doing all they can to limit light leaking out into the atmosphere. After sunset, vehicles travelling around the observatory are prohibited anything but their parking lights. Flashlights, if needed, are turned to the ground.

Astronomers residences at the base  2,635 meters ( 8,645 feet) above sea level  are dimly-lit, to avoid interfering with observation of the galaxies above. But the urban boom has been an unstoppable reality for 20 years in northern Chile, where cities have felt the economic effects of the boom in copper, of which the South American country is the worlds largest producer.

Halos of light above towns are easily visible from observatories within a 150 kilometer (90 mile) radius. We have measured the impact of this and we have already experienced difficulties making observations at 20 degrees above the horizon. Thats going to increase and prevent us from studying the furthest stars, said Chris Smith, head of the observatory at Tololo, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the town of La Serena.

Hazardous to health

Urban growth has gone hand in hand with huge infrastructure projects to extract copper and even the construction of a brightly-lit highway through the Atacama itself. Smith is calling for more education in schools about the sustainable use of light, the need to use warmer sources of lighting that are less polluting, and to avoid turning them towards the sky.

We are already seeing a big level of impact and we need to control it now, Smith, an American astronomer, says  adding that there can be no question of shutting observatories down. However, this is what many fear could ultimately happen to the Monte Palomar observatory in California, which has had to drastically cut down its activities because of the light pollution from Los Angeles.

The Chilean government in 2012 approved a new lighting standard designed to cut down on pollution, but nevertheless, scientists acknowledge that its an uphill battle.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreAll 66 people on board an Iranian passenger plane were feared dead on Sunday after it crashed into the countrys Zagros mountains, with emergency services struggling to locate the wreckage in blizzard conditions.

Aseman Airlines flight EP3704 left Tehran around 0800 (0430 GMT) for the city of Yasuj, some 500 kilometres to the south, the airlines public relations chief Mohammad Tabatabai told state broadcaster IRIB.

The ATR-72 twin-engine plane, in service since 1993, disappeared from radar around 45 minutes after takeoff from the capitals Mehrabad airport.

Emergency services had yet to locate the precise location of the crash.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, as well as six crew, said Tabatabai.

After searches in the area, unfortunately we were informed that the plane crashed. Unfortunately, our dear ones lost their lives in this incident, he said.

But he later retracted his statement, telling the ISNA news agency: We still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers.

There were conflicting reports on the location of the crash site as emergency teams battled severe weather.

The rescue and relief teams were sent to the possible area of the crash... but the helicopter could not continue its path due to snow and blizzard, Jalal Pooranfar, regional head for Irans emergency services, told the ISNA news agency.

He said teams were being sent by land.

Right now there are five rescue and relief teams of the emergency service in the area. But they still havent spotted anything, said Pooranfar.

The Relief and Rescue Organisation of Irans Red Crescent said it had also sent 12 teams to the region.

Ageing fleets

Aseman currently has a fleet of 36 planes, including at least three ATR-72s that date back to the early 1990s, according to the IRNA news agency.

A spokesman for ATR, a subsidiary of Europes Airbus, told AFP in Paris the company was researching the details of Sundays crash.

President Hassan Rouhani ordered the transport ministry to set up a crisis group to investigate the crash and coordinate rescue efforts, ISNA reported.

Decades of international sanctions have left Irans airlines with ageing fleets of passenger planes which they have struggled to maintain and modernise.

Asemans three Boeing 727-200s are almost as old as the countrys 1979 Islamic revolution, having made their first flights the following year.

Iran has suffered multiple aviation disasters, most recently in 2014 when a Sepahan Airlines plane crashed killing 39 people just after take-off from Tehran, narrowly avoiding many more deaths when it plummeted near a busy market.

Lifting sanctions on aviation purchases was a key clause in the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers in 2015.

Following the deal, Aseman Airlines finalised an agreement to buy 30 Boeing 737 MAX jets for $3 billion (2.4 billion euros) last June, with an option to buy 30 more.

However, the sale could be scuppered if US President Donald Trump chooses to reimpose sanctions in the coming months, as he has threatened to do.

The US has maintained its own sanctions on Iran, blocking almost all trade with the country, but plane manufacturers were given a specific exemption under the nuclear deal.

The US Treasury Department, which must approve each such sale, has done so for 80 Boeing jets destined for national carrier Iran Air as well as 100 Airbus planes for Iran Air.

The first few Airbus jets have already arrived in Tehran.

Boeing faces heavy criticism from US lawmakers, who say Iranian airlines have been used to ship weapons and troops to Syria and other conflict zones.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Saturday over aggressions by what he called Iran and its proxies in Syria, while showing what he claimed was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace.

Saying he had a message to the tyrants of Tehran during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, he warned: Do not test Israels resolve.

He brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal which he called a piece of that Iranian drone, or whats left of it, after we shot it down.

Mr. Zarif: do you recognize this? You should. Its yours. Dont test Israels resolve. pic.twitter.com/8e6eNV27w3  PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 18, 2018

Israel has said it shot down the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

During the strikes, one of Israels F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Israels response marked the first time it publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

Calling Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the smooth-talking mouthpiece of Irans regime, Netanyahu said: Mr. Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, its yours.

Again referring to Zarif, who is expected to speak later in Munich, the Israeli leader said: No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Irans involvement in Syria.

He lies with eloquence.

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drones debris.Indian-American Ravinder Bhalla, who became the first Sikh mayor of New Jerseys Hoboken city, has publicly acknowledged that death threats were made against him and his family recently.

In a statement issued Friday afternoon following a security breach at City Hall, Bhalla said the city is working with the FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force to improve security at City Hall.

This incident, along with death threats to me and my family, is an unfortunate reminder that we need to take security seriously, Bhalla said, without elaborating on the threats.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force has evaluated City Hall, and we have been working to implement their recommendations for physical and procedural changes to improve security for all employees in the building, he said.

According to city spokesman Juan Melli, a man entered City Hall and told security he needed to use the restroom after going through the metal detectors.

While Bhalla was not in his office at the time, his deputy chief of staff, Jason Freeman, observed the man throw a bag with an object in it towards the administrative assistants desk before running out of the office, Melli said in a statement.

Hoboken police chief Kenneth Ferrante added that the department takes these matters seriously.

We take incidents like these incredibly seriously and will continue working to ensure the security of the mayor and everyone who visits City Hall, he said.

Bhalla became the first ever Sikh to hold office in New Jersey after a stiff competition that turned ugly when he was labelled a terrorist in slanderous flyers.Opinion Article

16 February 2018

The often baffling variety of content streams can be bewildering for sales and marketing executives. An integrated hospitality PR program that engages and ultimately sells to your target market is a challenge -- but absolutely vital.

Advertisements

Your sales toolbox requires constant churning of content rich messages and intensive outreach by your marketing team through online PR. Getting through to editors to gain A list exposure in such outlets as Conde Nast Traveler and The New York Times benefit from relationships developed over time. That is where a savvy travel and luxury PR agency comes in. But, you'd be surprised how regional magazines like Ocean Drive in Miami and blogs can work effectively.

Find a hotel PR agency that can affordably manage your entire communications platform successfully. At the outset it is vital to get your foundation in place. That means identifying how you are different than other properties, and from there creating your key message points.

Push Out That Publicity Through Social Media

There is nothing more seductive than a published article about your property so share those placements with your community, and is a super way to juice up your Instagram and Facebook feeds. When integrating your publicity campaign make sure to synchronize your social media program. All of this is happens once you have an integrated your hospitality PR plan in place.

When stories appear in the media, push them through your feeds. Your social media influencer marketing team works hard to place these stories, whether they are mentions or home runs, your followers will be excited by these posts. An added benefit is that journalists will get ideas for stories of their own through about you.

Blogger relations is also essential, but a full vetting out is necessary. Surprisingly, blogs are highly influential and get indexed by Google, but it is important to evaluate the blogger carefully.

Pass It On: Kindness Works!

Remember, "Pass it on?" We live in a friendly age, and you are a good corporate citizen to congratulate your competition, too. So, if you are mentioned in a round-up, tag the hotel down the block that is featured as well. We are all in this together.

At any given time there is a story in the local news of people "paying it forward." Some instances are organic, like the "kindness chain" at a Starbucks in Florida. Others, like an initiative to provide holiday cards to military men and women overseas, take some coordination. Always the efforts are built on the philosophy of helping others in a selfless way. So what happens when a brand tries to use this social phenomenon as the basis of a social marketing campaign?

Last year, JetBlue introduced its latest promotional effort, a campaign called "Fly It Forward" that provides consumers worthy of admiration with a free flight and gives them the chance to do the same for others.

The campaign kicked off with a Chicago community worker-turned-United Nations delegate who received a ticket to New York City. She, in turn, awarded one to a woman who was in rehab after losing both her legs in an accident, and the trend continued. JetBlue launched the campaign with four profiles selected by JetBlue crewmembers and a planning team that "scoured the social web for deserving stories." Then it turned the job over to the people of Twitter, asking them to nominate "Fly It Forward" candidates

A successfully campaign must be planned and launched with intensity. There must be a steady stream of coverage and exposure daily in your feeds. Through all of these activities, you will gain increased exposure, build website traffic, and the public will gain general knowledge about your property or company. When it comes to making a choice, they will choose you over your competitors. Since you never know when they will be inclined to make a travel decision, your constant visibility is required.

Luxury Travel's Distinctive Footprint on Social Media

A a solid digital public relations firm will tell you, creativity is key to get stories and position your product so it is eye catching. Hyatt used this approach as a way to get noticed in the social media universe by creating @HyattConcierge on Twitter, which displays both their superb customer service and enables its customers to maintain the conversation beyond just days spent at their hotels. Creating these opportunities for customer interaction and integrating them with media campaigns keeps you present in a consumer's mind, a great way to create a lifelong customer.

Snapchat: Timely and Powerful Techniques

Snapchat is an emerging platform that has caught on like wildfire with the attention of an increasingly important audience  Millennials. W Hotels jumped at the chance to be the first travel brand to participate in a national geofilter campaign. W Hotels partnered with a multimedia artist to create new geofilters. The filters were created to support the Human Rights Campaign's fight for equality, and they featured phrases such as "I am what I am" and "The road to equality has never been straight." Timely and powerful. This is also timely given the #metoo campaign that has created a groundswell on Facebook and Instagram.

One of the many advantages of a savvy hospitality PR firm is their ability to integrate social media with traditional media outlets. With hundreds of millions of consumers actively using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and even Snapchat to make travel plans with more signing up each second, the time for the hospitality industry to get involved is now. Boutique PR agencies are often the most affordable, seen they are lean and mean.Michael Paulsen/Staff

The Greater Houston Partnership has convened a group of alternative energy companies to help it address how Houston can better foster growth for wind, solar, batteries and electric car technologies.

During a Jan. 19 given at the partnership's annual meeting, CEO Bob Harvey said that the city can expect growth in renewable energy in the next few years and that the business community needs to be ready for it.There are many who believe art is a universal language, one that transcends culture and class, language and geography - much like faith.

Houston's Ismaili Muslim community is hoping to blend these two universal practices by joining a worldwide celebration of the 60th year of Aga Khan's tenure as the 49th hereditary imam, its spiritual leader.

Art - in all forms - will be used to commemorate the anniversary.

The international Jubilee Arts celebration will bring actors, painters, architects, filmmakers, poets, musicians and comedians together at festivals across the globe.

In Houston, a two-day showcase of the arts is in the works. The free event will be 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Feb. 25 at downtown's Marriott Marquis, 1777 Walker.

Omar Samji has spent the past few months collecting works of art from members of the local Ismaili community.

He said a call to artists went out in October, inviting individuals working in a variety of media to join the event.

The weekend is organized around three events - a film festival, an art exhibition and a talent showcase featuring dance, music, spoken word and performance art.

"We're not rejecting art," Samji said. "We're looking to be inclusive."

Ismaili Muslims belong to a culturally diverse community residing in more than 25 countries. As part of the Shia branch of Islam, they are focused on improvement of self and society, building peace and sharing resources to foster community. The Ismailis are estimated to include 20 million individuals, making the community the second largest within the Shia branch of Islam.

The Ismailis have a 1,400-year history. They trace a succession from Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad. The followers of Ali, or Shia, already were established during Muhammad's lifetime and believed that his legacy could only rest in a member of his family.

When the Shia branch later divided, the Ismailis followed Imam Jafar as-Sadiq's eldest son, Ismail, who is their namesake. The group continues to follow the hereditary succession from Ismail to their current Aga Khan, who is the 49th imam in direct lineal descent from the Prophet Muhammad.

The current Aga Khan took office in 1957, leading the Ismaili communities pioneered by his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan III.

The arts celebration drew around 650 entries.

Samji said attendees will enjoy one-act plays, songs, dance numbers and stand-up comedy, in addition to a selection of movies and fine art pieces.

Jubilee Arts festivals also are planned in a number of cities in the U.S., including Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Orlando and San Francisco. Samji said there were more than 2,500 entries nationwide.

The best pieces from around the country will be showcased at a national event in Los Angeles at the end of March.

Similar national festivals will be held in 20 countries around the world. An international event, bringing together the top entries from participating countries, will be held during the summer.

All of the events are organized by volunteers.

Houston volunteer Afshi Charania Merchant was stunned by the high number of Ismaili artists participating in the local festival.

"There are aspiring and accomplished artists participating," she said. "We've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of talent in the community. Some of it was hidden talent."

Charania Merchant said some applicants told her they were even surprised at the work they were able to create for the festival.

"Within themselves, they found this untapped talent that they didn't know they had," she said. "This event helped people develop their potential."

Event organizer Ambreen Lakhani said that she has met people from all ages, cultures and backgrounds.

"One of the strongest strengths of the Ismaili Muslim community is its cultural diversity," she said. "My understanding and appreciation for this diversity has been broadened in so many ways by being involved in this project."

Lakhani also is impressed with the variety of art she has encountered.

"My team and I have seen so many expressions that we would never have personally engaged with outside of the festival," she said. "From digital imagery to built environments, to edible arrangements and wearable art, art really is unbounded - and that's what the Jubilee Arts Festival offers members of the Ismaili community and their family members of other faiths."

Samji said one of the goals of the festival is to connect creative types in the Ismaili community.

"We have a responsibility to encourage and facilitate and really nurture an environment for artists," he said. "Let's create a system where they can support one another."

A broader mission is to create more events to showcase the artists locally.

"It's not intended to be a one-off," he said. "It's really meant to create a groundswell around the artists and engage and develop artists in the community. It's looking at the richness of the arts."

The Houston festival also is a celebration of the Ismaili population becoming more established in the city, Samji said.

"This is a milestone in a sense," he said. "We're not just looking at being educated, functioning members of American society, but looking at becoming artistic and cultural contributors as well."

He said 25 or 30 years ago, the Ismaili community was comprised of new immigrants still settling into Houston. A couple generations later, they are ready to share and celebrate their culture with the rest of the city.

"It's an expression of our identity," Samji said.

For information, visit https://the.ismaili and click on "Diamond Jubilee."Rumors were again swirling online that immigration agents were conducting raids in Houston.

Monica Trevino, who hosts an online Spanish-language radio show and runs a Facebook group for Latinas, turned to the only place she knew that could help: The advocacy group FIEL Houston, and its director, Cesar Espinosa. He dispelled the rumors in a Facebook live video, explaining what rights immigrants here illegally have.

It boasted more than 20,000 views.

With the nation embroiled once again in the divisive immigration debate, and the fate of so-called Dreamers - children brought illegally into the country - up in the air, Espinosa and his organization have become a go-to place for such immigrants in Houston.

It's a grassroots operation that serves a purpose with which many of those on one side of the immigration debate might disagree. But President Donald Trump's crackdown on these immigrants has left them with fewer places to turn, and FIEL has filled that vacuum.

"People see them as more like one of us," Trevino said. "They're not like somebody famous."

The group pales in sophistication and fervor compared to similar outfits in Los Angeles and New York. But FIEL is arguably the largest and most vocal such immigrant-run local organization in Houston and the state. Despite its outsized role in immigration, Texas lacks strong advocacy on the issue.

The stories of Espinosa, a 32-year-old Dreamer whose parents brought him to the United States illegally from Mexico as a child, and FIEL reflect the larger national movement advocating for immigrant youth. Over the past decade, they have found a powerful political voice.

Congress once again is at an impasse over their future, with the Senate unable to agree last week on how to replace the temporary work permit program for young immigrants, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, that Trump rescinded in the fall.

But unlike previous immigration stalemates, there has never before been so many youth unafraid to speak out, in part due to the protections from deportation that Trump has put at risk.

"We're no longer in the shadows," said Julieta Garibay, Texas director and co-founder of United We Dream, the nation's largest immigrant youth-led network. "We're no longer a nonexisting factor."

Today that advocacy has matured from a movement focused on youth to a larger drive for immigrant rights, a transformation mirrored in the growth of FIEL itself.

"Immigrant youth have said, 'We're not going to be your bargaining chips.'" Garibay said. "Politicians can't just say, 'We'll give you papers,' and then terrorize our parents."

***

When immigration agents arrested Marcela Rivera's husband in the parking lot of his southwest Houston apartment last month, the young mother didn't know where to turn. She believed his arrest at dawn had been unjust: Carlos Gudiel Andres was loading tools into his truck when they demanded his identification, ran his name and discovered a deportation order from 2005. Though he had no other criminal record, they detained him.

Rivera called the Spanish TV station Telemundo, but no one returned her message. A friend suggested FIEL. Within hours, the organization announced a news conference. At the group's southwest Houston office the next day, Espinosa was in a pressed blazer complete with findings from recent national studies on deportations. Volunteers held signs in the background.

This was not just another arrest destroying an American family, Espinosa said. This was the latest in a pattern of federal agents targeting Latino apartments and questioning whomever they encounter, he said, calling it a "fine line between enforcement and racial profiling."

His suggestion of a systematic practice landed the story in media outlets across the country, and Espinosa made all of the local television newscasts, an occurrence that has now become as routine as his invitations to the White House and Congress. It's a far cry from the 8-year-old who used to rush out at lunch so that he could scarf down his food before his classmates in Ohio mocked the Mexican delicacies his mother packed.

***

Espinosa was born in Mexico City, the son of a medical student and a musician, and his parents brought him and his two siblings to Houston when he was 6

They lived in an apartment in Montrose at a time when drive-by shootings made for cheap rent. His father played music at Cafe Adobe, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Memorial, then was hired as an entertainer for a restaurant chain in Ohio.

It wasn't what the family imagined. The cold tore through their Texas clothes, and they were the only Latinos they knew in an unwelcoming state. They moved back to Houston after a year, and Espinosa tested into a gifted-and-talented program at Jane Long Academy, gaining admission to DeBakey High School for Health Professions, one of the city's best schools.

That he lacked legal status was omnipresent in Espinosa's life; he couldn't give blood or even get a student parking permit because he didn't have a Social Security number. It fully sunk in when he was accepted into Brown, Cornell and Yale universities after receiving a near perfect SAT score.

At the time, private colleges didn't offer scholarships for students here illegally, and they still don't qualify for federal financial aid. Dejected, Espinosa enrolled at Houston Community College and worked cash jobs replacing pool tables and parking cars for valet. He poured his heart into a side gig at the Central American Resource Center, a nonprofit serving Latino immigrants.

Immigration was again an explosive topic as then-President George W. Bush tried unsuccessfully to pass reform. Immigrant youth like Espinosa who had lived practically their entire lives here began to coalesce and get angry.

Inspired in part by national leadership from groups such as United We Dream, Espinosa's family began running a small advocacy group from their house in Houston, helping students without legal status apply for college financial aid. Counselors were turning away those without Social Security numbers, incorrectly telling them that they couldn't enroll.

"At the time, there weren't that many resources for undocumented youth," Espinosa said.

One of the first Dreamers, the national activist Gaby Pacheco who later served as an immigrant liaison for former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, recalled that Espinosa always had an impressive business savvy for what amounted to a student organization.

"They have been able to build not only a name and a brand, but also trust in the community," she said.

Espinosa registered FIEL, an acronym for the Spanish translation of Immigrant Families and Students in the Struggle, as a nonprofit in 2011. But when Rose Escobar turned to them for help that year, they were still very much learning by doing. Immigration agents had detained her husband, who lost his legal status as a teen in a paperwork mix-up. She was desperate but alarmed by their youth.

"I know I look young. But I got this," Espinosa told her. "You're the second case we've taken, and we're not going to let you down. You can't be scared. You have to speak up."

Espinosa launched a media campaign and appealed to politicians in Washington. A few months later, President Barack Obama's administration released Jose Escobar on a temporary order of supervision, meaning he could stay as long as he checked in with immigration officials.

***

By 2012, activists had focused their energy on Obama, whom they called "deporter in chief." Espinosa was one of about 30 invited to the White House by Cecilia Munoz, director of the president's Domestic Policy Council. Obama assured them that he was going to act.

One month later, in June, the president unveiled the DACA program that Congress now is struggling to replace. Under it, about 700,000 young immigrants with no criminal records and high school diplomas qualified for temporary work permits. Republicans assailed it as an executive overreach, and Trump later campaigned on ending it.

Polls show most Americans support some way for such youth to remain.

At the time, Maria Sosa was a senior at Alvin High School. She and her parents, who came here illegally from Mexico two decades ago, arrived at FIEL's office at 9 p.m. the night before DACA applications could be submitted. They waited outside so that she could be first in line.

"My husband was very nervous," Maria's mother, Leticia, said. "Even the (Mexican) Consulate told us, 'Why are you in such a hurry to do this? You're just giving the government your daughter's information so that they can deport her.'"

But the Sosas trusted Espinosa. Like them, he was here illegally. He was applying for the permit. He wouldn't deceive them.

DACA's transformed Espinosa and FIEL into the face of Houston's undocumented community. For weeks, youth lined up outside its strip mall office, sandwiched between an Indian bazaar and a lingerie shop.

"It was chaos," Espinosa said. "We weren't really expecting that amount."

His stature grew. He began meeting with lawmakers in Austin and Washington. The more immigrants FIEL helped, the more joined its circle of volunteers. Today the group has about 50 who regularly help. Espinosa depends on them, because he is one of only four full-time employees, including Sosa, who married his brother.

The budget is small, consisting of donations, membership fees and nominal charges for services they offer like helping on DACA applications. They rely on a group of attorneys who do free consultations at their office each week.

One, Raed Gonzalez, said he appreciates their work, in part because they don't try to give legal advice. He said some well-meaning immigrant advocates often end up offering wrong counsel.

"What I like about FIEL, and why we support them, is they know their limitations," Gonzalez said. "They know they can help families with filling out documents, how to prepare for arrests, knowing your rights."

The group still seems rough-and-tumble, especially when compared to similar efforts in more liberal states. They have, for instance, allowed their tax-exempt status to lapse by forgetting to file the 990 tax return, though Espinosa said they are fixing it.

Two events last year cemented FIEL's standing in Houston. Trump's election spurred hysterical online reports of raids nearly every day. FIEL volunteers showed up at the locations, transmitting on Facebook to dispel the rumors.

"We became a beacon of information," Espinosa said. "People are afraid, but they identify with us."

Then came Hurricane Harvey. Volunteers trudged through shelters and Hispanic neighborhoods. They urged those without legal status to seek help, promising that federal agents would not arrest them. They gathered donations for immigrants who otherwise didn't qualify for aid. They publicized apartments where management didn't make required repairs.

Espinosa thinks the group's greatest contribution is its advocacy in schools. He recently presided over a financial aid session at Westside High School. Juana Pineda, a senior with DACA, said she is her family's first to go to college.

"I don't really know how this whole thing works," she said. "I'm just going to go to FIEL every year."Thousands of Houstonians cheerfully celebrated the Lunar New Year at the Chinese Community Center in southwest Houston on Saturday.

The 2018 Lunar New Year Festival featured several performances, cultural crafts activities, family games and craft sales throughout the day. At the outdoor festival, families walked from booth to booth to play games and purchased Asian street food and bubble tea. Attendees, some of whom wore traditional costumes, took pictures with a dragon mascot.

The Chinese New Year, a 15-day festivity, begins with the new moon that occurs between late January and late February. There are 12 zodiac animals, and 2018 is the Year of the Dog.

John Stuart, the fund development manager at the Chinese Community Center, said the festival draws around 12,000 people annually and continues to grow.

"We partner with a lot of different organizations that do performances in the gymnasium and they are local arts or music organizations," Stuart said.

Nod to traditions

Performances by students and community members included the Dragon and Lion Dance, Chinese Folk Dance, Tibetan Drum Dance, Korean Monk Dance, Dai Peacock Dance and Hawaiian Hula Dance.

Rhea Kandarapally, 10, performed Bharatanatyam, a traditional Indian dance organized by the Anjali School.

"I just like dancing in front of crowds and performing because it is just very fun for me to do, and I like getting all dressed up," said Kandarapally, who started dancing at age 5. "It is important for me because I get to show some of my talent and culture."

Teresa Wang and her daughter Jiajia Xu, 10, both wore a qipao, a traditional Chinese dress,

Wang said her Vietnamese colleague gave Jiajia a red envelope, or "hongbao" in Mandarin, with money because she knows it's a Chinese tradition for adults to give children or unmarried adults such envelopes for good luck.

"I think if we don't represent all those traditions, how do (children) know these?" Wang said. "I think for them.. it is very important for them to know more about China, in case one day they go back to China.

Bringing back memories

The community center provides educational and social services to the community, including child care, job training and senior services.

"We have also been helping out with Harvey relief, helping provide case management, help people recover from their loses after Harvey," Stuart said.

Southwest Houston is home to a large South Asian community, but Stuart said the center is open to residents of any ethnicity. Staff speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Spanish.

Vu Le said he decided to attend the festival with his 12-year-old son, Tuan, so they could enjoy the Lunar Year with the community.

"Sometimes we go to something like this or go to a restaurant for him to see the Lion Dance because different groups have different styles of the dance," Le said. "When you see the Lion Dance, it's just like a new year back in the country, back in when I grew up in Vietnam. It brings back the memories."PARKLAND, Fla. - Thousands of angry students, parents, teachers and neighbors of a Florida high school where 17 people were killed demanded on Saturday that immediate action be taken on gun-control legislation, insisting they would not relent until their demands were met.

The rally in downtown Fort Lauderdale gave a political outlet to the growing feelings of rage and mourning sparked by the carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Authorities say a former student who had been expelled, had mental health issues and been reported to law enforcement, used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle to kill students and staff.

''Because of these gun laws, people that I know, people that I love, have died, and I will never be able to see them again," Delaney Tarr, a student at the school, told the crowd swamping the steps and courtyard at the federal courthouse.

The crowd chanted: "Vote them out!" and held signs calling for action. Some read: "#Never Again," "#Do something now" and "Don't Let My Friends Die."

Student Emma Gonzalez told the crowd politicians should stop taking donations from the National Rifle Association. ''To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you," she yelled, and the crowd repeated her.

In a nearly 10-minute address, the Stoneman Douglas High senior led the crowd in chants of "No more BS!"

"The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call BS," she said, in continuing to call out those in power. "Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS."

The rally Saturday came as new details emerged about the suspect, Nikolas Cruz.

State investigation

From a mosaic of public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, it appears Cruz was unstable and violent to himself and those around him - and that when notified about his threatening behavior, law enforcement did little to stop it.

Cruz's mother died in November and his father died years ago.

He reportedly left a suburban Palm Beach County mobile home where he had been staying after his mother's death because his benefactor gave him an ultimatum: you or the gun.

The Palm Beach Post reports Rocxanne Deschamps said, "He bought a gun and wanted to bring it into my house" in public comments that have since been removed from her Facebook page.

Chad Bennett, a friend of Deschamps', said Cruz "chose the gun and he left."

He then went to live with another family.

Earlier, Florida's child welfare agency investigated after Cruz cut himself in an online video, but found him stable, according to state records.

The Florida Department of Children and Families had been alerted to posts on Snapchat of Cruz cutting both his arms and expressing interest in buying a gun, according to the report.

The Department of Children and Families investigated whether Cruz intended to harm himself in September 2016, when he made the alarming social media posts after an argument with his mother. Cruz, who had depression, was upset over a breakup with a girlfriend, his mother, Lynda Cruz, told investigators. The report does not say who called in the complaint.

But the Department of Children and Families report shows that investigators closed the case because they found Cruz was being taken care of by his mother and was receiving mental health counseling. The investigator determined that the "final level of risk is low," an analysis that even one of Cruz's counselors at his school believed was premature.

The report is the latest indication that Cruz was repeatedly identified by local and federal agencies as a troubled young man with violent tendencies. The FBI acknowledged Friday that it had failed to investigate a tip called into a hotline last month by a person close to Cruz identifying him as a gun owner intent on killing people, possibly at a school.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said his office had received more than 20 calls about Cruz in the past few years.

Cruz also worried officials at his former school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, who on at least one occasion alerted a mobile crisis unit to get him emergency counseling, according to the state report.

'A multisystem failure'

Howard Finkelstein, the Broward County public defender, whose office is representing Cruz, said the report was further evidence that Cruz needed serious help long before the shooting, but did not get enough of it.

"This kid exhibited every single known red flag, from cutting animals to having a cache of weapons to disruptive behavior to saying he wanted to be a school shooter," Finkelstein said. "If this isn't a person who should have gotten someone's attention, I don't know who is. This was a multisystem failure."

Those failures have led Parkland to respond to the latest mass shooting with a call to activism - angry teachers, parents and teenagers demanding stricter guns laws, more government money for school security and better treatment for mental illness.

"This going to energize a lot of people to vote this year," said Carl Hiaasen, the best-selling novelist and journalist, who grew up in Plantation, just south of Parkland. "People are angry."

At a vigil Thursday night in the palm-lined heart of Parkland, people broke into a spontaneous and enraged chant of "No more guns! No more guns!" Many were students, who are organizing on social media and calling for young people to lead the political charge.

Laurie Woodward Garcia, the mother of a 14-year-old girl, echoed many in the crowd at Saturday's protest, who said they believed that this shooting would lead to change, though so many others had not.

''If there's something that we can unite on as Democrats and Republicans and Independents, it's our children. So it will happen," she said.

Beam Furr, the mayor of Broward County, which includes Parkland, said he was eager to give young people a chance to push for new gun legislation.

"Those students who were at Douglass, they're good kids, smart students. They don't want this shooting to be their most enduring memory of high school," he said. "Several of them have told me they want the memory to be something that they helped change. To let that be their legacy."

For Gonzalez, the students' response is about something more fundamental.

''A lot of people are saying that these kids are activists, these kids need to be politicians," Gonzalez later told a reporter. ''But a lot of us are just other students who figured there's strength in numbers. And we want to be sure that we end up having our message sent across. And then we can get back to our normal everyday lives, you know."A prominent Republican political donor demanded on Saturday that the party pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians.

Al Hoffman Jr., a Florida-based real estate developer who was a leading fundraiser for George W. Bush's campaigns, said he would seek to marshal support among other Republican political donors for a renewed assault weapons ban.

"For how many years now have we been doing this - having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings - and how many years has it been that nothing's been done?" Hoffman said in an interview. "It's the end of the road for me."

Gray Matters: Another school shooting. Thoughts and prayers are not enough.

Hoffman announced his ultimatum in an email to half a dozen Republican leaders, including Jeb Bush and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida. He wrote in the email that he would not give money to Scott, who is considering a campaign for the Senate in 2018, or other Florida Republicans he has backed in the past, including Rep. Brian Mast, if they did not support new gun legislation.

"I will not write another check unless they all support a ban on assault weapons," he wrote. "Enough is enough!"

Hoffman, a former ambassador to Portugal, has donated millions to Republican candidates and causes over the years, including more than $1 million to Right to Rise, a super PAC that supported Jeb Bush's presidential campaign in 2016.

A critic of President Donald Trump, Hoffman has continued to donate heavily to other Republicans.

Gun legislation: Frustration grows as Congress fails to pass even modest gun measures

Alluding to past mass killings, Hoffman argued in his email that future gun massacres were inevitable without government intervention: "If we go from Orlando to Las Vegas, and now Parkland, you just have to know that there are others around the country just dreaming about staging another mass murder."

Republican elected officials in Washington and Florida have shown no significant interest in considering new gun restrictions after the Florida school shooting. The party, which has full control of both the state and federal government, has traditionally opposed virtually all new limitations on firearms.

Controversial mailer: GOP candidate totes assault-style weapon in mailers

Scott has resisted pressure to back new gun regulations after the killing of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County on Wednesday, though he said "everything's on the table" in a television interview.

And Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida voiced resistance to discussing gun control in a speech after the massacre, arguing in the Senate that a person determined to carry out an attack would find the weaponry to do it regardless of government regulations.A government helicopter, carrying officials surveying damage from an earthquake, crashed in southern Mexico on Friday evening, killing at least 13 men, women and children.

The accident horrified and angered people in Mexico, which had seemed to escape the worst after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit the state of Oaxaca earlier in the day. Unlike last year's deadly quake near Mexico City, this temblor caused little more than power outages and structural damage in the town of Santiago Jamiltepec, near the southern coast.

The governor of Oaxaca and Mexico's new interior secretary had been assessing the damage from the air. The crash occurred as the helicopter was preparing to land in a field in the town after dark.

A state government official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said the chopper crashed into a group of people who had been spending the night outside because aftershocks, including one of 5.8 magnitude that struck about an hour after the first, had caused people to flee their homes for fear they would collapse.

The Oaxaca state prosecutor's office said in a statement that five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later at a hospital.

The Defense Department said the Blackhawk helicopter crashed as it was preparing to land in a vacant lot. The department said the victims had been waiting for the helicopter, but did not provide more details.

No one aboard the helicopter, including Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat, was seriously hurt.

Lost control at landing zone

Jorge Morales, a local reporter who was aboard the helicopter when it crashed Friday night, described harrowing moments as the pilot lost control and the helicopter attempted to touch down in a swirl of dust in Jamiltepec, a city in Oaxaca state close to the epicenter of the earthquake that struck earlier Friday.

"The moment the helicopter touched down it lost control, it slid - like it skidded - and it hit some vehicles that were parked alongside the area that had been defined for the landing," Morales told a Mexican television news program. "In that moment, you couldn't see anything, nothing else was heard beside the sound that iron makes when it scrapes the earth."

Navarrete and the defense department said they regretted the loss of life.

The Blackhawk ended up on its side, plastic chairs strewn around the field and two vans crushed beneath thousands of pounds of machinery.

The mayor of Jamiltepec, Efrain de la Cruz, was on the phone with CNN when he got word of the crash. The network had been showing clips of the city from earlier in the day. A couple kissed in the street, shaken but okay.

Then the mayor's anguished voice, crying in Spanish over the footage: "A helicopter is down! A helicopter is down!  This can't be possible, oh my God."

'Act of stupidity'

The government now faces angry questions about why such a landing was even attempted in the dark. For example, Layda Sansores, a senator for a different Mexican state, called the flight an unforgivable "act of stupidity."

The quake damaged about 50 homes in Jamiltepec, as well as the town hall and church, according to the Interior Department. It also rocked buildings in Mexico City, about 240 miles northwest, and many other parts of the country.

But the damage was minimal compared to a massive 8.2 quake that struck in the same general area on Sept. 7 and a 7.1 magnitude quake on Sept. 19, which killed a total of 471 people between the two of them and damaged over 180,000 houses in eight states, including Mexico City.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Friday's quake was centered 33 miles northeast of Pinotepa in southern Oaxaca state and had a depth of 15 miles.

Two people suffered fractures caused by the quake and were treated in Pinotepa Nacional. Their lives were not in danger.ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN: Recent picture taken 24 December shows Turkmenistan's Acting President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov standing near the coffin of late President Saparmurat Niyazov during his burial in Ashgabat. A special assembly in Turkmenistan 26 December 2006 tapped interim leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov as frontrunner in the process to replace the Central Asian country's deceased strongman president, Saparmurat Niyazov. The specially convened People's Council selected six candidates to run on February 11, but the clear favourite was Berdymukhammedov, the first deputy prime minister and caretaker president. AFP PHOTO / POOL / ANDRIY MOSIENKO (Photo credit should read ANDRIY MOSIENKO/AFP/Getty Images)

ASHGABAT, April 29 (Reuters) - Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has taken his strongman personality cult to a new dimension with headlines in the state-run media trumpeting his victory in a horse race with an $11 million prize.

A professional dentist also known for his passion for glitzy racing cars, Berdymukhamedov has run the post-Soviet republic with an iron hand since 2006 when his flamboyant autocratic predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, died of a heart attack.

Widely referred to as "Arkadag" (The Patron) at home, he wields almost absolute power in the secretive, isolated Central Asian desert country of 5.5 million people that holds the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas.

State media on Monday showed Berdymukhamedov riding a shimmering straw-coloured horse of the national Akhal Teke breed named Berkarar (Mighty). He was wearing a traditional white Turkmen "telpek" sheepskin hat and crimson caftan.

The 1,000-metre (3,300-foot) race was held on Sunday when Turkmenistan celebrated The Day of the Turmen Racehorse - a holiday established by Niyazov to honour the local noble breed renowned for its speed and elegant grace.

"The spectators' attention was riveted on the golden arrow - Berkarar, led by the leader of the nation. All was decided by fractions of a second, and Berkarar was the first to cross the finish line," the Neitralny Turkmenistan daily wrote.

"President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has yet again demonstrated not only his high class as a horse rider, but also his strong will, firmness and courage."

Berdymukhamedov, 55, will donate his $11 million prize to a state company breeding the Akhal Teke horses, local media said.

Turkmenistan, the only Central Asian nation that does not consume horsemeat, has developed a virtual cult of its "divine horses". Akhal Teke horses have been given as a gift to the leaders of Iran, France, Russia, Kazakhstan and other nations.

Earlier Turkmen state television reports have lionised Central Asia's youngest and most sporting leader by featuring him flying in a supersonic fighter jet, riding a tank, shooting an assault rifle and removing a benign tumour. (Reporting by Marat Gurt; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Mark Heinrich)Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

Large organizations don't move quickly.

They don't notice problems quickly. They don't address them quickly. And they don't change attitudes quickly.

After last year's painful experience following the sight of a paying passengers being dragged bloodied down the aisle by United-inspired law enforcement, the airline seemed stunned at the effects on its image.

So it set about trying to change things. It promised a new commitment to customers.

It promised to offer such decencies as treating passengers "fairly and consistently in the case of oversales."

There was also the somewhat basic "notify customers of known delays, cancellations and diversions."

And even the breakthrough "ensure responsiveness to customer complaints."

That was almost a year ago.

Only now, though, are the everyday employees being given training as to how to enact the airline's new attitude.

Last month, supervisors were offered a glimpse into what the airline was expecting and trained into how to begin delivering it.

In one word, the airline wants employees to show they "care."

Some might muse that another way of describing this is for employees to exercise "common sense in dealing with human beings."

Still, what the airline dubs its Core4 training is now being extended to the people you encounter the most -- the everyday employees you see on the plane, at the check-in counter, the gate and the bar (banging their heads against a large beer).

The Chicago Business Journal describes how the training has been received at LAX, where the airline is expanding its sphere of influence.

As the airline promised, it's trying to get employees to think less about rigid rules and more about what would satisfy the customer's needs at any given moment -- without the airline losing anything at all.

Other than its reputation for, well, imperfect customer service.

What moved me, though, was a quote from Les Bailey, a United employee, who had just gone through the four-hour training.

"What I walked away with was the emphasis that we're all in this together and regardless of our day-to-day job titles, we depend on one another to be successful. At the end of the day it's about being empathetic and caring toward each other and our customers," he said.

The question that might force itself into one or two minds is: What on earth was it like to work at United before?

Was it really a place where people didn't think they were in this together? Was it a place where job title dictated all?

Was it really a place where no one could depend on anyone else to be successful?

Is it really such a surprise that thinking about your fellow team-members and your customers is what makes for better customer service and, some would argue, a better airline?

How might a company allow itself to slip into such bad habits? By focusing solely on revenue, perhaps?

Still, one can't help worrying that what United might give with one hand, it will take away with a sly finger or two.

As it tries to be more caring, it's also shoving more seats onto planes.

As it tries to embrace empathy, it's trying -- along with other airlines -- to get the Department of Transportation to remove regulations such as the 24-hour grace period during which you can get a full refund on a ticket.

What's most important, of course, is whether passengers feel any difference.

In the coming weeks and months, then, these new attitudes should become a pleasant surprise to passengers.Intrigued? Inspired by Glassdoor's recent feature, check out some of the incredible benefits these companies offer.

As a global communications platform, Fuze prioritizes allowing teams to work anywhere and stay in touch with their software. Employees can work where they perform best, even if it means at home. Plus, the company offers unlimited vacation days!

This company specializes in loyalty marketing, so it's no wonder that they keep employees loyal as well. Workers get unlimited vacation days, 100% paid medical coverage, catered lunches, and a month-long sabbatical after three years. Plus, it's a dog-friendly office!

It's no surprise that military and government workers get top-notch benefits. Two to four weeks of paid leave and ten federal paid holidays adds up to generous vacation time. Employees may also receive professional education, life insurance, or even home loans. Their competitive pay and matching 401(k) are nothing to scoff at either.

Brunswick manufactures exercise and recreational products, which reflects in their company culture. Their "Be Your Best program" allows workers to earn redeemable points for completing their fitness goals. Standing and treadmill desks ensure that they are always active even when working. Plus, their gracious paid time off allows employees to relax after long periods of work and exercise.

Last year, TQL celebrated their 20th anniversary by holding a week-long party that included everything from skydiving to rock climbing. Their CEO even chose two workers to have a helicopter tour with him. Plus, the company offers 401(k), tuition assistance, and professional training programs.

Since the company focuses on well-being, provides employees receive health care for themselves, their dependents, and even their pets. Workers also receive professional development opportunities, a generous retirement plan, financial wellness resources, and a flexible program to accommodate a work-life balance.

Awesome, right? Possible salt in the wound that they're all hiring, too.A senior Irish politician has hit out at Boris Johnson after he failed to mention Ireland in a key Brexit speech.

Fianna Fail TD Stephen Donnelly slammed the Foreign Secretary for speaking about stag parties and the eye-popping activities of those living abroad but did not address the pressing issue of the border in his road to Brexit speech in London last week.

He said: It was an extraordinary speech. It was insulting. It was reckless.

Boris Johnson gave a 4,600 word national address on #Brexit today. He didn't mention Ireland, or Northern Ireland, once. He did talk of stag parties in ancient cities and eye-popping activities by British citizens in Thailand. Insulting, reckless behaviour.  Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) February 14, 2018

Mr Johnson was speaking at the Policy Exchange think tank in London on Wednesday.

He urged people to unite around Brexit, adding the UKs departure from the EU should not be seen as a great V sign from the cliffs of Dover.

However, Mr Donnelly told RTEs The Week In Politics programme: In his 4,600 word speech he never mentioned Ireland. He never mentioned Northern Ireland. He never mentioned the border.

The Wicklow representative claimed the speech was more about internal Conservative party rivalry than resolving potential difficulties posed by Brexit.

The Tory Party is not really negotiating with the EU at the minute. The Tory party is negotiating with itself. It would appear that the big Brexit beasts, the likes of Johnson and others are positioning themselves, Mr Donnelly added.Irish President Michael D Higgins is to visit a refugee camp during a state visit to Greece.

The three-day trip, which begins on Thursday, also includes meetings with the Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos, Prime Minister Alexis Tsiparas and other senior political figures.

Thousands of migrants have been stuck in make-shift camps across Greece since a series of Balkan border closures and an EU-Turkey deal on stemming migration.

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The President will see first hand the conditions in which they have been living when he visits a camp outside Athens on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Mr Higgins  who will be accompanied by his wife Sabina  will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens, where he is expected to give a lecture on the ancient and enduring relationship between Ireland and Greece.

His office has confirmed other engagements include a State dinner, wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown solider in Athens, a breakfast meeting with Irish and Greek business leaders at the Acropolis Museum and a concert performed by Irish and Greek artists at the Megaron Concert Hall organised by Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy.Macra na Feirme Young Leadership award winner Sarah Condren has come a long way since her early childhood days when she had to be lifted over the slatted floor of the cow shed on her family farm.

The 28-year-old from Castletown, Co Wexford was among a number of Macra members honoured at the Macra na Feirme Leadership Awards in Dublin last week.

Sarah has been a member of Johnstown/Coolgreany Macra in Co Wicklow since 2010. From taking part in dairystock judging to dressing up as a horse-meat burger, Sarah feels she has gotten the full Macra experience in the last eight years.

"I got in to it initially because I liked the dairy stock judging side of things but I really like the social side of it. There's a great mix of ages and everyone does their best to get involved," says Sarah.

"I dressed up as a horse-meat burger for a fancy dress before just as a laugh and another time I dressed as a Nokia 3310 for the Muskerry Macra Rally. I won best dressed at that."

Having held previous roles as treasurer and secretary of her own club, Sarah is now county secretary of Wicklow Macra, where she runs a successful young farmers' development group.

"We organise farm walks and they're great because it gives the young farmer a chance to get out and see different farm practices. A lot of the time if there's a father and son farming together it's the father who usually goes but our walks ensure the young farmer goes along," she says.

Sarah's parents Sean and Irene and her brother John run the family dairy farm in Castletown, while Sarah helps out.

Sarah's interest in farming and rural life started at a young age but her mother, Irene, often reminds her of the days when her grandfather had to carry her over the slatted floor of the cow shed on their dairy farm.

"I used to be afraid I'd fall through," she laughs. "There's loads of pictures from when I was small of me being on the farm. It was something I always enjoyed and was all I ever knew. I loved being outside."

Sarah's love of being outside influenced her career path and she completed a degree in animal science in UCD in 2011, followed by a masters in ruminant nutrition last year.

She now works in the Agricultural, Environmental and Structures Division of the Department of Agriculture and gets to meet farmers on a daily basis on farm inspections.

"I love being out and about and could never imagine being at a desk all day. I'm based in Enniscorthy and do GLAS inspections at the moment," she says.

"It's great to meet farmers and make people aware of the importance of the environment."

She feels issues such as farm transfers and negative press are challenges facing the industry at the moment.

"The transfer of land to the young farmer should be made easier so people can work the farm to its potential. I think campaigns like Februdairy are great and farmers are more vocal online and getting positive messages out there."Ray Coyle in front of the Cu Chulainn roller coaster which is one of the biggest attractions in Tayto Park. Photo: Frank McGrath

Tayto Park boss Ray Coyle has got the green light for a 23m solar farm next to his Co Meath amusement park.

It is expected that a third of the electricity produced by the solar panels will be used to power the park, as well as the adjacent crisp factory, while the rest will be supplied to the national grid.

The proposed development, which is being carried out in conjunction with local farmer Joe McDermott, will see the construction of a 35 megawatt solar farm, with more than 120,000 photovoltaic panels arranged on steel ground mounted frames.

Coyle owns 100 acres of the site, while McDermott owns a further 40 acres of the overall area earmarked for the project, which is about a kilometre from the nearby Largo Foods Factory and the amusement park.

The decision comes as solar developer JBM was also granted permission by Meath County Council for an even bigger solar farm nearby, between Ratoath and Dunboyne. That project will extend across 210 acres and will generate up to 51 megawatts of power.

The Meath solar farms approved by the local authority in recent days are just two of a large number of such developments that have been proposed across the country over the past two years. Planners had faced a conundrum around the proposed renewable energy generating developments because of a lack of any national guidelines on solar farms.

Separately, Tayto Park faced criticism in recent weeks after seeking to prevent the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht releasing details of animal deaths at its zoo, arguing that the information was being taken out of context and did not take account of the natural lifespan of the animals.

Coyle stepped down as chairman and director of Largo Foods last year after it was taken over by German food group Intersnack but remains in charge of the amusement park.It can take a while to get used to Irish humour. Bank of Ireland CEO Francesca McDonagh (43) found this out when she saw a tweet she thought complimented her relative youth.

"She looks like she has saved her Communion money," wrote the tweeter, which pleased McDonagh no end until some local staff informed the new boss what it actually meant. The anecdote went down a storm at the annual dinner of the Dublin Chamber last Thursday where McDonagh gave her maiden address to the capital's mostly male business titans.

"I've never shared a stage with so many women," quipped McDonagh, one of three women - along with new chamber president (and Vodafone boss) Anne O'Leary and chamber CEO Mary Rose Burke - to address the gathering.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the keynote at last year's dinner when he was a mere social protection minister, had a few quips of his own. Did he expect to be back again so soon? "Well I kind of did a little bit," said Varadkar who had the last laugh on his critics.Orion Reo, a company connected to Oaktree, plans to link into a nearby high pressure gas pipeline to power specially designed generators that will supply the proposed 31,537 sq m development

A data centre project that will be powered by the gas network rather than the electricity network has been given the go-ahead by planning authorities.

The development, in Orion Business Park in Dublin 15, has been planned to try and circumvent the growing issues around the huge energy usage of data centres developed in this country in recent years.

The Blanchardstown data centre is to be developed by a company linked to investment fund Oaktree Capital. It is planning to build three separate gas-powered data centres on the a 5.73-hectare site previously owned by logistics firm Brian Daly Transport,

Orion Reo, a company connected to Oaktree, plans to link into a nearby high pressure gas pipeline to power specially designed generators that will supply the proposed 31,537 sq m development,

The Dublin 15 area has seen huge industrial development, including other power-hungry data centres, in recent times. This newspaper revealed last year that ESB is facing demands to more than double its entire electricity supply for Dublin to feed proposed new data centres.

Eirgrid has indicated that new power connections over 10mw in Ballycoolin and the wider area "would require deep reinforcement of the current grid infrastructure which is already operating near maximum capacity", said documents submitted as part of the planning process for the Oaktree development.

That could take up to seven years, "restricting the growth or creation of schemes/developments in the area with high electricity demands". said the document from specialist company Bitpower Energy Solutions.

It has designed a system to power the three new data centres "without imposing on Ireland's electricity network".

"The Natural Gas network is often overlooked as a power source and consequently is underutilised," it said.

Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) has "strategically identified data centres as a growth sector for their business" and has carried out a network analysis exercise to confirm the existing infrastructure at Cappagh Road has the capacity to service the proposed data centres.

The Orion planning file also contained a robust defence of data centres in Ireland.

"In recent times there has been a growing argument that data centres, despite costing hundreds of millions of euros and imposing heavily on Ireland's electrical infrastructure don't create very many jobs," it said.

But this was an incomplete way to look at their impact on employment, said the document: "If a company was a person, one might argue that the data centre is its brain.

"The human brain only weighs an average of three pounds, and thus accounts for only a few percent of the body's weight yet it uses 20pc of the body's oxygen and 25pc of its glucose," it said.

The document drew a comparison between the brain and the jobs created at data centres.There is little doubt that the changes coming from that review will shape Ireland's future on the international stage and the careers of anyone involved in corporate tax

Tuesday, January 30, was the end of the beginning. It marked the end of the public consultation on corporate tax launched by the Minister for Finance on budget day. Now the heavy lifting starts with the authorities drafting law to deal with the issues raised. There is little doubt that the changes coming from that review will shape Ireland's future on the international stage and the careers of anyone involved in corporate tax.

To quote the late Heath Ledger in 2008's The Dark Knight, "why so serious"? Because that review focussed mainly on the EU's Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD) which seeks to bring Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)-like measures to the EU and hence our law. Pierre Moscovici (European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs) said in Davos he wants the EU to adopt a "BEPS- plus" approach and the directive does that.

On implementation, all EU members will have similar treatment of certain corporate tax avoidance measures. Some of these concepts are new to our law and will take getting used to but we'll all be singing from the same hymn sheet on these measures in a somewhat harmonious manner. I say "somewhat" given that the ATAD allows certain options to be taken by each member state.

Bruce Lee's advice comes to mind: "Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own". Given that this is an EU directive there is little we can reject this time but we can adapt and add.

This "somewhat" harmonious singing isn't the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) by another name. The ATAD seeks to reduce certain types of activity by dealing with tax avoidance, for example through the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR). The directive says that all EU States should have one. We've had one since 1989 so we're way ahead and it got added muscle in 2014. It says that if a transaction is done just to get a tax advantage, then the taxpayer can't have that tax advantage. Our GAAR affects everybody: companies and individuals alike, thereby treating everybody equally before the law.

A former Revenue Commissioner described the original GAAR as being akin to a cross-eyed javelin-thrower competing at the Olympics: he may not win, but he will keep everyone on the edge of their seats. So its uncertain application is clear. The law changed in 2014 so that a tax advantage could be removed where it is "reasonable to consider" that a tax advantage was the driving force behind the transaction. That javelin thrower is still competing while everyone watches with the stadium lights switched off.

Don't get me wrong, such law is necessary. I have to say that because I wrote a book on it and I want to compete with John Grisham, although I don't think Mr Grisham need be concerned. Such law provides the Exchequer with the ultimate protection against tax avoidance and rightly so. But here's the thing: the ATAD's version is arguably clearer than ours by requiring some conclusion be made on avoidance rather than a consideration of its existence. If every other EU member goes the way of the ATAD then our law may be disadvantaged when competing with them, so why not go with a "reasonable to conclude" test instead? Clarity eats uncertainty for breakfast when it comes to investment because investors read all T's and C's carefully and choose the path of least resistance when looking for a return. Differences with competitor countries can be chinks in our otherwise competitive armour.

The ATAD also contains Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) rules or, as I call it, the "reach out and touch" law. So where a company sets up a corporate entity in a foreign country to avoid tax, the parent company's home country can reach out and pull those profits back home and tax them.

The ATAD allows choices of application, now well known by tax professionals as options (a) or (b). Option (a) adds certain forms of a CFC's undistributed income to its parent company's tax computation back home. Option (b) has a similar result but uses a different approach as, unlike option (a) it applies to the CFC's total undistributed income where that income arises from non-genuine arrangements put in place for the essential purpose of obtaining a tax advantage. Options (a) and (b) provide exclusions from the CFC rules being substantive economic activities and non-artificial arrangements respectively. However, Ireland choosing option (a) over (b) or vice versa as part of our domestic law may represent some limitation in itself. Coming back to Mr Lee's advice we must "add what is specifically our own". In my view, our domestic law should, while adhering to the ATAD's object and purpose, ensure no discrimination exists between substantive companies in foreign countries and their smaller counterparts. Both types of company should be allowed demonstrate their innocence once their CFC was located abroad for genuine economic and not tax reasons.

When I was in school there were two types of pupil: the swots and everybody else. The "everybody else" group produced engineers, award-winning photographers, entrepreneurs, lawyers and many of my species, "accountants". And so it is with our tax system. We don't have to have the EU's shiniest tax system to get the job done ie, securing our future in times of increased competition while playing by the EU's rules. Simplicity of application, yes; clarity, definitely; a swot, not necessarily.

In short we play fair but play to win. All life's important decisions often come down to just one moment, this is one of them.

Tom Maguire is a tax partner with Deloitte.Preliminary discussions have begun about building a new River Liffey crossing to link the southern section of Dublin Port on the Poolbeg peninsula with the Port Tunnel on the northside of the city.

Negotiations around the planning, construction and financing of the new route - previously earmarked as part of the long-planned Eastern bypass - kicked off between Dublin Port Company, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and Dublin City Council at the start of this year.

The new Southern Port Access Route - likely to be a bridge rather than a tunnel - is a crucial part of Dublin Port's master plan to 2040, said its chief executive, Eamonn O'Reilly.

O'Reilly said that the company is discussing the possibility with transport authorities of it building the link itself.

The route is not mentioned as part of the Government's new investment plan but is part of the NTA's transport strategy for the Greater Dublin Area 2016-2035.

As part of the final stages of its master plan, the port is planning to expand the container terminal on the southside of the Liffey on the Poolbeg peninsula.

Dublin Port chief executive Eamonn OReilly said that the plan to link the Port Tunnel directly to the container port on the southside of the Liffey was driven by the need for future expansion at the lift on, lift off facility.

We know we would never get planning permission for that unless we can provide proper access, said OReilly. You just couldnt get the volume of extra goods across the East Link bridge. We dont even need to do a whole lot of analysis to know that. Thats why we need the new route.

If we can get that built quite quickly it could also be used to provide public transport, for example.

That is badly needed to provide for the 3,500 residential units that are being planned for the Poolbeg West special development zone, he said.

OReilly said it was too early to put a price tag on the route until indicative designs became clearer but that it would likely be a bridge rather than a tunnel.

He welcomed the Governments new investment and planning framework, announced last week.

A lot of joined-up thinking is already in place and the National Planning Framework is the glue that is putting all of it together coherently, he said.

We are talking at the moment with TII and the NTA and we might even build it ourselves because they have so many other projects to do.

But we are going to be pushing ahead with discussions to see if we can build it or can they build it in time for our master plan framework.IAG boss Willie Walsh has launched a bid in the UK to have passenger taxes axed to allow his new low-cost airline to launch US flights from Britain's regional airports.

If Walsh is successful in his bid to open the routes by IAG's new carrier Level they would be in direct competition with Aer Lingus.

The Irish carrier, also owned by IAG, has had huge success marketing its own US-bound flights to British passengers willing to transfer in Dublin rather than travel via London Heathrow but it has previously warned staff that the parent group could look to introduce competition between the two should costs rise.

New competitively priced routes out of Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester would likely dent Aer Lingus's growing transfer market, which has seen Dublin airport's status as a transatlantic hub grow.

Level launched flights from Barcelona to the US and Latin America last year and will fly from Paris to the Caribbean and North America in July with fares that start at around 88 one way.

But in a letter to British members of parliament, Walsh said that "British consumers are losing out because of air passenger duty", a tax which can amount to almost as much as the standard price of a Level ticket.

"In Spain and France, Level can offer lower fares than it can in the UK - and that goes for other long-haul low-cost airlines too," said Walsh. "MPs need to know that air passenger duty undermines our ability to introduce new low-cost flights that would benefit their constituents. If air passenger duty was axed, IAG could open new routes and operate Level from regional airports."

Walsh said that "by hiking air passenger duty in the last budget, it's clear the chancellor doesn't understand that Britain is losing out to countries that don't have draconian aviation taxes".

Irish airlines also blamed the introduction of a travel tax in Ireland in 2009 for damaging passenger numbers at Irish airports before the Government scrapped the tax in 2014.

In a letter last year, Aer Lingus chief operating officer Mike Rutter said: "If Aer Lingus is unable to remain competitive in the medium term, then as a rational parent company IAG has the ability to move these aircraft to launch new routes and grow the networks of other IAG companies, of which Level would be most relevant in this context."

But the arrival of Level would only be the latest addition to the rapidly increasing competition that the successful Aer Lingus model is up against on transatlantic routes. Industry publication Flight Global reported that Irish-based carrier Norwegian plans to base Airbus A321LRs, the new long-range version of the popular short-haul aircraft, in the UK to serve US east coast and midwest cities from 2019.

Last October, Aer Lingus also announced that it is to get eight of the A321LRs by 2020, allowing it to almost double its transatlantic traffic to 4.5 million passengers.

Last week, Airbus announced that the A321LR had completed a Paris to New York non-stop test flight, marking an important milestone in the aircraft's development. First customer delivery of the A321LR is expected in late 2018. The aircraft is capable of handling up to 240 passengers in a single-class layout and has a range of 4000 nautical miles.

But there have been some signs that the growing competition on transatlantic routes is starting to takes its toll.

After a period of rapid expansion it was reported that Icelandic budget carrier Wow Air will "pause" its Reykjavik-Miami schedule this spring, a year after it was launched.

Iceland, like Ireland, has worked to become a transit point for low-cost travel between Europe and the US. Recent fare sales by Aer Lingus, Norwegian and Wow are a further sign of intense pricing pressure in the market.In an age of social media and selfies, the pressure on women to look their best has never been greater. Advances in surgical and cosmetic procedures makes access to treatments more available to women of all ages. Mother and daughter Ailish Kelly and Niamh Murdock have grown The Avoca Clinic into market leaders.

Set up in 2012 by Ailish Kelly and now run by her and her daughter, Niamh Murdock, The Avoca Clinic is Ireland's leading cosmetic clinic. Headquartered in Avoca, Co. Wicklow, the business employs 50 staff and has an annual turnover of more than 3.5m.

"We offer a range of procedures from surgical to minimally invasive procedures and aesthetic treatments," says Ailish.

"Our speciality is breast augmentation, uplifts and reductions as well as body contouring procedures such as tummy tucks and lip and facial fillers. Everything is carried out here in our state-of-the-art theatre and after-care facility from initial consultation right through to clinical assessment, surgery and after-care," she adds.

"One of our most popular procedures is our new Tickle Lipo, which takes its name from the "ticklish" sensation experienced during treatment," adds Niamh, the company's MD. "FDA approved, this has become a game-changer for fat removal. Faster, safer and more effective than traditional liposuction methods, this treatment is provided as a walk-in, walk-out procedure ensuring no down time for busy patients.

"Our leading 3D breast suite is also hugely popular, allowing patients to try on 3D breasts to help them see what they would look like after augmentation surgery," she adds.

Most of their clients are women (90pc) with the majority in the 25 to 55-year-old age bracket. Those over this age typically opt for Botox and fillers rather than surgical procedures.

"Today's beauty culture has become much more demanding," explains Ailish.

"The selfie culture and social media platforms like Facebook make people more self-aware and more self-critical. Every client that visits us has their own story and emotional journey and it's not just about the way they want to look, it's about their confidence levels and the way they want to feel inside."

It's an understanding that comes from personal experience. Ailish grew up in Cabinteely in South Dublin. After school she joined AIB where she worked for the next seven years until becoming a full-time mother to her three children. However, she kept an interest in business through undertaking market research for companies on a part-time basis as well as running jewellery parties in her home.

"When I hit my forties, conversations with girlfriends of my own age would inevitably drift to discussing how to turn back the hands of time," says Ailish.

It was when a number of her friends began to have liposuction following the birth of their children that Ailish realised the potential market for a quality cosmetic surgical business.

"The experience of my friends varied so much that I thought there had to be an opening for an American-type service that offered access to the best quality plastic surgeons but in luxurious surroundings," she explains. "Shortly afterwards, while driving through the village of Kilmacanogue, I spotted the facility where the business is now based and decided it was now or never. I also realised that I had to create a different type of clinic that put the patient first and prioritised ethics over aesthetic."

In 2012, her daughter Niamh returned from Australia and joined her full time in the business. Having completed a degree in Economics and Sociology at UCD and a master's degree in International Business at the Dublin Institute of Technology, she had spent over three years working in the finance services sector in Melbourne.

"The success of the business today is largely down to our relationship and the fact that we each bring very different skills to the business," says Niamh. "Juggling the demands of work with having a family is challenging and now that I find myself in the same position, I admire my mother's accomplishments even more. I know that I wouldn't have the work ethos that I do, if it wasn't for her."

But with so many cosmetic procedures available today is there a danger they could become too generalist?

"In the beginning, we offered all of these but trying to be all things to everyone just isn't possible. So over time we've become more specialised and focused. By fine-tuning our proposition to core areas of breast surgery, fat removal and aesthetic treatments, we have ensured that we are now widely regarded as the go-to clinic and best in class in these areas," says Niamh.

With a second clinic now open in Limerick and turnover last year growing by more than 20pc, it's a strategy that seems to be paying off for the mother and daughter duo.

"We believe our growth is due to only working with accredited plastic surgeons as well being patient-centred. Core to this is continuously informing, educating and guiding each person through the entire process rather than simply focusing on the bottom line," adds Ailish.

Looking to the future the pair plan to open further clinics in Dublin City Centre as well as in Cork and Galway. "We also see a big market for inbound medical tourism where we will arrange everything for overseas patients - from their procedures to their accommodation," adds Ailish.

Ailish says she still lives and breathes the business. "I love to see the change in patients and particularly in their level of confidence. As women who have been through these treatments ourselves we know the boost in confidence they can bring. That's why we often emphasise that this is a business run by women for women."

The Avoca Clinic

Business: Cosmetic Surgery Clinic

Set up: 2012

Founder: Ailish Kelly

Turnover: 3.5m

No of Employees: 50

Location: Headquarters and surgery at Glencormack Business Park, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, with consulting rooms at 45 OConnell Street, Limerick

AILISH AND NIAMHS ADVICE FOR OTHER BUSINESSES

Be selective

Dont try to be all things to all people because that never works. Instead, focus on being everything to the group of people you want to cater to.

Learn to say no

For most of us saying yes comes more naturally than saying no. This is because most of us genuinely enjoy helping others. However, to be successful, you have to stay focused on your overall mission and objectives. And that can sometimes involve saying no to some potential opportunities.

Dont let what you dont know scare you

Learning is always on-going in business and theres so much that you can take on board if you have the passion and commitment to succeed in something. But you have to be prepared to work for it. Running your own business often involves working unspeakable hours, but every one of them is worth it if you love what you are doing.

www.avocaclinic.ieDavid Merriman has been appointed co-head for Ireland and will lead the Cork office. Photo: Conor McCabe

British non-bank lender Beechbrook Capital is looking to raise 100m for a fund targeting Irish SMEs.

The fund would provide both debt and equity financing to Irish businesses.

Beechbrook is in talks with a number of "anchor" investors for the fund.

It said it would have a strong regional focus and will be based in Cork, with another office in Dublin.

David Merriman has been appointed co-head for Ireland and will lead the Cork office. Most recently he worked at Bank of Ireland as head of enterprise development for Ireland.

The other co-head is John O'Sullivan, who joins from Enterprise Ireland (EI) where he was a co-manager of EI's direct equity fund.

Beechbrook hopes to start making investments in the second half of the year, primarily targeting medium-sized businesses.

It said typical investments will range from 2m to 6m.

Beechbrook managing partner Nick Fenn said investing in Ireland was "an exciting opportunity".

"Establishing a presence on the ground will enhance Beechbrook's regional presence and help support SMEs in a fast growing economy," Fenn added.

Set up in 2008, Beechbrook has raised around 600m for investing to date.Ireland has become a globally-recognised centre for specialist International Financial Services, with 200 Enterprise Ireland-backed companies, employing nearly 10,000 people across the sector, at the end of 2017

"I talk about fintech being like a parent and a child, with the bank being the parent and fintech the child. Five years ago, everyone was talking about fintech being disruptive, out to get rid of banks. But five years later, the banks are still here," said Chris Skinner, the world-renowned fintech and financial services expert, who was in Dublin to deliver the keynote speech for Enterprise Ireland's Future of Fintech conference.

This view of increasing collaboration between disruptive startups and established banks was echoed by a number of panellists, who included Elly Hardwick, head of innovation at Deutsche Bank; Kamlesh Thakur, chairman of Mumbai-based Prime Investrade; and Stephen Moran, head of research and development at Bank of Ireland.

The conference was attended by more than 100 leaders, disruptors and collaborators from international banking and fintech hubs. Attendees of the event, held at Dogpatch Labs in January, also met Enterprise Ireland-backed companies to discuss partnership opportunities.

With opportunities emerging as attitudes towards the sector mature, a combination of established global leaders with significant Irish operations and innovative Irish companies positions the industry well for international growth.

Ireland has become a globally-recognised centre for specialist International Financial Services, with 200 Enterprise Ireland-backed companies, employing nearly 10,000 people across the sector, at the end of 2017. Irish companies, from startups to scaling and large multinational companies, have achieved significant impact in international markets, exporting to 100 countries.

Companies offer innovative solutions and services across payments, regulatory technologies and broader fintech applications, an achievement supported by astute investments and an understanding of the market.

For many Irish-based companies, disruption involves delivering a better, more convenient customer experience.

"Legacy banks use the SWIFT network, which is slow and opaque, charges hefty ForEx fees, and fees both to send and receive money. We believe that is not fit for purpose," said Gary Conroy, chief commercial officer of Irish international payments business TransferMate.

Irish startup Plynk targets millennials with a service that lets them "text" one another money. "For us, payments are social," said Charles Dowd, Plynk's CEO. "With the phone, you phoned places. With a mobile, you call people. You don't think about the systems. Mobile money will be the same. It's not about payments, it's about people."

The point was echoed by Conroy of TransferMate in relation to cryptocurrencies, "Cards, banks, the blockchain are just rails. How quickly I can get the payment from A to B is all people care about."

In the regulatory space, the cost of governance, risk and compliance is estimated at 15pc of the total cost of running a financial services firm.

Technology can help deliver a better customer experience there too. "RegTech is about the intelligent use of technology to get better outcomes for clients. It's also about stopping regulations getting in the way of the user experience," said John Byrne, CEO of regulatory risk intelligence firm Corlytics.

Brexit may be viewed nervously by some sectors but, for fintech, it promises to bring real opportunity, according to expert Chris Skinner.

"US banks are actively relocating core European services to Ireland. I'm not just hearing that, I'm seeing it," he said. "London is still seen as a global financial centre, but for access to Europe, with the assumption that London no longer has that access to Europe, the next best place for US banks is Ireland, and not just Dublin but along the west coast too."

Favourable market circumstances internationally and a strong ecosystem at home make the future of fintech bright for Irish companies, particularly in the UK and North American markets, with Europe and Asia-Pacific also featuring strongly in last year's export figures.

Giles O'Neill is head of Fintech at Enterprise IrelandThe retail food industry has for years been dominated by well-established brands, but more recently that has been interrupted by the discounters. They all have deep pockets to spend on marketing and distribution. They have the economies of scale to ensure they have the distribution reach and the cost base to profitably service the four corners of the country. In such a crowded and competitive market, how does an Irish artisan food producer cope?

According to Teagasc, the production of speciality food in Ireland accounts for a 500m a year from a base of approximately 300 producers. For artisan food producers, being sufficiently relevant so that retailers will give them space is an ongoing challenge. I take my hat off to those retailers who support and give them the opportunity to build their business.

Now those retailers are not charities and they expect to be able to sell all goods at a fair price, at a fair margin and in sufficient volume to justify the allocated space. That pushes the challenge back up the supply chain and it means that all producers have to perform. That usually means having a niche and a marketable product that sells out the door repeatedly. And doing that in a cost-effective way is not easy when you consider limited scale, short shelf-life, costs, etc.

A niche for most artisan suppliers comes from producing premium products that collectively give Ireland the international reputation for great quality. It makes me very proud when I see Irish brands on display on my travels.

Kelly's of Newport, Artisan Butchers

If you were asked who the first Irishman to be knighted by the Brotherhood of the Black Pudding was, would you even know that such an organisation existed? Sean Kelly of Kelly's in Newport was awarded this strange title. He and his brother Seamus have also won many other quality awards over the years.

Now employing about 30 staff, they are custodians of an 88-year-old family brand of artisan butchers in Newport, Co Mayo. Situated 19km west of Castlebar, they have a reputation for 'making up to a standard, not down to a price'. In addition to the butcher shop, they have a newly opened restaurant next door that is capitalising on the extra tourists drawn to the Great Western Greenway. They have their own abattoir for beef and lamb and 80pc of that is sourced from their own farm.

Sean, Seamus and now a third generation - Kenneth, Cormac and Shauna - have developed a niche range of speciality sausages along with black and white pudding. Flavours include pork with garlic or leek and lamb with redcurrant.

Behind their quirky character and wit, there is a very astute business acumen and they have successfully achieved listings with some major retailers in Ireland and the UK.

Recent Challenges

Pudding has a three-month shelf life, so distribution is not a problem. Sausages however have a challenging 14-day shelf life. The big stores that are listing the Kelly's range such as Dunnes Stores, are in Dublin. That too is where the volume is.

Furthermore, for any producer wanting to sell to the big companies they have to adapt to their needs. For example, Dunnes in Cornelscourt is a massive store. Goods with short shelf life have to be delivered direct to store before 8am. But even for other big retailers that have central distribution, short shelf-life is still a challenge for the producer.

Dublin is 250km from Newport which means the refrigerated van leaves at 3am twice a week. Keep in mind too that pudding and sausages are small items, so undoubtedly the van is carrying a lot of the fresh Atlantic air from Newport to Dublin - and returning totally empty. That is a big ongoing cost that impacts on margin, especially at the start of the business relationship - until the volume grows. I have no doubt that this issue resonates with artisan producers all over Ireland and finding a practical solution within cost constraints must be a big win for them.

Collaboration

My immediate thought was to freeze the products, although Sean will not do that as he feels it negatively impacts the quality of his fresh product. Nor is there a cost-effective refrigerated delivery service available locally. A further thought came to mind which I've seen in large corporates around the world - it is that non-competing complementary organisations of all sizes are collaborating more and more.

It is already working for an Irish agent selling Irish produce in Dubai. Several artisan producers from all over Ireland currently send their goods to a factory near Dublin. From there, they are repacked in chilled boxes and flown daily to Dubai. That even includes strawberries, which have a shorter shelf-life than sausages.

There have to be other producers in the west of Ireland particularly on the N4 corridor with similar challenges. Instead of a number of half-empty vans heading in the same direction, what if producers were to come together in a collaborative way to share the cost?

If it works for shipments to Dubai with an added eight-hour flight, why can't it work within Ireland? It just takes a character like Sean to initiate and lead that idea in Mayo.

Summary

There are thousands of small businesses in Ireland across all industries, challenged with achieving margin in the absence of scale. By reaching out through our industry federations, business groups, chambers of commerce and state agencies, I have no doubt that there is a high willingness to collaborate, not just for distribution. All it requires is an openness to share and talk.

Alan O'Neill is a change consultant and non-executive director. For 25-plus years he has been supporting global and iconic brands through change. Alan-oneill.com. Business advice questions for Alan can be sent to sundaybusiness@independent.ieQ I have a question about broadband. I am a pensioner and use the internet on and off, mainly for checking my emails, Googling a little, doing a bit of shopping on eBay and watching Netflix for an hour or two (via a box attached to my telly).

My supplier is Virgin and they charge 62 a month for broadband and telephone services only. I recently saw that the mobile provider Three offers an unlimited data sim card for 20 per month. Would I be better off to get this and use a spare Android phone, which I have, to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot which I could then use at far less cost than what I am getting from Virgin?

- L Hartnett

A If you're in an area with strong 4G coverage, the answer is yes. I say this based on your usage patterns. But if you were to change those patterns - say you watched a little more Netflix or had others over to the house who used your broadband - it might not be the right fit.

The Three data offer isn't unlimited, it's 60GB per month (which the company describes as "all you can eat"). This is easily the best data capacity offer in the market (even if Three isn't the fastest 4G broadband service in the market). Even so, 60GB is just one quarter of the average amount of data used by a typical Virgin Media broadband household (according to figures supplied by Virgin). Again, based on the usage patterns you describe above, you may not exceed that limit: Netflix will use the lion's share of whatever data you consume. (It should be pointed out that Three also has a separate offer for 30 per month that gives you 750GB of data per month, which is more than enough for whatever usage you need.) There is another challenge with 4G as a default home service. In general, mobile phone signals are weaker indoors than outdoors. This is especially true in houses with thick walls. What's more, a phone's 'hotspot' feature is usually no match for a typical home Wi-Fi router when it comes to covering a couple of rooms in your house. For instance, suppose you find that the strongest 4G signal is your front window and you place the phone there, permanently on 'hotspot' mode. You should get a decent service when you're using your internet devices in that room. But it could be much weaker in the kitchen or a bedroom. That's because phone hotspots are designed to be immediate-proximity forms of internet access, not a way to cover a whole house.

But even if you live in a small apartment or two-room cottage, there's still another factor to consider: speed. Three's 4G speeds can be excellent, often exceeding 30Mbs. But it's also normal for them to register at around 10Mbs. That's fine for email and light browsing and should also be enough to watch Netflix at present. But it's not a future-proof broadband speed by any measure. (For context, the Government's designation of acceptable home broadband is now a minimum of 30Mbs and preferably over 100Mbs.)

Even if all of these potential challenges are met, there is one last consideration: Three's terms. While the company is not known for cracking down, it still harbours an official policy of not 'allowing' such prepay phone tariffs to act as default hotspot services. Make of that what you will. (The same doesn't apply to Three's 30 per month service, as this is designed to be used as a default internet product.) Lastly, by giving up Virgin, you also give up the telephone service you have with it. Only you will know if you wish to retain a landline or not.

In short, you will definitely save money by switching to Three. But depending on the coverage area you live in and what rooms you use your internet in, you might give up a lot of speed and functionality.

Email your questions to caomahony@independent.ie

Two to Try

Microsoft Surface Book 2

(from 1,799 from Microsoft Store, Ireland)

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Microsoft's latest, greatest laptop is now available in Ireland in both 13.5-inch and 15-inch models. While the smaller model is already pricey, the larger one can only be described as ultra-premium territory, starting at an eye-watering 2,900. For this, though, you get the best materials, detachable screen, chip and Ram memory.

Nokia 2

(109 from Virgin)

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Nokia is about to launch what could be one of the year's most compelling budget smartphones: a five-inch Android model with a (genuinely) extended battery life. The Nokia 2's 4,100mAh battery should be enough to see it beat almost every other handset in the Irish market for juice. It has an 8-megapixel camera too, but who even cares?Telecoms business Imagine is closing in on a large financing deal to help build out its wireless broadband network.

The company has been talking to a number of parties and a North American infrastructure fund has emerged as a frontrunner in the process, the Sunday Independent understands. The fund is prepared to inject in the region of $160m-$180m (129-145m) into Imagine in a combined debt/equity package.

Imagine would also be able to draw on its own financial firepower for the project.

That includes the proceeds derived from settling a legal dispute with Motorola over a previous broadband project.

Imagine - run by executive chairman Sean Bolger - has been working on a so-called Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband network. Bolger did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

The LTE network connects areas to the internet via wireless technology - often placed on phone masts - rather than fixed-line copper cables and is seen as useful for remote areas. Speaking to the 'Irish Independent' in November, Bolger said the company had been offering a limited trial service that had attracted around 20,000 customers.

He said the company had received expressions of interest from around 100,000 further potential subscribers.

Delays in the Government's National Broadband Plan are likely to benefit Imagine which says on its website that it wants to build LTE "where people need it most".

The longer the National Broadband Plan takes to come to fruition, the greater the chance Imagine will have to steal a march on rivals. Bolger said in November that he aimed to have the full network established in 18-24 months. He said the initial deployment had been "extremely successful."

"We're one of the first companies to do it and now it's becoming mainstream."

Imagine was one of the parties that successfully bought access to the upcoming 5G spectrum, expected to be launched in Ireland in 2021 at the earliest. 5G is a faster type of wireless internet.

In 2016 Imagine sold its retail business division to Magnet Networks, saying its focus was to "deliver fibre-based next-gen services to regional and rural communities across Ireland."So did you have a good National Development Plan? Did your area get a few quid? A new bit of motorway? A stop on a light rail network? From a technology perspective, there wasn't much in the 280-page tome.

But I was struck by the absence of a major transportation issue: electric and autonomous vehicles.

While transportation infrastructure is a primary theme in the 116bn document, there was nothing about what will almost certainly be the biggest shift in transportation habits by 2040.

It is a shame that middle-aged Irish planners appear to regard this still as some sort of science fiction rather than an incoming normal facet of life.

Self-driving cars are not an issue of convenience or consumerism. Thousands of taxi, bus and train drivers are now effectively on a redundancy clock without any acknowledgement from the Government. There are major ramifications for cities, in particular.

Virtually all major car manufacturers are prioritising research and development into autonomous vehicles, with testing under way in several US states.

But because this is an issue about planning, and not about placating industrial lobby organisations or regional voting groups, it doesn't get even a glancing reference in our Government's vision of Ireland in 2040.

This is a pity. This issue, more than any other, will accelerate the introduction of robots visually performing visible, essential tasks that are currently operated exclusively by humans.

But robots will not exist in Ireland in 2040, according to the Government's document.

Despite a current wave of job replacements under way in manufacturing and labour-intensive industries, policies around the effect of automation are not to be found anywhere in Ireland's future plan.

The consulting firm PwC recently reported that 48bn will be added to the Irish economy as a result of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) over the next 12 years.

The adoption of technologies that cut out humans altogether will contribute to this, according to PwC, with Irish GDP set to be 11.6pc higher by 2030.

Retail, accommodation and food services sectors will see the biggest impact, with health and education close behind.

Big retailers and manufacturers have already made much of their transformation, with Amazon now using tens of thousands of 'Kiva' robots in its warehouses, which replace the need for humans to fetch products from shelves.

Call centres - of which we have more than a few in Ireland - are next in line, with robotic agents being phased in at present.

This is all being sped along by companies such as Microsoft, which is releasing software that allows online customer service robots initiate, co-ordinate, and confirm calls completely by themselves.

White-collar professions such as accounting are under fire, too. Bread-and-butter book-keeping tasks such as expenses and tax returns are expected to become completely automated in the next ten years, according to a recent Oxford study.

Ireland will be affected more than many other parts of Europe, according to PwC.

To be fair, it might be argued that specific points of industrial strategy around this are harder to present in a firm fashion by any present-day government, especially if automation occurs over a period of ten to 20 years.

Even still, if robots take jobs as quickly as some say they will, the concept of a universal basic income should be something that is debated at a societal level.

Some of what is contemplated in this area of industrial development may be accounted for through a 'new' 500m "disruptive technologies innovation fund", set to be "implemented through the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and its agencies, working with other research funding bodies".

But there is little more that's specific to this fund, so it could probably be spent on anything.

There is another issue curiously absent from the National Development Plan - electric vehicles.

One of the reasons that electric cars have been such a flop in Ireland - with fewer than 5,000 sold (an astonishingly meagre figure) over the last four years - is a lack of infrastructure and incentives.

Put simply, you're taking a real risk of running empty when attempting to drive from Dublin to, say, Mayo.

With very few recharging points between cities, motorists have decided it's not worth the risk.

The Government has done nothing about this, leaving it to the ESB and a few forecourt chains to lead investment. This hasn't worked.

Other European countries have taken a very different approach. A growing list of cities around Europe are proposing outright bans on diesel cars for environmental and health reasons. In Norway, only electric cars will be sold after 2025.

Last year, 20pc of new cars bought there were electric. Over 30pc were hybrid. Norway arrived there by offering real incentives. For example, electric cars get access to bus lanes and free parking in cities. They also pay no road tolls.

There are other ways that the Government could boost adoption of electric cars here, if it really wanted to.

State bodies, institutes and agencies purchase cars every year.

The Government's plan does refer to this, with an aspiration to "transition the car transport fleet to electricity and providing additional charging infrastructure" and "the necessity to progressively electrify transport systems ... to new technologies such as electric vehicles".

But it reserves just 20m per year for all of this over the next ten years, an insignificant sum. It's hard to conclude anything other than a lack of any real interest at government level in introducing alternatives to petrol and diesel engines at a mass market level.Jennifer Lawrence takes the bull by the horns as a Russian spy in white-knuckle espionage thriller Red Sparrow.

Here is what Press Associations film critic Damon Smith thought of the film:

Who is in the cast?

Along with leading star Lawrence, Red Sparrows cast includes Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Mary-Louise Parker, Joely Richardson and Jeremy Irons.

It is directed by Francis Lawrence, who made three of the four Hunger Games films, and based on the Jason Matthews novel of the same name.

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What about the storyline?

Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) is a prima ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre, who pirouettes to finance the medical care of her mother (Richardson).

The dancer suffers a horrendous injury on stage and three months later, as she hobbles through recovery, Dominika receives an unwelcome visit from her uncle Vanya (Schoenaerts), deputy director of the Russian Intelligence Service.

He press-gangs his niece into the top-secret Sparrow project, which moulds attractive recruits into weaponised assets to strike at the bloated hearts of western governments.

Before Dominika can complete her training, she is dispatched to Budapest to dupe seasoned CIA operative Nathaniel Nash (Edgerton), the only person who knows the identity of a mole in the Kremlin codenamed Marble.

Nash is wise to the Russian plan and vows to turn Dominika against her motherland.

What about the leading stars performance?

Lawrence gives all of herself  physically and emotionally  to the demanding title role of this high-stakes game of post-Cold War cat and mouse.

The Oscar winner exposes every inch of her body in scenes of masterful seduction and sickening subjugation, including multiple sexual assaults and stomach-churning scenes of torture.

Its certainly not a film for the squeamish  the camera lingers on the aftermath of snapped bones and one sadistic sequence involving a skin grafting device is the stuff of nightmares.

Lawrence weathers these bone-crunching blows for her Hunger Games director, then shatters her characters soul to smithereens when she thinks no one is looking, in the service of a tightly woven narrative, threaded with betrayal and daring double-crosses.

Crucially, its predominantly women who decide grim fates, employing guile and intelligence to outwit men in suits and military uniforms, who have grown fat and complacent on the illusion that they wield power.

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So, what is the final verdict?

Red Sparrow is a muscular and engrossing thriller, which revels in the tantalising disconnect between actions and words.

Plot mechanics are well-oiled thanks to Matthews source material  the author was a clandestine operations officer for the CIA.

Consequently, screenwriter Justin Haythe concentrates on visualising mind games and daring power plays that leave us in the dark about characters ulterior motives.

The film soars on the wings of Lawrences fearless performance and the sterling support of Edgerton and Rampling, the latter irresistibly chilling as Matron of the Sparrow programme, who tutors charges in the art of sexual warfare.

Every human being is a puzzle of need. You must become the missing piece and they will tell you anything, she purrs.

Unravelling the mysteries of Francis Lawrences puzzle picture is a nail-biting treat.

Rating: 8.5/10

Red Sparrow is released in the UK and Ireland on March 1.Sam Rockwell dedicated his supporting actor award to the late Alan Rickman as he accepted the Bafta gong.

The Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri actor beat the likes of Paddington 2s Hugh Grant and Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey in a quick re-filming of All The Money In The World after Spacey was hit with allegations of sexual misconduct.

Rockwell thanked his wife and cast members, and wrapped up his speech by telling the audience: Im very lucky to be here tonight, thank you to the British Academy, this is for my pal Alan Rickman, Ill see you at the bar!

Black Panther star Lupita Nyongo presented the award.

Coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name took the adapted screenplay award, while Martin McDonaghs Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was also named outstanding British film.

Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya won the EE Rising Star award, as voted for by the public.

Host Joanna Lumley opened up this years ceremony by acknowledging the determination to eradicate the abuse of women the world over of the many stars who wore black in solidarity with the Times Up and #MeToo campaigns.Graphic pro-life posters calling abortion "child sacrifice" which were erected near a primary school have been branded "disgusting".

Several large posters were erected at the Marlborough Luas stop in Dublin city centre last week and showed graphic images of foetuses.

The posters included text such as "Abortion is child sacrifice" and verses from the Bible.

They were put up just less than a kilometre from city school Scoil Chaoimhin by pro-life group the Irish Centre For Bio-Ethical Reform (ICBR). The group displayed similar signs across the city, including on a van which was driven around the capital.

Dublin City Councillor Eilis Ryan, who supports the repeal of the Eighth Amendment, said that she feels that the posters on Marlborough Street are insensitive.

The Workers' Party representative told Independent.ie: "They're disgusting, to be honest I think they are probably the worst that I have ever seen.

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"I think it's ironic that the name of the group is the Irish Centre For Bio-Ethical Reform because there is absolutely nothing ethical about showing images like that to passers-by.

"When I was around seven years old I remember seeing similar signs on a street in Cork and I distinctly remember how upset I was.

"For a young child to see those images is just really irresponsible for people who claim to care about children.

"Another thing that is noteworthy is the religious imagery, we are consistently being told that [this debate] isn't about religion.

"It misleads people into believing that abortion is something that it's not," Cllr Ryan continued, questioning the age of the foetuses shown in the posters.

"I think it's important that these posters are monitored in terms of their accuracy."

The ICBR defended their campaign material to Independent.ie and said they think their message is important.

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"It is essential for us to reach the public with the reality of what abortion represents and those whom it victimises," Dr Jean Engela, ICBR Director, said.

"Abortion advocates are left mostly unchallenged while hiding the truth and tragedy of abortion on both the pre-born child and the mother."

Scoil Chaoimhin did not comment on the posters.

Meanwhile, Independent.ie can reveal that almost 30 complaints have made about advertising material related to the upcoming referendum on the Eighth Amendment.

While a date has not yet been set for the referendum - which is expected to take place in late May - already a number of billboards and posters have been erected around the country.

The Advertising Standards Authority has confirmed that a total of 29 complaints have been received to date, on materials related to the upcoming referendum.

Dublin City Councillor Ciaran Cuffe - a member of the Green Party which supports repeal - submitted a complaint to the ASAI about a billboard on Parnell Street by the pro-life group Savethe8th.

In his complaint, Mr Cuffe took issue with the use of the term 'babies' and 'killed' which he believes were used in place of 'foetus' and 'termination'.

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The Save the 8th campaign, responded to the complaint branding it "utterly shameful" and offered to publicly debate the councillor on the issues raised.

A spokesman for the ASAI said it has not "in a position to comment on individual complaints received. The ASAI can confirm it received the complaint in question this morning and will now assess it in line with normal ASAI procedures".

The authority does not have any role in regulating marketing communications which are related to political or social issues.The country's biggest pro- repeal groups are joining forces to campaign under one banner in the referendum on the Eighth Amendment.

The Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, the Abortion Rights Campaign and the National Women's Council will pool financial resources and volunteers under a new brand.

The new campaign group will be launched in the coming weeks and will be registered with the Standards in Public Office Commission.

Orla O'Connor, director of the National Women's Council, and Ailbhe Smyth, of the Coalition, confirmed this weekend that the three organisations had agreed the move in recent days and will announce details in the coming weeks. Other groups will also be invited to join.

The National Women's Council, which is government funded, said it will not be spending public money on the campaign but will be fundraising separately from within its membership.

The Pro Life Campaign said it is "concerned" that state-funded groups like the National Women's Council are "front and centre to the campaign to dismantle the Eighth Amendment" and that it wasn't "fair".

The National Women's Council is one of several groups to have registered with the Standards in Public Office Commission in recent months ahead of the referendum.

Third-party organisations must register with the ethics watchdog if they receive donations of more than 100.

Other groups that have recently registered include Save the 8th, which registered with Sipo last month and hopes to raise around 300,000 through fund-raising.

An affiliate organisation, The Life Institute, has been soliciting donations online to help its campaign against repeal, even though it is not yet registered with the ethics watchdog. A spokesperson said it is in the process of doing so and "will comply fully" with electoral law, including disclosing the bank account into which all donations are received to the Standards Commission.

Cora Sherlock said the Pro Life Campaign hopes to raise "a large number of small donations from committed supporters" and that this will be enough to run "a well-oiled campaign".

Funding has already become a flashpoint ahead of the referendum. Sipo is challenging foreign donations to pro-repeal groups from US billionaire George Soros's Open Society Foundation. Amnesty International has refused to return a 137,000 donation and is taking a legal challenge.

The Irish Family Planning Association is still in talks with Sipo over the money it got from the Open Society Foundation. The Abortion Rights Campaign returned a 25,000 donation from the Soros foundation in 2016, after it was contacted by Sipo.

The Government plans to hold a referendum early this summer on repealing the State's constitutional ban on abortion and is preparing legislation that would allow access to abortion for all women up to 12 weeks if the referendum is carried.A man is to appear in court Monday charged in connection with a serious assault in Co Limerick.

The victim, a 21-year-old male, was in a critical condition in University Hospital Limerick after an alleged assault in Newcastle West, Co Limerick, Saturday evening.

The victim was stabbed in the torso, garda sources said.

Sources also confirmed that a knife which gardai believe was used in the stabbing had been recovered.

The incident occurred at Maiden Street, in the West Limerick town, around 5pm, Saturday.

A rear yard of a local property was sealed off and a technical examination was conducted by gardai.

A man in his late 20s, believed to be from Russia, was arrested and questioned by detectives.

He is due to appear before Limerick District Court charged in connection with the stabbing, gardai said.

The accused is to face one charge of assault causing harm.

Footage from security cameras on Maiden Street and its surrounds were being harvested by gardai and house to house enquiries were continuing in the area.

Appealing for witnesses, gardai stated they were investigating "a serious assault".

One man (21 years) was removed to University Hospital Limerick and is in a critical condition. The scene is currently preserved, they added.

Gardai appealed for any persons who were in the vicinity of Maiden Street or who can assist them with their investigation to contact Newcastle West Garda Station on 069 20650, or the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111It's back to school on Monday after the watershed for State exam candidates that are the February midterm break. Some dams, in the form of human tears, may now start to burst.

Whatever amount of love may have been in the air this week, affection is not the word that many sixth and third year students will be feeling as they face back to the results of the 'mocks'. This is the point where stresses often start to show in exam households, and not only on the students, but on parents as well.

The 'mocks' have no official connection with the State exams, but they are used by schools as a practice run to help students familiarise themselves with exam conditions and to identify any weaknesses on which they may want to work.

At the time they sit the 'mocks,' students may not have covered the entire syllabus and teachers factor that into their judgments. The results may also help students to assess, or reassess, their expectations. But, they can become a lightning rod for added stress.

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When Mary Dorgan, a guidance counsellor at Dublin's Institute of Education, spoke to students recently, she was struck by how they worry about their parents' reaction to the results.

One student said to her: "I know my mock in chemistry won't be great, I know I haven't a section covered and I am at peace with that." But what she was concerned about was translating that back to her parents. "They worry about their parents' reaction; that their parents are going to be disappointed."

The guidance counsellor sees it as a time to sit down with the student and parents together for a conversation that will bring everyone on to the same page.

The same point finds an echo at Colaiste Bride, a 900+ pupil girls' secondary school in Clondalkin, Dublin. Deputy principal Louise Ronan tells of a recent encounter with students who had received maths results: "One was sobbing, not because she had failed, but because she had to go home for another row with her parents, who were insisting on her staying in 'honours'."

Another school and another conversation with the parents being pencilled in.

Such responses are not the fault of parents, who pick up messages about the importance of higher level maths. The "honours" programme is not for, or needed by everyone, a fact recognised in the current Government target for uptake at Leaving Cert, which is 30pc of candidates.

The 'mocks' are only the end of the beginning. The vista facing candidates from this week is a treadmill of orals, practicals, submission of projects and revision for the main event - two to three weeks of written exams in June. Mary Dorgan notes that aspiring doctors have to fit the HPAT aptitude tests in a couple of weeks and she sees that as another contributor to the pressure. She says that students, even the best of them, struggle with finding balance, between all the subjects - typically seven - as well keeping space for other activities, such as sport, regarded as an essential antidote to pre-exam stresses.

The strains evident among students and parents are manifestations of a system that has evolved into a narrow funnel, where, after 13-14 years of school, outcomes are largely measured in a single set of terminal exams in June. And then, by how well the grades achieved translate into CAO points for college entry: the 'points race'.

It is well-documented in a study for the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which started in 2000 and tracked the education experiences of a cohort of 900 students, from the end of primary all the way to college, or not.

It revealed high-stress levels among sixth years based on fears that their "whole life depends on" their Leaving Cert outcomes. Students, particularly girls, viewed it as an "all-or-nothing" opportunity and worried that if they didn't reach their CAO points targets, it would damage their chances of having a good life. Half were doing grinds to bolster their chances.

Points race

Michael O'Leary, director of Dublin City University's Centre for Assessment Research, Policy and Practice in Education (CARPE), says he has no evidence that Leaving Cert students in Ireland are any more stressed than their peers in the US or UK.

But, while refraining for making judgment on the Irish exam, he adds: "We don't follow the rule about making decisions based on a wide range of information.

"The key thing you will find, in terms of best practice around the world, is that what is really, really important is not making important decision on the back of one assessment." He says that applies to education in the same way as it does to a psychological or medical assessment.

O'Leary says assessment and measurement are full of errors. "I am not talking about mistakes in exam questions, but that people perform differently on different occasions. Take any exam - that is only one sample of possible questions."

The Leaving Cert is not supposed to be regarded solely as a mechanism for college entry, but that is how it is perceived. The lack of other career paths, such as apprenticeships, during the recession or, indeed a lack of promotion within schools, or understanding by students and parents, of options, such as post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses - meant there was no obvious alternative.

In some countries, such as The Netherlands, students have the option of following more vocational-type programmes in senior cycle. Elsewhere, grade averages across senior-cycle may come in to play for college entry. In the UK, students get a conditional offer before they do their A-Levels.

The 'points system' is credited with treating all students equally - although it undoubtedly works best for those with the money to buy advantage in the form of extra tuition and from backgrounds there is a strong focus on education.

Teachers too succumb to the pressures of the 'points race'. It has driven a style of teaching and learning with an extremely narrow focus, often based on past exam papers and the shoehorning into young minds as much "learned off" material as possible.

For Junior Cert - now being slowly restyled, and renamed the Junior Cycle Profile of Achievement (JCPA) - read mini Leaving Cert. The ESRI found that, as early as second year, pupils were "switching off" because of the sort of rote learning that they were expected to engage in, in preparation for State exams ahead. The backwash effect of the 'points race' resulted in the Junior Cert being treated as a dry run for the Leaving Cert. But, when students hit fifth year, they were unprepared for the step change.

It is more than a decade since the ESRI, started publishing its insights, pointing to the imperative for the system to better serve the needs of all students: high achievers - who often feel the most stress because they are seeking perfection and chasing the last point to the nth degree - and others, with plenty of talent, but with different learning styles.

The response from the education system has been slow and faltering, but there are some grounds for hope. Junior cycle changes are finally under way, but it has taken a generation. It is more than 40 years since more active learning methodologies and new forms of assessment were first mooted and about 20 years since the NCCA started its reform work in earnest.

A revised Leaving Cert grading system and CAO points scale, as well as more common entry routes to higher education, rather than "niche" courses that drive points up, have also emerged in the hope of cooling the 'points race'.

What has changed enormously is the environment in which school and families operate. Social media and its pressures were only emerging when the ESRI did its studies; Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were all in the future. The financial crisis, with its devastating impact on some families, had not happened. Family break up is an issue for some and homelessness is a growing problem, causing huge disruption in the lives of some students. Colaiste Bride principal Marie-Therese Kilmartin says that even before they address their studies, many pupils are dealing with issues in their lives causing anxiety. She sees the new well-being programme introduced at junior cycle this year as a positive in that regard.

There was a consensus that, while the Leaving Cert and 'points race' were the 'tails wagging the dog', any reforms - crucially, broadening forms of assessment beyond a single set of exams so as to capture student skills and achievements beyond an ability to memorise - should start at junior cycle.

For years, teachers had prevented this getting to the starting blocks, because it included the idea that they should assess their own students for a State certificate, which is not uncommon elsewhere.

In 2012, former education minister Ruairi Quinn decided to fire the trigger. Teacher opposition continued and it took five years to start rolling it out in every school, and a much watered-down version at that.

At Colaiste Bride, staff say they are already seeing the beneficial effects. The first subject to undergo change was English and, as well as a shortened June exam, students do two school-based assessments: an oral presentation and a task that requires them to reflect on, and improve pieces of writing they have done in second and third year.

Junior cycle changes

Louise Ronan speaks about a colleague in another school where a decision on whether students pursue Leaving Cert English, at higher or ordinary level, is based on essay written at the start of fifth year. In previous years, some students would have been "in meltdown" over the essay, but, she says, this year "everyone got into 'honours' class because of the skills they had developed" in the new junior cycle English programme".

Her colleague, Mairead Earley, a teacher of English and fifth year head, chimes in that with the new junior cycle task of drafting and redrafting of written work, over an 18-month period, "naturally going in to fifth year, they can write an essay".

Earley is enthusiastic about the junior cycle change and believes "they will transfer fabulously into senior cycle".

She adds that, in tandem with the multiple forms of assessment at junior cycle, the school is phasing out some in-house exams, which is creating more space for new forms of student learning.

Ursula Bracken, sixth year head, expresses concern that "all the fabulous stuff students will be doing at junior cycle" will come to nothing when "they hit fifth year and it's back into old system, until that changes. Is it going to change quickly enough?"

The path now somewhat smoothed, next Tuesday, the NCCA is taking the first public steps to introduce changes to the Leaving Cert to be unveiled at a conference in Dublin.

Barry Slattery, who is NCCA director of curriculum and assessment, says the conference will hear about research in eight countries, conducted on behalf of the NCCA, which will be explored with the help of speakers from The Netherlands and the international think-tank, the OECD.

Following that, the NCCA will work with 40 schools to gather views on the sort of changes needed. The outcome of that process will form the basis of further discussions.

By the early 2020s, students will have fully experienced the junior cycle changes. Whatever emerges from the new NCCA process, it is hard to imagine that they would have to wait for another generation for necessary reforms at Leaving Cert.Gardai said they were investigating reports that the stab attack in Limerick on Saturday arose out of a personal dispute involving the children of two separate parties.

The victim, aged 21, remains in a critical condition in hospital after the alleged assault in Newcastle West, Co Limerick.

The young man was stabbed "in the torso", garda sources said.

Gardai are now investigating reports that the stab attack is connected to a personal dispute involving the children of two separate parties.

Meanwhile, a source said gardai have now recovered a knife which they believe was used in the alleged stabbing on Saturday evening.

The stabbing occurred at Maiden Street, in the West Limerick town around 5pm, Saturday.

A rear yard of a property in the town was sealed off by gardai. Gardai confirmed that a "technical examination" of the yard was being conducted by forensic gardai.

An Eastern European native man, aged in his late 20s, was arrested at the scene and was being questioned at Newcastle West Garda Station.

Footage from security cameras on Maiden Street and the surrounding area were being harvested by detectives and gardai were conducting "house to house enquiries" in the area.

Appealing for witnesses, gardai stated they were investigating "a serious assault.

"One man (21 years) was removed to University Hospital Limerick and is in a critical condition. The scene is currently preserved," they added.

"One male (late 20s) was arrested at the scene and is currently detained under Section 4, Criminal Justice Act, 1984 at Newcastle West Garda Station.

Gardai appealed for "any persons who were in the vicinity of Maiden Street or who can assist them with their investigation to contact Newcastle West Garda Station on 069 20650, or the Garda Confidential Line 1 800 666 111."A different lecturer will teach Trinity students who were offended by their professor's comments on female circumcision, the college has confirmed.

The Dublin third-level institution revealed they received complaints from "a large number" of Dr Ali Selim's Arabic language students after he said that he thinks female circumcision should be allowed here on a case-by-case basis with a doctor's approval.

Tom Molloy, Trinity College's Director of Public Affairs and Communications, confirmed that offended students will now be able to continue their studies with an alternative lecturer.

He said in a statement released to Trinity News: "In response to complaints from a large number of Dr Ali Selims students, Trinity College Dublin will facilitate parallel Arabic language classes by a second teacher.

"This will ensure that students who have criticised Dr Selim in a letter to their head of school will have the option to take lessons and exams with a new teacher."

The World Health Organisation warns that female circumcision - also known as Female Genital Mutilation - "has no health benefits for girls and women."

Expand Close Dr Ali Selim teaches Arabic in TCD. Photo: Tom Burke / Facebook

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Whatsapp Dr Ali Selim teaches Arabic in TCD. Photo: Tom Burke

FGM has been carried out on an estimated 200 million girls around the world, including nearly 6,000 in Ireland.

There was a backlash against Dr Selim when he appeared to be in favour of female circumcision, which involves the partial of total destruction of female genitalia for non-medical reasons and was made illegal here in 2012.

Speaking on Prime Time on RTE One earlier this month, he explained: "I am not an advocate of female genital mutilation, but of female circumcision.

"If we see female circumcision in the same way as male circumcision, it might be needed for one person and not another, it has to be determined by a doctor and practiced in a safe, medical environment.

"It's the same medical reasons that justify male circumcision, it's not an obligation but it should be allowed by law if needed and a medical doctor should be able to decide if it's needed."

Following widespread criticism from doctors, from other Islamic leaders and students, Dr Selim apologised for the "misunderstanding" last night.

Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Dr Selim said he "condemns FGM in the strongest terms".

"I admit that I caused confusion based on my misunderstanding of the term [circumcision] and I do apologise for this.

I'm not a medical doctor. I'm not a native speaker of English either. My English is really good but definitely sometimes it lets me down.

"I was out of my comfort zone and I misunderstood the terms as the medical experts would use them.A number of Ireland's leading charities have confirmed that they dismissed staff over sexual misconduct allegations in recent years.

GOAL, Concern, Trocaire and Oxfam Ireland have all dismissed staff members in recent years after they investigated a number of allegations of sexual misconduct.

The charities have confirmed the staff dismissals as it was revealed this week that aid workers at British charity Oxfam allegedly hired prostitutes in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. The sex scandal allegations led to the resignation of Oxfam deputy chief executive Penny Lawrence earlier this week.

A number of Irish overseas aid charities have now confirmed staff dismissals in recent years.

In a statement, the Executive Director of Trocaire Eamonn Meehan said the charity did have to take action against one staff member.

"In 2016 a junior member of staff in an ancillary role was accused of sexual exploitation," he wrote in the statement published on the charity's official website.

"We held an investigation which found that the individual had breached our code of conduct.

"He was dismissed immediately. There is now a criminal investigation into that incident and Trocaire is assisting the local authorities. This is the only such incident relating to staff members to have been reported to us."

He added; "Our team worked quickly, effectively and appropriately to deal with this incident. That is the standard which we expect and demand of ourselves. We cannot and will not tolerate instances of abuse or exploitation."

The statement also read; "The actions of some staff of a UK NGO in Haiti have been discussed widely over recent days. Staff at Trocaire have shared the horror felt by people all over Ireland, and indeed the world, at what has been revealed.

"The revelations from Haiti have led to questions being asked about what steps other NGOs are taking to ensure their work is free from exploitation and abuse.

"Trocaire has a zero tolerance approach."

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for GOAL told Independent.ie that it had an average of between one and two incidents a year since 2010.

The company said that complaints were immediately investigated thoroughly and, where evidence was confirmed, disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, was taken.

The charity, with headquarters in Dublin, has worked across 24 countries and currently employs almost 2,000 people across 13 countries.

In a statement the company said it "complies with all requirements of all its institutional donors with regard the reporting of allegations of wrongdoing, including those relating to sexual misconduct".

The company said it operates a complaints response mechanism and staff must sign up to a code of conduct.

It also established an Investigations Unit, headed by a former member of An Garda Siochana.

Meanwhile, Concern has carried out internal investigations into claims of sexual misconduct made against more than a dozen staff members in the last 10 years. As a result, individuals were dismissed in three-quarters of the cases. The charity told Independent.ie that "in the less serious cases, other disciplinary action was taken".

They said; "The fact that three quarters of the cases resulted in dismissals, reflects how seriously Concern takes any incidents of reported inappropriate behaviour."

In a statement they continued; "Concern expects the highest standards of behaviour from its 3,900 staff worldwide. We have a zero tolerance approach to sexual misconduct, and we believe that our safeguarding reporting systems work effectively.

"A thorough analysis of our safeguarding reporting systems over the past 10 years has shown that throughout Concerns home offices and 26 countries of operation we have received an average of one to two reports of sexual misconduct per year.

"All complaints were immediately investigated and, where they were substantiated, disciplinary action was taken. The cases resulted in a number of dismissals and in addition, where relevant, local authorities were notified.

"Our guidelines also clearly state that any prospective employers that contact us for references must be informed of the fact of any dismissal."

The charity said they are now appointing an internal taskforce to "review all of our safeguarding systems and procedures to ensure that they are as robust as possible and that they continue to be consistent with international best practice".

Meanwhile, it was also reported that Oxfam Ireland dismissed a staff member in 2004 after an investigation into an allegation of "gross misconduct".Residents affected by a warning notice issued by Irish Water claim they have been suffering from an inadequate water supply for more than a year.

Thousands in Meath were affected by a water warning notice issued last week - but locals say they have been experiencing a range of health issues for months.

The notice, from Irish Water, advised residents against using their water taps due to high levels of chlorine in the water for a period of 24 hours.

But one local councillor has claimed residents have been complaining of stomach problems, rashes, and have even noted pet fish dying in water tanks.

Fianna Fail's Councillor Damien O'Reilly said that a lot of residents are angry and demand answers. He said he logged the issue with Irish Water on Monday, two days before the notice.

"There's a total lack of confidence and trust in Irish Water among residents," he told Independent.ie.

"I've heard a lot of people complain of stomach problems, fluid on the lungs, children suffering from - what their parents believe - are chemical rashes. These problems can all be attributed to chlorine poisoning. I was speaking to a pregnant woman who was so worried she went to get a scan.

"I've heard reports of pet fishes dying in their tanks because of the water."

Irish Water said the warning followed a "mechanical issue" that caused the chlorine levels to increase. The company said they acted upon advice from the HSE to issue the ban when a number of customers reported feeling unwell.

However, a number of Irish Water customers have now been in touch with Independent.ie to advise that they have had issues with their water supply long before the warning notice was issued.

Some households claim the issues with their water supply has been ongoing for more than a year and they've experienced a range of health issues as a result.

Cllr O'Reilly said residents informed him that they have presented to their GPs, complaining of:

Rashes and eczema

Blotchy skin

Eye irritation and blurred vision

Pulmonary edema (fluid on lungs)

Vomiting

Diarrhea

Respiratory difficulties

Thrush

In an email to Cllr Damien O'Reilly, seen by Independent.ie, Irish Water confirmed that a reading at Kilclone School indicated a chlorine level of 6.9mg/litre(maximum limit is 5.0mg/litre).

"They can't tell us what type of chlorine is in the water or how long it's been above the maximum permissible limit," said Cllr O'Reilly.

The Fianna Fail representative said he'll be seeking answers to the residents' concerns.

Natalija Krupska from Rathaldron Court, Navan Town said that her family, including her husband and two young children, started to develop rashes and eczema last summer. They couldn't identify the cause of the problem at first.

A few weeks later, Natalija and her husband were away on a two-week holiday when her mother-in-law moved in to the family home to take care of their children. While she was living in the house she also started to develop rashes on her skin, especially under her eyes and around her neck.

"We came back from our holiday and the poor woman... her skin was so red and flushed," said Natalija.

In the meantime, Natalija's babysitter moved into the same area and started to develop the same problems.

"She was so panicked that she was ready to call an ambulance the first time it happened. It was then that we realised it must be the water, that there must be something wrong with it."

Read More

Natalija carried out independent tests on the water and found high levels of chlorine, copper and alkaline in the water.

She then contacted Irish Water to explain the situation and they sent an engineer to test the water.

"The man who came out carried out tests straight away and confirmed that the levels of chlorine in the water was two times above the limit.

"But nothing has been done. I contacted Irish Water again and they said that nobody else in the area has complained so the issue must be with my water tank.

"It's so frustrating. I paid my water bills when they were introduced. I didn't resist the charges because I thought paying for the service would improve the water quality in the area but I was wrong. In the end I just gave up trying to get a solution from them and fixed the problem myself."

Natalija and her husband installed a filtering system in the home for 1,2000 in September with an additional annual cost of 500.

"The rashes and eczema disappeared as soon as we got the filters. My hair had been so thin from the water but it feels at least three times thicker now. I know that might not sound like a big deal but it's important. Can you imagine what that water was doing to our insides?"

Read More

Another woman, who did not wish to be named, said her parents, who live in Kilmainhamwood in County Meath, have had a long-standing issue with their water supply.

She said she visited her parents at home in Meath three or four times in the past five months and noticed a strong smell of bleach in water each time. She said her parents experienced a range of gastrointestinal problems as a result.

"I was up home last week as both my parents have been sick. Both started with gastrointestinal problems (they were at the doctor). Also my sister was up all night after visiting them with diarrhea. My dad developed the flu and a bad chest infection after that, he was put on antibiotics and steroids.

"My mother has just been released from hospital, she was very sick, what started off as a 'stomach bug' ended up with double bacterial pneumonia.

"I bought 16 litres of [bottled] water last week and told them not to drink the water for their tea (just to be safe), now I read in the news that this is widespread. It's a disgrace in this day and age. Once again, Ireland like a third world country."

Read More

The woman said that the water supply should be constantly monitored to pick up on unsafe levels of chlorine before it makes people sick.

"Isn't there a body to keep a constant check on water quality? Do we really have to taste bleach in our tea as a tip off as to something being off?

"We would have never had made a correlation between my parents recent illnesses and the water they were drinking, but I am really beginning to think otherwise. I'm really scared."

Independent.ie are waiting for comment from Irish Water.Tragic Joanne Lee (Inset: The entrance to the building in which her body was discovered in a wardrobe)

Mobile phones and CCTV footage will form a key plank of the Garda investigation into the murder of Joanne Lee as detectives attempt to retrace her steps to find her killer.

Her body was found in the wardrobe of a south Dublin bedsit at 3.45pm on Thursday, two days after she was reported missing by her estranged husband, Keith Lee, who gardai now want to question about the killing.

Gardai forced their way into the bedsit in Ranelagh two days after Lee reported her missing.

Detectives at Mountjoy garda station were directed to the bedsit after a silver Nissan Micra that Joanne often drove was seen parked outside the building.

Gardai are believed to have seized the car and returned to resume their inqu iries inside the building.

They tried to gain entry to the bedsit but discovered that Keith Lee had barricaded himself inside.

As they attempted to burst in, he jumped from a third-floor window breaking both ankles and then went on to inflect further injury to himself.

Gardai found Joanne's body, stuffed into the wardrobe, tightly wrapped in a sleeping bag and a blanket. They suspect that she had been strangled and that she may have been dead for several days.

Detectives are working on the theory that her killer may have been preparing to move her body when they burst into the bedsit.

The bedsit on Ranelagh Road was not rented by Keith Lee, according to sources. The usual occupant is understood to be abroad, with the keys to the property being passed to Lee.

Sources refused to confirm whether Joanne's mobile phone or any of her other belongings were recovered at the scene.

However, the devices used by Joanne and by her estranged husband will be crucial in establishing where she was and who she was in contact with in the days before she died.

Detectives are also looking at CCTV footage from the north inner city, where it is believed Joanne had been staying, and around the Grand Canal and Ranelagh for sightings of the car she used.

They are hoping to find out when it was parked outside the bedsit in which they believe she was murdered, and who left it there.

Gardai are keen to talk to Keith Lee, who is being treated at St James's Hospital for injuries that include two broken ankles and blood loss. It may be several days before he is well enough to be questioned over the murder.

Joanne was at her family home in Garristown when her family last saw her on February 5.

She had been staying with her parents in north county Dublin more frequently since she parted from Lee, her husband of many years. She came and went from the house and often travelled into town where she stayed in a flat on the North Strand in the north inner city.

She also stayed in touch with her husband, even though they were estranged. According to sources close to the investigation, the couple once lived in North Strand and socialised in the north inner city.

Joanne was a music fan and frequented pubs and clubs in the city centre, sometimes with Lee, who is believed to have worked in a hotel.

Joanne's family became concerned about her last week. They had not heard from her in a couple of days, and reported her missing to gardai on Tuesday.

Some hours later, Keith Lee also reported her missing at Store Street garda station.

The next day, gardai issued an appeal and a photograph of the attractive blonde woman in a fur-trimmed jacket.

Hours after Joanne's body was discovered, her uncle John Curry was among the shocked friends that gathered outside the imposing house on Ranelagh Road.

"I am so upset, I just can't speak. Just devastated. The whole family is torn apart. The soul is taken out of us. It has torn the soul out of us. You just don't know what came out of this or why this happened," he told reporters.

"She was never in trouble in her life. My sister rang me to say she was missing and we sent out texts to everybody, put it up on Facebook and put it up on the taxi website."

"All I can say is why, why, why, why? This is a beautiful girl, so young and so pretty, away from us all. We're just devastated."

Other residents in the building were evacuated while gardai conducted a thorough forensic search of the crime scene.

The house remained sealed off for a technical examination this weekend.

Yesterday gardai searched through bins in the yard in front of the house.

Gardai appealed for information at a press conference outside the crime scene last week.

They particularly want to speak to anyone who saw Joanne in the silver Micra, in the Ranelagh area or in the North Strand, where they believe she may been before she went missing.

Detectives have asked anyone with any information to contact Donnybrook garda station on 01 666 9200, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any garda station.There is strong support in favour of a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, according to a poll.

The Kantar Millward Brown poll, in today's Sunday Independent, finds a strong support in favour of a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, with 63pc in favour.

A total of 24pc are opposed and 13pc do not know or offer no opinion.

However, the proposal of unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks is a more divided question.

A total of 40pc said unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks was 'about right', while 8pc said it 'did not go far enough', a combined 48pc in favour.

However, 33pc said unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks 'went too far' and a further 19pc were undecided - a combined 52pc against or unsure.

Meanwhile, Fine Gaels support under Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has surged eight points ahead of Micheal Martins Fianna Fail.

Fine Gael has increased support by six points and now holds 36pc of the countrys vote. Meanwhile, Fianna Fail has dropped one point and is currently at 28pc.

Mr Varadkars personal satisfaction rating (58pc) has also increased and he is now ten points ahead of Mr Martin (48pc).

Sinn Feins support has remained unchanged at 20pc despite the appointment of Mary Lou McDonald as party leader. However, Ms McDonalds personal support (39pc) is five points higher than Gerry Adams (35pc) when his popularity was last polled.

Brendan Howlins woes continue as the Labour Partys support has dropped three points to 4pc while his personal satisfaction rating is down six points to 22pc.

Support for Independent non-aligned politicians continues to fall and is now at just 11pc.

Support for Fine Gaels government partners the Independent Alliances is down two points to 3pc. The Green Party remains unchanged at 2pc, the Solidarity/Anti-Austerity Alliance is also unchanged at 1pc. Social Democrats are also at 1pc.

This is the current state of the parties:In early spring 1918, the German army dropped leaflets on British trenches in France warning allied soldiers that they were closer to Tipperary than Berlin. After the leaflets they sent shells, mortars and assault soldiers.

The German March offensive of 1918 was one of the great breakthrough battles of World War I. It began at 4.20am on March 21, 1918, along an 80km stretch of the Western Front. By the end of the first day, German divisions had gained 255 square kilometres. Two weeks later, when the offensive stalled, they had captured 90,000 prisoners and an area of enemy territory roughly equivalent to the size of Meath and Louth.

The fear that German divisions might make an even greater breakthrough caused panic in Washington, London and Paris.

Senior figures in the US administration even began secret plans for a separate German-US peace, while in London, the crisis led to moves towards introducing conscription in Ireland (the most important political event in Ireland in 1918). In Berlin, the normally downbeat Kaiser Wilhelm II was so excited that he jubilantly exclaimed the "battle is won, the English have been utterly defeated".

Hundreds of ranks below the Kaiser, some ordinary soldiers thought that they had finally thrashed "Tommy's hide".

It is often forgotten that during the winter of 1917-18, it looked like Germany might win the war. By the spring of 1918, German victory in the east was secure. That victory allowed Erich Ludendorff, the de-facto commander of Germany's armies, to transfer hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the eastern to the Western Front. His plan was to use them to win the war before American soldiers could arrive in Europe in sufficient numbers to make a difference to the war's outcome.

After the March offensive, he launched another three follow-up offensives in April, May and July.

In June, some of his soldiers even got as far as within 90km of Paris. But by mid-July, it was clear that the German advances had been in vain. In July and August 1918, when the allies launched their counter-offensives, they were fighting against an enemy that was nowhere near as resilient as it had been only months earlier: Ludenforff's offensives had sapped the German armies of the strength they needed to stay in the war.

Between the start of the March offensive (March 21, 1918) and the Armistice (November 11, 1918) Germany lost 1.8 million casualties. Between July and November, a further 385,000 German prisoners were captured by the Allies - more than half the number of prisoners captured on the Western Front during the entire war. As historian Alexander Watson has shown, by late summer, entire units of German soldiers were surrendering. Panicking, Ludendorff now demanded that Germany's civilian government, hitherto excluded from the real decision making, organise peace. Before they were able to do so, a popular anti-war revolution swept away the old elites and Germany was declared a Republic on November 9, 1918. In 1923, Ludendorff joined forces with Hitler in an attempt to overthrow the Republic.

Mark Jones is a historian of modern Europe and a research fellow at UCD and author of Founding Weimar: Violence and the German Revolution of 1918-1919'A guide to culinary courage," is the subheading on Fearless Food, the second cookbook from Lynda Booth which aims to help cooks of every ability to "throw off the shackles of doubt and raise their game in the kitchen". In the book, the chef encourages us to get away from thinking of food as just "a set of nutrients" and to rediscover the joys of both cooking and eating.

Lynda is the owner/operator of the Dublin Cookery School, where those looking for more brave new horizons can sign up to day-, evening- and one-week courses at a state-of-the-art facility in Blackrock. Choose from over 100 course titles, including Modern Vegetarian and World Street Food, and masterclasses in chef skills, breadmaking and patisserie. For more information, see dublincookeryschool.ie or call (01) 210 555.

MOROCCAN FILO PIE WITH SPICED BUTTERNUT SQUASH, CHICKPEAS & HARISSA YOGHURT

This filo pie starts with the intrigue of the golden crispy pastry. As the knife breaks through the first slice, you get a glimpse of those colourful layers of squash, spinach and nuts. However, it is the taste that makes this a show-stopper. There is the hummus, the spices, the fruitiness. I like to have an accompanying yoghurt dip or some harissa but it really does not need much else. It's all in there already.

Serves 8

Equipment: 28cm springform pan with removable base

Ingredients

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp paprika, plus extra for dusting

 tsp ground cinnamon

 tsp salt

Olive oil, for panfrying

900g squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into small chunks

12 small round shallots, peeled and quartered (only 6 if they are the long banana shallots)

4cm root ginger, finely chopped

100g whole blanched almonds

100g shelled pistachios

75g dried cranberries

2 tbsp honey

225g fresh spinach

For the hummus:

400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

For the filo: 100g butter

8 large sheets filo pastry

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C/Fan/400F/Gas 6.

To make the filling, mix the cumin, coriander, paprika and cinnamon,  tsp salt and 3 tbsp of oil together. Put the squash into a bowl, pour over the spiced oil and mix with your hands. Scatter over a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and add the shallots. Season and cook, stirring regularly until they tenderise and start to colour. Stir in the ginger, almonds and pistachios. When the nuts turn a shade darker, add in the cranberries, honey and spinach. Toss until the spinach wilts. Remove from the heat and mix in the roasted squash. Set aside.

To make the hummus, place the chickpeas in a food processor. Add the crushed garlic, ground cumin, 2 tbsp of oil, lemon juice, 2 tbsp of water and seasoning. Blend together. Taste and adjust as necessary. Stir in the chopped coriander.

To build the pie, melt the butter in a small saucepan and brush the inside of the springform pan with butter. Brush one sheet of filo with butter and lay over half the tin so that it hangs over the edge by about 10cm. Brush a second sheet and lay it on the other side, allowing it to overlap the first sheet in the centre and to hang over the edge. Brush two more sheets of filo and lay in the opposite direction in the same manner. Build up two more layers in this way so that you use a total of eight sheets of filo. Pile half the squash mixture into the centre of the pastry. Spread over the hummus and then top with the rest of the squash mixture. One at a time, bring the edge of each sheet of filo into the centre to cover the filling, creating folds as you go. Brush the surface with more butter. The filo pie may be prepared up to this point in advance and chilled.

To finish the pie, bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until the filo pastry is golden. Cut into slices and serve with the harissa yoghurt (see recipe above).

HARISSA YOGHURT

Ingredients

300g Greek yoghurt

4 tbsp harissa

Squeeze of lemon juice

Method

Mix the harissa, yoghurt and lemon juice together and season with salt. Refrigerate until ready to use.

LAMB BURGERS WITH SWEET POTATO WEDGES & TZATZIKI

It is hard to beat a thick juicy homemade burger which is charred on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside and accompanied by a variety of toppings. The cut of meat you buy will play a large part and it is worth asking the butcher to mince it to get the result you want. Dipping roasted sweet potato wedges into a minty yoghurt sauce gives the satisfaction of getting stuck into a plateful of chips but without any deep fat frying.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Roasted potato wedges:

1 tbsp ground coriander

600g sweet potato

2 tbsp olive oil

Tzatziki:

 cucumber

300g Greek yoghurt

1 small handful dill, finely chopped

A few sprigs mint, chopped

Good squeeze of lemon juice

For the lamb burger:

600g lamb mince, preferably from the lamb shoulder

Salt

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

 tsp paprika

 tsp chilli flakes

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 egg

Olive oil, for cooking the burger

6 multi-seed burger buns

Optional garnishes: 4 slices thick mature Cheddar, Gubbeen or Gruyere

A handful of salad leaves

Pickled cucumber

Carmelised onions (see recipe)

Method

Preheat an oven to 200C/180C/Fan 400F/Gas 6. For the wedges, wash the sweet potatoes. Leaving the skin on, chop lengthways into wedges about 3cm thick. Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and ground coriander. Place on an oven tray, leaving enough space between each one to form a crust and brown. They will take about 25 minutes in the oven but should be turned after about 15 minutes.

For the tzatziki, peel the cucumber. Grate coarsely and place in a sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and leave for half an hour. Squash it with your hands and press with a wooden spoon to extract the liquid. Mix the cucumber into the yoghurt. Add the herbs and lemon juice and season.

Mix all the burger ingredients together in a bowl and season. Divide into 6 portions and shape the meat into patties. Heat a frying pan and add a dash of olive oil. When hot, place the burgers in the pan and cook at a medium high heat until they caramelise on the underside. Flip the burgers and brown the second side. Transfer to the oven for about 10 minutes, depending on the thickness. Add the slices of cheese for the final 4 minutes of cooking, if using.

To assemble the burger, char the buns on a griddle or heat under a grill. Sit the burger on one half and top with some salad leaves and tzatziki. Serve with the potato wedges and extra tzatziki for dipping.

KOREAN FISH PARCELS

Cooking fish in a parcel ensures that all the flavours are trapped inside as the fish steams. The fish sits on a selection of vegetables placed in the centre of the parcel and in this recipe a Korean dip is spooned over the top. Banana leaves are available (fresh and frozen) in Asian markets and allow for a dramatic presentation - closed with wooden skewers or tied with cotton string - though baking parchment is the best everyday option. The moment of opening the parcel is high drama for the senses.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the parcels: 120g courgette

Half a small onion

4 spring onions

1 red pepper

60g carrot

1-2 green chillies

4 slices lime, cut in half

80g baby spinach

4 x 150g hake, cod, brill or turbot, skinned

For the Korean marinade: 100g Kikkoman soy sauce

20g sugar

1 tbsp gochugaru or 1 tsp chilli powder

40g shallot, diced very finely

2 spring onions, sliced finely

2 tsp sesame seeds

40g water

Method

Preheat oven to 220C/200C Fan/425F/Gas 7. To prepare the marinade, mix all the ingredients for the Korean marinade together and keep in a jar in the fridge. The marinade will hold refrigerated for a month.

To make the parcels, halve the courgette lengthwise and then slice thinly crossways. Slice the onion as thinly as possible. Chop the spring onion into 1cm pieces. Slice the red pepper into thin strips. Slice the carrot into thin matchsticks. Chop the chillies into 3 or 4 pieces. Place all of the vegetables, including the lime, in a bowl and mix together. Season lightly with salt.

Fold a sheet of parchment paper in half and cut a semicircle approximately 18cm in radius. When the sheet is opened out, the circle will then be 36cm in diameter. Cut out four sheets and lay them all out on your counter top. Place the vegetable mixture on the lower half moon of each semicircle. Dry the fish with kitchen paper and season very lightly with salt. Sit the fish on top of the vegetables. Spoon about 2 tbsp of Korean marinade over the fish in each parcel. To seal, fold over the free half of the paper so both ends meet and fold the edges in twice to seal them, creasing them carefully as you go.

Place the parcels on a baking tray. They should not overlap. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Check one parcel in advance of when you think it is ready so that it doesn't overcook. Take into account that the fish will carry on cooking slightly after you remove it from the oven.

Serve immediately on hot plates. With a scissors, cut a slit down the centre of the parcel just as you go to serve it. You may eat the fish out of the paper to savour all the juices or tip the contents out onto the plate.The attitude of Conservative politicians to Ireland has frequently veered between ignorance and disdain.

Few have been so withering in their assessment of our green and pleasant land as the former home secretary Reginald Maudling, who declared as he stepped aboard an aeroplane after his first visit in 1970: "For God's sake, bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country!"

As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher did not seem to show much respect for Ireland, rudely telling Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald in 1984: "History shows that the Irish, whether the Scottish-Irish or the Irish-Irish, don't like to move. However, they all seem to be terribly happy to move to Britain."

She was more scathing when she gave the Labour minister Peter Mandelson some advice on his appointment as Northern Secretary in 1999: "I've got one thing to say to you, my boy. You can't trust the Irish, they're all liars. That's what you have to remember, so just don't forget it."

More recently, public statements about Ireland have been more friendly, but show signs of confusion, particularly on the Brexit issue.

The Tory MP and former leader Iain Duncan Smith claimed recently that Ireland was taking a hard line on Brexit, because we had an election on.

He said in a TV: "A lot of things are in the making on this one. There's an election going on in Ireland"

When a presenter pointed out that there wasn't in fact an election, Duncan Smith simply resorted to spoofing: "Well no, the presidential election is coming up. And of course the key point about that is that the present government is worried about Sinn Fein so I think there's a lot of showboating going on in Ireland."

The Tory MP Bernard Jenkin seemed even more bewildered when he gave his views on Leo Varadkar's stance on Brexit in a Sky News interview: "If you listen to Bertie Ahern, if you listen to Enda Kelly (sic) - these are two former Taoiseachs, prime ministers of Northern Ireland - they haven't quite played ball like the present Irish prime minister."

When they manage to pay attention to Ireland, Conservative politicians can find us a damn nuisance.

As the former Tory cabinet minister Michael Portillo put it in a debate about Brexit on the BBC: "Ireland has been so disruptive to the British and Britain has been so disruptive to the Irish.

"Our policy has often been determined, thwarted, and just messed up by our relations with Ireland."Premium

Colm McCarthy Opinion UK is not alone in its Covid failures

New cases, hospitalisations and deaths from the virus have all risen somewhat in the UK over the last week. Given the rapid roll-out of vaccination, the best in Europe, this should not have been happening. The reason seems to be the so-called Indian variant, more infectious and more widespread in Britain, and some experts are worried the government may be forced to pause, or even reverse, the lifting of restrictions.Premium

Eoghan Harris Opinion Misery media fails to give due credit to the Taoiseach

Taoiseach Micheal Martin must drive his advisers mad. Unlike Leo Varadkar or Donald Trump, he never bigs up success stories such as the effect of Level 3 Plus on Covid or his visionary Shared Island project. Last Friday, Tony Holohan and RTE cheerleaders seemed to imply Level 5 was responsible for the improved Covid situation. Not so.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaking at the Cabinet meeting and launch of Project Ireland 2040 at IT Sligo. Photo: James Connolly

There is a point at which a trend becomes an unstoppable momentum. Leo Varadkar is almost, but not quite, at that point. He will be soon though, if he keeps going like this. So Micheal Martin should be worried, if not yet alarmed.

Fine Gael has opened an eight-point lead over Fianna Fail, according to our opinion poll today.

That represents a 16-point turnaround between the two parties since precisely this time last year.

Back then, Ireland was at a different place, of course. For one thing, Enda Kenny was still Taoiseach.

In February 2017, Kenny's Fine Gael was at 25pc in our poll, down a point from its support level in the 2016 General Election; and Martin's Fianna Fail was at 33pc, up nine points since that election.

With an eight-point lead over Fine Gael, there were those in Fianna Fail at the time that felt the party should pull the plug and go to the country again, one year after the election.

There was cause. Well, sort of. Fine Gael was on the rack over Garda reform.

The false sex abuse allegations against Maurice McCabe had just emerged.

But Martin thought otherwise. Some would say he dithered. But he argued at the time that the mandate handed to all parties in the election had not been properly exercised. He was right. That's all water under the bridge now though.

The story of this poll is still the story of the economic collapse - unfinished business, if you like.

To explain, you need to read the party support chart from the bottom up.

If Micheal Martin should be worried, then Independents and smaller, mostly far Left, parties should be doubly so, and Labour should be alarmed.

Independents/others now register only 11pc support, down well over half on their 27pc support level in the last election.

And Labour is at 4pc, down three points from its disastrous election result.

Satisfaction with Brendan Howlin's leadership, meanwhile, is at 22pc, down six points since a comparative poll last July.

Now back to the economic collapse

In the last election, Fianna Fail surprised many to win back a significant chunk of the support it had lost after that collapse.

After five years of Fine Gael/Labour austerity, however, another large chunk of former Fianna Fail support instead went to Independents and smaller parties in the last election rather than back to Fianna Fail.

Now that support is deserting the Independents and smaller parties, but not returning to Fianna Fail in great numbers.

Yes, Fianna Fail is still up four points on its last election showing.

But the lion's share of that floating support is solidly rowing in behind Leo Varadkar.

And make no mistake, the attraction is Varadkar.

His personal satisfaction rating is at 58pc, up nine points since last July - a month after he was elected - which at the time was 12 points higher than the then satisfaction rating of Enda Kenny.

Varadkar's satisfaction rating is also 10 points ahead of Micheal Martin, who until now had been consistently the most popular party leader.

Let's look a little closer at who is satisfied with Leo, and this is potentially significant: a sizeable 37pc of Sinn Fein supporters are satisfied with his leadership, a full 14 points more than are satisfied with Micheal Martin, a level of Shinner satisfaction unprecedented for a Fine Gael leader.

Which indicates that Varadkar's 'bash the Brits' Brexit rhetoric is paying dividends - for now.

And look closer still, at our so-called 'toxic' question: before the last election 34pc said they would not consider voting for Fine Gael; now only 22pc say they would not.

So Fine Gael has become far more vote transfer-friendly under Varadkar than Kenny, but still not quite as transfer-friendly as Fianna Fail.

Sinn Fein is as toxic as ever, although it must be said that polling was conducted mostly before but also for a week after Mary Lou McDonald's widely anticipated election as party president.

McDonald's satisfaction rating (39pc) is only marginally up on that of Gerry Adams (35pc), and Sinn Fein remains on 20pc, which will likely fall back, as before, during the white heat of an election campaign, because its support base does not fully turn out to vote.

However, since Varadkar's election as Taoiseach, the Government's satisfaction rating has also soared: now half (49pc) are satisfied, up 22 points since the final days of Enda Kenny's austerity-ridden leadership.

So, all told these are heady days for Leo Varadkar. Remember, polling was conducted before the Government announced a 116bn National Planning Framework and Ten-Year Capital Plan, even if that plan was the background mood music.

What will he do next? With the economy on the up, and up, and with nine months to go before the scheduled three-budget 'review' or the end of the confidence and supply arrangement, he may well be tempted to go for an election himself before year's end.

Between now and then, he has the Repeal the Eighth referendum to contend with, the outcome of which will be close, but may well be lost, according to our poll. The referendum will, however, also distract from more mundane political events which always have the potential to take some of the gloss off a sitting Taoiseach.

In other words, Varadkar can get on with planning a hugely positive budget in October, to include significant tax cuts as proposed by Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes on these pages today.

There are always events, dear boy, but it is difficult to see such events knocking Varadkar from his perch between now and October.

One of those events may be the abortion referendum - if it is lost.

More likely, another will be Brexit.

As also outlined by Eoin O'Malley today, Varadkar has over-sold the Brexit deal which Ireland secured in EU-UK negotiations last December.

The deal is neither bulletproof nor cast iron, but that reality will not crystallise until next year.

My view is that Varadkar will go for an election before Brexit negotiations get to the business end.

And what of that election?

Well, here is why Fianna Fail should be worried, if not necessarily alarmed. Just yet.

In the last election cycle, the party was similarly behind Fine Gael, on occasion more so, in fact, but made up big ground in the campaign itself.

Micheal Martin is a good and seasoned campaigner, and this poll shows the public still has great regard for him.

Furthermore, Fianna Fail is sitting comfortably at 28pc and can be expected to increase support in the campaign.

We know Leo Varadkar is not great on the ground: he has never brought in a running mate, did little to shore up Fine Gael support in the last election, and was virtually wiped out on the hustings in the Fine Gael leadership contest.

But still, this poll shows that the next election is Fine Gael's, or rather Leo Varadkar's, to lose.

The man has caught the mood of the moment and the mood now is far more positive than in Election 2016, when Fine Gael irritated just about everybody, and two years prematurely, by urging them to 'keep the recovery going'.

The question after that is who, or which parties will form the next Government.

Well, from this poll we know who Sinn Fein supporters would prefer: why, Leo of course.

The man who can do no wrong. For now.One outcome seems likely by 2040, however: the history of economic cycles dictate that there will be another downturn, indeed a recession within that period, perhaps sooner rather than later if the worst outcomes of Brexit are realised. Photo: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

Ireland will be a different place in 2040 than it is today, just as it was very different 20 years ago. The National Planning Framework and Ten-Year Capital Plan, announced to such fanfare last week, is a reasonable attempt by the Government to anticipate what that Ireland will be like and to prepare for it accordingly.

While the plan is of necessity evidence-based, it is set against events as yet unknown, and inevitably, also rooted in certain assumptions and predictions which may not turn out to be entirely accurate. When we look back to 1998, who could have predicted a boom of the nature of the Celtic Tiger and a bust as ruinous as the subsequent lost decade?

One outcome seems likely by 2040, however: the history of economic cycles dictate that there will be another downturn, indeed a recession within that period, perhaps sooner rather than later if the worst outcomes of Brexit are realised.

In the immediate aftermath of the publication of this plan, questions have been raised in relation to its implementation. The issue of delivery is key and in many ways that was an appropriate if predictable response. The road to a better future is littered with such reports or versions of them in the past.

However, within the context of the overall challenges Ireland faces over the next 20 years, another question must be asked: is the plan actually ambitious enough?

The headline figures are certainly eye-catching: the expenditure of 116bn in a 20-year period is considerable; the more notable features in the plan, such as road and rail projects and intentions to build certain numbers of hospitals, schools and residential housing is pleasing to the public consciousness. An attempt is also to be made to resolve the age-old imbalance of urban and rural living - perhaps too great an attempt? To an extent, the plan is also a repackaging of projects already announced, and also represents catch-up in terms of underinvestment in that lost decade.

Undoubtedly, the urban planners and officials with various government departments will tell us that the proposed developments are well thought out and according to demographic requirements in the decades ahead. Insofar as it goes, that is to be welcomed, and this newspaper broadly welcomes the general thrust and intention of the plan.

But yet there is a feeling that the plan lacks boldness in the scope of its vision. There are those who will welcome that. Too often in the past have there been bold visions accompanied by a lack of authority and finance to implement such visions.

On this occasion, and for the first time, planning and investment have been linked and this too is to be welcomed, as is the sizeable package to tackle climate change.

Indeed, there is little in the plan to be quibbled with, save this: Where is the vision to make Dublin one of the great cities of Europe, indeed the world? By which we mean cultured, cosmopolitan, diverse in some parts, also dynamic, innovative, experimental in others and efficient and focused in yet more.

When we say Dublin, we mean the greater Dublin area which also includes vast swathes of Leinster that would call the M50 Ireland's main street.

The plan is to be welcomed as a new beginning, and must be implemented in a timely fashion. However, it should also be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that Ireland not only meets the changing nature of the challenges that will arise, but to get ahead of those challenges to create a country even more worthy of a modern, well-educated, creative and ambitious people.Angelina Jolie attends the 32nd Annual American Society Of Cinematographers Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 17, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Angelina Jolie attends the 32nd Annual American Society Of Cinematographers Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 17, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Angelina Jolie is officially back in the limelight.

The Oscar-winning actress (42) had taken something of a reprieve from the red carpet since splitting with husband Brad Pitt in 2016, slowly dipping her toe back into public life in recent months.

The mother-of-six was the guest of honour at the 32nd Annual American Society Of Cinematographers (ASC) Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday night, dazzling in a dreamy gown by Elie Saab, with a plunging neckline with embellished feather detail and ankle length tulle.

She was awarded the Board of Governors award for her work in directing First They Killed My Father. ASC president Kees van Oostrum praised Jolie's passino for cinema.

Expand Close Angelina Jolie attends the 32nd Annual American Society Of Cinematographers Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 17, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Angelina Jolie attends the 32nd Annual American Society Of Cinematographers Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 17, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

"Angelina Jolie sets a high standard. She is a true artist, with a strong vision and collaborative spirit," he said before giving her the award.

"She has also entertained us through her work, but more importantly has brought significant social issues to our attention. For her wide-ranging accomplishments, we are honored to present her with our Board of Governors Award."

Jolie has found herself back in the news again as estranged husband Brad Pitt was linked to his first wife Jennifer Aniston, who announced on Friday she is separating from husband Justin Theroux. Aniston's representative denied the claims.Britain's Prince Harry (R) and his fiancee US actress Meghan Markle leave a reception for young people in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, during their visit to Scotland on February 13, 2018

Meghan Markle meets members of the public during a walkabout as she visits Cardiff Castle

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive to attend the annual Endeavour Fund Awards at Goldsmiths' Hall in London, to celebrate the achievements of wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women who have taken part in sporting and adventure challenges over the last year

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive to attend the annual Endeavour Fund Awards at Goldsmiths' Hall in London, to celebrate the achievements of wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women who have taken part in sporting and adventure challenges over the last year

Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee US actress Meghan Markle (R) presents the Celebrating Excellence Award to Daniel Claricoates, who completed multiple tours in Afghanistan, during the annual Endeavour Fund Awards at Goldsmiths' Hall in London on February 1, 2018

Prince Harry and fiance Meghan Markle leave the 'Endeavour Fund Awards' Ceremony at Goldsmiths Hall on February 1, 2018 in London, England

Meghan Markle greets wellwishers while on a walkabout on the esplanade at Edinburgh Castle, as she and Prince Harry visited Scotland

Prince Harry and fiance Meghan Markle arrive to attend the 'Endeavour Fund Awards' Ceremony at Goldsmiths Hall on February 1, 2018 in London, England

Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee US actress Meghan Markle reacts during a reception for young people in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, during their visit to Scotland on February 13, 2018

Meghan Markle greets well-wishers during a visit to Cardiff Castle with her fiancee Britain's Prince Harry in Cardiff, Britain, January 18, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walk through the corridors of the Palace of Holyroodhouse on their way to a reception for young people at the Palace on February 13, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Andrew Milligan - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Meghan Markle during her visit to Edinburgh Castle with Prince Harry on February 13, 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Jane Barlow - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Meghan Markle is reportedly struggling to integrate herself into royal life as she prepares to wed Britain's Prince Harry in May.

The American actress (36) moved to London last year before announcing her engagement to the 33-year-old royal and has been slowly inching her way into public life with carefully choreographed appearances alongside her fiance around the UK. While royal watchers have praised her natural confidence at such engagements, Markle is said to be slow in adjusting to her new way of life.

She no longer enjoys the anonymity of her former life in Toronto, where she filmed hit US show Suits, and is instead relatively confined within the gates of Kensington Palace, where she and Harry live in a two-bedroom property Nottingham Cottage.

Prior to him popping the question, she could be pictured shopping around London in low-key fashion, without the glare of the world's media following her every move. And she has turned to Harry's stepmother Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, for practical advice.

Expand Close Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee US actress Meghan Markle reacts during a reception for young people in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, during their visit to Scotland on February 13, 2018 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee US actress Meghan Markle reacts during a reception for young people in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, during their visit to Scotland on February 13, 2018

"Meghan may appear confident when on royal walkabouts, but she does have some pre-wedding butterflies  not about Harry, but about her new life," a source told the Mail on Sunday.

"As Diana once famously said, 'there is no manual', so Camilla is the best thing Meghan has. Camilla is happy to help."

The tv star is also reportedly turning to her future sister-in-law Kate Middleton, who had 10 years to adjust to the realities of public scrutiny before marrying Prince Wililam in 2011, but the couple are busy with their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and preparing for another new arrival in April.

"KP [Kensington Palace] is beautiful, but when Meghan wakes up she has nowhere to go, really," the insider added.

Expand Close Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee US actress Meghan Markle (R) presents the Celebrating Excellence Award to Daniel Claricoates, who completed multiple tours in Afghanistan, during the annual Endeavour Fund Awards at Goldsmiths' Hall in London on February 1, 2018 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Britain's Prince Harry's fiancee US actress Meghan Markle (R) presents the Celebrating Excellence Award to Daniel Claricoates, who completed multiple tours in Afghanistan, during the annual Endeavour Fund Awards at Goldsmiths' Hall in London on February 1, 2018

"She cant potter about on the High Street, attend gym classes, or jog around Hyde Park. Instead she is confined to yoga at home or visits to Kate and William in Apartment 1A."

Last month, a body language expert suggested that Meghan is nervous at official engagements, crediting her habit of fidgeting with her hair a telltale sign.

Expand Close Meghan Markle visits Reprezent 107.3FM in Pop Brixton on January 9, 2018 in London, England. The Reprezent training programme was established in Peckham in 2008, in response to the alarming rise in knife crime, to help young people develop and socialise through radio. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Meghan Markle visits Reprezent 107.3FM in Pop Brixton on January 9, 2018 in London, England. The Reprezent training programme was established in Peckham in 2008, in response to the alarming rise in knife crime, to help young people develop and socialise through radio. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Elizabeth Kuhnke, author of Body Language for Dummies, told Femail that fidgeting with hair is a tactic women often use to settle themselves when they feel under pressure or uncomfortable.

Its the adult version of a child clutching favourite toy, mothers skirt or fathers hand when feeling anxious and not knowing what to do or say, she said.

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"When feeling nervous - knowing millions of people are watching and judging - tilting ones head down and playing with hair is a tell of the psychological state of the need to shield or protect herself."Helen Mirren attends the screening of "The Leisure Seeker" at AFI FEST 2017 Presented By Audi at the Egyptian Theatre on November 12, 2017 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for AFI)

Helen Mirren attends a photocall at the Grimaldi Forum on day 5 of the 57th Monte Carlo TV Festival on June 20, 2017 in Monte-Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Fifty-six years on, Dame Helen Mirren's voice still wavers when she recalls the memory of one particular school friend.

"David was so kind, so smart and so funny. He would have been an incredible adult out there in the world, but back then he had a drunken father and terrible acne and he just couldn't see a way out. So he killed himself."

The 72 year-old pauses.

"It impacted me so profoundly at the time because instinctively I understood why he had done it."

Expand Close British actress Helen Mirren takes part in the L'Oreal fashion show, which theme is Paris, on the sidelines of the Paris Fashion Week on October 1, 2017, on a catwalk set up on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. / AFP PHOTO / CHRISTOPHE SIMONCHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp British actress Helen Mirren takes part in the L'Oreal fashion show, which theme is Paris, on the sidelines of the Paris Fashion Week on October 1, 2017, on a catwalk set up on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. / AFP PHOTO / CHRISTOPHE SIMONCHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images

David is one of two very personal reasons behind the Oscar-winning actress's decision to front the L'Oreal Paris All Worth It campaign, which aims to help 10,000 young people transform self-doubt into self-worth in an online course addressing issues such as body language, communication, employability and relationships.

The second reason may come as a surprise to the many women and men who see the smart, provocative and supremely talented star of The Queen, Gosford Park and The Madness of King George as a beacon of self-confidence: Mirren herself has suffered from acute self-doubt all her life.

"Actually let's say experienced rather than suffered," she says narrowing her eyes. "I'm beginning to get a bit fed-up of all this 'suffering'. But yes, I have experienced insecurity all my life, and I still do on a daily basis."

She understands that people will find this baffling. "But I can't think of a single human being who doesn't have any insecurities - apart from Donald Trump. And actually he's clearly profoundly insecure in a very deep, deep way."

Expand Close INNER HAPPINESS: Mirren became a poster girl for body confidence with this bikini shot, taken 10 years ago / Facebook

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Whatsapp INNER HAPPINESS: Mirren became a poster girl for body confidence with this bikini shot, taken 10 years ago

Born Ilyena Mironov, the granddaughter of a Russian nobleman whose fortune disappeared during the Russian Revolution, Mirren grew up in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, where her immigrant father worked as a cab driver.

"We never had any money but in terms of love my childhood was very wealthy. And that's the greatest advantage any of us can have, isn't it? The love and support of our parents."

Nevertheless she began to be crippled by self-doubt as a teenager.

"I remember having these panic attacks, but not at the obvious moments. So I'd be going downstairs to play cards with a group of my friends and suddenly be thinking 'I just can't do this'. I hate to generalise but it seems to me that girls go inward with their insecurity and boys go outward - and I feel so profoundly now for young people between 13 and 20, when one is so vulnerable and prone to loneliness.

Expand Close British TV and film actress Helen Mirren in 1975 / Facebook

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"Which is why I think this L'Oreal and Prince's Trust initiative is great, and I love the fact that an immensely wealthy corporation like L'Oreal - whose 'because you're worth it' mantra fitted so well - is socially aware enough to become involved with something like this. Because if we can only help people through that perilous time"

Mirren didn't have any such resources to help her as a young adult starting out at the National Youth Theatre and moving on to the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1960s.

And, of course, alongside the professional pressures of stage and screen were the physical insecurities of every woman.

"There were so many things I didn't like: my legs were too fat and all sorts of other issues. But let's not discount men in this side of things; nowadays I work alongside these incredibly buff guys who spend three hours a day in the gym and they are still feeling incredible insecurity about their bodies."

Expand Close Director Taylor Hackford (L) and Actress Helen Mirren attend the 2017 Governors Awards, on November 11, 2017, in Hollywood, California. / AFP PHOTO / VALERIE MACONVALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Director Taylor Hackford (L) and Actress Helen Mirren attend the 2017 Governors Awards, on November 11, 2017, in Hollywood, California. / AFP PHOTO / VALERIE MACONVALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images

That Mirren should have become a poster girl for body confidence with that bikini shot - taken by a paparazzo while she was on holiday in Puglia with her American film director husband of 21 years, Taylor Hackford - still amuses her, ten years on.

"Because I was posing for my husband, who was taking a picture, I was holding my stomach in. So I actually don't look like that at all. I often say: 'I wish I looked like the woman in that photo,' because really I don't, but I suppose that because I was with my husband on a beautiful day with the Mediterranean behind me, all that was impacting how confident I felt."

In any case, Mirren is keen to stress that for her at least, the self-doubts were about far deeper things than looks.

"Because I have never felt beautiful. There are people who are beautiful, and I'm objective enough to know that I don't fit into that category. I'm not bad looking but I'm not beautiful," she says, explaining that as an actress one becomes pragmatic about such things.

"You don't get cast for things and then you see someone who does and she is much prettier but often not such a good actress, and you think: 'Ah, OK, I get the picture'.

"No, for me, still now, it's to do with wit and intelligence rather than the way I look. I don't feel clever or funny enough."

Again, from the woman I've seen hold whole ballrooms in the palm of her hand at award ceremonies, who publicly upbraided Michael Parkinson for behaving like "a sexist old fart" after he interviewed her in 1975, this is unexpected.

I can't help feeling that many of the fierce young women Mirren recently admitted to feeling in awe of, for the ease with which "they just say 'f**k off'" to men, would look up to her as precisely the kind of woman who can hold her own on any issue.

And although only after our interview did the Oxfam scandal erupt - and as this went to press Mirren, a global ambassador for the charity, could not be contacted for comment - she is positively gleeful about the rising up of sexual abuse and intimidation victims within her industry, with Time's Up and #MeToo.

"Oh the cat is out of the bag and she is mad! Spitting mad! So she is going to make her feelings felt, which is great. Wonderful!"

Surely after this things can never go back to how they were?

"Well, be careful..." flings back Mirren. "Because whenever I think that a little voice reminds me that nothing stays the same, and everything changes. So I would say be careful - because there are always forces out there that want to regain control."

Maybe so, but certainly out in Hollywood this awards season we've seen women laying down a whole new set of ground rules - not least a refusal to show pony down the red carpet. With the Oscars just two weeks away, does Mirren welcome the idea of a 'non-sexist' red carpet free of 'mani-cams' and interviews centred on 'who' you're wearing?

"Oh I don't know. Don't forget that women love that stuff. They love it. I love it! I love dressing up! Although I don't want people to look at my manicure because usually my nails look crap," she laughs. "But also we do have to remember that all that is about women on women, and driven by women, not men. Men don't give a f**k about your manicure. All they notice is how much breast you're showing."

In the short film Mirren has recorded for the All Worth It campaign, she speaks of the "everyday kindnesses" we can all show youngsters battling self-doubt. It's easy to blame men for all the ills in the world, but shouldn't women be kinder to one another?

"Oh absolutely," she nods. "Because when they do support each other they're so wonderful. But it's complicated. And we would need to unpick the psychology of why we are the way we are," she sighs. "What I'd like is for David Attenborough to observe us as though we had just landed from Mars, and take us all apart, you know?"

I do. And if he did I suspect he'd be as confounded and enchanted by the rare bird that is Dame Helen Mirren as the rest of us.

The L'Oreal Paris All Worth It confidence training programme is now available online. For further information, visit princes-trust.org.uk/lorealparis

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Saoirse Ronan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Irish stars Saoirse Ronan and Caitriona Balfe stunned in black alongside stars including Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence on the BAFTAs red carpet.

Saoirse (23) is up for the Best Actress BAFTA for her role in Lady Bird and appeared on the red carpet among names including Angelina Jolie, Julie Walters, and Jennifer Lawerence.

Speaking to Edith Bowman on the red carpet, Saoirse, who wore black with her hair tied up, said she does not feel star stuck by the calibre of stars in attendance.

"I honestly get more star stuck meeting Dermot O'Leary!" she laughed. "So many of us have been going to awards shows and events over the last five months so we've all gotten to know each other quite well. It's nice. It feels a bit more of a community."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Saoirse Ronan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Saoirse Ronan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London Caitriona Balfe attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Caitriona Balfe attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London Jennifer Lawrence attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Angelina Jolie attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Angelina Jolie and Rithy Panh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Angelina Jolie and Rithy Panh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Angelina Jolie and Rithy Panh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Emma Roberts attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Margot Robbie attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London Sally Hawkins attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Bryan Cranston and Robin Dearden attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Margot Robbie attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Cressida Bonas arrives at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Britain, February 18, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Millie Mackintosh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London Millie Mackintosh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Millie Mackintosh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Laura Bailey attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Lily James attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Ollie Proudlock attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Lupita Nyong'o attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Naomie Harris (left) attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Rebecca Ferguson attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Florence Pugh attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Ridley Scott and Giannina Facio attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Naomie Harris attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London Jennifer Lawrence attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Dermot O'Leary and wife Dee Koppang attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. 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Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Ruth Wilson attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Toby Jones attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Gemma Arterton attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Denis Villeneuve and Tanya Lapointe attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Chiwetel Ejiofor and guest attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Karen Gillan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Haley Bennett attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Ruth Wilson attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Hugh Grant and Anna Eberstein attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Andrea Riseborough attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. 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Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Patrick Stewart and Sunny Ozell attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire. Tatiana Korsakova attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. Anya Taylor-Joy attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire. 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Whatsapp Saoirse Ronan attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday February 18, 2018. See PA Story SHOWBIZ Bafta. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire.

Fellow Irish star Caitriona Balfe also wore a black gown to the event, as did the vast majority of attendees. The move is in solidarity with Times Up  the movement launched following the sexual harassment scandal which engulfed Hollywood after an avalanche of allegations were made against film producer Harvey Weinstein.

A notable exception to the sea of black was the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge who wore a full length olive green gown, but with a black belt.

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Activists fighting harassment and violence against women also walked the red carpet as guests of stars of the big screen.

Expand Close Caitriona Balfe attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London / Facebook

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Whatsapp Caitriona Balfe attending the EE British Academy Film Awards held at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, Kensington, London

In a move mirroring last months Golden Globes initiative, actresses Tessa Thompson, Andrea Riseborough, Gemma Arterton, Gemma Chan and Naomie Harris are joined by special guests.

The move comes after more than 190 female British stars penned an open letter demanding an end to harassment, abuse and impunity across all industries.

Best Actress nominee Saoirse Ronan in sheer lace and sequins #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/4mafM93LNf  Topshop (@Topshop) February 18, 2018

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Darkest Hour star and supporting actress nominee Kristin Scott Thomas was one of the first stars to arrive as the night kicked off with a performance from Cirque du Soleil.

Angelina Jolie, dressed in black, spent time signing autographs for fans on the red carpet. The 42-year old star wore a pair of 32.908 carat diamond Graff earrings and a 16.69 carat Graff cocktail ring.

Jolie's latest directorial effort, First They Killed My Father, is nominated in the film not in the English language category.

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The ceremony which will be held for the second year in a row at the Royal Albert Hall, this time with Joanna Lumley hosting, is televised from 9pm on BBC One.

Check out our gallery above for all the arrivals as they happen.The owner of an AR-57 semi-automatic rifle has handed in his gun to be destroyed by police in dismay at the carnage wreaked by a similar weapon at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post written two days after 17 people were killed at the high school in his state, Floridian Ben Dickmann expressed his opinion on public ownership of semi-automatic weapons and better training for gun owners.

A day after that, he penned another post showing him handing over his own AR-57, a variant of the AR-15, and stating his reasons for doing so.

The posts have gone astronomically viral, with over 200,000 shares.

Im putting my money where my mouth is (from yesterdays FB post). This is an AR-FiveSeven, I own this rifle. Its a Posted by Ben Dickmann on Friday, February 16, 2018

AR-15-style rifles have been used in many of the US most deadly mass shootings, including Las Vegas (58 dead), the Orlando nightclub shooting (49 dead) and most recently at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to kill 17 teachers and students on Wednesday.

Dickmann calls himself a conservative leaning, gun-owning, middle-aged, financially stable white male, and says that until more people like him stand up for better gun reform, nothing will get done.

He goes on to say he feels that semi-automatic weapons have no place being owned by the average American.

They are fun to shoot at the range, and cheap, but thats about the extent of their usefulness, he wrote.

People will argue them as a hunting rifle, but, Im sorry, this is not a good hunting rifle if you are a true sportsman. If you are a true hunter, you want the most accurate rifle you can buy, and short barrelled, semi-automatic rifles are not the most accurate things out there.

Next Dickmann goes on to say he is in favour of proper training for gun owners and more checks.

Its Time. Its been Time. Its past Time.As I struggle to make Posted by Ben Dickmann on Thursday, February 15, 2018

Following his post talking the talk the day before, on Saturday Dickmann walked the walk, handing in his own semi-automatic rifle to his local police station in Tamarac, Florida.

Posting pictures of him handing over the weapon, Dickmann wrote: This is an AR-FiveSeven, I own this rifle. Its a caliber variant of the AR-15.

I am a responsible, highly trained gun owner. However I do not need this rifle. No one without a law enforcement badge needs this rifle.

He goes on to reiterate his last post, saying the AR15 and similar weapons have no purpose as a useful tool, and therefore he would be leading the 8 million AR-15 owners in the US by example and handing in his weapon.

I could have easily sold this rifle, but no person needs this. I will be the change I want to see in this world. If our law makers will continue to close their eyes and open their wallets, I will lead by example.



MUGSHOTS.COM - ** EXONERATED **: CODY MARBLE  MONTANA MAN FINALLY EXONERATED OF RAPE CHARGE AND FREE OF PROBATION AFTER MORE THAN A DECADE BEHIND BARS Mugshots.com Writing Staff. Missoula, MT - Cody Marble has been exonerated of the 2002 rape of a fellow inmate at a juvenile detention center in Missoula. He had been freed from prison in April 2016, after Missoula County prosecutors filed to dismiss the rape charge on the grounds that the evidence no longer supported it. However, a state judge didnt approve the dismissal until January of 2017, during which time the judge placed Marble on conditional release for 204 days for the remainder of Marbles sentence for a drug-possession charge incurred while he was out on parole for the rape charge in 2013. According to reports, Marble was 17 years old in 2002 when he was placed in juvenile detention for drug use and taking the family car without permission. While in custody, he allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy who was detained at the same facility. Marble was convicted of the crime and spent all of his 20s locked-up in prison. The Montana Innocence Project investigated Marbles case and determined that he was wrongly convicted based on false testimony. According to the project and Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, a number of witnessesas well as the victimhave recanted their original accusations against Marble. Accordingly, Pabst agreed to file a motion to dismiss the 2002 rape conviction against Marble in the interests of doing justice. Marble is now an entirely free man.  Your name: Your e-mail (optional): Url: Description: Mugshots.com : 164903605 All are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Published mugshots and/or arrest records are previously published public records of: an arrest, an indictment, a registration, supervision or probation, the deprivation of liberty or a detention. The mugshots and/or arrest records published on mugshots.com are in no way an indication of guilt and they are not evidence that an actual crime has been committed. Arrest does not imply guilt, and criminal charges are merely accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted. For latest case status, contact the official Law Enforcement Agency which originally released the information. The following Official Record of MUGSHOTS.COM - ** EXONERATED ** is being redistributed by Mugshots.com and is protected by constitutional, publishing, and other legal rights. This Official Record was collected on 2/18/2018. Last updated on 2/18/2018 unconstitutional mugshot laws, exonerations, arrest records, FBI most wanted, editorials, opinionAuthorities in Nigeria are releasing hundreds of people accused of supporting an Islamic extremist group, citing a lack of evidence.

Salihu Othman Isah, a special adviser to Nigerias attorney general, said in a statement on Sunday that 475 suspects will be sent to rehabillitation instead of facing trial.

They are among the more than 1,000 suspected Boko Haram members whose trials began last Monday at a military barracks in the central Nigerian town of Kainji.

The suspects were accused of belonging to Boko Haram or for concealing information about the group.

Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari recently said the era of Boko Haram terrorism is gradually drawing to end. However, the group continues to launch suicide bombing attacks in the countrys northeast and its leader remains at large.An Iranian commercial plane has crashed in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran  killing all 66 people on board, state media reported.

An Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometres (485 miles) south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on the flight were killed.

The plane carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members.

Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters could not reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported.

Mr Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 440-metres (1,440-feet) tall.

Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating.

Under decades of international sanctions, Irans commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of new passenger planes.Brendan Cox, husband of MP Jo Cox, outside the Old Bailey after the conviction. Photo: Reuters

The husband of the murdered MP Jo Cox has stepped down from the charities he set up in her memory following accusations of sexual harassment.

Brendan Cox has left his role as director of More In Common and The Jo Cox Foundation after saying he would take full responsibility for his actions.

A former colleague from Save the Children made accusations about his conduct, which were then followed up by allegations published in the Mail on Sunday that he forced himself on a woman during a trip to Harvard University in 2015 which was reported to the police.

Mr Cox denied preying on the two women while he was married to Jo Cox and described the allegations as a massive exaggeration. He did however admit that his behaviour had made people feel uncomfortable.

I want to apologise deeply and unreservedly for my past behaviour and for the hurt and offence that I have caused, Mr Cox said.

In the aftermath of Jos murder, I promised that I would dedicate my life to two things, firstly loving and protecting our children and secondly fighting the hatred that killed Jo.

In the last few days allegations from several years ago have resurfaced that makes concentrating on both of those tasks much more difficult. For that reason, while away over half-term, I decided to step down from my current public roles for the time being.

While I do not accept the allegations contained in the 2015 complaint to the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I do acknowledge and understand that during my time at Save the Children I made mistakes and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence. This was never malicious but it was certainly inappropriate.

In the past I have focused on disputing what I felt was untrue in the allegations, but I realise now that its more important to take full responsibility for what I have done.

I am committed to holding myself to much higher standards of personal conduct in the future.

The Jo Cox Foundation said it accepted the resignation and that it remained committed to continuing on the work.

Since establishing the Jo Cox Foundation, the trustees and staff have admired the integrity, commitment and dedication that Brendan has shown in our work to create a positive legacy for Jo, a spokesperson for the charity said.

The Jo Cox Foundation was established in September 2016 to channel the energy and determination generated by Jos life and murder into practical efforts to advance the causes she championed.

The trustees and staff remain committed to continuing this important work and honouring Jos life.Top Russian and American officials exchanged barbs yesterday in Germany over the US indictment of 13 Russians accused of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.

Donald Trump's national security adviser, HR McMaster, said at the Munich Security Conference that the federal indictments showed the US was becoming "more and more adept at tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion".

"As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain," McMaster told a Russian delegate to the conference.

Just minutes before, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had dismissed the indictments as "just blather", according to remarks through an interpreter.

"I have no response," Lavrov said when asked for comment on the allegations. "You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying."

The two men addressed the conference of top world leaders, defence officials and diplomats, giving more general back-to-back opening remarks. But both were immediately hit with blunt questions about the US indictment and the broader issue of cyberattacks.

In Russia, news of the indictments was met with more scorn. "There are no official claims, there are no proofs for this. That's why they are just children's statements," said the presidential envoy for international information security, Andrei Kutskikh.

McMaster also scoffed at the suggestion that the US would work with Russia on cyber security issues.

"I'm surprised there are any Russian cyber experts available based on how active most of them have been undermining our democracies in the West," he said to laughter.

"So I would just say that we would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere."

The federal indictment brought last Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller represents the most detailed allegations to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign that sent Trump to the White House.

Lavrov argued that US officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, had said no country influenced the US election results.

"Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber - I'm sorry for this expression," Lavrov said.

The indictment charged 13 Russians with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Republican Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

It outlined the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the US election's outcome.

According to the indictment, the Russian organisation was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy St Petersburg businessman with ties to the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.

Lavrov denounced "this irrational myth about this global Russian threat, traces of which are found everywhere - from Brexit to the Catalan referendum".

In Russia, one of the 13 people indicted said the US justice system was unfair. Mikhail Burchik, who was identified in the indictment as executive director of an organisation that allegedly sowed propaganda on social media, was quoted yesterday as saying: "I am very surprised that, in the opinion of the Washington court, several Russian people interfered in the elections in the US. I do not know how America came to this decision."

He was quoted as saying that "they have one-sided justice, and it turns out that you can hang the blame on anyone".

 Associated PressTrocaire's executive director Eamonn Meehan revealed a staff member was dismissed immediately after the charity investigated an accusation of sexual exploitation in 2016.

It is understood the dismissed man was a citizen of an African country where the charity was working.

In a statement released on the development agency's website yesterday, Mr Meehan said: "We held an investigation which found that the individual had breached our code of conduct. He was dismissed immediately. There is now a criminal investigation into that incident and Trocaire is assisting the local authorities. This is the only such incident relating to staff members to have been reported to us."

Trocaire has a "zero tolerance" approach to abuse or exploitation, he stated.

The charity has policies and procedures to prevent abuse or exploitation, he said.

His statement followed reports concerning sexual exploitation by Oxfam staff in Haiti.

It was reported yesterday that the Concern charity investigated accusations of sexual misconduct against more than 12 staff in the last decade. More than three-quarters of those staff, all working overseas, were dismissed.

And Goal dismissed about five staff members working overseas in the past eight years as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct, according to The Irish Times.

Oxfam UK has been embroiled in a damaging sex scandal involving some employees who were working in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake who had hired prostitutes and downloaded pornography. Four workers were fired and three others were allowed to resign.

In an interview yesterday with The Guardian newspaper, Oxfam chief executive Mark Goldring again apologised over allegations of sexual abuse by Oxfam staff in Haiti, but insisted that criticism of the charity sector was disproportionate.

"The intensity and ferocity of the attacks makes you wonder, what did we do? We murdered babies in their cots?" he was quoted as saying.

"Certainly the scale and intensity of the attacks feels out of proportion to the level of culpability."A view of the Kremlin (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

A gunman has opened fire with a hunting rifle on churchgoers leaving a service in Russias Dagestan region, killing four people and wounding four others.

Police then killed the assailant.

The shooting took place on Sunday evening in Kizlyar, a town of about 50,000 people on the border with Chechnya.

State news agency Tass cited mayor Alexander Shuvalov as saying four people were killed and four wounded.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately known.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea.

Following two separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya, an Islamist insurgency spread to Dagestan.Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Deerfield Beach, Fla. A gunman opened fire at a nearby high school in Parkland, Fla. Photo: AP

The doctor who treated a number of the casualties in last week's horrific Florida school shooting studied medicine in Dublin and has an Irish wife, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

Dr Evan Boyar - who is the medical director for emergency services at Broward Health North on Pompano Beach - led the medical team who treated eight of the victims following the shooting that killed 17 students and teachers last Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The school is located close to the hospital where Dr Boyar works.

Among those treated for injuries at the hospital was 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged with the murder of the 17 victims.

Dr Boyar studied at UCD for his medical degree. His wife, Paula, is understood to be originally from Tipperary and the couple are still regular visitors to Ireland. Paula also works as a doctor at Broward Health North. The couple both graduated from UCD in 2002.

Dr Boyar spoke to the media outside the hospital on the evening of the shooting, giving updates on the number of victims being treated. However, he would not go into the types of injuries sustained by survivors out of respect for their families.

He said he and the medical staff at the hospital are well-trained and prepared for such devastating situations.

"At Broward Health North, we received eight patients and one suspect.

"The suspect was treated and released in police custody," he said.

"We routinely run drills at our institution to be ready for instances like this, so we have a process in place that gets initiated, so there's calm, collected care that our patients receive," he added.

Dr Boyar was also asked by reporters how the hospital's medical staff dealt with having to treat the suspect.

"Every patient that comes in here gets treated as a patient and we take care of them medically and that's what we do," he said.Darnell Bitting is being hunted after the fatal shooting

A police manhunt is under way in the US after a gunman shot and killed a four-year-old girl in a car.

The childs grandmother and three siblings, aged 7, 6, and 3, were sitting with her in the vehicle but were not hurt.

A murder warrant has been issued for the arrest of the suspect, Darnell Bitting, who police described as armed and dangerous.

The 31-year-old is said to be banned from possessing weapons.

Officers said the shooting happened after a woman drove to a home in Akron, Ohio, with her mother and four children in the car to retrieve some property inside. When no one answered the door, she broke several windows.

Bitting then came out of the house with a rifle and fired a shot that struck the car, hitting the four-year-old, according to WKYC.

The girl was taken to Akron Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. She had not yet been publicly identified.

Police are appealing for information on Bittings whereabouts.Police stand guard at the site of the second explosion in Oruro, Bolivia (Juan Karita/AP)

Both of the explosions that killed 12 people during recent Carnival celebrations in Bolivia were caused by dynamite, not exploding gas canisters as initially thought.

Interior Minister Carlos Romero said officials are still trying to determine who planted the explosives in the southern city of Oruro, and why.

He said both the February 10 and February 13 explosions were caused by three kilograms (6.5lb) of dynamite.

The first, he said, was planted near the gas canister on the cart of a street food vendor, who was killed along with four members of her family and three other people.

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The second explosion occurred only a few yards away three days later, killing four people.

Together, the explosions injured about 60 people.

Mr Romero said that police also have found a small piece of dynamite in a hotel bathroom in the city, which is about 120 miles south of the capital, La Paz. It is a mining area where dynamite is widely available.A spokeswoman for Polands prime minister has sought to downplay his words equating Polish collaborators in the Holocaust to alleged Jewish perpetrators.

Israeli politicians have accused Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of anti-Semitism following his remarks on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, which set off a new chapter in an angry dispute over Polands new law banning some Holocaust speech.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to speak with Mr Morawiecki soon about his remarks.

Expand Close Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP) / Facebook

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In a statement on Sunday, Ronald S Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, condemned Mr Morawieckis words as an absurd and unconscionable allegation that is nothing short of an attempt to falsify history, that rings of the very worst forms of anti-Semitism and Holocaust obfuscation.

Mr Lauder demanded an immediate retraction and apology from Polands government.

Mr Morawieckis spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said that his words should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime.

The statement in Polish and English said Mr Morawieckis comments were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust.

On the contrary, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has repeatedly and categorically opposed denial of the Holocaust  the murder of European Jewry  as well as anti-Semitism in all its forms, the statement said.

Of course it's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian, not only German perpetratorsPolish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

It noted that the brutal occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany during the war allowed the Nazi German murder of Jews to take place in the way that it did.

Mr Morawiecki made the controversial comment on Saturday as he was responding to a question from an Israeli journalist at the Munich Security Conference. While asking about a new Polish law that criminalises some statements about the Holocaust, the journalist said his parents were reported to the Nazis by Polish neighbours. He asked if he would now be considered a criminal in Poland for relating the story.

Of course its not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian, not only German perpetrators, Mr Morawiecki said in response.

APPope Francis revived a sex abuse advisory commission by naming new members, after coming under fire for his handling of the scandal and his support for a Chilean bishop accused by victims of witnessing and ignoring their abuse.

The announcement of the new members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors came on the same day that a Vatican investigator will take the testimony in New York of one of the main whistleblowers in the Chilean cover-up scandal.

Francis tasked Archbishop Charles Scicluna with the fact-finding mission into Bishop Juan Barros after he was criticised in Chile for defending Barros and calling the victims' cover-up accusations against him slander.

The initial three-year mandate of commission members had lapsed two months ago, on December 17.

Francis named nine new members on Saturday and kept seven from the initial group.

A Vatican statement said survivors of abuse are included, but did not identify them to protect their privacy.

None of the most outspoken lay advocates for victims from the original group returned, but a statement stressed that the commission's work would be helped throughout by the experience of victims.

Commission members are to open their April plenary by meeting with victims privately, and discussions are continuing to create an "international survivor advisory panel" to advise the commission and make sure the voices of victims are heard in all its deliberations, the statement said.

Francis created the commission in December 2013, responding to complaints that he had not prioritised the fight against clerical abuse and cover-up enough.

The group's mission was to advise the pope on best practices to protect children, but it faced strong in-house resistance to some of its core proposals.

Commission members found greater reception in hosting grassroots workshops in bishops' conferences around the world.

To date, it has worked with almost 200 dioceses and religious communities worldwide to raise awareness and to educate staff on safeguarding.

The first members of the commission were named in March 2014, including Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of abuse and advocate for victims.

But by March of last year, Ms Collins had resigned, citing the "unacceptable" resistance to the commission from within the Vatican, and in particular the office tasked with investigating sex abuse cases.

The commission's most significant proposal came in 2015, when it successfully persuaded Francis and his "kitchen cabinet" to create a tribunal section inside the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to judge bishops who botched handling cases of their abuser priests.

Francis approved funding and personnel for an initial five-year term.

But amid resistance, the tribunal never got off the ground and Francis scrapped it entirely in 2016.

Instead, he issued a document laying out essentially existing procedures for the Vatican to investigate negligence. There is no transparency to the process, however.Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida have focused their anger at President Donald Trump, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive.

Youre the president. Youre supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us, said David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, speaking on NBCs Meet The Press.

How dare you, he added.

David was responding to Mr Trumps tweet on Saturday that Democrats had not passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Mr Trump also alluded to the FBIs failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous while bemoaning the bureaus focus on Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Mr Trump was at his Florida estate on Sunday but did not mention the attack in a series of morning tweets. After more than a day of criticism from the students, the White House announced on Sunday the president would hold a listening session with unspecified students on Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials on Thursday.

Florida politicians, meanwhile, scrambled to produce legislation in response to the February 14 attack that killed 17 people.

In a TV interview, Republican Senator Marco Rubio embraced a Democratic bill in the Florida legislature to allow courts to temporarily prevent people from having guns if they are determined to be a threat to themselves or others.

Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican, attended a prayer vigil at the First Church Coral Springs, a few blocks from the shooting site. He is expected to announce a legislative package with party leaders of the legislature this week.

Emma Gonzalez, another student who survived the attack, cited Mr Trump, Mr Rubio and Mr Scott by name in a warning to politicians who are supported by the National Rifle Association.

Now is the time to get on the right side of this, because this is not something that we are going to let sweep under the carpet, she said on Meet The Press.

The pointed comments by the students are the latest sign of increased pressure for gun control after the massacre.

The students have vowed to become the face of a movement for tighter firearm regulations and plan to visit the state capitol in Tallahassee this week to demand immediate action. They are also calling for anti-gun violence demonstrations in Washington and other cities March 24.

Organisers behind the Womens March, an anti-Trump and female empowerment protest, called for a 17-minute, nationwide walkout by teachers and students on March 14. The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organisation for public schools, announced a day of walkouts, sit-ins and other events on school campuses on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 12 students and one teacher dead.

Meanwhile, school and other government records show the suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was diagnosed as developmentally delayed at the age of three and had disciplinary issues dating back to middle school.

In February 2014, while in eighth grade, Cruz was transferred to a special school for children with emotional and behavioural issues. He stayed there until 10th grade, when he was transferred to Stoneman Douglas. A month after arriving, Cruz was reported for using profanity. Last year, Cruz was expelled.

On September 28 2016, an investigator from the Florida Department of Children and Families visited Cruz and his mother, Lynda Cruz, after he posted a video on Snapchat showing him cutting himself. The report showed Cruz had written a racial epithet against African-Americans and a Nazi symbol on his book bag, which his mother had forced him to erase. The investigator said Cruz was suffering from depression and was on medication and had told Lynda Cruz he planned to buy a gun, but she could not determine why.

She said he had been depressed after breaking up with a girlfriend who had been cheating on him, the investigator said. A school counsellor told the investigator that Lynda Cruz had always tried to help her son and followed through on his therapy and medication, but the counsellor was concerned about the youths desire to buy a gun.

A crisis counsellor told the DCF investigator he had visited the school and that he did not believe Cruz was a danger to himself or others. The case was closed, with the investigator concluding that Cruz was receiving help from his mother and counsellors, and no other referrals or services were needed.

After Lynda Cruz died in November, Cruz moved into the home of a teenage friend. The friends parents told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper they had no idea the extent of Cruzs issues.

We had this monster living under our roof and we didnt know, Kimberly Snead told the newspaper in an interview published on Sunday. We didnt see this side of him.

James Snead added: Everything everybody seems to know, we didnt know. Its as simple as that.

The Sneads said Cruz seemed ill-adapted to life on his own, unable to do simple tasks like laundry or use the microwave.

We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't knowKimberley Snead

He kept the AR-15 he allegedly used in the massacre locked in a gun safe along with a few other firearms. James Snead thought he had the only key to the cabinet but has figured out Cruz must have kept another key. The family kept their own rifles, bought after a burglary a few years ago, in a separate locked cabinet.

They told Cruz he needed to ask permission to take out the guns. He had asked only twice since November. They said yes once and no once.

On Wednesday morning, Cruz told them he did not need a ride to school. Its Valentines Day and I dont go to school on Valentines Day, he said.

Cruz sent their son a few texts that day. In one, he asked what classroom the boy was in. He said he was going to see a movie.

Later he texted he had something important he wanted to tell the teenager. Then he wrote: Nothing man.The scene of the deadly tour helicopter crash (Teddy Fujimoto/AP)

Four people who survived when a sightseeing helicopter crashed at the Grand Canyon earlier this month are still in hospital in critical condition.

Three British tourists were killed on February 10 when the helicopter from Las Vegas went down on tribal land outside Grand Canyon National Park.

The pilot and three other Britons were injured and taken to a Las Vegas trauma centre.

A spokesman for University Medical Centre of Southern Nevada says the four survivors are still listed in critical condition as of Sunday.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board.

Preliminary findings are expected before the end of the month, though a full report on the crash will not be done for more than a year.

Becky Dobson, 27, Stuart Hill, 30, and his brother Jason Hill, 32, were killed in the incident.

Britons Ellie Milward, 29, Jonathan Udall, 32, and Jennifer Barham, 39, were injured in the crash, along with pilot Scott Booth, 42.President Donald Trump has launched another attack on Twitter, this time over an Obama-era payment to Iran.

President Trump said in a tweet that he has never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars (1.2 billion) in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!

The Obama administration transferred the money to Iran in 2016, using non-US currency.

The administration said it was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the countries.

An initial payment was delivered the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.

The Obama administration eventually acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran.

Congressional Republicans decried the payment as ransom, which the Obama administration denied.

Mr Trump insisted that he never denied Russias election meddling and declared that they are laughing their asses off in Moscow.

While the nearby town of Parkland, Florida, continues to mourn a deadly school shooting that left 17 dead, Russia was clearly at the top of the presidents mind. The administration has focused on the fact that the Russian effort began in 2014, before Mr Trump announced his White House run.

He said the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, California Representative Adam Schiff  calling him Liddle Adam Schiff, the leakin monster of no control  is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election.

Mr Trump appeared to be referring to an interview Mr Schiff did in which he said the previous administration should have set up a more forceful deterrent against foreign adversaries considering cyber attacks.

Mr Obama in late 2016 defended his administrations response to the Russian meddling, also saying he had confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin that September, telling him to cut it out.

Mr Trump also argued that he never said Russia did not meddle in the election, adding: The Russian hoax was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia  it never did!

The president has repeatedly expressed scepticism over the Russian election meddling. In November, he said he believed the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that there had been meddling. But Mr Trump also said he believed Mr Putin is sincere when he says Russia did not interfere.

Mr Trump also argued that the ongoing investigations are just what the Russians want, saying: Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!Agartala, Feb 18 (IBNS): Amid tight security, voting to elect a new Tripura Assembly commenced on Saturday.

The Left is ruling the state for the past 25 years.

Voting in 59 out of 60 Assembly seats of Tripura is taking place on Sunday.

The polling in the reserved Charilam seat of the state has been rescheduled to March 12 due to the death of CPI-M candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma, media report said.

Manik Sarkar, the poorest Chief Minister of the country, is leading the CPI-M-led Left Front government in the state for 25 years.

Manik Sarkar is the longest serving Chief Minister of any state followed by late Jyoti Basu, who was at the helm in West Bengal.

Tripura, a CPI-M bastion, is one of the two states where the Left still rules.

The campaigns in the state were held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah largely for the Feb 18 poll.

The Congress was barely present in the campaign trials in the state this time.

The BJP, which has stormed the north and northeast India in last few years, is trying to keep its footprint in the eastern state of India.

CPI-M and CPI together are having 51 out of total 60 Assembly seats in the state.

While CPI-M claims to return to power, BJP President Amit Shah has asserted that the next Tripura government will be formed by the saffron party only.

PM Modi said the Communist party will be uprooted from the state by the BJP.

The poll results will be out on Mar 3.New Delhi,Feb 18 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged people of Tripura to turn out in record numbers as voting for the Assembly polls in the state is currently going on.

Modi tweeted: " I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Tripura, particularly young voters, to turnout in record numbers and cast their vote in the Assembly Elections. "

Amid tight security, voting to elect a new Tripura Assembly commenced on Saturday.

The Left is ruling the state for the past 25 years.

Voting in 59 out of 60 Assembly seats of Tripura is taking place on Sunday.

The polling in the reserved Charilam seat of the state has been rescheduled to March 12 due to the death of CPI-M candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma, media report said.

Manik Sarkar, the poorest Chief Minister of the country, is leading the CPI-M-led Left Front government in the state for 25 years.

Manik Sarkar is the longest serving Chief Minister of any state followed by late Jyoti Basu, who was at the helm in West Bengal.

Tripura, a CPI-M bastion, is one of the two states where the Left still rules.

The campaigns in the state were held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah largely for the Feb 18 poll.

The Congress was barely present in the campaign trials in the state this time.

The BJP, which has stormed the north and northeast India in last few years, is trying to keep its footprint in the eastern state of India.

CPI-M and CPI together are having 51 out of total 60 Assembly seats in the state.

While CPI-M claims to return to power, BJP President Amit Shah has asserted that the next Tripura government will be formed by the saffron party only.

PM Modi said the Communist party will be uprooted from the state by the BJP.

The poll results will be out on Mar 3.

Agartala, Feb 18 (IBNS): As 25 lakhs voters are scheduled to decide the political fate of Tripura on Sunday, the turnout for the state's Assembly election till 11 am has been around 23.25 percent, media reports said.

Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, also an MLA from Dhanpur constituency, casts his vote in Agartala on Sunday morning.

Voting in 59 out of 60 Assembly seats of Tripura is taking place on Sunday.

The Left is ruling the state for the past 25 years.

The polling in the reserved Charilam seat of the state has been rescheduled to March 12 due to the death of CPI-M candidate Ramendra Narayan Debbarma, media report said.

Manik Sarkar, the poorest Chief Minister of the country, is leading the CPI-M-led Left Front government in the state for 25 years.

Manik Sarkar is the longest serving Chief Minister of any state followed by late Jyoti Basu, who was at the helm in West Bengal.

Tripura, a CPI-M bastion, is one of the two states where the Left still rules.

The campaigns in the state were held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah largely for the Feb 18 poll.

The Congress was barely present in the campaign trials in the state this time.

The BJP, which has stormed the north and northeast India in last few years, is trying to keep its footprint in the eastern state of India.

CPI-M and CPI together are having 51 out of total 60 Assembly seats in the state.

While CPI-M claims to return to power, BJP President Amit Shah has asserted that the next Tripura government will be formed by the saffron party only.

PM Modi said the Communist party will be uprooted from the state by the BJP.

The poll results will be out on Mar 3.

Bengaluru, Feb 18 (IBNS): The Congress party on Sunday expelled MLA NA Harris son Mohammad Nalapad on Sunday after he and his friends attacked a youth in an upscale Bengaluru restaurant.

Nalapad, the Bangalore District Youth Congress General Secretary, has been expelled from the party for six years.

This comes after he and 10 of his supporters reportedly attacked a person named Vidwath and beat him up.

On Saturday, Vidwath, was having dinner at a high-end restaurant in UB City when Mohammad Nalapad and his friends walked in at 11:30pm.

The group reportedly told Vidwath, who had a plaster on one of his legs, to sit properly.

After a heated exchange, the group started thrashing Vidwath.

Nalapad and his friends allegedly also tried to attack the victims brother.

Nalpad was booked on Saturday itself.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told News18: "I have seen your report and ordered the strictest possible action against Haris' son. The police will arrest him. No such criminal act will be tolerated. Law is same for all. We uphold it."

On Twitter, the Chief Minister said the offenders would be punished regardless of who they are.Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []Guwahati, Feb 18 (IBNS): The troops of Assam Rifles apprehended four over ground workers of the United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) in Arunachal Pradeshs Changlang district on Saturday, officials said on Sunday.

Based on intelligence input, the Assam Rifles troops launched a special operation at Malugaon area and nabbed the four along with one point22 pistol.

Defence PRO Colonel Chiranjeet Konwer said that, the four confessed that they have supplied weapons from Dimapur in Nagaland to Sadiya and Kakopathar in Assam and was also involved in anti-social activities.

Later, they were handed over to Margherita police station in Assam and an FIR was lodged.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)Kohima, Feb 18 (IBNS): With less than 9 days to go for the assembly polls in Nagaland, battling among the political parties and candidates rose on top as campaigns are continuing in full swing across the state.

All the 227 candidates of regional and national political parties and Independents, who are in fray for the 60-member 13th Nagaland assembly election, have been trying to attract the voters while the poll is scheduled on February 27.

War of words among the political leaders are also continuing during the election campaign rallies and meetings in the poll bound state.

Three times former Chief Minister of Nagaland and leader of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) Neiphiu Rio, who already declared uncontested win from the Northern Angami-II constituency said that, Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang and Naga Peoples Front (NPF) president Dr Shurhozelie Liezietsu is today enjoying his fruits because of his leadership and effort in reviving the NPF party in 2003.

During an election campaign meeting for NDPP candidate Vikho-o Yhoshu from 14th Southern AngamiI Assembly Constituency at Kigwema on Saturday, the Chief Ministerial candidate of NDPP-BJP alliance said that, this election will be a test for leadership of both TR Zeliang and Liezietsu and NDPP and BJP alliance will form the next government.

Rio further said that, he returned to the state politics while the people of Nagaland desired his leadership once again.

On the other hand, taking a dig at the newly floated political party NDPP and Neiphiu Rio, Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang said that, Rio is a man who had started making trouble for his government in a bid to return to state politics and also tried to split NPF.

Nagaland is going to hold the assembly polls on Feb 27.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)New Delhi, Feb 18 (IBNS): Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi again and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and asked them to speak out on the Rs. 11,300 crore banking fraud involving celebrity diamond jeweller Nirav Modi.

Gandhi asked Modi an Jaitley to stop behaving like 'gulity'.

Tweeting on the same, Gandhi wrote:"PM Modi tells kids how to pass exams for 2 hrs, but won't speak for 2 mins on the 22,000Cr banking scam. Mr Jaitley is in hiding. Stop behaving as if you're guilty! Speak up. #ModiRobsIndia."

On Friday, Gandhi taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said 'scamsters' like 'Lalit Modi' and 'Nirav Modi' had a link with 'NaMo'.



In a tweet, Gandhi had said: " The scamster's escape formula: Na(Mo) La(Mo) + Ni(Mo) -----> Bha(Go) #ModiRobsIndia."

Meanwhile, the Government on Friday announced that the passport of the fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi, the prime accused in the Rs. 11,292-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case, and his business partner Mehul Choksi have been cancelled for four weeks.

Modi, who is in the centre of a huge storm, reportedly left the country in January, much before the scam came to light.

According to media reports, he is now in New York.

Meanwhile, Interpol has issued diffusion notice against Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and partner Choksi.

While the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two cases against Modi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has reportedly seized gold and diamond worth Rs 5,500 crores from the searches conducted at 17 properties of the diamond merchant across India.

ED sleuths also sealed six properties owned by the fugitive jewellery designer.

The ED has issued summons for appearance to diamond merchant Modi and Choksi in connection with alleged money laundering.

They said both Modi and Choksi were summoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and asked to depose within a weeks time.

CBI has registered an FIR against Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Group of companies on the complaint of Punjab National Bank (PNB).

The agency is still conducting searches at locations of Gitanjali Group Companies at 20 places in six cities across the country.

On February 14, the CBI received complaints from PNB, which detected a Rs 11,292 crore fraud involving Modi.

ED started raiding Nirav Modis home, offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Surat on Thursday.

According to reports, Punjab National Bank has suspended eight more officials. The number of suspended employees now stands at 18, which also includes General Manager level officers. Internal investigation of the bank is still underway.Guwahati, Feb 18 (IBNS): In view to protect wild animals and to fight against poachers, the Assam government on Sunday distributed modern sophisticated weapons to forest personnel at a programme held at Forest Convention Centre at Kohora, Kaziranga in Golaghat District.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had distributed the weapons to the forest personnel in presence of Assam Forest and Environment minister Pramila Rani Brahma.

Sonowal also distributed ex gratia to the next of keen of victims of man-animal conflict and compensation to the injured.

Speaking on the occasion, he expressed hope that modern weapons would enable the forest personnel to carry out their duties in a more effective manner to protect the states wild life from poachers.

Notably, the state government had kept provision of Rs 10 crore in the 2016-17 state budget for purchase of modern arms for forest department under the scheme modernisation of arms and equipment for protection of tiger reserves and rhino bearing protected areas of the stateand weapons have been bought under this scheme.

Accordingly, 272 INSAS rifles, 954 SLRs, 12 bore pump action guns 133 numbers, 9 mm pistols 20 numbers and 91 ghatak rifles were bought which have been distributed today among frontline forest personnel of the state.

Another Rs 10 crore has also been kept in the 2017-18 budget for purchase of more such arms and equipment in the coming days.

Stating that the local community and particularly the youth must join hands with the government to keep surrounding areas of Kaziranga National Park clean, the Assam CM stated that visitors to the park must take away a good impression of the state and its people and he called on the forest department to win the trust of the people through dedication and sincerity.

Referring to the difficult conditions that the forest guards and front line workers of the department have to operate in during floods, Sonowal assured of taking steps to solve their grievances in a phased manner.

He also said that the bad reputation earned by the department due to tainted officials must be removed by hardwork and determination of the employees of the department and trust of the people of the state must be won back.

Singling out initiatives like new uniform for shaping a smart forest guard force and imparting of intensive training for handling modern arms, Sonowal directed forest and environment minister Pramila Rani Brahma to take action for setting up an international standard convention centre at Kaziranga at an early date.

He has also directed the Forest Minister along with Water Resource Minister Keshab Mahanta and Agriculure Minister Atul Bora, who are the local MLAs of Kaliabor and Bokakhat constituencies where majority of the Kaziranga National Park falls, to identify a suitable location for building a heliport nearby the park for increasing tourist flow.

Saying that recently concluded Advantage Assam: Global Investors Summit explored opportunities for developing the tourism industry of the state, Sonowal called on the civil society to join hands with the government in sustaining Kaziranga which is known worldwide as the habitat of famous one horned rhino.

Highlighting the governments commitment to protect the wildlife and forests of state, he said that 10 Wildlife Fast Track Courts have been set up in the state for speedy proceedings against poachers and wildlife criminals.

He has also directed the forest department to devise mechanism for enabling more youths near Kaziranga and other reserve forests and sanctuaries to earn better livelihood through tourism.

He has also urged the department to work dedicatedly to stop illegal felling of trees and ensure supply of construction materials for infrastructure development projects.

Forest and Environment Minister Pramila Rani Brahma said that number of initiatives have been taken to protect the rhino and other wild animals of the state and reconstitution of Anti Rhino Poaching Task Force is a step in that direction.

Following the direction of the chief minister food and medical treatment were provided to the wild animals in KNP during floods last year and steps have already been taken for aerial survey of the park by drones, she added.

Modern arms would be enable the forest guards to protect the wildlife and forests of the state more effectively, she opined.

Water Resource Minister Keshab Mahanta, Agriculture Minister Atul Bora also spoke in the programme which also attended by Sonari MLA TapanGogoi, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Bikash Brahma, Director of KNP among others.



(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)Jammu, Feb 18 (IBNS): The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Indian authorities, including the National Investigative Agency (NIA), to drop charges against Kashmir photojournalist Kamran Yusuf immediately and to free him.

Indias National Investigative Agency is way out of its league and has no business defining what a real journalist should cover, said Steven Butler, CPJs Asia program coordinator.

Kamran Yousufs work taking photographs of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir is a public service in the best spirit of journalism. He should be freed immediately, he added.

Yusuf, a freelance journalist based in Kashmir, was arrested on September 7 last year following an FIR levelling charges of terror funding against him.

In observations filed by the NIA in court, the agency had said that Yusuf was not a real journalist as he not covered any inauguration, statement of political party or developmental activities of the government, which, according to the NIA is the moral duty of a journalist.

The accusations against Yusuf include charges of stone pelting incidents at various locations in the Kashmir Valley.

The NIA had also said that he was in regular touch with anti-national elements.

In January this year, the global journalists body had said: Indian authorities must stop abusing their power and using heavy-handed tactics to go after a photojournalist who was merely doing his job.

(Reporting by Saleem Qadri)



Khalsa Aid is a UK-based organisation with one aim - to be committed to selfless seva (service) through humanitarian aid work. The relief group has worked across the world to support people who have been hurt by natural or man-made disasters.

One of their aid workers, Karam Singh, is now on his way to Haiti - the country that was destroyed by the 2010 earthquake. Khalsa Aid was among the first charities to visit Haiti and to provide emergency relief. Eight years on, it is still extending support to the country's people.

twitter/khalsa aid

Also read: After Serving Rohingya Muslims, Khalsa Aid Now Serve Langar To Rohingya Hindus

Singh is crowdfunding donations to help Khalsa Aid in continuing their relief work in Haiti. Singh writes on JustGiving,

"It's on this continual support to the country that I travel alongside Khalsa Aid to help provide aid to the orphanage. On previous visits, Khalsa Aid volunteers have delivered food, charcoal and installed water pumps for all orphanages in the Leogane district. They have also paid for teachers at New Voice House of Life orphanage."

Our volunteer Karam Singh from UK is in #Haiti delivering food & other essentials to 9 orphanages. @Khalsa_Aid has been supporting these orphanages since 2010. Our work continues. ..#SkyPapers #SkyNews pic.twitter.com/PxsZFZ12qE  Khalsa Aid (@Khalsa_Aid) February 14, 2018

He further adds,

"With your donations all this work is possible and it allows us to provide a better life to those children who are less fortunate. We would greatly appreciate any donations made towards this cause. Thank you."

Also read: 10 Times Khalsa Aid Came To The Rescue Of People Who Badly Needed Help

You can visit his crowdfunding page here and support him and Khalsa Aid in their humanitarian work.Days after the news of Punjab National Bank duped of Rs 11, 360 crores over a period of seven years, another bank fraud has come to light where the parent company of Rotomac Pens is accused of fleeing with loans of more than Rs 800 crore from various PSU banks.

According to News18 report, the owner of the company Vikram Kothari had taken over Rs 800 crores from five PSU banks Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India.

Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Allahabad Bank. But after a year, neither paid the interest nor the amount taken. Kotharis office in Kanpur is locked for past week and he is also not traceable ever since.

Meanwhile, Allahabad Bank manager Rajesh Gupta said he hoped the amount would be recovered by selling Kotharis properties.When it comes to providing help and relief during a crisis, Khalsa Aid, an International Sikh Relief Organisation is doing more than some governments can do. Started in 1999, the Khalsa Aid draws inspiration from Guru Gobindjis message  recognise the entire human race as one.

Their most recent act of selflessness was seen when the volunteers visited Bangladesh and offered relief to Rohingyas, the refugees suffering a chronic food crisis.

Here are ten times when their volunteers went out of their way to help those who needed help.

1. When the Khalsa Aid volunteers gave food to Rohingyas in Bangladesh

facebook

2. When their volunteers distributed food to stranded commuters during the Mumbai floods.

Image Credit: Youtube

3. When they provided flood relief in Chennai.

CHENNAI FLOODS: Our wonderful volunteers providing much needed emergency floods relief in Chennai, India. pic.twitter.com/0mL14pkQUN  Khalsa Aid (@Khalsa_Aid) November 22, 2015

4. And langar to Syrian refugees.

Khalsa Aid serving Syrian Refugees in Serbia. Our teams landed in Serbia last Thursday and ever since have been... Posted by Khalsa Aid on Saturday, September 12, 2015

5. They also installed a water pump in a village in Malawi.

Image Credit: Khalsa Aid/Facebook

6. When they extended support to 9 orphanages in Haiti.

Image Credit: Khalsa Aid/Facebook

7. They are supporting 250 families which were affected by the 1984 riots.

8. They were there in Manipur with hot meals for people affected by the floods.

Image Credit: Khalsa Aid/Facebook

9. When they served langar to Nepal earthquake victims.

During the Nepal Earthquake relief, Khalsa Aid volunteers served over 350,000 hot meals over 6 weeks in Kathmandu. Our volunteers ARE our HEROES. www.khalsaaid.org Posted by Khalsa Aid on Monday, September 7, 2015

10. When they funded a liver transplant operation.On an average, at least one banker is caught and punished for involvement in fraud every four hours, an analysis of data compiled by the Reserve Bank of India has revealed.

Between January 1, 2015 and March 31, 2017, as many as 5,200 officials of public sector banks have been punished for fraud.

"These employees have been convicted, awarded penalties, including dismissal from service," the RBI document states. The central bank is in the process of compiling the data for such cases from April 2017.

BCCL/Representational Image

While 1,538 officials of the State Bank of India faced action for fraud, putting the bank on top of the chart, Indian Overseas Bank and Central Bank of India occupy the second and third place with 449 and 406 insiders, respectively, being found guilty.

At Punjab National Bank (PNB), 184 officials were caught for fraudulent activities during the same period. The numbers assume significance as multiple agencies are now digging deeper to unearth insider role in the massive fraud at PNB.

Netrika Consulting managing director Sanjay Kaushik, whose clientele include banks, says that banks spent too much time looking outside their walls for frauds, and thus have ignored introducing networkwide risk frameworks.

Reuters/Representational Image

Concerned, the RBI has been issuing circulars to banks about how to effectively report cases and also put in place mechanisms to prevent them. A July 2016 circular, the latest in a series, reads: "To compress the time taken in detection of fraud, a framework for handling loan frauds has been put in place."

ALSO READ: Who Is Nirav Modi? The Jeweller, Accused Of Rs 11,300 Crore Punjab National Bank Fraud

Bikash Gangadharan, a senior manager with a multinational bank, says: "...There should be multiple levels of authentication But the Indian banking system is extremely hierarchical If the manager says something must go through, nobody says that it must need a second review, which is a risky way of running things."

While this set of data does not reveal the financial loss banks suffered due to employees committing fraud, separate data accessed from RBI for the period between April 1, 2013 and December 31, 2016 shows that all commercial banks, including private ones, lost Rs 66,066 crore to 17,504 frauds.

Of the total number of frauds, 2,084 cases saw the involvement of insiders, accounting to 12% of the cases. But the data does not say how much money was involved in the frauds committed by the employees.

ALSO READ: Noose Tightens Around Nirav Modi, CBI Issues Look Out Notice, Raids Across All His Showrooms

BCCL/Representational Image

"It is obvious that banks have not been able to identify and take proactive steps to mitigate known risks. This makes it hard to pinpoint who is involved. The top management is definitely at fault for failing to put in place a clear compliance strategy," says Tobby Simon of Synergia Foundation, a multi-disciplinary thinktank.

Most of the foreign banks employ efficient frameworks for risk reporting that help in identifying the patterns. Risk frameworks have algorithms that pinpoint a particular threat.

Jatinder Pal Singh, who had worked with a multinational corporation bank's IT risk management team for seven years, says that service providers such as IBM have even developed software that flag frauds.Thirty per cent of Sothebys next auction on Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art at New York will have works of artists from the Bengal school. While this includes works of Jamini Roy, Ganesh Pyne, Benod Behari Mukherjee and Jogen Chowdhury, some unseen works of Bikas Bhattacharjee too will go under the hammer.

The works were sourced from the private collection of Helen Gordon, the wife of a senior American diplomat to India, Herb Gordon.

Edward Gibbs, chairman (Middle-East and India) of Sothebys, along with colleagues Benedict Carter, the director, head of auction sales (Middle-East), and Gaurav Bhatia, the managing director (India), are in the city in the run-up to a Sothebys auction in New York on March 19. They are particularly excited about the Bhattacharjee works going under the hammer. Gibbs said, This is my first trip to Kolkata. I am happy that at least 30% of the collection in our next auction will have works of artists from this city.

Referring to Bhattacharjees work, Bhatia said, There are a few of his works going under the hammer. The estimated price of one untitled oil on canvas, painted between 1964-72, is between $1,20,000 and $1,80,000. This is the most expensive Bikash Bhattacharjee work to go under the hammer, said Bhatia.

Bhattacharjees family, not completely new to auctions of the iconic painters works, wasnt aware of this auction though. According to Bivas, Bhattacharjees son, this particular art work is rare. I havent ever seen it. We dont have any paintings from this series in our family collection. It is a pleasure that Sothebys has sourced this and is going to auction. The valuation is decent.

BCCL/Representational Image

Bhattcharjees wife Parbati hadnt come across any work of her husband that had fetched such a high price. The maximum I had heard that his painting had fetched was Rs 54 lakh. To have an estimated price of over a crore for this work is a pleasant surprise. His works often dont make it to the auctions. Collectors mostly buy his work for the love of it. Besides, most of his portraits come up for sale. It is nice that his cityscape is being highlighted, she said.

Parbati has faint memories of having seen this work at Bhattacharjees studio. We got married in 1973. I must have seen this work then. After that I havent ever come across it, she said.The Latest from Barchart

Sign up to receive your Watchlist or Portfolio sent to you by email up to 4 times a day; available at market open, mid-day, market close or end-of-day. Premier Members can also receive the results of custom Screeners - alerting to price or trend changes during and after each trading day. Sign up for a risk-free 30-day Barchart Premier trial.What Does Confirmation Mean?

In technical analysis, confirmation refers to the use of an additional indicator or indicators to substantiate a trend suggested by one indicator. Since technical indicators are not perfect predictors of future price movements, a trader often feels more secure deciding to act on a signal if more than one indicator is sending the same signal. If different indicators send conflicting signals, this is known as divergence.

In securities trading, a confirmation may also refer to a fill, providing the details of an executed trade.

Key Takeaways Confirmation can refer to either a broker's written acknowledgment of trade completion or else the use of an additional technical indicator to substantiate a trend suggested by one indicator.

Two different technical indicators, such as volume or moving averages, help establish the prevalence of a trend for traders.

Confirmation of trends can be susceptible to confirmation bias.

Understanding Confirmation

Confirmation can also refer to a broker's written acknowledgment that they have completed a trade. These can be in electronic or paper form, and record information such as the date, price, commission, fees, and settlement terms of the trade. Brokers typically send a confirmation within one week of the trade's completion.

Technical indicators fall into four broad categories: trend, momentum, volatility, and volume. When seeking confirmation for a trade signal provided by one indicator, it is usually best to look to an indicator from a different category. Otherwise, the same or similar inputs are counted multiple times, giving the illusion of confirmation when in fact little new information has been taken into account.

Confirmation is best met if one or more indicators from multiple categories are present:

Confirmation Example Using Indicators

Suppose a trader notices a golden cross, which occurs when the 50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average. This is a signal to buy the stock, based on a trend indicator (the moving averages). Because this signal alone does not guarantee higher prices, the trader might seek confirmation from a different type of indicator.

In this case, a high trading volume would reinforce the buy signal, while lower volumes might make the trader reconsider taking a position in the stock. The OBV indicator would, therefore, be a logical choice to confirm the trade: a rising OBV would confirm the golden cross' bullish signal, while a flat or falling OBV would suggest that the price is nearing a top.

Image by Sabrina Jiang  Investopedia 2021

Confirmation Bias When seeking confirmation for a signal, investors should always be wary of confirmation bias, the psychological tendency to set greater store by the information that agrees with preconceived notions and to discard information that clashes with those notions. Of course, different sources of information always send conflicting messages to some extent, but traders should take care not to discount mixed signals.

Trade Confirmations

When an order is placed in securities markets and it is executed, the broker or exchange will provide a trade confirmation to the trader or investor. Also known as confirms or fills, trade confirmations report the trade's details (see the sample image below) and serve as proof that the order has been executed in all or in part.

Trade confirmations are maintained by a broker on behalf of customers, and these are compiled at the end of each year for tax purposes in order to compute cost basis and capital gains or losses.Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Abdollahi stated that his organization is currently working with 5,000 companies to jointly implement construction and other projects. Additionally, Khatam al-Anbias projects across the country employ nearly a quarter million people. He discussed the organizations relief assistance to earthquake victims in Kermanshah Province, and said further that the government owes Khatam al-Anbia approximately $10 million.

Following reports that the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered the IRGC to divest financial and commercial assets not relevant to its mission, Abdollahi told reporters that the IRGC does not engage in economic activities. He said of the IRGCs economic projects, We successfully ended the war [with Iraq] with the support of the people and we emerged victorious against all super powers. Today, work needs to be done for construction and development projects. He also revealed that Khatam al-Anbia will increase its role in projects relating to the energy industry, water management, and other key sectors.

On January 20th Irans defense minister, Amir Hatami, said that the Supreme Leader ordered the IRGC to limit its growing business empire. Brigadier General Esmail Kowsari subsequently downplayed them, saying, Sepah [IRGC] has never embarked on economic activity and most of its [economic] activities have been through construction work in accordance with the constitution. According to the law, the armed forces in peacetime need to help the government. Based on this, since the end of the [1980s Iran-Iraq] war, Sepah has executed construction work that other companies were unable to deliver, said Kowsari, the deputy commander of IRGCs Sarallah Unit, who is responsible for security in Tehran. The construction activity of Sepah [IRGC] is based on Ayatollah Khameneis permission, he added.

Brigadier General Mohammad-Saleh Jokar said a few days later, that he has no information about a recent decree issued by Khamenei. I was unable to find such a declaration and have not seen it, the deputy head of IRGC in parliamentary and legal affairs commented. I do not know where this report  which you say the defense minister has announced  has come from, he added. The issue is that this report says that Sepah [IRGC] and Artesh [regular army] have economic activities, which is questionable! Jokar argued that all of Sepahs activities are construction work that is carried out through the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, and that the IRGCs projects are not profit-generating initiatives.

The IRGCs economic role has long been the subject of controversy. In recent years, President Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly argued against the IRGCs domination of Irans economy. Still, the IRGC has continued to expand its economic activities.

The Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded the IRGC after the 1979 revolution as a safeguard for the regime against internal and external threats. The IRGC has evolved into Irans most powerful military force, and is also said to control much of the countrys key economic sectors, such as energy, construction, telecommunication, media, mining, electronics, automobile, banking, and more. In fact, the IRGCs Chief Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced last year that his forces are now also involved in Irans agricultural industry.

IRGC leaders claim that their economic activities are meant to help the country, the elite force spends most of its revenues on military expenditures.

The privatization program of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad benefitted Khatam al-Anbia and other IRGC-affiliated companies. The company secured deals worth at least $7 billion in the oil, gas, transportation and other sectors in 2006.

The US Department of Treasury designated Khatam al-Anbia and several other IRGC companies under EO 13382 in October 2007, and in February 2010, the Treasury further designated the companys commander, General Rostam Ghassemi, and its subsidiary companies. According to the Treasury, the IRGC uses profits from Khatam al-Anbia for its illicit activities, including nuclear proliferation and support for terrorism in the region.Monday, May 15th, 2017 (4:06 pm) - Score 7,358

The European Commission has published their annual 2017 European Digital Progress Report, which confirms that Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Greece all lag behind the rest of the 28 EU member countries when it comes to ultrafast full fibre (FTTH/P/B) broadband coverage.

The latest report is more of a complement to the 2017 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which covered a lot of the same information and was published in March (read our summary). Since then some extra data has been added (note: its mostly still data from June/July 2016) and the new report includes a useful country-by-country breakdown of progress towards the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE).

The 2020 DAE set several targets but the main one called for every home to gain access to a 30Mbps+ capable Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband connection by the year 2020 (plus 50% subscribed to a 100Mbps+ service). On this front the United Kingdom is actually doing very well (92.3% coverage vs 76% across the EU), which is largely thanks to strong availability via FTTC (VDSL2+) from Openreach (BT) and Cable DOCSIS from Virgin Media.

The UK also looks as if it might be able to achieve (or at least get fairly close) to the secondary target, which called for 50% of consumers to be subscribed to a 100Mbps+ service by 2020. Thanks to Virgin Medias ultrafast cable network the UK has already made reasonable progress on this front, which is likely to improve significantly given that Virgin has recently made 100Mbps their entry-level speed.

The future deployment of more G.fast and FTTP should also give this a boost but we doubt whether that will be enough to reach the 50% mark by 2020. Likewise not every UK consumer sees a need for 100Mbps+ and many will be happy to pay less for a slower speed connection. Getting the raw network coverage sorted remains more important but strong penetration also helps the economic model for ultrafast services, which can encourage more investment into related roll-outs.

Despite this progress the United Kingdom is clearly lagging behind when it comes to the coverage of ultrafast pure fibre optic (full fibre) broadband networks, such those supplied via Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) and Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) technology. We know that there are around a million such lines in the UK today but other EU countries are clearly moving ahead.

In Portugal and Latvia more than 80% of homes can already subscribe to FTTP services, while in Greece, Belgium, UK, Ireland, Germany and Austria less than 10% can do so (c2% in the UK). FTTP increased the most in the Czech Republic last year (from 17% to 35%).

As usual FTTP services are available mainly in urban areas (its expensive + slow to deploy and so urban deployments often make the most economic sense) with the exception of Latvia, Denmark, Luxembourg, Romania and Netherlands, where more than 25% of rural homes also have access to it. Overall FTTP now covers 24% of EU premises, which is up from just 10% in 2011.

The above is particularly important because the European Commission recently proposed a new non-binding Gigabit Society target for all European households to get a minimum Internet download speed of 100Mbps+ by 2025, with businesses and the public sector being told to expect 1Gbps+ (here).

The new strategy focuses a lot of its energy on promoting FTTP/B, although the 100Mbps+ aspect doesnt strictly require such connectivity. For example, Virgin Medias Cable network can already do 350Mbps+ today and they expect to reach around 65% of UK premises by 2019.

Similarly Openreachs (BT) 160-300Mbps G.fast technology aims to reach 10 million premises by 2020 and 2 million more via FTTP, with most of the UK potentially being covered by 2025 (we still dont know precisely what most will mean). Last week BT hinted that under the right conditions they might even be able to push FTTP out to 10 million lines (here), although this could possibly involve some trade off with the G.fast roll-out.

On top of that the smaller alternative network (altnet) providers (e.g. Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, B4RN and Cityfibre) have indicated that over the coming years they could potentially add a few million FTTP lines (not forgetting KCOMs work in Hull), although this proposed aspiration has yet to be confirmed via concrete plans.

Finally, the progress report noted that the UK and two other member states (France and Romania) fall short of the original DAE 2020 goals because none have set a clear target for achieving 100% coverage of 30Mbps+ broadband.

The UK is officially only aiming for 95% coverage by the end of 2017 and thats for the lesser speed of 24Mbps+, although we expect fixed line cover to hit 97% by 2020 (a 10Mbps USO will tackle the final 3%). So todays progress might be good on the 30Mbps+ front but its disappointing that the UK Government still hasnt adopted a 100% target and its 7-8 years since the DAE goals were first set.

Hopefully the UK isnt this sluggish when it comes to considering the ECs new Gigabit Society goals for 2025. Strictly speaking the UK, given Brexit, might simply choose to ignore the new targets and be less ambitious (lest we forget that the ECs proposed goals are non-binding connectivity targets), but we hope that the Government will instead strive to keep us competitive and adapt their approach accordingly.

On the other hand at todays progress we cant see many EU member states achieving the new 2025 goals on time, but a lot can happen in 8 years.NBN alternative Internet service provider Spirit Telecom has launched a back-up Internet service that will remain redundant until it is needed, under the name Redundancy-as-a-Service.

A statement from the company said the service would provide Internet access when conventional networks used by the NBN and other mainstream providers experienced an outage.

Spirit has its own fibre- and wireless-based network which provides an alternative to the NBN.

Redundancy-as-a-Service safeguards against a number of potential disasters, said Spirit managing director Geoff Neate.

A lost connection can halt online sales, customer and supplier communication, destroy productivity and endanger the brands reputation, so its paramount that businesses have a plan B for when their mission critical services experience an outage."

Spirits RaaS offering provides a back-up Internet connection through the air, avoiding the same issues that struck down the primary network.

Last financial year, more than 7800 businesses suffered faults across telecoms platforms including the Internet, that were so severe they lodged a complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, up 41% on the previous year.

An additional 3232 complaints were specifically regarding connections.Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei says it is testing a fixed wireless service in Vancouver with Canadian operator Telus in the latter's "5G Living Lab".

Huawei said in a statement that the service was "compliant with the global 5G 3GPP standard and is believed to be the first trial of its kind in North America, and among the first globally".

The test was said to be working in the 28 GHz band with 800 MHz of bandwidth, leveraging technologies including massive MIMO, F-OFDM and Polar Code.

The trial is being conducted in the homes of Vancouver-based TELUS employees and is based on the successful 5G 3GPP mmWave tests that TELUS and Huawei conducted in June 2017.

The 5G wireless trial system provides users with a fibre-like experience with their home network.

Ibrahim Gedeon, chief technology officer at Telus, noted: This trial represents continued progress toward the launch of 5G, as we start to replicate both the in-home experience and network footprint we will see when 5G becomes commercially available in the near future.

Wireless 5G services will generate tremendous benefits for consumers, operators, governments and more through the use of advanced IoT devices, big data applications, smart city systems and other technologies of the future.

The testing comes a few days after American intelligence chiefs, including the heads of the FBI, CIA and the NSA, accused Huawei of spying for China.

The concerns apparently do not seem to extend across the border to Canada.

"mmWave technology will be an important tool in ensuring widespread deployment of 5G technology in Canada. Huaweis 5G solutions and terminals will enable 5G coverage over a neighbourhood or small community cost effectively, while providing more convenient and high-speed home broadband Internet access services." said Dr Wen Tong, Huawei Fellow, and chief technology officer, Huawei Wireless.

"This friendly user trial will drive the global 3GPP unified 5G standard and build a solid foundation for the 5G early commercialisation."Many people may consider last week's introduction of Australia's New Payments Platform, which will enable faster payments for both consumers and businesses, as a measure that is long overdue. But the head of security vendor RSA's fraud and risk intelligence team in Asia Pacific/Japan sees a downside, in that it will also enable faster fraud.

Richard Booth told iTWire during an interview that previously banks had a number of hours to identify investigate and stop fraud. "Now, under NPP, those hours are reduced to mere seconds. The result is that fraud systems that cant prevent fraud in real-time will leave banks exposed to increased losses," he said.

Financial Fraud Action UK, an organisation that works against financial fraud, has reported a 64% rise in online banking fraud losses in the same year that the Faster Payments limit was raised to 250,000, a statistic that Booth cited.

Booth (below, right) has been working in the security space for 12 years, eight of which have been focused on financial crimes and digital fraud. He was interviewed by email.

iTWire: What is the worst scenario that you can imagine as a result of the NPP and its faster payments?

Richard Booth: Criminals are able to perform a wider variety of fraud at a larger volume and a quicker velocity. According to the Attorney-Generals Department, the annual cost of identity crime in Australia is $2.2 billion. Credit card fraud, identity theft and scams are the most common types of fraud.

More alarmingly, identity crime continues to be a key enabler of serious and organised crime, which in turn costs Australia about $15 billion annually. A similar real-time payments system was introduced in the UK in 2008 and fraud losses in online banking have nearly doubled since then.

What are some of the fraud techniques that banks/financial institutions should be looking out for when using the NPP?

Criminals are most likely to attack the NPP ecosystem through what is known as Account Takeover Fraud. This is when a legitimate customers account is compromised and taken over by a criminal. The criminals start by stealing the customers login details using techniques like phishing or more sophisticated malware. Once they have access to the customers online account, they can change things like the phone number and email address to have SMS one-time codes redirected to a new number.

With the NPPs new PayID system relying so heavily on static data like mobile phone numbers and email addresses, banks will need to be extra vigilant when a customer chooses to change such details. Another likely technique in the early days of the new service will be Registration Fraud, whereby a criminal simply registers for a PayID illegitimately on behalf of the genuine user, thereby redirecting any funds paid to that PayID into the criminals account.

Banks have always put aside money to deal with fraud. So will they not be doing the same for dealing with the risk after the NPP is fully in place?

Fraud losses have always been seen as a cost of doing business, but banks cannot bear the burden of criminal gain that has the potential to grow significantly. Each institute will have their own risk appetite for increased fraud losses attributed to NPP, but we know from speaking with many of our customers that there isnt an infinite pot of funds to cover these losses.

From the user's point of view, what can he/she do to reduce the chance of being taken for a ride?

For consumers, the NPP creates yet another avenue for criminals to confuse and scam them. Consumers need to be educated on the difference between legitimate communications from their bank and criminal scams. Protecting your personal information and login details is now more critical than ever before. Registering for a new PayID as soon as possible makes Registration Fraud for criminals more difficult.

Presumably, a platform like Osko from BPAY would be more reliable for use, given that BPAY has a pretty good record on security. Your comment?

I would prefer not to comment on the specific security of a service like Osko or BPAY. What I can say is that if Osko is relying on the integrity of the PayID and criminals are able to use techniques like I described above to compromise a PayID, then it has the potential to compromise the entire payment flow.

NPP Australia has gone to great lengths to ensure that security and trust are central to the platform, but ultimately each participating bank will make their own risk assessment and choose to invest in controls that they believe are appropriate. No system is ever 100% bulletproof.

To loosely quote you, "financial institutions have traditionally taken responsibility for fraud risk, but the NPP provides very little time for them to detect, and act upon, fraud". Does this mean that banks may now try to wriggle out of bearing the risk?

There is not much wriggle room for banks. Rather, financial institutions face a very steep learning curve over the next 12 months as they come to grips with a new operating norm and see firsthand how aggressively criminals choose to attack the ecosystem.

Previously banks had a number of hours to identify investigate and stop fraud. Now, under NPP, those hours are reduced to mere seconds. The result is that fraud systems that cant prevent fraud in real-time will leave banks exposed to increased losses.

Anything else that people should be aware of when they begin using the NPP?

Big advancements in technology should never be feared or avoided. The NPP represents an exciting new opportunity for businesses and consumers alike. That said, everyone, not just the banks, needs to realise that this doesnt come without its risks. As we see more and more data breaches and scams trying to steal information and money from victims, the NPP represents a new opportunity for criminals to attack.

Why have some banks  apart from CBA  decided to wait before setting up their own payments platform on the NPP? Cautious? Or else a lack of trust?

It ultimately comes down to a business decision. Some banks dont feel they need to be the first at everything. Following Rogers Distribution of Innovation curve, there are always the Early Adopters counter-balanced by the Late Adopters. Risk plays a bigger role in business decisions these days and whether it is a financial risk, a reputation risk or some other risk, clearly the banks that have chosen to wait have done so due to their appetite for risk. We shouldnt see that as a vote of no confidence towards the NPP.

Do you think those who delay will lose out to other institutions?

Personally, if my bank had chosen to wait, I would have switched to a participating bank. I am an early adopter and being part of the first wave is something that is important to me. Whether or not the banks that choose to wait will lose out will depend largely on the personal attitudes of their customers. Some people I speak to dont have a clue about the NPP, PayID or Osko and so the fact that their bank isnt in the first wave may not mean anything to them either.The Australian parliament's Joint Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network has opened inquiries into the NBN Co's business case and the rollout of the network in rural and regional areas.

The inquiry into financials will examine the long-term financial outlook for NBN Co, including forecasts related to:

revenue generation;

the key financial indicators in the Corporate Plan 2018-2021, and underlying financial forecasts out to 2040;

the competitive risks facing the multi-technology mix;

the impact of alternate pricing structures on the economics of the NBN; and

other matters relevant to the commercial viability of NBN, the Commonwealths accounting treatment of government debt/investment in NBN, and the prospect of future sale, in whole or part, of NBN.

The inquiry into the rollout in rural and regional Australia will look at:

planning, mapping and eligibility for satellite, fixed wireless and fixed line services;

adequacy of plans and service reliability of satellite, fixed wireless and fixed line services;

issues in relation to the future capacity of satellite, fixed wireless and fixed line services;

provision of service by alternative providers of satellite, fixed wireless and fixed line services; and

any other related matters.

The Committee issuedlast year, listing 23 recommendations, with the use of more fibre for the network rollout being an over-arching suggestion.

However, the Coalition Government dismissed these recommendations, making it clear it would be sticking with its own multi-technology mix which would now be implemented for the remainder of the NBN rollout.

Submissions to both inquiries are open until 29 March.

Photo: courtesy NBN CoReddit Email 2K Shares

By Jen Herrick | ( Otherwords.org)

This year, at least 20 states are considering laws that would make it harder to vote.

When President Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity last spring  and put notorious vote suppressor Kris Kobach at the helm  voting rights advocates had decades of good reasons to be concerned. The panel seemed destined to back harsh restrictions on voting rights.

The fraught commission was recently disbanded. But while that provides a momentary sigh of relief, it doesnt mean that this Trump-Kobach crusade  or voter suppression  has gone away.

For one, theres still a lot we dont know about what information the commission collected and what the administration intends to do with it now.

Early reports are troubling. For instance, we now know the commission asked Texas to turn over a list of its voters with Hispanic last names flagged. The threat of officials using this data to fuel large-scale voter roll purges looms large.

Kobach, whos served as Kansas secretary of state since 2011 and is currently running for governor, says that he remains at the center of ongoing administration efforts to crack down on voting. (Trump claims illegal votes cost him the popular vote in 2016, despite the lack of any evidence.)

Disturbingly, both Kobach and Trump have said that the Department of Homeland Security will now take up their cause.

DonkeyHotey/Flickr

While Homeland Security counters that its priority is election infrastructure, not voter fraud, the agency also says that its working with a handful of states to compare voter data with citizenship data. In addition, the Department of Justice (whose leader, Jeff Sessions, is a notorious voting rights foe) made a sweeping voter data request around the same time that the commission was getting going.

Even without a formal voting commission, the threat of eligible voters whove done nothing wrong having their rights restricted is still very real. Twenty states are considering bills this year that would restrict the ability to vote.

This includes Kobachs home state of Kansas as well as New Hampshire, where theyre trying  and not for the first time  to make voting harder for students and anyone else who moves a lot.

Were also seeing attempts across the country to enact voter ID laws, restrict early and absentee voting, and to aggressively purge voters who skip just one election cycle, a practice currently being challenged at the Supreme Court.

Congress is complicit through its lack of action on voting rights, having gone nearly five years without mending the gaping hole the Supreme Court ripped into the Voting Rights Act. Since 1965, this crown jewel of the civil rights movement has provided important tools to address voting discrimination against racial minorities and others.

Its still very much needed. But thanks to the Supreme Court, the federal law no longer has the teeth to stop bad state laws before they get started  when it makes the most difference to voters.

As Trump and Kobach and their far-right allies continue to dismantle democracy at the federal, state, and local levels, those who champion voting rights have a big task ahead of them. But there are signs of hope on the horizon.

Perhaps the brightest light shines in Florida, where voters this November will be asked through a ballot measure to give a second chance to fellow Floridians whove done their time and paid their debt to society  but who currently cant vote because of a past felony conviction. If successful, this measure would restore the ability to vote to 1.5 million Floridians.

Trump lost his commission, but he isnt giving up on voter suppression. And that means we cant give up on fighting for a democracy where everyone can cast a vote that counts.

Jen Herrick is the senior policy analyst at People For the American Way. Distributed by OtherWords.org.

Via Otherwords.org



Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

Mother Jones: How a new voter suppression law threw Wisconsin to TrumpReddit 1 Email 330 Shares

TeleSur |  

Silverman, who is of Jewish heritage, became the latest high-profile U.S. celebrity to lend her support to the imprisoned Palestinian girl.

U.S. Comedian Sarah Silverman . . .has publicly come out in support of iconic Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi, making her the latest high profile celebrity to support the jailed 17-year-old.

Jews have to stand up EVEN when  ESPECIALLY when  the wrongdoing is BY Jews/the Israeli government, Silverman, who supported progressive U.S. senator Bernie Sanders for president, wrote in a tweet in which she shared a link to Amnesty Internationals campaign calling on Israel to free Tamimi.

Ahed was arrested and indicted on 12 charges including assaulting an Israeli soldier and throwing stones after a video of her slapping a soldier in her homes yard went viral. It was revealed later that the Palestinian girl was upset after soldiers had shot her 14-year-old cousin in the face a day earlier.

The strong-worded appeal by Silverman comes days after a military court barred the media and public from attending Tamimis first hearing earlier this week. Ahed was arrested in December and has been denied bail by the presiding judge. Israel tries most Palestinians, including minors, in military courts which have a conviction rate of more than 99 percent.

Her arrest and trial have been harshly criticized by many human rights organizations in Palestine, Israel and the world including the United Nations. Also many celebrities, academicas, actors and artists from around the world have come out in support of the iconic teen over the past few weeks.

Earlier this week more than two-dozen high-profile art and film figures, as well as athletes and academics, from the U.S. signed a letter calling for Aheds release in which they compared the jailed teen to slain Black teen Trayvon Martin.

Netflix Marvel series star Rosario Dawson, Greys Anatomy star Jesse Williams, famed progressive actor Danny Glover, activist and author Angela Davis and philosopher Cornel West were among the 27 figures who signed the petition.

Meanwhile Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, who is famous for drawing the iconic 1968 poster of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, revealed Tuesday his latest painting titled There is a real Wonder Woman depicting Palestinian imprisoned teen Ahed Tamimi as a superhero.

Over the years Ahed gained international attention for her brave actions against Israeli occupation forces during protests and clashes in and around her village. In 2015 a video of her, along with female members of her family, went viral showing her fighting an Israeli occupation soldier who was pinning down her 12-year old male cousin.

Via TeleSur

-

Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

France 24 English: Ahed Tamimi Court Case: Its not just Tamimis trial, its the trial of occupation16 Shares Share

The recent announcement that Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, and JPMorgan have joined forces to pare down health care costs has sent ripple effects across the health care space. The announcement sent stocks tumbling due to the uncertainty of what influence these companies will have on a deeply complex, unruly and wasteful health care system.

Said Berkshire Hathaway chair and CEO Warren Buffett: The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy, our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable.

Mr. Buffet is correct on all counts of course. But where these three companies are willing to go to fix this massive problem is really the question. The Wall Street Journal astutely pointed this out: There were almost no details available about what the company would do or how it would use technology to disrupt and simplify the complicated fabric of American health care. They also quoted an unnamed source as saying: That the joint venture is not currently expected to be a new health insurance company or a hospital or a pharmaceutical company, but a company that can bring technology tools to bear on making health care more transparent, affordable and simple. So as opposed to Henry Ford who got so fed up with this exact problem 100+ years ago that he built an altogether new type of hospital, we are not hearing any new ideas from these three companies.

Health care accounts for almost a fifth of our economy, but standing on the sidelines urging new and established tech companies to disrupt the market is about as strategic as throwing socks at the wall and hoping they will stick.

In fact, aside from controlling costs, there is little of standard business economics that applies in this space. Health care economics is not about selling widgets and mergers and acquisitions do not control costs via economies of scale. Rather it is about nurturing and growing community wealth and health by looking at every variable in an environment and understanding how it affects the health of your community. This includes chemical pollution of our water supply, greenhouse gases, particulate air pollution, personal bankruptcy, the quality of food in the food chain, prenatal care, early childhood education and a litany of other variables that are not purchased at the corner pharmacy or from a medical device manufacturer.

To be sure, looking inward to reduce waste in the system is a great place to start. By some estimates, this will remove $600 to $800 billion of cost. That still leaves us with an annual bill of about $2.5 trillion. But this approach will not change the soaring rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, mental illness, Alzheimers and other diseases that account for such a large portion of health care dollars.

If these three titans of business really want to transform health care, then they need to use their economic heft and bully pulpit to evolve the discussion from controlling costs to one of maximizing value and improving health. They will need to make a nation see that almost everything within our environment affects our health and contributes to the rising costs of taking care of an increasingly unhealthy population. Changing that dialogue doesnt require them to start a new company or throw money at the problem, but it will require courage and perseverance in order to tame a deeply complex, unruly and wasteful health care system.

Peter F. Nichol is chief medical officer, Medaware Systems.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comThe Herald on Sunday editorial:

Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa, who made the comment above, went on to say carcinogens found in e-cigarette vapour are at levels much lower than found in cigarette smoke, or at levels that are unlikely to cause harm.

So why does vaping of nicotine remain in a legal limbo? Why does it remain even more restricted than cigarettes? The previous Government, after prevaricating for years, decided to legalise the sale of nicotene for e-cigarettes to customers over 18 but it has not happened yet. Salesa says the new Government has it under consideration. 

But ordinary observation suggests vapers are overwhelmingly former smokers and vaping is certainly better for them than tobacco. So why the hold-up in legalising them?

It must be the culture that worries the public health professionals. They might not approve of people sucking anything but fresh air into their lungs, but they know they need better reasons that to restrict a product in demand. They say they have found some carcinogens in the vapour but those do not sound very serious.

They also dispute whether e-cigarettes help people to quit smoking. They might not quit vaping but that should not be the test. Vaping is obviously less harmful and its legality should be cleared up.JetBlue(NEW YORK) -- JetBlue is offering free flights to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for the families of the school shooting victims.



The company, which has a corporate office in Orlando, said volunteers in its Family Assistance Center will book free air travel for victims' families, according to the Miami Herald. JetBlue will also provide access to free ground transportation with Lyft.



JetBlue is also partnering with the Florida Panthers to hold a blood drive on Feb. 22.



On its company blog, JetBlue wrote, This weeks events are felt by all of our 21,000 crewmembers, many of whom live in, work from and travel through the Broward County area, home to our Focus City, Fort Lauderdale. We want to do our part to help the community, and support South Florida through this difficult time."



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Feb 18, 2018, 2:59am ET

Faraday Future secures lifeline, announces second model

Things are looking up, according to the brand.

Faraday Future has allegedly secured the lifeline it needs to put the financial troubles, the controversies, and the near-death experiences behind it once and for all.

An anonymous investor based in Hong Kong promised to give the California-based, China-backed company $1.5 billion, according to Business Insider. Sources within Faraday told the publication the investor has already sent $550 million. It will provide the rest of the funds when the company meets performance-related goals that haven't been publicly detailed yet.

The report coincides with Faraday's first-ever supplier summit, which took place at its headquarters in California. The company points out nearly 100 suppliers (including Bosch and LG Chem) participated in the event. Most -- if not all -- of the participants will play a role in bringing the 1,050-horsepower FF 91 to the market.

"We remain on an aggressive, yet workable timeline for year-end delivery for FF 91," said Dag Reckhorn, the firm's senior vice president of global manufacturing, in a statement.

He added the factory Faraday is leasing in California is finally empty. The company is "well into the process of design and permitting" and will soon begun installing machinery and recruiting employees. The project remains on schedule.

Faraday showed a sketch (pictured) that previews its second model, which is tentatively called FF 81, during the meeting. Posted by Motor Authority, the image depicts a crossover-like vehicle with a futuristic design characterized by a dome-like glass area. It's the brand's so-called mass-market model, though pricing hasn't been released. The FF 91, on the other hand, will cost between $150,000 and $200,000.

We've learned to tread lightly when covering Faraday Future we're taking the report with a grain of salt. For starters, the company hasn't confirmed the $1.5 billion investment. Stay tuned, we'll keep you updated on this developing story.A record number of patients were admitted to Naas Hospital on trolleys last month.

A total of 516 patients were admitted through the hospitals accident and emergency department without a bed being immediately available.

This is more than double the figure for January 2017 (240). It is the highest figure for January since the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation began compiling figures in 2006.

The lowest number of patients taken into Naas Hospital without a bed in that period was 45 and that was in 2007.

The next highest number recorded in Naas was 491 in 2011.

Last months figure is not surprising given the reports of overcrowding that have emanated from the hospital in recent weeks and the number of warnings issued by the Health Service Executive to patients to stay away and visit their GP instead, if possible.

Nationally 12,200 patients were without a bed at the 30-plus hospitals monitored by the INMO.

This, says the INMO, is an 18% increase over the numbers from last year which themselves were a record high and a 128% increase on the numbers recorded in 2007.

Naas was not the most overcrowded hospital for the period in the State or in the eastern region, which includes the major Dublin hospitals. Nevertheless, INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said the level of overcrowding is appalling the conditions experienced in emergency departments are now beyond anything we have ever seen.

Ms Ni Sheaghda added: It now amounts to a humanitarian crisis for patients and is a risk rich environment for those trying to work in such chaotic conditions.

She claimed health employers have completely fallen down on their obligation to provide a safe place of work and legislation requires employers to carry out risk assessments and put in place mitigating measures.

She said there was no evidence that any risk assessments were carried out in the hospitals or the emergency departments.

Nurses cannot be expected to tolerate such appalling and dangerous working conditions and at this point many member of the public are openly asking the nurses how they could tolerate such a situation, said the spokesperson.

She also questioned whether standards regarding fire safety, personal protection, infection control and hygiene have gone out the window, adding the INMO will have to take the necessary steps to protect the safety, health and welfare of our members.Croi Laighean Credit Union, which is supporting the St Patrick's Festival, has announced details of the Pat Jones Student Bursary Awards 2018.

The bursary rewards students by providing 6,000 towards third level education.

Paul Kennedy, CEO of Croi Laighean Credit Union, said the aim of the award is to assist in developing talent and recognising the hard work of secondary school students in the common bond.

The bursary has been supporting secondary school students since 2013. There will be two overall winners of the Pat Jones Bursary Award and they will each claim the prize of 6,000 towards their third level education.

The awards are open to all sixth Year students in secondary school in the common bond (Oaklands Community College, Edenderry; Scoil Mhuire Community School, Clane; St. Farnans Post Primary School, Prosperous; and St. Marys Secondary School, Edenderry).

Students wishing to apply should complete an application form and submit it to their school by Friday, March 2.

The four schools then go through an internal process where they choose four finalists to put forward for interview to the Croi Laighean Credit Union panel.

The awards are not all about results and grades but also about the students involvement in school life and in the community around them said Mr Kennedy.

The two winners of the 6,000 bursary will be announced at an awards evening on Friday, June 22 2018, in the Westgrove Hotel.

Application forms available in the four secondary schools.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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Support our mission and join our community now.THE SHOCK departure from politics of Cllr Bill ODonnell has left the field wide open in Limerick Fine Gael.

The party took just two out of the seven seats in the Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district in the last local elections. Cllr Gerald Mitchell, unsuccessful in 2009, sprung a surprise when the outsider of four candidates came out on top.

The sitting councillors John Egan and Mike Houlihan lost out.

Mr Egan has said he going to run, as has Cllr Mitchell. Mr Houlihan didnt respond to calls or texts.

Cllr ODonnell made the announcement that he isnt going to contest the local election at this early stage because Fine Gael will need to select additional candidates.

This process will begin with the branch AGMs which will take place throughout the constituency during the next three months and I want to give members of Fine Gael every opportunity to consider suitable candidates, said Cllr ODonnell.

Asked if he was putting his name forward, Mr Egan, from Murroe, said: As of now I am.

He said the balance of councillors in the Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district is wrong with the east of the county being under represented.

Mr Egan wants to see more money spent on village renewal to bring more life and activity into villages. He adds that people have waited long enough for bus shelters.

There are so many villages without bus shelters. They are trying to encourage people to use public transport but I have seen 14 or 15 people at Lynchs in Caherconlish and it lashing rain down on top of them. They are getting onto the bus drowned wet. There is money there that wasnt there five years ago. There should be a bus shelter in every village that public transport goes through, said Mr Egan, who paid tribute to Cllr ODonnell.

Bill is a fine councillor and will be missed by the party. When I was in the Council he was in a different area but we worked well together, said Mr Egan, who added that he hopes potential candidates will be invited to branch AGMs. Currently they are only open to elected councillors.

Cllr Mitchell wished Mr Egan the best of luck.

If Mike Houlihan runs, or anyone else, I wish them the best. Ideally, it would be Mike  geographically it couldnt be better. John in the east, me in the middle and Mike in Kilmallock. I think if they go forward they are two very good candidates, said Cllr Mitchell.

I was surprised and very sad to lose Bill. I wish him well in his career. He works very hard and is highly respected in the party, he concluded.ON THE crown of the Virgin Mary who rests in the Redemptorist Church, gold remnants from Captain Noel Careys life of medals are embedded along the statues celestial headwear.

Noel, now 82, says this was a gesture carried out by his mother who  along with every family member  had been told that the platoon commander was killed by the Katangese during the notorious Siege of Jadotville in 1961.

Noel, who was awarded a medal of bravery by the Government on December 2, grew up in Fairgreen and was an avid athlete, playing for Pike Rovers, Young Munster and St Patricks GAA.

Noel was one of the leading commanders during the September siege when the 150-strong UN Peacekeeping A Company was ambushed by some-2,000 Katangese soldiers.

On the morning of September 13, 1961, the 24-year-old Lieutenant and Commandant Pat Quinlan were tasked with responding to reported riots in the mining town of Jadotville. But upon their arrival, they had instead been lured into a battle against local forces.

For six days, the men  most of whom were 18  were under siege and ambushed against the towns edge along the Lufira river.

With no transport of their own, there were two failed attempts to rescue the troops.

During this period, Noel and his platoon took cover from the machine gun- and bomb-armed Fouga Magister jet, mortars and more than 2,000 heavily-equipped mercenaries.

After six days, five injured UN troops and some-300 Katangese fatalities, the Irish men, who now exhausted their ammo, were ordered to put down their weapons. And for six weeks, the A Company was held hostage in a prisoner camp.

Katanga was an affluent breakaway state from the Republic of Congo, rich in copper and uranium, and supported by Belgian troops.

He said that a number of men had been beaten up at the prisoner camp following their transfer.

Noel said that there were fears that they would be killed, following the atrocities in the Niemba ambush, in which nine Irish UN peacekeepers were killed by the Baluba tribe in November in 1961.

We were fortunate that that didnt happen. We thought that one of us would be taken out and shot and killed. That was a big worry.

And communications were so bad at home that messages were sent through the BBC World Service that 40 of the troops had been killed. And my sister Mary, who was in the local convent in St Marys, was called out by the headmistress to say that her brother had been killed in the Congo, said Noel, who now lives with his wife Angela in Blarney.

Noel was engaged to Angela as this incorrect news was being disseminated.

And he said that when he and his troops returned home, safe and unharmed, his wedding vows were all the more special when he married Angela on January 4, 1962 in Limerick.

However, he added, the biggest injustice was that his leader Pat Quinlan was not given a heros welcome by the Defence Forces, after surrendering to the Katangese.

He said that there was no investigation into the siege and no member of the company was quizzed about what had happened.

Jadotville was only mentioned because Declan Power wrote a book and that was the first time anybody had ever heard about this situation.

Declan Powers book The Siege of Jadotville: The Irish Armys Forgotten Battle was published in 2005 and was later adapted into a Netflix film in 2016, starring Jamie Dornan who plays Commandant Pat Quinlan.

Pat Quinlan, whose surrender was seen as cowardly at the time, died in 1997 before he was to be officially recognised by the Government in 2005, when Willie ODea was Minister for Defence.

Noel, who retired from the army in 1974 after 20 years service, described Comdt Quinlan as a brave man and said that he was delighted that a lot of wrongdoing was finally put right. We still didnt believe it because it had gone through so many loops and processes over the years. It was long overdue, but we could now hold our heads up high and say that our honour has been restored at last after 56 years.The Limerick Spring festival of politics and ideas will next week celebrate its busiest and most collaborative programme of events to date.

The festival, which returns after a one-year hiatus under the theme of Hope in Uncertain Times, will run from Monday to Sunday, February 19 to 25.

And in a new, exciting line-up of events, the festival has formed an education partnership of 100 students with University of Limerick, Limerick Institute of Technology and Mary Immaculate College, to structure and design a new state called Lulitmi.

The festival has also invited the Icelandic and Polish community to showcase the challenges facing democracy in their home countries.

The Limerick Spring said it expects to involve hundreds of local citizens in what is sure to be a truly fascinating exploration of the role of the citizen in our current political environment.

Many of the festival events are free and while some of the paid events are already sold out you can book directly via the website for many more.

A discussion with journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne at King Johns Castle will act as one of the headline events during the week-long itinerary.

The event on February 22 at 7pm will be hosted by Kathryn Hayes, UL Journalism School.

The festival is working with the Limerick Literary Festival to bring a discussion event with the Rubberbandits Blindboy Boatclub and author Kevin Barry to Dolans on February 24.

Organiser Jennifer Moroney-Ward said: The whole idea is to increase participation and to get more young people involved and older people involved, and to have that wider age spectrum. And to look at what is already happening on the ground in Limerick. There is already loads of people doing great projects and lots of great activity, and its really about celebrating that rather than bringing in huge names and spending lots of money. So, how can we celebrate the actual activity of the city?

For more, visit www.limerickspring.com.WHEN THE Minister of Agriculture calls your farm top class, incredible and a model operation you know you must be doing something right.

Minister Michael Creed visited Liam and Geraldine Herlihys farm in Bruree to launch Dairygolds Leanfarm initiative. Wellingtons werent even needed as the place was immaculate.

Well over 150 attended to learn more about lean. It is an approach most commonly used in manufacturing to drive continuous improvements and efficiencies that utilise less time, effort and resources thereby giving greater returns.

Having achieved significant efficiencies and financial savings through lean in its processing and supply chain operations, Dairygold implemented a pilot programme in 2017 to examine if the same rewards could be reaped at farm level.

The pilot programme, carried out among farmers of varying scale and herd size, proved so successful that Dairygold has now launched the widespread roll-out of continuous improvement training to all its members through Leanfarm.

Among the benefits seen include potential cost savings of 1440 per year, a reduction of 18 labour days and a reduction in farmers walking distance of an astonishing 116km per year.

It also clearly demonstrated that the application of lean principles on-farm can deliver improvements in safety, reduce physical labour and have a significant positive impact on farmers quality of life and mental wellbeing.

One of the characters in Liam and Geraldines colourful display of flowers and ornaments is a farmer with the caption, Never mind the dog  beware of the owner.

Nothing could be further from the truth with the Herlihys.

Liam said Leanfarm has cut down on time wastage and changed their mindset.

It has made us more positive in our thinking and we are coming up with new ideas to make things easier and faster, said Liam, who puts their success  2017 FBD Munster National Farmyard award winners - down to him and Geraldine working together as a team.

Shes doing one job, Im doing another job and we meet in the middle. A lot of farmers are on their own and their wife is working so it is harder for them, said Liam. Also part of the team are children James, Leanne and Daniel.

Through Leanfarm, all Dairygolds members can now avail of training on the tools and techniques of how to implement lean at farm-level as well as ongoing support from Dairygolds continuous improvement and milk advisory teams.

Minister Creed said with significant growth in milk production across the country in the last three years, the dairy farmers working day is becoming more demanding.

I believe that Dairygolds pioneering Leanfarm programme will be quickly adopted by farmers because of the very practical and useful help it provides. Seeing how the working lives of the participating farmers are now safer and more profitable, Leanfarm could have a transformative impact on dairy farming, said the minister.

Dairygold chairman John OGorman said they firmly believe Leanfarm is an initiative capable of changing farming forever.

Through Leanfarm, we want to drive a cultural shift in how farming is carried out and enjoyed with the right tools, techniques and a new perspective on every aspect of the farming process which enables and empowers farmers to identify and resolve problems and increase efficiencies to achieve improvements that can be life-changing.

This knowledge-sharing programme is in line with our objective to help members maximise their return from farming, said Mr OGorman.

Jim Woulfe, Dairygold CEO, from Ardagh, summed it up when he said: What we are doing is extending what is best practice in dairy processing and extending it out the supply chain.A MAN headbutted his brother-in-law before brandishing a screwdriver from his sock at County Limerick pub, a court has heard.

Martin Ward, with an address at Derry, Listowel, was at Jack Foleys pub in Abbeyfeale on December 11, 2016.

He headbutted John Ward at around 9.45pm on the evening, before pulling a screwdriver from his sock and threatening the victim.

John Ward sustained cuts in the assault, Newcastle West court heard.

Martin Ward has previous convictions for public order, being drunk and a danger to traffic, drunk driving, and a host of other road traffic convictions.

He pleaded guilty to the headbutt but denied having brandished the screwdriver.

His solicitor said that no screwdriver was found on his person after the assault.

The victim did not wish to make a victim impact statement. He is married to the defendants sister, and the court heard that they were out drinking all day.

Martin Ward has very little recollection of the day, the court heard.

John Ward has been arrested several times for incidents at Martins house, the court heard, and there is a falling out at the heart of the two mens relationship.

There was an awful lot of alcohol drank the court heard.

Judge Mary Larkin said that he clearly has an alcohol problem.

Insp Alan Cullen said that the man has not come to garda attention since the incident.

The defendant became a father to a new baby at the start of 2017 and was in court with his wife, who is very supportive, the court heard.

He is in receipt of social welfare.

Judge Mary Larkin fined the man 500 for assault causing harm and gave him six months to pay.Seven inscriptions were found in looters' tunnels dug beneath the destroyed tomb of Jonah (one of the tunnels is shown here).

Deep inside looters' tunnels dug beneath the Tomb of Jonah in the ancient Iraq city of Nineveh, archaeologists have uncovered 2,700-year-old inscriptions that describe the rule of an Assyrian king named Esarhaddon.

The seven inscriptions were discovered in four tunnels beneath the biblical prophet's tomb, which is a shrine that's sacred to both Christians and Muslims. The shrine was blown up by the Islamic State group (also called ISIS or Daesh) during its occupation of Nineveh from June 2014 until January 2017.

ISIS or ISIS-backed looters apparently dug the tunnels to look for archaeological treasures from the Assyrian kings in what is today Iraq, Ali Y. Al-Juboori, director of the Assyrian Studies Centre at the University of Mosul, wrote in a recent issue of the journal Iraq. [In Photos: Ancient City Discovered in Iraq]

Deciphering inscriptions

One inscription, in translation, reads: "The palace of Esarhaddon, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the kings of lower Egypt, upper Egypt and Kush [an ancient kingdom located south of Egypt in Nubia]."

This inscription was found during excavations at Nineveh on the back of a fallen "lamassu," a deity with a human's head and the body of a lion or bull. It reads (in translation): "The palace of Ashurbanipal, great king, mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, descendant of Sennacherib, king of Assyria." (Image credit: Stevan Beverly)

Kush leaders at one point ruled Egypt, according to ancient inscriptions found at other archaeological sites. Those inscriptions also say that Esarhaddon defeated the Kush rulers and chose new rulers to govern Egypt.

Another inscription found under the Tomb of Jonah says that Esarhaddon "reconstructed the temple of the god Assur [the chief god of the Assyrians]," rebuilt the ancient cities of Babylon and Esagil, and "renewed the statues of the great gods."

The inscriptions also tell of Esarhaddon's family history, saying that he is the son of Sennacherib [reign 704681 B.C.] and a descendent of Sargon II (reign 721705 B.C.), who was also "king of the world, king of Assyria."

More inscriptions

Al-Juboori also translated four other inscriptions found at Nineveh, near the Nergal Gate (Nergal was the Assyrian god of war), between 1987 and 1992 by an archaeological team from Iraq's Inspectorate of Antiquities. Conflicts in the area made it difficult for the team to publish their discoveries at the time.

The inscriptions date to the reign of King Sennacherib, and they all say this king "had the inner wall and outer wall of Nineveh built anew and raised as high as mountains."

Archaeologists found several inscriptions near the Tomb of Jonah during the 1987-1992 excavations. One of them was written on a prism-shaped clay object and discusses Esarhaddon's many military conquests, including Cilicia (located on the southern coast of what is now Turkey). The transcribed inscription calls Esarhaddon "the one who treads on the necks of the people of Cilicia."

Esarhaddon claims in the inscription that "I surrounded, conquered, plundered, demolished, destroyed and burned with fire twenty-one of their cities together with small cities in their environs. " The inscription also discusses his conquest of Sidon (located in modern-day Lebanon), claiming that Esarhaddon's army tore down the city's walls and threw them into the Mediterranean Sea.

The remains of ancient inscriptions from other sites that ISIS tried to loot and destroy have also been found. After the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud was recaptured in November 2017, the surviving inscriptions include one describing a monkey colony that once flourished at Nimrud.

Originally published on Live Science.Pasadena Chamber of Commerce saw a record-breaking 700 business and industry partners come together for Pasadena's annual State of the City luncheon.

The achievement signals rapid growth within the organization even with the major disruptions in the community caused by Hurricane Harvey in August.

Chamber and Pasadena city officials touted the numbers Feb. 15 during Mayor Jeff Wagner's first State of the City address since taking office in May.

"Pasadena is open for business," Wagner said at the event at the Pasadena Convention Center.

Chamber membership increased by 17 percent from 2016, said Suzette McDowell, the group's director of marketing and special events.

The latest report puts the chamber at 615 members comprised of businesses, nonprofits and other organizations.

The chamber saw a total of 1,634 attendees in 2017 at its luncheons despite that the one scheduled for September was canceled in Harvey's wake.

A chamber subchapter, the Pasadena Hispanic Business Council, saw growth, with attendance up 27 percent from 2016. Last year was the first full year that Spanish language translation was available at the functions.

The 28th annual Taste of the Town in November tallied a 24 percent increase in revenue from the 2016 event.

The chamber has sought to foster a friendly business environment through governmental channels, McDowell said.

"From a legislative stand point, our Government Affairs committee has been focused in engaging at all local, state and federal levels," she said. "It is important for us from a business representation standpoint to represent our members at each of these levels."

The chamber hosted its first Mayoral Forum in 2017, supported Pasadena Independent School District's successful bond package.

Its leaders have been part of round tables by the tax-funded Pasadena Economic Development Corp., previously known as the Second Century Corp., to develop a strategic plan to draw businesses and industries to the community, McDowell said.

With EDC president Steve Cote and new executive director, Carlos Guzman, the corporation announced this month that it will reveal a comprehensive strategic plan in April or May.

At the state level, said McDowell, the chamber attended the Texas Mobility Freight conference in October, a summit focused on transportation issues in the state.

At the federal level, the chamber was a part of conversations with United States Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, in planning the Texas Coastal Spine.

The proposed spine project would build a barrier up to 850 feet wide along the Texas Gulf Coast near Galveston to protect Houston and surrounding communities from deadly storm surges.

At the luncheon, the chamber chose San Jacinto Community College as 2018 Business of the Year. The college has been educating students from Pasadena and across Houston through certificate and associate degree training for 50 years.

Its main campus is on Fairmont Parkway in Pasadena.

"Pasadena will have a workforce ready, trained right here in Pasadena by our high schools and San Jacinto College," Wagner said.In a tweetstorm that started late at night Saturday and continued into Sunday morning, President Donald Trump railed against the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Here's a quick guide to his many misstatements and misleading claims in this Twitter barrage.

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- 'Never said Russia did not meddle'

Trump claims he "never said Russia did not meddle in the election" and then repeats a line in which he essentially disputed that by saying that a 400-pound hacker sitting in bed could have been behind the interference. One might argue that undermines his statement, but in any case, there are numerous instances of Trump suggesting that the Russian intervention in the election was a hoax ginned up by Democrats. He has also denounced the investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign had worked with the Russians, even after meetings and conversations were revealed. But from the start, he has consistently sought to minimize or dispute any possible Russian role in the election.

Here are numerous examples, in the form of a timeline up until Inauguration Day. Note, for instance, that when The Washington Post reported on Dec. 9, 2016, that the CIA had concluded that Russia, in its efforts, favored Trump - a fact confirmed by the special counsel's indictment last week of 13 Russians and three companies in a long-running scheme to criminally interfere with the 2016 election - Trump said on Fox News, "I think it's ridiculous. I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it." He asserted the source of the story was not the CIA but Democrats.

According to The Fact Checker's database of Trump claims, Trump in his first year as president then 44 more times denounced the Russian probe as a hoax or witch hunt perpetuated by Democrats.

May 2016: U.S. government says there are indications of attempted cyberattacks on 2016 presidential election.

James R. Clapper Jr., then the director of national intelligence, said his agency had seen indications of attempted cyberattacks on the campaigns. He did not say whether the attempts were successful, whether foreign or domestic hackers were behind them, or which campaign networks were targeted.

June 2016: Russians are blamed for cyberattacks on U.S. campaigns; Trump blames both the Democratic National Committee and Russians for hacks.

June 14: Democratic National Committee officials and independent security experts concluded that Russian government hackers had breached the committee's computer network, gaining access to its database of opposition research on Trump and all email and chat traffic, according to The Post. Russia denied the allegations.

June 15: A hacker identifying only as "Guccifer 2.0" took credit for the DNC breach. Yet that day, Trump said the DNC hacked itself:

"This is all information that has been out there for many years. Much of it is false and/or entirely inaccurate. We believe it was the DNC that did the 'hacking' as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. Too bad the DNC doesn't hack Hillary Clinton's 33,000 missing emails."

July 2016: More hacked DNC emails released; Trump invites Russia to meddle in the campaign.

WikiLeaks released nearly 20,000 emails from the DNC database. Trump, then the GOP presidential nominee, urged Russian hackers to obtain Clinton's private emails that had been deleted.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. ... They probably have them. I'd like to have them released."

Trump later said he was joking. He rejected allegations that the Russians had targeted DNC or that the Russians were attempting to help him get elected. He accused Democrats of fabricating Russian ties to Trump because they were embarrassed about WikiLeaks - even though the previous month, he had said that the DNC had hacked itself.

August-October 2016

August: As the GOP presidential nominee, Trump began receiving intelligence briefings this month. Trump reportedly was briefed on cybersecurity and the Russian government's attempts to interfere in the elections, according to NBC News.

Over the next three months, Trump repeatedly denied Russian involvement, blamed the hacks on Democrats and praised WikiLeaks.

Sept. 8: Trump's interview with Larry King aired on RT, a state-funded Russian television network. Trump said it was "pretty unlikely" that Russians were disrupting the elections, which he deemed an "inappropriate" act.

"I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows? But I think that it's pretty unlikely. But, you know, who knows?" If Russia were involved, Trump said he hopes "somebody's going to be able to find out so they can end it because it would not be appropriate at all."

Sept. 26: In the first presidential debate, Trump refused to blame Russia.

"I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC. She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don't - maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK? You don't know who broke into DNC."

Oct. 7: U.S. intelligence agencies released a joint statement saying they were "confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations."

Oct. 10: In the second presidential debate, Trump again refused to blame Russia.

"I notice, anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians are - she doesn't know if it's the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia is because they think they're trying to tarnish me with Russia."

Oct. 19: In the third and final presidential debate, Trump again refused to blame Russia. When pressed, Trump generally condemned the concept of foreign influence on the election.

Moderator Chris Wallace: The top national security officials of this country do believe that Russia has been behind these hacks. Even if you don't know for sure whether they are, do you condemn any interference by Russia in the American election? Trump: By Russia or anybody else. Wallace: You condemn their interference? Trump: Of course I condemn. I don't know Putin. I have no idea.

December 2016-January 2017: Presidential transition

Dec. 9: The CIA concluded that Russia intervened in the election to help Trump win the presidency, The Post reported.

Dec. 11: President-elect Trump called The Post's report "ridiculous" and an excuse made up by Democrats.

"I think it's ridiculous. I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it. I don't know why, and I think it's just - you know, they talked about all sorts of things. Every week, it's another excuse. We had a massive landslide victory, as you know, in the electoral college. I guess the final numbers are now at 306. She's down to a very low number. No, I don't believe that at all." ("Fox News Sunday")

Dec. 12: Trump tweeted this, even though the hacking was brought up throughout the election: "Unless you catch 'hackers' in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?"

Dec. 28: Trump said Americans should move on from Russia allegations and distanced himself from the Obama administration's plans to impose sanctions on Russia for alleged interference.

"I think we ought to get on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly. The whole age of the computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what's going on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I'm not sure we have the kind of security we need."

Jan. 6: The U.S. intelligence community released a declassified report concluding that Russians influenced the election in an effort help Trump get elected. Obama and Trump are briefed on this report.

Jan. 10: CNN and BuzzFeed report about a dossier alleging Trump-Russia ties. The dossier was first reported by Mother Jones. Trump responds that night on Twitter: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!"

Jan. 11: Trump said for the first time that he thinks Russia was behind the DNC hack.

"As far as hacking, I think it was Russia. But I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people."

But later in that same news conference, he backed away from his statement. In subsequent tweets, Trump blamed Democrats and even Republican opponents.

Question: Mr. President-elect, you said, just now, that you believe Russia indeed was responsible for the hacking of the DNC and John Podesta's emails, et cetera. Trump: All right, but you know what, it could have been others also.

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- FBI is 'spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion'

Trump tweeted: "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

Trump appears to believe that a massive federal agency is run like the 100-person Trump Organization, where very little escapes the attention of the top leadership. The Miami office of the FBI did not act on the tip about the suspected Florida shooter. There is no evidence that agents from that office are involved in the Russia investigation.

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- 'Only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems'

Trump tweeted: "General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!"

Trump repeatedly has tried to turn the tables on Clinton by claiming that she colluded with the Russians. But there no evidence that is the case, and it makes little sense given Russian President Vladimir Putin's intense dislike of Clinton.

The reference to "uranium" is code for Hillary Clinton's alleged role in the approval of the sale of a Canadian company, Uranium One, with mining rights in the United States to Rosatom, Russia's nuclear energy agency. We have fact-checked this repeatedly, since Trump first raised it in the campaign.

Trump suggests the State Department under Clinton had sole approval authority on a uranium rights deal with a company largely owned by Russia's nuclear energy agency. But the State Department is one of nine agencies in the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States to vet and sign off on all U.S. transactions involving foreign governments. There is no evidence that Clinton herself got involved in the deal personally, and it is highly questionable that this deal even rose to the level of the secretary of state. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission also needed to approve, and did approve, the transfer.

Trump often falsely claims that Clinton "gave away" 20 percent of U.S. uranium, but it's actually only 2 percent of an already small total U.S. production.

"Podesta" is code for the false accusation that Clinton campaign manager John Podesta was involved with a Russian company. His brother, Tony Podesta, co-founded the Podesta Group, a lobbying firm, with his brother. But it's a U.S.-based company, not a company in Russia. Trump probably is referring to the Podesta Group being paid $170,000 over six months to represent Sberbank, a Russian bank. The Podesta Group said its work for Sberbank USA was "never about getting sanctions lifted" and "was simply about helping to clarify to what extent our client, the U.S. subsidiary (of Sberbank), was subject to sanctions. We confirmed they were not."

As for the "dirty dossier," Trump is referring to the fact that the political research firm Fusion GPS, which assembled the dossier as part of an assignment for a law firm that worked for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, relied on a British intelligence agent who used Russian sources for his research. So that's a rather big stretch.

Meanwhile, investigators have reached no conclusions about whether Russian involvement changed the outcome of the 2016 election, but Trump's electoral college victory was very narrow in three key states. In fact, his margin of victory in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania was smaller than the votes garnered by Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, who also won favor with Russian operatives.

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- 'Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran'

Trump: "Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!"

Trump falsely suggests there is something nefarious, worthy of an FBI investigation, about a settlement of claims with Iran. The fishy thing about the deal was not that cash was involved - Iranian banks were cut off from the banking system because of sanctions - but the timing of it.

On Jan. 17, 2016, the same day that Iran released American detainees - including The Post's Jason Rezaian - the State Department announced a $1.7 billion settlement of claims with Iran.

In the 1970s, the then-pro-Western Iranian government under the shah paid $400 million for U.S. military equipment. But the equipment was never delivered because the two countries broke off relations after the seizure of American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Iran in the wake of the revolution.

A key element in the release of the hostages in 1981 was that the United States agreed to release several billion dollars in Iranian gold and bank assets that had been frozen in U.S. banks.

After the 1981 hostage deal, the two countries set up a tribunal in The Hague to litigate outstanding claims against each other. The $400 million remained unresolved, but U.S. officials say a ruling was expected that would have resulted in the return of the $400 million plus billions of dollars in outstanding interest. Instead, concurrent with the detainee negotiations, the two countries negotiated a deal that resulted in a return of the $400 million plus $1.3 billion in interest.

At the time, U.S. officials touted the agreement as a savings for American taxpayers. "Iran is unable to pursue a bigger tribunal award against us, preventing U.S. taxpayers from being obligated to a larger amount of money," Secretary of State John F. Kerry said at the time. Obama said: "For the United States, this settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran."

The Treasury Department said the $1.3 billion in interest was paid out of a fund associated with the tribunal known as the Judgment Fund, which it says is "a source of funding to pay judgments and settlements of claims against the United States when there is no other source of funding."

U.S. officials refused to acknowledge a connection between the payment and the release of the detainees, but a Revolutionary Guard commander openly declared that the money was returned in exchange for the "release of the American spies." An Iranian news report said the cash arrived on the same day that the Americans left Tehran.

Ironically, when the deal was announced, the families of more than a dozen Americans attacked or held hostage by Iranian proxies were outraged. They had been told that the $400 million already had been paid to them, as part of a settlement reached by the Clinton administration (and urged on by then-first lady Hillary Clinton), according to an article in Newsweek. But it turned out that the money could not be paid, as Iran had filed a claim for the $400 million in The Hague, and so the families instead received $400 million in U.S. taxpayer funds in 2001. But no one admitted that to the families until Obama announced the new deal 15 years later.Washington

Sen. Mitch McConnell said in an interview Friday that President Donald Trump should rally behind the Senate candidacy of Mitt Romney despite his blistering criticism in 2016, arguing that Romney's potent bid was an illustration of the Republican Party's improving fortunes entering a challenging midterm campaign.

"I can't imagine that he's not," McConnell, R-Ky., said when asked whether Trump was comfortable with Romney, who on Friday made official his long-expected candidacy for a Senate seat from Utah. "We don't want to lose the seat, and this looks like a pretty formidable candidate."

McConnell, the majority leader, said Romney would enter the Senate with a stature similar to what Hillary Clinton brought as a junior senator. "The best way to think about that, and I told him this a couple of months ago, I said: 'You'll be a freshman like Hillary Clinton was,'" McConnell recalled. "He will come in here with a level of national identity and respect that will make him effective from Day 1."

His glowing appraisal stood in contrast to that of the White House, which aggressively lobbied Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the veteran lawmaker who holds the Utah seat, to seek an eighth term in large part to block Romney's path.

Some close to Trump worry about giving Romney a platform from which he could run for president again, and Romney said in remarks Friday night to Utah Republicans that he would not shy away from taking on the president if necessary. "I'm not always with the president on what he might say or do, and if that happens, I'll call them like I see them, the way I have in the past," Romney said at a party dinner in Provo, adding that he largely supports Trump's domestic agenda and could work with the White House.

While enthusiastic about the handful of Senate candidates, including Romney, he has helped recruit, McConnell offered a sober assessment of what the party faces in the first midterm election of Trump's unpopular presidency.

"The odds are that we will lose seats in the House and the Senate," McConnell said in the 30-minute interview in his Capitol office, adding: "History tells you that, the fired-up nature of the political left tells you that. We go into this cleareyed that this is going to be quite a challenging election."

But Senate Republicans have a significant structural advantage as they try to protect their one-seat majority in November: They are defending just eight seats, while Democrats have to protect 26, including those of two independents who caucus with them.

Of the seats Democrats are trying to retain, 10 are in states that Trump carried in 2016.

And after struggling to woo top-tier candidates in some states, Republicans are starting to find more success as they receive a lift from the tax overhaul they passed in December.

In addition to Romney, Rep. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, after heavy lobbying by McConnell and Trump, reversed himself and said Friday that he would challenge Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat seeking re-election in a state the president won by 36 points.

Advisers to Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, in an indication that he intends to challenge Sen. Bill Nelson, a third-term Democrat, have moved to set up a super PAC, according to two Republican officials. And Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, after saying he would not run again and ridiculing Trump, indicated this past week that he may not retire after all.

Corker's public misgivings, however, have complicated the Tennessee race, where Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a staunch conservative, was already lining up support, and where Democrats landed a formidable candidate, former Gov. Phil Bredesen.

McConnell, who is close to Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., an ally of Corker, was guarded in his comments about the election, but he chuckled when pressed on the incumbent's apparent change of heart. "It does underscore that people want to be in the Senate," he said, trying to make the best of what could become a messy primary contest. "And that's a different environment from late summer, early fall," when the Republicans were stung by their failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Equally delicate is the fate of Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who at 80 has had a series of health problems and whose seat is being eyed by a hard-line state senator, Chris McDaniel, who nearly beat him in a bitter 2014 primary race.

McConnell called it "premature" to assess the prospect of a special election this year to replace Cochran, but did acknowledge that "there could be" one. "It's up to Sen. Cochran to make that decision," he said.

Privately, though, Republicans are scrambling to protect Cochran's seat. Party leaders fear that a candidacy by McDaniel could create a competitive race, and perhaps even spiral into a debacle similar to what happened in Alabama in 2017, when Roy S. Moore's loss gave the state's Democrats their first Senate election victory in 25 years.

Visiting the White House this past week to help promote Trump's infrastructure proposal, Gov. Phil Bryant of Mississippi found himself buttonholed by the president, who, citing the Moore disaster, said Bryant should appoint himself to Cochran's seat should it become vacant, according to a Republican official briefed on the conversation.

McConnell has also privately encouraged Bryant to take the seat if it becomes available, but the governor has resisted. Republicans close to Cochran, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, say that while he is not ruling out stepping down this year, he will not contemplate quitting until Congress finishes its 2018 spending bill next month.

McConnell said he was open to intervening in some party primary contests, as he did in the Tea Party era, but would do so on a state-by-state basis.

He made clear he was supporting Rep. Martha McSally of Arizona, who is running against a pair of immigration hawks to replace Sen. Jeff Flake. And he said he did not want to see Don Blankenship, the former coal mine owner imprisoned for violating federal mine safety standards, become the party's standard-bearer against Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

McConnell harshly criticized a series of red-state Democrats, but took repeated aim at Manchin, with whom he has tangled in the past and is plainly eager to beat in a state that has otherwise embraced the Republican Party.

"Joe thinks he can just kind of talk his way through all of this, but talk is really cheap when your record doesn't meet the rhetoric," McConnell said, noting Manchin's opposition to a series of Republican measures, including the tax bill.

McConnell acknowledged that some of his candidates were struggling to raise money  "I concede the fundraising problem," he said. But he said it was largely the result of having to face so many incumbents, who are typically better able to draw donors.Educators in my district are honest, hardworking public servants who make financial sacrifices by choosing a career in education over high-paying private sector jobs for which they easily qualify. They make the choice to become educators because they believe in giving back, they love children, and they want to help strengthen our future.

In exchange for their efforts in preparing our children, the state of Texas told its teachers they would receive a pension upon retirement that would provide quality, affordable health care coverage during the years following a lifetime of service.

RELATED: Property tax relief is directly tied to school funding

Texas has not honored that promise, and now the future for some 270,000 retired educators is in jeopardy. This past session we approved a bill providing only about 70 percent of what was needed to keep the Teacher Retirement System, or TRS, health program solvent. That pushed a shortfall projected to reach $400 million by 2021, according to the San Antonio Express-News, onto the backs of retired teachers.

These retirees are now seeing astronomical increases in premiums and out-of-pocket costs right in the middle of a dangerous flu epidemic. To place this financial burden on the retired educators who believed the promise they were given by their employer and who are now struggling financially is unconscionable. Texas has broken the trust that retired teachers had in our system, and we must do what is necessary to restore that trust.

Due to the urgency of this matter and because of the injustice to both our children and educators, I ask my colleagues to join me in asking Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session. If we do not begin the discussion immediately and give our educators the priority that we expect them to give our children, then what kind of message are we sending them about the value we place on the education of our youth?

We are fielding calls on a daily basis from retired educators in my district who are struggling to pay for the new TRS-Care insurance. Tanya Evers, who retired in 2004 from Northside ISD, is one of those teachers who has watched this crisis unfold. While the cost of living continues to rise, retired teachers have not received an increase in pension in over 18 years, Evers said. Meanwhile, we are in a downward financial crisis because as the cost of insurance increases, our pensions are reduced by the same amount in premium costs.

EDITORIAL: Express-News Editorial Board's pick for State Board of Education seat has good relationship with South Texas districts

In other cases, retired educators tell me that they cannot go to the doctor anymore because they cannot afford their insurance deductibles if they are younger than 65. Many Medicare recipients suffer the same higher premiums and deductibles. As premiums have doubled and tripled each month into the hundreds and thousands of dollars, some retirees have had to search for jobs as substitute teachers to help make ends meet or gamble on other lower-cost insurance plans for their spouses and dependents. Many thousands of retirees had to opt out of TRS because they can no longer cover premiums, a departure that makes it more difficult for those who remain in the plan to cover costs.

One of every 20 Texans is a member of TRS living on fixed retirement benefits. For them, the doubled or tripled premiums have been devastating. Only about 5 percent of Texas education retirees are eligible to receive Social Security income, and there has been no cost-of-living increase for those who retired in 2004 or later.

The success of our children begins with teachers. These dedicated educators already get by on modest salaries. Some already dig into their own pockets to teach our kids. Those teachers and students deserve a system, from recruitment to retirement, that entices the best and brightest to enter and remain in the education profession.

Taking care of the best teachers we can find gives our kids the best shot at becoming productive citizens who can compete in a global economy. If our dream is to create a school system that leaves no child behind, that dream is headed for an early death if we leave behind thousands of our veteran teachers to struggle just to meet their basic needs.Last year, I was honored to become the first Latina president of the Texas Community College Teachers Association, a 70-year-old organization that is the largest association of postsecondary educators in the state. As I transitioned into my duties, I decided to focus my attention on several issues that remain prevalent in academia.

I selected as the theme for my appointment Bridging the Gap: Overcoming Obstacles and Strengthening Unity, with a focus on education and its relation to race and segregation, equity, veterans and disabilities.

For my term, I challenged the entire TCCTA community to unite and bridge the gap. I was anticipating a year of challenge and change, yet as soon as I introduced the theme, a faculty member asked me to consider finessing the topic. What is there to finesse? We are moving forward! was my response. I had already expected this reaction, and while some people embraced the courageous conversation, others felt uncomfortable.

As educators, we witness resistance on a daily basis. Resistance to the changes at our community colleges, to traditions and cultural norms, and to changes in pedagogy. There is also a resistance to having honest conversations on issues such as race and segregation  which cannot be ignored any longer.

Stereotypes and labeling exist on a continuum on college campuses across the nation. I can recollect one of my graduate professors singling me out in class to mention that, at the time, I would be one of 3 percent of Hispanic females with an earned doctorate degree in the nation. Thus, how can we learn to respect others when we are constantly categorizing by race, ethnicity and education?

A second obstacle I encountered was uncomfortability, and it is the most obvious and recognized barrier. After five months in office, another educator mentioned to me to be ready for the hate mail you will receive because of this theme.

Everyone welcomes the adage of getting out of your comfort zone, yet the reality is another thing altogether. As educators, we witness the learning and physical disabilities of students; the PTSD of soldiers as they transition to civilian life and into the classroom; and the sound of foreign languages spoken in class prior to lectures. It makes many educators feel uncomfortable.

The reality is that not every educator is as empathetic, nor has every educator devoted time to learning about cultural competence regarding the military and students with disabilities. Why, then, are perceptions about students and administration and levels of uncomfortableness still haunting education?

As educators, we are used to our students remaining silent throughout class to avoid answering a question. Some people choose to stay silent to avoid any retaliation or involvement with the issue, and yet silence is too often seen as complacency. As educators, do we make an effort to speak out when it affects our educational institutions, our classrooms and our students?

The more courageous conversation we engage in as educators, the more effective we can be toward bridging the gap in education by educating ourselves on the subject matter. As former President of Mexico Benito Juarez stated, Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz (among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace). We must prepare ourselves to embrace change, avoid stereotyping, and learn from each other amid the resistance, uncomfortability and silence.

As my tenure of presidency for TCCTA comes to an end in April, I look forward to having frank conversations about confronting barriers to inclusion in the classroom at our annual conference in March. I also hope the conversations will not end as I leave my post.

Will we make changes for the future, or will we go back to business as usual?If you work in the San Antonio-area manufacturing industry, youre in the right place at the right time.

You are probably making quite a bit more money  an average of 23 percent more  than the typical San Antonio worker. Your skills are in demand by more than 1,500 area manufacturing companies, even if you dont have a college degree. You are part of a community of almost 52,000 people who also work in our areas manufacturing industry.

The products your company makes are in demand, too, by customers around the world. And your industry, which has a $40.5 billion economic impact on the area, has the attention and respect of our civic, business and educational leaders. They know manufacturing is a huge player in the regional economy.

And your workplace is likely brimming with high-tech hardware and software, clean, well-organized, efficient and full of opportunities to put your STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills to work at higher and higher levels. Night and day different than the long out-of-date image of manufacturing in the previous century.

Life is good, right?

After all, the San Antonio Manufacturers Association last year commissioned a Trinity University study, and its findings, released in December, were astounding. In addition to the data mentioned above, the study found that:

Manufacturing employees not only are making on average 23 percent more income than other San Antonians, that gap almost doubled between 2001 and 2016. In other words, manufacturing jobs are pulling away from the rest of the pack. The income opportunities in manufacturing are larger and growing more quickly than many industries in San Antonio.

The gap is even wider for those working in the transportation manufacturing sector. Employees make an average of more than $68,000 a year, a full $20,000 a year more than the average San Antonio annual salary of just under $47,000.

Local manufacturing employees earned nearly $3 billion last year, 36 percent more than a decade ago.

That total annual economic impact number of $40.5 billion jumped 28 percent from $31.6 billion just six years earlier.

The news could not be much better for San Antonios thriving manufacturing industry. But, of course, one downside of success is complacency. Its easy and a common tendency to declare victory, take our foot off the gas and figure we can now coast safely across the finish line for the win.

The more sobering point of view is that we have a lot to lose if we fail to nurture the industry, the companies that provide all those jobs and the people whose livelihoods depend on them. We also must recognize that far too many of our neighbors struggle in nonmanufacturing, low-wage jobs with very little chance to move up.

Education is the key. The San Antonio Manufacturers Association (SAMA) works hand in hand with a number of great partners to address the critical need for employees prepared to work in the high-tech, advanced manufacturing workplace of today and tomorrow. Those efforts are paying off after years of effort, but none of us can relax.

Beyond education, our elected leaders, government agencies at all levels and community activists must work to support local manufacturing. That means supporting:

Common-sense regulations

Reasonable utility rates

Rational permitting requirements and processes

Affordable taxes

Impactful workforce development programs

A sensible environmental vision

SAMA is eagerly taking the lead in working with our community, economic development partners, educators and others to ensure San Antonio takes care of our existing manufacturers and plans smartly. The continued economic success of our amazing region demands this of all of us.The Harris County Department of Education isn't a school district. Rather, it helps support the 26 independent school districts in Harris County by providing a purchasing co-op that saves money by buying in bulk. It also offers Head Start preschool programs, Earth Childhood Intervention, after-school enrichment and adult education programs. Furthermore, HCDE has broken ground on a public recovery school for students dealing with substance abuse or dependency.

The HCDE's role is unique in Texas. The original legislative language that created the department no longer exists, and the only other remaining county school board  in Dallas  is being dissolved. The Harris County version has long been a target for politicians hoping to eliminate its place on annual property tax bills. The board has also served as an electoral hideaway for less-than-serious politicians. Most recently, Trustee Mike Wolfe landed in hot water for trying to name a building after his mother.

However, whether or not HCDE exists, school kids will still need all the educational and support services it provides. We encourage voters to look for candidates who recognize this need and will approach their duties with professionalism. For Republicans, that candidate is Josh Flynn. For Democrats, they are Josh Wallenstein and Danyahel (Danny) Norris.

ENDORSEMENTS: The Houston Chronicle editorial board recommends...

Republican

County School Trustee, Position 3, At Large: Josh Flynn

Consider this an endorsement by default in a two-man primary. One of the candidates  Bradley A. Tashenberg  simply doesn't seem to be campaigning for the seat.

The other, Josh Flynn, is politically involved at a local and state level, and has prior experience on educational boards. We encourage Republican primary voters to back Flynn.

Flynn has served as a treasurer of the Harris County Republican Party and sat on the board of directors for Southern Nazarene University, a private Christian university in Oklahoma where he received his degree. Currently he works in accounting.

Flynn, 52, said his goal was to ensure that the HCDE didn't provide duplicative services or unnecessarily overlap with other school districts. He specifically questioned whether the board should fund Head Start programs if independent school districts could do it better. Overall, he emphasized the need to harness resources in the most effective manner possible.

"We want to move these programs into more places that are more efficient and serve more children," he said.

Tashenberg did not meet with the editorial board.

This at-large seat is being vacated by Democratic incumbent Diane Trautman, who is running for county clerk. The winner will face the Democratic nominee in the general election.

Democrat

County School Trustee Position 3, At large: Josh Wallenstein

This Democratic primary is a coin toss between Josh Wallenstein and Richard Cantu.

The HCDE has come under political fire in recent years, and it needs to achieve two goals to stay on course. The department needs to avoid conflicts of interest and maximize its use of the public dollar. Wallenstein was chief compliance officer of a major corporation before starting his own law firm and could bring to the board the skill of contract review and analysis including minimizing waste, fraud and abuse, conflict of interest and self-dealing and maximizing efficiencies for schools. He graduated from Stanford Law School.

The department does a good job of offering services to school districts at a much reduced rate, but it does a poor of job of communicating to voters how it saves taxpayer money. Cantu, who holds a master's degree in public administration from St. Thomas University, would be in the best position to develop partnerships and collaborations around the city and to help the department get the word out. He's held management positions with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Baker Ripley, the Mayor's Citizens Assistance Office and currently he's deputy executive director of the East Aldine Management District.

It was a tough choice but choose we must, and we endorse Wallenstein. It's always a heartening sign to see a candidate commit himself to the elected office prior to the election. Wallenstein, 42, has been attending department meetings since September and has already demonstrated his ability to incite action. If elected he promised to keep up the current trustee's tradition of sending a monthly newsletter to every single ISD in the county describing goings on and current services.

Elvonte Patton, a University of Mary Hardin-Baylor graduate student, is young and ambitious but needs to focus more on the specific duties of board members.

County School Trustee, Position 6, Precinct 1: Danyahel (Danny) Norris

There is no Republican running for this seat vacated by Democratic incumbent Erica Lee Carter, which stretches from the portion of Friendswood in Harris County to near Galena Park. The winner of this primary will become a trustee on the HCDE board. Two candidates  John F. Miller and Danyahel "Danny" Norris  stand out in this three person race. We tip our hat to the only candidate with experience in education policy: Norris.

Norris, 37, holds the distinction of being a chemical engineer, a former teacher and tutor for math students, a lawyer with a degree from Thurgood Marshall School of Law, a law professor, and a librarian with a masters of library science from the University of North Texas.

Miller, who is also a chemical engineer, demonstrated an admirable commitment to the board position, having attended all of its meetings since September. However, he didn't convince us that his budgeting or hiring skills would fill a gap in the board's expertise. Prince E. Bryant, II, a minister, had the best line in the screening when he noted that district's contorted boundaries had been "chopped," but the candidate lacks his opponents' depth of knowledge about the department's issues.Working with famous men isn't kid-stuff. If you're a stylist dressing a million-followers-human for every out-and-about, just know that you're jacked. You'd be faced with arguments over what you want him to wear (as opposed to what he wants to), among a list of other fireball discussions. Unless of course, the celeb trusts you blindly. But hey, this is what every job in the world brings along, making it eventful and supremely exciting.

But to make this discussion relevant for men across the country, here's the thing: there's a lot to learn from these Indian celebrity stylists. Known for their menswear abilities to suit every body type, these style experts dole out some great intel for every Indian man who's short or tall, depending upon their clientele. For starters however, to help every short man out there, here's a list of 7 Instagram stars (AKA celebrity stylists) to follow on Instagram:

1. AKSHAY TYAGI (Varun Dhawan)

Remember Varun's victory streak during 'Badrinath Ki Dulhania'? There was only one man behind that dressing-brilliance. Following which, the actor only saw (even) better days ahead.

2. ANISHA JAIN (Shahid Kapoor)

K.Thx.Bye.  A post shared by Anisha Jain (@theanisha) on Dec 31, 2017 at 8:06am PST

If Shahid's skinny fits are any indication, Jain knows exactly what the actor's body-type demands. So no surprises here, over time, she's only turned Kapoor into India's biggest style god.

3. NITASHA GAURAV (Ranveer Singh)

Perfectly dressed for the beach. A post shared by Nitasha Gaurav (@nitashagaurav) on Nov 10, 2017 at 5:57pm PST

Ranveer could be absolutely nuts himself, but Nitasha's knack for ballistic, crazy and insane menswear has made Singh what he is today. To sum it up, meet stylist extraordinaire.

4. SHALEENA NATHANI (Shah Rukh Khan)

A-listers are Shaleena Nathani's sartorial indulgence. Including the mighty lord, Shah Rukh Khan. But besides posting her clients' #OOTDs everyday, her Instagram stories too, are a gold spot for what inspires her everyday.

5. PRANAV SOOD (Karan Tacker)

TV superstar Karan Tacker's dressing abilities are of course worth a cop. Let's blame Sood for ensuring the multi-gunned actor always 'does it right'.

6. PRIYANKA AND KAZIM (Emraan Hashmi)

Emraan Hashmi may have gone off the radar, but if his stylists' Instagram is any proof, there's a lot to him besides his movies. Thanks to The Vainglorious (Priyanka and Kazim), the man's always up-and-running with urban-minimalism up his sleeve.

7. ISHA BHANSALI (Rajkummar Rao/Ayushmann Khurrana)

Probably one of India's most experimental style kings, thanks to Bhansali, Ayushmann and Rajkummar are always going the extra mile. One look at the stylist's Instagram, and you'd notice her expertise in digging out unique (but simplified) styles for them.There's no end to the creepy nonsense in this world. If you thought millennials piercing their buttholes was the weirdest thing that could happen to mankind, think again and look back at the gruesome bloody history we've charted as a civilization. We've all heard of the macabre methods of torture that were used back in the ancient world. The users of Reddit came together to answer the creepiest historical facts they know and one read is enough to make your skin crawl. After reading this, you'd be thankful we are only piercing our buttholes.

1. The Graveyard Keeper Had A Tough Job

It used to be super common to be [accidentally] buried alive before medical practices advanced. They would make coffins with air vents and a bell to ring if you wake up for someone up top to see.  Reddit user

 Ancient Pages

2. Screwed For Life, Eh?

The Little Albert experiment, one which aimed to find if fear was ingrained in our brains or taught by parents. A baby was shown various things: puppies, rabbits, rats, masks, burning newspapers, etc. Being a child, he had no reaction to any of them. Following this, he was presented with soft, fluffy things, while a gong was slammed loudly with a hammer from behind a curtain to scare the child. The child developed a phobia of white, fluffy things. Chances are Little Albert is still alive and psychologically f****d as a result of this experiment."

- Reddit user

3. Missed Both  The Revolution And The Bullet.

When French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre realized he was to be executed, he attempted suicide. He shot himself in the mouth and when they took him to the guillotine, the executioner ripped off the bandage from his wounded jaw causing him to scream in agony before the crowd until the guillotine killed him.

- Reddit user

 Wikimedia Commons

4. Back In The Day When Unprotected Sex Saved Your Life.

Getting an STI in WWI got you sick leave so many Allied forces would visit Parisian brothels, get an STI, and were sent home.

- Reddit user

 oldpicz

Sexually-transmitted diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea were a pretty big deal back then and ensured a break from the battlefield. Probably the reason why the French sanctioned brothels for soldiers fighting in the war.

Creepier than this were the syphilis experiments in Guatemala, where soldiers, prostitutes, and prisoners were infected with syphilis to study the progression of the disease if left untreated. Over 30 people were recorded to have died of the experiment.

5. To Be Honest, This One Is Too Gory To Believe.

In WWII, the Nazis had a lot of trouble attacking Russia in any season other than summer, most notably spring because the ground was too muddy for marching and for tanks. How the Russians managed this was by this by taking the dead from both sides and their Nazi POWs and lay them down next to each other and froze them solid so they would have a usable road.

- Reddit user

6. The Romans used human urine as part of a mouthwash or toothpaste. This is because urine contains ammonia, which is a natural cleaning agent. For this purpose, it was often used by the Romans to make laundry cleaning agents, toothpaste and teeth whiteners!

One question: Why do our WCs not clean themselves then?

 Ancient Pages

7. In the 16th and 17th centuries, many Europeans (especially the wealthy kind) consumed parts of the human body (which included bones, the skull and even blood) believing it cured them of diseases. The term for it is medicinal cannibalism. Fat and bones were often extracted from corpses, even Egyptian mummies, for the same purpose. For example, powered human skull mixed with chocolate was used to treat bleeding. As far as human blood was concerned, it had to be as fresh as it could be. Enough said.

 All That Is Interesting

8. Saving The Worst For The Last. Brace Yourselves.

Some people in the 21st century eat pineapple on pizza. *shudders*UPDATE 5 P.M.

Lower Fairfield County was hit with between four and seven inches of snow, with the least snowfall along the eastern coast bordering Long Island Sound  in Stamford, Darien, Norwalk and Bridgeport  and about eight inches in Ridgefield, where the state borders northern Westchester County, N.Y.

Several homes are still without power: five in Greenwich, three in New Canaan and one each in Redding and Westport.

UPDATE 9 A.M.

Police say road conditions have improved since Saturday night when four to seven inches of snow fell on Fairfield County.

Dispatchers across the Danbury area said roads were in good shape as of 9 a.m. Sunday morning.

Power was also restored to hundreds of homes in Stamford, Norwalk and Fairfield by 9 a.m. About 30 customers each in Greenwich and Stamford are without power, according to Eversources outage map. About 130 Stamford customers had been without power as of 6 a.m.

Power is almost completely restored to Fairfield, where about 100 outages were reported earlier in the morning. Eighty customers in Shelton are still without power.

UPDATE 6 A.M.

Crews continue to clear the road after four to seven inches of snow fell on Fairfield County Saturday night.

A state police dispatcher with Troop A in Southbury described the roads as nasty Sunday morning, but state roads in Litchfield County and the Bridgeport area are better, state police dispatchers said.

A dispatcher with Troop L in Washington said crews worked throughout the night to keep state roads in good condition. The biggest problems over night were three cars stuck in the snow, he said. But he warned local roads might be worse.

Police departments across the county urged drivers to stay off the road Saturday night, warning roads were slick and cautioning that many cars had crashed. Fairfield police responded to seven crashes between 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, while Greenwich Professional Firefighters said there were multiple crashes before 8 p.m., according to their Twitter accounts.

Snowfall was greatest in New Canaan, with the National Weather Service reporting more than seven inches fell on town. Greenwich was hit with seven inches, while about 6.5 fell on Stamford and 5.5 fell on Norwalk, according to the National Weather Service. Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton estimated six to seven inches had fallen by 10 p.m. Saturday in his city.

Meanwhile, about 450 residents are without power, with about 130 outages reported in Stamford and 120 outages reported in Norwalk, according to Eversources outage map. Almost 100 outages are reported in Fairfield, while 80 are reported in Shelton, according to United Illuminating.

Bradley International Airport said on Twitter that some flights are canceled this morning, while others remain on schedule. The airport urged fliers to check with their airlines to see if their flights are on schedule.

UPDATE 9 P.M.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for all of Connecticut, with 5 to 9 inches of wet snow expected to fall between 6 p.m. Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday.

Snow began falling along much of Connecticuts shoreline at about 5:30-5:45 p.m. Saturday.

The storm is expected to a significant impact on travel because not only will there be rapidly accumulating snow, but visibility will drop to near zero as well. The snow will pile up at a rate of 1-2 inches per hour at times between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m.

There may be some melting on contact at first, but accumulation will soon begin in earnest after that. This storm will affect the entire state. This is expected to be an all-snow event, even for Long Island.

But the storm will rapidly move off Sunday morning. Weather conditions Sunday will be partly sunny with a high in the mid-40s.

Heres the forecast from the National Weather Service:

Saturday night : Snow, mainly before 5 a.m. Low around 31. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph becoming calm after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 100 percent. New snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible.

Sunday: Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 46. Wind chill values between 25 and 35 early. West wind 7 to 10 mph.

Sunday night: A few clouds. The temperature will be 29 degrees. West and Southeast wind 5 mph.

Monday, Washington's Birthday: Increasing clouds with late-day rain. The temperature will be 47 degrees. South wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday night: Periods of rain, drizzle and fog. The temperature will be 44 degrees. Southwest wind 5 to10 mph.

Tuesday: Record warmth possible! Mostly cloudy with highs 60-65, but cooler right at the Sound Shore. South and southwest winds 15 to 20 mph.

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. The high will be 48 degrees. The overnight low will be 35 degrees.

Thursday: Mostly cloudy. The high will be 44 degrees. The overnight low will be 38 degrees.

Friday: Breezy with showers likely. The high will be 52 degrees. The overnight low will be 42 degrees.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. The high will be 53 degrees. The overnight low will be 38 degrees.

Parking bans announced:

In Stratford, Mayor Laura Hoydick has announced that there will be a parking ban is in effect beginning Saturday evening at 6 p.m. with parking allowed on the even numbered side of streets.

"Our Public Works and public safety departments are are prepared for a significant snowfall here in Stratford this evening through tomorrow morning," said Mayor Hoydick. "With deteriorating weather conditions we urge residents to stay home tonight if they can.

She said that the towns Public Works Department will have 23 plow trucks covering 23 routes of roughly ten miles each, tasked with clearing 400-lane miles throughout town.

Well have pretreatment beginning at 6 oclock Saturday, just as the parking ban goes into effect, with all routes being treated with salt, she said. We have approximately 45 staff on duty at Public Works for the duration of the storm event. As this is taking place over the weekend, schools and public buildings will be completed after all roads are cleared. The Railroad Station and public safety buildings will be cleared continuously throughout the storm."

Meanwhile, a similar parking ban in in effect in Milford.

Because of the winter storm warning in effect, Mayor Benjamin Blake has instituted a parking ban for Saturday night into Sunday.

Vehicles parked on city roads should be parked on the odd number side of the street on Saturday night, beginning at 6 p.m. On Sunday, vehicles should be moved to the even number side of the street. This alternate side of the street parking ban will be lifted at noon on Sunday.

This ban will allow plows to keep roads passable and accessible to emergency vehicles, the mayor said.

City officials are asking that off-street parking should be used wherever possible.

Also, Mayor Blake reminds residents that they are responsible for shoveling snow and ice from their sidewalks and property.

Trumbull has also announced a parking ban.

First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said that the Town of Trumbull will institute a parking ban that began at 4 p.m. Saturday and it will remain in effect until snow removal has completed.

All vehicles must be moved off the roads to enable our public works crews to properly clear town streets, she said.

Hamden Mayor Curt Balzano Leng also issued a parking ban that begins at midnight. The parking ban prohibits any person to park, or allow to remain parked, any vehicle on any odd numbered portion of a town street or highway, Mayor Leng said.

The Hamden parking ban will remain in effect until further notice.

But many communities in the region, such as Bridgeport, Fairfield and Shelton, didnt declare a snow emergency, which would necessitate parking bans.

Some flights canceled:

Official at Bradley International Airport say that the airport open and that theyre closely monitoring the winter storm.

They report that some airlines have already started adjusting their schedules and as a result a small number of this evenings arriving and departing flights have been canceled or delayed.

Passengers who are scheduled to travel Saturday evening or Sunday morning are advised to check with their airline on their individual flight itineraries and any potential re-booking options before heading to the airport.Strolling through the Tuscan town of Lamporecchio, former Mayor Giuseppe Chiaramonte suddenly noticed something missing. The street sign for Via Gramsci, named after the founder of the Communist party in a place that was the stronghold of the Italian left, had disappeared.

It was removed from the wall of a building during restoration and "nobody bothered to put it back," Chiaramonte, 62, explained after a quick check with the town hall. "To me that's a sign of the times," he said.

If Italy ever needed a political sign post, it's now. Elections will take place on March 4 and the race to form the next government is wide open.

An hour's drive from Florence, Lamporecchio epitomizes how an increasingly apathetic electorate is split over who to vote for at a critical point for the direction of the country, and indeed Europe's continuing battle with insurgent political forces.

The town's 7,500 population considers itself a good bellwether for where Italy is headed. If a political trend has reached here, then it means the whole country is changing, according to executive chef Marco Cassai.

"People here tend to be conservative," said Rome-born Cassai, 35, as he checked last-minute preparations at the Michelin-starred Atman restaurant, housed in the 17th century Villa Rospigliosi. "You still feel the wind blowing, but you aren't in the eye of the storm like in the big cities."

What's clear is that the governing Democratic Party of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni is losing core support in the region and that's good news for former premier Silvio Berlusconi, whose political alliance is leading nationwide opinion polls.

Italy's electoral system gives broader coalitions an advantage and Berlusconi's bloc would get 36 percent of the vote based on an aggregate of January polls compiled by Bloomberg.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement would be the biggest single party, with 28 percent of the vote, but has refused to govern with anyone else. The Democratic Party is trailing on 23 percent and losing ground to smaller far-left parties.

Many of Lamporecchio's voters will either stay away, go back to far-left groups or favor the Democratic Party's main opponents, according to Chiaramonte.

In regions like Tuscany "a lower-than-expected turnout and competition by other left-wing forces could take away key votes needed by the Democratic Party to win some constituencies," said Mario Caciagli, professor of political science at the University of Florence.

All over Tuscany, the party is losing pieces of its political jigsaw.

In the port of Livorno, where the Italian Communist party was founded in 1921, the mayor is now from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, as is the mayor of Carrara further to the north. In Pistoia, the capital of the province where Lamporecchio is located, citizens elected Alessandro Tomasi as mayor. He's from the far-right Brothers of Italy party, a component of Berlusconi's group.

Tomasi, 38, said the government has done nothing to address the security and immigration issues that have dominated politics from Brexit Britain to France, Germany, the Netherlands and eastern Europe the past two years.

"They cannot be dismissed as just a populist thing since they affect everyone, especially the weakest and poorest," he said at his office in Pistoia's town hall. "The government's policies fell short of the goal of addressing people's problems and they will pay a price on election day."

Economically, Lamporecchio has been doing pretty well in the face of Italy's recent recession. It benefits from local companies including the many producers of brigidini, the circular aniseed-flavored wafers that are typical of Tuscany.

Of course, not everyone has been immune to Italy's travails. About 40 families currently reach out for financial help and advice, said Selma Ferrali, a retired public servant who now leads the office for social affairs of the local Catholic Diocese.

"And that is just a fraction, many are ashamed to come to us as they don't want to disclose that they lost their job or are unable to pay for their rent," she said. After voting for many years for the Democratic Party, Ferrali says she feels disappointed by its current leadership.

Michela Rinati, whose family firm in Lamporecchio's industrial area produces brigidini, complains that the government hasn't done enough for small businesses and that might lead people to vote differently. She wants the next government to cut red tape, taxes and social contributions for small companies, allowing them to hire more workers.

"Given the structure of Italy's productive system which is mainly made up of artisans or small companies," said Rinati. "Some changes at a political level are needed."

In the past that would mean embracing the communists. For most of the 20th century Lamporecchio was known in Italy as western Europe's "reddest municipality" due to its overwhelming support.

Roberta Carli, who runs a pastry shop with her sister in the town's main square, remembers the crowds that turned out in April 1981 both in the square and along Via Gramsci for a speech by Italian communist leader Enrico Berlinguer. "I climbed the stairs to reach the top floor from where you could see that everyone from Lamporecchio was attending the rally."

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the town continued to back groups on the left. It then voted for the Democratic Party in 2013 elections.

Caterina Bini is running for re-election with the Democratic Party in a constituency that includes Lamporecchio and the bordering provinces of Pistoia and Prato. While on the campaign trail in Prato, she said no party of any stripe can expect support based on how people used to vote.

"I am absolutely convinced that you can't take any electoral results for granted in Italy these days, in any constituencies, not even in areas like mine that have always had a marked political tradition," said Bini, 42.

As he walked toward the now unmarked Via Gramsci through the stalls of the weekly open-air market, former mayor Chiaramonte put it down to the political wind blowing across Europe: people feel neglected by leaders.

"After taking power and becoming part of the establishment," he said. "They spent too little time around people to be able to understand their real problems."

---

Bloomberg's Hayley Warren and Patricia Suzara contributed.It was a maneuver that had never before been tried but it was all a wingman could do over enemy territory.Armed with shiny new skis and with more robust packs on the way, infantry Marines may soon be making routine trips to Alaska to train in harsh cold weather conditions, a possibility that signals a major departure from the desert training environments of recent years.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller confirmed to Military.com in a December interview that the service was exploring ways to add an Alaska location to the currently limited array of options for cold weather training.

"There's a lot of good training areas in Alaska," he said. "There's actually some facilities and capabilities in Alaska we've been up to look at."

Neller declined to provide many specifics about how often Marines might travel to Alaska to train or who might be eligible for such training, but mentioned that the Army already maintained a cold weather training facility in Alaska, the Northern Warfare Training Center in Black Rapids.

"The one thing Alaska has now is land and space," Neller said. "[The Army has] put a lot of money into their training facilities up there, so we're looking at how we can take advantage of that ... particularly in line with mountain operations and cold weather."

The Marine Corps has already taken steps to better train Marines deploying as part of a rotational force to Trondheim, Norway, where training in freezing conditions and exercises above the Arctic Circle make up a significant part of the mission set.

When Military.com visited the first rotation of the unit last May, troops complained that the Corps' stock of legacy cold-weather gear let them down in bitter and icy conditions. Some also said the training workup was lacking, leaving the Marines less than prepared to operate in weather extremes.

Staff Sgt. Troy Hauck, platoon sergeant for weapons platoon, Bravo company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, told Military.com then that, as a former instructor at the Marines' Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, California, he would have liked to see the 300-man unit train there before deploying.

"It would have been pretty good for them to go, but things didn't work out in their favor, and we didn't have the time to do it," he said. "So we had to learn the hard way."

The second Marine Corps rotation, which arrived in Norway in September, did improve its training regimen. It traveled to the Mountain Warfare Training Center in January for a training exercise, taking advantage of snowy conditions.

"The exercise focused on over-the-snow mobility, cold weather survival techniques, and battalion-level offensive/defensive operations in a cold weather mountainous environment," Maj. Dennis Dunbar, the battalion operations officer for the current deployment to Europe with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, told Military.com in a statement.

During the exercise, he said, "the battalion was able to send individuals and units to a number of specialty courses, to include winter mountain leaders course, scout skiers course, mountain sniper course, mountain communications course, and mountain medicine course."

He added that the company deploying to Norway would make a second trip to Bridgeport in summer 2017 to conduct refresher training and learn new skills.

In the December interview, Neller said the service "did a better job" getting the second rotation ready, though he added work remained to issue better skis and boots that would stand up to freezing conditions.

The possibility of adding training in Alaska, possibly for a group of Marines that extends beyond the Norway rotation, reflects the way the service is anticipating future fights that may not look like the Middle Eastern wars of the last two decades.

"We've got to be able to fight in other places than the desert," Neller said. "... We've got to be able to operate across all types of terrain and all climates. We haven't been around cold weather in a long time. We've got to get back into it."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.Killigrew did say the arrays would be on private land. It takes five acres to generate a megawatt, he added. That indicates a total of about 30 acres are needed in areas near transmission lines.

The rural county is a possibility for solar farms. Napa County allows electric generation plants in any zoning district with a use permit. But top grapegrowing sites would seem to be out, given land prices and local sentiment.

Solar farms can also be in cities, such as the 10-megawatt MCE Solar One farm at the Chevron refinery in Richmond. They can be on the rooftops of airports, such as at San Rafael Airport.

But whether any of this applies to the proposed Napa County project is unknown at this point.

This is a Bay Area company thats developing it, said David Potovsky of MCE. I heard they plan on hiring locally. Its land that sounds like it wouldnt be used for anything.

The idea of building a Napa County solar farm to generate electricity for the power grid isnt new. Finding possible places to put one has led to creative thinking.The Permian Basin is getting crowded, with thousands of new wells being drilled.

And its going to get even more crowded as Permian Basin operators have amassed in excess of 100,000 drilling locations.

With all those wells vying for space, frac hits occur when hydraulic treatment from one well -- the active or child well -- communicates with another well -- the passive or parent well.

A lot of companies are focused on infill drilling, and they have to figure out how close is too close, said Reece Roberts, owner of Permian Petrolink and chairman of the Permian Basin section, Society of Petroleum Engineers Completions and Operations Study Group.

The study group recently hosted a panel discussion on frac hits as part of the SPEs Frac Month focus. Roberts said it is an issue that could affect an operators production negatively, or even another operators operations on adjacent acreage.

Panelist Dick Leonard, director of the Global Technology Team at ProTechnics, said if its not done right, the economic results could be catastrophic.

You may drill more wells than you need and you could potentially damage existing wells, not just the parent wells but new wells.

Panelist George King, distinguished engineering advisor with Apache Corp., said, More and more stages are going to be used and were going to have a lot more issues.

The consequences of a frac hit are loss of production and mechanical, physical or chemical damage to offset wells that may or not be immediately apparent in production, King said.

Schlumberger is in the process of studying the issue. The oil field services company amassed case studies of wells in the Eagle Ford and 4,000 each in the Barnett and Bakken shales, said panelist Jason Baihly, commercial and risk assessment manager. He said Schlumberger also is gathering case studies from Permian Basin wells.

Were in the early innings of understanding parent-child well interaction over a years time, Baihly said. (Thats) the biggest issue in unconventionals long-term or even mid-term: trying to get more production out of the child wells, he said.

Panelist Lance Robertson, chief operating officer and senior vice president of development at Endeavor Energy Resources, said there still is a lot to learn.

Were in the early phases and still have a long way to go, he said. We and the industry have a lot to learn.

Operators are sharing data among themselves, which is one way to leverage the resources of the Permian Basin, Robertson said. We share log data, microseismic data; sometimes we share production results. It also helps with cost-sharing. If we log a well, the operator close by doesnt have to log his.

King supports sharing information and said the industry needs to use all the technology it can to address the issue. We need to understand why frac hits go the way they go. A lot more needs to be known. Were learning a lot and sharing data lets us learn faster, he said.

Well spacing is important in mitigating frac hits, Roberts said.

We do not have mitigation down yet, he said.

Baihly said operators are becoming savvy enough to mitigate frac hits.

The biggest stride in mitigating frac hits is to have a set plan or a goal and ensure the proper data is available, he said. The process is dynamic and will change over time as technology and circumstances change, he said.

Leonard, though, said mitigating frac hits is tough. No one has the answers yet.

But operators should not treat all frac hits the same, he said. The reality is, they could be seeing a pressure pulse, in which the active well pushes out fluids into the passive well.

That doesnt mean the well is too close, Leonard said. You might still have issues, but as to making spacing decisions, we need to figure out and quantify the frac hit first.

He said geology in different formations can cause differences in frac hits. Its not necessarily the Midland Basin versus the Delaware Basin but the Wolfcamp versus Spraberry, he said.

Robertson said the Permians wealth of old vertical wells can be used in modeling what path fracs will take. He said the more specific operators can be on landing laterals will help.

Its not that we wont impact offset wells, we want to impact them less, he said.MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) _ A man was convicted of hiring two hit men to kill his bigamist brother's first wife, prosecutors said Monday.

Aly Dominique was convicted of attempted murder in the second degree and conspiracy in the second degree, prosecutors said. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced April 9.

Prosecutors said that in October 2000, Dominique arranged for the murder of his sister-in-law, Eliette Dominique, outside her home on Long Island. They said he wanted to gain control of his brother's estate.

Eliette Dominique was shot three times but survived.

Dominique's brother, Jean-Claude Dominique, was killed the previous year by a hit-and-run driver. When Eliette Dominique arrived at the hospital where he husband was in a coma, she discovered he had a second wife and two other children in New Jersey.

Aly Dominique considered the second wife, Betsy Dominique, as the legitimate heir to his brother's estate, prosecutors said.

A judge had declared Eliette Dominique the legal wife of Jean-Claude Dominique, ruling that the second marriage was accomplished only by forging the first wife's signature.

The two hit men, Alexander Exama, 21, of Newark, N.J., and Mavin Gedin, 21, of Maplewood, N.J., pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the second degree, prosecutors said.

Exama was sentenced to 12 years in prison; Gedin received 19 years.

Defense attorney Gregory Watts, who represented Dominique at his arraignment but not during his trial, had denied that Dominique was involved.Residents beginning Tuesday have the opportunity to choose the Republican nominee for Midland County judge. Before the primary election, the three candidates have expressed their ideas for the role of county government in a community that is projected to have future growth.

Candidates James Beauchamp, Terry Johnson and Stephen M. Robertson through recent forums and interviews have outlined their visions for the countys infrastructure, facilities and other assets.

On community growth

To Beauchamp, county government should provide the necessary infrastructure for sustaining the community and its economy. He has pointed toward larger transportation projects, including acquisitions for a potential southward expansion of Loop 250 and options to relieve traffic in the Greenwood area.

Beauchamp has also mentioned smaller-scale ideas, including equipment upgrades for emergency services. He thinks making the changes will be a step toward reducing future response times.

Its not necessarily grand, pie-in-the-sky kind of things, he said. Some of its just meat and taters that we need to get taken care of.

As for projects that may be needed to support community growth, Beauchamp is in favor of putting major initiatives on the ballot.

This is about public trust, Beauchamp said. Its about building consensus before you build a project. I think most of those really big projects, they need to go before the voters.

Johnson said he also wants voters to make decisions about large expenditures. He views taxpayers as shareholders in county government and thinks they should give permission for spending on major projects.

I dont give up a right to a board of four with a county judge to spend those kinds of funds without coming to me as a citizen, he said.

If elected, Johnson wants to be fully transparent and has called for putting information online to inform the public about Midland County plans.

Like his opponents, Johnson is in favor of the countys participation in road projects. He also thinks the government entity should be involved in a few other areas, including courts and law enforcement.

Government, to me, should really be providing basic services that we as a people cant provide to ourselves, Johnson said. Anything over and above that is extra.

The candidates have all discussed working with the city of Midland to address the needs of the community.

For Robertson, preparing for the future also involves communication with all local taxing entities. He said Midland County has the lowest tax rate in the state, and the local conversations can help entities share ideas about becoming more efficient.

In forums, Robertsons rhetoric has focused on thinking ahead. He mentioned an example related to the possible Loop 250 expansion, saying the acquisitions should consider space for water and sewer in case the city grows in that area.

Its not just trying to fix the problem that we see right now in front of us, Robertson said. Its about looking into the future, trying to figuring out: Whats going to hit us in the face five years from now?

In terms of major projects, Robertson said communicating with the public is necessary. But he said some matters can be time-sensitive and dont have to go to a vote.

I think that it falls on the shoulders of elected officials to lead and to make decisions, he said.

On Horseshoe complex

As the community plans to welcome the Midland Convention Center next year, candidates have shared their thoughts on the future management of Midland County Horseshoe facilities.

Beauchamp is in favor of auditing the venue and looking into Dooley Management Co., which the county has hired to run the complex.

I think we also need to be careful and look at that fee schedule because you already paid to build it, he said. We need it to produce and to help pay and cover its maintenance. But we dont need to charge you twice for it, either.

The complex cost more than $40 million and includes a pavilion, education building, arena and amphitheater, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram report.

If elected, Johnson hopes to review all county contracts, including the one for the Dooley Management Co. Throughout his campaign, he has expressed a desire to have local people running it.

Theres a lot of folks in Midland that can to as good of a job, if not better, than the Dooleys, Johnson said. I have all the confidence in the world.

Midland already has other event spaces, including La Hacienda Event Center and the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center. Robertson said the Horseshoe complex provides offerings that cant be found elsewhere in the region. But he also thinks the projected completion of the Midland Convention Center in 2019 could lead the Horseshoe to vie for business.

I like competition, Robertson said. I think it makes people sharper. I think it will make them do a better job and have to work a little more.

In a recent forum, Robertson said the private sector should be providing management for the Horseshoe if it can do so effectively. He is in favor of the county examining contracts for all facilities.

On law enforcement

Public safety, corrections and judicial spending make up more than half of total general fund expenditures in the Midland County budget for this fiscal year. During the campaign, candidates have expressed their views about law enforcement and courts for the future.

For juvenile detainees, Beauchamp has discussed counseling and job-training programs to keep them out of the criminal justice system.

Beauchamp also envisions work among the district attorney, sheriff and judges to consider alternatives to incarceration for non-violent adult offenders. Before making decisions about expanding the jail, he said considerations should include occupancy and staffing.

Even here in Midland where things tend to be pretty calm and easygoing, in a heartbeat things can go bad, he said. Those people have to be on their A game when theyre out there. If theyre covering double shifts at the jail and then going out on patrol, thats not good for them.

For Johnson, law enforcement is his top focus. He wants the public to have input but said he hopes to have the best protection the county can afford.

I would strengthen everything we can in our law enforcement department to make sure that with this increased level of activity  this increased level of folks that were going to have moving into this area  that were able to accommodate and take care of the people that live here, Johnson said during a recent candidate forum.

The county in recent years has implemented specialty courts, including those related to veterans and mental health. Robertson, an attorney, wants to consider other court options to take strains off the judicial system.

Thats the forward looking, forward thinking that I hope the county can do when we start working, and we get together and really plan for the future, he said.

What is the election?

Three candidates are vying for the Republican nomination for Midland County judge. The winner will take on Democratic candidate Steven Schafersman in November. The Midlanders are seeking the position currently held by Mike Bradford, who isnt running for re-election.

Who are the candidates?

James Beauchamp

-president of the Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance

-former chairman of the Midland County Republican Party

Terry Johnson

-owner of TCO Field Services

-president and founder of Show of Support

Stephen M. Robertson

-vice president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association

How can I learn more information?

Beauchamp, Johnson and Robertson are scheduled to speak about their platforms and answer questions at a forum Tuesday. The League of Women Voters is hosting the event 7 p.m. in the F. Marie Hall Building at Midland College.

How can I vote?

Early voting

Tuesday to Friday

8 a.m.  5 p.m.

Saturday

7 a.m.  7 p.m.

Feb. 25

1 p.m.  6 p.m.

Feb. 26 to March 2

8 a.m.  5 p.m.

(7 a.m.  7 p.m. for Midland County Annex only)

Early voting locations include:

-Midland County Annex

-Midland County Public Library Centennial branch

-Midland College Cogdell Learning Center

-Fellowship Community Church

-Manor Park clubhouse

Primary election day

March 6

7 a.m.  7 p.m.

Primary election day voting locations include:

-Midland County Annex

-Midland County Public Library Centennial branch

-Midland College Cogdell Learning Center

-Cotton Flat Baptist Church

-Fairmont Park Church of Christ

-Fellowship Community Church

-Golf Course Road Church of Christ

-Greater Ideal Baptist Church

-Greenwood Baptist Church

-Manor Park clubhouse

-MLK Community Center

-Midland Lutheran Church

-Odessa Country Club

-St. Paul United Methodist Church

-Stonegate Fellowship

The voter registration deadline for the primary has passed.Last week, I received a note from a very dear friend asking that I pray for her and her son. Her beautiful, brilliant firstborn is grieving the loss of his absentee father. She has asked that I pray for God to replace her childs heartache with joy, and that God helps him to see himself as the awesome man he was created to be. She also asked that I pray for God to open her eyes, so that she can always see how to be the best champion for her son.

I was honored by her request. I love praying for mothers and their children. It was something I started doing regularly when I lost my nephew Cole to suicide in 2015. There is something terrifying about praying for children. They are so small and helpless, and it is brutal to regularly lay out your fear and frustration and anger -- begging for things that cannot always be fixed or changed, pleading with a God who sometimes sounds so very silent.

There is also something wonderful about praying for them. For me, it serves as a reminder about perspective. Children often have a singular focus  to love and be loved. It is our job to meet that need in the very best way that we can, every day. That isnt always easy or pretty. As a mother, some days are more challenging than others. I have to swallow anger and reprimands and raised voices. I am not always successful, and I have to ask my children to forgive me. Praying for children helps me to be a better mother, especially if I do it in the morning rush before we are looking for coats and water bottles. I find that if I remember to love first, anger is a much slower second. Nothing matters more than children.

Prayer doesnt always turn out the way we want, though. In the case of my nephew, thousands of people prayed for his complete and miraculous healing. He did not wake. But I know that he is in heaven now, healed completely of his emotional injuries as well as his physical ones. We got what we prayed for, but not in the way we wanted. We believe in a merciful God, a God that can make miracles. So why not one for us? It is hard to digest the undigestable. And then sometimes, our prayers are answered in exactly the ways we have asked for. I have been praying for my sweet little friend, Ceely, for at least two years. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was just a baby. She has endured so much, chemotherapy and even a stem cell transplant. She is such an amazing survivor! I have prayed for Ceelys momma almost as much! You need a special kind of strength to fight with everything you have.

Losing Cole let me see the true power of a mother. His beautiful birthgiver Rachel has more strength, love and determination than anyone should ever have to have. God has helped her find beauty in the ashes, rebuilding a life for herself and her two sons, and then founding a nonprofit counseling service that helps survivors of traumatic death. Mothers know the power of prayer.

With the devastating news of the Florida shootings, I feel compelled to continue to pray for these children and their families, for the teachers and helpers and first responders. I pray, too, that our politicians will wake up and fund mental health care programs for those in crisis. I pray that our politicians will fix gun control laws to prevent the sale of semi-automatic, assault-style weapons to children.

And now, what seemed so far away has hit a lot closer to home. Ostyn Jacob Williams, 17, was arrested for bringing a .40-caliber Taurus semi-automatic handgun into his classroom at Midland High School last week. I dont know Ostyn or his family, I dont know why he brought a gun to school. But his actions could have had horrific consequences. He could have hurt so many people, or maybe he intended only to hurt himself. I will be praying for Ostyn, too. What he did was wrong and scary; I am not trying to minimize or make light of that. But he is still a child, someones baby boy. I pray that his story turns into one of redemption, I pray that the people who love him to be his champions as well, that they have the strength and ability to help him. Too many parents lost their babies last week; enough is enough.

---

Melanie Nicholas is a full-time momma, writer and mommy blogger. She and The Hubs have two uh-mazing children, Parksalot, 9, and Bodacious, 7. You can follow her amazing adventures fighting grime and insecurity on Facebook @MelNicholas13 and at TheBathwaterBlogs.com. Her column appears in the Midland Reporter-Telegram every other week.Its almost like having a friend in the business. At least thats the feeling you get after hearing Dustin Diede talk about his new career and how he intends to look after his clients.

After a 22-year career in the Air Force and a brief, but unrewarding, stint in the corporate world, Diede is one of the newest franchisees of Pillar To Post Home Inspectors.

The 43-year-old Napan launched operations in October and is serving homeowners and buyers in Napa, St. Helena, Calistoga, American Canyon and Vallejo.

After retiring from the Air Force, I joined the corporate world (in wine industry sales) and discovered that the work just was not fulfilling, said Diede, who holds an AA in aerospace engineering, a BA in organizational development and an MA in organizational leadership and change management.

But I love working around the house and I have renovated four houses. I decided I wanted to help others buy the home of their dreams, yet help them realize that a home  no matter how new  has some things that need attention.

Diedes wife, Melissa Diede, is also assisting in running their small business and Dustin said eventually their son, Cameron, age 17, will likely be brought on board.The husband of a slain St. Louis radio show host said in a jailhouse interview that he shot his wife to death after reading entries in her private journal about their failing marriage, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.

Thomas Erbland Jr. told Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan that he found the diary last week and "decided I should read it," then examined it again Monday night and became enraged.

He said he decided to kill his wife, Nan Wyatt _ co-host of St. Louis radio's top-rated morning show _ the next day, and carried out the slaying hours later in a bedroom of their home in the St. Louis suburb of Twin Oaks, the newspaper reported.

"She just wanted to be happy, and I stole that from her, and I stole that from her son," Erbland is quoted as saying. "I deserve the death penalty for this.

"I'm very sorry. I had the best wife, the best family. I stole Nan from everybody."

Erbland, now jailed without bond and under suicide watch, said the couple's 7-year-old son, Drake, was downstairs when he shot his wife with a .357-caliber handgun that he said he bought in 1987 to kill himself, the newspaper reported.

In the hours before Tuesday's shooting, he said, "I wanted to kill myself" but couldn't do it, the newspaper reported. Erbland said he filled the gun's chamber with bullets and waited for his 44-year-old wife, then confronted her in the bedroom.

"She was sitting on that bed facing me, and I pulled the gun out," Erbland is quoted as saying. "She stood up and put her hand out. She said, 'You give me that gun!' She was strong.

"That's one thing I always loved about her. She was strong and forceful. Then she took a step toward me, and you know, it was this strong woman coming at me. I shot her."

When their son ran upstairs, he told the boy that furniture had fallen and that his mother was cleaning up the mess, the newspaper reported.

Erbland was arrested hours later after leaving the boy with relatives.

Erbland, 43, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. During his first court appearance Thursday, he tried to tell a St. Louis County judge he didn't need a lawyer and that he wanted to admit he killed his wife.

But Associate Circuit Judge Thea Sherry twice cut off Erbland in mid-sentence, then advised the computer consultant, who has been jobless since last July, that he had the right to remain silent and to have an attorney. A plea of innocent was entered on his behalf, and he remained jailed without bail and under a suicide watch.

To McClellan, Erbland described Wyatt as "a good person, a good wife. She didn't deserve this."

Erbland, who said Wyatt knew he had a gun in the house, insisted he did not want his son home when he killed the boy's mother. So he sent Drake to a friend's house, only to see him return after the friend and his parents left.

Wyatt then came home, Erbland said, and she and the boy came upstairs where Erbland was waiting. He sent the boy downstairs, he said, and asked Wyatt if he could talk to her.

"She was willing to give me a few minutes to talk," Erbland told McClellan. "I apologized to her. I said I was sorry for being so weak, such a weak man. And a fool. Had I not been a fool, I would have realized about the marriage, and I would have been the one to say, 'I want out.'

"She just nodded. She was sitting on the bed. I was standing up. She just nodded, and then, in Nan style, she said something like, 'I've got stuff to do.'"

Erbland said he then pulled out the gun he had tucked in his waistband behind his back and opened fire, McClellan wrote that Erbland was unable _ or unwilling _ to recount how many times he pulled the trigger.

"Don't make me remember that," he told McClellan, crying, then added that people don't realize what happens when you fire a gun into a person.

Since then, Erbland said, he has been haunted by the sense that his son knew what had happened.

"Maybe when I'm done," Erbland said, "I can ask for God's forgiveness."DALLAS (AP)  A Texas hunting club again will auction off Saturday a chance to kill a large animal whose numbers are dwindling, a year after it faced international criticism over doing the same with a permit to shoot an endangered black rhino.

The Dallas Safari Club plans to auction a 12-day African elephant hunt in Cameroon during its annual three-day convention at a Dallas hotel, a hunt valued in the auction catalog at $20,000.

The African elephant is the Earth's largest land animal. The World Wildlife Fund, the world's leading conservation group, regards it as "vulnerable," a step below "endangered" and defined as "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild."

Last year's permit went for $350,000, but the club says the hunt has been postponed until the winner receives permission to import the carcass of the animal he'll shoot in Namibia.

Animal welfare activists plan to picket the convention hotel Saturday, but the club's Executive Director Ben Carter says elephants "in fact, are overpopulated in certain areas of Africa."

"Elephants, lions and leopards are not listed as endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and, in fact, are overpopulated in certain areas of Africa," Carter said in a statement. "These species are commonly hunted where legal, sustainable and where populations need to be managed."

Jeff Flocken, the North American regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, called the club's position "disingenuous."

"It's disingenuous to say it's being done for conservation," he said. "Elephants and rhinos are in the middle of intense poaching."

The club's auction catalog notes that although the top bid would win "the right to hunt a mature bull elephant," it also notes such quarries "are not importable to the U.S."

The African elephants' range in equatorial Africa has been steadily dwindling, from 3 million square miles in 1979 to just over 1 million square miles in 2007, the WWF has reported. Expanded logging and other agriculture, along with mining, have eaten into that habitat. They also are frequently the targets of illegal hunting for their prized ivory tusks.Long before Port Aransas played host to thousands of annual spring breakers, it was a fisherman's playground and a family vacation spot where only the boats were fast.

RELATED: Spring break in South Texas, back in the day

A 1930s feature in the newspaper is an early document of how Port Aransas was beginning to attract many summer visitors from San Antonio. Model T-like cars lined the entrance to the ferry, where now it's a heavy chain of Ford F-150s and SUVs.

The archived photographs of Port Aranasas in the gallery above date as far back as 1923.

They feature a nearly unblemished coastline just as it was beginning to develop with telephone and power lines, oil rigs and water towers. Sailboats raced across the bay with the earliest models of speed boats. Men and women fished off jetties, piers and tarpon boats pulling out scores of fish the same size as them.

"They bite every day" was the coastal town's slogan, and it billed itself as the ideal vacation spot for fish and play, with its own local lore of pirates and buried treasure.

A look through these vintage pictures is a nostalgic look at how Port Aransas first became one of Texas' favorite beaches.

jmscott@mysa.comThe Daughters of the Republic of Texas, faced with a bill that would put the Alamo under state control, are mulling whether to relinquish their duties as Alamo caretakers or work with a state agency.

Some members are tired of operating the Alamo entirely, (and) want to give it up and concentrate on DRT and the group's vision for a new headquarters-museum complex in Austin, DRT President General Karen Thompson wrote in an email to the DRT board just hours after the Legislature passed the Alamo bill on Sunday.

The bill, which would give the General Land Office oversight at the Alamo, has been sent to Gov. Rick Perry.

Under the bill, the land office would take over the Alamo if it can't reach an agreement with the DRT by Jan. 1 for management, operation and financial support of the site.

Kathleen Carter, a local DRT member, said she's dumbfounded that a small faction, no more than 20 to 30 members from Houston, Austin and other areas outside San Antonio, has talked about abandoning the Alamo.

I'm appalled at the email, Carter said. Certainly, if the DRT feels that way, we can't function as custodians. To give up the Alamo is to give up everything we've worked for.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who led the bill's passage, said some Daughters are having difficulty accepting it. But Alamo employees are excited about the level of professionalism that will come from the state, with the DRT remaining as caretakers, she said.

To ensure their custodianship and secure a long-term future for the Alamo, this is the best course of action, the San Antonio Democrat told the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board on Wednesday.

Amid a turbulent period for the DRT, a small bloc of members has said the group's obligations at the famed Alamo detract from efforts to raise $10 million for the Austin project, billed as the DRT's Vision for the 21st Century.

The DRT has collected more than $500,000 to buy a $1.4 million tract by the French Legation Museum  another state-owned site, which the group has managed since the 1950s.

Other DRT members wanted an earlier version of the Alamo bill that would subject the Daughters to reporting requirements but not put the Alamo, which draws about 3 million visitors annually, under state control.

At the DRT's annual convention in San Antonio May 12-14, more than 500 of the group's roughly 7,000 members passed a resolution directing DRT leaders to enter a contract with the state that is acceptable to the DRT for the management of the state-owned Alamo complex.

But in her message Sunday to the DRT's 26-member board  half of which is newly elected  Thompson said the group has been pressured to accept the bill to avoid being sued by the Texas attorney general's office.

It has been a sort of blackmail. Of course we don't want to end up in court, wrote Thompson, who is from Austin. She had no comment Wednesday.

Another option she offered in her email, which has circulated among legislators, was a DRT effort to urge Perry to veto the bill and resume talks during a special session. Perry has until June 19 to sign or veto the bill, or let it become law.

Lucy Nashed, Perry's deputy press secretary, said the governor will thoughtfully review this bill in its final form and make a decision.

The AG's office has said findings in its nearly yearlong investigation of the DRT are excepted from provisions of the Texas Public Information Act.

A report by the AG's consumer protection and public health divisions will be released after the probe is completed, officials said.

But in a 16-page statement on April 12 to a Senate committee, the AG's office reported numerous concerns with the DRT, including a slow response to engineers' reports on the Alamo's leaky roof; a serious lack of transparency in answering questions about its financial dealings; and possible misappropriation of state funds.

In May 9 testimony to a Senate panel, T.J. Higginbotham, a pro bono lobbyist representing a small dissenting DRT faction, said the AG's office has documented serious DRT misconduct and problems, which will become public one way or another.

Carter, who has applied for one of four vacant seats on the new board, challenged Daughters at last month's convention to demand better leadership, so legislation affecting the shrine wouldn't be necessary.

Daughters voted not to support the board's handling of a controversial Alamo promotions contract, but ratified most of the board's other decisions of the past year.

Some Daughters have since sent emails saying the DRT needs to fight for the Alamo, Carter said.

I've said, I'm sorry ladies, it's too late. It's done,' she said. We've done it to ourselves.

Observers have questioned whether Thompson, who declared herself at an April 12 legislative hearing to be a very dramatic person, will work well with the state. Karen Clogston, the outgoing treasurer, ran against Thompson for president last month, but lost in a vote of 253 to 191.A crowd of several dozen men and a couple of women gathered at Jane Warner Plaza on the corner of Castro and Market streets Saturday morning for a nude Valentine's Day parade, letting the sun shine on areas it normally doesn't reach.

"I'm half Sicilian. Do I look that different from David?" asked 49-year-old Giovanni Vassallo, holding up a sign with a picture of Michelangelo's iconic statue juxtaposed with an anti-public nudity quote from former SF Supervisor, current state Senator, and general public-nudity foe Scott Wiener.

Vassallo, who obtained the permit for the day's parade, said he thought the event was a useful antidote to all the hate and fear in the world.

"You're bombarded all your life with hate and fear. Sometimes you need to take a step back, deprogram and re-enter," he said. "Genuine love, altruistic love, it covers all things."

Accessories varied as widely as body types. Some wore wigs and others wore visors. There were tassels, tutus and a striking variety of straw hats. Genitals were festooned with sequins, pom-poms and rings, some as ornately decorated as hats at the Kentucky Derby.

Some of the naked men at the fringes were regular fixtures of the neighborhood out to enjoy the sunny day, such as 56-year-old Lloyd Fishback, who has lived in the city for decades and wore his signature gold-sequined penis sock paired with aviators and a colorful, backwards cap.

For him, he said, it was just another day in the Castro.

"I'm out here every day," he said. "The guy with the golden sock."

He was surprised that so many women (about two) showed up this year.

"It's a shame we don't get more ladies. But that's usually the case here," he said.

Asked if he planned to march in the parade, his response was lukewarm.

"I might  but they're going to City Hall, that's so boring," he said. "It's empty over there. Last year we went to Haight Street."

But for the crowd of onlookers, many of them tourists, gathering around the naked parade-goers and snapping pictures with smartphones, the scene was anything but pedestrian.

"We certainly are not in New Hampshire anymore," one passing woman remarked. "That's for damn sure."

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on Twitter19272018

Helen Slack passed away, Friday morning 2/2/2018, peacefully, at home with her sons, Ron and Bob Slack and her four-legged companion, Harry by her side. She was born to Edward and Lucile Froom Beach in San Francisco, CA. Helen was the youngest of three girls. Her sisters, Ruth Peters and Dorothy MacMurdo preceded her in death.

The family moved to Yreka, CA as Helens father, a minister moved to a new Parish. Helen was getting ready to start high school when she first met her best friend Ruthie Wiseman. The two stayed in close contact for over 70 years. After graduation, Helen moved back to San Francisco where she attended City College and obtained her AA degree in business and accounting.

Once again, Helen and her parents were on the move againthis time to St. Helena, CA, which is where she met her future husband, George Slack. They were married on 5/16/1951 in St. Helena and then moved to Napa. Helen gave birth to three sons -Ronald (Napa), Richard who died in 2016, and Robert (Napa). She is survived by her grandsons. Eric and Christopher are Richards sons, and Sean is Bobs son. She is also survived by four great grandchildren, and ten nephews and nieces,

Helen worked for many years as the bookkeeper for Dr. Richard Clark. She worked for several other physicians through the years.Florida's state social services agency investigated Nikolas Cruz's home life more than a year before police say he killed 17 people at his former high school, closing the inquiry after determining that his "final level of risk is low," despite learning that the teenager had behavioral struggles and was planning to buy a gun, according to an investigative report.

The investigation detailed several unnerving behaviors from Cruz, including that he had cut his arms on Snapchat, had a Nazi symbol and a racial epithet on his backpack and intended to purchase a gun for unknown reasons, according to a Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) report obtained by The Washington Post. Ultimately, the investigation was closed in November 2016, just months before Cruz bought the AR-15 assault-style rifle that police say he would later use in the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The state social services probe was the latest in a series of revelations about how Cruz's pattern of worrisome - and sometimes violent - behavior had prompted concerns and had come to the attention of authorities in the past few years, including school officials, state social services officials and federal law enforcement authorities. Though aware of the warning signs, those same officials were unable to stop Cruz from buying a gun or to intervene before he allegedly returned to his former school on Wednesday and opened fire on several classrooms.

Across South Florida and beyond, local and federal authorities have faced intensifying questions over why they failed to act on the red flags. The FBI had drawn the most scrutiny since it acknowledged Friday that the bureau received a tip in January that Cruz might attack a school and then never investigated that warning. The Broward County Sheriff's Office also said Friday that police had received about 20 calls for service related to Cruz in recent years.

The missed warnings have taken an ominous shape in hindsight: The FBI said in a statement Friday it received a tip from someone close to Cruz who was concerned about his "gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." The DCF report said that more than a year earlier, state officials were told of Cruz's intention to purchase a gun.

The DCF report said that the agency began looking into Cruz in September 2016, four days after he turned 18. The report said that Cruz was viewed as "a vulnerable adult due to mental illness," stating that he has depression and had been taking medication in the past. This report's findings were first made public by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Officials with DCF have not publicly released the report but have petitioned a court for permission to disclose "confidential records that pertain to an investigation of alleged abuse, neglect or exploitation of a vulnerable adult." A DCF spokeswoman has said that Cruz had no child-welfare history with the state agency and said Saturday that the state investigation in 2016 was to determine whether Cruz was safe and had access to necessary services.

"While the [Adult Protective Services] report related to this individual remains confidential pending a court order for release, we have reviewed the circumstances surrounding the 2016 case," DCF Secretary Mike Carroll said in a statement. "Mental health services and supports were in place when this investigation closed. We look forward to Monday's hearing, where we will ask that these records are released so the public can have access to this important information."

The investigators who wrote the report could not be reached for comment, and one counselor mentioned in the report declined to comment when reached Saturday.

Investigators appeared to be looking into Cruz's home situation because he was deemed a "vulnerable adult," and they were determining whether he was being treated well and whether he was taking his medication. Investigators found no reason to think he was being mistreated and found that he had support at home from his mother.

But in the allegation section of the report, investigators wrote that Cruz and his mother, Lynda, were arguing over paperwork he needed to obtain an identification card. Cruz also was described as being depressed and having been seen on Snapchat cutting his arms.

The report said Cruz's mother told officials that he was having issues because of a breakup with a girl who was cheating on him. Cruz's mother also told investigators that she and the girl's mother "told the kids they had to end the relationship because it was unhealthy for everyone," the report states, without elaborating.

Cruz had gotten into a fight with another boy over the girl, his mother said, adding that the cutting began only after Cruz and the girl broke up.

Cruz's mother also is quoted as saying that he did not have a gun at the time of the investigation, though he had an air gun that was taken away when he broke household rules about only firing it at targets in the backyard.

In a safety assessment, the report said the level of risk to Cruz was low because he "has services already in place" and "resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling." Cruz's mother died of pneumonia in November, relatives said, while Broward County Public Schools officials say he was expelled from Douglas last year for unspecified disciplinary issues.

According to the report, Cruz's mother said her son and their family have never had "issues with other races or issues with racism." She also said Cruz claimed he did not know what the drawings on his backpack meant.

The investigation was closed less than two months after it began, concluding that there were "no indicators to support the allegations of inadequate supervision or medical neglect." The report does not say who made the allegations that prompted the probe.

Attorneys representing Cruz acknowledge his guilt, but they have assailed the missed warnings that piled up over the years before the bloodshed at Douglas.

"The system that's designed to identify folks that are posing a threat to themselves and more importantly to others, it failed," said Gordon Weekes, the chief assistant Broward County public defender and one of the attorneys representing Cruz. "It just utterly failed. . . . With all these failures in the system that should have recognized a clear cry for help, the system did not work the way it was designed."

Since the shooting, Parkland has mourned the dead, who included 14 students and three school staffers. The region also has seen a surge in anti-gun activism and anger, highlighted by hundreds of infuriated students, teachers and residents who gathered outside the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, chanting "enough" and "not one more."

Defense attorneys have said that Cruz will plead guilty to the shooting if prosecutors agree not to seek the death penalty, arguing that it would not be right to execute someone who slipped through so many cracks.

Michael Satz, the state attorney for Broward County, said his office would not formally announce whether it will seek a death sentence until further along in the investigation, saying that now is a time to let families mourn. But he also said Saturday that the rampage "certainly is the type of case the death penalty was designed for."

- - -

The Washington Post's Sarah Larimer, Emma Brown and Julie Tate in Washington and Wesley Lowery in Fort Lauderdale contributed to this report.A San Antonio woman was arrested Thursday after covering for her common-law husband and helping him escape from immigration authorities, according to police.

Authorities began investigating Rene Gonzalez-Valles, an undocumented immigrant, in 2016, according to an arrest affidavit. Gonzalez-Valles is allegedly is known to smuggle people and drugs into the United States from Mexico.A Department of Public Safety trooper and the suspect he had pursued across two counties were wounded in a shootout Sunday afternoon in far east Bexar County, an official said.

Shortly after 3 p.m., the trooper initiated a stop of a black Chrysler 300 sedan for a traffic violation in Guadalupe County on FM 78. It was not known what type of violation had allegedly occurred, according to Trooper Deon Cockrell a DPS spokesman.

The male driver gave the trooper a false name during the stop, Cockrell said, and, as the trooper was attempting to arrest the man, a scuffle ensued.

The man was able to escape from the trooper, got back in his vehicle and fled. Cockrell said the trooper then lost sight of the suspect and that is when DPS air support responded.

A DPS helicopter spotted the suspect traveling west on Interstate 10 in Bexar County. The trooper was able to re-establish contact and chased the suspect off of the highway. The suspect then used the Graytown Road bridge to cross over I-10 and continued to travel westbound down the two-way access road, Cockrell said.

Then, according to Cockrell, the suspect used an exit to re-enter I-10, ignoring "Do Not Enter" and "Wrong Way" signs, and began traveling the wrong direction in the eastbound lanes.

At about 3:20 p.m. near Graytown Road and I-10, just before Loop 1604, the trooper was able to stop the suspect by using his patrol vehicle as a barrier.

"Once that trooper stopped the vehicle, the suspect engaged the trooper and gunfire was exchanged between the DPS trooper and the suspect," Cockrell said.

Cockrell added that two troopers were at the scene but only one fired at the suspect.

Multiple times during the incident scanner chatter reported the trooper was hit in the arm and the suspect in the abdomen. Cockrell was not able to confirm this information.

There has been no update on the conditions of the trooper or the suspect, neither of whom have been identified.

The trooper was transported by AirLife to University Hospital, according to the hospital. The suspect was also flown to a local hospital, Cockrell said.

During the incident, traffic was backed up while officials launched an investigation at the scene.

cquinn@mysa.com

nbautista@express-news.netAs the Texas Revolution was tearing across the land, developments in early photography were making headlines across the globe. Within five years of the Battle of San Jacinto, hundreds of photographers were traveling into Texas to capture images of the legendary frontier.

The above gallery showcases some of the first photographs of San Antonio with the original descriptions.

Henry A. Doerr (1822-1885), the most prolific photographer of 19th-century San Antonio, arrived in the city around 1865 by way of Kentucky. An immigrant from Prussia, Doerr went into business photographing scenes around San Antonio and selling them as stereographic cards to tourists. The stereograph, an early stepping stone to virtual reality, was a trendy novelty at the time. A card with two near-identical photographs produced a three-dimensional image when viewed through a stereoscope.

RELATED: This photo of the Alamo is the oldest known image of Texas

Over the years, Doerr operated several studios and galleries along Commerce Street. He partnered with Samuel E. Jacobson in the 1870s, and they produced a series of stereographs around the Alamo City: "Scenes on the San Antonio River," "Street Life in San Antonio," and "Views in and Around San Antonio."

Doerr generated more photographic work than any of his contemporaries in San Antonio, and it's his work that authors Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn credit for making San Antonio "the best-photographed city in Texas during the 19th century" (Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865).

RELATED: Book illustrates San Antonio when plazas, saloons ruled

One of Doerr's contemporaries was Frank Hardesty of the San Antonio View Company. Although his photographs pop up in library collections, little is written about him.

Hardesty's stereographic images, along with those of Doerr and Jacobsen, are part of the Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views preserved in the New York Public Library and recently published online to the NYPL Digital Collection.

From a primitive Alamo Plaza to the lush, and practically untouched San Antonio River, these are some of the earliest photographed scenes. One of the first, if not the first, photographs of San Pedro Park dates back to 1876-79. Scenes from the streets include a busy breakfast on Military Plaza and and the time-honored "chili queens." There are wispy images of the rugged San Fernando Cathedral, Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion.

The scenes captured in the above stereographic photos reflect the history buff's delight San Antonio has since become.

jmscott@mysa.comThe historical advocacy group Texas Preservation released its latest list of the state's most endangered places, tapping two significant sites in San Antonio.

The John H. Wood, Jr. Courthouse, the travertine-paneled building shaped like a drum in Hemisfair Park, was put on the chopping block last December.

At that time, U.S. Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, announced that the upcoming budget bill includes $135 million for a new federal courthouse in San Antonio.

Originally built as the Confluence Theater for HemisFair '68, the mid-century modern structure was later retrofitted to serve as a courthouse and was renamed for John H. Wood, the federal judge who was assassinated by Charles Harrelson (father of actor Woody Harrelson) in 1979.

The Woolworth Building, built in 1921 on Alamo Plaza, also made the 2016 list for endangered places.

The General Land Office acquired the Woolworth Building, along with the Crockett and the Palace, last October, possibly making way for major redevelopments in the area across from the Alamo.

More than just a department store, the iconic Woolworth building facilitated San Antonio's leading role in the Civil Rights Movement with the 1960 desegregation of lunch counters.

RELATED: Fifty-five years ago, San Antonio was the first southern city to integrate lunch counters

Click through the slideshow for a look at the Lone Star state's most endangered places.

jmscott@mysa.comLegendary rancher Richard King paved the destiny of Corpus Christi by hosting the mayor and a colonel in the Corps of Engineers with a hunt at King Ranch and a bottle of whiskey at the "Big House." There, they settled on the site for what would become Port Corpus Christi, officially opening on September 14, 1926.

Perched on a bluff, Corpus Christi owns the distinction as the highest point along the tide between Miami, Florida and Veracruz, Mexico.

It was this positioning, which mitigates destruction from hurricanes, plus the convenience of four railroad lines that sealed Corpus Christi's fate as an international port city.

After hurricanes devastated the area in 1916 and 1918, business leaders pushed for the development of a port. The site was settled on a fall hunting trip at King Ranch in 1921, and five years later, the city dedicated Port Corpus Christi.

RELATED: Vintage photos show King Ranch, through the years

The photographs in the above gallery are from the archives of the San Antonio Express-News as the paper covered the evolution of Corpus Christi from a quiet seaside town with tourist appeal to a developing industry hub.

In the early 1910s and 1920s, stately hotels opened their doors drawing an air of glamour to the quiet seaside community. The Plaza, the State Hotel, the Nueces Hotel, the Beach Hotel (renamed the Breakers) and the Princess Louise Hotel  all but one have since been demolished. The Princess Louise is now an apartment building, according to the Corpus Christi Caller Times.

In the 1930s, Corpus Christi developed its seawall, dubbing it their very own eighth wonder of the world.

RELATED: Vintage photographs from Port Aransas portray a budding Texas vacation spot

Before your next visit to the "Texas Riveria," now a mecca of budget resorts and industry, recall its earlier history when the city was just beginning to publicize itself as a "port of play and profit."

jmscott@mysa.comCHAMBLEE, Ga. - Juanita Edwards' children, grandchildren and pets are waiting for her back home on St. Croix. The island air would be salty and familiar: Before the monster storms of 2017, she had never left the Caribbean.

But if she went home now, she would quickly die.

Edwards, 84, requires regular treatment for kidney failure, and the hurricanes that devastated the Caribbean last year crippled the region's ability to provide hemodialysis, the artificial blood-cleansing process that can substitute for faltering kidneys. More than 200 dialysis patients like Edwards had to be evacuated in September from the U.S. Virgin Islands to distant places where they could be treated - and they have been far from home ever since.

"It's rough on her," Gloria Edwards, Edwards' daughter and primary caregiver, said as her mother dozed in the extended-stay hotel room they share in the Atlanta metropolitan area, where many of the evacuees remain. "She wants to go home. She wants to go home now."

Federal health officials felt they had little choice, a decision reinforced as months have dragged on with halting recovery and little progress in restoring medical services in the Virgin Islands. "We don't do paramedical evacuation often, and we certainly don't do it on this scale," said Capt. Charles Weir of the U.S. Public Health Service, who is a regional emergency coordinator in Atlanta with the office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response. "The only option for those dialysis clients was to find dialysis services elsewhere. Given that they're U.S. citizens, that first option is us."

Hurried relocations

Many of the patients had to be evacuated repeatedly. At least 130 dialysis patients from St. Thomas and St. John in the Virgin Islands were moved to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Irma in early September; as Hurricane Maria approached Puerto Rico two weeks later, around 100 of them were transferred to Florida, and then again to Atlanta. Maria's development into a Category 5 storm that devastated St. Croix forced yet another hurried relocation.

The 138 dialysis patients in Atlanta came as part of a larger federal program of medical evacuations that transported 531 patients from the Virgin Islands to the mainland for treatment, about half of them with an accompanying family member. Forty-one of the evacuated patients, many of whom arrived critically ill, have died, including 15 dialysis patients, who as a group often have other medical problems besides kidney failure.

The program, known as the National Disaster Medical System, has been used for years to transport hospital patients out of disaster zones for treatment in unaffected hospitals. They usually are returned home quickly afterward. But officials said that the dialysis patients from the Virgin Islands have presented new challenges, because of their continuing requirement for outpatient treatment and because medical care is only one of their many needs.

Gloria Edwards praised the efforts of emergency workers in helping her mother. But the process of making metropolitan Atlanta an evacuation site for the medically needy was marked by substantial hurdles and occasional missteps.

"They arrived in the middle of the night at the military base," said Micheline Desse, a group facility administrator for DaVita, a dialysis company that has worked with the government. "They needed them to have dialysis the next day."

Desse was asked to arrange care for 64 of the patients. She called every dialysis facility in her region to see how many could be accommodated; in many cases the answer was none.

She got better news from a clinic that could take 40 patients. Staff members agreed to work longer hours and established an additional shift for dialysis.

But there were logistical problems. Some patients were placed in hotels far from their clinic, or would not be picked up on schedule, or would get back late and miss meals at their hotels. Patients had problems filling prescriptions. Federal officials serving brief rotations on the program were turned over frequently, and important information would sometimes be lost in the transitions.

Services still hobbled

Juanita Edwards weeps at the thought of never returning to Christiansted, the island's largest town.

But it is not clear when she will be able to go back. Before the storm, there were just two main dialysis clinics in St. Croix. Treatment at a dialysis center requires clean water, reliable electricity, trained staff, and, because the procedure typically involves tapping into major blood vessels, the ability to transport a patient swiftly to a functioning hospital for emergency care if something should go wrong. It is a hard bill to fill now on St. Croix.

Medical services in the Virgin Islands are still severely hobbled, with hundreds of staff members laid off from damaged hospitals, many types of specialty care unavailable, and emergency rooms overflowing. Modular hospital units have been ordered but will take months to arrive, and even temporary dialysis trailers and portable operating rooms are not expected for several more weeks.

"Right now, for any individual that has a high acuity health problem, we have to evacuate them off the island," said Michelle Davis, the Virgin Islands health commissioner. She said some patients had returned home only to be re-evacuated. "It's way too much on the patient in terms of the stress," she said.19322018

Sterling was born February 7, 1932 in the Crane Maternity Home in Provo, Utah. He was the fifth of six children born to Ralph and Melba Robbins Treseder. Sterling was raised in Ogden, Utah and enjoyed participating in school sports.

Sterling joined the United States Marine Corps, serving one of three years in Korea. He was then called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California. Sterling had a variety of church callings throughout his lifetime and was a scholar of the scriptures. He was an excellent teacher both at church and in the school classroom.

Sterling re-entered college where he met his wife to be, Maxine Child. They attended a year of college together and then were married August 29, 1957 in the Salt Lake Temple. Sterling obtained both his bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Utah. He taught school for thirty years in Napa, California before retiring in Utah.

Sterling and Maxine enjoyed serving a church mission in Greece. He also served at the Mount Timpanogos Temple for over ten years as a dedicated ordinance worker.Desperate Zimbabwean students on the presidential scholarship programme, faced with rising costs, are turning to prostitution, gambling and other dangerous pursuits to fund their studies, Parliament has been told.

With part-time jobs scarce and the cost of living being squeezed with rising prices, MDC MP for Harare West Jessie Majome said young Zimbabwean students on the scholarship programme were taking desperate and dangerous measures to pay for their education as they struggled to make ends meet.

Majome moved a motion in the National Assembly to push government to disburse funds for 460 students studying at a University in Algeria as a matter of urgency.

The motion, which was seconded by Mutasa South MDC MP Trevor Saruwaka, seeks to force the minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Amon Murwira to report to the House how he intends to rescue the stranded students.

The motion urges the parliamentary portfolio committee on Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development to urgently inquire into the status and living conditions of Zimbabwean students on bilateral scholarships in Algeria, Russia, Cyprus and other destinations and report its findings to the House.

Majome told Parliament that there are 460 students as of December last year studying under the scholarship called the Zimbabwe-Algeria Bilateral Scholarship Programme.

Since 2015, none of this $3 000 per year has been disbursed, Majome said, adding that at the beginning of the year at the start of another semester, 60 more students were destined to join them.

I move this motion because I found myself receiving an email in my inbox from female students who were pleading  actually, they sent a heart-rending cry for help.

I do not know where these students got my email address from. They are appealing for help so that disbursements can be made to them, Majome said.

She read out some of the heartbreaking emails from female students who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation.

For the academic year 2016-2017, we never received a single cent. For the current academic year, we have not received anything, the student allegedly wrote.

We last received our stipends for the academic year 2015-2016 and only a quarter of it was paid.

We are suffering and now known as beggars. Our academic performance has gone bad. Our permits were written strictly education and working is very illegal. We cannot work. Our Zimbabwean boys try to work in the construction industry sites where they receive $4 per day after working for a good nine hours. Sometimes they are arrested and mistaken as illegal immigrants.

During the summer school holidays, the school facilities were closed and they are now in boarding houses. They must cook on their own and fend for themselves but because of that, they ended up using the little money they had.

The letter further reads: We ended up selling our cell phones and laptops for food. Some borrowed money from other students from Nigeria, Angola and so on who had received their stipends thinking that the government would give us ours but they have not.

Majome said the students end up failing to pay back the borrowed money resulting in the foreign students taking everything we have  that is students from other African countries because we cannot pay them back.

Some are promising to sue us. We were doing all this because we had no money to buy food or even soap. We want your help if possible  whether you can raise our issue in Parliament.

Previously, several embarrassing reports came from Fort Hare University in South Africa where Zimbabwean students on presidential scholarship reportedly resorted to selling their bodies and engaging in drug peddling and theft because they had gone for years without the promised government grants.

Government has always proffered the excuse that it is facing a critical funding shortfall.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsBy Lambert Strether of Corrente.

A company for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is. Prospectus for a joint stock company in the South Sea Bubble (1720)

About 10 days ago, and shortly after Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and Jamie Dimon launched their health care undertaking, a bipartisan group fronted by former CMS administrator and #SaveTheACA hashtag activist Andy Slavitt launched their own undertaking: the United States of Care, a new non-partisan non-profit, we are building and mobilizing a movement to achieve long-lasting solutions that make health care better for everyone.[1] (Im going to use their Twitter handle, @USofCare, for the remainder of this piece.) FAIR describes the launch. The headline:

Media Embrace New Reform Group as Bulwark Against Guaranteed Healthcare

(At least on the Twitter, the instant reaction from many was more precise: A bulwark against #MedicareForAll, as opposed to the more generic guaranteed healthcare.) More:

Andy Slavitt, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration, proAffordable Care Act activist, announced the creation of the USoC in an opinion piece for USA Today (2/6/18). Slavitt also has a long resume in the private sector: He was the founder of healthcare tech startup investor HealthAllies, a former UnitedHealth Group executive, a Goldman Sachs investment banker and a consultant for McKinsey & Co. The group also received a write-up in Axios (2/6/18) as well as a glowing profile from Bloomberg (2/6/18), which played up the groups interest in promoting an opening for bipartisan policy-making.

(We will look in more detail at Slavitts long resume in the private sector tomorrow.) And more:

Neither the USA Today piece, the Forbes piece nor the United States of Care website mentions single-payer, Medicare for All or anything related to government-guaranteed universal healthcare . The Bloomberg write-up mentioned Sanders Medicare for All bill in the context of USoCs hope of heading off increasingly volatile swings in health policy when political fortunes shift in Washington.

Well, thats certainly a curious omission![2] In this piece, I will take a look at Slavitts undertaking, @USofCare. Should we be wary of it? Does it really oppose #MedicareForAll? And what can we expect from any solutions it provides? Ill answer the first two questions today, and the seond question tomorrow.

Should We be Wary of @USofCare?

By we, I mean citizens generally, but particularly #MedicareForAll advocates, as I am. And the answer is Yes, for at least two reasons.

1. Undisclosed funding. Slavitt was beaten up pretty bad on the Twitter for not disclosing minor details like who was funding his undertaking, and so after a few days @USofCare emitted a FAQ. Here is their section on funding:

Who are your funders? Our funders are individuals and non-profit health care organizations including not-for-profit charity hospitals and foundations. We have not and will not accept funding from trade associations, PACs, insurance companies, or for-profit corporations.

So, funding has been or may be provided by high net-worth individuals  perhaps Bezos, Buffett, or Dimon?  or laundered through a foundation. Since @USofCare does not name its donors, I hardly find this reassuring.

2. The composition of the board. @UsOfCares 50-member Board of Directors & Founders Council is described by PNHP (an actual movement, by the way):

In establishing this organization, Andy Slavitt says that we must put health care over politics. Yet the several politicians involved are either Republicans (majority) or conservative neo-liberal Democrats (minority). The 52 members of the Founders Council include many strong supporters of the Affordable Care Act. There are many representatives of the health care industry. There are many outspoken opponents to single payer reform, aka Medicare for all. Yet there is not one individual who has taken a prominent stance in favor of single payer , even though a majority of Americans do support Medicare for All.

Does @USofCare Oppose Medicare for All?

Opinions differ, on the @USofCare site and among founders. The FAQ says No:

Does United States of Care oppose single payer or Medicare for All? [A]No. [B]United States of Care will identify, evaluate, and provide support for policies that meet our principles: affordable care for all Americans that protects against financial devastation. Our priority is to engage the public for a range of solutions.

(I have helpfully labled the No part [A], and the But yes, really part [B]. However, the Mission Statement  at least in my translation of the bafflegab  says Yes:

The mission of United States of Care is to ensure that every single American has access to quality, affordable health care regardless of health status, social need, or income.

The key word to watch for is access. Access implies a gatekeeper, and a gatekeeper implies eligibility determination, especially means-testing.[3] Ask yourself: Do you want access to care, or do you want care? And the second word is like it: Affordable. That means you pay. Ergo, @USofCare is opposed to #MedicareForAll  at least NHS-style free at the point of care Medicare, a Medicare cleansed of its current neoliberal infestation  and the FAQ and the Mission Statement contradict each other.

One @USofCare founder, Bill First, introduced a bill to privatize Medicare. But a Board member, Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau says No:

Im a #MedicareForAll advocate. I also want to make sure theres a path to get there, which involves building a movement and persuading people who dont currently agree.  Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) February 6, 2018

(Consistent with the murky public commitments of the entire undertaking, Ive been unable to find any public statement where Favreau acts as a #MedicareForAll advocate other than this one tweet, and I have looked True, Google search has been crapified, but youd think an Op-Ed or an interview would crop up. Perhaps his advocacy was during a vow of silence? Or performed in mime? Taking Favreau at his word, it would be interesting to know when, exactly, his Damascene conversion took place. And why.)

And finally, we come not one but two interviews with @USofCare Board Chair Andy Slavitt. whose views on #MedicareForAll are so awe-inspiringly prolix that I cannot bring myself to edit them down  not because theyd lose any flavor, but because of the sheer volume and the sheer effrontery of their evasiveness convey the message  and so have adopted special formatting.

The first interview is by Gregory Krieg of CNN, who does a commendable job trying to nail Our Andys Jello to the wall:

KRIEG: Why not then put this energy and these resources behind some of the movements that are already out there? Medicare for all obviously now has traction with Senate Democrats, as do other less comprehensive plans. There are a lot of people already out there trying to create a new narrative, in favor of expanding care. Why not put your influence and, maybe, money behind them? SLAVITT: One of the questions (being asked by critics) is about me personally and, you know, I personally am not changing. I dont expect that my views or my activities personally around making sure that were fighting to get better health care for more people changes. And I dont expect other people who are affiliated with the organization or part of sponsoring it to change their activities, whether they agree with me or disagree with me. But we have to do something over the long term in addition to make sure that were not having this war forever. The question is how do we do that? And theres no guarantees that itll ever happen. But what is clear to me, and I think a number of other people, is if we dont take down the temperature of the debate, then, the next time we go at doing this, were still going to be more and more divisive. So I think there is room for us in the debate to focus on both what needs to happen now and over the next couple years  which is, as you point out, there are a number of organizations that are well-suited for that and some of which Im affiliated with and will continue to be affiliated with  but also for there to be a movement thats a little bit longer term that changes the equation. Think about big changes that have happened in the country, (like) marriage equality. That didnt start the year before laws were changed. That started decades before laws were changed. There needs to be a movement and effort to establish successful change that occurs beyond just the current year. I think this is an organization that has an opportunity, if done right, to make a difference in the long-term debate even while people are working on these very challenging issues in the near term.

Kireg tries again:

KRIEG: To be clear, though, you were speaking to Modern Healthcare about this, and youre quoted as saying, We believe every single American should have access to basic, affordable care. But we avoid using language like universal coverage that is polarizing. We want to bring people together, and certain words are used by one party or another to create divides. So, asking as directly possible: Do you support or oppose single-payer health care? SLAVITT: Do I personally ? KRIEG: Yes. SLAVITT: I would personally love to be in a world where we have, once and for all, given every American health care, and thats certainly one way to do it. So, to that extent, the answer is yes. KRIEG: OK, but how do you feel, not personally now, but as an activist or political actor? SLAVITT: What I believe is that there are a number of ideas, including new ideas, that are going to be necessary to get to where we want to get. I believe that its going to take a number of years from where we are today, so for someone who believes in single-payer, Medicare for all, I hope that you can also be for other things that are good for people in the meantime, and that those things might even build the ability to get there[4]. I also believe that there are lots of approaches, because theres not even one ready bill[5]; its not like theres a bill thats ready that can do everything because the Medicare program, of course, is designed for seniors. Its not designed for younger people, low-income people, etc. So theres a lot of un-sexy dirty work that has to happen, to make these policies work, to get public support for them. To vet them, to drive them. So if you look at the three principles of (USoC), they include anything that can get people access to the coverage they need, the care they need, protect them from bankruptcy and do it in a way that can be lasting from an economic and political standpoint. That absolutely includes single-payer and it includes other ideas that are either currently formed or that need to be formed.

Forgive me, again, for quoting Slavitt at length, but you see what were dealing with here. And a second interview, even more revealing. This one is from the HealthChangers podcast by Cambia Health Solutions. I have used the same formatting convention is above. This is all Slavitt:

SLAVITT: I was on a right-wing radio program the other day, with a right-wing radio host. This is how he describes himself, so not being disparaging in any way. He says to me during a commercial break,  Im for single payer . He said. Im so sick of this. He said, Now that I know, all of the hands in the pot, all that stuff, screw it. Im just for single payer, he said. And Im about as right wing as youre going to find .

Let me break in for one moment here. Imagine how Sanders would have seized that moment (which, let me remind you, is about as bipartisan as you can get). Now lets listen while Jello Andy emits a voluminous stream of baffegab:

SLAVITT: Something else always sounds better when were looking at the problem were looking at now .

Hoo boy. Single payer, grass is greener, ho hum, yadda yadda yadda.

Okay. So, so, lets just be little bit sober by the fact, and I always think its good to remind people that we have to find a way to pay for the things we want, and that may change peoples minds. Do you like single payer and this tax increase? I think thats a fair thing to ask people, but heres the opportunity. Heres what I like to see happen, Id like over the next five to seven years, because I think its going to be that long before having that happen at the actual level, two things happen. One is, at the state level we really try it out[6].We have a Medicaid buy-in opportunity in Nevada. The Governor almost signed, with some more real work with hospitals and others, possibly that could happen, it could happen somewhere else. So, we should try some experiments. See what happens. Stage level, I think were stage four. The second thing is to get to a language that unites us around making how we think about health care in a universal way, rather than divides us. We ought to be smart about it, if we really want it. We ought to be having a dialogue about what it is we want. About what those trade-offs are, and what that language is, and what is it that we have a right to. I would say we have a right to a regular source of care, and to not go bankrupt when we get sick. I dont think we all have a right to every heart and lung surgeon, but I think theres something we do have a right to. I think thats the conversation that we let play out over the country. We should leave Washington the heck out of it, and then at some point in time, after we make some progress at the state level, the people who really care about this issue really want to see progress, we maybe will have built the foundation to do something more.

Quality work. And if this is the language that unites us (granted, for some definition of us) please kill me now. But to answer the question posed by this section, at the very best, and ladeling on great gobs of assumed good faith, Andys prayer is a lot like Saint Augustines: Lord, give me #MedicareForAll  but not yet!

What Can We Expect from @USofCare Solutions?

Im putting this here as a placeholder for the post Ill write tomorrow. Ill argue that the three requirements I outlined for the Bezos, Buffett and Dimon undertaking also apply to any solution emanating from @USofCare. to review, those requirements are for:

Accounting control fraud Financial predation Abuse workforce

to those three I will add a fourth:

Conflict of interest

Conclusionse

@USofCares big idea is right on the its splash page:

Lets change the conversation and put health care over politics .

Holy moley. Splinter News has a fine response:

The multi-payer for-profit model of private insurance has had fifty years to address these questions, and the results speak for themselves Let me reiterate the table stakes. Among so-called developed countries, America is the most dangerous place to be sick. America is the most dangerous place to be black. America is the most dangerous place to be pregnantwith the highest maternal mortality rate of any comparably wealthy nation, of which 60% are easily preventable. America is the most dangerous place to be a woman; to be trans; to be disabled; to be elderly; to be poor. Last year, life expectancy at birth fell for the first time in almost 30 years by a tenth of a year. Across the four million people born last year, that constitutes a theft of 400,000 years. And I do mean theftbecause the wealthy men in America get to live fifteen years longer than poor men; wealthy women, ten years longer than poor women. Their solution, thoughto try to place the heathcare battle above partisan politicsmakes no sense. It makes no sense because the fight for universal care is a fight against a powerful cadre that opposes that goal. USC envisions a world in which healthcare is fought for and won by technocrats, a small corpus of the benevolent and powerful. These are the same people who have, through pre-concession, lost any battle theyve focus-grouped their way into meekly accepting over the past thirty years.

Anyhow, its ridiculous to think that Slavitt doesnt practice health care politics. Weve seen them, right in this post. They look like this. A voice as hushed as any undertakers

NOTES

[1] Stoller comments:

I was having trouble keeping track, so it was thoughtful of @ASlavitt to create a list of all the various stereotypes of cloying out of touch elites and put them in one organization. https://t.co/i5oQ6vm4ur  Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) February 7, 2018

[2] Id been wondering why Slavitt, in all his Twitter work on #SaveTheACA, never endorsed Medicare for All  a search on #MedicareForAll AND from:@ASlavitt yields zero hits, so hes really been quite disciplined  so perhaps I have my answer. Slavitt is an interesing figure, and Ive only begun to disentangle his Flexian network. See this excellent long-form piece by Kam Sandhu of Real Media in the UK; it looks to me, for example, like Slavitts cohorts from his United Heatlhcare days are helping the neoliberal effort to gut the NHS on the other side of the pond. I also need to reviisit both the ObamaCare backend and medical coding, two areas with which Slavitt has been intimately involved for most of his career.

[3] Access is also a Jobs Guarantee for the credentialled professionals who determine who goes to HappyVille, and who goes to Pain City, what is affordable, and so and so forth.

[4] If this is what Slavitt believes, his hash-tag activism with #SaveTheACA did not reflect it; see note [2].

[5] Sadly, Slavitt commits a terminological inexactitude: The House bill is H.R. 676; the Senate bill is S. 1804.

[6] Its obviously very important to #MedicareForAll opponents that the currency issuer not implement the program. That way, when theres a downtown, states will be forced to cut spending on it, and they can then argue the program is a failure.Lambert here: If Walmart parking lots had a hundred species of edible plants growing, we might be in pretty good shape. (On edible forests, see NC here and here.)

By James Suzman, who has been working with the Bushmen of Botswanas eastern Kalahari for more than 25 years. He is the author of Affluence Without Abundance (Bloomsbury Publishing), and heads the Cambridge-based research and support organisation anthropos. Originally published at Evonomics.

This Canaan is no promised land. But understanding the long the history of its impoverished Ju/hoan Bushman residents may help us to map a path to the economic promised land, in which no-one need work more than 15 hours per week that John Maynard Keynes famously predicted would be realised within our lifetimes.

Canaan is a sprawling squatter settlement on the outskirts of Gobabis, a small town that services Namibias vast Kalahari cattle ranches. It is now home to around 4000 people. More than half of them are Ju/hoansi, the most famous of the Kalaharis hunting and gathering Bushmen peoples.

I began working in the Kalahari in 1991. Since then I have lived and worked among almost all of southern Africas San Bushmen peoples from the war ravaged !Kung and Kxoe as they dodged bullets during the last brutal phases of the Angolan civil war to the G/wikhoe forcibly removed from Botswanas vast Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 1997.

But it is only in Canaan that I have ever felt any sense of real helplessness. And this is not just because whenever I visit the predatory gangsters who lord over Gobabis underbelly throng vulture-like round my truck and eyeball the cameras, camping equipment, GPSs, tools and other treasures packed into the back. Nor is it because perennial hunger and despair in Canaan find their expression in distended bellies, wounds that never seem to heal or the deep wet tubercolutic coughs that seem to hang in the air long after the sound has pastthis happens in many other places too. Rather it is because Canaan is so obviously the product of a series of technological, social and economic forces that emanate from beyond Kalahari, forces that its Ju/hoansi residents are powerless to affect even if, ironically, understanding how their parents and grandparents made a living as hunter-gatherers may well help us to manage them.

A century ago the Ju/hoansi were undisputed masters of this desert land. But then white farmers and colonial police arrived with their horses, guns, water-pumps, barbed-wire and cattle. They soon crushed what little resistance the Ju/hoansi offered and claimed this land for themselves. They also quickly learnt that farming in the Kalahari Desert was labour intensive. So they formed commandos to capture wild Bushmen, held the Ju/hoansis children hostage to ensure their parents obedience and meted out regular beatings to teach them the virtues of hard work. Deprived of their traditional lands and regarded as childlike-like creatures of the bush, Ju/hoansi soon became dependent on the farmers for a place to stay and food to eat.

When Namibia gained its independence from South Africa in 1990 technological advances meant that the farms were more productive and less dependent on labour than they had ever been before. And with a new government demanding that farmers provide proper pay and housing for their workers, they reduced their workforces to the bare minimum leaving many Ju/hoansi and their dependents little option but to descend on squatter settlements like Canaan.

What happened on the Omaheke farms echoes broader trends transforming workplaces across the globe. Agriculture, manufacturing and, ever more, the services sector have been transformed by automation and, now, computerisation. And as a slew of recent reports make clear this trend is likely to accelerate.

For those not plagued by visions of a Terminator-style dystopia or in thrall to Jetson-like fantasies of hyper-modern convenience the most pressing challenge raised automation is the question of what people will do if there is not enough work to go around.

The same question also irked John Maynard Keynes when in the winter of 1929 he was contemplating the ruins of his personal fortune. Global stock markets had imploded and the Great Depression was slowly throttling the life out of the Euro-American economy. To remind himself of the ephemeral nature of the crisis, he penned an optimistic essay entitled The Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren. In it he argued that within a century technical innovation and increases in productivity would usher in a golden era of leisure that would liberate us from the tyranny of the clock, and enable us to thrive on the basis of working no more than fifteen hours per week. Besides war, natural disasters and acts of God the only significant obstacle he saw to this Utopia being achieved was what he believed was our instinct to strive for more, to work and to create new wealth.

We have been expressly evolved by nature  with all our impulses and deepest instincts for the purpose of solving the economic problem, he lamented. I think with dread of the readjustment of the habits and instincts of the ordinary man, bred into him for countless generations, which he may be asked to discard within a few decades.

By mankinds traditional purpose Keynes was referring to our urge to work and produce and by the economic problem, Keynes was referring to the axiom of economics the problem of scarcity which holds that we work to bridge the gap between our infinite wants and limited means.

But Keynes believed economics to be a rational science and people, on the whole, to be capable of making rational choices when presented with them. So he took the view that, save a few purposeful money makers, we would recognise the economic Utopia for what it was , slow down and be able to enjoy the abundance when it comes.

Keynes was right about improved productivity and technological innovation. They have been transformative, even more so than he imagined. According to Keyness reasoning, on the basis of labour productivity improvements alone we should not be working more than 11 hours a week now. But he was wrong about the golden age of leisure. Despite having the means to work much less, many of us now work as long and hard as we did before. Keyness grossly underestimated just how hard it would be to readjust the habits and instincts of ordinary people.

Keynes was also wrong in imagining that a golden age of leisure could only come about through advances in productivity and technology. Convinced that mankind had been on a journey of unrelenting progress since the beginning of history, he saw the 15-hour week as the culmination of hundreds of generations collective ingenuity and effort. What he failed to realize was that the fifteen-hour week was a reality for some of the handful of remaining tribes of autonomous hunter-gatherers, and that, in all probability, it was the norm for a significant proportion of the 200 000 year history of modern Homo Sapiens.

But Keynes can be forgiven for this. During his lifetime there was no evidence to suggest that hunter-gatherer life was anything but nasty, brutish and short. The idea that hunter-gatherers led an easier life than he did would have seemed too absurd to take seriously.

It was the few Ju/hoansi that still lived beyond the reach of the white ranchers and hunted and gathered into the 1960s who torpedoed the idea that our hunting and gathering ancestors led lives of unremitting hardship. Anthropologists at the time considered the Ju/hoansi to be the best living exemplars of how our hunting and gathering ancestors lived and so were chosen as the subjects of the first careful economic input/output studies of a hunting and gathering people. The results of these studies surprised everyone. They showed that despite the harshness of their environment the Ju/hoansi made a good living on basis of only around 15-17 hours work per week. They spent the rest of their time on household chores, playing games, wooing lovers, crafting gifts, caring for children and telling stories.

Subsequent research showed how the Ju/hoansis relaxed approach to work stemmed from their faith in the providence of their environment and their confidence in their ability to exploit itJu/hoansi made use of well over a hundred plant species and were adept at hunting pretty much anything that was edible. Consequently Ju/hoansi had an immediate return economy which meant they never stored foods and only ever worked to procure enough to meet their short term needs certain that there was always more to be had with a few hours of effort. This research also demonstrated how the Ju/hoansis fierce egalitarianism underwrote their affluence by ensuring that resources flowed organically through communities so ensuring that even in the leanest times everyone got more or less enough.

The most compelling thing about this research was that it suggested that economic problem was not, as Keynes believed the primary problem of the human race from the beginnings of time. For where the economic problem holds that we have unlimited wants and limited means, Ju/hoansi hunter-gatherers had few wants that were easily satisfied. It was for this reason that Marshall Sahlins, arguably the most influential American social anthropologist of the 20th century, redubbed hunter-gatherers the original affluent society.

Unsurprisingly, this simple idea briefly captured the popular imagination: Imagine a society in which the work week seldom exceeds 19 hours, material wealth is considered a burden, and no one is much richer than anyone else, gushed Time Magazine in an editorial about the Bushmen in November 1969, The people are comfortable, peaceable, happy and secureThis Elysian community actually exists.

But beyond the academy the idea of primitive affluence lost something of its broad appeal in the 1980s. The neo-liberal economic revolution and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe promised the world a new vision of capital driven prosperity that left little room for apparently whimsical alternatives. Starved of mainstream attention, primitive affluence was left to be appropriated in a crude form by new-age movements seeking legitimacy for radical alternatives to mainstream culture.

Just as importantly, life for the Bushmen had also changed a great deal by the 1980s. Civil wars, forced relocations and the systematic colonization of large swathes of the Kalahari by white cattle ranchers and pastoralist tribes had transformed this Elysian community into an underclass. Anthropologists that ventured to the Kalahari encountered a people traumatized by changes that were beyond their control, often enslaved by their neighbours and alienated from the lands that had nurtured them for thousands of generations. Their plight was too dire and their lives too squalid and bereft of hope for anthropologists to wax lyrically about primitive affluence. So they focused instead on the brutality of the Bushmens encounter with others, the racism that justified their marginalization and the social and political structures that now looked set to pinion them into perpetual poverty.

And because anthropology tuned into these other aspects of their lives, the idea of primitive affluence fell out of favour. Some branded it a romantic myth. Others raised questions about the accuracy of the some of the original data pointing out that hunter-gatherers suffered from occasional hardships, that the 15 hour work week didnt apply equally to all hunter-gatherer groups and that the likes of Lee ignored time and effort domestic tasks like preparing food and fires.

But in focusing argument on these particular details they conveniently ignored the central cultural pillar of the argument which was that regardless of many hours the likes of the Ju/hoansi worked they only worked to satisfy their immediate needs.

The early work on primitive affluence has recently been given new impetus by recent advances in genomics that have enabled us to map in increasingly greater detail the 200,000 year history of our species. These indicate that the northern Kalahari, rather than east Africa, may well have been cradle of modern Homo Sapiens. The data also suggests that this core group of Homo sapiens split into two around 150,000 years ago and while one branch restlessly expanded northwards gradually colonising the rest of the planet, the ancestors of the Bushmen remained where they were, so that by the time modern humans first set foot in South America eleven thousand years ago the Bushmen had remained in the Kalahari for 140 thousand years or more. Taken in tandem with a series of new archaeological finds it also suggested that for at least 70,000 years- and possibly considerably more, the ancestors of modern Bushmen lived in the same places and in a very similar manner to those that were still hunting and gathering midway through the twentieth century. Perhaps most importantly, the data also reveals that if we measure the success of a civilization by its longevity, then the Bushmen were by far the most successful civilization in all of human history. Given that a societys ability to reproduce over time depends on its ability to feed itself then the key to the Bushmens success lay in their economic approach.

When Keynes lamented the habits and instincts bred into us over countless generations he invoked a vision of human nature that almost certainly had its origins in the Agricultural Revolution probably the most important inflexion point in the history our species. For while agriculture was far much more productive than hunting and gathering and enabled periods of rapid population growth it also exposed these rapidly growing populations to a new range of catastrophic risks. These ranged from crop failure induced famines to a series of new and terrifying diseases that migrated from their livestock. As a result where hunter-gatherers like the Ju/hoansi had an unyielding confidence in the providence of their environments, Neolithic farmers lives were fraught with fear of droughts, blights, pests, diseases, famines, and later raids by equally stressed strangers.

The need to mitigate these risks inspired a range of wondrous social and technological innovations from food storage techniques to systems of trade and exchange. It also conveyed a distinct advantage to those that were able to control the production, storage and distribution of resources thus giving rise to the problem of scarcity. At the same time it placed an unprecedented premium on human labour. As any farmer will tell you, how much food you get out of your land depends on how much energy you put into it. The difference now of course is that most of this energy is automated.

With the industrial revolution now having merged into the digital revolution there is a good case to be made to suggest that we have reached an inflexion point in the history of work as important as the agricultural revolution. Most of us in the worlds richest countries enjoy lives of unparalleled material abundance. We are now so well fed by the one percent of us who still work in agriculture that we throw roughly as much food into landfill every year as we consume. And with most of the rest of us working in the ever more amorphous services sector much of the work we do is aimed at keeping wheels of commerce rolling rather than ensuring that our essential needs are met.

This would be fine if we had no reason to worry that our continued preoccupation with growth and keeping everybody endlessly productive risked cannibalising our and many otherspecies future. It also would be fine if, people like the Ju/hoansi in Canaan had any realistic prospect of finding work. But with rural unemployment in Namibia sitting at 39.2% this is unlikely in the foreseeable future not least because as by product of increasing productivity and automation is an economy in which capital drives growth more than labour.

Yet most strategies proposed for dealing with problems like climate change and biodiversity loss aim to find more sustainable ways for us to continue to produce, consume and work as much as we do. Likewise most ideas proposed to manage automations impact tend focus mainly on the question of how to find replacement work for those nudged out by robots and AI.

But if our working culture is an artefact of the Agricultural Revolution and the economic problem has by and large been solved then we should take comfort from the fact that hunter-gatherers show that even if we are purposive we are more than capable of leading contented lives that are not defined by our economic contributions, that automation provides exactly the opportunity we need to rethink our relationships with the workplace, and in doing so wean us of our dangerous obsession with growth.

This is of course easier said than done as the Ju/hoansi residents of Canaan know all too well. And if you were to ask those among them that still remember their lives as hunter-gatherers they would remind you that their primitive affluence depended on far more than just a willingness to make do with having few needs easily met. It also demanded a society in which people cared little for accumulating wealth and in which everyone played an active role in jealously enforcing their fierce egalitarianism.Cow escapes on way to slaughterhouse, smashes through metal fence, breaks arm of man trying to catch her then swims to safety on island in lake Independent. That cow is an inspiration to us all.

Household chemicals rival vehicles as smog source Nature

Two cheers for the return of volatility John Authers, FT. It is far from clear that the investment industry any longer has the skills needed to help the markets in the process of price discovery. Bottom-up stockpicking based on crunching the fundamentals of a company balance sheet is a dying art. It has not been such a useful skill for some time. Hmm.

How a French Fraudster Climbed the World of International Arms Dealing OCCRP (Richard Smith).

The playboy who got away with $242m  using black magic BBC (Richard Smith).

Waymo Gets the O.K. for a Commercial Driverless Ride-Hailing Service Bloomberg

Sale of $5bn lithium stake to test electric car hype FT

Liberals write off $200M in student loans feds will never collect CBC. Canadian Liberals.

Arkansas banned a weedkiller. Now, Monsanto is suing Grist. Dicamba.

Syraqistan

Turkey denies use of chemicals in Syrias Afrin, says accusations baseless Reuters (Re Silc). Re Silc: What would McMaster say? He never lies. And Public reports clearly show Assads use of chemical weapons: McMaster Reuters (Re Silc). Re Silc: Must be the Niger yellow cake scam again. Where is Judith Miller? Readers, serious question: Is there anybody who does not understand those short-hand references?

An Endless War: Why 4 U.S. Soldiers Died in a Remote African Desert NYT (Re Silc). Re Silc: Its a jobs program.

Brexit

Germany edges toward Chinese-style rating of citizens Handelsblatt

China?

New Cold War

Trump Transition

Our Famously Free Press

Chronicle of a white supremacist PR crisis and the making of a hoax Media Matters. Normally, I dont link to Media Matters, but this is the best round-up I could find.

Cruise ship company sorry about disruptive brawl 9 News. Seems like more than a brawl!

Guillotine Watch

Class Warfare

A Ruling Over Embedded Tweets Could Change Online Publishing Wired

Make things pono: Kamehameha Schools settles sex abuse case Hawaii News Now

I am a knife LRB. As Judith Butler has argued, the performative is always melancholic, since the performer knows the role they are enacting is no more than skin deep (melancholic also because of all the other buried and unconsciously grieved sexual lives one might have led). Or political lives, one might add.

Antidote du jour:

Bonus antidote. Continuing to level up my cat game:

i should've know this was in istanbul taksim metro cat  0 fuks given pic.twitter.com/V3tcayO618  Bitchcoin (@SubMedina) February 16, 2018

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.When a trainee Ban-garda from Cahir won the Rose of Tralee in 1983 it made Brenda Hyland a famous face and household name all over Ireland.

Now her daughter Alannah Beirne is set for the same fame as she graces our TV screens as part of this years Next Top Model contenders.

Alannah, who is just 22, says her mothers experience as Rose, and the modelling work she did thanks to winning the iconic competition, helped her take one of the coveted BNTM places.

Often compared to Gigi Hadid and Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Alannahis described as an Irish Amazonian  she is 60 tall.

She grew up in Naas and works as a assistant pub manager. Her official BNTM profiles describes her: Alannah comes from a family full of musicians and often plays the flute in front of crowds. Alannah is also an outdoor enthusiast and a keen painter with an eye for visual merchandising.

The series has already begun filming but Alannah cant say how she got on or how far she made it in the competition. But she did say she loved her time in the BNTM house.

Above: Brenda Hyland in 1983

Recently graduated from college in visual merchandising and display, Alannah did a lot of work experience in her local Kildare Village. She says she would like a career in modelling but I also loves fitness and nutrition.

Hopefully her mothers words on winning the Rose of Tralee in 1983 will inspire Alannah  My dreams and aspirations continue to motivate me even now as I journey with my family, as I know dreams really do come true!

The new series of Britain's Next Top Model starts on March 16 at 9pm, on Lifetime.(Natural News) No decent human being should get their kicks from taking pot shots at someone who has had to battle cancer, especially when the person in question is 84 years old. Nonetheless, when that person is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and is clearly exhibiting signs of cognitive impairment, it is the responsibility of the authentic media to highlight the issue.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has been in office since being appointed by Bill Clinton on August 10, 1993, is known for her stance on gender discrimination and became infamous when she targeted President Donald Trump for abuse in the run-up to the most recent presidential elections.

At the time, the president retaliated by tweeting, Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot  resign!

While President Trumps response might have seemed harsh at the time, the truth of his statement became abundantly clear earlier this month when Ginsburg was interviewed by CNNs Poppy Harlow at Columbia University.

The Daily Wire describes the interview as embarrassing, and notes that it drew widespread criticism because of Ginsburgs total inability to collect her thoughts and formulate coherent responses to Harlows questions.

A horrified viewer named Bill Zankich tweeted, It is PAINFUL to watch thisI nearly exited the video multiple times. Her thoughts are fragmented and there is no association between the question and her response. I cannot fathom that mental wellness is not esteemed as necessary when related to sitting SCOTUS members. [Emphasis added]

Zankich makes a very salient point: As much as any humane person might feel compassion for an elderly person struggling in this way, if Ginsburg is not able to cope with a simple interview, how can she hold the highest judicial office in the land? And why are the mental faculties of supreme court judges not assessed, considering the gravity and responsibility of their positions?

While it might be tempting to write Ginsburgs incoherence and inability to formulate her thoughts off as the ravages of old age, if one examines her behavior closely it becomes obvious that she is suffering from what is known as chemo-brain.

As Mike Adams, the Health Ranger and editor of Natural News reported in 2016, Ginsburgs brain was damaged when she underwent chemotherapy treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2009. Chemotherapy is an incredibly toxic treatment that destroys both cancerous and healthy cells in the body  including the brain, resulting in impaired cognitive ability. (Related: Learn more at Chemotherapy.news.)

The Mayo Clinic lists some of the symptoms of chemo brain as follows: (Notice how many of them Ginsburg is exhibiting)

Mental fogginess;

Confusion;

Difficulty concentrating;

Struggling to find the right word;

A short attention span;

Trouble learning new skills;

Inability to multitask;

Issues with short-term memory;

Trouble remembering conversations, images or lists of words; and

Taking a long time to complete routine tasks.

Interestingly, even before Ginsburg underwent chemotherapy, the Health Ranger warned that she should be removed from the bench because the chemo she was about to receive would be sure to destroy at least some of her cognitive abilities.

Adams asked an important question at the time:

Should the freedom of an entire nation rest upon the judgment of a decision maker whose brain has been poisoned with chemotherapy?

Sadly, Ginsburg was already cancer-free when she was prescribed chemotherapy as a precautionary measure. Likely her doctors never even warned her about what this toxic treatment would do to her. And now, after a lifetime of meriting peoples respect, she has been reduced to incoherent ramblings.

(Image courtesy of Law.com)

Sources for this article include:

DailyWire.com

NaturalNews.com

NYDailyNews.com

MayoClinic.org

NaturalNews.comAttorneys for a southern California gun store chain have put the city of San Carlos on notice after it was blocked from opening an outlet in the city.

The owners of Turners Outdoorsman Gun and Ammo Outlet say they were treated unfairly after the city of San Carlos issued a moratorium on new gun stores.

Many community residents didnt like the idea of a new gun store opening in town, especially in light of the recent mass shootings happening in the country.

Every time we have one of these horrific shootings, everyone says No more! It has to stop, we have to do something. Doing something productive is not opening more gun stores, said shopper Suzanne Ortiz.

The letter from the attorneys representing Outdoorsmen was issued to the San Carlos City attorney on February 16th stating, Turners Outdoorsman has claims against the city of San Carlos for violations related to the issuance of a moratorium.

San Carlos City Council member, Ron Collins, says the timing of couldnt be worse.

When they first made their application it was right after the Las Vegas shooting, said Collins. And then a week before our council meeting, there was the Southerland Springs Shooting. And now theyve sent this letter two days after Parkland.

Collins says the potential legal action is also unnecessary because San Carlos has not banned the opening of any new gun store.

During a heated city council session in November, members approved a 14-day moratorium and then later extended it to a year.

Since then, owners of Outdoorsmen have taken down advertising signs for an opening that hasnt happened yet.

NBC Bay Area has reached out to the attorney representing Outdoorsmen and did not receive a response.An Iranian commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, likely killing all 65 people on board, state media reported.

An Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometers (485 miles) south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on Flight No. EP3704 were killed.

"After searching the area, we learned that unfortunately ... our dear passengers had lost their lives," Tabatabai said. "This plane had 60 passengers, 59 adults and one child, as well as a pilot, a co-pilot, two flight attendants and two air marshals on board."

The state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday night that one passenger had actually missed the flight, bringing the likely death toll to 65.

Due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported. Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 4,400 meters (14,435 feet) tall.

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country. It also flies internationally. It is Iran's third-largest airline by fleet size, behind state carrier Iran Air and Mahan Air. However, Aseman Airlines is banned from flying in the European Union over safety concerns.

The carrier has a fleet of 29 aircraft, including six ATR aircraft, according to FlightRadar24, a plane-tracking website. The ATR-72 that crashed Sunday had been built in 1993, Aseman Airlines CEO Ali Abedzadeh told state TV.

The plane took off from Tehran at 0433 GMT and gave its last signal at 0555 GMT, when the flight was at 16,975 feet and was descending, FlightRadar24 said.

Aseman Airlines has suffered other major crashes with fatalities. In October 1994, a twin-propeller Fokker F-28 1000 commuter plane flown by the airline crashed near Natanz, 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Tehran, also killing 66 people on board. An Aseman Airlines chartered flight in August 2008, flown by an Itek Air Boeing 737, crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing 74 people.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it has deployed to the area. Authorities said they would be investigating. Locals described hearing the crash, though no one had found the crash site yet, according to state TV.

European airplane manufacturer ATR, a Toulouse, France-based partnership of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., said it had no immediate information about the crash. The manufacturer specializes in regional turboprop aircraft of 90 seats or less.

Under decades of international sanctions, Iran's commercial passenger aircraft fleet has aged, with air accidents occurring regularly in recent years.

Following the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers, Iran signed deals with both Airbus and Boeing to buy scores of passenger planes worth tens of billions of dollars. U.S. politicians have expressed concern about the airplane sales to Iran. President Donald Trump remains skeptical of the atomic accord overall and has refused to re-certify it, putting the deal in question.

Home to 80 million people, Iran represents one of the last untapped aviation markets in the world. However, Western analysts are skeptical that there is demand for so many jets or available financing for deals worth billions of dollars.

In April 2017, ATR sealed a $536-million sale with Iran Air for at least 20 aircraft. Chicago-based Boeing also signed a $3 billion deal that month to sell 30 737 MAX aircraft to Aseman Airlines.

Iran has suffered a series of major airplane crashes in recent decades. The last major airliner crash in Iran happened in January 2011, when an Iran Air Boeing 727 broke to pieces on impact while trying an emergency landing in a snowstorm in northwestern Iran, killing at least 77 people.

In July 2009, a Russian-made jetliner crashed in northwest Iran shortly after taking off from the capital, killing all 168 on board. A Russian-made Ilyushin 76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran in February 2003, killing 302 people aboard.

In February 1993, an Iranian airliner with 132 people onboard collided with an air force jet after takeoff from Tehran's main airport, killing everyone onboard the two aircraft. And in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the Strait of Hormuz mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people onboard.Representative Joe Kennedy III, the rising star of the Democratic Party and nephew to Democratic candidate Chris Kennedy, held two rallies in Chicago Tuesday on his uncle's behalf.

The congressman who gained attention for his response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, held a rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Mi Tierra restaurant in Little Village.

Chris Kennedy recently spent some time in New York and Florida fundraising. Although state-wide polls have shown Kennedy in 3rd place, a new Cook County only poll shows Kennedy in second place.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who came within two points of winning the Illinois Democratic Primary in 2016, is also headed to Chicago this weeka visit thats causing a tug of war for Illinois Democrats.

Who is progressive enough to share the stage and "feel the Bern"?

Sanders' main man is Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia, who supported Sanders in 2016 and traveled to the Iowa caucus, New York primary and elsewhere on Sanders behalf. The official press release for Sanders says he "will join Chuy Garcia at Rally on the Southwest side of Chicago. The rally will take place on Thursday, Feb. 22 in the Marshall Square neighborhood.

There is no mention of any Democratic candidate for governor sharing that stage, even though the grassroots advocacy organization that grew out of the Sanders campaign, Our Revolution Illinois, has endorsed State Sen. Daniel Biss. Biss' name is not included. Commissioner Garcia and several other key members of Our Revolution Illinois, have endorsed Chris Kennedy.

Could both make their way to the stage? Or will they both find a way to have a photo taken with the popular progressive Sanders?

In the past several weeks, Biss has been targeted by Pritzker TV ads that criticized him for voting to reduce union pensions, a move that Biss now admits was a mistake. Biss has been trying to gain progressives support by offering a plan that includes free college tuition. He has recently received the endorsement of several groups including the People's Actiona group that promotes racial and economic justice.

Democrats running for Congress in other districts, including the crowded field in the 6th District and Marie Newman in the 3rd, are hoping to attend the Sanders rally and are anxiously awaiting a coveted endorsement.

The press release for Sanders visit mentions that Our Revolution also endorses State candidates Aaron Ortiz and Delia Ramirez, as well as Cook County Commissioner candidates Alma Anaya and Brandon Johnson.Special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for allegedly interfering in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections with the intention of promoting President Donald Trumps candidacy by posting as American activists, creating Facebook groups and organizing fake rallies.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at a press conference Friday that the Russians "allegedly conducted what they called 'information warfare' against the United States," with the goal of "spreading distrust against candidates and the political system in general."

Charges listed in the 37-page indictment include conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and they are the most direct allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election that put Trump in the White House. It also marks the first criminal charges against Russians believed to have secretly worked to influence the outcome.

Rosenstein said his team has not had communication with Russia about the indictments and would go through normal channels for the extradition of those indicted. However, the U.S. government has no extradition treaty with Russia. In the past, Russia has not cooperated with these requests, so it's unlikely those charged will ever face trial.

The Justice Department has for years supported indicting foreign defendants in absentia as a way of publicly shaming them and effectively barring them from foreign travel.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected the indictments on Saturday and dismissed them "just blabber."

"I have no response. You can publish anything and we can see those indictments multiplying," he said at the Munich Security Conference.

Moments later at the conference, U.S. national security advisor H.R. McMaster disagreed with Lavrov and said the "the evidence is now incontrovertible" of Russia's interference."

The indictment said some of the defendants communicated with "unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities." But Rosenstein said that "there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity."

He added that "there is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."

Trump used that to claim vindication on Twitter, pointing to the assertion that the charged conduct in the indictment did not affect the election results. He reiterated his claim Friday that there was "no collusion" and that the "Trump campaign did nothing wrong."

The indictment, brought by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia on Friday, states that "from in or around 2014 to the present, defendant knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (and with persons known and unknown to the Grand Jury) to defraud the United States ... for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."

In his Friday tweet, Trump called attention to the 2014 beginning of the operation, highlighting that it was "long before I announced that I would run for President."

But the indictment does not resolve the collusion question at the heart of the continuing Mueller probe, which before Friday had produced charges against four Trump associates, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn and former Trump Campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Mueller is also investigating possible links between Russian meddling and members of Trump's campaign.



The Russians charged, the indictment says, used and transferred the social security numbers and birth dates of unknowing Americans. They then used those identifications to open PayPal accounts, create fake driver's licenses and post on social media accounts using the victims' identities.

In a statement obtained by NBC News, PayPal said it is working with authorities and did so to identify and stop improper and possibly illegal activity.

"PayPal is intensely focused on combatting and preventing the illicit use of our services," the company said.

The social media pages and groups created by those charged were designed to attract U.S. audiences, among them YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. They supported the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump and disparaged Hillary Clinton. The Russians used their fictitious online personas to distribute derogatory information about Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Mario Rubio and to support Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Cruz and Rubio ran against Trump in the Republican primary; Sanders opposed Clinton in the Democratic primary.



They used election-related hashtags such as #MAGA, #Trump2016, #TrumpTrain, #IWontProtectHillary and #Hillary4Prison.

They began to promote allegations of voter fraud by the Democratic Party, including through ads they had purchased on Facebook. One post, on an account they controlled called "Stop A.I.," alleged that "Hillary Clinton has already committed voter fraud during the Democrat Iowa Caucus."

In June 2016, defendants and their co-conspirators, posing online as Americans, communicated with an American affiliated with a Texas-based grassroots organization. They learned from that person that they should focus their activities on purple states like Colorado, Virginia & Florida.



"This indictment serves as a reminder that people are not always who they appear to be on the internet," Rosenstein told reporters. "The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy. We must not allow them to succeed."

Trump echoed Rosenstein's call in a White House statement, saying, "It is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. Its time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions. We must unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections."

The indictment also said that those charged staged political rallies inside the United States, posing as Americans and U.S. grassroots groups. The defendants allegedly staged rallies both in support of then-president-elect Trump and opposed to him in New York on the same day.

Pro-Trump rallies took place in June and July 2016 in NYC, as well as in August 2016 in Florida. A "Support Hillary" rally took place in July 2016 in DC.

Ahead of a Florida rally, the Russians paid one person to build a cage on a flatbed truck and another to wear a costume portraying Clinton in a prison uniform. But they also organized some rallies opposing Trump, including one in New York after the election called "Trump is NOT my president."



The Internet Research Agency, a notorious Russian troll farm registered with the Russian government as a Russian corporate entity in July 2013, obscured its conduct by operating through a number of other Russian entities. It employed hundreds of individuals, including those who created fictitious personas. More than 80 people were involved in what was at times referred to as the translator project, which focused on the U.S. population. The organizations strategy by May 2014 was to interfere with the 2016 presidential election with the goal of spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.

The organization was funded by catering and management companies controlled by defendant Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a wealthy St. Petersburg businessman often referred to as "Putin's chef" in the media because his organizations had hosted dinners for Russian President Vladimir Putin and foreign leaders.

Prigozhin was quoted in Russian state media responding to the indictments, saying, "Americans are really impressionable people. They see what they want to see. I greatly respect them. Im not upset at all that I am on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him."

As Mueller's investigation picked up steam, the Russians destroyed evidence of their activities, with one of those indicted sending an email in September 2017 to a family member that said the FBI had "busted" them so they were covering their tracks.

That person, Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina, wrote the family member, "I created all of these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Its such a shame, said Gary Valentinsen, who is a member of the rail society. Although he has a nice model train setup at home, he said, he enjoys interacting with the public and educating them about the impact that trains have had on California.

I think I got into trains when my dad put the one around the tree when I was 3 years old and I never stopped, he said.

Valentinsen came up with a scavenger hunt type of game for children to play while visiting the tracks. They have to check off a list of things they have seen on the model including a Coca Cola truck, an orange bus and a drive-in movie. To make the list, Valentinsen said he walked around the track on his knees to make sure that he didnt put anything on it that kids wouldnt be able to see.

Graeme Cevallos, 14, said he has been at the rail society for four years, but has had trains at his house since he was 5.

Ive always liked trains, he said. It gives me something to do because theres not a lot in Napa to do for kids.

Keeping it would be a good idea, said Ralph Schroeder of Calistoga. I think its good for young people and people who are interested in this kind of thing  there are a lot of train enthusiasts.President Donald Trump's former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman was left speechless for several seconds on Friday's episode of the CBS show "Big Brother: Celebrity Edition" when her cast mate Brandi Glanville posed a shocking question about her former boss.

"Did you ever sleep with him?" the former "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star asked.

"With who?" Manigault Newman replied.

"Trump," she said.

"Hell no!" Manigault Newman said. "God! Brandi, that's horrible!"

"Apparently, a lot of girls do," Glanville said.

"Well, I'm not," Omarosa said. "Now, there is somebody in the White House who is sleeping around with everybody, but she is not me. I've never had to do that."

Piers Morgan Claims Omarosa Asked Him to Have Sex During Celebrity Apprentice to Make Lots of Money

Manigault Newman, the "villain" of season one of Trump's former show "The Apprentice," has been making headlines for revealing details about her time in the White House. Last year, the reality star was made an aide to the president and the director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison. She was fired in December.

Brandi, who competed on "Celebrity Apprentice" in 2015, said she heard rumors that some contestants on the show had slept with Trump when he was its host. Manigault Newman asked her if she ever heard her name in the rumors.

"No. He seemed to like you so much, I was just wondering," Glanville said.

"God no," Manigault Newman said. "I'm just ratings gold."

Former "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Claudia Jordan, who also competed on "Celebrity Apprentice," raised eyebrows in January when she commented on Trump and Manigault Newman's relationship in an interview on the Unstable'D podcast, saying "There is some talk that there may have been some inappropriateness between the two. Allegedly."Following the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people, parents are calling for change and are demanding that political leaders take action.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he would be "angry" if he were a student or parent who had been personally experienced a school shooting. He sat down with NBC 6 anchor Sheli Muniz to discuss what change will come from Wednesdays shooting.

When Muniz asked how the gunman was able to obtain a weapon, Rubio said, "The system is broken."

"When that background check was run, it didnt say he had been expelled from school, it didnt say that there had been 30 police calls, that he had these social media posts  none of that," he said.

Rubio argues that there needs to be a better vetting process.

On the other side, Florida state Sen. Gary Farmer, a Democrat, called for a ban on assault weapons at a gun reform rally Saturday. The ban was in place from 1994 until 2004.

When asked about the assault weapon ban, Rubio contested that it would be ineffective.

"They are already out there. People can buy them. Theyre grandfathered in under the law, he said.

On Friday, an online activist group placed three mobile billboards outside of his office, inspired by the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The buses read Slaughtered in school, And still no gun control and How come, Marco Rubio?

I say any of the laws that they would have wanted passed would not have prevented this attack," he said. "That doesnt mean we should not pass any laws. That doesnt mean we shouldnt pass these laws. There may be a different reason why we need these laws."

The Florida senator also said that the anti-assault weapons activists campaign ignores attempted action, like sponsoring bills for a mental health database and school safety measures.

Rubio also denied reports he took millions from the National Rifle Association.

Its false. They havent given me $3.3 million. They may have spent $3.3 million in campaigns I was involved in, but that could very well have been going against my opponent, he said.

When asked what action could be taken following the Parkland shooting, Rubio conceded, "If history is an indicator, maybe nothing and that would be unfortunate."The morning after hundreds of firefighters battled an aggressive fire in an Old City building that houses apartments and retail stores, there were concerns of collapse.



The fire broke out around 3 a.m. Sunday on the sixth floor of 239 Chestnut St., across the street from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, drawing about 400 firefighters, Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said.

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"We grabbed our wallet, keys, my glasses, our shoes, our dog and literally ran downstairs," said Jenna Federico. "We felt all the smoke around us going down the stairs."

An Old City apartment fire left dozens of residents plus tourists staying in a nearby hotel evacuated early Sunday morning. Hundreds of firefighters worked for hours to gain control of the fire and were praised for their work as there are no reports of injuries. NBC10s Randy Gyllenhaal has the details.

Around 160 people were evacuated during the fire though none of them were injured. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries but were later released from the hospital. Nine cats and four birds died in the fire, the Red Paw Relief Team said.

"We're going to be here for hours," Thiel said.



Several tourists woke up the sounds of alarms and the smell of smoke.

The fire was later placed under control. The museum closed Sunday but opened on Presidents Day, urging visitors to expect traffic troubles in the area.

More than 140 firefighters are battling this massive fire in old city  its at 4 alarms. 3rd and chestnut. Dozens evacuated @NBCPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/gXWNUX6YLp  Randy Gyllenhaal (@RandyGyllenhaal) February 18, 2018

The neighboring Best Western Plus Independence Park hotel was also evacuated. Some people took shelter in a SEPTA bus brought to the scene as a temporary shelter.

"These guys were taking a beating early in the morning," retired firefighter Bob Folen said of the Philadelphia Fire Department.

Firefighters spent the overnight hours into Monday keeping people away from the damaged buildings. The entire area where the fire spread is considered a potential collapse zone. City inspectors will check to see if any of buildings are safe for people to return.

A massive fire forced dozens of people to evacuate in Old City early Sunday morning. NBC10s Drew Smith has the latest on the investigation.Chopping vegetables in an Otay Mesa business was not in Flossie Hall's original plan, but when you're a military spouse you learn to deal with changes.

"I was a student for almost ten years, four states, four colleges, four moves because of my husband," Hall told NBC 7." So everywhere I moved I got a job but then I would have to move somewhere else and then find another line of work."

Like many military spouses, Hall found it hard to find and keep a steady job, and a new study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Hiring Our Heroes, has found military spouses face unemployment rates at four times higher than the national average.

The unemployment rate among military spouses was 16 percent in 2017.

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) hopes to attach a measure to the National Defense Authorization Act this year that would allow federal agencies to expedite the hiring process and allow the Department of Defense to provide more education, training and childcare.

Spouses have to deal with frequent moves, job certifications that don't transfer across states, bases far from cities and the difficulties of finding child care.

"[Its] difficult, you have to change careers sometimes. You can't work because there's nothing flexible enough or affordable for the childcare so it is frustrating, she said.

Hall now runs her own health food business called "Healthy Momma" where she helps other military spouses who were in her shoes.After receiving a phone call last week, a local store jumped into action to help a Florida family desperate to find dress blues to bury their fallen Marine in.

A customer reached out to Gearhound Surplus, a military surplus and used uniform store, on Thursday saying the family of a Marine hed served with needed dress blues to bury him in.

Joseph Foster, the store's owner and a Marine veteran, immediately knew the store needed to help.

"We stopped everything we were doing here, grabbed all the uniforms, mounted the ribbons for them and sent it straight over to the post office overnight, and it arrived about two hours ago so the Marine will be buried in his uniform on Tuesday," Foster told NBC 7.

The funeral is Tuesday morning and the family needed the uniform right away, Foster said.

"The family was just ecstatic that it arrived on time and that theyre going to honor the Marine how he wanted to be honored."

The Marine's step-sister called the store back asking how much she owed.

Foster told her, "no, were not taking money from you."

He told NBC 7 its just one small thing they can do to honor fallen Marines.

"I cant charge anyone," Foster said. "Its just a little something we do to give back to the military community because if it wasnt for them we wouldnt have our business and the country that we live in."

Foster is a retired Marine veteran who was injured by an enemy sniper in Iraq in 2010. He opened Gearhound in 2014, and he said they have provided about 50 uniforms for fallen Marines. He said if the family had to buy a full used dress uniform themselves it could run up to $800.



"Ive had customers write letters, send me videos, come in the store, travel all the way to California to give me a thank you," he said. "Some of them will donate a little bit of cash. That way we can help the next one." Some people also donate old uniforms.

The Marine Foster helped this weekend committed suicide, which hit home for him because one of his cousins who was a Marine, killed himself when Foster was still in high school.

"Ive always remembered him and I remember the heartache that it caused for our family, and unfortunately its an epidemic that is going through every branch of the military," he said.

He wishes he could save the Marines from killing themselves, of course, "but this is just one last little piece that we can do to honor them," he explained. "When the Marines look into the casket they dont see the troubles that they had, they dont blame them for what they did, they see them as the Marine that they knew, that they were so proud of and thats the image we want the family to see.

"We want them to be proud of their Marine, no matter what happened and how their life ended. Thats the biggest honor for us."

He said he does whatever he can to help fellow Marines who come into the shop, including referring them to one of the nonprofits they work with if they need to talk to someone. "Marines take care of one another."

If you or someone you know is feeling depressed or suicidal please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). The lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress as well as prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.

Teen survivors of the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, plan to bring their call for stricter gun laws to Washington, D.C.

Five students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, including Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky, David Hogg, Alex Wind and Jaclyn Corin announced their plans Sunday to mobilize in a nationwide march, including a demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 24.

"We're marching because it's not just schools. It's movie theaters, it's concerts, it's nightclubs," student Alex Wind told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. "This kind of stuff can't just happen. You know, we are marching for our lives. We're marching for the 17 lives we lost and we're marching for our children's lives and our children's children and their children."

Dubbed the "March for Our Lives," organizers say "school safety is not a political issue," according to the march's site.

"There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning, playing, and growing," reads the site.

Students are also planning a nationwide school walk-out on April 20, which marks the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.

I will not feel safe going back to school, myself, until reasonable mental health care legislation and gun control legislation is passed because at this point, its unacceptable, David Hogg said.

Hogg also addressed President Donald Trump directly in a passionate response to a recent tweet questioning Democrats' lack of gun control legislation.

Just like they dont want to solve the DACA problem, why didnt the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didnt want to, and now they just talk!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018

You're the President. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us, Hogg said.

President Trump will hold a listening session with students and teachers of the Florida high school on Wednesday. The White House did not immediately answer questions about which students would be attending the session.

Following the aftermath of the shooting, Parkland students hope events at the state and national level will call attention to their cause.

Were the only ones that can speak up, Jaclyn Corin said. We have to be the adults in this situation because clearly people have failed us in the government.

Corin will drive nearly across the state of Florida in the next few days to join hundreds of students' as they voice pleas for stricter gun laws, in front of Florida's legislators in Tallahassee.

The accused shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons. Students and neighbors said Cruz threatened and harassed people, posed with guns in disturbing photos on social media and bragged about target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.What to Know Peggy Cooper Cafritz died Sunday at the age of 70.

Cooper Cafritz founded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and was the president of the D.C. Board of Education.

Mayor Bowser praised Cooper Cafritz' "dogged determination to break down barriers" in a statement.

Peggy Cooper Cafritz, a champion of social and racial justice, arts and education who co-founded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, has died at age 70.

She died Sunday morning in a local hospital from an infection, News4 has learned.

In a statement released after Cooper Cafritz death, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser credited the activist with helping thousands of young people through her arts and education efforts.

Because of Peggy, we have the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. And because of Peggy, thousands of students have had, and will continue to have, the opportunity to grow and develop in an educational environment that supports their unique talents and aspirations. Her legacy will be felt by generations to come, Bowser said.

Cooper Cafritz moved to D.C. from Mobile, Ala. in 1964 to attend George Washington University. She immediately started fighting injustices on campus, the university said, first by working to abolish racial segregation by fraternities and sororities. She won that fight, the university said in a 2017 profile.

Inspired by a 1964 showcase of young, black musicians from across the District, Cooper Cafritz started a summer program to hone talents of D.C.s young people. That program grew into Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which opened in 1974.

She attended the re-opening of the school in August 2017 after the building was remodelled.

Cooper Cafritz earned a law degree in 1971 and worked in both media and public service.

She won Emmy and Peabody awards for her work on documentaries for WTOP-TV and Post-Newsweek Stations and art criticism on WETAs Around Town, George Washington University said.

Cooper Cafritz served as president of the District of Columbia Board of Education, a publicly elected office, from 2001 to 2007. She stepped down to spend more time with her family, George Washington University said.

In the 1980s, she married wealthy real estate developer Conrad Cafritz. The couple later divorced.

Cooper Cafritz was an avid art collector who amassed a collection worth millions of dollars. When a fire burned down her Northwest, D.C. home in 2009, hundreds of works of art by African-American and African artists were destroyed.

She filed a lawsuit against D.C. Water after the agency admitted that they lacked the water pressure to properly extinguish the flames, News4 reported. The cause of the fire was never determined.

She recently wrote a book called "Fired Up! Ready to Go!: Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity: An African American Life in Art," in which she discusses the lost works. The book is set to be released in March.

Cooper Cafritz raised two sons, a daughter, many teenage foster children and had many godchildren. In honor of her children, she annually gave three Duke Ellington School of the Arts students college scholarships, George Washington University said.

We mourn the loss of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, one of Washingtons most inspiring and generous visionaries and activists, mayor Bowser said. Her belief in our young people and her dogged determination to break down barriers was matched by the extraordinary persistence and leadership needed to bring her vision to life.Chanting "enough is enough" and waving signs emblazoned with messages like "No more silence, end gun violence," hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale Saturday to rally for stronger gun control laws in the aftermath of the deadly Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

The protest, which aimed to improve firearm safety legislation, called on the Florida Legislature to act in the name of gun regulation.

Survivors of the shooting that killed 17 people spoke with passion during Saturday's rally in front of the federal courthouse, and pleaded with lawmakers to change the nation's gun laws.

One student, Emma Gonzalez, angrily criticized politicians who take campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association. She challenged them to stop taking money, leading the crowd in a call-and-response chant.

"They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun," she said, chanting with the crowd, "We call BS."

She also said adults who believed that the shooter was mentally ill should have done more to prevent him from having a weapon.

A mosaic of public records is reported to show that alleged gunman Nikolas Cruz was dealing with depression and harming himself. When a Department of Children and Families investigation concluded in November, officials deemed him "stable enough not to be hospitalized." People also reported Cruz to law enforcement officials, including a person who warned of his "desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts," but the tips fell through the system's cracks. It was after these reports that Cruz allegedly used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle to attack his former school on Wednesday.



At the rally, senior Delaney Tarr took on a lack of gun legislation, saying, "People that I know, people that I love have died, and I will never be able to see them again."

"They will never be able to attend homecoming, to attend prom, to go to college, to receive those national meritts scholarships, to school on their school's swim team. I just want to know, where's the common sense in that," Tarr said.

One victim, Nicholas Dworet, had committed to swim for the University of Indianapolis. Another victim, Carmen Schentrup, was named one of 53 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists in September.

Florida Sen. Gary Farmer of District 34 took the podium Saturday and said that "the discussion of sensible gun safety laws has been absent and silenced in Tallahassee and in Washington D.C. for too long."

This is the result of the stranglehold that the NRA has over Tallahassee and Washington DC and too many legislators, he continued.

One parent, Kiara Finn of Miramar, told NBC 6 that her 5-year-old daughter Tarin asked if the gunman was coming to her school, and "if anybody can just come into her school and shoot them."

Finn said her message to legislators is "enough is enough," and that there is no reason for an assault rifle.

Ahead of the protest, the Miami Gun Show -- one of the largest gun shows in the state -- opened Saturday morning less than 50 miles from Stoneman Douglas.

The Florida Gun Shows organizers say they want to acknowledge the City of Parkland and its citizens, as well as the students and teachers who were murdered in the vicious attack.

"Theres no disrespect or insensitivity intended by this long-planned gun show, the organization said. "We demand and enforce strict gun safety and encourage training for those who wish to own firearms."

In addition to Saturday's rally, the mass shooting sparked calls for more protests, walkouts and sit-ins across the United States.

Organizers behind the Women's March, an anti-Trump and female empowerment protest, called for a 17-minute walkout on March 14 to "protest Congress' inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods."

The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools, meanwhile, announced a "national day of action" on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which two students opened fire on their classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher.

The organization is encouraging teachers and students to organize sit-ins, walkouts, marches and any other events to protest gun violence in schools.

"The politicians sit on their hands as our children and their teachers are murdered in their schools," Diane Ravitch, the group's president, and Carol Burris, its executive director, said in a post online.

The Associated Press' Sudhin S. Thanawala contributed to this report.Napa officials have begun contacting restaurateurs, property owners and the Downtown Napa Association merchants group to learn what construction schedule will cause them the least interference, according to Ferons.

A co-owner of Allegria said the delay in remaking Dwight Murray Plaza has left him uncertain about how to plan for the future, and even about how many seats will be available at his restaurant.

The thing is, we thought we were going to lose some of our patio to construction, said Rodi Yildiz, who opened Allegria with his brother Baris in 2002. We thought they would start this summer and we took reservations according to that  but now its another year (later).

Its challenging, not knowing whats going to happen, how much of our patio we were going to lose, he said, pointing to uncertainty about how much outdoor seating he can offer during the busy summer months.Friday's election-interference indictment brought by Robert Mueller, the U.S. special counsel, underscores how thoroughly social-media companies like Facebook and Twitter were played by Russian propagandists.

And it's not clear if the companies have taken sufficient action to prevent something similar from happening again.

Thirteen Russians, including a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, were charged Friday in a plot to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election through social media propaganda. The indictment said the Russians' conspiracy aimed, in part, to help Republican Donald Trump and harm the prospects of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The alleged scheme was run by the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm based in St. Petersburg, Russia, which used bogus social media postings and advertisements fraudulently purchased in the name of Americans to try to influence the White House race.

"I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people," wrote one of the defendants, Irina Kaverzina, in an email to a family member obtained by investigators.

Tech companies have spent months pledging to fix their platforms ahead of the upcoming midterm elections this year, and reiterated those promises Friday. Twitter said in a Friday night statement it is "committed to addressing, mitigating, and ultimately preventing any future attempts to interfere in elections and the democratic process, and to doing so in the most transparent way possible." Facebook thanked U.S. investigators for taking "aggressive action" and pointed out its own role in helping the investigation.

Researchers, however, noted that the companies' business incentives don't necessarily align with improved security and anti-hoaxing measures that might have frustrated Russian agents.

"I've never been convinced that these sites are motivated to fix a problem like this," said Notre Dame business professor Timothy Carone, who added that security controls make it harder for sites like Facebook to offer users new features and keep advertisers happy. "It's a really, really, really difficult problem."

The indictment confirms earlier findings from congressional investigations that Russian agents manipulated social media to promote social division by mimicking grassroots political activity. It also underscores that the problem wasn't just "bots"  i.e., automated social-media accounts  but human conspirators who fine-tuned propaganda and built online relationships with American activists.

"The idea wasn't necessarily to help one political party over another, but to sow as much discord as possible," said Melissa Ryan, a Democratic social media marketing expert who now keeps track of right-wing online activity. "This was America that was attacked."

The Russians, according to the indictment, created group pages on social media platforms to address certain demographics and hot topics in the U.S. Names for the group pages included "Secured Borders," "Blacktivist," "United Muslims of America," "Army of Jesus," "South United" and "Heart of Texas." These groups had garnered a following of hundreds of thousands of users by 2016.

At one point in September 2016, the person operating "Secured Borders" was criticized in an internal review for having a "low number of posts dedicated to criticizing Hillary Clinton."

And those operating "United Muslims of America" were encouraged to post anti-voting messages, with language such as, "American Muslims [are] boycotting elections today, most of the American Muslim voters refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton because she wants to continue the war on Muslims in the middle east and voted yes for invading Iraq."

That group also promoted a rally called "Support Hillary. Save American Muslims" in July 2016 in DC and "recruited a real US person to hold a sign depicting Clinton and a quote attributed to her stating 'I think Sharia Law will be a powerful new direction of freedom.'"

On Twitter, the conspirators created the "Tennessee GOP" account with the handle @TEN_GOP, pretending it was operated by a state political party. This account eventually surpassed 100,000 followers.

Social media companies weren't the only ones subverted in the influence campaign. Federal prosecutors allege that Russian criminals used PayPal as a primary conduit to transfer money for general expenses and to buy Facebook ads aimed at influencing voters. Prosecutors say the accounts were opened using fake identities to help bypass PayPal's security measures.

PayPal spokesman Justin Higgs said the San Jose, California, company has been cooperating with the Justice Department and is "intensely focused on combatting and preventing the illicit use" of its services.

Email servers Yahoo, Gmail and Outlook were also caught up in the scheme. The fraudulent bank accounts used to open the PayPal accounts were acquired with creative email addresses. Some of the addresses included usernames like "wokeaztec," "allforusa," "unitedvetsofamerica," "patriotsus," "staceyredneck" and "ihatecrime1."

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer outlined the complexity of preventing abuse.

"Election integrity is challenging because again, you're dealing with adversaries," Schroepfer said during a conference in Half Moon Bay, California. "They are trying to accomplish a goal and they have smart people who are trying to figure out their way into the system to accomplish that."

For instance, infiltrators often react immediately to countermeasures. If they figure out Facebook is checking the internet addresses of computers to identify visitors from particular countries, Schroepfer said, "they'll take over a machine with malware in the U.S. and post from there instead. People say, 'Why don't you just check the currency or the IP address?' And as soon as you do that, literally that afternoon, they will change tactics."

Schroepfer said the company is making "good headway" on the problem, although he declined to give specifics. "By kind of doing a lot better job of trying to figure out the authenticity of these different actors, we can certainly stop that sort of behavior," he said. "There's a big focus on that."

On the other hand, now that the Russians have shown how this sort of campaign is done, the door is open for others  including American special interest groups  to use the same tactics to target disaffected voters in the right places, said David Gerzof Richard, a communications professor at Emerson College.

"This is the new norm," he said. "It's not going away. It's not going to be magically fixed by a Silicon Valley CEO or a group of executives saying they're going to do better."

AP Technology Writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report.Authorities in Maine say a 53-year-old man was killed when his snowmobile a struck a tree.

The Maine Warden Service says Brian Gatie, of Smithfield, was operating the first of three sleds traveling together when he crashed on Saturday. Game wardens say he wasn't wearing a helmet and excessive speed appears to be a factor in the crash.

It was the third fatal snowmobile crash this year.President Donald Trump continued his defensive commentary on Friday's indictments of Russians in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, saying Russia "succeeded beyond their wildest dreams" in dividing America and is now laughing at the U.S.

If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018

Thirteen Russians and three Russian organizations were indicted Friday for allegedly interfering in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections with the intention of promoting Trumps candidacy. Charges listed in the 37-page document include conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, and they are the most direct allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 election that put Trump in the White House.

Trump also asserted that he "never said Russia did not meddle in the election" and harkened back to a comment he made at a 2016 debate that the meddling "could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?"

He insisted that the "Russian 'hoax'" he repeatedly refers to "was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!"

The president has repeatedly expressed skepticism over the Russian election meddling. In November, he said he believed the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that there had been meddling but also said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin is sincere when he says Russia didn't interfere.

In his rapid-fire series of tweets Sunday, Trump also thanked  and attacked  Rep. Adam Schiff, who said the Obama administration should have created a "more forceful deterrent" against adversaries wanting to launch cyber attacks on the U.S.

The House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat pointed to the Obama administration's muted response to the 2014 Sony hacking, telling NBC Friday that "others around the world watched that and determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention."

Schiff argued the Obama administration, therefore, shares some responsibility for what happened with Russia, adding, "We should have called them out much earlier."

Former President Barack Obama in late 2016 defended his administration's response to the Russian meddling, also saying he had confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin that September, telling him to "cut it out." And former Vice President Joe Biden recently said Obama didn't want to politicize the threat and that the full scope of the meddling wasn't known until after the 2016 election.



Trump analyzed Schiff's comments, tweeting Sunday, "Finally, Liddle Adam Schiff, the leakin monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!"

He added: "Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasnt I a great candidate?"

Trump's response to the indictments has largely focused on himself and his election victory, which he has continued to argue was fairly achieved without the help of Russia. He has quoted political commentators  and a Facebook official  who he says also believe there is no evidence of collusion or swaying of the election.

The White House doubled down on the president's assertions, writing in all caps in a Friday statement that there was "NO COLLUSION."

Though the president and White House are correct in that collusion was not proven in the indictment Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the probe, had carefully chosen his words Friday when he said, "There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in the alleged unlawful activity."

Aside from encouraging Americans to "come together" and "stop the outlandish partisan attacks," Trump has refrained from suggesting any kind of retribution for a foreign adversary infiltrating America's electoral processes. However, a top administration official took a more direct route.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster said in Germany Saturday that the evidence of Moscow's meddling is "incontrovertible," adding that "the United States will expose and act against those who use cyberspace, social media and other means to advance campaigns of disinformation, subversion and espionage."

Trump clapped back Saturday at McMaster's forceful language, once again bringing the conversation back to his 2016 win and pointing the finger at his political opponents.

"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!" the president tweeted.

Turning to a different topic Sunday, but continuing to criticize his opponents, Trump railed against law enforcement over an Obama-era payment to Iran, tweeting that he has "never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!"

The Obama administration transferred the money to Iran in 2016, using non-U.S. currency. The administration said it was the settlement of a decades-old arbitration claim between the countries. An initial payment was delivered the same day Tehran agreed to release four American prisoners.

The Obama administration eventually acknowledged the cash was used as leverage until the Americans were allowed to leave Iran. Congressional Republicans decried the payment as ransom, which the Obama administration denied.

By late Sunday night, Trump shifted his wide-ranging Twitter critique to Oprah Winfrey, who has played down suggestions she should run for president in 2020. Trump said her appearance as an interviewer on "60 Minutes" was "biased" and "slanted." ''Hope Oprah runs so she can be exposed and defeated just like all of the others!" Trump tweeted.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.It is called bad paper and it has come back to haunt some of Connecticuts most committed, battle-hardened and now, badly bruised military veterans.

For Juliet Taylor, 44, of Bridgeport, it was post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury she sustained during a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Armys 118th Medical Battalion. Back home with the Connecticut National Guard, which she joined after eight years of active duty, the effects piled up.

The death of a sister exacerbated undiagnosed effects of her overseas experiences: a serious fall, witnessing of the rape of a fellow soldier, as well as a series of suicides in her unit, including her first sergeant.

Then came the hysterectomy, the low-vision diagnosis, the repossession of her car. It piled up and it became tougher and tougher to attend weekend National Guard drills. After a dozen years in uniform, including eight years of active duty with no break in service, she was given a lesser, general discharge for continuous and willful absence from Guard activities. An honorable discharge is needed for benefits like college-tuition waivers.

Its such a crazy situation, said the former medical-patient administrator and assistant chaplain whose duty stations included Arlington National Cemetery. There was no support from leadership. It was horrible going to drill on weekends. It was shaming and embarrassing, as if everything I did before that was for nothing.

For the second consecutive year, the Connecticut Chapter of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America wants the General Assembly to change state law and allow 800 veterans with service-connected mental health problems, who have other-than-honorable discharges, to be eligible for programs from which they are prohibited. The costs to the state, they said, are minimal.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and sexual trauma would be included in the legislation, in attempt to stem the groups higher rates of suicide, homelessness and drug abuse during their service.

But in a bureaucratic maze that makes it tough to appeal to the military for discharge upgrades, these vets, who all volunteered and many of whom served in hazardous war zones, are ineligible for treatment for programs aimed to ease other vets back into civilian life, including substance abuse and mental illness in the state veterans home and hospital in Rocky Hill, tuition assistance for state colleges, and even funeral or burial assistance.

Many veterans dont even start feeling the long-term effects of stress and trauma until after they return home.

After graduating from Masuk High School in Monroe, Steve Kennedy attended college for two years, then dropped out to join the Armys famous 82nd Airborne Battalion, serving two tours of duty in Iraq, starting in 2007. Under different circumstances, sympathetic superior officers might have forgiven the 10 days he was absent without leave after returning to the U.S. Maybe someone could have reached out to help with the nightmares, the feeling of isolation, the need to know someone was watching his back, like all uniformed personnel did, back in-country.

The big thing when you return home is being back on your own, he said. The psychologist in the Army told me We dont have the resources to treat you. My discharge, depending on the commander, could just have easily been honorable.

In discharge-appeals cases, the burden is on the veterans to prove theyre eligible for the upgrade to honorable, and few are in positions to hire lawyers to fight for them.

Theyve served their country and sacrificed a lot to do that and now they need help to find their way back home, said Kennedy, who received a general discharge. There are different reasons for their mental health issues, but as it is now, theyre entitled to nothing.

Now, the 31-year-old from Fairfield, a chemistry Ph.D. candidate at NYU, with a fellowship paying expenses, is helping the veterans organization, with support from Yale Law School students, to lobby state lawmakers for a new pathway to gain some of the benefits awarded vets with honorable discharges.

Its a flawed federal system, said Kennedy, who got involved with the veterans group as a social activity, then saw the growing need for vets with bad paper to get the services they earned, and need.

I think I didnt think about it at the time because that was our culture, said Taylor, who came home to full-time work at the VA hospital in West Haven, then got an internship with the state Department of Children and Families.

Her family and church have assisted immensely. But she stressed she and hundreds of others need mainstream assistance, the kind that those with honorable discharges get, after putting themselves in danger for the United States. We need help with mental-health evaluations and we need leadership to listen to us.

We went into the service and we want to feel were appreciated, Taylor said. I should have gotten better treatment.

You do see people railroaded out, said Kennedy, who gets partial benefits. Administrative discharges are up to the commander, whose number-one priority is readiness. So there is a perverse incentive on the part of commanders. What we need is treatment while in service, or to quickly have their discharges reviewed.

State Rep. Jack Hennessy, D-Bridgeport, a co-chairman of the legislative Committee on Veterans Affairs, said the proposal to expand eligibility will get a public hearing and possible action this year. He said that awareness, and support, is building.

A former Army Ranger, Hennessy said he and committee members understand what the veterans face.

Were asking the National Guard to provide us with a list of the different violations that might lead to less-than-honorable discharges, Hennessy said. We want to see exactly what it is that veterans have to have done, to see the severity of violations that occurred. For example, if someone is caught smoking marijuana, is this a credible action to deny veterans benefits? I would say the answer would be, not really.BRIDGEPORT  Just because Lt. Stephen Shuck was allegedly spending more time at home than at the Bridgeport Police Department does not mean he was not earning his paycheck.

Thats our position, Police Union President Sgt. Charles Paris said of Schuck, a 34-year-veteran of the force arrested Tuesday and charged with scamming the departments payroll and overtime system. He showed up every morning, went to crime scenes. He just so happened to do much of his work while either at home or out of the office.

The union head said nothing is in Shucks contract that says he had to be in the detective bureau during his whole shift

I think there is a rush to judgment here, Paris said. He performed his duties. Whats the difference where he did it? Its not like he was out of the state. He was five minutes from the city.

Police Chief Armando Perez wasnt buying that.

So does that mean I can run the police department from my home then? Perez said. That is nonsense. Chuck Paris is doing his job and I respect that, but in this case I disagree with him completely.

Perez said Shuck needed to be at work to supervise the sergeants and detectives working beneath him.

There are open investigations, and his job is to supervise and review his officers work, the chief said.

According to Shucks arrest warrant affidavit, the 64-year-old has a well-established pattern, over a period of more than eight months, of working only a small portion of the time in which he is being paid for, often working just minutes a day, and this equates to well over a $2,000 loss (the minimum amount required for prosecution) to the city of Bridgeport.

Shuck, who earned $128,972  including $23,737 in overtime  in 2017, has been charged with first-degree larceny.

Paris said he wished the chief had convinced Shuck, who would be eligible to collect 75 percent of his pay, to retire rather than have him arrested. Paris said he has received a number of calls from other officers wondering why a 2017 case of another cop accused of getting paid while out of the country was handled internally, with no arrest.

We sent the information on that other case to States Attorney John Smriga, and he determined there wasnt probable cause to make an arrest, so we handled the case administratively, Perez said. In (Shucks) case, John Smriga found there was probable cause to make an arrest. And he doesnt sign all our warrant requests, so you know we had a lot of evidence.

Perez and Shuck graduated from the police academy together. Perez said Shuck was capable, smart, likable, with a dry sense of humor. But he could not recall Shuck having won any awards within the department.

He flew below the radar, Perez said. I think thats what he wanted.

Chances to disappear

Associate Professor Jon Shane is a former New Jersey cop who now teaches policing policy and management at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

This sort of things been a problem in policing even when officers were on foot in the 1800s, he said when told of the Shuck case. Theyd duck into a building, hide from their bosses. Stuff like that. Go home. Go to sleep.

One Bridgeport patrol officer who did not wish to be identified said it is easier for supervisors to abuse the system than it is for rank-and-file cops, who have to attend roll call, are assigned a car and a patrol sector, and must respond to periodic radio checks.

Supervisors like Shuck, this patrol officer alleged, can come in to work, then disappear, then return at shifts end

They make their presence known ... but in reality we dont know what they do, the officer said.

While Shucks arrest may deter abuse of what Perez called a payroll honor system, things are within the union contract that, while not intended for such purposes, could encourage gaming the system.

For example, Bridgeport police officers can boost their pensions with overtime. Shane said that is not unusual, and Bridgeports policy is modeled on that of the Connecticut State Police. But, he said, It does present somewhat of a corruption hazard, because the idea here is to maximize the amount of money youre going to get going out the door.

Acording to the union contract, officers called in on days off are paid a minimum of eight hours, even if they do not work that long. The city has been trying to reduce that minimum to four hours.

The mandatory minimum is common practice, said Shane. Those kinds of contract provisions  those very lucrative provisions  are subject to negotiation, but they kind of leave a bad taste in the publics mouth about reasonableness. Everybody can understand why you get paid if youre called in. But why eight hours for two hours?

Tracking technology

Perez, who has pledged to crack down on payroll violations, has a tool readily available.

The department has navigation technology in all its vehicles. But, Perez admitted, the global positioning system is not normally turned on, except during investigations. For instance, Perez authorized using GPS to build a case against Shuck.

Its in all the cars, and I can activate it if I have a cause to do so, the chief said. I dont track everyone. I trust my guys. But when I am made aware of something so terrible, I turn it on.

Asked why the GPS is not employed more regularly, Perez, whom Mayor Joe Ganim promoted from captain to chief in March 2015, said, Previous chiefs wanted to use this. And for whatever reason, they just never pulled the trigger.

His predecessor, former Chief Joseph Gaudett, could not be reached for comment.

Perez said more frequent use of GPS would have to be negotiated with the polic union, because it would be considered a change in work conditions. Paris confirmed that.

The union president said were the cruisers GPS units always on, he would want parameters set, including how the data could be used for discipline.

City Councilman Jack Banta, a chairman of the Public Safety Committee, and another committee member  Councilman Ernest Newton, who called for an independent audit of police overtime following Shucks arrest  were surprised to learn GPS technology has not been more commonly used.

Why theyre not on all the time is kind of questionable, Banta said.

Newton said, Youre telling me they have them on all the cars? Im going to make the recommendation that all cars must keep their GPS on.

But Perez claimed that wont be necessary because new technology called Nexgen  being launched in police vehicles in March to, among other things, allow officers to file reports from the road  will use GPS.

Ill know where everybody is at all times, Perez said. All I have to do is go to my smartphone or tablet.

There is an irony to the Shuck situation. He was arrested one day after a Superior Court judge refused to toss out a $1 million wrongful-termination lawsuit against the city, brought by someone whose job it was to ferret out alleged salary abuses, former Assistant Police Chief James Nardozzi.

Nardozzi was hired in 2013 by then-Mayor Bill Finch to cut police overtime and investigate allegations like those against Shuck. He was an outsider who earned the ire of the union, which endorsed Ganim over Finch in 2015.

Ganim eliminated Nardozzi position in January 2016 and transferred his duties to the chief, who at the time was Gaudett. Ganim later pushed Gaudett out and promoted the unions choice, Perez, the new mayors close friend.

In a letter to Ganim last April, Nardozzis attorney, Eric Brown, wrote: By all accounts Chief Nardozzi was doing the job that he was asked to do. ... We believe that his termination may have been politically motivated because the Bridgeport police union supported your candidacy for mayor.Bob Child/AP

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both Connecticut Democrats, on Friday applauded the Senates unanimous approval of John Durham to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

John Durham is a fierce, fair prosecutor, the senators said. As a career prosecutor, John has dedicated his life to public service and the pursuit of justice. He knows how to try tough cases, having taken on organized crime and government corruption. He will be an outstanding U.S. Attorney.DANBURY  Every day Mike Greene drives more than 60 miles to grocery stores across Danbury to collect as much as 1,700 pounds of fresh food donations for local pantries.

Affectionately known as the Man in a Van, the dedicated volunteer has single-handedly delivered almost 140,000 pounds of produce, meat and baked goods in just three months for the Danbury Food Collaborative.

It can be a little daunting to look at a whole skid filled with boxes or food, but, hey, its exercise, he said after a four-hour delivery run this week. I cant afford the gym, so this is my personal trainer.

Despite Greenes efforts, though, the allegedly retired pantry coordinator simply cant handle the logistics alone anymore.

Now he and the collaborative, a United Way of Western Connecticut program that coordinates 18 nonprofits to help feed needy Danbury families, have launched a campaign to raise $7,000 to help pay a part-time driver to help complete the deliveries each day and ensure the fresh food doesnt go to waste.

More than two dozen people already had contributed $1,420 to the Man in a Van campaign on GoFundMe.com, as of Friday afternoon.

Greene stepped up to make the delivery runs late last year after the Connecticut Food Bank could no longer fund a driver to come to Danbury from its headquarters in Wallingford, said Caroline LaFleur, the United Ways community impact coordinator in Danbury.

The timing could not have been worse.

The food bank and Danbury Food Collaborative had just struck a plan with BJs Wholesale stores to make regular pick ups, said Greene, who helped coordinate the Interfaith AIDS Ministry of Greater Danbury and its pantry for 11 years. Without a driver, Greene knew that food and the donations at other stores like Costco and ShopRite would be left to go to waste and the stores might stop participating.

So Greene volunteered to make the rounds himself and the food bank let him use one of its vans.

It really is a heroic effort, LaFleur said. Its a huge project and hes feeding so many people.

Now Greene coordinates 27 pickups from a slew of stores each week, matching every days goods with the operations that are open each day, including Community Action Agency of Western Connecticut, Jericho Partnership, Victory Christian Center and the Bethel Community Food Pantry.

What had cost almost $1,500 per week for the food bank to do from afar, Greene believes the collaborative can do locally for as little as $275 per week.

Thats just 3 cents-per-pound, even with a paid driver helping, he said.

For what we can do with the level of cost, we give an amazing amount of food back to Danbury, Greene said. So thats the goal, to keep the food in Danbury and get it to all of those in need the best we can.

If the United Way can raise enough money to hire a driver, it could give Green a much-deserved break, LaFleur said.

But Greene disagrees. Instead, it would really just give him time to work on the collaboratives and United Ways next ambitious project: A central food bank facility with refrigerators and space to collect donations.

The extra room and refrigeration would make it far easier to collect more food and keep it fresher longer and the need exists in Danbury, Greene and LaFleur said.

The produce we collect is amazing and thats the best food for people to eat, Greene said. Thats the healthiest, but its one of the most expensive to buy in the grocery store, sadly.

A lot of families decide, Do I put chicken on the table or do I put some fresh vegetables on the table? he added. So this is a great way to help them put healthy produce on the table for their family when they couldnt otherwise.NEWTOWN - As another American town reels from the savagery of a mass shooting, the families of the Sandy Hook massacre victims are deciding how to honor their 26 loved ones slain five years ago.

The families are reviewing 13 designs for a memorial that draw on themes of life, death and rebirth in nature.

The designs, which were selected out of 188 submissions from across the United States and 12 other countries, propose such features as reflecting ponds, walls of remembrance and trees that give color in winter to bring hope out of darkness.

At the core of our design is the notion that the earth has the inexplicable ability to hold us and cradle our sorrows, reads the narrative of one design. It has the grounding strength and beauty which invites us to be supported by the land.

Another design emphasizes the living nature of the memorial, which would be on five acres in the heart of Sandy Hook - close enough to the newly built Sandy Hook School to hear playground sounds on a still day.

We wanted to acknowledge that the healing process does not end, but continues and grows - much like the incredible compassion which many victims families have put back into the world since the tragedy, reads the description of one design.

That description referred to home-grown missions such as Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit co-founded by parents who lost first-graders in the 2012 massacre that has become one the leading violence prevention organizations in the country.

Leaders of Sandy Hook Promise were among the activists and family members who spoke out against gun violence and reached out in solidarity to grieving families in Parkland, Florida, last week, where a 19-year-old with an AR-15-style rifle was accused of murdering 17 students and adults at his former high school.

Kyle Lyddy, the chairman of the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission, said that while the groups focus has been on a memorial that meets complex local needs, Newtown understands it is at the center of a national crisis.

Since 2013, there have been 290 school shootings, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

We totally understand that we are part of a larger conversation, and the amount of work that has been done by our families over the past five years to make this tragedy their lifes work is inspiring, Lyddy said. We want to continue to outreach to other communities and be a resource, because that was something that guided us.

Lyddy explained that Newtown took lessons from Columbine High School in Colorado, the site of a school massacre in 1999, and from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City in 2001.

Joe Daniels, the former president of the 9/11 Memorial, is among the advisers to the Sandy Hook memorial commission, which includes parents of children who died in 2012.

The 26 Sandy Hook families will be the first to comment on the 13 semifinalist designs. In early March, the memorial commission will ask for public input about the proposals, with the goal of narrowing them down to a handful of finalists by the end of April.

The designs will not include the names of architects who submitted them until a later stage. Designs may be viewed on the memorial commissions web page at http://bit.ly/2F99bIK.

Natures inspiration

The semifinalist designs, which draw on the interconnectedness of nature as a central theme, are thorough and thoughtful proposals that impressed the commission with their creativity, Lyddy said.

For example, one design called for special plantings of fiery orange arctic sun dogwoods, which would be especially vibrant in December - the month of the tragedy.

These designs would make sure that this memorial is something that lives in the winter months, Lyddy said.

While some proposals are more technical in their descriptions of featured elements, others are downright poetic, invoking the existential and transcendental qualities of nature to give deeper meaning to woods, water and paths.

Our path winds in gentle circles through a flowering woodland which celebrates the beautiful lives of the victims, eventually arriving at a central memorial clearing where the community can gather in love for those lost, reads one design description. The path has no true beginning or end, allowing visitors to experience the space at their own pace and in their own way, while always bringing them closer together.

The appeal to nature is similar to the concept used in the design of the new Sandy Hook School, a $50 million building that replaced the one where the shooting occurred.

We were really impressed by these submissions, said Lyddy. A couple of them just stopped us in our tracks and led to great discussions about how this can all come to life.

A common strategy among the semifinalists was to marry the language of nature with the vocabulary of grief and healing.

The design intent is to fill the irreplaceable loss of our children with a message of consolation, remembrance and hope, reads one design description, explaining that its features symbolize the nuanced emotional journey of confronting loss, feeling grief, and finding hope.

The designs that stand out include those that name the memorial - such as The Clearing - and designs that give names to featured elements - such as Path of Hope, Infinity Pond, and the Breathing Field.

Other designs propose elaborate water features that use the twin ponds existing on the site or create new water elements. One design calls for a long, narrow Water Mirror with a Community Circle at one end and a Waterfall and Weeping Wall at the other.

Reflection, contemplation and healing are also major themes in the semifinalist designs.

One proposal, called Forest Memories: A Landscape That Remembers notes that because the memorial will be living, it will always be changing.

The memorial will never have a moment of being finished, of ending, the description reads. It will never be the same, it will never happen twice.New Milford Public Library will hold its next poetry book club led by the towns poet laureate, James Scrimgeour, Feb. 22.

The club will meet the third Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Main Street library.Two Napa men were arrested in Vacaville on Friday after trying to burglarize a home while the homeowner was still inside, according to Vacaville Police.

Jacob Grant, 39, and Matthew Allen, 37, entered the home on the 100 block of Colony Way after obtaining the key from a lockbox they had broken from the residence, police said. The homeowner called the police immediately.

Grant and Allen were contacted and detained by police on the front lawn of the residence. They were found to be in possession of a light blue Toyota Prius with Oregon plates that had been reported stolen, police said.

Allen was arrested on suspicion of auto theft, being in possession of a stolen vehicle, burglary, possession of drug paraphernalia and a probation violation. Grant was arrested on suspicion of burglary as well as a probation violation.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.Four Litchfield County EMS departments recently received a gift of technology that facilitates diagnosis and treatment of cardiac patients before they arrive at the emergency department.

The donations are from two New Milford Hospital donors.

At a presentation ceremony at the hospital in December, representatives from EMS departments in Bridgewater, Sherman, Warren and Washington received a state-of-the-art LifePak 12 defibrillator/monitor that functions as an automated external defibrillator and also facilitates pre-hospital monitoring and transmission of patient electrocardiogram data from ambulances to hospital emergency departments.

Dr. Carl DAndrea, New Milford Hospitals director of emergency medicine, described the impact of the new equipment as life-saving.

When someone suffers a heart attack, every second counts, said DAndrea. The more time passes, the greater the risk. Because EMTs are often first on the scene, making sure local EMS personnel have the tools needed to save lives is a priority for New Milford Hospital.

Until recently, EMS providers lacked a fast, consistent method for transmitting high-quality 12-lead EKGs to hospitals.

Wireless transmission of EKG data, however, can save treatment time by allowing emergency room physicians to review clinical information, make treatment decisions, and prepare for treatment before a patient arrives at the hospital.

We are profoundly grateful to our donors for their incredible generosity, said Grace Linhard, chief development officer of the New Milford Hospital Foundation.

Philanthropy helps New Milford Hospital ensure that our community has access to the latest in lifesaving technology, programs and services, Linhard said.The New Milford Historical Society & Museum will present Connecticut Crossroads Oral History Project with Chris Fisher Feb. 24 from 1 to 3 p.m.

The Connecticut Crossroads Project is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to preserve the history of communities within Connecticut.Paul Lee woke up two weeks ago unable to move his left arm or leg. He had suffered a major stroke.

By 2 p.m. that Saturday, Lee, lying awake on the operating table at Yale New Haven Hospital, realized he could move his limbs. He was back at his New Milford home that Tuesday, 99 percent back, according to his wife, Ann Marie Lee. Its just a miracle what Yale did over the weekend, she said.

Just a few months ago, Lee, 69, wouldnt have had a chance.

With stroke, timing is everything. And the time available to save patients from severe paralysis or worse has recently been extended so far that Dr. Charles Matouk, who took out the clot from Lees artery, said its nothing short of a revolution in public health. Matouk is chief of neurovascular surgery at Yale New Haven.

To crystallize it, the main issue with treatments that are geared toward acute stroke is the time window in which therapies need to be administered to effect a good outcome, Matouk said.

There are two basic treatments for ischemic stroke, which are caused by blood clots and account for 87 percent of incidents, according to the American Stroke Association. (The rest are hemorrhagic strokes, caused by bleeding in the brain.)

The first, which became available only in 1996, is tissue plasminogen activator, known as tPA, which is a blood thinner. But it can only be used within 41/2 hours of when symptoms occur, or 41/2 hours since the patient had last shown no symptoms. After that, there is too great a risk of hemorrhaging, said Dr. Hardik Amin, a Yale New Haven vascular neurologist.

The second method is mechanical thrombectomy, in which a catheter is pushed up the arteries from the groin to the clot. A device at the end of a metal wire, called a stent retriever, is pushed into the clot and expands, then is pulled out of the body along with the clot. That was the procedure that Matouk used on Lee. But while thrombectomy has been available for 10 years, only Yale New Haven and Hartford hospitals are equipped to do it.

Also, until the publication of two studies in the last three months and the development of specialized imaging software that helps determine who is eligible for the procedure, a thrombectomy could only be performed within six hours of when the patient was last known to be stroke-free.

Lee had gone to bed at 2 a.m. Saturday and woke up at 9. He had already gone past the previous deadlines for both treatments. But the new guidelines, issued Jan. 24 by the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association and the Joint Commission, which accredits health care organizations, increase the window of time in which a thrombectomy can be performed to as much as 24 hours.

Lees chances were improved by his overall good health, his anatomy, which allowed blood to get to the part of his brain through blood vessels other than the blocked carotid artery, and the decision by doctors at New Milford Hospital, consulting with Matouk and Amin, to send him by Life Star helicopter to New Haven. Amin is part of Yale New Havens Telestroke program, a group that consults with doctors at other hospitals in Connecticut.

But the flight would not even have been a consideration until just recently.

The main gist is that in the past, patients were selected for treatment for stroke purely based on time criteria, Amin said. And now were able to use physiological data to treat patients who in the past would not have been offered anything.

A revolution

in stroke care

Once thrombectomies began to be used to treat stroke, that extended the time window and people got a lot better, Matouk said. So what this therapy was geared at  was those strokes that caused the big problems, like paralysis or not being able to talk or not being able to understand people, what Matouk calls nursing home strokes.

With the time window extended to six hours, our stroke volumes in terms of doing this procedure rose from 10 in 2013 to 180 in 2017, Matouk said. Its been a revolution in our ability to care for acute stroke. Whats different now is what these latest trials showed is up to 24 hours out for selected patients this treatment can be massively beneficial.

The rate at which neurosurgeons were able to reverse the course of terribleness in stroke symptoms more than doubled. From being able to help one in seven patients, doctors were able to improve the quality of life of one in 2.8 patients. For surgical procedures, thats actually very good; thats amazing, Amin said.

A quick decision

On that Saturday, when Paul Lee woke up, I couldnt figure out why I couldnt get out of the bed, he said. I reached over and picked up my arm and it was like a dead body.

The ambulance took a half-hour to get to Lees house before bringing him to New Milford, which is kind of a little country hospital, Lee said. But once they realized the situation, it was pretty much a quick decision that the doctors made there, Ann Marie Lee said. The doctor at the ER, as soon as I got there he was on the phone with Yale. He called Yale right away to see if my husband was a candidate and they said yes, and they wanted him to come by a helicopter.  They wanted him there immediately.

He arrived at 12:30 p.m., Amin said.

Soon after Ann Marie Lee arrived by car, the doctors came out and they had smiles on their faces, she said. They were just so proud of themselves.

I was laying there on the table and all of a sudden I could move my hand, Paul Lee said. It happened almost instantaneously, he said. Even though the artery was completely blocked, I was getting blood from other vessels. There was enough getting there to survive.

Besides not being able to move his left side, Lees face was drooping and his speech was slurred, Amin said. Before the new guidelines were issued, He would have just been admitted to the hospital and would likely have gone on to have a full stroke (and) remain paralyzed on his left side.

Whats changed is theres been new technology called perfusion imaging, which shows how well blood is traveling through the body, Amin said. Were able to determine how much of a patients brain has died as the result of a stroke  or has not completed the full infarct, or permanent death of the brain cells.

The CT scan shows how much of the brain has been shocked but not deadened by the lack of blood and how much is irretrievably lost, he said. If we see that theres a very small area of brain thats completely infarcted from stroke but theres a large area thats at risk, then we select those patients for this delayed treatment because theyre the ones who are more likely to benefit.

With our patient here, I was contacted by New Milford Hospital shortly after he arrived, Amin said. He arrived (in New Haven) within about an hour and he was taken straight to the scanner and on the perfusion imagery that he had we were able to see he had very little dead tissue and a significant amount of tissue at risk.

Main roads

and back roads

Matouk said Lee was fortunate in that he had a network of blood vessels, which he called back roads or collateral vessels, that brought blood to the areas that the blocked carotid, a main road, would have supplied.

If the brain is getting some blood but not enough blood, it stops working and you get a dead arm and a dead leg, Matouk said. That area that wasnt getting enough blood isnt dead yet; (it) can be salvaged.

But the collateral vessels are unable to maintain the supply of blood indefinitely. Eventually the brain will die because its not enough blood to keep it alive, he said. And while Lee has a good supply of collateral blood vessels, some people are born without any back roads, Matouk said.

The perfusion imaging lets the doctors see the difference between tissue thats in a stunned state and brain cells that have died and cannot be revived.

In Lees case, We saw he had very little irreversible injury and a large area of reversible injury, Amin said. We only learned that after he got that scan.

Whats new is were using it clinically to make decisions, Matouk said. Theres something to do about Grandmas stroke now up to 24 hours later.  We just learned that a couple of months ago.  From my perspective this is a public health issue.

One trial testing the effectiveness of thrombectomies over an extended time, called DAWN, was published online by the New England Journal of Medicine in November. The other, DEFUSE 3, was published in the journal Jan. 24.

Whats shocking is that their outcomes are nearly as good as patients who get this treatment and are within six hours, Matouk said. From a public health point of view this is something people really need to know about.

Tongue twisters

As soon as his surgery was complete, Lee wanted to get started right away with rehabilitation. Things that didnt work quite right I came up with things to improve them, he said. He was having issues with balance and with his speech so he came up with ways to improve.

Ive always liked tongue twisters so I kept doing them out loud over and over, he said. To improve his balance, I kept walking in circles and figure eights and I would walk backwards.

Now, the only problem I have is when I floss my teeth using his left hand.

He went from not being able to move to almost perfect, Ann Marie Lee said.

Paul Lee said, They kind of lassoed this thing and pulled it out and that was it.The flu epidemic ravaging the state and the nation has claimed another victim  blood drive attendance.

According to the American Red Cross, this brutal flu season has caused some potential donors to either cancel appointments or get turned away from donating because of illness. Red Cross spokeswoman Kelly Isenor said shes watched it happen.

I was at a drive where there was a decent turnout, but they take temperatures at the drives and anyone who showed even a little bit of a fever had to leave, she said.

Though the Red Cross hasnt been tracking how much the flu epidemic has been affecting blood drives, Isenor and other experts said its clearly been making an impact.

It has had an effect on blood drives across the board, said Karen A. Avitabile, Red Cross market manager for Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. Weve got people who are sick canceling their appointments  and rightly so.

The Red Cross asks that all blood donors be in good health and feeling well. Though Red Cross research has shown that seasonal influenza doesnt pose a major contamination threat to the blood supply, Avitabile said there are some fears, as well as concerns about, the effect giving blood would have on a sick donor and on the staff serving him or her.

We dont want people to feel faint (while giving blood), which is an issue overall, Avitabile said. And we dont want anybody else getting sick.

This has been a particularly bad flu season, including in Connecticut, where nearly 3,000 people had tested positive for the flu as of Jan. 27; 1,154 had been hospitalized and 52 had died, including a 10-year-old New Canaan boy. People who exhibit symptoms of the contagious respiratory illness  including fever, cough and sore throat  have been urged to refrain from going to church, visiting sick loved ones in the hospital and other activities.

Dr. Goran Miljkovic, infectious disease specialist at Bridgeport Hospital, said it makes sense that this rough flu season is affecting blood donations.

Im not surprised because so many people are getting sick, he said. I think its a real concern, when you are trying to get an adequate blood supply.

Flu isnt the only factor driving down attendance at blood drives. The Red Cross reported that severe winter weather forced about 600 blood drives to cancel nationwide, resulting in more than 17,500 uncollected blood and platelet donations. Platelets are cells that circulate in the blood and are involved in clotting.

Its kind of been a combination of things, Isenor said.

Because of the effect of both the weather and the flu, the Red Cross is urging all those who are healthy to give this winter.

This is a constant need, Avitabile said. People need blood. People need platelets. When hospitals have patients who have a need, we are there to respond. The hospitals are relying on us.

For those who think they might be sick, Avitabile suggests canceling their appointments ahead of time instead of coming to their appointment ill.

If you show up and we have to defer you, then we lose an appointment that could have gone to someone else, she said.

To find a blood drive, visit redcrossblood.org or call 800-733-2767.When thinking about the future of technology, it's tempting to look to Silicon Valley companies like Netflix and Tesla. But, Silicon Valley isn't the only tech city in the market anymore. In fact, a report by Palo Alto Online highlighted that more workers are leaving the valley than coming in.

Over the course of 2017, I sought perspective on what the future of technology looks like across the nation, and these are the three cities that taught me what tech looks like outside of Silicon Valley.

Related: 15 Useful Tech Tools for Your Business

1. Austin, Texas

With a backdrop that could convince anyone to stay, Austin is home to some of the world's more notable tech companies from Intel to IBM. The rapidly expanding tech sector is a large contributor to why Austin is considered one of the fastest-growing cities in America.

Over 17,000 startups have chosen the city as their launching pad, and a slew of larger companies like Google and Apple have created campuses in the area.

The city is full of initiatives, including bike transit. Look downtown and you'll see people running, biking, riding a bus and meeting to discuss the software's new features. Not only does tech feel accessible, it's easy to see its impact.

According to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the high-tech industry has grown by 24.9 percent in the last five years, despite a few lulls. As the hub continues to learn how to support its expansion, it will serve as a model for other cities who are looking to sustain the growth incurred from a growing tech sector.

Related: A Step-by-Step Guide To Building Your First Mobile App

2. Seattle

About 10 years ago, Amazon and Microsoft were some of the only tech companies in town, and unsurprisingly, many of Seattle's startups were swallowed by the giants. But then, Google set up shop, followed by Facebook, Apple and SpaceX.

Many of these companies hired thousands of people, making the job market plentiful and, in some senses, competitive. The largest struggle for Seattle now is avoiding the pitfalls of its predecessors. With the housing market rising at an alarming rate, there is a real concern that the city will bloat like the Bay Area.

To its credit, Seattle has made it clear that its doing everything it can to address the affordability issue. Mayor Ed Murray has publicly issued statements on his website expressing his intent to address the affordability crisis.

Related: 8 Online Careers You Can Start Today From Home

3. Chattanooga, Tenn.

Known as the heart of the Deep South, Chattanooga probably isn't exactly the first place you think of when you imagine the future of tech. But, that's going to change.

Chattanooga has made headlines for its growing tech sector, environmental commitment and 10-gigabit fiber optic internet network that's available for commercial and residential use across the city.

The Innovation District aims to put the city on the map as a competitive tech environment where companies want to start their business. Thus far, they've seen great success. According to a 2015 study conducted by a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga professor, the network has resulted in an estimated $865.3 million to the local economy since its creation in 2010.

But, more important than the growth in the city's technology sector, Chattanooga is committed to making technology its future. Science, technology, engineering and mathematics schools are popping up across the city, in addition to a wealth of adult education centers that aim to connect every citizen, not just those with a degree, to the growing tech sector.

The biggest lesson I learned?

Where there's a will, there's a way. The diversity of tech across the nation all stems from a similar need: Making the city better for the future. As the technology sector of the United States grows, tech companies will stem from the need to solve a problem and expand their community. Trends will be tossed aside for sustainable tech sectors that answer the needs of the people.

Related video

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Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

If you started typing school shooting into Google search Wednesday afternoon, you might have noticed that auto-fill took over and anticipated the next word: today.

So even the bloodless algorithms within Google recognize that, when one tries to find information about a fresh school shooting, the search needs to be narrowed. Because people are still searching the school shooting from last week. And the one before that. And the one before that. We are six weeks into 2018, and so far there have been at least six shooting incidents on school grounds that have wounded at least one person, including the massacre Wednesday, in which 17 people were reported killed at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

When does an epidemic stop being an epidemic and become just a basic part of regular life? Its been 19 years since the nation was horrified by the carnage at Columbine in suburban Denver. Its been just over five years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Quick: What was the most recent mass shooting incident (at least four wounded) at a school before the one on Wednesday? Heres the sick part: There have been so many school shootings that it takes a bit of work to answer what should be an easy question.WESTPORT  Bruce Becker woke up at 4 a.m. on a day in late March 2016 and drove from Westport to the Tesla store in Mount Kisco, N.Y., to put his name on the list for a Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle. He was third in line.

After a nearly two-year wait, he finally picked up his car Monday.

Im an environmentalist and an architect and developer and Ive spent the last 10 years of my career trying to create buildings that dont rely on fossil fuels, said Becker, who grew up in New Canaan. What I came to realize is cars actually have a bigger impact on the environment than buildings. With all the energy Im spending trying to make green buildings, it was crazy for me to ignore my own personal driving habits.

Becker, the first known Tesla Model 3 owner in Connecticut, showed off his new ride at Staples High School Wednesday at an event promoting the new car, expected by electric vehicle enthusiasts to be as revolutionary as the Ford Model T.

In 2012, Becker, president of the Westport Electric Car Club, bought his first electric car  an early BMW electric vehicle prototype  which he said was an expensive indulgence. His new Tesla is much more affordable, coming in at $24,500 after incentives.

But now they have a Model 3  thats a mass-market car, Becker said, who works in Fairfield.

Westport building official Steve Smith agreed about the market for the Tesla Model 3.

This is the peoples version, Smith said.

The new Tesla models can go farther than the earlier models without needing to be charged, which, in addition to the lower price, Smith hopes will incentivize more Westport residents to purchase the electric vehicle.

Furthermore, the building official said, Westport already has the infrastructure necessary for residents to use electric vehicles with charging stations at both railroad stations, the high school, town hall and Baldwin Parking Lot.

First Selectman Jim Marpe attended the showcase and also hopes the towns investment in charging stations, coupled with the new Tesla model, will bring the town closer to reaching its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

We need to transition away from fossil fuels, Becker said in agreement. This is one of the keys to avoiding global warming and reducing the particulate pollution, which is creating asthma and health issues even here in Westport.

While Beckers primary reason for buying the car is environmental concerns, he also believes the Tesla Model 3 could help rebound the states economy.

All the money we currently spend on gasoline leaves the state, but more and more electric power is coming from renewable sources generated within the state. When youre powering your car with electricity, youre basically keeping money and jobs in Connecticut, Becker said.

A Connecticut law intended to protect franchised car dealers prohibits selling Teslas in Connecticut, however, because Tesla is a manufacturer, and not a dealer, which is why Becker had to travel to New York to purchase the car.

Connecticut is a very green state and were very progressive, but were completely backwards on the Tesla bill, said Scott Thompson, a Fairfield resident and member of the Fairfield Clean Energy Task Force. Michigan, Texas and West Virginia are Connecticuts only kin in prohibiting the direct sale of Teslas, Thompson said.

Weve got to bring the tax revenue associated with these cars into the state and not let it go to New York. Thats whats at stake here, besides our reputation, Thompson said.

Environmental protection was at the forefront of Jackie Eskins mind when she went to see Beckers new car at the high school. Six years ago, the Fairfield resident purchased an electric vehicle because she believed if she didnt step up and buy one, the company would say no one cared and would stop making the cars.

Each person buying electric vehicles tells the companies theyre important, said Eskin, a member of the Westport Electric Car Club.

Staples High School junior George Englehart also believes personal choices can help reduce the environmental impact of transportation emissions.

People always think of doing stuff at a huge global level, but if you just do your part in your town, it can really make a significant difference, said Englehart, the only high school student on Westports Green Task Force.

In addition to the positive environmental, economic and financial benefits of the new Tesla model, Becker said theyre just plain cool.

Its basically like turning an iPad into a car, Becker said, displaying the cars touch screen, which controls all of the cars functions.

Although now an environmental advocate, Westport resident Dawn Henry said she bought her first electric vehicle several years ago solely for the cool factor.

The first Tesla I got I didnt buy because it was electric; I didnt buy it because it was zero emissions; I bought it because it was the hot sexy car, Henry said.During the Civil War, the precious document was hidden behind wallpaper in a home in Virginia to keep Union soldiers from finding it.

Later, it sat in a closet in Kentucky, in a broken frame, unappreciated and stored in a cardboard box.

And later still it was stuck behind a cabinet in the office of an energy executive outside Houston.

It was a rare parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence, made in Washington in the 1820s for founding father James Madison, and apparently unknown to the public for more than a century.

Now, the copy, one of 51 that scholars are aware of, has resurfaced via its purchase last month by billionaire philanthropist David M. Rubenstein.

It is one of the exquisite facsimiles made from the original handwritten calf skin document crafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. Scholars say it bears the image of the Declaration that most people know, in part because the original is now so badly faded.

"This is the closest ... to the original Declaration, the way it looked when it was signed in August of 1776," said Seth Kaller, a New York rare document appraiser who assisted in the sale. "Without these ... copies you wouldn't even know what the original looked liked."

Two hundred of the facsimiles were ordered by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, a future president, who was concerned about the already-worn condition of the 40-year-old original.

Master engraver William Stone made the copies in his shop on Pennsylvania Avenue, and created an extra one for himself.

In 1824, the facsimiles were distributed to Congress, the White House, and various VIPs like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Madison. Each man got two copies.

In time, both of Madison's copies vanished from view, and it is only now that one has surfaced, Kaller said in a recent interview. "There was no idea that it had survived," he said.

The fate of the second Madison copy, and over 100 of the others, is not publicly known, he said.

When the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, it sent a working manuscript, also now lost, to a local printer to set in type.

The printer produced several hundred printed copies for Congress and other officials the next day, Kaller wrote in a historical pamphlet.

On July 19, Congress ordered a handwritten, or "engrossed," copy made on calf skin, to be signed by the members.

The job went to Timothy Matlack, a congressional aide who was known for his superb penmanship.

This hallowed version now resides in the National Archives, so washed out that many signatures, including Thomas Jefferson's, are either gone or barely visible.

It is largely through the foresight of John Quincy Adams that excellent copies of the original - exact except for a few interesting tweaks - survive today.

Kaller wrote that by 1820, the original had been handled, rolled, unrolled and marred by the efforts of earlier engravers to make decorative copies. "Every one of the worst things that could have happened to the original" had happened, he said.

(A grimy hand print was added to the damage many years later.)

John Quincy Adams gave it to Stone, and the engraver worked on copying it for about two years.

Kaller said he believes Stone likely first traced the original with tracing paper. He then used the tracing to hand-engrave an image of the Declaration on a copper plate, from which the facsimiles were then made.

But Stone may have made some minute textual changes, possibly to distinguish his copies from the original, Kaller wrote.

The ornate "T" in the "The" of the "The unanimous Declaration ..." seems to have been slightly altered. In the Stone copies, a decorative diagonal line runs through the "T." The line does not appear to be in the original.

In the original, there seems to be a heart-shaped flourish where the T is crossed that's omitted in the Stone copy.

And Stone added a tiny imprint across the top of the page,"ENGRAVEDed by W.I. STONE, for the Dept. of State, by order of J.Q. ADAMS, Sect. of State, July 4th. 1823."

Before the newly resurfaced copy was found, it had been kept in a cracked frame, wrapped up inside a cardboard box in Michael O'Mara's office outside Houston.

It had been there for 10 years, and before that it had been in his parents' house in Louisville when he was growing up.

His family had once had it framed and put on the mantel piece. His parents knew it had been passed down through his family from Madison. But in the 1960s it was considered "worthless," O'Mara said.

When the frame cracked the document was taken down and stored in a bedroom closet.

"So for ... 35 years, it sat in a box, wrapped up, in a broken frame, in my mother's house," he said in a recent interview. "There was just not a lot of sentiment or value put on it. ... My mother couldn't have cared less about the family history."

The Declaration had been handed down to O'Mara's mother, Helen, who was the great-granddaughter of Col. Robert Lewis Madison Jr., a Civil War doctor who had served in the Confederate army and treated Robert E. Lee in the last years of Lee's life.

Research indicates that the physician had gotten the document from his father, Robert Lewis Madison Sr.

Thus, the copy of the nation's founding declaration had passed through turbulent years of the country's evolution, including the war that almost destroyed the document's "united States of America."

O'Mara found in family papers a 1913 news article - the last known public mention of his Declaration - that told of its fate during the Civil War.

The family of Dr. Madison was then probably living in Lexington, Virginia, where the physician was a professor at the Virginia Military Institute before and during the war, according to VMI.

The clipping reported that the doctor's wife put the Declaration behind "the paper on the wall" to hide it from Union soldiers, should the house be searched.

In 1864, Union troops raided Lexington and burned VMI. But the Madison house apparently was unmolested, and the Declaration survived with only some moisture damage sustained while hidden.

O'Mara said that after his mother died in 2014, he began going through family papers. "I just happened to look over at this box, and I said, 'I've either got to put that in a frame and put it up in my office or I need to get rid of it if there's some historical value.'"

In 2016, his research led him to Rubenstein, who has purchased other historical documents, including Declaration copies. He emailed Rubenstein, who expressed interest.

The Declaration was authenticated, and then underwent conservation at the National Archives, O'Mara said.

"I agreed to buy it," Rubenstein said in a recent telephone interview, noting only that he had paid "seven figures" for it.

Madison, who was president from 1809 to 1817, had been a key player in the creation of the government. This was Madison's copy of the Declaration, and "when you look at it you can conjure up images of James Madison looking at it," Rubenstein said.

In 2014, Rubenstein announced the donation of $10 million to Montpelier, Madison's historic Orange, Virginia, home, for reconstruction, refurnishing and archaeology.

Madison's family occupied the plantation with its slaves for several generations, and he is buried there.

Co-founder of the Carlyle Group, a Washington-based global private-equity firm, Rubenstein said he now owns five of the William Stone Declaration copies.

Four have been lent out for display. This copy will be, too, he said, first to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

"Ultimately, they'll always be on display," he said.NEW HAVEN  An expert on environmental medicine makes a direct connection between the water leaks and pervasive mold in the Church Street South complex and the high rates of asthma and other ailments experienced by its residents.

Dr. Carrie A. Redlich, director of the Yale Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program, in a survey of 268 residents at the low-income deteriorated development, found that 48 percent of 170 children surveyed had physician-diagnosed asthma, while 37 percent of the adults suffered from this respiratory ailment.

Her study and that of experts on structural problems, water damage and poor maintenance are contained in a filing by attorney David Rosen who is seeking class action status for his suit against the Northland Investment Corp. originally filed in October 2016.

The newest motion accuses the developer, who was contracted to provide decent, safe and sanitary housing for the tenants at Church Street South, of purposefully letting the 301-unit housing complex deteriorate for eventual conversion to a higher use.

The 268 tenants surveyed lived in 118 apartments in the development from 2008 through 2015, while the total complex had 301 apartments in 22 similar buildings, which were built almost a half century ago.

Northland, in a statement, took issue with Rosens suit and accused him of providing selective information.

Any notion that Northland was undertaking demolition of Church Street South by neglect is simply unsupported by the facts and will be addressed in our response to the court, the statement reads.

It is well-known that Church Street South has been plagued by problems since the 1960s including construction and design deficiencies. Northland inherited these problems upon purchasing the property in 2008, the company stated.

Northlands plan is and always has been to work with HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) and the City to redevelop the site with a high quality mixed-use community for New Haven which would include hundreds of units of newly constructed low-income housing, the developer said.

Northland continues to own the prime property that is located near Union Station and was paid $3.6 million in rent subsidies from HUD annually when the complex was occupied.

After the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, starting in 2015, took legal action concerning the presence of asthma among the tenants and mold and structural problems at the complex, scores of residents were moved out to hotels and eventually into new apartments.

Prior to that, tenants had complained that the outside consultants contracted by the HUD to evaluate the complex cherry-picked the units they visited, skewing the results.

Following a thorough inspection by HUD in the fall of 2015, Northland was given a score of 20 points out of 100 on the condition of the apartments with more than 2,300 deficiences identified.

HUD already had found Northland out of compliance with its contract at Church Street South in August 2015, based on reviews by the citys Livable City Initiative and Building Official Jim Turcio.

Northland didnt appeal the 2015 HUD score and has been working with LCI and HUD since then to move the tenants out after the majority opted to use Section 8 portable housing vouchers.

The company estimates it has spent millions on emergency repairs, hotel bills, moving expenses and storage of tenant household goods as they were relocated in the last few years.

In a September 2015 report on decommissioning the complex, Northland said it spent nearly $5 million, beyond normal repairs, to extend the life of the building since 2008.

The exhibits attached to the class action suit look back on the condition of the apartments, the timeliness and standard of repairs and the health problems reported by tenants.

In her report, Redlich said the parents also reported that 41 percent of the children had other respiratory conditions; 47 percent had skin problems; 45 percent reported emotional distress while living at Church Street South.

Of the 104 children with physician -diagnosed asthma or other respiratory ailments, Redlich said 98 percent of them began to either experience symptoms while at Church Street South or those symptoms worsened. Some 66 percent reported improved respiratory conditions when they moved out.

For comparison purposes, Redlich wrote that the prevalance of asthma in adults across the United States is 7.6 percent and for children it is 8.4 percent, although in Connecticut it is higher, affecting 10.5 percent of adults and 11.7 percent of children.

Other data shows that asthma is more common in black and Hispanic children and adults, as well as for residents of poorer communities, but not as high as the Church Street South households.

She said physician-diagnosed asthma is widely used to establish the presence of asthma and evaluate causative risk factors.

Redlich said similar data is not available for the other ailments reported, but it is notable how frequently these conditions, many of which are known to co-exist with asthma, were reported.

The physician, whose primary focus has been environmental and work-related asthma in the New Haven area, said she could not identify any other cause for the high rates of asthma at Church Street South beyond the independently documented water-related problems and visible mold found there.

She said the findings are consistent across apartments and over many years.

Northand in its statement also said: The claims that damp, moldy conditions were neglected by Northland are unfair, untrue and ignore the facts.

It also stated that it has continuously responded to tenant concerns, maintained the property, and made repairs and capital improvements.

The suit contains a report by Certified Industrial Hygienist Robert Klein, a lecturer in occupational and environmental medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, who reviewed maintenance and inspection reports from 2008 through 2015.

He found that work orders were frequently incomplete. This is evidenced by numerous LCI re-inspection field notes and HUD inspection reports, where the same deficiencies or problems persisted over many weeks, months or even years after being reported and logged into the work order system.

Klein said another trend was the identification of mold or water infiltration in one apartment, which was then fixed, only to re-emerge in another unit in the same building, further pointing to systemic building- and complex-wide problems.

... the persistence of water infiltration, water damages, mold and mildew over months to years meant that residents were continuously expose to these conditions for prolonged periods of time, Klein wrote.

Referring to the questionnaire given to tenants in 118 units, he said they reported personal awareness of mold/mildew, water intrusion/leaks, various structural damages, and plumbing and sewage problems in 82 percent to 93 percent of their apartment units, rates generally consistent with the magnitude of findings from the third-party inspectors (LCI and HUD).

Engineer James D. Parry of Miller Forensic Consulting, LL C concluded that Northland did not perform routine inspections or proactive maintenance that could have decreased the amount of water flowing into the apartments from the leaking roofs down to the tops of window and door frames, resulting in bulging or collapsed ceilings.

He said a roof leak in Building 1 in 2011 persisted for a minimum of five months, which opened a massive opportunity for a large volume of water to enter the building with each rain event.

In Building 7 in 2015, leaks were reported in April with roof work done in December. He said there was a theme of roofing repair work that occurs several months after leakage reports. In another it took four times and five months to correct leakage into the bathroom.

Parry concluded that all 22 buildings suffered from external and internal water leaks. In addition to inadequate repairs, he said there was no indication that wet walls, ceiling and floors were properly dried out before being repaired, thus encouraging mold.

Alder Delores Colon, D-6, whose ward includes Church Street South, as part of the suit, said the complex became known as Asthma Central.

Very few of the residents had no respiratory ailments, but the most severely affected were the very young and the senior citizens of the complex, Colon said in a statement attached to the suit.

She mirrored the complaints of tenants who said repairs, if completed, were superficial and not long lasting. ... Interior mold and mildew on interior walls was bleached, then painted over. But the Sheetrock was never removed to get behind the walls to eliminate the source of the growing and constant problem, so it would come back time after time.

Colon said often the repair person was a handy man, rather than a licensed plumber or electrician.Have you ever tried arguing with a conspiracy theorist? I did that recently and in the process gained fresh appreciation for the vicious vortex of irrationality that is sucking in the Republican Party.

It occurred while I was traveling the country to talk about my new book on Edward Lansdale, the legendary covert operative who in the 1950s helped to defeat a communist insurgency in the Philippines and then to create the state of South Vietnam. While Lansdale was once known as a pioneer of counterinsurgency, in recent years he has acquired notoriety among conspiracymongers who think that he was responsible for John F. Kennedy's assassination.

This astonishing claim was first made by the now-deceased L. Fletcher Prouty, an Air Force officer who worked for Lansdale at the Pentagon in the early 1960s. In retirement, Prouty became a prolific conspiracy theorist who was associated with the neo-Nazi Liberty Lobby and Lyndon LaRouche. He said that "the Churchill Gang" murdered FDR and that David Rockefeller stage-managed the fall of the Berlin Wall.A slate of GOP gubernatorial candidates will hit the stage in West Haven next Wednesday, but in many ways the debate has already begun.

Nearly two dozen Republicans have expressed an interest in taking the states top seat, but only 10 have been invited to participate in next weeks debate per rules established a year ago by the Connecticut Republican Party.

Were two months away from the convention, State GOP Chairman J.R. Romano said. Its not an unreasonable expectation for someone to know what they want to do by now.

In order to participate, candidates must have officially declared a run for office and have raised $125,000 in qualifying contributions, Romano said. Those criteria mean the lone female candidates in the race, Erin Stewart and Toni Boucher, who are still exploring a run, werent invited to the debate. Boucher, a state senator from Wilton, was invited to the first two debates, in which exploratory candidates who had raised $75,000 were allowed.

Stewart, the mayor of New Britain, only registered an exploratory committee in late January. Even so, she was represented at the GOP meeting a year ago when the rules for debate participation were established.

I understand that I am late to the party, Stewart said. I got into the race late, so I knew that this would happen, full disclosure. Im certainly frustrated that I wont be on stage with the boys but it just makes me realize that Ive got to work even harder to be able to meet the next threshold. I understand why there are limits, but that doesnt mean I wont make sure my voice is heard.

Eight of the 10 invited Republicans have accepted invitations to the debate, which is the third of five. They are Mark Boughton, Mike Handler, Tim Herbst, Mark Lauretti, Peter Lumaj, Steve Obsitnik, Prasad Srinivasan and Dave Walker. David Stemerman and Bob Stefanowski are skipping the debate, as they have the others.

The debate will be held at Notre Dame High School in West Haven with general admission tickets available for $5 or $25 for premium seating.

Lauretti, the Shelton mayor, showed support for Stewart and Boucher on Twitter, saying all candidates should be allowed to participate. But Romano stood by the guidelines the party established a year ago.

I think at the end of the day its a situation where if supporters want to see Erin on the debate stage, they need to go to her website and donate, Romano said. Part of a campaign is making sauce or stew and raising money is part of it. Its an ingredient that is necessary to be victorious.

Unlike Republicans, state Democrats are hosting forums  rather than debates  across the state in the coming months, leaving organization and format up to local town committees and regional organizations. Christina Polizzi, spokesperson for the State Democratic Party, said theyve encouraged the local committees to invite all candidates to the forums.

Both sides have an influx of candidates, and at least on our end were more focused on giving these candidates an outlet to talk to people, Polizzi said.21:28

Women in Saudi Arabia can now open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or male relative, as the kingdom pushes to expand a fast-growing private sector.

The policy change, announced by the Saudi government, also marks a major step away from the strict guardianship system that has ruled the country for decades.

"Women can now launch their own businesses and benefit from (governmental) e-services without having to prove consent from a guardian," the ministry of commerce and investment said on its website.





Under Saudi Arabia's guardianship system, women are required to present proof of permission from a male "guardian" - normally the husband, father or brother - to do any government paperwork, travel or enrol in classes.

While women still face a host of restrictions in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutors office this month said it would begin recruiting women investigators for the first time.





The kingdom has also opened 140 positions for women at airports and border crossings, a historic first that the government said drew 107,000 female applicants.





Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne, has been leading the drive to expand the role of women in the workforce in recent months.





His father, King Salman, in September approved the end of a decades-long ban on driving, which goes into effect in June.This kid exhibited every single known red flag, from killing animals to having a cache of weapons to disruptive behavior to saying he wanted to be a school shooter. If this isnt a person who should have gotten someones attention, I dont know who is. This was a multi-system failure.

HOWARD FINKELSTEIN, the Broward County public defender, whose office is representing Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the mass shooting last Wednesday at a Florida high school.A second wave of Israeli airstrikes, around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, hit 10 targets in all, eight of them near Deir El Balah, the Israeli military said. False alarms set off sirens in southern Israel during the strikes early Sunday, it said.

Tensions have been building for months between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, as a humanitarian crisis intensifies in the cramped coastal enclave of two million Palestinians.

Already beleaguered by Israels decade-old blockade of the strip, Gazans were made to suffer even more last year when the Palestinian Authority, run by Fatah, imposed harsh new restrictions in a power struggle with Hamas, its archrival. An attempt at reconciliation between the two last fall has since bogged down, and a standoff over salaries and revenue has sent the territorys economy into free-fall, with many expecting a war with Israel as a result.

Colonel Conricus said the Israeli soldiers, whose injuries were not life-threatening, were hurt as they inspected a Palestinian flag that had been placed along the Gaza-Israel fence Friday morning amid a chaotic riot of hundreds of protesters, who were throwing rocks and trying to tear down the fence  and who were also obscured from view by a morning fog.

He said the episode showed that Israel was right to treat protests at the Gaza fence as a military threat.

Weve been speaking about these staged riots for a long time, Colonel Conricus said. When Hamas organizes these riots and pushes people towards the fence, what were saying is, this isnt a peaceful demonstration, these people arent unarmed, theyre rioters  and among the rioters are actual terrorist operatives who have other things in mind.

Mr. Netanyahu, who wished the wounded soldiers a speedy recovery from Munich, where he was attending a security conference, also responded angrily to remarks by the prime minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, after he stirred new controversy in defending a Polish law that criminalizes references to Nazi killing sites during the Holocaust as Polish death camps.There are no formal federal rules that prohibit the younger Mr. Trump from pursuing his business interests; he is a private citizen. And even though President Trump is still a beneficial owner of the family business, he is not subject to conflict of interest laws, as the president is exempt. The White House, asked if Donald Trump Jr.s trip gave even an appearance of a conflict of interest, declined to comment on the matter.

India is the Trump Organizations biggest international market, with four real estate projects underway. The largest is here in Gurgaon, a fast-growing city outside New Delhi with a litany of Fortune 500 companies and a skyline filled with skyscrapers. The Trump development encompasses two towers with a total of 254 ultra luxury units, according to the company, each selling for up to $1.5 million.

The luxury apartment buildings near the Trump development in Gurgaon have names like Palm Springs and Central Park, even as they overlook pothole-ridden highways. The Trumps and their partners are offering buyers the opportunity to become members of the Trump family, with the promise of exclusive amenities such as an infinity swimming pool, a billiards room and valet services. The marketing materials, however, dont mention the president  his name and image, as well as that of his daughter Ivanka, who joined his administration, were removed from brochures, websites and billboards from projects in India and elsewhere in the world.

Still, confusion among Indians is evident.

I had no idea that Trump built property around the world before this development was launched, said Hitesh Khanna, who is helping sell units at the Trump towers in Gurgaon through a local real estate brokerage firm. I just thought he was president.2. We did a deep dive into the attack in Niger in October that left four American soldiers dead.

Few Americans  even senior members of Congress  know much about the 800 U.S. troops there. They were supposed to be training and advising Nigerien soldiers, four of whom were also killed in the attack. Above, a training exercise last year.

Interviews with current and former officials, service members and witnesses point to intelligence failures and strategic miscalculations that left the soldiers in hostile territory with no backup.

More broadly, their deaths have reignited a longstanding argument in Washington over the sprawling and often opaque war against jihadist groups that began after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Most of the accusations of harassment and improper behavior have been made against men in their 60s and 70s. That perhaps exacerbates an already present generational divide in public radio, where a younger generation of practitioners is being increasingly drawn to the freedom offered by other audio formats like podcasting.

The public radio environment is bursting at the seams with younger media makers who have embraced formats like podcasting as their primary means of expression, said Matthew Lasar, the author of Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium. A new public radio world is emerging, and, intentionally or not, these difficult and painful changes feel like part of that transition.

The lack of specificity of the charges against Mr. Lopate, 77, and Mr. Schwartz, 79, has added fuel to a small movement in their support. A Facebook group and an online petition have called for Mr. Lopates reinstatement; Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, signed the petition and called Mr. Lopates dismissal the radio equivalent of demolishing Penn Station back in the early 1960s.

In an email, Mr. Lopate declined to comment on the specifics of his situation, but said: I will say that in my case I still havent been given a cause for dismissal and my alleged misdeeds are so negligible, I suspect the station saw the #MeToo environment as a convenient time to make a programming decision.

A lawyer for Mr. Schwartz said he had no comment.

Whether such departures will affect fund-raising from listeners  usually a stations largest source of income  may soon become clear. Mike Savage, a veteran of public radio and a former NPR board member who now works as a consultant, said he had heard largely positive reports from stations around the country about fund-raising and membership.

I dont think listeners view these acts as a problem with the quality of journalism or with these organizations themselves, Mr. Savage said. I think its a bump in the road.

WNYC held a one-day pledge drive in late December, after Mr. Lopate and Mr. Schwartz were fired, and the station had its hosts address the controversy and promise transparency. The station declined to disclose the full results of that drive, though it said last week that listener donations in December and January were up 11.5 percent from the same period a year before.Elizabeth Lauren Rosenberg and Theodore Charles Riley are to be married Feb. 18 at the Four Seasons in Austin, Tex. Rabbi David Lyon is to officiate.

The bride, who is 30 and will be taking her husbands name, is a co-founder and the president of Doyenne, a womens community based in Los Angeles working to provide resources and connections across generations, industries and backgrounds for the advancement of women. She graduated from N.Y.U.

She is the daughter of Amy F. Rosenberg and Dr. Wade R. Rosenberg of Houston. The brides father is a pancreatic surgeon at Methodist Hospital in Houston.

The groom, also 30, is a film and television writer in Los Angeles. He has written original material for studios including Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, CBS and Amazon. He is a co-writer of two movie scripts, El Tigre and Psych; both have been bought by Sony and are currently in development. He graduated from the University of Southern California.I have Jessica Lange on the line. Please hold.

I suppose I could pretend that I didnt experience a tiny thrill when I heard that, and a bigger one a few seconds later when that unmistakably smooth and smoky voice said, Hello. Who am I kidding? I saw King Kong when I was 10, and just about everything she has done since, and a critic is really nothing more than a fan with a dubious professional credential. In spite of what some people might imagine, its not often that I find myself in conversation with great actors. The customs of The New York Times keep critics at a distance from the people we write about. I prefer it that way, too. I dont want my own sympathies  my desire to like and be liked  to get in the way of the rigor and impersonality of the job.

But I am always curious about their jobs. For Sundays newly redesigned issue of T Magazine, its editors asked me to talk to a bunch of artists  three bunches in fact, including composers, film editors, actors, directors and theater producers  about their work. Specifically about the ways they work together, collaborating on successive projects in a fashion that recalls the traveling troupes of the olden days. The assignment gave me a chance to indulge that curiosity, while also staying away from the kinds of personal inquiries that make profile-writing my least favorite journalistic exercise. (Except as a reader.)

So I talked to Ms. Lange (along with Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown) about Ryan Murphy, whose American Horror Story and American Crime Story series are specimens of the modern troupe sensibility. I talked with John Leguizamo and Oscar Isaac about Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater in Lower Manhattan, and with Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig about Noah Baumbach, whose films include The Squid and the Whale and, recently, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected).

But I didnt talk to only well-known actors, and I wasnt looking for the usual quotes about what kind of journey a particular project represented. I was after something more elusive, and a thing that might have been hard to capture over the phone: the logic of collaboration itself, the particular alchemy that endows a body of work with its own personality, one which is not just that of a single artist. The signatures of the director, the showrunner or the theaters boss may be on the shows and the films, and their authority and vision may keep the wheels turning, but what magnetizes the interest of audiences is not just a singular voice. Its a chorus finding new arrangements and harmonies each time it assembles. As a critic, you observe the patterns (and take note of the recurring names in the credits), but all you see is the finished product of efforts that remain fundamentally mysterious. Its intriguing to ask the magicians about their tricks.Many of the African students  like other immigrants  have focused on science and technology, as well as programs in nursing that provide skills that are in demand, especially in the Bronx, where the health care industry is the largest employer. But in more recent years there has been an uptick in those studying political science or human services, giving them skills that are applicable in their home countries.

Bright Igbinigun, who in addition to his studies and work as a Pentecostal pastor, recently published a book of poems titled I Must Return Home. He said his experience at Bronx Community helped him realize the importance of civic engagement. Originally from Nigeria, Mr. Igbinigun, 24, is studying political science with an eye on law school.

I have a great passion for the situation in my country, Nigeria, he said. There is a lot going on there politically and economically, and I would like to go home and help reshape the situation. This is not something just for Nigerians, but to encourage everyone in the diaspora, whether they are Pakistani or Dominican, to realize the importance of service.

Victoria McEwen learned those lessons even before she moved to the Bronx in 2010 to join her husband. She was born in Sierra Leone, where civil war upended the familys life. Now at Bronx Community, which her husband also attended, she is studying human services.

I got my lessons from my parents during the war, Ms. McEwen, 44, said. My mother helped others, and our house became a refugee center. People would come over and wed share our food. Before I came here, I wanted to study accounting. But the desire has grown in me to help people. Looking at the homeless in this country, or just at what people have to go through, my passion to help has increased.

What has also grown is her determination not to be distracted or discouraged by off-the-cuff remarks from President Trump. Besides, shes too busy studying.

Thats his opinion, she said. It doesnt matter. I know why I am here. If he checked what he was saying, he would know why America is what it is. Why it is full of diversity. What I say to other Africans here is just be focused. Know who you are. Stand up for what you believe.She went into an interrogation that stretched over 11 hours. The authorities said she made conflicting statements implicating herself. Ms. Graswald told investigators that it felt good knowing he was going to die. She also said that his drowning had brought her relief. She was recorded in the interview room doing yoga poses and hopscotching.

In the interview on Friday she defended her behavior. She said she was hungry, thirsty and tired. I was just being cooperative, Ms. Graswald said. I also felt like I couldnt leave, that I couldnt walk away at any time.

Prosecutors said that she knew she was the beneficiary of life insurance policies belonging to Mr. Viafore worth about $250,000. She had also said that Mr. Viafore had pressured her to do sexual acts that she did not want to do, which the authorities also contended could have been a motivation to kill him.

But she disputed that.

I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, bottom line, Ms. Graswald said, noting the rough conditions the couple ran into on the water. I was in danger, too, just as much as he was. I just happened to survive, and now Im guilty?

Ms. Graswald, who was charged with second-degree murder, was about to stand trial this summer when prosecutors approached her lawyer with an offer of a reduced charge. With the trial looming, both sides acknowledged growing uncertainty.

Prosecutors noted that there was little direct precedent, if any, of a conviction for removing a plug from a kayak. Tests had found that removing the plug from the kayak was not enough in itself to cause the kayak to capsize, prosecutors said, and Mr. Viafore was not wearing a life jacket or a wet suit and the couple had alcohol with them on the trip. And in a case that would have largely turned on Ms. Graswalds vacillating statements, prosecutors also said that her admissions did not add up to a direct confession.

(Prosecutors declined to address the case last week. The case is over and as such we have no further comment, said Christopher P. Borek, the chief assistant district attorney.)In Chicago, a 15-cent fee on Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing services is helping to pay for track, signal and electrical upgrades to make the citys trains run faster and smoother.

Ride-hailing trips in Philadelphia are expected to raise $2.6 million this year for the citys public schools through a 1.4 percent tax that will also generate more than a million dollars for enforcement and regulation of the ride-hailing industry itself. In South Carolina, a 1 percent ride-hailing fee has yielded more than a million dollars for municipalities and counties to spend as they choose.

And Massachusetts began collecting 20 cents for every ride-hailing trip this month, earmarking the revenue to improve roads and bridges, fill a state transportation fund and even help a rival  the struggling taxi industry  adapt with new technologies and job training.

As ride-hailing services become a dominant force across the country, they have increased congestion, threatened taxi industries and posed political and legal challenges for cities and states struggling to regulate the high-tech newcomers. But they are also proving to be an unexpected boon for municipalities that are increasingly latching onto their success  and being rewarded with millions in revenue to pay not only for transportation and infrastructure needs, but also a host of programs and services that have nothing to do with the ride-hailing apps.Yet another blow for judicial independence in Hong Kong. An advocate for the citys autonomy has been blocked from running in an upcoming election by its top court. A judge ruled that he did not accept Andy Chan would fulfill a specific precondition for standing election, giving the nod to a legal interpretation issued by the Chinese government.A day after Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia abruptly resigned, the country declared a state of emergency on Friday. The second such decree in less than two years, martial law was reimposed amid reports of a bitter succession struggle, a worrying development for a country buckling under years of political unrest.

Mr. Hailemariam came to power in 2012 after the death of Meles Zenawi, who had presided over the country since 1991 with an iron fist. Mr. Hailemariam was largely seen as an ineffective placeholder and from the outset, he faced difficulties, lacking a political base of his own. Hailing from a small minority group in the south of the country, the Wolayta, he quickly fell out with Ethiopias three dominant ethnic groups  the Oromo, the Amhara and the Tigrayans.

Neither the grass roots nor the leaders of the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front were particularly enamored of him, but they couldnt agree on an alternative. In theory, the party, in power for nearly 27 years, is a coalition of four ethnic-based parties. In reality, it is dominated by ethnic Tigrayans, who, despite making up only 7 percent of the countrys population, control the economy, the military and the security sectors.

Mr. Hailemariam eventually became a man without allies; his resignation was hardly a surprise, it just came earlier than anticipated. He was widely expected to be replaced later this year when the E.P.R.D.F. holds its congress.Parkland, Fla.  I am a freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. In the days since the attack that killed 17 people here, I have continued replaying those terrifying moments in my head.

It began when a fire alarm went off just before school was supposed to end. We thought nothing of it. People in my finance class had already left, and I grabbed my backpack to evacuate. The next thing I knew I heard people running and shouting, and my teacher yelling at us to get back in the class.

I sprinted to her closet and crammed myself against shelves filled with papers and binders. The rest of the closet filled up with the other students. We thought it was an active shooter drill. It wasnt.

My phone flooded with messages from friends and family, from other states and other countries, asking if I was O.K. The world knew what was happening even before we did. I texted my sister to make sure everything was all right with her. I checked in with my friends, and most of them were safe, or had evacuated. I texted my family and told them that I loved them.I sit in these classrooms every day. So its just like, how can something happen like this? It was like, about 20 minutes before school was supposed to end. I think its just kind of crazy how fast it happened. It didnt really seem real as it was going on. I just have this sick feeling in my gut that all that had to happen. And its starting to feel more and more real. Its really different when you see something in the news and rather than seeing it happen at your school. Because it happened somewhere so close to home that it became more of a reality for me. Im all for freedom, but theres a difference between freedom and being safe. This shouldnt happen to anyone else. Like, this has to be the last, or one of the last, school shootings in the United States. I want everyone to come together and put differences aside and realize that we need to do something about this, because kids are dying. I am upset. But Im like, using that to talk about gun control and to talk about what happened. We should get the word out, speak our minds, because thats pretty much all we have at this point is our words and ... People always say things after shootings. They talk about gun control and they talk about how things need to change. But nothing ever does and thats whats so frustrating. I want them to stop saying that theyre giving us their prayers because thats not going to do anything for us. We need action. Its time to put petty things aside about partisanship and its time to think about humanity. People are just expecting to see it on the news. And we should not expect this. This should not be normal.Our world is broken, but Jesus is not, Pastor Eddie Bevill of the Parkridge Church told the congregation, in reaction to the statements some students have made about the futility of prayer as a response to gun violence. We pray that in the midst of the pain we are experiencing, that we can know you, Jesus.

Pastor Bevill also asked his flock to pray for the suspect in the shooting, Nikolas Cruz, although he did not mention Mr. Cruzs name or ask that he be forgiven.

At the high school, about a mile away from the church, a group of grief-stricken teenage survivors vowed to change the laws that allowed Mr. Cruz to get hold of an assault weapon that the authorities say he used to slaughter his former classmates.

In a movement that has been building since the massacre last week, student organizers said on Sunday that they would mount a demonstration next month in Washington called March For Our Lives. Their mission is to pivot Americas long-running gun control debate  which tends to flare up with each mass shooting and then dissipate  toward meaningful action.

We want this to stop. We need this to stop. We are protecting guns more than people, said Emma Gonzalez, 18, one of five core organizers, whose impassioned speech at a rally in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday drew national attention. We are not trying to take peoples guns away; we are trying to make sure we have gun safety.June 2016: It was the D.N.C. that did the hacking.

The Democratic National Committee said that Russian hackers had obtained a trove of internal emails and opposition research. In response, Mr. Trump suggested that the D.N.C. fabricated the story or did the hacking itself:

We believe it was the D.N.C. that did the hacking as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. Too bad the D.N.C. doesnt hack Crooked Hillarys 33,000 missing emails, Mr. Trump said in a statement on June 15, referring to Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent.

September 2016: I dont think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the D.N.C.

As the presidential nominees of their political parties, Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton began receiving government intelligence reports in August. On Sept. 22, top Democrats on congressional intelligence committees issued a public statement blaming Russia, based on briefings we have received.

Four days later, during the first presidential debate, Mr. Trump declined to agree:

I dont think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the D.N.C. Shes saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I dont  maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, O.K.?

October 2016: Maybe there is no hacking.

On Oct. 7, the United States intelligence community released a statement saying it was confident that the Russian government directed the cyberattacks.

Two days later, Mr. Trump again expressed doubt during the second presidential debate that Russia was responsible:

But I notice, anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians are  she doesnt know if its the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the reason they blame Russia because they think theyre trying to tarnish me with Russia.

December 2016: I dont believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point, a laughing point.The president denied  despite the ample evidence to the contrary  that he had ever suggested that Moscow might not have been involved. He called Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, a monster. And he asserted that the Russians were laughing their asses off because the efforts to investigate and combat Moscows meddling had only given the Russians what they wanted.

If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, Mr. Trump wrote.

The presidents outburst ended a relatively subdued period after the deaths of 17 people in the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., on Wednesday. He spent the following days praising law enforcement officials and emergency responders, and calling officials in Florida to receive updates. Mr. Trump met with two shooting victims in an unannounced visit to a Florida hospital on Friday evening, White House officials said.

As he shunned the golf course over the weekend (his predecessor had been criticized for golfing too soon after tragic events), he instead spent time mingling with his supporters, including Geraldo Rivera. Mr. Rivera said on Twitter on Sunday that he had seen firsthand that the president was deeply affected by the time he had spent with victims, impressed by their courage and equally distressed by the savagery of their wounds.

But Mr. Trump also had time to stew over news coverage of the indictment against the Russians secured by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel leading an investigation into the Trump campaigns contacts with Russia. And he was surrounded in Florida by people who are likely to share his grievances: his two oldest sons, as well as John F. Kelly, his chief of staff, and Dan Scavino Jr., the White House social media director, who often emulates his bosss prose on Twitter.A child is shot to death. Maybe at school, maybe at the movies. It is all over TV, all over Twitter, just like the last mass shooting.

Then the cameras go away, and the parents are left in a wilderness of heartbreak. They do not know how to plan a funeral, where to get a therapist. Theyre not aware that scammers will try to fund-raise off their grief, that conspiracy theorists will question their tragedy, or that  hard to believe  they might, eventually, be O.K.

But lots of people do know.

When we had this happen to us, had our daughter slaughtered, we didnt know what to do, or what was going to happen next, said Sandy Phillips, whose 24-year-old daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was one of the 12 killed in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., in 2012. We didnt want to live. It was horrific. And nobody else understood, except other survivors.

So it is that Ms. Phillips and her husband, Lonnie Phillips, are raising money to travel to Parkland, Fla., where the Phillipses will quietly let the families of 17 of Americas latest victims of mass gun violence know that they are there to listen, to advise, to hug, to cry, and, perhaps, to recruit them to the ranks of the most committed gun-control activists in the country.KABUL, Afghanistan  A second governor of a northern Afghan province defied an order by the United States-backed central government to step down on Sunday, deepening a political schism between President Ashraf Ghani and regional leaders.

The defiant governors and the Afghan president all oppose the Taliban, but their infighting has added to complications for the United States as it struggles to make headway against the insurgents, even as President Trump has stepped up a bombing campaign against them.

A shift in the United States strategy, toward more bombing and greater pressure on Pakistan, was announced over the summer. But so far, it has done nothing to roll back areas under Taliban control, a report issued on Friday by the Office of Inspector General at the Defense Department showed.

Seventeen years into the war, the Kabul government controls 18 percent of the countrys districts and has influence over an additional 38 percent, the report says.SYDNEY, Australia  During her second week waitressing at a barbecue restaurant in Sydney, a customer asked Yating Yang if she was Chinese. No, Im Taiwanese, she said.

Her boss, who was from mainland China, never gave her another shift.

Man-Tzu Tuan said her loyalty test came even sooner: on her first day at a hot pot restaurant in a comfortable Sydney suburb. Is Taiwan part of China? her manager asked in Mandarin over a walkie talkie. No, definitely not, she said.

A half-hour later, she was fired.

Chinas assertiveness has already set off alarms in Australia, with officials warning that Beijing has been meddling in Australian politics more than the public realizes. But the experiences of Ms. Yang and Ms. Tuan  along with many others  reveal how Chinese nationalism is also affecting private enterprise and, in some cases, leading to accusations of discrimination.

Australias fair work laws make clear that an employer cannot discriminate against an employee or prospective employee because of the persons political opinion, national extraction or social origin. But experts and Taiwanese workers say that is exactly what many Chinese business owners are doing, with few repercussions.BRUSSELS  The city is freezing. At night, Hamza Khater eats and sleeps at a volunteer-run shelter. He spends his days hanging around the international bus stop next to the Gare du Nord.

What am I looking for? I am looking for a life, said Mr. Khater, 31, who fled the violence-ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur a year ago. Specifically, he is looking for a chance to reach Britain. He has been for months.

Sudanese migrants like Mr. Khater are increasingly visible in Brussels, around train stations, in public squares and parks, sometimes sleeping in the streets. Mehdi Kassou, an organizer for a volunteer group that provides shelter for about 500 migrants each night, estimates that about 45 percent of them are Sudanese.

Their presence reflects the latest phase in a migration crisis that has disrupted politics in one European country after another. It also leaves the center-right government of Belgium, which is set to hold elections next year, struggling to reconcile its legal and humanitarian obligations with its tough but fair rhetoric on migration, and a determination to avoid large-scale migrant camps in the capital.MUNICH  After years of encouraging European nations to work together to provide more of their own defense, the United States is having second thoughts, driven by concerns about NATO and possible protectionism in defense industries.

The new American skepticism has been the big surprise of the high-level security conference held this past week in Munich. And it has puzzled and disconcerted NATO officials, who have welcomed the European Unions new commitment, after the Russian annexation of Crimea, to do more for its own defense.

Only last November, American and NATO officials embraced the blocs plans, under a program called the Permanent Structured Cooperation on Security and Defense, or Pesco, to spend more money on defense and to do it more efficiently, on national programs that would enhance European combat capacity and reduce overlapping national equipment that does not always work together with those of other allies.

The European Union created a defense research fund to provide 5.5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) a year in financing after 2020, a relatively modest sum, but one that could grow. As a psychological breakthrough, Pesco and the fund mark a cultural revolution in Brussels, the French defense minister, Florence Parly, said at the Munich conference.The Munich conference provided Mr. Netanyahu with a timely opportunity to appear on the world stage in his preferred role as Israels security czar and chief guardian against Iran, just days after the Israeli police recommended that he be charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two corruption cases.

The prime minister, who denies all wrongdoing, has responded by lashing out at his and Israels enemies and generally conducting his prime ministerial business as usual.

Mr. Netanyahu has long criticized the nuclear deal that was negotiated between Iran and the worlds biggest powers under President Barack Obama and has found an ally in President Trump, who has said he wants to scrap the pact.

On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu used the conference venue in the Bavarian capital to draw an analogy between the Iran deal and the appeasement of Nazi Germany, associated with a treaty signed here on the eve of World War II.

The Iran deal, he said, had unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond.

He stopped short of equating Iran with Nazi Germany but drew many comparisons. Let me be clear, Iran is not Nazi Germany, he said. There are many differences between the two, he said, but, he noted, there are also some striking similarities.

He pursued the analogy later in the afternoon, when he visited a memorial to Israeli athletes who were killed by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

There is special meaning to the fact that we are standing at the place where 11 of our athletes were murdered just because they were Jews and Israelis, Mr. Netanyahu said. Millions were slaughtered here just because they were Jews.A man carrying a knife and a hunting rifle opened fire on worshipers on Sunday at an Orthodox church in Kizlyar, in the Dagestan region of Russia, killing at least five people and wounding several others, according to a Russian state news agency.

The gunman shouted, Allahu akbar and began firing, a priest told the local news media. Churchgoers said they had prevented more casualties by closing the door to the church and stopping the attacker from getting inside.

The man was later shot and killed by security forces on duty at the time, reports said. The assailant was identified only as a 22-year-old man from the region, the Russian news agency Tass said.

The Islamic State claimed credit for the attack on the church, issuing a bulletin on its Amaq news agency, followed by a lengthier official statement in which the group described the assailant as a soldier of the caliphate and provided a nom de guerre for the attacker, Khalil al-Dagestani.

Not long afterward, pro-Islamic State channels on the Telegram app released a video showing a man said to be the assailant sitting before the Islamic State flag, his face covered by a ski mask. A gun and a long knife leaned against the wall behind him, presumably the weapons that would later be used in the attack.

In the video, the man pledges allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State leader, referring to him as the Emir of the believers, the honorific that Islamic State members reserve for the man they view as their caliph.

While the authenticity of the video could not be independently confirmed, Islamic State members and supporters were promoting it online.As international conspiracies to undermine the worlds last remaining superpower go, the Russian-led plot revealed by a Justice Department indictment on Friday can seem, in its particulars if not its intent, audacious but, as revealed so far, somewhat narrow.

The conspirators stand accused of spreading falsehoods online, hiring Hillary Clinton impersonators at rallies and starting Facebook groups that tried to convince minority voters to stay home or cast their ballots for Jill Stein.

That these efforts might have actually made a difference, or at least were intended to, highlights a force that was already destabilizing American democracy far more than any Russian-made fake news post: partisan polarization.

Partisanship can even alter memory, implicit evaluation, and even perceptual judgment, the political scientists Jay J. Van Bavel and Andrea Pereira wrote in a recent paper. The human attraction to fake and untrustworthy news  a danger cited by political scientists far more frequently than orchestrated meddling  poses a serious problem for healthy democratic functioning.MADRID  Anna Gabriel, a leading figure of the separatist movement in Catalonia who is due in court in Madrid this week to face possible charges of sedition and rebellion, has traveled to Switzerland, raising doubts that she will appear before the judge.

Ms. Gabriels party, Popular Unity Candidacy, said late Saturday that she had gone to Geneva to prepare her legal defense and bolster international support for the leaders of Catalonias independence movement. The argument echoed one made by Carles Puigdemont, the regions former leader, when he fled to Belgium in October after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain disbanded the regional government and the authorities sought Mr. Puigdemonts arrest on sedition charges.

The party raised doubts in a statement on Saturday that she and other separatist leaders could be guaranteed a fair trial in Spain. The party said that prosecutors were seeking very high prison sentences, and it accused the Spanish judiciary of handling the case so far in a way far from the impartiality that should be guaranteed by judicial authorities.

Spanish politicians on Sunday warned Ms. Gabriel against following Mr. Puigdemonts example. Were noting today that it looks as if the modus operandi of Mr. Puigdemont is spreading, Andrea Levy, a senior member of Mr. Rajoys conservative Popular Party, told reporters.LONDON  The widower of the British lawmaker Jo Cox, who was killed in 2016 by a right-wing extremist, has stepped down from two charities created in her memory after accusations of sexual misconduct resurfaced in the British news media.

Brendan Cox, who had sought to continue his wifes advocacy work and had spoken out about the rise of hate in Britain, said on Twitter that he resigned from the organizations More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation this past week.

He was accused of inappropriate behavior in 2015 by a woman who worked with him at the charity Save the Children, and of assaulting another woman at Harvard University that same year, according to British news reports.

The reports first resurfaced this weekend in the tabloid The Mail on Sunday. The article includes part of a Cambridge, Mass., police report showing that the woman in the Harvard episode, whose name has been redacted, had accused Mr. Cox of indecent assault and battery.TEHRAN, Iran  A commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of Iran, most likely killing all 66 people on board, the state news media reported.

The Iran Aseman Airlines plane went down near its destination, the city of Yasuj, about 485 miles south of the capital, Tehran.

Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai, a spokesman for Aseman Airlines, initially told state television that everyone aboard the ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flights, had been killed.

The airline later issued a statement saying it could not reach the crash site and could not accurately and definitely confirm everyone had died.

The plane was carrying 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members, according to The Associated Press. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it had sent people to the area, and the authorities said they would be investigating.

But fog prevented rescue helicopters from reaching the site in the Zagros Mountains, state TV reported. Mr. Tabatabai said the plane had crashed into Mount Dena, which has an elevation of about 14,500 feet.

News reports said the plane disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad International Airport, in western Tehran, which mainly serves domestic flights but has some international routes.After PNB, similar fraud hits Chennais City Union Bank

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Chennai's City Union Bank has been hit by fraud and the method used was similar to the one at PNB. The Rs 11,400 crore scam one of the biggest in Indian history was reported at the Punjab National Bank. The CUB said it suffered three fraudulent remittances of nearly US 2 million or Rs 12.8 crore.

Just like the fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), no entries of remittances were made in the ledgers of City Union Bank and transfers were pushed through the SWIFT financial platform.

"During our reconciliation process on February 7, it was found out that 3 fraudulent remittances had gone through our SWIFT system to our corespondent banks which were not initiated from our bank's end. We immediately alerted the correspondent banks to recall the funds," City Union Bank said in a regulatory filing on stock exchanges.

Of the 3 fraudulent remittance, one remittance was made through Standard Chartered Bank, New York, to a Dubai based bank for USD 5,00,000 which was blocked immediately and was returned to City Union Bank, it said.

Chennai-based City Union Bank said the transfers had been made through correspondent banks even though it had not requested the transfers.

A second transfer of 300,000 euros (USD 372,150) was routed through a Standard Chartered Bank account in Frankfurt to a Turkish account, while a third totalling USD 1 million was sent through a Bank of America account in New York to a China-based bank.

The bank said it was working with the Ministry of External Affairs and officials in Turkey and China to repatriate the funds.

"With the help of Ministry of External Affairs through Consulate General of Shanghai and Istanbul and office of the National Cyber Security Council (PMO) all possible efforts through diplomatic and legal channels are being taken to repatriate the money," it said.

The recent episode raises question mark on the efficiency of the SWIFT network as how secure it is.

PNB fraud pertains to issuance of fake Letters of Understanding (LoUs) to companies associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi by errant PNB employees which enabled these companies to raise buyers credit from international branches of other Indian lenders.

Last week, PNB had lodged an FIR with CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 280.7 crore were first issued on January 16. At the time, PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud.

In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms -- Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds -- saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

The bank sought 100 per cent cash margins for issuing LoUs for raising buyers credit, which was contested by the firms saying they had availed of the facility from as early as 2010.

Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal and uncle Mehul Choksi are partners in Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds, which have shops in foreign locations such as Hong Kong, Dubai, and New York.

OneIndia NewsBengaluru: Congress MLA's son assaults man at pub; CM steps in says 'no one above law'

India

oi-Madhuri

A FIR has been registered against Bengaluru District Youth Congress General Secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others for allegedly beating up a person in a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB City & threatening him at a hospital where he later went for treatment.

According to the FIR registered by the complainant Praveen Venkatachalaiah, he and his friend Vidvat (24) had been to Farzi Cafe on Saturday night for dinner, when the incident occurred.

The man has been identified as Vidwath, Dollars Colony resident. It is learnt that the victim along with his friends were having dinner at the high-end restaurant in UB City when Mohammad Nalapad and his friends walked in at 11:30pm. The group reportedly told Vidwath, who had a plaster on one of his legs, to "sit properly".

After a heated exchange, Nalapad and his friends allegedly attacked Vidwath and beat him up. The victim was rushed to the nearby Mallya Hospital for treatment, but the group reportedly followed him there and allegedly beat him up again. Nalapad and his friends allegedly also tried to attack the victim's brother.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the offenders would be punished "regardless of who they are".

OneIndia NewsCases of Lambda COVID-19 variant found in Canada but too early to know how widespread it is

Covid: Indians with travel plans to Canada struggling with the norm to take RT-PCR test in third country

Canadian PM in India: Justin Trudeau visits iconic Taj Mahal with family

India

oi-Madhuri

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who arrived in India last evening on a week-long visit, travelled to Agra to visit the iconic Taj Mahal. Trudeau, who is accompanied by his wife and three children, left for Agra from Delhi at 9:00 am. He visited the Taj Mahal at around 11 am, following which the Canadian prime minister will return to Delhi by 3:30 pm.

Justin Trudeau, who is in India till February 25, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 23. The objective of Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to India is to expand overall ties between the two countries with a focus on defence and security, counter-terror cooperation, trade and investment, and tackling climate change.

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.

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.

OneIndia News (with PTI inputs)

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 12:49 [IST]Chhattisgarh: 2 security personnel killed, 6 injured in gunbattle with Naxals

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Two security personnel were killed and six others injured in a gunbattle with the Naxals in Chhatisgarh's Sukma region on Sunday.

The encounter took place in a forest under the Bhejji police station when a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and local police was out on an "area-domination operation", said a PTI report quoting an official.

"Encounter went on for around 5 hrs in Sukma's Bheji. It started at 11am & concluded half an hour ago. Heavy firing took place from both sides. One STF & one DRG soldiers were martyred. Six DRG soldiers have been injured," DM Awasthi, Special DG, anti-Naxal operations, told news agency ANI.

As the team was passing through the forest between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, around 500 km from state capital Raipur, it came under heavy firing from the ultras, leading to the gun-battle, the DIG said. The exchange of fire lasted for over two hours, Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.

Reinforcement was rushed to the spot and the injured personnel as well as the bodies of the slain jawans were brought to Bhejji. The injured jawans were being airlifted to Raipur, the DIG added. In another incident along the stretch between Bhejji and Elarmadgu, where a road construction project is underway, the Naxals killed Anil Kumar, the supervisor of the private contractor, and set vehicles engaged in the road construction work ablaze, Sundarraj said.

OneIndia News with PTI inputs

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 18:22 [IST]Bank Holidays March 2021: On these dates banks will remain closed in India, check full list here

India's first bad bank or NARCL is here to tackle NPA, free up lenders: Details here

City Union Bank CEO blames cyber attack' for fraud

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

A day after it emerged that Chennai's City Union Bank was hit by a fraud, the bank's CEO said on Sunday that "cyber criminals" had hacked its systems and transferred nearly $2 million through three unauthorised remittances to lenders.

Just like the fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), no entries of remittances were made in the ledgers of City Union Bank and transfers were pushed through the SWIFT financial platform.

Chief executive officer N. Kamakodi called it a "conspiracy" involving multiple countries, and added the lender was still investigating how it had happened, said a report published in Livemint.

"This is basically a cyber attack by international cyber criminals," he told Reuters in a phone interview.

Chennai-based City Union Bank had earlier said the transfers had been made through correspondent banks even though it had not requested the transfers.

Of the 3 fraudulent remittance, one remittance was made through Standard Chartered Bank, New York, to a Dubai based bank for USD 5,00,000 which was blocked immediately and was returned to City Union Bank.

[After PNB, similar fraud hits Chennai's City Union Bank]

A second transfer of 300,000 euros (USD 372,150) was routed through a Standard Chartered Bank account in Frankfurt to a Turkish account, while a third totalling USD 1 million was sent through a Bank of America account in New York to a China-based bank.

The recent episode raises a question mark on the efficiency of the SWIFT network as how secure it is. PNB fraud pertains to issuance of fake Letters of Understanding (LoUs) to companies associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi by errant PNB employees which enabled these companies to raise buyers credit from international branches of other Indian lenders.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 22:28 [IST]Telecom to lose more jobs; on course to cut 90,000 jobs more

COAI says no ease of doing business in telecom sector

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The law of the land must work as indicated, but ease of business is not there when we get down to the local levels, the Telecom Operators body COAI said.

COAI said it does not see "ease of doing business" in the sector as rules framed by the Centre are not getting implemented at local level for network rollout.

"Law of the land should work as indicated, but ease of business is not there when we get down to local levels," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews told reporters while discussing issues around call drops.

He said the municipal bodies and panchayats are not following the rules framed by the Centre and obstruct rolling out of telecom network.

During the BRICS summit 2016 held in Goa, the telecom minister, secretary and other top officials from Centre went to the state to get mobile towers installed to handle traffic load but still telecom companies failed to get adequate permission from local bodies, Mathews said.

"In Bangalore, we are asked to pay price equivalent to the market for digging an area for laying optical fibre cable. The amount of money demanded is so huge that it leaves no business case for us," Mathews said.

He said some states have aligned their policy for rolling out telecom networks with that of the Centre, but there is problem in other states.

As per a presentation by the COAI, Odisha, Haryana and Rajasthan have notified policy as per the rules notified by the Department of Telecom and expect Uttar Pradesh and Assam to soon notify them.

"Telecom operators have been investing huge amount to prevent call drops. In last 12 months, telecom companies have invested Rs 34,677 crore to instal 3,46,778 base stations. Just two operators, Airtel and Jio have committed to invest Rs 74,000 crore in one year to address the problem. We are making best effort to check call drops," Mathews said.

He said telecom networks are not the only factor responsible for call drops and the regulations do not consider other factors.

As per the COAI, call drops may occur because of interference of signals, congestion on cell sites, weather conditions, faulty handsets and call transfer from one tower to the another. It said that most of the factors on customer side have not been considered under Trai regulations.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has made provisions to impose penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh on service providers if they fail to meet the benchmark for three consecutive quarters.

Mathews said that problem of call drop is more in data based networks like voice over LTE (VoLTE) than the technology used for 2G and 3G.

He said the average spectrum holding, required for transmitting mobile signals, is very low in India and operators can buy additional spectrum only if it is reasonably priced.

PTI

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 6:57 [IST]Masarat Alam will remain a non-starter in J&K thanks to Centres zero tolerance towards separatism

J&K: Army jawan injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Poonch

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

One army jawan was injured in ceasefire violation by the Pakistani troops in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Sunday evening. The violation took place in Karmarha sector along the LoC. The injured jawan has been rushed Army hospital in Poonch, said reports.

It may be recalled that four Army personnel including a Captain were martyred on February 4 in ceasefire violation by Pakistan.

On February 11, A woman was killed after Pakistan allegedly violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

Since the third week of January, 20 persons, including 10 security personnel and an equal number of civilians, have been killed in Pakistani ceasefire violations along the LoC and the IB in Jammu.

On February 6, OneIndia had reported that in the past 35 days there have been 240 incidents along the Line of Control and International Border. This is a very high figure when compared to the violations that took place in 2016. In the year 2016 228 incidents were reported while in 2017 it was 860.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 20:48 [IST]Karnataka: Police raid rooftop pub in Belgaum's Kirloskar road; 5 arrested

India

oi-Madhuri

Police raided a pub at Belgaum's Kirloskar Road and arrested 5 people for serving liquor outside purview of the eatery's license.

The pub name is 'Hide out' which is located on the terrace in the western tower building. It is learnt that the pub used to be open for late night parties on Saturdays Sundays and parties would end only in the wee hours of the morning. They also suspect the use of drugs.

As per the rules the bar must close by 11 pm.

The police is investigating the matter have taken samples of the liquor and other materials been served.

OneIndia NewsSaturdays to be working now for all government employees: Kerala govt

Kerala: Bandh in Alappuzha after clashes between KSU, DYFI activists

India

oi-Madhuri

A bandh has been called in Kerala's Alappuzha on Sunday by Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) & Kerala Students Union (KSU) following clashes which broke out between the two groups on Saturday as they alleged each other of destroying their flags and festoons during a march.

The violence erupted after DYFI activists alleged that the flags and festoons of CPM and DYFI were destroyed during the march taken out by KSU as part of its Samara Kahalam programme.

During the clash, CPM and DYFI activists even burnt flags and festoons of KSU.

Kodikunnil Suresh MP's and KSU activists' vehicles glasses were smashed in the violence.

Police resorted to lathi-charge as the activists started to pelt stones.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 8:58 [IST]Modi meets Parrikar in hospital, Goa CM's ailment still a mystery'

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Amid rumours that Manohar Parrikar is suffering from a major ailment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday met Goa Chief Minister at Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital.

Although Parrikar's ailment has been kept under the wraps, a report had emerged that he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. MumbaiLive, quoting a hospital source, on Sunday reported that Parrikar is undergoing treatment for 'Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer' at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai.

The Lilavati Hospital then released a statement saying that various "malicious and misleading reports/rumours" are appearing in the media regarding Parrikar's health.

"We categorically deny such rumours. We reiterate that Hon. Chief Minister of Goa is being treated and is responding well to the treatment," the statement.

It is interesting to note that the hospital statement makes no mention of Parrikar's ailment. It neither confirms nor denies if Parrikar is diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer or not.

[Is Parrikar being treated for pancreatic cancer?]

Parrikar was on Thursday rushed to Mumbai's Lilavati hospital after he complained of stomach ache. It was then thought to be a case of food poisoning. After the check-up on Wednesday, he was taken to Mumbai in a flight for further examination.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 21:18 [IST]Congress prime opposition to BJP in UP, will win without SP, BSP alliance: Ajay Kumar Lallu

Mohammed Haris Nalapad expelled from Congress for assaulting a youth

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Karnataka Congress on Sunday expelled Bengaluru District Youth Congress General Secretary Mohammed Haris Nalapad for six years for allegedly beating up a person in a restaurant in Bengaluru.

"Mohammed Haris Nalapad, Gen Sec of B'luru city Youth Congress, has been expelled from Congress party for 6 years. Atrocities in any form is not tolerated in @INCKarnataka. Legal actions have been taken against those responsible. The victim will be served justice," KPCC chief G Parameshwara tweeted.

An FIR was registered on Saturday against Karnataka Congress MLA NA Haris' son Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others for allegedly assaulting a man in Bengaluru's UB City.

The incident happened when Nalapad, with his friends, walked into a pub in UB City around 10 pm. According to reports, the victim, identified as Vidwath was having dinner in the same pub with his friend. Nalapad and his friends reportedly told Vidwath, who had a plaster on one of his legs, to "sit properly".

[Bengaluru: Congress MLA's son assaults man at pub; CM steps in says 'no one above law']

After a heated exchange, Nalapad and his friends allegedly attacked Vidwath and beat him up. The victim was rushed to the nearby Mallya Hospital for treatment, but the group reportedly followed him there and allegedly beat him up again. Nalapad and his friends allegedly also tried to attack the victim's brother.

Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the offenders would be punished "regardless of who they are".

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 16:23 [IST]Induction of Congress MLAs into BJP is death of Parrikar's legacy, says outgoing Goa deputy CM

Is Parrikar being treated for pancreatic cancer?

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was on Thursday rushed to a Mumbai hospital after he complained of stomach ache. Latest reports now say that he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

On Thursday, it was reported that Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) had referred him to a Mumbai hospital. It was then thought to be a case of food poisoning. After the check-up on Wednesday, he was taken to Mumbai in a flight for further examination.

MumbaiLive, quoting a hospital source, on Sunday reported that Parrikar is undergoing treatment for Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer at Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai. Reports had said that the Goa CM was being treated by Dr P Jagganath.

In the latest development, Lilavati Hospital has issued a statement. The statement does not say anything about Pancreatic cancer, it has just said that 'rumours' in the media regarding Parrikar are "misleading".

Here is the statement issued by the hospital:

Mumbai's Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre issues statement rejecting rumours on Goa CM Manohar Parrikars health. pic.twitter.com/QJCpFUkhI9  ANI (@ANI) February 18, 2018

He was initially rushed to Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) after he complained of stomach ache earlier this week.

[Goa CM Manohar Parrikar taken to Mumbai for health check-up]

MumbaiLive quoted South Goa MP Narendra Swaikar as saying that Parrikar's treatment is going in the right direction, and that the CM is responding to treatment well.

OneIndia NewsParrikar's illness: Goa Assembly session to be cut short

India

pti-PTI

Panaji, Feb 18: Goa Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo on Sunday the Budget session of the state Assembly will be curtailed to three days from the planned a-month-and-a-half because of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's illness.

Parrikar, who is being treated at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai for a pancreatic ailment since February 15, would not attend the session, said BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar. The session will begin tomorrow with Governor Mridula Sinha's address.

It was scheduled to end in mid-March, but now it would end in three days owing to Parrikar's illness, Lobo said. The state budget, scheduled for February 22, will now be presented on February 20, the deputy speaker said, adding that the Business Advisory Committee will meet tomorrow afternoon to take a formal decision on cutting the session short.

"The questions, which were supposed to be discussed in the current session, would be postponed to the next session," Lobo said.

Legislature sources said minister Sudin Dhavalikar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party will table the budget as Parrikar, who holds the finance portfolio, will not be able to attend the session.

"On the advice of his doctors, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will be continuing with the treatment for (the ailment of) pancreas in Mumbai," BJP MP from South Goa Narendra Sawaikar told reporters.

The chief minister was responding to the treatment but he needed "sufficient time to recover and be focused on the treatment", he added.

"Expert doctors are taking a good care of him," the MP said. Main opposition Congress said it had no objection to the curtailment of the session.

"We have no objection if the Assembly is curtailed to three days as the chief minister is genuinely ill," said Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, who is also a member of the Business Advisory Committee.

The BJP's Goa legislature wing will be holding a special meeting tomorrow morning before the start of the session to decide who will be its leader in the House in Parrikar's absence.

Party sources said Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik would also attend the meeting. Parrikar underwent a check-up at the Goa Medical College Hospital on February 14 after he complained of stomach pains. The next morning, he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai, where the doctors said he was suffering from a "mild pancreatitis".

PTIPolice announce Rs 25k reward for info on man molesting DU student in bus

India

oi-Madhuri

Delhi Police has announced a Rs 25,000 reward for information about the unidentified man who was seen molesting a Delhi University (DU) student in a bus last week. However, the identity of the informant will be kept anonymous.

The girl student had filmed the act and uploaded the video on social media causing widespread outcry. She had lodged an FIR with police over alleged molestation.

Following which, a case under sexual harassment and performing obscene act in public was registered at Vasant Vihar police station on February 10.

The incident took place when the woman was returning home on February 7 on a DTC bus.

An elderly man was sitting next to her and leaned against her. The woman moved in her seat to avoid contact with him but he leaned against her again. The accused then used a bag to hide his action from others while making his private part visible to the woman alone.

The victim said,''I was travelling in crowded bus when a man sitting next to me was molesting me. I was left stunned but then I made a video of the incident & posted it on social media to make people aware of the incident. People don't even consider something like this a form of sexual harassment.''

The complainant claimed that he ignored the man when he was misbehaving with her but was shocked when she saw him unzipping his pants. Meanwhile, a police investigation into the incident is underway.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 6:27 [IST]PNB, UCO Bank and two others fine for violation of KYC norms

Post PNB scam, jewellery sector foresees ripple effect

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A ripple effect on credit flow is likely to be witnessed by the jewellery industry in the backdrop of the PNB scam.

"Some ripple effects are bound to be there and it will have a psychological impact in the minds of lenders. This could impact credit flow to the industry or create delay in extending advances," Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council-Eastern Region chairman Prakash Chandra Pincha said today at a jewellery exhibition titled 'Sonar Sansar'.

PNB has detected the scam in which billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

Pincha, however, said exports of gem and jewellery, and the industry as a whole is not likely to be impacted by the fraud.

Not only bankers, insurance companies, too, could possibly be cautious in extending their services to jewellery exporters after this fraud, GJEPC's former VC and India Bullion and Jewellery Association-West Bengal president Pankaj Parekh said.

"Bank may ask for more collateral before providing credit to jewellers or jewellery exporters. Due to this fraud, the entire industry might be branded as a risky industry. This should not be done," he added.

PTI

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Story first published: Sunday, February 18, 2018, 6:52 [IST]India's first bad bank or NARCL is here to tackle NPA, free up lenders: Details here

Rotomac Pen's promoter flees country, owes over Rs 800 cr to banks

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Feb 18: After billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi, another defaulter Vikram Kothari, the promoter of Rotomac Pen, has also allegedly gone abroad after swindling Rs 800 crore from various public sector banks including Allahabad Bank, Bank of India and Union Bank of India, sources said.

The Kanpur-based company's owner had taken a loan of more than Rs 800 crore from over five state-owned banks. Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India compromised their rules to sanction loans to Rotomac, the sources said.

According to local media reports, the promoter said speculation of his fleeing the country is baseless.

"I am a resident of Kanpur and I will stay in the city. However, I do have to travel to foriegn countries for business purposes," Kothari said.

Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Mumbai-based Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank. A year later, Kothari has reportedly not paid back either the interest or the loan. Last year, Bank of Baroda (BoB), a consortium partner declared pen manufacturer Rotomac Global Pvt Ltd as "wilful defaulter".

The company moved the Allahabad High Court seeking removal of its name from the list of wilful defaulter. A division bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosle and Justice Yashwant Verma had passed the order on a petition filed by the company, contending that it has been wrongly declared a "wilful defaulter" by BoB despite having "offered assets worth more than Rs 300 crore to the bank since the date of default".

Rotomac was declared a wilful defaulter vide an order dated February 27, 2017 passed by an authorised committee, as per the procedure laid down by the Reserve Bank of India. The development comes less than a week after Punjab National Bank (PNB) had detected a USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,400 crore) scam wherein Modi allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The PNB fraud pertains to issuance of fake LoUs to companies associated with billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi by errant PNB employees, which enabled these companies to raise buyers credit from international branches of other Indian lenders. Last month, PNB had lodged an FIR with CBI stating that fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 280.7 crore were first issued on January 16.

At the time, PNB had said it was digging into records to examine the magnitude of the fraud. In the complaint, PNB had named three diamond firms - Diamonds R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds - saying they had approached it on January 16 with a request for buyers credit for making payment to overseas suppliers.

PTIIn a first, Pakistan to send transgenders as Haj volunteers

International

pti-PTI

Islamabad, Feb 18: For the first time in the history of Pakistan, transgenders will be part of a team of boy scouts being sent to Saudi Arabia to serve as volunteers during 2018 Haj pilgrimage, a media report said today.

"Efforts for sending transgender youth to Saudi Arabia to serve as Khuddamul Hujjaj (volunteers during the annual Haj) are underway," IPC Sindh Boys Scouts Commissioner Atif Amin Husain was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune. Blue Veins, a transgender welfare organisation, is coordinating with the IPC on the matter, the paper said.

"At least two to three transgender persons will be selected from each of the remaining three provinces for joining the scouting community that leaves for Saudi Arabia every year.," Husain said. He said recently 40 transgender youth from Sindh were administered oath on joining the Pakistan Boy Scouts Association (PBSA) a a national scouting organisation and one of the largest volunteer forces in the country.

The transgender persons would be part of a team of more than 150 boy scouts, he said, adding that last year over a hundred boy scouts had been sent. "The recruitment process for Khuddamul Hujjaj includes physical training and a test.

After that, the PBSA sends a list of successful candidates to the Federal Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony for a final approval," Husain said, explaining the process. This year the list would include names of transgender youth, he added. Husain feels that by joining the PBSA, transgender youth would get social acceptance, attain confidence, feel secure and move forward, the paper said.

Blue Veins Programme Coordinator Qamar Naseem said that after the recruitment of 40 transgenders in Sindh, his organisation is planning recruitment processes in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. "This can be a game changer and can significantly improve the social acceptance of transgender youth in our society," he said. He termed the recruitment step a positive initiative that would help the transgender community in improving its image at local as well as regional level.

PTIJapan to send evacuation plane to Wuhan for evacuating its citizens

Coronavirus: US plane diverted after passengers upset over someone sneezing

Fake: India Army is not undertaking a spraying exercise to kill coronavirus

'Tarzan' actor Joe Lara passes away at 58 in US plane crash

Wreckage of missing plane in Russia's Far East region found near destination airport

Pilot error led to Air India Express crash in Kerala last year: Probe report on Kozhikode plane crash

Iranian plane crashes into mountains; all 66 people on-board killed

International

oi-Madhuri

An Iranian commercial plane crashed on Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, killing all 66 people on board, state media reported.

The plane crashed in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom on Sunday, the news agency ISNA quoted emergency services spokesman Mojtaba Khaledi as saying.

The plane was reportedly travelling from Tehran to the small town of Yasuj in Isfahan province.

According to media reports the plane has been identified as an ATR-72, which crashed near the remote mountain town of Semirom, some 620km south of Tehran.

According to local media, search & rescue op for crashed Aseman Airlines passenger plane hampered by bad weather, preventing helicopters from landing.

OneIndia NewsWe have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.Moroccos Royal Armed Forces (FAR) plan to build ten new surveillance centers on the border with Algeria, to enhance security in the eastern parts of the country.

The Moroccan army is set to establish ten new surveillance centers at the border with Algeria, to counter the rise of smuggling activities and the infiltration of terrorist elements within the Kingdom, reported local daily Al Massae in its weekend issue (17/18 February).

The new monitoring centers will be outfitted with sophisticated military equipment, including 33 surveillance cameras.

Moroccos decision comes after Algeria set up new border surveillance points across the Moroccan cities of Oujda, Berkane, Taourirt and Jerada.

According to the daily, the new monitoring centers, meant to upgrade the security level at the border area, will become operational as of next April.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



Illustration from 'A Thumb on the Scales of Justice in Israel'

(Image by Leah Yael Levy) Details DMCA



Leah Yael Levy's recent graphic story, A Thumb on the Scales of Justice in Israel, which was posted on The Nib, beautifully summarizes the journey of teen activist Ahed Tamimi. Leah notes in her Feb. 12th blog post, "Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenager, is being held without bail in a system where different laws apply to different people."



Illustration from 'A Thumb on the Scales of Justice in Israel'

(Image by Leah Yael Levy) Details DMCA



Leah, a mixed media artist, storyteller and educator based in Oakland, CA, was born and raised in Moshav Beit Lechem Haglilit, Israel. She moved to New York City in 2002 to attend the Art Students League of New York.

I asked Leah, "So many of us are inspired by Ahed Tamimi in different ways and for different reasons, what inspired you?" She responded, "What inspires me most about Ahed Tamimi is her fearlessness. I usually stay away from politics with my art, but Ahed's story evoked too many feelings in me to ignore it. When I talked to friends about it, it seemed most people in my environment haven't even heard of her story. That's when I realized I had to do more. "I feel this is beyond politics, as it is primarily a human rights issue. "At various points in the process of working on this piece, when I found myself reading hate-filled comments on articles I was researching, I was confronted with my own fear of 'the internet' and what people may say. I kept going back to that image of Ahed slapping an officer and thinking, if she can find enough courage to do that, surely I can find the courage to speak out about it."



Illustration from 'A Thumb on the Scales of Justice in Israel'

(Image by Leah Yael Levy) Details DMCA



Leah Yael Levy's A Thumb on the Scales of Justice in Israel, can be read on The Nib, here.

The Nib is a daily comics publication founded in 2013 by Portland-based cartoonist and Pulitzer Finalist, Max Bors. It runs "political cartoons, journalism, essays and memoir about what is going down in the world, all in comics form, the best medium."

Today, Sunday Feb 18, is the " Free the Tamimis" Global Day of Action.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

The talk THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, A Talk by Bob Avakian, was given shortly before the November demonstrations calling for the whole regime to go, and is--day by day--more relevant than ever. In it, Bob Avakian analyzes the deep roots and driving forces of Trump/Pence fascism and what must be done to stop it.

A wide-ranging Question and Answer session took place right after this talk by Bob Avakian, moderated by Andy Zee, spokesperson for Revolution Books, NYC and co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org.

Hear the most urgent questions of our day raised & explored by revolutionary Bob Avakian, author & architect of the New Communism. Part 1 of the Q&A addresses these questions:

What do you say to the late night comedians, the Stephen Colberts etc, who do some powerful exposure and ridicule but also run the risk of becoming like court jesters and, in this case, contributing to the normalization of fascism?

If successful in driving out, or forcing Trump to resign, who will step in to take the reins? What happens next? And are these replacements prepared to lead this entire diverse country and its military?

How is it possible to maintain a movement of that scale for a long period of time?

Q&A Part 1: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist US: A Better World IS Possible from Revolution Books on Vimeo.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

The other possibility is that Abdullah becomes President of Afghanistan in the 2019 elections. For this he would have to be nominated by the JeI as its candidate, something the party at this juncture doesn't appear to be in a mood to do so. The JeI wants Atta Noor to be its candidate.

Fundamental to the present struggle within the NUG is also a struggle within the JeI as to who will head the party. Each politician, be it Atta Noor, Salahuddin Rabbani or Dr. Abdullah claim to hold a high position in the party, but the issue of who is actually in command remains moot. Noor, for instance, heads the party's Executive Council, while Rabbani is the head of the party.

The position of JeI head has been transitional since the assassination of the party's founding leader, Burhanuddin Rabbani in 2011. JeI has been since that time led by his son, Salahuddin Rabbani, who is currently acting Foreign Minister also. When Salahuddin took the position in October 2011, it was supposed to only be for a period of two months, after which, as per the party's constitution, a regular Congress was to be convened to choose its permanent leadership. This has never happened and each time it was proposed, it has been rescheduled for various reasons. In 2013, it was decided to hold the party conclave "after the 2014 Presidential election", but the Congress is yet to take place.

From 2016 onwards, Atta Noor has pushed the JeI to re-negotiate the terms of the NUG to try and gain more power for the party. The rank and file also supported his efforts to renegotiate his own position as Governor of Balkh with President Ghani. Eventually, Noor managed to convince Ghani that he was better placed to function as a full-time Governor of the Province as opposed to being an 'acting' governor, something that Ghani had announced on assuming office in 2014; all Governors would be acting till further orders.

Although the JeI is supportive of Atta, there is internal resistance to his ambitions of becoming leader of the party and to some extent to his running for Presidency. The JeI leadership council has the authority to convene the Party Congress and choose a new leader. It is clear that many party members remain doubtful about Atta Noor and are therefore, opposing convening of the Congress.

Frankly, the tussle between Atta Noor and the Central government is not unique. Afghanistan has witnessed provincial and inter-personal struggles for power endlessly. Last year, for instance, Balkh saw a violent feud break out between Governor Atta Noor and a provincial councilman Asif Mohmand, when Noor sent gunmen and police officers to arrest the latter. Mohmand, who enjoys the support from the Hizb-e-Islami party, engaged in a shoot-out with Noor's men resulting in the death of two men and injuries to seventeen. The short point is that potential for trouble exists very clearly and any attempt by President Ghani to forcibly ensure the exit of Governor Noor is likely to be resisted by force.

Admittedly, greater importance in the current context are the differences between Noor and Abdullah. As pointed out at the outset, Noor supported Abdullah to power in 2014 with his influence and money in Balkh. However, Abdullah's chosen path as CEO clearly demonstrates that power corrupts and corrupts absolutely. The same goes for every other warlord in Afghanistan including Noor. That said, it must be recalled that Noor claimed in early 2017 that the party had taken away the responsibilities of Abdullah within the JeI and reassigned them to another office holder.

At the end of the day, Abdullah knows that he is today an international figure, and one who has US backing. That is what is keeping him from openly courting trouble within the JeI and by extension in the NUG. However, his position remains tenuous for both the party and the President. When push comes to shove, will Abdullah abandon the JeI and join hands with Ghani for his political survival? Does that also extend to not having elections this year as planned or will that be a casualty of the violence that is racking Afghanistan today?

After all, it does appear that the US under President Trump would be quite happy to have President Ghani continue in office and if that means not holding elections in 2019, it would be only natural for Dr. Abdullah to bargain that he should be made Prime Minister! That of course gets one into the realm of speculation and of that there is no end in Kabul as we enter another fighting Taliban season. What tomorrow will bring to Afghanistan, one can only guess. In the present circumstances, only chaos!!Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From WSWS

The first funerals were held Thursday and Friday for several of the 17 students and staff killed in the horrific massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was arraigned before a local judge on Friday, saying nothing in court except to indicate he had understood the proceeding. He reportedly spoke freely to local police after he was arrested, admitting responsibility for the bloodbath. His lawyers are not disputing his role as the shooter, stating only that he is severely mentally ill and had suffered several recent emotional traumas. One described Cruz as "deeply disturbed, emotionally broken," and said he is on suicide watch.

Police have said that there is no indication that anyone else participated in the planning or the execution of the attack on Douglas High School, or that anyone was even aware of Cruz's specific intentions.

What has become clear over the past 24 hours is that the FBI had considerable information on Cruz, including a telephone tip only six weeks before the shooting rampage that warned he might carry out an attack on a school, but failed to take any action.

The agency admitted Friday morning in a public statement that the telephone tip came in on January 5, 2018, reporting concerns about Cruz based on his "gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." The FBI described the person making the phone call as an adult and "a person close to Nikolas Cruz," but did not otherwise identify the caller.

This was the second telephone alert given to the FBI about Cruz, who had ties to a white supremacist organization. The owner of a Mississippi bail bond agency found a message on YouTube in the name of "Nikolas Cruz" proclaiming his intention to become a "professional school shooter." He reported it to the FBI, which sent two agents to interview him, but officials said that the FBI was unable to identify or locate the 19-year-old south Florida man.

When the second call came in on a line that processes thousands of such tips each day, it was not passed on to the local FBI field office in Miami because "protocols were not followed," the FBI statement claimed. There was no follow-up, even though all tips relating to threats to life are supposed to be pursued.

The apparent FBI failure immediately became a political weapon in the conflict within the US political establishment between the Trump administration, backed by the Republican Party, and sections of the military-intelligence apparatus, backed by the Democrats.

Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican and a close ally of President Trump, immediately denounced the FBI for failing to prevent the Douglas High School massacre and called for the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray -- whom Trump appointed only eight months ago after firing James Comey over the Russia investigation.

"Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn't going to cut it," Scott said in a statement. "An apology will never bring these 17 Floridians back to life or comfort the families who are in pain."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to review how the FBI handled the tip on Cruz, as part of a wider review of the federal response to school massacres.

Press accounts pointed out that three of the four people responsible for mass shootings in south Florida in the last two years had been in contact with or reported to the FBI before the incidents. The gunman who killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando had been investigated over possible connections to "extremists." The gunman who killed five people at Fort Lauderdale airport had walked into an FBI office weeks before and drew attention with bizarre statements.

Former FBI assistant director Ron Hosko, who publicly defended the agency's failure to follow up the tip on Cruz last September -- pointing out that the FBI receives 100 such warnings every day -- told the press he was "sickened" by the evident failure to take action on the tip on Cruz last month.

The media attention has already begun to shift away from Parkland to new sensations, such as the indictment of 13 Russians by the Mueller investigation, without a single effort to probe more deeply into the social reasons why the United States, with 4.4 percent of the world's population, has 31 percent of the mass shootings.

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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Former Trump aide Rick Gates attends a hearing on fraud, conspiracy, and money-laundering charges two weeks ago in Washington, D.C. Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Former Trump campaign aide and Mueller investigation target Rick Gates will plead guilty to fraud-related charges in the next few days and testify against his former business partner and former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday. Last week, CNN said that a plea deal was being finalized between Muellers prosecutors and Gates, and that deal is apparently now set, according to the Times sources.

Gatess revised plea will be submitted in federal court sometime this week, and he will receive a substantial reduction in his sentence in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation.

Gates and Manafort, who ran a political consulting business together, were indicted in October by Mueller on charges that they fraudulently hid and laundered millions of dollars in Ukraine-originating payments from federal authorities. In addition to their business relationship, Gates served as Manaforts top aide on the Trump campaign, even running the campaigns operations for a time. Manafort was ultimately fired after it came to light that he may have accepted improper payments from a pro-Russia party in Ukraine. Gates stuck around and served as a liaison between the campaign and the RNC through Election Day, later serving on the Trump inaugural committee.

Despite Gatess extended tour in Trumpworld, a source tells the Times that its unlikely he has information that would turn the screws on Trump, but should Manafort maintain his not-guilty plea, Gatess testimony could prove crucial to either pressuring Manafort to cooperate, or convicting him. In other words, Manafort is probably the one who is now screwed, and if he flips, it will be interesting to see whom he flips on.sign up for a Advocate premium membership

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After 50 years of starting organizations or being an active member of groups, I realize the following:

VULNERABILITIES of NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AND CO-OPS

* Dependence on large donors.

Grant revenue should not overshadow reliance on membership fees.

* Board yields to government threats.

Best board members, under pressure, are those with nothing to lose.

* Excessive executive director salaries.

Our intent is to prove that average people can manage systems.

* Staff shifts from mission to salaries.

Many nonprofits evolve to serve staff more than members.

* Conversion to for-profit.

Many medical-insurance companies began as mutual-aid organizations.

* Lack of communication with members.

Less information sharing means less democracy, more insider deals.

* Closed or secret board meetings.

Shortcuts for board convenience lead to corruption.

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In Iowa, more than a dozen public health, medical, and veterinary organizations are lining up for their annual ritual of killing legislation that would legalize the sale of unpasteurized milk directly from dairy farms to consumers. These opponents say they want to protect individuals, especially children, from becoming ill or dying from raw milk, even though there hasn't been a single recorded death associated with legally available raw milk in the U.S. for more than 15 years.

Where were all these upstanding public health, medical and veterinary professionals a year ago, when the Iowa legislature was in the process of passing legislation designed to strip away various restrictions on gun ownership, including one requiring parental approval for anyone under the age of 21 having access to a handgun? Under the new legislation signed into law last April, any Iowa child of any age can possess a handgun, the only proviso being they be under the "direct supervision" of a parent or guardian. There is one stipulation for the parent or guardian supervisor: "the person"must not be intoxicated or impaired by alcohol or drugs" (I kid you not).

I raise my question not to promote raw milk, but rather to highlight the legislative momentum the pro-gun lobby has created over the last decade, to overrun any and all public health and other concerns about widespread access to guns of all types. As a result, it's now much easier for Iowa's children to legally get their hands on guns than on unpasteurized milk.

Iowa isn't alone in stripping away even minimal existing gun restrictions. It is one of many states that over the last decade have focused on making it easier for anyone, including children and nut cases of all types, to get their hands on guns. Only nine states now retain discretion over whether to grant permits to carry concealed weapons, compared with 29 such states at the start of the 1980s.

The easing of state restrictions on gun ownership has occurred in tandem with an easing of federal restrictions over the last 30 years. A law designed to reduce the sale of assault weapons instituted in 1994 was allowed to expire in 2004, and efforts to re-start it have failed. Federal background checks, first begun in 1968, and reaffirmed in 1993 legislation, have been watered down by not requiring checks of individuals who buy guns at gun shows. A year ago, President Trump signed legislation to lift restrictions on making guns available to the mentally ill. There's more to come from Congress: In the offing is legislation that would ease restrictions on purchase of gun silencers and armor-piercing bullets, as well as easing of restrictions on carrying concealed and non-concealed weapons.

In the wake of the latest school shooting massacre in Florida, I've seen a number of gun-rights advocates inquire on Facebook about why it is that America didn't seem to have the kind of mass gun killings 30 and 40 years ago that it is experiencing ever more frequently these days. The implied answer to the question, which many of these advocates' Facebook friends articulate, is that during the good old days there was less glorification of violence and sex than there is now, along with less drug use, more serious family values, and overall, more respect by children of their elders.

One factor they neglect to mention as a possible explanation for the explosion of school and other massacres is that we have much less regulation of guns today than we had in those "good old days" 30 and 40 years ago. Indeed, the frequency of massacres seems to increase nearly in lockstep with the discarding of the old restrictions.

Would we have as many mass killings if those old-time gun limits were still in place? It's difficult to get informed predictions, since there has been a prohibition on research into gun violence as a public health problem for many years. So, as far as the medical and public health establishments are concerned, raw milk is more of a public health menace than gun violence. Indeed, there's only one way to know for sure what would happen if we reimposed minimal gun restrictions, and that's to go back to those good old days, when minimal gun restrictions were in place, and life was pretty much massacre-free.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



(Image by Join us in supporting the people of Afrin!) Details DMCA



Please republish this video as much as you can in the USA; Kurdish people need American people support for survival. She did the best job. I have been working to establish friendship between American and Kurdish people. This video is very good message to be known by American people if you are Kurd or friend of Kurd please republish her message, this what I wrote to people in the USA.

Join us in supporting the people of Afrin!

The Kurdish people in Afrin-Syria and Turkey are facing genocide by the Turkish army and Islamic terrorist forces ally of Turkey.

YPG and YPJ allied with the US to fight ISIS Islamic terrorist forces and now the US looking another way while Russia, with Iran as supporter of Syrian government, give Turkey green light to kill unarmed Kurdish people compared to Turkey's sophisticated weapons supplied by the US, Germany, France and other NATO allies in last fifty years.

Only American people can help Kurdish people.

Kurds are looking forward to hearing from American people in this difficult time. Please do what you can to help Kurdish people in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

Turkey and Islamist terrorist ally of Turkey are killing women and children in Afrin-Syria now.

.youtube.com/watch?v=cPQCuQnzF18Quicklink Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them.



To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here.Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

Ahed Tamimi's father, Bassem Tamimi, and the Free the Tamimis Campaign are calling on allies and supporters around the world to protest the ongoing incarceration and systematic targeting of members of the Tamimi family and the village of Nabi Saleh today. More info at "Free the Tamimis" Global Day of Action Sun. Feb.18.

You can join global rallies, or select an individual method of support:

SIGN AND SHARE PETITIONS:

*Sign the "Free Ahed" Avaaz petition by Avaaz and Bassem Tamimi. Over 1,700,000 have signed at the time of this writing. (Read more details here.)

*CodePink is demanding Ahed's release, writing, Ahed "is in imminent danger of being abused, humiliated, or worse if we don't get her out fast. Ben Caspit, an Israeli writer, has already called for her rape. Sexual torture by the State of Israel is a vile crime against humanity. We demand the immediate release and safety of Ahed & her family." You can sign their petition here.

*You can sign the change.org Free Ahed Tamimi petition here. At the time of this writing they have over 63,000 signatures.

*Sign the Release 16-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi petition by Amnesty International here.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES

*Write to Ahed: Ahed Tamimi, HaSharon Prison, Even Yehuda, P.O. Box 7, 40 330 Israel. (Whether she gets the letters or not, the prison will know that she has global support.)

*Inform yourself: Read the Avaaz Fact Sheet on Child Prisoners held by Israel here, and the articles in this Ahed Tamimi series on OpEdNews (listed at the bottom of this article.)

RT @protestencil: At iconic London locations today, thousands are seeing the Tamimis names. Clear, defiant and demanding #FreetheTamimis h at  Martin Francis (@WembleyMatters) February 18, 2018

RT @AlTamimiAhed: Today is the day.. 18th Feb #FreetheTamimis global day of action! Let's make a difference. #FreetheTamimis https://t.c at  Bjrn Hartveit (@b0nn1) February 18, 2018

RT @jvplive: #FreetheTamimis Ahed Tamimi, her mother Nariman, and two cousins, Mohammad and Osama, are incarcerated following a crackdown at  sam sirriyeh (@PALESTINE1949) February 18, 2018

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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kall's book is amazing. He's created a real breakthrough, visionary how-to for a sustainable, quality future. Like Saul Alinski's Rules for Radicals, this book is destined to become a classic must-read for all those concerned with social, economic, and environmental justice in today's interconnected world. Story shapes the world and our world needs new stories if we are to survive and thrive. The story of the bottom-up evolution and revolution is one that can change individuals, groups, businesses, religions, and governments for the positive as it shows how bottom-up inclusiveness, connectedness, collaboration, empathy, innovation, and freeform creativity can help unleash the great potentials for good inherent in our very nature. If you want to improve things in your world and the world, first read this book, then apply the suggestions. Change is sure to come."



Pamela Jaye Smith, mythologist and author of InnerDrives, Power of the Dark Side, Symbols* Images* Codes* and award-winning writer-producer-directorWould you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Gush Shalom

PITY THE almond tree, especially when it is in full bloom.

The bloom of the almond is, in German, Mandelblut. That is also the name of Israel's chief legal official, called "the Legal Advisor of the Government."

The Legal Advisor is appointed by the government, but is supposed to be completely independent. He is in practice the Attorney General, the person who has the final say about indicting people, especially the prime minister. That is now his unhappy lot.

Now Mandelblit (as we pronounce his name in Hebrew) is in an impossible position. The prime minister has been officially accused by the police on two counts of bribery. Now Mandelblit must decide whether to put him on trial.

But Binyamin Netanyahu has been his benefactor for a long time, pushing his career to the top. Do you bite the hand that has fed you? Or do you shirk your duty?

An awful choice.

AVICHAI MANDELBLIT was born in Tel Aviv into a right-wing family. His father was a member of the Irgun and a rightist party stalwart. Avichai ("My Father Lives," meaning God) adopted religion at the age of 25 and put a kippah on his head.

After studying law, he served in the army as a military judge in the occupied Gaza Strip and other military jobs, until he became the chief legal officer of the army. From there it was but a short jump to the job of "government secretary," the right-hand man of the Prime Minister, who happened to be Binyamin Netanyahu.

When the office of "Legal Adviser of the Government," an official with immense power, became free, Netanyahu looked around for a candidate. And who did he see? Yea, quite right -- the good, loyal Mandelblit.

On the horizon there were looming already all kinds of criminal suspicions. The crucial position of Legal Advisor was becoming very important. So, choosing the religious, right-wing lawyer was a clever move.

How clever? Well, we will soon know.

NETANYAHU HAS not always made the cleverest choices.

Almost at the same time as he chose the Chief Legal Advisor, he also chose a new Chief of Police.

His choice was a total surprise. He did not pick one of the senior policemen, each of whom had years of experience behind him, but a completely anonymous person. And not anonymous by accident: he was the No. 2 of the internal security service (Shin Bet).

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From Beat The Press

The Washington Post has long had a hostile attitude toward unions, which it expresses in both its opinion and news sections. (As an example of the latter, this front page article complaining about high pensions for public sector workers in California, highlighted the case of Bruce Malkenhorst Sr., a retired city administrator, who received a pension of more than $500,000 a year. Only after reading down in the piece do readers discover that Mr. Malkenhorst was awaiting trial for misusing public funds. Of course, as an administrator, he was not a typical public employee or a union member.)

The latest expression of hostility is from editorial writer Charles Lane. Lane is upset that public sector employees can be required to pay representation fees to the unions that represent them as a condition of working in a unit that is represented by a union. There is much about the current situation that draws his wrath.

First, he complains that the unions arguing the case currently before the Supreme Court are citing the precedent of a prior ruling supporting this practice. Apparently, Lane didn't realize that US courts are governed by precedent.

Lane then makes the argument that there is a serious problem with public sector unions collecting representation fees and dues (dues are paid only by those who choose to join the union), which come out of their paychecks, and then use some of this money to support their favored political candidates. (Only dues can be used for political campaigns, not representation fees, which can only be used for the cost of running the union.)

Lane argues that this creates a conflict of interest because the government is effectively paying money to unions, who then support candidates that are favorable to the union. It's not clear how this is different from government contractors who give campaign contributions to candidates who support giving them government contracts, or from oil companies who give campaign contributions to candidates who give them favorable access to government land, or from drug companies who give campaign contributions to candidates who will give them stronger and longer patent monopolies on their drugs.

For some reason, Lane thinks we should be troubled by workers who get a public sector paycheck supporting candidates who represent their interests. When private corporations use profits derived from government actions to support candidates who will increase their profits further, this is fine.

Of course, the immediate issue before the court is whether the government can sign a contract with a union that requires that everyone who benefits from union representation has to share in the cost of the representation. Lane wants to deny workers the right to have a contract that imposes conditions on their co-workers.

Interestingly, the court has explicitly gone the other way in allowing employers to impose terms on their employees with which they may not agree. In the Hobby Lobby case, the Supreme Court ruled that a company can require its workers to have insurance that does not cover contraceptives if the company's owners have a religious objection to the use of contraceptives. In this case, the remedy for workers who believe that it is important that contraceptives be covered by insurance is to work somewhere else.

Under current law, companies can impose all sorts of conditions on their workers, such as wearing stupid hats, smiling at customers and giving overly friendly greetings, and even having insurance that comports with the boss's religious beliefs. But Lane wants us to think that it interferes with workers' individual freedom if their co-workers vote to put any conditions on employment.Emma Gonzalez. Photo: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images

In many ways, the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last week has followed the same soul-deadening script that Americans have been forced to memorize by heart over the last two decades. A young man with bright-red warning flags in his past legally purchased a weapon of war and used it to massacre civilians, in this case 14 students and three staff members. The nation recoiled, again, in horror. Republican lawmakers offered mealy-mouthed condolences while promising precisely nothing to prevent the next tragedy; liberals alternated between impotent rage and unhelpful fatalism. Rinse, repeat.

But there has been one significant deviation to the story this time around: the survivors.

Almost as soon as the rampage had ended, a group of Stoneman Douglas students made themselves heard, lambasting lawmakers for their cowardice and wrestling the usual narrative (trying to divine a motive for the shooting, ephemeral remembrances of the victims) to one of moral outrage about guns. Their articulate, strident rejection of the Republican thoughts and prayers platform is unlikely to significantly alter federal or Florida gun laws in the near future. But it frames gun reform as an urgent moral issue better than any lawmaker or seasoned activist could, and sets the tone for a Democratic Party that is increasingly unafraid to take on the National Rifle Association. Heading into the 2018 midterms and beyond, the students are showing the way forward on one of the most intractable issues in America.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, several students spoke to television networks, voicing their outrage by simply making reasonable points.

If kids arent even allowed to purchase their first drink of alcohol then how are we allowed to buy guns at the age of 18 or 19? 16-year-old survivor Lyliah Skinner told CNN. I feel like as our legislators and leaders, they shouldnt be offering prayers and words, we need action.

One students profanity-laden, since-deleted tweet directed at Trump gained widespread attention; others took aim at Senator Marco Rubio and right-wing personality/troll Tomi Lahren.

I was hiding in a closet for 2 hours. It was about guns. You weren't there, you don't know how it felt. Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings. This IS about guns and this is about all the people who had their life abruptly ended because of guns. https://t.co/XnzhvuN1zd  Carly Novell (@car_nove) February 15, 2018

The students visibility has only grown since.

On Saturday, senior Emma Gonzalez delivered a lengthy and passionate speech at a rally in Fort Lauderdale in which she excoriated politicians who refuse to do anything about gun violence.

The people in the government who are voted into power are lying to us, she said. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and are prepared to call BS.

We are going to be the last mass shooting, she vowed.

And on Sunday, a group of Stoneman Douglas students announced that they will lead a nationwide demonstration on March 24 called the March for Our Lives.

We are going to be marching together as students, begging for our lives, 11th-grader Cameron Kasky said. At this point, you are either with us or against us.

Meanwhile, others have continued to speak out on Twitter:

17 of my classmates are gone. Thats 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But youre right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain https://t.co/i6Hldlo0Aq  Aly Sheehy  (@Aly_Sheehy) February 18, 2018

As Republicans make a show of considering some extremely basic gun reforms, President Trump has announced a listening session with high-school students and teachers on Wednesday, though its not clear where the meeting will take place or what will be discussed. These elementary steps probably wont satisfy the most outspoken students, whose ability to detect meaningless gestures is clearly well developed.

In the long annals of American mass shootings, its difficult to find a corollary to the the students immediate and organized action. Its true that after every high-profile tragedy, there are anguished parents, spouses, and survivors who cry out for sensible gun reform, and later become advocates for the cause. Major organizations like Moms Demand Action (now part of Everytown for Gun Safety) sprang up in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

But this time feels different. Social media, which didnt exist in the Columbine era, is one explanation for the Parkland students visibility. But its depressingly likely that their voices could only have emerged from a society in which mass shootings are less an aberration than an ever-present possibility. The preternatural poise of the students in the killings aftermath made it feel almost as though they had been anticipating the tragedy  which, in a society where mass-shooting drills at schools have become a fact of life, may not too be far off.

As he was hiding in a closet during the rampage, 17-year-old David Hogg, a student journalist who has emerged as one of the most eloquent voices in the shootings aftermath, calmly recorded students reactions to what was happening.

I want to show these people exactly whats going on when these children are facing bullets flying through classrooms and students are dying trying to get an education, he told CNN. Thats not okay, and thats not acceptable and we need to fix that.

But beyond their composure, Hogg and his cohort intuit that fury  sustained fury  is the only force that will drive change on guns. You sicken me, he said on Sunday, responding to a Trump tweet blaming Democrats for a lack of gun laws.

Contrary to popular wisdom, the NRA is not an unbeatable, indomitable political organization  they lose all the time. Also contrary to popular wisdom, the NRA does not strike fear in lawmakers hearts simply because of its fundraising prowess. It wins because its members are so devoted to gun rights that theyll punish any lawmaker who diverges from the loosest possible interpretation of the Second Amendment.

That level of passion is something gun reformers have simply failed to match. It has taken tens of thousands of deaths, and one high-profile mass shooting after another, to even come close.

But there are real signs of progress. Already, the Parkland students have probably helped prevent news coverage from pivoting away from gun control as quickly as it usually does after a mass shooting. Theyll keep trying to prevent the press from changing the subject. And if the majority of Americans who favor stricter laws follow their lead, gun-supporting Republicans will have one more thing to worry about this November.

The Stoneman Douglas students vow that theirs will be the last school shooting in America. Theyre probably wrong. But by controlling the narrative around their own tragedy and using it to rally others to their cause, theyve shown the country that despair and paralysis are no longer an appropriate response to our gun violence crisis.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



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Yesterday I was going to cover the shootings in Florida on Politics Done Right with a show centralized on righteous indignation. I featured instead someone who had a more measured approach which believes there is a better way to get to sensible gun control.

I invited Coffee Party USA former president Debilyn Molineaux and instead of addressing the gun control question directly, she postulated that if one instead solved ancillary issues, it could render gun control moot. While Debilyn is likely correct that solving people's problems -- boredom, abuse, molestation, lack of self-worth, -- would inhibit those who have access to guns from using them as their antidote, the problem is now.

We all know the ultimate solution because it is in effect in countries like the United Kingdom where these events don't occur. Limit access to guns, period. Australia instituted buyback programs and gun control after having liberal gun policies. They've not had a mass killing event since.

But Americans are under the grips of politicians who are controlled by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Most Americans want stricter sensible gun control. The problem is that to most it's not existential, so they are not revolting in the streets.

If messaging were better I think we would accomplish two things. First, it would show Americans that there is a better way that is not hypothetical given examples of countries without the problem and nations that solved their mass shooting problems. And second, many Americans would activate and put the fear of the masses in the psyche of even the politicians in hock to the NRA. We would have empowered the masses with a consistent message.

I recall an episode of The West Wing where President Bartlett did just that to shoot down the nonsense emanating from an Evangelical Host. It was not only epic, but it shows the effectiveness of a tightly constructed narrative. Check it out here.New Research: K-12 Blended E-Learning Market Projected To Grow at +18% CAGR By 2022  Report Focuses on Top Companies (Blackboard, Instructure, Pearson, Promethean, D2L, Docebo, Educomp Solutions, Scholastic, Samsung)

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The concept of blended learning is still growing and various new methods of amalgamating online and offline ways of learning are being evolved. This is helping educational institutions and corporates to adopt learning methodologies that fit their needs and budget. Institutions and instructors are now able to provide enhanced learning experiences via interactive pedagogy using tools such as gamification of content and digital badges. This is helping in the growth of the market enormously, opening up new opportunities for revenue generation.Global K-12 Blended e-learning Market Estimated to grow at a CAGR of +18% During Forecast PeriodGet Sample copy of this Report@:K-12 Blended E-Learning market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.Top Companies Profiled in this Report includes, Blackboard, Instructure, Pearson, Promethean, Samsung, Aptara, D2L, Docebo, Educomp Solutions, Ellucian, Scholastic, SchoologyThe growth in the e-learning and the rising penetration of the internet is resulting in the demand for digital content. This encourages innovators to come up with SCORM, which enables content developers to develop content that is interoperable on multiple devices with Windows, iOS, Android, or any other platform. Also, the sharable content object in SCORM indicates that the content created can be shared across different systems. The emergence of wearable devices has further fueled the need for content that is compatible with different operating systems and operational framework.Get Flat 20% Off on this Premium Report @:Various factors are responsible behind the markets growth trail, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the global K-12 Blended E-Learning market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat to the new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the markets trajectory between forecast periods.Reason to Access K-12 Blended E-Learning Market Research Report:K-12 Blended E-Learning market is segmented on the basis of various parameters. The factors which are impacting the markets growth are studied in detail. The report also presents a overall weaknesses which companies operating in the market must avoid in order to enjoy sustainable growth through the course of the forecast period. Besides this, profiles of some of the leading players operating and encouraging in the growth of the global market are included in the study. Additionally, using SWOT analysis, markets weaknesses and strengths are analyzed. It also helps the report provide insights into the opportunities and threats that these companies may face during the forecast period.For More Information:Table of ContentsGlobal K-12 Blended E-Learning Market Research ReportChapter 1 K-12 Blended E-Learning Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Global K-12 Blended E-Learning Market ForecastAbout:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact:It Intelligence Marketssales@itintelligencemarkets.com+91 705-760-0700Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market Analysis, Market Size, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2018 To 2023

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This statistical surveying research report on the Global Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market is an all-encompassing study of the industry sectors, up-to-date outlines, industry development, drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It contains an analysis of late augmentations in innovation, Porters five forces analysis and progressive profiles of hand-picked industry competitors. The report furthermore articulates an analysis of trivial and full-scale factors indicated for the new and tenured candidates in the market along with a methodical value chain exploration.Top Key Vendors in Market: Dow Corning, Wacker Chemicals, Momentive, ShinEtsu, KCC Corporation, Laur Silicone, Tianci Materials, Guangdong Polysil, BlueStar Xinghuo, Wynca, Jiangsu Tianchen.Get Sample Copy Of this Report @The initial section presents the industry overview of the Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market. This part of the study encompasses the specifications and definition of the market. In addition, the types of the machines have been detailed. The application areas of the market come next in the study. The dynamics impacting the development of the Global Market such as the drivers, challenges, opportunities, and trends are also described in detail in this research surveying report.The competitive landscape of the Global Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market is discussed in the report, which also includes the players market share. The report profiles some of the leading players in the global market for the purpose of an in-depth study of the challenges faced as well as growth opportunities in the market. The report also considers the approaches implemented by the main corporations to sustain their hold on the industry. The business synopsis and financial synopsis of each of the companies have been examined.Get Reasonable Discount on This Premium Report @The report provides both, qualitative and quantitative research of the Global Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market, as well as incorporates worthy insights into the balanced scenario and favored development methods adopted by key competitors. Distinctive distribution channels and slants inclined to bear fruit in the 2018-2023 forecast period have been bestowed in the report to permit readers to plan captivating strategies.On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of Content:Global Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Industrial Grade Liquid Silicone Rubber Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comTelecom Consulting Market to receive overwhelming hike in Revenues by 2022: Outlook, Research, Trends and Forecast with Top Key Players

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Telecommunications consultants may have their own business and work independently or they may be employed by a consulting firm. Positions within the telecommunications industry require training and experience.A comprehensive analysis of the situation of Telecom Consulting Market is been done in this intelligence report. It includes the investigations done of the past progress, ongoing market scenarios and future prospects. An accurate data of the products, strategies and market shares of leading companies in this particular market is mentioned.Download PDF Sample Copy:Companies Profiled: The Top Key Players Included in this market are Accenture, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, IBM, Deloitte, Mckinsey, Gartner, Dimension Data, Logica, Tellabs, BCG, PwC, CSG, Toil, DeteconThis study provides an evaluation of aspects that are expected to impact growth of market in an undesired or constructive method. The Telecom Consulting market has been consistently examined with respect to the corresponding market segments. Each year within the mentioned forecast period is concisely considered in terms of produce and worth in the regional as well as the global markets respectively.This report defines the specifications, applications, classifications of Telecom Consulting market and explains the industrial chain structure in detail. Recent policies and developments are researched in depth to help enhance this report. A detailed cost structure is examined and prices are coated by labors, raw material supplier and others. An insight about demand supply chain is also mentioned in detail.To Get Reasonable Discount:The report gives a SWOT analysis of the new projects in the international and Telecom Consulting market, investment feasibility, development trends, and investment return analysis of these projects. Study of the Telecom Consulting markets competitive landscape includes data facts and figures about leading countries and suppliers capacity, cost-structures, production values, profits, and gross margins of key businesses operating in the market over the reports review period.The report also provides details such as product picture and specification, and contact information of the companies profiled in the Telecom Consulting markets manufacturer analysis segment. Initially, the Telecom Consulting producing an analysis of the most important trade players based on their company profiles, annual revenue, sales margin, growth aspects is additionally lined during this report, which is able to facilitate alternative Telecom Consulting market players in driving business insights.Table of ContentsGlobal Telecom Consulting Market Research ReportChapter 1 Telecom Consulting Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Global Telecom Consulting Market ForecastBuy Complete Report:About QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comRelease Liner Paper Market Analysis, Market Size, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2018 To 2023

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This statistical surveying research report on the Global Release Liner Paper Market is an all-encompassing study of the industry sectors, up-to-date outlines, industry development, drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It contains an analysis of late augmentations in innovation, Porters five forces analysis and progressive profiles of hand-picked industry competitors. The report furthermore articulates an analysis of trivial and full-scale factors indicated for the new and tenured candidates in the market along with a methodical value chain exploration.Top Key Vendors in Market: Mondi, Loparex, UPM, Nan Ya Plastics, LINTEC, Felix Schoeller, 3M, Polyplex, Delfortgroup, Siliconature, Infiana, Xinfeng Group, Laufenberg, Road Ming.Get Sample Copy Of this Report @The initial section presents the industry overview of the Release Liner Paper Market. This part of the study encompasses the specifications and definition of the market. In addition, the types of the machines have been detailed. The application areas of the market come next in the study. The dynamics impacting the development of the Global Market such as the drivers, challenges, opportunities, and trends are also described in detail in this research surveying report.The competitive landscape of the Global Release Liner Paper Market is discussed in the report, which also includes the players market share. The report profiles some of the leading players in the global market for the purpose of an in-depth study of the challenges faced as well as growth opportunities in the market. The report also considers the approaches implemented by the main corporations to sustain their hold on the industry. The business synopsis and financial synopsis of each of the companies have been examined.Get Reasonable Discount on This Premium Report @The report provides both, qualitative and quantitative research of the Global Release Liner Paper Market, as well as incorporates worthy insights into the balanced scenario and favored development methods adopted by key competitors. Distinctive distribution channels and slants inclined to bear fruit in the 2018-2023 forecast period have been bestowed in the report to permit readers to plan captivating strategies.On the basis of geographical regions, the Global Release Liner Paper Market is segmented broadly into Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The global market is still in its exploratory stage in most of the regions but it holds the promising potential to flourish steadily in coming years. The major companies investing in this market are situated in Canada, U.K., and the US, India, China and some more countries of Asia Pacific region. Consequently, Asia Pacific, North America, and Western Europe are estimated to hold more than half of the market shares, collectively in coming years.In the last sections of the report, the manufacturers responsible for increasing the sales in the Release Liner Paper Market have been presented. These manufacturers have been analyzed in terms of their manufacturing base, basic information, and competitors. In addition, the technology and product type introduced by each of these manufacturers also form a key part of this section of the report.Table of Content:Global Release Liner Paper Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Release Liner Paper Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comGlobal Patch Remediation Software Market SWOT Analysis, Benefits, Forthcoming Developments, Outlook, Research & Future Investments to 2022

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This market research report delves deep into the global Patch Remediation Software market. It highlights the recent market scenario, growth in the past few years, and opportunities for manufacturers in the future. The research methods and tools used in the completion of this study are both primary and secondary research. The study further presents details on the investments initiated by several organizations, institutions, government, and non-government bodies.The study presents an evaluation of the factors that are expected to inhibit or boost the progress of the global Patch Remediation Software market. The global Patch Remediation Software market has been examined thoroughly on the basis of key criteria such as end user, application, product, technology, and region. An analysis has been provided in the report of the key geographical segments and their share and position in the market. The estimated revenue and volume growth of the global Patch Remediation Software market has also been offered in the report.Key Vendors:CA Technologies, Inc., Comodo Group, Inc, Ecora Software Corporation, Flexera Software LLC, GFI Software, International Business Machines Corporation, Kaseya Limited, Landesk, Shavlik, LogMeIn, Inc, Lumension Security, Inc, Microsoft Corporation, SmiKar Software, SolarWinds Worldwide, LLCFor Sample Copy of this report:The regions which have been examined thoroughly are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. This helps achieve better idea about the blowout of this specific market in particular regions. A list of leading industrialists have been given major value to ensure their approaches are understood in this specific market.This report presents a 360-degree overview of the competitive scenario of the Global Patch Remediation Software market. The report includes massive data relating to the recent product and technological developments observed in the market, complete with an analysis of the impact of these advancements on the markets future development. The research report analyzes the global Patch Remediation Software market in a detailed manner by explaining the key aspects of the market that are expected to have a quantifiable influence on its developmental prospects over the forecast period.Avail 30% Discount on this Report:The various factors supporting the markets growth and those posing threat are studied in detail in this report. Additionally, the market study segments the Global Patch Remediation Software Market based on end-users, verticals, and size. In these sections, it shields various factors impelling the markets trajectory across the segments. Furthermore, it recognizes the most lucrative of them all to help investors take the well-informed decision.The future potentials of this market are analyzed and the prevalent trends are been looked upon with utmost detailing. The growth in all the major geographic regions are been studied in detail in this particular report. With exact data on the top most regions for this market and the reason they hold that position is studied and elaborated.Moving forward, a competitive landscape of Patch Remediation Software market is presented for understanding the market importance. This section gives the prime strategies, weaknesses and strengths and the major contributed of the growth have been highlighted. Gross, revenues, product overview, contact information and many such points are explained for Patch Remediation Software market in depth.Get Complete Report@:About USWe at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact UsVijay TannaContact No: +91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.comGlobal Encrypt Email Messages Market Outlook, Research, Trends and Forecast to 2022,Focusing on top key vendors - HP, Data Motion, Proofpoint, EdgeWave, Trend Micro and others

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This market research report delves deep into the global Encrypt Email Messages market. It highlights the recent market scenario, growth in the past few years, and opportunities for manufacturers in the future. The research methods and tools used in the completion of this study are both primary and secondary research. The study further presents details on the investments initiated by several organizations, institutions, government, and non-government bodies.The study presents an evaluation of the factors that are expected to inhibit or boost the progress of the global Encrypt Email Messages market. The global Encrypt Email Messages market has been examined thoroughly on the basis of key criteria such as end user, application, product, technology, and region. An analysis has been provided in the report of the key geographical segments and their share and position in the market. The estimated revenue and volume growth of the global Encrypt Email Messages market has also been offered in the report.Key Vendors:HP, Data Motion, Proofpoint, EdgeWave, Trend Micro, Cryptzone, Symantec, Sophos, LuxSci, PrivatoFor Sample Copy of this report:The regions which have been examined thoroughly are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. This helps achieve better idea about the blowout of this specific market in particular regions. A list of leading industrialists have been given major value to ensure their approaches are understood in this specific market.This report presents a 360-degree overview of the competitive scenario of the Global Encrypt Email Messages market. The report includes massive data relating to the recent product and technological developments observed in the market, complete with an analysis of the impact of these advancements on the markets future development. The research report analyzes the global Encrypt Email Messages market in a detailed manner by explaining the key aspects of the market that are expected to have a quantifiable influence on its developmental prospects over the forecast period.Avail 30% Discount on this Report:The various factors supporting the markets growth and those posing threat are studied in detail in this report. Additionally, the market study segments the Global Encrypt Email Messages Market based on end-users, verticals, and size. In these sections, it shields various factors impelling the markets trajectory across the segments. Furthermore, it recognizes the most lucrative of them all to help investors take the well-informed decision.The future potentials of this market are analyzed and the prevalent trends are been looked upon with utmost detailing. The growth in all the major geographic regions are been studied in detail in this particular report. With exact data on the top most regions for this market and the reason they hold that position is studied and elaborated.Moving forward, a competitive landscape of Encrypt Email Messages market is presented for understanding the market importance. This section gives the prime strategies, weaknesses and strengths and the major contributed of the growth have been highlighted. Gross, revenues, product overview, contact information and many such points are explained for Encrypt Email Messages market in depth.Get Complete Report@:About USWe at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Contact UsVijay TannaContact No: +91 705-760-0700sales@itintelligencemarkets.comMilitary Antenna Market to Witness Exponential Growth by 2025

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Increasing modernization of the military equipment coupled with the boost in legacy system around the world is expected to fuel the demand of military antenna market. Military antennas provide highly accurate tracking, surveillance, ground mapping, warning against aircrafts, weapons, etc. thereby enhancing the security. Apart from all the above mentioned features, military antenna used in the radars also provide missile guidance for accurate target tracking. The rise in border infiltration, terrorism activities, inter country conflicts, and attack prone borders are expected to drive military antenna market in the near future.Request Report for TOC @On the basis of platform, ground platform is expected to dominate the military antenna market as they help in providing real time information related to ground penetration, unexploded tunnels, etc. during the war. However, the market for space based platform is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period. Based on application, homeland security system is estimated to dominate the global military antenna system market over the forecast period. The advancement in the surveillance system such as 3D drones and multifunctional radars is estimated to have high potential to drive the military antenna market globally.Global Military Antenna Market: DriversA major factor driving the growth of the global military antenna market is the rise in military spending. Moreover, escalation in the need for better border security is expected to upsurge the demand for military antenna market. Moreover, technological mushrooming coupled with the need of modern battle equipment is expected to fuel the betterment of military antenna market during the forecast period. Increasing use of military antenna in armored vehicles, naval vessels, aircraft, etc. speed up the expansion and growth of the global military antenna market.Global Military Antenna Market: RestraintsHigh initial costs coupled with the large spending on R&D activities is expected to hamper the growth of military antenna market. Moreover, economic crisis in the European countries like Germany, Russia, U.K. etc. is expected to restrain the growth of the global military antenna market.Global Military Antenna Market: SegmentationGlobal Military antenna market can be segmented on the basis of platform, product type, frequency, applications, and regions. On the basis of platform, the market can be segmented into airborne, ground, naval, and space. On the basis of product type, the global military antenna market can be segmented into vehicle mount antennas, base station antennas, shipboard antennas, man-pack and portable antennas, and asset tracking antennas. On the basis of frequency, the market can be segmented into High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF). On the basis of applications, global military antenna market can be segmented into homeland security system, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and handheld equipment. On the basis of regions, market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa.Global Military Antenna Market: Region wise OutlookBased on regions, North America is expected to be the most prominent revenue generating region in the global military antenna system market. North America spent nearly US$ 596 Bn., which holds nearly 36% of the entire worlds spending on military, in 2015. However, in the U.S., there is a decline in spending on military by 2.4% in 2015. Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period. The military spending in Asia Pacific increased by 5.6% in 2015.Moreover, APAC and China accounted for nearly 50% share in the total military spending which is nearly four times the spending in military by India. Additionally, increasing border disputes in APAC is expected to drive the growth of military antenna market in this region. Latin America is projected to witness sluggish growth due to severe economic crisis.Request to Sample of Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Servo Press Market to Expand with Significant CAGR During 2025

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Servo Press Market: IntroductionA servo press uses a servomotor that basically makes a slide a controllable axis instead of a flywheel, main motor and clutch. The servo-driven press is coming on strong in the market where mechanical presses still dominate the manufacturing and stamping industry. In the recent years, press-makers have come up with a variety of types and designs of servo presses to overcome issues associated with traditional mechanical presses. The servo press provides end users the ability to control slide position and velocity within the range of microns. This helps gain better control of the forming stroke, ultimately improving performance and efficiency.Request Report for TOC @Automotive is one of the major drivers for the growing demand of servo presses as the industry is realizing the benefits of this new technology. Engineers are coming up with new designs, which are inclined towards improving the forming capabilities of these presses and using high strength materials. The transition to high-strength steels and advanced materials and the necessities of producing parts that meet the shape and tolerance requirements in automotive and other industries has forced end users to shift towards servo presses. In the last few years, many small sized servo presses are finding applications in high technology based sectors, such as aerospace and defense.Servo Press Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe sales of servo presses will continue to make headway into the press market as they meet the increasing demand for cost effective, consistent and reliable manufacturing. The market in the developed regions will be driven by replacement of traditional presses with servo presses that can generate various combinations and operate on broad types of dies, components and production speeds and strokes. Adding to this, slide motion, slide position and speed are also programmable in servo presses. Asia Pacific is one of the worlds most strongly expanding regions, due to growing manufacturing activities in developing nations in this region. The upswing in the regional mechanical engineering industry and growing demand for automation technology offer a promising future for the servo press market.Major countries that will drive growth in this region are China, followed by Korea and India. Manufacturers are taking steps to align their portfolios to meet high precision end-user requirements in order to sustain growth in the servo press market. The traditional mechanical press can still achieve high production speeds when compared with a servo press.However, technological advancement in the sector is estimated to overcome these limitations in the coming years. The initial investment required to acquire a servo press is relatively high as compared to that for its traditional counterparts. In the long term, the benefits associated with servo presses provide enough operational savings to cope with the increased investment.Servo Press Market: Region-wise OutlookThe global servo press market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). In the coming years, Western Europe, Japan and North America are expected to witness notable growth in this market. The alignment towards adopting latest technology and advantages of servo presses over traditional presses are two factors expected to drive the demand for servo presses in these developed regions. APEJ and Latin America regions are expected to register significant growth, due to ongoing rapid industrialization boom in the developing countries of these regions. MEA and Eastern Europe are also expected to register healthy CAGRs over the forecast period.Servo Press Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants identified across the value chain of the global servo press market include:AIDA CompanyFagor ArrasateFesto GroupKomatsu LimitedPromess IncorporatedS. I. InstrumentsSchimidt TechnologySEYI SHIEH YIH Machinery Industry Co., Ltd.Stamtec Inc.Tox PressotechnikRequest to Sample of Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:For the president, denying or downplaying Russias election-meddling intent is a narcissistic necessity. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

One day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and detailed how Russian operatives sought to disrupt the 2016 presidential election  mostly in support of Donald Trump  the president was once again trying to discredit the idea that he was the intended beneficiary of the Kremlins efforts. On Saturday, Trump retweeted comments from Facebook ads vice-president Rob Goldman, who on Friday criticized the media for what he claimed was an overall mischaracterization of Russian operatives mission. In the two tweets Trump highlighted, Goldman said that:

Most of the coverage of Russian meddling involves their attempt to effect the outcome of the 2016 US election. I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was *NOT* the main goal. The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesnt align with the main media narrative of T[r]ump and the election.

Trump characteristically framed Goldmans comment as another expose of the Fake News Media:

In the rest of his Twitter thread, Goldman went on to argue that Russias main intent was to exacerbate political discord and turn us against each other.

The main goal of the Russian propaganda and misinformation effort is to divide America by using our institutions, like free speech and social media, against us. It has stoked fear and hatred amongst Americans. It is working incredibly well. We are quite divided as a nation.  Rob Goldman (@robjective) February 17, 2018

According to the Mueller indictment, Russian operatives, and in particular the Russian-owned Internet Research Agency, did indeed seek to disrupt the U.S. political system and sow discord  mostly by attempting to interfere with the 2016 election. And most of the efforts detailed in the indictment were designed to support Trump or defeat Hillary Clinton.

Asked for comment about Trumps Goldman retweet by BuzzFeed, Facebook just pointed to a far less-noticed reply where Goldman admitted he couldnt speak to Russian operatives ultimate goal, just their perceived one as could be discerned by which Facebook ads they ran. In other words, Goldman admitted that he had a limited view of the problem and could not, in fact, very definitively say that swaying the election was not the Kremlins main goal.

Fair point. I am only speaking here about the Russian behavior on Facebook. That is the only aspect that I observed directly.  Rob Goldman (@robjective) February 17, 2018

Last October, Facebook reported that 44 percent of the views the Russian ads received occurred before Election Day. But thats not the whole picture, either, since Facebook has calculated that, with the help of unpaid posts, as many as 126 million Americans saw content pushed by Russian operatives, whereas only around 10 million are estimated to have seen the paid ads.

Indeed, buying ads was only one of the ways Russian operatives used Facebook and Instagram to accomplish their aims. On Saturday, the New York Times highlighted how Facebook was the digital instrument of choice for the Russian effort, explaining how the Mueller indictment detailed how the Russians repeatedly turned to Facebook and Instagram, often using stolen identities to pose as Americans, to sow discord among the electorate by creating Facebook groups, distributing divisive ads and posting inflammatory images.

Facebook also doesnt have the best track record when it comes being transparent about how the platform was weaponized during the election. CEO Marc Zuckerberg originally dismissed the idea that fake news popularized on Facebook had been a problem. This fall, he admitted he was wrong and that the company had been taken advantage of, but as explained in Wireds epic new look at the companys past two years, Facebook hasnt had its finest moment coming to terms with that fact.Contextual Marketing Solution Market : Latest Trends, Demand and Analysis 2025

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To get personalized marketing there are some fundamental challenges to overcome these days. To get this personalized marketing on point one needs some information like the right context and a real time understanding of each customer. Getting to these information is a difficult task but contextual marketing solutions in the market has made this as easy as going for one to one marketing. People in the traditional approach used to bombard the customers with messages based on the scattered data which they receive, but due to the advent of contextual marketing solutions with every search, browse, e-mail open, or site visit, individual customers tells about its need or intent at that moment.Request to Sample of Report-The contextual marketing solutions works for both identified customer and prospective customer by updating a continuous 360 degree profile of them. These contextual marketing solutions have power to identify some of the things like what the customer did in the past, what they can go for in the future, and what they can be interested in in coming time. This contextual marketing solution help marketers target the customers interested in their products just like one to one marketing digitally. A marketer has many ways by which it reaches to the customer like by a Web site, e-mail, digital display advertising, push messaging etc.One of the driver for the contextual marketing solution market comes to be the increased use of mobile phones. The increased use of mobile phones and technology like keeping the cookies has helped the contextual marketing solution market on a growing path as the cookies stored in the mobile phones helps in keeping the historical data of an individual and this has increased due to use of mobile phone. Another driver for the contextual marketing solution market is the increasing number of vendors adapting to digital marketing for their products these days which has led to increased adaption of contextual marketing solution for better customer engagement.The major challenge faced by the Contextual marketing solution market is that in spite of seeing that most of the visitors on the websites are anonymous the marketers still focus on engaging to the minority customers which are identified through there emails. Other challenge faced by Contextual marketing solution market is that the dry run of retargeting ads or the onsite personalizations for the anonymous visitors which are deployed as per limited data which in turn lead to loss of the marketer as it targets only a minor percentage of the visitor.Request Report for TOC @Some of the key players of Contextual marketing solution Market are: Google, vjginteractive.com, Kontera, Microsoft, Clicksor Inc., BidVertiser.com, Chitika, Inc., eClickZ.com, Hsoub Co., Infolinks, Adobe, Marketo Inc., IBM, Oracle, Teradata, SDL, Act-On Software, Inc., Infor, SAP, and Infosys.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Radiology Information Systems Market to Witness a Rise of US$ 1,179.2 Mn By 2024

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Hospitals, medical research institutes, as well as governments, across the globe are hiking their healthcare IT spending to bring reforms in both, operations and outcomes. Instating databases is turning out to be more of a necessity for healthcare institutions, particularly for the field of radiology. Criticality of data produced and used by radiologists is compelling them to utilize speedy & error-proof data transference systems. Correspondingly, the transformation of global healthcare industry through digitization trends is also necessitating the deployment of radiology information systems. In its latest publication, Persistence Market Research has compiled more of such factors that will keep driving the growth of global radiology information system market in the years to come. According to this report, the global market for radiology information systems, which is presently valued at US$ 580.2 Mn, is anticipated to soar at 8.3% CAGR and reach US$ 1,179.2 Mn value by the end of 2024.Read Report Overview @Titled as Radiology Information Systems Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2016-2024, the report reveals that global demand for radiology information systems continues to grow on the account of rising incidence rate of lifestyle-related diseases. Increasing consumer awareness to radiological procedures, and easy accessibility to these technologies are also serving as proponents for adoption of radiology information systems. Since installing radiology information systems supports a value-based healthcare model, medical practitioners are also promoting it as the immediate future of digitalized radiology.The report reveals that in 2017 and beyond, the demand for cloud-based radiology information systems will remain considerably higher than on-premise systems. Deployment of cloud-based radiology information systems is projected to bring more than US$ 800 Mn by the end of 2024, while revenues emanating from on-premise deployment will soar at 7.3% CAGR. During the forecast period, a little over 45% of global revenues will be accounted by sales of radiology information software. The adoption of radiology information services is also slated to grow robustly, while radiology information hardware is likely to incur a moderate dip in revenues.Request Report For TOC @Through 2024, medical institutions adopting radiology information systems will continue to do so on integrated platforms. Similar to the current scenario, integrated radiology information systems will procure over three-fourth of global market value by the end of 2024. Standalone radiology information systems, however, will be valued at just over US$ 280 Mn by the end of projection period. And, hospitals will undoubtedly be the largest end-users of radiology information systems. More than US$ 600 Mn worth of global radiology information system revenues will be emanating from hospitals spanned across the globe. Adoption of such systems will also be considerably high in diagnostic labs and ambulatory surgical centers.By the end of 2024, North America will remain as the largest market for radiology information systems in the world. In 2016, the regions radiology information systems market was valued at US$ 269 Mn. Meanwhile, Europes advanced healthcare infrastructure will also work in the favor of radiology information system adoption. Throughout the period, Europes radiology information system revenues will soar at a health CAGR, and contribute to nearly 23% share. Although, fastest revenue growth is expected to be recorded by Latin America and the Asia-Pacific regions  revenues from which will surge at more than 8% CAGR.Ten of the leading companies developing radiology information systems in the world are profiled in the report, and they include Cerner Corporation, Siemens AG, Merge Healthcare Incorporated (IBM), Koninklijke Philips NV, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., Epic Systems Corporation, Novarad Corp., General Electric Company, McKesson Corporation, and Medinformatix Inc.Request To Sample Of Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA,Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Lighting Controllers Market : Sensor segment to Reach US$ 4,700 Mn in 2025

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In this report, some of the prominent companies active in the global lighting controllers market have been profiled, which include companies such as Hubbell, GE Lighting, LLC, OSRAM Licht AG, Philips Lighting Holding B.V., Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc., Eaton Corporation, Schneider Electric S.E., Honeywell International, Lutron Electronics and CREE, INC.Persistence Market Research presents a new report titled Lighting Controllers Market: Global Industry Analysis 2012  2016 and Forecast 2017  2025 that studies the performance of the global lighting controllers market over an eight year assessment period from 2017 to 2025. The report presents the value forecast of the global lighting controllers market and provides important insights into the factors driving market growth as well as the factors restricting market growth.Request Sample Report@As per the assessment of Persistence Market Research, the global lighting controllers market was estimated to be valued at nearly US$ 4,800 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to touch a valuation of nearly US$ 17,400 Mn in 2025 and in the process exhibit a CAGR of 17.6% during the period of forecast 2017-2025.The governments in emerging economies such as China and India are focusing on developing smart cities by changing the existing infrastructure, such as old incandescent bulbs and outdated communication systems, and are installing new technologies such as embedded and connected lighting fixtures to impart better living standards to the people.Also, government spending on smart city management services such as road monitoring applications, environment, light sensing, and advanced energy saving is the primary factor which is fueling the growth of the lighting controllers market. For example, in April 2017, the Indian government announced plans to invest in the smart cities initiative. The Indian government has already allocated over US$ 2.3 Bn to this project in the last two budgets.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @The global lighting controllers market is segmented on the basis of technology, application and region.By technology, the sensor segment was estimated to be valued at nearly US$ 1,400 Mn in 2017 and is expected to reach a valuation of nearly US$ 4,700 Mn in 2025, witnessing significant growth during the forecast period.By application, the commercial segment was estimated to be valued at nearly US$ 2,000 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 17.0% during the period of forecast.By region, the Asia Pacific lighting controllers market was estimated to be valued at nearly US$ 1,550 Mn in 2017 and is likely to reach a valuation of nearly US$ 6,000 Mn in 2025, reflecting a CAGR of 18.5% during the period of assessment.Report overview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Talc Market : Opportunities, Demand and Forecasts, 2015  2021

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Talc is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate and is an important industrial and commercial mineral. It has broad applications as an industrial mineral due to its resistance to heat, electricity and acids and oil and grease adsorption. Talc has extensive commercial use because of its luster, softness, purity, fragrance retention, softness and whiteness. It is the softest known mineral and has a rating of 1 on the Mohs hardness scale.Request Report for TOC @It can be scratched by a fingernail and is also sectile that means it can be cut by a knife. It has a specific gravity of 2.5 -2.8 and has clear luster. Talc is slightly soluble in dilute mineral acids and insoluble in water. It is a metamorphic mineral and occurs due to metamorphism of magnesium minerals such as olivine, amphibole, serpentine and pyroxene in presence of water and carbon dioxide. Talc is a tri-octahedral layered mineral and has a similar structure to that of pyrophylliteTalc can be used as an ingredient in paints, roofing materials, ceramics, insecticides, rubber, talcum powder and insecticides among others. It is also used by the cosmetics industry, pulp and paper industry and food industry. Talc is often used to manufacture laboratory countertops and electrical switchboards due to its resistance to heat, acids and electricity. It is used by the cosmetic industry as a lubricant and as a filler by the pulp and paper industry.Talc is extensively used to make astringent baby powders that prevent rashes covered by a diaper. Talc is used by the pharmaceutical industry as a glidant (a substance that is added to powder to improve its flow ability) and by the food industry as an additive. In the European Union the additive number is E553b. In medicine, talc is used as a pluerodesis agent to prevent pneumothorax or recurrent pleural effusion. Talc is also an effective dispersing agent and anti caking agent and helps fertilizer plants and animal feeds to function efficiently and can be used for fertilizers.The paper and pulp industry remains the largest global end market for talc and is the key driving factor for the talc Industry. The automotive industry, ceramics industry and the paint and coatings industry are the other major consumers of talc. The use of talc as a filler in the paper industry is declining today but the use of talc for the manufacture of under the hood automotive parts is substantially increasing that has further lead to surge in demand for talc by the automotive industry.Asia Pacific is the largest market for talc with China, India, Japan, Bhutan, and South Korea being the key markets in this region. The Indian talc industry is the worlds third largest and continues to grow due to increase in domestic consumption. North America and Europe are other regions with a substantial market share of talc. Austria, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and United Kingdom are the major consumers of talc in Europe.Request to Sample of Report-Some of the major companies dominating the talc market are Imerys talc, Mondo Minerals, Golcha Group, American Talc, IMI FABI, Nippon Talc, Minerals Technologies Inc, the Jai Group, Aihai Talc, Behai Talc, Shuiquan Talc, Xin Talc, Haumei Talc, Guiguang Talc and Xin Talc among others. Imerys talc is the worlds leading producer of talc followed by Mondo Minerals.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Growth Predicted for the Global Well Stimulation Materials Market

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Well stimulation is the process of well intervention performed on oil and gas well. The main purpose of well stimulation is to increase the productivity of oil and gas industry by improving the flow of hydrocarbons (organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon such as alkanes, alkenes, cycloalkanes and alkyne-based compounds) from drainage area to the well bored for the extraction of oil and gases. As the oil well become old, their productivity decreases in such case well stimulation materials are useful in improving the productivity of the oil, helping in the overall reduction of crude oil price in the global market.Request Report for TOC @On the bases of process of well drilling, the global well stimulation materials market can be bifurcated into well drilling process (horizontal or multilateral), well completion process and well stimulation process (hydraulic or multistage fracturing). Hydraulic fracturing is the most used well stimulation process while digging new oil well. Product wise market can be bifurcated into proppants (sand, coated and ceramic), base fluid materials, polymer gelling agent (guar gum), biocides and surfactants.North America has the largest market share for well stimulation materials, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. Global well stimulation materials market is expected to witness double digit growth in the forecasted period. North American market is expected to maintain its dominance in the coming future. However, Asia Pacific region is expected to witness highest growth owing to increasing domestic demand in the emerging markets of China and India. Demand of well stimulation materials from the Gulf countries is expected to boost the global demand.Increasing oil and gas price in the global market, demands for increasing well depths and efforts to maximize well output. This is driving the global well stimulation materials market. Additionally, increasing crude oil production to cater the increasing demand coupled with low cost natural gas resources is expected to provide growth opportunity for the manufacturers of well stimulation materials. Also, increasing demand of proppants and chemicals such as biocides, guar gum and surfactants is further expected to increase the demand of well stimulation materials in the global market. Owing to increasing demand of well stimulation materials form oil drilling industry to maximize the productivity level is influencing the multinational companies to invest in well stimulation manufacturing.Request to Sample of Report-Some of the major companies operating in the global well stimulation materials market are Air Liquide Group, Ashland Incorporated, Akzo Nobel NV, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, DuPont (EI) de Nemours, FMC Corporation, Linde Group, US Silica Holdings Incorporated, Ferus Incorporated, Ecolab Incorporated, CARBO Ceramics Incorporated, BASF, The Dow Chemical Company and Air Products and Chemicals Incorporated.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Refrigerated Vehicles Market to Register a Healthy CAGR Throughout 2015 - 2021

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Refrigerated vehicles are used for transportation of vulnerable food, pharmaceutical and healthcare products. The increasing population and consumer spending on food products has surged their production globally. Among food products, dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables require cold storage and transportation for their sustainability.Request to Sample of Report-The increasing global warming has been emerging as a matter of great concern for the food producers globally which is reducing the shelf life of these products in non-refrigerated conditions. Most of the pharmaceutical and healthcare products need protection from heat and light to maintain their chemical and biological formulation. All these concerns have been driving the refrigerated vehicles market globally and are expected to increase in terms of growth rate during 2014-2020.Refrigerated vehicles include a large types of vehicles used in several transportation requirements based on loading requirement. Some of their types include refrigerated vans, refrigerated trucks, refrigerated trailers, refrigerated railcars, refrigerated ships, refrigerated transport by air, refrigerated containers, atmosphere controlled containers, intermodal refrigerated containers, insulated containers, integral reefer containers and multimodal temperature containers. The increasing consumer awareness about fresh products is one of the important factors which have been escalating the demand for refrigerated vehicles globally.The developing and underdeveloped countries have an underdeveloped cold-supply chain infrastructure which leads to destruction of a large quantity of food products every year. This also increases warehousing charges of the food manufacturers and the distributors as they have to maintain local distribution points in the area of demand. The growing population and increasing per capita income in these countries is boosting the demand for food products which is further creating demands for the refrigerated vehicles in these countries.The dairy product consumption in Asia Pacific countries have also been increasing to a great extent in recent times. The pharmaceutical and healthcare industries have also been growing at a rapid pace in these developing countries which is creating demand for the refrigerated vehicles in this domain as well. The shortage of skilled labor and unstable fuel prices are the key hurdles for the refrigerated vehicles market. The companies operating in the refrigerated vehicles market are improving the fuel efficiency and noise reduction of these vehicles.There have been several technology development and introduction in the recent times by the refrigerated vehicle manufacturers. They include CorroGuard and ThermGuard by Great Dane, Strip door solution for refrigerated trucks by R.O.M, GRIPTM by RTE, LED based indicator by Carrier, economical cold plates by Johnson, reefer monitoring system by PAR, reefer-trak sentry solutions by Star-Trak, Secureseal system by OEM Group, new alternator by Robert Bosch and Fleetview by Terion.Among regions, North America dominated global sales of refrigerated vehicles market, followed by Europe. There are a large number of market players in the refrigerated vehicles market which are operating in a particular country or globally through their subsidiaries. The global refrigerated vehicles market is fragmented however; it is increasingly advancing towards consolidation with a number of companies engaged in merger and acquisition activities.Request Report for TOC @The key market players include Great Dane Trailers, Ingersol Rand Company Limited, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited, Schmitz Cargobull, R.O.M., Thermo King, Carrier Transicold, Johnson, PAR, Star-Trak, GE, OEM Group, Robert Bosch, Terion, Northgate Plc and Fraikin Limited.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Laser Warning System Market: Key Factors Impacting Growth by 2025

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Todays battlefields are more than guns and soldiers, numerous support systems are being adopted in the battlefield supporting soldiers to be alert, reduce war casualties and stay one step ahead of the enemies. The use of advanced military technology has increased over the years aiding the soldiers in making crucial tactical decisions, avoid sudden enemy ambushes and minimize damage. One such technology that has been prevalent in the modern warfare is the use of laser warning system.Request Report for TOC @A laser warning system or a laser detection system is a small cautionary device equipped with a laser receiver and a warning system that detects, analyses and alerts its user of laser rays emitted by the rangefinders and guidance system of the enemy. The increased use of electronics in weapon guiding systems is the reason for the improvement in the laser warning system market in order to counter the threat projected by the enemy quickly and effectively. Some of the latest advancements made in the laser warning system include automatic countermeasure systems integrated into the laser warning system that deploys smoke screens, dazzlers, laser jammers and others upon the detection of laser rays.Laser warning system market is driven by the increased need of protection of the soldiers in the battle ground. Military officers who are constantly engaged in the battlefield for defensive and offensive activities always find themselves in need for continuously understanding the tactics employed by the enemy and take the necessary evasive manoeuvres to gain an upper hand. This is achieved through the use of laser warning system, which in turn positively influences the growth of the market over the forecast period.Though not limited to its usage in an active battlefield only, a laser warning system is also being increasingly employed for border protection also. As tensions are prevalent at the border of two countries, laser warning system have been increasingly installed at the borders in order to alert the officers beforehand about the threat and undertake defensive actions quickly.The market players associated with manufacture of laser warning systems are very limited in number against the backdrop of steadily increasing demand and stagnant military budget, which has forced the manufacturers to keep the competition with each other and share expertise and resources for more value added products. One crucial restraint associated with laser warning system market is the usage of beam-riders for guiding missiles, these guidance systems are more difficult to detect and has been increasingly purchased by the Middle Eastern forces. Complications associated with tightening and limiting military funding by various governments of the countries can also dent the market sales of laser warning system.The Global Laser Warning System market can be segmented into seven geographical regions such as Asia Pacific excluding Japan, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and Middle East & Africa. The U.S. in the North America region is likely to fare better in the laser warning system market than other countries in other regions owing to slightly higher military funding. Western Europe and Japan are also better prospects for the sales of laser warning systems market in the forecast period owing to improvement in military funding and infrastructure while the market in China in the Asia Pacific region for laser warning system is also likely to witness steady growth over the forecast period.Request to Sample of Report-Examples of some of the participants identified in the manufacture of Laser Warning System market are-Thales Group,Ferranti Technologies Ltd.,Elbit Systems Ltd.,PCO S.A.,Metrodat s.r.o.,Global Industrial & Defence Solutions,Aselsan A.?.,UTC Aerospace Systems,Excelitas Technologies Corp.,Saab AB,Northrop Grumman Corporation,BAE Systems Plc,Airbus Defence and Space ;About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Digital Maps Market: Opportunity Assessment Research Study 2017-2025

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Digital maps are a virtual image created by collecting data and formatting it into an image. It is also called as cartography. The process of collecting data and formatting it into a virtual image is called as digital formatting. Its main application is to create maps that can provide accurate information and representation about a particular area, road or any other point of interest. Digital maps evolved from the traditional paper maps such as Thomas Guide.Request Report for TOC @Digital maps are used in technology such as Google Maps, Foursquare, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Google Earth. Digital maps for GPS satellite networks are commonly used in automotive navigation systems. In the past decade, there have been a lot of technological advancements in digital maps such as traffic updates, road blocks, updated places of interest, landmarks etc. and hence making digital maps more user-friendly.Most of the traditional map providers such as AutoNavi and TomTom provides map updates for a few days only. However, few map providers are now providing map updates on a real-time basis. The digital map technology has evolved in the market in three steps: the first step is the introduction of digital maps, the second step is the increase in a coverage area and updates of digital maps. The third step is the updating digital map on real time basis.The key market drivers of digital maps are the increasing adoption of advanced technology in making maps and surveying and increasing adoption of digital maps in industries. The increase in competition among the providers of digital map technology is prompting the vendors to increase their product portfolios and to enhance their technology to offer more user-friendly maps to the customers. Motorized stations are GPS technologies are now being adopted in place of optical and mechanical instruments which were earlier used for surveying. Update on real time basis technology and greater coverage of remote areas are the new technological trends in digital maps market.The by 2015 end, APAC is estimated to have a fastest growth rate for Digital maps market due to advancement in technology and rising economic outlook. Europe and North America are estimated to be matured markets with slower growth of the market. However, North America is expected to lead other regions in terms of market share. The Middle East & Africa Digital maps market are still at a nascent stage. However, emerging countries such as UAE and Brazil are expected to have a significant market share in the near future.Request to Sample of Report-Some of the key market participants in the global Digital maps market are Apple Inc. AutoNavi Holding Ltd., Google Inc., Micello Inc., Tom Tom NV, NavInfo Co. Ltd., ArcGIS Online, Yahoo! Maps, Zenrin, WoNoBo , Bing Maps , GeoMapserver, MapQuest, MapSherpa, NearMap, OpenStreetMap, Inrix, Mapion, Mappy, Roadtrippers, WikiMapia, MapmyIndia, ViaMichelin, Magellan Navigation, Bhuvan and Baidu MapsAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Business Workflow Automation Market Overview, Trends and Growth Opportunities Forecasted till 2026

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Business workflow automation leads to the faster decision making, helps in effectively managing work, increasing production capacity, and also helps in enhancing internal communication. Businesses are adopting workflow automation solutions on a large scale. Hence, companies providing workflow automation software and tools are also adding features that can help in optimizing various processes throughout departments. Key players are also providing software that can integrate with third-party applications and databases.As per the latest study by Fact.MR, the global market for business workflow automation is likely to experience strong growth. By 2026 end, the global market for business workflow automation is projected to bring in US$ 5,247.2 million revenue.Request Free Sample Report-Technology-Based Solution to Emerge as the Largest Deployment TypeCompared to various solutions, the technology-based solution is likely to emerge as the largest deployment type between 2017 and 2026. By 2026 end, technology-based solution is projected to surpass US$ 2,100 million revenue. Increasing number of businesses have moved to cloud computing, hence companies are increasingly relying on technology-based solutions to strengthen business process and offer better products and services.Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals Industry to Account for Maximum Revenue ShareThe healthcare & pharmaceuticals industry is likely to witness the fastest growth in the market through 2026. Healthcare & pharmaceuticals industry is projected to account for more than US$ 900 million revenue by 2026 end. Owing to the better control, improved efficiency, and reduced risk, the healthcare & pharmaceuticals industry are increasingly adopting workflow automation. Hence, companies are also building business workflow automation solution that specifically caters to the healthcare & pharmaceuticals industry.Browse Full Report with TOC-On-Premise to Emerge as the Largest Platform typeOn-premise is likely to witness healthy growth as compared to the cloud-based platform between 2017 and 2026. By 2026 end, on-premise platform is projected to reach close to US$ 3,900 million revenue. An on-premise platform has low cost of ownership as compared to the cloud-based platform. Moreover, on-premise platform does not rely on internet connectivity to access the software. However, on-premise platform takes longer implementation time.Small & Medium Enterprise to Gain Maximum TractionCompared to the large enterprise, small & medium enterprise are likely to gain maximum traction in the global market for business workflow automation. Small & medium enterprise are projected to bring in close to US$ 2,700 million revenue by 2026 end. In order to strengthen product development, marketing and business processes, small & medium enterprise are moving towards business workflow automation. Also, implementation of business workflow automation in sectors such as finance and accounting, and supply chain management are underway.Competition TrackingThe report also profiles companies that are expected to remain active in the expansion of global business workflow automation market through 2026, which include Tibco Software, HCL Technologies, SAS Institute, SAP SE, Nintex Limited, Newgen Software Technologies Limited, IPSoft Inc., Vision Software SA, Appian, Software AG, PegaSystems Inc., Oracle Corporation, IBM Corporation, Kyocera, Canon, Ricoh, HP Inc., Lexmark, OpenText Corporation, and Xerox Corporation.Check Discount-About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized ICT market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:Fluid Warmer Devices Market : Hospitals to Value US$ 60 Mn by 2026

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The research report on fluid warmer devices covers analysis on key players such as 3M Company, General Electric Company, Smiths Group Plc., Stryker Corporation, Geratherm Medical AG, Belmont Instrument Corporation, Biegler GmbH, Barkey GmbH & Co. KG, Stihler Electronic GmbH and EMIT CORPORATION.Fluid warmer devices, also called blood warmer devices are used to treat hypothermia. These devices are used in various healthcare facilities such as hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and home care. The global fluid warmer devices market growth is largely influenced by the adoption rate of these devices across these facilities. The increasing prevalence of hypothermia is the main aspect driving the markets growth.Likelihood of hypothermia in geriatric population and infants is high. The increasing geriatric population across the globe is expected to drive the use of fluid warmer devices, which in turn is anticipated to boost the growth of the global market for these devices. Also, the demand for fluid warmer devices is high in cold regions.Request Sample Report@A comprehensive market research report titled Fluid Warmer Devices: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2026) by Persistence Market Research unveils several facets of the global market that have an impact on the global markets growth. The reader can gain directions to achieve stability in the changing market dynamics and can aim for future market expansions.According to the analysis include in this extensive research report, the global fluid warmer devices market is estimated to reach a significant valuation by the end of the year of assessment and is projected to grow at a high value CAGR of 5.5% throughout the period of assessment (2017-2026).The global fluid warmer devices market is segmented on the basis of product type, application, end user and region.With respect to product type, the warming devices are extensively used for fluid or blood warming. The increasing adoption rate of warming devices can be attributed to better end results, due to which the warming devices segment is expected to be the largest with a high market value during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is projected to grow at the fastest rate throughout the period of forecast, 2017-2026. Disposable accessories segment is the second largest contributing significantly to the growth of the global fluid warmer devices market in the coming years.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @In the application category, the surgery segment is expected to grow at a significant pace during the assessment period. The use of fluid warmer devices during surgery is expected to grow in the coming years. The surgery application segment is estimated to reach a high market value of over US$ 55 Mn by 2026 end, thus dominating the global market. The adoption of fluid warmer devices for new born care and home care is also expected to grow in the years to follow.By end user, the use of fluid warmer devices has been observed largely in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Hospitals as an end user are highly lucrative for the growth of fluid warmer devices market across the globe. The hospitals segment is expected to lead the global market and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. In addition, the ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) segment is projected to grow at the highest pace during the forecast period.In the region category, North America and Europe, both are expected to highly contribute to the global markets growth. Of these, North America is most attractive region for fluid warmer devices, followed by Europe. On the other hand, the fluid warmer devices market in Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region is projected to grow at a relatively higher pace in the coming years, followed by Europe. APEJ is expected to present potential growth opportunities for the adoption of fluid warmer devices.Report overview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:The Flying Squad is searching for city lawyer Paul Wanyoto suspected of planning the extortion of Shs 1.4 billion from two South Korean nationals who wanted to buy gold in Uganda.



The two South Koreans, Park Seunghoon and Jang Shingu Un were looking for gold amounting to about $1.5 million. However, they were arrested from Acacia Mall in Kampala; where they were due to meet their lawyer Wanyoto of Web, Advocates & Solicitors.

City lawyer Paul Wanyoto Reports indicate that on the day of the meeting, the dealers were surrounded by security operatives, put at gunpoint and asked to hand over the money in their possession. A total of Shs 1.4 billion was handed over to the police officers before the two South Koreans were arrested and detained at Katwe police station.

It is now alleged that Wanyoto, tipped off the police officers at Kampala Metropolitan South region about the transaction leading to the deployment sanctioned by Kampala Metropolitan South Regional commander Siraj Bakaleke.



The Koreans were later arrested and detained at Katwe police station. However, there is no record of their detention on file. A source who preferred anonymity says they were kept in the office of the officer-in-charge of the station for the two days.



It has been reported that police officers then bought two air tickets with Emirates and planned to repatriate the two dealers to South Korea using some of the extorted money. But they missed the flight, creating confusion among the plotters of the deportation.



The police officers reportedly bought other tickets with Rwanda Air but were netted before the arrested South Koreans boarded the plane. Reports indicate that on the day of the meeting, the dealers were surrounded by security operatives, put at gunpoint and asked to hand over the money in their possession. A total of Shs 1.4 billion was handed over to the police officers before the two South Koreans were arrested and detained at Katwe police station.It is now alleged that Wanyoto, tipped off the police officers at Kampala Metropolitan South region about the transaction leading to the deployment sanctioned by Kampala Metropolitan South Regional commander Siraj Bakaleke.The Koreans were later arrested and detained at Katwe police station. However, there is no record of their detention on file. A source who preferred anonymity says they were kept in the office of the officer-in-charge of the station for the two days.It has been reported that police officers then bought two air tickets with Emirates and planned to repatriate the two dealers to South Korea using some of the extorted money. But they missed the flight, creating confusion among the plotters of the deportation.The police officers reportedly bought other tickets with Rwanda Air but were netted before the arrested South Koreans boarded the plane.

Four Police officers, who had escorted the duo, were arrested on site and now detained at Nalufenya. They include; Isaac Munezero the officer-in-charge Crime Intelligence Katwe police station, George Kayongo, Kenneth Zirintuusa and Patrick Ochen.



Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) spokesperson Vincent Ssekate confirmed the ongoing search for the lawyer who has been implicated by all the police officers interrogated.



"We have a case filed against him and we are looking for him," Ssekate said.



Wanyoto a few days ago met the inspector general of police Kale Kayihura through a meeting organised by the presidential press secretary Don Wanyama over the pending arrest.

A source privy to the information said that when Kayihura later inquired about what the case was about, he was briefed and gave a go-ahead for the lawyer to be arrested and interrogated.

Wanyoto maintains in a statement that he is innocent and was only dragged into the deal by the Koreans who wanted to legitimise their fraud.

According to Wanyoto the Koreans wanted to use the UN base at Entebbe to smuggle gold out of neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

He says contrary to the other version of the story being fronted in the media, the Koreans actually wanted to sneak out of the country and even managed to acquire a police escort truck to Entebbe airport after being released from Katwe police station.Automotive Seat Heater Market to Reflect Steadfast Expansion During 2016-2026

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Increasing disposable income combined with consumer changing lifestyle is what drives development in the automotive industry. Currently, advancements in automotive industry is characterized by many factors namely speed, mileage, interior and exterior design elegance and others. Among them one of the most prominent factors that adds value to the customers is comfort. Thus in order to improve comfort for the rider while travelling long distance, automotive seat heater is one of the preferred device by major OEMs in four-wheel vehicles. Automotive seat heater is made from carbon fiber technology which easily fits at the bottom or back of the seat and can be easily integrated with cloth or leather covered seats.Global Automotive Seat Heater Market: DynamicsIncreasing demand for comfort and energy efficiency in passenger cars and commercial vehicles is primarily driving the growth of global automotive seat heater market. The customer base having high net worth usually prefers cars with high comfort features which makes premium car manufacturers to target such customers with advanced comfort features.Request for Sample @Integration of seat heaters with conventional glued fabric seat are some of the major challenges being faced by the aftermarket providers. Moreover, rising no of fire incidents in the seat due to seat heater coil is primarily decreasing consumer confidence towards adoption of automotive seat heaters. However, development in seat heater power supply and product material is expected to mitigate such effects in the near future. Technological advancements such as seat heater with short duration warming time usually (16-20 seconds) are also increasing the demands for seat heater in premium model vehicles. Moreover, declining cost combined with low penetration of automotive heat heaters in majority of vehicles is expected to create significant opportunity for new entrants in the global automotive seat heater market.Global Automotive Seat Heater Market: SegmentationThe global automotive seat heater market can be segmented on the basis of sales channel, vehicle type, and region.On the basis of sales channel, the global automotive seat heater market can be categorized asOEMAftermarketOn the basis of vehicle type, the market can be segmented asPassenger carsCompact and mid-sized carsExecutive carsPremium carsCommercial vehiclesHeavy trucks and busesThe aftermarket segment hold the largest market installation share primarily due to self-installation feature, declining cost and availability of product for different models.Global Automotive Seat Heater Market: Regional OutlookNorth America, Western Europe, and Japan are the prominent market for automotive seat heater market. Due to low temperate conditions in most parts of the western countries the demand for automotive seat heater systems is increasing. Changing lifestyle along with increasing urbanization and purchasing power is anticipated to drive the Asia Pacific automotive seat heater market during the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @Global Automotive Seat Heater Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified across the value chain in the global automotive seat heater market are: II-VI Marlow, Inc. , Gentherm , Panasonic Corporation, Changchun SET Electronics Co., Ltd., Kongsberg Automotive, Guangzhou Tachibana Electronic Co., Ltd., I.G. Bauerhin GmbH, Seat Comfort Systems, Activline, Champion Seat Systems (Automotive concepts), Langfang Golden Time Technology Development Co., Ltd. and Roadwire LLC.The companies are emphasizing on research and development and new product development in order to maintain the competitive advantage in global automotive seat heater market during the forecast period. In order to meet the increasing demand for automotive seat heater, companies all over the world are looking to expand the product portfolio and increase the sales strategies. The companies are also focusing on different strategies in order to maintain the market share in the global automotive seat heater market.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Steering Column Control Modules Market to Reflect Steady Growth During 2016-2026

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Automobile design, operation, aesthetics and technology are continuously evolving and witnessing significant advancements. Previous designs and operations in automobiles included various switches for different purposes, which were simple in design but complex in operation. Especially, steering systems witnessed prominent advancements in past decade. Development of hybrid, electric and hydraulic steering are some of the examples. Integration of various operational switches for convenience in steering wheels and column is indeed a timely innovation, which can also be claimed as one amongst the important innovation in an automobile.It was never thought that someone could come up with an idea of Steering Column Control Module (SCCM) where one can control the switches very comfortably with ease while driving. The safety and the ease of driving an automobile has increased considerably due to the installation of steering column control modules on the steering wheel of vehicles.Request for Sample @The module which controls the switches on or around/below the steering wheel are known as the steering column control modules. Typically, there are many electromechanical systems installed on the steering wheels nowadays in automobiles. A Steering column control module is mounted on the steering column but it is placed below the steering wheel, this steering column module is the main network for all the systems surrounding it. The operating switches known as the stalk lever switches, are positioned to the right and the left sides of the steering column control modules. The stalk lever switches and the controls which are mounted on the steering wheel and systems i.e. (sound controls buttons, cruise controls, horns, Bluetooth and hands free calling buttons and air bags) are all connected with the other system through the Steering Column Control Module. Typical assembly components of steering column control module includes circuit board, connectors and electrical wire cables for interconnection between the systems. The features and controls which are provided in the steering column control module are also dependent the type of the automobile i.e. Passenger Cars, Commercial Vehicles, Transport vehicles etc. Introduction of new technologies, comfort features and active safety systems in vehicles is expected to drive steering column control modules market in near future.Steering Column Control Modules Market dynamics:The market of steering column control module has been marked with presence of established players. A challenging task in steering column control modules market is to manufacture these modules as the interconnection between many components and the systems in the steering assembly. The automotive manufacturers are heavily dependent on the providers of the steering system owing to their technological expertise. Steering column control module market is witnessing continuous development from its providers with new ideas and innovation.Increasing safety of vehicle occupants and pedestrians is one of the prime concerns of automakers and many manufacturers are trying to develop steering column control modules so that safety and comfort features are enhanced to a much higher level. As per the current scenario, steering column control modules have become integral part of automobiles. The increasing standard of cabin comfort level has triggered utilization of requirement specific or custom made steering column control modules in great demand and this is expected to provide significant boost in the near future. The market for the steering column control modules is expected to provide significant opportunities to component providers, integrators and original equipment manufacturers across the globe.Steering Column Control Modules Market segmentation:Steering Column Control Modules can be segmented by type of sales channel, by components position and automobile type.By sales channel,Steering Column Control Modules Market can be segmented as:Original equipment manufacturerAftermarketBy Component Position type, Steering Column Control Modules Market can be segmented as:On the Steering Wheel (Sound Control, Airbags, etc.)Around/Below the Steering Wheel (Stalk levers, i.e. Wiper control, Head light control etc.)By Automobile type, Steering Column Control Modules Market can be segmented as:Passenger carsCommercial vehiclesHeavy Trucks and BussesOff-road VehiclesSteering Column Control Modules Market: Regional Outlook:Steering Column Control Modules can be divided into seven different geographical regions/divisions such as North America, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Middle East and Africa. The demand for steering column control modules is significant in Asia Pacific followed by Europe and North America owing to automotive steady rates of production volumes and sales. Owing to lack of production facilities in Middle East and Africa and relatively low production of vehicles in Latin America, the market potential of steering column control module is low. The Asian giant countries like India and China which have significant sales and production of automobiles are expected to witnessmomentous growth in steering column control module market in the coming years.Request for Table of Contents @Steering Column Control Modules Market: Key Players:ZF TRWLeopold Kostal Gmbh & Co. KGDelphi Automotive LLPIdiditNexteer AutomotiveValeoABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Photoresist Chemicals Market to Reflect Impressive Expansion During 2016-2026

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Photoresist chemicals are used in the fabrication of m- and sub-m structures, prominently in the micro-electronics industry. These are speciality chemical which changes its chemical structure when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, this unique property makes them ideal for photolithography and photoengraving processes which in turn are commonly used in semiconductor manufacturing industry. Henceforth, photoresist chemicals are considered as an essential component for making high-performance circuit boards and semiconductor chips. Various chemical are used for this purpose, to achieve the desired properties, such as, poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA), poly methyl glutarimide (PMGI), phenol formaldehyde resin (DNQ), SU-8 and OSTE polymers. Further, there are two basic classification of photoresists, positive and negative, both works on different principals, but cater to similar needs. However, with increasing smaller geometry designs in micro-electronics industry, positives are becoming more popular, as they offer process controllability.With inevitable features offered by Photoresist chemicals and absence of any other feasible alternatives, market for photoresist chemical is ever growingRequest for Sample @Photoresist Chemicals Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global photoresist chemicals market is projected to grow at a moderate growth rate as the demand for micro-electronics continue to steadily grow, amid rising demand from electronic products in developing nations, and increasing penetrations of IoT across the globe. Furthermore, rising demand for dynamic display technology is expected to be another prominent factor fuelling growth in photoresists chemicals market. Excessive R&D in the photoresist chemicals and its end use industry, is expected to drive innovations, further shaping newer demand arenas, and fuelling more revenues in the global photoresist chemicals market.Photoresist chemicals are prominently made from crude oil; thus rising prices of crude oil is expected to increase costs, this coupled with continued pricing pressure from end use industries, shall affect margins in the market. Furthermore rising environmental concerns regarding derogatory effects of these chemicals is also expected to affect the market in long term.Photoresist Chemicals Market: SegmentationOn the basis of Product Type,PositiveNegativeOn the basis of spectral line size,g-linei-lineKrFArF ImmersionArF DryOn the basis of end use application,MicroelectronicsSand carvingFabrication of printed circuit boardsOthersPhotoresist Chemicals Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global photoresist chemicals market is segmented into the seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). APEJ and Japan together leads the Global Photoresist Chemicals Market in terms of demand, followed by North America and Western Europe. Furthermore, owing to rapidly rising electronics industry in India and China, the APEJ region is anticipated to remain its dominance and grew steadily over the forecast period. Along with, rising economies of Latin America, demand for microelectronics is expected to significantly rise in the region, translating into rising demand for photoresist chemicals.In terms of production, photoresist market has been a forte of Japan and Korea based companies, and with many new upcoming companies in the region, competition in the APEJ market is expected to further intensify.Request for Table of Contents @Photoresist Chemicals Market: Key PlayersThe Dow Chemical CompanyFujifilm Electronic Materials Co. LtdTokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. Ltd.E.I. DuPont de NemoursMitsui Chemicals America IncJSR CorporationLG ChemShin-Etsu ChemicalTOK AmericaHonsou Chemical IndustryABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Aircraft Tube And Duct Assemblies Market to Register Steady Expansion During 2017  2027

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Aircraft tube and duct assemblies are important parts of the aircraft fluid lines. Aircraft tube and duct assemblies provide fluid conveyance solutions for systems in the aircraft. Various types of materials are utilized for the manufacturing of tube and ducts, which include copper, aluminium alloy, steel, titanium, etc. Earlier, copper tubing was extensively utilized in the aviation fluid applications but nowadays in modern aircrafts, aluminium alloy, nickel alloy and corrosion resistant steel or titanium tubes have replaced copper tubing. Aircraft tube and duct assemblies are designed in such a way that they can withstand high water and air pressure, extreme hot and cold temperatures and corrosive chemicals.Global Aircraft Tube and Duct Assemblies Market: SegmentationThe Aircraft Tube and Duct Assemblies market can be segmented on the basis of material type and application.Based on the material type, the global aircraft tube and duct assemblies market can be segmented intoNickel alloysStainless SteelTitaniumAluminiumOthers (Inconel, etc.)Request for Sample @Based on the application, the global aircraft tube and duct assemblies market can be segmented intoCivil AircraftMilitary AircraftGlobal Aircraft Tube and Duct Assemblies Market: DynamicsOwing to the fast paced developments taking place in the aircraft industry, competition among the aircraft tube and duct assemblies manufacturers has been increasing. At present, a large number of people prefer aircraft as a more convenient mode of commutation owing to the shorter travel time as compared to other transportation modes and comfort as well. Governments across the globe are expanding their aircraft sector and also there is an ever increasing demand for aircraft tube and duct assemblies in military as well as civil aircrafts. With growing demand for aircrafts, demand for the aircraft tube and duct assemblies is expected to witness significant growth in the near future. Growth of the aerospace industry has been significant in the last two decades and it is estimated to continue to expand over the next decade as well, which in turn is projected to boost the demand for aircraft tube and duct assemblies.On the other hand, nowadays, tube and duct assemblies are manufactured mostly by using titanium. But, titanium is expensive and also it can be corroded and attacked by exposure to hydraulic liquids used in the aircraft. As the aircrafts have many ducts, there are chances that drops of the hydraulic fluid fall in them and corrode the ducts and cause severe damage. The aforementioned reason is expected to be the major challenge for the growth of global aircraft tube and duct assemblies market.The key trend identified in the global aircraft tube and duct assemblies market include the utilization of high performance materials that provides strength and durability to the assemblies. Manufacturers are focussing on utilization of corrosion resistant and high strength materials such as Titanium, Nickel-alloys and Steel, which offer strength to the aircraft tube and duct assemblies.Global Aircraft Tube and Duct Assemblies Market: Region-wise OutlookThe aircraft industry is matured in the developed regions such as North America and Europe and also they represent a large share in the global aircraft tube and duct assemblies market. Aircraft tube and duct assemblies contribute a significant share to the economy of the United States, since aircraft industry is one of the major contributors to the GDP of the country. On the other hand, demand for aircraft tube and duct assemblies is expected to grow at a substantial pace in the developing countries such as India and China owing to the rising infrastructural activities in the countries.Request for Table of Contents @Global Aircraft Tube and Duct Assemblies Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the examples of the market participants in the Aircraft Tube and Duct Assemblies market identified across the value chain include Eaton, Leggett & Platt, STEICO Industries Inc., Larom Manufacturing Corporation, WOOLF AIRCRAFT PRODUCTS, INC., Unison Industries, LLC and RSA Engineered Products LLC, among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Sodium Bicarbonate Market to Exhibit Impressive Growth During 2017  2027

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Sodium bicarbonate is a white solid crystalline but appears as a fine powder, and its chemical formula is NaHCO3. It is also called baking soda, and its mineral form is nahcolite. Sodium bicarbonate has the variety of usages includes certain drug intoxications, treating metabolic acidosis and replacing bicarbonate lost due to serious diarrhea, unconventional uses such as graffiti removal and household uses and produced from synthetic and natural soda ash. Sodium bicarbonateis an electrolyte and works in the blood by neutralizing excess acid. When there are excess losses from the body, it may also replace sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate is widely used in chemical and food industry where as in cosmetics industry, it is used in deodorants and air-fresheners.Request for Sample @Global sodium bicarbonate Market: DynamicsThe major driving factors of global sodium bicarbonate market are rapidly growing pharmaceutical and chemical industry, owing to rising demand for cleaning products along with increasing health consciousness among consumers. The macroeconomic factor responsible for the growth of the global sodium bicarbonate market are emerging economy such as Brazil, Argentina, India, and China, owing to a rapid rate of urbanization along with increasing per capita income in these countries. Another key factor which is driving the growth of sodium bicarbonate market is significant growth in the food industry, owing to a high demand for packaged food across the globe. Significant growth in the cosmetics industry is also the key driving factor of global sodium bicarbonate market, attributed to a high demand of personal care products among consumers. In recent years, high demand in animal feed industry is majorly driving the global sodium bicarbonate market. The key restraining factors which restrict to grow global sodium bicarbonate market are its side effects such as eye and skin irritation and govt. Regulations for usage of sodium bicarbonate in industries. High Mergers and Acquisitions among market players for accounting high market share across the globe is the key trend of global sodium bicarbonate market.Global Sodium bicarbonate market: SegmentationGlobal sodium bicarbonate market can be segmented by end-use industry, application type, product form type, and region. Among end-use industry, Chemical and Food & Beverage industry is estimated to witness high market share over forecasted period.Global sodium bicarbonate market is segmented by end-use industry type as follow:-Food & BeverageCosmeticsAgricultureChemicalPharmaceuticalPetroleumFeedGlobal sodium bicarbonate market is segmented based on application type as follow:-AdditivesSolventsHouseholdLeavening agentsGlobal sodium bicarbonate market is segmented on product form type as follow:-PowderWhite crystalWet solidLiquidGlobal sodium bicarbonate market: Regional OutlookBased on the geographies, global sodium bicarbonate market is segmented into seven regions includes Western Europe, North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific except Japan and Middle East & Africa. Among the mentioned region, North America accounts high market share in sodium bicarbonate market across the globe followed by Western Europe and other Asian countries, owing to a high demand of sodium bicarbonate for chemical and food industry. China is the largest market of sodium bicarbonate based on consumption as well as production across the globe. Large market players of global sodium bicarbonate market such as Solvay and Novacap are targeting to invest in Asian countries, owing to a high demand of sodium bicarbonate in detergents, personal care, and food products across the region. Saudi Arabia is estimated to witness a positive growth rate in global sodium bicarbonate market due to high demand in food and agriculture industry in the Middle East & Africa region. It is predicted to witness a positive growth rate of global sodium market in Germany and Belgium, owing to high usage of sodium bicarbonate in the chemical industry across the region.Request for Table of Contents @Few prominent players of global sodium bicarbonate market as follows:VitroSolvayChurch & DwightNatural SodaNovacarbTata ChemicalsFMC CorporationHaohua Honghe Chemical Co., Ltd.Tosoh CorporationABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Savory Ingredient Market Rugged Expansion Foreseen by 2025

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Savory ingredients are kind of flavor enhancer which possess the property to modify flavors in food without contributing to any separate flavor of their own. Savory flavors are primarily used while manufacturing processed savory products such and snacks, frozen savory meal and others. Savory ingredient enables to provide pleasant sense of taste and smell especially by reason of effective seasoning. Savory ingredient play an important role in enhancing the umami flavor of the product which is supporting its growth in the current scenario.Savory Ingredient Market SegmentationSavory ingredient market is segmented on the basis of form which includes liquid, powder, paste and spray dried. Among all these segments powder is expected occupy the major position on the pie. Easy usage and mixing properties with other ingredient is expected to drive its growth during the forecast period. Moreover, liquid is expected to show healthy growth in savory ingredient market in the near future. In addition spray dried savory ingredient is currently an emerging product in savory ingredient market, however it is expected to account for substantial growth within next five to six years.A sample of this report is available upon request @Savory ingredient is also segmented on the basis of ingredient type which includes yeast extract, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), hydrolyzed animal protein (HAP), monosodium glutamate (MSG), nucleotides and others. Among all these segments monosodium glutamate is expected to contribute highest in terms of revenue. Monosodium glutamate properties such as it act as thickening and stabilizing agent in food products. Moreover it is cost effective which are supporting monosodium glutamate growth in the near future. In addition, yeast extract act as a fermenting ingredient. It also enables to reduce salt level from food content. Thus yeast extract is expected to account for substantial growth in next five to six years.Savory ingredient market is further segmented on the basis of application which includes food Industry pet food industry, others. Among all these segments food industry is expected to have a strong presence in savory ingredient market as compared to remaining segments. Increased consumption of processed savory and culinary food products across the globe is expected to be the prime factor driving the growth of savory ingredient market during the forecast period. Also, pet food industry is expected to show a substantial growth in the near future. Food industry is further sub-segment as dips, soups, instant noodle & sauces, meat & seafood, bakery products & savory snacks, others (baby food). Among all these sub- segment meat and sea food is expected to be dominant in terms of revenue contribution followed by savory snacks. Increased consumption of frozen and processed meat and sea food is predicted be the major factor contributing to the market growth of savory ingredient.Geographically, North America is expected to be the major contributor in terms of value followed by Europe. However these region is predicted to show a stable growth in the near future. Increasing awareness among the consumer regarding the ill effects of consuming processed food may affect the growth of savory ingredient in these regions. In developing countries of Asia Pacific region China is expected to dominate the market in terms of savory product consumption followed by India. Moreover Japan is expected to show a substantial growth during the forecast period. High volume consumption of sauces and noodles is predicted to be the supporting factor in the growth of savory ingredient market across the country.Savory Ingredient Market DriversRising disposable income in developing regions has led the consumer to get inclined towards processed savory and culinary food product which is predicted to support the growth of savory ingredient market in the near future. Moreover, savory ingredient is cost effective, due to which manufacturers is using it various reason such as stabilizer, emulsifier, thickening agent and others in food products which also expected to fuel its growth during the forecast period.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Savory Ingredient Market Key PlayersSome of the key companies operating in savory ingredient market includes Tate & Lyle PLC, Kerry Group Plc., Lesaffre Group, Royal DSM, Synergy Flavors and Diana Group among others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Non GMO Yogurt Market to Record an Exponential CAGR by 2026

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Non-GMO and organic foods, apart from natural food stores, Non-GMO products now came in mainstream and sold in major supermarkets nationwide. It has been noticed, consumer is demanding more organic & Non GMO products. Non-GMO yogurt is where the presence of toxic persistent pesticides, artificial hormones and antibiotics, for production of the milk is zero. The use of Non-GMO reached nearly 11% on food and beverages since 2013, the demand has been increased of Non-GMO products. In the US, a survey was conducted for GMO and Non-GMO food products, Maximum Americans agreed on the fact that GMO food product are not safe to eat and also not good for health.A sample of this report is available upon request @Non-GMO Yogurt Market: SegmentationNon GMO yogurt market is segmented on the basis of types, flavors & distribution channel. On the basis of types: Regular Yogurt, Blended Yogurt, Low fat yogurt, nonfat yogurt, Purely Unsweetened Yogurt, Sour Yogurt, Plain Yogurt, Drinkable yogurt and Heavy Cream Yogurt. On the basis of Flavors: Fruit (mango, Strawberry, Blueberry, Kiwi and Peach), Chocolate and Vanilla. On the basis of distribution Channel: Super Market/ Hyper Market, Food Service Outlets, Convenience Stores, Specialty Stores, Online Stores and others.Non-GMO Yogurt Market: Region wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global Non-GMO yogurt market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa.North America is the prominent market for Non-GMO yogurt due to the key players in this region and the availability of raw materials. Whereas, in Europe it is projected to grow at a substantial growth due to consumer as they are becoming concerned about their health, the global Non-GMO yogurt market value exhibiting a robust CAGR during the forecast period, 2016-2026. In the USA, Chobani is the largest manufacturer of greek yogurt, which covers 50% of the market share. Dannon is also one of the largest manufacturer of Non-GMO yogurt in USA which contain more natural ingredients, it has also partnered with Non-Government Organization (NGO) Green America and the Non-GMO Project, So that they can develop Sources of Non-GMO feed for cows.Non-GMO Yogurt Market: DriversAs the demand of Non-GMO product is rising every day as consumers are becoming more concerned about their health. Consumers are becoming more aware about Non-GMO products and easy availability of raw materials in some regions. Raising awareness about the Non-GMO products all across over the Globe is also one of the major factors anticipated to expand the growth of Non-GMO Yogurt market over the forecast period. In 2018, Dannon will introduce 3 brands of Non-GMO Yogurt i.e. Dannon, Oikos & Danimals, that will be fed by the Non-GMO Feed.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Non-GMO Market: Key PlayersSome of the international key players identified operating in Non-GMO yogurt market includes Brown Cow Yogurt, Stonyfield Farm, Maia inspired nutrition, Chobani, General Mills, THE GREEK GODS and others. The company is likely to expand its share over the next coming years as consumers are becoming more aware about Non-GMO products and are more concerned about their health. More companies are expected to enter into manufacturing of Non-GMO products in future.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Organic Milk Market Significant Profits Estimated to be Generated by 2026

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The organic milk market encompasses all milk and milk products derived from animals that are fed organic feed that is devoid of any animal by-products, have access to fresh pastures, and are not treated with any synthetic hormones or antibiotics. The term organic only refers to the process in which the milk is prepared and has no relation to the end-product nutrient profile. The market for organic milk is expected to grow at a rapid pace with the mainstreaming of natural and organic foods.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Dynamics of Organic Milk MarketSimilar to all organic foods, the demand for organic milk is closely tied to the increasing consumer preference for naturally and organically grown products. This positive view of organics is due to several factors such as the perception of anything organic as healthy and pure, increasing care for environment and concern for farm animals. All these factors are crucial for the acceptance of organic milk products, thereby leading to the popularity of labels such as grass-fed and pasture-raised.Price is an important constraining factor for organic milk market as organic milk is almost thrice as costly as regular milk. This high difference limits the scope of the market only to urban and high-aware consumers.The consumer shift towards organic dairy products is also influenced by the large scale food adulteration scandals that have occurred recently. For instance, the 2008 Chinese milk scandal wherein a large number of children were hospitalized due to an excessive amount of melamine in the milk and infant formulas, has led to a great number of regulations, import restrictions and price fluctuations in the market. Events such as these have increased consumer interest in what the animal is fed, how it is raised and processing methods.The regulatory aspects of the organic milk market are mostly centered on the use of the organic label. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires that apart from the use of organic feed, cows should have access to fresh grass and spend at least four months a year grazing in pastures. The crucial aspect of organic milk market is a lack of use of synthetic hormones such as rBGH, a growth hormone given to almost 30% of the dairy cows in the US. These ingredients are considered very negatively by most consumers.Market Segmentation of Organic Milk MarketThe organic milk market is segmented on the basis of application, packaging type, distribution channel, and geography.On the basis of application, the organic milk market is segmented as milk, dairy products and milk-based beverages and others. The majority of organic milk is consumed directly in the form of boiled milk, coffee, tea, and in cooking certain dishes at home. The use of organic milk is particularly increasing in households with kids due to extra concerns about food safety and health. The dairy products segment is further segmented into butter, cheese, desserts, and others. The dairy products segment is expected to gain market share with the growing consumer interest in healthy indulgent foods. Further these products are used in some bakery and confectionery good like milk toffies, bars and cakes and cookies.On the basis of packaging type, the market can be segmented into pouches, cartons, bottles, and cans. The use of any specific packaging type depends on the end-purpose and use. For instance, pouches offer a relatively cheap way and easy way to pack milk and are therefore very popular in emerging nations such as India. Cartons are an important packaging type in terms of the longer shelf life and convenience. Bottles can be of both glass and plastic and are heavily used for packing milk and beverages. Cans are mainly used to transport heavy loads of organic milk and in the case of many dairy products.On the basis of distribution channels, the market is segmented into hypermarkets/supermarkets, convenience and grocery stores, specialty stores, the internet and direct selling. The use of internet limited in the case of organic milk market as the products are easily perishable. Hypermarkets and supermarkets occupy the dominant market share mainly because a significant number of organic products are concentrated in large stores. Direct selling in the form of home deliveries is also an important and growing distribution channel because such delivery systems usually source the organic milk from local sources thereby ensuring freshness and quality.Regional Outlook of Organic Milk MarketThe United States occupies the dominant market share in the organic milk market. The increasing consumer awareness about natural consumer goods and increase in the incidence of lifestyle conditions such as obesity. Europe is another very important region in the organic milk market due to the high-income levels, easy product accessibility and strict regulations against synthetic food ingredients. U.K is a major consumer of organic milk and also houses many producers and suppliers. Despite occupying small market share at the current time period, the organic milk market is expected to grow at a significant level in emerging nations such as India and Brazil. This is due to the increasing awareness levels and fears of food adulteration among consumers.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Key Market Players in Organic Milk MarketSome of the key players in the organic milk market include Danone (WhiteWave Foods Company), Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited, Organic Valley, OMSCo (Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative), Dairy Farmers of America Inc., Agropur Dairy Cooperative, Arla Foods Amba, Donegal Investment Group plc. , etc. among the others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Infant Formula Foods Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023

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"The Report Global Infant Formula Foods Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Infant Formula Foods MarketThis report studies the infant formula foods market, and infant formula foods mainly include infant formula powder and infant complementary foods.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Infant Formula Foods in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDanoneAbbottNestleMead Johnson NutritionFrieslandCampinaHeinzYiliBiostimeHipp Holding AGPerrigoBeingmateSynutraFonterraWondersonMeijiBellamyFeiheYashiliBrightdairyArlaDGCWissunShijiazhuang Junlebao Dairy Co., Ltd.Westland Milk ProductsPinnacleHolle baby food GmbHRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversInfant Formula PowderInfant Complementary FoodsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into0-6 Months6-12 Months12-36 MonthsThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Infant Formula Foods market.Chapter 1, to describe Infant Formula Foods Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Infant Formula Foods, with sales, revenue, and price of Infant Formula Foods, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Infant Formula Foods, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Infant Formula Foods market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Infant Formula Foods sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Infant Formula Foods Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Infant Formula Powder1.2.2 Infant Complementary Foods1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 0-6 Months1.3.2 6-12 Months1.3.3 12-36 Months1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Danone2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Danone Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Abbott2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Abbott Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Nestle2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Nestle Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Mead Johnson Nutrition2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Mead Johnson Nutrition Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 FrieslandCampina2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 FrieslandCampina Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Heinz2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Heinz Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Yili2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Yili Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Biostime2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Biostime Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Hipp Holding AG2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Hipp Holding AG Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Perrigo2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Perrigo Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 Beingmate2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Beingmate Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 Synutra2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 Synutra Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Fonterra2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Fonterra Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 Wonderson2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 Wonderson Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 Meiji2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 Meiji Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.16 Bellamy2.16.1 Business Overview2.16.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.16.2.1 Type 12.16.2.2 Type 22.16.3 Bellamy Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.17 Feihe2.17.1 Business Overview2.17.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.17.2.1 Type 12.17.2.2 Type 22.17.3 Feihe Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.18 Yashili2.18.1 Business Overview2.18.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.18.2.1 Type 12.18.2.2 Type 22.18.3 Yashili Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.19 Brightdairy2.19.1 Business Overview2.19.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.19.2.1 Type 12.19.2.2 Type 22.19.3 Brightdairy Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.20 Arla2.20.1 Business Overview2.20.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.20.2.1 Type 12.20.2.2 Type 22.20.3 Arla Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.21 DGC2.21.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.21.2.1 Type 12.21.2.2 Type 22.21.3 DGC Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.22 Wissun2.22.1 Business Overview2.22.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.22.2.1 Type 12.22.2.2 Type 22.22.3 Wissun Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.23 Shijiazhuang Junlebao Dairy Co., Ltd.2.23.1 Business Overview2.23.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.23.2.1 Type 12.23.2.2 Type 22.23.3 Shijiazhuang Junlebao Dairy Co., Ltd. Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.24 Westland Milk Products2.24.1 Business Overview2.24.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.24.2.1 Type 12.24.2.2 Type 22.24.3 Westland Milk Products Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.25 Pinnacle2.25.1 Business Overview2.25.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.25.2.1 Type 12.25.2.2 Type 22.25.3 Pinnacle Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.26 Holle baby food GmbH2.26.1 Business Overview2.26.2 Infant Formula Foods Type and Applications2.26.2.1 Type 12.26.2.2 Type 22.26.3 Holle baby food GmbH Infant Formula Foods Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizExpulsion of Ugandans by the Tanzanian government is not something new; it happens almost every year. But I have never seen the Ugandan government react until when herdsmen were expelled.

The Foreign Affairs minister wrote a letter of protest and handed it over to the ambassador of Tanzania to Uganda.

Being a shadow minister for East African Community Affairs, I don't think that this higgledy-piggledy scenario would be happening between member states under the East African Community, if the heads of states of member countries were transparently committed to the integration.

It is important to recollect that on November 30, 1993, the heads of states of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania signed a permanent tripartite commission (PTC) which arrangement later ushered in the signing of the East African Community Treaty on January 22, 1999 by the three states.

The integration process has been progressing in four steps embodied in protocols: I will only mention the two which have been birthed.

First is the Customs Union Protocol, which came into effect in 2005; this allows East Africa to operate as a free trade area where partner states reduce or eliminate tax on goods originating from their countries and have a common tariff on goods imported from outside the participating countries.

Secondly, there is the Common Market Protocol, which came into effect on July 1, 2010. This provides the region with a single economic space within which business and labour will operate to stimulate investment. The common market serves to provide freedom of movement of the factors of production (Capital and Labour) and goods and services and also the right of establishment of residence.

Pointing to protocol No 2 of the East African Community integration process, it is wrong for Tanzania to expel natives of other member countries who are mandated to do business, work and also stay anywhere within the boundaries of East Africa.

However, the biggest challenge before us is that the ministry of East African Community Affairs is headed by second prime minister, Kirunda Kivejinja, who, by his age, is only fit to be ceremonial. I want to think that for the same reason, President Museveni donated this ministry to him as a retirement package.

I can provide evidence to corroborate my assertion. This ministry is understaffed, with staffing level of 40 per cent (31 of 77 filled), meaning they have a staffing gap is 60 per cent (46 of 77 unfilled).

When you are looking for a severely underfunded ministry in Uganda with at least 50 per cent of its budget paying arrears, you can't fail to mention ministry of East African Community Affairs. With this haphazard arrangement in the ministry, I don't think much can be yielded in regard to engaging other member states in situations likened to this in kind and intensity.

This also speaks volumes about the president's commitment to the integration. Unfortunate! When you are searching for virtual junior ministers, kindly find one in this particular ministry.

My honorable colleague, Julius Maganda, who doubles as the state minister for East African Community Affairs, is for sure occupying a portfolio that is without enough funding to aid the execution of the duties thereof. I think his resignation can be patriotic!

Surprisingly, as all this happens to Ugandans, the committee of parliament on East African Community Affairs has not prioritized discussing the matter. But you cant blame them also. Their inactivity just explains how passive this ministry is. In my view, therefore, this ministry is counterproductive and must be dissolved as early as yesterday.

You cannot sow maize and reap bananas! Let us empower this ministry to the capacity of handling matters that fall under its docket.

As of now, I want to believe that our only hope must be vested in the East African Legislative Assembly, but this also possesses a semblance of toothless dogs that bark but cant bite.

I think that tranquility among EAC member states can be attained but with utmost goodwill of the sitting presidents. And this must be made mandatory, short of that, our ardor for integration will remain an adoration in our hearts and a myth in reality. This failed endeavor will midwife more sordid events.

The author is a member of parliament for Mityana Municipality and shadow minister for East African Community Affairs.Cheese Ingredient Market Projected to Garner Significant Revenues by 2027

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Cheese is a milk product which is formed by the coagulation of casein, a milk protein. Cheese is consumed everyday all over the world. The global cheese ingredient market is expected to change rapidly due to fast changing patterns of eating across all the globe. The use of cheese is increasing day by day because people all over the world are consuming more fast foods like pizza and burger on daily basis, which is expected to drive the cheese ingredient market in the forecast period. The basic cheese ingredient which is required to make cheese are milk, bacterial culture, enzyme and additives such as cheese salt. The bacterial culture which is used as cheese ingredient are probiotic in nature which is very essential for our body, so the selection bacterial culture has high importance fro he production of cheese. Recently, consumers have also been preferring healthy cheese products with good taste, availability at convenience and use of quality ingredients. Companies are also investing heavily in research and development to innovate new cheese products in order attract the consumers.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Segmentation:Cheese market is segment on the basis of cheese type, ingredients and region. On the basis of cheese type market is segmented into processed cheese and natural cheese. The demand for natural cheese is more due to the benefits it offers such as, it is rich in vitamins, proteins, minerals, healthy bacterial culture (probiotic) and enzymes. On the basis of cheese ingredient the market is segmented into bacterial cultures, milk type (milk cream, powdered milk and fresh milk), milk additives (food colors, cheese salts and others) and enzymes (lipase and rennet). The market of ingredient segment is led by milk, followed by enzyme. The demand for enzymes is high due to the increased shelf life of the enzyme modified cheese makes it a preferred option for the manufacturers. On the basis of region cheese ingredient market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, MEA and Japan.Market Regional Outlook:Regional segment for the market of cheese ingredient is divided into seven different regions: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, MEA and Japan. Among these segment North America is expected to have the major market share globally, as it is the largest exporter and producer of cheese.In North American region the United States is generating the major revenue followed by Canada. In terms of revenue Asia Pacificis also one of the prominent contributor in the cheese ingredient market. New Zealand and Australia has the largest cheese ingredient markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Large scale milk production in countries like India and china has led to low cost production of cheese.Market Drivers:Rising demand of enzyme modified cheese with longer shelf life coupled with lower price is pushing the growth of cheese ingredient market during the forecast period. Factors such as rapid urbanization and increasing food budget have also increased the demand for cheese ingredients. The growing demand from the emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil among others, the market of cheese ingredient is expected to grow at a faster pace in the forecast period. Moreover, the market is also driven by the increasing awareness among the consumers about the health benefits associated with the ingredients used in the manufacturing of natural cheese.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Market Key Players:Some of the key players in cheese ingredientmarket areArla Foods, Fonterra Co-operative Group, CSK Food Enrichment, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Almarai, Koninklijke DSM N.V., Saputo Inc. and Alpura.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Konjac Flour Market is Set to Garner Staggering Revenues by 2027

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Konjac flour can be defined as a Glucomannan Powder which is pure soluble fiber with no calories, no starch, no sugar, no fat and no protein which is wheat free and gluten free. Konjac flour is used as an ingredient as a thickening agent in food preparation and additives in food & beverage industry. Konjac flour is made from konjac plant roots, when konjac plants roots are matured, the roots are removed from the ground and peeled. Peeled roots are cut into pieces and dried by warm air, dried roots are then refined into a powder which separates the lighter components from the heavier flour, left glucomannan is used in noodles and other dishes. Konjac flour is an odorless, natural soluble fiber, which is found in the konjac plants.The food made from the corm of the konjac plant is widely known as konnyaku (yam cake) which is being cooked and consumed on daily basis in Japan. Research has found that konjac lowers down serum cholesterol levels and helps to delay the glucose absorption.A sample of this report is available upon request @Konjac Flour Market Segmentation:Konjac flour market can be segmented on the basis of applications, function, and by regions. Based on application, konjac flour is segmented into food & beverages, agriculture, medical & pharmaceutical industry. Konjac flour has gelling property which acts as a fat replacer in various types of processed foods. Konjac flour used as a thickener for smooth soups, gravies, bakery products, carbonated beverages, confectionery, desserts, noodles, yogurt, sauces, stews, glazes and casseroles. It is also used in cake fillings, puddings, pies and custard as a thickener. Konjac flour is odorless and is gluten-free, which is a perfect substitute in cooking and baking when flour and glutinous starches is to be avoided. On the basis of function the market of konjac flour is segmented into gelling agent, thickener, film former, emulsifier and stabilizer. The market on the basis of use is led by gelling agent segment followed by emulsifier. On the basis of region Konjac flourmarket is segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, MEA and Japan.Konjac Flour Market Trends and Market Drivers:Konjac flour market is expected to witness sustained growth over the forecast period increasing demand for gelling, thickening and stabilizing agent is expected to grow the demand over the forecast period. Other factors attributable to the high growth includes rising health consciousness, increasing purchasing power, rise in per capita health expenditure. Konjac flour has special properties which provide various health benefits such as better immune system and better digestion. In addition, government bodies for example, FDA supports the use of konjac flour in numerous drugs and foods which is expected to push the growth of the market. Konjac flour is anticipated to witness relatively high share in the food & beverage segment. Pharmaceutical segment is also expected to expand at higher rate owing to the wide use of Konjac Flour in pharmaceutical segment for the treatment of constipation, weight loss and help in improving cholesterol level.Regional Outlook of Konjac Flour Market:On the basis of geographical market segment, it is segmented into seven different regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia-Pacific region, Japan and Middle East and Africa. In regional segments, Asia-Pacific is expected to hold a relatively high share in terms of market value. China has the largest konjac flour markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Japan region is expected to witness relatively higher growth in the Konjac Flour market. People in japan havethe habit of consuming konjac foods on daily basis which is the key factor to drive the market in this region.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Konjac Flour Market Key Players:Some of the key participating players in konjac flour market globally are Hubei Yizhi Konjac Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Zeroodle, Miracle Noodle, NAH Foods, Shanghai Brilliant Gum Co. Ltd and Henan Xin Industry Co. Ltd. And Baoji Konjac Chemcial Co., Ltd., NOW Foods among others. Companies in the konjac flour market are heavily investing in research and development activities to enhance the functional profile of konjac flour.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.Contact Us:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way,Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage,New York 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Fax: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023

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"The Report Global Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel MarketThis report studies the Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel market, Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel is a new type of galvanized steel on which aluminum-magnesium alloy coating by zinc (Zn), aluminum (Al) (3.5-11)%, magnesium (Mg) 3% to form high-temperature curing. Its structure by Zn, Al and Zn2-Mg the dense structure constitutes a total of three, so that the steel surface to form a layer of compact and effective to prevent corrosion factor through the barrier.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversArcelorMittalNISSHIN STEEL COPOSCONSSMCShandong Kerui SteelMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Request for TOC @Market Segment by Type, coversThin Carbon SteelConventional Carbon SteelThick Carbon SteelSpecial Made Carbon SteelMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoConstructionAutomotiveAgricultural applicationsGreen house structuresRail roadElectric power communicationIndustrial HVACOther applicationsThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel market.Chapter 1, to describe Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel, with sales, revenue, and price of Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Thin Carbon Steel1.2.2 Conventional Carbon Steel1.2.3 Thick Carbon Steel1.2.4 Special Made Carbon Steel1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Construction1.3.2 Automotive1.3.3 Agricultural applications1.3.4 Green house structures1.3.5 Rail road1.3.6 Electric power communication1.3.1 Industrial HVAC1.3.2 Other applications1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 ArcelorMittal2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 ArcelorMittal Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 NISSHIN STEEL CO2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 NISSHIN STEEL CO Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 POSCO2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 POSCO Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 NSSMC2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 NSSMC Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Shandong Kerui Steel2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Shandong Kerui Steel Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)3 Global Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.1 Global Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 Global Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 Market Concentration Rate3.3.1 Top 3 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Manufacturer Market Share3.3.2 Top 6 Mg-Al-Zinc Coated Carbon Steel Manufacturer Market Share3.4 Market Competition TrendBuy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Non-dairy Creamer Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023

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"The Report Global Non-dairy Creamer Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Non-dairy Creamer MarketNon-dairy creamer, also called coffee whitener, is a powdered milk or cream substitute used primarily for flavoring coffee and tea. There are a variety of creamers made with various products, but most of the standard or best-known brands contain the protein-rich milk derivative casein in the form of sodium caseinate.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Non-dairy Creamer in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversNestle(Switzerland)WhiteWave(US)FrieslandCampina(Netherlands)DEK(Grandos)(Germany)DMK(TURM-Sahne GmbH)(Germany)CaprimoSuper Group(Singapore)Yearrakarn(Thailand)Custom Food Group(Malaysia)PT. Santos Premium Krimer(Indonesia)PT Aloe Vera(Indonesia)Suzhou Jiahe Foods Industry(China)Wenhui Food(China)Bigtree Group(China)Zhucheng Dongxiao Biotechnology(China)Jiangxi WeirbaoFood Biotechnology(China)Hubei Hong Yuan Food(China)Fujian Jumbo Grand Food(China)Shandong Tianmei Bio(China)Amrut International(China)Request for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversLow-fat NDCMedium-fat NDCHigh-fat NDCMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoNDC for CoffeeNDC for Milk TeaNDC for Baking, ColdDrinks and CandyNDC Solid BeverageOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Non-dairy Creamer market.Chapter 1, to describe Non-dairy Creamer Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Non-dairy Creamer, with sales, revenue, and price of Non-dairy Creamer, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Non-dairy Creamer, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Non-dairy Creamer market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Non-dairy Creamer sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Non-dairy Creamer Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Low-fat NDC1.2.2 Medium-fat NDC1.2.3 High-fat NDC1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 NDC for Coffee1.3.2 NDC for Milk Tea1.3.3 NDC for Baking, Cold1.3.4 Drinks and Candy1.3.5 NDC Solid Beverage1.3.6 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Nestle(Switzerland)2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Nestle(Switzerland) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 WhiteWave(US)2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 WhiteWave(US) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 FrieslandCampina(Netherlands)2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 FrieslandCampina(Netherlands) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 DEK(Grandos)(Germany)2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 DEK(Grandos)(Germany) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 DMK(TURM-Sahne GmbH)(Germany)2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 DMK(TURM-Sahne GmbH)(Germany) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Caprimo2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Caprimo Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Super Group(Singapore)2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Super Group(Singapore) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Yearrakarn(Thailand)2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Yearrakarn(Thailand) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Custom Food Group(Malaysia)2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Custom Food Group(Malaysia) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 PT. Santos Premium Krimer(Indonesia)2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 PT. Santos Premium Krimer(Indonesia) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 PT Aloe Vera(Indonesia)2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 PT Aloe Vera(Indonesia) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 Suzhou Jiahe Foods Industry(China)2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 Suzhou Jiahe Foods Industry(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Wenhui Food(China)2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Wenhui Food(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 Bigtree Group(China)2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 Bigtree Group(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 Zhucheng Dongxiao Biotechnology(China)2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 Zhucheng Dongxiao Biotechnology(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.16 Jiangxi Weirbao2.16.1 Business Overview2.16.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.16.2.1 Type 12.16.2.2 Type 22.16.3 Jiangxi Weirbao Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.17 Food Biotechnology(China)2.17.1 Business Overview2.17.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.17.2.1 Type 12.17.2.2 Type 22.17.3 Food Biotechnology(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.18 Hubei Hong Yuan Food(China)2.18.1 Business Overview2.18.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.18.2.1 Type 12.18.2.2 Type 22.18.3 Hubei Hong Yuan Food(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.19 Fujian Jumbo Grand Food(China)2.19.1 Business Overview2.19.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.19.2.1 Type 12.19.2.2 Type 22.19.3 Fujian Jumbo Grand Food(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.20 Shandong Tianmei Bio(China)2.20.1 Business Overview2.20.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.20.2.1 Type 12.20.2.2 Type 22.20.3 Shandong Tianmei Bio(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.21 Amrut International(China)2.21.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Non-dairy Creamer Type and Applications2.21.2.1 Type 12.21.2.2 Type 22.21.3 Amrut International(China) Non-dairy Creamer Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023

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"The Report Global Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator MarketThe OCXO is an oscillator which is temperature controlled (ovenized crystal controlled oscillator). This type of oscillator has a temperature controlling circuit to maintain the crystal and key components at a constant temperature. OCXOs are typically used when temperature stabilities on the order of 1 x 10-8 or better are required. While this type of oscillator has a tenfold improvement over a TCXO for temperature stability, the OCXO tends to be higher in price and consumes more power. Typical power at +25C ambient is 1.5 Watts to 2.0 Watts in a steady state condition.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversNDKEpsonVectronMicrocrystalRakonBliley TechnologiesKDSTaitienCTSGreenray IndustriesNELIDTAbraconKVGRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversSMD ShapePIN ShapeMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoTelecom InfrastructureMilitary & SpaceIndustrial & MedicalOtherThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) market.Chapter 1, to describe Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO), with sales, revenue, and price of Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO), in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO), for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 SMD Shape1.2.2 PIN Shape1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Telecom Infrastructure1.3.2 Military & Space1.3.3 Industrial & Medical1.3.4 Other1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 NDK2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 NDK Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Epson2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Epson Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Vectron2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Vectron Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Microcrystal2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Microcrystal Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Rakon2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Rakon Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Bliley Technologies2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Bliley Technologies Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 KDS2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 KDS Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Taitien2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Taitien Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 CTS2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 CTS Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Greenray Industries2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Greenray Industries Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 NEL2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 NEL Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 IDT2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 IDT Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Abracon2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Abracon Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 KVG2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 KVG Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)3 Global Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.1 Global Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 Global Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 Market Concentration Rate3.3.1 Top 3 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Manufacturer Market Share3.3.2 Top 6 Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO) Manufacturer Market Share3.4 Market Competition TrendBuy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Pan Masala Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023

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"The Report Global Pan Masala Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Pan Masala MarketPan Masala refers to a balanced mixture of betel leaf with lime, areca nut, clove, cardamom, mint, tobacco and many other ingredients. It is prepared with precise measurements so as to maintain a balance of all ingredients while keeping in mind its taste and human health.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Pan Masala in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDS GroupManikchandGodfrey PhillipsKothari ProductsLalwani GroupA & C- Pan BaharDinesh Pouches LimitedRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversPan Masala with TobaccoPlain Pan MasalaFlavored Pan MasalaOtherMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoRetail StoresSupermarketOnline StoresOthersView Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Pan Masala market.Chapter 1, to describe Pan Masala Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Pan Masala, with sales, revenue, and price of Pan Masala, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Pan Masala, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Pan Masala market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Pan Masala sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceTable of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Pan Masala Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Pan Masala with Tobacco1.2.2 Plain Pan Masala1.2.3 Flavored Pan Masala1.2.4 Other1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Retail Stores1.3.2 Supermarket1.3.3 Online Stores1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 United States Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.2 Canada Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.2 France Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.3 UK Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.4 Russia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.2.5 Italy Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.2 Japan Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.3 Korea Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.4 India Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market Status and Outlook (2013-2023)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 DS Group2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 DS Group Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Manikchand2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Manikchand Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Godfrey Phillips2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Godfrey Phillips Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Kothari Products2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Kothari Products Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Lalwani Group2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Lalwani Group Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 A & C- Pan Bahar2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 A & C- Pan Bahar Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Dinesh Pouches Limited2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Pan Masala Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Dinesh Pouches Limited Pan Masala Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)3 Global Pan Masala Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Competition by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.1 Global Pan Masala Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 Global Pan Masala Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 Market Concentration Rate3.3.1 Top 3 Pan Masala Manufacturer Market Share3.3.2 Top 6 Pan Masala Manufacturer Market Share3.4 Market Competition TrendBuy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizLaminar Growth to be Witnessed by LED Lights Market by 2022

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Some the prominent players operating in the global LED lights market include Hyundai Mobis Co., Ltd., Magneti Marelli S.p.A., EPISTAR Corporation, Cooper Industries, LLC, Cree, Inc., General Electric Company, Nichia Corporation, Texas Instruments, Valeo SA, and Koninklijke Philips N.V. Other leading players are Stanley Electric Co. Ltd, Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd, HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co, and OSRAM Licht AG, finds Future Market Insights (FMI). Several players are capitalizing on opportunities arising out substantial investments by end-use industries to install LED lighting on a massive scale in various developing and developed countries. A number of electronics companies are entering into the market while some semiconductor players are exploring lucrative avenues, which is expected to intensify the competition in the market. Furthermore, service providers as well as component manufacturers are expected to benefit from the vastly emerging opportunities in the market in the coming years, notes FMI.The global LED lights market projects that the global LED lights market to rise at an impressive CAGR from 2017 to 2022 and is forecast to generate a revenue of US$66,115 Mn by the end of 2022.Request For Sample @The various product types in which LED lights are used are lamps and luminaries. Of these, lamps is projected to rise at a substantial CAGR during 2017-2022 to reach a worth of close to US$ 22,640 Mn by the end of 2022. By the end of 2017, the segment is estimated to account for over one-third of the total share of the products market. Of the various regional markets for LED lights, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to lead the global market, vis-a-vis revenue, throughout the forecast period.Vast Energy Savings to Bolster DemandWorld over, the pressing need for advanced lighting to get over the drawbacks of conventional technologies, notably incandescent, fluorescent and halogen lighting systems, is a vital factor that has propelled the demand for light-emitting diodes (LED) lights. The growing adoption LED lights is attributed to several advantages they offer such as higher energy-efficiency, extended lifespan, and lower maintenance requirements. The growing concern of a fast depleting non-renewable energy sources in various parts of the world is a key trend bolstering the demand for such energy-efficient technologies. The decline in prices of lamps and fixtures in several developing and developed countries is a key trend further fortifying the demand of LED among facility managers.The vast energy savings associated with LED lighting owing to directional lighting is a crucial aspect that has bolstered their uptake in a variety of outdoor applications, such as in traffic lights, large parking lot, extensive building perimeter, and massive signage. The growing popularity of LED lights among facility managers is expected to boost their uptake for industrial applications, thereby accentuating the overall market.Adoption in Automotive Products to Create Lucrative OpportunitiesEquipped with lower maintenance requirements and higher operational benefits, including durability and almost instant luminescence, LED lighting system is gaining traction in various commercial applications in various parts of the world. However, the lack of cold-temperature conditions and inclement weather might dim the intensity of the light in some outdoor applications. This is a key factor reducing the viability of these systems.Nevertheless, advancements in solid state technologies will enable manufacturers get over these constraints in the coming years. The rising adoption of LED lights to replace conventional incandescent lights automotive products is expected to open up lucrative avenues for manufacturers. The advent of LED lights that combine style with safety features is expected to open up exciting avenues in the automotive industry. A burgeoning demand for smart lighting in exterior and interior automotive parts is likely to bolster uptake.Request For TOC @The study presented here is based on a report by Future Market Insights (FMI) titled LED Lights Market: Luminaries to Dominate the Product type Segment throughout the Assessment Period: Global Industry Analysis (2012-2016) & Opportunity Assessment (2017-2022).ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Porridges Market is likely to register Single Digit CAGR during 2017-2027

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Growing number of single individuals along with rising number of working women has led consumer shifting preference towards ready to eat breakfast food products. Porridges are the breakfast food products which are made up by starch plant specially the grains such as wheat, barley, oats and others. Presently the marketer is positioning and marketing porridges as instant ready to eat breakfast option to the consumers. Increasing consumer inclination towards convenience food products coupled with rising consumption of health fortified breakfast options is expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period.Request For TOC @Porridges Market SegmentationPorridges market has been segmented on the basis of source which includes rice, barley and oats. Among all these segments oats is expected to occupy the largest value share during the forecast period. Availability of wide variety of product variants in oats based porridges is expected to support the segment growth during the forecast period. Rice based porridges is expected to register a favorable growth in the near future. Increasing demand for rice based porridges in country such as China and Japan is expected to support the segment growth over the forecast period.Global porridges market is also segmented on the basis of distribution channel which includes hypermarket/supermarket, retail stores, convenience stores, online, others. Among all these segment hypermarket/supermarket is expected to account for relatively higher value share over the forecast period. Increasing penetration of retail industry especially in developing countries is expected to support the segment growth in the porridges market over the forecast period. Convenience stores is further expected to account for favorable growth during the forecast period.Porridges Regional AnalysisGlobal porridges market is further segmented on the basis of region which includes North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan. Geographically, Western Europe is expected to be the major market in terms of value for porridges market, owing to increasing consumer shifting preference towards convenient breakfast options. Among the countries, U.K. is expected to remain major markets in terms of consumptions for porridges followed by Germany.North America is expected to represent the favorable market for porridges in terms of consumption. In the region the U.S. is expected to represent major value share during the forecast period. Increasing consumption of instant and on-the-go breakfast alternatives is expected to support the market growth in the country. Asia Pacific is expected to represent a rapid growth in porridges market. China is expected to be the largest consumer of porridges in the region. Continuous new product launches is expected to support the market growth in the country. Moreover, among ASEAN countries Singapore is expected to represent potential market both in terms of value and volume consumption.Porridges Market DriversGrowing number of single individuals along with rising number of working women across the globe is expected to drive the porridges market across the globe. For instance, according to the European Commission, the proportion of women employed in EU-28 increased from 51.4% in 2004 to 55.5% in 2014. Also, employment rate for women was pegged at 59.6% in 2014. In addition, continuous introduction of new porridges products such porridges combined with fruits and nuts is expected to fuel the market growth over the forecast period. In addition increasing awareness among the consumers through aggressive advertisement by the manufacturers is expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period. Moreover, increasing per capita expenditure on prepared food coupled with rising demand for convenience breakfast products is further expected to fuel the market growth in the near future.Request For Sample @Porridges Market Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in porridges market includes Quaker Oats Company, Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc., Dole Food Company Inc, Weetabix Limited and H. J. Heinz Company among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Crude Sulfate Turpentine Market Rugged Expansion Foreseen by 2027

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Crude sulfate turpentine is a chemical product which is burned for energy recovery. Crude sulfate turpentine is extracted during kraft wood pulping process which is further sold as a commodity. The procedure separates cellulose fibers which are used to manufacture paper. Crude sulfate turpentine is itself a fuel that contains organic compounds mainly alpha-pinene and beta-pinene and other terpenes. The technology for crude sulfate turpentine includes extraction of terpen hydrocarbons vapors from evaporators and digester and separate it from turpentine water. Crude sulfate turpentine act as a feedstock for the manufacturer who produces pinenes, flavorings, polymer additives, pine oil, fragrances and turpentine oil. Turpentine oil is extracted from oleoresin which is collected from a tree. Turpentine is used as a commercial fuel source an alternative to fossil fuels in applications such as lamps, furnaces, industrial boilers and rocket fuels. Crude sulfate turpentine has a low healing value of around 17,000 to 19,000 Btu/lb compared to other fuels such as diesel, gasoline, and propane.Request For Sample @Crude Sulfate Turpentine Market:Drivers and RestraintsCrude sulfate turpentine market is witnessing maximum growth owing to increase in demand for bio-friendly products and high consumption of personal care and household products. Moreover, increase in the production of chemical products from turpentine which is used as a solvent, fragrance agent and flavor are some other factors expected to fuel the growth of global Crude Sulfate Turpentine market. However, decreasing consumption of the products produce from crude sulfate turpentine along with decreasing paper mill production, availability of less expensive petroleum based products and less recovery of black liquor from Kraft wood pulping process are some of the factors that hamper the growth of crude sulfate turpentine market.Crude Sulfate Turpentine Market:SegmentationThe Crude Sulfate Turpentine market has been classified on the basis of product type, and application.Based on product type, the crude sulfate turpentine market is segmented into the following:CampheneLimoneneAlpha-pineneBeta-pineneDelta 3 CareneOthersBased on application, the crude sulfate turpentine market is segmented into the following:Paints & Printing InksAromatic ChemicalsCamphorAdhesivesOthersCrude Sulfate Turpentine Market:OverviewCrude sulfate turpentine accounts for 96% to the overall turpentine production in the US. Turpentine produced in the US is mainly of alpha-pinene accounted for 85% followed by camphene and limonene. It is the commonly used paint and varnish thinner. Based on product type, Delta 3 Carene is expected to be the fastest growing segment in near future owing to increase in the use of turpentine as a solvent for resins. Based on applications, aromatic chemicals accounted for largest market share owing to the high use of crude sulfate turpentine in FMCG products such as air fresheners, soaps, and deodorants.Crude Sulfate Turpentine Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on the geographic region, Crude Sulfate Turpentine market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominates the crude sulfate turpentine market followed by Europe, Japan owing to the largest source of terpenes, low cost of crude sulfate turpentine, presence of large manufacturers of aromatic chemicals and paints that consume crude sulfate turpentine material, and high export of Crude Sulfate Turpentine to other countries worldwide. Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa hold huge potential and shows substantial growth owing to increase in the consumption of personal care products among the population to maintain hygiene.Request For Methodology @Crude Sulfate Turpentine Market:Key PlayersKey players of Crude Sulfate Turpentine market are Dujodwala Paper Chemicals Ltd., Arizona Chemical Company LLC, International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., Pine Chemical Group, Lawter Inc., Privi Organics Limited, HARTING Technology Group, Derives Resiniques et Terpeniqes, Privi Organics Limited, and Renessenz LLC.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Turkish Figs Market to Significant Growth Foreseen by 2027

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Turkish figs are famous for its delicacy since ancient times. Turkish figs are the rich source of phytonutrients, antioxidants, and vitamins. Turkish figs are sweet in flavor, with a chewy texture, unlike most other fruits. Turkish figs are available in different sizes, ranging from small to extra-large, and are offered in fresh or dried form.Request For Sample @The Turkish figs market is growing from past few years due to the growth of global food industry. The market is driven by the rising consumption of health-based packaged foods and innovations in manufacturing variety of processed food products by key stakeholders. Emerging markets for health-based packaged foods are projected to generate potential opportunities for Turkish figs.The Turkish figs market is categorized by intense competition, due to the presence of some large-scale firms. The growing demand for Turkish figs in the various region such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific is leading towards fierce competition amongst key industry players for capturing the market opportunities.Turkey is largest producer and exporter of dried figs globally, it accounted nearly 70% share of global production and exported more than 75% of its domestic production. Turkey was the largest supplier for figs in the year 2015 with the market size of near about the US $ 30 million.Turkish Figs Market SegmentationTurkish figs market can be segmented by type, by application, by form, and by regions. By type, Turkish figs market is segmented as natural and processed products. The processed products segment is further segmented into Lerida, garland, proto be, pulled, layer and baglama. Turkish figs market by application segment is segmented into confectionaries, dairy products, bakery products, and others. Turkish figs market by form segment is segmented into fresh and dried form. Turkish figs market is further segmented by region as, Latin America, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific. In regional segments, North America and Europe possess significant potential, whereas Latin America and other developing markets such as Asia-Pacific and MEA possess growing market demand for Turkish Figs over the forecast period. Factors stimulating the growth in Asia-Pacific are due to the application of premium food products, which are gaining popularity among all generations. Further, the growth of middle-class population, amplified spending power, and growing urbanization have impelled the demand for Turkish figs products in these regions.Turkish Figs Global Market Trends and Market Drivers:Turkish figs market has observed strong growth trends with the increase of global food industry. The Turkish figs sector is evident of various investments and expansions opportunities in forms of finished products by many key players. Various associations and organizations promote export, research, and consumer awareness campaigns for the growth of the market. The growing application of Turkish figs in world cuisine and varied food categories such as desserts, bakery products, confectioneries, snacks & bars, cereals, and dairy products is driving the market for Turkish figs product. The growing focus on precautionary health care measures, the launch of varied figs products and technological developments in the manufacturing of Turkish figs product have also enabled the global trade of Turkish figs to a greater extent.Turkish figs are exceedingly versatile in product formulation; therefore they are considered a preferred choice for food manufacturers and also for consumers as they provide both taste and impart health benefits. Every year, manufacturers are introducing the new product, introductions exceeding the production with developments which is leading to the growth of Turkish figs demand.Request For TOC @The fluctuating import export tariff rates in individual countries are restraining the growth of Turkish figs market. The higher tax rates lead to increase in the prices of the products which in turn affects the demand for Turkish figs from developing regions, which hampers the growth of the market. Changing climatic conditions is another factor restraining the growth of Turkish figs market. The changing weather conditions hinder the output of Turkish figs. The shortage in production of Turkish figs is also restraining the market growth.Turkish Figs Market Key Players:Key global market players supplying different type of Turkish figs products include Incircle Ltd STI., Natura Dried Fruit S.A., Carias Farm, Turkish Dried Figs, Izmir Organic, Alan, Yates's A.S., Yupik, Aurora Natural, and Harris Farms.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:On January 30, 2018, the Kenyan government blocked four news channels: Citizen TV, Inooro TV, NTV and KTN because they announced plans to air the swearing-in ceremony of opposition leader Raila Odinga which took place on that day.

As soon as the government put the media houses off-air, Kenyans took to the streets in Nairobi to protest this action because they were direct beneficiaries of the media channels. Apart from going to the streets, Kenyans took to their social media accounts, (Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp) to vehemently protest the governments action on the media houses.

On February 1, lawyers rushed to court to also protest the closure and the court ordered a 14-day suspension of the governments shutdown to allow for the legal challenge to be heard. These actions were being taken by the constituents who consumed the products of the media channels. And this is the lesson I want Ugandans to pick up.

In Uganda, it has almost become the norm that the government will shut down any media house as and when it deems fit. During the 2016 elections, the government stretched its hands beyond the media houses to social media. Generally speaking, the space for media freedom is shrinking by the day.

From September 2017 up until mid-January this year, several media houses in Uganda were shut down or intimidated by the body mandated to regulate them, the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC).

The instructions restrained media houses from broadcasting debate on the constitutional amendment of Article 102(b) or they would be shut down and their licenses revoked. Many media houses complied and started to shy away from broadcasting a national issue that was to change the political landscape of Uganda.

Editors were summoned at police for questioning over stories; other media houses such as NBS received written warnings; Top Radio hang a UCC warning on its notice board. A few weeks later, Red Pepper offices were shut down over a political story. Not only was the newspaper put out of circulation, its sister radio station which did not publish anything controversial was also shut down for over a month.

All through this time, the Ugandan society, even those who missed Red Pepper, kept quiet, except for a few scattered voices from civil society which eventually died down because partly the media practitioners preferred to comply rather than carry out their mandate of reporting.

A journalist simply keeps records and publishes them for future reference. And when keeping a record, usually you will state the facts and it should never be a case of being anti or pro government, but rather a case of providing objective information to the public to decide.

The media in Uganda is not only faced with a retrogressive law that does not provide for the protection of journalists, there is also lack of professionalism from some journalists. This compromises the security of media houses and the journalists.

A journalist should be able to collect and document concrete evidence for stories. Sadly, just when a given journalist has mastered the trade, they leave the newsroom and new freelance journalists take up their space. This is a big problem that the Ugandan media must address, internally.

But even where journalists have remained professional, there are many incidents of when the police intimidate them into not publishing stories which would contribute to genuine public discourse. In my view, to tackle the problem of journalist intimidation and therefore a black-out on society in terms of information, the Ugandan public should vow to learn from Kenya.

We must vow that every time a media house is shut down, Ugandans will protest using social media and trumpet their issues, regionally and internationally. If the local press cannot pick the story, as will be the case in many incidents, the international media will pick it up and keep it running. The idea is not to relent every time the tormentor rears their ugly head.

Secondly, media houses should cultivate a culture of obtaining facts and only document concrete evidence that even if a court case were produced, the evidence would speak for itself.

cahimbisibwe@ccedu.org.ug.

The author is the communication and advocacy manager, FHRI/CCEDU.Annatto Market to Record an Exponential CAGR by 2027

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Annatto is the dried seed derived from Bixa Orellana L. Annatto plant which is mostly grown in tropical countries. Annatto is primarily used as a condiment and food coloring in food industry and also have application in textile and cosmetic industry. Annatto is used to impart red or orange color in the food products, it is depends upon the form of usage. Demand for annatto is increasing in the global market due to its property of good heat stability and solubility in oil and water, it provides flexibility to use in varieties of applications such as spices, dairy products, culinary food, cosmetic products, dye etc. In addition, the demand for annatto is also increasing as a natural colorant in food and beverage industry due to stringent regulations of government on the use of synthetic or artificial food colors as it contains chemicals. In terms of consumption, U.S. accounts to highest market share in the global market and in terms of production Brazil and Peru are the major annatto producing countries in the world.Global Annatto Market: Market DriversSome of the key factors which are driving the demand for annatto in the global market are due to its natural color as it is directly extract from plants. Increasing demand for dairy products and beverages in developed and developing regions has also led to increase in demand for natural colors as to give natural flavor and aroma. Increasing number of health conscious consumers and stringent regulations of government towards usage of chemicals and artificial ingredients in food and beverage industry has increased the demand for natural food colors in the global market. Demand for annatto is also driving from textile industry for dye purpose. Textile manufacturers use annatto as a natural dying ingredient and in the cosmetic industry it is gaining demand as natural ingredient especially among brands which uses all-natural ingredients in their cosmetic products.Global Annatto Market: Market SegmentAnnatto market has been segmented on the basis of form and application. On the basis of form, its market segment includes powder and liquid. In form of powder and liquid, it has usage on the basis of type of solubility which includes water soluble and liquid soluble. Further, annatto segment is segmented on the basis of an application which includes food and beverage industry, cosmetics and in the textile industry. Among this segment, food and beverage industry is expected to show robust growth over the forecast period. The majority of its application in food and beverage industry such as in culinary, bakery products, beverages, dairy products such as cheese, butter etc. Demand for annatto is also expected to grow in near future due to increasing demand for natural color ingredients in cosmetics products, especially in developed countries such as America and Europe. A primary powdered form of annatto is used in products such as soaps, skin care, lotions, blush powders etc.Global Annatto Market: Regional SegmentOn the basis of the regional segment, the market for annatto is segmented in seven different regions including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Middle East & Africa. It is expected that highest demand for annatto is from North America, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific countries. It is expected that North America accounts for highest market share in terms of both value and volume over the forecast period. In terms of production, Latin America region is the highest producer of annatto in the global market.Global Annatto Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the global annatto market are Wild Flavors, Amerilure, Inc., Monterey Bay Spice Co., Vinayak Ingredients (India) Pvt. Ltd., Chr. Hansen Holding A/S, DDW The Colour House, FMC Corporation, AICA COLOR SAC, Kalsec Inc. and Aarkay Food Products Ltd.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Cloves Market to Undertake Strapping Growth During 2017-2027

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Cloves are the spices made from aromatic flower buds of the clove tree. In terms of taste and flavor, cloves have very strong spicy taste and pungent aroma. They are consumed either as a whole or ground, and have application in culinary food, meat, marinades and in many other cuisines. Moreover, cloves also have demand in the global market in the form of oil which is widely used in personal care, cosmetics, and health care products. In the current scenario, demand for cloves is increasing in the global market due to its wide application in food and beverage industry for unique taste and aroma, whereas in personal care and cosmetic products it is used in toothpaste, perfumes, and mouth rinse and in many other products. Apart from its usage in food and personal care products, it is also gaining demand in health care industry as it helps to cure lot of health related problems such as a cough and cold, toothache, etc. The majority of cloves in the world are produced in Asia Pacific and Latin American countries. Currently, the highest demand for cloves in terms of consumption in the global market accounts comes from Asia Pacific and North America region.Request For Sample @Global Cloves Market: Market DriversKey driver which is influencing the demand for cloves in the global market is the increasing demand for cloves in the food industry, primarily in cuisines in Asia and in the Middle East as it adds perceptible flavor and strong spicy taste in food. On the other side, cloves are also in high demand from personal care and health care manufacturers to meet the increasing demand for consumers seeking for products based on herbal and natural ingredients. Changing lifestyle, increasing concern towards health and demand of herbal based and natural products are some of the key factors behind the rising demand for cloves in developing countries.Global Cloves Market: Market SegmentThe market for clove is segmented on the basis of by form, by application, by distribution channel, and by end-use. On the basis of form, cloves market is segmented into whole, powder, and oil. Cloves in the form of whole and powder are mostly used in food and beverages, and clove oil is used in cosmetics, personal care, and healthcare products. Further, the market for cloves is segmented by the application which includes food and beverage industry, personal care and cosmetics, and health care products. It is used as a spice or a key ingredient in food and culinary products to give unique aroma and taste. In addition, demand for cloves is also increasing in natural, herbal, and organic product manufacturers as it is used as a herbal or natural ingredient in products such as toothpaste, perfumes, skin care, hair care, fragrances, etc. In the healthcare industry, cloves are used to cure problems related to infection, dental, headache, respiratory problems, and blood circulation and for many other health benefits. Further, on the basis of the distribution channel, it is segmented into hypermarket/supermarket, departmental stores, neighborhood stores and online retailers. Another segment is on the basis of its end-use, which includes commercial and household.Global Cloves Market: Regional SegmentOn the basis of the regional segment, the global market for cloves is segmented in seven different regions including North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan and the Middle East & Africa. In the global market, the majority of the consumption of cloves is in Asia-Pacific countries in terms of both value and volume. Further, the demand for cloves is also increasing in North America and Western Europe countries due to its wide application in personal care, cosmetics, and health care manufacturers.Request For TOC @Global Cloves Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the cloves market are Saipro Biotech Private Limited, ROYAL SPICES, True Ceylon Spices, Lankan Flavour, Aroma Aromatics & Flavours, Super Africa Products, PTC Agro (PVT) LTD., Wee Kiat Development Pte Ltd., Manohar Botanical Extracts Pvt. Ltd., and NOW Foods.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Kid Snacks Market to Observe Strong Development by 2027

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A snack is a portion of food that is generally consumed in casual occasions or in between meals. Snacks are smaller than regular meals and are available in variety of forms such as processed foods and packed snacks food, as well as snacks made from fresh ingredients at home. Kid snacks is a small category which cover the snacks consumed by the children. Processed snack foods which are available in the market is a type of convenience food, that are designed or prepared to be more durable, less perishable, and more portable than food that are prepared at home. Snacks often contain substantial amount of preservative, salt and sweeteners. Beverages, such as cold drinks, juices or dairy products are not generally considered as snacks though it may be consumed in lieu of snack foods. Kids generally love to have salty snacks such as potato chips or corn chips. A study done in 2010 showed that children in the U.S. snacked on average six times per day, which is approximately double as often as American children in the 1970s.This shows the increase in consumption of roughly 570 calories per day than the U.S. children consumed in the 1970s.Request For TOC @Market Segmentation:Kid snacks marketis segmented on the basis of source, type, distribution channel and region. On the basis of source the kid snacks market is segmented into organic snacks and conventional snacks. On the basis of type the kid snacks market is segmented into salty, refrigerated or frozen, confectionary, bakery, vegetable and fruit snacks and nut based snacks.The bakery segment is most popular segment in kid snacks market as bakery segment includes delicious cakes, biscuits and chips.On the basis of distribution channel the market is segmented into supermarket/hypermarket, online stores, specialty stores, grocery stores, and convenience store.Grocery store and convenience store is expected to hold relatively higher revenue share in the kid snacks market, which is followed by the supermarket/hypermarketsegment.Market Regional Outlook:Regional segment for the market of kid snacks is segmented into five different regions: North America, Latin America, APAC, Europe and MEA. Among these region Asia Pacific is expected to have the major market share globally. Moreover, North America has also emerged as a prominent market for kid snacks, as the popularity of organic snacks is increasing to significant level in this region.Market Drivers:Parents these days are more concerned about their childrens health and are willing to buy healthy and nutritious snack products. Companies have become more competitive in terms of launching healthy snacks. Moreover, manufacturers also offers toys inside the snack in order to attract the kids. All these factors are fuelling the growth of kid snacks market globally.International evidence clearly shows that snack promotion influences the consumption of processed snack foodsby the kids. Various kid snack manufacturers are aggressively advertising to promote their products, which is higher traction and in turn bolsters the kid snacks demand all over the world.Moreover, in order to generate more sales, manufacturers across the globe are focusing on expanding product portfolio and production capacity which in turn will drive the market of kid snack in the forecast period. Manufacturers are now targeting both online and offline retailers with the objective to expand its distribution networks, thereby making products easily available to consumers. Through online sales, manufacturers are also providing various offers and coupons to attract more consumers, which could aid sustainable growth of the kid snacks market in the forecast period.Request For Sample @Market Key Players:Some of the key players in kid snacks market includes Procter&Gamble, PepsiCo, Inc., The Kraft Heinz Company, Conagra Brands Inc., Calbee, Inc., General Mills, Inc., Intersnack, Lorenz Snack-World, and Mondelez International, Inc. among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Ursolic Acid Market Progresses for Huge Profits During 2017 - 2027

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Ursolic acid is a phytochemical (biologically active compound) which is present in variety of plants. Ursolic acid is a chemical known as pentacyclic triterpenes. Ursolic acid is chemically nontoxic and has unique properties like anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial. Ursolic acid helps in relieving pain and prevent dental carries.Researchers have stated that ursolic acid can boost muscle growth and also increases activity of bone formation. Ursolic acid has chemo preventative properties as well, it suppresses the formation of tumor, has property of tumor growth inhibition, inhibit apoptosis of cell, inhibits the development of new blood vessels, inhibits activation of pathways by stopping signaling, suppresses growth factor expression and induces tumor cell differentiation.Request For TOC @Market Segmentation:As ursolic acid is still only in its early stages of research and development, ursolic acid market has been segmented on the basis of Source, Industries, Form, Type and Geography. On the basis of source the ursolic acid market is segmented into Holy Basil (Tulsi), Bilberry, Devils claw, Elderflowers (European variety), Peppermint leaves, Periwinkle, Lavender, Oregano, Thyme, Hawthorn and Cherry laurel leaves. These were the major sources of ursolic acid apart from them apples, pears, cranberries and prunesalso has ursolic acid on their protective wax like coating. On the basis of industries the ursolic acid market is segmented into Food, Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics and Nutraceutical segments.Among these, nutrition industry is the one which is utilizing ursolic acid the most. On the basis of form the ursolic acid market is segmented into powdered form, capsules and liquid form (health drinks). On the basis of application the ursolic acid market is segmented into type 25% ursolic acid, 50% ursolic acid, 90% ursolic acid, 98% ursolic acid and others. On the basis of geography the ursolic acid market is segmented into Latin America, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific.Market Regional Outlook:Regional segment for the market of ursolic acid is divided into five different regions: Latin America, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific. In regional market North America has the biggest market for ursolic acid followed by Asia Pacific. China, Japan and India are growing at a constant pace in terms of production and demand.Market Drivers:Ursolic acid market is primarily driven by its versatile properties. Increasing awareness regarding the benefits of ursolic acid among the consumers is going to make the market drive more in the coming future. Properties like muscle growth and bone formation has gained interest from the fitness community to a great extant. However, the benefits are not just limited to chemo preventative properties, ursolic acid also shows decreased radio resistance in patients those who are undergoing through cancer treatment. So the demand for ursolic acid is expected to grow enormously in the coming future.Request For Sample @Market Key Players:Some of the key player in ursolic acid market are Sabinsa, Sami Labs, Changsha Staherb Natural Ingredients, Changsha Luyuan Bio-Tech, Run Shaanxi Days of Bio-tech, Shaanxi Hopeland Chem-Tech, Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development, , Xuancheng Baicao Pharmaceutical, Acetar Bio-Tech, Changsha E.K HERB, Shaanxi Jintai Biological Engineering, Hunan NutraMax, Xian TonKing, Zhangjiajie Hengxing Biological Technology, MicroHerb, Geneham Pharmaceutical.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market -Historical, Current, and Projected Future Valuation by 2025

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The study, Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market aims at offering vital data on the competitive landscape of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025. SWOT analysis carried out during the study enlightens business owners regarding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats likely to be faced by companies and individuals in the coming years. A thorough assessment of the past, present as well as new trends is conducted to reveal the real potential of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market during the estimated period. Findings on recent development in the competitive landscape including joint ventures, collaborations, acquisitions and mergers and new launches form an important part of the study.Scope of the Report:Researchers assessing the total revenue generated from the business make a conscious effort to examine the financial report of the prominent vendors and their effective business strategies. Data obtained through extensive evaluation of the market size, share and growth rate form an important part of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market research for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025. Vital data on sale and profit generated across different regions are showcased with the help of tables, charts and graphic images.Ask for Sample Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market Report at:In market segmentation by manufacturers, the report covers the following companies-4B Braime ComponentsAdSemCARELE+E ELEKTRONIKConax TechnologiesEuroswitchGemini Data LoggersHanna InstrumentsOMEGASeitron SpaTEWA SensorsThermokon SensortechnikIn market segmentation by geographical regions, the report has analyzed the following regions- North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)In market segmentation by Product of Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market, the report covers- TS-1K TS-5K TS-10K TS-100KIn market segmentation by applications of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market, the report covers the following uses- Home Air Conditioning Automotive Air Conditioning Water Heater Water Dispenser Dryer Incubator OtherHave Any Query? Ask Our Expert at:The research further answers various questions for business owners, stakeholders and field marketing executives related to prioritizing efforts as well investments. A detailed assessment is also performed to obtain comprehensive information on the current status of import and export, supply chain management, distribution channel, gross margin and demand and supply worldwide. The ongoing shift in the customer preference, consumption volume and demand for alternatives also remains an important part of the research on the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market.The research provides answers to the following key questions: What will be the expected market share for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025? What will be the size as well as the growth rate of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market during this estimated period? What are the key drivers likely to impact the growth rate of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market across different countries? Who are the top companies and which of their strategies are likely to drive the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market industry across different regions? What are the present, past and emerging trends likely to have an impact on the growth rate of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market? What are the opportunities for both the companies and individuals operating in the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market industry for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025? What are the threats faced by the top vendors during the estimated period?Read the Complete Report with TOC at:There are 12 Chapters to deeply display the global Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market.The report is distributed over 12 Chapters to display the analysis of the global Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market .Chapter 1 covers the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2 talks about the top manufacturers and analyses their sales, revenue and pricing decisions for the duration 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3 displays the competitive nature of the market by discussing the competition among the top manufacturers. It dissects the market using sales, revenue and market share data for 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, shows the global market by regions and the proportionate size of each market region based on sales, revenue and market share of Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market, for the period 2012- 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, are dedicated to the analysis of the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 7 and 8, talk about the application and types of Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market in the market using the same set of data for the period 2012-2017;Chapter 9 provides the market forecast by regions, types and applications using sales and revenue data for the period 2017-2025;Chapter 10, 11 and 12 describe the value chain by focusing on the sales channel and the distributors, traders, dealers of the Thermistors Temperature Sensors Market. The concluding chapter also includes research findings and conclusion.Contact US:John Watson| Head of Business DevelopmentDirect Line: +1-800-819-3052E-mail: John@marketexpertz.comMarket Expertz | Web:Marketexpertz offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Marketexpertz features reports from over 500 prominent publishers and updates on our collection daily to empower companies and individuals catch-up with the vital insights on industries operating across different geography, trends, share, size and growth rate. There's more to what we offer to our customers. With marketexpertz you have the choice to tap into the specialized services without any additional charges.John Watson| Head of Business Development40 Wall St. 28th floor New York City, NY 10005 United StatesDirect Line: +1-800-819-3052E-mail: John@marketexpertz.comMarket Expertz | Web:Global Veterinary Endoscopes Market Drivers, Competition Tacking and Opportunities to 2022

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A latest research report titled as Veterinary Endoscopes Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025. has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contents.Request Free Sample Report @An endoscope, is an instrument which is used to look inside the body. An endoscopes may be flexible, rigid, ingestible, and robot assisted, which can be used to examine bladder, abdomen, esophagus and other internal organs. It is used for diagnostic or surgical purpose in order to identify and cure lesion area. Rapid rise in pet population worldwide, growing incidences of gastrointestinal diseases among the animals, and increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures for the pets are the main factors that drive the market of veterinary endoscopes. On the other hand, high cost of veterinary endoscope procedure, and limited number of veterinarians may depress the growth of the same market.Flexible Endoscopes Witness Highest Demand Backed by Rising Application in Gastrointestinal Endoscope ProceduresBased on product type, the global veterinary endoscopes market is classified into flexible, rigid, capsule and robot assisted endoscopes. The flexible segment claimed the largest market share in 2016 followed by other segments. Wide application in the gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures makes the flexible endoscopes segment as the leading contributor in the global veterinary endoscopes market. The flexible endoscopes segment, further categorized into fiberoptic and video endoscopes. The fiberoptic endoscopes segment is projected to account for a major market share. The fiberoptic endoscopes is highly pliable, cost effective, and provide direct viewing facility to the doctors.In terms of application, the global veterinary endoscopes market has been segmented into diagnostic and surgical. The diagnostic segment is expected to hold the major market share in 2016 owing to the gastrointestinal problem among pet is increasing and is very difficult to find the actual cause of the disease in the pet without the internal examination. In terms of procedure, the global veterinary endoscopes market has been segmented into gastrointestinal, laparoscopy, bronchoscopy, otoscopy, cystoscopy and others. Gastrointestinal segment is anticipated to claim the higher share compared to the other segment this is due to the high prevalence of gastric disorders among animals. According to a Journal of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health 2013, the prevalence's of gastrointestinal parasitic infection in tethered animals is very high and every year, the gastrointestinal parasitic infection effected many cattle's throughout the globe. Hence, the market share of the gastrointestinal endoscopy procedure is predominant over other segments and is expected to grow during the forecast period.Browse Full Report with TOC @Based on animal type, the market has been segmented into companion animal and livestock animal segment. The companion animal segment is anticipated to hold the major market share in 2016 and the market growth is also expected to be high during forecast period. Increasing adoption rate of companion animals particularly cats and dogs per households is the major factor which drives the companion animal endoscopes market.By end-user type, the global veterinary endoscopes market is segmented into veterinary hospitals, veterinary clinics, and others. Veterinary hospitals segments claims the major share and show remarkable market attractiveness in the forecast period. The availability of sophisticated endoscopes, trained veterinarians, and moreover, the hospitals are compliant with pet insurance are the key drivers for the growth of the veterinary endoscopes segment.Favorable Reimbursement Policies Support Markets Expansion in North AmericaGeographically, the global veterinary endoscopes market is categorized into the North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. The North America market held the highest market share in 2016 and holds potential for exhibiting strong growth in the coming years. However, the Asia Pacific market is likely to exhibit a promising growth in the forecast period. Factors such as the presence of numerous veterinary hospitals and clinics, implementation of favorable reimbursement policies, and affordable treatment cost are the key factors boosting the market for veterinary endoscopes in North America. On the other hand, the adoption of companion animals and the growing awareness about pet insurance and its benefit will enable the Asia Pacific market exhibit lucrative opportunities during the forecast period.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Global Medical Connectors Market to Witness Exponential Growth by 2027

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https://www.mrrse.com/medical-connectors-market

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A latest research report titled as Medical Connectors Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2026 has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contents.Request Free Sample Report @Extensive research and development in the healthcare industry is leading to the development of new devices and medical equipment. These devices and equipment are being connected to several other equipment and devices, thereby driving the need for better medical connectors. Manufacturers are focusing on designing medical connectors that are cost-effective and able to tolerate various sterilization protocols. High reliability, eliminating the potential for failure due to various environmental factors as well as poor handling is also being focused on while developing medical connectors.The latest report by Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) anticipates the global market for medical connectors to experience strong growth. During 2017-2026, the market is projected to increase to 8.9% CAGR. The global market for medical connectors is also likely to reach US$ 3,690.4 million revenue between 2017 and 2026.Flat Silicone Surgical Cables- Top-Selling Product in Medical Connectors Market GloballyCompared to the various medical connector products, flat silicone surgical cables are likely to emerge as the top-selling product during 2017-2026. Flat silicone surgical cables are projected to reach close to US$ 900 million revenue towards the end of 2026. Increasing adoption of medical devices is one of the major factors in the growth of flat silicone surgical cables. Flat silicone surgical cables offer flexibility in automated diagnostic medical equipment. Moreover, flat silicone surgical cables also offer high resistance to different chemical substances. Silicone is being widely used in applications medical robotics, handheld devices, feeding tubes, catheters, etc.Hospitals & Clinics to Account for the Robust Growth during 2017-2026Among various end users of medical connectors, hospitals & clinics are likely to experience robust growth. Hospitals & clinics are projected to exceed US$ 1,400 million revenue by 2026 end. Owing to the increasing demand for minimally invasive procedures, and increasing investment by government and the private sector in the development of healthcare infrastructure is leading to the increasing use of advanced medical devices and machines. This is driving the use of various medical connectors in hospitals and clinics.Browse Full Report with TOC @Medical Connectors to find Largest Application in Diagnostic DevicesMedical connectors are likely to find the largest application in diagnostic devices. By the end of 2026, diagnostic devices are projected to exceed US$ 1,800 million revenue. The rise in chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc., is leading to the increasing use of diagnostic devices. This, in turn, is expected to drive demand for medical connectors, especially for various diagnostic devices. Manufacturers of medical connectors are also producing connectors used for the specific device.North America to Dominate the Global Market for Medical ConnectorsNorth America is likely to dominate the market during 2017-2026. Advancement in medical technology, availability of better reimbursement policies are the major factors responsible for the increasing demand for medical connectors in North America. The U.S. and Canada are anticipated to remain dominant countries in the medical connectors market. Medical connectors market also have a huge opportunity for growth in the emerging markets of APEJ and Japan. Owing to the increasing awareness among medical providers on the use of advanced devices, countries such as India, China and Japan are increasingly using technically advanced medical devices, thereby resulting in the increase in the use of medical connectors.Countries in Europe including France, Germany, U.K., and Spain are also receiving funding from the government and private companies for development of advanced healthcare system.Enquiry about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Don Carlyon, the Nebraska native who guided Delta College into national prominence in educational circles during the institutions formative years, has been granted an honorary degree by the community college.

Current Delta President Jean Goodnow recently presented Carlyon, the schools president from 1964 to 1993, with an Honorary Associate of Arts degree to officially acknowledge his innovative and groundbreaking contributions to the college through the decades. Carlyons dedication to Delta continues to this day. At age 93, the president emeritus remains active in the community, including serving as a selfless and enthusiastic ambassador for the school, Goodnow noted.

As a founding member in 1968 of the League for Innovation in the Community College, Carlyons vision in this initiative is credited with Delta gainingand maintainingnational recognition as a leading higher education institution. Today, chief executive officers from 20 of the most influential, dynamic and resourceful community colleges and districts in the world comprise the Leagues Board of Directors and provide strategic direction for its ongoing activities.

Goodnow said that Delta has maintained a continuous position on the board of directors under three presidents: Carlyon, Pete Boyse and herself.

Lifelong Learning or Continuing Education, a fixture among Delta College offerings for more than 50 years, has all but come to an end. President Jean Goodnow, in an email to the college community, has announced the decision to discontinue most of the courses and services offered by Deltas Lifelong Learning Department. Goodnow said the move reflects changing times.

We have found that there is a decreasing need for general non-credit programs. Rather, business and industry now favor more industry recognized credentials, which have become a valued requirement for employment.

Delta has long offered non-credit classes in life and leisure, health care, law enforcement, business and technical trades, among other areas. There are a few exceptions of non-credit programs that demonstrate high demand, and will continue to be offered. They include:

 CPR BLS Healthcare

 Medical Administrative Assistant

 Medical Insurance Billing & ICD 10 Coding

 Phelbotomy Training

 Motorcycle Training, a state grant-funded program.

Goodnow said layoffs were averted because a number of open positions allowed Lifelong Learning staff members to be assigned to new positions throughout the college.

Delta Colleges enrollment continues trending downward. Winter semester 2018 figures show 8,214 students enrolled, numbers that are down but nonetheless reach 99 percent of the colleges projected credit hour goal. Still, enrollment last winter was at about 8,500 students and fall semester 2017 had 8,677 students taking classes.

Since welcoming a record 11,766 students in winter semester 2011, the community colleges enrollment has steadily declined. Officials say the challenges are likely to continue because forecasts predict the number of high school graduates and freshman college enrollments will continue to decrease across the state for at least the next 10 years. One silver lining for Delta is that it continues to see its new student numbers rise.

Saginaw Valley State Universitys Board of Control recently approved 2 percent raises for the 2018 calendar year for executive staff. President Donald Bachands salary was set at $286,200; Deb Huntley, provost and vice president for academic affairs, will receive a salary of $228,900; and James Muladore, executive vice president for administration and business affairs, will be paid $218,500.

The board has also approved room and board rate increases for the 2018-2019 academic year. Incoming freshman who reside in a Living Center unit with shared bedrooms will pay $9,786 (including meal plan), up from $9,378. The increase, said officials, includes an additional $150 charge to cover improvements made to the wireless network for residential students, a fee that was negotiated with SVSUs Student Association. SVSU also raised housing prices for students residing in the First Year Suites. Students now pay $10,186, up from $9,874. The suites now feature wireless improvements and individual bedrooms.Days after Punjab National Bank (PNB) said that its Brady House branch in Mumbai was involved in a fraud of over Rs 11,400 crore, questions have been raised over the conduct of bank officials who granted Nirav Modi's firms LoUs without due diligence. While the theories on how India's biggest banking scam was executed are abound, the CBI has reportedly indicated that Nirav Modi's associates had access to PNB's computers.

According to a report in Business Standard, the two PNB staffers who are now under the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) custody have revealed that Nirav Modi's team was given 'unauthorised access' to PNB's computer systems for a 'commission' on every Letter of Understanding (LoU) issued.

On Saturday, CBI had arrested a retired and a serving officials of Punjab National Bank and an executive of Nirav Modi's company - in connection with the alleged Rs 11,400-crore fraud, and carried out searches at the Brady Road branch of the bank in Mumbai, officials said.

Those arrested include PNB's former deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty, the bank's single window operator Manoj Kharat, and Nirav Modi's accountant Hemant Bhat. A special court had remanded all the three accused to 14-day CBI custody.

During interrogation, the arrested bank officials revealed that Nirav Modi's aides were logging into the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system using passwords of PNB officials, including Shetty, in the capacity of verifier/authoriser and enabling the fraudulent SWIFT messages, the report quoted a CBI source as saying.

The accused have revealed names of at least half a dozen more PNB employees who were involved in the scam, it said.

The accused bank staffers were allegedly demanding commission on every LoU for unauthorised access and SWIFT password to the Nirav Modi's firms. The amount was divided among the PNB employees involved in the fraud, the report said.Orchestra to host Latin concert at Great Lakes Center for the Arts1.6k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said on Meet The Press that his social media person in San Diego went to the Clinton campaign in September and warned them about weird Russian efforts to use his Facebook pages to say horrible things and undermine democracy.

Video:

A Bernie Sanders social media person warned Hillary Clinton campaign about the Russian efforts on Facebook, but Facebook did nothing. #MTP #MeetThePress pic.twitter.com/ZR9aY3MUjT  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 18, 2018

Transcript:

Chuck Todd: Let me start with Russia, since I ended there, to keep sort of the flow of the conversation going here. Your campaign, perhaps these Russians were told to leave it alone, that the only people that they were not to criticize were Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Im curious, did anybody in your campaign get interviewed by Mueller to just make sure your campaign had nothing to do with this?

Sen. Bernie Sanders: No. To the best of my knowledge, nobody in our campaign was interviewed. Mueller mentioned me twice, our campaign twice in his report. And I think what he was talking about is kind of old news. Its what most Americans know, is that at the end of my campaign, when it appeared that Clinton was going to win, and certainly, after she won the nomination, what the Russians were doing is flocking to Bernie Sanders Facebook sites, and they were saying to Bernie Sanders supporters, as they were, by the way, to Black Lives Matter supporters, people who are fighting for social justice, as they were saying to the Muslim community, if you voted for Sanders, you have to understand, Hillary Clinton is crazy, shes a murderer, she is terrible, all kinds of horrible, horrible things about Hillary Clinton. And it turns out that one of our social media guys in San Diego actually went to the Clinton campaign in September and said something weird is going on. Bernies not in the campaign. Hundreds of these people are now coming on to his Facebook site. So, I think we already knew that it was an effort to undermine American democracy and to really say horrible things about Secretary Clinton.

The problem is Facebook, not Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton

The problem here isnt Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The problem is that Facebook let the Russians run wild with dummy accounts and propaganda. The story that Sanders told Chuck Todd is why Facebook is under so much scrutiny. A Sanders social media person told Hillary Clintons campaign, but all they could do was notify Facebook. The final responsibility rests with Facebook to police their platform. Facebook should require all users and businesses to verify their accounts. All verified users should get blue checkmarks. Facebook also needs to give page administrators more control to report content and make sure that those reports get seen by actual human beings. It would be great candidate Facebook pages had a person to contact at Facebook.

The Bernie Sanders social media person did his part. The Hillary Clinton campaign tried their best to warn about the Russian efforts, but Facebook dropped the ball. The Russians used every social and political fracture that they could find to support Donald Trump, but it was the social media websites that gave the Russians the reach and power to amplify their efforts.

To discuss this story and what we can do to protect our democracy, join our Liberal Nation Rising groupGet the SC business stories that matter.

Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.Mary Katherine, who also goes by MK, covers health care for The Post and Courier. She is also pursuing a master's degree in data science. She grew up in upstate New York and enjoys playing cards, kayaking and the Blue Ridge Mountains.Father-daughter duo really should stop trying to fool nation: Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Saturday lambasted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz for their anti-judiciary tirade during public meetings, asking them to stop this game of maligning the judiciary.



The father-daughter duo really should stop trying to fool the nation by declaring repeatedly that they are going to Awams [peoples] court for justice. Everyone knows that in democracies people use their vote to elect their representatives, but it is the judiciary that must dispense justice, the PTI chief wrote on his official page on Twitter.



Sharifs are implying once one is voted into power, one becomes above the law of the land and beyond any accountability, Mr Khan said, adding that they should see how in South Africa, the African National Congress threw out its leader Zuma because of corruption charges against him. Israels Netanyahu, while being prime minister, is facing a police investigation against him for corruption.



Presiding over a meeting of the PTIs central executive committee (CEC), Mr Khan predicted that there would be a one-to-one contest between his party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N in the coming general elections as the Pakistan Peoples Party had been eliminated from Punjab.



According to a press release issued after the meeting, Mr Khan said they would learn from the mistakes they had committed during the recently held by-election in Lodhran where the PTI faced an unexpected defeat at the hands of the PML-N.



Mr Khan said the PTIs parliamentary board would start functioning soon.



He said the party would continue to expose corruption of the rulers and soon more cases of corruption of the federal and Punjab governments would be made public.



Those who attended the meeting included the PTIs vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, former secretary general Jahangir Tareen and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.



Meanwhile, former PML-N MNA from Haripur Omar Ayub Khan has joined the PTI.



Omar Ayub, the son of former National Assembly speaker Gohar Ayub, announced his decision to join the PTI during a meeting with the party chairman Imran Khan at the latters Banigala residence. Pervez Khattak and Jahangir Tareen were also present on the occasion.



Omar Ayub, who is the grandson of Pakistans first military dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan, had served as minister of state for finance during the military regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf after winning the election for the first time in 2002. His mother had also been elected MNA on a reserved seat on the ticket of the PML-Q, the then kings party, in 2002.



Later Mr Ayub joined the PML-N and contested election for the National Assembly seat (NA-19) but lost to the PTIs Amir Zaman with a narrow margin. He challenged the results before a tribunal which ordered a re-election in a few polling stations after which Omar Ayub was declared winner. However, the PTI candidate filed a review petition before the Supreme Court which declared the whole election as null and void and ordered fresh polls in 2015.



Mr Ayub could not take part in the by-election due to the illness of his mother and the PML-N had to award ticket to Babar Nawaz Khan. However, the seat was won by the PTI.Gil Grooms can pinpoint the moment his life started to unravel.

It was Dec. 11, 2016, and he heard a knock at the door of his Hanahan residence. A law enforcement officer and a coroner stood before him with grim news: His 23-year-old son, Zachary Grooms, had been killed in a crash.

Police said a drunken driver pulled out in front of his motorcycle on the Isle of Palms connector.

Everything fell apart for the father of three. Zachary Grooms was so much more than a son to him; in recent years, the two had formed a friendship. And so, following his death were many dark days when the elder Grooms didnt think he could muster the strength to get out of bed.

Next to him each morning was Chloe, his yellow lab who'd nuzzle up to Grooms, often with her head burrowed into his side. The responsibility of owning Chloe, a young dog he adopted three weeks before his son's death, kept him going. She gave him something to focus on.

"When I saw her, I just thought this dog has had a rough couple years, I want to make sure she has a good life. Thats all I was thinking about," Grooms said.

Grooms, a 48-year-old massage therapist, adopted Chloe last year at the Charleston Animal Society's annual chili cook-off. He spotted the dog and says he must've walked away and walked back to her pen at least four times before texting his son about her.

Zachary Grooms texted back a reply, insisting that his dad adopt her. By then, the elder Grooms was already filling out the paperwork.

The father and son worked to earn the dog's trust. She was timid at first but quickly took a liking to Zachary Grooms.

Gil Grooms recognized Chloe's emotional support almost instantly after the wreck that claimed his son's life.

"She was always there. I could just reach my hand over and touch her and she was always by my side," he said.

His story won a $50,000 grant for the Charleston Animal Society from the Petco Foundation's Holiday Wishes campaign, which awarded $765,000 in grants in December.

Grooms, who said he's typically a private person, viewed the grant as an opportunity to give back while honoring his son's memory.

His oldest daughter, Alexis Grooms, 25, said her dad has never spoiled a dog more than 3-year-old Chloe. She gets the run of the house. In times when Alexis Grooms couldn't be around, it was comforting for her to know her father had a companion in Chloe.

"She's been a lifesaver," she said.

Gil Grooms said the timing of Chloe's adoption couldn't have been more perfect.

"I really believe that it was a gift from God," he said.Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.South Carolina's seven congressional districts were drawn in 2011, but there is debate over whether state lawmakers should be in charge over drawing the lines after 2020. South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office/ProvidedColumbia/Myrtle Beach Managing Editor

Andy Shain runs The Post and Courier's newsrooms based in Columbia and Myrtle Beach. He was editor of Free Times and has been a reporter and editor for newspapers in Charlotte, Columbia and Myrtle Beach.Political Reporter

Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-18 21:37:19

Dr. Ruggero M. Santilli, Chief Executive Officer of Thunder Energies Corporation, a publicly traded company with stock symbol (OTC:TNRG), announces the signature of a contract with an Institutional Investor for the sale of up to fourteen million registered TNRG shares in installment of up to 4.99% of the total number of outstanding TNRG shares. The Corporate Law Firm is currently in the process of filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission the Form S1 for the registration of the indicated TNRG shares under the Securities Act of 1933. The funds will be used by the Company for the organization of production and sale of the Company's Directional Neutron Source (International Patent Pending) to enhance the National Security of our Country and of our allies via the detection of nuclear material that can be smuggled in suitcases or containers ( http://thunder-energies.com/TEC-DNS-3-BROCHURE.pdf) Forward Looking StatementsThe information provided in this presentation is covered by patent applications and other intellectual rights owed by Thunder Energies Corporation that hereby authorize their use without consultation provided authorization for any desired scientific research. Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.Dr. Ruggero M. SantilliChief Executive OfficerThunder Energies CorporationContact:Brian BuckleyOperations ManagerBrian@ Thunder-Energies.comLast August, the BBC launched its Pidgin English Service as part of a new three-language expansion for Nigeria and the West and Central Africa region.

On Monday, the British broadcaster will launch the Igbo and Yoruba Service, the two other languages on the project.

PREMIUM TIMES Nicholas Ibekwe spoke to Peter Okwoche, the Nigeria Editorial Lead for the Igbo and Yoruba Services on what would be the focus of the newly launched services and what audiences should expect.

You are launching the Igbo and Yoruba services on Monday. But I would like to start from the launch of the Pidgin English Service last August. How has it been since you launched the Pidgin website? How has the audience engagement been?

Its being a great experience since August last year and we have accumulated a very young, diverse, digitally-connected, upwardly mobile audience who are now engaging with us on a daily basis, in fact on an hourly basis on our various platforms. Yes, its being a great experience with the pidgin service.

People have been engaging on the website and on social media. The thing is, if you have a good story and its properly written, people will read it. And in the tradition of the BBC, our standard with BBC pidgin will continue to remain very high; the highest level. So, people are engaging us online as they do on our language services. They visit our website, they stay there, they click from one story to the other. So, they are engaging.

I want to believe the Igbo and Yoruba Services are offshoots of your very popular Hausa Service. What are the similarities and differences between the Hausa Service, on one hand, and the Igbo and Yoruba Services?

The BBC Hausa service started about 60-61 years ago. It began as a radio service because, back then obviously we didnt have the internet and all that. So, it began as a radio service, it has gone on to have its own online platform  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, it has a news bulletin on TV now, which runs on Youtube. So, in that sense the BBC Hausa service is very well established and very successful. The BBC Igbo and the BBC Yoruba, we are starting with online platforms first. Strictly because research has shown us that most people are beginning to consume their news on their mobile phones.

Hopefully down the line we shall look into radio and look into TV and see how we can develop it and marry all the others so that we have a full-fledge service like the Hausa service. But that notwithstanding, the quality of stories on the Igbo and the Yoruba service will continue to maintain the highest standard of the BBC. For instance, BBC Igbo is launching an exclusive interview with Nnamdi Kanus wife, she talks about the whereabouts of her husband and what she knows about that.

On the Yoruba side, we have an exclusive interview with Professor Wole Soyinka. Exclusive in the sense that it is one of the very few interviews, and that is what he has told us, that he has ever given completely in Yoruba. And he talks about the Nigerian politics, leadership in the country and who he thinks should be taking over the leadership of the country and so on and so forth. Very high-quality stories. We are bringing them to you in the indigenous languages of the Igbo and Yoruba people.

The Igbo language particularly is in decline. Many Igbo speakers now speak what is referred to as Ingirigbo a coinage of the mixture of Igbo and English. Hardly will you find an Igbo speaker who makes two or three sentences in Igbo without using English words to complement them. Do you think the coming of BBC Igbo Service will help in the revival of the Igbo language?

According to the United Nations, by the year 2050 the Igbo Language will be in serious decline. To stop that you have to get people to start reengaging in the Igbo language. I think this BBC Igbo service will help to do that as well. We are trying to attract a young audience. We have to get our youth to start speaking the Igbo language. So, if they visit our website and say Oh! The BBC has an Igbo website, maybe it is cool to speak Igbo.

But it is not just the BBC. The government has to get involved. Look at the curriculum in schools, maybe the Igbo language needs to be taught for longer period. So, we cannot let the Igbo language to die. It is not just in Nigeria, maybe the world. I dont think a world which speaks one language will actually be that much of a joy to live in. The more diverse we are the better we are as a human race. Hopefully this will galvanise people to start speaking Igbo the more. Speaking Yoruba and engaging in Yoruba more and as well as in Pidgin English.

Lets talk about literacy in Igbo and Yoruba. Yoruba, for instance, is laced with a lot of colloquialism, which we can argue is a characteristic of any language. However, many speakers of Igbo and Yoruba still have problems with reading and writing the languages. Are you not worried that the text in your websites wouldnt gain much readership?

I dont think so. Before we came out with this venture we spent the last year and a half trying to figure out the percentage of people that can actually read and write Yoruba, a lot of people can. I take myself as an example. I am from Benue State. Nobody ever thought me how to read my language. Because the Bible was printed in my Language in the early 1990s I started reading it and learning. If there is a text, people will learn. If you are already speaking the Language people will learn how to read it and then from there learn how to write it. I think people will engage with it and people will love it and come to see it for what it is  real impassioned news. People will appreciate it and begin to invite people to engage in it.

I understanding you have been running stories in the background in preparation for the formal launch of the Igbo and Yoruba Service. What have you learned during your pilot period? What are the challenges you have encountered? Going forward what changes have you made compared to the time the idea of launching the Igbo and Yoruba services came about?

You are right. We have been piloting for the last two months and it has been a very interesting two months. Now, everybody who works in the Igbo Service is Igbo, but they are not from same part of Igboland. Everybody who works in the Yoruba Service is Yoruba, but they dont come from the same part of Yorubaland. So what we have realised is that sometimes an accent might change, the spelling of a word might change. A lot of the time these things are not standardised. We are just trying to develop a formula where we make it as standard as possible realising that sometimes we might just have to change an accent or the way the word is spelt to reflect what part of Igboland we are talking about.

I give you a typical example. BBC Pidgin for instance, the way we write Pidgin in Nigeria is not the way Pidgin is written in Ghana. So, when our reporter in Ghana is writing a story, obviously he writes it the way the Ghanaians write it. It would be very unfair for us in Nigeria to change it so that Nigerians will understand it. No. it is written primarily for a Ghanaian audience. So, we just let it go. So, if an Ogbomoso man and a Lagos man are saying one words in two different ways, if that story comes from Ogbomoso we would write it the way the Ogbomoso man will pronounce the word.

ADVERTISEMENT

What other things do you want your audience to know just before the launch?

We got a lot of stories about politics. Weve got tech stories, entrepreneurship, science stories, culture, traditions, we are very big on women affairs, women in politics, women in business. Women actually do great things. A lot of people believe it is the women that keep the economic going outside of the oil industry. We want to cover all the great things that women are doing and bring them to the attention of our audienceZainab killer to get death on four counts-one life term-seven-year jail term-Rs 3.2 million 18 February, 2018



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Hand Wash and Toiletries in Pakistan And the Role of DUPAS in Reshaping the Industry

Woke Bingo LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday sentenced a suspected serial killer to death for the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab in Kasur, a prosecutor said. The girls murder ignited nationwide protests over allegations of government inaction, and a media campaign led to his arrest after years of him being on the loose.



Police found Zainab Ansaris body in a garbage dumpster in Kasur district in mid-January, four days after she was reported missing. Residents of the area have said the murder was the 12th such incident in a year. Police investigators said later that they had matched DNA from bodies of eight girls, including Zainabs, with the convicted killer, Imran Ali, 24.



The court handed down death on four counts, one life term, a seven-year jail term and Rs 3.2 million in fines to Imran Ali in the rape and murder of the little girl, Zainab, government prosecutor Ehtisham Qadir Shah said. He said Imran will be tried for rest of the cases later.



The verdict was announced at Lahores Central Jail in Kot Lakhpat on Saturday.



The four death penalties were for kidnapping, raping and murdering Zainab, and for committing an act of terrorism punishable under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The life sentence, along with a Rs 1 million fine, was handed to Imran Ali for committing an unnatural act. Another seven-year jail sentence and Rs 1 million fine were imposed for concealing the body in a trash heap. Additionally, Rs 1 million from the penalties imposed will be paid to the victims heirs, the judge ruled.



Zainabs mother, Nusrat Bibi, demanded that the execution of the death penalties be carried out in public. I want him to be hanged publicly at the place where he took Zainab, she told reporters after the verdict.



The convict faces further charges in the cases of at least seven other children he attacked  five of whom were murdered  in a spate of assaults that had stoked fears a serial child killer was on the loose.



He has confessed to all eight attacks, including the death of Zainab.



Prosecutor General Ehtesham Qadir, who spoke to media after the sentencing, said the accused had been given ample chance to defend himself but he chose to confess his crimes despite being told clearly that any information he divulged would be used against him. When he was read the charges, we asked the court to let Imran Ali deliberate the matter for 40 minutes, the prosecutor said. The convict was then told that anything he says will be used against him in court, after which he confessed. After this, we also proved the voluntariness of the convict in court and then proceeded to trial.



Nonetheless, the prosecution chose to submit all its evidence to court so that the case remained airtight. The prosecutor also said this was the first case to examine scientific evidence in a case of this nature.



The convict now has 15 days to challenge the verdict and file an appeal.



Zainabs father, Haji Amin, had arrived in Kot Lakhpat to witness the verdict early on Saturday morning. Security had been increased in and around the central jail and the movement of everyone going in and out of the jail was monitored.



Zainabs rape and murder last month had sparked outrage and protests across the country after the seven-year-old, who went missing on January 4, was found dead in a trash heap in Kasur on Jan 9.



Her case was the twelfth such incident to occur within a 10-kilometre radius in the city over a 12-month period.



The heinous nature of the crime had seen immediate riots break out in Kasur  in which two people were killed  while #JusticeforZainab became a rallying cry for an end to violence against children.



The Punjab government had declared the arrest of prime suspect Imran Ali on January 23.



The trial in the case was concluded on Thursday, but ATC-I Judge Sajjad Ahmad reserved his verdict. By then, the cross examination of all prosecution witnesses had been completed by state counsel Muhammad Sultan, who was appointed by the trial court to represent the suspect. The accused had initially denied guilt when the charges were framed against him and had opted to contest the trial. However, he made a confession soon after and was indicted on Feb 12. On Feb 14, the ATC recorded his complete statement.



Advocate Mehar Shakeel Multani, private counsel for the suspect, had withdrawn his power of attorney after the suspects confession before the trial court. The lawyer claimed his conscience did not allow him to defend a killer.



The prosecution had presented at least 56 witnesses against the suspect in addition to forensic evidence, including DNA and polygraph tests.



The trial had been wrapped up within four days, even though the Lahore High Court had given seven days for its completion.ADVERTISEMENT

The entire 65 passengers and crew in an Iranian airplane are reportedly feared dead after the plane crashed in central Iran on Sunday.

Reuters reports that the plane crashed after the domestic flight flying to the southwestern city of Yasuj came down in bad weather in a mountainous region.

A spokesperson for Iranian carrier Aseman Airlines told state television everyone was killed, but the airline later issued a statement saying it could not reach the crash site and could not accurately and definitely confirm everyone died.

There are 60 passengers and six crew members on the flight, the airline initially said, but it later said there were a total of 65 people on board, as one passenger had missed the flight.

The plane crashed near the town of Semirom after taking off from Tehrans Mehrabad airport, Reuters reports, adding that bad weather prevented helicopters searching the probable crash site as emergency workers were scouring the mountainous area by land.

It is getting colder and darker and still no sign of the plane, a television reporter accompanying rescue teams searching snow-covered areas in Mount Dena which has more than 40 peaks higher than 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) said.

The plane reportedly disappeared from radar screens 50 minutes after taking off from Mehrabad airport in the southwest of the capital, reports said.

Worried relatives of passengers gathered at Yasuj airport, Reuters reports.

I kept telephoning all morning but they (the relative) wouldnt answer. So I called my brother and he said they will get here, it (the plane) is not behind schedule yet, a young woman told a reporter for state television.

I told him it is raining here. He said no (meaning, dont worry). He called later and said the plane had crashed.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani already issued messages of condolences, asking the transport minister to lead an investigation into the crash.

In February 2003, the nation experienced one of its worst air mishaps when an Iranian Ilyushin-76 troop carrier crashed in southeast Iran.

Reports said all 276 Revolutionary Guard soldiers and crew in the plane were killed.The foreign firm contracted by the Lagos State government to rid the state of solid wastes has turned to local private waste operators for help in evacuating the wastes from residential areas, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

Visionscape Group, a Dubai-based environmental utility group, contracted by the state government last year is engaged in talks with the local waste operators (also known as public sector partnership, PSP, operators) on collaboration for domestic waste collection.

One of the talks, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, took place between the foreign firm and the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, an umbrella body of over 350 PSP operators, on January 19th at the office of the firms lawyers in Lagos.

At the meeting, both parties agreed to explore collaboration and concluded that their consultants meet to draft possible terms.

Another meeting between both parties consultants held on January 22 at Visionscapes office where it was agreed that the firm would send draft terms as a template to engage individual members the next day.

At the PSP operators general meeting on February 1, the group reportedly agreed to consider collaborating with Visionscape on favourable conditions but that all negotiations would be carried out collectively through the Association of Waste Managers while contracts would be signed by individual companies.

However, on February 12, Visionscape shocked the operators by placing advertorials in national dailies calling for Expressions of Interest for the short haul transportation of municipal and solid waste in the state.

The advertorial gave the PSP operators two days to submit their interests.

Foreign firm, local waste

Last year, the Lagos State government passed a new environmental law which terminated its previous partnership with the private waste collectors and empowered Visionscape Group and its Nigerian subsidiary, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions, to take their position.

While Visionscape became the sole concessionaire for residential waste collection, the PSP operators were assigned to collect commercial waste from schools, churches, industries, hospitals and other businesses.

An estimated 14,000 metric tonnes (about 490 trailer loads) of solid wastes is generated in Lagos daily, according to the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).

The new law also saw LAWMA transition from waste collection operations to a new role as a regulatory body.

Last month, Visionscape, which is in a public-private partnership with the Lagos State government, commissioned a Transfer Loading Station in Lagos Island as part of its efforts to rid the state of solid wastes.

The firm claims to manage thousands of tonnes of waste daily, serving over 20 million residents across various communities.

Our workforce of over 29,000 dedicated employees utilise specialist vehicles and equipment to perform a wide range of services for the efficient management of every phase of the waste stream, Visionscape stated on its website.

But despite its efforts at waste evacuation, heaps of refuse have continued to be a common sight across the state, from Ojuelegba where refuse bins are overflowing to Okokomaiko where refuse heaps adorn the major road.

A refuse heap at Ojuelegba used to illustrate the story.

Unhappy that their new role will not enable them to recoup their investments, the PSP operators dragged the government and the foreign firm to court.

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But in October last year, both parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement.

On February 12, Visionscape placed advertorials in, at least, two national dailies calling for Expressions of Interest for the short haul transportation of municipal and solid waste in the state.

According to the advertorial, to qualify for participation, the bidder shall be a licensed and recognised PSP, owning and operating at least two environmentally friendly waste trucks.

They advertised their incompetence, their inability to fulfill their contractual obligations for which they are celebrated as experts and to which our State Assembly unprecedentedly passed a law exclusive for them inserting the name of their company in Lagos State law to be the only ones that must collect domestic waste from the state, said Margaret Oshodi, a PSP operator.

By this publication, they appropriated to themselves the role of state agencies of Lagos Waste Management Authority LAWMA and Ministry of Environment MOE amongst other regulating and statutory agencies.

They also tacitly show that the PSPs are good at what they do. PSPs have been helping them move most of the waste they appropriated to themselves through state laws while their promoters look helplessly as their contractor daily engage the services of these same operators they have disparaged all over their sponsored media.

A source privy to the discussion between Visionscape and PSP operators told PREMIUM TIMES that the newspaper advertorial came as a result of a breakdown in negotiations with the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria.

We were unable to agree on a sharing formula and now they are resorting to a divide-and-rule tactic by targeting our members individually, said the PSP operator who preferred not to be named to avoid victimisation.

A glorified PSP

Part of the negotiations, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, was a proposal for the payment of N30,000 per trip to dump the waste at the landfill at Epe.

File photo of a local PSP operator evacuating the waste at Tinubu Square.

Olalekan Owojori, a consultant to the PSP operators, described such a proposal as ridiculous.

In 2006, the government was paying N25,000 per trip to dump at Olusosun, and there was a possibility to do more than three trips per day, said Mr. Owojori, the director of Wellbeck Consulting Ltd.

You can now imagine taking your truck all the way to Epe at N30,000 per trip and you are not likely to do more than a trip because of the traffic.

According to Mr. Owojori, the PSP operators went to court because their means of livelihood was threatened.

The government was proposing to take away 80 per cent of their current activity by taking away the domestic waste collection and leaving them with commercial waste collection, said Mr. Owojori.

That meant that 80 per cent of what they currently do is being taken away and that can only lead to job losses, business failures and business closure.

During the course of going to court, we now found out that this 20 per cent has further reduced to 10 per cent. Because the commercial that was supposed to be managed, in the areas of markets, government buildings, public schools have also been conceded to Visionscape.

Visionscape now has a monopoly of the market by controlling 90 per cent of the market, so we were even worse off from where we started.

Visionscape street sweepers having a rest inside the National Stadium in Surulere.

Mr. Owojori further said Visionscapes advertorial calling for Expression of Interest from the PSP operators was not done in good faith.

In the spirit of possible collaboration, we wrote a letter to Visionscape to draw their attention that, presumably, this is in line with us working together but it should be done with a great degree of respect on both sides.

And you cant just be inviting our members to come individually when we had told you our resolution, that if we are going to consider working with you, let us know what the terms are. Lets see what the terms are and we can then explore that possibility.

Two days to come and reapply for a job that was taken away from us and you have not specified what the terms and conditions will be, you have avoided talking about this and we have been on this for over a month.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, the lawyer representing the PSPs in court, said he is only aware of settlement talks between his clients and Visionscape.

I know that there have been some meetings which we attended but what we agreed was that the consultant and the lawyer should exchange some details of possible contractual agreement and we are waiting on them for that, Mr. Adegboruwa, a human rights activist, told PREMIUM TIMES.

It would seem that its always when the case is about to come up (in court) that everybody starts running up and down.

For Ms. Oshodi, the two-day time frame given to operators in Visionscapes advertorial showed the companys false illusion of self-worth.

Visionscape assumes that the legislation of operators out of existence through the connivance of the state legislature will send operators scampering to their office, she said in a Facebook post.

They are dead wrong. It will only send them job seekers. They will soon realize that we are investors too and money talks. We need millions to fuel and fix the trucks on a daily basis and those who worked hard to earn it will not fritter it away just because a company enjoys waste monopoly.

Visionscape is just a glorified PSP whom our state resources, land, building and money is placed at its beck and call. Somewhere along the line they will run out of money or the state will go broke funding them without private capital.

If the government is really interested in Cleaner Lagos or even cleanest Lagos, let them give the PSPs the same contract terms as Visionscape and we will deliver in a week.

We have the capacity

Olabode Opeseitan, a spokesperson for Visionscape, said the newspaper advertorial was one of the moves by the company to have an out-of-court settlement with the PSP operators.

There is a contract that says that residential evacuation of waste can only be done by Visionscape and Visionscape has therefore mapped out plans to do that, Mr. Opeseitan told PREMIUM TIMES.

They looked at the volume of waste generated in the 57 local councils, including the riverine communities, everything is based on that plan.

Mr. Opeseitan blamed the seeming incapability of Visionscape to evacuate the waste generated in Lagos on the companys difficulty to bring in its equipment into the country and added that the issues started late last year.

We have the capacity, Visionscape is a globally acclaimed company in the area of waste evacuation and what they are doing is the total package  they are not only bothered about taking the waste off the streets but also the landfills where it would end up.

On the companys newspaper advertorial, Mr. Opeseitan said only PSP operators with the minimum acceptable standard would be selected.

He justified Visionscapes decision to invite individual PSP operators on the grounds that some of them possibly felt that their union officials were trying to short-change them.

A refuse heap at Festac Town.

When contacted, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, told PREMIUM TIMES that the advertorial was not placed by the state government.

They (Visionscape) should be in a position to respond to it, Mr. Bamigbetan, who was appointed to the post last month, said when asked if the advertorial meant the company lacks the capacity to tackle waste in Lagos.

The company is the one handling it (waste) now.

But during a visit to The Nation newspapers office last Tuesday, Mr. Bamigbetan said the governments discovery of more than 2,000 illegal dumpsites in the state led to its termination of the partnership with PSP operators.

When we came on board, we realised there were many problems with the waste management system being championed by PSP operators, The Nation quoted Mr. Bamigbetan, a former journalist, as saying.

We found out that there are over 2,000 illegal dump sites across the state and these PSP operators illegally dumped refuse on these sites. We discovered the PSP operators still face logistics challenges, despite managing the system for several years.

Mr. Bamigbetan said the government engaged Visionscape in a bid to deliver a modern method of waste management in the state.

The firm is expected to bring in 600 compactors and waste bins to manage waste in all the 377 wards across the state. The delay in the importation of these compactors is responsible for the challenges we are facing now, he added.

Ms. Oshodi, however, accused the commissioner of being economical with the truth.

Everything was working fine and Lagos was clean until the state government decided to contract the waste management of Lagos to their cronies, she said.

They are paying for their ignorance. When the rains come they will get a different bite that waste is different from any job for the boys.The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has again charged troops to capture Abubakar Shekau, the factional leader of the Boko Haram terrorists group, alive or dead.

Mr. Buratai, a lieutenant-general, gave the charge at Camp Zairo, the former Command and Control Centre of the terrorists group in the Sambisa forest during an operational visit to troops.

In 2017, the army chief gave troops a 40-day ultimatum to capture Shekau and the army recently offered a N3 million reward for information on him.

Troops finally destroyed the camp in January in an operation tagged Deep Punch II and are now dominating the general area of the forest.

The military sacked Shekau from the camp in December, 2016 but the terrorists later re-grouped to launch pockets of attacks.

Other locations visited by Buratai are Bita and Tukumbere, all settlements within the forest but almost deserted due to the insurgency.

Let me say congratulations. But, we must move across to wherever this criminal  Shekau is and catch him red handed. I want you to get him.

Mr President, Command-In-Chief of the Armed Forces says congratulations to all of you for recovering the Sambisa Forest.

As far as we are concern, we have come to the end of this operation (clearing the forest of remnants of terrorists).

What is remaining now is the Lake Chad waters only and we hope to do that (clear terrorists from it) also very soon.

Meanwhile, you all know these criminals are still on the run; these guys are on the run, you must make sure that you get them wherever they are around this area.

You must not allow them to escape. Every day, you must go on patrol, lay ambush for them and you go on raids.

This is the time we have to consolidate and ensure that this place  Sambisa forest, is safe and never for these criminals to come back to it, Mr. Buratai charged the troops.

The chief of army staff said he was in Sambisa and Camp Zairo to confirm the capture, destruction and domination by the gallant troops.

I am glad that the troops have done the country proud and they have done Mr President proud by not only capturing the Camp Zairo within the forest but also consolidating on this success.

It is a thing of pride and I want to say that we are proud of the Nigerian troops. We are proud of members of the armed forces, the Air Force, Navy, Police, DSS and indeed Civilian JTF, who have provided the needed service, he said.

Mr. Buratai described the Sambisa forest as strategic and assured that the military would secure it against terrorists.

We are going to transform this place, apart from making it a training area.

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We are going to have a modern defence establishment in terms of the provision of basic requirements for your comfort and indeed for your operations.

We already making sure that the first set of facilities are brought here, the army chief said.

To the troops, who captured the camp, Buratai promised them special package to boost their morale.

We are going to have some special packages for all of you that penetrated this forest.

We will make sure that your morale is high by making the necessary provision for you to be comfortable, he added.

On rotation of troops, he said plans were on to rotate those who had stayed long in the theatre of operation.

This is in our plan. I know that some of you were inducted here right from the depot but we are doing something for you to be properly deployed and properly accommodated as well.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that 3,000 troops would be inducted into the Operation Lafiya Dole this week, to replace those who had stayed long.

In an interview with newsmen after the visit, Rogers Nicholas, the Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, said with the capture of camp Zairo the soul and mind of Boko Haram have been broken in Sambisa forest.

They dont have a place to hide. We are still going round to make sure that some of them that are hiding in holes, we intend to fish them out, Mr. Nicholas, a major-general, said.

He said on assumption of duty in 2017, the chief of army staff tasked him to capture Camp Zairo and clear Boko Haram from the Sambisa forest.

Troops have finally cleared the forest of remnants and we are presently occupying camp Zairo as well as all the little settlements and camps within the forest.

Dauda Mohammed, a staff sgt., and one of the troops, who participated in the operations that finally destroyed camp Zairo and cleared the forest of remnants of terrorists, attributed their success to the Almighty God.

The success is from God. God almighty is the one that gave us the success which all of us are happy to be here. The Sambisa is cleared, Mr. Mohammed said.

During the visit, the army chief directed principal officers, who accompanied him to visit other locations and frontline.

Accordingly, the Chief of Training and Operations, Maj.-Gen. David Ahmadu visited Bama, Borno South East to find out the needs of the troops and encourage them.

The Director, Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Tarfa, visited Dikwa, Borno North East while Maj.-Gen. A.T. Hamman, the Provost Marshal, visited Gubio, Borno North West.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday met with members of Katsina Elders Forum at his private residence in Daura, Katsina State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State, the Emir of Daura, Umar Faruk, and the Galadima of Katsina and former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mamman Nasir, were among those who attended the meeting.

President Buhari also met with the Emir of Maradun in Zamfara, Garba Muhammed Tambari.

The Emir was in Daura to condole with the president over the death of his two extended family members and also console him on the auto-accident involving the Presidents son, Yusuf.

The president, who is on a five-day private visit to his country home in Daura, had earlier met with members of his extended family from within and outside the state.

President Buhari receives in audience Katsina State Senior Citizens Forum in his Daura Home on 18th Feb 2018 President Buhari receives in audience Katsina State Senior Citizens Forum in his Daura Home on 18th Feb 2018 President Buhari with Katsina State Governor H.E. Rt Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, Alh. Isah Katsina and Alh. Abidu R. Yazid shortly after receiving in audience Katsina State Senior Citizens Forum in his Daura Home on 18th Feb 2018 President Buhari with Katsina State Governor H.E. Rt Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, Alh. Isah Katsina and Alh. Abidu R. Yazid shortly after receiving in audience Katsina State Senior Citizens Forum in his Daura Home on 18th Feb 2018

The meeting was held behind closed-doors.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Oyegun, on Saturday received 34,826 members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger, who moved into the ruling party.

Among the defectors are the state Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Aminu Yusuf; former Speaker of the state Assembly, Adamu Usman; a former Attorney General, Abdullahi Wuse, among others.

Mr. Oyegun said in Minna at a rally to receive the defectors that Nigerians must shun sentiment and support the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to set the nation on a new path of growth and progress.

He said the country require people of principle to help fight for the success of the programmes of the APC.

APC needs sincere soldiers as leaders, people who are ready to join the fight, because God entrusted Buhari to us to salvage the nation and its economy, he said.

He therefore urged the new APC members to support President Buhari in the efforts to restore the economy through the revitalisation of agriculture and solid minerals sectors.

Mr. Oyegun noted that already, government support to agriculture had helped to drastically bring down rice importation.

The APC national chairman stressed that the Buhari administration had also raised power generation to 7,000 megawatts and that the figure would go up by 50 percent after the completion of the Mambila hydro power project.

He noted that the increase in power supply would help boost industrialisation and job creation in the country.

Aminu Yusuf, the PDP state Deputy Chairman, said he and his colleagues joined the APC to assist in developing the state.

By the time elections are over, you dont talk about parties anymore, instead you talk about development of the state.

The party approached me to come and join them and assist the government build the state. We are coming with our skills and experience to assist the government in developing the state, he said.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) says it welcomes the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission to probe alleged underage voting in the recent local government elections in the state.

INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at a workshop last week in Lagos, said the commission was aware of video footages that went viral on the social media indicating voters who were obviously children participating in the local council elections conducted penultimate Saturday in the state.

Reacting to Mr. Yakubus remarks, the Chairman of the state electoral body, Garba Sheka, told journalists on Sunday that the decision was welcomed by KANSIEC.

While we hail the INECs decision to investigate the allegation, we want to restate our stand that the election, which was supervised by independent monitors (Civil Society Organisations) is adjudged the most peaceful in the history of Kano State.

Mr. Sheka, a professor, added: As the only statutory body that registers voters and keeps the database of certified Nigerian electorate, we would like to express our willingness to accord full cooperation to the team of investigators to ascertain the veracity of the allegation made in respect of underage voting during the conduct of the election.

We are also confident that the outcome of the investigation will vindicate us and strengthen the confidence of the public in KANSIEC to conduct free and fair local government election.ADVERTISEMENT

Three suspects have been taken into custody in connection with the recent killings in Zamfara State, police said Sunday.

Halilu Garba, 45, (Alias Mabushi), Zubairu Marafa, 45. (Alias Wakili) and Nafiu Badamasi, 40, would be helping police with further investigations prior to their arraignment in court on a date to be announced later, police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood, said in a statement.

The police said 18 people were killed in the February 14 attacks linked to armed bandits in Birani, a village in Zurmi Local Government Area of the state.

But the state government said 39 people were killed while some media outlets reported even more than that.

Mr. Moshood told PREMIUM TIMES in a follow-up inquiry that the suspects were arrested in the affected village on February 15, the day after the attack.

The announcement came hours after the Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris arrived the state for an on-the-spot assessment of the affected community.ADVERTISEMENT

The police in Ogun State have arrested a 46-year old ex-convict, Surajudeen Balogun, for allegedly impersonating the state Director of Finance on Facebook.

Mr. Balogun was also accused of attempting to dupe a female police officer on the Facebook page

Police spokesperson in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, on Sunday told REMIUM TIMES that the suspect, a fashion designer from ijebu Ode, posed on the social media platform as a staff of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation with the picture of the said finance director and had been defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.

He said Mr. Balogun was earlier convicted for duping a woman, Bimpe Akinmade, of N950, 000 having claimed to be an NNPC staff based in Port Harcourt.

He said the suspect persuaded the woman to lend him the amount to secure the release of his brother being detained at the Ibara Prisons in Abeokuta, with the promise to return the money when he got back to Abeokuta.

Mr. Oyeyemi said the suspect after collecting the money, blocked the woman on his Facebook page, but was later traced and arrested by the police, charged to court and sentenced to prison.

As soon as he came out of prison, he started his nefarious activities again. Luck ran out on him when he was trying to defraud another woman on Facebook under the same guise, unknown to him that the woman is a police officer.

The police spokesperson said the officer played along with him (suspect) until Saturday, February 17, when he was arrested while trying to collect money from the woman.

He said on interrogation, Mr. Balogun confessed to the crime and informed the police that he downloaded the picture of the finance Director for use as his Facebook profile in order to deceive his victims.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, has ordered that the case be investigated and charged to court as soon as possible, and also appealed to citizens to beware of fraudsters on social media.The joint taskforce made up of security personnel deployed to the mining fields under Operation Vanguard, has arrested and flushed out 1,012 illegal miners, with a significant number of them being foreigners.



Colonel Michael Amoah Ayisi, National Commander of Operation Vanguard, who announced this in Accra said since the security personnel got to the field, significant arrest and flushing out of illegal miners had been achieved.



He said many of those involved were Chinese and other foreign nationals from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, India and Niger.

The Operation Vanguard Taskforce has been operating in Ashanti, Eastern and Western Regions since July 31, 2017.



Colonel. Ayisi who addressed stakeholders at a forum organised by the Media Coalition against Galamsey at a recent meeting in Accra, noted that, most of the arrested suspects, including indigenes, were before the law courts while 22 of the foreigners had been convicted, others on bail with some having their cases adjourned.



He said the Office of the Attorney General had also taken over the prosecution of some cases in the Eastern Region.



Giving the statistics, he said 142 of them were foreigners, out of which 124 were Chinese, four Burkinabes, three Nigerians, six Togolese, one Indian, one Beninois and three Nigeriens.



He said the youth, aged between 19 and 35, formed the bulk (about 69.5 per cent) of the total arrests, followed by the 36 to 50 age group and then the 51 to 66 years, forming five per cent of those arrested.



Col. Ayisi said Regional analysis of the suspects arrested so far had proven that most of them do not hail from their areas of operation. And so this goes to buttress the fact that people go to other areas to degrade the land and so very soon or later, we will have the inhabitants or the indigenes of those Regions affected, rising up against the foreigners, because they will not be gaining much but they will have to be dealing with the problem.



He said the security forces had also been able to flush out the illegal operators from the Bia river, which had hitherto been heavily polluted by the miners, and thereby, affecting the waters of neighbouring Cote dIvoire, and straining relationship with Ghana.



Col. Ayisi said the people of Cote dIvore have now acknowledged that they had seen a change in the water they receive from Bia in their treatment area.



He announced that a number of equipment been seized so far include 370 excavators, 910 water-pumping machines, 60 vehicles, 54 motor bikes, 3,368 Changfans, and 83 weapons, among other items.



He said the operation of the taskforce had however faced some challenges, which include inadequate manpower and logistics to support the operations, hindering the personnel from stamping their authority in most of the vast mining areas.



He said the prosecution of suspects had been so slow, and that, out of the 1,012 cases only 107 had been convicted and the sanctions for the convicts were not deterrent enough.



I want to say that despite the challenges the taskforce have performed creditably well in the desire to stop the menace. We have also establish good rapport with the communities, who freely volunteer information.



Some of the water bodies have also started regaining their natural state, though we have a lot to do in order to clear the major rivers.

Col Ayisi said there had also been voluntary evacuation of excavators from the hinterlands and about 1,200 excavators have been moved away by its owners into urban centres.



Meanwhile, the government had given the assurance that, the fight against illegal mining would continue unabated until all illegalities in the mining sector was regularised and sanity restored in the mining sector.



The Government said it was still working out modalities that would ensure that mining activities were done in the right way before considering lifting the ban on mining.



Mr Ken Ashigbey, Convenor of the Coalition, said since the Media took active interest in the fight against galamsey ten months ago, and Operation Vanguard was deployed, it had been able to do a good job in chasing out illegal miners, while there had been improvement in the turbidity level of some water bodies as well.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoMUNICH, Feb. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC criticized Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's remarks asserting that Jews were among the "perpetrators" of the Holocaust. He was speaking at the Munich Security Conference.

AJC Berlin Director Deidre Berger, who was in attendance, said Morawiecki's comment "is an unwelcome sign that Polish leaders have yet to understand the tremendous concerns unleashed by the new Polish law criminalizing statements that implicate Polish collaborators in the Holocaust."

AJC opened its Central Europe Office in Warsaw last March, reflecting decades of engagement with Poland and a unique role in seeking to write a promising new chapter in Polish-Jewish relations.

At the same time, the global Jewish advocacy organization has been clear in opposing the new law and simultaneously determined to help defuse the crisis, if possible, between the Polish government and world Jewry.

The prime minister's remarks suggesting Jewish complicity, as well as his decision to visit the graves in Munich of Polish fighters who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and lay a wreath, are further complicating an already tense situation.

"Poland's suffering at the hands of the Nazi regime was enormous, its bravery in resistance is unquestionable. There were also Poles who risked their lives to save Jewish neighbors. Still, it is undeniable that Jews before, during, and after WWII died due to collaboration and anti-Semitism," said Berger.

"It was disquieting to hear the lack of sensitivity of the prime minister to the emotional question of a child of Holocaust survivors from Poland whose family was betrayed by Polish neighbors. But accusing Jews themselves of allegedly being perpetrators in the Holocaust was a stunning reversal of responsibility for the Holocaust, turning victims into perpetrators."

An AJC leadership delegation, led by AJC CEO David Harris, was in Warsaw last month and met with the Prime Minister. The discussion was friendly and productive, but it occurred when there was no hint of the forthcoming legislation in the Parliament that would stir such a global debate and trigger such strong criticism from the American and Israeli governments.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org

WARREN, N.J., Feb. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The slime trend of 2017 is here to stay. Horizon Group USA will continue to lead the arts and crafts industry with innovation as it expands its lines of D.I.Y., all-in-one slime-based kits.

Horizon Group USA will continue to lead the arts and crafts industry with innovation as it expands its lines of trend-inspired D.I.Y., all-in-one slime-based kits.

"As early as 2014, we identified that the link between S.T.E.M. and mindfulness was gaining momentum across the D.I.Y. community. Before the slime craze took off, we had successfully launched several trend-based compound-making products. As the demand grew, so did the followers," said Evan Buzzerio, Chief Marketing Officer of Horizon Group USA. "We challenged our teams to distinguish the SLIMYGLOOP brand from others and it exploded into the widest array of trending themes in the marketplace. After smashing success, we formed a plan to offer multiple unique lines of what's next."

Following the widespread launch of the SLIMYGLOOP D.I.Y. brand, consisting of all-inclusive kits with ingredients and embellishments, Horizon Group expanded on the slime-making trend by creating new experiences for children. Instant SLIMYGLOOP provides an instant, less-mess activity for kids. In just three easy steps, kids can make slime by combining the Instant SLIMYGLOOP Activator and Solution. With SLIMYGLOOP Mix'EMS, kids create their own compounds by simply mixing the included embellishments and collectibles into the pre-made SLIMYGLOOP for a fun, mess-free and safe way to play.

In March, Horizon Group will build on its activity kits success with the introduction of SQUOOSH-O'S, which allow children to create their own stress balls. The kits include everything needed to assemble unique SQUOOSH-O'S with each set featuring fun add-ins based on trending themes, delivering different satisfying and tactile experiences. SQUOOSH-O'S retail for $5.00 to $10.00 and will be available at a wide variety of retailers, including Amazon, Dollar General, Five Below, Michaels, Party City, Target, Wal-Mart and other fine retailers. Additional SQUOOSH-O'S themes will be added to the line and released throughout the year.

"Horizon Group is taking the slimy and squishy trends to new extremes this year by adding different textures and helping kids create completely new compounds," said Laurie Schacht, Toy Insider Mom. "These items will surely be an instant hit, as they allow children to experiment while having fun!"

In fall 2018, there is even more to come from Horizon Group! Beyond the extensions to their lines of SLIMYGLOOP D.I.Y., SLIMYGLOOP Mix'EMS, Instant SLIMYGLOOP and SQUOOSH-O'S, the company will be launching three additional trending brands.

ABOUT HORIZON GROUP

Horizon Group USA is today's dynamic leader in the creative D.I.Y. marketplace. With a wide range of activity kits, fashion-forward impulse products and crafts for all occasions, Horizon fuels creative hands every day with quality, trend-right products. The original roots of the company date back to 1912 as a supplier to the decorative trim markets just outside of New York City. In 2003, Horizon transformed from its beginnings to evolve as the leader across many of the creative craft activity and impulse markets. Today Horizon custom designs, develops and distributes a wide array of award-winning national brands and programs. Horizon is well-known for its inspiring consumer packaging, quality trending content, retail execution and leadership in the creative activity industry. Our products reach people of all ages in the United States and over 24 countries across the globe. As Horizon's business continues to increase, new innovation and category growth is everywhere! The energy of our teams continues to grow as we successfully provide trend-right brands for a great value. We aim to provide what families need for creative expressions in their everyday lives.

SOURCE Horizon Group USAVirgin Group Founder and Virgin Hyperloop One Chairman Sir Richard Branson announced the Framework Agreement in the presence of the Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis to begin the development of the route. This historic signing at the Magnetic Maharashtra event was also attended by Virgin Hyperloop One board members and key investors Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO and Group Chairman of DP World , and Ziyavudin Magomedov, Chairman of Summa Group .

Recognizing the Maharashtra government's contribution to the country's economy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "51 per cent of total investments in India have come to Maharashtra, and the state is attracting global investors. The state's overall development in the past few years is a shining example of change thinking and improving conditions in the country. Maharashtra government was ahead of all other Indian states in terms of infrastructure spend and the state is on its way to achieving its bold vision of a trillion-dollar economy."

"I believe Virgin Hyperloop One could have the same impact upon India in the 21st century as trains did in the 20th century. The Pune-Mumbai route is an ideal first corridor as part of a national hyperloop network that could dramatically reduce travel times between India's major cities to as little as two hours," said Sir Richard Branson. "Virgin Hyperloop One can help India become a global transportation pioneer and forge a new world-changing industry."

The hyperloop route will link central Pune, Navi Mumbai International Airport, and Mumbai in 25-minutes, connecting 26 million people and creating a thriving, competitive megaregion. The high-capacity passenger and cargo hyperloop route eventually will support 150 million passenger trips annually, saving more than 90 million hours of travel time, and providing citizens with greater opportunities and social and economic mobility. The hyperloop system will also have the potential for the rapid movement of palletized freight and light cargo between the Port of Mumbai and Pune, creating a robust backbone for on-demand deliveries, supply chains, and next-generation logistics.

The Pune-Mumbai route could result in USD $55 billion (INR 350,000 crores) in socio-economic benefits (time savings, emissions and accident reduction, operational cost savings, etc.) over 30 years of operation, according to an initial pre-feasibility study completed by Virgin Hyperloop One. The 100% electric, efficient hyperloop system will ease severe expressway congestion and could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 150,000 tons annually.

"With Virgin Hyperloop One, we can create a sustainable infrastructure that will enhance the State of Maharashtra's competitiveness and attract new investment and businesses," said the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. "The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route will be an economic catalyst for the region and create tens of thousands of jobs for India's world-class manufacturing, construction, service, and IT sectors and aligns with Make in India initiatives."

The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project will begin with a six-month in-depth feasibility study which will analyze and define the route alignment including environmental impact, the economic and commercial aspects of the route, the regulatory framework, and cost and funding model recommendations. The feasibility study will build upon the findings of the pre-feasibility study signed in November 2017 between the Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority and Virgin Hyperloop One.

The project will enter a procurement stage upon the successful completion of the feasibility study to determine the public-private partnership structure. Construction of the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route would commence after procurement and will be completed in two phases, beginning with an operational demonstration track built between two points on the route. The demonstration track will be constructed in two to three years from the signing of the agreement and serve as a platform for testing, certifying, and regulating the system for commercial operations. The second phase will target to complete construction of the full Pune-Mumbai route in five to seven years. Future projects could also extend the route to link central Pune with the New Pune International Airport and Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai with Pune's industrial economic zones.

"The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project will ultimately be executed by a public-private partnership which will save taxpayer money while delivering a transport option that will help the State of Maharashtra support economic growth, improve sustainability, and meet the transport demands," said Kiran Gitte, CEO of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

"We have always believed that India would be a tremendous market for hyperloop. The Pune-Mumbai route is one of the strongest economic cases we have seen to-date," said Virgin Hyperloop One CEO Rob Lloyd. "The State of Maharashtra has made a strong commitment to building the first hyperloop route in India. We are looking forward to partnering with the State as well as our partners to make the Pune-Mumbai route a reality."

For the signing photo, route map, fact sheet, and b-roll click here. Additional media images can be accessed here.

About Virgin Hyperloop One

Virgin Hyperloop One is the only company in the world that has built a fully operational hyperloop system. Our team has the world's leading experts in engineering, technology, and transport project delivery, working in tandem with global partners and investors to make hyperloop a reality, now. Virgin Hyperloop One is backed by key investors including DP World, Caspian VC Partners (part of Summa Group), Virgin Group, Sherpa Capital, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, SNCF, GE Ventures, Formation 8, 137 Ventures, WTI, among others. For more information, visit www.virginhyperloopone.com.

Media Contacts

Genesis Burson-Marsteller

Shivangi Prabhudesai

[email protected]

+91 9769351676

Virgin Hyperloop One

Ryan Kelly

Head of Marketing and Communications

[email protected]

+1-610-442-1896

SOURCE Virgin Hyperloop One

Related Links

http://www.virginhyperloopone.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL TOY FAIR -- LEGO Systems, Inc., the North American division of one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials, was honored with three Toy of the Year (T.OT.Y.) Awards. Building sets from LEGO Star Wars and the build and code toolkit, LEGO BOOST, were recognized as Toy of the Year in the Construction, Specialty and Tech categories, respectively, which were awarded at the Toy Association's annual gala to celebrate the best and most innovative toys, held Friday, February 16 in New York City.

"We are honored to be recognized as the gold standard in toys by the industry and consumers alike. Given that we pioneered the convergence of LEGO bricks and technology with LEGO MINDSTORMS 20 years ago, it's particularly exciting that our build and code toolkit, LEGO BOOST, was cited as Tech Toy of the Year," said Michael McNally, senior director, brand relations at LEGO Systems, Inc. "Receiving two T.O.T.Y. Awards for LEGO Star Wars is a testament to the power of the Star Wars property brought to life in LEGO form for fans of all ages."

Construction Toy of the Year: LEGO Star Wars BB-8

This LEGO incarnation of the diminutive BB-8 droid from the new movie trilogy makes the perfect gift for any Star Wars or LEGO fan. Turn one wheel at the side to rotate the detailed head, and another to open the access hatch and extend the welding torch. This faithfully reproduced model also comes with a display stand, decorative fact plaque and small BB-8 figure, making it a great display piece for any bedroom or office. Contains 1,100 LEGO pieces.

Specialty Toy of the Year: LEGO Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon

The LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon is the largest and most detailed LEGO set ever made, containing 7,541 bricks and elements. This LEGO interpretation of Han Solo's unforgettable Corellian freighter has all the details that Star Wars fans of any age could wish for, including intricate exterior detailing, upper and lower quad laser cannons, landing legs, lowering boarding ramp and a 4-minifigure cockpit with detachable canopy. The set also includes seven minifigures, a BB-8 droid, two buildable Porgs and a buildable Mynock.

Tech Toy of the Year: LEGO BOOST Creative Toolbox

LEGO BOOST is a super-charged LEGO toolkit that introduces kids as young as seven years old to building and coding. Designed to offer endless creation and play possibilities, LEGO BOOST gives children an intuitive and "fun-first" way to explore coding concepts and principles. Builders add sound, movement and personality to their LEGO creations, bringing to life anything they build. Using familiar LEGO elements and simple app-based coding language, LEGO BOOST delivers quick success in an intuitive approach. By combining the versatile LEGO building system with advanced technology, children can boost their creativity and uncover new ways to play while learning to code. The kit offers step-by-step instructions to make five creations, such as Vernie the humanoid, Frankie the cat, and an awesome, playable guitar, but kids can use the pieces and coding language to make anything they build come to life. LEGO BOOST is available nationally where toys are sold for $159.99.

Toy finalists were selected from nearly 600 submitted toys, games and properties by nomination committees comprised of journalists, toy trend experts, play therapists, toy inventors and designers, and toy retailers.

The LEGO tradition of innovation has been recognized with 20 T.O.T.Y. Awards since the program was established in 2000.

About the LEGO Group

The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company with headquarters in Billund, Denmark, and main offices in Enfield, USA, London, UK., Shanghai, China, and Singapore. Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, and based on the iconic LEGO brick, it is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials. Guided by the company spirit: "Only the best is good enough", the company is committed to the development of children and aims to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through creative play and learning. LEGO products are sold worldwide and can be virtually explored at www.LEGO.com.

LEGO, the LEGO logo, and the Minifigure and the brick & knob configuration are trademarks and/or copyrights of the LEGO Group.  2018 the LEGO Group.

 Disney/Pixar

STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks and/or copyrights, in the United States and other countries, of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates.  & TM Lucasfilm Ltd.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Amanda Madore, LEGO Systems, Inc.

860-299-6954 / [email protected]



Karen Nolan, Flashpoint PR

650-490-0608 / [email protected]

SOURCE LEGO Systems, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lego.com

HONG KONG, Feb. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TiENPAY Limited announced their new subsidiary by means of a Joint Venture: TiENPAY Korea Co., Limited. TiENPAY Korea will serve as TiENPAY's first foray and springboard into the South Korea marketplace for mobile banking, e-wallet and cryptocurrency-related services.

TiENPAY LIMITED

TiENPAY Korea aims to tap into the vast potential for cryptocurrency-related services that uniquely exist inside South Korea. Given South Korea's high market penetration rate for cryptocurrency trading versus the global average, there is a developing need for related digital banking & e-wallet services that run parallel to cryptocurrency market movements. TiENPAY Limited is confident that the market for these types of services, especially in South Korea, is at the very beginning of a much larger trend.

TiENPAY Limited CEO, Mr. William Tien commented on the expansion of TiENPAY into South Korea. "South Korea is without a doubt the most dynamic and aggressive marketplace for cryptocurrency trading and overall traffic. TiENPAY Limited is being proactive and enterprising so as to fully capitalize on the many opportunities that exist inside South Korea."

Those investors and Interested parties who wish to learn more about TiENPAY Limited's expansion plans into new markets can visit the Company website, at www.tienpay.com.

TiENPAY Limited (Hong Kong), founded in 2011, is primarily a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, and also focuses on designing Internet of Things (IOT) hardware serving the banking sector. Given the emergence of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment and as a storer of value these past few years, TiENPAY has strategically positioned the Firm to best prepare for and anticipate the new norm in digital banking, e-payments, and cryptocurrency services.

SOURCE TiENPAY LIMITED

Related Links

http://www.tienpay.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 16th, the first day of Chinese Dog Year, a new promotional film of Wuhan, a famous Chinese inland city, boarded on the Reuters large screen at the Times Square in New York City, showing the new image of Wuhan at the international crossroads and sending Chinese New Year wishes to the whole world.

Wuhan Tourism Development Committee schemed this Wuhan's combining advertisements on totally eleven blockbuster big screens. The whole set of promotional videos are mainly based on the auspicious elements of the Year of the Dog. Through the style of Chinese paper-cutting, the color variations of modern animations and the flow of its scenic attractions, the video shows Wuhan's features as a city of water for thousands of years. The most prominent 30 second main video in the middle screen begins with a red Chinese map in which Wuhan is highlighted and then shows people the Yellow Crane Tower, Wuhan University, Chu River Street and the Yangtze River Bridge as the representative elements of Wuhan with some stylish dynamic animations. Finally, the video is framed in Wuhan's propaganda slogan "WUHAN CHINA, Meet Your Wonder."

The group of Wuhan's promotional videos looped for 20 hours a day with an average daily volume of up to 1.5 million people. Wuhan official Facebook home page @ Visit Wuhan will also cooperate with the offline "China screen" to re-promote the videos on social media for a better comprehensive interpret of Wuhan's natural scenery, humanistic feelings and its rhythmical fashion not only to send the New Year's greetings to all over the world but to add a touchstone to the overseas promotion of Wuhan's tourism.

Wuhan's annual number of overseas tourists has paCssed more than 200 million. The growing development of a good tourist situation enables Wuhan a prominent position in the international tourism market. Wuhan's famous tourist attractions East Lake, Provincial Museum, Jianghan Road Pedestrian Street, Chuhe Han Street, Hankou River Beach, the Yellow Crane Tower and its other beautiful natural lakes and mountains, soaring urban architectures, ease of access to all transportation have impress foreign tourists deeply. Wuhan City Government also expressed its beautiful wish to create Wuhan as a bright spot in the world with international influence in the next few years.

Wuhan Tourism Development Committee said that choosing the first day of Chinese Lunar Spring Festival to offer Wuhan's hospitality to the world meant the tourists from the whole world will see the new charm of Wuhan in the new year. People will discover a green Wuhan, a harmonious Wuhan, and a humanistic Wuhan. People will find that Wuhan is making efforts on its forms and channels of external communication and innovation, image building and brand spreading proceeding.

After its release on New York City's Times Square, Wuhan's promotional film attracted many tourists' attention and deepened its impression of Wuhan. A professional overseas travel media commented that this promotional video is fresh and lively in color and content. The combination of oriental style and internationalization vividly embodies Wuhan what Eastern Charm is. At the same time, some overseas tourists also engaged on Wuhan's Facebook page and expressed that they have a better understanding of the colorful and vibrant fashion and passion of Wuhan and they want to include Wuhan in their traveling list for their trip in China. At last Wuhan's overseas fans send their blessings as they wish Wuhan can charm forever and can always be the city where you can "Meet Your Wonder."

Contact info:

Fiona Yang

[email protected]

tel:86 + 15867394018

SOURCE Wuhan Tourism Development CommissionThe Afghan Taliban issued a Letter of the Islamic Emirate to the American people on Feb. 14, which was reported as an appeal for negotiations between the Taliban and the United States. Instead, the Taliban demanded that the U.S. and the West withdraw from Afghanistan so the Taliban can establish its government.

The lengthy letter is reproduced in full, below. Throughout the letter, the Taliban said the only acceptable outcome is for the U.S. to quit so it can return to power. The following two paragraphs neatly summarized the Talibans position. First, the Taliban referred to itself: we and the the Islamic Emirate were used interchangeably. Then note how the Taliban considered itself, not the Afghan government, as the representative of its people [emphasis ours]:

According we still believe that it is not too late for the American people to understand that the Islamic Emirate  as representative of its people  can solve its problems with every side through healthy politics and dialogue. Needless use of force only complicates the issues by creating new dimensions which gradually move out of the realm of control. The Islamic Emirate is a regional power with deep roots which cannot be subdued by sheer force. The chances of dialogue however are not exhausted. The American people must understand that the Islamic Emirate< understands its responsibility and can play a constructive role in finding a peaceful solution for issues but this can never mean that we are exhausted or our will has been sapped. It is our policy that logic should be given a chance before the use of force. Whatever can be achieved by logic, should not be relinquished due to the use of force. It is the moral obligation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to inform you, the American masses, about these realities.

After the Taliban established that only it can represent the Afghan people, it lays out its terms for peace. And that is U.S. withdrawal and a return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan:

We must state that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan undertakes legitimate efforts for the independence of our homeland. Having a sovereign country free from any foreign occupation is our natural and human right. Seeking freedom of our homeland and establishing an Islamic system conforming to the creed of our people can never be called terrorism by any law of the world. It is worth mentioning that we have no agenda of playing any destructive role in any other country and we have practically proven over the past seventeen years that we have not interfered in any other country. Likewise we will not allow anyone else to use Afghan territory against any other country. War is imposed on us, it is not our choice. Our preference is to solve the Afghan issue through peaceful dialogues. America must end her occupation and must accept all our legitimate rights including the right to form a government consistent with the beliefs of our people. After gaining independence, we would like to have positive and constructive relations with all countries of the world including our neighboring countries. We welcome their assistance and support in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of our country. We want to play a beneficial role in regional and world peace and stability, provide high standard education and employment opportunities for our people and guarantee all human and legal rights of every child, woman and man, secure our youth from drugs and all other moral indecencies, provided job opportunities to every individual such that they not leave their homeland or seek refuge abroad.

Press accounts of the letter reported it as a Taliban extension for peace. But the reality is there is nothing new in this letter. The Taliban has consistently stated over the past decade that it does not seek to share power with the Afghan government, and the only peace possible begins with the U.S. abandoning the country.

Full test of the Talibans statement:

Letter of the Islamic Emirate to the American people!

The American people, officials of independent non-governmental organizations and the peace loving Congressmen!

With the hope that you will read this letter prudently and will evaluate the future of American forces and your profit and loss inside Afghanistan in light of the prevailing realities alluded to in the following lines!

The American people!

You realize that your political leadership launched a military invasion of our country 17 years ago. This invasion was not only contrary to the legal and national norms of our own sovereign country but also a violation of all international rules and regulations, but still the following three main points were put forward by your authorities to justify this illegitimate invasion:

Establishing security by eliminating the so called terrorists inside Afghanistan.

Restoring law and order by establishing a legal government.

Eradicating narcotics.

However let us analyze how successful your war-monger leaders were in achieving the above three slogans in this illegitimate war?

Increased insecurity and fighting:

In 2001 when your ex-president George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan, his justification for that felonious act was the elimination the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) and Al-Qaeda.

But despite continuing this bloody war for seventeen years and accepting huge casualties and financial losses, your current president Donald Trump  to continue the illegal 17 year old war in Afghanistan  acknowledged increased insecurity and emergence of multiple groups instead of the single unified Islamic Emirate (Taliban).

This was stated by Trump while declaring his new war strategy for Afghanistan and South Asia on 23rd August 2017 and seventeen years later, again ordered the perpetuation of the same illegitimate occupation and war against the Afghan people. Since your authorities admit the presence of multiple warring factions inside Afghanistan, it verifies our claim that by invading Afghanistan and overthrowing a unified responsible government of Taliban, the Americans have merely paved the way for anarchy in the country.

No matter what title or justification is presented by your undiscerning authorities for the war in Afghanistan, the reality is that tens of thousands of helpless Afghans including women and children were martyred by your forces, hundreds of thousands were injured and thousands more were incarcerated in Guantanamo, Bagram and various other secret jails and treated in such a humiliating way that has not only brought shame upon humanity but is also a violation of all claims of American culture and civilization.

In this lopsided war and as confirmed by your own military authorities, 3546 American and foreign soldiers have been killed, more than 20,000 American forces injured and tens of thousands more are suffering mentally but in reality the amount of your casualties is several times higher and is deliberately being concealed by your leaders. Similarly this war has cost you trillions of dollars thus making it one of the bloodiest, longest and costliest war in the contemporary history of your country.

Chaos and the most corrupt regime:

Even though it is not the duty of America to draft laws and suggest systems for other countries but nevertheless, the second excuse of George W. Bush for the invasion of Afghanistan was to establish a supposed legitimate government. But despite seventeen years of war costing thousands of American and coalition lives and billions of dollars, such a system has taken root in Afghanistan which has achieved the following administrative, legal, military and political records:

Number one internationally in administrative and financial corruption.

Number one internationally in violating human rights.

Number one internationally in usurping of land and embezzling international aid.

Number one internationally in violence against women, etc. etc.

The latest example of the corrupt regime formed in the wake of American invasion is the presence of a two-headed system which is unparalleled in the established laws of forming a government throughout the world.

Production and expansion of narcotics:

The third justification of George W. Bush to invade Afghanistan was the prevention and eradication of narcotics. Let us examine the amount and levels of production and expansion of the narcotic trade in Afghanistan after seventeen year war effort?

According to the data provided by UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes)  prior to the American invasion  poppy was cultivated only on 185 hectors land of Afghanistan and only in areas controlled by anti-Taliban forces whereas the level of heroin addiction among Afghans was next to nil. But following the American invasion of Afghanistan, poppy cultivation skyrocketed from 185 hectors to 328,000 hectors while under the shadow of seventeen year occupation, the number of drug addicts has reached 3 million people.

On 21st December 2017, the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes) reported that drug production increased by 87% and poppy cultivation increased by 63% during the year 2017, thus mounting the total production of narcotics to 9000 metric tons.

The American people!

You proclaim to be a developed and civilized nation of the world. Since the imposed government in Afghanistan is established by you therefore we leave it to your judgment to decide  according to your logic and conscience  whether the present system and its pertinent changes, insecurity, chaos and 87% increase in narcotics are reforms or crimes against humanity?

Your authorities proclaim that tens of billions of dollars have been spent on various reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Of course this is the same money which is collected from you as taxes and revenues, but here it has been distributed among thieves and murderers.

Do you agree that the hard earned money of your labor should be wasted on such a corrupt system where in only one criminal case, $900 million were stolen from Kabul Bank by corrupt officials?

Do you consider it the rule of law in American culture and lexicon where the first deputy of a government is a person involved in the felonious act of sexual assault on a 70-year-old man besides hundreds of other crimes against humanity?

Is this the civilization, modernity and rule of law proclaimed by you in the world?

Were your 3546 forces killed in Afghanistan to establish and empower such a system?

Can your scholars, intellectuals and unbiased analysts produce an answer to our questions?

You must understand that our people are living, watching and closely analyzing all these calamities and that is why the regime working under the shadow of your military support and the corrupt elements assembled therein are not looked upon as a legitimate government rather they are considered a band of usurpers, looters, mafia warlords and drug-dealers while at the same time, the resistance against them is considered their legal, moral and national obligation. The people working alongside you to impose this system are committing treason against our nation and national interests. On the other hand, the people who waging armed resistance against your corrupt regime are the defenders of their homeland, national interests, sovereignty as well as their dignity and they are revered by the Afghan masses as their heroes. That the American media is propagating against the Afghan resistance and labelling them as foreign terrorists instead of Afghan freedom fighters, all of this is baseless propaganda aimed at concealing their own humiliating defeat. To repudiate this propaganda, we only want to say that had there been any chance of success in Afghanistan with foreign support, the American invaders and their coalition forces would definitely have succeeded due to enjoying the political and military support of a powerful country like the United States of America as well as the support of a well-equipped military alliance like NATO.

The People of America!

We would like to summarize our message to you in the following words:

The Afghans who are fighting your forces and any other invader today, this is their legal, religious and national obligation. However mighty and well-equipped your forces might be, even if supported by the entire world, this resistance will be sustained by the Afghan people due to their religious, legal and national obligation. This resistance is considered by Afghan masses as a sacred responsibility of defending their creed and country. To relinquish this sacred obligation is considered by them as abandoning Islam and all human values and this disgrace is never acceptable for any valiant Muslim Afghan individual.

Afghans have continued to burn for the last four decades in the fire of imposed wars. They are longing for peace and a just system but they will never tire from their just cause of defending their creed, country and nation against the invading forces of your war-mongering government because they have rendered all the previous and present historic sacrifices to safeguard their religious values and national sovereignty. If they make a deal on their sovereignty now, it would be unforgettable infidelity with their proud history and ancestors.

Afghanistan is a country which has maintained its independence throughout its several thousand year history. Even in the 19th and 20th century when most Muslim countries were occupied by the then European imperial powers, Afghanistan was the only country in the region to preserve its independence and despite an eighty year imperialistic endeavor, the British failed make them accept occupation. It is the same inherent zeal and historic succession in the hearts and minds of Afghan masses which presently inspires this empty-handed nation to continue protracted resistance against your occupying forces. This is not exaggeration rather irrefutable reality that today the valiant Afghan self-sacrificial attackers are competing among themselves to carry out martyrdom seeking attacks against your invading forces.

This national religious resistance of the Afghans is not a futile war, rather it is progressing everyday as various parts of the country are liberated. At this moment the head of SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) acknowledged that sixty percent of Afghan territory is under the control of Taliban (Islamic Emirate).

In 2001 during the American invasion of Afghanistan, a number of world countries came under the influence of misleading propaganda by your officials and supported the warring strategy of the then president George W. Bush. But today we see that your government has lost that international support as a number of your coalition partners have withdrawn their forces from our country by discerning the prevailing realities and they are currently seeking a political solution. The international community at large is now backing our justified resistance against the illegitimate American occupation. If your government is still insisting on perpetuating the war in Afghanistan by conjuring excuses, it will further undermine American prestige in the world.

The People of America!

In the American society where the main source of power is the masses and the authorities are elected by public votes, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan  as representatives of the will of Afghan nation  asks the American people and the peace loving Congressmen to put pressure on your authorities and demand an end to the occupation of Afghanistan because stubbornly seeking the protraction of this war and existence of a corrupt and ineffective regime here in Kabul will have dreadful consequences for the region and particularly for the stability of America herself.

The Afghan masses feel pity for the whole American nation because they are being sacrificed and are losing respect through the world with each passing day solely due the war-mongering policies of a few war-mongering officials.

Your intellectuals, peace loving Congressmen and independent chiefs of civil organizations should question your authorities as to why the American people are so insecure and detested at home and abroad despite their international prestige?

For how long will your modern country and your children continue to be sacrificed for the war-mongering policies of a few war-mongering officials?

And what eventual benefit will these warring policies bring for your country?

The American People!

Your president and his military and political officials following his war policies still speak the language of war in Afghanistan. They intentionally release fake statistics for the sake of their vested interests and misguide you and the world by throwing dust in your eyes. The reality is that in contemporary world, the use of force and arms has been replaced by peaceful dialogue and wars cannot be won with lies.

Only in past September  in accordance with Trumps new strategy  American forces used all their new powers and carried out 751 air strikes. You should ask your Generals that despite using such force, have you retaken even a single inch of land from the Taliban or have they become even more powerful.

If you do not understand the inexperienced policies of president Trump and his war-monger advisors, then look no further than his irrational decision of shifting the American embassy to from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem which brought America in opposition with 128 countries of the world.

Truly it is humiliating for a civilized people like you to be confronted with such a decisive international majority. It was only due of the pursuit of policies of force which pitted majority of the world countries against America, and your authorities are still insistent upon that ridiculous policy!!

The Islamic Emirate had asked America from the very beginning to solve her issues with the Islamic Emirate through talk and dialogue. The use of force has adverse consequences, and you might have now discerned the bitter consequences of American aggression against Afghanistan. If the policy of using force is exercised for a hundred more years and a hundred new strategies are adopted, the outcome of all of these will be the same as you have observed over the last six months following the initiation of Trumps new strategy.

According we still believe that it is not too late for the American people to understand that the Islamic Emirate  as representative of its people  can solve its problems with every side through healthy politics and dialogue. Needless use of force only complicates the issues by creating new dimensions which gradually move out of the realm of control. The Islamic Emirate is a regional power with deep roots which cannot be subdued by sheer force. The chances of dialogue however are not exhausted. The American people must understand that the Islamic Emirate understands its responsibility and can play a constructive role in finding a peaceful solution for issues but this can never mean that we are exhausted or our will has been sapped. It is our policy that logic should be given a chance before the use of force. Whatever can be achieved by logic, should not be relinquished due to the use of force. It is the moral obligation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to inform you, the American masses, about these realities.

We must state that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan undertakes legitimate efforts for the independence of our homeland. Having a sovereign country free from any foreign occupation is our natural and human right. Seeking freedom of our homeland and establishing an Islamic system conforming to the creed of our people can never be called terrorism by any law of the world. It is worth mentioning that we have no agenda of playing any destructive role in any other country and we have practically proven over the past seventeen years that we have not interfered in any other country. Likewise we will not allow anyone else to use Afghan territory against any other country. War is imposed on us, it is not our choice. Our preference is to solve the Afghan issue through peaceful dialogues. America must end her occupation and must accept all our legitimate rights including the right to form a government consistent with the beliefs of our people. After gaining independence, we would like to have positive and constructive relations with all countries of the world including our neighboring countries. We welcome their assistance and support in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of our country. We want to play a beneficial role in regional and world peace and stability, provide high standard education and employment opportunities for our people and guarantee all human and legal rights of every child, woman and man, secure our youth from drugs and all other moral indecencies, provided job opportunities to every individual such that they not leave their homeland or seek refuge abroad.

In brief, insisting on prolonging the war in Afghanistan and maintaining American troop presence is neither beneficial for America nor for anyone else, rather it endangers the stability of the entire world. This is irrefutable reality which is only rejected by your arrogant authorities. If you want peaceful dialogue with the Afghans specifically and with the world generally, then make your president and the war-mongering congressmen and Pentagon officials understand this reality and compel them to adopt a rational policy towards Afghanistan!

This will be the most constructive step for the stability of your people, the Afghans as well as the whole world.

Our only obligation is to convey (the message) to you!

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

28/05/1439 Hijri Lunar

25/11/1396 Hijri Solar 14/02/2018 Gregorian

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

This article appeared originally at FDD's Long War Journal.Athens, GA (30605)

Today

Periods of rain. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.The United States, Britain, and France are pushing the United Nations Security Council to condemn Iran for failing to prevent its missiles from falling into the hands of Huthi rebels in Yemen.

According to a draft resolution seen on February 17 by the Reuters news agency, the three allies also want the Security Council to commit to taking action against Iran over sanctions violations related to the missiles.

The resolution would allow the 15-member council to impose targeted sanctions for "any activity related to the use of ballistic missiles in Yemen."

Diplomats told Reuters that the draft resolution was given to the council on February 16.

The draft would need to be adopted in the Security Council by February 26, although it is likely to face resistance from Russia.

A resolution needs nine votes to pass but can be vetoed by any of the permanent members -- Russia, China, the United States, France, or Britain.

Russia's UN mission was not immediately available for comment on the draft resolution, Reuters reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard line on Iran during his campaign and into his administration.

He has warned that the United States would withdraw from a 2015 nuclear pact signed between Iran and world powers unless European allies and the U.S. Congress fix what he called "disastrous flaws" in the deal, which provided Tehran with sanctions relief in return for restraints on its nuclear program.

The Trump administration has also said it is committed to enact "effective and lasting restraints" on Iran's ballistic missile program, which Western officials claim can easily be converted by Tehran to further its nuclear weapons effort.

The U.S. administration has heightened its verbal attacks on Tehran in recent days.

National security adviser H.R. McMaster, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, warned that Iran is creating and arming a powerful network of proxies in countries like Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.

"Whats particularly concerning is that this network of proxies is becoming more and more capable, as Iran seeds more and more...destructive weapons into these networks," McMaster told the conference.

"So the time is now, we think, to act against Iran," he said.

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, wrote in a piece in The New York Times published on February 17 that "since the signing of the nuclear agreement, the Iranian regime's support of dangerous militias and terror groups has markedly increased."

"Its missiles and advanced weapons are turning up in war zones all across the Middle East," she said.

Yemen is the battleground for what has been called a proxy war between Shi'ite Iran and Sunni-led Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally.

Iran has denied allegations that it has supplied its allies, the Huthi rebels, with weapons, although the United States has displayed sections of what it said were Iranian-made missiles that the rebels fired toward Saudi Arabia.

In January, a report by a UN panel of experts found that Iranian ballistic missiles and other weapons were introduced into Yemen and that Iran failed to take measures needed to prevent those weapons from reaching the rebels.

The Security Council has banned the supply of weapons to the Huthi rebels and "those acting on their behalf or at their direction."

With reporting by Reuters, The Financial Times, and CBS

Authorities in Iran have suspended efforts to reach the site of a crashed passenger airliner because of high winds, snow, and darkness.

All 65 people aboard the plane are feared dead after the aircraft crashed in a mountainous area of the central province of Isfahan earlier on February 18.

The plane came down in the Zagros mountains near the city of Semirom while flying between Tehran's Mehrabad airport and the southwestern city of Yasuj, the national emergency services said on February 18.

The plane was said to be a twin-engine turbo prop ATR 72 operated by Iran's Aseman Airlines.

The plane was carrying 59 passengers, four crew members, and two air marshals. Earlier reports said the plane had 60 passengers, but Iranian officials later said one ticketed passenger missed the flight.

Airline spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 440-meters high, and that all on board the flight were killed in the accident.

However, he later told the ISNA news agency, "We still have no access to the spot of the crash and therefore we cannot accurately and definitely confirm the death of all passengers of this plane."

The plane was carrying 60 passengers and six crew members.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it had dispatched 12 rescue teams to the area.

Foggy weather has prevented a rescue helicopter from reaching the crash site, state TV reported.

"Given the fact that the area is mountainous, it is not possible to send ambulances," said Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national emergency services.

Semirom lies around 480 kilometers south of the capital, Tehran.

European airplane manufacturer ATR said it had no immediate information about the crash.

Aseman Airlines, headquartered in Tehran, is Iran's third largest airline. It specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country but also flies internationally.

Decades of international sanctions have left Iran with an ageing commercial passenger aircraft fleet that it has struggled to maintain and modernize.

Only after Tehran signed a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 could it order new planes from Airbus, ATR, and Boeing. About a dozen of the new planes have been delivered so far.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, and AP





With more than 10,000 religious shrines dotting Iran to mark where descendants of Shi'ite Islam's most revered imams are said to have been buried, many of them go unnoticed.

But one of these so-called imamzadeh sanctums recently caught the eye of a passerby who, in a video, questioned its proximity to a globally recognized legacy of Iran's pre-Islamic past, the ruins of Persepolis.

His video and the resulting debate highlighted the pride that Iranians take in their culture's ancient past and apparent distrust of a clerical and political establishment that some accuse of highlighting the Islamic era at the expense of Iran's pre-Islamic history.

The clip shows the shrine, known as Imamzadeh Ebrahim, and suggests that it was built only recently.

"This is the beginning of the [Persepolis] road. As you can see, [authorities] have built an imamzadeh here in the past few days," the man is heard saying in the video. "When we lived here, this wasn't here; theyve set it up recently."

"I really dont know what [authorities] think of us that they simply do such things. I hope that these measures end."

WATCH: Video From A Shi'ite Shrine Near Persepolis (in Persian, no subtitles)

Concerned Iranians responded by calling the imamzadeh a threat to Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Persian Empire that was built by Cyrus the Great, saying it could cost the 2,500-year-old site its UNESCO World Heritage listing.

Officials in Marvdasht in Fars Province, where the shrine is located in southwest Iran, have issued a rebuttal.

"This video clip...is a sheer lie," Alireza Manuchehri, head of the Office of Endowment and Charity Affairs in Fars, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency. "Imamzadeh Ebrahim, whose grave is next to Persepolis, is among the descendants of [Seventh Shi'ite] Imam Musa Kazem and his sacred tomb has been in that location from the old days."

"The old sign had been worn out [and] a new sign was installed six months ago," he said.

'Suspicious' Intentions

Government news agency IRNA quoted officials from the shrine and residents of a nearby village saying it had been there for many decades.

Thirteen of Iran's 22 UNESCO World Heritage sites won their listings in the past decade, and Iranian authorities appear to have worked hard in recent years to preserve ancient sites.

But a Tehran journalist who requested anonymity because he feared official reaction said some Iranians remain suspicious of authorities' intentions.

"Many believe that the ruling establishment does not value the [country's] cultural heritage," the journalist said. "So when an imamzadeh appears next to such a prominent, historic site, understandably people who are sensitive about their ancient history become worried."

Elias Ziarati, an official with the Fars Office Of Endowment and Charity Affairs, was quoted by Fararu.com as saying a plan that "has now become operational" to rebuild the tomb of Imamzadeh Ebrahim and restoration work would comply with "Persepolis's world's heritage criteria."

Farhad Azizi, a member of Persepolis Technical Council, told the Iranian daily that authorities were simply hoping to cash in on visitors to the ancient ruins, particularly ahead of Persian New Year's celebrations in March.

There were other certified imamzadehs around Persepolis, Azizi added, "but the Endowment Office didn't invest in them because theyre far away and not located on the tourist route."

Shoehorning Religion Into Everything?

Imamzadehs are visited by many Iranians for prayers and religious rituals, but they are also seen by some as a callous attempt to shoehorn religion into every aspect of society.

Reliable numbers are hard to find, but a spokesman for Iran's Office for Endowment and Charity Affairs told the reformist Shargh daily in 2013 that the number of imamzadeh shrines had grown sevenfold since 1979.

Berlin-based researcher Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari, who had a religious education, said Islamic guidelines and traditions do not encourage the erecting of such shrines.

"Establishments that are religious or consider themselves religious, such as the Islamic republic, they reinforce these beliefs to create religious legitimacy or sacredness for themselves," he said.

Eskevari accused Iranian authorities of using religion to downplay Irans ancient past.

Iranian conservatives expressed anger over a large commemorative gathering in 2016 at the tomb of Cyrus the Great, the first king of Persia. Senior cleric Nuri Hamedani blasted the Cyrus Day event as the work of "counterrevolutionaries" and said participants chanted slogans normally reserved for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Last year, authorities appeared to take measures to prevent citizens from gathering and celebrating Cyrus at his tomb, including reports of a fence being erected and restrictions being imposed on the number of people who could visit the site.

Radio Farda Broadcaster Javad Kooroshy contributed to this report

The Latvian prime minister's office says the country's anticorruption agency has detained the central banks governor, Ilmars Rimsevics.

Prime Minister Maris Kucinskiss office made the announcement in a statement on February 18 following reports saying that the office and a property of Rimsevics were searched.

Latvia's state broadcaster LTV reported that the national anticorruption agency, called KNAB, raided Rimsevicss office and property on February 16 and aired footage that appeared to show him arriving at the agency's offices.

In its statement, Kucinskis's office did not provide details about the case, but insisted that "there are no signs of a threat to the Latvian financial system."

It said an extraordinary cabinet meeting would be convened on February 19 to "analyze the situation."

In a message on Twitter, Latvia's presidency said there would be a meeting of the National Security Council next week to discuss the banking sector.

The KNAB, the Bank of Latvia, and the European Central Bank declined to comment on Kucinskiss detention.

Latvia is a member of the European Union and uses the euro as its currency.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip has repeated his call for Russia to withdraw its troops and armaments from Moldova's separatist region of Transdniester.

Filip on February 17 told a roundtable at the Munich Security Conference that his country seeks "a balanced, friendly relationship with Moscow."

He described such a relationship as one "in which our trade cooperation will not be politicized, and the dialogue will be based on mutual respect."

It would be a relationship "in which there will be a real desire to help settle the Transdniester conflict and to withdraw military forces and munitions from the territory of the Republic of Moldova," he added.

Mainly Russian-speaking Transdniester declared independence from Moldova in 1990 over fears that Chisinau would seek reunification with neighboring Romania. Most of Moldova was part of Romania in the interwar period.

Moldovan forces and Moscow-backed Transdniester fighters fought a short but bloody war in 1992.

The conflict ended with a cease-fire agreement after Russian troops in the region intervened on the side of the separatists.

Some 1,400 Russian troops remain in Transdniester guarding Soviet-era arms depots, and Moscow has resisted numerous calls over the years to withdraw its troops.

Transdniester's independence is recognized by no country, and the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), among others, have attempted to forge a resolution to the dispute.

Internal Divisions

Moldova is facing internal political divisons as well. The Filip government, which favors closer ties with the EU and the United States, has been at odds with pro-Moscow President Igor Dodon, who is advocating the country's deeper integration with Russia and former Soviet states.

On February 9, a senior Moldovan lawmaker accused Russia of meddling in his country's domestic politics ahead of parliamentary elections later this year.

Filip, in his remarks in Munich -- which were posted on the Moldovan government's website -- said the authorities will do "everything necessary to ensure the freeness and fairness of the parliamentary elections."

Filip also lamented the "state of uncertainty" facing all countries in Eastern Europe.

Along with "the relationship of each country with Russia," Filip cited concerns related to internal issues, "such as structural reforms, consolidation of democratic institutions, the fight against corruption, poverty reduction, infrastructure upgrading."

He stressed that it is in the common interest to make the situation in the region "as predictable and stable as possible."

"The main role in achieving this goal lies with the East European countries themselves -- to become more prosperous and to strengthen their resilience to internal and external challenges," he added.MUNICH, Germany -- Israel's prime minister and the Iranian foreign minister have traded sharp words at a high-profile security conference, with Benjamin Netanyahu likening Iran to Nazi Germany and Mohammad Javad Zarif calling the Israeli leader's speech a "cartoonish circus."

Speaking for the first time ever at the Munich Security Conference on February 18, Netanyahu said Iran represents the "greatest threat to our world."

He urged the international community to confront a "regime" in Tehran that "threatens peace," and at one point brandished what he said was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down by Israel over its territory earlier this month.

Addressing the conference in the southern German city -- an annual gathering of world leaders, senior officials, and policy experts -- Netanyahu also denounced as dangerous a landmark 2015 international deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for some sanctions relief.

That deal between Iran and six world powers has not moderated Iran "internally or externally," Netanyahu said.

He also said there were "striking similarities" between today's Iran and Nazi Germany, saying that the Iranian leadership wants to destroy Israel.

Netanyahu sought to differentiate between Iran's citizens and "an Iranian regime that threatens peace," saying he has "no problem with the people of Iran."

'Very Dangerous Development'

Netanyahu also told the audience, which included U.S. and European diplomats, that Iran is expanding its influence in the Middle East as the extremist group Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS, lost most of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria.

"The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza," he said.

"This is a very dangerous development for our region," Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu warned that Iran should "not test Israels resolve."

"We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," he said.

After holding up what he said was part of a recovered Iranian drone, Netanyahu called Zarif out by name, saying: "Do you recognize this? You should. Its yours."

Zarif took the stage just hours after Netanyahus speech. Not mentioning the Israeli leader by name, he told the audience that earlier in the morning they had witnessed a "cartoonish circus" that "does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

He proceeded to deliver a litany of grievances against the United States and Israel, including U.S. military involvement in the Middle East and what he called Israeli "aggression as a policy against its neighbors."

He accused Israel of "mass reprisals against its neighbors and daily incursions" into Syria and Lebanon."

"The entire speech was trying to evade the issue," Zarif said of Netanyahus address.

Tensions between Israel and Iran spiked on February 10 after an Israeli warplane was shot down as it returned from a bombing operation against what the military described as both Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria.

The Israeli strikes came after the military said it had intercepted an Iranian drone crossing the Syria-Israel border. Tehran rejected Israel's version of events as "ridiculous" and "lies," saying Syria had the right to defend itself in response to the strikes.

Referring to the downing of the Israeli jet on February 10, Zarif told the Munich conference, "What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility [of Israel] has crumbled."

'Delusional Attempts'

Answering a question about the nuclear agreement following his speech, Zarif warned that Iran would respond "seriously" if its "interests are not secured."

He accused Netanyahu of trying to undermine the accord, saying that the world "will maintain that agreement in spite of his delusional attempts."

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Iran of violating the "spirit" of the nuclear accord and has said he wants to work with European allies and Congress to fix what he called "disastrous flaws" in the agreement.

Trump warned that Washington would withdraw from the deal if terms were not strengthened by May.

Speaking during a panel discussion in Munich on February 18, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry -- one of the key players in negotiating the Iran nuclear deal -- expressed continued support for the agreement.

"I believe it is absolutely critical for Europe, for the world, to make sure we hold on to this agreement," Kerry said. "Because to go backward -- we know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement. It is not a better place."

Iranian President Hassan Rohani said last month that Trump and his administration had "failed to undermine" the nuclear accord, "despite his repeated efforts."

Rohani praised the nuclear deal as "a long-lasting victory for Iran."

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and APMUNICH, Germany -- Sharp and often fierce rhetoric permeated this year's Munich Security Conference, which asked participants if the world could manage to dial down the geopolitical tensions that have been rapidly mounting in recent years.



Such was the fraught atmosphere surrounding this year's annual gathering of world leaders, diplomats, and other dignitaries that the conference chairman saw considerable symbolism in how he punctuated the title of this year's event: "To The Brink  And Back?"

"I was hoping when I opened this conference on Friday that, in concluding the conference, I would be able to say we can delete the question mark. In other words: 'We are back from the brink,'" former German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger said in closing remarks at the three-day event on February 18.

"I'm actually not sure we can say that," he added.

From Kyiv's war with Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, to U.S. allegations of Moscow's election-meddling, to territorial disputes between ex-Soviet republics, to a rhetorical clash between Israel and Iran: geopolitical rancor pervaded this year's conference.

Transatlantic tensions surfaced in Munich as well, as top European officials appeared to question the stewardship of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called Britain's exit from the EU a "great thing" and pressed NATO allies to boost defense spending.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told the conference that his country had "eagerly learned" the value of democracy, rule of law, multilateralism, and human rights from the United States, but that "we no longer recognize our America."

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, met with Gabriel following the German diplomat's speech and assured the conference later in the day that Washington was committed to its allies. He added, however, that "we must all share responsibility."

'Undermining' Western Democracies

Events unfolding across the Atlantic reverberated in real time at the swanky Munich hotel where the conference was held.

As Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accused Russia in his February 16 speech of deploying disinformation as part of a "world hybrid war," U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced more than a dozen indictments of Russian citizens and firms accused of trying to "sow discord in the US political system," including in the 2016 presidential election.

Those allegations triggered some of the more memorable exchanges of the conference. Asked about the indictments following his own address on February 17, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed them as "claptrap" until Moscow can see what he called "the facts" of the case.

Russia rejects U.S. accusations that it carried out a Kremlin-ordered hacking-and-propaganda campaign aimed at helping elect Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants to improve ties with Moscow that have become badly strained over the wars in Syria and eastern Ukraine.

Speaking after Lavrov, McMaster said the United States was "becoming more and more adept at tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion."

"And as you can see with the FBI indictment the evidence is now really incontrovertible," he said.

When senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachyov asked McMaster from the audience about possible U.S. cooperation with Russian cybersecurity experts, McMaster joked: "I am surprised there are any Russian cyberexperts available based on how active most of them have been in undermining our democracies in the West."

Asked about the exchange at a panel discussion later that day, Kosachyov demanded evidence for the charges and denied that the Russian government was involved in cyberattacks.

"Russia as a state is definitely not involved in any hacking attacks or cyberwars," Kosachyov said. "This is not our policy. Definitely not."

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in June that "patriotic" Russian hackers might target individuals who criticize Russia, but that they have no connection to the government.

Speaking at the panel discussion, Kosachyov called the U.S. hacking allegations a "dirty game aimed at containing Russia in all areas."

Ukraine Peacekeeper Stalemate

The rhetoric between Russia and Ukraine in Munich was even sharper.

Heading into the conference, there had been indications of progress in talks on a potential UN peacekeeping force in eastern Ukraine, though Kyiv and Moscow remain divided on the scope and mandate of such a mission.

The U.S. and Russian envoys for Ukraine talks sounded more optimistic about the progression of the talks last month than previously, and Putin and Poroshenko spoke by telephone days before the conference.

But Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said their bilateral meeting failed to produce progress on the issue. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters following his meeting with Lavrov that he also saw little progress and that "it remains to be seen if it's possible."

Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine who had noted more Russian "openness" on the peacekeeping proposal last month, told reporters on the sidelines of the conference that such a force "doesn't make any sense" if Russia does not "end the conflict and withdraw its forces" in eastern Ukraine.

Russia denies backing the separatists in eastern Ukraine despite substantial evidence of such support.

Planned talks at the conference in the so-called Normandy Format -- Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia -- aimed at bringing an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine were dropped. Klimkin said on Twitter that the Germans weren't able to make it happen.

Reuters cited a diplomatic source as saying that the meeting was canceled because Gabriel had to fly back to Berlin after Turkey released a German-Turkish journalist from prison.

Poroshenko, meanwhile, denounced Russia as a destructive force in the world, suggesting that the "Russian world" brings nothing but ruin and despair to anything it touches.

In Munich, he said returning Crimea -- the Ukrainian peninsula Russia seized in 2014 -- was Kyiv's "top priority." In his address to the conference, he called on the West to strengthen sanctions in response to Moscow's occupation of Crimea and backing of separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Lavrov said in his speech that the peace process was being "openly sabotaged by Kyiv."

Kosachyov took to Facebook on the second day of the conference to accuse Poroshenko of "creating an atmosphere of hysteria about nonexistent Russian aggression" that he said is stoking violence by nationalist groups.

The day after Kosachyov's remarks, dozens of far-right Ukrainian demonstrators attacked Russian banks and a Russian aid agency in Kyiv, smashing windows and burning a Russian flag.

'No One Has Any Solutions'

On the final day of the Munich conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened Iran to Nazi Germany and called Tehran "the greatest threat to our world."

Addressing the conference hours later, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Netanyahu's speech as a "cartoonish circus."

Ischinger said in his closing remarks that the event had featured "excellent analytical work" and a handful of "great ideas" on transnational cooperation.

"The bad news is, we haven't heard enough -- at least as far as I'm concerned," he said.

Ian Bremmer, the founder of the Eurasia Group political-risk consultancy who hosted several panel discussions -- including the event's final one, held behind closed doors -- was more blunt in his assessment.

"We're in trouble," Bremmer said in a February 18 interview with Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper. "Because, you know, pretty much every geopolitical conflict out there is escalating, none of them are getting fixed, and no one has any solutions."

"This was not a good meeting," he added.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said that the United States is still investigating who directed an attack on a base housing U.S.-backed opposition forces and U.S. military advisers in Syria earlier this month.

"Whatever happened, we'll try to figure it out. We'll work with, obviously, anyone who can answer that question," Mattis said on February 17 while flying back to Washington after a weeklong tour of Europe.

He said that Russian officers whom the United States coordinated with were apparently unaware of the February 7 attack in the Deir al-Zor Province, according to a Pentagon transcript.

The Pentagon has said that air strikes launched after as many as 500 pro-government forces attacked the base killed about 100 of the attackers.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said last week that five Russians who were not military personnel may have been killed in the clash, and claimed that reports putting the Russian toll in the dozens or hundreds was "disinformation."

Associates of Russian mercenaries fighting alongside Syrian government forces have said that there were large-scale casualties among the contractors in the clash.

"I understand that the Russian government now is saying some of their not military forces, but contractors, were involved in that still unexplained attack," Mattis said.

The attackers "took direction from someone.Was it local direction? Was it from external sources?Don't ask me.I don't know," the U.S. defense secretary said.

"But I doubt that 257 people all just decided on their individual own selves to suddenly cross the [Euphrates] River into enemy territory and start shelling a location and maneuvering tanks against it," he added.

Russia has given President Bashar al-Assad's government crucial support throughout the 7-year-old war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on protests.

Moscow helped turn the tide of the conflict in his favor by a launching a campaign of air strikes in 2015 and stepping up its military presence on the ground.

The United States has backed rebel groups -- including the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian Arab and Kurdish fighters -- fighting to topple Assad.

An SDF base near the Euphrates River "deconfliction line" set to avoid clashes between the two sides in Deir al-Zor Province was the site of the February 7 incident.

With reporting by Reuters and AFPA White House official says the United States believes it is "extremely unlikely" that Turkey used chemical weapons against Kurds during its military campaign in the Afrin Province of northern Syria.

The official said on February 17 that U.S. officials were aware of the reports but had no evidence to confirm them.

The U.S. comments come after claims by the head of Afrin hospital in northern Syria that six men were treated late on February 16 after shelling and had symptoms that appeared to indicate exposure to toxic agents, including "enlarged pupils" and "breathing difficulties."

The claims could not be independently verified. Videos from the hospital showed people being fitted with oxygen masks but who did not otherwise show symptoms of a chemical attack.

Turkey on January 19 began an air-and-land military campaign in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave in northern Syria, saying it was targeting Kurdish terrorists.

The alleged use of chemical weapons in the seven-year civil war in Syria has long been an issue, with the United Nations previously declaring evidence of use by President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against rebels.

U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 17, said public reports "clearly show" that Assad's forces are continuing to use chemical weapons.

Assad's government rejects accusations that it deploys chemical weapons.

The United States and Turkey support differing rebel groups fighting the Syrian government, while Russia and Iran back Assads government in the war.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP

The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has met with the Georgian prime minister and defense minister in Germany to discuss bilateral defense relations and regional security issues.

The meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashili and Defense Minister Levan Izoria took place on February 17 on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.

Mattis "praised Georgia's continuing service as the largest non-NATO force contributor and per-capita contributor alongside U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, recognizing that this service has come at the price of 32 Georgian service members' lives and 290 more wounded," White said.

She added that Mattis discussed the "significant progress in Georgia's defense reforms and U.S. security assistance to Georgia's armed forces, including the ongoing partnership to enhance combat readiness and institutional capacity via the Georgia Defense Readiness Program."

Mattis also reaffirmed Washington's continued support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Russia-backed breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia have declared independence from Georgia.

Russia recognized the regions as independent states following a short war with Georgia in August 2008.

Only a few countries followed Russia's lead in recognizing the entities' independence.

A few thousand protesters in Kyiv called for the removal of President Petro Poroshenko, while Ukrainian nationalists separately smashed windows and defaced three Russia-linked buildings in a day of demonstrations in the capital.

The anti-Poroshenko rally on February 18 was called by opposition figure Mikheil Saakashvili -- who was expelled from Ukraine on February 12 -- as part of what he has labeled an anticorruption campaign.

Officials estimated some 2,500 people gathered to demand Poroshenkos resignation, while some 3,000 police were deployed to keep order. The French AFP news agency estimated that the crowd numbered as many as 10,000 people.

Smaller demonstrations were reported in other cities in western and central Ukraine.

Poroshenko and Saakashvili are former allies who are now bitter rivals.

Poroshenko invited Saakashvili to serve as governor of the Odesa region in 2015, but Saakashvili resigned after 1 1/2 years, complaining of massive corruption under Poroshenko.

Saakashvili was stripped of his citizenship in July 2017 and, after leading an opposition campaign against Poroshenko, was detained at a Kyiv restaurant on February 12 and taken to the airport and flown to Poland.

He eventually flew to the Netherlands, his wife's home country, and vowed to continue his battle to topple Poroshenko.

Meanwhile, Russian officials urged Kyiv to condemn "yet another provocation" after several dozen Ukrainian far-right nationalists damaged a Moscow-based aid agency and two Russian-owned banks in the capital.

Russian media on February 18 reported that Ukrainian demonstrators broke windows and used paint to deface the building housing the Rossotrudnichestvo aid agency.

Eleonora Mitrofanova, the head of the Rossotrudnichestvo agency, told journalists in Moscow that no one was injured in the attacks on the Kyiv headquarters, but "quite significant damage was done to the building."

Windows were also smashed at two Russian-owned banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank.

A day earlier, nationalists gathered at the Rossotrudnichestvo building, ripping the Russian flag off the building and burning it.

The Russian Embassy in Kyiv said that "we hope the Ukrainian side will publicly condemn this incident -- the anti-Russian march and the attack on the Russian center."

Ukraine, once part of the Soviet Union, and Russia are bitter rivals. Moscow has annexed Western-leaning Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and has backed separatists in eastern Ukraine fighting the government in Kyiv.

With reporting by dpa, AFP, and TASSUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed he will testify at the treason trial in absentia of former President Viktor Yanukovych.

"Evil must be punished. That is why, for the first time in Ukrainian history, I decided to take part in the trial," Poroshenko said in Kyiv on February 18.

"It is unprecedented when the president takes part personally, but this [trial] concerns everybody," he added.

The comments come after Kyivs Obolon district court summoned Poroshenko and other top Ukrainian officials in December to testify as witnesses for prosecution at the trial, which began in May 2017.

Yanukovych abandoned office in late February 2014 and fled to Russia in the face of protests triggered by his decision to scrap plans for a landmark deal with the European Union and improve trade ties with Moscow instead.

Ukrainian prosecutors say 104 people were killed and 2,500 injured when his government attempted to clamp down on the pro-European street protests known as the Euromaidan.

Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Yanukovych, who is accused of treason, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and abetting Russian aggression.

After he fled, Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and fomented opposition to the central government in eastern Ukraine, where the ensuing war between Kyiv's forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 10,300 people.

Western governments responded to Russia's moves with several waves of sanctions targeting Moscow.

On February 20, Ukrainians will commemorate the fourth anniversary of the bloodiest day of Euromaidan.

The annual commemorations honor protesters, known as the Heavenly Hundred, who were killed in clashes with security forces in Kyiv.A crowd of around 100 Ukrainian far-right demonstrators burned the Russian flag and attacked institutions linked to Russia during a rally on February 18 in Kyiv. The event that turned violent was organized by nationalist leader Mykola Kokhanivskyy. Some of the protesters smashed windows in branches of the Russian-owned Sberbank and Alfa-Bank as well as the Ukrainian headquarters of a Russian aid agency.U.S. authorities say a 19-year-old gunman opened fire on February 14 at a Florida high school from which he had previously been expelled, killing 17 people before he was arrested by police. The violence erupted shortly before dismissal at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 70 kilometers north of Miami. Television footage showed students streaming out of the building as dozens of police and emergency services personnel swarmed the area. The alleged gunman -- identified as Nikolas Cruz -- surrendered to police without a struggle. (WSVN via AP)On the first day of the Chinese New Year, Supervisor London Breed stood on a stage in San Franciscos Portsmouth Square, a row of red lanterns bobbing behind her.

In halting Chinese, she greeted a crowd of tourists and residents who had gathered Friday beneath the decorative pennants, the orange dragon and the stage festooned in bunting. Breed smiled archly at the Chinatown dignitaries  and at her mentor, former Mayor Willie Brown  who were lined up alongside her on the platform.

That group of players could determine who becomes the citys next mayor, and it appears theyve picked Breed  an African American woman who grew up in a Western Addition housing project and who might not seem like an obvious choice for the Chinese American community.

Supervisor Jane Kim and Mark Leno, who are also running in the June 5 race, were at the celebration as well. But right now, its London, said David Ho, a consultant and rising figure in Chinatown politics. A month or two from now, its going to be clear shes the person that Chinese voters feel the baton should be handed to.

With four months left until the election, Breed is emerging as the heir to the Chinese American power structure that helped to elect Ed Lee, who died of a heart attack in December. Chinatowns political elite is pulling away from Leno and Kim, who would be the first Asian American woman to be mayor, for one simple reason, political observers say: Breed is the candidate they think will win.

Her rise comes in spite of controversial remarks shes made in the past, accusing Asian Americans of monopolizing the citys affordable housing lottery. Community leaders seem willing to overlook those statements in the name of pragmatic politics. That was the approach that Chinatowns most famous power broker, Brown ally Rose Pak, was known for.

Pak died in 2016. In her absence and with Lees death, Theres a leadership void in the Chinese community, so people are looking to Willie Brown, said David Lee, a political science lecturer at San Francisco State University who also runs the nonprofit Chinese American Voters Education Committee.

Brown, who writes a weekly column for The Chronicle, has treated Breed as a protege. With him in tow, Breed has begun a charm offensive in the citys Chinese American neighborhoods. After the Lunar New Year event on Friday, she served lunch to senior citizens at the Chinatown Salvation Army. On Tuesday, she and Brown will speak at a Chinese American Voters Education Committee banquet at the Chinatown Hilton hotel.

What youre seeing now is the Willie Brown coalition being put back together, Lee said.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

The endorsements are piling up. Ho, Supervisor Katy Tang and Chinatown businessman Pius Lee are all behind Breed. Their support will help sway an electorate that spreads from its political center in Chinatown out west to the Sunset District and south to the Bayview neighborhood. Chinese Americans account for roughly a fifth of voters in any city election.

This is an important voting bloc  one that could push a candidate over the top, said Josephine Zhao, a community organizer in the Sunset who is running for the Board of Education. She has not yet endorsed anyone in the mayors race.

Zhao and others stressed that the Chinese American community is not a monolith. But high-profile endorsements definitely matter. If the crowd that brought Ed Lee into power gives Breed its blessing, that says something.

Its particularly noteworthy because not everyone views Breed as a natural successor to the late mayor. She represents the progressive District Five, which doesnt have a lot of Chinese American residents. And she doesnt have strong relationships among Chinatown tenant groups, who have long been tied to Kim, a much stronger advocate for affordable housing.

Kim has endorsements from Chinese American nonprofit leaders Anni Chung and Gordon Chin, as well as Chinatowns Community Tenants Association.

Breeds reputation in the Chinese American community may have been diminished by statements she made in a 2013 interview with the news site Hoodline that recently resurfaced and became a source of gossip at City Hall.

In the interview, Breed said that one ethnic group  Asians  was dominating the citys lottery system for affordable housing. Two years later she introduced neighborhood preference housing legislation designed to give African Americans a leg up.

Was it a poor choice of words? Absolutely, Ho said of the comments in Hoodline.

Yet he and others have forgiven Breed, saying she made the statements early in her political career and that shes since matured. Breed later apologized through her campaign spokeswoman, Tara Moriarty.

The African American and Chinese communities have much in common and have faced similar challenges in that they have both faced housing discrimination in our city, and both have a need for affordable housing, Moriarty said.

Breed worked to repair her relationship with Chinese American residents from the moment she announced her candidacy in January  not in her own district, but at a playground in the heavily Asian American Outer Sunset, alongside Tang. A week later, she proposed renaming Portsmouth Square  the historic heart of Chinatown  after Ed Lee. And Breed recently added a Chinese translation of her name to her public Facebook page.

She said publicly that she will carry on Ed Lees policies and programs in Chinatown, said Pius Lee, chairman of the Chinatown Neighborhood Association, who threw a fundraiser for Breed at the Imperial Palace restaurant Saturday.

Breed is also promoting a ballot measure that would increase taxes on commercial properties to pay for more housing for lower- and middle-income families and provide shelters for the homeless, two things that have broad appeal among Chinese American residents. Representatives of Chinatown Community Development Center, an influential nonprofit that often sides with progressives, have pledged support for the measure. Breed is considered a moderate.

It would undercut a competing tax measure by Kim, a progressive, which would use a similar tax increase to raise money for child care subsidies.

Malcolm Yeung, deputy director of Chinatown Community Development Center, said his group will probably support both measures. But hes already put the housing one in front, backing it at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing last week.

The fact that progressives in Chinatown are creating an opening for Breed at all is significant.

Some political observers say Breed has positioned herself strategically in a race where no one has an immediate claim on the Chinese American vote.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Kim is viewed by some as too liberal to win that electorate. She lost the 2016 state Senate race against Scott Wiener in west side neighborhoods like the Sunset and Ingleside, where residents are concerned about car burglaries, small businesses and property rights. Few voters in those neighborhoods would be fired up by Kims rhetoric about stopping evictions or taxing corporations.

She could get a strong boost from Asian American voters, but it would take a grassroots voter mobilization campaign, and Im not sure thats what shes created, said former Supervisor Eric Mar, a progressive who endorsed Kim.

Leno, the former assemblyman and state senator, began his campaign by promising to take San Francisco in a new direction, a slogan that some people interpreted as a repudiation of Lees policies, meaning it wouldnt play well in the Chinese American community.

His consultant, Jim Stearns, disputed that perception.

When it comes to property crime and homelessness, the city needs to do better, Stearns said. He noted that Leno has endorsements from several high-ranking San Francisco Democrats: Assemblyman Phil Ting, state Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma, Supervisors Norman Yee and Sandra Lee Fewer, and state Controller Betty Yee.

The only Chinese American candidate for mayor is Ellen Zhou, a social worker from the west side who isnt well known and doesnt have the political apparatus to run a citywide race.

That opens the door for Breed to make her case to the Chinese American community, said political consultant Tom Hsieh, whose father was a San Francisco supervisor in the 1980s. He sees Breed as a promising candidate.

She grew up in San Francisco and went to San Francisco public schools  and making schools excellent is right in the wheelhouse of Chinese voters, Hsieh said.

He added that the African American and Chinese American communities have a very shared past because they both faced discrimination from mainstream society.

If she can make that connection, she might be able to unite Chinatown with west side voters to claim the mayors office, said Lee, the San Francisco State University lecturer.

It can be done, he said  Willie Brown proved that.Steven G. de Polo / Getty Image

A 65-year-old man sustained moderate to serious injuries when he was pinned under a car that plowed into a Little Caesars pizza restaurant in Fremont Saturday morning.

The Fremont Police Department responded to a 911 call at 11:39 a.m. indicating that a vehicle had been driven into the restaurant and that the car had collided with a customer inside.Correspondent Jamie Jobb, with whom anyone would like to split a sundae, likes to be an ice cream lover who eats responsibly. He recently bought two pints of Aldens Organic ice cream, a product of Oregon Ice Cream of Eugene.

The label, according to Jobb, proudly proclaims it is USDA Organic, non-GMO, no artificial flavoring, no high-fructose corn syrup, no artificial colorings, gluten free, with milk from cows not treated with BST antibodies. The label also proclaims that the company supports sustainable family farms and that their products contain no carrageenan.

But if all that gets your ice cream-loving juices flowing, stop right there. Somewhere in the supply chain between Eugene and the Bay Area, said Jobb, someone had slapped an additional label on the package, saying Dairy = Cruelty, along with a url connecting the buyer to a pro-vegan site.

So we threw it out, Jobb said. The label, not the ice cream.

P.S. As to other items that are cold and white, the votes are in, and Im in the minority. Readers love those lit-up snowflakes on Market Street, which will be handed over by the Market Street Association to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission when the association shuts its doors. This is a democracy; long may they twinkle.

Brian Mott/Special to the Chronicle

The Dipsea Race Foundation, which is restoring the Dipsea Stairs, had been raising money for that project by selling bronze plaques embedded in the risers. That gave Dipsea runner Brian Mott the opportunity to propose to Dipsea runner Alicia Bartomeli in writing.

Mott told Bartomeli that he had bought a step plaque to commemorate them running the race together. When they located the plaque, she was frozen in shock and excitement, said Mott, to find that it read, Alicia Will You Marry Me? Love Brian.

The 108th running of the Dipsea is June 10, and the couple is planning to be married in April 2019.

Says Robert Wieder: A military parade is to actual military power as a border wall is to actual border security.

The choir of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Kensington was preparing a few days ago for a Valentines concert that included a performance of George Gershwins Fascinatin Rhythm, reports Gail Simpson. Bassos sang the line, Oh, how I long to be the man I used to be, which was followed by a pause in which Lucymarie Ruth addressed director Bryan Baker: Bryan, I find this phrase hard to sing. Ruth is transgender (and as the political ads say, approved this message).

The Chronicles Michael Gray was watching and listening while a pair of customers in a San Francisco doughnut shop struck up a conversation. One man, bedraggled-looking, was buying a lottery ticket. The other was intently looking at his smartphone, said Gray, showing the other how he was tracking bitcoin values and now he was making money every minute.

Youre never going to get rich doing that, he advised the lottery ticket buyer.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private nonprofit, has declared the 500 Capp Street/David Ireland House as one of its Historic Artists Homes and Studios. Among the other places so designated are homes and studios of Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Edward Hopper, Georgia OKeeffe and Donald Judd.

David Ireland died in 2009. His house, built in 1886, is open to the public under the auspices of the 500 Capp Street Foundation. It is San Franciscos only artists home with the designation. Irelands ideas and creative spirit are ingrained in his home, said Carlie Wilmans, executive director of the foundation.

Ralph Seligman was presiding over the Information Desk in Terminal 2 at SFO when a woman asked him how to find Delta Airlines. First, he said, Id like you to go past Virgin.

Listen, honey, she said, I am so past virgin, I cant tell you how long its been.

P.S. In other news of adult life, David Schwoegler noticed what he called the feel good news about aging in a Chronicle story about the flu: The state of California doesnt report flu deaths in people 65 or older, because fatalities among older people are so common that reporting them all would overwhelm surveillance systems. Message to the dearly departed: And dont slam the door on your way out.

Leah Garchik is open for business in San Francisco, (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

We ended up going to Paris Disneyland because at least there they are paid to be nice to us.

Man to man, overheard at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay by Ann BarryIn this moment of women taking back their power in Hollywood, director-screenwriter Alex Garland could make a great case for being an ally.

His new science fiction film, Annihilation, features an almost entirely female cast led by Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin)  who play smart, resourceful women on a scientific mission to explore a mysterious phenomenon that has overtaken a forest.

Except Garland, in San Francisco recently to discuss the film, did not want to talk about its gender makeup.

I dont like what looks like virtue signaling, he said.

Based on Jeff VanderMeers best-selling book, Annihilation has Portmans biologist character and her cohorts penetrate the shimmer, which surrounds the forest and looks, on its moving, melted-looking surface, like something Edvard Munch might create if he worked for a movie effects house.

Once inside, the women talk about how the shimmer has wiped their short-term memories and disabled their communications devices, but not about their gender.

Paramount Pictures

I didnt want to draw attention to it in the film, and I dont want to draw attention to it in talking about the film, Garland said.

This was partly in response to his previous project, 2015s Ex Machina. It starred Oscar Isaac as a tech CEO developing female humanoid robots for his own dubious purposes and represented a very carefully thought-out conversation about gender and objectification, said Garland, who was nominated for an Oscar for his Machina screenplay. But you react against the thing you just worked on, or I do. And in the case of Annihilation, I was interested in the absence of the discussion rather than the discussion itself.

Associated Press

An acclaimed novelist (The Beach) and screenwriter (28 Days Later), the London-born Garland, 47, made his directorial debut with Ex Machina. But he will not delineate his paths as novelist, screenwriter and director when asked about them.

Its all just kind of relaying a set of obsessions and preoccupations and compulsions via narrative, he said.

He rejects the pyramid structure that places the director at the top on a film set, he said. He considers himself part of a collective with the filmmaking professionals with whom he made Annihilation in England and has worked for years.

For a guy who deflects essential questions about his new film and career, Garland is a great conversationalist. He gives carefully considered answers and is easy to listen to, his soft British accent and warm tone of voice evoking Jude Laws.

The collective idea also fits a theme running through Garlands work. In The Beach, published in 1996 and based partly on Garlands own travels, the lead character finds a pristine beach in Thailand where Europeans and Americans fish, grow vegetables and bunk together in an ex-pat utopia where last names and personal histories are never exchanged.

PETER MOUNTAIN/Associated Press

Garlands captivating novel became an unfocused 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio film adapted to the screen by someone else and directed by Danny Boyle. Garland and Boyle scored two years later when Boyle directed Garlands screenplay for 28 Days Later, in which survivors of a zombie attack band together against the undead. The pair reteamed for 2007s Sunshine, in which a space crew tries to save the sun.

In Annihilation, Portmans character enters the shimmer partly to find answers to what happened to her soldier husband (Isaac, again), who emerged from a mission there empty-eyed and ill. But shes also part of a collective working on behalf of humankind.

This theme repeats again and again in his work, Garland acknowledged. And when you look at (Garlands) protagonists, they are oddly more passive than a lot of the people around them, and have very little backstory.

I dont want everything explained, he continued. I get slightly frustrated with full (narrative) circles.

Garlands San Francisco visit was brief, but he plans to return to make a Silicon Valley-centric miniseries for FX Productions, with whom he signed a deal last year. He wants to film exteriors here and interiors in England, with his filmmaking collective.

The series will be called Devs, short for developers. The narrative involves very, very big data and very extreme processing power, Garland said.

You can be certain something will go screwy, or perhaps sentient, with that power. A fascination with the outer reaches of the universe and technology has fueled Garlands post-Beach work. And even there, the lead character talked about multiverse theory.

Garland taught himself about science, after bombing out in biology, chemistry and physics in school. In his 20s, he kept hearing things that I found very provocative and strange related to science, and began investigating, he said.

I got hold of a childrens textbook about atoms, and read it, and at the end of the book, I thought, Yeah, I kind of understand that. And I just kept going.

Carla Meyer is a Northern California freelance writer.

Annihilation (R) opens Friday, Feb. 23 in Bay Area theaters.Situated a stones throw away from the de Young museum, Yonder is bringing a dose of coastal chic to a quiet corner of the Inner Richmond. Owner and maker Linda Fahey has perfected her vision here, having tested her retail prowess in Pacifica the past four years in her first location, which closed in January.

Yonders new space offers roughly 1,300 square feet to showcase her own line, plus tabletop, apothecary and gift items from local and international makers she chooses herself. The new spot allows her to offer more workshops and collaborate with floral designer Alethea Harampolis of Studio Choo, who uses the space as well. Fahey hopes to incorporate more food-related events at Yonder, either through workshops, like a recent one hosted on bread making, or private evening dinner parties.

The most important thing to me  and the thing I feel is why this place ended up working well  is that I want to be an anchor for a neighborhood. I didnt want to put myself in the middle of a busy street with 25 other stores. I kind of want to be a destination space. It gives me some room and some breathing space to do different things.

Q: What came first, the ceramics or Yonder?

A: The ceramics. The Yonder name came in the middle of the night. I was thinking hither and yon. Its an old, nostalgic kind of term and I thought it was kind of cute and catchy, but someone else had it. I just thought yon, and then yonder popped up. It really stuck and feels like a word everyone knows in a weird way.

Q: How did the interiors come together?

A: The space dictated what I wanted to do. We have 40 feet or more of windows, so we dont have a lot of wall space. The floor is original to the building, and I felt it would be blasphemy to put fake wood over real wood. We did not sand the life out of it, and allowed it to keep its age. I really organically built the space. I had a couple of ideas because I already have a style with the Pacifica store, which is sort of modern coastal. I wanted it to be comfortable and approachable. I have a guy who made the wood table for me, and we sell the wood here. The light fixture is from Windy Chien.

Q: Do you follow design trends?

A: I am always paying attention, and one of my big things is not to be like every other store in San Francisco. Although I do feel like we have an aesthetic thats appealing, Im not trying to follow it to the letter. I feel like theres really interesting things happening outside of trends that are connected, but you have to look a little harder, and it may be a bit of a surprise. People get conditioned to what theyre supposed to be looking for, and thats the job of the trend, but I feel its important to introduce things that might fit in, but theyre a bit unique.

Q: Where do you turn for inspiration?

A: The environment. I have an insatiable appetite for visual cues, so Im constantly on the lookout, and I go from ultramodern to vintage because theres a number of things that interest me, and I also think its nice to mix those things up. I have an illustration and art background. Museums are great; I wish I got to go there more often. I see a lot of things online. I look at Instagram all the time  I feel like thats a pretty fast way to see whats trending.

Q: Why do you think handmade items are so popular?

A: I have only handmade pottery at my house that I live with every day, and I use it. Its from all the people whose work Ive been collecting over many years. I dont reach for the stuff that is commercially manufactured. Theres nothing wrong with it, and I think its important to note that its not one or the other; I think they live together fine. But handmade pottery  you have a really different experience with it. It sounds kind of silly, but its true. It has a real life to it.

Daniela Province is a San Francisco freelance writer. Email: style@sfchronicle.com.

Shop Yonder, 701 11th Ave. (at Cabrillo). www.yondershop.com.

Linda Faheys favorites

Tatine Tisane candles, $19

These are from a woman-owned company out of Chicago  based on a love of classic rock, the names represent famous songs.

Linda Fahey ceramic shelfies, $24-$40

I think they look good in pairs and threes, or on their own. Great with air plants.

Familia by Studio Arhoj, $25

Incredibly addictive little ceramics from Copenhagen  call them what you will, you cant buy just one!

Millie + Lottie Totes, $28-$90

If you havent appreciated furoshiki, these will change your mind! Clean design, well-made, great gift.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Rachel Steiner mugs, $38

Honeypot shapes, comfy handles and great style from this Oakland artist. The best everyday cup in the shop.

Baby cactus in ceramic container, $40

A cute collaboration between Alethea and myself. We plant a baby cactus in one of my cups or vessels  great hostess or housewarming gift.

Potting Shed paperwhites grow box, $50

A pretty container DIY-planting kit of winter paperwhites  great for a green thumb.

Botnia Skincare travel kits, $88

These kits are beautiful, loaded with quality skin care products and absolutely perfect for winter travel.

Kept Goods ceramic storage, $315 (set of four)

Stylish, modern, practical  my three favorite things.

FlameWare pots by Andrew Kontrabecki, $100-$300

Hardy and utilitarian pieces with modern shapes from a San Francisco potter. These can literally go on the burner!Kulapat Yantrasast enjoys a good cocktail. The Thai-born architect  who is known by his singular first name, a la Cher or Madonna  takes a sip of the Ill Have What Jays Having at Hayes Valley venue Rickshaw Stop, raises his glass and toasts: Lets drink until we dont remember!

The occasion is the Asian Art Museums post-holiday/pre-Lunar New Year staff party, and the drink is named in honor of museum director Jay Xu. Kulapat is wearing one of his signature jumpsuits. This one is electric blue, with just a hint of a smart white button-down shirt and bright yellow neckerchief peeking out.

I started wearing these around 1998 when I was working in Japan, Kulapat says. When you go on construction sites there, everyone has a jumpsuit on, all in different colors according to what they do. Japan is my adopted birthplace.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Kulapat and his jumpsuits will soon be a familiar sight in Civic Center. His Southern California architecture firm, wHY, is overseeing the $90 million expansion of San Franciscos Asian Art Museum just across the park from City Hall. Its an ambitious project that will add 13,000 square feet as well as a rooftop art terrace. Construction begins in spring and is expected to be finished by summer 2019. (The museum will remain open.)

Kulapat is also chairing the museums annual gala March 1 with Asian Art commissioner and museum trustee Lucy Sun. The theme, appropriately, is transformation.

Everyone really loves having Kulapat around, says director of museum events Susan Engel. His unofficial fan club calls ourselves The Kula-pals.

Style tagged along with Kulapat for a night on the town that took us from cocktails to cuisine to cannabis and back again.

After a few Jays, Kulapat and museum communications manager Zac Rose hop in a car and head to Kin Khao (which means eat rice in Thai), the Michelin-starred restaurant of Kulapats friend Pim Techamuanvivit in the Parc 55 hotel.

Its not authentic Thai food, Kulapat says. Its better.

Kulapat embraces his appetites fully  for food, drink or celebrating. Servers bring out plates of laab kua (spicy pork salad), spiced chicken wings and broth, salted duck eggs and crispy omelets. He instructs on the best combinations of flavors.

Thai food is always about the mixture, he says. Spicy, sour and sweet. You have to have the pork belly with the squid. And egg with sticky rice is my favorite. My grandmother is from the north (in Thailand), and thats where that comes from.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

After a consultation with the bartender, Kulapat orders a bourbon and vermouth, kem kon, which he likens to a manhattan.

Kem kon means intense in Thai, he says This drink is like me: I may look like a lightweight, but Im intense.

Over dinner, Kulapat shares how he developed his interest in architecture. At age 7, he watched with fascination as his parents renovated his childhood home in Thailand.

My dad, who was an engineer, told me to watch and learn, he says. Thats when it started, the fascination with transforming spaces.

That love of transformation has been especially evident in Kulapats work with museums, including the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky., and the new Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles, part of what made him a natural fit for the Asian.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

He talks about his life in Venice Beach (Los Angeles County) with his half poodle, half sheepdog rescue dog Billie, and his life philosophy (I see myself as a colony of cells, everyone working together).

I love life in Venice, he says. Like Civic Center, the smell of pot is prevalent there. Its my hood smell in both cities. Whenever I have dinner parties, everyone brings different strains of pot to share, and I always have so much left at the end of the night.

After a chat with Canopy co-founder Amir Mortazavi, who stops by the table, Kulapat decides cannabis is on the after-dinner menu and heads to Barbary Coast Collective for a vape pen and a sampling of the strains before the final stop of the night, the new rooftop bar Charmaines at the recently opened Proper Hotel. With its views of Market Street on one side and Civic Center on the other, the Asian Art Museum is not far from view as Kulapat basks in the warmth of the fire pit. It reminds him of the museums planned art terrace.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

Its really going to change everything, he says, having a final drink before calling it a night. Theres not a lot of places in Civic Center where you can be outside. Here, youll not only have art, youll also see all the amazing surrounding architecture at a different level. Im a big believer that the art experience and the city experience need to be seen together.Motorists on Highway 101 were in for a surprise Sunday when a small plane pierced the blue skies and made an emergency landing in the middle of the road in Morgan Hill.

The single-engine Piper PA-46 landed on a grassy strip dividing Highway 101 just after 11 a.m. near San Martin Airport in Santa Clara County after reporting engine failure, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

The pilot, who was not identified, was the only person on the flight, Gregor said.

No injuries were reported, and there was no damage to the plane, Gregor said.

The bizarre sight of the plane stopped in the middle of the highway was jolting for many passing motorists, including Joshua Miller, who stopped to take photos.

Miller, 21, of Orange, had just had breakfast with his parents in Hollister (San Benito County), and they were driving to San Francisco to scout apartments.

There was traffic backed up for miles in both the northbound and southbound lanes. My parents and I were all wondering what could be happening, Miller said.

When they finally inched up to a point where the plane came into view, flanked by police cars and fire trucks, Miller said, he could barely contain his surprise.

I was like, wow, you dont see that every day, he said. Im actually a photojournalism major, and I like to go out and look for breaking news stories, and this is by far the most intense thing Ive seen.By 1937, the citizens of San Francisco were fed up with perpetual traffic jams.

If you thought overcrowding was a modern problem, the photos in the gallery above show bustling downtown San Francisco in the 1930s and 1940s. They are a treasure trove of images of the grid-locked metropolis, unseen for decades.

At the time they were taken, the city was considering a subway system and calling for an "end to the Toonerville folly." An article in the Chronicle from Oct. 1937 described how every streetcar was like the proverbial sardine can. "If everyone on the trolley would exhale at the same time, the rivets holding the steel plates of the car body would have popped out like Mexican jumping beans," the Chronicle reported.

The streetcars would move in fits and starts, managing to move 50 yards each time. To demonstrate just how slowly things moved, the paper listed travel times from St. Francis Circle, which is located in the St. Francis Woods neighborhood. It took 41 minutes to get to Montgomery and California Street, 31 minutes to Mission and 16th street and 44 minutes to the Bay Bridge terminal. They estimated the last trip would take 22 minutes with a new subway.

In Nov. 1937, the city would put a new subway to the vote with Proposition 1. Speaking in favor of passing the proposition, George Creel, chairman of the Citizens Rapid Transit Committee, stated that "the state paid $110 million to take people out of San Francisco. We can spend $49 million to keep them in San Francisco."

He referred to the members of the Market Street Railway, opponents of the proposition, as "mushrooms growing in the basement of the Market Street Railway." The proposition for the $49.5 million to build a subway system was decisively turned down by the voters. It would be three more decades before subway system construction would begin.

They photos in this gallery were located in a folder labeled Transportation>Traffic Jams>1949 and earlier. While the subject might sound mundane, the images are exquisite. The automobiles, the old streetcars, the people, the buildings and their signage, display an era gone by.In July, China unveiled a plan to become the world leader in artificial intelligence and create an industry worth $150 billion to its economy by 2030.

To technologists working on AI in the United States, the statement, which was 28 pages long in its English translation, was a direct challenge to Americas lead in what is considered to be the most important tech research to come along in decades. It outlined the Chinese governments aggressive plan to treat AI like the countrys own version of the Apollo 11 lunar mission  an all-in effort that could stoke national pride and spark agenda-setting technology breakthroughs.

The plan was also remarkably similar to several reports on the future of artificial intelligence released by the Obama administration at the end of 2016.

It is remarkable to see how AI has emerged as a top priority for the Chinese leadership and how quickly things have been set into motion, said Elsa Kania, an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security who helped translate the manifesto and follows Chinas work on artificial intelligence. The U.S. plans and policies released in 2016 were seemingly the impetus for the formulation of Chinas national AI strategy.

But six months after China seemed to mimic that Obama-era road map, AI experts in industry and academia in the United States say the Trump White House has done little to follow through on the previous administrations economic call to arms.

We are still waiting on the White House to provide some direction on how to respond to the competition, said Tim Hwang, who worked on AI policy at Google and is now director of the Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative, a new organization created by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and others to fund ethical research in artificial intelligence.

Chinas embrace of AI comes at a crucial time in the development of the technology and just as the lead long enjoyed by the United States has started to dwindle.

For decades, artificial intelligence was more fiction than science. In the past few years, however, dramatic improvements have prompted some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley and Detroit  and China  to invest billions on everything from self-driving cars to home appliances that can have a conversation with a human.

AI has also become a significant part of national defense policy as military leaders and ethicists debate how much autonomy we should give to weapons that can think for themselves.

U.S. companies like Amazon and Google have done more than anyone to turn AI concepts into real products. But for a number of reasons, including concerns that the Trump administration will limit the number of immigrant engineers allowed into the United States, much of the critical research being done on artificial intelligence is migrating to other countries, including tech hot spots like Toronto, London and Beijing.

To Chinas growing tech community, driving the industrys next big thing  a mantra of Silicon Valley  is becoming a tantalizing possibility.

Thanks to the size of the market and the rapid experimentation, China is going to become one of the most powerful  if not the most powerful  AI countries in the world, said Kai Fu-Lee, a former Microsoft and Google executive who now runs a prominent Chinese venture capital firm dedicated to artificial intelligence.

The 2016 AI reports were shepherded by President Barack Obamas Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The office, which has overseen science and technology activities across the federal government for more than four decades, is now run by deputy chief technology officer Michael Kratsios. He had worked as a Wall Street analyst before serving as chief of staff for an investment fund run by Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist who supported Trumps presidential run. The administration has yet to name an office director or fill four other assistant posts.

In a recent interview, Kratsios was adamant that any concerns over the administrations approach to AI were unfounded.

Artificial intelligence has been a priority for the Trump administration since day one, he said. Kratsios added that the administration was particularly concerned with the development of AI in national security and as a way of encouraging economic prosperity.

Many staff members in Kratsios office are exploring issues related to artificial intelligence, he said. Kratsios also meets with a committee, set up by the Obama administration, that coordinates AI policy across the government.

The key thing to remember is that the front line of AI policy is at the agencies, he said. The White House is a convener and a coordinator.

In an echo of plans laid out by the Obama administration, Chinas government said it intended to significantly increase long-term funding for AI research and develop a much larger community of AI researchers.

There are several ways to do that, according to the Obama administration and China. First, educate more students in these technologies. Second, recruit experts from other countries.

At the same time, both policy statements urged companies to share more technology and data. Huge pools of data are needed to train AI systems, and in the United States much of this is locked up inside companies like Facebook and Google. Lee said China has an enormous advantage here because its large population will generate more data and its companies are more willing to share.

Artificial intelligence has been a focus of Chinese technologists for some time. By 2013, China was producing more research papers than the United States in the area of deep learning, the key technology driving the rise of AI, according to the Obama reports. Deep learning, which allows machines to learn tasks by analyzing vast amounts of data, is one of the key technologies driving the rise of artificial intelligence.

It is unclear how much China as a whole is spending. But one Chinese state has promised to invest $5 billion in AI, and the government of Beijing has committed $2 billion to an AI development park in the city. South Korea has set aside close to $1 billion of its own. Canada, home to many of the top researchers in the field, has committed $125 million to, in part, attract new talent from other countries.

It is also difficult to say just how much the U.S. government is spending. Government organizations like the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Science Foundation continue to fund new research in universities and the private sector. According to an Office of Science and Technology Policy report, the federal government spent about $1 billion a year in 2015. The Trump administration says spending jumped to $3 billion in 2017. But the current administration said that was not an apples-to-apples comparison to the 2015 tally, because it was not certain how the Obama administration made it calculations.

We may have a bunch of small initiatives inside the government that are doing good, but we dont have a central national strategy, said Jack Clark, a former journalist who now oversees policy efforts at OpenAI, the artificial intelligence lab co-founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. It is confusing that we have this technology of such obvious power and merit and we are not hearing full-throated support, including financial support.

The Trump administrations budget for 2018 aims to cut science and technology research funding across the government by 15 percent, according to a report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

They are headed in precisely the wrong direction, said Thomas Kalil, who led the offices Technology and Innovation Division under Obama. That is particularly concerning given that China has identified this as a strategic priority.

For five years, much of the progress in AI technology has been led by U.S. companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. But these companies dont need AI technologists to work in the United States in order to employ them.

Take Geoffrey Hinton, a key figure in the rise of AI at Google and across the tech industry. He recently moved back to Toronto, where he was a professor for many years. He now runs a new Google lab in that city. Last year, he took on an Iranian researcher who was denied a visa by the U.S. government.

Google operates another important lab in Montreal. Its London lab, DeepMind, may be home to more top-notch artificial intelligence researchers than any other lab on Earth.

And Google recently unveiled new labs in Paris and Beijing. Facebook, after creating its own lab in Canada, recently pumped $12.4 million into its existing operation in Paris. And Amazon is opening a lab in Germany.

Inside these facilities, researchers still create technology for their U.S. employers. As the labs grow and the products get better, some employees can be expected to leave to start their own companies and hire their own employees.

Googles and Microsofts work in China has led to Chinese startups like Malong, which is building image recognition systems, and a major AI investment fund run by Lee.

When it is close to you, something like Microsoft Research has real economic value, said Clark of OpenAI.Roche Holding will buy Flatiron Health and its cancer-focused medical records technology for $1.9 billion, as drugmakers increasingly mine data to develop new oncology treatments.

The Swiss oncology giant already owns 12.6 percent of closely held Flatiron, which is also funded by Google parent Alphabet, the companies said last week. The company was founded by Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, who sold an ad tech business to Google almost a decade ago.

Drugmakers and the insurers that decide whether therapies will be reimbursed are looking for evidence to guide both the development of new products and the use of treatments after theyre approved. Flatiron allows doctors and researchers to comb through medical records, including gene sequences and insurance claims, to research the effectiveness of various approaches.

The deal is a trailblazing move, Oddo & Cie analysts Pierre Corby and Sebastien Malafosse wrote in a note to investors on Friday. Whilst the price might initially appear high, it is very likely that within the next few years the price of good quality databases in the health-care domain will have soared (particularly in oncology).

In 2016, Roche led a $175 million round of funding for Flatiron, a New York company that has raised more than $300 million from investors such as Alphabet and First Round Capital.

Flatiron is best-positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry, Daniel ODay, the chief executive of Roches pharmaceutical unit, said in the statement.

Flatirons technology is also aimed at enabling doctors to look at how other patients fare with various therapies and use those results to customize treatment for patients with similar illnesses. These personalized approaches have become an important part of treating cancer, where therapies often have very different results in patients whose disease appears similar.

The pharma industry is turning to huge databases to gain understanding of complex interactions between drugs and organisms, and the overall impact that treatments have on the outcomes of health problems. Roche also holds more than half of the shares of Foundation Medicine, which helps doctors and patients choose treatments based on the genetic profiles of tumors.Everyone knows which airline is the biggest player at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), but do you know how other airlines rank?

SFO provided us with last year's (2017) stats ranking the nine largest airlines by number of seats flown per day.

Take a scroll through the slideshow and see which European carrier shows up in the top 9.

TravelSkills with Chris McGinnis sponsored by . See More Collapse

Some notes:

Of course United is numero uno at SFO with a whopping 40,527 seats flown per day, nearly four times as many as its nearest competitor, Alaska Airlines.

Combined with Virgin America, Alaska Airlines flew 12,357 seats per day SFO in 2017- I've combined both airlines' numbers for this ranking. Last year, the two operated separately with Virgin flying 9,041 seats (ranking #2), and Alaska flying 3,316 (ranking #6 between Delta and JetBlue). Starting in January, Virgin America and Alaska began operations under a single certificate, although they will continue to use different names for the next few years.

What's interesting is how close American, Southwest and Delta are in this ranking-- all running about 7,000 seats per day at SFO.

SFO is not a focus city or hub for American Airlines, but it still has a major presence with 7,060 seats per day- about the same number as Delta and Southwest. Most flights are to its big hubs in Phoenix, Chicago, New York JFK and Dallas.

While Southwest runs a big hub out of Oakland, it still has a significant presence at SFO with 6,946 seats per day-- almost as many as American.

Delta is running a close race with Southwest flying 6,805 seats per day at SFO to it's big hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake, LAX and New York JFK and Seattle.

JetBlue flies 2,725 seats per day at SFO, on mainly transcon routes and also has several flights per day to its hub in Long Beach.

With several daily nonstops to Toronto (including an occasional Dreamliner) and Vancouver, Air Canada flies 1,689 seats per day at SFO

Frontier flies to Denver (primarily) and several other cities, but only on a few days per week, which keeps its daily seat count at just 866 at SFO.

Lufthansa flies two big planes into SFO every day from Frankfurt (like this Airbus A380) and Munich (using an A340) for a total of 787 seats.

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

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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.Whale watchers in Monterey Bay were treated to a nature show Saturday by a group of playful killer whales.

The orcas delighted tourists by coming close to the boat, slapping their tails and vocalizing. When a young killer whale breached and flipped out of the water, the group on board let out a collective, "Woah!"

AMAZING ENCOUNTER: Whale stuns divers in Monterey Bay, coming within 5 feet and staring into camera

Photographer Randy Straka captured video of the action while on a trip with Princess Monterey Whale Watching. He estimates there were at least eight or nine killer whales in the area, though it was hard to keep track of the active orcas coming and going. Compared to other whales, orcas' social groups are relatively fluid and they don't always travel with the same pod.

In the group, there were "at least two adult males, some adult females, and some juveniles," said Straka. The whale-watching company has seen orcas for the past several days.

ALSO READ: Beautiful drone video shows pod of 12 gray whales migrating through Monterey Bay

More killer whales are expected to come to Monterey Bay in spring as gray whales make the northward migration from Mexico to Alaska for the winter. Orcas often linger in the bay to prey on gray whale calves as they make their way through.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.PARKLAND, Fla.  Thousands of angry students, parents, teachers and neighbors of a Florida high school where 17 people were killed demanded Saturday that immediate action be taken on gun control legislation, insisting they would not relent until their demands are met.

The rally in downtown Fort Lauderdale gave a political outlet to the growing feelings of rage and mourning sparked by the carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Authorities say a former student who had been expelled, had mental health issues and been reported to law enforcement used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle to kill students and staff.

Because of these gun laws, people that I know, people that I love, have died, and I will never be able to see them again, Delaney Tarr, a student at the school, told the crowd at the federal courthouse.

President Trump lashed out at the FBI Saturday night, saying the agency missed all of the many signals sent by the suspect in the Florida school shooting and that it is wasting resources on the Russia investigation.

Trump said on Twitter: This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion.

The rally came as new details emerged about the suspect, Nikolas Cruz. From a mosaic of public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, it appears he was unstable and violent to himself and those around him  and that when notified about his threatening behavior, law enforcement did little to stop it.

Cruzs mother died in November, and his father died years ago. He reportedly left a suburban Palm Beach County mobile home where he had been staying after his mothers death because his benefactor gave him an ultimatum: you or the gun.

Chad Bennett said Cruz chose the gun and he left.

Earlier, Floridas child welfare agency investigated after Cruz cut himself in an online video but found him stable, according to state records.

The FBI said a person close to Cruz called the FBIs tip line and provided information about Cruzs weapons and his erratic behavior. The caller was concerned Cruz could attack a school. The agency acknowledged the tip should have been shared with the FBIs Miami office and investigated, but it was not.

Cruz faces 17 counts of first-degree murder.SALEM, Ore.  When Oregon lawmaker Julie Fahey and her husband bought a house, the deed said that only whites could live there unless the person was a domestic servant.

Across America, many home owners and buyers of older properties like Fahey are shocked to see racist exclusions remaining on deeds, decades after they were outlawed. Fahey researched how to remove the offensive language, and discovered that doing so would be complicated and expensive. Notice would have to be served to every person and institution with financial interest in the property and a request filed in court.About Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profileSAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Police area asking for the public's help to find a man wanted in connection with a 2017 double homicide in Oklahoma and who was spotted in San Francisco as recently as last month.

Authorities have been seeking Harlon Foss, 45, after he was identified as a suspect in the Nov. 21 double murder of his grandparents in Oklahoma's McIntosh County, according to police.

RELATED: Man detained after double shooting in SF's Panhandle

Foss was last seen near San Francisco's Aquatic Park on Jan. 10.

Police said Foss is an outdoorsman experienced in wilderness survival and may be living in a wooded area or park. He also goes by the names Harold Lee Foss, Hawkin Lee Foss and Lee Foss.

ALSO: 3 adults rescued from cliff at Baker Beach

He's described as a white man, 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 230 pounds and with hazel eyes and brown, balding hair, according to police.

Foss is considered armed and dangerous and anyone who spots him should immediately call 911.

(415) 837-7395VACAVILLE (BCN)

Police arrested two men who were caught committing a home burglary Friday afternoon in Vacaville, police said.

Just after 1 p.m., officers were called to the 100 block of Colony Way on a report of two men in the process of burglarizing a home.

According to police, the pair used a hammer to break open a lock box on the home and take the key that was inside, which they used to enter the house.

The homeowner, who was home when they pair broke in, called police. A neighbor who witnessed the break in also called police.

Officers arrived within minutes and detained both suspects on the front lawn of the home. They were identified as 39-year-old Jacob Grant and 37-year-old Matthew Allen, both of Napa, police said.

Police investigated and learned that the suspects were associated with a light blue Toyota Prius that was stolen from Oregon.

Allen was arrested on suspicion of burglary, auto theft, being a felon in possession a stolen vehicle, possessing drug paraphernalia, and violating probation, police said.

Grant was arrested on suspicion of burglary and violating probation, police said.A small plane safely made an emergency landing on northbound U.S. Highway 101 in the vicinity of San Martin in Santa Clara County shortly after 11 a.m. today, the California Highway Patrol said.

The passing lane was blocked for a short time, but the plane has been removed from the freeway since then and no lanes are blocked at this time, a CHP dispatcher said.Two people and a dog were found dead Saturday inside a home in Fremont's Niles District, police said.

Officers at 5:09 p.m. left to conduct a welfare check on the residents of a home in the 37800 block of Third Street near Niles Community Park.

A family member called police earlier in the day because the person hadn't heard from their relatives in two days.

Officers knocked on the door but no one answered. When officers looked through a window they believed they saw a dead woman and dead dog.

Police called firefighters who forced their way into the home where they indeed found a dead woman, a dead dog and a dead man. All appeared to have been dead for more than a day.

A gun was located near one of the victims.

Police said it is too early to say how the deaths occurred. Police believe no threat to the community exists.

San Francisco police Saturday night identified a suspect in a shooting Friday evening that killed one man and injured another near Golden Gate Park's panhandle area.

Joel Armstrong, 31, a transient in San Francisco allegedly killed a 28-year-old San Francisco man and left a 35-year-old San Francisco man with life-threatening injuries.

On Friday at 6:28 p.m., police responded to Oak and Stanyan streets on a report of a shooting.

Responding officers allegedly located two victims suffering from gunshot wounds.

Police said it appears there was an argument among a group of people when Armstrong allegedly shot the two men.

Armstrong allegedly ran to Fell Street, used the gun to carjack a vehicle and got away.

Saturday morning at 12:13 a.m., officers allegedly located the stolen vehicle on Alameda Street near De Haro Street.

The vehicle was unoccupied, but it was parked behind a recreational vehicle that was occupied, police said.

Officers made contact with the occupants and several people exited the vehicle, but Armstrong allegedly remained inside.

Officers allege they made contact with Armstrong and an officer-involved shooting occurred.

Police established a perimeter around the vehicle, and a tactical unit and crisis/hostage negotiation team responded.

At about 2:20 a.m., Armstrong allegedly exited the vehicle, was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for an evaluation.

No injuries were reported in the officer-involved shooting, police said.

The Police Department will hold a town hall meeting in the coming days regarding the officer-involved shooting.

The incident is being investigated by the Police Department's homicide detail, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, the Department of Police Accountability and the Police Department's internal affairs unit.

One person was hospitalized Friday night in an officer-involved shooting in Salinas.

On Friday at 8:45 p.m., officers with the Salinas Police Department were involved in a shooting in the 700 block of Jefferson Street, police said.

One person was transported to the hospital and was in stable condition, police said.

No officers were injured in the incident.

The Monterey County District Attorney's Office is conducting an investigation into the shooting.

A suspected drug dealer was arrested Thursday afternoon at a Watsonville home because he allegedly had nine pounds of methamphetamine and a pound of heroin in his car, sheriff's officials said.

Modesto Munoz, 37, was arrested after deputies served a search warrant for drugs at a home in the 100 block of Ninth Street.

While searching the home, detectives with a drug-sniffing dog allegedly found drugs in Munoz's car.

Sheriff's officials said they estimated that the methamphetamine had a street value of $22,500 while the heroin had an estimated value of $12,000.

Munoz was taken to the county jail on suspicion of selling methamphetamine and heroin.

Munoz was being held on $100,000 bail.

A car crashed through the front of a Fremont pizza parlor Saturday morning, pinning a 65-year-old customer underneath it, police said.

A 1999 Honda Civic drove through the front of the Little Caesars pizza restaurant at 4736 Thornton Ave. at Dusterberry Way around 11:30 a.m., hitting a customer, according to police.

Officers arrived within minutes along with firefighters and paramedics. Working together, they were able to get the customer out from under the vehicle pinning him to the ground, police said.

The customer was taken to the hospital with moderate to serious injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening, according to police.

The driver of the vehicle, an 80-year-old man, was not injured, police said. He mistook the gas pedal for the brake as he was parking in front of the restaurant, according to police.

The restaurant was badly damaged and couldn't re-open, police said. No one else was injured in the crash.

A man approached a 10-year-old girl on the Grant Elementary School campus in Petaluma Friday afternoon and asked her to get in his car, police said.

The man also offered her candy, police said, and the girl ran away. The man got into a car and drove off in the direction of I Street, according to police.

The incident took place around 5 p.m. on the school campus at 500 Grant Ave., police said.

The suspect is described as a white male adult in his mid-forties to early fifties, with dark hair and a dark beard, around five feet ten inches tall with a heavy build and tattoos on his legs.

His car is an older light blue sedan with several dents and faded paint, police said.

The Oakland International Airport is again offering a temporary enrollment center for the Transportation Security Administration's Pre-Check program, which lets prescreened, low-risk passengers go quickly through security, airport officials announced Friday.

The expedited screening program will be available at Terminal 2 for only two weeks, starting on Feb. 26 and ending on March 9, according to the airport.

Similar enrollment events over the past year generated positive customer response, airport officials said.

The TSA said the program allows travelers to go through security in a more efficient way, eliminating the need to remove shoes and allowing laptops to stay in their cases.

In addition, light outerwear and belts can remain on, according to the TSA.

"The Oakland International Airport is seeing its highest number of passengers in ten years and will likely set a new record for passenger traffic next year," Port of Oakland Aviation Director Bryant Francis said in a statement.

Francis said, "We regularly hear from our customers about how much they appreciate the convenience of flying from our airport and expedited screening helps make Oakland an even easier choice."

Airport officials said ticketed customers already planning to be in the airport during the two weeks of the event may find it worthwhile to make an appointment ahead of time.

But they said walk-in appointments are also accepted upon availability.

David Von Damm, the TSA's federal security director at the Oakland airport said, "TSA pre-enrollment is coming to the East Bay's airport, so don't miss this opportunity to enroll in a program that streamlines the security screening process for trusted travelers."

To apply, applicants are encouraged to pre-enroll online at www.identogo.com/locations/tsa-pre.

To complete the process, enrollees must bring proof of identification and U.S. citizenship, such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate with a valid driver's license.

Enrollees will then have their fingerprints taken and background check performed and an $85 application fee good for five years of membership will be collected.

The fee can be paid with a credit card, money order, company check or a certified cashier's check, according to airport officials.

Cash and personal checks aren't accepted.

The TSA said it has more than 450 expedited screening lanes at more than 180 airports in the U.S.OAKLAND (BCN)

Historic tall ships the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain will dock at Jack London Square in mid-March, where visitors can tour the vessels and talk with the crews, a spokeswoman said Saturday.

Few are familiar with the term "tall ship," and the two ships are sailing up and down the West Coast to counter that. A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing ship with high masts.

The ships will be at Jack London Square, 1 Broadway and Water Street, from March 16 to March 26, the spokeswoman said.

The tour is sponsored by Grays Harbor Historical Seaport, a Washington-based nonprofit.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

San Francisco police tonight identified a suspect in a shooting Friday evening that killed one man and injured another near Golden Gate Park's panhandle area.

Joel Armstrong, 31, a transient in San Francisco allegedly killed a 28-year-old San Francisco man and left a 35-year-old San Francisco man with life-threatening injuries.

On Friday at 6:28 p.m., police responded to Oak and Stanyan streets on a report of a shooting.

Responding officers allegedly located two victims suffering from gunshot wounds.

Police said it appears there was an argument among a group of people when Armstrong allegedly shot the two men.

Armstrong allegedly ran to Fell Street, used the gun to carjack a vehicle and got away.

This morning at 12:13 a.m., officers allegedly located the stolen vehicle on Alameda Street near De Haro Street.

The vehicle was unoccupied, but it was parked behind a recreational vehicle that was occupied, police said.

Officers made contact with the occupants and several people exited the vehicle, but Armstrong allegedly remained inside.

Officers allege they made contact with Armstrong and an officer-involved shooting occurred.

Police established a perimeter around the vehicle, and a tactical unit and crisis/hostage negotiation team responded.

At about 2:20 a.m., Armstrong allegedly exited the vehicle, was taken into custody and transported to the hospital for an evaluation.

No injuries were reported in the officer-involved shooting, police said.

The Police Department will hold a town hall meeting in the coming days regarding the officer-involved shooting.

The incident is being investigated by the Police Department's homicide detail, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, the Department of Police Accountability and the Police Department's internal affairs unit.When Laurie Green was applying to medical school, one of the professors overseeing her application asked her, utterly serious: Why should you take this spot from a qualified male student?

Green, 22 and hungry and perfectly qualified, didnt take offense. It was the early 1970s, and women were only just beginning to venture into medicine. Instead, she took the question as a challenge, and has been, in a way, earning that spot in the 40-plus years since.

It was that drive that compelled her to start a nonprofit organization focused on reducing health disparities. The Maven Project of San Francisco connects volunteer physicians, most of them retired or nearly so, with health clinics that serve patients who may not have access to expert specialty care. Green describes it as Match.com meets the Peace Corps.

We want to be the organization that doctors go to when theyre retired or retiring, to be able to continue to make a contribution, Green said. We want to marshal this army of retired doctors.

For her innovation, Green was nominated for a 2018 Visionary of the Year award, sponsored by The Chronicle. The award comes with a $25,000 grant, which the winner may use to fund his or her work or apply to a chosen cause.

Green, a full-time obstetrician and gynecologist who practices out of California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, founded Maven in 2014, at a time when widespread doctor shortages, especially in certain specialties and in impoverished communities, were colliding with a large market of patients newly insured under the Affordable Care Act.

Now, with the act commonly known as Obamacare under attack and the number of uninsured people beginning to rise, the demand for expert care in at-need communities is even more acute, Green said. Her project is designed to bridge some of that gap.

At the core of the Maven Project is telemedicine technology, which enables doctors to consult face to face with physicians in faraway places. Its not practical for the Maven volunteers to work directly with patients  theyd have to be licensed in every state where they consulted, even by video  but they can assist and mentor doctors treating those patients.

While Mavens focus is to improve patient access to care, that wasnt Greens initial motivation for creating the project. Rather, her goal was to provide retiring doctors an opportunity to stay active and useful even if they no longer wanted a full-time career in medicine. Maven stands for Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network.

So much of a doctors identity is wrapped up in his or her career. Green, who has delivered thousands of babies and at 68 isnt planning to retire anytime soon, knew that firsthand.

Her project, she decided, would let doctors hang on to their identity a while longer, and at the same time help patients who could benefit from their decades of experience.

When I heard about the Maven Project, the lightbulb went off for me, said Lisa Levine, the organizations CEO. Youre connecting a depth of knowledge with places that dont have access to it otherwise. For the physicians, this is an opportunity to keep giving back.

Levine described Green as a relationship builder. The first time they spoke  via video conference, when Levine was applying to work with Maven  they spent hours talking and exchanging ideas.

When I talk with her, its hard to get off the phone, Levine said with a laugh. Theres just so much richness in speaking with her. Shes the kind of person who inspires you to want to build and do more.

Green was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her mother was one of her earliest inspirations: Shed lost sight in one eye due to congenital rubella, but she was a talented painter and never complained about her poor vision. Green was 16 before she even knew her mother had a false eye.

That irrepressible attitude carried Green toward a path in medicine in an era when women were only just starting to make headway. Her class of about 160 students at Harvard Medical School in 1972 included just 29 women.

After completing her residency at UCSF, Green settled in the Bay Area. She started a practice, Pacific Womens Obstetrics and Gynecology, with a colleague in Laurel Heights. Green still delivers several hundred babies a year  last year was a bit slow, she noted, with around 400 births.

She raised two children of her own and never eased up. Instead, she recalled with a laugh, she learned to eat lunch, pump breast milk and consult with patients over the phone all at once. At some point she started wearing her now-trademark fanny pack, which replaced a purse because she can run faster with it if called to an emergency.

Outside her practice, Green stayed busy. In the 1990s, she was an on-air medical reporter for KTVU, and over the years shes volunteered with several physician societies. She embraces the workaholic label and likes to joke that in her free time she delivers babies.

In 2013, she was elected president of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Foundation, and thats when the Maven flame was lit. As she met with former students in her new role, she was struck by how many were approaching retirement and not sure what was coming next.

The most obvious volunteer opportunities for doctors are in organizations that serve communities in developing countries, or in areas where disaster has struck. But not every physician is willing or able to help under those circumstances. And Green knew expert care was desperately needed in the United States.

Deborah Brigell, a Boston-area endocrinologist, plans to scale back her work to just one day a week this spring. Anticipating all that extra time, she looked for volunteer opportunities. But I was having a hard time finding what I could do that would specifically use my skills, she said.

Someone told Brigell about Maven, and she signed up. Shes since done several consultations on a laptop.

Being a doctor has been a huge part of my identity, Brigell said. This has helped me do some meaningful work with my free time.

The Maven Project now has more than 200 doctors, who have conducted 1,200 consultations. Volunteers must work at least four hours a month. They schedule appointments with doctors at clinics that work with Maven or are simply on call during specific hours.

A primary care physician might ask one of the organizations doctors for advice on a patient  maybe someone with multiple complex diseases for whom drug interactions are a concern. There are also broader, lecture-type meetings, when volunteers discuss cases and trends in their area of expertise.

Green and her team are working to establish routines they can scale to communities across the country. Maven is in California, Massachusetts, Florida, New York and Washington, and in talks to work with clinics in Louisiana, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Back in medical school, Green said, she and her female peers often felt pressure to prove themselves among their male colleagues. The Maven Project  on top of the thousands of babies shes delivered, the children shes raised, and countless other investments in her community  feels like another step in the right direction, she said.

We all felt that we wanted to do something for the world. That would yield happiness, Green said. So this work, its selfish in a weird backdoor way.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday

About VisionSF

This is one of six profiles of finalists for The Chronicles fourth annual Visionary of the Year award. The honor salutes leaders who strive to make the world a better place and drive social and economic change by employing new, innovative business models and practices. The finalists were selected by a nominating committee that included Emmett Carson, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation; Ron Conway, angel investor and philanthropist; John Diaz, editorial page editor of The Chronicle; Steve Malnight, senior vice president strategy & policy of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., a program sponsor; Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California, a program sponsor; Libby Schaaf, mayor of Oakland; Charlotte Shultz, chief of protocol for the city and county of San Francisco; and George Shultz, former U.S. secretary of state.

Chronicle Publisher Jeff Johnson, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper and Diaz will select the winner, which will be announced in late March.

To read more: www.sfchronicle.com/visionsfWelcome Guest! You Are Here:

Home Regional News EastTEHRAN  An Iranian commercial airplane brought back into service only months ago after being grounded for seven years crashed Sunday in a foggy, mountainous region of southern Iran, and officials feared all 65 people on board were killed.

The crash of the Aseman Airlines ATR-72 marks yet another fatal aviation disaster for Iran, which for years was barred from buying airplane parts for needed maintenance due to Western sanctions over its nuclear program.

Its nuclear accord with world powers allows it to get those parts and the country has made deals worth tens of billions of dollars for new aircraft. However, President Trumps refusal to recertify the deal has injected uncertainty into those sales while Iranians still fly in aging aircraft.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, went down near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, 485 miles south of the Iranian capital, Tehran, where it took off.

It wasnt immediately clear what caused the crash, although weather was severe in the area. Dense fog, high winds and heavy snow in the Zagros Mountains made it impossible for rescue crews in helicopters to reach the site Sunday, state television reported.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on board Flight No. EP3704 were killed. They included 59 passengers and six crew members, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Sunday night.

After searching the area, we learned that unfortunately ... our dear passengers had lost their lives, Tabatabai said.

Both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani offered their condolences.

Tabatabai said the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 14,435 feet tall. The planes last signal showed it at 16,975 feet and descending, according to airplane-tracking website FlightRadar24.

One previous passenger on the route posted a video Sunday showing that the flight typically comes in just over the mountain peaks. Aeronautical charts for the airport warn pilots to keep an altitude of 15,000 feet. The airport itself is at nearly 6,000 feet.

On Instagram, Aseman Airlines highlighted the doomed aircraft in October, saying it had been grounded for seven years but would be repaired and will be operational after checking and testing.MANILA  The body of a Filipino housemaid found stuffed in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait was flown home to her grieving family last week, focusing attention on the plight of millions of mostly poor Filipinos toiling abroad.

As Joanna Demafelis remains were wheeled to the Manila airports cargo bay Friday, her sister broke into tears and embraced the casket before being pulled back and consoled. A brother wept quietly, overwhelmed by emotion.

I hope my sister will be given justice, Demafelis brother, Jojit Demafelis, later said.

Demafelis body was found Feb. 6 in a Kuwait City apartment that had reportedly been abandoned for more than a year. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said her body bore torture marks and there were indications she was strangled.

Her death is the latest overseas tragedy to befall a worker from the Philippines, a major labor exporter with about a tenth of its 100 million people working abroad. The workers have been called the countrys heroes because the income they send home has propped up the Southeast Asian nations economy for decades, accounting for about 10 percent of annual gross domestic product.

Philippine officials are under increasing pressure to do more to monitor the safety of its worldwide diaspora of mostly house maids, construction workers and laborers. There are also calls for the government to boost employment and living standards at home, where nearly one in four people live in poverty, so that fewer people need to find work abroad.

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano stood with the Demafelis family at the airport and said a prayer.

Her death is very tragic but will also be a rallying point for all of the government agencies to be more aggressive abroad in helping our OFWs be protected, Cayetano told reporters, using the acronym for overseas foreign workers.

Duterte has ordered a ban on the deployment of new Filipino workers to Kuwait, where he said some Filipina workers have committed suicide because of abuses.

Cayetano said Kuwait had expressed outrage over Demafelis death and promised do everything it could to render justice. He said the Philippines lodged a protest over the case and at least six other recent deaths mostly of Filipino housemaids in Kuwait and asked that the Philippine Embassy be given access to investigations by Kuwaiti authorities.

Demafelis family said Joanna was 29-years-old and the sixth of nine children born into a poor farming family in the central province of Iloilo. She left for Kuwait in 2014 to be employed by a couple and had never told anyone back home that she was being mistreated.

Kuwaiti police believe Demafelis had been hired by a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife who later left the country, according to local media reports citing police. Authorities found her body when they raided the apartment over an eviction notice.

Its unclear how the woman remained missing for so long or if Kuwaiti police had requested extradition for the Lebanese man and his Syrian wife. Police said the two are wanted on suspicion of writing bad checks.

Philippine officials say they are re-examining how to better detect and stop abuse of its workers abroad. A Filipino labor officer in Kuwait has been recalled after reportedly failing to adequately help Demafelis family when they reported that she was missing.MUNICH  The international nuclear deal with Iran has emboldened Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, warning that Iran should not test Israels resolve.

If the U.S. decides to scrap the 2015 nuclear deal  a pact which he has long opposed  Netanyahu said of Iran: I think theyll do nothing.

Declaring that Irans brazenness hit new highs, he theatrically held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week in Israeli airspace.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, appearing two hours later at the same Munich Security Conference, fired back that Netanyahus comment was delusional thinking.

I can assure that if Irans interests are not secured, Iran will respond, will respond seriously. And I believe it would be a response that means people would be sorry for taking the erroneous action they did, he said.

U.S. President Trump has expressed deep skepticism about the Iran nuclear deal that lifted sanctions against the country. He extended sanctions waivers in January but said he would not do so again when they come up for renewal in May unless his concerns are addressed.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a main architect of the nuclear deal, said it was absolutely critical to ensure it survives.

We know what the world looks like without the Iran nuclear agreement, he said Sunday at the same conference. Its not a better place.

Kerry dismissed Netanyahus contention that Iran would be on its way to having a nuclear arsenal in 10 years, saying thats fundamentally not accurate.AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan  A job center opened Sunday in Jordans second largest camp for Syrian refugees, the latest sign of an European Union-backed policy shift meant to improve the lives of the displaced in regional host countries and discourage them from migrating onward.

Dozens of refugees crowded around tables in a community center in the Azraq camp to register with potential employers for jobs in factories and on farms.

Any work is OK for me, said Sumaya Mohammed Jidaa, a 39-year-old widow and mother of six inquiring about a sewing job. Just give us money to take care of our children.

Under the Jordan Compact, a deal struck with donor countries in 2016, the kingdom promised to provide 200,000 work permits for Syrians over three years, in exchange for several billion dollars in development assistance and reduced tariff barriers on Jordanian exports to Europe.

Implementation has been slow because of Jordans economic downturn, high unemployment and the slow pace of regulatory change. About 90,000 Syrians have obtained work permits so far.

You cannot expect the private sector to simply make use of a trade agreement if the proper support is not being provided, said Patrick Daru, country coordinator of the International Labor Organization.

The job center is a project of the ILO, the U.N. refugee agency and Jordans Labor Ministry.

Jordan has been struggling with the fallout from prolonged conflict in neighboring Syria and Iraq. The Syria fighting, which erupted in 2011, has displaced millions of people. Jordan hosts about 660,000 registered Syrian refugees, though Jordanian authorities say the actual number in the country is twice as high.

At the job fair, Emad Hussein offered jobs for up to 100 refugees, hoping that by hiring them his textile company will become eligible for reduced European tariffs. Hussein said he currently employs 700 Jordanians, 1,700 South Asians and two refugees.

Its less expensive to hire Syrians because we dont have to pay meals and accommodations for them, he said. Even if theres no European customers, we still need Syrians. We have to help people because of humanity, and we know they have experience.

The job center, supported in part by the Dutch Embassy, contributes to the goal of keeping refugees as close to home as possible, said Dutch Ambassador Barbara Jozaisse.Artist's illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which will hunt for exoplanets orbiting the brightest stars just outside our solar system.

NASA's next exoplanet-hunting space telescope has arrived in Florida, two months ahead of its planned launch.

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was delivered via truck to NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Monday (Feb. 12), agency officials said. The spacecraft made the journey from the Dulles, Virginia, facilities of the aerospace company Orbital ATK, which had spent the last year building and testing TESS.

TESS is scheduled to lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than April 16 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is next door to KSC.

The spacecraft will then spend at least two years studying more than 200,000 of the sun's closest and brightest stellar neighbors, looking for tiny brightness dips caused by planets trekking across the stars' faces. NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope has found nearly 2,500 confirmed exoplanets using this same "transit" technique.

On Feb. 12, 2018, TESS arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where the satellite will undergo final preparations for launch, which is scheduled for no earlier than April 16. (Image credit: NASA's Kennedy Space Center)

TESS team members have said they expect to find several thousand planets during the spacecraft's mission. If all goes according to plan, a handful of these will be studied in depth by NASA's $8.9 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch next year.

James Webb should be able to scan for water vapor, methane and other gases in the atmospheres of some of the closest exoplanets, helping astronomers better gauge those worlds' potential to host life. And, if researchers get really lucky, Webb may even spot a combination of gases that's suggestive of life itself.

The TESS mission is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). George Ricker, of MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, is the principal investigator.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands atop Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in this file photo. SpaceX's next Falcon 9's launch is now aimed for Feb. 21, 2018.

Update for Feb. 22: SpaceX's Falcon 9 mission to launch the Paz satellite has successfully lifted off. See our full story here: SpaceX Launches 1st Test Satellites for Starlink Internet Constellation Along with Spain's Paz

SpaceX has delayed the launch of its next Falcon 9 rocket to no earlier than Wednesday (Feb. 21) to allow final checks of the rocket's upgraded nose cone.

The Falcon 9 rocket was scheduled to launch early Sunday (Feb. 18) from a pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base to send SpaceX's first Starlink broadband satellites and the Paz radar-imaging satellite for Spain into orbit. The mission had already been delayed 24 hours to allow extra checks.

On Saturday, SpaceX representatives announced that more time was needed for final checks of the Falcon 9 rocket's upgraded payload fairing, the clamshell-like nose cone at the top of the rocket that protects its payload during flight. [6 Surprising Facts About SpaceX]

"Team at Vandenberg is taking additional time to perform final checkouts of upgraded fairing," SpaceX representatives wrote on Twitter. "Payload and vehicle remain healthy. Due to mission requirements, now targeting February 21 launch of PAZ."

SpaceX has been upgrading its payload fairings as part of a project to recover and reuse the components, but whether those efforts played a role in the launch delay is unclear. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said the fairings alone cost about $5 million, so the ability to reuse them could represent a substantial savings.

Earlier this month, Musk said SpaceX is getting closer to recovering its payload fairings. The company has been experimenting with parachutes on its fairings and built a giant ship equipped with metal arms (which Musk has described as a "catcher's mitt in boat form") to eventually catch the fairings before they splash into the ocean.

After SpaceX's successful Falcon Heavy test flight on Feb. 6, Musk told reporters that Falcon 9 rocket fairing recovery has been difficult since fairing parachutes tend to get twisted during descent. But Musk was optimistic that a solution would be found this year.

"I'm pretty sure we'll solve fairing recovery in the next 6 months," Musk said.

SpaceX's next Falcon 9 rocket will use a previously flown first stage booster that also launched the Taiwanese Formosat-5 satellite in August 2017. The mission's primary goal is to launch the Paz radar-imaging satellite for the Spanish company Hisdesat. The Paz satellite is designed to capture sharp radar imagery of Earth for a variety of customers, including the Spanish government, over the course of its 5.5-year mission.

SpaceX is also expected to launch two prototype satellites, called Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, as part of its Starlink broadband satellite constellation. The company has not commented on the Starlink prototypes publicly, but their inclusion on the launch was laid out in SpaceX documents filed to the Federal Communications Commission.

You can watch the next Falcon 9 launch here courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via SpaceX's website. The webcast will begin about 20 minutes before liftoff.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.



Episode aired on SHOWTIME Sunday, February 12



In my review of last weeks episode the Quaking Grass I had ended with what I hoped to see moving forward with this show. I dont want to say I was disappointed but, it seems like none of the things I would like to have seen will happen. The truth is Lena Waithe promised to give us the Chicago that people dont get to see on TV and not the caricatured crime filled Southside. The writing would be grounded to the true life of all these beautiful people. Sunday's episode reminded me of that; it was great to snap back from my comfort level of just thinking about the awful things and how I needed to have them resolved. Today Was a Good Day was a fun episode but also profound. We got a street party, I mean this doesnt happen much on TV anymore, but it was real and organic and satisfying to watch. We saw all the characters come together and try to enjoy themselves despite what was hanging in the air for some of them.

Brandon and his cousin Hannibal spent most of the day together hanging out and just talking. His cousin showed him his real cool tool shed, where he grew weed and convinced Brandon to enjoy some to help him relax. This interaction was quite entertaining to watch specifically Brandon's hallucination, what didnt change was his yearning for Jerrika. They still hadnt spoken since she kicked him out and his cousin was not going to let him wallow. I think all the random killings of black men has me on edge so when I saw a cop try to stop Hannibal as he left his driveway I was angry. He is not a novice but halleluiah it was a black cop is what I said when the police approached the car. He finagled his way out of that situation, but it still left me upset, since this is not about me but the show lets move on.Hannibal is a good cousin and a great friend. He manages to slowly help Brandon throughout the day find the courage to tell him that he knew who killed Coogie. It was heartbreaking to watch this, but I was glad that Brandon was able to finally open up albeit the weed played a prominent role in him letting lose; either way, he shared his heartache with someone. In my first review of the show, I mentioned that Sarah, Brandons restaurant manager liked him and from the exchange with his cousin we will be seeing her around soon shaking things up. Jerrika seems to have moved on already since she brought a date to the street party, which was very hurtful to Brandon. I had called this break up as well from the first episode so will see if they will come back from this going forward. At the street party, Brandon approached Ronnie and fort he first time Ronnie explained why he did what he did to Coogie. Brandon was not having any of, but it looks like for now they will let it go.I sense that Emmett is about to get himself in some real trouble even though it was just cigarettes that he was ferrying for Amir, trying to get into the shoe hustle business with him is not going to end well. I am happy though that he is trying his best to ensure that his child is taken care of, again Lena and her teams brilliant writing in showing that its not all about deadbeat black dads. The storyline involving Jakes brother is not sitting well with me, I dont know if its because of how he treats Jake, or I just dont like him, but I was hoping they would move away from it. I hated how he came to cause trouble at the street party with unnecessary drama. DQ was able to handle him, but this means now they are in a fight even though DQ had retired from the street business. DQ has gone around town and gathered his cronies so its not going to be business as usual anymore for all the street crews.One of the strangest things that happened in this episode was Maisha stealing Kevins bicycle. I didnt understand if she has a baby or if she was referring to her sibling when Kevin went to get his bike. He decided to leave it for her after she said she was only borrowing it to get groceries. I dont know if Kevin got hustled out of his bike, by a very manipulative little girl or her story was real, but we will see in the next episodes. I do hope she's not the mother of the baby because that, in my opinion, will be ridiculous lazy writing. That type of story has been told on TV many times but it's not the story of all black teenagers so, there is no need for it.It was a solid episode; I loved the street party and just people coming together and having a good time with good food, drinks, and music. I hope that we will see more of the investigations into Jason's death as well as Coogies. It seems like Ronnie will fold and tell detective Cruz about what happened based on their meeting, or it will be a matter of time before everything catches up with him. I also need the DQ and Tracy relationship to be explored further since they hinted when they interacted and from Ronnies reaction that they might have known each other.10/10During 2017, Adala UK recorded that the number of cases of people who had been denied entry to or been arbitrarily expelled from Western Sahara by Morocco had reached 76. These people included international observers, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, those from the solidarity movement and those accused of 'disturbing the peace' or being 'undesirables', all of whom were attempting to conduct human rights monitoring work.

On 12 February this year, the two lawyers representing the group of political prisoners known as the Gdeim Izik Group were detained by plain clothes officers of the Moroccan security services and expelled on arrival at the airport in Casablanca. No justification was given for their expulsion nor their initial detention. The two French lawyers intended to visit the group of Saharawi prisoners who are incarcerated in seven different Moroccan prisons throughout Morocco where they all endure terrible conditions and maltreatment. The lawyers expressed their anger at their expulsion especially given the agreement that exists between France and Morocco regarding matters of law and justice.

In a statement the lawyers said: "we are Ingrid Metton and Olfa Ouled, lawyers from the Paris College of Lawyers. We express our complete outrage at the obstacles that have been put in our way to prevent us from carrying out our professional roles and exercising our right to see our clients. All our complaints made to the French government on this matter have so far been ignored".

Their statement explained that they had travelled to Morocco on Monday 12th February and were detained from the moment the plane landed at 20.40. Their passports were taken and they were put 'under police escort' in the international zone of the airport where they were held for 18 hours before they were finally expelled. In May 2017, the two lawyers had been violently removed by the police from the audience chamber of the Rabat Court of Appeal while they were carrying out their duties in defending the Saharawi political prisoners. Olfa Ouled was badly injured during this incident.

"We should be able to freely exercise our duties in defending our clients wherever we are because this is one of the fundamental rights of the profession of lawyer and this principle must be defended throughout the world" stated the lawyers.

On Wednesday 14th February, the Moroccan occupation authorities also expelled a Norwegian journalist and photographer, 'Rijkaard', from the occupied capital of El Aaiun, without any legal justification. According to witnesses, the Norwegian was visited out of blue by the authorities at the flat where he was staying and told to immediately leave Western Sahara as he was considered an 'undesirable'. Witnesses also noted that the authorities intimidated the Norwegian journalist and made him get into their car, which then took him to an unknown location. The journalist had pre-arranged meetings in the Occupied Territories of Western Sahara with victims of grave human rights violations.

The fact that both the lawyers and the journalist were each expelled after a long interrogation process about their work and their activism suggests that the decision to expell them was taken as a reprisal against their actions regarding human rights violations in Western Sahara and regarding the injust procedures which took place during the trials of the Saharawi citizens who are defending their right to self-determination.

Limiting who enters the occupied zones of Western Sahara is not a new tactic by Morocco. Over the last few years there has been a systematic denial of entry to activists, lawyers and others who support the self-determination of the Saharawi people. The decision to expell these two lawyers and this journalist suggest that the Moroccan authorities have something to hide and it is a flagrant attempt on their part to prevent legitimate investigation into human rights and to silence criticism of the situation in which these particularl political prisoners and the Saharawi people more broadly are living.

Morocco considers any monitoring of human rights in Western Sahara to be meddling in its internal affairs, which has led to the implementation of a closed door policy for all observing organisations and international NGOs who wish to investigate the human rights situation in Western Sahara. But this is a territory over which Morocco has no jurisdiction whilst it awaits its docolonisation under international law and according to the United Nations.

Adala UK emphasises the need for Morocco to abide by the law and promote and defend human rights. This must be upheld by the Moroccan government and they must prevent the expulsion of, threat to, restriction and suppression of all those who aim to uphold human rights. They must pretect their freedoms and ensure their safety. This must be extended to all Western Sahara human rights defenders, regardless of their country of origin. (SPS)

062/SPS

http://adalauk.org/?p=5417Becici (Montenegro) February 17, 2018 (SPS) - The 33rd Congress of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) on Saturday approved a recommendation on Western Sahara calling on the international community to respect international humanitarian law in Western Sahara.

The recommendation called for respect for international humanitarian law in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, in particular the right to freedom of association, assembly, protest, freedom of movement and expression.

It called for the expansion of the prerogatives of MINURSO to include monitoring and reporting on human rights, and the release of all Sahrawi political detainees in the various Moroccan prisons.

It called also for an end to the illegal looting of natural resources in occupied territories of Western Sahara and to discourage multinational companies, especially European ones, from such activities, stressing the importance of supporting the provision of humanitarian assistance to Saharawi refugees in a sustainable and timely manner. (SPS)

062/SPS/TRASTAMFORD  When AITE senior Marco Lima was 4 years old, he shared an idea with his family. He wanted to build something. His parents acknowledged it but since he was so young they ended up brushing it off.

Lima went on to build that small contraption his parents had previously ignored and once it was done rushed to show it off. His parents were now surprised and pleased with how well their son had done. It evoked an emotion in Lima that to this day still motivates him.

Lima loves creating and the process of making something.

Since then, whenever I do something I get that feeling, he said. Its what motivates me to keep going.

Lima is now a high school senior and an aspiring entrepreneur. It has not been easy for him but he continuously chases ways to channel his ideas and opportunities to feel the same emotion he felt more than a decade ago.

Triple M is now a brand name and group that sells clothing in several states with promotions on YouTube and SoundCloud. The idea started when Lima was a sophomore.

It initially started as a group of friends who basically wanted to work together on some things, he said.

Lima said they werent necessarily sure what we wanted to do at first, but were convinced to stick together and create.

It all began in his business class, where they started what Lima calls a very, very small business.

What they lacked in resources they made up for in excitement, but that did not last long. Lima said the group fell apart with everyones interest  except his  diminishing.

Eventually, I kept bringing it up and they werent as into it as I was, so I decided I would just do it on my own, Lima said.

Lima said he wanted to keep his options open and channel his ideas and create things for himself and others.

He said he made it so vague, I mentioned that it was a group, not a business. Its not a fashion line or something like that. I made it vague because over time Ill get different ideas or different opportunities and I will be able to channel it out.

According to its website, Triple M is a platform for the production of apparel, music, photography and various media services.

This platform began with humble resources and humble ideas.

I basically just wanted to do educational YouTube videos like teaching people and stuff, he said. But I didnt have enough resources, so I had to find some sort of way to make money at first. So the first thing I thought about doing was selling clothes.

It made sense to fund one idea with the profits of another. The only problem was it also required money. He was lucky enough to meet a friend willing to help.

Noah Benson, also an AITE senior, had already started his brand. Benson was willing to pay for half of the product for half of the profits and they struck a six-month deal. Their arrangement, though, did not last long as Benson stepped away with hopes to focus on his music.

Lima was suddenly back to square one having to finance himself. He used almost all the money in his bank account to fund his dream, and the investment paid off.

Now his brand has taken off. Lima has set up his own website where you can listen to the music and videos he has produced, buy the brands clothes, peruse his photo gallery and contact him through various social media services.

No matter how good what youre doing is, whether its helping other people or doing something for yourself, there will always be somebody who doesnt agree, he said. Thats not bad. Everyone will have a different perspective, but it just means that there will be conflicts and setbacks. All you have to do is learn from your mistakes.

Lima sees the platform exponentially growing in the future.

It doesnt feel like work because Im really passionate about it, he said. Whatever it is, marketing, advertising, accounting, making new designs, working on orders, making surveys. Its a lot of work but I get motivated from the work I do. It gives me energy.NORTH HAVEN  A new telephone scam that preys on parents with teenage children has surfaced in North Haven, adding the municipality to a growing list of towns that have fallen victim to the terrifying new fad.

In recent weeks, towns like Easton, Monroe, Ansonia, Seymour, Darien and now North Haven have fallen victim to a new telephone scam that involves a suspect calling unsuspecting parents and claiming that their child is being held for ransom.

Scammers will claim that the victims child has been involved in a motor vehicle accident, police said. The suspect typically will tell parents the child attempted to contact police, but the driver of the other car kidnapped the child and is threatening to kill him or her.

Police said the suspect will then claim that if you provide money for the damage to the car, your child will be released unharmed. The suspect will tell you to go to the bank, and he will direct you from there where to bring the money.

On Friday, North Haven police took to their Facebook account to inform residents on how to avoid the scam.

During these calls, you may hear what sounds like your child calling for help in the background. The calls are very realistic, and the suspect is hoping your emotions will cloud your best judgement, North Haven police wrote.

Police officials said residents should never panic and give in to the demands. Officials said never to send money to an unknown person, regardless of the situation.

So far, North Haven police said potential victims have managed to contact their children prior to the exchange of money.

Residents who receive calls of this nature are advised to document the incoming phone number and to contact their local police department as soon as possible.DC orders to strictly enforce the ban on the use of plasticsNORWALK  Reports of an intoxicated man hanging around the South Norwalk Train Station led to the arrest of an undocumented immigrant who had fled from justice in New Jersey, police said.

Police responded to the Metro-North Railroad station in South Norwalk on reports on an intoxicated man who was staggering around and falling sleeping on station benches, according to police reports.V alentines Day, 1900. A group of schoolgirls go for a picnic with their teacher. All but one of them never return. No one knows what happened to them or where they went.

If youre not familiar with the story of Picnic at Hanging Rock, its probably safe to assume you feel intrigued. Joan Lindsays canonical 1967 novel continues to captivate readers worldwide, and its become firmly embedded as a national myth in her native Australia. Some still arent sure whether it actually happened and happily spend years musing over its mysteries.

The tale has travelled the world - even to a small corner of South East England, where I distinctly remember my mum telling me as an over-curious child about these girls who never came back. And now there's a major new TV adaptation on the way, which is shaping up to be 2018s answer to The Handmaids Tale.

Matthew Lutton chose to open his inaugural season as artistic director at Australias Malthouse Theatre with a new production of Lindsays novel, bringing new life to one of the countrys greatest myths. The production, adapted by Tom Wright from the original novel, was celebrated when it opened there in 2015, and again when it was subsequently performed in Edinburgh; next week, the production comes to the Barbican.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures 1 /6 Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Pia Johnson Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Pia Johnson Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Pia Johnson Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Pia Johnson Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Pia Johnson Picnic at Hanging Rock - in pictures Pia Johnson

So why take on this tale - captivating, but burdened with the cultural obsession that surrounds it? Lutton told me on a call from Australia that he wanted to apply rigour to the countrys biggest myths. I think the classics often get trapped in a state of nostalgia, or they dont get scrutinised enough, he said.

His first encounter with the story came from the now classic 1975 film, but on reading the book five years ago he found himself in awe of the way that Joan Lindsay wrote this book that was written like it was fact.

She wrote it as if this absolutely happened and that she was telling a mystery, he says. Lindsay was infamously guarded about the book, never revealing whether it was true or not, and opening the novel with the command that readers decide for themselves: As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems important, she wrote.

It has all the ingredients of an engrossing mystery, but why does the story continue to have so much power in Australia? Lutton thinks there are two reasons - one being that the novel gives no solution to its mysteries, and that makes the imagination work harder. (There was a chapter published posthumously that provided an answer. I recommend everyone not to read it, Lutton says.)

And then theres something thats more unique to Australia. It taps into a very bodily experience of feeling terror in your home country - a terror of landscape. I think thats something that a lot of people around the world have experienced, but also is very particular in Australia, he says. Once you leave the cities, you realise youre venturing into a country that is very sacred and very old.

But it seems our feelings about national myths are complicated. When the Brexit result emerged, National Theatre boss Rufus Norris made a concerted effort to engage with the countrys most formative stories with two pieces of new writing, Saint George and the Dragon and Common. They both flopped. Myths, Lutton suggests, read us - we dont read them.

Theres a sense that we keep going back to these myths because they reveal more of the psyche, or more of the subtext of the culture, Lutton suggests. Theres something about this story thats very much about ignorance and denial.

Part of this ignorance comes from the foreign intrusion of England into Australia: the girls attend an English-style school and wear Edwardian outfits, with one character wondering aloud why shes having to wear such an absurdly impractical outfit to climb a rock.

One of the things that Tom Wright does throughout the adaptation is play with this idea of a culture - an English culture - that comes to Australia and tries to name everything. Without knowing that the country already has names, he says. The story is partly about the failures of colonisers; its intriguing to consider how forthcoming English audiences will respond to this. In Edinburgh audiences were rapt, and offered a number of responses about their own sense of guilt.

Matthew Lutton's guide to Australian literature Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. Obviously. Bliss by Peter Carey. Were currently doing this at Malthouse. This is actually the Australian play about the #MeToo campaign. Wake in Fright by Kenneth Cook. Its a nightmare that descends into alcoholism and toxic masculinity in Australia. Its brilliant. The Watchtower by Elizabeth Howard. Its probably one of our great feminist early 20th century works. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead. A lot of these early 20th century writers created work that captured the turn of the mid-century post-World War Two changes in Australia. Were all rereading them at the moment because theyre prophetic.

Ill be very interested in whether theres a sense of carrying colonial guilt in the English audience, Lutton says. That sense of, should they have been in this country? It will feel very different I think. The play is really about Englishness versus Australia.

Even when the girls themselves begin to climb the rock, they have little awareness of where they are or the indigenous history that surrounds it. Its an issue that has recently manifested itself in a campaign against Picnic at Hanging Rocks grip on local tourism. Visitors fascinated by the eerie story continue to go to the rock to walk in the footsteps of the girls, and its not uncommon to find tourists standing at the top and calling out Miranda! to reenact the most famous scene in the film version. Entitled Miranda Must Go, it argues that a fictional tale of white vanishing has been promoted at the expense of the areas indigenous history.

I certainly understand that the position of Joan Lindsays story is not the only story of that landscape, Lutton says. The rocks indigenous name is Ngannelong, and its important that we know that history. I think the Miranda Must Go campaign is a brilliant way to make sure we remember and understand the rock, and that the landscape has a multitude of histories running simultaneously. And you cant let Lindsays story deny the longer and older history.

But the rock, arguably the novels main character, makes no appearance in the Luttons version - and audiences have been fine with that, reportedly coming out of shows screaming and feeling totally terrified. It was deliberate - Lutton knew that a literal representation of the rock could never match the aura of the real thing.

We decided to conjure it in the audiences imagination using poetry, he says. We use a lot of the novel in an act of resuscitation. Almost like an act of possession.A lmost one thousand students at City University have demanded they be refunded over 1,000 each after their lecturers announced they are to go on strike.

Teaching staff at more than 60 universities are due to walk out after pension talks between the University and College Union (UCU) and Universities UK broke down.

A petition tied to the campaign has received 850 signatures.

It reads: "We, the students of City, University of London, believe that it is fair and just to be proportionally financially compensated for the loss of teaching we will suffer during the days of the UCU strike.

"For a UK student, based on 20 teaching weeks (100 days) that is 9250/100 = 92.50 per day.

"Over 14 days this equates to 1295 and even more for international students."

Signatory Paulo Buco wrote: "[The 9,000 a year fees are] barely worth it already - missing a whole month is just atrocious."

Another, Jindy Sangha, added: "They stand up for their pensions; we stand up for our studies."

Similar petitions have been set up by student groups at universities around the country.

The strike, which is due to start on February 22, will see university lecturers strike for an increasing number of days each week that their demands are not met, totalling 14 days.

Those joining the industrial action claim proposed changes to their pension scheme will make them 10,000 worse off in retirement.

Martin Wilson, president of the university's Pro Bono society, told the Standard: "During strike action, the university will not be paying their staff, however they will retain 100% of the tuition fee students paid in order to pay those staff.

"Whilst the university should not unduly suffer as a result of something beyond its control, neither should the consumer.

"At the very least, the University shouldnt profit while the consumer suffers a loss.

"The University should retain from our tuition, the facilitys operating costs over the strike days as it is beyond their control however, they should refund the remainder as they will not have the expenditure of staff wages.

"We accept that strike action is not the institutions fault, but neither is it the students.

"It is our argument then that those of us having sections of their module removed from the curriculum are not receiving the service we, as consumers, are paying to receive."

A spokesman for City, University of London said: Our priority is to ensure that industrial action does not adversely affect our students. We will seek to maintain our high academic standards and ensure that students remain able to complete their programmes of study and graduate as anticipated.

"Given the actions we are taking to minimise disruption, we do not anticipate that any student will face significant disruption to their programme of academic activities. We do not therefore anticipate that the issue of financial compensation will arise.H enry Bolton has admitted he may rekindle his romance with ex-girlfriend Jo Marney after being ousted as Ukip party leader.

The politician admitted he could get back together with 25-year-old model Ms Marney after he lost his job on Saturday.

He ended the relationship after it emerged that Ms Marney has made racist comments about Meghan Markle marrying Prince Harry.

But, in an interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg on LBC, he hinted that the separation may have been temporary.

Debacle: Ukip leader Henry Bolton with his ex-girlfriend Jo Marney

Mr Bolton also argued that some within the party had used his personal life to "deliberately" undermine his leadership.

His comments came as Ukip's interim leader, Gerard Batten, defended his description of Islam as a "death cult" - a day after he took over the helm of the party.

Mr Batten, who is temporarily standing in as leader, said in an interview that a "significant minority" of Muslims are extremists who want to be martyred.

On Saturday, Mr Bolton lost a vote of no confidence on Saturday, with 63 per cent of party members voting to sack him.

During the interview on Sunday, Mr Rees-Mogg had asked: "Now that you are not leading the party, are you and Ms Marney reunited? Is that some unity you've created?"

The ex-Ukip leader replied: "We talked about it last night. It's a bit early to say what's going to happen in my private life, Jacob."

Mr Bolton ended his relationship with Ms Marney after it emerged she had sent text messages including offensive comments about Meghan Markle and black people.

He faced a revolt by several senior figures in the party in protest at the relationship as a result.

Mr Bolton said he did not resign from his position earlier as he felt it more important to focus on "unifying the party" and "putting out a message on the EU".

He said the party was made up of a "disparate group of political views that were gathered together under Brexit".

Mr Bolton said: "The situation within my personal life created an opportunity for the people within the party that had never accepted my leadership to express themselves."

He added: "[There are] people within the party who have deliberately used this to undermine the party."

The politician said he expected the party to "take a lurch to the right", adding "the party cannot be united now".S ixty-six people are feared to have been killed in a passenger plane crash in Iran.

An Aseman Airlines plane came down in the Zagros mountains near to its destination of Yasuj, south Iran.

Flight EP 3704 took off from Tehran at 4.33am GMT and gave its last signal at 5.55am GMT, , when the flight was at 16,975 feet and was descending, FlightRadar 24 said.

The plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is around 44-metres (1,440ft tall), the airline said.

The airline retracted a statement saying that all on board were dead. Spokesman Mohammad Taqi Tabatabayee told state media the company could not yet confirm this.

Mr Tabatabayee told Iranian Fars News: "Given the hard (geographical) situation of the region, we have not been yet able to access the crash site and therefore, the death of all passengers of the plane cannot be confirmed precisely and firmly yet."

Iran's Red Crescent sent search and rescue teams to the site, and a number of drones were deployed to the crash site, according to reports.

The plane was a French-made ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying.

There were 59 adults and one child, as well as a pilot, a co-pilot, two flight attendants and two air marshals on board.

Bad weather affected rescue efforts as helicopters were unable to reach the crash site.

Emergency services head Pir Hossein Kulivand was quoted as saying crews had to travel to the scene by land.

Aseman Airlines, owned by Iran's civil service pension foundation, is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specializes in flights to remote airfields across the country.

Previously, Aseman Airlines suffered one other major crash with fatalities.A White House schedule shows Donald Trump is set to hold a "listening session" with victims of the Valentine's Day Florida high school massacre.

The White House did not immediately answer questions about which students would be attending the session on Wednesday.

Mr Trump is also set to meet with state and local officials on school safety on Thursday.

Students who survived the shooting in Parkland that left 17 dead have focused their anger on the president, urging him and other elected officials to do something about gun violence.

Trump visits Florida shooting victims

Mr Trump earlier visited Broward Health North Hospital on Friday, where he saw two victims and praised the doctors and nurses for their "incredible" job.

The president lashed out at the FBI on Saturday night, accusing the agency of "missing signals" sent by the suspect of the school shooting by "spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign".

The US president wrote on Twitter: "Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable.

"They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion.

"Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

The FBI admitted on Friday it failed to act on a tip it received last month about suspect Nikolas Cruz, who officials say has admitted to the shooting.

The agency's acknowledgment that it mishandled the tip prompted a sharp rebuke from its boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and a call from Florida's Republican governor Rick Scott, an ally, for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.

One student branded the president a "piece of s***" on Twitter, claiming several of her classmates at the high school were killed in Wednesday's horrifying shooting in Parkland.

Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz's Instagram pictures 1 /9 Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz's Instagram pictures Posing: Suspect Nikolas Cruz with a gun One of the images posted on an Instagram account thought to belong to Nikolas Cruz Posing: Suspect Nikolas Cruz with knives One of the images posted on an Instagram account thought to belong to Nikolas Cruz Posing: Suspect Nikolas Cruz with a knife Other images taken from an Instagram account purportedly belonging to Cruz Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz as he is arrested by police at the scene where 17 people were shot dead One of the images posted on an Instagram account thought to belong to Nikolas Cruz One of the images posted on an Instagram account thought to belong to Nikolas Cruz

Mr Trump had tweeted his prayers and condolences to the families of those murdered as the shooter stormed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Dismissing the US leaders message of support, she wrote on Twitter: I dont want your condolences you f****** price [sic] of s***, my friends and teachers were shot. Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead.

'Piece of s***' The girl, who lashed out at Donald Trump's response, was believed to be a student at the school / Twitter

Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers wont fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again.

Suspect Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after he allegedly opened fire at the high school with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Police said he had a history of disturbing social media posts, while former classmates said he was obsessed with guns.S ome of the film industrys biggest names are gearing up to brave Londons chilly weather for the 71st annual BAFTAs this Sunday.

A host of A-listers will descend on the Royal Albert Hall for the biggest night in the British awards season calendar as this years hottest films go head-to-head for the coveted golden trophies.

Heres what you need to know about this years BAFTAs:

When does it happen?

The red carpet will kick off at 4:30pm giving the celebs plenty of time to mingle with their co-stars and pose for pictures before the ceremony starts at 7pm.

Actresses Natalie Dormer and Letitia Wright read out the nominations for this year's Bafta film awards

All guests and winners will then head to Grosvenor House at 9:30pm for the BAFTAs dinner and afterparty, which is expected to go on until late.

For those unlucky folk whose invites got lost in the post, the broadcast will air on BBC One at 9pm.

Who will be there?

Huge stars from the UK and across the pond are expected to attend with Frances McDormand, Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, Gary Oldman, Daniel Kaluuya and Timothee Chalamet among those on the guestlist.

BAFTAs: Best Dressed of All-Time - In pictures 1 /55 BAFTAs: Best Dressed of All-Time - In pictures Scroll through to see BAFTAs best dressed through the ages... 1955 Audrey Hepburn PA 2000 Elle MacPherson PA 2003 Nicole Kidma Getty Images 2005 Cate Blanchett Getty Images 2006 Mischa Barton Getty Images 2007 Penelope Cruz Getty Images 2007 Naomie Harris Getty Images 2007 Sienna Miller Getty Images 2007 Dame Helen Mirren Getty Images 2008 Emily Blunt Getty Images 2008 Keira Knightley Getty Images 2008 Kate Hudson PA 2009 Freida Pinto Getty Images 2010 Carey Mulligan Getty Images 2011 Julianne Moore Getty Images 2011 The Duchess of Cambridge Getty Images 2011 Jessica Alba Getty Images 2011 Emma Watson Getty Images 2011 Nicole Kidman Getty Images 2011 Jennifer Lawrence Getty Images 2013 Marion Cotillard Getty Images 2013 Jennifer Lawrence AFP/Getty Images 2013 Jessica Chastain Getty Images 2013 Dame Helen Mirren Getty Images 2014 Lupita Nyong'o Getty Images 2014 Fearne Cotton Getty Images 2014 Angelina Jolie Getty Images 2014 Lily Allen Getty Images 2015 Rosamund Pike Getty Images 2015 Lea Seydoux Getty Images 2015 Keira Knightley Getty Images 2016 Cate Blanchett Getty Images 2016 Kate Winslet Getty Images 2014 Lea Seydoux Getty Images 2016 Emilia Clarke Getty Images 2016 Dakota Johnson Getty Images 2016 Alicia Vikander Getty Images 2016 Saoirse Ronan AFP/Getty Images 2017 Penelope Cruz Getty Images 2017 Emma Stone Getty Images 2017 Felicity Jones Getty Images 2017 Meryl Streep Getty Images 2017 Emily Blunt Getty Images 2017 Nicole Kidman Getty Images 2017 The Duchess of Cambridge AFP/Getty Images 2018 Angelina Jolie Getty Images 2018 Duchess of Cambridge Getty Images 2018 Jennifer Lawrence Getty Images 2018 Emma Roberts Getty Images 2019 Zawe Ashton Getty Images 2019 Lucy Boynton Getty Images 2019 Laura Harrier Getty Images 2019 Timothee Chalamet Getty Images 2019 Margot Robbie Getty Images

Other guests include Daisy Ridley, Jamie Bell, Woody Harrelson, Gemma Arterton, Emilia Clarke, Guillermo Del Toro and Sam Rockwell.

Director Sir Ridley Scott will also be in attendance to pick up the BAFTA Fellowship.

They will all be joined by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Hosting duties: Actress Joanna Lumley is replacing Stephen Fry / James Shaw/Rex

Who will host?

Joanna Lumley has taken over the reins from Stephen Fry to become the first female to host the prestigious bash.

The Absolutely Fabulous star, who won the TV BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, said she snapped up the offer to replace Fry indecently quickly.

Edith Bowman and Dermot OLeary will be on hand to host the official red carpet live programme.

Who will win?

Gary Oldman and Frances McDormand look set to snare the coveted Leading Actor and Actress gongs following an awards season haul for their roles in Darkest Hour and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri respectively.

The Shape of Water could sweep the board after picking up 12 nominations including Best Director for Del Toro.

Bafta pre-awards dinner 1 /6 Bafta pre-awards dinner Callum McGowan Dave Benett/Getty Images Valene Kane Dave Benett/Getty Images Ciara Charteris Dave Benett/Getty Images Lily Newmark Dave Benett/Getty Images Leo Suter Dave Benett/Getty Images Daisy Lewis, Jack Fox, and Martha Ward Dave Benett/Getty Images

Who is nominated?

BEST FILM

Call me by Your Name

Darkest hour

Dunkirk

The Shape of water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - Trailer

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Darkest Hour

Death of Stalin

Lady MacBeth

Gods Own Country

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Darkest Hour - Trailer 2

BEST DIRECTOR

Denis Villeneuve - Blade Runner 2049

Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk

Martin McDonagh - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Luca Guadagnino - Call me by Your Name

Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water

The Shape Of Water - Trailer

LEADING ACTOR

Daniel Day Lewis

Daniel Kaluuya

Gary Oldman

Jamie Bell

Timothee Chalamet

Call Me By Your Name - Trailer

LEADING ACTRESS

Annette Benning

Frances McDormand

Margot Robbie

Sally Hawkins

Saoirse Ronan

TODO: define component type brightcove

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christopher Plummer  All the Money in the World

Hugh Grant - Paddington 2

Sam Rockwell - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Willem Dafoe - The Florida Project

Woody Harrelson - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

All The Money In The World - Trailer 3

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Alison Janney  I, Tonya

Kristin Scott Thomas - Darkest Hour

Laurie Metcalf - Lady Bird

Lesley Manville - Phantom Thread

Octavia Spencer - The Shape of WaterM.K. BHADRAKUMAR

In the slideshow that is Middle Eastern politics, the series of still images seldom add up to make an enduring narrative. And the probability is high that when an indelible image appears, it might go unnoticed  such as Russia and Saudi Arabia wrapping up huge energy deals on Wednesday underscoring a new narrative in regional and international security.

The ebb and flow of events in Syria  Turkeys campaign in Afrin and its threat to administer an Ottoman slap to the United States, and the shooting down of an Israeli F-16 jet  hogged the attention. But something of far greater importance was unfolding in Riyadh, as Saudi and Russian officials met to seal major deals marking a historic challenge to the US dominance in the Persian Gulf region.

The big news is the Russian offer to the Saudi authorities to invest directly in the upcoming Aramco initial public offering  and the Saudis acknowledging the offer. Even bigger news, surely, is that Moscow is putting together a Russian-Chinese consortium of joint investment funds plus several major Russian banks to be part of the Aramco IPO.

Chinese state oil companies were interested in becoming cornerstone investors in the IPO, but the participation of a Russia-China joint investment fund takes matters to an entirely different realm. Clearly, the Chinese side is willing to hand over tens of billions of dollars.

Yet the Aramco IPO was a prime motive for US President Donald Trump to choose Saudi Arabia for his first foreign trip. The Saudi hosts extended the ultimate honor to Trump  a ceremonial sword dance outside the Murabba Palace in Riyadh. Hardly 10 months later, they are open to a Russian-Chinese consortium investing in the Aramco IPO.

Riyadh plans to sell 5% of Saudi Aramco in what is billed as the largest IPO in world history. In the Saudi estimation, Aramco is worth US$2 trillion; a 5% stake sale could fetch as much as $100 billion. The IPO is a crucial segment of Vision 2030, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salmans ambitious plan to diversify the kingdoms economy.

Aramco signs MoU with Novatek

Also on Wednesday, Saudi Aramco signed a memorandum of understanding with Novatek, Russias largest non-state natural-gas producer, regarding Saudi investment in the latters LNG (liquefied natural gas) projects  specifically, in the $20 billion Arctic LNG-2, which is expected to be on stream in 2023 and has a capacity of 18 million metric tons annually.

Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih told the media in Riyadh, This is a big project. It will become part of Aramcos gas strategy. The agreement will be showcased as the centerpiece of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in May. (Novatek is also interested in building a regasification terminal in Saudi Arabia.)

Other Saudi-Russian energy deals in the making include investment by Aramco and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (Public Investment Fund, or PIF) in the Russian company Eurasia Driller, a major independent driller, which has been seeking entry to onshore and offshore projects in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi and Russian officials also disclosed that Russia had made a formal proposal to build two nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia and that the contract was expected to be awarded by next year.

Indeed, these deals must be seen in the backdrop of the Saudi-Russian alliance to sustain the oil price through production cuts until the end of 2018. In 2015, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and Saudi Arabias PIF joined hands to make investments in projects in Russia. Last year, RDIF and PIF announced the creation of a Russia-Saudi Investment Fund with total committed capital of $6 billion to pursue investment opportunities, primarily in Russia, and in joint ventures that can help Saudi Arabias economic diversification.

Tectonic shift

Historically, Saudi Arabia has been seen as a pivotal country in the United States Middle East energy strategies, which formed a core template of Cold War-era politics to keep the former Soviet Union out of the region. The past weeks developments signify that the tectonic plates are shifting.

And history might repeat. Reminiscent of the so-called Quincy Agreement of February 1945 between US president Franklin Roosevelt and King Abdul-Rahman bin Abdulaziz, founder of Saudi Arabia, the emerging Saudi-Russian energy alliance will most certainly trigger an overall expansion of relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia, including in defense and security fields.

Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Wednesday, when they discussed a wide range of bilateral cooperation, primarily in trade and defense technology and expressed readiness to boost meaningful coordination in global hydrocarbon markets, according to Moscow. The Kremlin readout highlighted that Putin and King Salman discussed Syria and Saudi Arabias standoff with Qatar  and, possibly, Iran too.

Interestingly, the Kremlin statement cited Putin as regretting that the current crisis by no means contributed to the consolidation of joint efforts in the struggle against a terrorist threat or the stabilization of the Middle East in general. Indeed, it cannot be lost on the Saudis that what distinguishes Russian diplomacy is that unlike the traditional US tactic of exploiting regional tensions and divisions, Moscow focuses on beneficial cooperation. Quite obviously, the Russian military bases in Syria or Russias axis with Iran do not impede a full-bodied Saudi-Russian strategic relationship.

Suffice to say, Russia is positioning itself, in geopolitical terms, to shape outcomes in the Middle East and to enhance its standing as a great power, while also advancing its economic, political and security interests. The contrast with the US couldnt be sharper.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported last week that while addressing a closed-door meeting of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a prominent group of industrialists and business tycoons, in Moscow on February 9, Putin predicted that those who are doing this [imposing sanctions] will themselves tire of it soon. The news from Riyadh signals that Putins prediction is well grounded.

When Russia teams up with China and Saudi Arabia in making such massive investments in the energy field, the US sanctions aimed at denying Western capital and technology to stymie Russias oil industry have been rendered meaningless.

atimes.comAlthough China declared that its J-20 stealth fighter had officially entered service in September 2017 production of the J-20 appears stalled. The manufacturer had planned to build three a month initially but since mid-2017 production appears to have been zero. There are several potential problems with the J-20 but the main ones have to do with stealth (the delicate materials on the airframe that make radar detection less effective) and engines. The most obvious problem is the engines. The WS-10s currently installed are a stopgap and not efficient enough to support supercruise (go supersonic without using the afterburner and becoming easier to spit). China has had persistent problems developing high-performance jet engines. China has been developing the more powerful (and supercruise ready) WS-15 engine since the 1990s for a larger aircraft like the J-20 but has not been able to get the engine to work. Officials also confirmed rumors that a WS-15 exploded during a 2015 static (on the ground) test. That failure had been a secret but when an engine this big fails by blowing up the incident is difficult to hide.

No date was given as to when the WS-15 would be available for use or whether it would have the same vectoring (ability to move the hot jet exhaust in different directions in order to make the fighter more maneuverable) the F-22 uses. At first a more powerful and reliable version of the WS-15 for J20 was believed possible by 2020 but changes in the shape and weight of the WS-15 would require modifications to the shape of the J-20 and that would require a lot of testing to ensure that stealth was not compromised. The factory would have to install new or modified manufacturing equipment and suppliers would have to do the same to produce the new airframe components. Meanwhile the WS-15 reliability problems are still not completely resolved. Another potential J-20 problem is its ability to operate effectively in a wide variety of climates. For example development and pre-production J-20s were flown frequently in a wide variety of climates during 2017 and that may have revealed unanticipated problems requiring fixes that are still in the works.

In early 2017 Chinese officials revealed that at least a dozen J-20s had been delivered to the Chinese air force as part of a new fighter squadron. This information was apparently released to help with export sales because at the time Chinese media was reporting that Pakistan had agreed to buy J-20s. Numbers were not announced and there are still questions about how effective the J-20 actually is. Pakistani interest in the J-20 may have more to do with the fact that China is the only major-power ally they have, their main supplier of weapons and, best of all, a neighbor.

While China began offering its 18 ton J-31 stealth fighter to export customers in 2014 (as the FC-31), it was not until 2017 that efforts were made to export the more advanced J20. The manufacturer of the J-20 (CAC. Chengdu Aircraft Company) also produces the JF-17 and J-10. The JF-17 is a joint effort with Pakistan and Pakistan is the main customer.

The J-20 made its first flight in 2011, and many more since then. Before scheduled mass production could begin in late 2015 eight prototypes were built. There were at least two original J-20 prototypes, and in 2013 a new prototype appeared that had several modifications and is estimated to have a max weight of 36 tons. Since then several more prototypes have been built along with at least twenty production models. All of these were built with the understanding that some major (and time-consuming) refurbishing might be needed once the WS-15 was ready for service.

Work on the J-20 began in the late 1990s, and the Chinese went forward on the assumption that it could be 25 years or more before they had a competitive stealth fighter-bomber in service. The twin engine J-20 first appeared to be about the same weight class as the non-stealthy 30 ton F-15C but the production model was closer in weight to the F-22. By comparison the U.S. F-35A stealth fighter-bomber is a 31 ton, single engine fighter, while the twin-engine F-22 is slightly larger at 38 tons. The Russian Su-57 (T-50) weighed in at 37 tons and its production is also stalled over technical issues. The Russians can make more powerful (and reliable) engines than the Chinese but are still having problems with their other techs (stealth coatings and electronics).

While the J-20 looks like the American F-22 when viewed head on, it's overall shape, weight, and engine power is closer to the older, non-stealthy American F-15C. In other words, the J-20 is 20.4 meters (67 feet) long, with a wing span of 13.5 meters (44 feet). The J-20 has about the same wing area as the F-15C, which is about 25 percent less than the F-22 (which is a few percent larger than the F-15 in terms of length and wingspan). Worse for the J-20, is the fact that its engine power is about the same as the F-15C, while the F-22 has 65 percent more power. With the afterburner turned on, the J-20 has more power than the F-15C and nearly as much as the F-22. But because the afterburner consumes so much fuel you can't use more than a few minutes at a time. The afterburner also generates a lot more heat which makes an aircraft more visible to heat sensors. The new J-20 model appears to be able to supercruise with a powerful enough engine, joining the F-22, Eurofighter, and the Gripen as aircraft that can supercruise. The J-20 appears capable of doing lots of engine dependent things during tests or in theory that is has not been able to sustain in regular service.

The J-20 has some stealthiness when it's coming at you head on. But from any other aspect, the J-20 will light up the radar screen unless it has effective radar absorbing material on the exterior. For this reason the J-20 appeared to be a developmental aircraft, not the prototype of a new model headed for mass production. China soon made it clear that the J-20 was the basis for a new fighter and would go through as many design and shape changes needed to become combat ready. Based on recent Chinese warplane development projects (J-11 in particular) it was believed that the J-20 had a long development road ahead of it. There were some obvious changes between the first and the later prototypes, but nothing all that drastic. Thus it was surprising when the J-20 was declared ready for service in 2017 but not so surprising when production was quietly halted in 2017 because of unspecified problems. Yet the Chinese have been competent and relentless in developing complex technologies and there is no reason to believe they wont get the J-20 working.

The J-20 is only the fifth stealth warplane to fly, the others being the American F-22 and F-35, plus the Russian Su-57. The older U.S. F-117 was actually a light bomber and the B-2 was obviously a heavy bomber. While the shape of the J-20 confers a degree of stealthiness (invisibility to radar), even more electronic invisibility comes from special materials covering the aircraft. It's not known how far along the Chinese are in creating, or stealing, these materials or the needed engines. China would most likely use the J-20 singly, or in small groups, to seek out and attack American carriers. To make this possible F-22 class engines are needed and that is still in development.

For the J-20 to be a superior fighter it would need electronics (including radars and defense systems) on a par with the F-35 and F-22 as well as powerful and reliable engines and effective radar absorbing materials. So far, the Chinese have not caught up with stuff used by current American fighters. But the gap is being closed, faster than it was during the Cold War when the Russians were creating, or stealing, their way to military tech equivalence with the West. The Russians never made it but the Chinese believe they can succeed. It may be that the J-20 is not meant to be a fighter but a stealthy strike aircraft, like the first American stealth fighter the F-117. This innovative aircraft was actually a stealthy light bomber that first flew in 1981 and entered service a few years later. It was very successful as a strike fighter and the Chinese may have noted that such an aircraft would also make an excellent interceptor. That would also explain Pakistani interest as they still use fighters armed with nuclear weapons and the main foe here is India, a country that has been improving its air defense systems a lot lately.

China is also developing other support technologies, like the AESA radar, highly efficient cockpit, stealth, and software to tie everything together. Developing, or even copying, this tech is not easy. But the Chinese already know that, having decades of experience adapting stolen technology to their needs. Thus, it appears that China was planning on having the J-20, in some form, ready for service by the end of the decade. The key factor is their ability to develop or steal the needed technology by then. The J-20 appears to be a fighter-bomber, as this kind of aircraft would be most useful dealing with the U.S. Navy and key targets in Taiwan or Japan. In any event, the J-20 is an attempt to develop some kind of 5th generation aircraft, complete with stealth.

The J-31 and J-20 are further evidence that China is determined to develop its own high tech military gear. While China is eager to develop advanced military technology locally, it recognizes that this takes time and more effort than nations new to this expect. Thus, China is trying to avoid the mistakes Russia made in this area. That means having competing designs and developing necessary supporting industries as part of that. All this takes a lot of time and involves lots of little (and some major) failures. The Chinese are doing it right and are willing to wait until they get military tech that is truly world class.Former Opportunities Party list candidate Buddy Mikaere has thrown his hat into the ring for the upcoming council by-election, which seeks to fill the vacancy left in the wake of Gail McIntoshs passing.

The 67-year-old made the announcement on Facebook today, promising to bring balance, pragmatism and a fresh vision to Tauranga City Council.

Speaking to SunLive, Buddy  whos never stood for council before  says hes quite a fan of the policies TOP put up at the last election.

It gives me a philosophical base to start with. Theres also strong support for TOP in Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty, compared to the rest of the country, so youd be silly to turn away the chance to appeal to that support.

He believes the time has come to be more realistic about the direction the city is going in.

I appreciate it is really central governments role to look after a lot of the socio-economic stuff. But Ive been amazed at the numbers of homeless people on the street and begging. Its something Ive never seen in my lifetime until relatively recently. We have to start thinking about what role local government has to play in solving these problems.

Im also very interested in the development of Tauranga. Like many people, Im stunned at the growth of the city, but we dont seem to be addressing the traffic problem. We have big agencies like NZTA building big motorways on the outskirts of the city, while internally we have these issues.

He also picks out the new developments of Tauriko West and Te Tumu as projects with questionable merit. Rather than spreading out, hes a fan of going up.

We have a pretty dead CBD most of the time. I think we need to get people into the middle of the city, with intensified, apartment-style living. I think the university will help with that by bringing an influx of students into the city.

As for that other big issue  the museum  Buddy has no qualms sharing his stance on the matter.

Ian Taylor came and talked to us about the museum, and the thing that stuck out for me was him saying he couldnt believe we were the fifth biggest city in New Zealand, and we still didnt have a museum, he says.

You have to be bold. If you build it, people will come. Councillors have to start making the big calls without thinking about their political future. I dont have a political future yet, so Im happy to be a yes vote for the museum.

Buddy has strong family connections to Tauranga, and lived here from around the age of nine until his late teens, during which time he attended Mount Maunganui College. He moved away and returned to settle permanently in Papamoa in 2011, where he now works as a consultant.Papamoa Surf Lifesavers are calling for help to continue patrolling one of the longest patrolled beaches in the country - a 14km stretch of beach from Sandhurst Drive to the end of Papamoa Beach Road.

This week, the Papamoa Surf Lifesaving Club is calling on the public to help them keep families safe, says club directors Poppy Crouch & Robynne Cabusao.

Surf Life Saving New Zealand is an essential rescue service as well as a charity that receives no government funding and relies totally on the support of the community, sponsors and grants to continue its work of keeping Kiwis safe on our beaches

This summers dangerous surf conditions have seen lifeguards at the club, and at the new Papamoa East temporary summer tower kept busy with more rescues on our stretch of beach than in previous years, say Poppy and Robynne.

A clear correlation of the growing population in the area and at times poor decision making on the part of the public.

More than 80 per cent of men over estimate their ability in the surf and often it is parents helping their children that get into trouble.

The drowning statistics make meagre reading for a developed country.

This is one of the largest patrolled beaches in the country.

The Papamoa Surf Club will launch its annual Summer Appeal today and it will run through until February 25.

Members, lifeguards and nippers will be doing the rounds in the Papamoa region calling on your support by shaking buckets for your loose change.

Make a donation during the Summer Appeal so we can be there for you when you need us. All monies collected in Papamoa will go directly towards the Papamoa Surf Lifesaving Club and will help the Surf Club keep Papamoa beach safe.

If you miss our collectors and would still like to help then go online to the clubs Give a Little page and donate there.Community organisations will be able to share an increased prize pool when entries for the Trustpower Community Awards open next month.

The Trustpower Community Awards recognise and reward the efforts of volunteers and first took place 25 years ago here in the Western Bay.

Trustpower Community and Communications Advisor Abbie Siely says reaching this milestone has inspired the company to adopt a fresh approach  increasing prize money and widening the celebration to include neighbouring districts.

Over the past year, weve met with Councils, attendees, past and present winners, and the wider community to find out what people value most about the Trustpower Community Awards, and what they think we can do better.

While its clear that locals love the chance to celebrate the efforts of volunteers in their community, its no surprise that for many community organisations finances are a constant concern. Thats why weve increased the prize money available to Trustpower Community Awards recipients.

This year, the prizemoney for a Trustpower Community Award will double to $1,000. Regional Supreme Winners will receive $2,000  up from $1,500 last year  and a trip for two to the 2018 Trustpower National Community Awards.

Abbie says the Trustpower National Community Awards bring together 25 Regional Supreme Winners from around New Zealand, had inspired another exciting change to the local awards.

Every year, were reminded of the benefits of brining likeminded people from around the country together to connect, collaborate and celebrate at the Trustpower National Community Awards.

An idea thats changing lives in one district can be implemented to great effect in another. Often, groups are connected with the perfect person to help them bring an idea to life, or make a current initiative even better.

Every group can have these same opportunities with their neighbouring districts. So this year, Tauranga City and Western Bay of Plenty District will celebrate their community spirit and the achievements of volunteers together at a shared event in Tauranga.

Each district will have its own Supreme Winner and award recipients, but the ideas and inspiration will extend out into the wider region.

She says host locations alternate each year and Trustpower provides transport for groups from neighbouring districts.

The Trustpower Community Awards are open to all community organisations with a voluntary component.

Recipients are recognised for services to the community in areas including, but not limited to: Heritage and Environment; Health and Wellbeing; Arts and Culture; Sport and Leisure; Education and Child/Youth Development.

Anyone can enter a group  groups can even enter themselves. Entries open March 5 and close on Thursday May 31. Enter online at trustpower.co.nz/communityawardsThe Cambridge Classics professor Mary Beard has been left "sitting here crying" after a provocative tweet concerning the Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal exposed her to a torrent of abuse on Twitter.

The Academic tweeted on Friday that "Of course one can't condone the (alleged) behaviour of Oxfam staff in Haiti and elsewhere. But I do wonder how hard it must be to sustain "civilised" values in a disaster zone. And overall I still respect those who go in to help out, where most of us wd not tread".

The tweet has sparked controversy over the last two days. One of hundreds to engage in the Twitter backlash was fellow Cambridge academic Priyamvada Gopal whose series of tweets against Beard included "this kind of thing is the *progressive* end of the institutional culture I have to survive day in day out" and "Cambridge desperately needs a Breaking the Silence on racism. About time and beyond".

In a following tweet Gopal directly satirised Beard: "Obviously it's not a great idea to randomly get your dick out, rape people etc. But it's not easy to be politically correct while in shitholes. And overall I still respect people who head out to shitholes 'cos I sure as hell wouldn't dream of it'."

I'll respond however without a bespoke national media platform on which to do it. Some of has have no choice but to Fail to Be Nuanced on Twitter. Nuance Trolling, the New Complexity Trolling.  Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) February 17, 2018

Launching an impassioned defense of her actions in the wake of the backlash, Beard tweeted "I am amazed that after decades of Lord of the Flies being a gcse English set book we haven't got the point about the breakdown of morality in danger zones!! Just saying and this is NOT to condone the actions of a few aid workers".

Beard then took to her Times Literary Supplement blog to further her defense, but admitted in a tweet that she was left "sitting here crying". Her blog told of the torrent of abuse she had experienced: "the predictable name calling 'pervert', 'sick cow', 'disgusting creature' or gross misreadings 'how hard is it not to gangrape women in a disaster zone?'. 'you've lost your house, your family are dead, fancy a shag? Do you take PayPal?' (I didn't really want to include that, but I felt that you needed to see the tasteless too.)"

She added: "I find it hard to imagine that anyone out there could possibly think that I am wanting to turn a blind eye to the abuse of women and children" and that " while we deplore what has happened and expect better, it is worth thinking of the context in which it took place. 99% of us have no idea of the stresses of working in these environments (and yes, living in them is worse, as there is no escape route). Most aid workers deal with that, I suspect, by drink and cigarettes. But that kind of societal, infrastructural breakdown provides a space for much worse.

"That is not to condone the awful things that happened but to contextualise them. And that is what we need to do, if we want to stop this happening again."

Truth is I look and feel a wreck. pic.twitter.com/esBEaL7os1

 mary beard (@wmarybeard) February 17, 2018

It is not the first time Beard has been trolled for speaking her mind. In 2015, the Classics professor was left wanting to cry after a letter she co-wrote supporting freedom of speech exposed her to a torrent of abuse from supporters of transgender rights.

TCS has contacted Mary Beard for comment.

TCS has contacted Priyamvada Gopal for comment.Its fair to say that Googles second generation of Pixel phones havent had the smoothest of times since launch. Following their display and audio issues (among others), it seems some users are experiencing yet more problems with their Pixel 2 handsets: warm temperatures and reduced battery life.

Twitter, Reddit, and Googles Pixel User Community have all seen reports of the issues, which affect both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. As noted by 9to5Google, many believe these are the result of Februarys security patch.

The severity seems to vary from user to user, but most people are complaining that the phones, while still usable, are running a lot warmer than they should be, even when performing non-intensive tasks. Some reports say the handsets are heating up while in standby and the problem is still present in safe mode, making the recent update, rather than any apps, the likely cause.

A toasty phone isnt the only problem users are experiencing; it seems the security patch has also negatively affected the battery life of some Pixel 2 handsets. A few reports say the battery drained by more than half after one hour with the display turned on, though the impact hasnt been as extreme for other users.

Some people have reported experiencing both the warming and the reduced battery life after installing the update, while others say their phones suffer from one of the problems but not the other.

Google has yet to comment on the reports, but given their numbers, expect the company to release a statement soon. At least the tech giant isn't alone in putting out an update that had unforeseen effects; Samsung recently halted its rollout of Android Oreo to Galaxy S8 handsets after it was found to be causing random reboots.

While Google managed to double Pixel shipments in 2017, it still only moved a comparatively underwhelming 3.9 million units last year.

The company could be facing more Pixel-related problems from law firm Girard Gibbs LLP, the same company that handled the LG bootloop case. It is behind a class action lawsuit directed at the first generation of Pixels over their defects, and is looking at launching a similar suit against the Pixel 2s.US Use of Drones under Scrutiny after Strike in AfghanistanA commercial bakery that makes bread for Australia's largest supermarket chains has been accused of bullying employees out of their jobs because they had become financial "liabilities" after they were injured at work .

The claims have emerged at Davies Bakery as part of a court dispute with the National Union of Workers, which alleges mistreatment and underpayment of workers and intimidation of its organisers at the company's Broadmeadows factory.

Nahid says she was bullied out of a job. Credit:Paul Jeffers

For its part, Davies denies mistreating workers or intimidation although it admits it has had issues with its payment systems.

The bakery, which makes bread and other baked goods for Woolworths, Coles and Aldi to sell in Victoria under their private label brands or at in-store bakeries, is 50 per cent owned by the pie maker, Patties Foods.The University of Queensland is creating a 'Big Data' platform with artificial intelligence that can use information from millions of homes to control energy usage and drive down electricity costs.

Researchers at UQs School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering are building a system that can provide real-time analysis and manage household energy on a massive scale.

The project is a collaboration between UQ, energy start-up Redback Technologies, the Springfield City Group, and state power distributor Energy Queensland.

The initial trials will comprise at least 200,000 homes across the state, collecting data via smart meters which transmit data via a secure cloud, with the potential to roll it out country-wide if successful.B-Corp businesses pay an annual certification fee based on revenue, starting at $500 for businesses with under $200,000 in turnover to $50,000 for businesses with more than $1 billion in turnover.

"B-Corp is a certification for profit businesses and these are businesses which have voluntarily met the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability," Mr Syme says. "The philosophy is to pursue stakeholder value not just shareholder value. It looks at impact on employees, the physical environment and the community. It's a really holistic assessment of a business."

There were 12 businesses certified as B-Corps in the first cohort of Australian businesses to undertake the certification in 2013 and the number has continued to climb with around 100 certified last year.

Mr Jones says GlamCorner paid an annual fee of around $1000 for the certification but the main cost to the business was the rigorous application certification process which took several months.

"It's actually a really big milestone for us," he says. "Companies are in a really unique position about educating employees and customers about how we can reduce our footprint. As companies get bigger and the world gets smaller, companies of the future need to get better and more efficient about how they utilise resources of any kind because economic resources of any kind are scarce. It's a liability and it's a debt and it's a debt that has to be repaid at some stage."

Mr Jones says the reaction from GlamCorner customers has been positive.

"I think you are going to see more of the B-Corp certification coming up," he says. "Our vision is to become every Australian woman's online wardrobe and impact will continue to be an increasingly important part of our messaging and our thesis. We appeal to Australian women who are tired of the old way of consuming fashion."Australian actress Margot Robbie, who was nominated for outstanding leading actress for I, Tonya, was beaten by Oscar favourite Frances McDormand for Three Billboards at the British Academy awards in London.

The surprise winner was Australian film editor Paul Machliss, who won for Baby Driver.

Machliss, who shared the award with co-editor Jonathan Amos, has worked in Britain for the best part of two decades.

He has become a long-time collaborator with Baby Driver director Edgar Wright, working on the TV series Spaced before the movies Scott Pilgrim vs The World and The World's End.Strangers in Between

Seymour Centre

February 15



A teenage runaway has fled to Sydney's Kings Cross. The small-town boy may have escaped rural homophobia, but his fears have followed him.

Wil King who plays Shane and Simon Burke as Peter. Credit:Sarah Walker

Shane is paranoid, jumpy and breathtakingly naive. He is as ill-equipped for city life as he is for the job he's landed in the bottleshop, where he has yet to figure out the till, the change or that chardonnay is a white wine.

Tommy Murphy's coming-of-age play was written more than a decade ago, and a year before his best known Holding the Man. It remains fresh, witty and extremely moving. It is crafted with unexpected twists and flesh-and-blood characters.In the wake of a deal to secure the talents of showrunner Shonda Rhimes, the streaming platform Netflix has signed up another key US television producer, Ryan Murphy. Murphy's deal with Netflix runs for five years and is worth a reported $US300 million. The deal also follows Netflix's commission of The Politician and Ratched, a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest prequel, from Murphy. Murphy, who described himself as "a gay kid from Indiana who moved to Hollywood in 1989 with $55 in savings in my pocket", starts working for Netflix on July 1. Fan fern Australian actor Cody Fern will star in the final season of the Netflix political drama House of Cards. The series, based on the UK drama of the same name, is returning for a final eight-episode season without its star Kevin Spacey, who was sacked from the series after damaging sexual harassment allegations from another actor, Star Trek: Discovery star Anthony Rapp. Fern, who is a recipient of the prestigious Heath Ledger Scholarship, joins Robin Wright and new cast members Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear. Ryan Murphy is expanding his empire to Netflix. Credit:CHRIS PIZZELLO Rock solid

Anticipation for Foxtel's reboot of Picnic at Hanging Rock has kicked up a notch after a preview screening of the series which drew universal praise from critics and confirmation that the series would premiere on May 6 on the Showcase channel. Foxtel staged the screening to coincide with Valentine's Day  the date of the ill-fated (but fictional) picnic in 1900  at Hanging Rock, in rural Victoria. The series, based on the Joan Linsday novel, stars Natalie Dormer, Lily Sullivan and Samara Weaving. Foxtel's executive director of television Brian Walsh called the series a "watershed moment". The series has already sold to the UK, the US, France and New Zealand. Action time The US streaming platform CBS All Access has commissioned a second season of the comedy No Activity, which is based on the Australian comedy of the same name. The series, which is set in a police car during a long, uneventful stakeout, stars Patrick Brammall and Tim Meadows; Brammall, whose credits also include The Strange Calls, also starred in the Australian version of No Activity. CBS All Access president of original content Julie McNamara said the first season "just scratched the surface". Both versions of the show air in Australia on Stan. Picnic at Hanging Rock will premiere on May 6. Credit:Showcase All the signsFormer royal butler Paul Burrell has alleged Princess Diana wrote him a letter nine months before her death saying "I fear my husband is going to kill me. In an automobile accident".

His bombshell claim is sure to rock the British royal family as he discussed Prince Charles and the death of Princess Diana during his appearance on Australian television in I'm A Celebrity  Get Me Out Here!

Burrell described receiving a letter from Princess Diana "on her own stationery, in her own handwriting".

"Her words were 'these next few months are the most difficult months of my life. I fear my husband is going to kill me. In an automobile accident with head injuries. In order that he can remarry'. Her words, her writing, her stationery," Burrell alleged.There is a famous photo of Robyn Plaister. In the black-and-white image she is sprawled on the ground in front of a paddy wagon, one arm gripped by a group of young activists, the other dragged in the opposite direction by a uniformed cop.

Forty years on, Plaister can still remember the moment it was taken. "I remember a [camera] flash and thinking, oh no," she says.

Xavier Samuel (left) and Damon Herriman in Riot. Credit:Photo: MarkRogers

That violent winter's night in 1978 marked the beginning of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. When the police broke up the parade, they were brutal. Plaister saw them dragging women by their hair. She heard her friends screaming. That photo, which ran in the newspaper the following Monday, risked exposing her as a lesbian and put her job as a maths teacher at risk.

"I was teaching at an Anglican girls' school at the time and the principal called me in at the lunchtime break and asked why I was at the Mardi Gras," she told Fairfax Media decades later. "I didn't dare say much. I said I supported the principle. Luckily, perhaps, I was not asked about my sexuality."This enjoyable instalment of the American Masters documentary series got quite the unfortunate retitling job, because Patsy Cline wasn't "crazy" at all. She was enormously talented, hard-working and generous, and she bestowed upon the world a string of timeless classics before leaving us far too soon. Producer-director Barbara J. Hall (who is something of a country music specialist) goes a little outside the box in search of insights, getting the likes of Nashville creator Callie Khouri and actor Beverly D'Angelo, who played Cline in the Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, to provide their own thoughts alongside those of modern country artists and archival interviews with others who knew Cline back in the day. What really shines through is Cline's versatility extraordinary ability to make a song her own  listening to her version of Crazy alongside Willie Nelson's original is a trip. Brad Newsome

SBS, 7.35pm

One for engineering buffs, and those who have ever marvelled at the sheer scale of man-made structures like subway systems, flood barriers and skyscrapers. Tonight's episode of US Science Channel's series follows the construction of an Italian-built cruise ship which, when completed last year, was one of the largest and most technologically advanced in the world. With a passenger capacity of 5000, the Meraviglia (which means "wonder"), has 12 restaurants a theatre and even an on-board water park with three waterslides, this "monster cruise ship" is a feat of engineering, constructed from more than 35,000 tonnes of steel and stretching more than 315 metres long, with 19 different decks. It's also the first cruise ship to feature a digital interface that acts as an on-board concierge, but it's the old-school shipbuilders maneuvering giant slabs of steel and constructing the ship's leviathan skeleton that are the most engrossing. Kylie Northover

movie Back to the Future (1985)

Nine, 8.10pm

Robert Zemeckis had an underwhelming start to his film career, directing the sweet but inconsequential I Wanna Hold Your Hand, and writing a war farce (1941) that director Steven Spielberg probably fears means paying a heavy penance in the next world. Fortunately, Zemeckis was soon on a roll, with a cult classic (Used Cars) and a major hit (Romancing the Stone), before directing the film that defines his career: Back to the Future. It was breath-taking in its narrative inventiveness back in 1985 and it still is 33 years on. It is remarkable how effortlessly Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale play with complex philosophical concepts, including how going back into the past will re-align the future. But how did anyone come up with the idea of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) having to deflect the romantic interest of his mother from himself to his putative dad or Marty won't get born? This is dazzling stuff. Scott MurrayA blanket of smoke threatens to blanket homes in the Blue Mountains and western Sydney on Sunday as winds fan blazes in Hunter region.

A number of large fires burning in the Mount Kaputar, Barrington Tops and Wollemi National Parks are producing large plumes of smoke which are drifting across the state.

Easterly winds initially blew smoke from the fire across the Central Tablelands on Saturday with Mudgee, Wellington and Dubbo reporting heavy smoke in the area.

Updated smoking models released on Saturday afternoon however show that the smoke could start moving south, settling across suburbs in the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney.This statement from the former Prime Minister exposes an extensive disregard for a woman's right to determine whether to cover her body or reveal it, in whatever capacity she so chooses. No one of consequence is demanding that bikini-clad beach goers "apologise" for their swimwear, but on the other hand rarely does a week go by without inane commentary about how un-Australian it is for Muslim women to not conform to standards set by others. The tough guy routine of feigning an unapologetic attitude when no one has asked for you to abandon your own personal inclinations is as toxic as it is absurd.



For Muslim women, it may feel at times as though they are forced to battle their own Hydra of Lerna, the mythical, serpentine creature who, for every head chopped off would not die but instead produce more heads in their place.

It isn't enough that inter-communal, gender-based discrimination can lead to their fashion choices being characterised as too risque, but even when they try to develop their own fashion subcultures in order to create products that suit their taste they're stripped of national identity by those outside of their communities. Y

You are not Muslim enough. You are not Australian enough. The pressures of conformity that permeate every avenue women take can make the world feel cold, and unwelcoming, especially for those who are trying to make their own way forward. Still, women from all walks of life are made to deal with politicians and establishment intellectuals who urge them to reconsider life choices, despite having no direct or indirect material impact. Tony Abbott, and his budgie smugglers, are both best kept out of the papers, and the fashion industry.Anti-billboard activists are calling on the ACT government to maintain billboard advertising restrictions as new polling shows strong disapproval for the loosening of existing laws.

More than half of Canberrans polled by Lonergan Research said they disliked or "disliked a lot" billboard advertising in their everyday life.

Deb Cleland poses in a cheeky social media campaign hoping to keep Canberra 'nude' - billboard-free. Credit:Lisa Petheran

Sixty-nine per cent agreed or strongly agreed that outdoor advertising reduced the quality of public spaces, while 78 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that Canberra's advertising-free environment made it a more pleasant place to live than other, bigger cities.

Forty-eight per cent of respondents believed the government should actually decrease public space available for advertising and 42 per cent believed it should stay the same. Just 9 per cent supported an increase.Inmates locked-up at the Alexander Maconochie Centre are getting high on heavy duty prescription drugs smuggled inside the jail.

Popular drugs among inmates are understood to include pregabalin, a prescription medication used to treat epilepsy and nerve pain, and quetiapine, an antipsychotic medication for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Inmates inside the Alexander Maconochie Centre have been caught with heavy-duty prescription drugs. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

Prescription medications are typically easier to access compared with illicit drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine, and can be used as a kind of black market currency among inmates.

The emergence of pregabalin, marketed under the brand name Lyrica, has been well documented inside British prisons, with the British Medical Association last year calling for it to be made a controlled substance.The story begins with a toy koala - furry, life-sized and huggable - and ends with the poignant reminders of the bottomless traumas of the Holocaust.

But in exploring the different experiences of migration to Australia, an exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra has a single shining theme: human resilience.

From left to right: Artists Hedy Ritterman, Linde Ivimy, Lousje Skala and Linda Wachtel, whose work is featured in the migration exhibition The Gift at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House in Canberra. Credit:Mark Nolan

In 1949, an eight-year-old girl named Isobel Saxelby was presented with a toy koala when she arrived in Australia as the 100,000th postwar British immigrant.

Today, the koala, in mint condition, stands in a glass case at the entry to an exhibition that responds to the notion of migration as a "gift".Is the epochal rise of online retailing cause for concern or optimism? Well, both, and in different measures, depending on your interest.

Consumers want decent choice, attractive prices and reliable, accountable merchants. Consumers, on balance, are aided on all these fronts by the internet: choice is abundant, prices are transparent, and sellers and buyers are open to public disgrace and laws should they behave poorly. There are dangers online, but the benefits dwarf the security risks.

The retail revolution shows the net benefits of competition, technology, creativity and transparent markets. Credit:Wilfredo Lee

Shareholders want returns on their financial risks. Long-time shareholders are concerned by the fall in the market valuation of the companies in which they have invested. The well-documented travails of department store Myer  whose chief executive has been pushed out in recent days amid concerns about the company's viability  is an example. The company's shares are trading at not a lot more than a 10th of the price they fetched when Myer floated on the sharemarket almost a decade ago. Of course, prescient punters on surging online retailers are doing well.

Many traditional retailers are existentially concerned. Their primacy is being assailed by competitors with far lower costs. In just a few decades, online pioneer Amazon, which recently launched an assault on the $26 billion Australian retail market, has become one of the world's biggest companies. When Amazon fully opened for business here, the chairman of Woolworths, the nation's biggest retailer, made a veiled threat to suppliers that they should consider the consequences of selling through the online behemoth. Australians have already shifted a lot of their shopping online  65 per cent shop online, with four in 10 making an online purchase at least once a month. Online turnover has been growing at double-digit rates.A man has died and a two-year-old girl has been rushed to hospital in a critical condition after two medical emergencies in Gold Coast residential pools on Saturday.

A 42-year-old Runaway Bay man drowned in a backyard pool at a residence on Oxley Drive in Paradise Point just before 3pm.

Police believe a friend of the victim lived at the address, with detectives treating the death as non-suspicious and preparing a report for the coroner.

Elsewhere, a toddler was rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital after a near-drowning at a home on Hoban Court in Nerang about 5.45pm.

Paramedics "worked on" the young girl at the scene, according to an ambulance service spokeswoman, before she was taken to hospital for further treatment.A Greenfields Primary School student who saved a toddler from a locked car has been honoured and thanked by police at a special school assembly on Friday morning.

The incident occurred on January 29, when police were called out to a report of a child stuck in a locked car at a doctor's surgery in Mandurah.

Taj with two of his admirers. Credit:Hannah Barry

The toddler's father had accidentally locked the child in the car after placing the three-year-old in a car seat.

After shutting the door the father suddenly realised he had left his keys on the seat.How do you solve a problem like the Alexander Maconochie Centre? How can one ever solve a problem that involves dealing with criminals in the modern world?

Originally touted as "the most human-rights-compliant, rehabilitation-focussed prison in the world" by the then chief minister Jon Stanhope, Canberra's only jail has been plagued, in the nearly nine years since it first began accepting prisoners, by controversy. Bashings, stabbing, escapes, the accidental release of a prisoner, rampant drug use leading to high levels of Hepatitis C amongst inmates and, in 2015, the death of Aboriginal detainee Steven Freeman - the list goes on.

It's easy to write off the prison as a failure, at least in the context of the lofty goals Stanhope once set for it. He named it after a 19th century penal reformer who brought new ideas to the colonies about the treatment of prisoners. Lieutenant Maconochie saw prisoners being treated with sickening brutality and regularly dying as a result. He immediately instituted policies that restored their dignity and effectively eliminated recidivism among Britain's "worst" criminals.

But the "worst" criminals of 19th century colonial Australia clearly had nothing on their 21st century counterparts, the "hardcore criminals, gang members and murderers" the jail was never designed to accommodate.Church and religious organisations have told the federal government it should extend its compensation scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse to include those who have been convicted of serious crimes.

A joint submission by the Anglican Church, the Uniting Church and the Salvation Army to a federal government committee examining the scheme said extending it would mean "all survivors are eligible for redress".

"It is well known and recognised by the royal commission that some survivors - as a result of their abuse - have engaged in abusive conduct themselves, including criminal conduct. It would be unfair that such persons are ineligible for redress," the submission said.

The Anglican and Uniting churches and the Salvation Army want the federal government to extend compensation for child sex abuse victims to convicted criminals.

The redress scheme was a central recommendation of the royal commission - which handed its report to the government last December - and will offer up to $150,000 to survivors and enable personal apologies from offending institutions.Barnaby Joyce has declared he can still work with Malcolm Turnbull, criticised journalists prepared to run "any story" and insisted he has not misused his travel entitlements.

The under-siege Deputy Prime Minister, who is about to begin a week of personal leave, blamed a hectic travel schedule that has seen him spend as little as 22 nights at home in a year for being the "substantial cause" of the breakdown of his marriage to wife Natalie.

And Mr Joyce has also hosed down questions about a January 2017 trip by Vikki Campion - his former staffer, turned pregnant partner - who travelled to the Sunshine Coast for one night to help him prepare for an appearance on the ABC's 7.30 program and other media engagements while he was on holidays with his family.

Mr Joyce spoke exclusively to Fairfax Media on Sunday after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to quell the civil war inside the Coalition, sparked by the extramarital affair that was revealed nearly two weeks ago.The Sam Dastyari affair was one clumsy instance of a more insidious problem for Labor.

Canberra is finally beginning to push back against Beijings long-running campaign to seduce our elites so completely that the nation kow-tows before Chinas wishes.

The first phase of the pushback culminated in December with the Turnbull government introducing legislation to outlaw foreign interference operations and novel forms of espionage. Afraid that its well-made plans will be thwarted, Beijing has been making panicky claims that its all motivated by anti-Chinese racism.

Led by shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, the Labor Party is gearing up to oppose the legislation. Dreyfus says his concern is to protect press freedom, but that is being used to undermine the rationale of the laws themselves.

Amending the legislation to protect democratic freedoms is easy. The harder task is undoing the deep penetration of the Labor Party by proxies for and agents of the Chinese Communist Party. The spectacular downfall of Sam Dastyari was one clumsy instance of a more insidious problem for Labor.Federal MP David Gillespie has sold off the regional post office that threatened his political career - and the Turnbull government's parliamentary majority - paving the way for him to run in a possible byelection.

Labor has launched a High Court challenge against the Nationals MP, who serves as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's assistant health minister, because it believes the Australia Post outlet could be an indirect financial interest in the Commonwealth  grounds for disqualification under section 44(v) of the constitution.

As revealed by Fairfax Media a year ago, Dr Gillespie owns a small suburban shopping complex in Port Macquarie on the NSW north coast and one of the shops was being leased to a franchisee of Australia Post  a government-owned corporation.

But Dr Gillespie updated his pecuniary last week to reveal he had sold the shop in recent weeks.The Berejiklian government will establish its own Productivity Commission to come up with ways to improve housing affordability, lower living costs and make it easier to move to NSW and do business in the state.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet will announce the first NSW Productivity Commission, headed by a dedicated productivity commissioner, at a speech to the NSW Business Chamber on Monday.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet says a NSW Productivity Commission will drive reforms. Credit:Wolter Peeters

He will also call on the federal government to introduce incentives for the states to improve regulations. The NSW government has benefited from similar federal incentives after privatising publicly owned assets in order to fund new infrastructure.

Modelled on the federal Productivity Commission, the new high-powered advisory body will be charged with tackling some of the states most pressing challenges including the recent deterioration in housing affordability and cost-of-living pressures.The speed limit on a stretch of the Princes Freeway near Geelong will be raised to 110km/h if the Coalition wins government later this year.

The higher limit would apply to the Princes Freeway between Werribee and Corio, which currently operates with speed restrictions of 100km/h.

Credit:Glen McCurtayne

The Coalition said it had consulted the community on the issue, with 78 per cent saying they supported upping the speed limit.

The limit was dropped from 110km/h to 100km/h in the 1990s, however the Coalition said the Australian Road Assessment Program ranked the road as "low risk" and listed it among the safest sections of highway in Australia.Washington: US President Donald Trump has insisted for more than a year that Russians didn't try to get him elected. Special Counsel Robert Mueller put an end to those claims on Friday, declaring definitively that they did.

A federal grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and a so-called "troll farm" in St Petersburg on Friday for a broad campaign to sway the 2016 election in Trump's favor. The indictment alleges that the operation was funded to the tune of $1.25 million a month by companies controlled by a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin.

The indictment means that Trump can no longer credibly cast doubt on alleged Russian election meddling. His own national security adviser said Saturday that the evidence was "incontrovertible." And if he was still harboring dreams of firing US Special Counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, something many Republicans already have warned against, such a move may be politically impossible.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday. Credit:Bloomberg

The White House seized on Rosenstein's declaration that Friday's indictment didn't allege "that any American had any knowledge" of the Russian interference, declaring "NO COLLUSION" in a statement. But the special counsel is still probing whether Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians, a person familiar with the matter said.Parkland, Florida: Thousands of angry students, parents and residents have marched in Florida demanding stricter gun control laws as new details are revealed about the suspect accused of shooting and killed 17 people in a high school.

The rally, held in downtown Fort Lauderdale, was attended by scores of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the carnage happened.

Their echoing chants of "enough" and "not one more" weren't solemn - they were seething. None, perhaps, more so than Emma Gonzalez.

"If the President wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should have never happened, and maintain telling us that nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," declared Gonzalez, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High School. "To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! If you actively do nothing, people will continue to end up dead."Mazda to Unveil Updated Mazda6 Wagon at Geneva Motor Show

HIROSHIMA, Japan, Feb, 16 2018; Motor Corporation will showcase the world premiere of the updated Mazda6 wagon at the 88th Geneva International Motor Show. The company will hold a press conference at 8:15 a.m. (local time) on March 6, the first of two press days. The show is open to the public from March 8-18.

The Mazda6 is the flagship of Mazda's passenger car lineup. The development team's goal for this round of updates, the third since the model was fully redesigned in 2012, was to enhance the daily lives of people who love cars, incorporating premium details and new engineering concepts and technologies based on Mazda's human-centered design philosophy. The new Mazda6 wagon to be unveiled in Geneva follows on the heels of the sedan model, which debuted at the Los Angeles Motor Show last November. The wagon adopts the same product enhancements and styling improvements, which enhance a look of maturity and composure and raise the quality feel of both the interior and exterior without sacrificing practicality. Both the sedan and wagon offer driving pleasure that suits the various ways each body type is used.

In addition, Mazda will bring two concept models to the show, both of which make their European Motor Show debut in Geneva. The Mazda Kai Concept combines next-generation technology and design to herald a whole new generation of Mazda cars. And the Mazda Vision Coupe is a next-generation design vision model that was recently named the "Most Beautiful Concept Car of the Year" in France. Both cars debuted at last year's Tokyo Motor Show.

In line with its "Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030" long-term vision for technology development, Mazda aims to use the fundamental appeal of the automobile - driving pleasure - to inspire people, enrich society and help bring about a beautiful earth. By offering an experience of car ownership that celebrates driving, the company hopes to enrich lives and build a strong bond with customers.

About Mazda Mazda Motor Corporation started manufacturing tools in 1929 and soon branched out into production of trucks for commercial use. In the early 1960s, Mazda launched its first passenger car models and began developing rotary engines. Still headquartered in Hiroshima in western Japan, Mazda today ranks as one of Japan's leading automakers, and exports cars to the United States and Europe for over 30 years. For more information, please visit www.mazda.comNyskie Lake, Poland. The location where a cow headed to the slaughterhouse broke away and evaded recapture. (Screenshot via Google Maps)

Cow Escapes Slaughter, Journeys by Lake to Uninhabited Island

A cow in Poland that was facing slaughter made an escape worthy of an adventure movie epic.

Instead of getting into a truck headed for the slaughterhouse, the cow rammed a metal fence and charged toward a lake. When the farmer attempted to get the cow back, the cow broke a farm workers arm, the Independent reported.

According to Daily Mail, the workers were advised to tranquilize the cow before getting it on the truckadvice they ignored.

The cow again made a break for it, heading to an island in the middle of Lake Nyskie in southern Poland. The farmer, known only as Mr. Lukasz, told the Independent that he saw the cow dive underwater during the ordeal.

Lukasz tried for a week to get the cow back before conceding defeat. He decided to supply the cow with food so it would survive while efforts to recapture it continued, according to the Independent.

The cow escaped the island when firefighters arrived by boat. It swam to a nearby peninsula. The vet called in to tranquilize the cow had no remaining tranquilizing shots and needed to wait several days for more.

Pawel Gotowski, deputy commander of the fire brigade in the town of Nysa, told the Daily Mail that it was impossible to get within even 230 feet (70 meters) of the cow and that the cow was very frightened.

The Independent reported that a local politician said the cow will live out its life in peace on the island.

In January, People reported that a cow had escaped slaughter in Warsaw, Poland, and went to live with a bison herd. Experts plan to intervene in that situation, once the weather gets warmer. They want to prevent the cow from mating with the bison. They are worried that the resulting offspring could harm the cow during birth. They are also concerned about what a half-bison half-cow offspring could do to the bison gene pool. Bison are endangered in the area.

From NTD.tv

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Shark Makes Surprise Appearance in Australia RiverEx-Spy Claims British Labour Leader Was Cold War Source

Jeremy Corbyn says that claims are a 'smear' and 'entirely false'

Jeremy Corbyn, a former candidate for UK prime minister, knowingly provided communist agents with confidential information during the Cold War, claims a former spy.

The allegations follow the publication of documents showing he met with a Czech agent masquerading as a diplomat in the UK during the 1980s.

British opposition leader Corbyn said through a spokesman that he had never been an agent, asset, informer nor collaborator.

Speaking to Slovak media, however, former Czech security agent Jan Sarkocy said Corbyn knew of his real role during their many meetings.

It was a knowing collaboration, said Sarkocy, noting that at that time a diplomat and an agent was the same thing.

Corbyn was paid in return for passing confidential information to the Czechoslovak security services, known as the StB (Statni Bezpecnost), and gave them valuable access to other contacts, Sarkocy claimed in an interview with Slovak media Novy Cas.

Czech agents were often used to gather and pass on intelligence to the Russians during the Cold War.

Corbyn wasnt the only Labour party MP being paid in return for passing information to the puppet Soviet state, according to Sarkocy.

There were more of themand not just Parliament members but higher-placed individuals too. Its not polite to mention them. But they shouldnt deny it.

Documents unearthed from the StB archives by the Sun newspaper a few days before, on Feb. 14, showed that Corbyn had met with the StB three times, and was code-named COB, although whether he knowingly collaborated is not indicated.

According to the Telegraph, a spokesman for Corbyn said: The former Czechoslovak agent Jan Sarkocys account of his meeting with Jeremy was false 30 years ago, is false now and has no credibility whatsoever. His story has more plot holes in it than a bad James Bond movie.

These claims are a ridiculous smear and entirely false.

According to the Telegraph, Svetlana Ptacnikova, director of the Czech Security Forces Archive, which keeps documents from the StB, said: Corbyn was neither registered [by the StB] as a collaborator nor does this [his alleged collaboration] stem from archive documents,  Ptacnikova said in a statement, according to the Telegraph.

She said Sarkocy and Corbyn met for talks but he was not a spy.

However, Sarkocy said that many records were destroyed after the fall of communism and that meetings were not limited to the three that came to light earlier in the week.

Whats in the documents is not important. There was a lot of shredding going on.

Obviously, there were more meetings, he said, adding that they happened within the intellectual circles.

Asked if Corbyns information proved valuable for State Security, he replied: It was very good.

Let me put it this way: I knew what Thatcher would have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and what clothes she would wear the next day. Another person, who is now a prominent Parliament member, was giving money to Corbyn. Recruiting was done under Russian protection.

Sarkocy said it was hard to say if Corbyn did it for ideological beliefs, He was an honest and decent person.

Asked in the interview if Corbyn was a decent communist, Sarkocy simply replied: Stupid.

The documents revealed earlier this week show that the meetings between Corbyn and Czech agents took place in the House of Commons in 1986, at his Islington office on July 3, 1987, and again in Parliament on Oct. 24.

In response to the publication of the documents, a spokesperson for Corbyn told the Sun: The claim that he was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear.

Like other MPs, Jeremy has met diplomats from many countries. In the 1980s he met a Czech diplomat, who did not go by the name of Jan Dymic [Sarkocys cover name], for a cup of tea in the House of Commons.

A former head of British spy agency MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove said: These are genuine documents, which shows he was targeted and the case was advanced, at a time when a very unpleasant Czech regime was persecuting dissidents. They were the enemies of the West.

They wouldnt have targeted him unless they believed he was a Communist fellow traveler, he told the Sun.

Corbyn has been dogged by accusations around his past connections with terrorist and leftist groups since taking the reins of the Labour party in 2015 as a rank outsider.

Described as a hard left socialist by some members of his own Party, his ideas were seen as an unpopular leftist throwback to the 1970s by many senior figures even from within his own Party. He survived two attempts to oust him with the help of Momentum, a dedicated group with 25,000 members, backed by the unions and leftist elements.

Anti-Western, anti-war, anti-American sentiment has long been a key element of the hard left in the UK, according to Paul Anderson and Kevin Davey, authors of Moscow Gold? The Soviet Union and the British Left.

Leninist anti-imperialism continues to play a central role in shaping [Corbyns] thinking on foreign affairs, they wrote in an update to the conclusion of the book in 2016. If theres any guiding principle to Corbynism, its that the Westin other words, the U.S. and the other imperialist powersis always wrong.

In May 2017, it was revealed that MI5 and also the Metropolitan Police Special branch had opened permanent files on Corbyn.

The day before the general election, in 2017, Dearlove said that Corbyn was unfit to take up the office of prime minister as he wouldnt even pass the security clearance for an MI5 operative because of his links to terrorist organizations. In fact, he would be investigated, said the former MI6 chief.

The leader of the Labour Party is an old-fashioned international socialist who has forged links with those quite ready to use terror when they havent got their way: the IRA, Hizbollah, Hamas, he wrote in the Telegraph.

Dearlove was accused by the Labour party of fear-mongering for political purposes. Corbyn has always insisted that his contact with such groups was for the purpose of dialogue and a path to peace.

Peter Svab contributed to this report

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The Origins of AntifaNikolas Cruz (C) appears via video monitor with Melisa McNeill (R), his public defender, at a bond court hearing after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., Feb. 15, 2018. (Reuters/Susan Stocker/Pool)

Florida Shooter Nikolas Cruz Would Plead Guilty to Avoid the Death Penalty

Florida high school shooter Nikolas Cruz would be willing to plead guilty in the massacre which left 17 people dead if the death penalty is not considered as an option, his lawyer said on Friday, Feb. 16.

Cruz, 19, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder over the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 14.

His lawyers at the public defenders office said guilt was not an issue in the case but rather what punishment would be appropriate.

I am overwhelmingly saddened that every system failed. The school system, the mental health system, DCF, law enforcement and the FBI, said Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, who is representing Cruz, reported USAToday.

Because we failed to stop it, and we could have, we should not kill the person who behaved as we feared but ignored, he added.

For the death penalty to be imposed, the jury will need to unanimously recommend the punishment after listening to arguments presented by the prosecution and the defense, reported Sun Sentinel, citing Florida state law.

Finkelstein said the 19-year-old was deeply troubled and suffered from a lot of emotional trauma.

According to Cruzs family, the death of his adopted mother may have contributed to his erratic behavior.

Lynda Cruz passed away just over three months ago on Nov. 1 last year from pneumonia. She had been looking after the 19-year-old and his younger brother Zachary since she adopted the two as infants with her husband. But her husband, Roger, had died many years earlier from a heart attack, leaving Lynda to continue raising the two boys on her own.

An unnamed relative told the newspaper that Nikolas had been diagnosed with autism and that Lynda had sought counseling for Nikolas at a young age, She did her best getting him any help he needed, reported the Sun Sentinel.

Christine Roxburgh, a neighbor to the Cruz family for many years, told the newspaper that after Rogers death, Lynda has asked her daughter to take the boys, but Roxburgh refused.

Another neighbor to the Cruzs said the boys were very much on their own. The kids seem to roam around and come and go as they pleased, reported the paper.

An attorney for the family said that Cruz had become even more depressed following his mothers death, although he had been going to therapy sessions to try to deal with the grief.

The public defender said that the other aspects of Cruzs life could be brought up to persuade the jury to give him a life sentence, such as the autism diagnosis which has not been officially confirmed, reported Sun Sentinel.

This kid didnt have to fall through the cracks. He screamed for help, and we failed him, Finkelstein said during the court appearance, reported the newspaper.

He should never go free. Let him plead guilty and send him to prison for life, he added.

Broward State Attorneys Offices Prosecutor Shari Tate told the Sun Sentinel that it was too soon to discuss the type of appropriate penalty in the case.

Finkelstein added the one thing that is clear from the case is the irreparable damage the tragedy has caused.

In the 40 years I have been in this courthouse, I have seen a lot of murder and mayhem but nothing is even in the same universe as this, he said, reported USAToday.

This devastation has caused a permanent wound in the victims families and the community. All of us will be forever changed.

NTD Reporter Zack Stieber contributed to this report.

From NTD.tvISIS Claims Responsibility for Russian Church Shooting

A man in Russias southern province of Dagestan shot into a crowd leaving a church on Sunday, killing five people and injuring at least five others, Russian news agencies reported, citing the local health ministry.

The attack occurred in the village of Kizlyar in the Muslim-majority republic of Dagestan, agencies said.

ISIS claims credit for a gunman's attack on an Orthodox church in the Dagestan region that killed five women https://t.co/L4ZWN93fCl  New York Times World (@nytimesworld) February 18, 2018

ISIS claimed responsibility for the shooting, its news agency Amaq reported, but did not provide immediate evidence for the claim.

The small republic in the Caucasus mountains borders Chechnya, where Moscow has led two wars against separatists and radical religious groups since the 1991 Soviet collapse and which has seen a large number of people join ISIS

World: Deadly attack at church in Russian region of Dagestan https://t.co/jSRtU47pbT pic.twitter.com/II6IbrJAJB  Pulse Ghana (@PulseGhana) February 18, 2018

Russian news agencies said the attack occurred as churchgoers celebrated Maslenitsa, a Christian holiday marking the last day before Lent according to the eastern Orthodox calendar.

The assailant was identified as a 22-year-old man local to the region, the TASS news agency said, citing the investigative committee.

He was shot and killed by security services who were on duty nearby, TASS said, adding that a hunting rifle, bullets and a knife were discovered on his person.

Initial reports suggested all five victims were women, TASS said, citing the local branch of the interior ministry.

The injured include two members of local security services and two civilians, also women, the Interfax news agency said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the dedication ceremony of a new concourse at the Ben Gurion International Airport, near Lod, Israel Feb. 15, 2018. (Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

Israels Netanyahu Could Act Against Irans Empire If Needed

MUNICHPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would act against Iran, not just its allies in the Middle East, if needed, reiterating that Tehran was the worlds greatest threat.

Holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone after its incursion into Israeli airspace earlier this month, Netanyahu told the Munich Security Conference: Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck.

We will act if necessary not just against Irans proxies but against Iran itself, he said.

#BREAKING: Netanyahu brings piece of Iranian drone to #msc18: Iranian tiger is on the prowl in the middle east" pic.twitter.com/WJc9in9IFi  Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) February 18, 2018

Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should. It's yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel's resolve. pic.twitter.com/vSGpBNvuMD  Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) February 18, 2018

Addressing the Munich event for the first time, Netanyahu urged gathered U.S. and European officials and diplomats to counter Iran immediately, displaying a map showing what he said was Irans growing presence in the Middle East.

He said Iran was increasing its power as the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Iraq and Syria regains territory from the terrorists.

#Netanyahu: #Iran trying to change ground rules in Syria. Israel resisting  so far that has not worked.

If #Assad invites Iran in, that changes our position. (Towards Assad).

Clear warning to Iran and Assad not to change the status quo. pic.twitter.com/0oKHMsjr9d  Salman Shaikh (@Salman_Shaikh1) February 18, 2018

The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, Netanyahu said.

This is a very dangerous development for our region.

Tensions surged on Feb. 10 when anti-aircraft fire downed an Israeli warplane returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria after Israel intercepted an Iranian drone in its airspace launched from Syria.

That was the most serious confrontation yet between Israel and Iranian-backed forces based across the border in Syria.

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Amazing View of Airbus Atlas Sweeping Through ValleyU.S. Secretary of Defence James Mattis addresses a news conference during a NATO defence ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 15, 2018. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir)

US Still Unsure Who Directed Unprovoked Attack on Syrian Rebels, Russian Mercenaries Found Dead

WASHINGTONThe United States is still unsure who directed an unprovoked attack on Feb. 7 on U.S. and U.S.-backed rebel forces at the Syrian Democratic Forces headquarters in Syria, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday. He acknowledged accounts that Russian civilian contractors were involved.

Reuters has reported that about 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm were either killed or injured in Syria.

The U.S. has estimated about 100 pro-Syrian government forces were killed by a U.S. counter attack on Feb. 7.

 #_                  #    /  pic.twitter.com/H1UWhYBNZc  U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOMArabic) February 8, 2018

Russian military officers told the United States during the incident that Moscow was not involved. The Pentagon has declined to comment on the exact makeup of the attacking forces.

I still cannot give you any more information on why they would do this. But they took direction from someone, Mattis told reporters flying back to Washington with him from a trip to Europe, according to a Pentagon transcript.

Was it local direction? Was it from external sources? Dont ask me. I dont know.

Mattis said he understood that Moscow had acknowledged contractors were involved, without elaborating on whether that understanding came from press reports. Russian officials have told reporters that five Russian citizens may have been killed in clashes with U.S.-led coalition forces.

Still, Russian officials deny they deploy private military contractors in Syria, saying Moscows only military presence is a campaign of air strikes, a naval base, military instructors training Syrian forces, and limited numbers of special forces troops.

But according to people familiar with the deployment, Russia is using large numbers of the contractors in Syria because that allows Moscow to put more boots on the ground without risking regular soldiers whose deaths have to be accounted for.

The contractors, mostly ex-military, carry out missions assigned to them by the Russian military, the people familiar with the deployment said. Most are Russian citizens, though some have Ukrainian and Serbian passports.

The United States and Russia, while backing opposite sides in the Syria conflict, have taken pains to make sure that their forces do not accidentally collide. But the presence of the Russian contractors adds an element of unpredictability.

The U.S. military has said that in its effort to repel the attack on Feb. 7, U.S. forces on the ground called in coalition strikes for more than three hours, involving F-15E fighter jets, MQ-9 drones, B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships and AH-64 Apache helicopters.

The U.S. military has said the attacking forces were aligned with the Syrian government and were backed by artillery, tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems and mortars.

Heavy airstrikes by the coalition on Assad & Iran militias locations at DeirEzZor city countryside (Hatlah & Housseneih), after Assad militias trying to assault on SDF. The Regime & #RuAF respond by heavy airstrikes & rockets shilling on CONOCO Gaz field & Kehsham town.#Syria # pic.twitter.com/PbK4YEnMXr  Hammurabi's Justice News (@Hammurabi_News) February 8, 2018

I doubt that 257 people all just decided on their individual own selves to suddenly cross the river into enemy territory and start shelling a location and maneuvering tanks against it, Mattis said.

So whatever happened, well try to figure it out. Well work with, obviously, anyone who can answer that question, but I cannot, at this time.

By Phil Stewart

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President Trumps First State of the Union AddressConnecticut's Beardsley Zoo celebrated Asian New Year 4716 on Saturday, February 17 with crafts and activities for children, animal acupuncture, story time, and a fun parade featuring the Zoo's own "dragon," Tien Lung! It's the Year of the Dog. Guests at the Zoo included experts from the Wolf Conservation Center and Resources in Search and Rescue (RSAR), a K-9 Search and Rescue team from Monroe, Conn. The Zoo canines include our Mexican wolves, Red wolves, maned wolves, and Grey fox, so guests can enjoy learning more from the animals at the Zoo. The Zoo is collecting dog and cat food throughout the month of February to be distributed to local animal shelters in honor of the Year of the Dog.NORWALK  Principal Joseph Rodriguez says theres more than one factor that positioned Rowayton School to become the districts first-ever school of distinction in the states accountability system.

In fact, the Next Generation Accountability System aims to provide a holistic, multifactor perspective of district and school performance using 12 indicators. Among them are academic growth, arts access and academic achievement status measured by state assessments.

In addition to outperforming the state in most indicators in the 2016-17 report, Rowayton School received two distinctions for being in the top 10 percent of schools in terms of academic growth for all students and for its subgroup of high needs students. This subgroup includes students who are English Language Learners, who have disabilities and who are eligible for free and reduced-price meals.

As an elementary school in an affluent part of Norwalk, Rodriguez said it was especially important to him that the school received distinction for its high-needs students.

In the 2016-17 school year, Rowayton School had 48 English Language Learners, 52 special education students and 135 students eligible for free or reduced-price meals, according to data from the state Department of Education.

Overall, the school had 425 students from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Rodriguez is in his first year as the school principal but has been with the district since 1997.

If theres one thing Ive seen at Rowayton, its a sense of community ownership of the school  and I mean that in the best possible way, Rodriguez said. Theyre proud of their school and its a focal point of the community.

A total of 124 schools in Connecticut received a distinction for placing in the top 10 percent of state schools in terms of high performance, high growth or great improvement. Some schools, like Rowayton, received more than one distinction.

While the Center for Global Studies didnt receive a distinction, the interdistrict magnet school within Brien McMahon High School was in the top quartile based on its accountability index of 87.2 percent.

The center started as the Center for Japanese Studies Abroad in 1991 and has since expanded to include an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program with the study of Arabic, Chinese and Japanese languages and the cultures and history of Asia and the Middle East, as well as two-week study travel tours. Students also take global studies-themed math, science, art, gym, health and other electives through Brien McMahon.

This was the first year the Center for Global Studies received a separate accountability report from Brien McMahon. The center has a capacity of 300 students and currently has 284 students who come from various parts of Fairfield County.

Were really proud, said Julie Parham, director of the Center for Global Studies. Its really delightful, but this is really reflective of a larger team effort that goes beyond the Center for Global Studies. So we appreciate everyone who has helped make our students successful.

But there is one important factor Parham would like the report to include in its numbers: school culture.

Students at the Center for Global Studies are curious about the world, want to the travel the world and are willing to put themselves out there to make a difference, Parham said. Theyre also dedicated, as many of them have to wake up at 5 a.m. to take a train to get to school.

That culture is evident in our hallways and throughout the building. And someday I hope the state has a way to measure that kind of thing, Parham said.

The 2016-17 Next Generation Accountability report was released Feb. 9 and is the states third annual report.NORWALK  Many women know wearing heels can be a pain.

Theyve experienced throbbing in their feet, and pinching or cuts by what had seemed a cute, strappy design.

Jay Kleeman, an orthopedic foot specialist at Norwalk Hospital, who has never worn a heel, says heels not only cause fleeting pain, but they can cause long-term foot and back problems.

But, as Lola proclaims in Kinky Boots, The sex is in the heel!

So whats a girl to do?

Caitlin Elby, a Connecticut native and recent Norwalk transplant, believes she can help.

In 2011, Elby received her bachelors degree in dance and moved to New York to make a career. Almost immediately, she was asked to dance in heels.

Its one of those not-talked-about things. If you watch Good Morning America  which she has been on a few times  or any of those shows, and you see what those girls are wearing, theyre wearing heels.

As a dancer, Elby had taken classes in kinesthesiology and anatomy. So I learned a lot about walking and what muscles you use to walk.

Elby quickly adapted to the heels, and began offering classes in New York to teach others the same.

Now that she is back in Connecticut, she has brought the fitness class with her  Hell on Heels, as the class is called, which debuted in Norwalk on Saturday.

More News Top Yelp-reviewed gyms in southern Connecticut

In her classes, clients bring their own heels  but they start the class barefoot, targeting the muscles they are going to need. Slowly, the class transitions to learning how to stand properly, by pulling up on the pelvic floor, and then they begin walking, then dancing.

At the end, clients join Elby in the classs mantra: I am

fearless. I am bold. I am beautiful.

Kolandro Bramble, one of Elbys longtime students in New York, discovered Hell on Heels through a friend.

She seemed like she was having fun, so I contacted her, Bramble said. Soon, she was attending the class, and she was hooked.

Because in the class, you basically have to own your self-confidence, she said. You have to know that you are sexy and beautiful.

After three months in the class, she went out to a club for her birthday and stayed out until 4 a.m. When I realized I was actually standing in these heels for so long, and I hadnt even noticed, I was like, oh, OK, I think Ill keep doing this class, she said with a laugh.

Of course, heels still have their risks. Kleeman said he treats many dancers as well. In general, he recommends those who wear high heels to do so in moderation and stretch their calves, quads, hamstrings and lower back muscles to counteract the tightness in the muscles being used.

Elby believes her techniques can help. She offers private classes, where her clients include models and transgender women.

Her goal is to spread the class not only throughout Connecticut, but throughout the country. I really want this to be in every studio, just like Zumba is, she said. I want this to be a common household name.

Upcoming classes are posted on www.hellonheelsfitness.com. The next one in Connecticut is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday at Double up Dance Studios in Fairfield.American Water Works Co., Inc. engages in the provision of complementary water and wastewater services. It operates through the following segments: Regulated Businesses; Market-Based Businesses; and Other. The Regulated Businesses segment provides water and wastewater services to customers. The Market-Based Businesses segment is responsible for Military Services Group, Contract Operations Group, Homeowner Services Group, and Keystone Operations. The Other segment includes corporate costs that are not allocated to the Company's operating segments, eliminations of inter-segment transactions, fair value adjustments and associated income and deductions related to the acquisitions that have not been allocated to the operating segments for evaluation of performance and allocation of resource purposes. The company was founded in 1886 and is headquartered in Camden, NJ.

Read MoreMOSCOWTrolling political opponents has become so routine in Russia, such a part of the everyday landscape, that operations are typically performed without much effort to cover any tracks.

So when Russian trolling techniques were exported to the United States as part of the effort to influence the 2016 presidential election, it seems to have been done with the same lack of discipline that characterizes the practice in Russia.

That devil-may-care attitude helped make possible the identification and indictment of 13 Russians and three Russian companies, with the United States accusing them of trying to subvert the election, including efforts to bolster the candidacy of Donald Trump and undercut the campaign of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Just because the operation was thinly veiled, however, does not mean that the Russian trolling  creating provocative online posts about immigration, religion and race to try to sway voters  lacked high-level support.

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Indeed, ever since the first reports surfaced in 2014 about the existence of a troll farm called the Internet Research Agency, there have been questions about its Kremlin ties.

The U.S. indictment is among the clearest documents yet in stating outright that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman grown fabulously wealthy off government contracts, controls the agency despite denials from him and the Kremlin. He has long been linked to President Vladimir Putin, not least through his nickname, Putins cook, inspired by his catering company, which mushroomed from hosting state banquets to feeding much of the military.

Because it targets someone pretty close to the Kremlin, it really points at the Kremlin, said Konstantin von Eggert, a veteran journalist and political analyst, referring to the indictment. Such things are very tightly controlled in Russia. You cannot launch your own private war against the United States.

Others noted, however, that degrees of control vary. There is a saying in Russian that the Kremlin has many towers, meaning that various bureaucratic cabals and government agencies hold differing and sometimes competing interests.

The Kremlin; the FSB, the main security service; and the SVR, or the foreign intelligence service, all have interests overseas, which complicates singling out the troll farms ultimate godfather.

Also, this kind of operation is designed for deniability, with the overall mandate endorsed by the government but probably not the day-to-day operations.

People do not go ask permission from Putin: Vladimir Vladimirovich, can we go hack the servers of the Democratic Party? Its not like that, said Anton Merkurov, an internet analyst. Putin never really uses the internet, so he doesnt understand how it works.

Those named in the indictment have proved difficult for reporters to reach, with their cellphones often shut off and no response to messages left for them on social media.

The overall aim of the Russian government  be it through trolling, hacking or disinformation  was to spread confusion and unease about government institutions in the West and to shore up popular support at home. The actual techniques were unlikely to be laid out in a paper trail, Merkurov noted.

The fact that the efforts of the troll farm described in the indictment  the fake campaign protests in Florida or New York; the myriad accounts mimicking Americans set up on Twitter and Facebook; the trips to the United States to organize it all  were so easy to trace back to the internet Research Agency probably underscores that the intelligence services were not involved in running the organization.

The government and its proxies had been using bots and trolls for so long against its internal critics that it probably did not consider that shifting the operations overseas demanded a significantly different approach, said Vladimir Frolov, a foreign affairs analyst.

It was very ad hoc, very amateurish, he said. They did not consider this to be a sensitive operation. They used easily traceable methods.

A lot of the information in the 37-page indictment had appeared previously in Russia, especially in a nearly 5,000-word article in RBC magazine in November. Quoting unidentified current and former employees, the articles details ranged from the names of key employees, to their tasks, to their working methods.

Analysts noted that the relatively easily tracked efforts by the internet Research Agency are very different from, for example, the U.S. investigation into what could be a strategically more threatening case: whether Kaspersky Labs gave a backdoor entry to Russian intelligence services into U.S. government computers running its software. Kaspersky Labs strenuously denies any such collusion.

On Thursday the White House also blamed Russia for the calamitous NotPetya cyberattack last year, echoing the British government in condemning Moscow for unleashing a virus that shuttered some of Ukraines infrastructure and damaged computers globally. Russian denied any link.

Those operations involved highly sophisticated penetration of cybernetworks, the analysts noted, whereas the troll farm work is akin to graffiti  writing nasty messages on Twitter and Facebook.

If there was any substantial Russian influence in the election, it was far more likely from the information hacked from the Democratic Party headquarters that was leaked to the press, Frolov said.

On Saturday, Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister dismissed the indictment as just blabber.

I have no response. We see these statements and indictments multiplying, Lavrov said at an international security conference in Munich.

The official reaction basically mocked the idea that 13 people could somehow muster a negative impact on American democracy. Muellers list: Russian superagents are capable of anything read one sarcastic headline on a television website.OTTAWANDP Leader Jagmeet Singh used his keynote speech at the partys convention Saturday to portray Canada as a country riven by economic gaps, racism and gender bias that the Liberal government has failed to address.

In what could be a preview for the NDPs electoral pitch under its new leader, Singh attacked Justin Trudeaus government for dropping its pledge to reform the federal electoral system and disappointing Canadians who want steeper cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. He made the case that the Liberals have fallen short and broken promises while Canada is beset by inequality and intolerance.

My friends, this is not as good as it gets, Singh said, backlit by a giant screen that glowed NDP orange.

Government belongs to us and it should be making choices that build an economy that works better for all of us.

Drawing on resolutions that had been approved by party members at the convention earlier in the day, Singh said an NDP government would extend universal health care to cover prescription medicine, dental services and eye care. He also said high-speed internet connections should be considered public infrastructure.

But the main theme of his address was inequality. He lamented what he described as a concentration of wealth in the top 1 per cent of income earners, pledged to close the wage gap between men and women, and claimed that the provision of health care in Canada has eroded to a patchwork of uneven service across the country.

Government belongs to us and it should be making choices that build an economy that works better for all of us, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told the Federal NDP Convention in Ottawa Saturday.





As the party considers a renewed policy to prevent harassment in its ranks, Singh endorsed the #MeToo movement that has seen numerous women come forward with stories of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour  including allegations against men in NDP circles  and singled out anti-Black racism as one of the most pernicious forms of bigotry in Canadian society.

Singh also said he was shaken after an all-white jury in Saskatchewan found farmer Gerald Stanley not guilty in the shooting death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie, a Cree man.

We cant tackle inequality without naming the problems, Singh said.

Hate is like a fire. Once allowed to grow, it spreads, consuming all. Thats why we must stop it in its tracks together.

Immediately after his speech Saturday, 90.7 per cent of delegates voted against holding a new leadership contest. The procedure is part of every NDP convention, and caused Singhs predecessor, Thomas Mulcair, to lose his position when he received just 48 per cent support from delegates at the 2016 event in Edmonton. Singh, 39, won on the first ballot of the partys ensuing leadership contest last October, when he became the first non-white leader of a major federal party in Canada.

Singhs endorsement as leader followed an afternoon of discussion over dozens of policy resolutions on the floor of the convention. Delegates solidified the partys support for certain policies that Singh had already proposed for the party in recent months.

The NDP formalized its commitment to decriminalizing the possession of all drugs, marking a distinction with the Liberal government, which has repeatedly said it is focused only on legalizing marijuana. The party also called on the government to eliminate the controversial practice of police carding, also known as street checks, by banning the RCMP from performing the checks and pledging to work with provinces to ensure the ban is extended to non-federal police forces.

Singh called for the NDP to support both initiatives during last years leadership race.

But not all motions were carried as smoothly. John Hutton, a 28-year-old student at Montreals Concordia University, drafted a resolution that would commit the party to working with the provinces to eliminate post-secondary tuition in Canada. When it got to the floor, however, the motion was referred to a review for a slight change to the wording  meaning that it will be considered by delegates only if there is time to address it during a final emergency debate window for outstanding resolutions on Sunday morning.

Holly Price, a party activist who worked on Manitoba MP Niki Ashtons leadership campaign last year, said student delegates were concerned that the motion would die alongside others that likely wont be considered for votes during the convention. These include some of the more contentious resolutions submitted by NDP members, such as a motion to explicitly oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline that has sparked a feud between NDP premiers in British Columbia and Alberta.

Late Saturday, a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was brought to the floor, sparking one of the most heated discussions of the convention so far. Some delegates approached the microphone and claimed the party was trying to stifle debate on the issue, by placing other resolutions on the issue that were endorsed by more riding associations near the bottom of the convention agenda.

Singh, meanwhile, avoided mentioning pipelines and Palestine in his speech, and also steered clear of any reference to his pledge to decriminalize drug possession.

The convention was scheduled to conclude Sunday after a final round of resolution debates.

Read more about:MONTREALA Senegalese man is suing a Quebec-based Catholic congregation for $1.4 million, alleging one of its brothers sexually abused him when he was a boy in the 1980s at a school the religious order ran in Africa.

Legal experts consulted by The Canadian Press said they werent aware of another case where a Canadian religious organization was taken to court for the alleged actions of its members in another country.

Max Silverman, the Senegalese plaintiffs Montreal-based lawyer, said the congregation indicated it will contest the Quebec courts jurisdiction, setting up a legal battle over whether the province is the best place to hear the evidence.

The other side has made it clear they intend to contest the jurisdiction of the court and that debate will happen in the fall, said Silverman, who filed the suit on behalf of the man who has chosen to remain anonymous.

Known in court documents as NBS, the plaintiff alleges a now-deceased Quebec member of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart congregation sexually abused him between 1984 and 87, at a school the order ran in Kaolack, Senegal.

The legal team for the congregation did not return a request for comment.

Silvermans case is not the only legal proceedings against the Brothers.

The congregation is also the target of a $15-million class action lawsuit authorized last November in Quebec Superior Court. At least 18 brothers are accused of abusing male students at the College Mont-Sacre-Coeur in Granby over a span of decades.

According to the suit filed by Silverman, NBS alleges the abuse began when he was about 12 years old at the hands of Marcel Courteau. Courteau died in Quebec in 2017 at the age of 92.

The alleged abuse began with Courteau caressing the plaintiff and telling him he was cute.

Over the course of the next two years or so, Brother Courteau ... repeatedly engaged the plaintiff in inappropriate actions, all of which constitute abuse and sexual assault, according to court documents.

NBS, who lives in Senegal, is remaining anonymous because he feels his life will be in danger if people in his country find out about the alleged abuse, said Silverman.

In Senegal there is a real culture of homophobia, he said. That extends to the point where a young person, through no fault of his own, if he is a man and associated with an assault by another man he is considered a homosexual and his life is in danger.

The lawsuit accuses the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of being liable toward NBS because the congregation was acting as Courteaus school principal when the alleged abuse occurred.

Further, the defendant ... was grossly negligent and failed to remedy a situation that it knew or should have known about, thereby aggravating the damages suffered by the plaintiff, reads the statement of claim.

Lawyer James Yap, who represents people and communities suing Canadian companies for complicity in human rights violations overseas, said there is reason for optimism from the plaintiff perspective regarding the upcoming jurisdiction debate.

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Article 3135 of Quebecs Civil Code allows a court to decline jurisdiction if it considers that the authorities of another State are in a better position to decide the dispute.

Traditionally, Yap said, that article has been an obstacle to similar claims against companies and Quebec courts have been particularly reticent to hear those types of cases.

But new technologies, he said, have diminished the comparative convenience of holding these cases in the foreign state where the alleged violations occurred.

Witnesses can testify via teleconference and evidence can be digitized, said Yap, who is not involved in the legal proceedings.

And the key point of contention, he said, factually speaking, is going to be what the congregation knew or did not know and all that evidence is going to be in Quebec. So in this particularly case, there is actually reason for optimism for the plaintiff.

Yap said he doesnt know of a similar case filed in Canadian court against a religious order for the alleged crimes of its members in another country.

McGill University Prof. Catherine Walsh, who focuses on private international law and international business law, told The Canadian Press she too is not aware of any similar lawsuit filed in Canadian courts before.

Silverman said the congregation has until the fall to file any contestations of jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, Robert Kugler, one of the lawyers who filed the separate class action against the congregation on Feb. 5, said 70 people initially came forward alleging abuse by at least 18 religious brothers at the school in Granby.

There is no doubt in my mind that every single year there were a number of kids who were abused, Kugler said in an interview. The question is how many (more) will come forward. More people are calling. I have messages to return now. The phone rings, if not every day, every few days.

Kugler said a judge will soon set a timetable for the class action proceedings.

Read more about:LONDONWhere does one shop for a wedding gown set to be the dress of the year  an outfit chic enough for a fashion-loving bride, but suitable for a church so regal its the burial place of monarchs?

Everyone at London Fashion Week  and elsewhere  is dying to know.

With only three months to go before Prince Harry and Meghan Markles May 19 wedding at Windsor Castle, both the fashion and bridal worlds are abuzz with talk of who the bride will pick to design her dress and what kind of look she would go for.

Its no wonder: Theres not been a bigger royal wedding since Harrys brother Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011 in an extravaganza broadcast around the world. Seven years later, Kates lacy, long-sleeved Alexander McQueen gown is still influencing bridal designs today.

Its going to be the greatest fashion commission of 2018. Therell be millions of eyeballs on it, said Jade Beer, editor at the British edition of Brides magazine. Its her major fashion moment.

Shell definitely need an upgrade from the dress she wore for her first wedding, Beer added, referring to the simple strapless white gown the American actress wore at her 2011 Jamaica beach wedding to film producer Trevor Engelson. The couple divorced in 2013.

While the design  as well as the designer  of the dress is a closely guarded secret, many are positive that Markle will choose a British designer.

Kate wasnt the only bride in Britains extended royal family sticking with a British designer. Zara Phillips, Queen Elizabeth IIs second-eldest grandchild, wore royal couturier Stewart Parvin. In 1981, then-Lady Diana Spencer  the late mother of groom Harry  surprised many when she chose David and Elizabeth Emanuel, a pair of designers fresh out of college.

Front-runners for Markles choice include British-Canadian Erdem Moralioglu, known for his elegant, feminine styles; Ralph & Russo, the couture designers Markle chose for her engagement dress; heritage fashion powerhouse Burberry; as well as McQueen and Giles Deacon, who designed the wedding gown for Kates sister Pippa Middleton.

Victoria Beckham has denied rumours that shes been asked. French designer Roland Mouret has also been cited as a possible pick.

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I mean, she could surprise us all and choose a Canadian brand  she was so loyal to them while she was filming up there, said Miles Socha, editor-in-chief at Womens Wear Daily, referring to the time Markle spent in Toronto filming the TV series Suits. But probably we would have to place our bets on a British designer.

Share your thoughts

Some are hoping Markle will pick something less traditional because she has more leeway. After all, Harry is only fifth in line to the throne  and will be sixth after Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth to her third child in April. In addition, their wedding venue, St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, is less imposing than St. Pauls Cathedral or Westminster Abbey in London.

I really expect something different from her. Her style is so clean, really modern, and bridal has been so traditional in the past few years, said London-based bridal designer Naomi Neoh. I think  I hope  it would be clean, simple with beautiful detailing.

Neoh hopes Markle will choose a dress that celebrates her individuality.

Meghans very different from the English tradition. Shes got her career, shes half-Black, she said. Shes not going to be queen. It has to be respectful and appropriate of course, but it can be a bit more exciting with the cut and the lines. I think maybe a high neck, low back  thatd be demure enough.

Still, its a dress that needs to live up to the grandeur of its surroundings. St. Georges Chapel is intimate only by royal proportions. It seats 800 guests and has a very important place in British history as the resting place of scores of kings and queens  including both of the queens parents.

Shes going to be walking over dead monarchs on the way up the aisle, said Beer. Theres a huge sense of occasion.

Markle has already signalled a break from the conservative styles that dominate British royal wardrobes, ditching stuffy frock coats for sleek trousers. Many admired the sharp trouser suit she wore to match Harrys outfit at a recent official event.

The actress herself has offered some clues about her dream wedding dress.

In March 2016, before she met Harry, she told Glamour magazine that she favoured classic and simple styles with a modern twist, and that she preferred wedding dresses that are whimsical or subtly romantic. She named Ellie Saab and J. Mendel among her favourite designers, and said her favourite celebrity wedding dress was the simple slip of a gown that Carolyn Besette Kennedy wore in 1996.

Circumstances have changed since then  but whatever style she picks, Markles choice will soon be seen in bridal salons everywhere.

Referring to Kates gown, Neoh said: Literally the next day, everyone wanted long lace sleeves  the year after, getting lace was impossible. It was bananas.

Many say with Markles looks and the young royals popularity, she could get away with nearly anything.

I think everybody here loves her so dearly, said designer Jasper Conran. She can wear a dishcloth and people wont mind.

Read more about:Parts of York Region could soon be facing a sewage crisis after the provinces approval plans for a proposed waste water plant in the municipality appear to have gone stagnant.

York Region officials say they have been waiting since 2014 for approval from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change for the $715-million Upper York Sewage Solutions project that will service the municipalities of Aurora, Newmarket and East Gwillimbury  and still have no idea if and when theyll get the green light.

In a report to council last month, staff wrote that the extraordinary approval delay could lead to a public health and environmental risk if there is spillage from current infrastructure. And they want the province to pay for an emergency response plan and the clean up, if it comes to that.

When you think you are going to have something  and then you still dont have it and theres been no feedback as to when the review will be concluded  we just dont know, said Mike Rabeau, York Regions director of capital planning and delivery for environmental services. He noted the region completed all of its studies and submitted an individual environmental assessment in 2014, and has spent $65-million on the project thus far.

According to the staff report, the approval delay is due to the provincial duty to consult with the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, who live on the island in Lake Simcoe, which will be most affected by the 40-million litres of treated sewage that will be released daily into the East Holland River and eventually make its way into the lake. The consultation was to begin in December 2016, and take six months.

Rabeau said they havent been informed about whats holding it up: Thats a lack of certainty. We are not in control of it. We just dont know how they run that process.

But the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation say they too have been waiting for months for the province to seriously engage them in the consultation process, and have been told funding they had asked for to conduct independent tests on the impact of the effluent from the plant is no longer there.

In a letter to the ministry last month, they said their faith in the process continues to diminish after being told the file has been reassigned to the fourth minister in five months.

We have not been involved enough in this project, and they keep downplaying the First Nations interest, said Chief Donna Big Canoe, of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.

Nothings moved since last year, she said, adding two main studies they had requested funding for including a Health Impact Assessment and Traditional Ecological Knowledge study have yet to be done and have had their funding cancelled.

The environment ministry did not provide any details as to where it is in the consultation process, simply saying, The ministry continues to engage with the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, said spokesman Gary Wheeler.

He said due to a conflict with the new environment Minister Chris Ballard, the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry is now overseeing the file.

He said the environment ministry is still reviewing the environmental assessment for the project: The ministry is responsible for ensuring that the environmental assessment process is completed in accordance with the act. Once the ministry is satisfied, the application will move forward for a decision.

But Rabeau said the region cant wait much longer  and believes the environment ministrys outstanding issues with the First Nations has significantly delayed approval of the individual environmental assessment.

The Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation say it is unfair to place the blame on them. Big Canoe said they have constantly been trying to work with all the parties at the table  only to be sidelined each time.

The islanders say they require over $300,000 in funds to sufficiently review the documents that have been produced as part of the environmental assessment, and complete the Health Impact Assessment and Traditional Ecological Knowledge study.

Upon the completion of these studies and only upon the completion of all the studies, will there be enough evidence to make a comprehensive decision, the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation wrote in a letter to the environment ministry.

The Region of York insists the technology for the sewage project is the most advanced in the country.

Rabeau said the strict provincial guidelines around the Lake Simcoe watershed, due to high levels of phosphorus in the water, compelled the region to come up with a solution never seen before in Canada.

Theres nothing built like this in Canada, said Rabeau. And its well beyond anything already being done on the lake, which is also home to 14 other sewage plants that have been dumping effluent into the lake for decades.

But as the delay goes on, there is concern the technology could become outdated, said Rabeau.

In the meantime, Rabeau said concerns are growing around a single sewage forcemain, or pumping station, that runs in Newmarket. If the current forcemain has a break in it  its been operating for 30 years  we cant get into it to do proper inspections because it always needs to be used, he said.

Its getting to the age that its starting to become a concern, he said, adding there are plans to build a second forcemain beside it, as the delay continues.

The region is also concerned further delay will limit development in northern York Region, Rabeau said. There are parts of East Gwillimbury that are still connected to the septic system, given limited sewage allocation in the area, and cannot grow without adequate sewage capacity.

The Upper York Sewage Solutions project will provide sewage facilities to 153,000 residents in northern York Region. Currently, most of southern York Regions sewage is sent to Lake Ontario, via Durham, through the York Durham sewage system, known as the Big Pipe, which was built in the late 1970s and early 80s.A missing 73-year-old Brampton woman who hadnt been seen since Thursday was found safe Sunday.

Carole Berry had been last seen around 10:30 a.m. in the area of Hurontario St. and Elgin Dr. Peel police said a citizen found the woman and called paramedics. Shes since been treated in hospital and reunited with her family.

According to her daughter Susan Berry, her mother said she was stepping out for some air on that morning, and headed out in her car.

Her efforts to find her mother were shared among family, friends and community members of Brampton, who spent the last few days in groups searching.

With files from Emma McIntosh

Read more about:One of Canadas largest liability insurance companies wants the Roman Catholic diocese of London, Ont., to return $10 million paid to the diocese for settlements to victims sexually abused by priests.

AXA Insurance, now owned by Intact Financial Corp., accuses the diocese of hiding pedophile priests by moving them to different parishes or duties for decades, thereby misleading the insurance company and exposing it to greater financial risk.

In documents filed with Superior Court in London, the company cites the cases of five notorious offenders, including serial predators Charles Sylvestre and John Harper, for sexual assaults against children and teens from the 1960s to the 1970s.

The Diocese of London, consistent with the policies and practices of the Roman Catholic church more broadly, engaged in a practice of concealing reports of child sexual abuse by members of the dioceses clergy, and then assigning the priests in question to different parishes in the Diocese, thereby providing the priests with further opportunity to commit sexual assaults upon children within the new parish, AXA court documents allege.

In dispute is an insurance policy that the diocese says covered it from 1963 to 1971. AXA questions whether the policy ever existed. At the time, AXAs predecessor insured nine other dioceses in Ontario.

And if the London policy did exist, the company argues it was made void by the dioceses failure to disclose abuse committed by its priests before the policy was issued and renewed.

If the diocese had disclosed the information, AXA says it would have refused to provide or renew a policy, would have written in exclusions, or would have increased premiums because this information dramatically affected the risk.

The diocese claims its insurance policy is valid and accuses AXA of acting in bad faith.

The diocese initiated the legal battle in 2008 after AXA refused to pay two sexual abuse settlement claims totalling about $900,000. The diocese is suing AXA for $2 million for breach of contract, according to its statement of claim.

AXA pushed back hard, filing a counterclaim demanding the return of the $10 million AXA and its predecessors paid the diocese for settlements and legal costs in 50 lawsuits brought by victims sexually assaulted during the disputed period.

AXA and the diocese declined requests for interviews. The allegations have not been proven in court.

The diocese insists the insurance policy covered employees who commit assault and battery. It also wants AXA to cover future claims which counsel for the Diocese asserts are inevitable, according to a 2016 court ruling that decided the dispute would be heard by judge only.

The decade-old legal battle is scheduled for trial in September.

The litigation is part of an emerging movement across North America that pits Roman Catholic dioceses against their insurers in multi-million-dollar civil actions regarding victim settlements. At least 10 dioceses in the U.S. have been embroiled in lawsuits with insurance companies that wont pay.

In Canada, the dioceses of Moncton, Bathurst, N.B., Ottawa and Sault Ste. Marie have all gone to court against insurance companies who refuse to cover millions of dollars in payments made to victims abused by priests. In October 2016, Bathurst lost its legal attempt to recoup $3.3 million from its former insurer.

Dioceses have slashed staff and sold properties to pay for the settlements.

Massimo Faggioli, a professor of Catholic church history at Pennsylvanias Villanova University, says lawsuits from victims and insurance companies have created a perfect storm for dioceses already downsizing due to fewer worshipers.

Its a double challenge thats consuming a lot of the energy of a lot of bishops, Faggioli says in a phone interview. The Catholic church will have to get rid of assets much more rapidly than it thought.

Attempts to slow the downsizing by sheltering assets or spending large amounts on legal battles further taint a public image battered by the sex abuse scandals, Faggioli adds.

In Ontario, AXAs predecessor, a company named Great American, began its legal challenge of dioceses in 2000, when it refused to cover the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie for sexual assaults committed by one of its priests. The Court of Appeal for Ontario eventually upheld a lower-court decision ordering Great American to pay up.

Great American, and later AXA, then began paying out for other dioceses it insured in Ontario, including the Diocese of London, who claimed to be insured under an identical policy, according to the 2016 Superior Court ruling against a jury trial. A complicating factor is that a copy of the disputed policy has not been found by either AXA or the diocese.

AXA bought Great Americans successor in 2005. Toronto-based Intact Financial Corp., headed by CEO Charles Brindamour, bought AXA in 2011.

In court documents, the company argues the London diocese dealt with abusive priests in secret, consistent with a papal instruction to bishops by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

Called by its Latin name, Crimen Sollicitationis, it formed part of the Vaticans canon law and ordered all bishops to investigate allegations of priest sexual misconduct against minors in utmost secrecy, under threat of excommunication, AXA argues.

The victims were also required to keep the investigation secret, also under threat of excommunication.

The papal order, the insurance company adds, became publicly known only in 2003, when its existence was revealed during litigation involving abusive Catholic priests in the United States.

AXA alleges the diocese followed this secretive practice in the shocking case of Rev. Charles Sylvestre, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to sexually assaulting 47 girls between 1954 and 1986. His victims were between 7 and 15 at the time of the abuse.

Sylvestre, who died in prison in 2007 at age 84, was moved to 12 different parishes in 20 years.

In 1962, Sarnia police told the diocese that three girls accused Sylvestre of sexual abuse. Sylvestre was not available for questioning because the diocese had sent him to a retreat in Quebec.

The dioceses bishop at the time, John Cody, removed Father Sylvestre from the Diocese of London, and from the jurisdiction of Sarnia Police, AXA alleges.

Sylvestre then had a brief stay in Toronto before returning to parishes in the London diocese in 1963. He committed most of his crimes during his 12-year tenure at St. Ursulas parish in Chatham, which ended in 1980. He spent the following nine years as pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Pain Court, Ont., until more allegations caught up with him in 1989.

In October of 1989, he was sent to a Michigan centre for Catholic priests and treated for alcoholism, AXA says in court documents.

After Sylvestres trial in 2006, the London diocese revealed it had found  in the back of a diocese filing cabinet  the Sarnia police reports from 1962.

A year after the discovery, AXA refused to indemnify the diocese in two sexual abuse settlements  one for $166,666 and another for $707,351  involving Rev. John Harper, whose abuse of boys began as early as 1959.

The diocese sued in 2008 for breach of contract and the decade-old legal battle commenced.

In Harpers case, the priest rotated through three different parishes in the first six years since his ordination in 1958  Stratford, Aylmer and London, AXA documents say.

He became a teacher at Regina Mundi College, then a diocese-run all-boys boarding school, in 1964. He stayed there until his retirement in 1993.

In 1964, the parents of three boys from Harpers former parish in Stratford told officials at the Diocese that the priest had sexually abused their sons, according to allegations in AXAs pleadings. The abuse was reported to Londons bishop, AXA adds.

Harper was sent by the diocese to receive psychiatric treatment but was not removed from the all-boys school.

In 1987, Harper was charged with sexually abusing two boys. He was convicted in 1988 of sexually assaulting minors. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a victim from 1959 to 1964, beginning when the victim was 9.

In its statement of claim, the diocese says it dealt with the 1962 allegations against Sylvestre according to the practice and standards applicable to such claims in 1962. Sylvestre was removed from his parish, reassigned for further education and assigned work under supervision until such time as it appeared he was not a risk to re-offend.

Unknown to the Diocese, Sylvestre re-commenced sexual assaults thereafter. Forthwith, on notice to the Diocese of that activity in 1989, Sylvestre was removed from parish work.

In 2006, the dioceses current bishop, Ronald Fabbro, called the abuse of victims by priests a scourge in the Diocese of London that must end.

I want to apologize for the failure of our church to protect children, Fabbro told the faithful gathered at St. Ursulas parish at the time. Im here today to pledge myself as the bishop of the diocese to do my utmost to protect the children.MAKHACHKALA, RussiaA gunman opened fire with a hunting rifle on churchgoers leaving a service in Russias Dagestan region, killing five people and wounding four others, then was shot and killed by police, authorities say.

The shootings took place Sunday evening in Kizlyar, a town of about 50,000 people on the border with Chechnya.

Four people died at the scene and a fifth died at a hospital, regional Interior Ministry spokesperson Ruslan Gadzhiibragimov said. The gunman was a local resident, and his wife has been detained for questioning, he said.

The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea. Following two separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya, an Islamist insurgency spread to Dagestan.

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Read more about:AGRA, INDIAThe Canadian government is now seeking a meeting with the Indian politician who publicly accused members of Trudeaus cabinet of being connected to the Sikh separatist movement.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family spent much of their first full day in India touring the Taj Mahal and visiting an elephant rescue sanctuary, behind the scenes efforts were being made to extend an olive branch to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

At the request of Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan  who was snubbed by Singh when Sajjan visited India last April  Canadas high commissioner was dispatched to set up a meeting with Singh, Trudeau and Sajjan later this week.

Trudeau is scheduled to be in Punjab Wednesday for a visit to the Golden Temple, the holiest site in Sikhism. Three days ago, Trudeaus officials denied Indian media reports that Singh  the head of that provinces government  was to serve as Trudeaus tour guide at the temple, and said no meeting was planned.

Sunday afternoon however, those same officials said a meeting is now being sought. Indian media are also reporting Singh has asked the Indian external affairs ministry to help him secure a meeting with Trudeau.

Singh has accused multiple Trudeau cabinet ministers of being Khalistani sympathizers and has been the most vocal with allegations that Canadas Sikh communities are a hotbed of Sikh separatists giving oxygen to extremist elements of the cause.

Khalistan is the name of the independent Sikh state sought by some members of the Sikh community.

Trudeaus appearances at events where it was believed Sikh separatist leaders were also present ruffled feathers in Delhi over the last two years, and the issue has been raised in private conversations between Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Trudeau is scheduled to meet with Modi in New Delhi on Friday.

A motion in the Ontario legislature last year to label anti-Sikh riots at the Golden Temple in 1984 as a genocide, and recent decisions by more than a dozen Canadian gurdwaras to ban entry to Indian diplomats in their official government capacity, have added fuel to Indias concerns about a growing Khalistani effort coming out of Canada.

Trudeau and his cabinet ministers, including Sajjan, have loudly denied there is any reason for concern. On Feb. 7, Sajjan called Singhs accusations offensive and ridiculous.

The Khalistan issue has threatened to cloud Trudeaus trip but Canadians officials in India tried to downplay it Sunday, saying the relationship couldnt be sidetracked by a single concern.

They pointed to the 30 per cent growth in trade between Canada and India over the last few years, as well as growth in the number of Canadian companies doing business there. The number of Indian students studying in Canada has also tripled in the last three years to 124,000 in 2017.

Trudeau is expected to make a statement during this trip reiterating Canadas policy in favour of a united India, but stressing Canada will not crack down on Sikhs in Canada expressing peacefully their desire for an independent state.

A difference of opinion on freedom of speech has been cited by some Indian policy experts as a reason for the dispute between Canada and India over the Khalistan movement, as Delhi would prefer Trudeau do more to quiet any calls among Indian Canadians.

The right to freedom of expression was one of many rights issues raised with Trudeau at a meeting with non-governmental organizations Sunday evening. Some were so afraid of reprisals for speaking with him the Canadian government cancelled a planned photo op and refused to release the names of the individuals or even their organizations.

Earlier in the day Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau and their children, Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien, flew to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. Trudeau said he had first been there 35 years ago on a prime ministerial trip with his father, but Pierre Elliott Trudeau had to work and couldnt join him.

For me to be able to be here on an official trip while bringing my kids with me to share this is really special, he said. It sort of shows for me how work-life balance has evolved a bit.

Sophie laughed a little at the latter statement, saying were trying.

Later they drove north of Agra to the SOS Sanctuary and Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura, where they fed fruits and vegetables to a 23-year-old rescued elephant named Laxmi.

Read more: Sikh separatists in Canada drawing ire from popular Indian magazine ahead of Trudeau visit

Read more about:A residency for all MDs, Editorial, Feb. 15

I am pleased that you support funding of an increased number of residency positions to at least match the annual number of Canadian medical school graduates. However, this alone may fail to solve the shortage of physicians.

Young MDs are mobile and, if not treated with respect and fairness, will leave Ontario for other provinces and even other countries.

Their retention is not helped by Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneaus recent tax increases on incorporated professionals. Whether he has listened to constructive criticisms will be revealed in his budget next week.

This is at a time when Ontario physicians have faced fee cuts of up to 50 per cent and billing clawbacks, have been without a contract for four years and await the results of binding arbitration  likely not until late this year.

The PC leadership candidates and Premier Kathleen Wynne should pledge now that they will respect the eventual binding arbitration decision and not overturn it by subsequent legislation.

Otherwise, the current shortage of MDs in this province will likely worsen.

Charles S. Shaver, MD, OttawaSurprisingly, it was a tweet from Justin Trudeau, and not Donald Trump, that recently generated legal and political debate. Trudeaus tweets are normally quite formal in substance, however, occasionally, they contain sharp, determined policy bites  in spite of any risk.

After Trump had imposed a four-month pause on refugees and temporarily banned travellers from seven countries, Trudeau tweeted: To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength. He appeared determined to highlight the difference in values between the two governments, even at the risk of upsetting tough NAFTA negotiations.

That same determination was evident in a tweet, following the controversial verdict in the trial of Gerald Stanley, the Saskatchewan farmer who was found not guilty of killing Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Cree. Stanley was acquitted by a jury that did not include anyone of Indigenous heritage.

Trudeau tweeted that having just spoken with his justice minister, he couldnt imagine the grief and sorrow the Boushie family was feeling. He also sent love to them from the U.S. where he was travelling.

Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson Raybould quickly followed suit, expressing her own sympathy, and added that she was committed to working every day to ensure justice for all Canadians.

The tweets themselves (not to mention the verdict) unleashed a firestorm of opinion because of their unusual nature. Rarely do elected politicians comment on trials and with good reason.

An independent judiciary, free of political interference, is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. If elected officials are uncomfortable with a pattern of decisions, then their responsibility is to amend, change or introduce legislation.

Initially, the questions were tough.

Had the prime minister crossed the constitutional convention, which functionally ensures the separation of the three powers of government?

Was Trudeau questioning a jury decision? The timing of the tweet so soon after the verdict and the specific outreach to the Boushie family troubled many observers. Could his tweet prove to be a stumbling block in the event of an appeal?

Others countered that it was the prime ministers responsibility, if not his obligation, to speak out, given the governments strong priority to seek reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

The verdict, combined with deep concerns about the fairness of criminal justice system itself, were not the only issues top of mind, as protests were organized.

Study after study, commission after commission, during decades of research have demonstrated that Indigenous incarceration is too high; the number of children in foster care is too high; the number of youth suicides are too high and the standards of living are too low.

In addition, government resources are being sapped as they deal with land claims and decisions from human rights tribunals. The inquiry into Missing Murdered and Indigenous Women has already been a painful and emotional exercise.

It was in this atmosphere, that the PM composed his tweet. One assumes he was aware of the risk.

But if there was political nervousness, his government didnt flinch. The Boushie family came quickly to Ottawa to meet with relevant ministers and the PM. Trudeau emphasized in the House of Commons that he could not speak to the specifics of the case but that he would be soon be speaking to a new engagement between the federal government and Indigenous peoples regarding their rights.

Within a few days, the PM outlined a historic framework to recognize and implement Indigenous rights. No longer would Indigenous peoples have to fight prove their rights. Instead, those rights, written into section 35 of the Constitution, but never fully acknowledged, would be the starting point for any dispute or negotiation.

In addition, legislation proposed by NDP MP, Romeo Saganash, to ensure that Canadian law respects the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, garnered support from the Liberal government.

The Stanley trial verdict, which initially appeared as a dreadful blow to reconciliation, had in fact, kick-started an aspirational and ambitious foundational shift to be implemented before the 2019 election.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau articulated the aspiration perfectly when he advocated for a just society. But, it is clear that, despite good intentions, we have come up short. Now, the question is whether we can move fast enough to achieve this elusive goal.

Lets hope so because the vision of an updated just society is compelling and timeless. It should outweigh any risk.

Penny Collenette is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa and was a senior director of the Prime Ministers Office for Jean Chretien.

Read more about:In October 2016, Prime Minister Trudeaus announcement that Canadian provinces would be required to adopt carbon pricing was met with wide political agreement.

Both the United States and China had recently agreed to the Paris climate accord, and provincial governments in Canadas three largest provinces had already committed to some form of carbon pricing.

Alberta, home of Canadas most abundant oilsands and a traditional bastion of conservative support, had broken with decades of Progressive Conservative leadership, electing an NDP government that presented carbon pricing as a critical part of the oil industrys social license to export its products to market. Across the country, Liberal provincial governments held power. Conservatives were at a historically low ebb.

Former Prime Minister Harpers inability to adequately address climate change had hurt perceptions of Canadian resources; a new approach was needed.

What a difference 16 months make. Alberta is locked in a battle with its provincial counterparts in British Columbia over the Trans Mountain Pipeline. While the federal government has expressed support for the project, the provincial governments are no longer in the same agreeable position.

Albertans, who have long memories of the misguided National Energy Program devised by Pierre Elliott Trudeaus government, are increasingly conscious of the oilsands vulnerabilities and are strongly resistant to any measures that may diminish its growth. Enter Jason Kenney.

Breaking from years of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Partys efforts to court a bigger tent of voters, the former Harper cabinet minister has united the provinces right-wing forces under a series of unapologetically conservative stances, including strident opposition to the carbon tax.

As this takes place, action and rhetoric from the Trump administration has added pressure to Canadian oil producers.

While Prime Minister Trudeau and President Barack Obama struck similar tones about building social license for oil extraction, Trump has a drastically different vision for competitiveness, unlocking millions of jobs by slashing regulations.

Suddenly, carbon pricing is facing serious political headwinds as conservatives across Canada spring into action.

While some Conservatives briefly toyed with Michael Chongs plan for a revenue neutral carbon tax, Andrew Scheer won the leadership race by promising to scrap carbon pricing. He rejects the premise that taxes can fight climate change and has ardently emphasized their impact on affordability. The recent political climate has only contributed to his resolve.

He has allies. With Trumps election, the Liberals newly created Canadian Energy Regulator and the harsh impact of the oilsands downturn on our national productivity, carbon pricing is beginning to feel like too much too soon for many Canadians. And in an era where political conversations are increasingly framed around affordability, the added burden of taxes has become problematic.

This explains the recent shift in Ontario politics. Former Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leader Patrick Brown shocked pundits and delegates alike when he announced his support for a revenue neutral carbon tax in March 2016. Many pundits saw this as a critical point in national discussions around carbon pricing.

But his swift removal as leader has provided a window for anti-carbon pricing advocates to rebound in Ontario. While there may have been no appetite for such a position in 2016, leadership candidates are now willing to fight against carbon taxation in spades.

All three leading leadership candidates for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario have promised to oppose cap and trade, carbon taxation and any former of carbon pricing in no uncertain terms. Call it pandering. Call it impractical. But it represents a growing and formidable opposition from the most likely candidates to take over as premier of Canadas largest province this June.

To add to that, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe threatened that Trudeaus government would enforce the carbon tax on his province over [his] dead body.

Whats clear is that after several years of standing down on the issue of the carbon tax, conservative parties and politicians are no longer willing to sit idly by and allow the Liberals to steer the agenda.

Whats problematic for the federal government is that in many provinces, those same vocal opponents look to be set on a path to power.

Just as the political tides have turned on this issue before, it seems they have once again  at least amongst the conservative base.

The result? Prime Minister Trudeau has a fight on his hands.

Jaime Watt is the executive chairman of Navigator Ltd. and a Conservative strategist.

Read more about:Magna International Inc. designs, engineers, and manufactures components, assemblies, systems, subsystems, and modules for original equipment manufacturers of vehicles and light trucks worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Body Exteriors & Structures, Power & Vision, Seating Systems, and Complete Vehicles. Its Body Exteriors & Structures segment provides body and chassis systems, as well as engineering and testing services; exterior systems, including fascia and trims, front end modules, front integration panels, liftgate modules, active aerodynamics, engineered glass, running boards, truck bed access products, and side doors; and roof systems, such as modular and textile folding roofs, and hard and soft tops. The company's Power & Vision segment offers dedicated hybrid, dual and e-clutch, and manual transmissions; engine drive plates and accessories; AWD/4WD products, rear drive modules, and hybrid and battery electric drive systems; transmission, engine, and driveline components; advanced driver assistance systems, camera systems, ultrasonic sensors, and electronic controllers; interior and exterior mirrors, actuators, door handles, overhead consoles, and camera monitoring systems; head, tail, and fog lamps; signal and other lighting products; and latching systems, door modules, window systems, power closure systems, hinges and wire forming, and handle assemblies. Its Seating Systems segment provides seat structures, mechanism and hardware solutions, and foam and trim products. The company's Complete Vehicles segment offers vehicle manufacturing and engineering services. It also designs, engineers, and manufactures tooling products. Magna International Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Aurora, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen Coding GmbH, Allen France SAS, Alpine Automation Limited, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Holdings Inc., Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, AppliChem Inc., Arylux Hungary Elektromechanikus Alkatreszgyarto Kft, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix (Suzhou) Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Holdings Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. 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LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, Norden Olje AB, North Star Imaging Europe, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Odesign Inc., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited (Enping), Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Penta Dnepr LLC, Penta Sever OOO, Penta Volga OOO, Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., Ramset Fasteners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Salter India Limited, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco (Nederland) B.V., Simco Japan Inc., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tape Group B.V., Stokvis Tapes (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes BVBA, Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Tarutin Kester Co. Ltd., Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek (China) Limited, Teknek (Japan) Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode (Qingdao) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tregaskiss Welding Products, US Finance Gamma LLC, Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V.B.A., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta (Guangzhou) Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Vesta Global Limited, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., W Packaging Technology (China) Co. Ltd., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wujiang Advanced Cleaning Co. Ltd., Wynn Oil (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, ZF TRW (Engineered Fasteners and Components), and Zip-Pak International B.V..The student newspaper at the University of Albany reported Saturday on details surrounding a reported rape that involved two non-students in the Dutch Quad dorm complex in Bleeker Hall.

The Albany Student Press reported that a woman, who eventually sought treatment at Albany Memorial Hospital Feb. 5, reported to police that she was raped by a man she left a fraternity party with around 3:30 a.m. The non-students were guests in the dorm of other people they went to the party with, according to the student press.

A second rape was reported two days later on Feb. 7 with the campus police blotter listing Building 25 as the location.

However, reported rapes at the University at Albany in 2016 were common, averaging about one reported every two weeks of the regular school year, according to U.S. Department of Education data reviewed by the Times Union Sunday.

In fact, rapes as self-reported by UAlbany skyrocketed from 4 reported in 2014 to 27 reported in 2016. The numbers are far more than other incidents of rape self-reported by other Capital Region colleges.

Part of the change likely came from the way rape was previously reported in the U.S. education data. But UAlbany leaders have acknowledged that they view the increase as a sign that victims are likely more comfortable coming forward.

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In 2014, UAlbany also opened a campus advocacy center for sexual violence, which is staffed with a pair of full-time victims' advocates who counsel students about their reporting options.

"When we see reports going up, we don't think our campus is more dangerous," Chantelle Cleary, who oversees the sexual assault prevention and response as UAlbany's Title IX coordinator, told the Daily Gazette in October. "What it means to us is that that members of our community are coming forward and reporting things that are happening."

UAlbany also saw a highly-publicized case end in early February, when a Guilderland man was sentenced for entering the dorm room of a sleeping student in a Stuyvesant Tower dorm room and raping her in Oct. 2016This winter's nasty flu season may smack patients with a financial side effect: surprise medical bills.

People who wind up in the emergency room or need an ambulance can be blindsided by hefty, unexpected charges.

This often happens after patients visit a doctor or hospital outside their insurance network so coverage was limited. Insurance deductibles that reset every January and must be paid before coverage begins can make these invoices even more painful.

Here's a look at the issue and some tips for dealing with surprises:

Complicated network

Insurers form networks of doctors, hospitals and others and then negotiate rates with them. Doctors cannot bill outside those agreed-upon rates for in-network care.

For out-of-network care, providers can bill patients the difference or leftover balance between what the insurer paid for the care and what was charged.

On top of that, many insurers also make customers pay separate, higher deductibles for out-of-network care before they provide coverage. Then they tend to cover less of the remaining bill than they would have for in-network care.

The end result could mean a bill topping several thousand dollars, depending on the coverage and the care a patient needs.

Some plans even provide no coverage for non-emergency care outside their network. That's more common with individual coverage sold on the Affordable Care Act's insurance marketplaces.

Networks in those marketplaces also have gotten particularly narrow in recent years, which makes it easier for patients to end up with an out-of-network provider.

Source of confusion

People with flu symptoms have been flocking to ERs in several states this winter, and that can lead to surprise bills, in part because patients are focused on getting help and not always researching their coverage.

Even if a patient chooses an in-network hospital, the doctor delivering care may be out of network.

For more complicated cases, the odds of that happening increase. A doctor assisting in a surgery may be out of network, and so might the anesthesiologist. A woman may give birth with help from an in-network doctor. But the baby may wind up in neonatal intensive care, where a doctor outside the network treats it.

Ambulance rides are another case where a patient may have little control over who provides the care.

"You call 911, and the ambulance that shows up is the ambulance you take," said Erin Fuse Brown, a Georgia State law professor who researches medical billing.

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Ways to handle surprises

If you're having a planned surgery or procedure, check ahead with both your insurer and the hospital or doctor to make sure they are in network. Also ask about any physicians that may assist with the procedure.

If you wind up with a surprise bill, check first for errors in what was charged or if you have been billed out of network by mistake.

Then ask if the claim can be processed again as in-network care, especially if you had no way of knowing it wasn't beforehand.

If that fails, some hospitals may be willing to negotiate discounts or put you on a payment plan.

In some markets, the law may be on your side. New York, California and several other states prevent providers from dropping surprise bills on patients unless the person had agreed to out-of-network care ahead of time.

But there are no federal laws that govern surprise medical bills, and those state laws don't apply to some forms of insurance like the coverage millions of people receive from large employers, said Kevin Lucia of Georgetown University.

At the very least, don't ignore a surprise medical bill. A hospital may report your account to a credit agency or turn it over to a debt collector who sues or tries to have your wages garnished.

"It's not going to go away," Fuse Brown said.Editors note: During Black History Month, the Times Union is sharing stories from its archive highlighting significant people, places and events that are part of the Capital Regions Black cultural heritage. This story was first published Feb. 18, 2018.

The story of slavery is embedded in the story of Albany. But it isn't always told  not the way stories of the Dutch traders in Fort Orange are told, of the old patroons and their sprawling families who settled and thrived in the bustling northern tangle of New Netherland.

Yet it's there. They enslaved people. The commerce of New Netherland benefited from the forced migration of millions in the global slave trade. Dutch merchants, paradoxically known for their religious tolerance, profited from their sale. So did New York banks. "New York state was, in fact a slave state," said L. Lloyd Stewart, author of a 2005 book on the subject.

Slave ships landed at the port in New York City, and their cargo was then brought south. Individuals sold at New York City's slave market ended up everywhere, including Albany County  then a wide swath that encompassed much of what's now considered the broader Capital Region. According to Oscar Williams, who heads the Africana studies department at the University at Albany, as many as 5,000 enslaved people lived in Albany County around the Colonial period.

In a new, searchable, statewide database compiled by professors at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, slavery records tell bits and pieces of some of those stories  through census records, manumission documents, ads for runaways, fugitive records. By definition, it's a work in progress. But just type "Albany" into the "County or Borough" tab, and 2,530 records pop up. The first on the page lists Hercules, enslaved by Myndert Fredericksen in 1686. "Order for the trial of Hercules, charged with robbing the poor box of the Lutheran Church," the record notes.

And so, in just a few words, a whole forgotten life emerges of a desperate and penniless man.

 TOOL: SEARCH FOR CAPITAL REGION ENSLAVERS

Comb the results a little further, scanning for slaveholders. Among them are names now found on the region's streets and schools and stadiums: Schuylers, Pruyns, Bleeckers, Van Rensselaers, Ten Eycks, Ten Broecks. In 1790, according to the first U.S. census, Philip Schuyler enslaved 13 people at his home in Albany. Abraham Ten Broeck enslaved 12.

The names of those 25 individuals weren't documented by the census. But other names found their way into the database  Hercules is joined by Morris, Josephine, Ann Maria. "We want every individual enslaved person to have their own record  and when we can name them, we want to name them. We don't know what else we can do, but we don't want to deprive them their identities when it's possible," said Ned Benton, one of the John Jay professors behind the New York State Slavery Records Index.

Names are precious. Artifacts are few. Because the law considered the enslaved property, not people, they could not own property themselves. Because they or their forebears were stolen from their homes in Africa, no records exist of their origin. "As a black person, so much of my people's history just has never been written," said Judy-Lynne Peters, Benton's colleague on the project, who knows her family came from the Caribbean but doesn't know much else. Unlike that of most white people, who can trace their own roots and tell their own stories, "The history of most black people has never been written."

 A NOTE ABOUT THE CHANGING LANGUAGE OF SLAVERY

Efforts to tell that history have increased in recent years, with the creation of Black Heritage Tours, an ongoing Crailo exhibition on the "Dishonorable Trade" of slavery in the region and the dedication last year of the Historic African Burial Ground at St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands, which holds the remains of 14 people unearthed at Schuyler Flatts. And at the region's historic homes, tour guides are talking about the enslaved servants who lived in them, toiled in them, often died in them. "Just to tell the story accurately  about who was here, what their lives were like, and what they were doing  you can't tell it without telling the history of the enslaved population," said Sam Huntington, historic site assistant at Crailo. "Enslaved people," agreed Deborah Emmons-Andarawis, curator at Historic Cherry Hill, "are integral to the story."

Here are four such stories.

Dinah Jackson was a cook at Cherry Hill, the timber mansion built in 1787 for Philip and Maria Van Rensselaer. Aside from making meals, she likely washed dishes, cleaned, made clothes and did farmwork  the usual chores for female slaves up north. Her room was in the basement, a dank, uncomfortable space where she slept and worked on one side of a partition. A group of hired men, including handyman Joseph Orton, slept on the other.

Paul Buckowski

Dinah | Cherry Hill

On the evening of Monday, May 7, 1827, Orton (real name: Jesse Strang) shot and killed John Whipple from the roof of a shed at Cherry Hill with a bullet stolen from the victim by his wife and Jesse's lover, Elsie. She was a Van Rensselaer on her mother's side, and the trial that followed caused a stir. Strang was found guilty and died by hanging. Elsie, who put the blame on her lover and benefited from family connections, got off.

Jackson was a witness for the prosecution. In her testimony, she dropped a whopper, revealing that Strang had interrupted her dinner prep to ask how much she would charge for poisoning Whipple. When Jackson refused  not "for the State or the whole world!"  he laughed. Later on, Strang tried to spook her with talk of prowlers around the house. "This is my home, my proper place," she objected, "and I should not go."

Jackson, 50, was apparently the last slave in the Cherry Hill household at the time of the murder. Around two months later, she was freed, or manumitted (10 years after New York state passed its problematic, foot-dragging "gradual emancipation"), allowing her to testify.

Many details remain elusive. Did she have family in Albany? A husband, kids? "It's totally a story that can never be told sufficiently," said Emmons-Andarawis. "But we certainly have tried."

Prince was a butler at the Schuyler Mansion, where he tended to the family and their guests at the Georgian-style manse built in the 1760s for Gen. Philip Schuyler and his wife, Catherine. He arrived there after issuing a 1776 appeal to "the Honourable Lady Schuyler," explaining the dire circumstances under his current owner and asking the Schuylers to take him on.

John Carl D'Annibale

Prince | Schuyler Mansion

He "has quite lost the use of my limbs with cold for want of Cloaths or Blanket," he wrote  or perhaps someone else wrote on his behalf. "I am very willing to go to work for his Excellency the General at any sort of employ or any of the inhabitants in the town for my victuals & Cloaths."

Of all the slaves in the Schuyler manse, said Heidi Hill, historic site manager at Schuyler and Crailo, "We know the most about Prince." Not everything: His age was unknown. But Prince must have been on in years by the time Angelica Schuyler Church wrote to her mother from London, asking: "How is old Prince? When I don't see the old man's name I think he is dead."

Church's letter is quoted in a 1911 book by Georgina Schuyler that tracks the mansion's history from 1762 to 1804. The author notes: "Prince was an African, a slave. It was reported soon after he became a member of the household that he refused to eat with the other negroes on the ground that he was their superior in rank in Africa. ... Soon he was promoted, and he became a trusted and faithful servant."

Prince was such a fixture in the household that no less than John Jay himself  Founding Father and second governor of New York state  used his name as a cipher. "Let the Keyword be the name of the man who so long and regularly placed every day a Toot-pick by Mrs. Schuyler's plate," he explained in a 1780 letter to Philip Schuyler. "Written backwards, that is  The last letter in the Place of the first, and so on."

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As with so many enslaved people, not much is known about Susanah. Not her parentage, not her past, not the exact rendering of her name. One clear fact: she was freed in 1810. "I Elizabeth Ten Broeck ... Do manumit liberate and forever set free my negro woman slave named Susan or Susanah aged about Thirty seven years," wrote the widow and executrix of Abraham Ten Broeck.

PAUL BUCKOWSKI

Susanah | Ten Broeck

But the folks at Ten Broeck Mansion have teased out some facts from her manumission documents. What they have so far: Susanah was likely born in 1773, as the record lists her as 37. She bore three children in the mansion: Diana, 1803. Susan, 1805. Mary, 1807.

All were freed with their mother, but Susanah's freedom was conditional  one of many loopholes favoring slaveholders in New York state. Manumitted or not, she still had to work at Ten Broeck one day a week: "Susan will and doth promise and engage faithfully and without fail during the lifetime of her former mistress Elizabeth Ten Broeck ... the washing and ironing of the family." In addition, each spring and fall she had to return to the household to "assist in whitewashing and cleaning house and helping at killing time"  i.e., slaughtering animals.

Susanah worked as a house cleaner, probably. But who fathered her children? Unknown. When did she die? Unknown.

"We've kind of just started to tug at the threads of her story," said Samantha Hall-Saladino, the mansion's executive director, adding that they hope to find more sources and tell a fuller tale. "We're really at the very beginning of this. We want to weave Susanah's story and the stories of others like her through the entire home."

The word "slavery" evokes, for most people, an image of Southern plantations and captive people in cotton fields. In reality, slaves held all sorts of positions and performed all sorts of complex tasks, particularly up North, where the institution manifested in smaller households.

Andries | Crailo

Andries provided veterinary care for horses. Previously enslaved on the island of Curacao by the Dutch West India Company, he came north to New Amsterdam with a company bigwig in 1655 and two years later was sold to Jan Baptist van Rensselaer, son of Kiliaen  the West India Company founder and first patroon of Rensselaerswyck, the vast estate that occupied much of what is now the Capital Region. The newly acquired Andries was "a tall, quick fellow who can work well," reported Jan Baptist's younger brother, Jeremias.

His equine-care services were highly valued, becoming a matter of dispute when Jan Baptist returned to the Netherlands. Jeremias stayed behind, and from 1659 to 1660 the brothers corresponded, bickering repeatedly over Andries. Jeremias wanted to keep him. But Jan Baptist wanted him to care for a horse that was "full of worms." Jeremias responded:

"It is bad enough here to get him to do anything for anybody if I have not expressly ordered him to do so, so that at times I have to punish him for it ... for that sort of Negroes is too treacherous, although he is among the best. I have not had him appraised here, I do not think that he would [be] rated so high, for Negroes who had been 12 or 13 years in the West Indies and who for a year or two had always lived here with Dutch people have been sold here at public sale for 300 or 350 guilders, and they were of a better sort of Negroes."

In the end, Andries stayed. What became of him  when he died, where he's buried, whether he had family in New Netherland  no one knows.

abiancolli@timesunion.com  518-454-5439  @AmyBiancolliImagine an oceanside mansion where only nurses are invited to stay  a refuge from the long hours and hard cases, where staff treats guests like VIPs and attend to their every need.

There is no house like that but there used to be, and the spirit that inspired the purchase in the 1920s of a special place for nurses to relax still exists.

Nurses House was founded in 1924 when Emily Bourne bequeathed $300,000 for the purchase of a mansion on Long Island where up to 60 nurses who were "ill or exhausted" could stay. It was open for more than 30 years before it became too expensive to operate and the directors revised their mission to support nurses with individual donations  starting with the income from the sale of the house.

Nurses House, now based in Guilderland, remains a small organization, supported mostly by donations from nurses themselves. Registered nurses, or RNs, (currently working or retired) who find themselves in financial straits may apply for help with medical and housing expenses.

In 2017, Nurses House, which has one full-time staffer and three part-time employees, gave away $170,000 in grants  an average of $2,200 per donation. Nurses House is the only national charitable foundation dedicated to helping nurses in need.

While Nurses House raises money to help nurses in need, there is a larger movement to get nurses to take better care of themselves. The New York chapter of the American Nurses Association dedicated 2017 to teaching nurses to consider their own needs. And at Siena College, one of the emerging bachelor's degree in nursing programs in the Capital Region, self-care is in the foundation of the curriculum.

Lisa German, 49, is a typical recipient of help from the nonprofit. German said she worked all her life, struggled as a young mother in an abusive relationship to become a licensed practical nurse and then continued her education and became an RN.

"I look back on it now and I don't know how I did it, but you do what you've got to do to survive," German said.

She was a workaholic, German said. Even when her personal life improved  she married and bought a house in Amsterdam  she worked a lot. She was driven by her patients' needs, German said, adding that she knew how to work, but she didn't know how to take care of herself. But then, in 2015, German's husband, Jose, was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. German said she fell apart.

"I would see a patient, go cry, see a patient, go cry," she said.

She was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and adjustment disorder. German took a leave from her job at Ellis Medicine to care for her husband. Jose died in March 2016. Although German's three grown children were living with her at the time, she was the only one paying bills. When she ran out of money, she applied to Nurses House for a grant to help her pay the back taxes on her house so she didn't lose it. Now, she has some income from disability insurance, and is trying to get back on her feet.

"I know I still have years in me of taking care of people," German said. "I'm trying to take care of myself and get my mind where it needs to be."

Deb Elliott, executive director of both Nurses House and the Center for Nursing at the Foundation of New York State Nurses, said she sees a common theme among the applications  nurses who put everyone else's needs before their own.

Often, the nurse who finds herself in a crisis is the only breadwinner in her home. Substance abuse also surfaces in the applications.

"Time and time again, we see incidents of substance use and abuse," Elliott said. "Alcohol use is high in our profession, as are back injuries, which can mean a prescription for opioids and vulnerability for substance abuse."

Nursing is a large profession  as of May 2016 there were 180,730 registered nurses in the state, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are also trusted. According to Gallup's Honesty and Ethical Standards in Professions poll, nurses top the list of 22 occupations Americans were asked to evaluate, with 82 percent polled describing nurses' ethics as "very high" or "high."

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Nurses are deeply proud of the distinction, Elliott said, but the combination of a predisposition toward caring for others and the job stress of nursing can lead to burnout if nurses don't find ways to rejuvenate, Elliott said.

It's a struggle Katie Dzikas knows well. Dzikas, 29, is an RN at Ellis Medicine in the intensive care unit. She owns a house where she lives with her boyfriend, his children, a roommate and five dogs. She works 100 to 110 hours every two weeks, and she's enrolled in school full-time, working toward a bachelor's degree in nursing.

"I find myself, when I've worked a 12-hour-day, coming home and cleaning the house, even if someone else has already done it, because it gives me peace. I have the same mindset I have in my practice  providing a clean, welcoming space is what I want for my patients and for my family," Dzikas said.

Dzikas understands the pressures of her job; she watched her mother work as a nurse for decades. If someone has a bad experience with a nurse, that's the experience they will take with them about the hospital, she said. She saw firsthand the difference nurses make when her mother was hospitalized for weeks in the ICU. The nurses provided the support both Dzikas and her mother needed to get through the crisis.

Dzikas is learning about self-care in her classes at Siena, which last year started a bachelor's degree program in nursing. Before every class, the instructors lead a centering exercise. The group spends three to 10 minutes clearing their minds, breathing deeply and focusing.

Associate professors Lisa Flack, the director of the Baldwin Nursing Program at Siena, and Donnean Thrall both hold doctorates in nursing and based the curriculum on the work of Dr. Jean Watson, a pioneer in the caring sciences.

In addition to the inherent stresses of the job itself, bullying is prevalent in nursing, which adds to the already-stressful job, Flack said. Co-workers are often abrasive toward new nurses. "It's called eating their young," she said.

Flack and Thrall at Siena are trying to change the culture through education so young nurses, like Dzikas, feel empowered. And empowered, healthy nurses create better outcomes for their patients, she said.

"You have to be able to fill your vessel before you can fill anyone else's vessel," Thrall said.

hornbeck@timesunion.com  518-454-5352  @leighhornbeckALBANY  More than 200 Albany teens will be able to see the movie "Black Panther" for free after a local fundraising campaign quickly met its $3,500 goal over the weekend.

Albany software company co-owner Meghan Usmani saw the national trend toward local communities raising money to take disadvantaged children to see the groundbreaking film, the first Marvel superhero movie to be led by a black director and mostly black cast.

After the Times Union published a story Friday about the fundraising on behalf of teens at the Boys and Girls Club of Albany, it only took two days to make at least $3,525 on the GoFundMe website.

Usmani, who had reached out to the Boys and Girls Club of Albany on their Facebook page to see if they would welcome the campaign, had only started sharing the goal with friends and family on her social media pages a week ago.

"I woke up this morning and an anonymous donor had done the last $159," Usmani said Sunday. "It's amazing."

Anything over the $3,500 will go to support other programs at the Boys and Girls Club of Albany.

The money raised will pay for tickets, some concession stand purchases and perhaps transportation to get teenagers to the theater. The details about when the trips will happen have not been worked out yet.

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Frederick Joseph, a New York-based philanthropist, started what is now known worldwide as "the Black Panther Challenge" to raise $40,000 to get tickets for Harlem children to see the movie.

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer then announced on social media that she would buy out theaters in Mississippi "to ensure that all our brown children can see themselves as a superhero," she wrote.

The Washington Post has reported that more than 200 grassroots campaigns have sprouted up in communities worldwide to see the film, which is being hailed as a milestone since its the first time Hollywood has entrusted a franchise to a largely black cast.

"Black Panther" made an estimated $192 million in its opening weekend in the U.S., the largest opening ever in February and largest opening for a black director. It will also be the second-largest opening of a Marvel superhero movie, behind the first "Avengers" film.Rome

After his spirited defense of a Chilean bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse prompted the greatest crisis of his pontificate, Pope Francis reactivated an abuse commission on Saturday that had lapsed into dormancy.

It was the latest in a series of measures by the Vatican to counter criticism that fighting abuse was not a priority for Francis' papacy.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston was reappointed as the leader of the group, called the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. A Vatican statement said the panel would include some victims of clerical sexual abuse.

"The Holy Father has ensured continuity in the work of our commission, which is to assist local churches throughout the world in their efforts to safeguard all children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm," O'Malley said in a statement.

The Vatican statement said the abuse victims on the commission preferred to keep their histories private.

The first, three-year mandate of the commission ended in December, and its lapsing coincided with growing criticism of the pope's commitment to addressing sexual abuse in the church. The group plans to begin its work in April by hearing the testimony of abuse victims.

The Vatican statement said the commission's goal "and greatest challenge" remained embedding "abuse prevention and protection into the life and action of local churches."

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The announcement about the commission came on the same day the pope's most experienced sex crimes investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, was expected to take testimony in New York from Juan Carlos Cruz, who says he was sexually abused when he was a teenager in Chile by a priest and that Bishop Juan Barros Madrid had witnessed the abuse.

While visiting Chile last month, the pope initially defended Barros as a victim of "calumny," saying the Vatican had received no concrete evidence against the bishop.

"The day someone brings me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will talk," Francis said at the time. "But there is not one single piece of evidence. It is all slander."

The comments caused outrage in Chile, and Francis, amid intense pressure, dispatched Scicluna to investigate.

On Thursday, the Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit journal, published private remarks the pope made during a visit to Peru last month, in which he disclosed that he regularly met with victims of sexual abuse.ALBANY  The push for the state to legalize marijuana received a celebrity boost Saturday when Montel Williams told his personal cannabis story at the New Yok State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators Conference.

Williams described how he was using more and more prescription opioids to deal with pain from his multiple sclerosis, a potentially disabling disease of the central nervous system, when a physician advised him to use marijuana.

Does marijuana stop pain? No. Does marijuana make it livable? Yes, Williams said moving around in the Empire State Convention Center meeting room packed with a standing room audience of 150 people.

Adults have the right to make a decision about what they can and cannot do, said Williams, a former radio talk show host and medical cannabis patient, activist and entrepreneur, who founded Lenitiv Labs.

Marijuana could be the number one exit drug for opioid addiction, Williams said.

Williams spoke at the workshop called From Prisons to Pot: Marijuana Legalization and Revisioning New York States Economy sponsored by Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo, and State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, D-Brooklyn.

Peoples-Stokes and Montgomery emphasized that the marijuana regulation and taxation act introduced in the State Legislature is not about crime but will have an impact that will help the states economy and minority communities that have been borne the brunt of prison terms from marijuana use.

The social justice impact of this bill is so important, said New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, who joined the discussion.

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Peoples-Stokes said felons cannot be excluded from the bills economic impact and that economic justice must prevail in assisting the communities that have suffered the most from criminal enforcement.

Montgomery reminded the crowd that In order to get something you have to give something. In this case, the senator said, the upstate Republican senators and the communities they represent have to see there will a positive revenue stream from the bill as state prisons are closed.

This is an economic development issue. This is not doing something for us without giving something back, Montgomery said.

Indira Walton, lead organizer for Open Buffalos Justice and Opportunity Campaigns, urged those attending to contact their local elected officials and police chiefs to support making marijuana law enforcement a lower priority. Walton pointed out that personal possession of small amounts of marijuana was decriminalized and reduced to a violation punishable by a fine nearly 50 years ago in the state.St. Petersburg, Russia

Operating from St. Petersburg, they churned out falsehoods on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. They promoted Donald Trump and denigrated Hillary Clinton. They stole the identities of U.S. citizens. They organized political rallies in several states and hired a Clinton impersonator for one event in West Palm Beach, Fla.

On Friday, 13 Russians were indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on fraud and other charges. Details of their roles in a three-year campaign to disrupt U.S. democracy have begun to emerge from the indictment, other records, interviews and press accounts.

The oligarch: Yevgeny V. Prigozhin

A former teenage champion cross-country skier who was later imprisoned for robbery, Prigozhin started a hot-dog business as the Soviet Union collapsed and eventually branched into convenience stores and restaurants. He received catering contracts and threw state banquets. He has played host to world leaders like George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac. He developed a close relationship with President Vladimir Putin, and has been disparagingly called "Putin's cook."

According to the indictment, he controlled two companies that financed the operations of the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy troll farm. Created in 2013, it began a translator project in 2014 that targeted Americans and pursued "information warfare against the United States." It employed hundreds of people and, by the summer of 2016, was spending $1.2 million a month.

In the past five years, Prigozhin has received government contracts worth $3.1 billion. Lately, he has branched out into areas like recruiting contract soldiers to fight overseas and establishing a popular online news service that pushes a nationalist viewpoint. Prigozhin, 56, declined several interview requests from The New York Times in recent months.

One sign of his connection to the trolls, according to the indictment: In what appeared to be something of an inside joke, people working for the Internet Research Agency paid an American to hold a sign outside the White House  "Happy 55th Birthday, Dear Boss"  to celebrate Prigozhin's birthday (June 1) in 2016.

The CEO: Mikhail I. Bystrov

Bystrov is a retired St. Petersburg police colonel who, according to the indictment, joined the company in February 2014 and became its highest-ranking official. He also led shell entities used to conceal its activities, including one called Glavset, a database and information company. It shared an address  55 Savushkina St.  with the Internet Research Agency. (The troll farm has since moved to Optikov Street, according to the local press.)

The troll farm soon drew notice in Russia: news outlets reported that it employed 250 people in 12-hour shifts to provide a round-the-clock flow of pro-Kremlin posts and comments, praising Putin and excoriating President Barack Obama and President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine. Monthly salaries ranged from $1,100 for a junior analyst to $1,400 for a blogger to $4,200 a month for senior management.

Bystrov, who is believed to be 59, has declined interview requests.

The executive director: Mikhail L. Burchik

A young tech entrepreneur, Burchik, 31, joined the company in October 2013 and became its executive director, the No. 2 official, by March 2014, according to the indictment. According to online records, he registered a company in 2009 called Add1.ru. It was behind a 2014 hoax in which a young woman in aviator sunglasses calling herself Zoe Foreman spent hours spamming politicians and journalists about a horrific  and fictitious  chemical plant explosion in Louisiana.

"I have heard of it, but I don't work in this organization," he told journalist Adrian Chen, who wrote about the troll farm in 2015 for The New York Times Magazine. He said he had bought and sold many internet domains and didn't remember them all.

Burchik also won government contracts to publish local municipal newspapers, organize lectures and do video reports.

Throughout the troll farm's operations to interfere in U.S. politics, including the election, "Burchik was a manager involved in operational planning, infrastructure and personnel," according to the indictment.

The business news website RBC reported Friday that Burchik claimed not to know English well enough to understand what he had been accused of. "If a few hundred million Americans are so worried about the activities of a regular Russian small-business man from the IT-sphere doing website development, then it seems the situation in the country is completely grave," he said.

Burchik told Komsomolskaya Pravda, a Russian tabloid, that he was not concerned about being detained while traveling abroad. "I love my country. In Russia there are many beautiful places where you can go," he said.

Burchik has worked on several small government projects in St. Petersburg. In 2015 he was awarded a contract worth about $20,000 to develop and publish a newspaper called Dvortsovy Ukrug, for the administration of one of St. Petersburg's municipal districts, according to government documents.

That same year, another municipal district government awarded him a similar contract to prepare a film about its activities. And in 2012, he won a $4,500 contract for organizing a program for promoting "tolerance and prevention of drug addiction" for local schools.

The travelers: Anna V. Bogacheva and Alexandra Y. Krylova

Bogacheva and Krylova obtained visas to visit the United States in 2014 "under false pretenses for the purposes of collecting intelligence to inform the organization's operatives," according to the indictment. They are said to have embarked on what amounted to a three-week reconnaissance tour, visiting California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. Along the way, they bought SIM cards, cameras and drop phones and discussed "evacuation scenarios" and security measures.

According to the indictment, Bogacheva oversaw the data analysis group for the "translator project." A woman with the same name was listed in 2013 on the website of ITMO, a prestigious science university in St. Petersburg, as a doctoral candidate. She worked there from 2011-2014, as an engineer in the eScience Research Institute, according to a university spokeswoman.

Bogacheva also owns IT Debugger, a company that says it has worked with "difficult clients."

Krylova became the No. 3 person at the troll farm, according to the indictment. What seems to be her LinkedIn profile says she graduated Moscow State University of Printing Arts, where she studied advertising and public relations. She headed the Federal News Agency, believed to be Prigozhin's flagship media outlet.

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The IT expert: Sergey P. Polozov

Polozov ran the troll farm's IT department and oversaw purchase of space on computer servers inside the U.S. to set up virtual private networks that masked the agency's Russian location, according to the indictment. After a co-conspirator traveled to Atlanta in November 2014, he gave Polozov a summary of his trip and expenses.

According to business records and Polozov's page on the Russian social network Vkontakte, Polozov runs a software company called Morkov, which was registered in 2013, and began to recruit web developers and programmers in early 2014.

On Vkontakte, he shared political jokes at the expense of Russia's rivals and neighbors. One post he shared in June 2015 quoted Chechen writer German Sadulaev:

"The greatest possible mistake is to neglect the Russians. Consider them weak. Offend them. Never offend the Russians. The Russians are never as weak as you think they are. God forbid you expel the Russians or take something from them. The Russians always come back. The Russians will come back and take back what is theirs. But when the Russians return, they do not apply force proportionally. They destroy everything in their path."

The 'translators': Maria A. Bovda and Robert S. Bovda

Not much is known about the Bovdas, including their relationship. According to the indictment, she was the head, and he the deputy head, of the "translator project," the troll farm's campaign to target Americans with messages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, starting in April 2014. The project employed hundreds of people and, by summer 2016, was spending $1.2 million a month. It hid activities through a web of shell companies. According to the indictment, the Bovdas both worked for the troll farm from November 2013 to October 2014.

The America specialist: Dzheykhun N.O. Aslanov

According to the indictment, Aslanov oversaw many of the operations targeting the U.S. election. An investigation by RBC newsmagazine found Aslanov was in charge of the "American department" of the troll farm. It reported that Aslanov arrived in St. Petersburg in 2000 from his hometown Ust-Kut. His Vkontakte profile says he graduated from the Russian State Hydrometeorological University in St. Petersburg in 2012, and a university page indicates that he studied economics and wildlife management.

The RBC report says he spent several months in the U.S. in 2009, visiting New York and Boston. His work at the troll farm included registering legal entities in the names of his employees.

His name appears in public records as general director of Azimut  which, according to the indictment, was used to funnel money to the troll farm  and of the Reputation Management Center. According to its website, the Reputation Management Center first determines what kind of reputation a client has online through media monitoring, and then creates bots that improve its image.

The others: Irina V. Kaverzina, Vadim V. Podkopaev, Gleb I. Vasilchenko, Vladimir Venkov

Kaverzina grew worried after Facebook revealed last September that it was cooperating with authorities to look into Russian advertising on the platform. "We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke)," she wrote to a relative, according to the indictment. "So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues," she added. "I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people."

Podkopaev was an analyst for the "translator project." He conducted research on the U.S. and drafted social media messages for the organization, the indictment states.

Vasilchenko posted to, monitored and updated social media accounts while posing as Americans or as U.S. grass-roots organizations. He led two subgroups focused on political interference in the U.S., including the election. On Vkontakte, he shared a meme in October 2016 that imagined a drinking game in which players took a shot every time Trump talked about building a wall or making America great again, told voters to believe him, or complained about being treated unfairly; and every time Clinton coughed, sipped water, laughed awkwardly, or mentioned her daughter or Obama.

Venkov inhabited multiple social media personas, according to the indictment. Someone with that name belongs to a Facebook group of social media marketing professionals and posted a photo last May of himself wearing a Republican elephant pin.THE ISSUE:

Intelligence officials warn Russia is still bent on influencing U.S. elections.

THE STAKES:

Are America's leaders as determined to prevent it?

Russia is already interfering with this year's midterm elections, and it may well be too late to do much about it.

That's the conclusion of our intelligence community, and it ought to have citizens of all political stripes worried, and lawmakers scrambling to shield our electoral system against foreign tampering  because democracy is under attack.

Instead, leaders are hobbled by partisan myopia, from the president on down. Donald Trump, who won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote, would have Americans believe that millions of illegal immigrants somehow voted for Hillary Clinton. He even created a commission to prove it, an absurd and wasteful effort that was abandoned only when states refused to indulge his fantasy.

Meanwhile, states are taking comfort in the conclusion that, as far as they know, their election apparatus was not hacked.

So, end of story, right? Not so fast.

One has only to look back to the 1970s and 1980s  a technological stone age by today's standards  to see what determined hackers can achieve. Spies for the former Soviet Union were found to have bugged IBM Selectric typewriters in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow with tiny devices that could gauge the movements of the print balls and radio that information outside the building, enabling the Soviets to "watch" documents being typed.

We don't know how vulnerable today's hardware and software used in voting machines across the country are to tampering, but we can be fairly certain adversaries like Russia are working constantly to find out. Our federal and state governments had better be at least as curious and diligent.

Russia, after all, is known to have interfered in the 2016 election. Though we're still learning the scope of that effort, intelligence authorities agree Russian operatives hacked Democratic National Committee computers and used social media to spread disinformation, exploit partisan animosities and sow discord and distrust. Mr. Trump and the right wing blathosphere are in denial about this. But Mr. Trump's own director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, said last week, "There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations." Friday's indictments of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian organizations by the special counsel investigating the matter only add to the evidence.

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It's bad enough to have Russian bots and trolls in our social media. It's vital we keep them out of our voting booths.

Just as this country in 2002 launched a massive effort to modernize its election systems with the Help America Vote Act, we need a similarly focused undertaking to secure those systems. This won't get done by November, of course. But Congress should be working on this, now.

Beyond being unhackable, voting systems must include a paper trail so every vote can be verified. What that looks like remains unclear, but given the vulnerabilities of electronic systems, known and unknown, an old-fashioned system of paper ballots may be the most secure.

We might have to wait a little longer on election night for results, but at least we'll sleep more soundly.University Hospital Limerick will host a free talk for breast cancer patients on Tuesday, February 20, at 6pm in the Clinical Education and Research Centre, UHL.

Speakers will include Ciara McNamara, breast cancer survivor; Ashish Lal, consultant breast surgeon, University Hospital Limerick; Kim Wheeler, senior specialist breast radiographer, University Hospital Limerick; Meadbh MacSweeney, clinical lymphoedema nurse specialist, University Hospital Limerick.

Those who attend the lecture will leave with a better understanding of what to expect of breast cancer services and the patient journey.

The lecture is the latest in a series of public talks that form part of UL Hospitals Healthy Ireland programme, which commits the group to greater public engagement and more educational events.

The CERC Building is located adjacent to the new Emergency Department / Critical Care Block at UHL. For ease of access, use car parks two and three if arriving by car.

Members of the public who attend the lecture will leave with a better understanding of what to expect of breast cancer services and the patient journey.

We want to tell the public what we do in the Symptomatic Breast Unit and what the journey is like for them once they are referred here. Some of the specialist team will talk people through some of the more common things we do here, said Mr Lal.

We will break down for them how radiology works, for example, and we hope to remove whatever fear factor is there. We will also go through one of the more common post-operative complications in lymphoedema. This is actually a poorly understood phenomenon and our lymphoedema specialist will go through it, explain what exactly it is and what patients can do about it to counter any misconception that if you do get it, it is the end of the world and nothing can be done.

The Symptomatic Breast Unit in UHL is one of the eight nationally designated centres and offers all aspects of breast and breast cancer care including triple assessment, breast reconstruction and oncoplastic surgery, and dedicated family history clinics. Breast cancer services in UHL include a dedicated Breast Medical Oncology Unit and Radiotherapy delivered in the UHL Medical Oncology Unit and the Mater Private Radiotherapy on site.

The service is centred in the Symptomatic Breast Unit, which opened on the Fourth Floor of the Leben Building at UHL in 2016. The unit includes two ultrasound and two mammography suites with cutting edge diagnostics; consultation rooms; a multidisciplinary team conference room; a prosthesis fitting room; a family room; administrative offices and a quiet room where women can retire for cancer consultations and information.

Activity continues to increase year-on-year. There were 7,245 attendances (new and return) to the Breast Clinic in 2016 compared to 6,726 attendances in 2015. A total of 201 breast cancers were diagnosed in 2016.

Prof Colette Cowan, CEO, UL Hospitals Group, has encouraged members of the public to attend next Tuesday night.

Our Healthy Ireland strategy identified a need to engage more with the public around health promotion and prevention of illness. We hope that these lectures will also provide a more convivial atmosphere for people to engage with us away from the clinics and to learn more about the services here on their doorstep. We hope that people who attend the lecture will come away assured that services and outcomes for breast cancer patients continue to improve, Prof Cowan said.The next-generation Hyundai Santa Fe is knocking at the door. Its scheduled to make its world debut on February 21, but that hasnt stopped rendering artist extraordinaire X-Tomi Design from reinventing the next-gen Santa Fe and giving it the full-spec N experience. To be clear, Hyundai has given no indication of the likelihood of developing a performance-bred version of the Santa Fe. This is all speculation, but still, you cant blame us for letting our imaginations go crazy. The thought of a Hyundai Santa Fe N sounds incredible.

The renderings Hyundai released last month show a completely new Santa Fe thats far more aggressive than anything weve ever seen from its previous iterations

The idea of a Hyundai Santa Fe N is awesome on paper, but until we get confirmation from Hyundai that its actually doing it, were not getting caught up on the potential of one happening. The good news is that even without an N version, the all-new Santa Fe looks to be headed for big things. The renderings Hyundai released last month show a completely new Santa Fe thats far more aggressive than anything weve ever seen from its previous iterations. You can tell that the automakers designers did their homework in making the crossover stand out. We still dont know what the interior looks like, but there are rumors that Hyundai is going to be generous in giving the new Santa Fe a string of new technologies.

Whats clear is that new Santa Fe is generating a lot of buzz. Thats great for Hyundai. Sales of the crossover in the U.S. reached record-setting numbers  133, 171 units  in 2017. Imagine what an all-new Santa Fe is going to do once it hits the market. Who knows, if the next-gen crossover proves to be a hot ticket item, Hyundai might consider turning it over to the people over at the N Division.

We can dream, right?

References

Read our full speculative review on the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe.

Read our full review on the 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe.

Read more Hyundai news.

Source: XtomiWe'll be traveling to Jamaica in early November and staying at either Hyatt Ziva or Zilara. We don't really have a choice outside of that - our friends are getting married there, and my husband is officiating the wedding.

Our two older sons will be joining us (24 & 20). I'm trying to find reasonably priced, comfortable room options for the 4 of us.

If you've been with (or without) young adults, would you recommend Ziva or Zilara? Also, what would you recommend for accomodations? Trying not to break the bank, but the 4 of us sharing a room with 2 double beds doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Would a better option be to stay here only for a couple days (through the wedding ceremony), and then move to a different resort?

Note: This will be our 10th trip to the island, and the 3rd for my kids. We like to stay in all-inclusives when traveling with our sons (just easier), but we don't love the "stuffiness" of a Rio, Iberostar, etc. We'd much prefer staying in a smaller AI with a more personal/Jamaican feel.

Any help / suggestions are greatly appreciated!Hi all,

We have two weeks (May 8 - May 22), flying from the US, into AND out of AKL (Auckland).

We KNOW that everyone will strongly recommend staying in one island on NZ only - but visiting the Great Barrier Reef for a day of snorkeling is non-negotiable for us.

Outside of that - our plans are complete open. We think we'll probably need to rent a car in New Zealand.

Can anyone recommend an itinerary?

We'd be open to just one island (North, because our flights are in and out of AKL), but in our ideal world, we could do something like:

- Arrive in AKL

- Fly right into Australia, snorkel @ the GBR (4 days?)

- Fly back into South Island. Rent a car.

- Spend remaining (~7 days) driving from South Island, making our way back up to AKL with sights in betweens.

Can anyone suggest a better itinerary? An option is to do the reverse (driving from North to South and flying from the South to the GBF afterwards.)

Thanks for your help!Hello Tanzania gurus!

This is yet another plea for help with an itinerary for the Serengeti. I am thoroughly confused about what to do as i have bene researching far too much and don't know the best way to put this together, so i welcome your expertise!

We are doing a 4 week adventure through Namibia, Botswana, Tanzania + the DRC (yes, ambitious, and fast paced, but thats how we travel)

After Namibia/Botswana we approx 2 weeks to go to Tanzania and then DRC (Virunga NP for gorillas), or DRC then Tanzania.

We are flexible within a 3 week range of when we can take the trip .

WE can arrive into JRO morning of the 16th, 23rd or 30th of September.

The 23 or 30th would be preferable for us but we would love suggestions of whether arriving at one of these times in Sep/Oct will be better than another for the wildlife viewing, particularly the chance of some river crossings in the north (even small ones :) )

In terms of the experience we want---

Initially when planning this trip we were happy to do a camping small group tour through the Serengeti.

However, we have now won a prize that enables us to book 5 nights luxury accommodation . What better use than to put it toward luxury tented camps, something we would never have done ourselves for this trip!

So this has changed the planning process and logistics, and will now spend al little more on a private safari trip, - for the nights that are not luxury and we pay for ourselves we want more modest midrange cost friendly accommodations.

That being said, I do think we will have a limit on the cost of the luxury places, so places like Serian seem to be out of that range.

In terms of the places we go and what we will see, we want to keep in mind what we may already experienced in Namibia and Botswana/Vic Falls, i.e stopping in Tarangire may not be worth time that could be spent elsewhere, if we've already seen a lot of Elephants in Chobe.

Seeing lots of big cats/lions is important, and seeing a river crossing , even if it is small, would be amazing, though we won't be basing our whole trip around it or waiting every day at the river.

We definitely want to go to Ngorongoro Crater and were considering a stop in Central Serengeti enroute to the North, however are also open to flying if it will make more sense.

Our thought for driving over flying was to experience more wildlife viewing enroute, but if Central is not so different to North, perhaps flying is better?

Some TO's have said the central area will be very dusty and crowded, and didnt recommend stopping, which seemed strange.

Itinerary thoughts originally were - 1 night Tarangire or Manyara, 2 nights in Ngorongoro, 1 night Central and 3 nights North Serengeti.

However, we think it may be better now to go straight from JRO to Ngorongoro and spend more time in the Serengeti.

For using the 5 "luxury" nights - we were thinking 1 night for the Crater accommodation, and the 4 for the northern nights, IF we do the below kind of itinerary.

Day 1 - land in JRO 835am and head straight out (landing from VFA/NBO so won't be jet lagged from an ex-USA flight)

Head to Ngorongoro Crater accommodation, perhaps via Manyara? o/n Ngorongoro Crater.

I would prefer somewhere closer to the rim for ease of access the next morning.

ATR are promoting Gibbs but i do not want this option.

Day 2 - Ngorongoro Crater drive till lunch. Head to Central Serengeti via Olduvai area.

Stay in Central Serengeti?

ATR have suggested 1 night at Olduvai Camp (which is pretty standard for them to suggest from what i have read). We are open to this for 1 night, as seeing the Gorge and things in that area seem interesting, but also not sure if it is needed.

Day 3 - Central Serengeti?

Day 4 - Northern Serengeti

Day 5 - Northern Serengeti

Day 6 - Northern Serengeti

Day 7 - Northern Serengeti

Day 8 - Fly Kogatende to JRO . Evening flight out to KGL.

I have had some quotes from ATR and Easy Travel and am reaching out to Access2 Tanzania.

Subject to properties and whether we fly some suggest having the same driver/guide the whole time and some use the camps guides once we get there.

Properties that have been suggested to us/we have been researching :

NGORONGORO

The Highlands (thinking now it is too far from crater and may be too $$$)

Lemala Ngorongoro

Entanamu Ngorongoro

Sanctuary

CENTRAL

Olduvai Camp

Ronjo Camp

Dunia Camp (too pricey i think)

Tortilis Camp

Kati Kati Camp

NORTH

Sanctuary Kichakani

Olakira/Kimondo

Nomad Lamai

Lemala Kura Hill (not sure we want a lodge but also open to it)

Lemala Mara camp - has a good deal for 4 nights for price of 3

Mara River Post

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!-:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:-

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"On our return we are going from Danang to Sydney same airline."

Booked on the same ticket?

Because if not, and your first flight is delayed, (which is not uncommon over there) then you're going to be up for a pretty expensive replacement flight home.

ScottIf you also want to go to Nakasendo (Kiso Valley), I recommend to go to Kawaguchiko, instead of Hakone, from Tokyo. Then, move to Matsumoto from Kawaguchiko, stay 1 night and then move to Kiso Valley from Matsumoto. Got to Kyoto after Kiso Valley. It is good to stay at an Onsen Ryokan in Kawaguchiko: there are many Onsen Ryokan where you can enjoy the view of Mt. Fuji from your room in Kawaguchiko, and thus enjoy

Mt. Fuji, Onsen, and Kaiseki Cuisine dinner and breakfast. It is cheaper to go to Kawaguchiko than to Hakone from Tokyo, because multiple transportations to Hakone, Hakone Round Course using Hakone Free Pass, are expensive as follows.

It is fun to enjoy the multiple transportations in Hakone, but you should select the Ryokan, where you can see Mt. Fuji, to stay: you can save your money for Onsen Ryokan in Kawaguchiko. Usually, Japanese Ryokan includes the fee for your dinner and breakfast, but you should make it clear.

One or two nights are sufficient for Mt. Fuji. If you stay 1 night at Mt. Fuji area, you can also go to Hiroshima/Miyajima. Here is a 12 day itinerary using the 7 day JR Pass, which includes Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima/Miyajima, and Mt. Fuji (without Kiso Valley), for your reference.

Here is a 15 day itinerary using the 14 days JR Pass, which includes Tokyo, Takayama/Japan Alps (Shin-hotaka Ropeway)/Shirakawago/Kanazawa, Kyoto, Hiroshima/Miyajima, and Mt. Fuji (without Kiso Valley), for your reference.I think the 7 day JR Pass (on D2-8) is enough for your itinerary.

You should use Tobu Nikko Free Pass for Nikko, and you don't need the 14 day JR Pass. I personally don't recommend to go to Kamakura to foreigners who will visit Kyoto and Nara with more important historic heritages.

Here is a 12 day itinerary using the 7 day JR Pass, which includes Tokyo, Kyoto with a half day trip to Nara, Hiroshima/Mijajima, and Mt. Fuji area (Hakone or Kawaguchiko), for your reference.Re: From Mont-Fuji to Hiroshima, best way??

3. Re: From Mont-Fuji to Hiroshima, best way??

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We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.Thankyou so much everyone I appreciate the advice. Ill grab some reef shoes and some reading books for the children. This is our first trip to Fiji so I really have no idea what to expect. I agree that it will be interesting to see what sort of guest the six senses draws. Honeymooners certainly seems like a good guess but what drew us there was the fact that unlike many of the other top end resorts on the islands, children are welcome all over the resort and in the main pool. They also have multi room accomodation for large groups and a kids club that advertises activities that really get them out of the kids club space. The beach also seems to cater well to little children given it is not tidal and is sandy. These things are valuable to families. In all honesty, we originally tried to book Vomo and had such a terrible experience with the reservations team not returning calls or emails and then getting 3 totally different prices from their computer site, iPad site and reservations team! We were so confused and lost complete confidence in the resort given we couldnt even make a reservation with ease. I think people who bee line to Vomo may also be possible clients for Six Senses. I guess time will tell. :)Spice Apartments are in an industrial/commercial zone that is being "gentrified" ... it has only just started so there are mainly commercial properties around and quite a bit of construction work. As Sweetbiscuit points out there are also some facilities.

Kangaroo Point is a residential area on a narrow point over the river from the downtown area. It is a slightly awkward spot to get to as it only has a bridge at one end and at the other a bit of a maze to connect to other areas.

Personally I wouldn't choose either, I'm guessing they are at a really good rate? With a car I'd choose Kangaroo Point simply because it's a slightly nicer area. Spice is a more convenient area with better access to entertainment zones.Hi all,

I've searched countless hours through these forums and other blogs and I can't make up my mind. We are traveling from LAX to Brisbane (2 weeks) and ultimately for 6 nights in Fiji. We have three toddlers, ages 4 and 2 (twins). We will be traveling to Fiji December 2nd to the 8th.

We are trying to decide between the Sheraton Villas, Radisson Blu, Outrigger Resort or Octopus Resort. We understand there are different dynamics for each and are not afraid for a little additional travel to get to a resort if needed. We are not budget travelers but value conscious. We are looking for exceptional kid facilities as well as a great kids club. We would like to hang around the pool and also have the option for great snorkeling, swimming in the ocean, etc.

The more research I do, the more I find the Radisson Blu may be our best bet for the kids and take a few day trips to experience the great waters of Fiji. What would you suggest? Really, our biggest concern with the Denarau area is the beach and which is better (Sheraton vs Radisson). The concern we have with going to the North is if the outrigger or similar resort has a good kids club, facilities, etc. We also have to keep in mind we need a room large enough for all 5. Lastly, booking an island resort sounds like about everything we need except for what about food? I think the kids clubs would be fine, but would it be too small or not enough activities to keep the toddlers entertained the entire time. Another item to consider is our flight coming home leaves at 9pm. So we are debating whether to travel our entire day from island resort to airport. We are even open to splitting up the itinerary to get the best of both worlds.

Please help!- Deputy President William Ruto spotted grammatical error on a bus allegedly belonging to the University of Eldoret

- According to the DP, he was driving behind the bus when he noticed something was wrong with the writing on its back

- Snapshot of the Isuzu bus shows it was written "Service with intergity" instead of "Service with integrity

- There was a glaring spelling error in the word "Integrity"

- And as one would expect, Kenyans on Twitter had a lot to say about it

For a school bus belonging to a university, one would expect that grammatical error will be the last thing they come across in any writings on the vehicle.

Well, from what TUKO.co.ke has gathered, it took Deputy President William Somoei Ruto to spot an embarassing grammatical error on a bus allegedly belonging to the University of Eldoret, which is in his hometown.

"I was driving behind this bus belonging to Eldoret university in my hometown. Either the spelling of integrity has changed or my vocabulary is limited!" the DP posted on Twitter.

READ ALSO: Watoto waigizaji wa kipindi cha Machachari ni watu wazima sasa, picha zao zitakushangaza

William Ruto spotted the embarrassing grammatical error on Eldoret University bus and could not wait to share with other Kenyans on Twitter.Photo:Business Today.

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Looking at the photo he shared, there was indeed something wrong with the writings on the back of the Isuzu bus.

The statement read "Service with intergity" instead of " Service with integrity". There was a glaring spelling mistake in the word "Integrity"

READ ALSO: DP William Ruto brother said to be living in "abject poverty"

And Kenyans had their responses ready. Below are some of the reactions to the DP's rather hilarious post:

One particular Twitter user by name "Weswah", however, claimed the bus in question belonged to Eldoret matatu Sacco called "Chepkoilel Matatu Sacco" and not the University of Eldoret as claimed by the DP.

The 23-year-old Kenyan who speaks 8 foreign languages - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Former advisor to president Uhuru Kenyatta, Joshua Kutuny, warned Uhuru to respect the rule of law

- Kuttuny told Uhuru legacies were made through abiding by the rule of law and not by bringing development

- The legislator made these remarks while demanding the release of Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, following his arrest on February 16

Cheranganyi Member of Parliament (MP) Joshua Kutuny, condemned the arrest of Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and accused the Jubilee administration of disregarding the rule of law on Saturday, February 17.

The former advisor to president Uhuru said this while addressing a section of media at Muthiaga police station, where Keter had been held since his arrest on Friday, February 16.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Watoto waigizaji wa kipindi cha Machachari ni watu wazima sasa, picha zao zitakushangaza

Kutuny warned Uhuru that development would not earn him recognition as a leader and that his good legacy was in jeopardy of being ruined.

Kutuny demanded for Keter's immediate release and warned Uhuru that development would not earn him recognition as a good leader and that his good legacy was in jeopardy of being ruined. Photo: Star

You will only set a legacy with respecting the rule of law, Kutuny said.

READ ALSO: Zari na Diamond wanatuhadaa? Hakuna aliyefuta picha za mwingine mitandaoni

The legislator said that Rift valley was quite displeased with Uhuru and told the head of state that they were closely watching him.

READ ALSO: Babu Owino in narrow lead with 77 polling stations yet to be recounted in Embakasi East

We are not happy Mr president and the entire Rift valley is watching you, He said.

Kutuny advised Uhuru that he should prioritise on respecting the rule of law first, before focusing on his big four plan that mainly concerned development.

READ ALSO: Wasichana 5 bora katika KCSE wapaa kwa helikopta ya kipchumba Murkomen

Kutuny advised Uhuru that he should prioritise on respecting the rule of law first, before focusing on his big four plan that mainly concerned development. Photo:Star

I want to tell Uhuru as my good friend that building roads, bringing electricity to the people or connecting water to every one will not earn him a name, Kutuny warned.

As TUKO.co.ke had earlier established, Moiben MP Silas Tiren, on Friday, February 16 blamed President Uhuru Kenyatta for the arrest of Nandi hills MP, Alfred Keter on the same day.

The legislator claimed that Keter was arrested for his defiance of President Uhuru Kenyatta over the sharing of parliamentary positions alongside four others.

ALSO WATCH: Kenyans react to Miguna Miguna's deportation on TUKO tv

Source: Tuko NewsFor many, spiders are a source of dread that sends chills down their spine. If seeing one spider can make one scared, imagine what seeing millions of them would be like! Over a year ago, millions of baby spiders did migrate to a park in Australia leaving the place covered in fine silk threads, a phenomenon known as ballooning. It has often been mistaken by UFO enthusiasts for angel hair, a sticky fibrous substance reported in connection with UFO sightings or manifestations of the Virgin Mary. Ballooning is also a common method for spiders to reach areas that are otherwise difficult.

In 2016, when Leslie Anne Schmidt and her partner went to a park in Australia to catch a Pokemon, they found it covered in spiderwebs. The spiders fled flooded areas following a recent heavy downpour to escape to a higher ground.

The park is located in Yinnar, a rural township in central Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. Heavy rains in that region have forced the spiders, especially juvenile wolf spiders and money spiders, to parachute themselves to safety using a technique known as ballooning. According to Leslie Anne Schmidt, she and her partner were trying to catch Meowth, a creature from the Pokemon game, when they went to the park and found it blanketed with a layer of spider silk.

Spiderlings often climb to the highest point they could reach and release fine silk threads that work like a parachute and carry them away in the air currents. They do this to flee from floodwater or to disperse to a new location after hatching.

The ballooning behavior, also known as kiting, is mostly limited to juvenile spiders or species of spiders that are small in size. It is generally thought that spiders weighing over one milligram are unlikely to achieve liftoff, but adult females of some species weighing over 100 milligrams were observed using air movement in thermal columns for liftoffs on hot days without winds. The spiderlings use especially fine silk that scientists metaphorically call gossamer which they release from their spinnerets into the air forming a triangular-shaped parachute. Any updrafts of wind, the slightest of breezes, or even Earths static electric field on windless days provide these arachnids the liftoff they need.

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Spiders use ballooning as a means of migration which enables them to reach isolated locations that are impossible to reach by land. They are known to travel as far as 1,600 kilometers in the air and for as many as 25 days.

Ballooning spiders have been found to have traveled anywhere from a few meters to hundreds of kilometers. Many sailors have reported spiders being caught in the ships sails when they are over 1,600 kilometers (990 miles) from the land. They have even been detected in atmospheric samples collected from balloons at altitudes as high as five kilometers (16,000 feet) both above Earths surface and mid-ocean. Ballooning is considered the most common ways in which spiders invade isolated islands and mountaintops.

The spiderlings dont always survive their trip during ballooning and mortality is high. However, they have been known to survive without food for as long as 25 days while traveling. They can land on both land and water. They use their water-repellent legs to stay alive if they land on water, fresh or salty. Some mites and caterpillars also use silk to disperse in the air.

This wasnt the first time the spiders have gone on a mass ballooning trip. In March 2012, millions of them migrated to Australias Southern Tablelands covering the countryside so completely that it looked like it snowed.

In March 2012, eastern Australia faced floods considered the worst in past 160 years after a decade-long drought and bushfires. At least 13,000 people fled their homes. Following the floods, several millions of spiders migrated to the countryside of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. Such massive ballooning events are not unique to Australia. It has been spotted elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, especially the United States and Britain, where according to Bennett it is a relatively rare and random event. Another recorded instance was in 2010 when the trees in the village of Sindh, Pakistan, were cocooned in spider webs following unprecedented monsoons in July that flooded the countrys rivers.

[sources: DailyMail, Wikipedia, NationalGeographic]As a non-NATO country, Sweden was proposed as a possible lead nation in a UN force in a report commissioned by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Both Sweden and Belarus have almost simultaneously announced their readiness to make a contribution to peacekeeping in Donbas, listing their conditions of participating in a UN peacekeeping mission whose deployment is pressed by the Ukrainian authorities.

Sweden would be open to providing troops to a UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine if Russia and the West agreed, the country's defense minister said, Reuters reported.

"If we see the right conditions and if we see that this mission can help ... then we are open to that," Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told Ukrainian and U.S. officials at the Munich Security Conference on February 17 when asked about providing troops. "We are not there yet, but it is something positive."

Read alsoU.S. ready to help stop war in Donbas - VolkerAs a non-NATO country, Sweden was proposed as a possible lead nation in a UN force in a report commissioned by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, now an adviser to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko. The report was presented to officials including the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, on February 17.

Later, the Belarussian Telegraph Agency BelTA quoted President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko as saying that his peacekeepers are ready to stand between conflicting sides in Ukraine, provided Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin reach an agreement. "I've even told Poroshenko and Putin: don't expect me to become someone's man. I will precisely fulfill what you two agree on: if you want me to stand between [the warring sides], I will; if you want to deploy 10,000 Belarusian troops, we will place them on the border wherever you say," the Belarusian president said figuratively. "But I will be unable to do what you don't agree on." It is Belarus' stance, an honest and sincere one, Lukashenko said. "Otherwise, our peacekeeping effort will not be productive. It will not be productive if we take a side," he added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on September 20, 2017, President Poroshenko, speaking at the general debate of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, said that the UN peacekeeping mission should be deployed throughout the occupied Donbas, including the uncontrolled section of the border with Russia.

Before that, Putin agreed to the deployment of UN peacekeepers only along the contact line in Donbas to "ensure safety" of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine. He claimed that issue could not be resolved without Ukraine's direct contact with the "leaders" of Russian-backed militants in Donbas. Russia then sent the UN leadership a draft resolution on a peacekeeping mission in Donbas.

The United States, in turn, insists that the UN peacekeeping mission should have access to the Ukrainian-Russian border and should exclude Russian citizens.The committees will also start drafting sanctions lists of corrupt officials.

Supporters of leader of the Movement of New Forces Party and ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, who was expelled from Ukraine to Poland under the readmission procedure, have announced the creation of committees of civil resistance in all regions of Ukraine.

Read alsoImpeachment  nice word meaning nothing"We're announcing today the establishment of civil resistance committees throughout Ukraine," Member of Parliament Yuriy Derevyanko said on Mykhailivska Square after protesters had walked along the streets in the center of Kyiv on Sunday, February 18, an UNIAN correspondent reported.

According to him, these committees should share objective information with the public about the situation in the country.

Moreover, action groups will be created within those committees, he added.

In his words, the committees will also start drafting lists at both regional and national levels, "which should eventually become a sanction list for the people who have robbed the whole country."

He also said that representatives of the committees would be engaged in the preparation of a new protest march. According to him, the next march should take place not only in the regional centers, but also on squares of all towns and district centers. He stated that protesters at the next march would demand Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's impeachment.

On February 8, several thousand people gathered in the center of Kyiv for the "March for Impeachment." They walked from Kyiv's Shevchenko Park to Sofiyska Square.One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action over the period under review.

Russian-led forces in Donbas used proscribed weapons, namely large-caliber artillery systems, heavy mortars, and a tank, to attack the Ukrainian army in the past day.

Read alsoUkraine reports 2 WIA's amid 20 enemy attacks in last dayIn total, there were 12 attacks on Ukrainian troops, and one Ukrainian soldier was wounded in an enemy attack, the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters wrote on Facebook on Sunday morning.

Hot spots in the Luhansk sector were areas near the Svitlodarska Duha bulge where Ukrainian troops are deployed.

"Ukrainian positions near the villages of Luhanske, Lozove, and Troyitske came under enemy mortar fire. An infantry fighting vehicle was also engaged. What is more, the invaders used 122mm artillery systems near the village of Luhanske. They resorted to grenade launchers to fire outside the village of Mayorsk, while mortars, grenade launchers and small arms were used to fire near the village of Krymske," the ATO HQ said.

What is more, an enemy tank attacked Ukrainian positions near the village of Pisky close to the ruined Donetsk airport in the Donetsk sector. Mortars of various calibers were also used there.The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with the Montreux Convention and international law.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) entered the Black Sea on February 17, 2018.

The goal of the naval operation is to conduct maritime security operations and enhance regional maritime stability, as well as strengthen combined readiness and naval capability among NATO allies and partners, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet said in a statement on February 17.

"The U.S. Navy has a history of building relationships with our partners in the Black Sea, which both demonstrates our combined commitment to regional security and enhances overall peace and stability," Cmdr. Peter Halvorsen, commanding officer, USS Carney, is quoted as saying.

Read alsoUkrainian Navy's command hails U.S. destroyer's visit to OdesaThis naval operation is in support of our NATO allies in eastern Europe and falls under Operation Atlantic Resolve.

The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea consistent with the Montreux Convention and international law.

USS Carney, forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, is on a routine patrol conducting naval operations with allies and partners in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to advance security and stability in the European region.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of naval operations, often in concert with joint, allied and interagency partners, to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.The casualties are the highest that Russia has suffered in a single battle since fierce clashes in Ukraine in 2014.

Director of the Defense Express media consulting company Serhiy Zgurets says that Moscow may take revenge for members of private military company (PMC) Wagner killed in Syria.

"... Russia will respond because in fact it is aware that the elimination of PMC Wagner's mercenaries was an element of a more serious operation, where all parties operating in that region use certain methods to influence their opponents' actions," the expert said during an online chat on the website of the Ukrainian news outlet Glavred.

"Perhaps the previous signals given to Moscow not act the way it was doing were ignored by the Russian side, and the elimination of Wagner's fighters was another demonstrative operation for Russia to act differently," he said.

Read alsoWidow of Russian mercenary killed in Syria: 'They were thrown into battle like pigs'  media"But in any case, in the regions where the interests of many countries intersect, the real causes and consequences of various events can be quite different from what we see on TV," he added.

As was reported earlier, about 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm were either killed or injured in Syria in February, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

A Russian military doctor said around 100 had been killed, and a source who knows several of the fighters said the death toll was in excess of 80 men, Reuters reported.

The timing of the casualties coincided with a battle on February 7 near the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor where, according to U.S. officials and associates of the fighters involved, U.S.-led coalition forces attacked forces aligned with Moscow's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian officials said five citizens may have been killed but they had no relation to Russia's armed forces.

The casualties are the highest that Russia has suffered in a single battle since fierce clashes in Ukraine in 2014 claimed more than 100 fighters' lives. Moscow denies sending soldiers and volunteers to Ukraine and has never confirmed that figure.(@FahadShabbir)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :A high level delegation of SAARC Chamber Pakistan chapter will participate in the forthcoming 3-days "6th SAARC Business Leaders Conclave" commencing from March 16 at Kathmandu, Nepal to promote trade among member countries and explore investment avenues.

Vice President SAARC Chamber Iftikhar Ali Malik in a statement issued here Sunday said that this mega event will bring together the region's economic and business thinkers, doers and change makers on a one common platform to discuss ,debate and evolve solutions and generate opportunities to take South Asia on the path of shared prosperity through economic integration.

He said that event will also feature interactive discussion and deliberations between torchbearers and influential leaders of South Asian economy. He further said that they would bring the issue of reduction of their respective sensitive lists under discussion so that volume of trade would be increased manifold times under SAFTA in South Asian region.

He said Pakistan under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would continue its work for boosting trade in the region and would remove all hurdles in the way of free trade.

He further said that Pakistan is keen to increase trade activities with other countries.He added that SAARC countries would have to work jointly for the elimination of poverty, peace and prosperity, for which trade among SAARC countries is essential.

Malik disclosed that nearly 55 percent of the total potential for intra-regional trade in South Asia has not been exploited.

"South Asia desperately needs to negotiate at collective multilateral trading forums, using the regional forum of Saarc to advance its economic and social growth and enhance human development." He said at a modest 6 percent of total trade, intra-regional trade in South Asia stands at less than one third of its full potential.

Trade barriers, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of political commitment to finding common solutions to support cross-border commercial activity have cost South Asia over US $54 billion per year in lost export opportunities.

He added that despite huge indigenous and plenty of natural resources and mineral deposits, the state of intra-region trade in South Asia is highly miserable. "Two major players of South Asia possess great economic potential and enhanced trade relations could bring them closer together provided all core issues confronting the states were settled amicably through peaceful and result oriented parleys." Iftikhar Ali Malik said that theme of the conclave is "Unleashing Shared Prosperity through Economic Integrity".

He said that conclave is truly the only podium that articulates and speaks of voices of private sector to the public sector in the region. Over,500 leading business leaders, eminent international experts and distinguished dignitaries from private and public sectors will grace the occasion to be chaired by SAARC Chamber President Suraj Vaidya.

He said even will also include "SAARC Bazar" ",Threads of Hope-Fashion Show" and "Music Beyond Borders".ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) will send a high powered furniture producers' delegation to UK to participate in Commonwealth Business Forum 2018 being organized by Commonwealth Enterprises and Investment Council (CWEIC) from 16 to 18 April on the sidelines of Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

PFC Chief Mian Kashif Ashfaq in a press statement issued here Sunday said Pakistan attaches great importance to its relations with the Commonwealth being one of the founding members. "It is high time we begin to explore the opportunities that the Commonwealth can help to unlock, the intra Commonwealth trade potential, especially post-Brexit." He added, "To reap the benefits of our common heritage we need to capitalise on the Commonwealth's trade advantage.

The intra-Commonwealth trade advantage which currently stands at 19 percent has the potential to be enhanced a great deal," He said PFC business tour would provide a chance to explore new avenues by sharing vision, expertise for formulation of future policies, economic studies, sectoral and project specific reports besides promotional efforts.

The delegation would have one on one direct interaction with foreign business leaders, researchers and investors in European countries, he said adding the tour would enable investors to identify potential organizations to partner and developing successful regional economic strategies and support regionally vital businesses.

He was of the view that economic and trade relations between Pakistan and Commonwealth countries possess great potential and there was dire need for Pakistani business community to focus on improving their competitiveness in the commonwealth markets.

Mian Kashif said at present, the trade between Pakistan and Commonwealth has crossed US$ 10 billions with exports volume US$ 4.3 billions and import volume is more than US$ 6 billions. The Commonwealth Business Forum  integral part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting  convenes business leaders, industry experts and senior government representatives to discuss the issues and challenges confronting with their countries in 2018 and beyond.

"It is expected that this event will be attended by up to 30 Heads of Government of Member States and 800 Businessmen from all members nations," he added. Commonwealth is a diverse community of 52 countries which represent 20 percent of world area and spread over Asia, Europe, America, Africa, Caribbean and Pacific region.

Commonwealth accounts 30 percent of world population (2.4 billion) and 14 percent of World Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with per capita average income US$ 4,500.(@FahadShabbir)

Textile industry associations met here at APTMA (All Pakistan Textile Mills Assocation) house on Saturday to deliberate upon the issues concerning viability of the textile industry in Punjab.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2018 ) :Textile industry associations met here at APTMA (All Pakistan Textile Mills Assocation) house on Saturday to deliberate upon the issues concerning viability of the textile industry in Punjab.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the APMTA, Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufaturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA), Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Assocation (PHMA), Pakistan Textile Exporters Assocation (PTEA), All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA), Council of Powerlooms Association, Pakistan Kintwear and Sweater Exporters Association (PAKSEA).

They were agreed to call on Punjab Chief Minister for securing uniform energy price. They also decided to seek Chief Minister's intervention for an immediate liquidation of the stuck up refunds of sales tax.

While apprehending closure of Punjab-based textile industry, they urged the provincial government to either secure a uniform energy price from the Federal government or bear the price differential.

The textile industry leadership said that manufacturing units of spinning, weaving, dyeing, readymade garments, hosiery, towel and other sectors were becoming redundant due to energy price disparity.

Workers of these mills were being laid off day in and day out, they said and asserted that both the backward and forward linkages and allied sectors of the textile industry were facing the brunt of the situation.

They pointed out that textile industry in Punjab was paying Rs 1300 per MMBTU for RLNG against Rs 600 per MMBTU in other provinces. Similarly, the imposition of Rs 3.60 per kWh electricity surcharge in the electricity bills was being charged unfairly which cannot be passed on to buyers in international marketplace.

The pending sales tax refunds and duty drawbacks, they mentioned, were also affecting the viability of the industry. Earlier, APTMA Central Chairman Aamir Fayyaz gave a detailed presentation to the representatives of various associations on current state of affairs in the textile industry.ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Air University will hold 'Career Fair-2018' on March 7 which is aimed at connecting its students and alumni with potential employers to explore job and internship opportunities for them.

The university announced to host the event at its main campus, PAF Complex, E-9, according to a statement issued here Sunday. The event will enable the students to learn about the most recent trends of jobs in market.

The 'Career-Fair' also aims to provide an excellent opportunity for organizations and employers who have quality jobs and internships, related to Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering and business Administration.

Air University is offering free stalls to selected organizations to facilitate their talent hunt and recruitment activities throughout the event. Interested companies and organizations have been invited to confirm their participation at 'placement@mail.au.edu.pk' by March 2 , so that necessary arrangements could be ensured.

Air University is a federally chartered public sector university ranked among Pakistan's top ten universities in the Engineering and Technology category. It aims to achieve excellence in teaching and research for producing graduates with sound professional knowledge, integrity of character, a keen sense of social responsibility and a passion for lifelong learning.ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :President Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan chaired a meeting held to discuss the modalities and procedural formalities for establishing the Neelum-Jhehlum sub-campus of the University of AJK.

The President who is also the Chancellor of AJK Public Sector Universities asserted the need to provide quality higher educational facilities to the people of Azad Kashmir. He said that the government was committed towards establishing tertiary level institutions in all districts of AJK.

Vice Chancellor AJK University Prof Dr Kaleem Abbasi in his introductory remarks apprised the President that a 193 kanal plot of land for the Neelum sub-campus has been identified at Tangot. The VC informed that payments of the land will soon be made in order to guarantee it acquisition.

He also briefed the President that funds for construction of Prefabricated Structures has been committed by the AJK Government and further coordination for acquiring the said funds will be made.

The President said procedural formalities for acquiring the said land needs to be completed on priority and a desired an update on the situation may be presented in a week's time. He further said that additional land identified at Islampura will also be processed for the sub-campus.

The President on the occasion thanked Speaker AJK Legislaltive Assembly Shah Ghulam Qadir for dedicating his time and extending his sincerest efforts in assisting the university and district administration in addressing issues related to establishment of the Neelum sub-campus.

Speaker AJK Legislative Assembly said that he will also offer his complete assistance in matters relating construction of link roads to the campus, electricity connectivity and water supply.

The President said that timely completion of the derivative projects will be ensured and that too under the supervision of the Speaker.

Prof. Dr. Mukhtar had also informed that in the first phase, HEC would provide Rs. 5 million for construction of the Neelum sub-campus. President AJK commended the support of Chairman HEC and said that with the help of HEC we will ensure the highest standards of education is provided at all Public Sector Universities in AJK.

Regarding the Jhelum sub-campus, the President desired that the basic modalities including land acquisition and allied amenities be presented soon in order to initiate the establishment of a modern educational facility for the people of Jhelum valley.

President Masood Khan said that providing quality higher education at the doorstep of students will be made a reality with the rigorous assurance that HEC standards are met. "Our universities will be made competitive and graduating students will be provided education in lines with international standards." The President thanked the participants including the district administration for their untiring efforts towards the realization of the said sub-campuses.

Speaker AJK Legislative Assembly, Shah Ghulam Qadir, Chairman Higher Education Commission Prof. Dr. Mukhtar Ahmad, VC University AJK Prof. Dr. Kaleem Abbasi, Secretary Higher Education AJK Zahid Khan and Deputy Commissioners Neelum and Jhelum attended the meeting.(@FahadShabbir)

MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) , Feb 18 (APP)::Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan Sunday said the AJK government was committed towards establishing tertiary level institutions in all districts.

The president disclosed this while chairing a high level meeting to discuss the modalities and procedural formalities for establishing the Neelum-Jhehlum sub-campus of the University of Azad Jammu Kashmir.

The meeting was attended by AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir, Higher Education Commission Chairman Prof Dr Mukhtar Ahmad, University AJK VC Prof Dr Kaleem Abbasi, Secretary Higher Education AJK Zahid Khan and deputy commissioners of Neelum and Jhelum valley districts.

Sardar Masood asserted that tertiary level institutions in all districts of AJK was the need to provide quality higher educational facilities to the people of Azad Kashmir. Dr Kaleem Abbasi, in his introductory remarks, apprised the AJK president that a 193 kanal plot of land for the Neelum sub-campus had been identified at Tangot and its payment would be made soon.

Funds for the construction of prefabricated structures had been committed by the AJK government and further coordination for acquiring the said funds would be made, he added. The AJK president said procedural formalities for acquiring the said land needed to be completed on priority and desired an update on the situation might be presented in a week's time.

Additional land identified at Islampura would also be considered for the sub-campus, he added. Masood Khan thanked Shah Ghulam Qadir for dedicating his time and extending his sincerest efforts in assisting the university and district administration in addressing issues related to establishment of the Neelum sub-campus.

The AJK LA speaker said he would also offer his complete assistance in matters relating to the construction of link roads to the campus, electricity connectivity and water supply. Sardar Masood said timely completion of the derivative projects would be ensured and that too under the supervision of the speaker.

Dr Mukhtar informed the meeting that in the first phase, the HEC would provide Rs 5 million for construction of the Neelum sub-campus. The AJK president commended the support of HEC chairman and said that with the help of HEC" we will ensure the highest standards of education is provided at all public sector universities in AJK." Regarding the Jhelum sub-campus, the AJK president desired that the basic modalities, including land acquisition and allied amenities, be presented soon in order to initiate the establishment of a modern educational facility for the people of Jhelum valley.

President Masood Khan said that providing quality higher education at the doorstep of students would be made a reality with the rigorous assurance that the HEC standards were met. "Our universities will be made competitive and graduating students will be provided education in lines with international standards." The AJK president thanked the participants including the district administration for their untiring efforts towards the realization of the said sub-campuses.

APP/ahr/maj(@FahadShabbir)

SARGODHA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) ::The police have arrested 17 accused and recovered 26 bottles of liquor and illegal weapons from them. Police spokesman Sunday said that during the ongoing drive against drug-pushers and criminals, the police teams conducted raids and arrested 17 accused.

The police recovered 952-gram hashish, 26 bottles of liquor, 10 litres of local liquor, one pistols 30-bore and gas decanting equipment from them. Those arrested were identified as Ihtasham, Waqas, Mujahid, Usman, Rashid, Adil, Faisal, Sarfraz, etc.

The police also arrested Imran, Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Abdullah and Umar over involvement in illegal refilling of gas cylinders and Hassan Abbas, Riasat Ali and Khuram Shehzad for violating Sound System Act. Police have registered separate cases against the accused. APP/ag/rsd(@FahadShabbir)

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Frontier Corps (FC) Balochistan on Sunday conducted intelligence based operations (IBOs) in various areas and apprehended five suspected terrorists.

The operations were carried out in Bostan, Dera Murad Jamali, Sibi, Pishin Lehri and Chathar areas of Balochistan, said a statement issued here by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Cache of arms and ammunition, including rockets, sub machine guns, mines, explosive and ammunition were also recovered.(@rukhshanmir)

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Chief Minister (CM) Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Hafiz Hafeez ur Rehman has said the GB government with the financial support of Federal government was working on different sectors including power and road infrastructure.

The GB government was spending a huge amount on health, education, tourism and power sectors besides construction of roads. More than 100 hotels were being constructed to boost tourism in this beautiful part of the region, he said.

"We were installing smart meters while the focus was being given to introduce LNG in Gilgit-Baltistan areas, " he said. Free education system was available in all government schools of GB to improve literacy rate and quality of education, the CM said.

The GB government was extending financial support to 20,000 children for better nutrition, he said. As many as 1400 teachers were recruited on merit, he added. "We have short and long term plan for meeting demand of electricity in this area, " he said.

Many power projects through China Pakistan Economic Corridor would also be completed in near future, Hafiz Hafeez ur Rehman said. To a question, he said that present government had maintained peace and tranquility in the province. To another question he said a vast hydro potential was available in Gilgit-Baltistan that could produce 45,000 mega watt electricity for the country.ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General Qamar Javed Bajwa has said that Pakistan's lasting domestic peace hinges on peace and stability in Afghanistan.

According to details issued here by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on late Saturday, the COAS was speaking at Munich Security Conference where he gave Pakistan's perspective on global and regional security.

He said despite limited resources Pakistan is trying its best to export peace to its neighbours in the west. He said Pakistan and Afghanistan are sovereign countries and both countries have a right to peace and progress.

"However, this will only be possible if our respective soils are not used against each other," he said. Bajwa said Pakistan still has nearly 2.7 million Afghan refugees, whose concentrations are routinely used by TTA and Haqqani network to recruit, morph and melt.

It is time for these refugees to be repatriated with dignity. It is the only way, we can ensure that no one is misusing our hospitality and soil for mischief in Afghanistan.

This is possible at a fraction of the cost of war in Afghanistan, which is currently around $ 46 billion per year.

He said Pakistan's border with Afghanistan is highly porous and it (Pakistan) has unilaterally taken many steps to ensure proper management of this border. We raised tens of new border specific units, built hundreds of new border surveillance forts and have started the process of fencing 2300 Kilometers of the border.

We are putting scanners and biometrics at border terminals to ensure that while common Afghans are facilitated, miscreants and terrorists are prevented or arrested, he added. He said Pakistan is fully committed to the international consensus that political reconciliation is the only solution to the Afghan issue.

"While we are actively supporting the new US strategy in the region, based primarily on kinetic approach, we are not leaving any stone unturned to try and do our best in bringing the parties of the conflict on the negotiation table," he said. More/msrPrime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday said it is unbecoming of courts to use inappropriate names while referring to elected representatives.

HAFIZABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2018) : Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday said it is unbecoming of courts to use inappropriate Names while referring to elected representatives. Addressing a ceremony in connection with the launch of Health Insurance Card Scheme in Hafizabad today, he said every institution should work within its constitutional limits. In a veiled criticism of the apex court judges, he said it was incorrect to use wrong names for elected representatives. He said political decisions are taken at polling stations.

It was imperative for the progress of the country that every institution should work within its domain and respect each other, he added. PM Abbasi said the path of those who were using their wealth to get elected to the Upper House of the parliament (Senate) would be blocked.

Rigging will not be allowed in the upcoming Senate elections, he stressed.

He said the judgments of the courts had been implemented in letter and spirit. It was also important for the country that the decisions taken by the parliament should also be accepted and respected, he added. The premier said if the law passed by the parliament will be rejected , it will amount to negation of public opinion. Abbasi said the government had put the country on the path of development, successfully tackling major challenges confronting the country. He said over the last five years, unprecedented number of projects were initiated and completed. He said sufficient gas has been available today and new connections are being provided.

About the health card scheme, he said the success of this scheme has also been acknowledged at the world level.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Punjab Minister for Specialized Healthcare and Medical education Kh. Salman Rafique presiding over a meeting regarding expansion of services of Regional Blood Centers (RBC) Multan and Bahawalpur, has decided to link more areas of south Punjab to these blood centers.

Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Health Kh. Imran Nazir, Secretary Health Ali Jan Khan, Special Secretary SH&ME Dr. Sajid Chouhan, Dr. Abdul Bari of Indus Trust hospital, Mian Ahsen of Rajub Tayyub Erdgan, Secretary Punjab Blood Transfusion Authority Dr.

Mohammad Athar, Director IBTS Dr. Zafar Iqbal, members of the trust and other concerned officers of both the Health Departments attended the meeting. The meeting discussed the measures and the plans for the provision of high quality blood and blood products to more areas from Regional Blood Centers was considered.

Various measures to widen the areas of services provision were decided. Kh. Salman Rafiqu said that more areas of South Punjab being linked with Regional Blood Centers. The meeting approved Establishment of more Regional Blood Centers in Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi.

Ministers for Health explained that the government was linking more areas with RBCs for providing international standard safe and healthy blood and blood products to all needy patients. Kh. Salman Rafique said that RBCs of international standards would helpful to eradicate the business of substandard and inadequate blood banks from the province. APP/mnb/zhrPESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) arrested two terrorists in Dera Ismail said CTD officials on Sunday. The officials said that they, on a tip off raided at Tank Ada Dera Ismail Khan and arrested the alleged terrorists wanted to police in many case.

The terrorists were identified as Ajmal Khan and Jamal Khan. The both terrorists were shifted to unidentified place for interrogation.Vienna, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :A petition to ban smoking in Austria's bars and restaurants has collected 100,000 signatures in less than three days, meaning the issue will now have to be debated in parliament.

The petition was launched by the Austrian Medical Association (OeAeK) after the government scrapped a ban that was meant to come into force in May. The ban was cancelled at the request of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe), which entered government as a junior coalition partner after elections late last year.

The medical association's president Thomas Szekeres said the petition had got off to a "sensational start". The petition proved so popular that registration of signatures on the interior ministry website had to be stopped for two hours on Friday because the ministry's servers were overloaded.

"This is a big vote and it has to make politicians rethink the issue," Szekeres said. "We will keep collecting signatures and expressions of support so as to keep increasing the pressure," he went on.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a non-smoker, is head of the centre-right People's Party (OeVP), which had supported a ban while participating in the previous coalition government. But FPOe Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, himself a smoker, insisted that the ban be dropped as a condition of entering government, saying it impinged on "freedom of choice".

Thirteen years after attempts to ban smoking began, Austria remains one of the last European countries where smoking in bars and restaurants is still permitted. In theory smokers have to be seated in a separate smoking area -- although this is not always rigidly implemented -- but no separate area is necessary in establishments smaller than 50 square metres if the owner is happy to allow smoking on the premises.

Thirty percent of Austrians over the age of are smokers, according to figures published by Eurostat, the third highest level in the European Union. Around 13,000 Austrians die each year from smoking-related causes.Ethiopia said Saturday that a state of emergency will remain in place for six months, as the authorities move to quell "chaos and unruliness"

Addis Ababa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Feb, 2018 ) :Ethiopia said Saturday that a state of emergency will remain in place for six months, as the authorities move to quell "chaos and unruliness".

The council of ministers declared the country's second emergency decree in two years on Friday evening. It capped a tumultuous week that saw Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resign, a strike in the country's largest region and a massive prisoner amnesty.

"The state of emergency will be for six months and will be approved by parliament," state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) wrote on Facebook, quoting Defence Minister Siraj Fegessa.

The government had cited "ethnic-based clashes" and "chaos and unruliness" as the reasons for the declaration.

"To be able to protect the constitutional system, declaring a state of emergency has become necessary", EBC said, quoting a government communique.

While the decree is already in effect, parliamentary approval for the requested six-month period appears likely as the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and its allies control all the seats in the House of Peoples' Representatives.

Ethiopia last declared a state of emergency in October 2016 after months of protests in Oromia -- home to the country's largest ethnicity, the Oromos -- and neighbouring Amhara region.Tehran, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that progress was needed in "the field of justice", acknowledging widespread criticism of the system in recent weeks.

"Progress has happened in various fields... but in the field of justice we acknowledge that we have lagged behind," Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran, which was published on his website. He said it was necessary to apologise to God and the people of Iran for this failure.

Khamenei was marking the 40th anniversary of an uprising in the city of Tabriz that was a key moment leading up to the 1979 Islamic revolution. He acknowledged the widespread anger exposed by a week of rioting and protests across Iran over the new year, but he said people were still firmly behind the revolution.

"Of course people have criticisms of some current issues in the country and we are fully informed about complaints," Khamenei said.

"But when it comes to the question of the revolution and the system, people come out and defend them." The conservative-dominated judicial system has been frequently criticised by rights activists for targeting political opponents, arbitrary detentions, violence against inmates and having the highest per capita rates of execution in the world.

Its behaviour has returned to spotlight in recent days after a renowned environmentalist, Kavous Seyed Emami, "committed suicide" in prison after being arrested on espionage charges. His family say they were threatened with violence if they discussed the case.

That followed allegations that two people had died in prison last month after being arrested as part of the crackdown on the protests. The authorities say their arrests were unconnected to the protests and that they, too, committed suicide.(@rukhshanmir)

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Authorities in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan have arrested a lawmaker from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan over contraband, both governments have said in a development which threatens to undermine their diplomatic rapprochement.

In Bishkek, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry said late Saturday it had "received notice" from Kazakhstan of the arrest of Damirbek Asylbek uulu, an MP with the ruling coalition, along with three other Kyrgyz citizens.

And in Astana, the Kazakh foreign ministry confirmed it was in "regular contact" with Kyrgyzstan regarding the arrest of Asylbek uulu.

Oil-rich Kazakhstan's state prosecutor said a total of 29 people, among them citizens of Kyrgyzstan, had been arrested as part of a massive anti-smuggling operation near their shared border.

Astana has accused Bishkek of enabling smuggling several times in the last six months following a spat linked to Kyrgyzstan's tense presidential election in October. The dispute between the two Central Asian neighbours emerged after ageing Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appeared to publicly back a populist opposition candidate to win the bitterly-fought Kyrgyz vote.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Riga, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Feb, 2018 ) :Anti-corruption authorities in Latvia have detained the governor of the country's central bank, Ilmars Rimsevices, the Baltic news agency BNS reported.

Latvian media said officers of the Corruption Prevention Bureau (KNAB) had also staged raids at the bank governor's residence and his offices at the Bank of Latvia. Rimsevices was detained by the KNAB Saturday evening and questioned for about seven hours before being taken to another location at about 1:30am Sunday, said a BNS journalist at the scene.

The KNAB would neither confirm nor deny the report. "The KNAB will comment on this matter and issue an explanation as soon as it will be possible to do so and will not hinder the investigation," the bureau's spokeswoman Laura Dusa said, quoted by BNS.

The agency quoted Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis as saying that he would chair an emergency cabinet meeting on the situation on Monday. But he added "there are no signs that there is any threat to the Latvian financial system".











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NARUS 2018: What are the Results in Robotic-Assisted Laparoscopic Pyeloplasty in an Emerging Country? Prospective Series in Pediatric Patients Las Vegas, NV (UroToday.com) Dr. Arellano presented results of their groups experience with robotic assisted pyeloplasty in pediatric patients in Mexico City. Certainly, over the last several years minimally invasive pyeloplasty has challenged the gold standard of an open approach. The objective of this study was to assess a prospective series of pediatric patients undergoing robotic-assisted pyeloplasty.



Between March 2015 and December 2017 at a single institution, 19 patients underwent robotic pyeloplasty. Variables assess included demographic data, diagnoses, surgical technique, console time, bleeding, need for transfusion, complications, conversions, and postoperative length of stay. For this procedure, the authors did a dismembered Anderson-Hynes type robotic pyeloplasty using the da Vinci Si system. They used three robotic 8 mm arms (lens plus two working arms) and one laparoscopic 5 mm arm. The urinary catheter was removed after 24 hours, a BLAKE drain was removed at 48 hours, and the double J catheter was removed a month later. Follow-up at 120 days included a renal ultrasound and functional study.



Among these 19 patients, the mean age was 48 months (range 4-156), 65% were males, and the most common cause of ureteropelvic junction obstruction was intrinsic (84%). The mean time at the console was 183 minutes (range 90-279), there were no transfusions, and no conversions to open. The mean length of stay was 3.2 days (range 2-12 days). Postoperatively, there was one Clavien type I complication (urine leak) and one type IIIb (urinoma  percutaneously drained). After 17.5 months of follow-up (range 7 days  32 months), the success rate was 100%.



The authors concluded that pyeloplasty in children requires minimally invasive advanced skills with a variable learning curve. Robotic assistance is ideal for increasing the capabilities of the surgeon, and has safety and feasibility equal or greater to that of open surgery.





Presented By: Mario Navarrete Arellano, Military Central Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico



Co-Authors: Francisco Garibay Gonzalez



Written By: Zachary Klaassen, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow, University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, @zklaassen_md ,at the 2018 North American Robotic Urology Symposium, February 16-17, 2018 - Las Vegas, NVA high rate of positive screening tests and biopsy (32 positive screens and 28 biopsies per 100 men randomized to screening in ERSPC [1])

In PLCO [2] and ERSPC [1], between 21-50% of screen-detected cancers were over detected and would not have come to clinical attention in the absence of screening

ProtecT [3] reported that to prevent one case of metastatic disease, the number needed to treat was 27 and 33 with radical prostatectomy and radiotherapy, respectively

One in 6 men who undergo radical prostatectomy will experience urinary incontinence

One in 3 men who undergo radiation will experience erectile dysfunction

Target the population of 50-70 years of age

Stop screening at low PSAs and later ages

Increase screening intervals

More stringent indications for biopsy: re-test, healthy well-informed patients, increase specificity

High use of active surveillance in low risk patients

Use of higher volume centers/expertise for care

The ideal candidate for radical therapy today is much different than it was two decades ago

We should match treatment to the patient and his cancer

All treatment options require greater scrutiny in terms of their costs and appropriateness

We must begin collecting and disclosing patient-reported, risk-adjusted outcomes prospectively, across multiple treatment modalities, facilities, and individual providers

We should test novel therapy appropriately

Las Vegas, NV (UroToday.com) Dr. Peter Carroll from UC-San Francisco discussed his thoughts on the evolution of the radical prostatectomy. Dr. Carroll started his presentation by touching on PSA screening, noting that for every 1,000 US men there are 5 fewer deaths with PSA screening, however there are also potential harms in screening (per 1,000 men): 130 negative biopsies, 120 positive biopsies, 35 bladder/bowel/sexual side effects, 8 complications of biopsy or treatment (ie. sepsis, would infection, DVT, MI), and ~1 death due to treatment. Furthermore, Dr. Carroll highlights several consequences of regular screening:Dr. Carroll posed several ways to save early detection for PSA screening:In 2018, we have many tools available to use when diagnosing/deciding to treat prostate cancer:Dr. Carroll notes that detection paradigms are changing, from detect all, treat all (no deferred treatment) to detect all, treat some (offer surveillance to those with lower risk disease) to detect some, treat some (avoid detection of low-risk disease and offer surveillance to those with lower risk disease). The evolution of radical prostatectomy is such that in the past: (i) we treated low risk patients (T1/2, low grade), (ii) over-treatment was common, and (iii) survival benefit was limited. Presently, we have (i) delineated that high-risk patients have the most to benefit, (ii) more technology, biomarkers and imaging, and (iii) a multimodal approach.Radical prostatectomy is one option for the management of clinically localized prostate cancer, and may be the preferred option for some men with locally extensive disease, according to Dr. Carroll. Radical prostatectomy is still a cost-effective option compared to other treatments, complications and outcomes are reasonably well studied, and surgery has very good/excellent cancer control rates. Dr. Carroll feels that regardless of open or robotic approach, we should have a clear understanding of the anatomy, meticulous technique with clear visualization, magnification, and proper instruments. In his open radical prostatectomy experience, Dr. Carrolls rectal injury rate is 0.018% (no colostomies), ureteral injury rate is 0.018%, hospital length of stay is 1.8 days, transfusion rate is 1%, blood loss is 400cc and 5-year survival rate is 97%. For high-risk disease, Dr. Carroll feels that radical prostatectomy can be performed even if there is high volume disease, lymph node yield is important, and previous abdominal surgery is not a problem to date. When asked the question where robotic assisted prostatectomy is better than open radical prostatectomy, 10 years ago he would have stated I dont know, but currently he feels that he thinks it probably is better and certainly is no worse.In a study assessing real-world outcomes of open vs robotic radical prostatectomy [4], of which Dr. Carroll was a co-author, there were 1,892 men (n = 1137 open; n = 755 robotic) included in the analysis. Patients undergoing open prostatectomy had lower CAPRA score, Gleason grade at biopsy and radical prostatectomy, and pT-stage (all p < 0.01). Men undergoing robotic prostatectomy had comparable surgical margin rates, lymph node yields, and biochemical recurrence rates. In a subset analysis of 1451 men reporting baseline and follow-up quality of life data, patients undergoing open prostatectomy reported superior scores in urinary incontinence (open mean  standard deviation 69  26 vs robotic 62  27) and bother (open 7529 vs robotic 6828, both p < 0.01) only in the 1st year after treatment. Differences in sexual outcomes did not differ between groups, neither did any quality of life scores beyond 1 year. Based on this data, Dr. Carroll concluded that patients should not expect different oncologic or quality of life outcomes based on surgical approach.Dr. Carroll then discussed several different tips and tricks for robotic prostatectomy. In his opinion, nerve preservation for high-risk disease is difficult, but we should attempt what is feasible with the caveat of performing an appropriate oncologic procedure first and foremost. Second, it is crucial to maximize urethral length to assist with continence recovery. Third, there are several devices/adjunct agents available to help us with functional outcome recovery, including nerve monitoring systems and dehydrated amniotic stem cells. However, he cautions that we should test new technology and approaches like clinician scientists.In conclusion, Dr. Carroll made several important take-home points:Presented By: Peter Carroll, UC-San Francisco, San Francisco, CAWritten By: Zachary Klaassen, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow, University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, @zklaassen_md ,at the 2018 North American Robotic Urology Symposium, February 16-17, 2018 - Las Vegas, NVReferences:1. Schroder FH, Hugosson J, Roobol MJ, et al. Screening and prostate-cancer mortality in a randomized European study.2009;360(13):1320-1328.2. Andriole GL, Crawford ED, Grubb RL 3, et al. Mortality results from a randomized prostate-cancer screening trial.2009;360:1310-1319.3. Hamdy FC, Donovan JL, Lane JA, et al. 10-Year Outcomes after Monitoring, Surgery, or Radiotherapy for Localized Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med 2016;375(15):1415-1424. 4. Herlemann A, Cowan JE, Carroll PR, et al. Community-based outcomes of open vs robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.2018;73(2):215-223.











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NARUS 2018: How to Shorten the Learning Curve in the OR Las Vegas, NV (UroToday.com) The evolution of training in robotic surgery is based on repeated simulations. Training must involve didactic and skills based learning outside of the OR. Experience promotes skill and skill improves outcomes. To get experience without sacrificing outcomes, simulation must be utilized.



The initial learning curve of robotic surgery is somewhere between 20-50 cases. This is followed by a second learning curve of around 100 cases. Proficiency is likely to occur somewhere after, but largely based on volume, overall surgical experience, and case selection. Didactic training is composed of the daVinci surgical online based curriculum, dry lab experience, article and video review, and pre- and post-training. Skills training is composed of simulated skills training (virtual reality simulators and dry labs), and dry lab based learning (docking, positioning, instrument insertion/removal, and troubleshooting).



The Morristown Protocol was developed by a group of experienced da Vinci system surgeons led by Dr. Patrick Culligan.1 The teams curriculum was designed to help surgeons who are new to the da Vinci develop expert levels of proficiency when performing their first robotic supracervical hysterectomy. It requires approximately 20 hours of virtual reality simulation, designed for gynecologists without any robotic experience. The Morristown protocol includes the following virtual reality simulation robotic exercises: Peg board 2, Matchboard 2, suture sponge 2, tubes, ring walk 3, matchboard 3, camera targeting 2, energy dissection 1+2, and energy switching. At the end of the simulation training, the trainees complete a test prior to console work. This included a simple pre- and post- test on robotic parts and operations, and a skills based aptitude test  the Robotic Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (R-OSATS).2



The robotic training network was established in 2010. It is a multi-institutional approach to improving and standardizing robotic training for residency programs. It includes a didactic curriculum, research review, simulation, and psychomotor testing. It includes a validated psychomotor exam that should be taken prior to live surgery. This exam encourages ongoing mentoring and feedback, and is designed as a way to teach and test the basic fundamentals for robotic surgery.



The new surgeon will need to be credentialed and later on, a strict maintenance protocol should be followed, with a minimum number of cases per year, further simulation and reviewing of videos will be required as well. The most important point that needs to be made here, is that experience equals quality and must be maintained. Greater skill is associated with fewer postoperative complications and lower rates of reoperation, readmission, and visits to the emergency department. Peer rating of operative skill may be an effective strategy for assessing a surgeons proficiency.3



The topic of nursing learning curve was later discussed. This requires a 6 week orientation partnership, with the first 3 weeks comprised of online daVinchi modules, learning to drape and drive, and observation of various cases alongside senior staff nurse with vast robotic experience and motivation. The final three weeks are comprised of competency checklist and dry labs, troubleshooting in-services, in-service on various auxiliary systems used in robotics cases, and finally practice scrubbing in as the surgical tech role.



The most compatible nursing staff for robotic surgery should include staff members who are motivated, tech savvy, effective communicators, quick on their feet and mind. During the orientation and training, debriefing and feedbacks sessions should take place on a regular basis.



The last topic discussed was the training of the surgical assistant. A well-trained bedside assistant is just as important as the surgeon on the console. Factors affecting the learning curve include volume/repetition, complexity of cases, prior surgical experience, consistent team, and surgeon familiarity. It is important for the assistant to complete the daVinchi competency checklist and the online training first assist modules from the daVinchi community website. The next step is performing several dry labs focusing on patient, robot and port positioning, docking proficiency, insertion/exchange of instrumentation, troubleshooting scenarios, and fault management. Additionally, watching surgical videos, live cases, and understanding the anatomical relations and memorizing the steps of the operation are mandatory. After completion of all training steps, the assistant trainee should transition to proctored cases with experienced assistants for at least 5-10 cases, and then the trainee can start to perform independently. Once the assistant is completely independent, it is important to perform debrief sessions after each case with the surgeon. Continued practice will eventually lead to high proficiency, resulting in good surgical outcomes.





Presented By: Suzannah Sorin, NYU Langone Medical Center, NY, USA



Written By: Hanan Goldberg, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow (SUO), University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre @GoldbergHanan at the 2018 North American Robotic Urology Symposium, February 16-17, 2018 - Las Vegas, NV



References



1. Culligan P, Gurshumov E, Lewis C, Priestley J, Komar J, Salamon C. Predictive validity of a training protocol using a robotic surgery simulator. Female pelvic medicine & reconstructive surgery 2014; 20(1): 48-51.

2. Siddiqui NY, Galloway ML, Geller EJ, et al. Validity and reliability of the robotic Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills. Obstetrics and gynecology 2014; 123(6): 1193-9.

3. Birkmeyer JD, Finks JF, O'Reilly A, et al. Surgical skill and complication rates after bariatric surgery. The New England journal of medicine 2013; 369(15): 1434-42.Clear liquids up until 6 hours prior to surgery Narcotic use 30 min before end of surgery Usage of 1000 mg Tylenol in holding area

Antibiotic prophylaxis OG tube placed and removed prior to extubation unless directed by surgical team Usage of Indocyanine green (ICG) 5 mg iv bolus + flushed in-at surgical request only. Zofran 4 mg IV for nausea Decadron 10 mh Hydromorphine 1 mg IM approximately 30 min pior to emergence of pain Proper Fluid management Putting one large bore IV and no need for an arterial line. Local infiltration of surgical sites with 0.5% bupivacaine per surgical team

Oral opiates Oxycodone 5-10 mg , q 4 hours PRN For uncontrolled pain syndrome, usage of oxycodone Diluadid, hydromorphine, tramadol as needed, Consider pain management consult if any difficulty managing pain postoperatively exists.

Las Vegas, NV (UroToday.com) Ms. Dibona gave a talk on the importance of creating clinical pathways in a robotic program. Clinical pathways serve as a standardized algorithm for a specific population of patients based on a defined clinical program. They are comprised of a systematic approach with best practice protocols that outline expected steps for specific clinical programs.Clinical pathways involve a multidisciplinary approach including office staff, surgeons, anesthesia, and hospital nursing. The goal is to create a clear reproducible pathway and share it with all. Additionally, measurable outcomes need to be identified, and data needs to be tracked and shared.The office staff need to provide clear pre-op and post-op instructions including criteria for discharge, and discharge instructions. Additionally, individualized packets for each surgery should be created, and the same message needs to be delivered to all patients.The surgeon sets the tone and expectations of the entire clinical pathway. He is in charge of creating and vetting the pathway. He is required to get the other surgeons in line, and review the input of all involved parties. Lastly, he is required to acquire and organize the accumulated data.The in-patient hospital units (comprised of the nursing aids, nursing staff, physician assistant, and residents) need to be involve from the beginning, and through the entire clinical pathway. These are the ground people, involved in every step of pathway, and their support is essential.The importance of the clinical pathway must be communicated. These pathways enhance efficiency, increase capita/day, decrease hospital length of stay, improve patients satisfaction and outcomes in general. The measurable outcomes include length of hospital stay, readmissions, mortality, transfusions and HCAHP scores.Ms. DiBona then went on to describe the pre-op, intraoperative and post-op pathways used in Hackensack Meridian Health center. The pre-op pathway includes:The intraoperative pathway includes:Postop pathway includes:In conclusion, multidisciplinary approach is crucial. The pathway needs to be reproducible, clear and shared with all parties involved. Measurable outcomes need to be created, and the data needs to be tracked and shared.Presented By: Courtney DiBona, Hackensack Meridian Health, New-Jersey, USAWritten By: Hanan Goldberg, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow (SUO), University of Toronto, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre @GoldbergHanan at the 2018 North American Robotic Urology Symposium, February 16-17, 2018 - Las Vegas, NVISLAMABAD - Afghanistans political crisis deepened Sunday when a second provincial governor defied a presidential order for his removal.

On Saturday, President Ashraf Ghanis office approved and announced the appointment of new heads for five provinces, including Samangan in the north, as part of efforts to improve local Afghan governance.

But Abdul Karim Khedam, who has been governing Samangan for about a year, denounced and dismissed his ouster by the president as unacceptable.

I condemn this unfair decision and consider it against the wishes of people of Samangan," he said.

The central government appointed Abdul Latif Ibrahimi as the new governor of the northern Afghan province. He is a former member of the Hezb-e-Islami party of ethnic Pashtun former jihadi commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Map of Afghanistan provinces. Map of Afghanistan provinces. Map of Afghanistan provinces.

?Ousted governor vows to stay

Addressing a news conference in the provincial capital Sunday, the ousted governor vowed to continue to work as the governor of Samangan.

Khedam defended his decision to remain in office and said the final authority to determine his political fate rested with the Turkemen tribe he represents in the province as well as with his political party, Jamiat-e-Islami, which shares power with Ghanis national unity government.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah represents Jamiat-e-Islami along with other party leaders in the ruling coalition and the party largely comprises ethnic Tajiks. President Ghanis support comes from the majority ethnic Pashtun community.

Khedam is the second provincial governor to have contested his firing order.

Earlier governor defied order

Atta Mohammad Noor, who has governed neighboring Balkh province for more than 13 years, was fired by Ghani in December. But Noor refused to accept his dismissal until the central government meets certain demands and continues to govern the relatively peaceful and prosperous Afghan province.

He, like Khedam, belongs to the Jamiat-e-Islami party and has also accused Ghani of appointing officials to key government posts on ethnic grounds, charges the president and his aides reject as baseless.

Noor has vowed to lead a rally of about 20,000 vehicles packed with his supporters for a three-day protest in Kabul, starting Feb. 27, to press the central government to deliver on commitments Ghani made when he formed the coalition government with Abdullah in 2014.

The planned protest coincides with an international conference the Afghan capital will host Feb. 28 where the government says it will present a plan to promote peace and reconciliation with Taliban-led armed opposition groups.

The U.S. mediated a political deal between rival presidential candidates, Ghani and Abdullah, and established the unity government, ending months of political turmoil in the aftermath of the controversy-marred 2014 presidential as both men claimed victory.

Political rift troubling

However, Washington, while pledging support for the Ghani government, has emphasized internal matters needed to be resolved by Afghan leaders themselves.

The deepening political troubles are seen as detrimental to the internationally backed efforts of the Kabul government to promote a political settlement with the Taliban insurgency to end the deadly conflict in Afghanistan.

The crisis also is likely to undermine efforts to organize long-delayed parliamentary elections later this year and presidential polls due next year.

Jamiat leaders, including Abdullah, have raised concerns over a multi-million dollar plan to issue new electronic identity cards ahead of the elections.



The controversy stems from the use on the new card of the term Afghan for nationality. The term in the past used to refer to Pashtuns in Afghanistan and members of other ethnic groups believe that since the cards will carry the persons tribal identity the use of Afghan is redundant.



The tensions underscore deeply rooted ethnic-based sensitivities in the Afghan society and unless resolved will likely delay the parliamentary polls, officials warn.

The United Nations said last week war-relative civilian casualties stood at over 10,000 in 2017 and anticipated more bloodshed in the coming fighting season.The Medical Education Probe Commission (MEPC), which was formed in April last year under the leadership of former Special Court Chairman Gauri Bahadur Karki to investigate controversies related to medical education as demanded by the fasting surgeon Dr.Govinda KC, has created a big jolt in the medical sector after it exposed some names indicating them of acting dubious roles in the medical educations sectors. With the submission of the report, the monopolies engulfed in the medical education sector have surfaced again even though the report submitted to the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Feb 4 is yet to make public officially. Some concerned officials of the concerned authorities, who are indicated as crooked in the report, have felt high fever in recent days.





The report has not only mentioned about the misconducts in the medical sector but also recommended the government to take action against 43 officials indicating them as responsible to create the controversies in the medical education sector, while granting affiliations to some controversial medical colleges violating the norms and values set by the government. As Karki has earned his reputation against of the corruption from his bold verdicts on several high-profile corruption cases during his tenure as SC Chairman, we do expect that the report has to be implemented without any further delay to improve the medical education sector in Nepal.





The Karki-led MEPC, which includes neurosurgeon Dr Upendra Devkota and joint secretary at the Ministry of Education Surya Prasad Gautam as members, has recommended for an action against Tribhuvan University (TU) top brass including Vice Chancellor Tirtha Raj Khaniya, Rector Sudha Tripati, and Registrar Dilli Ram Uprety. Others recommended high profile persons include Nepal Medical Council (NMC) former president Dr Damodar Gajurel and Dr Nilmani Upadhyay including disgraced former chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse and Authority (CIAA) Lok Man Singh Karki. As the indicated names were already dragged into controversies during the hunger strikes launched by senior orthopedic doctor Govinda KC labeling the charges of involving in the delinquency in the medical education sector while granting affiliations to some medical colleges, there is no need to be confused to implement the report .





The report has to be implemented not only to fulfill the past commitments made by the government with Dr. KC but also to initiate process to reform in the medical education sector. As Dr KC has already urged the government to make the MEPC report and take action against the officials who have so contributed to the deterioration of the medical education sector, it is likely that Dr. KC and his supporters would begin another strike if the report is not implemented on time. As entire students in medical colleges, medical progressions including the doctors and common citizens have taken up the torch demanding reforms in the medical sector, any further delay to implement the report would be taken as of a governments support to the corrupt who have misused the authorities to help the medical mafias.





It is likely that the incumbent government would not make public the report enabling it to implement due to the time constraint as it is being step-down within few days. It is likely that new government will be formed under the leadership of the CPN UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli in the backing of the CPN Maoist Center even though the process of the party unification was not ended immediately. Principally, change of guard of the government should not have its affects in the daily routine of the government, but there are sufficient grounds to be suspicious that the report would not come into implementation to control the anomalies in the medical sectors as indicated by the fasting orthopedic surgeon Dr. Govinda KC during the tenure of the CPN UML.



SYDNEY - A plan to save one of Australia's most critical river systems is on the verge of collapse after disagreement about how to manage scarce water resources.



The Murray-Darling Basin produces 40 percent of Australia's food, and for the past five years a specially appointed authority has been trying to balance the system's environmental needs with the economic demands of farmers. A critical water-sharing agreement is in jeopardy following disputes between Australian states about how much water is allocated to agriculture and environmental needs.



Victoria and New South Wales insist the plan is now untenable after the Australian federal parliament blocked changes to water allocations that would have given farmers 70 gigalitres of water, which had previously been earmarked for environmental use. Senators were worried by allegations that the system is riddled with corruption and by unscrupulous farmers stealing water from the river system.

Farmer Ian Shippen walks past a mobile irrigation FILE - Farmer Ian Shippen walks past a mobile irrigation boom on a dying oat crop on his farm in the heart of Australia's Murray-Darling river basin outside Moulamein, about 600km (373miles) west of Canberra, Aug. 24, 2007. FILE - Farmer Ian Shippen walks past a mobile irrigation boom on a dying oat crop on his farm in the heart of Australia's Murray-Darling river basin outside Moulamein, about 600km (373miles) west of Canberra, Aug. 24, 2007.

Federal Greens party spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.



"Amongst this cesspool of water theft, corruption, mismanagement, why on Earth would this parliament sign off on giving more water to the people who have behaved badly?" she said.



The Murray-Darling Basin is Australia's largest and most famous river system. It covers more than a million square kilometers in the country's southeast  an area bigger than France and Germany put together.



Scientists have argued there has been no overall improvement in the health of the river system since a rescue plan was introduced more than five years ago.



The recovery plan had set out to strike a balance to protect the environment and the interests of the agricultural industry, but both sides believe they are being short-changed. There is also heated division between Australian states.



Australia is the world's driest inhabited continent and is frequently subjected to severe drought.A large fire broke out Saturday at Lhasas Jokhang monastery, one of the most sacred sites for Tibetan Buddhism.

No casualties were reported, and the extent of the damage to the 1,300-year-old religious temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains unclear.

According to the state-run Tibetan Daily, the fire, which began at 6:40 p.m., was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported.

Jokhang temple: fire engulfs ancient %27heart%27 of Tibetan Buddhism https://t.co/vkhGwcRy0D pic.twitter.com/7ezffvPEbn  Social Media Hub (@Social_Media_l1) February 18, 2018

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

News of major incidents in Tibet, a restive and politically sensitive region, is often tightly controlled in China.

Some state media outlets showed pictures of large flames on rooftops in the monastery that were visible from hundreds of meters away.

Jokhang contains numerous sculptures and religious paintings in a vast complex covering more than 6 acres.

The blaze comes as many Tibetans are celebrating Losar, the New Year festival that began Friday.Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, when an improvised explosive device blew up near the Israeli-Gaza border fence Saturday.

Israel responded with airstrikes. The military said it hit 18 targets in the Gaza Strip later in the day and overnight, including what the military said were a weapons manufacturing site and an underground tunnel being built in the direction of Israel.

There were no reports of casualties in Gaza from the attacks. And there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion on Israels southern frontier with the territory controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.

Also Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said it recovered the bodies of two 17-year-olds who were shot dead near the border area in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said it has shot toward two people who had tried to cross the border fence from Gaza. The shooting happened Saturday.

The blast occurred in early afternoon local time, east of the town of Khan Younis.

Addressing the blast, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: Todays incident on the Gaza Strip border is severe. We will respond appropriately.

Israeli media described the explosion as the worst single incident on the border since the 2014 Gaza war.WASHINGTON - Two gang rapes, including one filmed and shared widely on social media, have shocked the nation of Mali.

The first case involved four assailants aged 16 to 25 who took turns raping a 14-year-old girl while she pleaded for help. When video of the incident began circulating on social media, it drew anger across Mali and an outcry from human rights groups.

The second case involved three assailants. Both took place in the capital city, Bamako.

Malian authorities have arrested 14 people involved in the two rapes and a man involved in a separate pedophilia case. The suspects include the four assailants seen on the video, authorities said.

Time to be tough

But advocates say arrests arent enough. They want legal reforms and cultural changes.

This has been going on for a long time, said Mahamane Mariko, who leads la Convention des Reformateurs Pour Lalternance de la Justice, a group advocating for political and judicial reform. But in the society that we live in, in most cases women do not voice their rape because it shameful.

Mamadou Z. Sidibe, national deputy director of the police, said authorities need to crack down on sexual violence.

Its time to be tough, zero tolerance as they say, he told VOAs Bambara service. It is about protecting the ethics of our youth. We want to prevent these behaviors from becoming a social phenomenon.

Widespread gender-based violence

At least 300 women are victims of sexual violence each year in Mali, says Bamako-based Women in Law and Development in Africa, citing local police records. But the group believes the actual number is much higher, and few of the cases end in a conviction.

The problem has worsened since a political crisis in 2012 rendered much of northern Mali lawless and occupied by extremist groups such as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

In 2014, human rights groups filed a complaint in a Bamako court on behalf of 80 women and girls who were victims of rape and abuse. The complaint called for a full-scale investigation of crimes against humanity during the 2012-2013 occupation of northern Mali. At that time, allegations of serious misconduct, including rape, by U.N. peacekeepers in Mali also came to light.

Fanta Sekou Fofana (Facebook) Fanta Sekou Fofana was found murdered at work. (Facebook) Fanta Sekou Fofana was found murdered at work. (Facebook)

Issues of violence against women were brought to the fore again in late December 2017 when a 27-year-old receptionist in the office of Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was found murdered at work. Police suspect her husband.

Why has it taken so long for Malian authorities to take stronger action against rape?

We must see the crime before we can fight it, Sidibe said. And the difficulty is the silence of the victims and their relatives who do not have the courage to come forward. Families close their eyes and prefer to keep quiet on a rape case because they think, in keeping quiet, they protect the honor of the victim.

Advocates say the rape that was shared across social media proves there is still a long way to go in solving the problem of violence against women and girls.

The act that they did, by raping a young girl, filming it and posting it on social media, shows that this is not a country we are living in, that we are in a jungle, said Diakite Kadidia Fofana, president of Collectif des Amazones, one of the largest womens associations in Mali.

Many associations are standing up for this cause and calling for the proper punishment to be applied.  They have ruined her life. They should know that anyone who does a horrible act like that should be severely punished. Thats what we are fighting for.Islamic State is chopping down fruit trees and smuggling the timber into Pakistan, claim Afghan officials and local residents of the Deh Bala district of eastern Nangarhar province where the terrorist group operates.

"Some of the local residents who previously helped the Taliban [are] now helping IS militants, Gul Khan Shinwari, a local tribal leader told VOA.

"IS militants also took our entire pine nuts crop and destroyed our source of income," he added.

The Deh Bala district in eastern Nangarhar has thousands of pine nut trees that locals rely on as the only natural source of income.Similar incidents were also reported in the neighboring Achin and Nazian districts where locals said IS militants using cutting-edge technology to cut down the jungles.

Smuggling goods

Local residents claim the strongmen in the districts had previously helped the Taliban and are now helping IS militants cut the trees and sell a portion of it as firewood in local markets, and smuggling logs of wood to neighboring Pakistan where the demand for lumber is high.

They also claim that IS militants are hiring locals to help them cut the trees.

Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi, Nangarhar police chief, confirmed the smuggling reports and blamed the locals for not being cooperative.

"Mines are being planted, schools are being burned, and jungles are being cut, yet locals do not cooperate with the police to provide better security and prevent smuggling of goods," Rahimi said

.

Afghanistan has a more than 2,000-kilometer border with Pakistan, where according to Pakistani officials, 70,000 people cross every day, including smugglers and militants.

"Smuggling goods between Afghanistan and Pakistan is nothing new, including woods," Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Pakistan-based political and military analyst, told VOA.

"The Pakistani and Afghan governments have been trying to prevent the smuggling of goods, but due to unmonitored border areas, the problem persists," he added.

Locals in the eastern Nangarhar province charge that IS militants had also illegally excavated unspecified mines in the Kot and Achin districts in a bid to overcome their financial needs.

Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan is famous for its precious stone mines.

According to an Afghan anti-corruption network report published in 2017, militant groups received at least $46 million from minerals and precious stones illegally exported in 2016 from the eastern Nangarhar province to neighboring Pakistan.

Ziaurahman Hasrat contributed to this report.WASHINGTON - Im Chaem, a former Khmer Rouge official who was charged by a United Nations-backed tribunal with crimes against humanity including mass murder, extermination and enslavement, has converted to Christianity under the tutelage of a man who survived a forced labor camp she oversaw.

I was redeemed, she told VOA Khmer Friday by phone from her home in Anlong Veng, a district in northwest Cambodia known as the final Khmer Rouge stronghold.

People have accused me of killing others. Thats wrong, said the 75-year-old grandmother, a Buddhist by birth. I have never used violence or threatened anyone. I did not accept the accusations of wrongdoing, as I did only the right.

This Sunday, Im Chaem will hold worship services in her O Angre village home for the third time since her baptism Jan. 22. She plans to pray with seven church members, a congregation that includes members of her family who converted with her and friends.

There will be Bible study, perhaps from the New Testaments Book of John, which Im Chaem told VOA she appreciates for its fairness and the verse 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Case dismissed

Last year, on Feb. 22, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the tribunal tasked with trying those accused of the most horrific crimes of the Khmer Rouge rule from 1975 to 1979 dismissed the case against Im Chaem. The court found that she was neither a senior leader nor otherwise one of the most responsible officials of the regime.

Weeks earlier, in December, U.N. prosecutor Nicholas Koumjian said in a statement that Im Chaem played a key role in the commission of crimes which led to many thousands of deaths. International prosecutors said in a statement that Im Chaem had had been selected by the Khmer Rouge to lead a cleansing campaign in northwest Cambodia.

Im Chaem had refused to cooperate with the court.

The charges, which she had denied in the past, stemmed from her tenure as deputy secretary of the Koh Andet District in her native Takeo province and her role as district chief of the Preah Net Preah district in Banteay Meancheay province. With a colleague, she may have been responsible for as many as 560,000 deaths, according to The New York Times.

When the charges against Im Chaem were dismissed, Neth Pheaktra, tribunal spokesman, said there had been no pressure from the government to drop the case.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen attends a ceremo FILE - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen attends a ceremony at the Angkor Wat temple to pray for peace and stability in Cambodia, Dec. 3, 2017. FILE - Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen attends a ceremony at the Angkor Wat temple to pray for peace and stability in Cambodia, Dec. 3, 2017.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, as with many in Cambodias government and military, is a former Khmer Rouge functionary. He has cautioned the tribunal that prosecutions could lead to civil war, and international critics have accused the government of not cooperating with the tribunal.

Since its inception in 2006, the tribunal has convicted three people: two senior leaders and Kaing Guek Eav, commonly known as Duch and the commandant of Tuol Sleng, the notorious Khmer Rouge prison. He converted to Christianity in 1996 and was convicted of war crimes in 2010 in the torture and killing of more than 14,000 prisoners.

Im Chaem with students during donation of books, p Im Chaem with students during donation of books, pen and study tools with a US Christian missionary team led by Pastor Christopher LaPel in November 2017 near her home in O'Angre village, Anlong Veng District, Oddar Meanchey province. Photo by Pastor Touc Im Chaem with students during donation of books, pen and study tools with a US Christian missionary team led by Pastor Christopher LaPel in November 2017 near her home in O'Angre village, Anlong Veng District, Oddar Meanchey province. Photo by Pastor Touc

?Khmer Rouge converts

Christopher LaPel, a Cambodian pastor for the Golden West Christian Church in Los Angeles and a founding leader of the Cambodian Christian Church in northwest Cambodia, converted to Christianity in 1979 while in a Thai refugee camp, where hed fled as the Khmer Rouge fell to the invading Vietnamese.

LaPel converted Duch, who joined about 2 percent of the population in an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation.

LaPel also converted Im Chaem, who oversaw construction in Trapeang Thma, where enslaved Cambodians, including LaPel, built a dam by hand.

On Thursday evening, LaPel told VOA, While many people may hate her, I love her. He was determined to help her find peace after living through the tumult of Cambodias Khmer Rouge era, he told VOA.

In November, while visiting Cambodia, LaPel was listening to VOA and heard about developments in Im Chaems case before the tribunal. He decided to find her and traced his onetime nemesis to Oddar Meanchey province and then to her village.

Its true that Mrs. Im Chaem received Jesus Christ as her savior God on November 6, 2017, he told VOA, adding that her husband and children also converted.

She accepted Christ because she heard testimonies and gospels from her Khmer Rouge comrades, LaPel said. They give their testimony about their life to her, that God changed them, that before they had never known whats peace and whats love.

And she has been through all these kinds of issues, that her life had no direction and was empty, LaPel said. When she decided, she knows that only Jesus can give her harmony, peace, love, hope in her life and her family and God can forgive her sins.

Im Chaem hands out gifts like books, pen and study Im Chaem hands out gifts like books, pens and study tools to students during a donation events with US Christian missionary team in November 2017 near her home in O'Angre village, Anlong Veng district, Oddar Meanchey province. Photo by Pastor Touch Chanthou. Im Chaem hands out gifts like books, pens and study tools to students during a donation events with US Christian missionary team in November 2017 near her home in O'Angre village, Anlong Veng district, Oddar Meanchey province. Photo by Pastor Touch Chanthou.

When asked if those sins were those set forth in the charges the tribunal dropped, LaPel said, The sins or issues relating to Khmer Rouge era, we did not know if she was involved or not. It is the personal relationship between her and God only.

Im Chaem told VOA she has felt relieved since she converted, in part because a mysterious illness afflicting her son Loeung, who also converted, is abating.

She insisted that her Christian faith is steadfast. I will never change, she said. God has come into my heart and helps me to spiritually grow.A 100-year-old drawing by one of Austrias most celebrated artists has come out of hiding.

Gustav Klimts drawing, Two Reclining Figures, has resurfaced after being lost from the Lentos Museum in Linz for decades, apparently hidden in the home of a former assistant at the museum who retired in 1977.

The drawing, which shows two female figures in blissful repose among fluffy bedcovers, was found after the assistant, whose name has not been released, left directions in her will that it be returned to the museum after her death. When she died in December 2017, her personal documents included instructions on where to find the drawing. It was stashed in a closet in her home.

We were very surprised at this discovery, said Julius Stieber, director of culture and education for the city of Linz. Wed received a letter, but no one expected the drawing to be returned.

Other works missing

The drawing will now be included in a 100-year retrospective showcasing the works of Klimt, as well as Austrian painters Egon Schiele and Koloman Moser on the centenary of their deaths. All three died in 1918.

Along with the Klimt drawing, three works by Schiele went missing after the four pieces were loaned to the museum, then known as the New Gallery, in 1951 by the artist and collector Olga Jager. Her family eventually brought a lawsuit and were awarded more than $10 million for the loss of the artworks.

A spokesman for the city of Linz said there were no serious indications that the assistant had taken the Schiele pieces along with the Klimt.

While the Klimt drawing will be returned to the family after the exhibition ends in May  in return for a refund of that part of their settlement  the search is still on for the pieces by Schiele. Officials hope the publicity from the exhibition may help unearth the missing artworks.

A police spokesperson told the Austrian news agency APA that anyone who may have possession of a lost artwork should ask themselves if they are handling stolen goods, and do the reasonable thing and come forward.

Another Klimt piece

One of Klimts best-known works is Adele Bloch-Bauer, a 1907 portrait that became the subject of a high-profile custody battle between Austria and Austrian-American Maria Altmann, a descendant of the family who owned the painting before it was confiscated by authorities during the Nazi era. The fight was chronicled in a book and movie known as Woman in Gold.

Altmann reclaimed the work in 2006 and sold it to a collector later that year for a record $135 million. It is now on display at the Neue Gallerie in New York City.Six months ago after a string of jihadist-inspired attacks in London and Manchester, British Prime Minister Theresa May said the time had come to have embarrassing conversations about Islams place in Britain.

Her comment was sparked by claims that the countrys Muslims werent doing enough to counter extremism and jihadist propaganda.

FILE - British Prime Minister Theresa May is seen FILE - British Prime Minister Theresa May is seen during a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, Nov. 27, 2017. FILE - British Prime Minister Theresa May is seen during a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, Nov. 27, 2017.

So far, mired in Brexit controversy, the British government hasnt started a debate in earnest. But on the other side of the English Channel, French President Emmanuel Macron is proposing a root-and-branch reform of Islam in France  a project being closed watched by the British and by other Europeans.

Macrons goals, he said, are to preserve national cohesion and to counter Islamic fundamentalism. Another key reform goal is to halt the influence of Arab states on Frances 6 million Muslims by way of the funding of mosques and paying clerics.

French government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told reporters last week that although they have not finalized reform plans, the training of Islamic clerics and their funding are at the heart of the manner in which we are rethinking the relationship between the Republic and Islam.

A woman wearing a headscarf walks down a street in FILE - A woman wearing a headscarf walks down a street in Paris, France, July 22, 2013. FILE - A woman wearing a headscarf walks down a street in Paris, France, July 22, 2013.

Why is the question of funding of Islam central for us? Because today, we know that the funding comes from foreign countries, and it is not desirable to have a religion in France funded by foreign countries who in fact will be defending their interests. And so, its a political Islam, he said.

The plans being considered by the French president  including requiring imams to pass courses on secularism, civil liberties and theology, and the appointment of a chief imam as the sole religious authority over French Muslims  are drawing fire from some socialist politicians and Muslim leaders.

They argue government meddling in the training of Muslim clerics and interference in Islamic religious affairs would undermine the principles of freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state, underpinnings of the French states strict brand of secularism known as laicite, which is enshrined in a1905 law.

Macron has been rebuked by some key Muslim leaders, including the head of an organization set up more than a decade ago to encourage the development of a homegrown form of Islam more in tune with traditional French values.

The Muslim faith is a religion, and as such, takes care of its own household affairs. The last thing you want is the state to act as guardian, Ahmet Ogras, president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), told Reuters.

(LtoR) Vice President of the French Council of the FILE - (LtoR) Vice President of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) Chems-Eddine Hafiz, French President Macron, CFCM President Anouar Kbibech and CFM Vice President Ahmet Ogras, arrive to attend a dinner organized by CFCM, June 20, 2017. FILE - (LtoR) Vice President of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) Chems-Eddine Hafiz, French President Macron, CFCM President Anouar Kbibech and CFM Vice President Ahmet Ogras, arrive to attend a dinner organized by CFCM, June 20, 2017.

Macron has said he won't unveil a detailed reform proposal until wide consultations take place, but left-wing critics say his ideas risk undermining the states religious neutrality and will pull the French government into the management of religion.

"The presidents plans to restructure Islam in France call into question the 1905 law separating church and state, said Benoit Schenckenburger, an adviser to left-wing leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, a challenger in last years presidential elections. The state cannot influence the organization of Islamic institutions, cannot meddle in the training of imams and cannot weigh in on how Islam in France is to be financed."

Critics point out that Macron never talks about the state managing Catholic and Protestant churches or overseeing how Judaism is exercised. But those supporting Macron say French Catholics, Protestants and Jews accept laicite and that no threats to the state are being mounted from within their communities.

And Griveaux said the state has no alternative but to get more involved  because you have at the same time preaching that is completely incompatible with the values of the Republic, and you have mosques that are places of radicalization.

On the right of the political spectrum, some resistance is also emerging. National Front critics of the reform idea fear, too, that Macron risks undermining the very idea of laicite and will be forced to amend the 1905 law underpinning it. National Front leader Marine Le Pen has called the idea of doing that unbearable, inadmissible.

Marine Le Pen, French National Front political par FILE - Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party candidate for French 2017 presidential election, concedes defeat at the Chalet du Lac in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris after the second round of 2017 presidential election, May 7, 2017. FILE - Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party candidate for French 2017 presidential election, concedes defeat at the Chalet du Lac in the Bois de Vincennes in Paris after the second round of 2017 presidential election, May 7, 2017.

In a television interview she argued the influence of mainly Gulf states on French Muslims could be curtailed by imposing a total cessation of foreign financing of mosques.

Macron first announced his intention to reform French Islam in an interview a week ago with the French newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

What Id like to get done in the first half of 2018 is set down markers on the entire way in which Islam is organized in France, he said.

France isnt alone among European states in struggling to formulate ideas about how to counter jihadists, harmonize Islam with Western ideals and to come up with ways of encouraging greater integration of Muslims.

He has drawn praise from British conservatives frustrated with what they argue is a muddled approach by the May government.

Last month, the British government withheld its support of an elementary schools decision to ban young Muslim girls wearing the hijab to class, prompting an outcry from conservative lawmakers. Comparing May and Macron, historian Gavin Mortimer argued in the conservative Spectator magazine that Britains approach is one of confusion.SYDNEY - Wildlife rangers at the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in northern Australia have been told to abandon programs aimed at curbing numbers of one of the country's most destructive invasive pests. Cane toads have come to inhabit much of tropical Australia since they were introduced from Hawaii in the 1930s.



They are a voracious pest that has invaded vast swathes of northern Australia, and toxins in their bodies can kill goannas, crocodiles and snakes within minutes.



They have devastated many native species, but researchers now say wildlife is recovering, following the initial hit that occurred when the toads first arrived.

A cane toad sits still on a rock at Taronga Zoo in FILE - A cane toad sits still on a rock at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, March 8, 2002. FILE - A cane toad sits still on a rock at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, March 8, 2002.

In the Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, the toad invasion began in 2002. Rangers have now abandoned active efforts to remove the toads or stop their spread, because they believe native animals are learning to not eat the toads or are avoiding them altogether.



This approach is supported by Professor Rick Shine, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Sydney.



"The Australian wildlife has proved to be far more resilient than I ever gave them credit for. They take a hell of a hit when the toads first arrive, but, through time, they begin to recover," he said.

Cane toads are prolific breeders, and some estimates suggest there are as many as 1.5 billion in Australia, but it is impossible to know for sure.



In the 1930s, the toads were thought to protect sugar plantations by eating the grubs that were devouring the crop. They were then sent around the world as a pest control means.

In 1935, 101 toads arrived in Queensland, where they were bred in captivity and their progeny released to hunt and kill cane-destroying beetles along Australia's northeast coast. The experiment was a disaster. Not only could the toads not climb the sugar cane plants to catch the beetles, their numbers spread rapidly.



The toads prey on insects and other small animals, but they are at their most dangerous when they are eaten by larger predators, such as snakes, goannas and freshwater crocodiles. A large gland on the toad's shoulder is loaded with fast-acting cardiac toxins.Vandals spray painted swastikas on the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki talked about what he called "Jewish perpetrators" of the Holocaust.

Israeli leaders immediately condemned his comment. The prime minister was responding to a reporter's question about Poland's new law punishing anyone who calls the Nazi genocide a "Polish crime."

"Saying that our people collaborate with the Nazis is a new low," Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said at a conference Sunday. "We stand together, hand in hand, in this fight. We have to stand strong for the memory of our brothers and sisters murdered in the Shoah (Hebrew for the Holocaust). But today, more than ever, we must work to educate the world, even some of the leaders, about that dark time."

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he spoke with his Polish counterpart by telephone Sunday, telling him "a comparison between the activities of Poles and the activities of Jews during the Holocaust is unfounded."

Ronald Lauder, head of the World Jewish Congress, called Morawiecki's comment some of the "very worst form of anti-Semitism and Holocaust obfuscation."

A reporter at the Munich Security Conference Saturday asked Morawiecki if under the new law, he could be jailed for telling the story of how neighbors betrayed his mother's family in Poland to the Nazis.

"Of course it's not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian, not only German perpetrators," Morawiecki replied.

He did not elaborate on who he regards as "Jewish perpetrators." But he tweeted Sunday, "Dialogue about this most difficult history is necessary as a warning. We will conduct such dialogue with Israel."

"The Holocaust, the genocide of Jews committed by Nazi Germans, was an extremely terrifying crime," he further wrote. "There were also individuals who by collaborating with Nazi Germans, showed the darkest side of human nature."

A Morawiecki spokesman said the prime minister was in no way trying to deny the Holocaust.

About 6 million Poles, half of them Jews, were murdered during World War II by Hitler and the Nazis.Lucapa Diamond believes that it will become the only company in the world with multiple diamond mining operations whose average diamond value is in excess of $1,000 per carat, once the Mothae mine is commissioned this year.

Company chief executive and managing director Stephen Wetherall told Rough & Polisheds Mathew Nyaungwa in a wide-ranging interview early this month on the sidelines of a mining conference in Cape Town that this development would make Lucapa a very niche diamond mining company.

Lucapa, which had a 40 percent stake in Lulo, which is currently mining alluvial diamonds in Angola, was set to commence commercial production at its 70 percent-owned Mothae kimberlite project in Lesotho during the second half of the year.

Lesotho leads the worlds highest average US dollar per carat diamond production.

Lulo, on the other hand, which had been in operation for three years achieved record run of mine alluvial prices.

Its total sales were $106 million at an average price of $2,100 per carat.

This year alone, Lulo, had recorded sales of $9.1 million at an average price of $2,192 per carat.

Below are excerpts from the interview.

What are your plans for the Lulo project in Angola and what is your projected output this year?

We have over the last three years built it to a sustainable production level of about 240, 000 bulk cubic meters per annum. That is around 20 000 bulk cubic metres per month, but in a wet season a little bit less and dry season a little bit more to an average out of 20,000 bulk cubic metres. We are anticipating an output of around 20,000 to 22,000 carats at the average grades and we are expecting the same average dollar per carat that we have been achieving on average over the last year and a half, so I would say anywhere between $1700/carat and $2000/carat, so a very special mine.

In terms of alluvial mining, are you still focusing on Block 8?

Absolutely Mathew, Block 8 has been very, very productive for us and it has provided us with a lot of revenue and cash, but obviously all alluvial resources are finite. Most certainly there is still life left in Block 8 and will certainly mine there, but we will also be at Block 6 and 28 which are the other resource blocks that we have opened up and identified as well. We dont just want to go and mine one block holistically until the resource there is [finished], we mine in other areas as well.

I understand in 2015 you were saying that it will only take about four years before you deplete the in situ diamond resource at Block 8 (interrupted)

A JORC compliant resources is a funny thing, it grows in the alluvial space. When we put out our first JORC compliant resource in 2015 that resource estimated an economic life of around four years, but we have continued to work on growing the exploration effort and the resource, so where we stand now we generally have a three to four-year time or resource horizon ahead of us. So we mine and concurrently try to replenish the resource with exploration at the same time.

You have been recovering some big stones from Lulo, what has been the secret?

The secret? Its just a fantastic resource. I dont think there is any secret, I suppose other people such as ourselves, good diamond people, would be recovering the same [stones]. The nice thing about an alluvial operation is that it doesnt have any heavy crushing circuits, you are not going to break stones, so the stones we are recovering are undamaged, unbroken and have been lying there for many, many years; millions of years. I dont think we have a special secret, I think in terms of development, we developed it in an appropriate and sustained manner and I think the operation, the throughput level we have grown it to, will see us maintain operations for some time to come.

At some point you were assessing treatment options for the E46 alluvial terraces (interrupted)

Yes!

Can you provide an update on that?

Well we are mining the other alluvial terraces as we speak. There are also lazeria areas, which are the floodplains of the river and we also have the rivers themselves that we would also like to get into. We are looking at various options of how to access those areas, perhaps in a wet season and using dredging technology, river diversions that sort of thing, as we believe that is a significant potential resource, and we want to make sure that we have a plan access them, get the gravels out and put the gravels through the plant.

Lets look at your operations in Lesotho. When is Mothae going to come on stream in terms of commercial production?

We are on track with our 150 tonne per hour plant, we anticipate that we will be bringing it into operation in July or August this year, so following dry and wet commissioning we will commence ramping it up to full nameplate capacity in September or October of this year. We are looking forward to the production from that facility. What we have also done is that in order to get diamonds and diamond data out earlier than anticipated, in order to allow us to optimally plan for the mine future as well, is to obtain additional data in some of the areas that are yet unknown or less known in the pipe, we have actually expedited a bulk sampling programme. So I am pleased to say that as we stand here today we will be getting diamonds out very, very soon, way ahead of commercial production and firstly, that will allow us to show the market and the world the type of diamonds that are there. Secondly, it will allow us to add resource areas into the mine plan. Thirdly, when you recover diamonds its great, it means you are also going to be generating early revenue so that will also supplement the investment and operational capital that is needed for finalising the phase one development.

Do you have a production target?

Yes, we do have production targets and the first phase production will be 1,080,000 tonnes per annum so come the end of this year we should have our nameplate capacity up at 90,000 tonnes per month which will be a 1,080,000 per annum.

In terms of carats how much are you looking at?

On a monthly basisyou are looking at 1,800 carats to 2,000 carats, but they are very special carats because they are high-end so we should be looking at $1,000-1,300 per carat for those diamondswe have a desire to stay in the high-end game and I am pretty excited to say that once the Mothae mine is commissioned this year, we will be the only diamond company with multiple operations whose average diamond value is in excess of $1,000 per carat, so it will be a very niche diamond mining company.

Talk to me about your exploration work in Australia? I understand you recovered some few diamonds at Brooking (interrupted)

A few diamonds, Mathew? Its an understatement [Laughs]. We were brought this ground by three senior geologists, who on their own had been evaluating and furthering it. We got quite excited about the opportunity when we saw the previous exploration results they had from the programmes, so we got involved in it and developed a drill programme targeting specific areas based on these results, and on further sampling programmes and electromagnetic surveys that we ran. We were targeting initially just to find lamproite. Lamproite is the host rock for diamonds in Australia, well in that area in any event. In some of the holes that we put in the ground we identified lamproite, but the one hole that recovered lamproite to a depth of 70 m was Little Spring Creek. From the HQ drill core, we took 86.8kg of the core out, crushed it and picked it for micro diamonds. We recovered 119 diamonds in total, 112 micro diamonds and 7 macro diamonds in that same sample, so very, very exciting. Some people have described it as the most significant diamond discovery in Australia in the last few decades. We are very excited about the programme there, because thats not our only target, there are three or four other targets with similar micro diamond recoveries from the stream and soil sampling programmes. We will evaluate Little Spring Creek further, and we will go and drill the other holes that we want to do as well on the other targets. I think its early days yet but a very, very exciting year ahead for us at Brooking in Australia.

Still focusing on exploration, can you shed some more light on the state of your Lulo kimberlite exploration programme?

The Lulo kimberlite exploration continues to operate the way it has been designed. We have identified approximately 70 targets that we want to go and complete the drilling on. When you have a concession that has about  in that part of concession  250 targets or anomalies, you get barren kimberlites, diamondiferous kimberlite and indicator minerals wash over each other over a period of timeso you actually dont know if you have an exciting target or not by just merely sampling at the surface. So what we are doing is systematically going through and drilling all the targets identified, getting the geological samples out of the core at depth and sending that to the laboratories in order to give us the mineral chemistry information that we need to use to decide whether we carry on with that target or we move to another target. So that will take some time, I think we should have drilled all those targets by the end of the next dry season in Angola and that will focus our minds and our attention on which targets to do further work on.

Can you also provide an update of your drilling exercise in Botswana?

It has unfortunately taken a bit longer than we would have hoped obtaining the necessary approvals. We needed to get the land use rights or approvals, which we did go and get. Once you have those you require environmental approvals, which we are applying for right now,. It might require us to do an EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) and that will take some time. We obviously already know who to use and the time that it will take, but unfortunately we just have to complete those steps first. I think we have time on our hands now because its not really very good drilling weather at the moment, so by the time that the EIA is completed I think the weather will be on our side and we will be able to put some holes in the ground. There is one anomaly and two known kimberlites on that ground, our biggest target on that ground being the anomaly that we want to go and put holes into and see if it is in fact kimberlite. We will also drill the other kimberlites on that ground as well and assess them for diamond content, but it looks like its going to be the second half of 2018 before we actually get any holes in the ground unfortunately, but it is what it is, you have to apply and get the right approvals.

Do you get funding challenges for your exploration projects?

We do and that is why we developed a strategy to bring the Lulo alluvial mine into production, because when you do go back into the investor market and you are seeking funding for exploration  unless you have fantastic results to excite them to give you more funding - its generally very difficult to get that funding. You are issuing many shares, discounting your share price just to get the funding and I think its generally a recipe for disaster. So from our perspective we realised that we had a special resource at Lulo and we could actually build that into a profitable cash generating mineits returning funds or distributions to its shareholders and also re-paying Lucapas investment loan to the project. So we are getting money back into the system from our operations. Its very, very tough for diamond exploration companies to get money, but I think the way we have strategised is working; building cash positive operations.

You are mining and exploring diamonds in Angola, soon you will be producing stones as well in Lesotho. You are conducting some exploration work in Australia and planning to drill in Botswana. What is your next port of call?

I have a desire or passion for large stones and I think that as long as we can focus on that area and look for projects in that area, naturally we want to grow, but I think right now for 2018 we are going to focus on our knitting so to speak, just to make sure we can deliver to our shareholders the projects that are in our portfolio. We will deliver on the Lulo kimberlite exploration, we want to continue generating free cash in the Lulo alluvial mine, we will further assess and drill our targets at Brooking in Australia and we will put our first holes in the ground in Botswana. I think once we have done that, with Mothae coming on stream and generating cash, positive cash I think it will free the management and Board up to the point where we will start thinking what is next? There are other projects that we can put into the portfolio and I think once we start showing the world what Mothae produces, we will also become a little bit more attractive to other players out there? In short, yes, we will look at other projects.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished



WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. - The request was simple: organize or attend a sign-waving rally supporting Donald Trump. But some of the Florida Republicans on the receiving end of those requests now know that they didnt come from Republican allies, but from Russian adversaries.

Caught up in an elaborate Russian plot without their knowledge, a handful of these small-time Trump supporters said their votes were not swayed and they didnt do anything they werent happy to do. Still, their interactions with the Russians highlight the ways, both big and small, that the nations campaign process was infiltrated.

I was going to do what I was going to do anyway. I was a Trump supporter, they didnt convince me, said Jim Frishe, a real estate development consultant and candidate for county office, who organized a sign-waving event in Clearwater that was part of a statewide series of rallies promoted by the Russians.

Supporters of President Donald Trump gesture to th Supporters of President Donald Trump gesture to the media during a campaign rally, Feb. 18, 2017, in Melbourne, Florida. Some Trump rallies were organized by Russians, according to an indictment issued Friday. Supporters of President Donald Trump gesture to the media during a campaign rally, Feb. 18, 2017, in Melbourne, Florida. Some Trump rallies were organized by Russians, according to an indictment issued Friday.

?Russian-organized rallies

The Florida rallies are one small facet of the indictment issued Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller charging 13 Russians and three Russian companies with interfering in the 2016 election. The most detailed allegation of illegal Russian meddling to date, it says they assumed U.S. identities, sowed discord on social media, communicated with unwitting Americans and even set up political rallies from afar.

As part of that, the indictment says the Russians used a Facebook group, a Twitter account and other false U.S. personas to organize coordinated Florida Goes Trump rallies Aug. 20, 2016. They reached out to campaign staff, grassroots groups supporting Trump, and specific individuals to participate.

Frishe, 68, said he was called by someone identifying themselves as with a group called Florida for Trump and asked to organize a sign-waving rally. He said between 15 and 18 people showed up and that he didnt receive any signs or money or other support. He never heard from them again.

He said he was not overly concerned about the indictment, or his minor role in the drama, and that Russian interference is nothing new.

Its not surprising, Frishe said. It doesnt have a huge impact in this country.

Effort sizable

Still, the indictment details a sizable effort to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. It involved creating internet postings in the names of Americans whose identities had been stolen; staging political rallies while posing as American political activists; and paying people in the U.S. to promote or disparage candidates.

Lilia Morraz was another person who put together an event. She said she got involved after she encountered the (at)March_for_Trump account on Twitter, one of the accounts the Russians used.

I am really active on Twitter. They were saying Trump was not going to be elected. I happened to write to them and say its not true, said Morraz, 60, of Miami.

Morraz said that from there, she was asked about good places to hold a rally in Miami and then they told me, yes, go ahead and do it. So she organized an event outside a restaurant that both she and (at)March_for_Trump promoted. She said hundreds attended and she made signs herself and received no money.

Morraz was skeptical about a Russian plot.

I just dont believe it. Its like everything you see on TV. I dont believe 90 percent of it, she said.

Identity used

Another Florida Republican, Betty Trigueiro, says she didnt attend the Florida Goes Trump rallies. But her name and phone number were included in a Facebook post promoting the event without her permission.

Trigueiro, 62, of Bradenton, said that in August 2016 she started getting some Twitter messages from people she did not know with details on pro-Trump events. She thinks they may have gotten her contact information from her time as secretary of a local Republican club. She said she never attended any of the events.

While she was troubled that there appeared to efforts to infiltrate and cause chaos, Trigueiro wasnt convinced the outcome was impacted.

There was too many people that wanted him elected, she said.Russian news reports say a gunman has opened fire on people leaving a church service in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, killing and least five people and wounding five others.



The Tass news agency said the shooting occurred Sunday outside a church in the town of Kizlyar. The assailant was killed by police.



"The shooter was shot dead," Kizlyar's Mayor Alexander Shuvalov told Tass, adding that two police officers were among those wounded.



The assailant was identified as a 22-year-old man local to the region, the TASS news agency said. His name was not released.



The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the shooting, its news agency Amaq reported, but did not provide immediate evidence for the claim.



Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea.It was an emotional moment for the nearly dozen Somali migrants who were repatriated to Mogadishu from Libya on Saturday.

Some fell to their knees, crying; others placed their foreheads to the ground in prayer; while some chanted the Somalia national anthem as they disembarked from a Turkish Airways plane that had flown them from Libya, where some had been stranded for years, to the Somali capital.

Since 2014, Libya has become a major transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East who are trying to get to Europe to flee instability and violence.

Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Guled, members of parliament and representatives from civil society organizations welcomed the migrants at the airport. The migrants then told stories of abuse, fear and horror they had experienced in Libya.

Somali migrants disembark from a plane upon arriva Somali migrants disembark from a plane upon arrival from Libya to be repatriated in their country at Mogadishu International Airport, Feb. 17, 2018. (H.K. Qoyste/VOA) Somali migrants disembark from a plane upon arrival from Libya to be repatriated in their country at Mogadishu International Airport, Feb. 17, 2018. (H.K. Qoyste/VOA)

?Survivor's tale

Abdikarim Mohamed Omar, 22, who shared his story with VOA's Somali service, was among those repatriated Saturday. He said he left Somalia in 2016 and traveled to Libya via Ethiopia and Sudan.

Before reaching Libya, Omar said, he lost several of his Somali friends during the journey. At one point, he said, they fought with Eritrean migrants.

"I was among 150 migrants packed into a truck by smugglers from Sudan  100 Eritreans and 50 Somalis. They mercilessly forced us into a truck that fit only 30 people. Some of the Somali migrants were thrown out of the truck into the desert. Then we fought with the Eritreans for survival. Several of my friends were killed during the conflict," Omar said.

Earlier this week in Libya, a truck packed with more than 200 illegal migrants, mainly from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, overturned near Bani Walid, killing 19 of them. Sixty others were injured.

Omar said that once he reached Libya, he was filled with painful memories that he could not forget. He and other migrants were taken to the Kufra detention center, in southeast Libya.

Somali officials line up at Mogadishu's airport to Somali officials line up at Mogadishu's airport to welcome Somali migrants from Libya, Feb. 17, 2018. (H.K. Qoyste/VOA) Somali officials line up at Mogadishu's airport to welcome Somali migrants from Libya, Feb. 17, 2018. (H.K. Qoyste/VOA)

"They lock us up in a room, where we hardly eat. You have no place to urinate. The room is overcrowded with migrants. Some of us sit the whole night, and some sleep a few hours. Every morning, they severely beat you with iron rods and sticks," he said.

"To taste the pain and convince our parents to pay them, the smuggler woke us up with beatings early in the morning and send us to silence or sleep at night with beatings," Omar said. "It was like our daily greetings and the first communication between the smugglers and the detainees."

He continued, "Because of the constant torture [and] hunger, many of the migrants in the detention room where I was died, including my Somali friend who shared a blanket with me."

Fleeing Africa, Middle East



Since 2014, more than 600,000 people have crossed the central Mediterranean to Italy. But the number of illegal migrants housed in Libyan detention centers has risen dramatically this year since armed groups in the western city of Sabratha began preventing boats from departing for Europe.

After clashes in Sabratha in September, thousands of migrants held near the coast were transferred to detention centers under the nominal control of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli.

A Somali migrant from Libya kisses the ground at M A Somali migrant from Libya kisses the ground at Mogadishu International Airport upon arriving back in the Somali capital, Feb. 17, 2018. (Somali Ministry of Information) A Somali migrant from Libya kisses the ground at Mogadishu International Airport upon arriving back in the Somali capital, Feb. 17, 2018. (Somali Ministry of Information)

However, Amnesty International said in December 2017 that up to 20,000 people were being held in detention centers and were subject to "torture, forced labor, extortion and unlawful killings."

Other human rights organizations have said similar things in recent months.

Late last year, Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commissions, said an estimated 400,000 to 700,000 African migrants were being detained in dozens of camps across the chaotic North African country, often being held under inhumane conditions.

Omar said he was lucky to escape from the Kufra detention center months ago, but he has since lived in Tripoli, in constant fear and hiding.

On Saturday, he was among 10 migrants repatriated to Mogadishu.

The repatriation effort was ordered by Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo after U.S. broadcaster CNN showed footage of a slave auction in Libya where migrant Africans were shown being sold.

"Following the order of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, the government has repatriated 10 Somali migrants from Libya and 30 more will be repatriated soon," said Guled, the deputy prime minister.

Seeking to repatriate Somalis

The Somali government is working to return to their homeland a large number of Somali migrants who are in Libya. Earlier this week, that effort hit a snag, however, when the delegation sent to Libya was unable to persuade migrants to abandon the dangerous journey to Europe and instead return to Somalia.

The migrants have told government officials behind the repatriation effort that they have suffered during the journey to Libya but feel they have "nothing else to lose."

An official from Somalia's foreign ministry talk An official from Somalias foreign ministry talks to reporters after receiving Somali migrants from Libya in Mogadishu, Feb. 17, 2018. (H.K. Qoyste/VOA) An official from Somalias foreign ministry talks to reporters after receiving Somali migrants from Libya in Mogadishu, Feb. 17, 2018. (H.K. Qoyste/VOA)

Upon arrival, the 10 Somalis were registered with the government. For six months, they will have their relocation expenses paid for by the Somali government. The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are providing some training to help the recent returnees rejoin their communities and build their lives.

Mariam Yassin, special envoy for migrants and children's rights of Somalia, was among the delegation sent by the Somali government to Libya this week to try to persuade migrants to return home. She said those who returned Saturday had survived a harsh journey.

"Among them are migrants who have spent three years in the hands of smugglers in Kufra, [in] south Libya. And now Allah saved them from the unbearable torments and torture they have been mentally and physically subjected to," Yassin said.

Ahmed Abdikarim Nur, Somalia's commissioner of refugees and internally displaced persons, said because of the extent of the abuses they faced, some migrants could not openly tell their horrific stories.

"They told us that they feel ashamed and embarrassed. ... They have been subjected to all inhumane abuses against mankind," Nur said.

The Somali government plan was to repatriate more than 5,000 migrants stranded in detention centers in Libya, but so far only about 40 migrants have accepted the repatriation.

"Our plan is to repatriate all those who want to return home," Nur said.

Hassan Kafi Qoyste contributed this report from Mogadishu.WASHINGTON - Tiny, new pacemakers are making headway around the world. One type, the Micra, is keeping 15,000 peoples hearts beating in 40 countries, according to manufacturer Medtronic. One of those people is Mary Lou Trejo, a senior citizen who lives in Ohio.

A healthy heart has its own pacemaker that establishes its rhythm, but people like Trejo need the help of an artificial device.

Trejo comes from a family with a history of heart disease. Her heart skipped beats, and she could feel it going out of rhythm. Trejo wanted to do something to advance heart health, so in 2014, she volunteered to participate in a clinical trial for the Micra pacemaker. The device is 24 millimeters long implanted, one-tenth the size of traditional pacemakers.

GERMANY A pacemaker is shown against the backdrop of a cardiological graph in Potsdam, Germany, Feb. 26, 2004 A pacemaker is shown against the backdrop of a cardiological graph in Potsdam, Germany, Feb. 26, 2004

Traditional pacemakers

Most pacemakers rely on batteries placed under the skin, usually just below the collarbone. Sometimes patients get infections after the surgery or have difficulty healing from the incision.

Traditional pacemakers use leads with electrodes on one end that are threaded through blood vessels to connect to the heart. There can be problems with the leads as well.

Dr. Ralph Augostini at Ohio States Wexner Medical Center says a tiny pacemaker like the Micra avoids all of these problems.

The electrodes are part of the can, and therefore it eliminates the lead, he said. Theres no incision in the chest to become infected and no chance of complications with the leads.

Small and self-contained

Augostini implanted Trejos pacemaker in 2014. He threaded the entire device thorough an artery in her leg up to her heart. The pacemaker has small, flexible tines that anchor it into the folds of the heart muscle. Once its in place, the doctor gives it a tug to make sure the pacemaker is stable before removing the catheter used to place it in the heart.

The Wexner Medical Center was one of the sites that participated in the Micra clinical trial. Since the Micra received FDA approval in 2016, Medtronic has been training more physicians on the procedure. A company spokesman told VOA that this device is becoming available at other centers across the U.S. and countries throughout the world.

Dr. John Hummell, a cardiologist at the Wexner Medical Center, has studied the effectiveness of this new generation of pacemakers.

We dont leave any wires behind and the pacemaker, the battery, the wire is all just a tiny little piece of metal sitting down in the heart, he said. Medtronic said the results of the clinical trial showed a success rate of 99.6 percent.

Dr. Richard Weachter, with the University of Missouri Health Care, says the leadless pacemakers complication rates are about half the rate of traditional pacemakers.

The battery lasts for 14 years and after that, Weachter said, doctors can implant another one in the same chamber of the heart. They can repeat the procedure a third time if needed.

The pacemaker activates only when necessary to keep the heart beating normally. Studies show that the Micra and other leadless pacemakers are safe and effective.

These tiny pacemakers are not right for all patients, but as the technology develops, more people will be able to benefit from the procedure. Four years after her implant, Trejos doctors say she is doing fine.Survivors of last week's Florida high school massacre have announced a march on Washington and other major U.S. cities next month to demand tangible action so to prevent future school shootings.

"We are going to be marching together as students, begging for our lives," student Cameron Kasky told ABC television's This Week broadcast Sunday. "This has happened before and change hasn't come. This is it."

Kasky said one of the reasons for the march is to pin "a badge of shame" on any politician who is accepting money from the National Rifle Association. She said the NRA is promoting a gun culture that leads to such horrors.

Another student, Emma Gonzalez, told ABC that President Donald Trump, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and Governor Rick Scott all have NRA support. She said students "want to give them the opportunity to be on the right side of this."

The White House says President Trump will host what it calls a "listening session" with high school students and teachers Wednesday, but did not give details.

Trump criticized the FBI for "missing signals" about the intentions of the accused shooter Nikolas Cruz more than a month before he allegedly killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," Trump tweeted Saturday night. "They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

A family sits around one of 17 crosses at a memori A family sits around one of 17 crosses at a memorial for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 16, 2018. A family sits around one of 17 crosses at a memorial for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 16, 2018.

The FBI admitted it did not act on a tipoff in January about Cruz. The FBI said someone with a close relationship to Cruz had called in information on January 5 about the teenager's "gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting."

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered an immediate review of how the Justice Department and the FBI respond to warnings about potential mass killers.

A video monitor shows school shooting suspect Niko A video monitor shows school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz (C) making an appearance before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica in Broward County Court, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. A video monitor shows school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz (C) making an appearance before Judge Kim Theresa Mollica in Broward County Court, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Meanwhile, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio threw his support Sunday behind a Democratic-sponsored state bill that would let courts allow police to seize guns from those who are determined to be a danger to others.

Rubio told a Florida television station the law may have prevented the school massacre.

California already has such a law. But gun rights advocates oppose it, saying it would take away guns from those who are innocent of any crimes.

FILE - Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for FILE - Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply in Springfield, Ill. FILE - Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply in Springfield, Ill.

Several U.S. lawmakers are calling for stiffer background checks of gun buyers, but Congress has shown no inclination to stop the sale of assault weapons, even as national polls in the U.S. show widespread support among voters for such a ban.

Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma told NBC's Meet the Press, "I have no issue with more background checks. All the warning signs were there" about Cruz's mental state and intentions.

"The tragedy we saw in Parkland is unthinkable," Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, told the same show. He said the loophole that allows 40 percent of guns sold in the U.S. to occur without background checks needs to be closed.

But Cruz bought the semi-automatic AR-15 rifle legally after such a background check.

President Donald Trump, center, accompanied by fir President Donald Trump, center, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, right, and Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, left, speak to reporters while visiting with medical staff and victims of a mass shooting at a local school in Pompano Beach, Fla., Feb. 16, 2018. President Donald Trump, center, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, right, and Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, left, speak to reporters while visiting with medical staff and victims of a mass shooting at a local school in Pompano Beach, Fla., Feb. 16, 2018.

President Trump has yet to directly say the words "guns" or "gun control" in his remarks on the tragedy. He has called it a matter of mental health and more school security.

Those who oppose stricter gun control agree with the president. They say there is no way someone with a troubled past like Cruz, who talked about plans to buy a gun, was thrown out of school for causing trouble, and even talked about becoming a school shooter should have been allowed to get his hands on such a weapon.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez reacts during her speech at a rally for gun control at the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Feb. 17, 2018. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez reacts during her speech at a rally for gun control at the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Feb. 17, 2018.

The problem, they say, is lax enforcement of the current gun control laws already on the books and that the majority of gun owners are responsible citizens who like to hunt, shoot for sport, or want to protect their homes. Their number one rule is safety first.

Gun control advocates say the AR-15 Cruz used has only one purpose  to kill as many people as possible  and that such weapons must be banned for commercial sale and private use. They say the constitutional right to bear arms was never meant to include such weapons of mass murder.

WATCH: Gun law

?Cruz is being held at the Broward County Florida jail without bond and faces 17 counts of premeditated murder. Authorities say he has admitted carrying out the shooting rampage.

Meanwhile, about 60 kilometers away at the Dade County fairgrounds, hundreds of gun enthusiasts attended a gun show Sunday featuring more than 100 vendors of firearms and accessories.

Show manager Jorge Fernandez told Reuters the company holding the event, Florida Gun Shows, decided against canceling the show because of financial concerns.WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. - President Donald Trump will meet Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan at Trump's Florida resort on Sunday to discuss legislative priorities, White House spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said.

No further details were provided about the meeting or topics.

Immigration may come up in the Trump-Ryan meeting. The U.S. Senate rejected a series of bills Thursday to protect young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

Trump is spending a long weekend in Florida. He often holds meetings with officials during regular trips to his properties outside of Washington.

The president and his wife, Melania Trump, arrived in Florida on Friday evening and visited a hospital where victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, were being treated.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it arrested 212 undocumented immigrants in southern California over the past week.

ICE announced the arrests Friday, saying 122 businesses had been targeted during a five-day sweep.

In a statement, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said, "Because sanctuary jurisdictions like Los Angeles prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, our officers are forced to conduct at-large arrests in the community."

He said that "fewer jail arrests mean more arrests on the street, and that also requires more resources, which is why we are forced to send additional resources to those areas to meet operational needs and officer safety."

The statement said 88 percent of those arrested were either convicted criminals, had failed to follow deportation orders, or had previously been removed from the United States and returned illegally. It said more than 55 percent, or 107 people, had prior felony convictions for "serious" or "violent" offenses, or had past convictions for "significant" or multiple misdemeanors.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ar FILE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrest an immigrant in San Clemente, Calif., May 11, 2017. FILE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrest an immigrant in San Clemente, Calif., May 11, 2017.

The ICE raids in Southern California and a similar operation last month in Northern California came after the state declared itself a "sanctuary state" in October, meaning state law restricts local police from detaining people on behalf of federal immigration agents.

Proponents of California's sanctuary law, signed by Governor Jerry Brown, say it is a safety measure designed to ensure that undocumented residents are not deterred from reporting crimes or sending their children to school.

Kevin de Leon, the Democratic state lawmaker who authored the bill, said it was meant to "put a large kink in [President Donald] Trump's perverse and inhumane deportation machine."

After the sanctuary bill became state law, Homan said California had "better hold on tight."

California's sanctuary law bans employers from letting ICE inspectors into private business areas without a warrant, and requires business owners to notify their employees within 72 hours if they have been served notice of an ICE inspection.

Reports from California said some employees did not show up for work on the day their employers were slated for inspections.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can download this video to view it offline.MUNICH - Dozens of the worlds political and military leaders, along with thousands of politicians, journalists and security experts descend on southern Germany every year for the Munich Security Conference.

The stated aim is to bring allies and adversaries together, to put dialogue before confrontation. The venue, the historical Bayerischer Hof hotel, seems barely big enough to squeeze everyone in. Organizers say the intimacy forces people to talk.

This year, the 54th conference, there is a palpable sense the world is becoming a more dangerous place.

The Bayerischer Hof hotel, the venue for the Munic The Bayerischer Hof hotel, the venue for the Munich Security Conference, Feb. 16-18, 2018, in Germany. The Bayerischer Hof hotel, the venue for the Munich Security Conference, Feb. 16-18, 2018, in Germany.

This year we meet at a critical time for our nations, and indeed for all humanity, the United States National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told delegates Saturday.

We face a range of common threats. Rogue regimes that already imperil international security in the Middle East and northeast Asia, McMaster added.

North Korea, Syria, Iran

North Koreas nuclear weapons program has featured throughout the conference. In a thinly veiled warning to China, he called on those countries that continue to offer an economic lifeline to Pyongyang to respect global sanctions.

His concerns were echoed by the Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who said the international community should beware of being blinded by North Koreas charm diplomacy during the current Winter Olympic Games in neighboring South Korea.

TarA KAno, the Japanese minister for Foreign Aff Tar? K?no, the Japanese minister for Foreign Affairs, speaks at the Night Owl Session "Present at the Destruction? The Liberal International Order Under Threat." Tar? K?no, the Japanese minister for Foreign Affairs, speaks at the Night Owl Session "Present at the Destruction? The Liberal International Order Under Threat."

McMaster also took aim at Syria and Iran.

We know that Syria and North Korea are not the only rogue states developing, using, spreading dangerous weapons. Now is the time to address serious flaws in the Iran deal and counter Irans destabilizing activities, including its development and proliferation of missiles, and its support for terrorist proxies and militias that fuel destructive conflicts across the greater Middle East.

Iran repeatedly has denied those accusations.

Washington is wary of the growing complexity of the Syrian conflict, analyst Karin von Hippel, director-general of the London-based Royal United Services Institute, said.

Not just because of the U.S. and Turkey potentially facing each other off, but Russian troops are there, other Gulf country troops are there, the Israelis have been drawn in recently, and of course the Iranians are there. So that really is a very dangerous theater where one little mistake could escalate in really frightening ways.

WATCH: US-Russia Dispute Forms Backdrop for Tense Munich Security Conference

?

Iraq recovery

Such an escalation likely would draw in Syrias neighbors. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told delegates that the Islamic State terror group, also known as Daesh, poses an enduring threat.

We intend this year to make it the final year for the existence of Daesh in Iraq. The task which is facing us is stabilization and reconstruction of the areas that have been occupied and destroyed by Daesh. This is a huge task at a time when our oil income has dropped drastically, al-Abadi told the conference Saturday.

The three-day conference took an added dimension as news broke Friday of the indictments by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Department of Justice against several Russian nationals and companies, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Moscows foreign minister dismissed the charges as blather.

Further Middle East tensions likely will come under the spotlight Sunday as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, plus the foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia, are scheduled to address the conference.WASHINGTON - The United States and its European allies are divided over the question of what to do with hundreds of Islamic State (IS) foreign fighters who were captured on the battlefields in Syria and Iraq.

While an agreement on how to handle the issue has yet to be made, experts warn of unprecedented challenges as some countries refuse to accept these fighters back into their home countries or are unprepared to deal with them in their criminal justice systems.

The U.S position is that jihadists ought to be tried in their home countries. But the United Kingdom and France have been reluctant to agree to such an arrangement.

FILE - A boy stands before an Islamic jihad flag. FILE - A boy stands before an Islamic jihad flag. Concern is growing in Germany and other countries that the Islamic State group, now largely weakened, has been recruiting children to carry on their jihadist legacy. FILE - A boy stands before an Islamic jihad flag. Concern is growing in Germany and other countries that the Islamic State group, now largely weakened, has been recruiting children to carry on their jihadist legacy.

A French diplomat speaking on the condition of anonymity told VOA on Friday that his country fears that repatriated French jihadists will use the courts for propaganda purposes and question their impartiality.

The diplomat said the legal issues also are complex for prosecuting jihadists who engaged in acts of terrorism overseas.

Prosecutions are going to be difficult because the collection of evidence may well be impossible to secure on the battlefields, he said.

The diplomat also expressed concerns that once in prison, these jihadists will seek to radicalize others.

Another Western official said some countries also feared they would have to reveal their intelligence-gathering sources and methods at trials if the detainees were brought home.

The fear is they [IS foreign fighters] will argue they were just a cook or something like that, and that their sentence should be lighter, the official told the Financial Times. Well know that guy was actually a commander or a fighter, for example, but we cant use the evidence that definitely proves it publicly in court.

In this Feb. 7, 2018, photo, Defense Secretary Jim In this Feb. 7, 2018, photo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington. In this Feb. 7, 2018, photo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington.

?40,000 fighters

An estimated 40,000 fighters from more than 120 countries are believed to have traveled to join the fighting in Iraq and Syria over the years. While thousands died on the battlefield, Western officials say many more thousands have escaped or were captured.

A closed-door meeting between the U.S. and several European defense ministers in Rome on Tuesday failed to reach an agreement on how to deal with hundreds of foreign fighters detained by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

On his way to a NATO defense ministerial meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters that Washington realizes there is no one answer to this issue, but it is imperative to address it as an international problem.

The most important thing is we figure out how we are going to deal with this, that we can deal with it, we dont paralyze ourselves and just say there is nothing we can do Mattis said.

U.S. officials are mostly concerned about militants detained by the SDF, arguing that keeping them in northern Syrias prisons could encourage remaining IS militants to try to break into prisons and free the jihadists.

These arent necessarily the best detention facilities in the sense of they are being held in Syria and not in the most secure area, Katie Wheelbarger, principal deputy assistant secretary for international security affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense, told reporters traveling with Mattis.

An SDF official earlier this week announced their detention facilities were overwhelmed by captured IS fighters, both foreign and local, and asked foreign governments to take their nationals home.

A member of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forc FILE - A member of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces SDF throws a bomb to check for more explosives as they clear the syadium that was the site of Islamic State fighters' last stand in the city of Raqqa, Syria, Oct. 18, 2017. FILE - A member of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces SDF throws a bomb to check for more explosives as they clear the syadium that was the site of Islamic State fighters' last stand in the city of Raqqa, Syria, Oct. 18, 2017.

Nonstate actors

Some analysts, including Nicholas Heras, a Middle East expert at the Center for New American Security, believe the prisoner issue in Syria is also complex because the SDF is a nonstate group that lacks the legal means to extradite the detainees.

Oftentimes, when it comes to returning the enemy combatants to their country, there is either an understanding or a mechanism that is worked out between the country that captures those combatants and the country where these combatants come from, Heras told VOA.

There is no treaty and no agreement between the SDF and these countries where these foreign fighters came from, he added.

Iraq, as a state with diplomatic missions, however, could extradite foreign fighters, Heras said. But the country suffers from a lack of a functioning and transparent judiciary force.

The United Nations said it was appalled by the mass execution last December of 38 prisoners in Iraq on terrorism-related charges and called for an immediate halt to executions, citing flaws in the countrys criminal justice system.

Similarly, German officials last month protested an Iraqi court decision to sentence a German woman to death by hanging after she was convicted by the court of collaboration with the IS.

Experts say there is also the issue of lawsuits and legal actions against countries for allowing their citizens to be kept in captivity overseas.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Mattis, saying the U.S. military lacked legal authority to detain an American citizen for nearly five months in Iraq without a charge.

The unidentified U.S. citizen who surrendered to the SDF in Syria last year is being held by the U.S. military in Iraq as an enemy combatant for allegedly being an IS fighter.

Revocation of citizenship

Colin P. Clarke, a researcher on terrorism and insurgency at the Rand Corp., said some countries could try to strip foreign militants of citizenship to avoid the legal complexities within their jurisdictions. Such an attempt could further complicate the issue internationally by leaving the suspects stateless, he added.

It is ... kicking the can down the road, so to speak. They are washing their hands from the responsibility, but then they are leaving this to others to deal with, Clarke said.

As Western powers are searching for ways to deal with the issue, Clarke warned that the families of foreign fighters present another dilemma.

Should we consider more punitive measures? Should we be attempting to reintegrate these folks into society? Clarke asked.Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website:

We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service.A GoFundMe drive to help raise money to cover the funeral costs for a small boy struck dead at a St. Vital crosswalk last Tuesday has met its goal.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/2/2018 (1306 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A GoFundMe drive to help raise money to cover the funeral costs for a small boy struck dead at a St. Vital crosswalk last Tuesday has met its goal.

The GoFundMe drive had reached $10,200 Saturday evening. Its target was $10,000. Today is the last day for those still wanting to donate.

Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam

"People from all walks of life are helping this campaign," said Purna Satpathy, a friend of the family who launched the fundraising drive.

"I'm really thankful to everyone who can give big or small. They are very needy people and very unfortunate,"  Purna Satpathy

"Im really thankful to everyone who can give big or small. They are very needy people and very unfortunate," Satpathy said.

Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam, 8, was walking with his mother to school at about 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday when a silver truck sped through the crosswalk and ran into him. The boy was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Satpathy described the Saturday funeral for the little boy as "very painful."

The funeral for Surafiel, his parents eldest son, was held at the St. Michael Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church. About 200 people packed the church on Dufferin Avenue. Females took their places on one side of the church and males on the other. Christian murals filled the front walls, more brightly coloured than in many churches.

People stood for almost the entire 70-minute service. Most of the service was praying and chanting by spiritual leaders at the front, all in the native Eritrean language. The scent of burning incense filled the air.

A man at the end of the service spoke briefly in English, asking the congregation to support Surafiels family to help them heal. A burial service followed at St. Vital Cemetery, followed by a reception.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A pedestrian waits to cross St. Annes Road next to a makeshift memorial for Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam who was hit by a truck and killed crossing the street Tuesday on his way to school.

The little boys obituary in the program reads: "Our precious little angel Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam, beloved son of Adiam L. Weldeyohannes and Musse T. Meles, went to be with our Lord on Tuesday February 12, 2018."

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He was a Grade 3 student at Varennes Elementary School. The obituary described him as a very active boy who "loved swimming, being outdoors, going on sleigh rides and spending time with his siblings, family and friends."

He has two brothers and a sister.

"Surafiel offered to the world his unconditional love," the obituary continued. "He smiled throughout these eight years and five months, bringing joy and happiness to his family and everyone he touched."

The family also thanked numerous organizations including the Eritrean community, the St. Michael church, Winnipeg Fire Service and Paramedics, Health Sciences Childrens Hospital, the Winnipeg Police Service, Ecole Varennes staff and students, St. Marys Road United Church administration, and "all families and friends who came from all over and made this unbearable moment possible to overcome."

To donate, go to GoFundMe.com and search under "Surafiel."

billl.redekop@freepress.mb.caWilliam Sylvester Alpheus Billy Beal was one of rural Manitobas first black settlers, arriving in the Swan River region in 1906. After a life dedicated to building his community, Swan River has worked hard in recent years to ensure his legacy is never forgotten.

This article was published 18/2/2018 (1305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

William Sylvester Alpheus "Billy" Beal was one of rural Manitobas first black settlers, arriving in the Swan River region in 1906. After a life dedicated to building his community, Swan River has worked hard in recent years to ensure his legacy is never forgotten.

Beal was born in Chelsea, Mass., in 1874 and graduated from North Community High School in Minneapolis in 1898. He then apprenticed as a steam engineer.

William S. A. Beal (courtesy R. Barrow) In addition to using his photographic expertise to take portraits of people in the Swan River area, Billy Beal took this self portrait circa 1918.

At the time of his graduation, Canada was at the start of an aggressive immigration campaign led by Manitoba MP and federal immigration minister Clifford Sifton. The goal was to attract hundreds of thousands of homesteaders to farm the prairies.

Attracting peasant immigrants from far away lands was an expensive endeavour, so the government made special efforts to target those who had already settled in the United States. The enticement to move north was a generous homesteading arrangement of 160 acres of land for the bargain price of $10.

The campaign didnt specifically include black Americans, though ads appeared in newspapers aimed at black readers. One was the Chicago-based Broad Ax, which was distributed throughout American Midwest. Its editor, writer Julius F. Taylor, also included the occasional editorial and news story about the freedom of farm life on the Canadian prairie.

Siftons immigration scheme achieved its goal. The number of people entering Canada rose from 17,000 in 1896 to more than 141,000 in 1905 and is credited with helping to swell the population of the West by about one million people.

One man attracted by Siftons campaign was Billy Beal.

Why Beal chose the Swan River region is unclear, as the Edmonton area appears to have been the most popular choice for black American settlers. There were, though, plenty of saw mills to choose from in the region and some had ties to companies in Beals home state.

Beal recalled in his later years he was never interested in being a farmer, writing: "I did not come to this part of the country to homestead then, but to follow my trade of engineer. The idea of taking a homestead did not occur to me at the time."

William S. A. Beal (courtesy R. Barrow) A Beal photo of a group of men in front of combination cook house and bunkhouse, likely in the vicinity of Red Deer Lake, Man., circa 1920.

A condition of his immigration, however, was he had to build a house, clear the land and plant at least fifteen acres within three years of his arrival.

Before the deadline, Beal claimed his land in the Big Woody district which is located 16 kilometres northwest of the town of Swan River. As he was late to sign up, he got a poor section of land and faced great hardships turning it into a farm.

Beal admitted: "I got my patent in five years but even then, I did not have the necessary fifteen acres broke but the inspector made an allowance for that on account of the density of the scrub."

With his obligation to the Crown met, Beal rented out his land and never farmed again.

Working as a steam engineer at places such as the nearby Red Deer Lumber Mill earned Beal a decent enough wage that he could afford to pursue his wide range of interests, one of which was his personal library.

William S. A. Beal (courtesy R. Barrow) Billy Beal used his skills with a camera to capture locals such as fiddle player King Sannas circa 1917.

Beal sent away for books on topics such as science, law, astronomy and philosophy. He not only read them, but made them available to others in the community. His first library was destroyed by a fire at his house in 1911.

The following year, while he was trying to make a go of it on his land, Beal was a founder of the Big Woody School Division and served for nearly forty years as its secretary-treasurer. He also helped establish a debating society and literary club in the region.

Beals self-taught knowledge of medicine saw him called into action to help the local doctor during times of crisis, such as the 191819 flu epidemic. He was also happy to pull teeth for area residents.

After nearly 60 years in Swan River, Beal, who never married and had no children, retired to The Pas where he died in 1965 at the age of 91. He is buried in Lakeside Cemetery at The Pas.

The week following Beals death, the Swan Valley Star and Times newspaper noted in a front-page editorial, "It was always a pleasure to talk to Bill as he was a man of knowledge. He will be long remembered by friends he was as every inch a gentleman."

William S. A. Beal (courtesy R. Barrow) A group of Thunder Hill, Man., suffragettes pose for Billy Beal's camera circa 1915.

As with many settlers who did not leave any family, the life of Billy Beal could have faded away until it became little more than a footnote in a regional history book. That is not what happened, though.

One person who has helped keep Beals legacy alive is Robert Barrow, whose family has lived in the region since 1912.

Barrow is a few years too young to have met Beal in person, but he grew up hearing stories about him from family members. For instance, the first time his uncle listened to a radio was at Billy Beals house on a device Beal had built himself. Beal was also known for his telescope, which he constructed out of a stove pipe and soup cans.

In the early 1980s, Barrow, a professional photographer, was contacted by the person clearing out the old Beal house before it collapsed. Inside, he discovered more than 50 glass negatives, the result of yet another of Beals hobbies: photography.

While Beal was not the only photographer depicting life in the region at the time, Barrow notes, "Mr. Beals were more inclined to people" and is now an invaluable visual record of his fellow pioneers.

J. S. Peach / Archives of Manitoba Billy Beal was a founder of the Big Woody School District and sat on its board for nearly 40 years.

Barrow wanted to share the images and stories "old timers" told of Beal. He says, "I love the photographs, first of all. Its my profession and my passion" but, "I grew up hearing these stories and it was these stories I wanted to get out."

The collection of images and stories were compiled in a book he co-authored with Leigh Hambly in 1988 entitled Billy: The Life and Photographs of William S. A. Beal. It was then turned into photographic exhibit that toured Manitoba and Nova Scotia.

The following year, Beals legacy was set in stone.

In June 1989, eighty people attended the unveiling of a memorial stone at the Fairdale Cemetery in the Big Woody District in honour of Beal.

When asked why a memorial stone, Neil Brown, one of the men who worked on the project, stated matter of factly: "Because there was nothing there." He says Beal had to retire to The Pas as that was where the nearest nursing home was at the time. The fact that he was buried 240 kilometres away with no recognition in his home district was something residents had long wanted to change.

The Broad Ax Archives Ads such as this one in the Black newspaper The Broad Ax helped attract Billy Beal to Manitoba.

Brown also notes Beal, who died a pauper, was buried without a headstone. That was corrected in June 1990 after the group spent weeks hand-crafting one for his grave site.

Other reminders of Beal in the region include a plaque outside the Swan River Library and a display of some of Beals images, medical tools and photographic equipment at the Swan River Valley Historical Museum. Also, the Swan Valley Lions Clubs will host the 21st annual Billy Beal Ice Fishing Derby in March.

One topic not explored in the various recollections about Beals life is racism.

It should be noted while Canada allowed Beal and at least 1,500 other black settlers onto the prairies to homestead, it passed an order-in-council in August 1911 barring black immigration for one year as they were "deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada."

This came after a mounting number of calls from community groups, local government officials, and even the Winnipeg Board of Trade, to stem the large inflow of what they considered "undesirable" immigrants, such as blacks and Eastern Europeans.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Gordon Goldsborough A plaque outside the Swan River Library pays tribute to Billy Beal and his contributions to the community.

Though the order in council was never passed into law and later repealed, it signalled to potential immigrants and the immigration officials who would deal with them at the border that blacks were not welcome.

Barrow didnt encounter stories of racism in the interviews for his book. He says, though, "I am certain he experienced a lot of racism. But at the same time, he found a community where he was accepted  more than accepted  valued."

Clifford Hogg, also from a family that has lived in the region for generations, says he too, grew up constantly hearing stories about Beal from family and community members. For him, the discovery of Beals race was a surprise.

"To tell you the honest truth, he passed away and a couple of years went by. I think I was about ten years old before I even learned Billy Beal was black. That just never came up in any conversation. Billy Beal was just Billy Beal."

Christian explores local history on his blog, West End Dumplings.

Billy: The Life and Photography of William S. A. Beal is available and the Millennium and Henderson branches of the Winnipeg Public Library.WASHINGTON  Frigid iguanas in Florida. Snowball fights on North Carolinas beaches. Recent winters have delivered a bitter chill to the U.S. Southeast, reinforcing attitudes among some that global warming is a fraud.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/2/2018 (1305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WASHINGTON  Frigid iguanas in Florida. Snowball fights on North Carolinas beaches. Recent winters have delivered a bitter chill to the U.S. Southeast, reinforcing attitudes among some that global warming is a fraud.

According to a scientific study published this month, the Southeasts colder winter weather is part of an isolated trend, linked to a more wavy pattern in the jet stream that crosses North America. That dipping jet stream allows Arctic air to plunge into the Southeast. Scientists call this colder weather a "hole" in overall global warming, or a "warming hole."

"What we are looking at is an anomaly," said Jonathan M. Winter, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth University and the principal investigator in the study. "The Southeast is the exception to the rule."

Winter and lead author Trevor F. Partridge, a Dartmouth graduate student, say this years extreme cold in the Southeast could be a product of the warming hole. "It is the same mechanism that causes this bitterly cold air to come down," Winter said.

The Southeasts warming hole has been studied many times before, but the Dartmouth study in Geophysical Research Letters nails down some of its key features. The study concludes the trend started in the late 1950s, and is concentrated in six states  Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Nearby states are also affected, such as east Texas, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Either because of coincidence or cooler climes, residents of these states tend to be relatively doubtful that global warming is happening and is largely caused by human activities, according to surveys compiled by Yale and George Mason universities.

Yale researchers are now curious whether the "warming hole" has influenced opinions about climate change in the region. "That is something we are actively investigating," said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.

In January, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 2017 was one of the warmest years on record globally. But during snows and freezes of the past two months, some Americans scoffed at such claims. This included U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted right before New Years Eve that "perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old global warming."

The unusually cold weather has produced a mix of outcomes for farmers, wildlife and human residents. South Carolina peach farmers welcome a certain number of cold winter days for their trees to produce a full crop. But theyve been walloped when a freeze arrives late, as have Floridas citrus growers and Georgias Vidalia onion farmers.

Across the region, the cold helps knock pests, but it can stress native flora and fauna. Some 35 manatees died of cold stress syndrome in January, according to a preliminary report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The cold also numbed the states invasive iguanas, some of which started falling out of trees in January, prompting Floridians to rush to their rescue.

Climate change scientists say the Southeast is an illustration of how global warming is not a globally uniform phenomenon. Certain regions will see different effects than others, based on El Ninos and other natural weather patterns.

In the Arctic, a natural phenomenon known as the polar vortex is a huge driver of colder winters. When the polar vortex is stable, Arctic cold air is contained by the jet stream flowing to the south.

But when the jet stream is wavy, it allows frigid winds to blow down into the Southeast, a pattern that has repeated itself in many, but not all, years since the 1960s.

What is causing the more wavy jet stream?

A study published last year suggested that rapidly melting Arctic ice sheets, an impact of climate change, could be contributing. But cyclical patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans could also be important factors, say the Dartmouth researchers and scientists, who wrote about the warming hole for the third National Climate Assessment in 2014.

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"From our research, we are confident there is a natural variability component," Winter said. "We hypothesize there is a contribution of climate change. But we dont want to get out over our ski tips on that."

The Southeasts warming hole tends to last through the winter and spring. After that, the warming hole tends to shift to the Midwest, where evaporation from large-scale agricultural production causes an abnormal cooling affect, the study said.

The Dartmouth researchers based their findings on examining NOAA data from 1,407 temperature stations and 1,722 rain stations across the United States, from 1901 until 2015. They then identified stations that were persistently cooler than average from 1960 to 2015, which gave them their results on the six states at the center of the warming hole.

Overall, daily temperatures in the hole have cooled by an average of about 2.16 C since 1958, whereas global average temperatures have risen about 1.8 C over the same time period.

The southeastern United States is one of two major warming holes globally. The other is in the north Atlantic Ocean, where a mysterious "blob" of cold water has concentrated near where Greenlands ice sheets are melting. Is there a connection? Scientists are studying if influxes of fresh water from melting sea ice are disrupting currents, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which carries warm water north from the equator.

 McClatchy Washington BureauPresident Donald Trump  finally forced to acknowledge Russians did meddle in the 2016 election after Deputy Attorney General announced indictments against 13 Russians and three Russian companies for allegedly doing just that  nonetheless tweeted nothing-to-see-ily about the indictments Friday afternoon.

Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President, Trump tweeted. The result of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong  no collusion! he said.

The reality-TV star and real estate mogul had been threatening to run for President of the United States, off and on, since 1988. He also gave it serious thought in 2000. And during Broadcast TVs Upfront Week in May of 2011, Trump announced After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the presidency, adding, I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and, ultimately, the general election.

This afternoon as he left for Florida, he ignored reporters screaming questions at him on the White House lawn.

WILL YOU PUNISH RUSSIA?! one reporter was heard screaming.

WILL YOU PUT SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA?! screamed another.

THEY ATTACKED OUR DEMOCRACY! shouted yet another, though, technically, thats more a statement than a question.

Anyway, Trump resisted any urge he might have had to weigh in, confining himself to a wave and a thumbs up.

But, in a White House statement Trump did, for the first time, acknowledge Russians had engaged in 2016 election rannygazoo. That said, he never uses the meddling in his statement, leaving that to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders:

Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding the Russia Indictments Earlier today, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced indictments against 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities for meddling in the 2016 Presidential election, which began in 2014 before the President declared his candidacy. President Donald J. Trump has been fully briefed on this matter and is glad to see the Special Counsels investigation further indicatesthat there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia and that the outcome of the election was not changed or affected. President Trump says, it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. Its time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions. We must unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections.

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Trumps tweet:

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Rod Rosenstein Bombshell: 13 Russians Indicted For Election Meddling To Help Donald TrumpOmarosa Manigault Newman Says Trump Uses a Tanning Bed in the White House Every Morning Omarosa Talks Trump's Tanning, Diet Coke Daily Routine

Omarosa Manigault Newman got frank on Friday nights episode of Celebrity Big Brother.

The former White House aide was asked by Brandi Glanville if she had ever had a sexual relationship with her former boss, President Donald Trump.

Did you ever sleep with him? the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum asked her.

Manigault Newman asked for clarification, saying, Who?

Trump, Glanville said.

Manigault Newman paused before saying, Hell no! Of course not. Brandi, thats horrible.

While she denied sleeping with the Commander in Chief, Manigault Newman did say there was somebody in the White House who is sleeping around with everybody.

Glanville told her that she had heard of some Celebrity Apprentice contestants who had had a relationship with Trump when he starred as host of the show.

Omarosa Manigault Newman on Celebrity Big Brother

Manigault Newman asked Glanville to name any contestants who allegedly had a sexual relationship with Trump, but the reality star declined to do so.

But you never heard my name did you? Manigault Newman asked.

No. He seemed to like you so much, I was just wondering, Glanville said.

Manigault Newman offered some dry humor, saying, God no, Im just ratings gold.

The former White House staffer also revealed what it was like to work with the former House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Manigault Newman said while she liked him as a person, she had to teach him how to pronounce a lot of words so sitting through meetings with him was a special form of torture.

Last week, she spoke to Ross Matthews about the president and why she chose to work for him in the White House.

I felt like it was a call to duty, I felt like I was serving my country by serving him, Manigault Newman said. It was always about the country. Like, I was haunted by tweets every single day. What is he gonna tweet next?

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Should we be worried? Matthews asks, begging her to tell him everything will be okay.

She nods: No, its not gonna be okay.

Manigault Newman, 44, appeared on The Apprentice with Trump before becoming his director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, she announced her resignation in December but the White House has since claimed she was fired.Emma Gonzalez, a Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School student who survived the shooting that took 17 lives, made an impassioned speech Saturday calling out President Trump on gun control.

If the President wants to come up to me, and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association, said Gonzalez at the gun control rally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

It doesnt matter because I already know, added Gonzalez. $30 million dollars!

Also Read: Josh Gad Vows Activism Against 'Worthless' Leaders After Friend's Son Killed in Florida Shooting

Gonzalez, a senior at the school, was sitting on the floor of the auditorium Wednesday shots rang out. She and her classmates have been outspoken in their calls for stricter gun legislation in the wake of Fridays tragedy, vowing, We will be the last mass shooting.

You can read her entire speech here, or hear her it below.

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We need to pay attention to the fact that this isnt just a mental health issue, she told the crowd. He wouldnt have been able to kill that many people with a knife.

The crowd erupted in chants of Shame on you!

Nikolas Cruz, 19, who officials said is a former student at the school, has been IDd as the suspected shooter. He was taken into custody nearby in Coral Springs. An AR-15-style weapon was recovered at the scene, according to CNN.

Related stories from TheWrap:

'Real Time': Vicente Fox Says School Shootings Are a Byproduct of Racism

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Johnny Galecki Says People Were 'Outraged' by His Response to Florida ShootingAfter back-to-back disappointments during his first two Olympic skates, Nathan Chen delivered a jaw-dropping six quads during his final Olympic outing Saturday morning (Friday evening stateside)  in a performance that had the skating world dizzy with excitement as the kudos poured in on Twitter.

What?!?!?! Completely inhuman display of ridiculousness!!! 6 quadsbeautiful skating. Guys beyond. Congratulations @nathanwchen gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi tweeted alongside her handwritten scorecard of his performance.

Two-time Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan put it even more succinctly: HOLY QUADS.

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Wow, tweeted decorated ice dancer Meryl Davis. You are brilliant. So much respect.

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While Dick Button, a two-time Olympic champ, proved hes still pop culture savvy at 88 in the way he congratulated the skater.

Chen  Complete package good for you. This is who we waited for. Like Beyonce youre back on the stage.

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Here are some other reactions:

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Chens accomplishment also caught the attention of Hamilton himself, with Lin-Manuel Miranda congratulating him via Twitter.

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Savannah Guthrie, meanwhile, nearly lost her voice cheering him on alongside colleague and pal Al Roker.

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Nathan Chen just showed the world what hes made of #sixquads, she wrote. an honor to be here and scream my lungs out for him #USA.The activist group AVAAZ is putting pressure on Senator Marco Rubio by taking some inspiration from Martin McDonaghs Oscar-nominated drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Three mobile billboards have been driving around the Miami area with signs reading: Slaughtered in school. And still no gun control? How come, Marco Rubio? The trucks made a stop near Sen. Rubios office in Doral, Florida, according to CNN.

Read More:Three Billboards Outside Grenfell, London: Campaign Seeks Answers to Tragic Fire Using Martin McDonaghs Film

The campaign is a reaction to the high school massacre that occurred in Parkland, Florida on February 14. 17 students attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were murdered by a teenage gunman, while dozens more were injured. Rubio, who is a staunch supporter of the NRA, made headlines in the massacres aftermath for saying tighter gun laws would not have prevented the tragedy.

Florida has notoriously lax gun laws, and Rubio, who is supported by the NRA, has never attempted to reform them, Emma Ruby-Sachs, Avaazs deputy director, said to CNN. The senator ranks as one of the highest recipients of NRA contributions and has received an A+ rating from the NRA.

Today citizens are asking: How come Rubio refuses to protect our children? she continued. The senator has taken fire across the country for his toothless response to the shooting, calling it inexplicable. We called (that) inexcusable.'

The AVAAZ signs resemble the ones Frances McDormands character puts up in Three Billboards to demand answers for the rape and murder of her child. The Rubio billboards match the text and color of the billboards in the film. A similar campaign launched earlier this week in London, in which billboards appeared demanding answers of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

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Rex Reed's 'Three Billboards' Review Contains Glaring Mistake, Confuses Major Plot PointsThe wait is finally over for Black Panther!

Fans flocked to theaters beginning Thursday night to see the monumental Marvel film after waiting months for its release, and as one would imagine, social media went into a frenzy. Not only did the film break a Twitter record as the most-tweeted about movie of 2018 with over five million tweets (as of Feb. 12), but it also sparked a style movement, coined #WakandaCameToSlay by Black Girl Nerds Tora Zenzi.

Many fans who attended the Thursday opening night of Black Panther showed their excitement by wearing outfits inspired by the films costumes and African roots. And they shared their #WakandaCameToSlay outfits all over social media to express their appreciation for the films representation of black culture.

Twitter user @YourLifeAfter25 shared her traditional African ensemble and said We in here! Checking out @theblackpanther in my traditional slit and kaba sot. Naija girl/Ghana girl. #WakandaCameToSlay!

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Many fans took the opportunity to show off their personal style while incorporating the theme of the movie into their ensembles.

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User @AuthorMoJoseph made a date night out of seeing the movie with her husband and wearing traditional African clothing. Proud, Black and #wakanda ready! #BlackPanther Movie opening #datenight with the hubby! she said.

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Many fans even rocked African-inspired tribal face paint to the screenings, featuring various designs that were used in the film to represent African pride and Afrofuturism.

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And of course, #BlackGirlMagic was in full effect as women banded together to see the film.

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My friends and I were the Black folk doing the most at the Black Panther premier last night. We were in good company though and Im forever in awe of the beauty and community of Blackness, user @misssharpp Tweeted.

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And some die-hard fans even opted to dress up as the Black Panther himself.

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And with the movies official release today, we cant wait to see what else people will share with the #WakandaCameToSlay hashtag.Photo credit: Hearst Communications, Inc. All rights reserved

From Country Living

In the aftermath of a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, at least 17 people are confirmed dead. Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student of the school, has been arrested and charged with 17 counts of murder. Below, just some of the absolutely awful eyewitness accounts from the day.

"I felt very uncomfortable because anybody could be a shooter."

"Right below me on the first floor, I heard shooting and I saw two guys running. I wasn't sure what it was. And then I heard it again. That's when me and a group of people ran downstairs, and I could tell [the shooter] was on my left side because that's where I heard the gunshots from, and it was very loud ... I just ran.

My mom was across the street trying to get me, but the cops had us on the floor for about 20 minutes. I was with a group of kids ... and I didn't know if any of them were shooters or not. I felt very uncomfortable because anybody could be a shooter," student Masiel Baluja told CNN.

"'That can't be anything other than a gunshot.'"

"I just hear 'boom, boom, boom,' and I was just like 'what the heck is that? That can't be anything other than a gunshot.' I was like 'I am not about to be shot.' So I started running. Everyone was just climbing the fence over by Westglades [Middle School]. There was no room on the fence, just everyone climbing," student Victoria Adams told the Associated Press.

"And I saw some bodies. It wasn't good."

"I heard screaming. I heard about five, six gunshots. We thought [they were] firecrackers because they sounded like them. And we heard the police yelling and there was banging on the doors. And I saw some bodies. It wasn't good. [One of the bodies I recognized] was my friend's teacher," an unnamed student told CNN.

"I took a book, I held it up, and I believe maybe the book kind of deterred some of the bullets."

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"I heard two shots. My friend pushed me and said, 'Sam," and I ran to the left side of the classroom. That's where there was a big bookshelf, and we all kind of huddled there together. We clamped really close, tightly together. And then students in front of me, there was this cabinet, they pushed it in front of them so that it would [block] some of the bullets. There were two people in the hallway that I know and they were shot.

[The shooter] came for our classroom. He came after he shot those other two people [in the hallway]. The door was locked, thankfully, but he shot quite a few bullets into the glass and it hit a few people behind me," student Samantha Grady told the TODAY show. Her best friend was shot and killed next to her.

"[Kids] were on their phones just trying to Snapchat everything because they thought it was a joke."

"Kids were freaking out. Some kids froze. Some kids were on their phones. A lot were on their phones just trying to Snapchat everything because they thought it was a joke. It wasn't," a former Douglas student told the New York Times.

"In the classroom, I was sitting down and all I heard was 'pop, pop, pop.'"

"In the classroom, I was sitting down and all I heard was 'pop, pop, pop.' The moment I heard 'pop,' I cleared, I left. I wasn't gonna deal with that. It was at least seven shots and when I was leaving, I heard at least two more," a student told USA Today.

"I managed to put 19 kids in the closet with me."

"We ran back inside the classroom and crouched down on the floor, and we moved into the closet and we were hidden in the closet. I managed to put 19 kids in the closet with me. I just know this is the worst nightmare or scenario that you hope never happens to you and all these [kids], " teacher Melissa Falkowski told CNN.

"There were people running towards me and I realized this was not any drill. This was life or death."

"After we heard the first gunshot we thought it was a drill, but after we started evacuating to our fire-zone because the fire alarm had been pulled and there were people running towards me, I realized this was not any drill. This was life or death. As the people started running towards me, I started running with them. But actually that was a bad choice.

A janitor, thank god, stopped me and all of my other fellow students from going in that direction [because it was] towards the shooter. Right after he stopped us, we were able to get into a classroom, thank god for [that teacher]. Without her, who knows how many of us would have died.

Honestly, when I was going out [of the school] I was in shock. I hadn't realized the true calamity of the situation because, again, we thought this was a drill, and it wasn't. Sadly, it wasn't," student David Hogg, told ABC.

"You have no idea how many bullets he had."

"Videos started to spread. It was really bad. We knew this wasn't a drill. You have no idea how many bullets he had. It seemed like it was out of a video game," Ameer Hussain told PEOPLE.On February 14th, a deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida left the country reeling. And now, in Florida, sales of bulletproof backpacks have reportedly skyrocketed in the aftermath of the latest high school shooting.

According to TMZ, one company specializing in bulletproof backpacks, Bullet Blocker, saw its sales increase by 30 percent the day after the Florida shooting. The companys president, Joe Curran, told TMZ that most of the newly sold bags were shipped to Florida. Bullet Blockers backpacks are lined with Kevlar and weigh roughly 4.5 pounds. The bags cost between $200 and $500.

Bullet-resistant school supplies have been around for decades. And after high-profile school shootings like the one in Parkland, companies often experience a dramatic increase in sales. In 2015, Curran told Marketplace that in the three weeks after the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, sales of Bullet Blocker backpacks increased from 20 to about 10,000 weekly. And in November, CNN reported that a private Christian school in Miami had begun selling bulletproof inserts for students backpacks.

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Unfortunately, bulletproof backpacks dont offer complete protection from shootings. Even if worn on the front, backpacks still cant cover a childs entire body. And field tests of bulletproof inserts show that the panels weaken after several gunshots. Additionally, the lightweight Kevlar used in bulletproof backpacks like the ones from Bullet Blocker can withstand shots from pistols, but is not designed to block fire from rifles like the one used in the Florida school shooting.

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As massacres like the one in Parkland seem to grow more common, its become harder to feel safe from school shootings. While they might not work 100 percent of the time, its understandable that parents would want to purchase school supplies fortified to keep their children safe. But giving every child bulletproof backpacks is not a feasible long-term solution. Regardless, were saddened and outraged that the threat of gun violence at school has become so severe that there is a market for Kevlar-lined school materials. Parents shouldnt have to worry about their childs life being taken at school. Enough is enough. We need gun reform now.Fans of both comedy and love felt a little broken yesterday after a statement came out confirming that Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have separated. The statement says that they made the decision together at the end of the year.

This decision was mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year, the statement read, noting that while it should have been a private decision, they wanted to get ahead of the gossip. We are two best friends who have decided to part ways as a couple, but look forward to continuing our cherished friendship.

The couple, who met while filming the movie Wanderlust back in 2011, got married in 2015. This was the first marriage for Theroux, and the second for Aniston, who  as you probably recall  had a very public divorce from actor Brad Pitt back in 2005.

Aniston and Therouxs split has hit us all pretty hard, since we love them both and were basically obsessed with their relationship. Not to mention the statement came a day after Valentines Day. Sigh.

And because were feeling like we need a good cry RN, heres a bunch of adorable pictures of the former couple.

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While Aniston wasnt on social media, Theroux has an active Instagram account. He shared this loving moment this past August (the caption!).

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This one was posted in honor of her birthday last year. This year, Aniston celebrated with friends  but we dont want to think about that right now.

The pair was always supportive of their mutual friends. Here, Aniston and Theroux honored Jason Bateman this past July when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

Aniston looks positively charmed by Theroux in this shot, which was taken in Paris last year.

The pair got pretty snuggly during the premiere of the third season of Therouxs hit HBO show The Leftovers.

Backstage at last years Academy Awards.

The 2017 Vanity Fair Oscars party.

Just look at those loving looks! *Sob.*

At the end of the day, were glad both Aniston and Theroux are doing what they need to do to be happy. Breakups are never easy, and we wish them the best during this time.Here's everything you need to know about Florida gun laws in regards to the school shooting in Parkland. It's not hard to get a weapon in Florida.

This week, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz confessed to shooting students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida with a gun he obtained legally. In the aftermath of his rampage with an AR-15 rifle, 17 people are dead and 23 injured.

Unfortunately, this type of semiautomatic weapon  a gun the NRA has said is among the most popular rifles in the country  is easy to obtain in Florida.

In fact, Florida has some of the weakest gun laws in the nation.

Though the state has a three-day waiting period on handguns, The New York Times reports that anyone without a felony record, domestic abuse conviction, or a handful of other exceptions  such as a commitment to a mental institution can purchase a semiautomatic rifle in minutes by passing a short background check.

Plus, the state does not require gun owners to register their weapons, nor does it require a permit to purchase a gun. You can also conceal carry a shotgun or rifle without a permit, though you need a permit to do the same with a handgun. On top of that, you can buy an unlimited number of guns at one time in Florida, including AR-15s like the one used by Cruz on February 14th.

These types of weapons use military technology  theyre easy to fire, with little recoil, and can be reloaded with ease (designed for use during enemy combat)  and they are extremely deadly. So deadly, in fact, that from 1994 to 2004, Congress banned the manufacture of assault weapons like the AR-15. Since then, though, it has gotten much easier to buy one. Indeed, only New York, California, Washington, D.C., and five other states have created their own assault-weapons bans.

Thats why so many are calling for gun control now.

How many months  the Las Vegas shooting, the worst shooting weve had in the history of our country, happened on Oct. 1. And what weve got from a lot of members of Congress and the White House were thoughts and prayers and there will be an appropriate time to do something about this, said Mark Kelly  the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, a Democratic representative who suffered severe brain injury after an attempted assassination  in a recent interview with MSNBC. Well, is today the time?

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One things for sure, something has to change to make sure incidents like Parkland never happen again.Pixie Market Charli One Shoulder Tie Strap Shirt, $92, pixiemarket.com

If anyone can make us seriously reconsider a trend, its Millie Bobby Brown. This past summer, the young style maven in the making made those infamous Topshop clear-knee mom jeans actually work. Plus, at this years SAG Awards, she rocked not only Converse, but also two buns with black ribbons. Shes not the only celebrity who has given this detail a chance. Dua Lipa went for a subtle ribbon-embellished bra to attend Capitals 2017 Jingle Bell Ball, Bella Hadid styled it as a classic choker when she attended Diors Homme show, and Yara Shahidi went the extra mile with the ribbon on the backside of her SAG Awards dress.

Sure, this accessory can easily remind us of our arts-and-crafts years in elementary school, but one cant deny its ability to transform a look. Whether it serves as a belt, choker, bandana, or simple add-on, a ribbon proves to be the one item everybody has in that forgotten drawer that can actually make a difference. But dont take our word for it.

Some of the recent runways made a strong case for this versatile detail. For the spring 2018 couture collections, Valentino, Giambattista Valli and Chanel opted to use ribbons as belts. Meanwhile, ready-to-wear designers Self Portrait, Brock Collection, and Tory Burch incorporated a more subtle take on ribbons into their fall 2018 collections, going only for ribbon accent either on the sleeves or shoulders of their pieces.

If you need to change up your daily ensembles a bit, look no further. From earrings to purses, shoes, and clothes, here are 15 ribbon fashion items that will add a fresh and fun twist to your outfits.

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.South Africa has widened a corruption probe into allies of ex-president Jacob Zuma to other countries including India, China and Dubai, the police minister said Sunday.

Fikile Mbalula made the announcement days after South Africa issued an arrest warrant for one of the brothers of the Gupta business family, close associates of scandal-plagued Zuma who was forced from power on Wednesday.

Mbalula told public broadcaster SABC that Ajay Gupta and another four people who are being sought in connection with the case were all out of the country.

While there was no indication that they fled the country fearing arrest, Mbalula vowed that they will "be followed up" through Interpol with the possibility of extradition to face trial in South Africa.

He said two of the suspects were of Indian descent and one other was Chinese. All are thought to be in India, China or Dubai.

"We operate through Interpol, we operate through bilateral (means), if you ever resist there will be extradition. All means necessary will be employed to ensure these people are brought to book," said Mbalula.

He refused to name the suspects except for Ajay Gupta who police last week declared a fugitive.

Local media reports suggested that Zuma's son Duduzane, a business associate of the Guptas, is also among those being sought, and some speculated that he could be in Dubai.

The minister refused to say whether Duduzane Zuma is on the police wanted list.

"There will be more arrests... it's not just a witch hunt," he added.

"It doesn't matter, if you are a politician ... there are no holy cows, there are no untouchables."

In all, 13 people are facing charges linked to allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers was syphoned off by the Guptas. Eight other suspects were arrested last week and have appeared in court.

In his first address to the nation hours after he assumed power on Friday, new South African President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed to fight corruption in a direct reference to the accusations levelled at his predecessor Zuma.- Los Angeles Times

A teenage girl who survived the massacre at a Florida school by hiding in a closet for two hours on Wednesday has hit back at a conservative commentator's statement that the tragedy was not about guns.

Carly Novell, 17, was responding to Tomi Lahren on Twitter after the Fox News pundit dismissed calls for greater gun control after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 assault rifle.

"Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda? My goodness. This isn't about a gun it's about another lunatic," tweeted Lahren, who was among a number of right-wing media figures to say it was too soon to discuss gun control laws.

Miss Novell shared the tweet, saying: "I was hiding in a closet for 2 hours. It was about guns. You weren't there, you don't know how it felt. Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings. This IS about guns and this is about all the people who had their life abruptly ended because of guns."

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The tweet has since gone viral, having been shared more than 271,000 times and liked 681,000 times in 17 hours.

Ms Novell went on to say she was not the only one in her family to survive a massacre by hiding in a closet.

Thousands gathered for an evening vigil at Pine Trails Park in Parkland, Florida to remember those where were killed and injured in the shooting Credit: Getty

Almost 70 years ago, when her grandfather, Charles Cohen, was twelve years old, he also hid in a closet while his whole family was killed during one of Americas first mass shootings by a lone gunman.

"These events shouldn't be repetitive. Something has to change," she said.

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The mass shooting Ms Novell referred to was Howard Unruhs Walk of Death. On September 6, 1949, Unruh murdered 13 people and wounded three others in a 20-minute shooting rampage.

This has been happening repeatedly, there are too many lives being lost because people dont want to make a difference, she told Huffington Post.

Story continues

It happened to my grandpa and it happened to me. People value the right to bear arms over peoples lives. I cant even comprehend it.

Nikolas Cruz appeared in court on Thursday to face formal charges of carrying out the second-deadliest mass shooting at a public school in U.S. history.

Ms Novell's plea came as other students from the school voiced their shock and anger at the events that unfolded at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentines Day.

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Some students tweeted messages to President Trump asking how Cruz had been able to "terrorise" the school.

Others shared stories of how they survived and their disbelief at experiencing the "nightmare" which has traumatised the quiet town, which was voted the safest in Florida last year.

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On Thursday Donald Trump delivered a sombre address from the White House after the 18th school shooting in the country this year, but he avoided any mention of curbing access to guns.

Instead, the US president said he would tackle the difficult issue of mental health and that there had been so many signs that Cruz was mentally disturbed.- AFP

Benjamin Netanyahu opened a war of words with the Iranian foreign minister as he used a speech to brandish a piece of Iranian drone destroyed in Israeli airspace and warn that Iran was "greatest threat to our world".

Holding what appeared to be a panel of the Iranian drone shot down last week amid rising tensions between the two powers, the Israeli leader asked Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister: "Do you recognize it? You should, its yours. Dont test us."

Speaking at a Munich security conference on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu appeared to threaten Iran with further retaliation, adding: "We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies, but against Iran itself."

Mr Zarif, also speaking at the conference, later dismissed Mr Netanyahu's presentation as "a cartoonish circus, which does not even deserve a response". He accused the Israeli prime minister of attempting to revive anti-Iranian "hysteria".

Sunday's gesture comes scarcely a week after military escalation in Syria raised questions about Israels mantle of military supremacy in the Middle East.

Protesters hold up a heart-shaped sign at a demonstration during the Munich Security Conference in Munich Credit: MICHAELA REHLE/ REUTERS

Last Saturday Israel claimed an Iranian drone breached its airspace. An Israeli Apache attack helicopter destroyed it, and in a retaliatory move, Israeli fighter jets were scrambled to Syria, where they attacked a series of high-value targets.

It was the largest battery of Israeli strikes on Syria since 1982, during Lebanons civil war.

It also carried a heavy price: one of the Israeli jets was hit by Syrian fire, downing the plane. The two pilots ejected over Israel and one is seriously injured.

For Mr Netanyahu, who is fighting corruption charges at home and may welcome the opportunity to flex some foreign policy muscle, the Munich symposium provided an opportunity to sound the alarm on rising Iranian power and gather support to defeat it.

In Syria, the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah has played a pivotal role in supporting the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, all but ensuring his victory.

Story continues

Profile | Benjamin Netanyahu

And in both Syria and Iraq, Iranian troops and Iran-backed militias have played a critical role in battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

Mr Netanyahu warned that Tehran sought to exploit the gap left by Isil for its own advance. He said Iran was trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza".

"This is a very dangerous development for our region, said Mr Netanyahu.

But Irans leadership scoffed at his claims. Mr Zarif, who also addressed the conference, called Mr Netanyahu's presentation "a cartoonish circus".

Iran nuclear talks

Mr Zarif denied that Tehran was seeking "hegemony" in the Middle East. He also accused Israels top ally the US of using the conference to "revive hysteria" against Iran. US President Donald Trump has frequently called the nuclear deal a bad one.

That view is shared by Mr Netanyahu, who said the 2015 Iran nuclear deal must be scrapped or rewritten in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapon capabilities.

But signatories France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China say the deal cannot be revisited and Iran is holding up its end by allowing inspections.

Former US secretary of state John Kerry also weighed in, saying it was wrong to assume Iran would obtain a nuclear weapon as soon as the 15-year scope of the deal ends.

"If your house is on fire, are you going to refuse to put it out because you are concerned it will light on fire again in 15 years? Or are you going to put it out and use the intervening time to prevent it ever catching fire again?" Kerry said.

In his 2012 United Nations General Assembly address, Mr Netanyahu held aloft a cartoonish drawing of a bomb to illustrate his concerns about Irans progress towards making a nuclear weapon.Two years ago, Arcadio Del Valle was just a regular guy with a regular job living in Boston. His life was turned upside down when he was scouted via social media by a big and tall mens brand that was showcasing at New York Fashion Week. It wanted him to walk in the first plus-size male runway show.

I hesitated at first, Del Valle tells Yahoo Lifestyle. He says he was dubious about the brands proposition. Im a 400-pound guy. Im no model, but they loved my look and style, so I said yes and said, The heck with it; I got nothing to lose.'

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The 30-year-olds career has taken off since then, and he has walked in several runway shows and been contacted for photo shoots. But Del Valles real passion lies in spreading the message of body positivity and self-love, and his platform as a model has made it possible to for him to reach more people than he ever thought possible.

I saw the positive feedback and all the messages from men, women, and even teens telling me how much they have been inspired seeing someone of my size and confidence, he says.

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Del Valle says the body-positive movement is well on its way for women, but men need more inclusion and representation  and hes trying to change that.

All bodies are beautiful bodies and should be part of the movement, regardless of who you are and what you look like, he says. The mens side needs to embrace that more and be more comfortable, including men that are more than just average size or masculine all the time. Like the women, we all come in all shapes and sizes and identify differently, and thats the beauty of it.

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Del Valle is calling on fashion brands to be inclusive and represent men of all sizes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American males waist measures 40 inches. But very few designers and fashion brands include models who represent the average American man.

I want agencies and brands to expand and see that the bigger guys have [the] potential to do what our smaller counterparts can, he says. My goal is to prove and show that you can kill it and slay it at any size.

Story continues

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For those who struggle with self-love, the model has advice about how to overcome insecurities: It starts with: Stop worrying what others will say or think. If we live worrying what others think of us, then we are not living for us; youre not being yourself.

The first steps, whatever, starts with you  the only way youll live happily and do it with confidence, he says. Its baby steps. He adds, No matter what your size is, sexual orientation, age or whatever  you can feel and be beautiful.

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So whats next for Del Valle? Grab any opportunity he gets by the horns, he says. Show the industry and anyone who doubted that bigger men are capable and worthy. Even with the critiques and cyberbullying, Im determined to strive for greatness and positivity for all.

We cant wait to follow his journey.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Ikom (Nigeria) (AFP) - For the first time in his life, Victor Obi believes that the only way to win freedom in Cameroon is with a gun.

"I don't want to die, but the only future is our independence, and they will not give it to us," said the student, whose name has been changed for his own safety.

The 25-year-old is camped out in a small Nigerian village just kilometres from his home in Cameroon where authorities have launched a crackdown on English-speaking separatists.

"They killed my sister and my brother," said Obi, his voice heavy with hatred. "I have nothing to lose."

In December, Obi says soldiers invaded his hometown of Kajifu and started shooting indiscriminately at suspected separatists, said to be running a major training camp in the thick equatorial forest surrounding the village.

Kajifu is located in one of Cameroon's two English-speaking regions that have been pushing for independence from the French-speaking elite who rule the West African country.

On October 1, separatists declared the two regions as the self-proclaimed republic of "Ambazonia", marking a turning point for the country's English-speaking minority, which makes up around a fifth of the population.

Cameroon President Paul Biya dispatched troops, combat helicopters and armoured vehicles to root out the dissidents, forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

At least 26 soldiers have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP tally.

But the civilian death toll isn't known, with non-governmental organisations and independent media barred from the area.

Though the original Ambazonia leaders have dissociated themselves from militant offshoots -- they claim their struggle is peaceful -- there are a growing number of attacks against the government.

- 'Raise an army' -

On Sunday, before a national youth day parade in Batibo, a town near the Nigerian border, a government official was kidnapped and his car was burnt in an attack claimed by separatists.

Story continues

Lucas Cho Ayaba, leader of the Ambazonian Defence Forces (ADF), took credit for the kidnapping, declaring: "You kill my people, we will chase you to the gates of hell."

The ADF, along with three other militias, represent the main groups which count more than 300 fighters, according to an International Crisis Group (ICG) estimate. There are also 10 much smaller but violent factions engaged in the conflict.

Few claim attacks and it's difficult to know exactly who is responsible, said ICG researcher Hans De Marie Heungoup.

"The main issue for Ambazonian groups is that they really lack finance," he said.

"If they had money to buy weapons, train and feed their people, they could raise an army."

But amidst the chaos, one thing seems certain: the crackdown has radicalised many English-speakers, among them the farmers and managers who have long felt marginalised by Yaounde but have never been interested in politics -- until now.

- 'They are angry' -

English-speakers in Cameroon have been marginalised for too long, said Pastor John Mbe, one of more than 33,000 refugees in Cross River State, Nigeria.

"Many people have died already, we can't go back home," he said, "young people may not have guns and bullets, but I can tell you they're angry."

A source close to the militants says they have adopted the guerilla philosophy of freedom fighters in Eritrea as well as that of Nelson Mandela's anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

In Manyu, a region at the epicentre of the conflict, separatists block roads with tyres and tree trunks to ambush and attack military bases.

The militants are armed mostly with homemade rifles, some Kalashnikovs, grenades and other improvised explosive devices.

The few sophisticated weapons they possess have been stolen from police stations.

As a result of the simmering violence, thousands of refugees are arriving in Ikom, a city just over the border in a Nigeria, raising fears that the conflict is spiralling out of control.

- Black magic -

No formal fighter camp has been identified, but according to several witnesses interviewed by AFP, young refugees are performing black magic rituals to prepare for war.

They gather in small groups for "juju" ceremonies, during which they cut their foreheads and rub the bleeding wound with "magic potions" to make them invincible, said a Nigerian soldier who attended one of the ceremonies.

Their presence is a growing concern for Nigeria, an ally of Cameroon, which last month arrested and extradited 47 separatist leaders and deployed soldiers along the border.

Yet that hasn't stopped the rebels from launching attacks from Nigerian territory in recent weeks, according to security sources.

At the end of January, suspected separatists detonated an explosive device at the Cameroon border post of Ekok, partially destroying an office.

"The truth is that many militants are hiding among the refugees, and they just cross the border at will through the forest," said Lawrence Asuquo, head of immigration at Ikom.

"They launch attacks on the Cameroonian army and they run back to Nigeria. It's almost impossible to track them."(Corrects name of Executive Director of Burma Human Rights Network in paragraph 9)

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand awarded Myanmar's army chief a royal decoration on Friday amid allegations of crimes by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya Muslims that have prompted international condemnation.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state and crossed into Bangladesh since last August, when attacks on security posts by insurgents triggered a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounts to ethnic cleansing, with reports of arson attacks, murder and rape.

Myanmar army commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing was granted the Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant at a ceremony in Bangkok, according to the general's official website.

The website also showed a picture of the commander-in-chief shaking hands with his Thai counterpart, General Tarnchaiyan Srisuwan.

Buddhist-majority Thailand often gives royal decorations to army chiefs of other countries who are supportive of Thailand's army, Thai army spokesman Lieutenant General Nothapol Boonngam said.

"He received the honour because of our military relations. We support each other's missions and exchange visits. Our armies have many joint activities," Nothapol told Reuters, adding that the Thai army had requested Hlaing's award since last year.

"This is a separate issue from human rights."

The Burma Human Rights Network said Thailand had crossed a "red line" by granting the award to Hlaing because Thailand is seen as a place of refuge by many Rohingya and other minority groups fleeing persecution in Myanmar, also a Buddhist-majority country.

"This kind of person doesn't deserve to win this great award," Kyaw Win, the group's executive director, told Reuters.

Earlier this week, Thailand and the United States kicked off the annual Cobra Gold military drills in Thailand - the largest such exercises in the Asia-Pacific region.

Story continues

Thailand invited Myanmar as observers to the disaster relief and humanitarian assistance portions of Cobra Gold, prompting criticism from rights groups who questioned why a military accused of ethnic cleansing was being given access.

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok this week said Myanmar was not a participant in any of the exercises.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Nick Macfie)A student who survived the mass school shooting in Florida has been lauded for delivering an emotionally charged speech at a gun control rally.

A gunman opened fire at a school in the small city of Parkland, around 45 miles north of Miami, on Wednesday, killing 17 and leaving more than a dozen injured.

A suspect, named by police as Nikolas Cruz, was arrested in the aftermath. Aerial footage showed familiar scenes of frightened students spilling out of the school with their hands raised in the air.

Emma Gonzales, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was in the schools auditorium and assumed they were having a drill until first responders told everyone to run.

Ms Gonzales, whose speech went viral and name trended on social media over the weekend, has been hailed as an icon and a leader in the struggle for greater gun control.

This isnt just a mental health issue. He wouldnt have hurt that many students with a knife, Ms Gonzalez said of the alleged assailant as she addressed crowds at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

The impassioned students voice trembled with outrage as she challenged US President Donald Trumps tweet drawing attention to the fact there were so many signs the alleged killer was mentally disturbed.

If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, Ms Gonzalez said. Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association.

Mr Trump received millions of dollars for his 2016 presidential campaign from the National Rifle Association  a hugely powerful organisation which objects to any form of gun control.

Wiping away tears from her eyes at various moments during the speech, Ms Gonzales led the crowd in chants of shame on you! after referring to politicians accepting National Rifle Association donations.

Story continues

To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you, she said.

Shouts of enough is enough! and No more guns! echoed through crowds and attendees brandished placards saying protect lives not guns.

High profile individuals and social media users have come forward to applaud Ms Gonzales for her courageous speech.

YESSSSS EMMA GONZALEZ!!!!!!! Thank you for your voice, and for your bravery and honesty while using it," actor Zendaya tweeted.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Emma Gonzalez is a hero, said Joan Walsh, CNN political contributor. She's calling out Trump and the NRA by name at this rally. Getting people to reply to NRA talking points with We call BS! Most are. A few visibly uncomfortable adults on stage. But not many.

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"We are going to be the last mass shooting," she told the crowd. "We are going to change the law. That's going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook, and it's all going to be due to the tireless efforts of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most importantly the students."A Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School student took to the podium at rally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Saturday to call for stricter gun control legislation. Emma Gonzalez delivered an impassioned speech to the crowd, speaking directly to President Donald Trump and other politicians in Washington.

We will be the last mass shooting, Gonzalez said before the crowd of people at the rally.

Gonzalez, a senior at the school, was sitting on the floor of the auditorium Wednesday when the shooting that killed at least 17 people and injured numerous others unfolded, according to CNN.

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We need to pay attention to the fact that this isnt just a mental health issue, Gonzalez said during the rally. He wouldnt have been able to kill that many people with a knife.

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At one point, Gonzalez read Trumps tweet in response to the shooting about mental health and said she would like to speak to him directly about how much money he received from the National Rifle Association.

The crowd erupted in chants of Shame on you! after Gonzalezs direct message to Trump.

Don't miss: Artie Lange, Addiction and HBO's 'Crashing': Pete Holmes Goes Inside Season 2 Episode That Examines Lange's Struggles

Gonzalez also rallied the crowd with responses of We call B.S.! to statements about the NRA and political talking points.

"To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez and other students like her have been outspoken in their calls for stricter gun legislation in the wake of Fridays shooting.

What we really need is action, student David Hogg told CNN Thursday. Because we can say, Yes, were going to do these things, thoughts and prayers. What we really need more than that is action. Were children. You guys are, like, the adults. Take action, work together, come over your politics and get something done.

Story continues

Most popular: Delta Passenger Who Filmed Viral Rant Now Feels Bad After Susan Peirez Suspended From Government Job

Numerous others made clear they were finished with flimsy promises of thoughts and prayers. Lori Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa, was killed in the Parkland shooting, shouted at Trump on CNN to do something.

I just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements for my daughters funeral, whos 14, she said. President Trump, please do something! Do something! Action! We need it now! These kids need safety now!

Parkland Florida Shooting

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekMUNICH (Reuters) - Estonia, worried about a continued Russian military buildup, on Sunday called for the European Union to spend more on the defense of its external borders. Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid said her country was already spending 2.2 percent of economic output on the military and could not afford to spend more, although there were additional military needs. "Our little country cannot do more than it is already doing," she told Reuters in an interview at the Munich Security Conference. "But more needs to be done in our region." Kaljulaid said the EU functioned as a redistribution mechanism, with money to be spent in those areas where it made the most sense. In the case of security, that would clearly be the border areas, she said, calling for a "true defense union" that included a mechanism to help all members meet security needs. Kaljulaid also called for all NATO members to increase defense spending to meet the NATO target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on the military by 2024. Germany, whose spending now totals around 1.2 percent of GDP, will not meet the target by 2024, NATO officials have said. "All alliance partners made the same commitments," she said. "The important thing is that there's movement." Kaljulaid said increasing prices for military equipment were complicating the effort by eroding countries' buying power. In Estonia's case, that affected even the purchases of ammunition. "Even if we spent 2.5 percent, we would not be in a position to build up a sufficient deterrent," she said. She said Russia had proven unpredictable, particularly after its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine, but it was important to maintain dialogue with Moscow. (Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Peter Graff)In the wake of Floridas horrific school shooting, Gwen Graham, a Democratic candidate in the states gubernatorial race, called on Gov. Rick Scott to immediately suspend sales and permits of AR-15s and assault-style weapons.

If no action is taken soon, Graham said, Scotts legacy will be forever covered in blood.

Graham, a former congresswoman, called out the governor and the states Republican lawmakers in a statement released on Friday. Her plea comes days after a 19-year-old man confessed to walking into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 assault-style rifle and opening fire.

Wednesdays massacre left 17 people dead and 15 others wounded. The victims included both students and staff.

Listen to the children who survived this shooting and the mothers who lost their kids, Graham said. I stand with them in demanding our leaders take action now.

(Photo: Bill Clark via Getty Images)

Graham pointed out that the gun used in Wednesdays attack was similar to the weapon used during the horrific shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando two years earlier. The Orlando shooter reportedly used a .223 SIG Sauer MCX rifle, killing 46 people and injuring 53 others.

After the largest mass shooting in modern American history, Rick Scott sat on his hands, Graham said. After 13 school shootings, Rick Scott looked the other way. After the massacre of children, Rick Scott wont even say the words commonsense gun safety laws.

If Rick Scott and Republicans in Tallahassee wont even confront the problem we face, how can we expect it to ever stop? she added. Rick Scotts legacy will forever be covered in blood.

Grahams pitch to halt sales of assault-style weapons as a temporary measure. She called on lawmakers to move forward with gun safety measures that she and other Democrats in the legislature have proposed in previous years as a state representative.

These measures include tougher background checks, banning large capacity ammunition magazines, restricting domestic abusers from owning guns and a ban on assault-style weapons.

Story continues

When asked about Grahams request, the governors office directed media outlets to Scotts previously released statement, which mentioned plans on meeting with state leaders to discuss ways to keep guns away from individuals struggling with mental illness.

To our elected officials in the Legislature: It is time to act and engage, Graham said.

Dont turn off the TV, dont vacation over your long weekend, she added. Listen to what the students in that school have to say. Listen to the grief-stricken parents. They are demanding your action and I am standing with them.

Also on HuffPost

Students mourn during a community prayer vigil for victims of Wednesday's shooting.

Mourners gather during a prayer vigil.

A woman breaks down with emotion during the vigil.

Vigil participants hold hands.

A mother tries to comfort her weeping daughter at the end of the vigil.

Mourners hug.

Alyssa Kramer, 16, gets a hug from her mother, Tonja Kramer.

Daniel Journey, center, an 18-year-old senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, at the vigil.

A student rests his head against his mother.

City, county and state officials release balloons in honor of the victims.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Students and teachers who survived a mass school shooting in Florida have issued emotional and urgent calls for gun control at a rally.

A crowd of at least one thousand people gathered in front of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, giving impassioned speeches referencing the dead and demanding tougher gun laws. Seventeen students and teachers were killed when an assailant opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School this week.

Chants of enough is enough! and No more guns! reverberated though the gathering. People lofted signs carrying messages like and protect lives not guns.

This isnt just a mental health issue. He wouldnt have hurt that many students with a knife, student Emma Gonzalez said of the assailant, her voice quavering with outrage as she challenged Donald Trumps tweet noting so many signs the alleged killer was mentally disturbed.

If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, Ms Gonzalez said to a roaring audience, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association.

She led the crowd in chants of shame on you! after referencing politicians accepting National Rifle Association donations.

Fighting back tears, teacher Melissa Falkowski recounted surviving the horror.

No teacher should have to be huddle in a closet with her students to keep them calm, she said.

Multiple speakers called on their elected officials, both in the state capital in Tallahassee and in Washington, to enact tougher gun control measures like a ban on assault weapons. The shooter used an AR-15, a common type of semiautomatic rifle.

It is well past time that no civilians have access to an AR-15, Broward Teachers Union president Anna Fusco said. It is time for action now. It is time for more than thoughts and prayersIts well past time we do extreme vetting when it comes to guns, she added, referencing Mr Trumps call for extreme vetting of immigrants.

Story continues

Rep Ted Deutch echoed the call to outlaw assault weapons, adding that Congress should ban high-capacity magazines, expand background checks and raise the minimum age for buying rifles from 18 to 21.

Speakers called on attendees to translate their grief and anger into political change.

We have got to turn our anger, our frustration, our rage to actionweve got to vote, weve got to vote, weve got to vote, Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. We need those commonsense gun laws now.The President and first lady Melania Trump visits Broward Health North hospital following the Parkland school shooting: AP/Andrew Harnik

Donald Trump has attacked the FBI for failing to stop the Florida school shooting suspect and spending too much time trying to link his election campaign to Russia.

The US President responded to criticisms of his handling of the tragedy by lashing out at the intelligence agency for missing warning signs before Nikolas Cruz shot dead 14 pupils and three members of staff.

He tweeted: This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!

Mr Trump followed it up with a tweet claiming that the Russians were only colluding with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

His attack on the FBI came after the indictment of 13 Russians for meddling in the 2016 US election on charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.

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Cruz has confessed to the Valentines Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which was the deadliest US school shooting since 2012.

The FBI has admitted it failed to act on a tip-off that he had access to guns, had a desire to kill, and could be plotting an attack.

In a statement, the intelligence agency said the information should have been assessed as a threat to life and passed on to its Miami field office.

FBI director Christopher Wray, who is now facing calls from Republicans to resign, said: We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.

The Parkland massacre prompted thousands of students, parents and teachers to hold an anti-gun rally at Fort Lauderdale.

One survivor, Emma Gonzalez, rounded on Trumps focus on mental health in a passionate speech calling for stricter gun control.

Ms Gonzalez said: If the President wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and ... how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association ... It doesnt matter because I already know. Thirty million dollars.

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The President was also criticised for his tone deaf approach to the massacre by posing with victims and families with his thumbs up.Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he poses for a photo with Broward Health North Hospital staff, two days after 17 people were killed at a Florida school - Twitter/DonaldTrump

Donald Trump said on Saturday that the FBI had missed the warning signs of the suspect in the Florida high school shooting because it had been "spending too much time" investigating his campaign's links with Russia.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has come under pressure in recent days after it admitted it failed to act on a tip off it received about 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who is accused of killing 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

First it was revealed that the FBI failed to delve into a YouTube comment posted by a "Nikolas Cruz" that said, "Im going to be a professional school shooter." The FBI said it could not determine who made it.

On Friday, the bureau said it had failed to act on a tip that Cruz had a "desire to kill people," disturbing social media posts and access to a gun.

The US President has also faced criticism for not addressing the subject of gun control in the days after the shooting. Survivors of the shooting and relatives of the victims have demanded action after it emerged that Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour.

Mr Trump laid the blame at the FBI and the Democrats in a pair of tweets on Saturday.

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The president travelled to Florida on Friday to meet privately with victims of the shooting and hailed the heroics of first responders.

But he extended few public words of consolation to those in deep mourning, nor did he address the debate over gun violence that has raged since Wednesday's mass shooting.

At a rally on Saturday, a survivor attacked him over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the National Rifle Association and for overturning a measure implemented by former President Barack Obama that required extra scrutiny of some gun buyers with a history of mental illness.

Story continues

"We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law," Emma Gonzalez vowed.

"They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS!" Florida high school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez calls on President Trump and lawmakers to tighten gun restrictions in impassioned speech at an anti-gun rally in Fort Lauderdale https://t.co/DgnqrrVs9x  CNN (@CNN) February 17, 2018

The FBI's acknowledgment that it mishandled the tip prompted a sharp rebuke from its boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and a call from Florida's Republican Gov. Rick Scott, a Trump ally, for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.

Mr Trump and other Republicans have heavily criticised the FBI. They are still dissatisfied with its decision not to charge Hillary Clinton with crimes related to her use of a private email server, and they see signs of bias in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.The suspect in a Florida school shooting may plead guilty in an effort to avoid the death penalty and allow a traumatised community to avert a protracted trial and move on, his attorney said.

This is an opportunity to put the criminal case behind and help the victims' families begin to try and pick up pieces of their lives for our community to heal and to figure out how we stop these things from ever happening again, Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein told CNN.

Accused shooter Nikolas Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after a massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Mr Finkelstein told NBC his client was willing to plead guilty to life without parole.

While Mr Cruz has not yet entered a plea, arrest documents allege that he confessed to authorities he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw on the hallways and on the school grounds.

Mr Finkelstein said the key question was now one of punishment.

The only question is, does he live or does he die? Mr Finkelstein said.

In the days after the bloodshed in Parkland, a portrait has begun to emerge of a disturbed young man whose warning signs repeatedly went unheeded.

The FBI has admitted that it did not follow up on a tip that Mr Cruz had weapons and a desire to kill, and the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that welfare and law enforcement investigators had looked into Mr Cruz cutting himself and discussing his desire to purchase a gun on social media.

Another attorney representing Mr Cruz, Melissa McNeil, described him to reporters as a broken human being.Nikolas Cruz appears via video monitor with his public defender Melisa McNeill at a bond court hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Reuters

The man accused of killing 17 people at a Florida high school had reportedly been investigated for self-harm and saying he wanted to buy a gun.

Suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz spurred investigations by law enforcement and welfare officials after cutting his arms and professing a desire to purchase firearms on social media, according to records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The information bolsters an emerging portrait of a disturbed young man who had repeatedly shown warning signs of wanting to unleash violence.

The FBI has acknowledged that it failed to investigate a tip last month that Mr Cruz owned guns and had the desire to kill, leading Florida governor Rick Scott to demand the resignation of FBI director Christopher Wray.

Another tip, passed along to the FBI last year, spotlighted an online comment posted by a Nikolas Cruz saying Im going to be a professional school shooter. The agent in charge of the bureaus Miami field office said officials could not at the time confirm the commenters identity.

People who knew Mr Cruz have described the student as troubled. He was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for bad behaviour before last weeks massacre.

His defence attorney described him as a a broken human being.

Hes a broken child, attorney Melisa McNeill said after Mr Cruzs initial court appearance. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.Washington (AFP) - Students who survived a mass shooting at their Florida school on Sunday announced plans to march on Washington in a bid to "shame" politicians into reforming laws that make firearms readily available.

The "March for Our Lives" will take place on March 24, with sister rallies planned across the country, a group of students told ABC News' "This Week."

They pledged to make Wednesday's slaughter in Parkland, Florida a turning point in America's deadlocked debate on gun control.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, a troubled former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, confessed to killing 17 people with a legally-purchased AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, the latest such atrocity in a country with more than 30,000 gun-related deaths annually.

Among the students announcing the march was Emma Gonzalez, who captured worldwide attention with a powerful speech in which she assailed President Donald Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby.

She vowed Stoneman Douglas school would be "the last mass shooting."

On Sunday, Gonzalez, 18, urged politicians to join a conversation about gun control -- citing Trump as well as his fellow Republicans Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott.

"We want to give them the opportunity to be on the right side of this," she said, as she and her four classmates called on students nationwide to help push the message.

- White House 'listening session' -

Gonzalez and other Stoneman Douglas students were scheduled to be part of a nationally televised, prime-time "town hall" event on CNN on Wednesday. Rubio, who has attracted criticism for accepting millions in political help from pro-gun groups, tweeted that he would participate.

That same day, Trump will host a "listening session" with high school students and teachers, the White House said in a statement, though it did not specify who would attend.

Story continues

The president met Sunday with top Republican lawmaker Paul Ryan, discussing "the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida," among other topics.

Singling out links between politicians and the powerful National Rifle Association, Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky said any politician "who is taking money from the NRA is responsible for events like this."

"This isn't about the GOP," he said, referring to the Republican Party. "This isn't about the Democrats."

The NRA, a traditional ally of the Republicans who currently control Congress and the White House, defends a literal view of the US Constitution's 2nd Amendment which promises a right "to keep and bear arms."

Even after last October's killing of 58 people by a gunman in Las Vegas who amassed 47 firearms to commit the worst mass shooting in recent US history, legislators accomplished nothing in the way of tighter controls.

Accusing the NRA of "fostering and promoting this gun culture," Kasky said the students seek "a new normal where there's a badge of shame on any politician who's accepting money from the NRA."

- 'They want action' -

"People keep asking us, what about the Stoneman Douglas shooting is going to be different, because this has happened before and change hasn't come?" said Kasky.

"This is it," he continued. "We are going to be marching together as students begging for our lives."

The students did not indicate how many people they expected to join their rallies.

But their aims won support from Florida Democratic Congressman Ted Deutch, who said they can make a difference.

"After what they saw, the worst things imaginable, they're not going to just sit back and take it," he told "This Week."

"All I've heard all week is how frustrated people are with rhetoric. They want action."

Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo, speaking on the same program, said he is working towards bipartisan solutions that could prevent similar tragedies.

"There are a lot of Republicans who are prepared to support reasonable, common-sense gun safety laws," he said.

Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff said that although Republicans have faced a bigger hurdle in making gun control a priority, "it's been a challenge in the Democratic Party as well."

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Schiff asked, "How much more of this are we gonna to take? How many more shootings?"

Congress has to get "off its backside" to "stare down the NRA and do the right thing," he said.

The student survivors' calls for change "should matter," said Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut whose wife, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot and wounded by a deranged gunman.

He said on "Fox News Sunday" that the student activists "are going to vote on this issue probably for the rest of their lives and they're going to encourage others to do that as well."

But conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, speaking on the same show, said neither legislation nor marches are the answer.

"It's not the fault of the NRA," he said, calling for concealed weapons to be allowed in schools.

"If we are really serious about protecting the kids, we need a mechanism to be defensive."Protesters gathered at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse on Saturday to demand gun control. (Photo: Johanne Rahaman for HuffPost)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  Something powerful is happening in Florida.

For the third straight day following a school shooting that left 17 dead and more than a dozen injured, community members gathered to demand gun control. And for those politicians who are in the pocket of the National Rifle Association, the people had another message: Be scared.

On Saturday, more than a thousand Floridians swarmed around the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale to make their voices heard, refusing to let the shooting in Parkland fade into memory. Speakers included students, teachers and activists. The rally was sponsored by Moms Demand Action, the Broward Teachers Union, the League of Women Voters and other groups.

Delaney Tarr, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, used to worry about tests. Now she worries about being shot.

My main concerns are funerals, gun control and whether or not Im going to be shot wherever I go, Tarr said. My innocence  our innocence  has been taken from us. Im 17, but in a matter of days have aged decades.

The gunman slaughtered 17 of my people, Tarr said. Shes asking for gun control so it doesnt happen again.

Because of these gun laws, people I love have died, she said. Wheres the common sense in that? People are dying every day.

Another Stoneman Douglas High student, Emma Gonzalez, delivered a passionate and heartbreaking message to President Donald Trump.

If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should have never have happened, and maintains telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association, Gonzalez said.

After the shooting, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) stuck with offering thoughts and prayers. They both have A+ ratings from the NRA, and have been endorsed by the gun lobby during their campaign runs.

Story continues

Vote them out! Vote them out! Saturdays crowd chanted at one point in reference to Scott and Rubio.

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Among the officials speaking to the crowd, Coral Springs Commissioner Dan Daley, a graduate of Stoneman Douglas, said Florida has become the gunshine state.

Lives were cut short by one person who had no business to own an assault rifle, Daley said. The gunman obtained an AR-15 and used it for death and destruction.

Thats not OK, the commissioner said. Thats insane.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said the way to take down gun-loving politicians is simple: vote.

Weve got to vote, Runcie told the crowd, to cheers. Weve got to vote. Weve got to vote. If theres no vote, this is just going to be a bunch of noise.

People gathered at the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse on Feb. 17, 2018, to call for gun control in the wake of the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Russias former ambassador has dismissed allegations of a years-long campaign to disrupt the US presidential election as fantasies that have spoiled the trust between the two nations.

A day after special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of potential Russian interference produced 13 indictments of Russian nationals, former ambassador Sergey Kislyak accused America of engaging in a hunting spree throughout the world on Russian computer wizards.

I'm not sure that I can trust American law enforcement to be the most precise and truthful source of information about what Russians do, Mr Kislyak said at a conference in Munich.

Whatever allegations are being mounted against us are simply fantasies that are being used for political reasons inside the United States in the fight between different sides of the political divide, he added.

An indictment unveiled a day earlier alleged a sophisticated plot to foment distrust of American government and denigrate Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

It accused employees of the Internet Research Agency  described as a Russian organisation engaged in political and electoral interference operations that sought to conduct information warfare against the United States of America  of operating with a strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system and undermine Ms Clinton.

The indictment called Trump campaign officials interactions with Russian agents unwitting, but contacts between Mr Kisylak and people in president Donald Trumps orbit have helped shape Mr Muellers probe.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigations into Russian interference after it was revealed he did not disclose meetings with Mr Kislyak, and former campaign aide and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with the then-ambassador.If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).Rep. Claudia Tenney with Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on April 21, 2017. (Photo: JIM WATSON via Getty Images)

A Republican House member seems a bit confused why the public is still discussing the domestic abuse allegations that forced White House staff secretary Rob Porter from his job last week.

Im not saying hes innocent, but Im saying we dont know, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) said Wednesday during an interview on upstate New York radio station WUTQ. He could be the worst guy in the world, but now were getting into prosecution, as far as I know. I guess there was an issue about  maybe the FBI knew about it  but really, is this what were talking about at this point?

She added: Once they found out about it, they let the guy go. Why are we still talking about it?

Porter resigned from the White House on Feb. 7 after both his ex-wives publicly accused him of physical, verbal and emotional abuse. He has denied the allegations.

Porter hasnt been charged with any criminal offense. That, Tenney said repeatedly, means the accusations most likely are fake.

There might be an element of truth to [the allegations], but why wasnt this guy prosecuted before if these things were happening? she asked.

Has this guy committed a crime? Has anyone prosecuted him for his alleged abuse against the past wives?

One of the radio hosts pointed out that because the abuse allegations affected Porters ability to get high-level security clearance, he was susceptible to blackmail. Tenney quickly dismissed that issue, saying domestic abuse is not a crime of character.

Blackmail and domestic situations dont really line up. Theyre not crimes of character, she said. Theyre character, but theyre not dishonesty. To me ... just because somebody has been accused of these things  and even if theyre true  that doesnt necessarily mean hes going to be dishonest and commit blackmail.

Tenney blamed Republican Party reluctance to embrace Trumps presidency as a reason he may have made a rushed decision to employ Porter.

When you dont have anyone supporting you thats part of the structure, youve got to find people that arent always the best and you find that out later because you literally just need someone to do the job, Tenney said.

Story continues

Obviously the issue of sexual assault or any of those things, anything like that is very serious, but were also getting into the minutiae of whats going on with the White House, Tenney said.

There are so many things happening with this White House, people coming and going, and new people.

Listen to Tenneys full interview below.

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Tenney cited her experience as a divorce lawyer in casting doubt on the accusations by both of Porters ex-wives.

Ive had divorce cases where terrible abuse is going on and the person doesnt do anything about it, usually its the wife, sometimes its the husband, she said. But in cases like this, Ive seen cases where somebody hurts themselves and they go in and blame their ex-husband. Or their ex-husband to be. The person wasnt even there.

President Donald Trump and his administration have been criticized for how the White House handled the accusations. Trump and other aides continued to defend Porter, even after he resigned.

Meredith Kelly, communications director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized Tenneys comments on Friday as shameful and frankly disgusting.

Survivors of domestic abuse have a hard enough time coming forward without Members of Congress casting doubt on their stories, Kelly said in a press release. Tenneys disturbing smear of two women confronting their abuser shows why she needs to be replaced.

Tenney did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Related...

Rob Porter's Ex-Wife 'Floored' By Trump Insinuating She's A Liar

Porters First Wife Dismisses Belief That Only Weak Women Are In Abusive Relationships

One Week Into The Rob Porter Saga, The White House Is A Train Wreck

House Oversight Panel Investigating Alleged Abuser Rob Porter

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Dallas Mavericks guard Dennis Smith Jr. may have had the best dunk of the Verizon Slam Dunk contest Saturday night, but the low score given to his first dunk  a 39 out of 50  kept him out of the finals of the four-man competition.

The rookie wasnt happy about it, and voiced his frustration on social media afterward.

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For his first attempt, Smith attempted a 360 windmill but could not convert. After the miss, he switched things up and slammed home a double-pump reverse jam, yielding a score of 39 from the judges.

Based on his tweet, Smith is not happy that dunk received a score of 39 when Victor Oladipo received a 31 despite missing all three of his attempts at a two-handed reverse windmill.

Smiths second dunk resulted in the first perfect score of the night, and deservedly so. Watch this:

The combined total of those two dunks, 89, fell behind finalists Donovan Mitchell (98) and Larry Nance Jr. (93). And in the end, Mitchell, with a Vince Carter tribute as his finale, bested Nance Jr. to take home the victory.

You be the judge. Does Smith Jr. have a legitimate beef?

Dallas Mavericks Dennis Smith Jr. competes in the NBA All-Star basketball slam dunk contest, Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool)

      

Sam Cooper is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

More NBA coverage from Yahoo Sports:

 Starstruck rookie pulls upset in NBA Dunk Contest

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Budapest (AFP) - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday ratcheted up his fierce anti-immigration rhetoric as he urged voters to reelect him in April for a third term, branding the opposition as out of touch and "hopeless".

"Dark clouds are gathering over Europe because of immigration," Orban told an audience of supporters during an annual state-of-the-nation speech in Budapest.

"Nations will cease to exist, the West will fall, while Europe won't even realise that it has been invaded," he said, claiming that large European cities could soon have Muslim majority populations.

"The opposition doesn't feel the voice of the times," he said.

Since 2015 the 54-year-old has become known for his tough anti-immigration measures including building razor-wire border fences, and his criticism of EU policies in this and other areas.

He has also sparked a bitter feud with the Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, whom he accuses of orchestrating immigration from the Middle East and Africa.

Orban said Sunday that Hungarian opposition parties had not supported the border fences, had opposed the government in its ongoing quarrels with the EU over refugee quotas, and taken the side of Soros.

"This is why the opposition are in a hopeless position... I don't understand how they can ask for people's trust," he said, flanked by a row of Hungarian flags, with the slogan on his podium reading: "For Us, Hungary First."

- Veering towards authoritarianism? -

Orban's hardline immigration stance has bolstered his popularity at home despite accusations by critics that his nationalist policies have steered Hungary away from democracy and towards authoritarianism.

His supporters say that he is reforming Hungary after decades of stagnation, particularly during the country's communist period that followed World War II.

The strongest opposition party -- the radical rightwing Jobbik -- is currently polling under 20 percent of decided voters among Hungary's eight-million-strong electorate.

Story continues

Orban's ruling Fidesz party is polling around 50 percent although an unfolding corruption scandal involving the premier's son-in-law, and a row over an alleged government cover-up of refugee intake numbers have provided unexpected bumps for the government in recent weeks.

The size of Fidesz's likely majority is seen by analysts as the main factor to watch, with a drop from the two thirds majority won four years ago potentially loosening Orban's tight grip on power.

Election rules introduced since 2012 also punish smaller parties if they are unable to form effective alliances as has happened with several leftist and liberal groups.An American flag at a Utah high school was torn down Thursday and replaced by the flag of the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS, police confirmed.

The words ISIS is comin were also spray painted on the schools wall, leading investigators to believe that someone had tried to write ISIS is coming, but had been forced to flee before finishing.

The graffiti was removed by Washington County School District employees shortly after it was found. The ISIS flag was also removed and replaced with a new American flag. Investigators have been following leads throughout the day, Hurricane City police confirmed in a statement.

Trending: Racist Trolls Spread Fake Stories of Attacks on Black Panther Moviegoers

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The police said classes would resume as usual and that they did not believe the school was in danger. The police have sent a picture of the flag to the FBI for further inspection. Police in Hurricane City said they did not believe the person who hung the ISIS flag was actually affiliated with the group, but no arrests have yet been made.

[B]ased on information we received from the FBI we do not believe this act was perpetrated by someone linked to the Islamic State, the police said in a statement.

Don't miss: Trump's Chief of Staff Wants to Fix Security Clearance Processes After Porter Abuse Scandal

ISIS frequently threatens to attack the United States and claims to have supporters operating in the country. However, most of the groups threats are never realized. Terror attacks on U.S. soil are rare, and a 2016 report from the libertarian CATO Institute determined that Americans are more likely to be buried alive or choked to death than they are to be killed in an attack by a foreign terrorist.

Nonetheless, the terrorist group has increased its call for lone wolf attacks as it suffers serious military defeats in Iraq and Syria, losing most of the territory that it previously controlled.

However, the incident in Utah comes at a particularly sensitive time, following a mass shooting at a high school in Florida Wednesday that left 17 people dead.

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekGaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip, medical sources said Sunday, as tensions rose after an apparent bomb attack that wounded several Israeli soldiers on the enclave's border.

The Saturday explosion and ensuing Israeli air strikes marked one of the most serious escalations in the Hamas-ruled territory since the Islamist movement and Israel fought a war in 2014.

Israel's army said it attacked "18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation" in two waves of air strikes.

"Eight targets were attacked in a military compound near Deir el Balah, which belongs to the Hamas terror organisation, including weapon-manufacturing and training infrastructures," it said in a statement.

Earlier the army said fighter jets had targeted "six military targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas, including: a terror tunnel in the Zaytun area and military compounds near Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis".

Two Palestinians were injured in air strikes which hit three bases belonging to Hamas in the east of the blockaded Gaza enclave, Palestinian sources said.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich late Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called the border blast "very serious" and pledged to "respond appropriately".

According to witnesses, the two dead Palestinians were shot by Israeli forces near the border on Saturday.

They were identified by the Gaza health ministry as Salam Sabah and Abdullah Abu Sheikha, both 17, who were killed east of Rafah in the south of the enclave.

The Israeli army said that its forces had fired "warning shots" at a number of Palestinians approaching the border fence "in a suspicious manner".

- 'Rogue group' -

Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, two severely, when an improvised explosive device blew up along the Gaza border fence, but none of their lives were in danger, the army said.

Story continues

A hospital spokeswoman later said that the condition of one of those seriously wounded had improved.

Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said a "rogue group" had claimed responsibility for the bomb blast, likely indicating one of the more radical Islamist groups who are present in Gaza.

But he insisted that "from our point of view Hamas is responsible" and said the explosive had been planted during a protest arranged by the group on Friday.

According to Conricus, Israeli soldiers saw a flag on a pole on the Gazan side of the border fence, with the device exploding when one of them grabbed it.

According to Palestinian security sources, the explosion took place east of the city of Khan Yunis.

In response Israeli forces said a tank promptly opened fire at an "observation post" in southern Gaza, causing no injuries on the Palestinian side.

A projectile launched from the Gaza Strip hit near a home in a southern Israeli community, damaging a building but causing no injuries, Israeli authorities said.

A second was fired on Sunday night, hitting an Israeli house near Sderot also without causing any casualties, the Israeli army said.

Israel holds the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas responsible for any fire from the blockaded coastal enclave.

The Israeli army responds automatically to any strikes on its territory, generally targeting Hamas facilities.

Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it had fired at Israeli jets overhead. Conricus denied the claim.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, and the last conflict in 2014 was waged in part over tunnels from Gaza that were used to launch attacks.

Israel hit Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip repeatedly in early February, saying Palestinians there had fired a rocket into its territory.

Tensions between the Palestinians and Israel have been high since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in December.

Netanyahu will visit the White House next month, a senior US administration official told AFP on Friday.

The March 5 visit comes as Netanyahu faces a scandal that has seen police recommend he be indicted for graft.Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli jets struck the Gaza Strip on Saturday after four soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device blew up along the border with the Palestinian enclave.

The explosion earlier Saturday, which left two of the Israeli soldiers severely injured, was one of the most serious incidents on the border of the Hamas-ruled enclave since the Islamist movement and Israel fought a war in 2014.

In response Israel's army said "fighter jets targeted 6 military targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas, including: a terror tunnel in the Zaytun area and military compounds near Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis".

The army then reported a "launch was identified from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a security conference in Munich called the Gaza border incident "very serious" and pledged to "respond appropriately".

A Palestinian security source said the Israeli air strikes hit three bases belonging to Hamas in the east of the blockaded Gaza enclave.

Two Palestinians were injured in the raids, Palestinian medical sources said.

Earlier in the day the army said "two soldiers were severely wounded, one moderately and one slightly" when an improvised explosive device blew up along the border fence with Gaza.

None of the soldiers lives were in danger, a spokesman clarified.

In response Israeli forces said a tank quickly opened fired at an "observation post" in southern Gaza, causing no injuries on the Palestinian side.

Palestinian security sources said the explosion took place east of the city of Khan Yunis.

- 'Rogue group' -

Spokesman Jonathan Conricus said a "rogue group" had claimed responsibility for the blast, likely indicating one of the more radical Islamist groups, broadly called Salafists, who are present in Gaza.

But he insisted that "from our point of view Hamas is responsible" and said the explosive had been planted during a protest arranged by the group on Friday.

Story continues

Israel holds the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas responsible for any fire coming from the blockaded coastal enclave.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008, and the last conflict in 2014 was waged in part over tunnels from Gaza that were used to launch attacks.

Israeli aircraft hit Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip repeatedly in early February, after it said Palestinians there fired a rocket into the Jewish state.

Rockets are usually fired not by Hamas, but by fringe radical groups.

The Israeli army responds automatically to any strikes on its territory, generally targeting Hamas facilities.

Tensions between the Palestinians and Israel have been high since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in December.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next month, a senior US administration official told AFP on Friday.

The March 5 visit comes after a war of words between close allies Israel and the US over settlements, and a scandal that has seen police recommend Netanyahu be indicted for graft.TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israeli demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv on Friday to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign after police recommended he be charged with bribery in two corruption cases. Police said on Tuesday enough evidence had been found for Netanyahu to be charged, saddling the four-term premier with one of the biggest challenges to his long dominance of Israeli politics. Netanyahu, 68, denies wrongdoing in both cases and has said nothing will come of the police investigations. It is now up to the attorney general to determine whether to press charges against him. Around 1,000-2,000 protesters rallied in a Tel Aviv square, some with signs saying "crooks go home" and "crime minister". "We think the prime minister should immediately disqualify himself and resign," said Shlomit Bar, 63, a retired music teacher. "He cannot be any longer the prime minister of Israel." There is no strict legal obligation for a prime minister to step down over such a case unless he is convicted in court. The right-wing Netanyahu's governing coalition appears stable for the time being after key partners said they will wait until the attorney general's decision. "From a moral standpoint, this is a disgrace to the state of Israel, where a prime minister is suspected of such serious crimes," said Oren Simon, one of the protesters. "He should go home. Enough." A poll published on Wednesday showed almost half of Israel's electorate believe the police rather than Netanyahu. The poll, aired on the Israeli commercial television channel Reshet, said 49 percent of respondents sided with the police's version that Netanyahu had acted improperly. Twenty-five percent said they believed Netanyahu. The remainder, 26 percent, said they did not know whom to believe. Forty-nine percent said he should stay in office, and 43 percent that he should suspend himself. The first case in which Netanyahu is a suspect involves receiving gifts, including cigars, champagne and jewellery, from businessmen. The second involves discussing a deal with the publisher of Israel's best-selling newspaper for better coverage in return for curbs on a rival newspaper. It could be months before the attorney general makes a decision on whether to charge him. (Reporting by Rami Amichai; writing by Maayan Lubell; editing by Mark Heinrich)RAMON CRATER, Israel (Reuters) - A team of six Israeli researchers on Sunday ended a four-day Mars habitat experiment in Israel's Negev desert where they simulated living conditions on the Red Planet, Israel's Science and Technology Ministry said. The experiment was held near the isolated Israeli township of Mitzpe Ramon, whose surroundings resemble the Martian environment in its geology, aridity, appearance and desolation, the ministry said. The participants were investigating various fields relevant to a future Mars mission, including satellite communications, the psychological affects of isolation, radiation measurements and searching for life signs in soil. Participant Guy Ron, a nuclear physics professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the project was not only intended to look for new approaches in designing a future mission to the Red Planet but to increase public interest. "D-Mars is half about the research, and the other half is about the outreach. A major part of this project is getting public interest and getting students interested in space," he said. The "D-Mars" project was being held in Israel for the first time in cooperation with the Israel Space Agency. It is one of a number of Mars simulation projects taking place worldwide. (Reporting by Rami Amichay; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Edmund Blair)WARSAW (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned his Polish counterpart on Saturday for saying Jews were perpetrators in World War Two as well as Poles and others, just weeks after Warsaw drew criticism over a new Holocaust law. Poland passed a law this month imposing jail terms for suggesting the country was complicit in the Holocaust, prompting criticism from Israel and the United States. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was asked by a reporter at the Munich Security Conference in Germany whether, under the new law, the reporter himself could be penalized for telling a story in Poland about his mother who survived the Holocaust and told him that some Poles had collaborated with the Gestapo. "Of course it's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian, not only German perpetrators," Morawiecki replied. Netanyahu, who is also attending the Munich conference, was quick to respond. "The Polish Prime Minister's remarks here in Munich are outrageous. There is a problem here of an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people," he said. "I intend to speak with him forthwith," he added. Other officials in Israel, already alarmed by the new Polish legislation, also spoke out against Morawiecki's comment. "The Polish prime minister's statement is anti-Semitism of the oldest kind. The perpetrators are not the victims. The Jewish state will not allow the murdered to be blamed for their own murder," Israeli lawmaker Yair Lapid wrote on Twitter. He also called for Israel's ambassador to Poland to be recalled. Some 3 million Jews who lived in pre-war Poland were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust. Jews from across the continent were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by Germans in occupied Poland - home to Europe's biggest Jewish community at the time - including Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor. Thousands of Poles risked their lives to protect Jewish neighbors during the war. But research published since the fall of communism in 1989 showed that thousands also killed Jews or denounced those who hid them to the Nazi occupiers, challenging the national narrative that Poland was solely a victim. According to figures from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis, who invaded Poland in 1939, also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians. (Reporting by Anna Koper in Warsaw and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Writing Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Hugh Lawson)Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) (AFP) - Authorities in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan have arrested a lawmaker from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan over contraband, both governments have said in a development which threatens to undermine their diplomatic rapprochement.

In Bishkek, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry said late Saturday it had "received notice" from Kazakhstan of the arrest of Damirbek Asylbek uulu, an MP with the ruling coalition, along with three other Kyrgyz citizens.

And in Astana, the Kazakh foreign ministry confirmed it was in "regular contact" with Kyrgyzstan regarding the arrest of Asylbek uulu.

Oil-rich Kazakhstan's state prosecutor said a total of 29 people, among them citizens of Kyrgyzstan, had been arrested as part of a massive anti-smuggling operation near their shared border.

Astana has accused Bishkek of enabling smuggling several times in the last six months following a spat linked to Kyrgyzstan's tense presidential election in October.

The dispute between the two Central Asian neighbours emerged after ageing Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev appeared to publicly back a populist opposition candidate to win the bitterly-fought Kyrgyz vote.

- Border tensions -

Kyrgyzstan quickly accused Kazakhstan of trying to "influence" the election at the expense of outgoing President Almazbek Atambayev's ally Sooronbai Jeenbekov, who ended up winning.

Kazakhstan then imposed extensive border controls, leading to long tailbacks across their shared border after Atambayev assailed Kazakhstan as a corrupt autocracy in a fiery pre-election speech.

Following the ballot, Jeenbekov met with Nazarbayev in a move which appeared to calm tensions and normalise the situation at the border.

Both countries are members of a Russia-led trade bloc called the Eurasian Economic Union.

Resource-poor Kyrgyzstan is seen as the most democratic state in Central Asia, a predominantly authoritarian region, but it has also been the most politically-volatile in recent times.

A Muslim-majority country, it underwent two revolutions that unseated presidents in 2005 and 2010 followed by ethnic violence that left over 400 people dead.

Whilst Kyrgyzstan's constitution imposes single-term limits on its presidents, 77-year-old Nazarbayev has ruled Kazakhstan tolerating little opposition for nearly three decades.Iran is cultivating a network of proxy forces and militias in countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq that could turn against their own governments, National Security Adviser HR McMaster has warned.

Addressing the annual Munich Security Conference Saturday, he said the time had come to act against Iran.

Iran is feeding increasingly powerful weapons to these proxies, he told the conference, saying: Whats particularly concerning is that this network of proxies is becoming more and more capable, as Iran seeds more and more ... destructive weapons into these networks.

Trending: Poor? Blue Collar? Fear Immigrants? The Trump Base Isnt Who You Think It Is

2_17_McMaster

Ralph Orlowski/Reuters

Growing Western concern

The U.S. is not alone in concerns about Irans activities. On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern about the use of Iranian-linked ballistic missiles in Syria and Yemen. He called for new negotiations akin to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, in which the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, China and Germany agree to reduce economic sanctions if Iran limited its nuclear energy program.

Macron told reporters: I want a new cycle of negotiations with regional parties and the permanent members of the Security Council, like we did for the nuclear deal, but widening it to regional countries so that we can reduce and eradicate this insecurity.

Don't miss: Trump Now Claims He Never Said There Was No Meddling By Russia, But He Did

President Trump has famously ridiculed the agreement, however. In July 2015 he tweeted the deal had to be stopped. During his presidency he has continued to mock the agreement, threatening to withdraw U.S. support.

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Syrian chemical weapons

During this speech, McMaster also stated that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was still using chemical weapons in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. Public accounts and photos clearly show that Assads chemical weapons use is continuing, he told the conference. It is time for all nations to hold the Syrian regime and its sponsors accountable for their actions and support the efforts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekAfter the discussion, it was thought that the ideal way to implement new urban designs was to rely on local authorities, which soon turned out to be a complete failure.

The reason was that those local leaders would prefer conventional ways of development rather than innovative ones for fear of uncomfortable management.



From the examples in the world

Innovations in urban architecture are new and creative ideas for re-designing cities, which then need specific actions to turn them into reality.

They could be either ambitious projects that cost billions of US dollars or simple yet practical planning that derives from local residents like a barber, a hawker, a retired teacher. They all aim at bringing a new breeze to the appearance of urban areas.

One typical example of this kind is the revolutionary change of a slum in Kampung Wonosari Village of Indonesia. At first, local authorities wished to demolish it but they encountered financial issues. Then, Mr. Slamet Widodo, the 54-year-old principal of a primary school in the village, shared his idea of repainting all 385 houses in that area in colorful shades and redecorating them with 3D pictures.

Thanks to the support of IDR 300 million (approx. $22,500) from the government, that wonderful idea became reality. After only a month, the area was completely renewed with rainbow colors, attracting millions of international tourist of all over the world.

This, in turn, deeply changed the life of all indigenous people there. Thanks to the event, the village was then renamed to the Rainbow Village and was imitated by many nations, including Myanmar, Mexico, and Vietnam.

Such innovative ideas for architecture exist everywhere in the world, but especially in a large number in developing nations such as Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Penang. The fact is whether those ideas are implemented or not depends a great deal on finance, social-economic situation, and mostly governments attitude as well as professional aid.

Take Singapore as an example. Twice each year, the office of Singapores Prime Minister Ly Hien Long and his advisory board hold a meeting with young people and students to collect ideas for the development of the country. This tradition derives from his fathers time when he was Singapores

Similarly, in Thailand, Chulalongkorn University and Bangkok authorities establish a body with many branch offices in each district to collect ideas from citizens and even foreign tourists. These are then all considered for their feasibility.

to the current state in Vietnam

When realizing that Vietnam had a plan to demolish over 10 old mushroom-shaped water towers built in French colonial time, some of which are more than 150 years old, a Korean businessman wanted to turn them into mini-hotels as he believed that with such shape, surface (350-600m2), and location, those would become a spectacular success.

His opinion was then submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Association of Architects and was highly welcomed. But it was never turn into reality because so many complex bureaucratic procedures discouraged him gravely.

This particular story shows that in Vietnam, there has never been any body to receive innovative ideas from citizens. Only ideas in the form of official project can be considered by the government.

Others are classified as nonsense and are not worth looking into. National leaders are also not very fond of creative ideas which are different from traditional laws since theses designs make it harder to manage.

One distinctive example of this issue is the concept of changing a fishing village in Tam Thanh Ward of Tam Ky district, Quang Nam province into a village of art by painting the walls of more than 100 houses.

This had not been supported by local authorities, and Korean artists had to patiently persuade them. It then turned out to be a huge success when the houses are able to attract hundreds of tourist each day. Or the case of painting public walls in Ho Chi Minh City has only been accepted recently because formerly graffiti was considered illegal.

One more story was the idea of a group of students to use bicycles in the 650-hectare campus of the urban area of Ho Chi Minh City National University, which received the Holcim Award. It was submitted to the Directorial Board of Ho Chi Minh City National University without any response.

...and the hope for a better future

In real life, many craziest ideas bring enormous benefits. In the USA, for instance, people are ready to pay you millions of USD for an innovative idea and much less than that for the person who turn into reality.

It is worth saying that well-intentioned innovations are sometimes a flash of inspiration that needs more nurture from professionals. The example of the Rainbow Village in Indonesia demonstrations that a creative idea from a normal citizen has been appreciated and aided by architects, construction engineers, and artists.

Architects showed how to arrange colors in logical harmonious groups, while artists continued with how to use harmless materials and paints.



Similarly, in Manila or Phnompenh, with the help of architects, local residents have renovated slums into airier and more comfortable areas despite the unchanged surface.

Tet Holiday is coming in Vietnam, and everywhere people are decorating their neighborhoods with colorful lights, turning them into little shining rivers. This makes the city more fanciful and charming. And this is the innovative effort of the public.

Ho Chi Minh City is considered the most active and creative city in Vietnam. Even in the hardest time like economic depressions, citizens here would not cease their innovation.

It is, therefore, called the place of creation, where its successful stories will then be imitated by people nationwide. It is hoped that in a very near future, peoples innovative ideas are always listened to like in Singapore, Penang, or Bangkok.

By Associate Professor NGUYEN MINH HOA  Translated by Yen Nhi.@hogangidley45: There are two groups that have created chaos more than the Russians and thats the Democrats and the mainstream media. pic.twitter.com/HBmruoSUn3  Fox News (@FoxNews) February 17, 2018

Just a day after the the special counsel leading the investigation indicted 13 Russians and three Russian organizations, the White House deputy press secretary said its the media and Democrats who have created chaos more than the Russians for their coverage of the probe into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

There are two groups that have created chaos more than the Russians, and thats the Democrats and the mainstream media, said Hogan Gidley in a Saturday Fox & Friends interview.

The indicted are accused of manipulating American social media and political rallies to sway the 2016 presidential election toward then-candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, and against the eventual Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Despite this announcement it was the Democrats and the media that continued to push this lie on the American people for more than a year, and frankly Americans should be outraged by that, Gidley continued.

It wasnt clear what lie he was referring to, though the deputy press secretary did emphasize that Russian interference had no effect on the election whatsoever  an issue not addressed in the indictment. Gidley also said that the indictment proves there was no Russian collusion with the Trump campaign  even though special counsel Robert Mueller is continuing the investigation.

Journalists slammed the assertion as false.

Zeke Miller, White House reporter for The Associated Press, said Gidleys comments were either an embarrassing misstatement by a White House official or a stunningly unsupported charge against fellow citizens, while reminding his followers that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Russia was engaged in information warfare against the U.S.

Story continues

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CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski said, in an apparent sarcastic response, he was going to go out on a limb and refute Gidleys comment.

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Politicos chief economic correspondent called the comment not only false, but repulsive.

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A former Clinton aide indicated that Gidleys comments amounted to a White House defense of a foreign power whose operatives have been indicted by the Department of Justice.

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Then there were these reactions:

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Also on HuffPost

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The remains of the military helicopter that fell on a van in Santiago Jamiltepec: Patricia Castellanos/AFP/Getty Images

At least 13 people, including three children, died after a military helicopter crashed near the site of a major earthquake in Mexico.

Twelve people died at the site of the incident, in southern Oaxaca state  five women, four men, two girls and a boy  according to a statement from the states attorney generals office. A thirteenth person died in hospital, while 15 others were injured in the crash.

Authorities said all of the victims were on the ground when the helicopter crashed.

The helicopter, which was carrying Mexicos interior minister and the state governor, crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land in Santiago Jamiltepec after a tour of damage from the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Friday.

Secretary of the Interior Alfonso Navarrete and the governor of the state of Oaxaca, Alejandro Murat both suffered minor injuries, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The Defence Department said the Blackhawk helicopter crashed when it was preparing to land in an empty car park in Jamiltepec.

Jorge Morales, a local reporter who was aboard the helicopter when it crashed, described the moments the helicopter attempted to land in a swirl of dust.

The moment the helicopter touched down it lost control, it slid  like it skidded  and it hit some vehicles that were stationed in the area, he told a Mexican television news programme. In that moment, you couldnt see anything, nothing else was heard beside the sound that iron makes when it scrapes the earth.

The accident was the latest embarrassment in Mr Navarretes short term at the Interior Department, which oversees most political and security issues. Earlier this month, an intelligence agent from an agency overseen by Mr Navarretes department was caught following an opposition presidential candidate.

Both Mr Navarrete and the defence department said they regretted the loss of life in Fridays accident.

The earthquake left nearly a million homes and businesses without power in Mexico City and the south and damaged at least 50 homes in Oaxaca. Aftershocks had caused people to flee their homes for fear they would collapse.

Story continues

The state, along with Mexico City, is also still reeling from earthquakes that caused widespread damage in September and killed at least 471 people.

Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.Donald Trump has insisted for more than a year that Russians didn't try to get him elected. Special Counsel Robert Mueller put an end to those claims on Friday, declaring definitively that they did.

A federal grand jury indicted 13 Russian nationals and a so-called "troll farm" in St. Petersburg on Friday for a broad campaign to sway the 2016 election in Trump's favor. The indictment alleges that the operation was funded to the tune of $1.25 million a month by companies controlled by a Russian businessman close to the Kremlin.

The indictment means that Trump can no longer credibly cast doubt on alleged Russian election meddling. His own national security adviser said Saturday that the evidence was "incontrovertible." And if he was still harboring dreams of firing U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, something many Republicans already have warned against, such a move may be politically impossible.

The White House seized on Rosenstein's declaration that Friday's indictment didn't allege "that any American had any knowledge" of the Russian interference, declaring "NO COLLUSION" in a statement. But the special counsel is still probing whether Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians, a person familiar with the matter said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Munich on Saturday, said no facts back up the allegations Russia meddled in the vote. "Until we see the facts, everything else is blather," Lavrov said at the Munich Security Conference. He cited comments by Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. officials who said the allegations were baseless.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, speaking on a panel at the same conference Saturday, rebuffed Lavrov.

"The evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain, whereas in the past it was difficult to attribute," McMaster said.

Story continues

The U.S. intelligence community's previous assertions that Russia interfered in the election, based on classified evidence never revealed to the public, were easily dismissed by Trump and his allies. Now there are concrete charges that Russians defrauded the U.S. government, with memos and other evidence to back up the allegations.

Read more: Mueller Accuses Russians of Pro-Trump, Anti-Clinton Meddling

"It's much harder for him to be able to impugn the integrity of sworn testimony in open court about the intention of the Russians to interfere in our elections," said Michael Allen, managing director of Beacon Global Strategies, a group that advises clients on international, cyber and homeland security policy.

Trump seemed to recognize the changed landscape himself.

In a tweet, he acknowledged a Russian "anti-U.S. campaign," and in the White House statement he called the country a "bad actor." He has previously  and frequently  described allegations of Russian meddling in the election as "a hoax."

Investigation Continues

His lawyers complimented Mueller in statements, though they used the past tense "did"  to describe his work, suggesting optimism that the investigation has concluded.

It has not. Rosenstein, at his news conference, said nothing about future indictments.

Some even saw in the indictment new doubt about Trump's presidency.

"The obvious conclusion is that Donald Trump's election as president can no longer be considered legitimate," said Anders Aslund, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who specializes in Russian economic policy.

Rosenstein said the indictment does not allege "that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election."

Aslund predicted a "deep freeze" on U.S.-Russian relations; none of the indicted Russians are in U.S. custody. Rosenstein said the U.S. would request their extradition.

Allen, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and House Intelligence Committee Republicans, said the indictment makes it harder for Trump to challenge the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence community, and gives Rosenstein "sort of a bulletproof vest" against being fired or undercut. Such moves now would look like punishment.

Allen and others said that to avoid being weakened, Trump should immediately stop publicly doubting the Russian election meddling. "It's still not too late to pivot and say, 'No one is more upset about this than I am and here's what I'm going to do about it,"' Allen said.

Trump's Narrative

But Trump's political stature is entwined with the narrative he has built that Mueller's probe is a "witch hunt" precipitated by Democrats.

"No, Russia did not help me, that I can tell you," Trump told supporters at an Alabama political rally in September. "Any Russians in the audience? I don't see too many Russians."

He's also repeatedly cited personal assurances from Russian President Vladimir Putin in maintaining his skepticism.

"Every time he sees me, he says, 'I didn't do that,"' Trump said after a November meeting with Putin in Vietnam. "And I believe  I really believe  that when he tells me that, he means it. I think he's very insulted by it, if you want to know the truth."

He can only regain credibility if he abandons such public naivete, said Steve Sestanovich, a senior fellow for Russian studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former State Department official.

"Trump has got to stop using that 'he-says-he's-innocent' line about Putin," Sestanovich said.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.comABUJA (Reuters) - A Nigerian court has released 475 people allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram for rehabilitation, the justice ministry said on Sunday, as the country's biggest legal investigation of the militant Islamist insurgency continues. The first person convicted for the kidnapping in 2014 of Chibok schoolgirls, sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment last week, was also handed an addition 15-year sentence, to run back-to-back, the justice ministry said in a statement. More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes in northeastern Nigeria since Boko Haram began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state. But humanitarian groups have criticized the Nigerian authorities' handling of those detained for infringing on the suspects' rights. Some of those whose cases were heard last week in a detention center in central Nigeria had been held without trial since 2010, according to the justice ministry statement. "The prosecution counsel could not charge them (with) any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them," the ministry said. In October, the ministry said 45 people suspected of Boko Haram links had been convicted and jailed. A further 468 suspects were discharged and 28 suspects were remanded for trial in Abuja or Minna. (Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Susan Fenton)Munich (Germany) (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran on Sunday over aggressions by Iran and its "proxies" in Syria, saying he would not allow them to "put a noose of terror around our neck".

Calling it "a message to the tyrants of Tehran", he warned in a speech at the Munich Security Conference: "Do not test Israel's resolve."

His fiery comments came as tensions between the arch enemies have mounted after clashes involving Syrian forces this month, sparked by Israel's downing of what it called an Iranian drone sent from Syria.

With a theatrical flourish, Netanyahu brandished a rectangular piece of dark green metal at the podium.

"Here's a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it, after we shot it down," he said.

Referring to Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who spoke later in Munich, he said: "No doubt Mr Zarif will brazenly deny Iran's involvement in Syria."

"Mr Zarif, do you recognise this? You should, it's yours," Netanyahu said, adding that the Iranian official "lies with eloquence".

Zarif responded by calling Netanyahu's speech a "cartoonish circus" which "does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

- 'Dangerous tiger' -

The clash came as Netanyahu again slammed the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Iran and world powers, which is under threat by opposition from the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu compared the deal to the "appeasement" of the 1938 Munich Agreement that only emboldened Hitler, and said it allowed Iran to hide its continued efforts to build an atomic bomb.

"The sanctions relief that the deal provided has not moderated Iran... In fact it has unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond."

"Once armed with nuclear weapons, Iran's aggression will be unchecked, and it will encompass the entire world," Netanyahu claimed.

Story continues

Those accusations were dismissed by Zarif.

"We will not be the first ones to violate an agreement which all of us tried, in spite of Netanyahu's attempts, to achieve," he said.

Israel has said it downed the drone on February 10 after it entered the country from Syria, and responded with a raid on what it said was the Iranian control systems for the craft in Syria.

It marked the first time Israel publicly acknowledged hitting Iranian targets in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war there.

During the strikes, one of Israel's F-16 fighter jets was shot down, believed to be the first loss of an Israeli plane in combat since 1982.

Tensions between the two countries had already been building in recent months, with Israel fearing that Tehran is trying to establish a permanent presence in Syria as part of an effort to become a greater regional power in the Middle East.

The clashes this month have stoked fears of an escalated conflict between the two countries, even though both sides appear to want to avoid an open war for now, analysts say.

Russian senator Alexei Pushkov, addressing the Munich conference shortly after Netanyahu spoke, said: "OK, you bomb Iran, and then you do what, what happens next?" while saying the Iranian issue requires acting with "responsibility".

Following the confrontation between Israel and Iran, clashes involving US-led coalition forces and violence intensifying in many parts of Syria, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura this week called for de-escalation.

"This is as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I have seen in my time as special envoy," said De Mistura, who has been the international mediator for Syria since 2014.

- 'Defend ourselves' -

It was not the first time Netanyahu, who is under pressure at home over a corruption inquiry, has made a dramatic show.

In 2012, speaking at the UN, he notably showed a simplistic drawing of a bomb with a lit fuse, supposedly indicating how close Tehran was to becoming a nuclear threat.

The Israeli military has claimed the drone was a copy of a US model captured by Iran in 2011, based on an analysis of the drone's debris.

Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that Israel would not let Iran obtain a permanent foothold in its northern neighbour.

"Through its proxies -- Shiite militias in Iraq, the Huthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza -- Iran is devouring huge swathes of the Middle East," he said.

"Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck," he added.

"We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."

But he stressed that Israel was not the enemy of the Iranian people, and offered his condolences to the families of the people killed in an Iranian plane crash Sunday.

"We have no quarrel with the people of Iran, only with the regime that torments them," Netanyahu said.Berlin (AFP) - Gay cinema pioneer Rupert Everett said his new biopic about legendary literary dandy Oscar Wilde captures him as a "Christ-like" figure who sacrificed himself for the future global LBGTQ rights movement.

Everett penned, directed and starred in his years-long passion project about the flamboyant 19th century Irish writer, "The Happy Prince", screening this week at the Berlin film festival.

The 58-year-old British actor focuses in the film on Wilde's self-imposed exile after serving two years' hard labour from 1895 on "gross indecency" charges for sex with men.

Such convictions were only wiped from the British books last year for some 70,000 men who had criminal records simply for being homosexual, Everett notes at the end of the film.

"The gay liberation movement really started with the Oscar Wilde scandal," Everett told reporters.

Set in Paris, Naples and the north of France, the movie weaves flashbacks from Wilde's heyday as the toast of London's theatre scene with his life's twilight as a vagabond racked by poverty, alcoholism and illness.

- 'Run towards ruin' -

Wilde, Everett said, eschewed the option of simply going abroad to avoid his prison sentence because he wanted to ensure his own "immortality" as a "martyred" gay male writer.

"I do find that being a gay performer in cinema there's many parallels between being an outcast or not ever being quite accepted into a milieu. So I think it's definitely one of the things that drew me to try to tell the story," Everett said.

"He's an amazing Christ figure to me."

Everett has been a trailblazer in the industry, playing gay characters since the 1980s in movies such as "Another Country" and "My Best Friend's Wedding" opposite Julia Roberts, while speaking openly about his own homosexuality.

He had already appeared in two films and several plays about Wilde before making his directorial debut with "The Happy Prince", which co-stars Colin Firth, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson.

Story continues

Everett said the film, name for one of Wilde's beloved fairy stories, set itself apart from previous depictions, including Stephen Fry's 1997 acclaimed movie portrayal, by showing the "messier" side of the writer's final chapter.

"He wrote once 'Why does one run towards ruin, why does it hold such a fascination?' I think that is the key to Oscar Wilde's pre-Freudian, self-destructive nature," he said.

"He walked into danger -- that was the kind of cornerstone for me. He had a great Jesus-complex himself, he was fascinated by Jesus and Christianity and Catholicism."

- 'Assassinated for his sexuality' -

Watson, who played his long-suffering ex-wife Constance, said Wilde's irresistible charm and wit often saved him in desperate circumstances.

"He was somebody it was really difficult not to love, however cruel he was and however cruel the situation was, he had just a fire in him that was so attractive," the 51-year-old British actress said.

"I think she (Constance) loved him to the end."

The film project had long looked at risk, Everett said, until he managed to cobble together funding from Germany, Belgium and Italy. The actor speaks French and Italian in the movie along with Wilde's polished English prose.

Everett, who has been outspoken in his criticism of ongoing homophobia in the film industry, said the Wilde story nevertheless underlined the strides made since his death.

"The LGBTQ community of today can take heart in this millisecond in our two-million-year history of humankind that this has happened -- in 100 years which is no time at all that we've gone from a man basically being assassinated for his sexuality to where we stand now," he said.

"I think we should take heart from that because it's an amazing journey and Oscar is the beginning of it."Tokyo (AFP) - Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body.

The band-aid-like device is just one millimetre thick and can monitor important health data as well as send and receive messages, including emojis.

Takao Someya, the University of Tokyo professor who developed the device, envisions it as a boon for medical professionals with bed-ridden or far-flung patients, as well as family living far from their relatives.

"With this, even in home-care settings, you can achieve seamless sharing of medical data with your home doctors, who then would be able to communicate back to their patients," he told AFP.

Slapped onto the palm or back of a hand, it could flash reminders to patients to take their medicine, or even allow far-away grandchildren to communicate with their grandparents.

"Place displays on your skin, and you would feel as if it is part of your body. When you have messages sent to your hand, you would feel emotional closeness to the sender," Someya said.

"I think a grandfather who receives a message saying 'I love you' from his grandchild, they would feel the warmth, too."

The invention could prove particularly useful in Japan, with its rapidly ageing population, replacing the need for in-person checks by offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring of the sick and frail, Someya told AFP.

The display consists of a 16-by-24 array of micro LEDs and stretchable wiring mounted on a rubber sheet.

It also incorporates a lightweight sensor composed of a breathable "nanomesh" electrode, and a wireless communication module.

"Because this device can stretch, we now can paste a display on things with complex shapes, like skin," Someya said.

It can be placed on the human body for a week without causing skin inflammation, and is light enough that users might eventually even forget they are wearing it.

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Along with medical applications, Someya hopes the device could eventually lead to wearable displays for joggers to monitor heart rates or check running routes.

He imagines labourers using the displays to consult manuals on their arms while working.

The device will be showcased at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas over the weekend.

Someya created the device in partnership with Japanese printing giant Dai Nippon Printing, which hopes to put it on the market within three years.Former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been accused of bank fraud that wasnt part of the original indictment against him, according to court documents filed by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The alleged fraud came to light in an attempt by Manafort to swap out real estate securing his $10 million bail, said the redacted documents, which were released Friday.

Manafort was indicted in October on charges of money laundering, conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent in Muellers probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty.

HIs proposed new bail package is insufficient to assure reasonably his appearance as required by law, said prosecutors. In part, the package was deficient in the governments view in light of additional criminal conduct, they wrote in the court filing , which was submitted on Tuesday. That criminal conduct includes a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies.

Manafort allegedly submitted doctored profit and loss statements to Federal Savings Bank  overstating by millions of dollars income for his consulting company  in order to obtain a $9 million mortgage on a property in Virginia that Manafort had hoped to pledge as security for his bail, according to the court filing.

It wasnt immediately clear if Manfort could now face new charges, or if the alleged criminal conduct only scuttled Manaforts bail request.

At the next bail hearing, prosecutors warned in the documents, we can proffer to the Court additional evidence related to this and the other bank frauds and conspiracies, which the Court may find relevant to the bail risk posed by Manafort.

Manafort has been under house arrest at his condominium in Alexandria, Virginia, since he was indicted with Rick Gates, his business partner and a former Trump campaign deputy. CNN reported days ago that Gates was close to a plea deal with Mueller and ready to cooperate with the investigation.

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Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Among them, Mr. Do Van Hieu had introduced to foreign poets about Vietnamese traditional medicine based on medicinal herbs being familiar with Vietnamese people for the past thousand years.On the occasion, they had had a chance to enjoy Syzygium nervosums leaf water and liquor made from a Northern kind of large-size grained glutinous rice produced by the Phuc Hung Traditional Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd being laid down from 15 to 18 years.Syzygium nervosums flower bud and this kind of liquor were given to each poet from the United States, Cuba and Colombia after they left Vietnam.In addition, Mr. Le Phuong Chung and his family opened a banquet for the guests to introduce beef Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup) Recipe. As for writer Nguyen Quang Thieu, the Phos cooking skills of his family is the best in Ha Noi and they just serve this special food on special occasion.An initiative had been posed in a cozy night in Mr. Le Phuong Chungs house, located in My Duc District, Ha Noi where poets from Vietnam, Cuba, The United States of America and Colombia wrote a letter for sending to Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro.The letter aimed to endorse and encourage the lifting of barriers and the opening of doors to cooperation and culture exchange between the US and Cuba. The poets from Vietnam, US, Cuba and Colombia have different reasons to write the letter as people from these countries had to go through the war but they had eased the hostile as Vietnam and the US. As this reason, the American poets wanted to share publicly that this letter written in Hanoi  a peace capital in the year marking 20 years of normalized relations, progressive and multifaceted progress in bilateral relations.The poets of Vietnam and America in this evening were witnesses of the history of relations between the two countries. When politicians and diplomats of Vietnam and the United States could not come together, shake hands, bless each other, the poets and writers of the two countries had done it.Professor of language, poet Martha Collins, who translated poetry of many Vietnamese poets into English and published in the US, was chosen as a letter writer. Mr. Phuong Chung gave the staff to open the store and select a premium roll of paper type for poets to write in it. Everyone agreed to write a very short, simple letter. Then, the letter would be sent to artists, intellectuals and peace lovers around the world for autographs.In that a moment, poet Nguyen Quang Thieu realized that even though they were famous professors and poets, the opening words of that letter were not easy. It was not difficult due to words but it was hard because of the emotion and spirituality at that time. Something touching and sacred is filling the house. He realized it was poetry with all its meaning. True poets never have borders. It surpasses all hatred. It breaks the ridiculous borders and inhumane barriers so that the people could come together at the highest respect, in the most sincere love and in the intense general aspirations of this world. The letter was short, concise and simple but it contained the greatest aspiration for peace, friendship and fairness.About 9:30 pm in the evening of March 7, 2015, the letter was composed in English. Poet Nguyen Ba Chung translated the letter into Vietnamese; and Poet, translator Pham Long translated the letter into Spanish for two Spanish poets Fernando Rendon (Colombia) and poet Alex Pauside (Cuba) to hear and comment and standardize the Spanish version.By 10pm, the first poets signing the letter were Fernando Rendon, Martha Collin, Alex Paudise, Kevin Bowen, Lary Heineman, Nguyen Ba Chung, Luong Tu Duc, Fred Marchant and Nguyen Quang Thieu.This letter will be translated into several other languages and will be sent to poets, writers, intellectuals and peace lovers around the world. If each person who receives this letter agrees to sign the favor, they will transfer it to others. And Mr. Nguyen Quang Thieu thought that even though this letter deals with the normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, it brings the common message of peace, friendship and justice to every human being, every nation in the world. After the poets, the compilers signed the letter, the first signatories of the letter were family members of Le Phuong Chung, businessman Do Van Hieu, senior lieutenant colonel Trinh Van Sy, water puppet artist Chu Luong, translator Pham Long Quan.The full text was as follows:A letter to Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro.Hanoi, March 7, 2015As writers, poets, and people of good will, and in the spirit of abiding friendship, we the undersigned endorse and encourage the lifting of barriers and the opening of doors to cooperation and culture exchange among all peoples.To this end, we applaud the recent initiative toward diplomatic relations between Cuba and The United States as an opportunity to bring about peace, understanding, and mutual respect between two countries that have been separated for too long. We are grateful to both governments for responding to the interests of their respective people, and encourage the advancement of meaningful cultural exchange as a step toward full diplomatic relations.We appeal to people from all countries to join us in signing this letter, which is written on the occasion of twenty years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam.Martha Collins, U.S.A; Alex Pausides, Cuba; Nguyen Quang Thieu, Vietnam; Fernando Rendon, Colombia; Fred Marchant, USA; Larry Heinemann, USA; Luong Tu Duc, Vietnam; Kevin Bowen, USA; Robert Scanlan, USA; Nguyen Ba Chung, USA signed.On March 17, 2015, the poet Kevin Bowen on behalf of the drafters of the letter and the signatory sent this letter to President Barack Obama with the list of the supporter signers after returning from the United States. In his letter, the poet Kevin wrote: We hope you will put this letter in your heart and provide support for the exchange activities.Eight months later, President Barack Obama sent a letter to the poet Kevin.The full text was as follows:Thank you for writing to me, the best way to improve the nation's interests and values is through openness rather than isolation. That is why, after half a century, the United States is changing its relationship with the Cuban people and is moving towards normalizing relations between the two nations.Decades of isolation policy have failed to make meaningful change, and by implementing a new program, my government reaffirmed its commitment to promoting the emergence of a more prosperous Cuba which is respecting the universal right of all citizens of this country. To achieve that, the United States is taking steps to enhance tourism, trade and information exchange with Cuba. We also established diplomatic relations with the Cuban government, including the opening of the US Embassy in Havana on July 20, 2015. No one is more representative of American values than Americans and I believe that this connection will ultimately serve to empower our Cuban neighbors.Once again thank you for the letter. We must create more opportunities and start new programs among American nations. By forgetting the past, we can reach a brighter future - for Cubans, for Americans, and for the world that our children will inherit. To find out more about our work, please visit: www.WhiteHouse.gov.CubaYours sincerely, Barack ObamaThe table of Mr. Le Phuong Chung's family in Chuong My, Hanoi, where the poets having the special relationships in the history. They composed a letter to the President of the United States was moved to Trinh Van Sys house in Da Sy village, Ha Dong, Ha Noi for a special reason. That was when the poets were drafting the letter, the second grandson of Sy was born. The poet wrote his blessing on the wooden table. Now, Trinh Van Sy engraves names of the people wrote letters in the two sides of the table.In 2017, poet Kevin Bowen, poet Nguyen Ba Chung and some other American poets returned to Vietnam. They came to visit Trinh Van Sy's family and again sat at the wooden table, saying good things about people and culture.

BY NGUYEN QUANG THIEU- Translated by Huyen Huong The Daily Beast

YouTubeA young woman who mysteriously vanished while road tripping across the U.S. with her fiance got into a physical altercation with him two weeks before he returned to Florida without her, according to a police report obtained by The Daily Beast. And while the couples online postings made the journey appear perfectly idyllic, the strain of having been together nonstop for months on end had in fact escalated tensions between the two, the document provided by the Moab City, Utah, Police DeparWarsaw (AFP) - Poland on Sunday sought to defend remarks by its prime minister which Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu called "unacceptable" and tantamount to denying the Holocaust.

"The comments of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a discussion in Munich were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust, or charge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust with responsibility for what was a Nazi German perpetrated genocide," Morawiecki's spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said in a statement.

The Israeli premier, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, laid into his opposite number in a terse telephone call on Sunday over his remark the previous day that the Holocaust had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones.

"He told him that the remarks that were made were unacceptable and that there was no basis for comparing the actions of Poles during the Holocaust to those of Jews," Netanyahu's office said in an English language statement.

Israeli police on Sunday published pictures of graffiti discovered on the gates of Poland's embassy in Tel Aviv, which included Nazi swastikas and the word "murderer" in English.

The building was closed to the public as is usual on Saturday and Sunday.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out that the goal of the Holocaust was to destroy the Jewish people and that all Jews were under sentence of death," the Israeli statement said.

"He told his Polish counterpart that the distortion regarding Poland could not be corrected by means of another distortion.

"The two agreed that the countries would continue their dialogue on the matter and that to this end the teams would hopefully meet soon."

- Row over law -

Morawiecki's spokeswoman said earlier Sunday that the Polish prime minister "has repeatedly and categorically opposed denial of the Holocaust -- the murder of European Jewry -- as well as anti-Semitism in all its forms".

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Morawiecki's claim about the Holocaust's perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a controversial law passed by Poland's senate this month.

The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

On Saturday Morawiecki had been questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbours were planning to denounce them, and asked if recounting that would now be against the law in Poland.

Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."

After a slew of negative reactions to the comments, the Polish PM's spokeswoman sought to clarify the remark saying his words "should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime."

"Each crime must be judged individually, and no single act of wickedness should burden with responsibility entire nations, which were conquered and enslaved by Nazi Germany," she said.

burs/scw/dvWarsaw (AFP) - Poland on Sunday sought to defend remarks by its prime minister which Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu called "outrageous" and amounted to denying the Holocaust.

"The comments of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a discussion in Munich were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust, or charge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust with responsibility for what was a Nazi German perpetrated genocide," Morawiecki's spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said in a statement.

The Israeli premier, who like Morawiecki was in Munich for a global security conference, on Saturday responded angrily to the remark that the Holocaust had involved "Jewish perpetrators" as well as Polish ones.

It showed "an inability to understand history and a lack of sensitivity to the tragedy of our people", Netanyahu said in a statement.

Morawiecki's spokeswoman countered on Sunday that to the contrary the Polish prime minister "has repeatedly and categorically opposed denial of the Holocaustthe murder of European Jewryas well as anti-Semitism in all its forms".

Morawiecki's claim about the Holocaust's perpetrators came amid an unprecedented diplomatic row with Israel sparked by a controversial law passed by Poland's senate this month.

The law sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

On Saturday Morawiecki had been questioned by a journalist who told of his mother's narrow escape from the Gestapo in Poland after learning that neighbours were planning to denounce them, and asked if recounting that would now be against the law in Poland.

Morawiecki responded: "It's not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukraine and German perpetrators."

After a slew of negative reactions to the comments, the Polish PM's spokeswoman sought to clarify the remark saying his words "should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime."

"Each crime must be judged individually, and no single act of wickedness should burden with responsibility entire nations, which were conquered and enslaved by Nazi Germany," she said.Israel and Poland trading barbs over the Second World War this weekend after the Polish prime minister said Jewish individuals were among the perpetrators of the Holocausta comment that immediately prompted outrage from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The conflict stems from a recent law pushed by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieckis conservative Law and Justice party that fines or imprisons anyone claiming Poland was complicit in the systemic, mass execution of Jews and other groups during World War II. Warsaw has adopted the position that Germany, not Poland, is at fault for the Holocaust, though there is ample evidence of Polish collaborators in Hitler's so-called "Final Solution" of the Jews.

Related: Could a Nazi torture doctors Jewish skeleton collection still be in the vaults of a top university

Trending: Netanyahu Sends Message to Iran Waving Downed Drone: 'Do Not Test Israel'

The Israeli government has repeatedly and vehemently protested the law, but speaking in Munich on Saturday, Morawiecki again defended itsetting off another round of anger from Israeli officials.

02_18_Netanyahu

Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Of course its not going to be punishable, not going to be seen as criminal, to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian, not only German perpetrators, Morawiecki said, refuting that the bill ignores Polish collaborators.

Don't miss: North Korean Woman Who Defected to South Arrested for Sending 130 Tons of Rice to the Regime

Netanyahu, who is attending the same conference in Germany, retorted swiftly, calling Morawieckis statement outrageous and lacking sensitivity to the tragedy of our people. The Israeli leader told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he also called the Polish premier, insisting his comparison was false and giving him a personal example with the family of Netanyahus wife.

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"Her grandfather and two relatives were hidden by the Poles, Netanyahu said, referring to non-Jewish resistance to Nazi antisemitic policies. We appreciate it and give it all due respect, but here is the example: The Germans had left the town, and the Poles ran after the German forces and said, 'Here are three more Jews,' and they killed my wife's grandfather."

Netanyahu said he agreed that the Nazi regime initiated the Holocaust and built concentration camps such as Auschwitz, instrumental for the German regimes extermination of millions, but erected on invaded soil, outside Germany. But he also added that likening the level of responsibility of Poles and Jews in the Holocaust was wrong.

"[Poland] is trying to say that there were cases in which Jews collaborated with the Nazis, but one cannot compare numerically, and the circumstances are entirely different as well," Netanyahu said. "They don't deny that there were Poles who helped the Nazis and turned in Jews etc., but say you can't extend that to the entire Polish people. I told him, you can't fix one distortion with another."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekVatican City (AFP) - The Vatican said Saturday it has renewed its anti-paedophile panel as Pope Francis acts to quell the global scandal over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

The panel had come under fire from two high-profile members, former sex abuse victims who quit at what they saw as a lack of reform and obstruction at the highest level of the Catholic Church.

Victims have come forward from across the world over the past two decades accusing priests of sex crimes, unleashing one of the biggest crises faced by the Catholic Church.

US Cardinal Sean O'Malley was confirmed as the head of the child protection panel along with seven other incumbent members, while nine new members were added, the Vatican said.

"The newly-appointed members will add to the commission's global perspective in the protection of minors and vulnerable adults," O'Malley said in a statement.

"The Holy Father has ensured continuity in the work of our commission, which is to assist local churches throughout the world in their efforts to safeguard all children, young people, and vulnerable adults from harm."

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors was set up in 2014 shortly after Francis was elected pope, but its work has come in for fierce criticism from some of its own members.

Marie Collins of Ireland, who was raped by a hospital chaplain at the age of 13, quit the panel in March last year in protest at what she said was the "shameful" blocking of reforms.

Briton Peter Saunders, another sex abuse victim, also left in 2016 after a row over the panel's handling of allegations of serial abuse by an Italian priest.

- 'Great humiliation' -

As well as O'Malley, the commission is now made up of eight men and eight women the Vatican said were international experts in safeguarding children and adults from the crime of sexual abuse.

Some of the new members are themselves victims of abuse, the Vatican said in a statement.

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The commission will begin its work in April "by listening to and learning from people who have been abused, their family members and those who support them", it said.

The announcement of the revival of the committee came just days after it was revealed that Francis held regular private meetings with people abused by members of the priesthood.

Francis has often spoken out about the scandal and vowed zero tolerance towards what he has described the scandal as a "great humiliation" for the Catholic Church.

But many victims remain bitter over alleged coverups and inaction by the Church in the years since the scandal erupted.

Francis himself has most recently been attacked for supporting Chilean bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up crimes by a paedophile priest.Survivors of the Florida attack have grown up in a world where school shootings are the norm, and they want a different future

Unsure whether he would be a victim or survivor of the mass shooting taking place outside his Florida classroom, 14-year-old Aidan Minoff sent an eight-word tweet.

I am in a school shooting right now ...  Aidan said, before the world knew the day would end with 17 students and teachers dead.

Tens of thousands of people locked onto Aidans feed for the next 86 minutes, where he posted messages from the linoleum floor of his classroom, amid a forest of metal desk legs.

When the carnage ended, Aidan, and other teenagers who survived the attack, faced the cold lens of news cameras, not knowing the fate of all their friends and teachers, but they were sure about one thing.

It was about guns. Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings Carly Novell, shooting survivor

Solutions must be found to tackle US gun violence crisis. How are we allowed to buy guns at the age of 18 or 19? Thats something we shouldnt be able to do, Lyliah Skinner, who survived the shooting, told CNN.

Were children, David Hogg, a 17-year-old survivor, said. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together. Come over your politics and get something done.

Amid the ritual cycle of despair of congressional inaction on gun violence, these powerful young voices have increased the pressure on politicians only offering thoughts and prayers.

There is talk of the post-Columbine generation.

These Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school students were all born shortly after the 1999 shooting at Columbine high school in Colorado  which is no longer in the top 10 most fatal mass shootings in the US. Theyve lived through active-shooter drills at school and have seen the introduction of bullet-proof backpacks in child-friendly bright colors and funky patterns. They have instant access on the internet to the brutal facts and footage of mass shootings in the US  the five most deadly of which took place in the 10-year period from 2007 to 2017.

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They have also seen lawmakers fail to stop this from happening even after 192 people and five perpetrators were killed in those five shootings at a music festival, nightclub, church, university and elementary school.

At a federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday afternoon, Stoneman Douglas students took the stage at an anti-gun rally.

Teenager Emma Gonzalez delivered an impassioned speech, holding back tears and challenging the argument that something other than stricter gun laws could have prevented the attack.

We need to pay attention to the fact that this isnt just a mental health issue, said Gonzalez. He wouldnt have harmed that many students with a knife.

The failure of US gun laws was obvious when it emerged on Friday that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who was named as the gunman and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, had legally bought the AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle and ammunition used in the shooting at a tactical supply store in Coral Springs after passing a background check. The FBI also admitted on Friday it failed to investigate a specific report in January that Cruz, a former Stoneman Douglas student, could be plotting a school shooting.

And in the 48 hours following Cruzs arrest on Wednesday, schools across the country cancelled class in response to copycat threats. Some students were arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out attacks.

A memorial for Meadow Pollack, one of the victims at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Photograph: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images

During a funeral Friday for 18-year-old Meadow Pollack, her father looked at his daughters coffin and screamed as Floridas governor Rick Scott and 1,000 others looked on. Our kids should be safe, Andrew Pollack said.

The Stoneman Douglas students have joined the more than 150,000 students attending at least 170 primary or secondary schools who have experienced a shooting on campus since Columbine, according to a Washington Post analysis. It is a conservative calculation that does not include dozens of suicides, accidents and after-school assaults.

Hogg, a student journalist, said he interviewed people while the shooting took place. I recorded those videos because I didnt know if I was going to survive, he told the New York Times. But I knew that if those videos survived, they would echo on and tell the story. And that story would be one that would change things, I hoped. And that would be my legacy.

I knew that if those videos survived, they would echo on and tell the story David Hogg, shooting survivor

Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old Stoneman Douglas high student, created a Never Again Facebook page for his peers and the community to press for action. About 50 students at a nearby high school walked-out in protest of the governments failure to respond to gun violence on Friday.

On Sunday, a group of students from Stoneman Douglas high school announced they were planning a march on Washington DC on Saturday 24 March to demand action on guns. And a National Walk Out is planned for the 20th anniversary of Columbine on 20 April.

At South Broward high school, about 30 miles from Stoneman Douglas, student protesters held signs that said: It couldve been us. and Your silence is killing us.

Student Ianna Seemungal, 17, said she participated in the protest because she was tired of not feeling safe. We dont deserve this, she said. We need to be safe. Theres nowhere to be safe. ... We cant even go to school.

When the Huffington Post asked Ianna if she was worried about being punished for leaving class, she shrugged. No, Ianna said. And if I do, it was worth it.

When Donald Trump touched down in Florida on Friday night to meet with victims, first responders and doctors, students and the community continued to press for a response.

A gun-control rally in Parkland, Florida, on 17 February. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

I dont want Trump to come but we want more gun safety, said 18-year-old student Kevin Trejos. Its a dream. It hasnt hit me yet.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) spent more than $30m in 2016 to support Trumps presidential campaign. During the visit, Trump did not respond to a question about whether gun laws need to be changed.

While conservatives who oppose strict gun laws traditionally respond by offering thought and prayers and encouraging people to not politicize tragedies, student survivors held them to account in the days after the shooting.

The conservative Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren provided the routine response on Twitter, where she said: Can the left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda?

Carly Novell, a 17-year-old Stoneman Douglas high student, tweeted the cold truth of her experience back at Lahren.

I was hiding in a closet for 2 hours, Novell said. It was about guns. You werent there, you dont know how it felt. Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings. This IS about guns and this is about all the people who had their life abruptly ended because of guns.By Katanga Johnson and Zachary Fagenson

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - A teenager accused of shooting to death 17 people at a Florida high school was investigated by police and state officials as far back as 2016 after slashing his arm in a social media video, and saying he wanted to buy a gun, but authorities determined he was receiving sufficient support, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, is charged with committing multiple murders on Wednesday at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a Miami suburb. More than a dozen people also were wounded in the deadliest shooting at a U.S. high school.

More vigils and funerals were scheduled for this weekend in and around Parkland. Two gun shows and a rally calling for the firearm safety legislation also were due to be held nearby.

According to a report by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, a video of Cruz cutting his arm posted to the social media network Snapchat in September 2016 raised concerns among law enforcement and at the Florida Department of Children and Family Services.

"Mr. Cruz stated he plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is buying the gun for," said a report written by department officials after investigators interviewed the teenager, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The newspaper reported that the investigators ultimately decided that Cruz, then 18, was receiving enough support from mental health professionals and from his school, and that any risk in his case was low.

Representatives for the Department of Children and Family Services did not respond to requests from comment.

On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted it failed to investigate a warning this year that Cruz possessed a gun and the desire to kill. [nL2N1Q60HJ]

A person described as close to Cruz called an FBI tip line on Jan. 5 to report concerns about him, according to the FBI. That information was not forwarded to the FBI's Miami office, in what agency officials called a breakdown in protocol.

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The disclosure spread angry disbelief among Parkland residents and led Florida's Republican Governor Rick Scott to call for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.

"We have spoken with victims and families and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy," Wray said in a statement on Friday.

FBI PROCEDURE UNDER REVIEW

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a review of FBI procedures following the shooting, in which 14 students and three school staff members died.

The latest U.S. mass shooting has raised concerns about potential lapses in school security and stirred the continuing U.S. debate pitting proponents of tougher restrictions on firearms against advocates for gun rights, which are protected by the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

U.S. President Donald Trump and some other political leaders have said mental illness prompted the massacre. Cruz had been expelled from the high school for undisclosed disciplinary reasons and former classmates described him as an outcast and troublemaker with a fascination for weaponry.

According to CNN, Cruz posted disparaging comments about Jews, African Americans and gays in a private chat group on the social media network Instagram.

"I think I am going to kill people," Cruz wrote in the group, according to CNN, which also quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying the suspect bought at least five guns in the past year.

Cruz's attorneys at the Broward County Public Defender's Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has said that his office had received about 20 "calls for service" in the past few years regarding Cruz and would scrutinize all of them to see if they were handled properly.

In Coral Springs, a neighboring suburb, Life Fellowship Church Pastor Harold Altamirano and about three dozen worshipers gathered on Saturday to walk around the community and pray for healing.

"We just want to tell Parkland that you are not alone. We are hurting with you," Altamirano said. "Let's not allow fear to win. Love has to have the last say."

(Additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Parkland and Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Alison Williams and Bill Trott)By Greg Roumeliotis and Diane Bartz

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc on Friday called a meeting with Broadcom Ltd to discuss the latter's $121 billion bid constructive and opened the door to more talks, but continued to reject the proposed deal between the semiconductor companies.

Qualcomm's response raises the stakes in a battle over what would be the technology sector's largest-ever acquisition. The two companies have less than three weeks to negotiate a potential deal until Qualcomm shareholders are asked to vote on a challenge by Broadcom to Qualcomm's board of directors.

Qualcomm has been seeking to walk a fine line between resisting Broadcom's acquisition approach, which it says undervalues it and is fraught with regulatory risks, and demonstrating to its shareholders and proxy advisory firms that it is willing to engage to secure a better deal if possible.

"While the current Broadcom proposal is unacceptable, our board is intensely focused on maximizing value for Qualcomm stockholders, whether through executing on its growth strategy or by selling the company," Qualcomm Chairman Paul Jacobs wrote to Broadcom CEO Hock Tan on Friday in a letter released by Qualcomm.

Broadcom offered no immediate comment. Qualcomm shares were up 0.4 percent at $65.60, significantly below Broadcom's latest $82 per share cash-and-stock offer. Broadcom shares were down 0.8 percent at $249.89.

Qualcomm's meeting with Broadcom on Feb. 14 was the first time the two companies met to discuss a potential combination since Broadcom unveiled its unsolicited bid last November.

As part of the takeover battle, Broadcom is asking Qualcomm shareholders to back its effort to replace a majority of Qualcomm's board of directors in a vote scheduled for March 6. It has called its latest bid its best and final offer.

"While it sounds like the parties remain very far apart on the specifics (price, risk mitigation, etc), actual negotiations (with an understanding of opening positions) do appear to have kicked off, and Qualcomm is at least contemplating the bare possibility that they might get sold," analyst Stacy Rasgon at Bernstein said.

Story continues

In the meeting this week, Singapore-based Broadcom was willing to make certain divestitures to satisfy antitrust regulators, but was still resistant to "other commitments that could be expected" to be required by government regulatory bodies, Qualcomm said.

Broadcom has already said it is willing to sell two Qualcomm businesses to resolve any antitrust problems. These are its Wi-Fi networking processors and RF Front End chips for mobile phones.

In the meeting, Broadcom agreed to divest if needed its own Wi-Fi business, instead of Qualcomm's, a source familiar with the confidential details of the meeting said.

Broadcom also wanted Qualcomm to include in the merger agreement that Qualcomm will refrain from lawsuits related to licensing while the deal is being reviewed by regulators, according to the source. Qualcomm did not agree to that.

Qualcomm reiterated that Broadcom's promised breakup fee of $8 billion in the event regulators thwart the deal did not come close to compensating for risks related to the deal.

NXP DEAL

The takeover battle is at the heart of a race to consolidate the wireless technology equipment sector, as smartphone makers such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd use their market dominance to negotiate down chip prices.

Broadcom is mainly a manufacturer whose connectivity chips are used in products ranging from mobile phones to servers. San Diego-based Qualcomm primarily outsources the manufacturing of its chips which are used for the delivery of broadband and data, a business that would significantly benefit from the rollout of 5G wireless technology.

Qualcomm is currently seeking to complete a $38 billion deal to acquire NXP Semiconductors NV. NXP shares are trading at around $119, significantly above Qualcomm's $110 per share offer, as some NXP shareholders, led by activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, have called on Qualcomm to raise its price.

Broadcom has said its acquisition offer is contingent on either Qualcomm buying NXP at currently disclosed terms of $110 per share in cash or the deal being terminated.

China's MOFCOM is the only regulator around the world that has yet to approve the Qualcomm-NXP deal. With the start of the Chinese New Year public holiday this week, Qualcomm could potentially delay its decision on raising its offer for NXP until after the March 6 Qualcomm shareholder meeting.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Sonam Raim in New York; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Andrea Ricci)(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc is open to discussing a buyout offer from Broadcom Ltd that "reflects the true value" of the chipmaker and better addresses its concerns about potential regulatory hurdles to a deal, the company said on Friday.

Qualcomm said it had a "constructive" meeting with Broadcom on Feb. 14, the first time the two companies met to discuss the existing $121 billion offer.

However, Qualcomm's board maintained its view that the proposal materially undervalues the chipmaker, has an unacceptably high level of risk and is not in the best interests of its stockholders.

Though Singapore-based Broadcom was willing to certain divestitures to satisfy antitrust regulators, it was still resistant to "other commitments that could be expected" to be required by government regulatory bodies, Qualcomm said.

Broadcom also declined to comment on its intentions for the future of Qualcomm's licensing business, the company said.

Qualcomm again said Broadcom's promised breakup fee of $8 billion in the event regulators thwart the deal did not come close to compensating for risks related to the deal.

Broadcom was not immediately available for a comment.

Broadcom's top executives left the Feb. 14 meeting with the impression that their Qualcomm counterparts listened to them but did not engage, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Shares of Qualcomm and Broadcom were marginally up in early morning trading on Friday.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)That is a part of the story told by Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Dr. Nguyen Thanh Son in a meeting with leaders of HCMC Party Committees Propaganda and Education Board and press agencies during their business trip to Russia last June.



Any one who used to work and study in the former Soviet Union or Russia now memorizes adage An old friend is better than two new ones showing the character of Russian of being honest, generous and faithful.

Experiencing the historys ups and downs, Russia has treated Vietnam just like the adage.

Early November 2017, while Vietnam was busy to overcome consequences of Typhoon Damrey and prepare for receiving leaders of 21 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) member economies, Russia was the first nation sending relief including 40 tons of goods and US$5 billion to Vietnam in a direct flight to Cam Ranh Port, Khanh Hoa province--the hardest hit province in the storm.

Answering the question about changes in Russia-China relations and the position of Vietnam in these changes at a press conference on May 13, 2015, Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vasilievich Vnukov affirmed that Vietnam is the only comprehensive strategic partnership of Russia in Asia-Pacific.

Our relationship is at the highest level and one of the main missions of the two sides is to expand the foundation of the partnership in fields such as commerce, investment, cooperation and joint venture, he said.

In the 70th anniversary ceremony of Victory Day with the participation of 40 heads of states, President Vladimir Putins schedule was very stressful on May 9 and 10, 2015. He just had private meetings with head of states if they were very important. Among few meetings was the one with then Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

The two sides agreed not to waste time and need to continue fortifying and developing the cooperation relationship not only in traditional fields such as energy, atom, oil and gas and military techniques but also in new potential fields such as telecom and manufacturing, told the Russian ambassador.

While meeting head of states in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) such as Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, the President prompted to reach a free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam.

In fact Vietnam-EAEU FTA was signed in May 2015 and Vietnam has become the first partner signing the agreement with the union.

Incentives only for Vietnam

Besides advantageous conditions from the FTA with EAEU, ambassador Nguyen Thanh Son said that the Russian Government has given Vietnamese firms significant incentives.

Firstly, all level governments always pay special attention to Vietnamese businesses, positively assist them and efficiently coordinate with authorized agencies to provide them with legal information and investment policies in a timely manner.

Vietnamese investors have also been supported in transport, customs and administrative procedures. Specifically, the Russian side has facilitated stable operation of Hanoi-Moscow Multifunctional Center and a light industrial park in Moscow.

Secondly, Vietnamese companies have enjoyed assistance policies in agriculture and consumer product prodution fields. Russia has committed to providing special incentives for Vietnamese firms investing in agriculture and light industry while contacting leaders of localities such as the Republic of Bashkortostan, Primosky Krai. The incentives comprise land lease without bidding at low rent, assistance in construction of infrastructures such as electricity, water and gas.

Mr. Son said that Russia has provided Vietnamese students 900 full scholarships since 2016.

Talking to Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper, director general of TH True Milk Russia Ngo Thanh Hoan said that the company has got lot of incentives from the Russian Government.

Russia has supported the group to implement the breeding and milk processing complex project in Moscow and Kaluga on schedule by allocating land without bidding, providing low interest loans and 30 percent investment cost assistance, building farms, completing legal procedures and giving additional quotas for Vietnamese workers.

In a meeting with President Putin in September 2017 during Eastern Economic Forum, chairwoman of TH Group Thai Huong said that the groups investment in Russia was to show its gratitude to kind-hearted Russia and Russians.

Previously she sent a letter to the president in 2015. After repeating the gratitude to the Soviet Union for their great aid to Vietnam in the Resistance War against American Empire to save the nation, reunify the country, she expressed the wish of assisting Russia that has faced western sanctions by investing in dairy cow breeding.

The president had a positive response to the proposal and gave suitable instructions to the Russian agriculture industry. In May the same year, an investment contract was signed in Moscow with the witness of the two countries leaders.

Besides the farm in Moscow, TH True Milk has been building another in Kaluga, considered investment in Tyumen province, the Republic of Bashkortostan and prepared for a dairy cow project in the Far East.

Before the visit to Vietnam in 2013, President Putin sent an article published in prestigious Vietnamese newspapers, including Sai Gon Giai Phong Newspaper, with the wish to directly communicate with the Vietnamese people.

The friendship between Russia and Vietnam has steadily overcome challenges of many sorrowful events in the 20th century as well as gigantic changes in the world and in the two countries. However a simple thing never changing is the relationship of mutual respect, the tradition of mutual trust and help and the respect to impartial and disinterested help of partners who never betray each other, the President wrote in the article.

By VIET TRUNG  Translated by Hai MienBy Andrea Shalal MUNICH (Reuters) - Moscow's efforts to meddle in Western elections are backfiring, serving instead to strengthen and unify a broad range of people against Russia, top U.S. security official H.R. McMaster said on Saturday, a day after Washington indicted 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies. Russian officials denied the allegations, and one senior diplomat dismissed the charges as "fantasies" being used by some in Washington for political gain in a deeply divided United States after the election of Donald Trump as president. Officials from both countries sparred openly about everything from espionage to nuclear weapons at various events at the annual Munich Security Conference, attended by some 500 high-level diplomats, executives and politicians. McMaster, the U.S. National Security Adviser, told the conference the surprise FBI indictments provided "incontrovertible" evidence of Russia's actions. The indictments and the continuing U.S. investigation could potentially convince Moscow to back off, he said, noting that U.S. officials were also becoming more adept at "tracing the origins of this espionage and subversion". "Russia may evaluate what it's been doing ... because it's just not working," he said. The U.S. indictments on Friday said a Russian propaganda arm oversaw a criminal and espionage conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to support Donald Trump and disparage his rival, Hillary Clinton. It said Russians adopted false online personas to push divisive messages; traveled to the United States to collect intelligence, visiting 10 states; and staged political rallies while posing as Americans to "sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election". ALLEGATIONS "ABSURD" Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the allegations as "absurd" and ridiculed the notion that so few Russian nationals could undermine U.S. democracy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also pushed back, saying he viewed the allegations as "just blather". In a subsequent panel at the conference, Sergei Kislyak, who served as Russian ambassador to Washington at the time of the alleged election meddling, denied that he or his staff had carried out any such activities during his time there. "When it comes to my being ambassador in the United States, we never got involved in the political life in the United States. I have never done anything of this sort, none in my embassy did," he said. "Whatever allegations are being mounted against us are simply fantasies that are being used for political reasons inside the United States," he said. Kislyak, whose contacts with members of Donald Trump's campaign team made him a central figure in the row about any Russian influence over the U.S. presidential election, left Washington in August. McMaster said Russia was trying to polarize Western societies by backing "the most extreme forms of fascist groups" and left-wing groups, but the result had been to strengthen and unite people in the political middle against Russia. He noted that the deeply partisan and divided U.S. Senate had voted 98 to two to renew sanctions against Russia, calling the vote clear evidence that Moscow's campaign was not working. Senior officials from the two countries also traded barbs over a new U.S. nuclear arms policy that will expand the Americans' low-yield nuclear capability. "The American administration seems to be taking a very relaxed position as to the conditions of the use and the first use of nuclear weapons," said Kislyak. "They are looking at nuclear weapons more like a war fighting instrument, rather than a classical deterrent." John Sullivan, Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, said: "Our nuclear posture review is based on a factual assessment of the changed security circumstances ... We want to deter nuclear war. We don't want to engage in nuclear war." Despite the heated exchange, the two men shook hands warmly at the end of the panel discussion. (Additional reporting by Paul Carrel in Berlin and Joern Poltz; Editing by Andrew Bolton)By Jan Wolfe (Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of 13 Russian individuals and three organizations for allegedly interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election sets the stage for the prosecution of Americans who may have helped the Russian effort, some legal experts said. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters on Friday there was no allegation in the indictment that any American knew about the alleged scheme. It said Russians did contact "unwitting" members of the campaign of now President Donald Trump in a bid to support him while denigrating his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. The indictment said the Russians conspired "with persons known and unknown," which could include Americans. "While they went to great pains to say they are not indicting any Americans today, if I was an American and I did cooperate with Russians I would be extremely frightened today," said former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter. The White House took a different view, issuing a statement saying that Trump had been briefed on the matter and was "glad to see the Special Counsel's investigation further indicates there was NO COLLUSION between the Trump campaign and Russia." Mueller has been silent on where the probe is headed. It has so far led to guilty pleas from Trump's former national security advisor and a one-time campaign aide to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as indictments of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Manafort's business partner Rick Gates. Moscow has denied meddling in the election. Leah Litman, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, said that meant the Russian government was extremely unlikely to turn over any of its nationals for U.S. prosecution. There is no formal extradition agreement between the United States and Russia. There is no crime called collusion in U.S. law, but former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason, now a professor at George Washington University Law School, said the same conduct is often covered by the offense of conspiracy. "The fact is that collusion is potentially a crime," Eliason said. "This has always been clear, and it is even clearer now." The indictment alleges a scheme to impede the functioning of the U.S. Federal Election Commission and other government agencies. Prosecutors also accuse the Russians of opening bank accounts under false names and unlawfully using stolen identities of Americans to post on social media in support of Trump. To charge an American with conspiracy, legal experts said, Mueller would need to show that person was aware the Russians were trying to interfere in the election and knowingly aided them. For example, people who participated in activities to support the Trump campaign could be charged if they knew Russians had organized them to help sway the vote. If an American helped direct the Russian acts, that could lead to charges as well, said Harvard Law School Professor Alex Whiting. "If there were meetings between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and the Trump campaign officials encouraged the Russians or guided them to particular types of work, or provided them assistance so that they could focus their interference, that would be collusion," said Whiting, a former federal prosecutor. Some experts said Friday's indictment does not indicate Mueller's probe was broadening. Bill Jeffress, a criminal defense lawyer at Baker Botts, said he thought it was significant that Mueller made clear that members of the campaign only dealt with Russians unwittingly. "If they had enough evidence that an American were complicit they would have included it," said Jeffress. But Cotter said the narrative set forth in the indictment could easily include many more participants. "The net is tightening," he said. "They have moved up a whole other step on the ladder." (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Writing by Anthony Lin; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel Wallis)Saudi Arabia could look to adopt nuclear energy as a way to move domestic energy consumption away from oil, the country's foreign minister told CNBC Sunday.

"We are looking at a number of countries that have nuclear technology for peaceful purposes," Al-Jubeir said, speaking to CNBC from the Munich Security Conference.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called on the U.S. to give it the same rights as other nuclear nations in its push to process its own nuclear fuel, revealing that it's currently in talks with 10 other countries should America refuse.

Saudi Arabia plans to construct 16 nuclear power reactors over the next 20 to 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. It has invited U.S. firms to take part in the program but acceptance from Washington requires a country to sign a peaceful nuclear cooperation pact. Known as a 123 agreement, it separates civil and military nuclear facilities and aims to block the steps from nuclear fuel production to potential bomb-making applications. Countries like India have already signed up to such agreements with the U.S.

Riyadh has previously stated that wants to tap its own uranium resources for "self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel," according to Reuters, and is not interested in diverting nuclear technology to military use. Its regional rival Iran is already one step ahead and is allowed to enrich uranium.

Speaking to CNBC at the Munich Security Conference, Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC that Saudi Arabia was looking at a number of countries that have nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

"We are looking at the issue of the viability of building nuclear reactors in order to produce energy so that we can save the oil and export it in order to generate revenue," the foreign minister said.

"The countries that we are talking to are probably roughly 10 countries or so around the world and we have not made a decision yet with regards to which path we will take and which country we will be focusing on more."

Story continues

When pressed on what Saudi Arabia would do if the U.S. failed to back its nuclear energy program, he said: "This is really something that's up to our nuclear energy professionals to deal with, but our objective is we want to have the same rights as other countries."

Transition away from oil

Al-Jubeir said that the world's largest oil exporter was exploring the use of nuclear energy as part of its transition away from an oil-based energy system.

In 2006, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that includes Saudi Arabia and five other Middle Eastern nations announced that it was commissioning a study into the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

In 2010 too, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree in which it said: "The development of atomic energy is essential to meet the Kingdom's growing requirements for energy to generate electricity, produce desalinated water and reduce reliance on depleting hydrocarbon resources."

Now, the World Nuclear Association notes that Saudi Arabia plans to construct 16 nuclear power reactors. This would mean it does not have to rely on its own oil for its domestic energy needs.

"Saudi Arabia consumes over one-quarter of its oil production, and while energy demand is projected to increase substantially, oil production is not, and by 2030 a large proportion will be consumed domestically, much of it for electricity generation," the World Nuclear Association notes on its website .

In January, Bloomberg reported that Saudi plans to award contracts in December for the construction of its first nuclear power plants, citing a government official involved with the project. The report noted that Saudi Arabia had received requests from five bidders from China, France, the U.S., South Korea and Russia "to perform the engineering, procurement and construction work on two nuclear reactors."





More From CNBC

Researchers carrying out tests on La Misereuse accroupie: PA

Scientists examining a work by Pablo Picasso using x-ray technology have discovered that he painted it over a landscape painting by an unknown artist.

In 1957, when he was in his 70s, the Spanish painter mused that x-ray technology could one day discover a lost work underneath one of his early paintings.

That prediction came to fruition when a team of researchers in the US and Canada analysed La Misereuse Accroupie (The Crouching Beggar) - painted in 1902 - which is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

They used a non-invasive technique called x-ray fluorescent spectroscopy to examine the 1902 painting and found that it was painted on top of another unknown artists landscape.

It was painted during Picasso's Blue Period, when he mainly used monochromatic shades of blue and blue-green.

The researchers' technique allowed them to study the painting in-depth in just 24 hours, and revealed the horizontal landscape created by a different Barcelona painter, whose identity remains unknown, under the visible surface of Picasso's painting.

By rotating the artist's work 90 degrees, Picasso was able to use some of the landscape forms, such as the lines of the cliff edges into the woman's back, in his own final composition.

Researchers also found Picasso had initially painted the woman with a right hand holding an object before covering it with her cloak in the final version.

They also found in the earlier versions, the woman was narrower and had a different head inclination.

The hidden painting by a mystery artist found behind Picasso's work (PA)

"Picasso had no qualms about changing things during the painting process said Marc Walton, a research professor at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering.

"Our team has begun to tease apart the complexity of La Misereuse Accroupie, uncovering subtle changes made by Picasso as he worked toward his final vision."

The painting was sold in 2015 at Christie's auction in New York for $149,000 (106,000).

Story continues

Researchers also found Picasso's earlier version of the painting, which showed the woman's right arm, to resemble another one of his creations - a watercolour painting called Femme assise.

It became clear to me that the arm hidden under the visible surface of La Misereuse accroupie is the same as the proper right arm of a crouching woman in a Picasso watercolour recently sold at auction", said Kenneth Brummel, AGO assistant curator of modern art.

Research was jointly conducted by Northwestern University's Art Institute of Chicago Centre for Scientific Studies in the Arts, the AGO, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Additional reporting by Press AssociationBy Thomas Escritt and Robin Emmott

MUNICH (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May made her case on Saturday for a new security treaty with the EU from next year, winning support from EU and U.S. officials who agreed the issue was too important to risk getting subsumed in broader Brexit negotiations.

In a speech to Western leaders and officials in Munich, May promised that London would continue to lead military missions and share intelligence if Brussels agreed to a pact "effective from 2019", the year Britain is due to leave the bloc.

May's government is using a series of speeches to set out its vision for Britain outside the European Union. But the loudest applause during her appearance came when the event's organiser, German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, said: "Things would be so much easier if you stayed."

But May was adamant: "We are leaving the EU and there is no question of a second referendum or going back, and I think that's important," she told the Munich Security Conference.

"The partnership that we need to create is one that offers UK and EU way to combine our efforts to greatest effect where this is in our shared interest," May said of her security plan.

Britain is one of the top three users of data from European Union police agency Europol. But as it leaves the EU, there is a risk that it will be shut out of this cooperation, becoming more vulnerable to Islamist militants, officials say.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's chief executive, welcomed a "security alliance" with Britain, adding that the issue should be separated from the rest of the Brexit debate.

Britain, along with France, is Europe's biggest military power and leads two European Union military missions while sending troops to Estonia under a NATO flag.

With a host of issues still unresolved and infighting over Brexit dividing May's government just over a year before Britain is due to leave, security is one of London's biggest bargaining chips as it seeks a new deal with Brussels.

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Britain's home secretary last year told the EU it could "take our information with us" if it left the bloc without a deal on security.

May emphasised she was committed to European security, warned against competition between Britain and the rest of Europe and said that both sides should do "whatever is most practical and pragmatic in ensuring our collective security."

Juncker said security should not be conflated with "other questions relating to Brexit," also quashing any British hopes that a security treaty might be a way into a free-trade deal.

"I wouldn't like to put security policy considerations with trade policy considerations in one hat. I understand why some would like to do that, but we don't want to," he said.

VEILED THREAT?

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also welcomed close security cooperation between Britain and the EU after Brexit, while Stoltenberg's predecessor at the alliance, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, told Reuters May's was a strong speech.

"I think that is what we should aim for, but any treaty is very time-consuming. The timeline is unrealistic," Fogh Rasmussen said.

A senior U.S. official said: "We know the goal, but I don't know if this is the right vehicle."

But May's call to set aside "rigid institutional structures" to enable a quick agreement on security was less well received.

"What she meant was not specified and sounded like a veiled threat," said EU lawmaker Marietje Schaake, a Dutch centrist.

One senior EU official in Munich said that May would need to submit a formal negotiating paper to detail her ideas and then allow EU and British negotiators to move forward.

But the EU official said May's proposal was essentially not new and could only come after Britain and the EU had agreed a divorce settlement. "The European Union also wants a new security arrangement with Britain, but it can't be done before we agree on other issues," the official said.

While the status of the Irish border and citizens rights were broadly settled in December, EU negotiators say they are now waiting for Britain to say what kind of future trade relationship it wants.

Agreement on that front would allow EU leaders to endorse the plan at a Brussels summit on March 22-23 and move on to a special transition arrangement ending in December 2020.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt and Robin Emmott; Writing by Alistair Smout and Robin Emmott; editing by John Stonestreet)FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez refuted President Donald Trumps suggestion that her community didnt take action to prevent a shooter from killing 17 at the school in a fiery Saturday speech. Politicians who take money from the NRA should feel ashamed, Gonzalez said, ending her address with we call BS.

Theres one tweet that I would like to call attention to, Gonzalez said at a rally at Ft. Lauderdale Federal Courthouse before reading the presidents Feb. 15 Twitter post that stressed people shouldve reported bad and erratic behavior to authorities.

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We did. Time and time again. Since [the accused shooter] was in middle school, she replied. The accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, 19, had been reported previously to the FBI.

Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him, you didnt know this kid! OK? she shouted. We did. We know that they are claiming that there are mental health issues, and I am not a psychologist, but we need to pay attention to the fact that this is not just a mental health issue.

He wouldnt have harmed that many students with a knife, Gonzalez added.

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More than 1,000 community members gathered at the courthouse to speak about the importance of gun control. Speakers included students and teachers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas. The rally was sponsored by groups including Moms Demand Action, the Broward Teachers Union, and the League of Women Voters.

Gonzalez also criticized the family that Cruz had been living with before the shooting. With both parents dead, Cruz moved in with the family of a classmate, who knew about his fascination with guns. She then called out Trumps February 2017 decision to repeal a gun law that blocked the sale of firearms to people with certain mental illnesses.

If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy, and how it should never have happened, and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association, Gonzalez said, sparking cheers and applause.

Story continues

To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! she added. A chant started up among those gathered: Shame on you!

Conservative politicians who have taken money from gun rights groups drew criticism in the wake of Wednesdays shooting. The NRA spent $30.3 million supporting Trumps campaign in the 2016 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this: We call BS! Gonzalez said.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Mischa Gasser of Switzerland gestures. (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

BOKWANG, South KoreaEvery Olympic dream runs on hard work and sacrifice, not just by the Olympians but by their families. But itll be tough to top the work that Swiss free skier Mischa Gassers father put in to see his son in the Olympics: biking for over a year, for 17,000 kilometers (more than 10,500 miles), from Switzerland to South Korea. Once again: biking.

Guido Huwiler, 55, set off with his wife Rita Ruttimann from Switzerland on February 2, 2017, with the goal of biking all the way to South Korea. And, with just a week to spare, he made it in time to see his son compete in the Aerials events at Phoenix Snow Park on Saturday night. (Gassers mother was there as well, flying in like the rest of the sane planet has done.)

My dad is crazy, Gasser laughed after his qualifying Saturday night. He was a skydiver as well in his younger age. Its just what they have to do.

How exactly does one ride all the way from Switzerland to South Korea? One pedal-push at a time. Huwiler documented their travels on Instagram and on a personal blog:

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Most of the entries come with a bit of a philosophical undertone: The further we drive east, the more often the border guards greet us at passport control with the words and a laugh: Welcome to my country! It seems we have forgotten how hospitality could work in the West, Huwiler wrote in one Google-translated German entry. Every time we experience this the words are stuck in our mouths. Yes, we feel welcome everywhere, what a gift!

The images are spectacular and well worth a look:

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There were some small hiccups. Huwiler and Ruttimann couldnt bike through North Korea, of course, and couldnt secure the necessary approval to ride through China. So they took a couple of well-timed plane flights to keep the journey moving, but we wont hold that against them.

The duo rode through an astounding 20 countries on their way to PyeongChang, staying in everything from hotels to tents along the way. The full list: Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and finally South Korea.

Story continues

Their toughest stretch, according to Huwiler, came while biking the historic Pamir Highway in central Asiaa legendary, and dangerous, route that runs more than 15,000 feet above sea level. (The city of Denver, by way of comparison, is about 5,200 feet above sea level.)

Theyre here for supporting us and our [Swiss] team, Gasser said. All the guys think its just great.

Gasser repaid his fathers epic efforts with two magnificent performances in Aerials qualifying. His score of 121.72 was just enough, by half a point, to get him into Sundays finals. Huwiler was in the massive crowd that cheered Gassers jumps (Back Full-Double Full-Full and Back Double Full-Full-Full, for those of you keeping score), and he and his wife will be back again on Sunday.

Next up for Huwiler: a visit to Japan, and then back to Switzerland. As for Gasser, he concedes that a bit of his fathers daredevil spirit may have led to him becoming a world-class ski jumper:

Youre 15 meters in the air, doing three flips with four twists, landing into snow, Gasser said, breaking down his own event. Honestly, its ridiculous.

Worth riding 10,000 miles for, too.

Mischa Gasser flies high over PyeongChang while below his father watches. (Getty)

____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.Beirut (AFP) - A Kurdish-led alliance in northern Syria said late Saturday it had targeted military positions in Turkey, which is leading an offensive against a Kurdish-controlled enclave.

It was the first time the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, has claimed a cross-border attack on Turkish forces.

No Turkish official was immediately available for comment on the incident.

Ankara and allied Syrian rebels have waged a nearly month-long offensive on Afrin, a northwestern pocket of Syria controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the SDF.

Late Saturday, the SDF announced it had carried out "a special operation against a gathering centre for Turkish soldiers" and allied Syrian factions.

It said the position was in Kirikhan, a district in Turkey's Hatay province, and that there were casualties, without specifying what weapons it had used.

"We call on civilians to stay away from positions controlled by the Turkish invaders and... terrorists, as all military positions are legitimate targets for our forces," the statement added.

Turkish media on Saturday reported that two Turkish soldiers and five allied Syrian rebels were wounded when mortar fire hit a police station in Kirikhan.

The SDF has been the US-led coalition's main ground partner in the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group in the east of the country but receives no direct US support for its operations in Afrin.

Ankara has blacklisted the YPG as a "terrorist" group, saying it is the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

Determined to roll back the YPG's presence along its southern border, Turkey has repeatedly bombed positions held by the Kurdish militia and the SDF during Syria's seven-year conflict.

But the assault Ankara and allied Syrian rebels launched against Afrin on January 20 is Turkey's largest operation yet against the Kurdish forces.

Last week, YPG chief Sipan Hamo said his forces had never launched an attack across the border from Syria into Turkey.

"From when we established our forces until today, we have never conducted an operation on Turkish soil and haven't thrown a single rock at it," Hamo told reporters.A North Korean soldier recently escaped across the demilitarised zone, the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, and a remnant of the July 1953 ceasefire to the Korean conflict. On his arrival in South Korea, much was made of the precarious state of his health. Following surgery to treat the soldiers wounds, his South Korean medical team made an interesting update. The patient was in recovery, but his body remained filled with intestinal parasites, taken as a sign of North Koreas underdeveloped public health system. One worm reportedly reached 27cm in length, indicating that it had been living in the mans gut for a significant amount of time.

This use of public health as a metric for social and political conditions holds a much longer history on the Korean peninsula, and indeed, throughout much of North-East Asia. The focus on intestinal parasites dates to the early 1960s, when the two Koreas were locked in a bitter competition for political and economic legitimacy. South Korea, with ambitions of sending its citizens abroad to undertake work opportunities in West Germany and South-East Asia, became acutely conscious of the issue as younger Koreans underwent medical exams and crossed international borders in large numbers.

The drive to eliminate parasites began modestly with the formation of KAPE (Korea Anti-Parasite Eradication) in 1964, a grass-roots organisation led by scientists and activists. But it then expanded into a national form, and took on a heated ideological fervour.

Night soil

South Korea was primarily an agricultural nation following its independence in 1948, yet lacked access to chemical fertiliser. This meant that the fields producing its food supply were typically covered with night soil, human excrement collected for this purpose. Even after washing, consumables produced in these fields therefore contained a diversity of parasites. South Koreans therefore consumed and reintroduced these parasites into their bodies in a cyclical fashion in the course of eating.

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This is an issue common to many developing countries. For South Korea, the problem was exacerbated when the peninsulas division left much of the chemical industry in the north, meaning a loss of access to fertiliser. Then the Korean War (1950-1953) and its aftermath brought a second wave of devastation. This kept the issue in the background until the early 1960s, when post-war recovery allowed for the identification of new goals.

The national anti-parasite campaign was launched in 1969, and targeted children of school age. These campaigns made a strong impression in Korean popular culture and historical memory. And its not hard to work out why. Twice a year, South Korean schoolchildren were required to bring their stool samples to school in small paper bags, and pass these to their teacher. Upon collection, the biological samples became the property of the state, which subjected them to analysis by microscope, looking for the telltale presence of parasite eggs, especially the giant roundworm.

The image of lines of schoolchildren presenting samples to their teacher, and that of teams of technicians peering through microscopes, became an integral part of South Koreas story of transformation and modernisation. Such disciplined bodies meant a cleaner, healthier population, one training for new tasks and job sites. This was particularly important as South Korea expanded its ambitions to include new construction sites, first in South-East Asia and later, the Middle East.

Following analysis, students identified with parasites were asked to ingest anthelmintics, pills designed to kill the parasites living in their bodies. In some cases, these drugs were not entirely effective. Another common and extremely uncomfortable experience was that of expelling live parasites from ones body, only partially stunned by the medication. If this visceral experience has been largely left out of the historical narrative, it is because Koreans tend to recall it in a more humorous vein, reflecting an earlier time of struggle and privation, before they became a modern nation.

The politics of parasites

The school campaigns continued until the 1990s, but the main focus  a reduction in the baseline rate of parasite infection  began to show signs of impact almost immediately. In 1969, the rate of infection was enormously high, and for a diversity of parasites. These figures dropped rapidly, reaching single digits, in some cases, by the early 1990s.

But this success story was not without its tensions. Students from rural communities affected by parasites sought to evade the scrutiny of the state, often out of shame and embarrassment. In some cases, students skipped school on sample day, or substituted their pets sample to avoid personal scrutiny. In turn, the states inspection regime had to learn how to exclude certain types of parasites from the sampling process, recognising that these items were derived from animal samples (mainly cats or dogs) and not humans.

The ability to process these materials at the national level also represented an unusual technical collaboration undertaken with international partners, in this case Japan. Japanese overseas aid brought microscopes, trained health professionals, and materials to South Korea after 1965  Japan had undergone its own parasite problems in the aftermath of World War II. Japans rapid economic recovery meant that it could share the knowledge with Korea about a decade after its own experience. Today, sites such as the Meguro Parasitological Museum in south-west Tokyo preserve this fascinating history.

The two nations subsequently joined together to help lead APCO (Asian Parasite Control Organization), formed in 1974, and designed to provide outreach to partners in East and Southeast Asia, following upon the Japanese and Korean post-war developmental experiences. Similar stories might be told for China during this same period, and for numerous countries grappling with these issues today.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

John P DiMoia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.A group of students who survived the Wednesday mass shooting at a Florida high school is organizing a nationwide march to demand lawmakers make ending gun violence a priority.

The March For Our Lives is planned for March 24 in Washington, D.C., with sister marches expected to break out in other major cities across the country, five students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School announced on Sunday during several TV appearances.

People are saying that its not time to talk about gun control, and we can respect that, Cameron Kasky, a junior at the high school, said on ABCs This Week.

Heres the time: March 24, Kasky continued. In every single city, we are going to be marching together as students begging for our lives. This isnt about the GOP. This isnt about the Democrats. This is about the adults. We feel neglected. At this point, youre either with us or youre against us.

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A 19-year-old former student has confessed to using an assault-style rifle to open fire Wednesday at the high school in Parkland, killing 17 people and injuring over a dozen others. Many students at the school, located roughly 40 miles north of Miami, have spoken out since the massacre, pleading with politicians to take action on gun violence.

We are losing our lives while the adults are playing around, Kasky said Sunday on CNN. We have our lives on the line here. At the end day, that is what is going to be bringing us to victory and to making some sort of right out of this tragedy. This is about us begging for our lives.

Four other classmates joined Kasky on Sunday: David Hogg, Alex Wind, Jaclyn Corin, and Emma Gonzalez, who delivered a powerful speech Saturday at a rally for gun control in Fort Lauderdale.

Gonzalez begged Congress to please stop allowing us to be gunned down in our hallways during an appearance with her fellow students on Fox News Sunday.

We want students to be at that march and to be with us, Gonzalez said. We want to be with those students who we didnt understand their pain before and its all too tragic that we all have to understand the same pain now.

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David Hogg, a senior at the school, slammed lawmakers who receive financial contributions from special interest groups such as the National Rifle Association, a pro-gun organization that has donated millions of dollars to lawmakers over the years.

Our elected officials need to get together, overcome their political differences, and get some things done because they need to save the future of our country, Hogg told Fox News Chris Wallace. And the future of our country are those children that are currently dying because politicians refuse to take action and continue to take money from the special interest groups.

Click here for more information on March For Our Lives.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - Thousands of Kurds marched through the French city of Strasbourg on Saturday to call for the release of jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan and protest against Turkey's military offensive in Syria.

"UN, take your responsibility and stop the genocide in Afrin," read one banner, referring to the region in northern Syria where Turkey is waging a campaign against a Syrian Kurd militia.

The protesters who came from across Europe also waved Kurdish flags and pictures of the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), chanting "Freedom for Ocalan".

There was a strong police presence at the demonstration, which police said attracted 11,000 people while organisers put the number at between 25,000-30,000.

The march has taken place each year in the city that hosts the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe since Ocalan was detained in 1999.

Ocalan, the figurehead of the PKK's bloody insurgency against the Turkish state, remains behind bars on a prison island off Istanbul.

Ankara launched an offensive in the Afrin area of northern Syria last month against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which it considers a terror group but which is allied with US forces in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group.

"(Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan is becoming very aggressive towards the Kurds and the situation is getting a lot worse, year after year, month after month," said Newroz, who came from Germany to attend the rally with his sister and friends.

"Erdogan is a 100 percent dictator, every European should know this," added Okce, who also came from Germany.Tiffany Trump (Photo: Getty Images)

Tiffany Trump is a lot like any other 24-year-old: she is getting her law degree, hangs out with friends and family, and (maybe) gets her heart broken.

After more than two years dating, the first daughter has reportedly split from Ross Mechanic, 23, who she met while they both were students at the University of Pennsylvania. Rumors began circulating in September that the couple had called it quits. However, Mechanic made the breakup official when he shared a series of snaps kissing a new woman on his now-private Instagram stories, according to the Daily Mail.

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President Donald Trumps youngest daughter has not spoken about the status of the couples relationship. The split might have come after the couple traveled to Europe together last summer, as Mechanic stayed in New York City while Trump moved to Washington for law school.

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Dating a first daughter could obviously be stressful. Despite being private citizens, presidential children are often under constant public scrutiny and forced to be tabloid fodder. Malia Obamas new romance with British boyfriend Rory Farquharson made headlines around the world a year after her dad, former President Obama, moved out of the White House in early 2017.

Chelsea Clinton tweeted, urging the public about keeping the lives of the presidents children private.

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Clinton opened up about the challenges of dating as first daughter. In a 2012 interview with Vogue magazine, Clinton, who sparked a media storm when she married Marc Mezvinsky in 2010 in a lavish ceremony, admits it was only afterward that she decided fame was either something I could continue to ignore or it was something I could try to use to highlight causes that I really cared about.

Like Clinton, George W. Bushs twin daughters, Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush, also learned that being the presidents daughter will have all eyes on you. The twins opened up about their tumultuous first years in the White House and having their lives commented on by strangers. In their memoir, Sisters First, Hager writes, Barbaras and my faces were suddenly everywhere, and the words accompanying them were almost universally negative.

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Although specific details regarding the cause of Trump and Mechanics split are not known, it seems pretty clear being in the public eye could put a strain on the relationship.

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Following Wednesdays shooting massacre at a Florida high school, a top Republican political donor has taken a stand for gun control  by tightening his purse strings.

Businessman Al Hoffman Jr. told the New York Times that he will not write another check for candidates and political groups that dont support a ban on assault weapons. The Florida-based former ambassador to Portugal has donated millions to GOP candidates and political groups over the years, reported the paper.

For how many years now have we been doing this  having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings  and how many years has it been that nothings been done? said the 83-year-old, who announced his decision in an email to several Republican leaders, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush. Its the end of the road for me.

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Gun violence survivors, activists and others have been calling for stricter gun control laws this week in the wake of Wednesdays mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which left 17 people dead. The alleged gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle in the attack.

In 2013, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bill that sought to ban military-style assault weapons including guns like the AR-15. The bill, which failed to pass in the Senate, was similar to the 1994 ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004.

Republican lawmakers have mostly expressed little interest this week in pursuing new gun control legislation. In a Saturday tweet, President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the lack of gun control reform.

Hundreds gathered to protest against guns on the steps of the Broward County Federal courthouse on February 17, 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo: Joe Raedle via Getty Images)

In his interview with the Times, Hoffman said that Republican lawmakers, who receive millions each year from the National Rifle Association, were unlikely to push for greater gun control.

The NRA spent $30 million supporting Trumps campaign in the 2016 presidential election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The group spent millions more that year supporting other Republican candidates, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

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When asked by Vox this week if Congress should act to tighten gun laws in the wake of the Florida shooting, Blunt said that he didnt know enough about the attack to know if theres a proper response or not.

Rubio said on Thursday that he didnt believe stricter gun laws would be effective in stopping would-be shooters from committing crimes.

If someones decided, Im going to commit this crime, theyll find a way to get the gun to do it, said Rubio, who gun control activists protested this week in a campaign inspired by the film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.President Donald Trump in a tweet late Saturday suggested that the FBI was to blame for failing to stop the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting, because the agency was distracted by the Russia probe.

Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable, Trump wrote from his Mar-a-Lago Florida estate.

GettyImages-919156116

Getty Images

Trending: Nikolas Cruz's Foster Parents Say They Knew All About His Gun Arsenal

In an extraordinary attack on the nations top law enforcement agency, Trump accused the FBI of spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

There is no collusion, Trump added. Get back to the basics and make us all proud.

The presidents criticisms follow the bureaus admission Friday that on January 5 a person close to alleged Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz called an FBI hotline warning that Cruz had made violent threats and could attack a school. The FBI said that the information was not passed onto field agents, in a breach of protocol.

Don't miss: Trump Campaign Finances May Be Next 'Shoe To Drop' In Russia Probe, Says Former Intel Chief Clapper

The resources devoted to the Russia probe had no impact on the FBIs response to the Florida shooting because the tip never reached agents who would have launched an investigation, officials cited by The Washington Post said.

Trump has in recent months repeatedly criticised Special Counsel Robert Muellers probe into allegations his officials conspired with Russia to secure his victory in the 2016 presidential election. On Friday, Florida Governor Rick Scott was among several senior GOP lawmakers who criticised the FBI for its misstep in the Cruz shooting, calling for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign.

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Democrats though criticized Trump for using the FBIs failure to act on the Cruz tips as a pre-text to criticize the Russia probe.

Most popular: Polish Prime Minister's Jewish Holocaust 'Perpetrators' Comments Spark Outrage In Israel

You are such a psychopath that you have to make even the death of 17 children about you. America will regret the day you were ever born, tweeted Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego.

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Trump also faced accusations of failing to show empathy for the victimes, after giving a "thumbs up" gesture and smiling broadly while posing for photographs with the First Responders to the Florida shooting.

On Friday, Muellers team unsealed the indictment of 13 Russians it alleges were involved in a plot to sabotage the 2016 election. The White House had said in a statement the investigation indicates there was "NO COLLUSION" between the campaign and Russia, and said that Trump decided to run for the presidency already after Russia launched its campaign to undermine the election.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Donald Trump went on a fake news Twitter attack over the Russian indictments Saturday, citing a Facebook ad executive who said the Russians main goal was not to sway the presidential election.

Rob Goldman, Facebook vice president of ad sales, tweeted Friday that he believed the primary goal of the Russian operation named in special counsel Robert Muellers indictments was to divide Americans, not to influence the election. Goldman said 56 percent of the Facebook ads purchased by the indicted Russians ran after the election, but the press hasnt covered that because it doesnt align with the main media narrative of Trump and the election.

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Trump latched onto Goldmans tweets, saying, The Fake News Media never fails. Hard to ignore the fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman!

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Goldman later clarified he was referring to Russian behavior on Facebook only. He was also apparently only addressing ad purchases. Facebook has testified before Congress that while 3,000 suspect ads reached 10 million people, some 80,000 unpaid posts reached 126 million users.

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Muellers indictment, announced Friday, against 13 Russians and three Russian organizations, stated the intention of the Russian trolls on social media was to interfere with the U.S. political system, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It also said the aim was to sway the election for Trump and Bernie Sanders  and against Hillary Clinton.

The indictment points to manipulation of both political posts and ads on social media platforms, including Twitter and Instagram, by Russians allegedly pretending to be Americans. By September before the election, they were operating on a monthly budget of $1.24 million, according to the indictment.

Facebook has come under attack for failing to alert readers or to police posts and ads on its platform. Facebook now has a tool for users to determine if they liked any pages or accounts created by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency (IRA), one of the groups named in the indictment. Nearly 150 million Facebook and Instagram users may have seen ads and posts circulated by the group.

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Facebook has announced a new process for election ads which will require that verification postcards be mailed back through the U.S. Postal Service to anyone buying election ads, Reuters reports. The postcards will contain a special code that advertisers must send back to prove theyre in the United States.

Twitter announced last month nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. followed, retweeted or liked content distributed by Russian government-linked Twitter accounts in the 10 weeks before the U.S. presidential election.

Trump also tweeted that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at the press conference announcing the indictments that there was no allegation any American was a willing participant in the illegal activity or that the conduct altered the election. In fact, the indictment reached no conclusion about the Russian impact on the election results.

Trump went on to repeat that the Russian operation was launched in 2014, long before I joined the race.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.President Donald Trump now claims he had never said Russia did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election, despite suggesting on numerous occasions that he believes the special counsel probe into the interference is fake news.

Taking to Twitter on Sunday, Trump insisted he was not at odds with the widely held view of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had attempted to influence the outcome of the U.S. election, but insisted his team had not colluded with Russia.

I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said 'it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer,'" he tweeted.

Trending: Trump Reportedly Asked Pals At Mar a Lago What To Do On Gun Control After Florida Shooting

"The Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia - it never did!" Trump added.

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His comments came hours after a tweet attacking the FBI late Saturday evening that blasted the bureau for spending too much time trying to "prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign rather than attempting to prevent mass shootings.

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The president's Saturday night and Sunday morning tweetstorm follow the Friday indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of 13 Russian nationals for allegedly meddling in the election through a multi-year cyber attack.

Trumps assertion that he has never dismissed the idea that Russia tried to meddle in the election comes in stark contrast with previous comments he has made on the subject; which he has referred to a hoax, fake news, and a witchhunt on various occasions.

02_14_TrumpIntel

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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Following a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November last year, Trump said he was reticent to push Putin on the meddling claims.

Every time he sees me he says, I didnt do that, and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it. I think he is very insulted by it, Trump said in comments he was later forced to walk back after it appeared his opinion contradicted that of U.S. intelligence agencies.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP, Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump fumed on Twitter on Saturday night and Sunday morning after 13 Russians and three Russian entities were indicted for allegedly interfering in the 2016 U.S. election.

Among other things, Trump pointed to the various committee hearings and investigations as evidence that Russia succeeded in its goal of stirring up chaos. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow, the commander in chief said.

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But the Russian regime was curiously absent from his list of enemies. Indeed, though Trump said Sunday that he never denied there was Russian election meddling, he has emphasized Russian President Vladimir Putins denial.

Every time he sees me, he said: I didnt do that. And I believe  I really believe  that when he tells me that, he means it, Trump said in November 2017.

In the series of tweets Sunday, Trump blamed former President Barack Obama for Russian interference, mocked a U.S. congressman, and gloated over Democrat Hillary Clintons loss.

He started off by relitigating the money exchanged during the controversial Iran deal focused on reducing the countrys nuclear stockpile. The Obama administration said the settlement was to resolve a dispute between the countries that was decades old. 

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Trump supposedly thanked Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for saying the Obama administration shared part of the blame for Russian interference. Schiff recently told NBC News that Obama should have established a more forceful deterrent against potential cyberattacks after North Korea went after Sony in 2014.

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The president then turned to Russia and shared a political cartoon from a Twitter user identified as Ivan Trumpovic that lampooned CNN for its coverage of the issue.

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Trumps tweetstorm came on the heels of U.S. special counsel Robert Muellers Friday indictment of Russians and Russian companies, including the Internet Research Agency, which is based in Saint Petersburg and best known for its online trolling. The indictment said the Russian propagandists conspired to sow discord in the U.S. political system by adopting fake online personas to push disruptive messages and staging political rallies posing as Americans, among other tactics.

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According to Muellers office, which has not finished its investigation, this Russian propaganda was intended to discredit Clinton and bolster support for Trump.

Two Trump campaign officials, including former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about their contacts with Russia and are now cooperating with Muellers probe.

But on Saturday night, Trump said FBI officials were spending too much time on the Russia investigation, linking the issue to last weeks school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

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Read more from Yahoo News:Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump slammed the FBI Saturday for failing to heed signs that could have prevented the Florida school shooting, charging the agency was too preoccupied with probing his campaign team over Russian election meddling.

Allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race and collusion with the Trump campaign are being investigated by several congressional committees and by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who took charge of the federal government's probe from the FBI last year following the sacking of its former chief James Comey.

"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," he wrote on Twitter.

"They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"

Troubled teen Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people with an assault rifle at his former high school in Parkland, Florida on Wednesday.

It was the 18th school shooting of the year and sparked renewed calls for gun control.

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated him in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

Mueller's investigation has so far swept up four members of Trump's campaign, with two agreeing to work for the probe under a plea deal.

On Thursday Mueller indicted 13 Russians for allegedly running a secret campaign to tilt the vote, but did not accuse any Americans of knowingly participating in that effort.By Andrea Shalal and Robin Emmott MUNICH (Reuters) - Sweden would be open to providing troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine if Russia and the West agreed, the country's defense minister said on Saturday as Western officials consider a force led by non-NATO nations. More than 10,000 people have been killed since April 2014 in a conflict that pits Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Intermittent clashes continue despite a notional ceasefire and diplomatic peace efforts. Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested a limited U.N. peacekeeping mission to eastern Ukraine, which many in the West see as an opportunity to negotiate a broader U.N. force to restore order, diplomats say. "If we see the right conditions and if we see that this mission can help ... then we are open to that," Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told Ukrainian and U.S. officials at the Munich Security Conference when asked about providing troops. "We are not there yet, but it is something positive." As a non-NATO country, Sweden was proposed as a possible lead nation in a U.N. force in a report commissioned by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, now an adviser to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko. The report was presented to officials including the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, on Saturday. Volker said it was up to Russia to agree to the peacekeepers, but stressed they were not an end in themselves but a way to restore peace and update the 2015 Minsk peace deal. "We already have the Minsk agreement, which Russia has accepted. The issue is not the deal, the issue is if Russia will uphold it. If Russia will uphold it, then we have the peacekeeping force as a transmission mechanism," Volker said. The report proposed a U.N. force of some 20,000 soldiers from non-NATO countries and 4,000 police to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine. Over 700 unarmed civilian observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) currently operate monitoring missions on the conflict, but these have not reduced tensions. SANCTIONS RELIEF Separately at Munich, Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the West should ease some economic sanctions imposed on Russia if Kiev and Moscow implemented a lasting ceasefire in eastern Ukraine with the help of peacekeepers. Gabriel said it was unrealistic to insist on full implementation of the Minsk peace accords before offering some relief from sanctions agreed by the United States and the European Union over Russia's role in Ukraine. "I am convinced that if we succeed, that we must begin to reduce sanctions in a stepwise manner," Gabriel said. He said he realized his view differed from the official position - that sanctions could only be eased when the Minsk peace accord was fully implemented - but that it was in the world's interests to break the current impasse. Gabriel said that, while there were differences with Russia over a U.N. force, it was "one of the few realistic options" for trying to end the violence, and Germany would push for progress on it at the United Nations. "We need progress urgently because the world is becoming more dangerous," Gabriel told a meeting also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Andrew Bolton)New York (AFP) - A high-profile victim of a disgraced pedophile priest said Saturday he was glad to finally be able to tell his story as the Vatican's top abuse investigator began a probe into an alleged cover-up in Chile.

Pope Francis has come under fire for defending a bishop accused of orchestrating the cover-up.

"For the first time I feel they are listening to us," Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of priest Fernando Karadima, told reporters in New York after a meeting that lasted about an hour and a half with Archbishop Charles Scicluna in a Manhattan church.

He added: "It was a long, emotionally difficult meeting, but I am very happy to have been able to speak with Mr. Scicluna, they behaved incredibly well."

Karadima was accused of abusing children in 2010, and convicted by the Vatican to a life of penitence.

Scicluna, who prosecuted cases involving predator priests for the Vatican's doctrinal body from 2002 to 2012, is set to visit Chile from Monday as part of his investigation into Bishop Juan Barros, who is accused of covering up and even witnessing Karadima's abuse which took place during the 1980s and 1990s.

Controversy over the 61-year-old Barros marred Pope Francis' trip to Chile last month, when he hugged and defended the bishop.

In 2015, Francis appointed Barros the head of the diocese of Osorno in southern Chile despite the accusations against him.

"The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, then I will speak," the pope said during his Chile visit.

He later apologized to sexual abuse victims, acknowledging the word "proof" had hurt many people.

Following his statement, Cruz said that he gave Scicluna documents to support his accusations against Barros, and discussed other abuses involving priests in the South American country.

Nearly 80 Catholic clergymen stand accused of sexually abusing children in Chile, according to the US NGO BishopAccountability, which tracks cases.

"As I told him my story and the stories of others, his eyes welled up. He was not acting, his compassion and empathy were evident," Cruz said.Washington, D.C., has issued a permit allowing Elon Musk's Boring Company to do preparatory and excavation work in what is now a parking lot north of the National Mall. The company says the site could become a Hyperloop station.

The permit, reported Friday by the Washington Post, was issued way back on November 29th of 2017. The permit is part of an exploratory push by the city's Department of Transportation, which according to a spokesperson is examining the feasibility of digging a Hyperloop network under the city. The Hyperloop is an as-yet theoretical proposal to use depressurized tubes and magnet-levitated pods to move passengers at very high speeds.

A Boring Company spokesperson told the Post that "a New York Avenue location, if constructed, could become a station" in an underground transportation network. The Boring Company last year showcased the possibility of moving cars underground on mag-lev sleds, though that concept wasnt quite a version of the Hyperloop proper.

The increasing prominence of Musk's own Boring Company in pushing for Hyperloop construction is a notable reversal of the entrepreneur's initial plans for the concept. When he unveiled a paper describing the idea in 2013, Musk said he wouldn't be directly involved with building it. That led several independent startups, including Hyperloop One and Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, to take up the cause.

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But last summer, Musk started touting tentative Hyperloop partnerships between the Boring Company and governments in the Northeast U.S. A few weeks before the D.C. permit was issued, Maryland issued a permit for the Boring Company to build a 10.3-mile tunnel on a route between Baltimore and D.C.

Other Hyperloop projects have made headway in Europe and the American midwest, presenting the possibility of multiple regional Hyperloop systems operated by different companies.

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The Hyperloop concept as a whole, though, has come under renewed scrutiny lately. Its unclear how such a huge project would be paid for -- selling Boring Company flamethrowers is unlikely to cover the bill. More fundamentally, urban planners have argued that the Hyperloop, which would use small pods to carry a few riders at a time, can't scale sufficiently to really address urban transportation needs. Musk, in an unusual fit of pique, recently replied to one such criticism by calling its author an 'idiot.'

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.comIts a bright but perilously cold February day in England and Im shivering at the back of an orderly queue made up predominately of Chinese tourists. A security guard is keeping an eye on the crowd to ensure the peace is kept, and those standing in line talk in excited whispers, arms bearing oversized shopping bags, fold-up maps and the hands of snotty, bored-looking toddlers.

But Im not attempting to catch a glimpse of Harry and Meghan on a royal visit, admiring the neo-gothic architecture of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, or waiting for a table for afternoon tea at the elegant Claridges Hotel in Mayfair. In fact, Im standing in line to enter an enormous branch of the designer store Prada located in Bicester Village  a luxury goods and clothing outlet in Oxfordshire, a county in central southern England thats precisely 46 minutes by train from Londons Marylebone station. The Village, which boasts more than 160 stores, known there as boutiques, is the second most-visited destination in England by Chinese tourists, second only to Buckingham Palace.

Queues outside the Prada store in Bicester Village, Feb. 16 2018.

When the Bicester Village outlet opened in 1995, a sprawling outdoor mall was a sight far more more commonly seen in America than in Britain. But during the 22 years it has been open, the kilometer-long Village has become the ultimate destination for shoppers both from and visiting the U.K. Bicester now attracts more than 6.3 million customers a year, who spend four hours on average pursuing the mainly designer stores (think Gucci, Mulberry, Kate Spade and so on), each offering discounts of up to 60% off typical prices.

Its those low prices, as well as the Villages proximity to both London and Oxford (a popular tourist destination due in part to the prestigious university located there), which attracts Chinese tourists in great numbers to the Disneyland-esque site each year. Bicesters popularity with Chinese visitors has even led its parent company to open two similar discount shopping outlets in eastern China.

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Chinese people read about Bicester Village online and decide they want to come here to shop, said Caroline, a 30-year-old student from Beijing, when asked about the shopping outlets appeal. They think the goods are better quality and cheaper than in other places, even though they dont really know that for sure.

Bicester Village was one of the many places in the U.K. to pull out the stops on Feb. 16, the start of the Chinese New Year. A crowd of more than 100 people gathered in the outlets center to observe a traditional Chinese lion dance performance and eye-dotting ceremony. Guests of honor included Bicesters Town Mayor, the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire and Minister Xu Jin, from the Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China.

The eye dotting ceremony celebrating Chinese New Year in Bicester Village, Feb. 16 2018.

One million tourists come to the U.K. from China and spend lots of money here, and 100% of Chinese travelers come to Bicester Village, Xu Jin told the crowd in a speech with what was likely a touch of hyperbole. He joked that Chinese tourists are treated better in Bicester than at Heathrow Airports Duty Free shop, a comment which received a roaring laugh upon its translation into Mandarin.

According to figures from the British tourist board, Chinese tourists are some of the U.K.s highest spenders, spending on average three times more than the standard visitor. Chinese spending in the U.K. reached $127 million between January to March 2017, up from $100 million year-over-year. That spending has risen concurrently with the British pounds falloff following the summer 2016 vote for Brexit, Britains departure from the European Union.

And certainly all the Chinese tourists I spoke with headed to Bicester Village had one thing on their mind: Some serious shopping. Guangzhou-based Elaine, 44, and her friend Joyce, also 44, told me they were spending their entire Spring Festival (the week-long holiday period that surrounds Chinese New Year) in the U.K., checking out stores in London, Oxford and, of course, Bicester.

I have been to the U.K. three or four times and I think it is very beautiful  the air is fresher and I like the shopping, said Elaine, who sat down with me in a Bicester cafe while she took a break from browsing. Food and transport is more expensive in England [than in Guangzhou], but shopping is cheaper  maybe around 40% cheaper.

Fellow shopper Joe, from Shenyang, a city in northeastern China, agreed with Elaine. You can get designer clothes for about 20% cheaper and high street clothes for 40% cheaper here than in China, said the 34-year-old, who runs a small electronics company. Today I have bought clothes and bags from Balenciaga. I didnt bring a list with me, I just bought stuff I need.

Hong Kong-based friends Agnes and Candy, both in their 50s, had more direction than Joe when I spoke to them as they waited in Marylebone Station for their train to Bicester. I want to buy a trench coat from Burberry, as well as a scarf, said Candy. I also want to visit Jo Malone.

Even without its elaborate Chinese New Year presentation, its clear that Bicester Village makes an effort to cater to its Chinese big spenders. Signs in Mandarin can be found everywhere from the nearby Marylebone train station to the Bicester branch of popular sandwich chain Pret a Manger. The Bicester website is available in Chinese, with special discounts available for the Chinese New Year period, and a Chinese-style noodle stand sits right at the Village center, the menu available in both Mandarin and English.

Its not difficult to understand why. Chinese people, Chinese tourists spend the most money in this Village and the shopping areas, said Xu Jin in his New Year speech. I hope everybody today you spend your money and choose things you like, he added. And we hope that Bicester Village in the future can get much more popular and also I hope Chinese people enjoy their shopping today. It certainly sounds like they will.Mourners attend a community prayer vigil for victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 15, 2018. (Photo: Jonathan Drake / Reuters)

On Thursday, in response to a deadly school shooting in Florida that left at least 17 dead, President Donald Trump said he would work with state leaders to prioritize school safety.

Trump was vague on specifics, but in the aftermath of school shootings, legislators usually call for more school cops and a beefing up of school security measures.

But research shows that it might be a misguided response. There is conflicting research about whether or not cops actually make schools safer, and advocacy groups say school-based police officers can help funnel vulnerable students into the criminal justice system at young ages.

After the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, the number of police officers based in schools ballooned. Only 10 percent of public schools employed police officers in 1997, but by 2014, this number had increased to 30 percent. Similarly, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the Obama administration funded a grant program providing federal dollars to schools to hire cops.

Some research has shown that school cops can exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline, a phenomenon in which students  often those of color  are pushed out of school and into the criminal justice system.

A 2013 report from the Congressional Research Service, produced as a response to the Sandy Hook shooting, indicated that children who had cops in schools might be more likely to face arrest for minor offenses. But per the report, other studies showed that schools with cops on campus are more likely to have emergency plans in place and receive regular safety checks. Research has not yet indicated that having a cop on campus decreases the possibility of a shooting, although there have been a few high-profile instances of school cops successfully foiling armed intruders.

The body of research on the effectiveness of SRO [school resource officer] programs is noticeably limited, and the research that is available draws conflicting conclusions about whether SRO programs are effective at reducing school violence. In addition, the body of research on the effectiveness of SROs does not address whether their presence in schools has deterred mass shootings, says the report.

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Cops on campus have been shown to have mixed effectiveness with regards to school safety, Jason Nance, a University of Florida professor whose work looks at the impact of cops on campus, told HuffPost in 2016.

Are schools safer because we have more police officers? There are big questions about that, Nance said in an email on Friday. And we dont talk enough about the downsides of having more police officers in schools, such as more school-based arrests for matters that should be handled in other ways.

Indeed, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida  the site of Wednesdays school shooting  employed an armed guard. However, the officer never encountered the shooter, according to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.

The organization that helps train some school police officers, the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), has in the past touted their ability to stop school shootings.

After Sandy Hook occurred, our phones rang off the hook as a matter of fact, our training has doubled this past year, Mo Canady, executive director of the group, previously said in a press release. What we train them to do is not sit or stand and wait for help but to be able to address the incident immediately and find the shooter and end the situation.

But when police officers are stationed in schools, some studies show it increases the likelihood that students will be criminalized for adolescent misbehavior by way of school-based arrests or referrals to outside law enforcement. These experiences can have lasting consequences for children.

One 2009 study showed that schools with cops had more arrests for low-level offenses like disorderly conduct than schools without them. Nances research has found that schools with police had more referrals to local law enforcement for things like alcohol possession, vandalism and fights without a weapon.

Having cops in school may also increase the possibility for police brutality. While NASRO helps provide specific training for school-based police officers working with kids, in many places, this training isnt required. A previous HuffPost investigation found that between 2011 and 2016, there were at least 87 incidents of school police using stun guns on kids for a range of behaviors.

And when students get arrested, different demographic groups dont get arrested in equal numbers. Black children, who only represented 16 percent of school-aged children in 2012, were arrested at school 31 percent of the time, according to previous data from the U.S. Department of Education.

These experiences can have a lasting effect. Students involved with the criminal justice system are more likely to drop out of school or be unemployed later in life.

Yet in times of school violence, communities often look to increase police presence on campus, says Nance.

Putting more police officers in schools is something tangible that school authorities can do to demonstrate to a worried constituency that they are trying to make schools safer, he said. However, so far we dont have any hard evidence that more police officers in schools make schools safer.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Amid endless calls for thoughts and prayers instead of legislative action in response to mass shootings, a woman in Michigan decided to take matters into her own hands.

After Wednesday's mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Fern Malila mailed a letter and a check in the amount of "thoughts and prayers" to Representative Jack Bergman, a Michigan Republican

Dear Rep. Bergman, she wrote, since you and your colleagues in Congress seem to feel that this is the solution to mass murder, please accept this contribution.

Trending: Trump Impeachment Parties, Featuring Comey Cake Balls,' Try to Entice Congress to Remove President

With the short letter, which she posted on her Facebook page, she sent a check to the congressman, with the popular expression instead of a dollar amount.

02_16_FernMalila

Fern Malila

"I did it because I'm hearing the same arguments after each and every time this happens," Malila explained to Newsweek on Friday. "Each and every news media person says contact your congressman, and Congress doesn't do anything."

The Thursday afternoon post quickly went viral, as commenters indicated they were inspired to follow suit.

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"My check is going in the mail today to Senator Marco Rubio  another NRA puppet!" one Florida resident wrote. "Thanks for the inspiration!"

Another wrote, "I love you Fern!!"

Criticism of the "thoughts and prayers" refrain has become increasingly common after each mass shooting, as constituents demand answers about why concrete action has, in large part, not been taken.

Most popular: Florida High School Killing Suspect Nikolas Cruz Vented Racist and Violent Fantasies Against Black, Gay and Hispanic People in Online Group Chat

Related: What gun laws passed in 2017?

On Thursday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer grilled Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican who also offered his thoughts and prayers, about what he planned to do to prevent future mass shootings in his state. When the governor offered a vague "everything's on the table," Blitzer fired back, "Including gun control?"

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Scott responded, Wolf, Im going to doits a lot of things.... Its looking at, you know, who should have guns. Should individuals with mental illness have guns? What can we do to create more safety in our schools?"

Malila, whose post garnered tens of thousands of shares and likes within a day, said she didn't expect the nationwide attention or the overwhelmingly positive response, but sees it as a sign that Americans are frustrated with congressional inaction.

"Maybe it's because people just feel that it's something they can do and hopefully make some little difference," she said. "For whatever reason, it has struck a chord."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekSweden has granted citizenship to a Stockholm-based scientist being held in Iran under sentence of death, the Swedish foreign ministry confirmed on Saturday.

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Ahmadreza Djalali, a medical doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute in the Swedish capital, was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and later convicted of espionage, having been accused of providing information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists.

Ahmadreza Djalali (L) and his wife

confessed to meeting agents of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to deliver information on Iran's nuclear and defense plans and personnel.

"We know that he has been granted citizenship by the Migration Board. We continue in our consular work for Djalali and request consular access to our citizen," a Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

"We have been in regular contact with Iranian representatives, requested access to Djalali and presented Sweden's view of the death penalty, which we condemn in all its forms. Our demand is that the death penalty is not carried out," the spokeswoman said.

Djalali had been on a business trip to Iran when he was arrested and sent to Evin prison. He was held in solitary confinement for three months and tortured, campaigning group Amnesty International has said.

The scientist was granted Swedish citizenship

Amnesty said Djalali wrote a letter from inside prison in August stating he was being held for refusing to spy for Iran.

Seventy-five Nobel Prize laureates petitioned Iranian authorities last year to release Djalali so he could "continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind."Police and the Israel Security Authorities announced Sunday morning that a number of suspects in the ongoing investigation into the Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeq, including close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been arrested.A number of senior officials in the Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeq, as well as two close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have been arrested as part of a new probe tied to Case 4000, police and the Israel Securities Authority said Sunday morning.

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The Israel Securities Authority has recently completed its inquiry into Bezeq majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch's ties with Netanyahu and the suspicion he enjoyed benefits for Bezeq in return for favorable coverage of Netanyahu on the Walla! News website, which is fully owned by Bezeq.

According to a police statement, in light of the evidence provided by the Israel Securities Authority, suspicion arose of additional criminal activity in the case, which provided sufficient grounds for opening another joint investigation leading to the arrest of several suspects, including former Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber.

Former Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber, Bezeq CEO Stella Handler and Bezeq shareholder Shaul Elovitch (Photo: Orel Chen, Eli Dasa, Yuval Chen)

Two former officials who worked at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office were summoned by the Israel Securities Authority on Sunday to testify in the investigation. The two held senior positions in the Prime Minister's Office, while one of them is already involved in another criminal investigation by the police.

In addition, Walla! News CEO Ilan Yeshua and former editor-in-chief Yinon Magal were also asked to testify Sunday after suspecions emerged Elovitch pressured them in an effort to influence the coverage of certain topics, including Prime Minister Netanyahu. The two are not considered suspects.

Other Walla! News officials are expected to be called to testify on the favorable coverage the prime minister received on the site.

Shortly after the developments in the case came to light on Sunday morning, a statement issued on Netanyahus behalf slammed the claims that he engaged in quid pro quo activities with the communications giant.

This is another lying claim. The prime minister didnt act for Elovitchs benefit, not for favorable coverage and not for anything else, the statement read.

Last November, the Israel Securities Authority announced it had sufficient evidence to indict Elovitch and former Communications Ministry director-general Shlomo Filber for a series of offenses.

The Authority also recommended the indictment of Elovitchs son, Or Elovitch, along with Bezeq CEO Stella Handler, Yes satellite TV company CEO Ron Eilon, CFO at Yes Mickey Naiman and Bezeq secretary Linor Yochelman.

Yochelman was dismissed from her position as Bezeq secretary on Sunday after an internal investigation raised suspicions she listened in on discussions of the board of directors, despite not having the authority to do so.

Channel 2 journalist Amnon Abramovich quoted police officials on Friday as saying that a criminal investigation is likely to be opened in Case 4000.Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday that the Popular Resistance Committees organization was behind the explosive device set off near an IDF force on Saturday on the Gaza border, which left four soldiers wounded.

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"Until we eliminate them, the score remains unsettled. It will take two days, a week, or two weeks. We'll eliminate anyone behind the attack's execution," Lieberman told Ynet on Sunday morning.

Speaking about Israel's retaliatory moves in Gaza, the defense minister said, "We hit 18 terror targets, 18 quality targets, almost all of which belong to Hamas. This is perhaps the most significant and widespread strike we carried out since Operation Protective Edge. Hamas is the ruler, and we consider Hamas to be responsible for everything that is done in the Gaza Strip and from the Gaza Strip."

Defense Minister Lieberman (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Saturday's events began when an IDF force patrolling the Gaza border went to check a suspicious flag put on the fence, which was attached to an explosive device remotely set off when the soldiers reached the fence.

In response, the IDF attacked an observation post near the site of the attack and then six Hamas targets all across the Gaza Strip, including an offensive tunnel running from the Zaytun neighborhood in Gaza towards Israel.

The situation escalated further when Gaza terrorists launched a rocket at Israel that hit the roof of a family in Shaar HaNegev. While the family was in the house at the time, the rocket hit the roof and failed to explode, and so none of the family members was hurt.

Overnight, the IAF attacked additional targets, bringing the number of targets hit to 18.

"Hamas has an interest in eroding our steadfastness, it's dealing with it quite a bit," Lieberman explained. "Hamas is trying to divide us and incite internal arguments within Israeli society. And the most important thing is that Hamas continues producing rockets, digging tunnels and developing smuggling routes. All it wants is to deter us from thwarting that smuggling activity, and we won't allow it."

The defense minister explained the IDF is not dealing with "rounds of fighting," but rather with "a persistent and ceaseless fight against terrorism, even when they are unsuccessful in carrying out attacks, and even when there aren't headlines in the media. The war on terror continues every day, every hour."

"This is a war we've been waging against Arab terrorism since the beginning of the 20th century. There's nothing new under the sun. And we're determined to fight and defeat terrorism and win, and definitely not give up," he added.

Meanwhile, the condition of one of the soldiers who was seriously wounded in the attack has improved. He has regained consciousness and is breathing on his own, and his condition has been changed to moderate.

The second seriously wounded soldier was still under anesthesia and on ventilator in the ICU at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. Two other soldiers remain in moderate condition.

The IDF is currently investigating the incident on the border fence on Saturday, looking into whether the soldiers could have acted differently. While the area is still cordoned off, there is no concern of additional explosives.The IDF strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, in response to the detonation of an explosive device on the border fence which left four Israeli soldiers wounded, hit high-quality targets serving the core of Hamass military force.

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One of these targets was a tunnel that hadnt infiltrated Israeli territory yet, but the IDF had planned to attack and destroy if and when it did cross the border.

This set of targets was aimed at dealing Hamas an unusually severe military blow, making it clear that the IDF would no longer allow the organization to use civil protests for military purposes and for carrying out terror attacks. The damage and destruction sustained by Hamass military force were likely the reason the organization fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli jets and even announced it had done so.

A young Palestinian near the Gaza border fence, Saturday (Photo: EPA)

The anti-aircraft fire was inefficient, but there is almost no doubt the missiles were also fired in an attempt to imitate last weekends Syrian anti-aircraft fire, which brought down an IAF fighter jet, and possibly also because of the serious practical and moral damage caused by the IDF strikes.

The rockets fired at the Gaza border area and Mishmar HaNegev area on Saturday likely werent launched by Hamas, but rather by the rebel organizations. There is no doubt, however, that the distress of the civil population in Gaza and the events in the north are bringing us closer to the next escalation in the south.

Hamas has long realized the potential infrastructure for terror attacks that lies in the civilian protests on the fence. The rebel organization that planted the explosive device used this infrastructure and was basically acting on Hamass behalf. What began as allegedly spontaneous rage protests by civilians near the fence following the installation of metal detectors at the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and then following US President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital, turned into a regular phenomenon in recent months.

Every Friday, Hamas brings young Palestinians to the fence, where they set tires on fire, approach the fence, cross it sometimes, and hang flags on it. The entire time, they are closely supervised by armed Hamas men sitting in observation towers. The protesters catapult marbles at the IDF forces, but even when the soldiers fire at them to drive them away from the fence or hit their legs, and even when this fire occasionally kills Palestinians, Hamas avoids firing back and hardly responds.

Hamas organizes the protests but fails to intervene when the IDF responds (Photo: Roee Idan)

This pattern of action likely stems from Hamass desire to maintain the calm while building the infrastructure for a different activity, which has been exposed by Hamas in the past two weeks. Hamass spokespeople have explicitly stated that, in case of an escalation of the situation in the strip, they plan to hold mass protests and get tens or hundreds of thousands of people to approach the fence, cross it and march towards Israel. They know this will create a dilemma both for the IDF and the Israeli governmentshould they open fire and risk killing many of the marchers, or avoid shooting and risk having the Gazans break into Israeli territory?

The rebel organizations, who were apparently paying close attention to the talk about this pattern of action, decided to realize this potential earlier than Hamas had planned. They saw the IDF working to neutralize any suspicious object near the fence, and prepared a trap. They filled the rod of the flag, which was allegedly hang up during the protest, with explosives, turning it into a lethal device that wounded members of the bomb disposal unit and Golani soldiers.

One of the soldiers wounded by the explosive device arrives at the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva (Photo: Haim Hornstein)

As far as the IDF is concerned, this is a wakeup call demonstrating the dangerous potential in allegedly innocent civilian protests near the fence. The army will have to decide whether to allow such protests next Friday and how far from the border fence. The IDF can inform Hamas through the coordinator of the government activities in the territories, through the Egyptians, through leaflets and eventually by firing at protestors legs, that the protesters will not be allowed to move beyond 200-300 meters west of the fence.

This area, which used to be called the perimeter, still exists both for gunmen and for civilians. The special security zone has been reduced during the Friday protests along the fence, and the IDF will now have to enforce it. If many Palestinians are hurt, it could lead to escalation.

IDF soldiers tour the area where the explosive device was detonated Saturday (Photo: Reuters)

In a small and painful operation, the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the organizations operating against Hamas, managed to raise the tensions and undermine the stability along the border fence.

The second thing the IDF will have to do is look into the procedure of handling explosive devices along the fence. There are several procedures aimed at helping the soldiers detect explosive devices or suspicious objects and neutralize them from afar, by shooting at them or sending a dog to sniff them.

These procedures have been implemented successfully since Operation Protective Edge, and explosive devices placed along the fence occasionally have been detected and neutralized. Saturdays incident was the first time someone was hurt by one of these devices.

These procedures should therefore be emphasized and perhaps adapted to the new reality, in which every object placed along the fence has the potential of being an explosive device.After asserting there were also "Jewish perpetrators" responsible for the Holocaust, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sparked further outrage on Saturday night after a photo on his Twitter page showed him paying his respects to a Polish underground movement that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

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Morawiecki visited the memorial site in Munich before making his controversial remarks to Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman.

The Polish prime ministers office uploaded the picture on Twitter, saying he had lit a candle and lay a wreath at the memorial for the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade, which was comprised of far-right activists who refused to merge with the Home Army and dedicated their underground efforts to fighting communists both in Poland and Germany.

Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki visits memorial for Polish underground

After originally fighting against the Germans, the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade changed tactics toward the end of the war by collaborating with the Wehrmacht, hoping to forge an alliance that would stave off the imminent Soviet takeover of the country.

The Never Again anti-racist group in Poland voiced scathing criticism of the visit while Jan Grabiec, spokesman for Polands main opposition party Civic Platform, joined the protests of the visit, adding the underground force contributed to tarnishing Polands international image.

Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, also condemned the visit and demanded that Morawiecki apologize.

Lauder slammed Morawieckis absurd and unconscionable accusations, calling on him to officially repudiate his seeming support for the extremist group.

"The Polish prime minister has displayed appalling ignorance with his unconscionable claim that so-called Jewish perpetrators were partly responsible for the Nazi German attempt to wipe out European Jewry, Lauder said. While Poles are understandably sensitive about Nazi German extermination and concentration camps in occupied Poland being called Polish, this government is going to extreme and unfathomable lengths to exonerate some of their countrymens own complicity in the murders of their neighbors.

This is nothing short of an attempt to falsify history, that is one of the very worst forms of anti-Semitism and Holocaust obfuscation, Lauder said. We demand an immediate retraction and apology from the Polish government of these absurd and offensive remarks. It is time for all European governments, including that of Poland, to own up to the role of their societies in abetting the Nazis and contributing to the near destruction of the Jewish people. Including Jews among the perpetrators of these horrors, and blaming the victims instead of the killers is a travesty that will only draw us further back to some of the darkest moments in human history.

World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder (Photo: PR)



Others, however, welcomed Morawieckis visit on Twitter, hailing members of the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade as national heroes.



Meanwhile, anger over Morawiecki's comments on Jewish perpetrators continued reverberating. The head of the From the Depths organization Jonny Daniels, who has close ties to the Polish prime minister, slammed Morawieckis words on social media.

Holocaust denial is not only the denial of the fact that the Holocaust took place, but it is also connected to the invention of facts that fit us and our narrative. Holocaust denial is to call the Nazi death camps Polish. It is also (Holocaust denial) to compare Polish and Jewish collaborators, he wrote.

We need to be clear and honest. There were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis on a small scale. The majority of them did so in the hope that it would somehow save their lives or the lives of others. The vast majority of thousands of Polish collaborators did it out of pure greed or hatred. The crucial difference between Polish and Jewish collaborators is the reason why equating them is absolutely Holocaust denial, Daniels asserted.

There were good and there were bad," he continued. "During the last few years, my fund has focused on stories of known and unknown heroes who risked their lives, the lives of their families and sometimes of their villages in order to save their Jewish neighbors. I still believe that we have achieved a lot by focusing on these wonderful people rather than on evil.

But while there was a lot of evil that cannot be denied during these difficult times, one thing does not negate the other. Without openness and the truth, we are denying the memory of six millions Jews, three million Poles and others," Daniels stressed.

He urged "to unite behind the truth and not to push our own narrative."

"For many years, relations between Poles and Jews sometimes ignored the giant elephant in the room. Its clear that the dialogue didnt begin in the best way, but now it's here and its open, we need to speak in order to build a better future for all of us, Daniels said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would act against Iran, not just its allies in the Middle East, if needed, reiterating that Tehran was the world's greatest threat.

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Holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone after its incursion into Israeli airspace earlier this month, Netanyahu told the Munich Security Conference: "Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck."

PM Netanyahu in Munich

X

"We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," he said, listing the threats that Tehran poses to Israel and the world.

The nuclear deal, he argued, had "unleashed a dangerous tiger in the region and beyond  Iran is devouring huge swaths of the Middle East through its shi'ite proxies.

Israel will continue to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent military presence in Syria and would continue to prevent it from crossing red lines, he continued. Iran's brazen action had "literally reached new heights" through the drone's penetration into Israeli territory.

He warned his listeners that they would soon be addressed by the smooth-talking mouthpiece for the Iranian regime, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. "I give Mr. Zarif credit. He lies with eloquence.

Holding up the debris of what he said was the Iranian drone shot down by Israel, Netanyahu taunted Zarif.

(Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Mr. Zarfif. Heres a piece of that Iranian drone. I brought it here after it was shot down, or what was left of it. Do you recognize this? You should. Its yours, he said. "You can take a message back to Iran. Do not test Israels resolve."

Netanyahu began his speech by reminding his listeners of the infamous 1972 Olympic massacres which resulted in the death of eleven Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists, and also compared the 1938 Munich Agreement signed between Britain and Nazi Germany as part of the appeasement policy with the Iranian nuclear deal.

Eighty years ago, another event took place here with far-ranging consequences, Netanyahu said. The architects of the Munich Agreement, he stressed, were noble men" who chose to appease Hitlers threat rather than confront it.

"They thought they were fulfilling their highest responsibility to keep the peace. But the price of their action would soon become apparent."

The concessions to Hitler, he added, only emboldened his regime and set Europe on a path to war.

Mohammad Javad Zarif (Photo: AFP)

"Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war, or at the very least limited its scope and its scale, those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly. Sometime after the war Roosevelt asked Churchill, how would he call this war? And he answered immediately without hesitation, the Unnecessary War. He said there was never a war more easy to stop."

Dedicating the majority of his speech to the European diplomats to the Iranian threat, Netanyahu made clear his country's disdain over Poland's recently ratified Holocaust Bill that outlaws blaming Poland as a nation for Holocaust crimes committed by Nazi Germany.

Momentarily switching to Hebrew, Netanyahu then reverted back to English as he emphasized that Israel would always remember and would never forgive those who carried out the Holocaust and the Nazis' collaborators. "We will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth. We will not forget, we will not forgive. We will always fight for the truth," he said.

Netanyahu remembered the 6 million Jews "killed by the Nazis and their collaborators."

Continuing his comparison between the Munich Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu noted that the signatories of the latter were also noble men.

"Today we gather two-and-a-half years after another agreement was signed in another city in the heart of Europe. There too, noble men and women, high-minded leaders hoping to avoid war, signed an agreement that brutalizes its own people and terrorizes its neighbors," he said.

Despite the parallels, Netanyahu sought to highlight the fundamental differences between the Iranian regime and Nazi Germany.

Let me be clear. Iran is not Nazi Germany. There are many differences between the two ... Jews are not sent to the gas chambers, although religious and ethnic minorities are denied basic freedoms" he said, adding that "there are obviously many other differences."

But there were other similarities, he said, namely that Iran "makes absolutely no bones" about its intention to eradicate Israel.

"Iran seeks to dominate our region, the Middle East, and seeks to dominate the world through aggression and terror. It's developing ballistic missiles to reach deep into Europe and to the United States as well," he went on.

Netanyahu warned of the dangers posed to the world by an nuclear-armed Iran. "Irans aggression will be unchecked and it will encompass the entire world. Look at what their doing now. Imagine what they will do later if God forbid they'll have them," he said.

"Just as was true 80 years ago, an agreement that was seen as appeasement has only emboldened the regime and brought war closer. The nuclear agreement with Iran has begun the countdown to an Iranian nuclear arsenal in little more than a decade."

After delivering his remarks, the prime minister was asked a series of questions, inter alia, about the chances of a military escalation in light of the drone incident.

(Photo: Munich Security Conference)

Its up to Iran. Iran is changing the ground rules, he replied before producing a map which he had marked in the red and the black to illustrate ISIS and the Iranian influence respectively.

The unfortunate thing is that as ISIS compresses and Iran moves in, it is trying to establish this continuous empire surrounding the Middle East from the south in Yemen but also trying to create a land bridge from Iran to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza," Netanyahu said.

Concluding his remakrs, Netanyahu urged the world nott o repeat the mistakes of the 1930s. "Let us pledge today, Ladies and Gentlemen, here in Munich, not to repeat the mistakes of the past. Appeasement never works. The hour to prevent war is getting late, but it is not too late. I am convinced that one day this regime will fall, and when it does, the great peace between the ancient Jewish people and the ancient Persian people will flourish once again," he said.

Asked whether there is still a future for the two-state solution, Netanyahu reiterated his position that the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but not to threaten us.

"The American governments have tried to facilitate this ... No one can facilitate it other than the United States. The trump administration has been working on their plan for the past year. I dont know if theyre going to put it forward in the coming weeks or months. I think we should at least give it a shot. Lets look at it. Lets not throw it out of the window before even looking at it. We owe it to our people to give this a chance."

During his remarks before being questioned, Netanyahu did, however, hail the positive aspects that the Iranian nuclear deal had ushered in, fomenting unprecedented ties between Israel and other Arab countries determined to confront Tehrans aggression.

Now, there has been one positive consequence of Iran's growing aggression in the region. It's brought Arabs and Israelis closer together as never before," he told his audience.

"In a paradoxical way, this may pave the way for a broader peace and ultimately also for a Palestinian-Israeli peace. This could happen. But it will not happen if Iran's aggression continues to grow, and nowhere are Iran's belligerent ambitions clearer than in Syria."





Israeli security forces have arrested members of an Islamic Jihad terror cell that was planning to plant a bomb on a road Defense Minister Avigdor Liebermans convoy was set to travel on, it was cleared for publication Sunday morning.

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This is the second time in recent years that the Shin Bet has uncovered a plot to kill Lieberman, who lives in the Nokdim settlement in Gush Etzion. Last time was during Operation Protective Edge, when Lieberman was the foreign minister and Hamas sought to target his convoy.

The Islamic Jihad cell members were aware of past failed attempts and believed they would be more successful if they planted the explosive on the minister's travel route. However, they were apparently deterred by the heavy security surrounding Lieberman.

Defense Minister Lieberman (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Another terror cell was operating in the Bethlehem area was also broken up in joint operation conducted by the Shin Bet, the IDF and the Israel Police. The cell was planning to carry out shooting attack against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians in the Gush Etzion area. Overall, six terrorists were arrested.

One of the terrorists arrested, Awad Mahmoud Awad al-Asakra, 25, from the Rafidia neighborhood of Bethlehem, is an Islamic Jihad member who was placed under administrative detention for two years between 2015 and 2017 for plotting to carry out an attack.

Another suspect, Mohammed Ali Ibrahim al-Asakra, 32, also from Rafidia, was imprisoned by Israel twice in the past for his activity in Islamic Jihad and his involvement in preparing an explosive device and planning an attack against IDF forces.

Mohammed al-Askra and Awad al-Askra

The Shin Bet's investigation found that the cell purchased explosives to prepare the bomb and approached terror elements in the Gaza Strip for funding.

When they failed to secure the funding, they decided to prepare a dummy bomb in an effort to get money and recognition, so they could carry out even more attacks. The dummy bomb was seized when they were arrested.

The investigation also revealed one of the cell members wanted to be arrested so he could receive a prisoner's salary from Islamic Jihad.

Overall, six terrorists were arrested. The suspects will be indicted Sunday at the Judea Military Court.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted Sunday that only the United States can facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The Trump administration has been working on their plan for the past year. I dont know if theyre going to put it forward in the coming weeks or months," Netanyahu said at the Munich Security Conference. "I think we should at least give it a shot. Lets look at it. Lets not throw it out of the window before even looking at it."WARSAW - Poland's government is insisting that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's comments saying Jews were perpetrators in World War Two as well as Poles and others were not intended to deny the Holocaust.

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Poland sparked international criticism over its stance on the facts of the Holocaust when it passed a law imposing jail terms for suggesting the country was complicit in the deaths of millions of Jews during the war.

Morawiecki was asked on Saturday by Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman whether, under the new law, he could be penalized for telling a story in Poland about his mother who survived the Holocaust and told him that some Poles had collaborated with the Gestapo.

Morawiecki and Bergman's exchange

X

In his answer Morawiecki equated "Jewish perpetrators" with Polish and others, drawing immediate criticism from Israel's prime minister who called Morawiecki's words "outrageous."

"The comments of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a discussion in Munich were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust, or charge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust with responsibility for what was a Nazi German perpetrated genocide," Polish government said in a statement released late on Saturday night.

"The words ... should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime," the statement also said.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Photo: Reuters)

Some 3 million Jews who lived in pre-war Poland were murdered by the Nazis, accounting for about half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Jews from across the continent were sent to be killed at death camps built and operated by Germans in occupied Polandhome to Europe's biggest Jewish community at the timeincluding Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

Thousands of Poles risked their lives to protect Jewish neighbors during the war. But research published since the fall of communism in 1989 showed that thousands also killed Jews or denounced those who hid them to the Nazi occupiers, challenging the national narrative that Poland was solely a victim.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indirectly addressed Morawiecki's comments during a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday. "In the wake of the Munich agreement, 60 million people would die in World War II, including a third of my own people, six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazis and their collaborators. We will never forget and we will never allow the rewriting of the historical truth," he said.

According to figures from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Nazis, who invaded Poland in 1939, also killed at least 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians.

"Attempts to equate the crimes of Nazi German perpetrators with the actions of their victimsJewish, Polish, Romani among otherswho struggled for survival should be met with resolute, outright condemnation," the government's statement also said.Iran's state media say the Iranian passenger plane that crashed in the country's south went down in a foggy, mountainous region, killing all 66 passengers on board.

The Aseman Airlines ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop used for short-distance regional flying, crashed near its destination of the southern Iranian city of Yasuj, some 780 kilometers, or 485 miles, south of the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai told state TV that all on Flight No. 3704 were killed. The plane carried 60 passengers, including one child, and six crew members.

State TV says that due to foggy condition, rescue helicopters couldn't reach the crash site in the Zagros Mountains.

Tabatabai says the plane crashed into Mount Dena, which is about 4,400 meters, or 14,435 feet, tall.A Border Police force arrested a Palestinian acting suspiciously outside the Samaria military court on Sunday, discovering he was armed with a makeshift Carlo rifle.

The Border Policemen question the Palestinian, a 19-year-old resident of Nablus, and he eventually pointed to a bag he had hidden where the weapon was.Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, calling it "a cartoonish circus, which does not even deserve the dignity of a response."

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Netanyahu, who less than three hours earlier, presented the conference with a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone after its incursion into Israeli airspace earlier this month and challenged Zarif to recognize it.

"Here's a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it after we shot it down. I brought it here so you can see for yourself. Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should. It's yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel's resolve," Netanyahu said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif (Photo: AFP)

In his own remarks, Zarif dismissed Netanyahu's challenge, saying Israel was trying "to create these cartoonish images to blame others for its own strategic blunders, or maybe to evade the domestic crisis they're facing."

"The entire speech was trying to evade the issue. What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility (of Israel) has crumbled," he said of the February 10 downing of an Israeli F-16. Anti-aircraft fire downed the jet as it was returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria.

"Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbors," Zarif said, accusing Israel of "mass reprisals against its neighbors and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon."

"Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it's as if a disaster has happened," Zarif said.

Netanyahu presenting the part of the shot down Iranian drone (Photo: AFP, MSC Munich Security Conference / LENNART PREISS)

The downed F-16 was one of at least eight Israeli planes despatched in response to the Iranian drone's incursion into its airspace earlier on that day. The jet was hit by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile and crashed in northern Israel. Its pilot and navigator bailed out before the crash.

In Munich, Zarif also accused the United States of using the conference to "revive hysteria" against Iran, and denied that Tehran was seeking "hegemony" in the Middle East.Tel Aviv District Court Judge Khaled Kabub told the Judicial Selection Committee on Sunday that he is withdrawing his candidacy for a seat on the Supreme Court.

The committee is due to meet Thursday to select two new judges.

Kabub told his close associates he felt the chances were low for another Arab judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court a year after the appointment of Justice George Kara.A father whose son was murdered in a terror attack last September in Har Hadar lashed out against the Israeli government Sunday for its decision to return to the Palestinian Authority Friday the bodies of two terrorists, one of whom carried out a deadly attack against Israeli civilians and security personnel.

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They secretly returned the body before Shabbat began in a hush hush manner, without anyone knowing. Its disgraceful, said Issam Ottman, whose son Youssef was among the three people killed in a shooting attack carried out by Nimer Jamal of Beit Surik

The body of Hamza Zamareh from Halhul, who carried out an attempted stabbing attacking in Gush Etzion's Karmei Tzur last week, was also returned.

Or Arish (L) Staff Sergeant Solomon Gavriya (C) and Youssef Ottman (R)

According to Ottman, he received word that his sons killerwho also shot dead 25-year-old Or Arish and 20-year-old Staff Sergeant Solomon Gavriyahad been returned only after the handover.

No one informed me when it was happening. There is a Cabinet decision, so why is everything done against it? Someone wanted to hide something and it seems someone is scared of something. Its a shame it was done this way, he complained.

The bereaved father went on to say that the act tramples on our honor. I suggest to whoever took this decision to think again about the bereaved families in Israel. You dont do things like this. We must not degrade the blood of our children. We give gifts and they seem to go for nothing.

Ottman also commented on the struggle being waged by the Goldin family who have been pressuring the government into securing the release of their sons body, Hadar, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge and whose remains have been held by Hamas ever since.

There are two bodies of soldiers in Gaza, he said, also in reference to Oron Shaul who suffered the same fate as Hadar.

Did we get them back in return? No. We got nothing. What we get is maybe another rocket, he vented.

Nimer Jamal

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also voiced his disagreement with the decision to return the bodies, calling it "wrong."

The decision is a miserable one, but we are bound by the Supreme Court rulings. We didnt have a choice, but is that right? No. Am I ok with that? To put it mildly, no, Lieberman said in a n interview with Ynet.

When asked whether the government would take the opportunity given by the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to pass legislation on the matter within six months, Lieberman said that the issue was more complex.

It isnt as if they gave us an option to legislate. There is a very difficult clause there. We are still trying to think, to appeal it, he explained.

Hadar Goldin (L) and Oron Shaul

This kind of legislation demands an amendment to the 'bypass clause' (which allows the Knesset to pass a law that is contradicted by another law, for a limited time, as long as it is passed by a majority of Knesset membersed), and from my point of view this is also a good solution, but in any event we are currently in the midst of the staff work on this matter and are deciding what to do.

Last December, the HCJ ruled that the state cannot hold indefinitely the bodies of terrorists, forcing the government to pass a law which will enable the state to legally hold bodies already in its possessionor else return them to their families.

Following the release of the bodies, the Goldin family accused the government of exhibiting "security weakness and betrayal of IDF soldiers."Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki Sunday that there was no basis for comparing the actions of Poles during the Holocaust to those of Jews after the latter said Jews were perpetrators in World War Two as well as Poles and others.

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In a phone call, Netanyahu told Morawiecki that his remarks were unacceptable, stressing that the distortion regarding Poland's role in the Holocaust could not be corrected by means of another distortion.

The Israeli prime minister further pointed out that the goal of the Holocaust was to destroy the Jewish people, and that all Jews were under sentence of death.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photos: Reuters, Emil Salman)

The two agreed that the countries would continue their dialogue on the matter.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Morawiecki said it won't be punishable to say that there were Polish perpetrators under a controversial new law in the country outlawing public statements that falsely and intentionally attribute Nazi crimes to Poland under the German occupation.

During a questions and answers session, Yedioth Ahronoth journalist Ronen Bergman told the story of his Polish parents.

"My mother received a prize from the Polish Ministry of Education when she was five. Then the war started and they lost much of their (respective) families, because their neighborstheir Polish neighborssnitched to the Gestapo that they were holding Jews.

"My mother was able to save much of her family because she heard during the night that her neighbors were going to tell that they have Jews in their vicinity to the SS the next morning.

"After the war, my mother swore that she would never speak Polish for the rest of her life, not even a single word.

X

"If I understand correctly, after this law is legislated, I will be considered a criminal in your country for saying this. What is the purpose? What is the message that you are trying to convey the world? You are creating the opposite reaction and just attracting more attention to these atrocities," Bergman concluded, receiving a round of applause.

Prime Minister Morawiecki responded, saying,"It's extremely important to first understand that of course it won't be punishable or seen as a crime to say that there were Polish perpetrators as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Russian and Ukrainian perpetrators, not only German perpetrators."

After outrage in Israel and accusation of anti-Semitism, Poland's government issued a statement late Saturday, insisting the comments were not intended to deny the Holocaust.

"The comments of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a discussion in Munich were by no means intended to deny the Holocaust, or charge the Jewish victims of the Holocaust with responsibility for what was a Nazi German perpetrated genocide," Polish government said in a statement released late on Saturday night.

"The words ... should be interpreted as a sincere call for open discussion of crimes committed against Jews during the Holocaust, regardless of the nationality of those involved in each crime," the statement also said.

"On the contrary, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has repeatedly and categorically opposed denial of the Holocaust  the murder of European Jewry  as well as anti-Semitism in all its forms," the statement continued.

It noted that the brutal occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany during the war "allowed the Nazi German murder of Jews to take place in the way that it did."The High Court ruled that the state must respond to the Goldin family's interim injunction request against releasing terrorists' bodies by the government within 48 hours.

The family petitioned the court following the release of the body of Nimer Jamal, the terrorist who carried out the Har Adar shooting attack that claimed the lives of three Israelis.

The Goldin family wished for the state to be obliged to notify the public 72 prior to any future release of bodies for burial.The family of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, whose body is held by Hamas in Gaza, submitted an urgent appeal to the High Court Sunday seeking an interim injunction and decree nisi temporarily blocking the government's decision to return the bodies of terrorists who carried out attacks against Israelis to their families for burial.

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The fallen soldier's family's appeal was founded on the Security Cabinet's decision from January 2017, in which it noted Israel will hold onto the bodies of terrorists who "carried out an exceedingly grave attack" as well as "bodies of terrorists affiliated with Hamas."

The family claimed that the government has violated its own decision numerous times since adopting it. It did so, for instance, this past Friday by releasing for burial the body of terrorist Nimer Jamal of Beit Surik , who murdered three Israelis this past September.





Simcha (L) and Leah Goldin, Hadar's parents (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Goldin's family also cited as an example Cabinet's decision to release on July 23 of last year the bodies of three terrorists who murdered two cops on the Temple Mount, as well as a March 17 decision to release for burial a Beit Jala terrorist.

The remedy sought by the Goldin family was to order the government to provide the public with a 72 hour notice before releasing the bodies of terrorists who carried out attacks in the future, as well as to fully implement Cabinet's own decisions regarding said releases.

Dr. Leah Goldin, Hadar's mother, said before a race in her son's name concluded that, "Today is Tzur (the fallen soldier's twin brothered) and Hadar's 27th birthday. Three and a half years ago, a knock came on our door notifying us that Hadar was missing.

Participants in the Hadar Goldin memorial race (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"I can't believe it's been three and a half years and we're still battling with the state to return Hadar from Gaza. It feels more and more like we're actually fighting the government rather than our enemy, Hamas, to return Hadar."

Commenting on the release of the two terrorists' bodies over the weekend, Goldin said, "What happened Friday is horrible. Minutes before Shabbat, under the media's radar, the bodies of murderous terrorists who killed a Border Policeman and two civilians in an attack Hamas took responsibility for were returned.

"A year ago, the (Security) Cabinet decided to exert pressure on Hamas by not returning bodies (of its men). Unfortunately, Cabinet has yet to implement its own decision and we were therefore forced to appeal to the High Court.

The family was in a deep crisis of faith, Leah Goldin said (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"This past Thursday, 24 hours before the bodies' return, the State Attorney faced the court to declare Israel will not be returning Hamas bodies. Less than a day later and those exact bodies were returned."

The bereaved mother added, "We're in the midst of a very deep crisis of faith with the government and decision makers, but we won't give up on our valuesthe values of the people of the State of Israelor on our struggle to return Hadar for proper burial."The Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court convicted Sunday morning Shimon Batat, head of the 2013 Labor party primary campaign for Opposition Chairman MK Isaac Herzog.

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Batat as confessed and was convicted as part of a plea bargain of not informing the state comptroller of receiving donationsan offense according to the Parties Law.

Fmr. Herzog campaign chief Shimon Batat was convicted of failing to report a donation to the state comptroller, paid for running a smear campaign against Herzog's opponent (Photo: Shaul Golan)

Batat's plea agreement with the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office referred him to Israel's parole service, whereas his attorney wished for the parole service to examine the possibility of not convicting himthereby effectively canceling it.

The state, on the other hand, moved for a conviction, a suspended sentence, a fine and community service.

According to the indictment, the charges in which Batat confessed to as part of the plea agreement, early elections in the Labor party were announced in August 2013 and held November 22 of the same year. MK Herzog, who decided to contend for his party's leadership, created a campaign headquarters to that end, and appointed and authorized Batat to act as his campaign manager.

According to the charges which Batat confessed to as part of the plea agreement, Batat met with Daniel Cohen, a Labor party activist, and the two agreed that Cohen will run a smear campaign against MK Shelly Yachimovich, also contending for the party's leadership, by sending text messages with a wide circulation to party members containing links to articles bashing Yachimovich.

It was further agreed that Cohen will receive NIS 40,000 for administering the smear campaign, to be paid at a later date by a messenger sent by Herzog's campaign.

MK Herzog (R)'s campaign smeared MK Yachimovich during the 2013 Labor primaries (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Pursuant to Batat's agreement with Cohen, businessman Gilad Ramot met with Cohen on September 17, 2013, at his Ashdod offices. Ramot notified Cohen he will be participating in his meeting with Batat and will pay for the smear campaign.

Several days later, Ramot sent Cohen by messenger checks belonging to a company he owned made out to Cohen's namein return for running the campaign against Yachimovichdespite the fact that donations by corporations are forbidden by law.

In return for the payment, Cohen provided Ramot with invoices saying funds were paid for "legal consultation," despite the fact Cohen rendered no such services and meant to obfuscate the true purpose of the payments. Cohen then carried out the smear campaign against Yachimovich in October 2013.

Opposition Chairman Herzog was also questioned on the affair, but the case against him was closed citing lack of evidence, despite the fact that he was apparently aware of the intention to run the campaign against his opponent.Swastikas and profanities were daubed on the entrance to Poland's embassy in Israel on Sunday after Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Jews, as well as Poles and others, were among perpetrators of the Holocaust.

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Poland sparked international criticism over its stance on the facts of the Holocaust when it passed a law imposing jail terms for suggesting the country was complicit in the deaths of millions of Jews during the war.

Swastikas on the Polish Embassy's entrance gate (Photo: Police Spokesmanship Unit)

In his answer, Morawiecki equated "Jewish perpetrators" with Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and German perpetrators, drawing immediate criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called his words "outrageous."

(Photo: Police Spokesmanship Unit)

Poland's government said Morawiecki's comments were not intended to deny the Holocaust or allege that Jewish victims bore responsibility for "Nazi German-perpetrated genocide".

At the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday, swastikas and anti-Polish profanities were found drawn in marker pen on a gate and bulletin board. Police, who released photographs of the markings, opened an investigation.

Netanyahu spoke by telephone on Sunday with Morawiecki and rejected any comparison between Polish and Jewish actions during the Holocaust, a statement issued by the Israeli prime minister's office said.

(Photo: Police Spokesmanship Unit)

"The aim of the Holocaust was to destroy the Jewish people and that every Jew, everywhere, was facing a death sentence," it quoted Netanyahu as saying.

Netanyahu and his Polish counterpart agreed to continue to pursue a dialogue on the new law, and that teams from both sides would meet soon, the statement said.GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir threatened Hamas Sunday in the wake of the detonation of an explosive device near the Gaza border the day before, as a result of which four IDF soldiers were woundedtwo seriously and two moderately.

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"Harming IDF soldiers constitutes a grave terror (attack)," Zamir said at a military ceremony. "We will not abide by this reality of using the land around the fence for terrorism."

"Anyone seeking to undermine Israel's security will be met with a determined response. We have considerable power and will not hesitate to exercise it as needed, despite our desire to maintain stability and avoid escalation," the senior IDF officer added at the ceremony, taking place in the Tze'elim base.





GOC Southern Command Zamir said Israel would not be daunted from using its considerable force if necessary (Photo: Roee Idan)

Zamir then reiterated the army's longstanding position of holding Hamas accountable for anything transpiring within Gaza "above and below ground, (Hamas) is responsible for the lives of Gaza's people."

"This is further proof of the utilization of disturbances near the fence by Hamas and other terror groups as cover for terrorism. Anyone seeking to undermine Israel's security will meet a determined response based on intelligence and aerial, land and naval capabilities," he warned.

The explosive device was affixed to a Palestinian flag and appeared to have been placed near the fence under the cover of Friday's demonstrations nearby. Golani and Combat Engineering forces were inspecting several suspicions locations in the vicinity when the explosion occurred.

IDF forces near the scene of the explosion (Photo: AFP)

An initial inquiry into the incident found that trackers scoured the area, after which Combat Engineering soldiers approached the flag, under cover of the Golani soldiers, at which point the device was set off.

Among those wounded are a Combat Engineering officer who was seriously wounded and a company commander from Golani's 13th Battalion who was lightly wounded.

Prof. Motti Klein, director of the Soroka University Medical Center in Be'er Sheva's intensive care unit, said Sunday afternoon that, "Three casualties from yesterday's blast are currently hospitalizedtwo in the intensive care unit and one in the surgery ward."

"Their injuries are difficult wounds suffered to the limbs and eyes. After undergoing surgeries, their lives are not in danger. However, they will remain in the intensive care unit for further treatment and supervision," Prof. Klein added.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said Hamas terror targets were hit in Gaza, including a terror tunnel running into Israel from the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza, a military complex on the former grounds of the evacuated Netzarim settlement "belonging to Hamas's unique military alignments, including weapons manufacturing sites." A Hamas military complex near Khan Yunis was also attacked.

Later Saturday, A group of at least four Palestinians attempted to infiltrate the Israeli communities south of Gaza through Rafah. IDF forces picked up on the attempt and opened fire on the infiltrators using tanks and other means.

The Zaytun neighborhood in Gaza (Photo: AFP)

Palestinian reports said two Palestinians were wounded by tank fire and were taken to a hospital. Hamas also published photos of the area hit in Zaytun, failing to mention the attack targeted a tunnel.

The IDF's inquiry into the incident continued Sunday, and it remained possible the force inspecting the device may be found to be at fault. It will be inspected, among other things, whether the soldiers' protocol was properly executed.

Soldiers from the Combat Engineering Corps' elite bomb disposal unit regularly operate in the Gaza Division's territory. The special force possesses several options for handling a suspicious scene, first and foremost among those options is isolating and freezing it before contact is made with the suspicious object.

In the past, scenes were isolated for days while remotely controlled by observation, intelligence surveillance and investigating the entire scene before disarming charges.

When handling a suspicious device, even without prior intelligence alerting to its presence, the special force may send a bomb-sniffing dog or a robot to neutralize the device without putting soldiers' lives in peril. Another option has to do with detonating the charge by having snipers fire at it.

Combat Engineering soldiers (Photo: Barel Efraim)

The IDF stressed that the soldiers apparently approached the scenes protected by helmets and vests, thereby preventing a much graver outcome.

A tour Ynet reporters took near the border fence in the region of the explosion Sunday afternoon showed how much the entire sector was exposed to control, observation andif necessaryfire from Gaza.

Palestinians' homes in nearby Deir al-Balah and al-Karara overlook the spot in which the device was placed from mere hundreds of meters away.

A tall earth battery exists between the fence and the main route taken by IDF forces near the border, but works on either the fence itself to the underground barrier wall, west of said battery, leave soldiers and construction employees alike exposed to the other side.

Military traffic in the region Sunday was nearly non-existent, but forces were active in surveilling the sector.

Hamas organized demonstrations near the fence, possibly to mask terror activities (Photo: EPA)

Estimates say Hamas's demonstrations near the fence will continue on future Fridays, and fear the terror group will continue using protesters as cover to insert or use armaments persists.

To counter that eventuality, protocol was emphasized to soldiers stationed in the region and it was made clear that the perimeter stripseveral hundred meters west of the fence bearing towards Gazashould be kept free of Palestinians.Tel Aviv District Court Judge Khaled Kabub told the Judicial Selection Committee on Sunday that he is withdrawing his candidacy for a seat on the Supreme Court.

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The committee is due to meet Thursday to select two new judges.

Kabub told his close associates he felt the chances were low for another Arab judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court a year after the appointment of Justice George Kara. He explained that it is also difficult for him to withstand the tension involved in waiting for the committee's decision, and decided to withdraw in order to save himself and his family frustration and distress.

(Photo: Ami Schuman)

Kabub was proposed as a candidate for the Supreme Court by the head of the Israel Bar Association, and was also included in Chief Justice Esther Hayut's list of candidates.

However, since in recent years the Supreme Court has held that there is only one "Arab seat," from the outset, sources in the committee estimated that Kabub's chances to get elected chances were not high, especially since the head of the Judicial Selection Committee is Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who is less keen on his nomination.

While widely considered an exemplary jurist, Shaked was not expected to back his appointment, as she'd be hard pressed to present the appointing of the first Arab Muslim justice to the Supreme Court to her electoral base as a victory.

Israel Bar Association President Efi Nave stated that "Judge Kabub was and still is the declared candidate of the Bar Association, and there is no doubt that his proven professional qualifications are not contested and he is worthy and suitable to be appointed as a Supreme Court justice.

"It is regrettable that we missed the opportunity to appoint him as another Arab judge in the Supreme Court, and I hope and believe that we will still be able to see the appointment of another Arab judge alongside Judge Kara."

Chief Justice Hayut (L) and Justice Minister Shaked (Photo: Justice Ministry Spokesmanship)

With Kabub's withdrawal, only five judges remain in the race : Central District Court Judge Prof. Ofer Grosskopf, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Shaul Shohat, Tel Aviv District Court Judge Ruth Ronnen, Jerusalem District Court Judge Ram Winograd and Prof. Alex Steinwhose nomination is seen as controversial, as he currently resides in Brooklyn where he works as Professor of law.

Shaked Insists on his appointment on the grounds that Stein, a juristic "conservative," is a legal genius who is highly respected in the academic field and is closely familiar with Israeli law even though he does not live in Israel.Courtesy Brittany Deane(NEW YORK) -- Two sets of identical twins are now planning a joint wedding after twin brothers proposed to twin sisters on February 2, or 2-2.



Brittany and Briana Deane met Josh and Jeremy Salyers last August at The Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, which bills itself as the "largest annual gathering of twins (and other multiples) in the world," according to its website.



Although the 31-year-old Deane twins have been trekking to the festival from their home in Virginia since 2011, for the 34-year-old Salyers' twins, it was their first time.



"When we got there it turned out better than we ever expected," Josh Salyers told ABC News, referring to his recent engagement.



Brittany Deane recalled that she and her sister spotted the Salyers twins at one of the festival's welcoming events.



"We were sitting on the bleachers and I saw just these two amazingly handsome young men that looked to be about our age," she recalled to ABC News, "and they were walking across the gym floor below."



Her sister Briana Deane recalls that her sister grabbed her by the wrist, "which we always do when we get excited about something," she said. And after a few moments, she too had spotted the brothers.



"They were stunning," Briana Deane said of her now-fiance and his twin brother.



Sadly, the twin siblings didn't cross paths until the last day of the festival for it's closing night party. "They were there at the end of the hall," Briana Deane said. "They smiled at us and we all started talking."



The Salyers twins sent the Deane twins a message via Facebook saying they couldn't wait to bump into them next year at the festival. But instead, the sisters asked, "Why wait?" The brothers then made a road trip out of it -- driving from their previous home in Clinton, Tennessee to visit the sisters in Virginia. After an amazing trip, the brothers said they knew immediately they'd propose one day.



"You know when you know," Jeremy Salyers said. "Weve always known our whole life if we were going to be married that it was going to be with twins."



The brothers, who now live in Hagerstown, Maryland, planned a proposal at the same location as their first date -- Twin Lakes State Park in Virginia. They told the sisters the wedding venue on-site wanted to feature the four in a commercial, so they all arrived in matching blue gowns and matching blue ties.



What the Deane sisters didn't expect was for the Salyers brothers to drop down on one knee at the same time. It made it even more special for all of the pairs.



"We have done so much in life together. Weve gone through ... having twin loves of our lives and to accept their marriage proposal at the same time made it that much more special," Brittany Deane said.



Josh Salyers added, "Weve always felt blessed to have each other and now we have two other twins who are just like us...but they also add their own contributions that we couldnt have. Together we can accomplish anything."



The couples now plan to have a double wedding this August at the Twins Days Festival in Ohio. And yes, if you're wondering, the brides will be in identical wedding dresses.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Police will have no choice but to call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provide testimony in the Bezeq corruption probe, also known as Case 4000, inside sources said Sunday evening, as investigators possess hard evidence of requests for flattering coverage of the Netanyahu family on the Walla! News website, which is owned by Bezeq.

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Earlier Sunday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court remanded suspects arrested in conjunction with the case: a media adviser close to the premier by five days, while two senior Bezeq officials and another confidant of Netanyahu were also remanded for the same period.

A gag order was put in place on all details pertaining to the investigation, and the court hearings were held behind closed doors.

PM Netanyahu (R) will likely be asked to provide testimony on the affair relating to Shaul Elovitch's Bezeq company (Photo: EPA, Yuval Chen)

"This is another false investigation kicked off due to media pressures," the prime minister's message said. "The media witch hunt is in full swing. After the air went out of (cases) 1000 and 2000, and it turned out there was no air at all in (case) 3000, the media exerted enormous pressure to create a new balloon4000. All the air will come out of that as well."

A media adviser close to PM Netanyahu in court (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Case 1000 is the police's name for the illicit gifts affair, whereas cases 2000 and 3000 concern Netanyahu's talks with Yedioth Ahronoth owner and publisher Arnon Mozes and a deal to purchase submarines from the German ThyssenKrupp company respectively.

"The Justice Ministry made clear in the State Comptroller's report on Bezeq: 'The prime minister made no controversial decisions. No decision benefited Bezeq specifically and may be said to have been controversial, or affected by a conflict of interests .' This artificial bubble will also burst," the premier concluded.

State comptroller's report: Ties between PM and Elovitch

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira first examined ties between Netanyahu and Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeqowned by Shaul Elovitchin a report published July of last year.

A senior Bezeq official in court (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Commenting on the prime minister's alleged conflict of interest, Shapira wrote that, "The Justice Ministry should have carried out inspections in full regarding the question of whether before putting together the conflict of interests arrangements, Netanyahu and Elovitch discussed issues under the purview of the Communications Ministry and the minister heading (Netanyahu)."

"Without the inspection being completed," Shapira wrote, "fears the aforementioned issues were broached were not lifted, and it remained impossible to inspect their ramifications on decisions in which the prime minister was involved in his capacity as communications minister before the arrangement was put into place."

The state comptroller also examined Netanyahu's possible conflict of interest as communications minister, and touched on his ties with Elovitch, a personal friend and majority owner and chairman of Bezeq.

Another of the PM's associates (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

In another chapter of the report, Shapira noted "fundamental flaws in the decision making process" at the Communications Ministry and by its director-general Shlomo Filber, a Netanyahu appointee, regarding certain breaks given to Bezeq vis-a-vis its merger with satellite television provider yes.

The prime minister responded to Shapira's report and said, "This is another futile attempt to create an affair against the prime minister out of thin air. The prime minister hid nothing. He was friendly with Elovitch but nothing beyond that, but when the matter was raised by the attorney general, he acted in accordance with his instructions."

"All decisions made by him regarding the communications sector, even before (the attorney general's instructions), were reached solely in accordance with recommendations by professional ranks, with only the public's best interest guiding him," the message said.

A second senior Bezeq official in court (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Elovitch suspected to have exerted pressure

The police's announcement Sunday morning said that due to evidence uncovered by the Israel Securities Authority recently, suspicions were raised that further offenses were committed, and a new joint investigation was thus inaugurated.

Several suspects were arrested, including senior Bezeq officials and two of Netanyahu's associates. The latter two arrived at Israel Securities Authority's offices in Tel Aviv to provide testimony.

They have previously held extremely senior positions at the Prime Minister's Office and one of them was already involved in a different criminal investigation.

Walla! News CEO Ilan Yeshua, editor-in-chief Aviram Elad and former editor-in-chief Yinon Magal all provided testimony to police Sunday morning. They spoke about claims that Elovitch and those close to him exerted pressure on them regarding coverage, including that pertaining to the prime minister and his family. The three are not suspects.

Former MK and Walla editor Yinon Magal provided testimony as well (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Journalist Dov Gil-Har, a former Walla! News employee, spoke at the beginning of his television show about the ties between Walla! News owner Elovitch and Netanyahu. "I was employed at Walla! News in the years being investigated by the police," he said. "I also witnessed the offensive patterns of a media body sucking up to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Ilike many other good journalists at Walla! Newstried to do my best to make the management aware that the deeds being done there bordered on (illegal)."

The investigation's public phase began in June 2017, after it was conducted covertly for a time. During the course of the investigations, suspicions were examined for committing offenses relating to reporting, fraudulently obtaining benefits, fraud, breach of trust in a corporation and obstruction of justice.

The investigation related to suspicious conduct by senior officials at Bezeq, satellite TV company Yes and Spacecom, as well as several public officials whoin the course of the administration of their dutiesworked with Bezeq.The F-16 pilot, who was shot down earlier this month by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile, was released Sunday from Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa.

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The pilot, a 35-year-old resident of central Israel, was seriously wounded in the incident, but left the hospital on his own two feet, appearing in good condition.

The pilot visited by President Reuven Rivlin (Photo: Marc Neiman/GPO)

His jet was downed immediately after an IAF strike deep within deep in Syria against Iranian infrastructure, in retaliation to Iran's deployment of a surveillance drone within Israeli airspace.



The warplane crashed near the settlement of Harduf in the Jezreel Valley.

His co-pilot, a navigator, was lightly injured and released from the hospital hours later. He was not so fortunate, having to spend two days in the hospital's intensive care unit due to penetrating abdominal trauma.

He was later transferred to the surgery ward. His family and friends have been at his bedside since.

The female soldier and her vehicle

Prior to his release, the pilot met with the IDF soldier who was wounded last week in the attack in Jenin, where she accidentally entered with a military vehicle and was promptly assailed by an angry mob.

"She felt a little better after talking to him. It was a very important meeting for her," a source at Rambam said.A team of six Israeli researchers on Sunday ended a four-day Mars habitat experiment in Israel's Negev desert where they simulated living conditions on the Red Planet, Israel's Science and Technology Ministry said.

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The experiment was held near the isolated township of Mitzpe Ramon, whose surroundings resemble the Martian environment in its geology, aridity, appearance and desolation, the ministry said.

The D-Mars project in the Negev ()

X

The participants were investigating various fields relevant to a future Mars mission, including satellite communications, the psychological effects of isolation, radiation measurements and searching for life signs in soil.

Researchers in Mitzpe Ramon participated in a project simulating Mars (Photo: Reuters)





The project was equal parts scientific inquiry and cultivating interest in Mars exploration, a researcher said (Photo: Reuters)

"D-Mars is half about the research, and the other half is about the outreach. A major part of this project is getting public interest and getting students interested in space," he said.

The D-Mars project was being held in Israel for the first time in cooperation with the Israel Space Agency. It is one of a number of Mars simulation projects taking place worldwide.Ghana was never as peaceful as it is today. In fact, the journey to political stability started way back even before Independence in 1956.

READ ALSO: Rare photo of a young Nkrumah and mother surfaces

Written history dating back to the 1800s shows how our ancestors waged bloody wars between themselves and colonial masters all in the thirsty search for political freedom.

For those of us who read history at high school or university, you may remember some of these battles including the most famous Yaa Asantewaa War.

In this article, we shall be exploring some 7 popular wars of the 19th Century which shaped the landscape of culture and politics in Ghana.

1. Yaa Asantewaa War

This popular war is also called the War of the Golden Stool. It happened in 1900. It is documented to be the final bloody and massive war between Ashantis and the British Colony.

It all started when the British Imperial Government of the Gold Coast demanded that the Ashantis surrender the Golden Stool to them. This stool was and continues to be the throne and symbol of the Ashanti Region.

The Golden Ashanti Stool (Photo credit: Getty Images)

The demand for the Golden Stool by the British ignited the anger of the Ashanti Kingdom whose King, Prempeh 1, had been in exile. The only queen of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa, took it upon herself to lead the battle against the British.

Unfortunately, Yaa Asantewaa lost the war leading to the arrest of chiefs including the Queen Mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa, who got exiled to the Seychelles, for 25 years.

2. Sagrenti War

Defeated Asantes bowing before their colonial masters (Photo credit: Getty Images)

Originally called the "Sir Garnet Wolseley War", the Sagrenti War happened between 1873 to 1874 between the Asantes and the British Empire. An army under Sir Garnet Wolseley crossed the Pra River into the Asante territory.

The war was called "Sagrenti War" mainly because Ghanaians could not pronounce the name Sir Garnet. The British force, this time proved too strong for the Asante who, after a long and tough fight, agreed to sign a peace treaty at Fomena.

At about the same time the British defeated the Anlo people in the Volta area. On the 12th of September, 1874, the whole of Southern Ghana including Anloland became a British colony.

3. Ashanti-Fante war of 1806

This was a fierce war between the Ashanti and Fante Confederacy. The disagreement between the Ashantis and Fantes is documented to have grown more severe during the start of the 19th century.

It all started when the Asantehene of the Ashanti punished some people for robbing graves. But these charged persons were granted refuge by the Fantes. This led to a war between the Fantes and Ashantis resulting in the loss of over a 1000 lives.

4. Ga-Fante war of 1811

The Ga-Fante war in 1811 was an intense tribal war which continued for years between the Gas and Fates who were also fighting against the friends of both tribes.

The Asante won the pitched battle, but then had to retreat in the face of the guerrilla tactics used by the Akwapim in the Akwapim Hills, where the Asante had the disadvantage of not knowing the terrain so well. Akwapim, battled also against the Europeans by conquering Dutch fort at Apam and a British one at Tantamkweri.

5. Battle of Nsamankow

British colonialists staging fierce fight against Asantes (Photo credit: Getty Images)

The Battle of Nsamankow happened in 1824. It was a first fierce war between British colonial forces and the Ashanti Empire The British force under Charles McCarthy was defeated by an Ashanti force. It is unknown who won this battle but written history shows that 80 British troops were outnumbered by over 10,000 troops.

READ ALSO: NPP's Chairman Wontumi cruises around Kumasi in a Ferrari

6. Battle of Amoaful

The Battle of Amoaful was a battle fought on 31 January 1874 during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War when Sir Garnet Wolseley defeated the Ashantis after strong resistance. The attack was led by the 42nd Regiment of Foot. At Amoaful, one combat post-mortem pays tribute to the Ashanti commander:

"The great Chief Amankwatia was among the killed. Admirable skill was shown in the position selected by Amankwatia, and the determination and generalship he displayed in the defense fully bore out his great reputation as an able tactician and gallant soldier." Lance-Sergeant Samuel McGaw won the Victoria Cross during the action.

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via our official Facebook and/or Instagram page to get it published on.

Source: Yen GhanaPart of Nepal including its capital city, Kathmandu, and the Himalayan foothills are pictured in this satellite image.

Vegetation appears red in this false-colour image, while waterways and buildings appear light green and blue.

Surrounded by four mountain ranges, Kathmandu valley at the top of the image is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its temples and monuments. However, some of these sites collapsed during the April 2015 earthquake that struck the region, claiming thousands of lives and causing widespread damage throughout the valley.

One of the easier features to pick out of satellite images are airports, and the runways of the Tribhuvan International Airport are clearly visible near the centre of the valley.

A 'ring road' runs around central Kathmandu city and parts of surrounding cities, and from the southern tip of the airport runways we can follow the road south before it changes direction northwest and continues around the city.

This image demonstrates just a slice of Nepal's varied terrain: from the mountains to the north to the plains in the south. We can see how water runs off of the mountains, forming large rivers that cut through the forested plain, with some areas of agriculture. The lower part of the image appears hazier than the mountainous areas because humidity is higher in the plains.

This image, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite on 28 December 2015.

Larger image

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.



Standardbreds stepped onto the Northlands' track for the last time Saturday, Feb. 17, as the Edmonton oval concluded its final season of harness racing.

The finale on the 10-race program, a $6,600 conditioned pace, saw horses spread across the track heading to the line, with Tolly Ho, the 6-5 favourite, rushing through the center of the track to win.

Owned, trained and driven by Kim Dressler, the five-year-old gelding by Yankee Cruiser, from the Hi Ho Silverheels mare Hi Ho Molly, was positioned towards the rear of the field while Sudden Storm took control in :28.3.

Secrets Mystery, positioned third, pulled first over moving into the second turn, tracked by Mr Peterman, who inherited fourth after Mr Prominister lost stride through the stretch first time. Sudden Storm lost the lead narrowly to Secrets Mystery through a :59 half.

Through three-quarters in 1:28.1, Sudden Storm reclaimed command as Secrets Mystery lost ground first over. Mr Peterman edged three wide, with Dream Chase moving four wide and Tolly Ho rushing five wide into the stretch.

Sudden Storm drifted off the rail in the stretch, leaving room for pocket-sitter Navajo Jack to shooting through the inside to take a short lead. Tolly Ho lunged towards the rail rider in the final strides to grab victory in 2:00.3. Navajo Jack finished second, with John Md splitting horses for third ahead of Sudden Storm.

Winning his sixth race in 16 starts, Tolly Ho, compiling $22,907 in earnings, returned $4.50 to win.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Northlands Park.A giant oarfish washed ashore on the beach of Los Yuyales in Peru around 1:30pm on February 15, 2018, so just 24 hours before a very powerful earthquake of 7.2-magnitude hit Mexico on February 16, 2018. Finding a giant oarfish washed up on the beach is a rare occurrence, since the fish is a deepwater species thats rarely seen at all. Now, some are claiming that oarfish washing ashore is a sign that an earthquake will soon follow. Coincidence or not?

#Video Mar de Tacna arroja a pez que de acuerdo con una leyenda predice terremotos. La extrana criatura que es conocida como Pez Remo, mide mas de 6 metros de largo. Su sola presencia ha generado temor en los moradores de la playa Los Yuyales, del Balneario Boca del Rio. pic.twitter.com/DynfmOUXNw  Diario de Morelos (@DiariodeMorelos) February 15, 2018

The villagers were afraid to approach the 5,50 meters (18 feet) deep seas creature as an animal of this type had never been seen before.

Now, some are claiming that oarfish washing ashore is a sign that an earthquake will soon follow. Shortly before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, about 20 oarfish stranded themselves on beaches in the area.

The oarfish is known in Japan as ryugu no tsukai or messenger from the sea gods palace.. Dozens of the deep-sea denizens were discovered by Japanese fishermen around the time a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile in March 2010.

Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, a specialist in ecological seismology explains deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea.

Two days ago, fishermen fear the apocalypse after extremely rare 15ft-long, deep-sea megamouth shark washed up on their beach in the Philippines.

And then 24 hours the M7.2 earthquake hit Mexico:

So was this oarfish a sign of the incoming M7.2 earthquake in Mexico?

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Chispa, USGS9-11 anniversary honored Several ceremonies were held Saturday in Lapeer County to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

Lawsuit dismissed, marijuana stays on ballot LAPEER  Voters in the city of Lapeer will still decide a Nov. 2 ballot proposal that will ask them if they want to prohibit...Civilians killed on horrific scale in Syria

Haley defended the US attack on Assad\'s forces near Deir Az Zor

Al Jazeera News

The UN special envoy for Syria has given warning that violence in the country is the worst he has seen since taking the job four years ago.

Staffan de Mistura's remarks on Wednesday came as the US and Russia again traded blame at the UN over the ongoing conflict..

"Civilians have been killed on a horrific scale - reports suggest more than 1,000 civilians in the first week of February alone," he told the UN Security Council.

"I have been now four years as the special envoy. This is as violent and worrying and dangerous a moment as any that I have seen in my time of tenure so far."

De Mistura mentioned all the countries now fighting in Syria, including the Turkish operation around Afrin and the Syrian government's continued bombardment of Eastern Ghouta and Idlib.

He talked of developments in recent days, including the US attack on Assad's forces near Deir Az Zor and Israeli air attacks in Syria including on Iranian targets. But both these operations were later defended by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN.

"The United States will always reserve the right to act in self-defence. The [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] regime has become a front for Iran, Hezbollah, and their allies to advance the irresponsible and dangerous agenda for the Middle East," she told the Security Council.

She criticised Russia for failing to stop the Assad regime from bombing and gassing civilians, drawing a sharp response from Moscow's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia.

Nebenzia said the US and its allies should use their influence over the opposition groups to prevent violence.

Meanwhile, the UN's latest modest peace effort based on the outcome of a conference in the Russian city of Sochi seems now to be in doubt.

De Mistura wants to select members of a new committee to come up with a new constitution for Syria. But Syria's ambassador at the UN rejected that.

"Participants of the conference did not lend any authority for Mr De Mistura to set up this committee," said Bashar al-Jaafari, the Syrian diplomat.

Earlier on Wednesday, the first convoy of aid since November was delivered to Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held enclave east of Damascus.

Diplomats point to a familiar and cynical pattern by the Syrian government. It is only when Syria is in the international spotlight, a small amount of aid is finally delivered.



Aid also reached Deir Az Zor, which was liberated in November last year from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Abdirahman Meygag, deputy director of the World Food Programme in Syria, told Al Jazeera from Damascus on Thursday that his team visited the city two days earlier for the first time since 2014.

"The majority of the city is uninhabitable, 80 percent of the city has been destroyed," he said.

"We have seen that there is no electricity, the majority of people depend on generators. Water is not running. The sewage system is disfunctional."

He also said thet the majority of the people depended on foreign assistance.

"For a year and a half the UN has been doing air drop operations in Deir Az Zor city. We kept the people alive there. However, the city needs more than that and we are there to assist. We need to step up our operations."India, Iran to step up cooperation on Afghanistan

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, talks to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, left, during later\'s ceremonial reception at the Indian presidential palace in New Delhi on Saturday.

AP, New Delhi :

India and Iran said Saturday that they would step up cooperation in combatting extremism, terrorism and drug trafficking in Afghanistan in an effort to restore peace and stability to the war-wracked country.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two countries would also make efforts to improve energy security and regional connectivity to reach landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia by developing Iran's Chabahar Port and road and rail routes."We both will work for restoring peace, stability, prosperity and a pluralistic system in Afghanistan," Modi said after holding talks with Rouhani in New Delhi on the final day of Rouhani's three-day visit.

Rouhani said Iran and India "are prepared for joint ventures in gas and petroleum sectors." He sought India's investment in these areas, as well as in the industrial and mining sectors. He said Afghanistan must be "a vivacious and secure country," adding that Iran and India would also cooperate in dealing with the situations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Iran is a key stakeholder in the future of those nations.

Rouhani's visit to India came at a time when President Donald Trump has threatened to scuttle an international deal reached with Iran in 2015 over its nuclear program that ended economic sanctions imposed on the country.. The uncertainty puts India in a difficult position with its growing ties with the United States.

Rouhani referred to Trump's threat on the nuclear deal, and said that "politics without adhering to one's commitment and promises cannot resolve the conflicts and problems of the current world." He also accused the United States of intervening in the internal affairs of countries in the Middle East.

"Why did they (U.S.) invade Iraq? Why are they in Syria now? Why have they occupied a part of Syria now?" Rouhani asked while giving a speech at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think-tank.

"We know that selling arms is a very profitable business," he said. "We are aware that the factories that produce arms need customers."

India and Iran signed agreements Saturday for avoidance of double taxation and implementing an extradition treaty signed in 2008. Another agreement envisaged the pooling of technical, scientific and human resources between the two countries.

India will also help Iran in running a multipurpose container terminal at the Chabahar Port for 18 months as part of a lease agreement. India is helping Iran develop Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan, which has refused to provide New Delhi access through a land route.

India committed up to $500 million for the development of Chabahar along with associated roads and rail lines.



Russian election plot touched even minor Trump supporters

Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump speaks during the final day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. rallies in Florida

AP, West Palm Beach :

The request was simple: organize or attend a sign-waving rally supporting Donald Trump. But some of the Florida Republicans on the receiving end of those requests now know that they didn't come from Republican allies, but from Russian adversaries.

Caught up in an elaborate Russian plot without their knowledge, a handful of these small-time Trump supporters said their votes were not swayed and they didn't do anything they weren't happy to do. Still, their interactions with the Russians highlight the ways, both big and small, that the nation's campaign process was infiltrated.

"I was going to do what I was going to do anyway. I was a Trump supporter, they didn't convince me," said Jim Frishe, a real estate development consultant and candidate for county office, who organized a sign-waving event in Clearwater that was part of a statewide series of rallies promoted by the Russians.

The Florida rallies are one small facet of the indictment issued Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller charging 13 Russians and three Russian companies with interfering in the 2016 election. The most detailed allegation of illegal Russian meddling to date, it says they assumed U.S. identities, sowed discord on social media, communicated with "unwitting" Americans and even set up political rallies from afar.

As part of that, the indictment says the Russians used a Facebook group, a Twitter account and other "false U.S. personas" to organize coordinated "Florida Goes Trump" rallies on Aug. 20, 2016. They reached out to campaign staff, grassroots groups supporting Trump, and specific individuals to participate.

Frishe, 68, said he was called by someone identifying themselves as with a group called "Florida for Trump" and asked to organize a sign-waving rally. He said between 15 and 18 people showed up and that he didn't receive any signs or money or other support. He never heard from them again. He said he was not overly concerned about the indictment, or his minor role in the drama, and that Russian interference is "nothing new."

"It's not surprising," Frishe said. "It doesn't have a huge impact in this country."

Still, the indictment details a sizable effort to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, aimed in part at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. It involved creating internet postings in the names of Americans whose identities had been stolen; staging political rallies while posing as American political activists; and paying people in the U.S. to promote or disparage candidates.

Lilia Morraz was another person who put together an event. She said she got involved after she encountered the @March_for_Trump account on Twitter, one of the accounts the Russians used.

"I am really active on Twitter. They were saying Trump was not going to be elected. I happened to write to them and say it's not true," said Morraz, 60, of Miami.

Morraz said that from there, she was asked about good places to hold a rally in Miami and then "they told me, yes, go ahead and do it." So she organized an event outside a restaurant that both she and @March_for_Trump promoted. She said hundreds attended and she made signs herself and received no money.

Morraz was skeptical about a Russian plot.

"I just don't believe it. It's like everything you see on TV. I don't believe 90 percent of it," she said.

Another Florida Republican, Betty Trigueiro, says she didn't attend the Florida Goes Trump rallies. But her name and phone number were included in a Facebook post promoting the event without her permission.

Trigueiro, 62, of Bradenton, said that in August 2016 she started getting some Twitter messages from people she did not know with details on pro-Trump events. She thinks they may have gotten her contact information from her time as secretary of a local Republican club. She said she never attended any of the events.

While she was troubled that there appeared to efforts to "infiltrate and cause chaos," Trigueiro wasn't convinced the outcome was impacted.



PM's press conference on Italy visit today



Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will address a press conference today about the outcome of her just-concluded visit to Italy and Vatican City.

"The press conference will be held at Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister, at 4:30 pm today," PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told BSS on Sunday.

Sheikh Hasina paid the four-day official visit to Italy and Vatican City from February 11-14.

In Italy, the premier attended the annual governing council meeting of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at the invitation of

IFAD President Gilbert F Houngbo.

At an invitation of Pope Francis, Sheikh Hasina also visited the Holy See (Vatican City) and held meetings with the Pope and Secretary State of Vatican City Cardinal Pietro Paroline.Rekha Rana to be a part of Hollywood Television Series, Be Great!

Rekha has been recently shooting for a Hollywood television series, Be Great!. She is Pretty much Excited and happy to be a part of the Television Series which is going to showcase true stories and also the fact that the series is very inspiring.

Rekha saw early potential in 'Be Great!', so she expressed her interest in bringing the show to India as the first potential franchise country. Rekha Rana also attended the launch party of television series as an ambassador representing India.

Rekha Rana says, "Taking a break from the typical talk-show format, short scripted interviews from a desk, news heavily influenced by big corporations, and the general negativity that is saturating media today-we bring a fresh concept showcasing true stories and energizing content that will leave people inspired and empowered."

BRU observes Wazed Mia's Birth Anniv

Prof Dr Shuchita Sharmin, Department of Development Studies of Dhaka University speaks at a seminar on \'Life and Work of MA Wazed Mia\' held at the virtual class room of the Academic Building-2 of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur on Friday.

Jannatun Lucky, BRU :

Begum Rokeya University (BRU), Rangpur observed 76th birth anniversary of Dr. M. A. Wazed Miah with due respect. Vice-Chancellor of the university Prof Dr. Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah. BTFO handed over the honor to MA Wazed Miah's grave at Fatehpur, Pirganj on behalf of the university administration on Friday.

After that the teachers' association of Begum Rokeya University, Progressive Teacher Society, Bangabandhu Parishad, Officers' Association, Employees' Union and others were separately paid tribute to Dr Wazed and a Dua Mahfil was held.

On this occasion, Dr Wazed Research Institute of the University organized a seminar at the virtual class room of the University's Academic Building-2. BRU VC inaugurated the seminar.

Prof Dr Shuchita Sharmin, Department of Development Studies of Dhaka University was the chief speaker at the seminar on 'Life and Work of MA Wazed Mia'.

Mehjabin Elahi, Research Officer of the Institute was the presenter of the seminar. Prof Dr Sarifa Salowa Dina of BRU Bangla Dept and Administrator of Public Relations and Information Division also spoke at the seminar.

The speakers highlighted the country's leading nuclear scientist Dr MA Wazed Mia's life and ideals in different ways. Teachers, employees and students of different departments of the university took part in this seminar.Cleansing operation to stop leakage of question

QUESTION leakage during the ongoing SSC examination showed that the government has no power and the Education Ministry has no control over the corrupt people handling the question papers. So far questions of all 10 tests were openly available around the examination centers in Dhaka city and other places from early this month defying the presence of the law enforcing agencies.



Media reports said question paper on Bengali First paper was sold around the examination centers in the capital before the exam starts on February 1. Questions sold through facebooks and whatsapp were the same students got later in the examination halls. On February 3 questions of Bengali Second paper were similarly distributed and they were the same students were served in the halls. On February 5 a section of students got questions on English First paper at least two hours before the commencement of the exam. The story goes on raising question about the competence of the government. It appears that the system has totally broken down; the government is not capable to run public examinations and protect their integrity.



It is no secret ruling party men at critical place of the system are using their political cover to make illegal fortune. On last Saturday they not only supplied questions; answers to those questions were also supplied for the benefit of students. Breaking of examinations secrecy from within has become so easy as perpetrators who are also known to law enforcing agencies are enjoying impunity.



Media reports on Sunday said 12 syndicates controlling Dhaka Education Board are so powerful that they are running illegal business without fears. They are breaking questions for money, collecting tolls from affiliated schools and colleges to protect their undue interest, giving sanctions to new schools and colleges for money or giving allocations for MPO benefits to many. Officials close to the Education Minister are also part of the network turning the entire system into a den of corruption.



There is no rule of law and everything unlawful is now part of the system.



We are really concerned that question leakage in all public examinations is seriously undermining the education system and people's confidence in it. But concerned officials now have become so shameless to claim that reexamination is not possible because leakage has almost come to stay. We must say there must a total cleansing operation at all levels of the Education Ministry to destroy the den of corruption before they are destroying the future of the nation.



In our view the Education Minister must resign in the first place to start the purge from the top. He speaks too much and doing nothing while sheltering corruption at all levels and unless he goes there is no way to refix the system. This is in fact the crisis at all levels of the government - high corruption and no action.



We would say please Minister go; help us save the education to save the future of the nation.





It`s time to change economic pattern

A panel of discussants in the city on Saturday said it is time for local and regional institutions to go for restructuring to collectively benefit from global business, for which political willingness is highly important.



The Asian countries are holding major foreign currency reserves like China's reserves of $3 trillion. India and China should maintain good relationship to benefit from the global value chain and integration is therefore required among the Asian countries.



They said Bangladesh's position in the global value chain is at the lower end: buyers purchase items at low cost from here and sell at prices six to seven times higher. The country will have to reduce the gap in the global value chain and businesses should therefore improve negotiation skills.



Bangladesh's trade gap has widened significantly in recent times and when its exports capacity is low. Vietnam - a regional competitor in the global market is now earning over $200 billion from export and they are right when they said Bangladesh as a LDC should focus on how to increase participation in global trade to improve its position.



They are also right when they say political willingness is important is this regard to strengthen the regional institutions like the South Asia Free Trade Agreement and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. It is not possible to implement the regional economic zone and the economic union by 2020 in absence of political willingness. They have also laid emphasis rightly to stop capital flight; which is moving out country's potential for investment. According to the Panama and Paradise Papers, $5 billion has been laundered from the country. Of the sum, 80 percent were laundered through mis-invoicing.



Political willingness is in fact necessary for any country to move forward. One has to look at the Asian Tigers to figure this out. The economic miracles of Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and others had occurred because of the willingness of the government to join hands with private sector for the benefit of the nation.



Unfortunately this is not getting due importance in Bangladesh. We have no national unity and also coherent policy on what to do to increase GDP. Energy, Housing, Communications and IT are all major thrust sectors; which need big push and that need major change in economic pattern. Coherent policies and fighting big corruption in all these areas are necessary for rapid growth.



But alas, bottlenecks like corruption, mismanagement and inefficient implementation of projects are slowing down growth. Income gap within the society is distorting growth pattern. Misuse of banking is retarding development. Structural shortcomings and inefficiencies need to be overcome. If we don't become dynamic to shape our growth path, the country will continue to suffer setback when regional competitors are making great strides ahead. This is time to change the track.BNP submits memo to DC office seeking Khaleda's release

A BNP delegation led by its district unit President Dewan Mohammad Salahuddin Ahmed and party central organising secretary Fazlul Haque Milon submitted the memorandum to DC Md. Salauddin at his office in the old part of the city on Sunday.

As part of its countrywide programme, BNP on Sunday submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Dhaka, demanding the release of its chairperson Khaleda Zia from jail.

A BNP delegation, led by its Dhaka district unit president Dewan Mohammad Salauddin Ahmed and party's central organising secretary Fazlul Haque Milon, submitted the memorandum to DC Mohammad Salauddin around 11:00am at his office at the old part of the city.

Later, BNP leaders and activists staged a demonstration in front of the DC office, and chanted various

slogans demanding Khaleda's release. Earlier, several hundred BNP leaders and activists gathered near Victoria Park from 10:00am amid the presence of huge security personnel.

BNP chairperson's adviser Barrister Ziaur Rahman, its assistant organising secretary Abdus Salam Azad, Dhaka north unit BNP senior vice President Munshi Bazlul Basit Anju, Dhaka district unit general secretary Ahsanullah Hasan, Dhaka district unit BNP general secretary Khondaker Abu Ashfak, organising secretary Rezaul Karim Paul and joint secretary Badiuzzazamn Badi were, among others, present. BNP leaders and activists in every district across the country were scheduled to submit their memorandums to the DC offices at their convenient time between 9am to 5pm.

BNP on Thursday announced a fresh round of peaceful countrywide protest programmes, including collecting signatures from mass people across the country on Saturday, submitting memorandums to all the deputy commissioner offices on Sunday and staging demonstrations in all the district towns and metropolitan cities, except Dhaka, on Tuesday. A special court convicted former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on February 8 last. She was then sent to the old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city.

Earlier, the party observed a token hunger strike on Wednesday while formed a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Monday and staged a sit-in programme in front of the party's Nayapaltan central office on Tuesday.

Will retire from politics when it'll harm people: B Chy

President of Bikalpa Dhara Bangladesh (BDB) AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury on Sunday said he will retire from politics happily when his activities will harm people.

He made the remarks reacting to Finance Minister AMA Muhith's suggestion to him to retire from politics.

In a statement, B Chowdhury said, "I've seen (in newspapers) the Finance Minister's comment suggesting me to take a decision for retirement. The Finance Minister and the Education Minister are both virtuous persons, and I have respect to this end. I don't have any personal reservation against them." He, however, said it is not his mistake to criticise the two minister's political and administrative activities. Mentioning that Muhith advised him to retire as he is also going on retirement, the BDB chief said, "My position is very clear about it that the day I'll see my statements and activities harm people, on that very day I'll retire happily without any hesitation." B Chowdhury also reminded that he has the habit of resigning on the question of morality. Hinting at B Chowdhury on Saturday at a programme in the city, Muhith said when people reach a certain stage of life, it is wise for them to go on retirement. Earlier on Friday, the BDB chief harshly criticised the Finance Minister for his failure to check scams in the banking sector and Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid for repeated incidents of question paper leakage.Warrant against 23 BNP leaders

Court Correspondent :

Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka yesterday issued warrant of arrest against 23 BNP men, including its joint Secretary General Barkatullah Bulu and journalist leader Shawkat Mahmud, in two cases filed with Rampura Police Station of the city.

Judge Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah of the court took cognizance of the charge sheets and passed the order.

The other leaders against whom warrants were issued include BNP Chairperson's Press Secretary Maruf Kamal Khan, Chairperson's personal secretary Shimul Biswas, BNP leaders Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel, Shafiul Bari, Mir Sharafat Ali and Shirin Sultana.

The two cases were filed during the indefinite blockade programme enforced by the BNP-led 20 party alliance in the city's Rampura area in February, 2015.

Police filed the case under the Explosive Substances Act and the Special Power Act. Later in March, 2015, police submitted the charge-sheets of the cases accusing 41 people.Novels on top, edn books sale not up to the mark

Rayhanul Islam :

Over 378 new novels landed this year in the first sixteen days of the Amar Ekushey Boi-Mela, while the number of basic reference books is very thin, the publishers said.

The novels have the highest sale every day, but sale of educational books like article and thesis are not good, they said.

"Now, the readers do not search for basic educational books, as the writers do not write quality books. We also notice that most of the readers do not prefer thoughtful books. They want novel, drama and humorous books most," said Rabiul Islam, a prominent publisher in Dhaka.

Many publishers said, mainly youths search for novels at first. They choose the books of noted writers like Humayun Ahmed, Anisul Haque and Imdadul Haque Milon. Shihab Bahadur, Publisher of Muktochinta publication, said "The selling of novels is increasing day by day. The youths are fond of novels of famous writers." Mazharul Islam, publisher of Anna Prokash, told The New Nation, 'Humayun Ahmed's books are selling high from our stall. 'We published new edition of Humayun Ahmed's books sensing good demand', he said.

"I used to come to the Boi Mela when I was a first year student of Dhaka University. I bought many books of different subjects. I preferred novels at first to pass time and learn more. I am not used to read the books like articles and of deep thoughts as it seems to me boring," said Abu Rakib, a final year student of DU Fazlul Haque Muslim Hall.

"Most of the young readers buy novel from the fair as our young generation have apathy to educational books. It is our failure that we could not encourage them to the educational books and most of our young writers failed to produce quality books,'' said the writers.

On the 18th day of Boi Mela, One hundred and thirty three new books arrived at the fair. Of them, 23 are story books, 15 Novel, eight Article, 50 Poetry, 1 Thesis, 4 Rhyme, 4 Biography, 1 Liberation War, 3 Travel, 2 History and 16 Miscellaneous.

At 4:00 pm a discussion titled ' will be held today (Wednesday) in the main stage of Academy.

A discussion titled 'A F Salauddin Ahmed, Mujaffar Ahmed Chowdhury and A K Nazmul Karim' was held on Sunday in the main stage of the Academy. Professor Borhan Uddin Khan Jahangir presided over the function, while Muntasir Mamun, Mizanur Rahman Shely and Sonia Nishat Amin presented the keynote paper.

Latter, a cultural function was held.

At 4:00 pm, a discusson titled 'Bangladesher Orthonity' will be held in the main stage of the Academy. Hasnat Abdul Hai will preside over the function, while Mohammad Forashuddin will present the keynote paper. Kazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Hedayetullah Al Mamun and Fahmida Khatun will participate in the discussion.

At evening, a fascinating cultural function will be held.

Murder suspect killed in city 'gunfight'

Staff Reporter :

A man detained for killing a fellow gang member was killed in an alleged gunfight with members of Detective Branch (DB) of Police in city's Hatirjheel area early Sunday.

Police arrested Nurul Islam with a gun in his possession on Saturday while he was fleeing after killing his gang member identified as Badshah, according to Quazi Wazed Ali, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Badda Police Station.

"Around 2:30am Sunday, police took Nurul to conduct a raid at Badda's Satarkul to nab his accomplices. "Nurul wounded by a bullet as a gunfight erupted between the members of police and his men. He was declared dead after being taken to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH)," the OC said.

Nurul is one of the four suspects who entered the office of Munshi Overseas at Banani and shoot its owner Siddik Hossen Munshi on November 14, 2017, said Mohammad Shajahan, Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

ADC Shajahan said Nurul was accused in several cases and convicted at least in two cases of robbery and possession of firearm

"We have been looking for him for a long time," he said.

In primary interrogation, Nurul told police that he killed Badshah over a money matter, said Shajahan.

Police sources said, Nurul has been identified by police as a suspect in the murder of Banani manpower businessman. He was killed in a "gunfight" with detectives in Dhaka few hours after he got caught and handed over to police for allegedly killing one of his associates on Saturday.

Locals said that Nurul was caught by mob while he was fleeing after shooting dead of his associate Badshah in the capital's Badda.

Badshah and several others were sitting at a fish market in Merul Badda when Nurul shot Badsha and tried to walk away, said Kalim Sardar, a fish trader, who along with other locals caught Nurul.

"As Nurul's firearms did not work, I along with others chased him for 300 yards and caught him near Rampura Bridge. People beat Nurul up before handing him over to police," said Kalim.JP MP says Muhith's to go just now, not in December

Jatiya Party lawmaker Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu on Sunday asked Finance Minister AMA Muhith to go on retirement now, not waiting for December next to relieve the nation, taking responsibility of massive damage in the country's economic and banking sectors.

"Taking the responsibility, you please go on retirement today not waiting for December and relieve the country and nation. It is our call," he told parliament taking floor on point of order. The opposition MP came down heavily on the Finance Minister for not taking actions against different share market scams and irregularities in the banking sector, as well as the capital flights following the recent revelation of names of 27 Bangladeshis in Panama Papers and Paradise Papers-1 and 2.

Noting that the Finance Minister has already said he will go on retirement in December next, Bablu said, "Why will you continue blood hemorrhage till December? Please, relieve the people, the nation and the country. What do you need to wait for December? You please go on retirement today and relieve the Prime Minister and all of us."

The Paradise Papers are a set of 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked, while the Panama Papers are a set of 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities.

Claiming that what the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers revealed are authentic, he said the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif had to resign following the revelation of Panama Papers.

The opposition lawmaker claimed that thousands crore of Taka is being laundered from the country. The government and the Finance Minister did not take any step against the capital flights though many names of Bangladeshis involved in money laundering came in Panama Papers and Paradise Papers, he added.

Jatiya Party leader wondered why Muhith is scared to take measures against those whose names came in Panama Paper and Paradise Paper-1 and 2.

He said the Finance Minister earlier said the government is responsible for the present situation of the banking sector. "Did he mean the head of the government is responsible? The Head of the government entrusted you with the Finance Ministry. You will have to bear the responsibility."

Bablu urged the Prime Minister to take actions against those whose names came in the Papers adding that the nation will appreciate her as they (whose names came in Papers) siphoned money of the nation off the country.

Recommends retaking those tests

Ministry admits SSC question leaked

M M Jasim :

The Education Ministry on Sunday finally admitted the leaking of the questions of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations were leaked.

"We have found that the questions of SSC examinations were leaked. The questions of a subject were completely leaked and several others partially," Technical and Madrasa Education Secretary of the Ministry Md Alamgir said.

"We have recommended the government to retake the examinations," he said.

The Secretary disclosed the information after a meeting of the ministry's panel formed to investigate the alleged question papers leakage. Md Alamgir is the head of the panel. He told the media in the Secretariat that he has no power to take the decision for cancellation the examinations.

"I can just recommend what should be done. But the Education Minister will take the final decision as I have not been given the power," he said.

A member of the panel wishing anonymity told The New Nation that despite a series of measures, the ministry failed to plug question leakage this year. There is no second option, but retaking of the examinations.

Even, Secretary (Secondary and Higher Education Division) of the Education Ministry Sohrab Hossain on Thursday in the Secretariat said that around 27,000 to 28,000 people are involved in the process of printing question papers and reaching those to the examination centers. In this circumstances, no one can ensure there won't be any leak.

Meanwhile, the guardians and the students alleged that the Education Minister's practice of ignorance after the question papers leakage increased the courage of the masterminds of the question papers leakage. And even, the State Minister for Technical and Madrasa Education Md Keramat Ali recently denied the question papers leakage although it was leaked.

"The Ministry knew that the question papers were leaked. But it concealed for several years and destroyed the life of the students as the SSC and HSC passed students failed in the university admission tests," Abdul Malek, a guardian, said.

The question papers of SSC examinations have been leaking since the beginning of the examination on February 1 despite the Education Ministry's all out measures to check it.

The law enforcers, however, arrested over one hundred persons allegedly involved in question papers leakage and the education boards suspended over 200 students in this connection.

UK lifts air cargo ban from BD

Any airlines can carry goods from Sunday: Biman to wait 15-20 days to get certificate

Staff Reporter :

The United Kingdom has finally withdrawn the ban on Dhaka-London direct air cargo, almost two years after the authorities imposed an embargo on it saying poor security scanning at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA).

The announcement was made yesterday afternoon at a press conference jointly organised by the UK High Commission in Dhaka and Bangladesh's Civil Aviation Ministry.

Civil Aviation Minister AKM Shahjahan Kamal and British High Commissioner in Dhaka Alison Blake addressed the conference held at the HSIA conference room.

However, the ban still remains imposed on Biman Bangladesh Airlines, which is heavily dependent on cargo flights. And it may take 15 to 20 days to get the certificate, Biman sources said.

Biman was the only carrier that operated direct cargo flights between Dhaka and London.

Before the ban, it used to earn Tk 40 lakh to Tk 50 lakh for each flight from carrying cargoes. Some 25 to 30 tonnes of goods, mostly apparel and vegetables, were shipped in each flight.

The national flag carrier incurred a loss of over Tk 100 crore last year due to the ban, Biman sources said.

Biman's cargo business shrank by 22.54 percent during the last fiscal year following the ban on direct freight flights from Dhaka to London, according to available data.

From Sunday any airlines except Biman will be able to carry direct cargo flight to UK. But Biman will have to wait to get the certificate of "Air cargo or main carrier operating into the union from a third country airport (ACC3)."

Biman Managing Director and CEO AM Mosaddique Ahmed, at the briefing, said it may take 15 to 20 days to get the certificate.

Suspension on the direct cargo flight was not a political matter, it was a technical thing, said British High Commissioner Alison Blake.

She said, "It's a major achievement that you have transformed in the cargo handling and created a condition that we are very satisfied with."

The lifting of the suspension comes as a result of ongoing cooperation between the UK and Bangladesh and the joint assessment of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, added the envoy.

On March 8, 2016, the UK government imposed the ban following a failure of Dhaka airport to meet some international security requirements.

The European Union, where more than 54 percent of Bangladesh's exports are headed, also declared the airport a "red zone" due to insufficient safety and security measures, following the lead of the UK, Australia and Germany.

Officials at the Civil Aviation Ministry and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) hope that the EU, Australia and Germany would follow the UK's decision.

With the ban in place, the EU-bound cargo airlines from Bangladesh had to re-screen goods in a third country, preferably in Dubai, Qatar, Thailand or India.

After the ban was imposed, the Bangladesh government appointed British company Redline Aviation Security Limited Seven to meet the safety requirements at the airport.

Bangladesh in the last two years made various other efforts to have the ban gone.Prof Farzana reappointed JU VC

UNB, Dhaka :

Anthropology Department Professor Farzana Islam has been reappointed for the second time as the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Jahangirnagar University (JU) for four years.

The education ministry issued a gazette on Sunday in this regard.

It said that the Chancellor of the University, President Abdul Hamid appointed her for four years according to Jahangirnagar University 1973 act under the Section 11(1). JU VC Prof Farzana Islam told UNB that President Abdul Hamid also the Chancellor of JU and Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid congratulated her over phone. On March 2, 2014, Prof Farzana was made the first female Vice Chancellor of the country, and now she is reappointed 17 days prior to her term expiry. Farzana was born in Bhedorganj Upazila of Shariatpur district in 1957, did her post-graduation in Sociology from Dhaka University in 1980 and joined Chittagong University as a lecturer of the Sociology Department in 1982. In 1986, she joined the Anthropology Department of Jahangirnagar University.Voting in 59 seats begins

Voters wait to cast their votes near the Bangladesh border in Tripura.

Timesofindia.com, New Delhi :

Voting for the Assembly elections in Tripura began on Sunday morning amidst tight security, official said.

"Men and women in large numbers queued up in front of many polling stations well before polling opened at 7 a.m. in the entire state. Polling ends at 4 p.m.," said Sriram Taranikanti, the Chief Electoral Officer.

In all, 2,536,589 people, including 1,250,128 women and 47,803 first-time voters are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 292 candidates, including 23 women and many independents.

"Apprehending troubles by some tribal outfit, a record 50,000 para-military and other state security personnel have been deployed while two air surveillance team led by senior officials are conducting surveillance by helicopters," the election official.Barapukuria graft case hearing Mar 25

Court Correspondent :

The Special Judge's Court-2 of Dhaka yesterday (Sunday) asked the accused persons, including BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, to appear on March 25 in the case filed in connection with Barapukuria Coalmine graft case. Judge Hosne Ara Begum of the special court passed the order on Sunday. Earlier, the court fixed Sunday for hearing on framing charges in the case, but it deferred the date for hearing following a petition filed on behalf of the defence seeking time.

The High Court on May 25, 2016 released its full judgement, directing the trial court to proceed with the case. On that day, the court also vacated its stay order of 2008 on the proceedings of the case.

The High Court on September 17 of the same year rejected a writ petition filed by the BNP Chief in 2008 challenging the legality of trial proceedings in the case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) earlier that year.

The ACC accused the former premier and 15 others of causing a loss of Tk 159 crore to the national exchequer by awarding a contract for operation of Barapukuria Coalmine to a Chinese company, abusing power.

On October 5, 2008, the ACC pressed charges against Khaleda Zia and 14 others in the case.

The accused former ministers of BNP are late M Saifur Rahman, late Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, M Shamsul Islam, late MK Anwar, Barrister Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Choudhury and AKM Mosharraf Hossain.

Former Jamaat ministers Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and Motiur Rahman Nizami, who were also accused in the case, have been executed for their war crimes.

The other five accused are former acting secretary to the energy and mineral resources ministry Nazrul Islam, former Petrobangla Chairman SR Osmani, former Petrobangla Director Mainul Ahsan, former Managing Director of Barapukuria Coal Mine Company Limited (BCMCL) Sirajul Islam, and Hosaf Group Chairman Moazzem Hossain.

Of the accused, Mannan and Saifur died while Nizami and Mojahid were executed and Sirajul Islam is on the run.







The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.Yes, the decision belongs on the local level

No, no one should be able to dictate whether people wear masks

Vote

View ResultsShare this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 17, 2018 14:49 1306 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c5fd83f 1 National election,2019-elections Free

Four new contenders are set to stand in the 2019 general election after the General Elections Commission (KPU) declared on Saturday that 14 political parties had qualified for the ballot, up from 10 parties in 2014.

During a plenary meeting in Central Jakarta, KPU leaders announced the 14 political parties: the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Democratic Party, the Gerindra Party, the Golkar Party, the Hanura Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the NasDem Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the Garuda Party, the United Indonesia Party (Perindo), the Berkarya Party and the Indonesia Solidarity Party (PSI).

The last four of the parties listed above will participate in a general election for the first time.

The KPU has assessed three aspects for the central level verification: the existence of core management at the central executive board, female representation within the party and the partys office building.

Following the KPUs announcement, PAN representatives were jubilant, shouting We are ready for next years election and ready to win!

One of the newcomers, the PSI, was declared the party with the highest number of female members, amounting 66 percent of its total membership.

Fighting for womens interests is best done by female representatives, PSI deputy chair Isyana Bagoes Oka said. (gis/swd)Photo Credits: Truthdig



Denmark may be the next European country to introduce a ban on full-face veils. Danish government has formally proposed banning full-face veils in public spaces. It is incompatible with the values in Danish society and disrespectful to the community to keep ones face hidden when meeting each other in public spaces, said the justice minister, Sren Pape Poulsen. With a ban on covering the face we are drawing a line in the sand and underlining that in Denmark we show each other trust and respect by meeting face to face, he explained.



In 2010, a ban on face coverings, especially those targeting women wearing chador and burka, was adopted by the French Parliament. The "Burqa ban", was challenged and taken to the European Court of Human Rights which upheld the law on 1 July 2014, accepting the argument of the French government that the law was based on "a certain idea of living together".



As of 2015, Belgium and the Netherlands are European countries with specific bans on face-covering dress, such as the Islamic niqab or burqa. Belgium has a nationwide ban and the European Court of Human Rights recently upheld the countrys right to do so. Actually, judges said it did not violate the rights to private and family life, or freedom of religion or discrimination laws.



In 2017, a legal ban on face-covering Islamic clothing was adopted by the Austrian parliament. Also, a ban on face-covering clothing for soldiers and state workers during work was approved by German parliament. In June 2017 Norways government proposed a ban on face-covering Muslim veils in kindergartens, schools and universities.



Last October, all three parties in the coalition said they would support such a ban. This ban would apply to those parts of the clothing that cover the face, such as burqa or niqab. Niqab covers the face but leaves the eyes clear. Burqa is the most concealing of all Islamic veils because it is leaving just a mesh screen to see through.



Last year, the European court of justice in Luxembourg ruled the garments could be banned, but only as part of a general policy barring all religious and political symbols. Also, according to that decision, customers can not simply demand workers remove headscarves if the company has no policy barring religious symbols.



Around 200 women in Denmark wear such garments, according to researchers. I dont think there are many who wear the burqa here in Denmark. But if you do, you should be punished with a fine, Poulsen said. A violation of the ban would entail a fine of 1,000 kroner (120). Repeated violations would lead to fines of up to 10,000 kroner.ABC News(PESARO, Italy) -- Having grown up in a tiny room in his familys home in Pesaro, Italy, 27-year-old architect Leonardo Di Chiara is used to living a minimalist lifestyle.



His latest project, the aVOID tiny house, currently on display -- and inhabited -- by the architect in Berlin, takes the concept of reductionist living to the next level.



Measuring just 96 square feet and equipped with all one needs to live, the home seeks to challenge the concept of traditional housing.



Its a tiny house and its on wheels, so you can move it wherever you want. You can live wherever you want, the architect told ABC News.



aVOID is part of the tiny-house social and architectural movement started in the U.S. in the 1980s and has seen a resurgence in the past several years. The concept centers around downsizing ones home to live a more sustainable and minimalistic lifestyle, using few resources.



Since 1973, the typical size of a U.S. home has doubled -- peaking at just over 2,600 square feet, according to U.S. census data. Tiny houses, meanwhile, are typically 100 to 150 square feet, on wheels, and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.



With furniture such as tables, chairs, a bed and a sofa folding out of the walls of the structure, Di Chiaras home has been likened to a Swiss Army knife. Yet the project is no novelty -- Di Chiara hopes it will be a model for those who want to live with less, without the burden of paying high rents increasingly plaguing many large cities, including Berlin.



Di Chiara intends for its user to live in unoccupied spaces in the city.



He said he hopes aVOID will be part of what he calls migratory neighborhoods -- clusters of tiny homes on wheels integrated within city centers.



For now, it's a work in progress. "Living in the tiny home is a challenge," Di Chiara admitted, largely because it is still a work in progress. He is constantly discovering problems and finding ways to resolve them, often with the help of products provided by sponsors who believe in his vision, he said.



"I realized that the air inside gets too stuffy, especially during the night," Di Chiara said. To resolve the problem, he partnered with a company that provided a prototype ventilation system.



Despite the challenges, Di Chiara said he plans to live in the house for an entire year, but aims to call it home for life once it is perfected. He said he also allows others to try out living in the house for a night or two, provided they give him feedback.



Di Chiaras aVOID house is one of over a dozen small structures on the Bauhaus Museum campus in Berlin. It is part of the "Tinyhouse University," a nonprofit founded in 2016 by German architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel that brought together architects, designers and refugees to explore different housing typologies.



We want to create solutions for living in an innovative way that allow people to be very active in the process of living, including designing, building and living in the house, said Di Chiara. Some of the tiny buildings are cafes, while others are living spaces and workspaces.



aVOID is a prototype for a single working professional and takes inspiration from the Bauhaus design movement, which combined art with the industrialization process.



Di Chiara is working on lowering the production costs to make aVOID available to anyone who would like to own it, regardless of their income level. The materials for the home cost 45,000 (about $56,000), and it was built and customized by the architect himself. Di Chiara said he hopes to eventually be able to lower total production costs to 30,000 (roughly $37,000) through mass production.



First, though, he'll need to get others onboard. It's currently illegal in Berlin to have a migratory neighborhood along the lines of Di Chiara's vision, so his goal is to first raise awareness of tiny-house living before holding serious discussions with city officials. He said he plans to set his sights on Milan, where rents are higher and there is less empty urban space than in Berlin.



In March, Di Chiara will take the home on a seven-city tour, ending in Rome.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Charlotte NC Shooting Range  Setting the Bar High

If you are new to the area or just want a place to hone your skills with an old-fashioned feel, then you might want to check out the Charlotte NC shooting range. This is where you will find traditional hunting as well as the latest technology at your fingertips. The indoor facility is clean, organized, and stocked with anything you need to be a success. From youth programs to military training, from the newest technology to the oldest bows and arrows, you are sure to find something that will fit your needs.

This range offers everything from youth programs to military training, from new technologies to the oldest bows and arrows. If youre looking for the very best in bow hunting equipment, this is the place to go. From bow hunting beginners to the most seasoned hunters, you will find it all at this one of a kind facility. With everything you need including bows, recurve and compound bows, arrows, shooting accessories and apparel, this is the place to be.

If you own your own business, this is the perfect place to advertise, display your wares and raise money for your favorite cause. If youve always wanted to start your own business, this great shooting range is the perfect setting to do it in. With all the benefits of a professional location, as well as being within a short driving distance from Charlottes professional downtown area, your business will boom. Your customers will come from all over the world, which is always a good thing when youre trying to expand. Its a truly win-win situation for everyone involved.SSH, a leading masterplanning, infrastructure, building design company in the Middle East, has announced the launch of the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (ASCC), a new world-class museum district within Kuwait City.



Together with the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre, it will form Kuwaits new national cultural district, stated SSH, which was appointed by Al Ghanim International as lead architecture and engineering designer on the complex.



Working collaboratively with world-leading museum specialists, the company was able to deliver the ASCC project for the Amiri Diwan to the stringent standards required of world-class public cultural buildings.



HH Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, and representatives of the Amiri Diwan attended a private inauguration of the countrys latest cultural showcase.



ASCC is not only a celebration of the scientific and cultural achievements of mankind, but also of Kuwaiti, Islamic and Arab culture and history, and the scale, shapes and shades of the centres buildings are designed to convey a sense of wonder and awe.



The complex was recently named Public Building of the Year at the prestigious ABB LEAF Awards 2017, said the statement from SSH.



Sheikh Sabah was treated to a colourful opening performance showcasing the complexs six main buildings: A Natural History Museum; Science Museum; Museum of Islamic History; Space Museum; Fine Arts Centre; and a Theatre. Each building will contain an array of permanent and temporary world-class exhibits and artworks.



"The cultural centre is a fitting and spectacular addition to Kuwaits cultural heritage, and sets out to embrace the rich diversity of the worlds finest achievements, remarked George Abi Hanna, the managing director of SSH Kuwait.



As the largest museum project of its kind in the world, SSH is proud and honoured to have been involved helping HH Sheikh Sabah and the Amiri Diwan to fulfil their cultural aspirations for Kuwait and the region."



Kuwaiti architecture is represented by the main street, which meanders echoing the traditional Ferej. This creates exciting spaces, Islamic patterns, corners and walkways, mirroring the experience of walking down a traditional, busy Kuwaiti street.-TradeArabia News ServiceZonesCorp, one of the largest developer and operator of purpose-built economic zones in the UAE, will present an array of investment opportunities to a number of leading Indian companies during the Abu Dhabi Investment Week, which is under way in India.



ZonesCorp will arrange a series of high level one-on-one meetings and discussions between government entities from Abu Dhabi and businesses in India. The meeting are taking place in New Delhi and Mumbai. Also, ZonesCorp will be organising two workshops in Chandigarh and Gurgaon, said a statement.



ZonesCorp is a Platinum sponsor of the event.



Furthermore, through its participation in Abu Dhabi Investment Week, ZonesCorp seeks to highlight Abu Dhabis unique position globally, as well as to attract potential investments to various industrial sectors of the corporations economic zones.



ZonesCorp is keen to network with investors and support their projects in line with Abu Dhabi Government's vision to transform the Emirate into an economic and business hub, while seeking new opportunities for growth and collaborations with potential Indian investors and pursuant with the Abu Dhabi vision 2030.



The Indian companies meeting with ZonesCorp represent a range of sectors including mobile technology, industrial materials, FMCG, automotive, and packaging. During the meetings ZonesCorp is presenting an array of investment opportunities available to Indian businesses looking to expand in the UAE capital and access the wider Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.



Saeed Eisa Al Khyeli, director general of ZonesCorp, said: Our aim is to present new business opportunities and markets for Indian investors who want to expand their businesses and enter the Middle Eastern and North African markets as well as providing a gateway to the markets of the EU.



We have a unique cluster based operating model that provides a tried and tested platform for growth for Indian companies, he said.



ZonesCorps current investors will be participating and showcasing their success stories. These investors include: Hafilat, Sandstorm, Jindal, Union Copper Rod Factory, Neopharma, Power Economy, and Union Chemicals Factory.



During the meetings and throughout the week, ZonesCorp is presenting the broad range of investment opportunities available in its specialized economic zones for industrial companies from India, said a statement.



ZonesCorp provides an attractive operating environment for Indian investors which includes world class industrial infrastructure, an attractive tax-free environment combined with low operating costs and convenient housing for workers and a fully equipped one-stop Investor Services Center and Foreign Labour Services Division that supports the end-to-end requirements of our investors during project conceptualization, set up, construction, and operation, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceAluminium Bahrain (Alba) chief executive officer Tim Murray held a one-day workshop Tomorrow will be different than Today, based on the former Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ali Al Naimis autobiography Out of the Desert.



The workshop was held for Albas executives, directors and managers, and was in line with the companys 2018 expectations and focused on leadership skills, decision-making skills and hard-work, said a statement.



Ali Al-Naimis book is about his journey from a Bedouin boy who joined Aramco, Saudi Arabias national oil company to become its first Saudi CEO in 1988 and his subsequent appointment as the Saudi Arabian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and one of the most influential figures in the global oil industry.



In his book, Al Naimi highlights how hard-work and treating all individuals with respect are the key elements to success. He also emphasises that dreaming big and pushing oneself beyond limits will help achieve the impossible.



Murray said: Al Naimi is a great example of what can be achieved through hard-work and education.



There are many lessons from his book that our company can apply as we prepare for the commissioning of Line 6 which will make Alba the largest smelter in the world, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceYes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here."Abandonment of Russia-EU collective cooperation mechanisms, such as summits, permanent partnership council and sectoral dialogues didn't make our continent safer. On the contrary, conflict potential in Europe number of problems and crises inside and outside the perimeter are visibly increasing," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Munich Security Conference yesterday. According to him, developments in the Middle East and North Africa showed that the course towards replacement of unwanted regimes and forced introduction of development models not only lead to chaos in the vast regions, but also imports real threats to Europe, including surge of international terrorism and huge waves of illegal migration.

Meanwhile, as German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in Munich, the European Union may begin gradual abolition of anti-Russian sanctions after deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbass. As Express writes in an article "Munich Security Conference: Germany REFUSES to spend 2 percent on Nato", Angela Merkel's deputy Sigmar Gabriel has revealed Germany REFUSES to achieve Natos defence spending target of 2 percent. He instead called for money to be spent on building a strong European defence union. Answering questions after his speech, he said: I consider the figure difficult. He said if Germany spent 2 percent of its GDP on Nato defence every year for ten years, it would spend more than 70 million every year. He added: "I'm not quite sure after ten years all European partners would consider that a good idea."

Germany has agreed to increase its defence spending, and part of that will go into the European defence fund, and he believes the EU defence capabilities will complement but not replace NATO. Saying it has "nothing to do with President Trump", he said it was unfair for America to shoulder the burden of NATO, and European, defence. He added in his speech: "As the only vegetarian we will have a damn hard time in the world of carnivores." He also said the EU also needs a military power option if it wants to survive in the world. He used the speech as an opportunity to call on the US to work more closely with the European Union, saying a stable and prosperous Europe is also in US national interests, adding: "a cooperation with with Europe and US is important to maintain architecture of freedom." He hopes the US can work together with the EU and help "terminate" the North Korea nuclear program, and in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China. He continued: "We are seeking a close coordination with our American allies, our success will also depend on the way we deal with each other. "Powers like China or Russia try to test and to undermine the EUs unity."

Late last month a senior US military official said if Germany didn't give 2 percent it will weaken the NATO alliance. Army secretary Mark Esper told reporters during a visit to troops in Wiesbaden, Germany: Its important for all of our NATO allies to live up to their commitments. If not, it weakens the alliance, clearly, and Germany is such a critical member of NATO. Sigmar's comments come after Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, issued a warning shot during a stark address in Brussels this week. The Norwegian warned Brussels against overstepping its mark as the European bloc pursues plans for a joint EU army. The NATO chief told reporters that the EU will lose out if they try to undermine NATO by duplicating its role in the world. Speaking after a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Mr Stoltenberg said: "That will be the same as competiting with themselves.

Moscow is skeptical about remarks about Russian threat to the European Union. "In the 1990s there was an idea that Russia is an apprentice that should be methodically taught Western standards, regardless of objections. Now there's an irrational myth about the all-powerful Russian threat, traces of which are being sought everywhere - from Brexit to Catalan referendum. These stereotypes are deeply flawed and only show a lack of sanity and understanding of our country. The number of those who are uncomfortable due to this abnormal situation in our relations is growing in the EU. Experts openly acknowledge that the European Union is in a state of "diplomatic paralysis" due to demonstration of visibility of unity on the Russian track," Sergey Lavrov said.

He reminded that Russia didn't change its approaches to cooperation with the EU: "We want cohesive cooperation, which would be based on fundamental interests. the The EU member countries themselves should determine how to develop their economies and foreign economic relations. For example, how to meet their energy needs. They should proceed from pragmatic, commercial positions or under influence of political and ideological considerations. We proceed from the fact that the European Union can play an active, responsible and independent role in international relations."

Lavrov also reminded about an idea of large Eurasian project, within the framework of which the efforts of participants of integration structures such as the CIS, SCO, ASEAN can be combined: "I don't see any reason why the European Union couldn't get involved in this work. For example, it can begin with establishing professional contacts with the EEU. I hope this time is not too far off."Iran missed its oil and gas revenue targets by nearly 30 percent last year, while failing to grab enough money in taxes to make up the shortfall, according to its official news service. As Washington Examiner writes in the article Iran's oil revenue plummets as US oil exports grow, President Hassan Rouhani's administration "only managed to earn $19.44 billion from taxes and $13.06 billion by exporting oil and its byproducts, showing deficits of $7.34 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively," according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. The government had projected $18.36 billion from selling oil this year, according to the news service.

In fiscal 2017, revenue from oil reached more than $24 billion in the wake of relaxed U.S. sanctions, 45 percent more than in fiscal 2018. Iran also had the benefit of not signing onto a Saudi-led pact to cut oil production among members and non-members of OPEC to drive crude oil prices higher. An oversupplied oil market cut many OPEC nations' budgets in half, forcing them to consider austerity measures, such as in Venezuela, or, like Saudi Arabia, create a long-term plan to move its economy away from oil.

Iran's oil ministry had projected that oil revenue would surge to more than $40 billion in fiscal 2018. But the boom times appear to be over for the Islamic Republic, at least for now, based on the new report from the Central Bank of Iran.

Increased pressure on Iran's oil revenue is expected to come from the U.S. The latest projections from the International Energy Agency show oil and natural gas production increasing from fracking in the U.S., which has remained profitable in the low oil-price environment.

The U.S. oil boom has prompted drillers to increase their efficiency, and they now are able to produce oil at lower cost than their foreign rivals. The Energy Department's latest annual outlook shows the U.S. becoming a net oil exporter by 2020, after becoming a net natural gas exporter last year. That will increase the pressure on Iran and crude oil from the Mideast.

Even more shocking for OPEC countries are reports that for the first time OPEC producers have begun importing U.S. crude oil. Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee circulated the news reports on Friday, touting the shift to American oil.

U.S. global oil shipments soared from 100,000 barrels per day in 2013 to 1.53 million barrels per day in November 2017, according to Bloomberg. "One recent shipment even went to the United Arab Emirates," according to the report.

"The tremendous growth in responsible energy development has boosted our nations economy and security while providing our strategic allies with a reliable trading partner," the energy committee email read. "Thats the power of American energy."

The U.S. exported nearly 700,000 barrels of light domestic crude oil in December to the United Arab Emirates, according to new Census Bureau data. Energy Information Administration data showed it was the first shipment of U.S. oil to arrive at the port of the fourth-largest OPEC producer, according to Bloomberg.

The U.S. export market for natural gas and oil also has surged in countries such as China, which is a key export destination for Gulf crude oil and natural gas producers, as well.

That likely will stoke tensions among the U.S., its Gulf allies, and Iran, which could be seen on Friday. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia political party based in Lebanon, accused the Trump administration and its Gulf allies of planning to take over Syria's oil and natural gas wealth, the government-sanctioned Mehr News Agency reported. Syria is one of the only major crude oil producers in the Eastern Mediterranean.Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah, made the remarks during a televised commemoration ceremony in Beirut on Friday. "He stressed that the U.S. is waging a war over taking the control of all oil and gas fields from the east of the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf," Mehr reported. Nasrallah made the statement a day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Beirut, where he warned Hezbollah to stay out of Syria. With the U.S. now the world's top oil and natural gas producer, arguments that the U.S. plans to take the region's energy wealth seem to ring hollow. Nevertheless, the U.S. does stand to take a chunk of the region's market share through growth in its exports.The United States of America remains a firm supporter of Georgia in the process of enhancing the country's defense capacity and working toward its European and Euro-Atlantic integration, - US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said at the meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili on the sidelines of the 54th Security Conference in Munich, InterPressNews reported.

As the Prime Minister's press office informs, the Prime Minister thanked the Defense Secretary for his firm and active support of Georgia, also pointing out 2017 as an especially successful year in bilateral relations, thanks to support from the new US Administration.

The Prime Minister thanked the US for its invaluable assistance in enhancing Georgia's defense capabilities, singling out the US Defense Secretary's personal support, along with that of the US as a whole, in reaching such a high level of defense cooperation.

Special attention was paid to the implemented and planned defense reforms and cooperation under the Georgian Defense Readiness Program and armament-related activities.The Kazakh Foreign Ministry confirmed the detention of the member of Kyrgyzstan's parliament Damirbek Asylbek uulu in Kazakhstan, spokesperson of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry Anuar Zhainakov said, AKIpress reports.

He said the Mininistry's consular service notified officially the Embassy of Kyrgyzstan in Astana on the detention of Kyrgyz citizens on 16 February.

"On 17 February, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry sent a response note to the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry about the detention of MP Damirbek Asylbek uulu. Employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan are in constant contact with the Kyrgyz Embassy and continue to assist them in keeping in touch with the law enforcement bodies of Kazakhstan," told Kazinform state news agency reported Zhainakov as saying.

Earlier, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said 4 citizens of Kyrgyzstan were detained in Kazakhstan.

"Regarding the detention of MP Damirbek Asylbek uulu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic reports that it received information from the Kazakh side that on February 15 four citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic were detained in the territory of Kazakhstan. Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic conducts relevant work with the competent authorities of Kazakhstan regarding the detainees and circumstances of detention," the Ministry said on February 17.

The names of the detainees, except for Damirbek Asylbek uulu, are not voiced.An Iranian passenger plane with 66 people on board has crashed in central Iran during a flight from Tehran to the city of Yasuj, Al Jazeera reports citing Iranian news media.

A spokesperson for Iran Aseman Airlines told state TV that Sunday's air crash killed all 66 people on board.

The plane went down in a mountainous area near the town of Semirom, the news agency ISNA quoted Mojtaba Khaledi, emergency services spokesperson, as saying.

The Iranian Red Crescent said it had deployed to the area, which was quite foggy at the time of the crash.

State-run PressTV said the Iran Aseman Airlines flight was carrying 60 passengers and six crew members.

Aseman Airlines is a semi-private air carrier headquartered in Tehran that specialises in flights to remote airfields across the country and also flies internationally.

The ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop, is used for short-distance regional flying. Authorities said they would be investigating the crash.Supporters of Georgias former President Mikheil Saakashvili have come to Kievs Taras Shevchenko Park to call for President Pyotr Poroshenkos impeachment, TASS reports.

Organizers say about 3,000 people take part in the march on Sunday.

Saakashvilis closest supporter David Sakvarelidze said the oppositionists would not stop insisting on their demands, "even though Saakashvili has been thrown out of the country."

"We shall throw away Poroshenko to historys wasteland," he said. The crowd interrupted the speech by chanting "Resignation!"

The rallys participants are lining up to head for the Mikhailovskaya Square, where they plan to continue the protest.If Syria losses its sovereignty it will lead the Middle East into a state of constant war, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said.

According to him, if that happens, "chronic Balkanization" will begin in the region.

"We're seeing this disunity, discord, and it's a huge threat. If this continues, if unity and sovereignty can't be saved, then Balkanization may begin. All participants of the settlement process would like to avoid that," he said at the 54th Munich Security Conference.

He added that the only way out of this situation is a political process that will help to avoid the threat of revival of terrorism in the country.

In this context, he highlighted the importance of the Astana process."The Astana process is very helpful. It fulfilled its goals. Russia, Turkey and Iran have the opportunity to contribute to de-escalation. Sochi fulfilled its task, we decided to establish a constitutional commission in Geneva. Only the UN can provide legitimacy and we will be actively involved in this process," RIA Novosti quoted De Mistura as saying.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the Daesh (ISIS or ISIL) terrorist group as one of the worlds most evil organizations, but said the collapse of the groups self-proclaimed caliphate does not mean extremism has ended in the region, Tasnim News Agency reports.

Today, the territorial defeat of ISIS has heralded the return of some sense of stability to the territory it once occupied, Zarif said in a speech, addressing the 54th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in the German city on Sunday.

But the defeat of one of the worlds most evil organizations does not mean that the threat of extremism has been removed from the region and beyond, the Iranian top diplomat added.

The root causes  particularly its ideology of hate and exclusion  continue and may erupt somewhere else, he said.Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in Germany to participate in the 54th edition of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), held talks with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian, IFP News reports.

During the talks, the two sides conferred on bilateral relations and other issues of interest.Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has slammed Israeli prime ministers anti-Iran accusations during the Munich Security Conference as cartoonish circus, saying his remarks do not deserve a response, PressTV reports.

"You were the audience for a cartoonish circus just this morning which does not even deserve the dignity of a response, Zarif said while addressing the annual conference in the German city on Sunday.HOI AN  French photographer Rehahn plans to build a Co Tu Museum offering information on the ethnic group living in the mountainous areas of Quang Nam Province in the centre of the provinces Tay Giang district.

The museum will become a display of Co Tu culture and rendezvous point for festivals among the ethnic groups living in the province, Thua Thien-Hue and Laos .

Rehahn told Viet Nam News that the museum will be built on a total of 2,000sq.m.

Tay Giang District offered me land where I could help them to set up the museum, in co-operation with cultural researcher Tran Tan Vinh and Co Tu people. The museum will be introduced in three languages  French, English and Vietnamese, he said.

He said the idea originated one day when he talked with a chief of the Co Tu Village in ong Giang District in the province about preservation of Co Tu musical instruments for the next generation.

He told me that kids often come to his house to ask questions about instruments or stories and he said, When I die, who will answer them? And then I decided to open a museum for the preservation of their culture before it disappears completely, Rehahn recalled.

Co Tu culture and people gave me so much for my museum -- the Museum of Ethnology  in Hoi An city and they always welcomed me like a brother. So, I want to help them, he said.

Party secretary of Tay Giang District, Bhriu Liec, a Co Tu man, said the district has allocated land for the development of the museum and Rehahn has come to help construct it.

He said the district would seek objects among the Co Tu community in Quang Nam and neighbouring provinces as well as districts in Laos for display.

Liec said Co Tu people have preserved their rich culture for generations, but yet such a museum is built at the locality for regular visit and display.

As planned, the museum will be built according to the design of a Guol (traditional communal long house of Co Tu people)  displaying the most typical antiquities of the ethnic group.

The Guol also plays the role of the heart and soul of the community. It serves as a rendezvous for all the big festivals and meetings held every year.

Tay Giang District is home to the largest Co Tu community in Viet Nam . The people comprise 91 per cent of the districts population of 17,000.

Rehahn is a photographer born in Normandy , France . He has made Hoi An his home since 2011, where he established the Precious Heritage Art Gallery Museum at 26 Phan Boi Chau.

The 250sq.m space is home to more than 30 authentic traditional costumes, 200 photos, precious artifacts and stories translated in French, English and Vietnamese. It is the culmination of five years of exploration of Viet Nam s 54 ethnic groups.PARIS - An 18th-century cello worth more than a million euros was returned to an award-winning French musician on Saturday after she was robbed at knifepoint in a Paris suburb earlier in the week.

"I received an anonymous call late in the morning saying that my cello was inside a car in front of my house. I found it in the back seat," soloist Ophelie Gaillard told AFP.

One of the car windows was broken and the musician said she quickly grabbed the instrument, which is "in good condition", before notifying police.

An attacker had held her up at knifepoint outside her home on Thursday, forcing her to hand over the cello, as well as her mobile phone, before fleeing on foot in the northeastern suburb of Pantin.

"The theft was very violent, I have not been able to sleep for two days. I am so relieved to have found it. Im coming out of a two-day nightmare -- its a miracle," she said.

The police confirmed the cello had been found and a source close to the investigation by the BRB unit in charge of armed robberies said: "Its not an instrument that can be sold to a fence on the corner".

After the robbery on Thursday, Gaillard appealed for help from the public on Facebook, posting pictures of the instrument.

The cello, which was loaned to her by CIC bank and is valued at nearly 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million), was made in Udine, Italy in 1737 by luthier Francesco Goffriller, son of Venetian master cello-maker Matteo Goffriller.

The cello case also contained her bow, which she said was made by acclaimed 19th-century French bowmaker Jean Pierre Marie Persoit "around 1825 in Paris".

In 2003, Gaillard was named the best new instrumental soloist at the French classical music awards. - AFPGerman-style: A student practices to serve European dishes under foreign instructors in Anre Maisen Hospitality Training Centre.

Viet Nam News by Bich Huong Mai Sen Bistro on Nguyen Van Lac Street, HCM City, is more than just a good restaurant that offers European and Asian dishes. Its staff are trainees from the Anre Maisen Hospitality Training Centre, a vocational school that provides free cookery courses of international standard for underprivileged young people. The model, which follows Germanys dual vocational training system, was brought to Viet Nam by Francis Nguyen Van Hoi, a Vietnamese German chef and businessman. Hoi, one of the most successful Vietnamese in Germany, is invited on national TV cookery programmes. Big companies often ask for his advice when they organise big parties. In 36 years in Germany, I have never been unemployed thanks to my cooking skills, 67-year-old Hoi said. Following the fall of Saigon (former name of HCM City) in April, 1975, young Hoi, fell into confusion and fear because of massive change in the south and so decided to leave the country. In January, 1976, Hoi set foot in Germany. To earn his living and survive, he started working in a damp cellar in a Bavarian tavern, washing dishes and making salad. Three years later, as his legal status changed and with his small savings, he applied for a two-year cooking course. As a cook, Hoi worked as a director for a group supplying meals to companies and offices across Germany. He then opened his own restaurants and started a company that supplies Asian food to German restaurants. Im so impressed and grateful to the German education system, particularly the dual vocational training system in which trainees attend classes at a vocational school and receive on-the-job training - and wages - at a company, he said So I told myself that if I could bring this system back to Viet Nam, Id give young Vietnamese a similar chance. The idea of a hospitality training centre became stronger when he returned to Viet Nam for the first time in 1990, seeing the changes brought by the first stage of doi moi (renewal) policy. Tourism and the hospitality industry were still at a modest stage of development at that time, but the country had huge potential for tourism, including its rich culture, history and nature. I know the hospitality industry well and want to contribute to the development of my homeland, Hoi said. I also want to help poor people. Wars stole many Vietnamese opportunities for a good life and bright future, forcing many families and children to live in hunger and poverty. I deeply understand what hunger and poverty is like because I was a poor child and I never forgot it, Hoi said.

Grateful: Chef Hoi (right)and trainees in the kitchen of the centre.

All eyes: Chef Nguyen Van Hoi and trainees at the training centre at a theory class. Photos Courtesy of the Anre Maisen Hospitality Training Centre

He recalled his parents and eight siblings. He was the oldest child of his parents, who were poor farmers in the southern province of ong Nai. They had only about 3,000sq.m of barren farm land.

Thanks to an acquaintance, his parents sent him to a charity school in Sai Gon, expecting better meals and schooling for their son.

I was always grateful to the charity school and especially Pastor Anre Mai Sen, a Slovenian pastor who arrived in Viet Nam to bring love and help poor people, Hoi said.

Pastor Anre Mai Sen is an example for me to follow. He called on well-off people to help the disadvantaged. As soon as I succeeded in my career and led a better life, I wanted to help the poor, Hoi said, adding that this was the way he said thanks to Pastor Anre Mai Sen and other donors.

In 2013, Hoi returned to Viet Nam to realise his idea about a non-profit hospitality training centre while his family stayed in Germany.

No one wants to live far away from his family, neither do my wife and sons," he said. "But I told them that for 30 years in Germany, I had fulfilled obligations as a husband and father and that what I have is due to the help of many people. Now is the time for me to return the debt directly or indirectly.

Hoi gained his familys favour. So he returned to his nativeland in his sixties and offered free training courses and accommodation to underprivileged young people aged from 18 to 22.

At his school, trainees learn the hospitality ropes for three years. The traineeship ends with an exam conducted in English by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The whole curriculum follows Germanys high standards. Trainees also learn English to be able to communicate with foreign teachers, customers and further, its a preparation for their future jobs at international-standard restaurants.

To prepare for the first enrollment of the school in middle 2014, Hoi sent letters to parishes, churches, pagodas, charity schools to inform disadvantaged children about the training course. He even talked to street children he met on streets, encouraging them to join.

Many people were sceptical about my non-profit centre, especially when it came to funding. We needed a big fund to raise the children, provide them free training and accommodation, pay foreign trainers and rent the restaurant.

Hois money was not enough, so he started calling for donations in Viet Nam and from overseas.

Some told me that Vietnamese parents didnt want their children to be cooks, waiters or bakers. They wanted them to attend colleges or university to become engineers, doctors, accountants or bankers instead, he said.

Mai Sen School enrolled 36 trainees for its first course. In the middle of last year, they graduated from the school. Ten graduates stayed to work for the school while the others got jobs in restaurants or hotels across the city.

They are paid about VN8-10 million monthly, a relatively high salary for new cooks.

The students maturity is my happiness and encourages me to continue my work, Hoi said.

A graduate told me that she lied her family about studying at Mai Sen School because they did not want her to become a cook  a hard, but disregarded job. But when she received her first salary, she told her family the truth and they changed their mindset, Hoi said.

The senior chef said he was unhappy to see discrimination about vocational schools.

Every job should be respected and treated equally, Hoi said, adding that it was a pleasure to have himself and his job respected in developed country like Germany.

Pham Thi Thu Hau, 21, attended the first course at Mai Sen School three years ago after graduating from high school. Hau, who is a waitress in a hotel in District 1, said that the three years living and studying at the school was full of unforgettable memories.

She said that she was very impressed by the strictness of chef Hoi when he taught in class or instructed students in the kitchen. However, outside class, he was so pleasant and humorous.

Hau remembered days when the Mai Sen Bistro had few customers, funding for the school was modest, so both students and teachers ate only rice and vegetables.

They joked with each other that they ate so many vegetables that their stomach would turn green.

Hoi said that during the first three years, the school faced a lot of difficulties. He usually got up at 3am to go to market. Around 5am, both trainers and trainees started preparing dishes. Some set the tables, others cleaned and cut vegetables. At their first lesson, many trainees did not know how to hold a knife or distinguish or identify the cuts of meat.

Things go more smoothly now, Hoi said. There are 125 young trainees at Mai Sen School and monthly accommodation costs for them is about VN45 million (US$2,000).

More youngsters have applied to study, but Hoi cannot accept all of them. School donors also want to limit the number of trainees to maintain the quality level of training and living conditions. VNSFORT LAUDERDALE, United States  A survivor of the Parkland school shooting called out US President Donald Trump on Saturday over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, as several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.

Three days after a troubled teen armed with an assault rifle killed 17people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd of students, parents and residents in nearby Ft. Lauderdale.

"To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!" she thundered, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby. The crowd chanted in turn: "Shame on you!"

"We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law," she vowed -- slamming the fact 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behavior.

"The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics," Gonzalez told AFP following her speech.

In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health -- making no mention of gun control.

"If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association," Gonzalez said in her impassioned address.

"It doesnt matter because I already know. Thirty million," she said, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trumps election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.

She then ran through a list of the pro-gun lobbys talking points -- for example, that "a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun," that no law could ever stop a madman intent on killing -- answering each argument with "We call BS."

The young womans powerful address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.

Trump tweeted a day after the massacre that neighbors and fellow students had failed to flag Cruz to the authorities.

"We did," Gonzalez fired back, her voice shaking with emotion as she insisted the community had done its best to raise the alarm. "Time and time again. Since he was in middle school. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter."

Missed warnings

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated Cruz in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

The newspaper, citing Department of Children and Family Services documents, said the investigation came four days after Cruz turned 18 -- legally an adult, and thus able to buy a firearm.

Investigators said there were "some implications" for the teens safety, but concluded that his "final level of risk is low as (he) resides with his mother, attends school and receives counseling" as an outpatient at a mental health center, the Sun Sentinel said.

Cruz later passed a background check, allowing him in February 2017 to buy the AR-15 rifle used in the massacre.

School safety

Trump spoke by phone Saturday with the Parkland mayor, the county commissioner and the principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to express his condolences and offer his support.

He then turned political in a tweet Saturday night, asking "why didnt the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didnt want to, and now they just talk!"

Trump is staunchly opposed to additional restrictions on guns or gun ownership, but Vice President Mike Pence said at an event in Dallas the president would make school safety "a top priority" when he meets with governors of US states in the coming days.

"Lets pray for wisdom. For all in positions of authority that we might find a way to come together as a nation to confront and end this evil in our time once and for all," Pence said.  AFPAs'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.A multi-million-pound transformation of the RAF Museums London home will welcome visitors to discover a new green heart of the community in Colindale, North West London, reflecting the historic RAF Hendon airfield. The newly landscaped site includes outdoor picnic areas, childrens playground, restaurant, visitor car parking, and fully accessible pathways.

Two new, innovative galleries will explore the first 100 years of the RAF, its roles today and invite visitors to imagine its future contribution and technology. A third new exhibition will focus on the story of the RAF from the Falklands Conflict of the early 80s to current operations.

Each exhibition will represent the diversity and inclusivity of the Royal Air Force and focus on the people behind the blue uniforms. Over 500 previously unseen artefacts relating to RAF history will be on display including logbooks, uniforms, lucky charms and technical equipment. These items have been carefully selected by our Museum curators for their ability to engage visitors with a fresh perspective on the RAF story.

The Museum is also launching RAF Stories  an online digital project which will inspire participants to share accounts of the Royal Air Force. RAF Stories will include stories, not just from former and serving personnel, but also from their friends and family as well as partners who work closely with the RAF. RAF Stories is a global effort to uncover tales ranging from humour to heroism.

The newly developed exhibitions will open at the end of June 2018 as part of the wider calendar of RAF 100 events celebrating and commemorating the RAFs Centenary across the country.

The Museum is also running a series of special public events to mark the RAF Centenary across both its sites including a Spitfire 10k run; Open Cockpit evenings and family events such as the Hendon Pageant and the Family Festival of Flight.

The RAF Museums RAF Centenary Programme is supported by National Lottery Players through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

For more information about the RAF Museums RAF Centenary Programme and our calendar of events visit www.rafmuseum.orgA group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 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29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1)The statement said that on 19 January 2018, Council made a unanimous decision to charge Dr Schram with 21 allegations. As per the term of his contract of employment, Dr Schram was given seven working days to respond to the allegations. During the term of his suspension, he was allowed to access his office to prepare his reply although his powers as VC were suspended.

Ms Kekedo said the Council made a unanimous decision last Thursday to terminate Dr Schrams contract with immediate effect, adding that the Council consisted of very learned people of standing in the society hence the decision was made after considering all the materials and following due process.

PORT MORESBY  Jean Kekedo (pictured), the Acting Chancellor of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology, Sunday afternoon issued a statement on behalf of the Unitech Council on the termination of Vice-Chancellor Dr Albert Schram for alleged serious misconduct and breach of his employment contract.

Council also suggested to Dr Schram to consider resigning quietly if he considered the allegations serious. He refused to do so. On 30 January 2018, Dr Schram submitted his response to the Council through the Registrar. The materials constituting the allegations and responses were forwarded to a private lawyer for an independent legal advice. The advice was furnished on time. Council reconvened on 15 February 2018 at 9:30am.

At this meeting, the Council reviewed the documents before it for some hours before seeking the advice of the independent lawyer. Dr Schram was then called in to add to his written response and clarify Council members issues.

The Council deliberated for another two hours before resolving to terminate Dr Schrams employment.

The statement (Download Public Statement by Unitech Council) said the main allegations sustained by the Council were:

1 - Non-provision of verified academic credentials. The Council stated we cannot allow a VC whose own qualifications are seriously doubted and said it considered Dr Schrams behaviour as not only a serious breach of a mandatory condition of his contract, but deceitful. 2 - Constant overseas trips on vague university business. Dr Schrams entire term in office is littered with constant absence, the statement said. He spends more time overseas than at the workplace without prior Council approval and without showing the relevance of such overseas forays to the business of the university. The statement cited a number of cases and said that, despite requests to regularise and constrain travel arrangements, Dr Schram resisted and failed to do so satisfactorily. This section of the statement concluded by saying All his travel reports perpetuate with promise of future benefits that do not materialise. Its a case of forever married to hope and divorced from reality! 3 - Engagement of consultants. The statement alleged that Dr Schram engaged incompetent consultants to cover up for him whilst he was away overseas and cited a number of cases where this had occurred. The engagement of incompetent consultants and retainer arrangements on one-off tasks demonstrates that Dr Schram was at best incompetent, at worst dishonest, this section concluded. 4 - Engagement of private lawyers to represent personal interests. The statement said that in November last year, knowing that Council was going to question him for his constant overseas travels, Dr Schram engaged a private law firm at Unitechs expense to attend Council meeting and take the minutes of Council, as well as be his lawyer. The Council found this to show a serious breach of duty and disrespect to Council.

The statement further said there were a number of allegations that have criminal implications that Council will refer to the police and it also anticipated the consideration of other serious allegations related to an investigation report into the student unrest of 2016 and a deal with the University of South Pacific to offer its MBA course at Unitech when Unitech already had its own.

The statement said that Dr Schram has been given a week to prepare and leave the university campus and that Unitech is preparing his repatriation. It appointed Dr Ora Renagi, as Acting Vice Chancellor until the position is advertised and a new VC is appointed.

In its concluding remarks, the Council said that the allegations in this disciplinary action had been raised in Council from time to time but had never been formally put to Dr Schram to respond. Despite the many warnings and criticisms in Council, the impunity grew unabated hence Council initiated the disciplinary process which eventually resulted in the termination.

Council considered all the factors and resolved that terminating Dr Schram was the best decision under the circumstances. The decision was in the best interest of the University!However, this chart can be improved upon in two ways. First, it would be useful to include not only the federal government but also provincial and local government expenditure shares over the period 1870 to the present. As well, if one is going to include federal, provincial and local governments, it would be useful to take transfers to lower tiers into account and look at spending shares net of those transfers. So, this is what I attempt to do in the accompanying chart where I present federal, provincial and local expenditure shares net of transfers  at least for the period since 1933.

My contribution to Macleans 2018 Chartapalooza was a plot of the federal governments share of total government expenditure in Canada since 1870. The chart showed that until World War I, with the exception of period marked by the building of the federally subsidized CPR, the federal share of total government spending in Canada was approximately 40 percent. After the peak of over 70 percent reached during World War I, the federal share came down quickly but went up again during the Depression era and soared during World War II reaching over 90 percent. The federal share of spending came down more gradually after World War IIleveling off at almost 50 percent during the 1970s and 1980s before falling once again to about 40 percent during the 1990s.

For the period from 1870 to 1926, the numbers are annual from Mac Urquharts GDP estimates and only pertain to goods and services spending by government so there are no transfers. However, public education is part of government spending in Urquharts numbers as a separate category, so I divide it across local and provincial governments in a 70/30 split based on the split in 1933 in Historical Statistics of Canada. There is a gap from 1927 to 1932 and then estimates only for the years 1933, 1937, 1939, 1941 and 1943 from Historical Statistics of Canada (SeriesH161- 175; H176-187 and H188-196). For these numbers, federal transfers to other governments are assigned to the provinces and provincial transfers to other governments are assigned to local government spending.

The period from 1945 to 1969 is again consecutive annual data and from Historical Statistics of Canada (as per the series listed above) and net of transfers to lower tier government. For the period since 1970, the years 1970 to 1990 are from the 1995 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables while 1991 to 2016 is taken from the 2017 Federal Fiscal Reference Tables. Again, federal transfers to other governments are accorded to the provinces and provincial transfers to other governments are accorded to local government spending.

So, what are the results? Well, very often we hear public discourse that municipalities in Canada need more powers or more fiscal tools. I suppose that this need not be an argument for an alternate reality so much as a return to the past when local government spending was actually more important. The period until WWI shows that federal and local governments were actually quite similar in terms of the shares of total expenditure both fluctuating in and around 40 percent with the provinces coming in at about 20 percent. The period from 1914 to 1945 sees the spikes in the federal shares as a result of the war with a return to the prewar balance during the 1920s and early 1930s.

The period since 1945 sees a steady decline in the federal share from a peak of about 90 percent in 1943 to reach 27 percent by 2016. Provincial and local shares in 1943 were at about 5 percent each and grew with the local share leveling off at about 20 percent and reaching 22 percent by 2016 while the provinces grew steadily with their share in 2016 at about 50 percent. There are some periods of abrupt changes  the late 1960s and the late 1980s  which I think mark major changes to the transfer regimes (eg. Medicare in the late 1960s) or they may be artifacts of changes in the manner the data was recorded. After all, government accounting approaches have changed over time and there are a number of different data sources here.

Still, I think an overall story does emerge. The balance between Ottawa and the provincial-local sector in the early years of Confederation was a 40/60 split whereas today it is a 30/70 split. The larger federal role of the mid twentieth century was really an aberration brought about by the demands of global war. However, the more interesting change is the reversal of provincial and local government expenditure shares over time. While local governments were more important in terms of their spending shares before WWI, their role diminished significantly after WWII. Much of this change was of course the expansion of health, education and social welfare functions at the provincial levels.

It is unlikely that new revenue or expenditure tools for municipalities will return them to the dominant role they had in the nineteenth century. In the end, our constitution makes local governments not a separate fiscal tier but creatures of the provinces and provincial Leviathans having garnered a larger fiscal role relative to the federal government are unlikely to yield much to their municipalities anytime soon.Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said: "We have the electoral guarantees proposed by the opposition, so we are going to the elections."

Venezuela's government, in collaboration with the National Electoral Council (CNE), will send invitations to several regional and international bodies to observe the presidential elections scheduled for April 22.

The decision stems from the dialogue between the Venezuelan government and opposition in the Dominican Republic, where they discussed more electoral oversight. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza says President Nicolas Maduro will fulfill the provisions of the agreement, even though the opposition refused to sign it.

"The government fulfilled its part and not only will President Nicolas Maduro comply with each of the provisions of that agreement, not only in the electoral but in the other issues agreed there," Arreaza said, reiterating that Venezuela will allow international missions to review the electoral process.

Arreaza said officials from the Dominican Republic will serve as one of the guarantors of the electoral process and the country is now actively seeking other independent bodies to do the same.

"Another is the electoral mission of the United Nations, we are going to send your secretary general, Antonio Guterres, a communication... in order to have the guarantees that this agreement stipulated and that the Venezuelan government and President Nicolas Maduro will fulfill in a responsible way," he said.

Arreaza's comments were made during a visit to the Dominican Republic on Friday, during which he thanked his Dominican counterpart for supporting the rounds of dialogue with the opposition.

Bolivia, Nicaragua, St. Vincent, Grenada, Chile and Mexico were among those serving as guarantors.

A final agreement reached in the Dominican Republic was sent to the government and opposition representatives, but it was signed only by the Venezuelan government. On Feb. 6 the opposition refused to signt, claiming electoral guarantees were insufficient.

On this point, Arreaza said: "We have a date for the presidential election, which is the date proposed by the opposition, April 22. Furthermore, we have the electoral guarantees proposed by the opposition, so we are going to the elections and the Venezuelan people will decide their future with democracy and votes."They had published the news that a magistrate who ruled against the governments interest in a labour case had been sacked. They were held for hours, and their phones and laptops were seized.

In the Pacific islands, the threat is real. Last week, three veteran journalists, all of them with spotless reputations, were detained by police on suspicion of inciting unrest.

In every country of the world, social media is eroding peoples sense of the truth, and undermining its importance in their daily existence.

Australia is no exception. Even now, the Coalition government is considering draconian new laws that would outlaw activity that is necessary to the proper functioning of a democracy.

Either we act now to stop it, or we accept that in ten years, the regions media may look a lot more like the Peoples Daily News than the Sydney Morning Herald.

PORT VILA - Its becoming far too common: Journalists and whistle blowers are being singled out and silenced as governments throughout the region allow the Pacific to slide down the slippery slope of repression.

As this editorial is being finalised, Samisoni Pereti, Nitani Rika and Nanise Volau are facing the possibility of charges of incitement to sedition.

This action by police, presumably with the blessing of the Fiji First government, is inexcusable. There is no possible justification for it. It is a direct assault on free speech and the freedom of the media to question the actions of public officials.

The clearly opportunistic prosecution of the publisher and editor of the Fiji Times is a similar travesty. The government is seeking a punishment that is wildly out of proportion with the crime these people are accused of. Clearly, the government wants the Fiji Times shut down because it tells the truth.

We have to ask: Are the days of dictatorship in Fiji truly past?

In Kiribati too, as details emerged about the tragicand possibly preventablesinking of a passenger ferry, we heard that a New Zealand television news crew had their gear confiscated. This is just not on.

Yes, the news media are often the bearers of bad tidings. Yes, sometimes they are the ones who dig these stories up. Yes, sometimes they make mistakes.

None of this justifies punishing people for speaking their mind.

The danger is greater than it has been in a decade. Media freedom pioneer Marc Neil-Jones suffered assaults, imprisonment, deportation and constant threats as he fought to build and preserve media freedom in Vanuatu.

He did not do it alone. Every time he suffered another affront, an uproar spread across the region, making it clear to the government of Vanuatu that there would be consequences for their ill-advised actions.

Now, government and civil society leaders gather in Nauru, and not a peep is heard about their governments serial abuses of freedom of speech and human rights.

Fiji subverts the entire media establishment, and nothing is said. Kiribati outright says stop reporting on this story, and aside from a use angry squawks, nothing happens.

The very governments who claim to defend democracy and western values dont seem as married to them as they once were.

We need to realise something: Either we speak up now and draw a clear line under freedom of speech, or we write it off in the Pacific region.

The right to express oneself is not granted by governments. Constitutions dont give these rights either. They recognise them.

These rights existed before we were born, and they will continue to exist whether we admit it or not. The only question, really, is how high a price do we have to pay to exercise them? Detention? Imprisonment? Deportation? Assault?

This is not an abstract discussion. The truth matters more than ever, and media professionals across the Pacific need to understand that time is not on our side.

Across the globe, people are beginning to see the damage caused Facebooks pernicious influence on peoples perception of whats true. Its felt in small communities more intensely than anywhere else.

A few unprincipled and unrestrained people are playing fast and loose with the truth, and ruining peoples lives in the process.

If our professional media associations were doing their job, they would set an example for others to follow. Instead, they cower, just as theyve done in the face of government repression.

And now, the worst excesses of social media are being used as justification for even more suppression from these same governments.

In Vanuatu, Basil Leodoro, a highly respected doctor, was suspended from his job by the Public Service Commission for months because he spoke his mind.

Both his manager and the Director General of Health confirmed to the Daily Post that the reason for his suspension was his open letter to the Prime Minister questioning millions of dollars of spending during the Ambae island evacuation effort.

Only after it became clear that the pressure was not going to let up did the PSC grudgingly reinstate him. And even as they did, they salted the wound with unsubstantiated accusations that he had stolen money, and that letters supporting him were obtained by coercion.

A press release issued by a Public Service Commission official accused Vanuatu media of biased and excessive reporting on the suspension.

Clearly the government of Vanuatu needs to learnagainthat free speech is fundamental to democracy. There is nothing more important than the right to speak, free of coercion. We stand with Dr Leodoro, and with everyone who speaks their mind honestly and fairly.

If we dont reaffirm this now, if we dont repeat this chorus loud and long, we will lose our democracy. In New Zealand and Australia, in Fiji, in Kiribati, in Nauruacross the entire regionmedia professionals need to stand up and speak in defence of the truth. We need to set an example for others, show them how responsible, principled, fair and fearless reporting comes about.

Across the Pacific, our national media associations have to find the courage to speak again. PINA, the Pacific Islands News Association, absent all these years, needs to stop being a hollow excuse for biannual junkets, and do its job.

PINA used to be at the forefront of press freedom in the region. Now as a result of a dominating broadcast sector they have lost the plot when it comes to issuing statements critical of government attacks on press freedom.

Nobody is going to do this for us. If we dont act, our governments will. And that wont end well for any of us.

Marc Neil-Jones is publisher and Dan McGarry is media director of the Vanuatu Daily PostFeb 16, 2018 | By Tess

Tucker, an adorable Australian shepherd born with an underdeveloped hind paw, was recently fitted with a 3D printed prosthetic. The prosthetic, which could help the five-year-old dog walk more evenly, was 3D printed by a dedicated team from the University of Missouri.

Its been nearly a year since members of the University of Missouris Mizzou 3D Printing Club were enlisted to help Tucker, who was born with bones missing in one of his hind legs. Kendra Earl Warlow, Tuckers owner, sought help from the 3D printing lab after adopting the disabled dog.

Since then, Warlow and Mizzou 3D Printing Clubs members have been working together to create a comfortable and functional 3D printed paw prosthetic, hoping that the dogs mobility and overall comfort could be improved.

Like with most disabled dogs, Tuckers challenges are not immediately apparent. According to Warlow, he runs and plays like a regular dog (only hopping along on three legs). The problem, she says, is that Tuckers hind leg disability is causing him back pain, and he currently relies on a number of medications to keep the pain at bay.

Days ago, Warlow brought Tucker to the University of Missouri to be fitted with his latest 3D printed prosthetic paw.

After the 3D printed prosthetic was attached to Tuckers leg, the MU students examined the dogs stance and response to see what improvements could be made to the design. With the information from the fitting, they will tweak a few elements of the prosthetics structure using Autodesk Meshmixer to further optimize the design.

(Images: Hailey Hofer / Missourian)

So far, this is the second 3D printed prosthetic prototype that the Australian shepherd has been fitted with, though it likely wont be the last. In fact, the student team 3D printed three versions of the design (in different sizes) to see which one would be the best fit.

With every new prosthetic paw tried and tested, the students come one step closer to designing the best bionic paw for the dog. They are hopeful that one day soon Tucker will be walking on all fours again.



Read more about how 3D printing is helping dogs all over the world:

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Kim Anderson wrote at 5/13/2019 11:40:50 PM:my moms dog needs this . he is missing that part of his hind leg to . he is also a rescue . he is having a really hard time hoping on his other leg now cause i guess his hip is hurting after all these years . please help Pete walk again . Phyllis Hall 972-523-9028 is her number . We are needing help asap he is getting worse everyday . thank you



Adam Rubenstein in the Weekly Standard:

Adam Rubenstein: If reason is to be the currency of our discourse, whats the future of identity politics? Is identity politics based in reason? Your new book touches on the issue, but cursorily. Could you provide more of an explanation of identity politics, where it comes from, where its going, and how we should think about it?

Steven Pinker: Identity politics is the syndrome in which peoples beliefs and interests are assumed to be determined by their membership in groups, particularly their sex, race, sexual orientation, and disability status. Its signature is the tic of preceding a statement with As a, as if that bore on the cogency of what was to follow. Identity politics originated with the fact that members of certain groups really were disadvantaged by their group membership, which forged them into a coalition with common interests: Jews really did have a reason to form the Anti-Defamation League.

But when it spreads beyond the target of combatting discrimination and oppression, it is an enemy of reason and Enlightenment values, including, ironically, the pursuit of justice for oppressed groups. For one thing, reason depends on there being an objective reality and universal standards of logic. As Chekhov said, there is no national multiplication table, and there is no racial or LGBT one either.

More here.New details are emerging about twin brothers being held without bail on accusations that they'd amassed bomb-making materials, with the intention of eventually building and using an explosive device in New York.

Their story also involves allegations of sex with a minor, incriminating diary entries and threats to school safety.

The school involved is the one where one of the brothers was a teacher.

It's being credited with helping to foil a potential plot of mass destruction.

Still, it's not above criticism by some parents concerned about their children's safety.

The story has two main locations - Harlem Prep High School, where one of the brothers, Christian Toro, taught special education - and the home where the brothers, Tyler and Christian, both, 27, lived, in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx.

In their fourth floor apartment, according to investigators, the Toro brothers carried out bomb-making activity for months. However, according to the complaint against the Toros, it wasn't just the twin brothers involved.

They allegedly paid $50 an hour to at least two students of the charter school, operated by the Democracy Prep charter school network, to remove explosive powder from fireworks the brothers had bought. The gunpowder extraction operation had taken place from last October until January of this year.

It was during that time that a series of hazardous events took place that ultimately exposed the brothers' plot, according to investigators.

On December 4th, a bomb threat was phoned into Harlem Prep. A 15 year-old student was arrested for phoning in the threat. That led to an investigation into Christian Toro, who'd been teaching special education at the school since 2016.

Toro resigned his teaching position on January 9th of this year. Three days later, Toro's brother, Tyler, returned Christian's school-issued laptop to the school.

"Once our IT team looked at what was on the laptop," said Rochelle Ritchie, the director of external affairs for Democracy Prep Schools, they immediately informed the NYPD, and then contacted the FBI.

The investigation led to Christian Toro being arrested on January 31st, for having raped a 15 year-old student at the school. He was released on bail, but this past Thursday, officers raided the apartment the brothers share. There, according to the criminal complaint against the Toros, investigators found 32 pounds of ingredients to make explosives.

The NYPD and federal investigative process had begun with the school taking action swiftly, according to Mayor Bill De Blasio. "Staff at the school did something very important," the mayor said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "Their work was crucial here," he said.

The school was following a protocol that its spokesperson called essential. "'When you see something, say something' is what we actually did," said Ritchie.

Parents also had praise. "I'm glad they did bring it to light," said a parent who did not to be identified. "Because I have a son who goes to the school, and I need to make sure he's safe, as a parent."iStock/Thinkstock(LEAVENWORTH, Kansas) -- A congressional hopeful in Kansas is under fire by some people for deciding to continue his raffle for a rifle to support his campaign.



Tyler Tannahill, of Leavenworth, announced the AR-15 giveaway via his Twitter page on Feb. 13. However, the AR-15 is the same type of weapon that was used to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.



I dont think we have a gun problem. I think its a mental health issue, problem," Tannahill told ABC affiliate KMBC-TV Thursday, adding it's why the rifle raffle will continue.



We dont support people going into schools and shooting them up. Thats absolutely not what we support. We support the Second Amendment, and your right to protect yourself, your life, your property, and your family, he told KMBC-TV.



Tannahill said the raffle is being done legally and that the winner would need to go to a gun store and pass all the legal federal background checks.



Social media was mixed on his giveaway up until the Florida school shooting, which is when comments on Tannahills Facebook page became heated, with many people calling him out for continuing the raffle.



However, there seems to still be some enthusiasm for the contest as more than 400 people have signed up for it since the announcement.



Tannahill is campaigning for the Kansas second district congressional seat currently held by Republican Lynn Jenkins.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Prison City's aforementioned bottle release of Wham Whams also included the brewpub's first 16-ounce can release: Bug Juice, a collaboration between Prison City and Oceanside-based Barrier Brewing. The IPA, which is double dry-hopped and includes lactose, was named by HopCulture as one of the best beers at Beer Advocate's Extreme Beer Fest in Boston earlier this month. The brewpub's flagship Mass Riot will return Feb. 24; 180 Crowlers will be released and there will be a two-per-person limit. On deck is the return of the award-winning Straight Outta LoCash porter (another fine winter beer) and Bleek Worden Belgian pale ale, as well as a new IPA made with hops from Chimney Bluffs Hoppery, of Wolcott. Beer lunches are scheduled for March 11 (Left Hand Brewing) and April 22 (Bissell Brothers), both from 2 to 4 p.m. (details to follow on Prison City's Facebook page). And in late March, Prison City will work with IronHeart Canning to release 16-ounce cans of Mass Riot and 4 Piece Pale Ale. "With our previous expansion we have been able to lift restrictions on Crowler sales and almost all of our beers are now available to go," co-owner Marc Schulz said. Meanwhile, he added, Prison City has identified several locations for its next expansion, but is still scouting more properties.LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California man who pleaded guilty earlier this month to unwittingly selling bank accounts to Russians meddling in U.S. elections made a mistake and is coming to terms with his role in the matter, his attorney told The Associated Press on Friday.

Richard "Ricky" Pinedo pleaded guilty to using stolen identities to set up bank accounts that were then used by the Russians. The U.S. government acknowledged that Pinedo did not know that he was dealing with Russians.

Pinedo's guilty plea is the third stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

On Friday, Robert Mueller's office charged 13 Russians, including a businessman close to Vladimir Putin, in an elaborate plot to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The federal indictment was the most direct allegation to date of illegal Russian meddling during the campaign.

Pinedo's attorney, Jeremy Lessem, said his client "was shocked to find out that what he was doing had any relationship whatsoever" to the Mueller investigation.

"This is something that is way beyond anything he could have possibly imagined he could be involved in," Lessem said.

He said Pinedo "has made mistakes, he's taken responsibility for those mistakes, he pled guilty, and he will be punished for those mistakes he made. But he had nothing to do with assisting any type of foreign national at all."

Pinedo thought he was helping people fraudulently open online bank accounts, but not Russians, Lessem said. He said his client would not make any public statements.

Pinedo, of Santa Paula, California, could face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He has no criminal history, according to his plea agreement, which he signed as "Ricky" on Feb. 2 during a court hearing in Washington, D.C. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

Lessem declined to say what sentence he would request for his client.

Pinedo is listed on a LinkedIn page as a marketing strategist who graduated from Ventura College with a degree in computer science in 2009.

"Being able to come up with creative ideas, strategies and coming up with solutions to problems is always a big plus for me," according to the profile.

Between 2014 and last year, Pinedo operated an online service called Auction Essistance, selling bank account numbers either by registering accounts in his own name or often using stolen identities, according to court documents.

"Although Pinedo was not directly involved in the registration of these accounts using stolen identities, he willfully and intentionally avoided learning about the use of stolen identities," the documents said.

Prosecutors say the scheme netted Pinedo tens of thousands of dollars.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - Four hours from the Florida high school where 17 people were shot and killed, hundreds of people gathered in a park to rally against gun violence and call for stricter gun laws.

People lit candles in memory of the Parkland victims at the demonstration Saturday night in St. Petersburg, on Florida's Gulf Coast. They called for legislative action on the state and federal level to end gun violence.

It comes as thousands of students, parents, teachers and neighbors held signs and pushed for gun control legislation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Anger over the massacre Wednesday also has led to calls for walkouts, sit-ins and other actions on school campuses nationwide that are aimed at pushing lawmakers to pass tougher gun laws.On April 24, 1949, Lamar and Mary Nelle Dill were married in Anniston, Ala., "on a Sunday at 4 in the afternoon," he recalls. After spending the night in Montgomery, they drove south in his '49 Mercury, emblazoned with "Just Married!" wishes that Lamar never could completely erase from the paint, to the finest hotel in Mobile, the Battle House.

Friday evening, the couple -- he's 92, she's 95 -- returned to the Battle House to spend the weekend. It was the first time they've visited the hotel, which was closed from 1974 until it reopened in 2007, since their honeymoon trip. The visit was a gift from their son Jay and his wife, Phyllis, and their daughter, Lark Howell and her husband, Joe, who accompanied the Dills.

When they checked in, they learned that the Dills' room had been upgraded to the sprawling, luxurious Presidential Suite on the eighth floor. The 1,995-square-foot suite, with French doors that open onto a private terrace overlooking downtown Mobile, rents for $3,000 a night.

"We're kind of rolling around in here," said Mary Nelle as she perched delicately on a chair in the suite's living room. "We need to invite some friends and have a party!"

The Dills ordered room service Saturday morning and ate breakfast on their private terrace. From left are their son, Jay Dill; Mary Nelle Dill; their daughter, Lark Dill Howell; their daughter-in-law, Phyllis Dill; Lamar Dill; and their son-in-law, Joe Howell. (Michelle Matthews/mmatthews@al.com)

Their party of six ordered room service Saturday morning and enjoyed breakfast on the terrace.

The couple met when Lamar's cousin, who was a friend of Mary Nelle's, wanted to introduce them. Mary Nelle insisted that she didn't like blind dates and said she wasn't interested in Lamar. "One day she came and brought him anyway, and we went out and kept going," she said.

After a three-year courtship, they got engaged in December and married in April at First Presbyterian Church. "Lamar planned the honeymoon," Mary Nelle said. "I didn't know where we were going." After visiting Mobile, they continued on to the Mississippi coast before returning to Anniston.

Mary Nelle and Lamar Dill were married on April 24, 1949, at First Presbyterian Church in Anniston, Ala. (Courtesy Lark Dill Howell)

In 1949, First Presbyterian Church was a beautiful old Victorian structure, said their daughter, Lark. The church was torn down in the 1960s and a new, more modern one was built right across from the Dills' home. For years, she said, they have walked to church.

Though it was shuttered for decades, the Battle House didn't suffer the same fate as their former church building. They remember the hotel being a beautiful place in 1949. "The woodwork and carving in the lobby are the same, but the inside was more old-fashioned," Mary Nelle said.

On this visit, the hotel staff has endeared themselves to the couple. "I don't think you can find a better hotel anywhere," said Lamar. "I can't emphasize enough about the Battle House and their service."

A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, Lamar retired about 25 years ago from his job as chief electrician for the city of Anniston. He had also owned his own business, and Mary Nelle had kept the books for him. She then started teaching kindergarten at their church, eventually teaching kindergarten and remedial reading in the public school system for 23 years.

"We're completely different personalities," she said. "He likes one thing, and I like another."

"And then we do what she wants to do," her husband joked.

"We argue a lot, which is normal," Mary Nelle said. "But he knows I love him, and I know he loves me."

Mary Nelle is a music lover who enjoys attending concerts as well as reading and doing puzzles to keep her mind sharp. Lamar has volunteered for 25 years in admitting at Stringfellow Memorial Hospital, where he has logged more than 7,000 hours of service.

Lamar likes "anything with wheels," Mary Nelle said. He used to ride motorcycles with a group of friends, and he has owned two airplanes and boats. A couple of years ago, he decided he wanted a limousine and found one for sale in Connecticut.

"I thought he'd lost his mind," Mary Nelle said, laughing.

Lamar Dill "loves anything with wheels," his wife says. The family drove from Anniston to Mobile in his newest acquisition, a limousine. It was parked outside the Battle House all weekend. (Michelle Matthews/mmatthews@al.com)

They traveled from Anniston to Mobile in Lamar's Lincoln Town Car limo Friday, and it remained parked outside the hotel on South Royal Street for the weekend. Because of some eye problems, Lamar no longer drives, so his son and son-in-law took turns driving the limo.

"We thank God every day for what we have," said Mary Nelle. "It's important to have friends you share your life with. We've had so many friends, and that's so important."

Having such a close family -- both of their children live nearby -- has also helped their marriage, they said. "We didn't think we'd live this long in the first place," said Mary Nelle. "This gives our children something to shoot for."The Feast of St. Joseph's Day, sponsored by St. Francis of Assisi Church of SS. Mary & Martha Parish, will be held at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 10, at the Ukrainian National Club, 125 Washington St., Auburn.

The event will feature an olive and antipasto bar with cheese, prosciutto and more, as well as a dinner of baked chicken, beef and sausage, roasted potatoes, garlic pizza and more.

The Stardusters will perform, as well.

A donation of $16 is requested, and checks can be made payable to the parish.

Tickets are available at the Camardo Law Firm, the rectory office, Sam's Shoe Service, Bob Bruno ([315] 729-5031), Tesoro's Apparel and Joe's Barber Shop.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Susan N. McCollough, a Gulf Shores-based abstract expressionist, has donated a 9-foot-by-8-foot triptych painting, "Gulf Ever-Changing," to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. The painting was unveiled Feb. 16.

"We appreciate Susan's generosity in gifting this painting, which will give visitors to the Shelby Center an inviting reflection of the living waters surrounding our campus," said Dr. John Valentine, executive director.

Born in The Bronx, N.Y., McCollough grew up in Dothan, Ala., and graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in speech and art. She works out of The Susan N. McCollough Gallery/Studio in Gulf Shores next to The McCollough Institute, her husband Gaylon's plastic surgery practice.

"The painting represents for me the serene, calm, tumultuous expression of the waves," McCollough said. "It's a combination of science and art, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to present this painting to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab."

McCollough paints primarily on large canvases, sometimes working on three or four paintings at once. This is the sixth painting she has donated to various organizations.

She was commissioned by the University of Alabama to create a painting in honor of her late professor and lifelong mentor, Al Sella. The 4-foot-by-5-foot impressionist portrait of the iconic artist and his emblematic bicycle hangs in Clark Hall in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Last year, the McColloughs donated $5 million to the College of Arts and Sciences - the largest academic endowment in more than two decades - to establish the Dr. E. Gaylon McCollough Institute for Pre-Medical Studies and the Susan N. McCollough Art Biennale.

For more information about McCollough's work, visit www.susanmccolloughart.media.Between 2014 and 2016, the sheriff of one Alabama county pocketed more than $110,000 worth of "excess" taxpayer dollars his office received to feed inmates in the county jail he oversees.

Another Alabama sheriff paid a teenager to mow his lawn in 2015 using checks that drew from funds that were allocated for inmate food but ended up in one of his personal accounts.

They contend that they are not breaking the law by taking thousands of federal, state and municipal tax dollars that they receive each year as allocations to feed inmates in their jails. The two sheriffs - and likely others across the state - say they are following the letter of a longstanding Alabama state law that they believe allows for them to keep any funds designated to feed county jail inmates that do not end up being used for that purpose.

The law is at the center of a lawsuit jointly filed Jan. 5 by the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. The two centers sued 49 Alabama county sheriffs over their "refusal" for a period of several months "to produce public records showing whether, and if so by how much, they have personally profited from funds allocated for feeding people in their jails," according to a statement they released last month.

The centers contend that state law does not in fact allow the sheriffs to keep any money allocated to feed inmates. They argue that such an interpretation of the law establishes perverse incentives, leads to the misuse of tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars annually, and ultimately results in sheriffs serving inmates minimal amounts of low-quality food in county jails across the state.

"Our position is that this practice is illegal now, but it's clear that many sheriffs believe its legal for them to do this," Aaron Littman, a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights, told AL.com Thursday.

"Clearly this is a practice which is problematic because it creates an incentive for sheriffs to spend as little as possible on feeding folks ... and obviously when a minimal amount of money is approved for something and less than that is spent, the quality suffers."

Monroe County Sheriff Thomas Tate recently provided the Southern Center for Human Rights with copies of handwritten ledgers detailing exactly how much money his office received from federal state and municipal governments to feed inmates in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and what was done with those funds.

The documents show that the Monroe County Sheriff's Office received a total of $423,364.60 over that three-year period to pay for a total of 83,878 days worth of meals for inmates - a measure referred to as "inmate days" - in the county's jails. Of that money, $110,459.77 was "declared excess and paid to Sheriff Thomas Tate," according to the ledgers.

The amount of "excess" funds Tate received rose each year, despite the fact that the number of inmate days fell each year and the per diem amounts paid to his office - $1.80 per state inmate per day; $5 per municipal inmate per day; and $10 per federal inmate per day- did not change between 2014 and 2016. In 2014, he pocketed less than $29,000; in 2016, he personally received more than $44,000. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Monroe County was home to just 23,068 residents.

"I do it just like the law tells us to. That's about all I have to say about that," Tate said during a brief phone interview with AL.com Friday. "We feed all our inmates good and the excess goes to the sheriff. If you declare it excess, you take it and you pay taxes on it."

Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin says that he has advocated for the county commission to handle the funds used to feed inmates in his jail. But that has yet to happen, and in the meantime he says he keeps the funds that remain after his inmates have been fed.

"The law says it's a personal account and that's the way I've always done it and that's the way the law reads and that's the way I do business," he said in a phone interview Friday. "That's the way the law's written."

Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin says he personally keeps any money allocated to feed inmates at the county's jail (pictured here) that does not end up being used for that purpose. (Eric Schultz / eschultz@al.com)

Entrekin has not provided the center with records showing how his office uses the funds it receives to feed inmates or how much it takes in each year for that purpose.

But Matt Qualls, a 20-year-old Gadsden resident who works for a landscaping company, says that Entrekin paid him $10 an hour to mow his lawn for several months in 2015 via checks with the words "Sheriff Todd Entrekin Food Provision Account" and the address of his Hokes Bluff home printed in the upper-left corner. AL.com has reviewed a photograph of one of the checks.

"I mowed his yard and his parents' yard. I was out there pretty much every day, Monday through Friday, from the end of the school year into the summer of 2015," Qualls said.

"I saw that in the corner of the checks it said Food Provision, and a couple people I knew came through the jail, and they say they got meat maybe once a month and every other day it was just beans and vegetables. I put two and two together and realized that that money could have gone toward some meat or something."

Asked about the checks, Entrekin declined to explain how he uses the funds or how much money has passed through the account, though he did confirm that it exists.

"I do have an account that says Food Provision on it," he said. "The sheriffs are being sued statewide about how this money is being used ... I'm not commenting on that because there's a lawsuit pending."

Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin said last year that she loaned $150,000 from the county's inmate food fund to a now-bankrupt used car lot, as AL.com reported at the time. She contended in federal court that she followed the law regarding use of money allocated for inmate feeding, and that she always provided inmates with adequate, nutritious food that did not leave them hungry.

Littman argues that instead of giving sheriffs any leftover money allocated to feeding inmates, Alabama counties would be better served by following the example of multiple counties - including Jefferson and Montgomery - that have instituted requirements that any such funds instead be turned over to the county government.

As it stands, Littman said he believes the law is being badly misinterpreted and that many Alabama citizens would be shocked and angered if they were aware that their tax dollars are padding sheriffs' wallets.

"Its pretty clear that when every year taxpayers are asked to spend their hard-earned dollars on any purpose - including feeding people in jails - the money should go to that purpose," he said.

Want access to the best analysis and in-depth reporting about Alabama each week? Sign up for the weekly Reckon Report newsletter and follow Reckon on Facebook and Twitter.A 56-year-old Hamilton woman died in a one-car crash on AL-247 in Franklin County Saturday night.

Tina Hood Dulaney Turbyfill's 2002 Ford Explorer ran off the roadway at about 10:15 p.m. Saturday and crashed into a tree, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Dulaney, who was wearing her seatbelt, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. No additional information is available, as Alabama State Troopers are investigating the crash.A man and a woman were kidnapped early Saturday from a Hoover motel.

They were rescued, and two suspects well known to lawmen were captured, in a Birmingham police sting operation .

Hoover police have charged Stanley Keith Densmore, 24, of Hoover, and Eric Wayne Hinson, 19, of Birmingham. Both are charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of kidnapping.

"It's safe to say that every Hoover police officer is familiar with Eric Hinson and Stanley Densmore. They have been a plague on our city for quite some time and we deal with them often. This was Hinson's sixth arrest and Densmore's 17th,'' said Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector. "They're trouble and their violent actions last night is just more proof that they belong in prison."

Here is what Hoover police Lt. Keith Czeskleba says happened: Hoover police received a call from Birmingham police about 2:58 a.m. stating they were with a male and female that had been kidnapped from the Econo Lodge at 1535 Montgomery Highway.

The victims told officers they were forced into a vehicle at gunpoint by two male suspects and then forced to withdraw money from several ATM locations.

One of the suspects, Czeskleba said, used a victim's cell phone to place a call to a friend of one of the victims. He demanded that person meet them on Green Springs Highway with $600 or he would kill both victims.

The friend called Birmingham police who set up a sting operation to arrest the suspects and rescue the victims. Officers located the victims unharmed and took both suspects into custody after a brief car chase and foot chase.

They were turned over to Hoover police, and Hoover detectives obtained formal warrants against them Saturday afternoon.

Czeskleba said the suspects likely face additional charges in Birmingham.

Densmore pleaded guilty in June to carrying a pistol without a license and possession of marijuana, court records show. He also was arrested last year on charges of receiving stolen property and drug possession. He has previous arrests, as well, for assault and unlawful breaking and entering of a vehicle. The dispositions on those cases weren't immediately available.

Hinson was arrested in Hoover in 2016 on a robbery charge. Authorities said he robbed someone at gunpoint of $500 and a cell phone, but the charges were dismissed.

Densmore and Hinson were transferred from the Hoover City Jail to the Jefferson County Jail shortly after 4:30 p.m. Saturday. They are being held without bond.

"Birmingham police officers did an outstanding job taking these two into custody. They were able to organize a sting operation in a very short period of time and capture two very dangerous individuals,'' Rector said. "Our cities are safer today because Hinson and Densmore are locked up."The Irondale Police Department has confirmed that it is investigating a rumored threat of violence against Shades Valley High School.

Sgt. Michael Mangina, a detective with the department, said that on Saturday parents provided police with copies of messages discussing a rumor that someone has threatened to shoot up the school on Tuesday.

"We were made aware of the rumor yesterday and we're working with the school to ensure everyone's safe," Mangina told AL.com Sunday. "From what I understand, it started on social media and it's hard to say, but I guess it has something to do maybe with the shooting in Florida. Perhaps a rumor gets started and it spreads. It's kind of at the forefront of people's minds at the moment."

Irondale Police have not yet decided how they will handle the rumored threat, Mangina said.

"School is closed tomorrow for the holiday, and as far as I know school is going to be open on Tuesday," he said. "We aren't sure what we're going to do right now, but we already have two officers assigned to the school."

Mangina confirmed that Irondale Police had seen the same screenshots of text message exchanges between multiple people discussing the potential threat that were obtained Sunday by AL.com. He said they were sent to the department by the parents of a student or students at the school.

"I heard somebody goin (sic) shoot up our school on Tuesday and in all honesty I don't know if I should believe it or not," reads one of the messages.

"Not going to school Tuesday," another message said.

Mangina told WBRC Sunday that police had yet to find the people who made the social media post or sent the text messages.

Whitlee Lusk, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Board of Education, provided WBRC with the following statement:

"We have been made aware that a Snapchat screenshot is circulating about a possible threat to Shades Valley High School. The Jefferson County School District takes any threats to our students and faculty, whether rumor or factual, extremely seriously and we have turned over the investigation to the Irondale Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. We appreciate everyone who helped to make us aware of this situation and we assure you that we are taking every precaution possible to provide a safe learning environment for all."A Springville High School student has been arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat, according to St. Clair County Assistant Sheriff Billy Murray.

Murray said the charge against the student - whose name has not been released - will be handled in juvenile court because of the student's age. The student, who lives in St. Clair County, was arrested by Springville police, Murray said.

St. Clair Sheriff's Office Lt. Freddie Turrentine told AL.com at 4:30 p.m. Sunday that the office did not yet have any further information about the incident but that he anticipates the office will make more information available later Sunday.The brother of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz has been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, according to multiple reports.

Cruz's younger brother, who turns 18 next week, was removed from his home Friday under the "Baker Act," which allows adults to be held and examined for up to 72 hours. Minors may be detained for up to 12 hours.

The commitment was first reported by the Palm Beach Post.

The younger Cruz brother was detained by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. Circumstances surrounding his commitment weren't released.

The Cruz brothers were taken in by a former neighbor, Rocxanne Deschamps, after their mother, Lynda Cruz, died from pneumonia in November 2017. The Post reported Nikolas Cruz moved out of Deschamps' home after she told the 19-year-old he could not keep a gun at her home.

Nikolas Cruz later moved in with another family who allowed him to keep a gun in a locked cabinet.

Nicholas Cruz is suspected of killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Wednesday in a mass shooting at his former school. Nikolas Cruz faces 17 counts of premeditated murder and is reportedly seeking to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty.

Cruz reportedly had a history of abusive behavior towards his later mother, with police responding to the family's home more than 30 times before her death.WASHINGTON - A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days -- and has made it clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign.

The change of heart by Trump's former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to those against Manafort, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case.

"Rick Gates is going to change his plea to guilty," said a person with direct knowledge of the development, adding that the revised plea will be presented in federal court in Washington "within the next few days."

That individual and others who discussed the matter spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a judge's gag order restricting comments about the case to the news media or public. Gates' defense lawyer, Thomas C. Green, did not respond to messages left by phone and email. Peter Carr, a spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller, declined to comment. Mueller is heading the prosecutions of Gates and Manafort as part of the wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump or his aides committed crimes before, during or since the campaign.

The imminent change of Gates' plea follows negotiations over the last several weeks between Green and two of Mueller's prosecutors - senior assistant special counsels Andrew Weissmann and Greg D. Andres. According to a person familiar with those talks, Gates, a longtime political consultant, can expect "a substantial reduction in his sentence" if he fully cooperates with the investigation. He said Gates is likely to serve about 18 months in prison.

The delicate terms reached by the opposing lawyers, he said, will not be specified in writing: Gates "understands that the government may move to reduce his sentence if he substantially cooperates -- but it won't be spelled out."

One of the final discussion points has centered on exactly how much cash or other valuables -- derived from Gates' allegedly illegal activity -- that the government will require him to forfeit as part of the guilty plea.

Gates, who is married with four children, does not appear to be well positioned financially to sustain a high-powered legal defense. "He can't afford to pay it," said a lawyer who is involved with the investigation. "If you go to trial on this, that's $1 million to $1.5 million. Maybe more, if you need experts" to appear as witnesses.

The Oct. 27 indictment showed that prosecutors had amassed substantial documentation to support their charges that Manafort and Gates -- who were colleagues in political consulting for about a decade -- had engaged in a complex series of allegedly illegal transactions rooted in Ukraine. The indictment alleged that both men, who for years were unregistered agents of the Ukraine government, hid millions of dollars of Ukraine-based payments from U.S. authorities.

According to the indictment, Gates and Manafort "laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts" and evaded related U.S. taxes. If Manafort maintains his not-guilty plea and fights the charges at a trial, the testimony from Gates could provide prosecutors with first-person descriptions of much of the allegedly illegal conduct. Gates' testimony, said a person familiar with the pending guilty plea, would place a "cherry on top" of the government's already formidable case against Manafort.

The same individual said he did not believe Gates has information to offer Mueller's team that would "turn the screws on Trump." The president has repeatedly called the special counsel's investigation a "witch hunt."

Gates joined Trump's presidential campaign in June 2016, when the candidate hired Manafort as its chairman. At the Republican National Convention the next month, Gates directly handled the campaign's operations as Manafort's top aide.

Perhaps the most controversial step taken by Trump's campaign at the convention concerned how the U.S. should deal with the tense relations between Russia and Ukraine, which repudiated Moscow in a 2014 revolt. When a delegate proposed that the Republican platform call for "providing lethal defensive weapons" to Ukraine's military in its struggle against Russian-backed armed forces, the Trump campaign defeated the effort. Instead of U.S. weapons, the convention platform committee accepted the campaign's substitute language, which offered Ukraine "appropriate assistance."

In mid-August 2016, Trump fired Manafort after reports of possibly improper payments he had received from a pro-Russia political party aligned with his longtime client, Viktor Yanukovych, who was Ukraine's prime minister from 2010 to 2014.

Gates, however, remained with the Trump campaign through the election as a liaison to the Republican National Committee. He also assisted Trump's inaugural committee.

--By David Willman, Los Angeles TimesIn a Fox News interview, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he had no regrets for his decision to recuse himself from the Department of Justice investigation into ties between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

Sessions, the former Alabama U.S. senator, has come under fire from President Trump for removing himself from the probe but Sessions reiterated his position that, as a participant in Trump's campaign, he could not legally be a part of the investigation.

Sessions will appear on the Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. The show, which airs at 9 a.m., will show the full interview.

Fox News tweeted an excerpt of the interview with Sessions in which Bartiromo asked him if he had any regrets about the recusal.

"I believe I did the right thing, the only thing I could do," Sessions said. "I participated in this campaign and as such, under explicit regulations of the Department of Justice, no one can participate in the investigation of a campaign in which they were an active participant."

TOMORROW on "@SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo," Maria will talk to Attorney General Jeff Sessions - tune in at 10a ET on Fox News Channel! pic.twitter.com/aVfRr2jEl1  Fox News (@FoxNews) February 17, 2018

Sessions appeared on stage with Trump in a rally in Mobile in August 2015 in the early weeks of Trump's push for the White House. He formally endorsed Trump on Feb. 28, 2016 at a rally in Madison, then worked as an adviser with the campaign.

Sessions has also faced scrutiny for his communications with Russian officials during the campaign.

With Sessions' recusal, Robert Mueller was appointed as special prosecutor in the investigation. Mueller announced the indictments of 13 Russian officials in connection with the investigation earlier this week.Hector Posset, the ambassador of the Republic of Benin, cracked the seal on a bottle of gin as we neared the wreck.

Travelling aboard my boat, we had come up the Spanish River, through its confluence with the Mobile River to 12 Mile Island, following the exact path that the Clotilda, the last American slave ship, used to smuggle the final 110 slaves brought in bondage from Africa to the United States.

Posset arrived in Mobile two days after news broke that a burnt ship the size and age of the Clotilda had been found in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, the swamp where the captain claimed he set it afire in 1860. In a previous article, I relied on historical evidence and analysis by archaeologists to suggest that the 19th century wreck I found might be the Clotilda, which was burned after it arrived here with a last load of slaves from Benin.

I had been asked to take the ambassador upriver to the site by Dr. Sharon Ingram, chair of the state-sponsored Alabama Benin Trade and Cooperative Forum, so that he might offer libations and perform traditional rituals practiced in his homeland.

Floating a few feet from the hull of what may be the Clotilda, the ambassador, wearing a necktie and pinstripe suit, shook water and then gin from two bottles over the wreck. In low, forceful tones, he spoke directly to the wreck in a Beninese dialect, his voice often colored with anger. Then, taking a slug from the gin bottle, the ambassador began spraying mouthfuls of liquor over the wreck. Tears streamed from behind his sunglasses.

The moment was a profound one for Posset. Not only does he hail from Benin, once known as the Kingdom of Dahomey, where the Clotilda captives were first captured by fellow Africans and then sold to the Americans, but Posset is actually a descendant of the nation's royal family. By the 1800s, the King of Dahomey was making about a quarter of a million dollars a year selling Africans to Europeans, Americans and Brazilians, according to historical records. To put that number in perspective, a quarter of a million dollars in 1860 would be worth roughly $50 million today. The prosperous kingdom was notorious as a hub of the slave trade, and home to the door of no return, through which millions of slaves, including perhaps the Clotilda captives, passed as they were transferred to slave ships for the middle passage.

Asked to explain the words he spoke over the wreck, Posset covered his eyes for a moment as he regained composure and stifled a sob.

"I am just begging them to forgive us, because we sold them. Our forefathers sold their brothers and sisters. I am not the person to talk to them. No! May their souls rest in peace, perfect peace. They should forgive us. They should," Posset said, wiping tears from his cheeks. "Qualified people will come and talk to them in due time. I feel so sad."

Posset explained that the qualified people will be "voodoo priests," from Benin, who will come if the identity of the wreck is confirmed as the Clotilda. The ritual Posset performed was part of Benin's traditional religion, Vodun, which places great importance on the veneration of ancestors, who are believed to linger alongside the living. Vodun gave rise to the various forms of Voodoo that evolved in slave nations, such as Haiti, the United States, Brazil and Cuba.

Ambassador Hector Posset spills gin over the wreck believed to be the Clotilda, the last American slave ship. He was performing a Vodun ritual.

"I am a prince of Dahomey," Posset explained later. "It was my ancestors who did this. We have ancestors who came here to this country forced. Forcibly, they didn't choose. I am not insulting those who came here who were forced to come, because they were forced. I am insulting those who sold them back home. No means, no money, no articles, no stuff can buy life, but we sold our people. Brothers sold brothers and sisters. Fathers sold kids and wife. I will never blame those who came here. I will always beg them for forgiveness."

Posset said that even today, people in Benin do not like to sit beside a door when visiting friends.

"That was how you ended up sold. Your friend, your relative, he would already have sold you before he invited you over. He would sit you by the door so when they came at the appointed time, they opened the door and grabbed you. This was even how the heirs to the king would move ahead in line to the throne, selling off rivals," Posset said.

The journal of William Foster, the captain of the Clotilda, provides a detailed historical document regarding the slaving operations in Dahomey at the time of his journey.

"Having gotten ashore safely, I met with interpreter who kindly congratulated me and gave me in charge of three natives, who put me in a hammock with canopy and carried me into the city of Whyda, (modern day Ouidah) six miles distant: Upon arrival, I found splendid accommodations for traders. I spent the night in 'Merchant Exchange.' Having breakfasted early I with Cicerone sallied forth to see the city and transact my business with the Prince. Cicerone presented me to the ebony Prince, a man of 250 lbs.

"Presentation consisted of myself and fifty officials, all of whom fell on their knees in acknowledgement of His Majesty. We then partook of social drink, and then I told him my business, that I had nine thousand dollars in gold and merchandise and wanted to buy a cargo of negroes, for which I agreed to pay $100 per head for one hundred and twenty-five. After detaining me for eight days, I thought him purposing my capture..."

It is interesting that Foster feared capture. At the time, slavery was still legal in the U.S., though importation of slaves had been a crime since 1808. Most of the slave trade from Africa was focused on Brazil by 1860, which continued importing slaves until 1885. It is not hard to imagine that the King of Dahomey considered a double cross of an American he knew was breaking the laws of his home country.

"Having agreeably transacted affairs with Prince, we went to the warehouse where they had in confinement four thousand captives in a state of nudity from which they gave me liberty to select one hundred and twenty-five as mine, offering to brand them for me, from which I peremptorily forbid. Commenced taking on cargo of negroes, successfully securing on board one hundred and ten."

During his time in Dahomey, Foster passed a large square, which he recognized as a place of worship. He described it this way:

"A large square of ground with a wall ten-feet high upon which was covered with snakes. Trees in there were loaded with the repulsive things, reveling in their deified elation. Devotees attending had them wound around their necks and waists, and had the appearance of our rattlesnake. From thence I went to see the King of Dahomey."

Posset said that both Alabama and New Orleans figure prominently in stories passed down from parents and grandparents in Benin to their descendants regarding the slave era. Many ships left the Kingdom of Dahomey bound for Gulf Coast ports, and efforts have been underway for several years to reconnect descendants of slaves to their native lands. In fact, John Smith, a former mayor of Prichard, Alabama, insisted on being buried in Benin as part of this reconciliation.

"He is buried in Benin," Posset said. "This is my work now, bringing reconciliation."

Beginning in the late 1990s, the city of Prichard and the state of Alabama entered into various agreements with Benin to promote trade and reconnection between the Clotilda descendants and their native homeland. The captives brought aboard the Clotilda are the only group of African slaves who know precisely where they were taken from, precisely when it happened, the name of the ship that brought them, and where they ended up once in the United States.

Many of those aboard the Clotilda ultimately settled in a community they created near Mobile known as Africatown. The captives were freed just five years after they were enslaved, thanks to the end of the Civil War. The group, 110 strong, originally asked their captor, an Alabama steamboat captain and plantation owner named Timothy Meaher, to pay for passage back to Africa. After he refused, they appealed to the U.S. government, again to no avail. Ultimately, some members of the group bought a small piece of land north of Mobile from Meaher and created Africatown, where some of the descendants of the original slaves still live. They spoke their native tongue, farmed using traditional African methods, and ran their own school. They created a small piece of Africa in coastal Alabama. Today, Africatown suffers from profound neglect. Residents hope the possible discovery of the ship may bring some attention and prosperity to this unique piece of the nation's slavery history.

Posset said the possible discovery of the Clotilda was a landmark event.

"Should it be confirmed to be the Clotilda, you will see big people coming from Benin," Posset said. "I told the mayor of Prichard this morning, that for the first time in our 60 years of history in Benin, this is the first time we have a son of Ouidah as president. He is doing everything possible to reconnect us to our history. (Africatown) and Prichard, Alabama is one place. Brazil is another. We are working to reconnect, so we are hopeful this is the ship. It symbolizes many things for us."

Finding the Clotilda 44 Gallery: Finding the Clotilda

Ben Raines specializes in investigations and natural wonders. You can follow him via Facebook, Twitter at BenHRaines, and on Instagram. You can reach him via email at braines@al.com.

You can watch Ben's most recent documentary, The Underwater Forest, here on Youtube.A workshop about bias, "Strengthening Inclusion: Understanding Implicit Bias," will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Tuesday, March 13, in the business center at Cayuga Community College, 197 Franklin St., Auburn.

Dr. Paula Ioanide will talk about implicit bias: unconscious patterns of behavior and assumptions that may cause negative interactions, low expectations and unintended indignities in the workplace and/or community. Participants will learn about the impact of implicit bias and microaggressions, how to create spaces that foster equality and inclusiveness, and learn about local groups that address diversity.

Ioanide, a professor at Ithaca College, is the author of "The Emotional Politics of Racism: How Feelings Trump Facts in an Era of Colorblindness."

Registration is $25, and seats are limited. Registration is requested by March 6.

For more information, or to register, email admin@human-services.org.

Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0When Nancy Worley took over as the state Democratic Party's chairwoman in 2013, she arrived at the party offices for the first time to find a note from the landlord: Pay the rent or get out.

"I kept getting notices that the power would be turned off, and everything else because money had been borrowed repeatedly," recalled Worley, a former school teacher who served as Alabama secretary of state from 2003-2007.

"Broke. Broke. Broke," became an plea Worley made before the Democratic board that May, warning that the party was about $750,000 in debt.

Today, the party might not be "broke," but it still grapples with debt, and lacks the resources and dollars to vigorously fuel the campaigns of its 2018 candidates. Even after the stunning win by Doug Jones in the U.S. Senate election, contributions lag considerably behind those flowing to Alabama Republicans.

Jones, on Monday, said he believes the party is in a better state today than it was before the Dec. 12 special U.S. Senate election.

But Alabama historian Wayne Flynt minces no words in his description of the state party. He said that it's akin to a "corpse."

According to Flynt and others, an "alternative structure" is forming, rooted in populism and powered by newcomers, women and savvy political players who are prepared to make inroads in the ruby-red state.

"The collapse of the party structure from the top down may not be a bad thing," said Flynt, a professor emeritus in the history department at Auburn University.

'Nancy and Joe'

But the Alabama Democratic Party, as a political entity, hasn't vanished thus far. In fact, it's longtime structure appears to be very much intact.

The top leaders are Worley and Joe Reed, president of the Alabama Democratic Conference - a stalwart, yet oft-criticized boss of the minority wing of the Democratic Party. Critics have blamed the duo for a lack of election victories this past decade despite scandals bringing down a range of GOP notables.

Divisions within the party have become public spectacles at times. Last February, some of the county chairs - who derisively refer to the state party as "Nancy and Joe" - blamed the two for electoral failures. Worley and Reed, in turn, heaped blame on the county leaders.

Meanwhile, former Alabama House Minority Leader Craig Ford of Gadsden had called on Reed and Worley to step down. Ford announced earlier this month that he will seek a state Senate seat as an independent.

No changes in state party hierarchy will be explored until at least August, when the state Executive Committee, whose members will be determined in the June 5 primary, are seated.

"Our state party, we need a change in leadership," said Mike Smith, the chairman of the Limestone Democratic Party. Smith said he was threatened with arrest during the state Executive Committee meeting in Montgomery a year ago. "When we elect new leadership in August, I expect things will get better."

Whether a change occurs remains to be seen. Worley said that "it's a little early" to decide whether she wants to continue as chair. "I am being very honest, I don't know. I'll have to look at how far the party has gone and how far it needs to go and how I can contribute to that as a leader or as a follower."

Worley has defenders in the party who praise her dedication and resolve. They say that Worley is often at the Montgomery office late into the night, and stays available to discuss party politics with candidates and county chairs who reach out to her.

"She has a four-year term," pointed out Ann Green, chairwoman of the Etowah County Democrats who has had her differences with the state party leaders. "I can call Nancy Worley to talk to her about any problems or issues I have. We are nice to one another. But when we are in those meetings, they are all business."

Reed is Worley's biggest defender, crediting her for ensuring that the party stayed solvent.

"She's kept the doors open," said Reed. "Those who want to fuss about Nancy, they have their own reasons. They have their own reasons but she has been an effective and faithful Democratic Party chair. What the next committee does about that, it will be up to the committee."

'Tough decisions'

One party woe is that it can give relatively little to its candidates running for county commission seats or other local offices.

Not only are contributions to the Alabama Democratic Party meager in comparison with the Alabama GOP, they also lag the collections of various Democratic parties elsewhere in the Deep South.

Last year, Alabama Democrats reported $306,862 in receipts, matched against disbursements of $235,338, according to Federal Election Commission data. In 2013, Worley's first year as chair, the party had $276,005 in receipts and $260,275 in disbursements after starting the year $2,702 in the red.

By contrast,

-The Alabama Republican Party report for 2017 showed $1.03 million in receipts and $942,780 in disbursements.

--South Carolina Democrats reported $726,362 in receipts last year and $734,866 in disbursements.

- Tennessee Democrats reported $832,354 in receipts to $845,537 in disbursements.

Worley, however, said that better days are ahead. She said the party is whittling away at outstanding debt that is just below $500,000, making monthly payments to two banks.

"We've seen an improvement in the financial condition and we have a number of people who contribute, and they may contribute small amounts," she said.

Inside the office, Worley said she's made some small but meaningful cuts. Early in her term, Worley said her office scrapped the cleaning budget, for example, and began reusing used paper for taking notes.

Worley said the state party has two full-time employees. She and Reed and are both volunteers, she said.

"We have to make tough decisions and that doesn't always make people happy," she said. "Every week there is someone in here wanting money for something or wanting to do some work for us, and while it may be good, it's not something that we need to expend thousands and thousands of dollars on."

Last year, as national attention riveted on Doug Jones and his political battle with Republican Roy Moore, the Democratic nominee's campaign raised nearly $22 million. A sizable portion of that money came from out-of-state donors.

Worley lamented that the state party couldn't pitch in which "hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said that it worked at the street level, such as buying and ferrying yard signs to counties.

'Grassroots'

At present, in the Statehouse halls, there seems to be little thought that that the state party can be any kind of campaign force in 2018. Instead, the narrative among Alabama Democratic lawmakers is for a more grassroots push.

"You tell me when has there ever been a strong Democratic Party?" said House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville. "The Democratic Party has never had any strong infrastructure. You always had four to five people calling the shots ... Party bosses,"

Daniels and other Democrats, sensing a wave of victories elsewhere in the U.S. this November, are focused on get-out-the-vote efforts. They are betting on a national Democratic surge to have a spillover effect here.

"The message of the Doug Jones victory is that Alabama is a moderate state," said state Rep. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. "It's not an extreme right state. It's not an extreme left state. That's what we are."

Said Daniels: "Organizing at the grassroots level is the most effective organizing. When you are able to run on local issues with a platform that really connects with people, I think that is effective campaigning."

To historian Flynt, the Democrats can learn from a lesson from the story of Rueben Kolb, who rode a wave of economic populism nearly to the Governor's Mansion in the late 1800s.

At that time, Alabama was, for all practical purposes, a one-party Democratic state. But that party had its own fierce factions. Kolb campaigned on behalf of workers and poor farmers - both black and white. But he lost gubernatorial races in 1892 and 1894, thanks to the party's manipulation of votes in the Black Belt region.

"The rational political historian in me says, 'Oh Lord, the Democrats are a disaster and there is no party at the state level,'" said Flynt. "But there is another part of me that goes back into my interest of the grassroots and ordinary people rising up as they did in the populist movement in the 1890s. Rueben became a charismatic and unifying."

Flynt senses Democratic populism resurfacing this year, and cited the candidacy of 29-year-old Mallory Hagan, who won the Miss America contest in 2013. Hagan, who lives in Opelika, is running against 15-year incumbent Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, in Alabama's 3rd Congressional District.

"She is all passion and Mike has taken this district for granted," said Flynt, who is providing Hagan with policy briefings. "She'll be a galvanizing political candidate. She's such an alternative to Mike Rogers."

Richard Fording, a political science professor at the University of Alabama, said the grassroots emergence during the Jones campaign hinted at a future Alabama Democratic Party based on a "local-level party infrastructure in this state."

"I do think a lot of people were empowered after the Doug Jones victory and when that happens, there tends to be some residue left from grassroots mobilization like that and it does tend to become organizational semi-permanent in some way," Fording said.

He added, "I don't see things changing quickly within the state Democratic Party. The only vehicle I know where it could go is to try and re-establish their grassroots presence."

Jones, himself, said the strategy in 2018 needs to be similar to his 2017 campaign: Stick to the issues. "People are tired of the divisions. They are absolutely tired of all the hate and the people who are throwing stones. They want to see people working together."

The localized efforts may be bearing fruit in recruiting candidates. For instance, in Baldwin County -- a conservative Republican stronghold for decades - more Democrats are running for state and county offices than in recent memory.

A year ago, all but three of 32 slots on the Baldwin County Democratic committee were open, according to Heather Brown, vice chair of the Baldwin Democrats. This year, she anticipates half of the spots being filled.

In the five northernmost counties that comprise the 5th Congressional District, 17 Democrats have qualified to run for 25 seats. That's a telling improvement from 2014, when only four Democrats qualified.

Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster in Montgomery, said the greatest amount of energy is likely to occur in areas where Jones defeated Moore by garnering 55 percent of the vote or more. "That is where the energy will be and with the next crop of Democratic candidates and where you'll see this movement moving forward," McCrary said.

'Blue wave'?

Michael Hoyt, who chairs the Baldwin County GOP, acknowledged that Democrats are "a bit energized" following the Jones win.

"My guess is the Doug Jones victory is not going to have a lot of coattails for Democrats in Baldwin County," Hoyt said, noting that Moore won about 59 percent of the county vote. "I don't expect there to be a blue wave in Baldwin County. There are no numbers to support it."

Terry Lathan, chairwoman of the Alabama Republican Party, is equally skeptical of a Democratic surge at the state level. After all, this is the state where President Donald Trump enjoys some of his highest approval ratings.

"Across the state, it seems to be the consensus, even among Democrats, that the Senate race was a 'one and done,'" she said. "The circumstances surrounding the race wasn't about a red state now suddenly blue."

She said that Democrats took to social media to "beg for candidates" in 2018. Republicans, however, "literally have hundreds of candidates across the state," she said. Lathan said that recent GOP candidate school training session was overwhelmed by "a full capacity crowd."

"With all of the crush of media and the $50 million spent for the Senate race, mostly from out-of-state, we still almost won," Lathan said. "I'm sure there is some excitement for them due to the Senate win, but the question is does that transfer over to the county, state and congressional races? Is there millions of dollars coming in? Is the data infrastructure there to duplicate December 12? We think it is not, so we will use our mega data information and deep bench of great candidates to work hard and win."

In fact, Republicans are already winning the campaign contribution battles in most political races, highlighted by the governor's contest. Gov. Kay Ivey has raised over $2.4 million; Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle has generated more than $1.5 million. The top two Democrats in that race - former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Sue Bell Cobb and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox - have both raised under $400,000 each.

Cobb and Maddox, in statements about the Democratic Party, agreed on the need for a more expansive presence on the grassroots level.

"It is clear that the Democratic Party is more than just an office in Montgomery," said Maddox. "The thousands of people knocking on doors, making phone calls, utilizing social media and tirelessly volunteering are the Democratic Party."

Cobb said that younger voters are the key for Alabama Democrats. She also said that county organizations, which "vary greatly in size and substance," are seeing increases in numbers.

Worley, too, said she's excited by the youth vote, describing it as a sign of activism that Democrats haven't seen in a long time.

Even if the victories don't come in November, she said, it's important to build the Democratic turnout, showing that the party is in the fight.

"If a person loses in Baldwin County but Baldwin County has increased its percentage of Democratic voters, that really helps the candidates running statewide," Worley said.

She added, "Every single vote they add is important to another race."

This story was updated at 8:18 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018, to include comments from U.S. Senator Doug Jones.Dana Hall McCain writes about faith, culture and politics for AL.com. Follow her on Twitter @dhmccain for thoughts on these topics and more.

I'm a fiscal and social conservative. This has been the case since I watched the 1980 Republican National Convention on TV at age six. As we watched, I asked Daddy who we were for and he said Reagan. I asked why, and he told me about small government, lower taxes, and social policies that matched the moral standards I learned about in Sunday School.

And just like that, it was on.

Daddy had been a Republican since way before it was cool in Alabama, and even attended the 1968 national convention in Miami. (On that trip, he somehow wound up with the job of shepherding a live elephant rented by the RNC and his two Pakistani trainers around the city. Imagine a young man who'd seldom been off Sand Mountain, pulling an elephant in a trailer in Miami traffic while the two trainers argued passionately in an unknown tongue. It is the stuff of family legend.) Over the course of three decades, Daddy watched the south's Dixiecrats slowly change parties, grasping the wave of the Reagan Revolution to survive.

I remember the Bush-Quayle 1992 campaign, when my Auburn sorority put a Bush campaign sign in every single window on the hall, making the building look like campaign headquarters from the outside. When my friend Lisbeth got a personal call from legendary North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, expressing his delight that she'd be joining his staff as an intern over the summer, we played that message over and over on the answering machine, jumping up and down and giggling. Jesse Helms! THE Jesse Helms!

We weren't just Republicans. We were nerds about it.

I did two back-to-back internships on the right side of the aisle in DC myself, on the heels of the '94 midterms in which the party grabbed control of Congress and House Speaker Newt Gingrich rolled out the Contract With America. It was an exhilarating time. Every young Republican was absolutely high on life, certain that we were on the cusp of righting all the wrongs of mankind. I loved to debate the few lefties I encountered. I once made a fellow college student and Democrat from Brandeis University cry in an after work debate about entitlement reform at a watering hole called the Hawk 'n' Dove.

I wasn't just a Republican. I was obnoxious about it.

So why am giving my party a lot of suspicious side-eye these days? First off, I'll admit that my understanding of our national challenges and possible solutions has become more nuanced and more complex as I've grown in my relationship with Christ. As a young person, I was able to easily compartmentalize my faith apart from my political positions. But nothing will wreck a neat set of political talking points like the whole Jesus. And he won't even apologize.

I still think we need to minimize the role of government and encourage personal responsibility. I still think deficit spending is the stuff of fools (because math). I still think that life from conception to the grave is holy and sacred and created in the image of God.

But the areas in which my party seems to thrive on the exploitation of fear (looking at you, immigration reform) runs completely against the grain of my faith. We're told more than 30 times in scripture to resist fear. It's seldom the soil from which principled, wise, noble decisions spring.

I am dismayed by our total surrender on the importance of character in leadership. I remember when we said Bill Clinton's lack of integrity disqualified him as a leader of anything more consequential than a lemonade stand. I believed that and still do. A person who will lie to his spouse surely won't have a problem winking into the camera and lying to me. Liars lie.

And I am utterly confused by massive proposed infrastructure packages with no clear source of funding, and tax cuts which aren't paid for by spending cuts. It's like we watched Dems be stupid with money for decades and then stood up in 2017 and said, "Hold my beer."

Long story short, I'm concerned about the future of my party. And I'm far from the only one. Whether or not I stay around for the long haul will depend largely on whether or not we find a way to become more like the party of Lincoln and Reagan and less like a reactionary rabble. Whether we return to our commitment to nominating people who actually possess family values to represent the Family Values Party. Whether we remember to bring a calculator to budget talks.

Maybe this fever will break and the GOP will remember the principles they were built on. Only time will tell.Artists in Chinas Dafen village once produced 60 percent of new oil paintings worldwide, but Dafen is now under threat.

Reproducing works by famous artists is big business, and for more than 20 years, Dafen oil painting village in southern China has been at the centre of the global trade in art reproductions.

Known as the worlds oil painting factory, in its heyday Dafen produced 60 percent of all new oil paintings available worldwide, though this status has declined somewhat since the 2008 global financial crisis.

A suburb of Shenzhen in Chinas Guangdong province, Dafen became associated with oil painting in the late 1980s when Huang Jiang, a painter and businessman from Hong Kong, took up residence in the village.

Huang brought with him a band of painters and art students who began reproducing works by famous Western artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt for the global market.

The paintings were purchased by a range of clients  from retailers, hotels and conference centres to private collectors and gallery owners  and the village soon turned into a bustling city.

Residents often eat, sleep and paint in a single room [Haibo Yu/Kiki Tianqi Yu]

Today, around 8,000 people live in Dafen, including artists, frame makers, agents, and their families.

There is little distinction between home and the office, with one room serving as a studio, bedroom, playroom and paintings hung up next to clothes in outdoor spaces.

Dafen has become a tourist destination for those eager to get their hands on a mock-masterpiece or see how art is produced on an industrial scale.

Some workshops even use an assembly line-style system, with each artist painting a small section of a larger piece, such as a tree or an eye, before passing the painting on.

For some, studying and copying the worlds greatest artists is a way out of rural poverty; those who make successful business links are able to take on apprentices and open their own galleries in the village, but the replica industry is by no means secure.

Competition is fierce and artists in Dafen sell their work for relatively low prices, often to gallery owners who resell the paintings abroad at a much higher price.

In the last decade, however, change has been sweeping through Dafen in more ways than one.

When the global financial crisis struck in 2008, many in Dafen were forced to not only find new clients as Western demand declined but also, in some cases, to completely change their style of painting.

Wealthy domestic buyers sought pieces that reflected their own culture, prompting an increase in Dafens production of Chinese flowers and portraits of cultural icons, such as Mao Zedong.

In the wake of these changes, some artists were laid off and had to set up studios in alleyways due to increasing rent and a lack of space.

Development also poses a threat to artists livelihoods. Local government have proposed a plan to capitalise on Dafens appeal as a tourist destination by turning the village into an art park  removing many buildings currently occupied by painters in the process.

In May 2017, the Shenzhen government issued a statement citing 148 sites in Dafen as severe fire hazards. That summer, a local neighbourhood committee sent representatives to clear the fire safety hazards, much to the dismay of residents who saw their workplaces destroyed.

But not all change has been negative. An increasing number have begun using the skills theyve learned from producing replicas to make their own artwork, alongside their copy work.

While Dafen and its artists have successfully adapted to survive a raft of global, local and personal challenges, the future of this unique village and its inhabitants remains in question.Tehran and New Delhi sign nine pacts, including lease of Chabahar Port to Indian company, during Rouhanis India trip.

New Delhi, India  Iran and India have inked nine agreements, including leasing part of the Iranian port of Chabahar to an Indian company, after substantive bilateral talks between the Indian prime minister and the Iranian president in New Delhi.

We had detailed discussions on ways to further deepen cooperation between India and Iran, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Saturday, after fruitful talks with President Hassan Rouhani.

Had fruitful talks with President @HassanRouhani. We had detailed discussions on ways to further deepen cooperation between India and Iran. pic.twitter.com/ocLQwCClU5  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 17, 2018

A joint statement described the Chabahar Port, which is being developed with funding from India, as a golden gateway that will help in reaching out to land-locked Afghanistan and central Asia.

During the joint press conference, Rouhani spoke on the importance of rail links from Chabahar to Zahedan, near the Afghan border.

Last year, New Delhi successfully sent shipments of wheat assistance to Afghanistan through Chabahar Port, bypassing archrival, Pakistan. Islamabad does not allow New Delhi to use its land route to reach Afghanistan.

Chabahar offers India connectivity to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Along with Bandar Abbas port, it also offers India a means of multimodal connectivity all the way to Europe, said Manoj Joshi, senior analyst at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a think-tank based in New Delhi.

This enables India to bypass the Pakistan blockade and play a significant role in Central Asia and Afghanistan. It also helps to keep Pakistan off-balance with regard to India, Joshi told Al Jazeera.

Belt and Road Initiative

New Delhi has already committed $500m to the Chabahar Port, outside of the Gulf of Hormuz  site of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. The port is significant for India, as it would provide new sea-trading routes and connectivity to Afghanistan, aiming to parallel Chinas growing presence in the region.

Chabahar is located about 140km from Pakistans Gwadar port, which is being developed with Chinese help as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

India's ability to forge independent bilateral relations sans overlapping interests should work here. The task before Indian diplomacy is to use its good offices and weight to promote political accommodation. Sujata Ashwarya, foreign policy expert

Hadi Haqshenas, deputy head of Irans Ports and Maritime Organisation, said, Chabahars development is the most important maritime connectivity cooperation between Tehran and New Delhi.

While, in Pakistan, the Chinese invested in the development of the Port of Gwadar; in Chabahar, part of the investment was brought by India. So these two ports, which are located at a short distance from each other, can help connectivity from India and China to Central Asia and vice-versa, Haqshenas told Al Jazeera.

On Saturday, Rouhani was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace in New Delhi.

Both India and Iran want to see a peaceful, stable Afghanistan, Modi said at a joint press conference with Rouhani, underscoring New Delhis focus on Kabul.

An official joint statement also referred to strengthening India-Iran-Afghanistan trilateral consultations. The three nations had signed a trilateral transit agreement during Modis visit to Tehran in May 2016.

Trade ties between the two countries have been dominated by Indian import of Iranian crude oil. India is the second largest buyer of Iranian crude after China.

According to Indias Foreign Ministry, India-Iran bilateral trade during the fiscal year 2016-17 reached $12.89bn.

Uncertainty over the nuclear deal

Rouhanis three-day trip  the first by an Iranian president in 10 years  comes after his country witnessed one of its biggest protests in years over economic woes.

The uncertainty over the fate of the nuclear deal Tehran signed with the West in 2015 poses a big challenge to Indian foreign policy. Donald Trump, the US president, has decertified the deal that promised to lift crippling economic sanctions in return for limiting the countrys controversial nuclear programme.

In a big diplomatic boost, however, Tehran was able to get New Delhis backing on the nuclear deal, after India reaffirmed its support for full and effective implementation of the deal.

Speaking at an ORF event in New Delhi, the Iranian president took aim at the US, saying that haggling over the nuclear deal was ridiculous.

After the signing [of the Nuclear Agreement], there is no place for haggling. It is ridiculous, he said.

Experts warn that a US exit from the deal would affect Indias planned investments in Iran.

If the US pulls out, it will have many consequences. China and Russia wont accept it, and so India will have to carefully nuance its stand because it would not want to rub the US the wrong way either. It will also dampen Indias ardour to invest in Iran, Joshi said.

Israel, one of the closest US allies in the region, has also been vocal against the nuclear deal, and considers the Shia government in Tehran its biggest security threat. Last week, it bombed what it called Iranian military bases inside Syria.

But Sujata Ashwarya, author of India-Iran Relations, says Indias bilateral interests in the region serve distinct sets of interests.

Israel is a key partner for arms import and defence technology as well as in counterterrorism initiatives, said Ashwarya, Professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies of Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi.

On the other hand, our relations with Iran, apart from being animated by the familiarity and stability of historical ties, are crucial for access to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port, and import of crude oil which is a significant seven percent and not immediately replaceable, she said.

Sectarian strife

Syria has been wracked by violence after a largely peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assads regime regressed into bloody conflict, involving regional powers and a proxy war.

Irans backing of Assad, Houthi rebels in Yemen and the armed Hezbollah group in Lebanon have heightened tension with Sunni countries in the region.

One of the biggest challenges for India is to negotiate the newly emerging faultlines in the region, said Aishwarya.

The Sunni Arab countries of the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, are aligned against Shia-majority Iran, in cohort with Israel. India has a dynamic commercial partnership with Arab Gulf states. The region is also critical to Indias energy security.

Indias ability to forge independent bilateral relations sans overlapping interests should work here. The task before Indian diplomacy is to use its good offices and weight to promote political accommodation, she added.

The two leaders stressed the historic and cultural relations between the two countries.

Relations between the two countries go beyond trade and business; they go back in history, Rouhani said.

The Iranian president began his trip from Hyderabad, the largely Muslim capital of southern Telangana State, where he met religious leaders and visited Islamic sites.

He offered Friday prayers at a 17th-century Sunni mosque in the city, and later urged Muslim solidarity and compassion for humankind across the world.

They all can be compared to streams which come from a single spring and all these streams eventually into one ocean, he said, referring to sectarianism that divides the Muslim world into Shia and Sunnis  a schism linked to the battle for power, resources and territory in the Middle East.

Ties with the OPEC producer have both economic and geopolitical significance for New Delhi.

India recognises Iran as a very major power in the Gulf, said Meena Singhroy, Coordinator at the West Asia Centre of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.

Geographical proximity of Iran, its strategic location (for various connectivity projects in the region) and hydrocarbon resources make Iran an extremely significant country for India, she told Al Jazeera.

Zeenat Saberin reported from New Delhi and Saeed Jalili contributed from Tehran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was accorded a warm welcome [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]



A dozen foreign women who joined ISIL husbands while fighting in Iraq sentenced by a court in Baghdad.

A Turkish woman was sentenced to death and 11 other foreign widows to life in jail by an Iraqi court, for their involvement with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

The 12 women  11 Turks and an Azeri, some of whom appeared at the court in Baghdad nursing infants  were convicted on Sunday, despite pleas they had been duped or forced by their husbands to join them in Iraq.

The women, aged between 20 and 50, were all arrested in Mosul or Tal Afar, where their husbands were killed as Iraqi forces recaptured the northern cities from ISIL last year.

Only the woman condemned to death, speaking through an interpreter, acknowledged she willingly travelled to Iraq with her husband and their children.

We had to leave Turkey because my husband was a wanted man. I wanted to live in an Islamic state where sharia (Islamic law) is the law of the land, she said.

But I regret having come, said the 48-year-old Turkish woman, whose husband and two sons were killed in air attacks.





She broke down in tears, while another Turk almost fainted.

Duped?

The state-appointed defence lawyers argued the women had all been duped into coming to Iraq and were not involved in any acts of violence.

But they were found guilty under Article 4 of Iraqs anti-terrorism law against any person who commits, incites, plans, finances or assists in acts of terrorism, and for illegal entry into the country.

I got to know my husband through the internet. He proposed we meet in Turkey, but an intermediary there told me he would drive me to my future husband, without saying where, said Angie Omrane, the Azeri woman.

I thought we were staying in Turkey, but I found myself in Syria and then my husband took me to Iraq.

Leila, one of the Turkish women, said: My husband forced me to come to Iraq by threatening to take away my two-year-old son if I didnt follow him. I didnt take part in any violent action. I stayed at home the whole time.

A judicial source said the sentencing of the women by a three-judge panel had followed weeks or even months of questioning. They have one month to lodge an appeal.

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A total of 509 foreign women, including 300 Turks, are being held in Iraq, with 813 children, a security source told AFP news agency.

Germanys ISIL teen

German media, citing judicial sources, reported on Sunday that a German teenager identified as Linda W was sentenced to six years in prison for her involvement with ISIL.

The seventeen-year-old travelled from Germany to Iraq via Turkey and Syria in mid-2016 and married an ISIL fighter from Chechnya.

She expressed regret at joining ISIL, in an interview after her arrest in Mosul last summer.

I want to go home to my family. I want to get out of the war, away from the weapons, the noise. I dont know how I came up with such a dumb idea. Ive completely ruined my life, she said.Three-year plan aims to bring 400,000 people out of poverty in the region amid concerns of a rise in armed groups.

China plans to pull 400,000 people out of dire poverty this year in its restive Xinjiang region as the central government fears a rise in the ranks of local armed groups.

A three-year poverty eradication plan will focus on the northwestern regions 22 poorest counties, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

China launched a major security operation in the Muslim-majority territory in response to deadly violence that erupted in recent years that Beijing blames on ethnic Uighur separatists.

Xinjiang is home to about 10 million Uighur Muslims who say they routinely face discrimination along with cultural and religious repression. Beijing denies the allegations.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Xinjiang in violence between Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, and migrants from the Han Chinese ethnic majority, especially in the Uighur dominated southern part of Xinjiang.

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Fears have been raised that some Uighurs may have joined armed groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known ISIS) fighting in Syria and Iraq. ISIL released a video last year purportedly showing Uighur fighters training in Iraq and vowing to strike targets in China.

Xinhua did not say how much Chinas government will spend on the anti-poverty initiative. More than $960m was spent to combat poverty last year, with about 80 percent of the funds earmarked for four impoverished prefectures: Kashgar, Hotan, Kizilsu and Aksu.

Chinese officials will be sent to 192 areas in the four counties and work until 2020 to bring people out of poverty.

The drive is part of a broader push by Chinas ruling Communist Party to tackle rural poverty and to raise the annual income of citizens above the official poverty line of $362 by 2020.

Chinas gross domestic product per person is $8,123, according to the World Bank. China brought nearly 13 million rural people out of poverty in 2017.Fears over Zimbabwe opposition infighting

Church services have been held for Morgan Tsvangirai, a former opposition leader in Zimbabwe, who died earlier this week. He passed away after a long battle with cancer.Iran deflected accusations by Saudi Arabia and Israel that it was destabilising the Middle East, calling the two US client states who were trying to gloss over their poor choices and strategic blunders.

Saudi Arabias Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in blaming Iran for rising regional tensions, at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.

Jubeir called for fundamental change in the Iranian regime after Netanyahu labelled Iran as the greatest threat to the world and accused it of trying to impose an empire across the Middle East.

Mohammed Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister, said in his speech that criticism of his countrys policies in the Middle East had become obsessive and denied attempts to become a hegemon.

The US and its local clients in our region are suffering from the consequences of their own wrong choices, said Zarif. But they use this and other fora to revive the hysteria on Irans foreign policy and try to obscure its realities.





Zarifs list of such poor choices included backing US support for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, the US invasion of Iraq to remove Hussein in 2003, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen.

The war of words came in the wake of the most serious confrontation between Israel and Iran in recent years, when Israel launched large scale raids against Iranian targets inside Syria on February 10, after accusing Tehran of sending an unmanned drone into its airspace from Syria.

Israel fears Iran could use Syrian territory to stage attacks or transfer weapons to the Lebanese Shia group, Hezbollah. Iran began intervening in Syrias civil war in support of President Bashar al-Assad in 2015.

Irans involvement in the long-running wars in Syria and Yemen has also angered its regional rival, Saudi Arabia, which is fighting against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Proxy conflicts

Jubeir said problems in the Middle East began with the Iranian revolution of 1979, which he said unleashed sectarianism in the region.

The events of 1979 led to the establishment of Hezbollah, which is the worlds most dangerous terrorist organisation, Jubeir said. He then condemned Iran for arming the Houthis, a claim Tehran has previously denied.

We didnt attack Iran, Jubeir said. Iran is the one that is attacking us. Iran has started to undermine Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, including countries in Africa.

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu compared Iran to Nazi Germany, saying it advocates master faith as the Nazis advocated master race.

Holding up a piece of what he said was the Iranian drone shot down over Israeli airspace, Netanyahu also urged global action against Iran.

We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves, and we will act if necessary not just against Irans proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself, the Israeli leader warned.





Zarif dismissed Netanyahus speech as a cartoonish stunt that did not deserve a response.

He called for a new security approach in the Gulf region based on dialogue.

We want a strong region, we do not want to be the hegemon in the region as we believe the era of hegemony is long past  regionally as well as globally, he said.

A strong region where small and large nations  even those with historical rivalries  can contribute to stability.

Everybody to blame

Andreas Kreig, a defence and security analyst, told Al Jazeera there was a strategic alignment between former foes, Israel and Saudi Arabia, vis-a-vis Iran.

Theres a lot of tension in the Middle East and the tension now is not so much between Israel and the Arab world, but more between those who support Iran and those who are against Iran, said Kreig.

The Saudis are now on the side of the Israelis, trying to somewhat gather support, especially in Washington, DC, for a potential preliminary attack against Iran.

Israel and Saudi Arabias speeches were aimed at garnering support from neoconservatives and Republicans in the US, Kreig said.

Iran has been cast in the role of the bad guy when everybody is to blame for where we are at the moment, and what is needed is dialogue rather than confrontation.Kosovo politicians murder overshadows independence celebrations

The killing of a prominent Kosovo Serb politician last month in the town of Mitrovica highlights the increasing lawlessness in the Serb-dominated region.Kuwait: Death of Filipina maid highlights abuse of workers

The body of a Filipina maid found in a freezer in Kuwait last week has highlighted the mistreatment of some domestic workers in the Gulf.Tom Kime, the bank's president, said he is happy with the Sennett branch's location, as drivers can get in through both Grant Avenue and Mutton Hill Road. Kime declined to say how much the project cost, beyond saying it was a "significant investment." Kime believes other banks are using locations smaller than the Sennett branch's building, with fewer staff.

Kime said the town of Sennett was "great" to work with for the project, and said he's happy with how much he believes Auburn has developed over the last few years.

"One of the thing that attracted us is how much Auburn is working (to) continue to improve itself," Kime said. "We like to come into communities that are working hard at that, we like to help with that," Kime said.

Ron Tunney, who stopped to check out the opening, said he was impressed with what he saw, from the wood trim of the building to a large clock up by the ceiling, and noted he spotted features at the Sennett branch he had never seen at other banks, such as the building's rafters, which he guessed are made from knotty pine. While he feels many banks look old-fashioned, he appreciates the "festive" look of the Sennett branch.

"This is for the future and not for the past," Tunney said.

Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.

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Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.War of words escalates as Israeli PM says Iran advocates master faith like Nazi Germany used to advocate master race.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, has labelled Iran the greatest threat to the world in his address to the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Comparing Iran to Nazi Germany, Netanyahu said on Sunday that Iran advocates master faith just like Nazi Germany used to advocate master race.

The commander of the Revolutionary Guard, [Mohammad] Ali Jafari, said: We are on the path to the rule of Islam worldwide  I think it is in my judgement the greatest threat to our world, he said.

Listing the countries in which he said Iran was a troublemaker, he said nowhere is Irans belligerent ambitions clearer than in Syria.

There, Iran hopes to complete a contiguous empire, linking Tehran to Tartus, the Caspian to the Mediterranean, he said, adding that Israel would continue to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent presence in Syria.

Israel will continue to act to prevent Iran from establishing another terror base from which to threaten Israel, he said.

We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary not just against Irans proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself.

Speaking at the conference later on Sunday, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian foreign minister, said cartoonish attacks on Iran did not deserve a response.

You were the audience for a cartoonish circus just this morning which does not even deserve the dignity of a response, he said.

An Israeli fighter jet was shot down earlier in February [Ronen Zvulun/Reuters]

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Munich, said the recent clashes were a serious development that could lead to more escalation.

He was referring to a confrontation earlier this month between Israel and Iran in Syria that saw the Israeli military shoot down what it called an Iranian drone over occupied Golan Heights and carry out air raids against Iranian sites deep in Syria.

The development resulted in the downing of an Israeli fighter jet without any casualties.

Mahjoob Zweiri, associate professor in contemporary history of the Middle East at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu was obsessed with Iran.

Over the last 15 years, every week he is making a statement on Iran, he said.

Todays speech that compared Iran with Nazi Germany was a very strong statement. He is using the political anti-Israeli rhetoric of Iran in his argument that Iran should be reined in.

In his speech, Netanyahu accused Iran of openly threatening to annihilate Israel with its six million Jews.

Iran seeks to dominate our region, the Middle East, and seeks to dominate the world through aggression and terror, Netanyahu said.

He said Iran was developing ballistic missiles to reach deep into Europe and the United States as well.

Once armed with nuclear weapons, Irans aggression will be unchecked and it will encompass the entire world, he said.

He also criticised the nuclear deal signed with Iran by the world leaders in 2015, saying the agreement that was seen as appeasement has only emboldened the regime and brought war closer.Senior executives from Israeli telecommunications giant with links to Netanyahu arrested as part of ongoing probe.

Israeli police have arrested several senior executives from Bezeq, the countrys biggest telecommunications company, as part of a probe investigating the companys ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

New information revealed by the Israel Securities Authorities (ISA) led to the arrest of the officials, which include two close associates of Netanyahu  but a gag order in place has not allowed for further details to be released.

Investigators are looking into allegations that the telecommunications giant received benefits for providing positive media coverage of the prime minister.





Netanyahus associate Shlomo Filber, director-general of Israels communications ministry, is accused of providing Bezeq with favourable treatment. Filber is alleged to have provided Bezeq with confidential documents.

The corruption case, known as case 4,000, is the fourth of its kind in which Netanyahu is a suspect. As of Sunday, both the police and the ISA are working together on the case.

The investigation is also looking into Netanyahus relationship with Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder of Bezeq.

The telecommunications company also owns the Israeli news website, Walla.

According to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, Wallas chief executive is expected to be a key witness in the Bezeq case.

Last week, Israeli police recommended the incitement of Netanyahu for bribery.

This recommendation is at the more serious end of the spectrum of charges expected to be levelled against Netanyahu in two criminal investigations that have been ongoing for more than a year.

Some of the biggest charges the Israeli police is accusing him of include Netanyahu accepting gifts from wealthy businessmen worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In another case, police allege that he tried to strike a deal with Israels second largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

His wife and the countrys first last, Sara Netanyahu, has been questioned over allegations of using public funds for private expenses as well.

Netanyahu, who has denied wrongdoing and pledged to stay in office regardless, has been questioned several times by police since the start of 2017.Netanyahu warns Iran over drone

A tense exchange unfolded at a major security conference in Munich on Sunday, when Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again scolded Iran, which he described as the largest threat to Middle East security.Justice ministry says no evidence of their involvement with the armed group, after some detainees were held for years.

Nearly 500 Boko Haram suspects have been released by a Nigerian court citing a lack of evidence, with some detainees held for years without charge.

The 475 suspects will be returned to their home states for proper rehabilitation before being sent back to their families, a justice ministry statement said on Sunday.

Those detained were arrested on suspicion they belonged to Boko Haram or had concealed information about the groups plans or fighters whereabouts.

However, the Prosecution Counsel could not charge them with any offence due to lack of sufficient evidence against them. Therefore, the suspects were released, the statement said.

The court proceedings in the town of Kainji, in central Niger state, was part of the second phase of an unprecedented mass trial of more than 1,600 suspects.

Some of the cases heard last week involved suspects held without trial since 2010.

Among those released was a young girl with a three-month-old baby from Borno State who was taken to a Boko Haram enclave by her brother and married off to his friend when she was 11. She was arrested in 2014 while trying to escape.

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The Kainji court sentenced 20 Boko Haram members to between two and 15 years in jail last week.

It also imposed a second 15-year sentence on Haruna Yahaya, 35, who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from the Chibok region.

Earlier in the week, he had been jailed for 15 years but the court handed him an additional 15-year term on Friday, with the judge saying the two sentences would run consecutively.

In total, some 1,669 people have been processed in a string of mass hearings that began in October.

Most were men, but some women and children were also jailed. Nigeria was criticised by human rights groups for holding them for years without trial, or even contact with a lawyer.

After the first phase of the trial in October, 45 Boko Haram fighters were sentenced to between three to 31 years in jail, while about 500 people were discharged.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and two million forced to flee their homes in northeastern Nigeria since Boko Haram launched a rebellion in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari recently said the era of Boko Haram violence is gradually drawing to end. However, the group continues to launch attacks in the countrys northeast and its leader remains at large.Two youths killed, two others wounded, in series of attacks, following border blast that wounded four Israeli soldiers.

Two Palestinian teenagers were found killed in the southern area of the besieged Gaza Strip, following two waves of Israeli air raids.

The two bodies of the two 17-year-old boys were retrieved in the city of Rafah on Sunday morning, Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for Gazas health ministry, confirmed.

At least two other Palestinians have been wounded, one of whom is in critical condition, and are currently treated in a medical facility in Rafah.

In the past 24 hours, Israel said it had targeted 18 Hamas positions, in response to an improvised explosive device that detonated near the border with Israel early on Saturday, wounding four Israeli soldiers.

According to the Israeli army, six large-scale attacks were carried out on Hamas positions, including a tunnel that extends from Gaza to Israel.

Attacks that followed targeted positions in the town of Beit Hanoun, Rafah, Deir el-Balah, and Khan Younis in the southern part of the strip  on what Israeli media described as Hamas military installations.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that missiles launched from an Israeli F-16 attack aircraft damaged several civilian homes.

In a series of Twitter posts, Palestinian political party Hamas blamed Israel for the escalation.

The Palestinian resistance will not turn its back on protecting Palestinian people, and will continue to do defend it and confront enemy aggression, the movement governing the Gaza Strip said on Saturday night.

The encounter is the biggest of its kind since 2014, when Israel waged an assault on the strip that lasted for more than a month.

More than 2,250 Palestinians, including nearly 1,500 civilians, were killed and a further 11,000 were wounded in the July-August 2014 assault.

Commenting on Saturdays incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the event as severe.

We will respond appropriately, he had warned in his statement.

The Israeli blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip, in its current form, has been in place since June 2007, when Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the area.

Israel controls Gazas airspace and territorial waters, as well as two of the three border crossing points; the third is controlled by Egypt.

Movement of people in and out of the Gaza Strip takes place through the Beit Hanoun (known to Israelis as Erez) crossing with Israel, and the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Both Israel and Egypt have kept their borders largely shut and are responsible for further deteriorating the already-weakened economic and humanitarian situations.

Israel allows passage through the Beit Hanoun crossing only in exceptional humanitarian cases, with an emphasis on urgent medical cases.Mateusz Morawiecki stands by previous statements as he rejects criticism of his countrys new Holocaust law.

Mateusz Morawiecki, Polands prime minister, has stunned attendees at the Munich Security Conference when he stood by statements made earlier defending his countrys new Holocaust law.

Morawiecki rejected criticism on Saturday of the new law as he answered an Israeli journalists question over whether the new legislation amounted to the criminalisation of discussion of Polish complicity in the crimes committed during the second world war.

Of course its not going to be punishable, its not going to be seen as criminal to say that there were Polish perpetrators, as there were Jewish perpetrators, as there were Ukrainian; not only German perpetrators, Morawiecki retorted.

Morawiecki said hat it was inaccurate to conflate victim and perpetrator and that such mischaracterisation was an offense to both Jews and Poles who suffered greatly during the second world war.

Proponents of the law claim that it is aimed at countering erroneous finger pointing for crimes committed by Nazis during the German occupation of Poland.

Polish President Andrzej Duda defended the bill earlier in February claiming that it was much needed to defend the reputation of the country.

Taking the need to protect Polands and the Polish peoples good name into account  I made the decision to sign this amendment to the bill into law, Duda was quoted saying by Russias Tass news agency.

In a vote cast last month, the Polish senate approved of the law overwhelmingly with 57 voting in favour, 23 against and two abstaining.

The law imposes fines and prescribes a maximum three-year sentence to anyone found guilty of ascribing responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich.

Polish embassies, Morawiecki said, were requested on 260 instances to respond to statements about Polish death camps, a term that he says should be taken with a grain of salt.

Asked for her thoughts on whether the new law violates the right to free speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stopped short at taking responsibility for her own countrys actions, remarking that Germans are responsible for what happened during the Holocaust, the Shoah, under National Socialism.

Approximately three million of Polands 3.2 million prewar Jews were killed during the German Nazi occupation.Yasin Aktay, adviser to president, tells Al Jazeera that parties making the accusations are responsible to prove them.

A senior Turkish official has denied the claims by a monitoring group and Syrian state media that Turkeys military used chemical weapons on civilians in its operation against the Kurdish YPG fighters in northwestern Syria.

It is out of the question for Turkey to use an internationally prohibited war tool in Afrin, Yasin Aktay, a chief adviser to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told Al Jazeera over the phone on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, said six people were wounded in Turkish shelling in Al-Sheikh Hadid in the Afrin region on Friday had difficulties breathing and had their pupils dilated.

Al-Sheikh Hadid is located 30km to the west of the city of Afrin.

Medical sources confirmed the use of gases during the shelling, but the SOHR was not able, until now, to know the type of the used gases, a statement by the group said.

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SANA, the official Syrian news agency, quoting local doctors, repeated the claim, and said that six people were hospitalised with symptoms of suffocation from Turkish projectiles carrying poisonous gas.

Hediye Yusuf, a Syrian Kurdish politician, posted photos of several allegedly wounded men on Twitter on Saturday, claiming they were exposed to a sarin gas attack by Turkish forces.

Aktay, who is also a senior MP, said that the parties who accuse Turkey should prove their claims.

The Afrin operation, and the Syrian war in general, have become a war of propaganda. And Turkeys rivals are trying to make up for the war they are losing on the ground through this propaganda, he added.

Turkey launched the military operation in Syrias Afrin last month [AP]

Aktay also said that the Turkish army was taking the operation slower than its potential to avoid civilian casualties.

Generally speaking, if Turkey was not being utmost careful about not killing civilians in Afrin, and followed the methods [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad implemented on his own people, this operation would probably have been concluded by now, he said.

The Turkish military has once again denied allegations that civilians were being killed in the operation in a statement on Saturday.

It also said that 1,614 terrorists and 32 soldiers have been killed in the operation since it started a month ago.

YPG targeted

Turkey, together with the Syrian opposition forces it supports, last month launched an air and ground operation into the Afrin region to sweep the US-backed Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) fighters from its border there.

{articleGUID}

Turkey considers the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), active in Syria, and its armed wing YPG, to be terrorist groups with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The PKK has waged a decades-long armed fight against the Turkish state that killed tens of thousands of people.

The PYD/YPG has come to control large swaths of northern Syria, including Afrin, in the course of the Syrian war, particularly through fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in an US-backed umbrella organisation named Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The US support for SDF has infuriated Turkey and created the ongoing diplomatic crisis between the two NATO allies.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_UrasSHUTTING DOWN START-UP

The state Senate's Republican majority is less than enthused with Cuomo's response to the federal tax overhaul, which includes a proposal to replace the state's income tax paid by individuals with a payroll tax paid by employers. The GOP senators are even less excited about one of the governor's top economic development initiatives originally known as START-UP, which they say should be shut down.

Cuomo introduced the program in 2014, touting it as potentially "game-changing" for the state's economy. Now known as the Excelsior Jobs Program, it allows participating businesses to partner with colleges and universities while not having to pay taxes for 10 years.

But studies have shown that the program has generated relatively few jobs despite the tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds spent on advertising the program around the nation. Senate Republicans say the state's own statistics show the 156 companies involved in the program have created about 750 jobs.

"That alone should make us take a hard look and say, do we really need this program," said Senate GOP leader John Flanagan, of Long Island, this week while releasing his conference's jobs initiatives.Here we go again ... another day, another Trump scandal. This time it's about Trump's lawyer paying off a prostitute to keep quiet about an alleged affair Trump had shortly after Melania gave birth. It's really hard to keep track as we are still in the midst of the Porter wife abuse scandal. You know, that's the scandal in which Rob Porter, a top aid to the president, was given security clearance although there is credible evidence that he battered two wives and a girlfriend. The one where the White House has concocted multiple stories (oops ... that could be any of them) ... it's the one where Donald Trump cannot force himself to denounce domestic violence.

In any case there is a much bigger scandal than either of these or, for that matter, all the others that came before them. The biggest scandal is the fact that Donald J. Trump refuses to acknowledge that Russia interfered with the election and refuses to take any action to keep Russia from interfering again. Security experts say he has, in fact, emboldened Russia and that the 2018 mid-term elections are in jeopardy. Pundits on CNN and MSNBC (you won't hear much about this on FOX "News" AKA Trump TV) have speculated as to why that is the case. They offer the theory that Trump has ignored the conclusion of all our intelligence agencies because he feels that acknowledging it will delegitimize his victory. I have another theory, and it's one I've never heard advanced by our cowardly mainstream media. Let's ignore the issues of possible collusion (there was at least attempted collusion) or whether or not the interference by Russia gave Trump his victory (it did of course). Let's focus on why, for the first time in America's history, a president has refused to respond to an attack on the United States by a foreign adversary. The answer is quite simple ... it helps Trump as Russia is clearly on the side of Trump and the GOP.Brendan Cox is publicly shamed

Who sets the news agenda that makes Israel the top story, China only newsworthy when our politicians are there for business and the allegation that Brendan Cox sexually harassed two women, a claim he denies, the lead issue on Sky and the BBC? Sky News led with Cox this morning on the telly, and the story is the second most vital on the BBC s website, there after reaction to mass murder at a Florida school. And not that Cox (and, no, its not nominative determinism; he denies it) is the main thrust of his own story. The Beebs headline is: Murdered MPs widower Brendan Cox quits charities.

The Telegraph pads it out, telling readers that Cox has quit two charities set up in her memory after sexual assault allegations from his past resurfaced.

Brendan Cox denied sexually harassing two women while he was married to the late politician, but accepted inappropriate behaviour, saying: I made mistakes and behaved in a way that caused some women hurt and offence.

Offence causing is a crime?

He has left posts at More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation after the Mail on Sunday published accusations made by a former colleague while they both worked at charity Save the Children in 2015.

The Guardian hears from Jo Coxs sister Kim Leadbeater, who says the family would support Brendan as he endeavours to do the right thing by admitting mistakes he may have made in the past. Mistakes he may have committed have been admitted to? Eh? Well, it looks like theyve had time to work it out because the Mail first reported the allegations in November 2015. Cox called them untrue:

Are they any more or less untrue now theyve been repeated?

Labour MPs Yvette Cooper thinks some sort of justice has been served. Hopefully we are seeing a change in climate and culture where people are recognising that those in positions of power should not abuse [those] positions, Cooper told the Sky News programme Sunday with Niall Paterson.

And Labour MP Jess Phillips added  does she do anything other than talk to media?  The fact of the matter is that its not enough just to say oh, Im sorry. You have to show how youre going to change the way you are in the future and I think Brendan, more so than many Ive seen in this area, is actually trying to do that.

One error and you need rewiring. How fair we are.

Public shaming of anyone whos behaved inappropriately is a sad ambition. What happened to the rule of law and the right to defend yourself? When did the British wing of Saudi Arabias Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice start wathing us?

Paul Sorene

Posted: 18th, February 2018 | In: News, Politicians, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | PermalinkBeijings position on the crisis combines a fine blend of invisible ambitions and strategic confidence

The ongoing Maldivian crisis is emerging as a geopolitical tussle between China and India to influence the island countrys political affairs. Both the economic powerhouses are trying to mark a stamp on the archipelagic nations political future in the Indian Ocean.

It is not entirely unusual that Beijing has taken a position on other countries domestic political crises. Its post-Cold War foreign policy points to Chinas bold standing on many foreign crises that are not even remotely linked to its national interests. From the Syrian crisis to many conflicting matters in Africa, Beijing has taken positions trusting that they will internationally augment its positioning and prestige in the world as a great power. China has even used the UNSC P-5 (permanent five) membership card to veto on many pressing global affairs. Its stance on the Maldivian crisis therefore should not really be surprising. It however becomes unusual, rather intimidating, when such positions are taken on domestic political affairs, keeping in view the strategic advantages that a particular country generally offers. Chinas stance on the current Maldivian crisis points to this admonitory, particularly to neighbouring India.

Beijings position on the ongoing Maldives crisis combines a fine blend of invisible ambitions and strategic confidence that China holds with the archipelagic country. Expressing outright support to Abdulla Yameens regime, Beijing has called for non-interference from outside powers and has stated that Maldives will independently resolve its problem through dialogues. By articulating an indirect caution to India and, importantly, by showcasing its rising international might, China has called on the international community to not interfere in Maldives internal affairs. This indeed points to Chinas standard official position. It has mastered the art of passing indirect cautioning to its adversaries. What however is really disturbing is how attentively Beijing is shielding Yameens regime in Maldives and also asserting its positioning in the Indian Ocean, unveiling a grand global strategy.

The crisis is emerging more as a geopolitical crisis between China and India to influence Maldives political affairs and mark a stamp on the archipelagic nations political future in Indian Ocean. Given India and Maldives strong security, economic and political linkages, the archipelago has been diplomatically close to India over the years. A reversal in this trend was, however, witnessed in 2013 with Abdulla Yameen coming to power and cosying up to China with his authoritarian approach of governance. He has employed a China first approach by welcoming Chinese investment, assistantship and presence in the country, sidelining the traditional India first approach that Maldives had adopted under Mohamed Nasheed, inviting serious disapproval from the opposition parties. Nonetheless, Yameen had gone ahead in identifying Maldives strategic interests more with China than India, owing much to an effective Chinese diplomacy and outreach to the archipelago in general. Beijing under a new era foreign policy strategy has adopted a pro-active plus going-out economic diplomacy in the Indian Ocean with Maldives as a strategic hub.

One of the highpoints of Chinas new era strategy is to carry out a multi-textured foreign policy combining hard and soft power cogently. With Maldives, a closer cultural linkage has been unfolding where tourism, education, infrastructure and economic cooperation are important sectors. Visiting Chinese tourists to Maldives in great numbers are the greatest strength of these budding economic and cultural linkages. A direct reflection of Beijings going-out economic diplomacy is visible currently in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) where Maldives is a priority. Signing economic deals, having frequent political exchanges, promoting cultural linkages, and backing a countrys political regime are part of this going-out diplomacy. Chinas clout in Maldives became an established fact after the free trade agreement (FTA) was signed in December 2017. Yameen was the first Asian leader to be invited to China in the post-19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) where the leadership in Beijing expounded how Maldives figures as a key country in Chinas new era foreign policy strategy. Despite heavy domestic political opposition, Yameen signed the FTA deal by endorsing Xi Jinpings flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Signing an FTA was a first of its bilateral kind with a major country for this archipelagic nation and for China too as it is strategically located in the IOR, marking its own authority as a strong economic power. Bagging Maldives open support, especially as an important partner for Beijings Maritime Silk Road (MSR), was another major achievement for China.

Maldives contacts with China reached a new height with Xi Jinpings visiting it in September 2014, after a gap of 42 years. The Chinese President was received by Yameen at the Male international airport to display their strengthening political bonding. Public support from Maldives is critical to China because it creates a favourable condition for Beijings economic and maritime strategy in the IOR. The search for smaller island countries, establishing stronger maritime and military networks with IOR countries, access to foreign markets and finding new sources of energy are integral for Chinas MSR strategy. In fact, Beijings pro-active diplomacy is positioning China as a top-ranking country in most of the countries foreign policy drawing, allowing it to successfully secure the goodwill of Maldives to expand its South Asian outreach. While, the USs primary interest in South Asia was always security-centric, be it the India-Pakistan balancing game or maritime developments in the Indian Ocean, it also seeks to obstruct the Chinese progress there. Nevertheless, with Donald Trumps retreat from Asia, Beijing is witnessing quite a favourable environment. It is, nonetheless, seeing the growing India-US bilateral ties and Japans rising investment presence as a threat to its regional interests. To rank Maldives as a priority partner therefore becomes a natural choice for China.

Beijings stance on Maldives has a greater strategic objective to position itself as an effective Indian Ocean power. It was even pronounced during Xi Jinpings speech in the 19th National Congress of the CPC. China is relying on marine trading to supplement its economy and countries like Maldives and Sri Lanka are placed highly in this connection. China also aims to protect its sea lines of communication through Maldives and for future military build-ups. Therefore, it is extremely keen on checking and possibly preventing the prevailing Indian domination there. Chinas Maldives stance thus puts Indias credential as a power to test, and more importantly, points to a larger fact: a growing hegemonic approach cloaked by protective measures.

The author is a Fellow and Centre Coordinator for East Asia at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New DelhiIndia fears debt traps set by China that could lead to land grabs and a potential military foothold on the archipelago

The Maldives constitutional crisis has again thrust Chinas encroachment into Indias neighbourhood into the spotlight. Maldives President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day state of emergency after the Maldives Supreme Court overturned terrorism charges of several opposition leaders, including former President Mohamed Nasheed, ousted in a 2012 coup.

Yameen ordered the arrest of Supreme Court justices, sacked the police commissioner who sought to enforce the Courts decision, and empowered the security forces to make arrests and disperse public gatherings. While India has condemned the declaration of a state of emergency, China has tacitly backed the Maldives governments actions, creating yet another flashpoint for regional competition.

Background:

Viewing itself as a big brother to the Maldives, India has taken an interest in the stability of the country in the context of its vision as the dominant power in South Asia. It intervened to defend the Maldives government from a coup attempt in 1988 and subsequently both countries enjoyed strong economic and political relations. However, these relations eroded after President Nasheeds ouster in 2012 as China initiated significant infrastructure projects (including some that India had intended to undertake) and signed a free trade agreement with the Maldives in December 2017. China sees the Maldives archipelago as a key node in its Belt and Road Initiative while India sees Chinese encroachment in its backyard as threatening, particularly after the PLAN sent three warships on a port call to the Maldives last year.

Similar to what it did in Doklam and other parts of Indias neighborhood, Chinas support for Yameen in the garb of stability and prosperity has placed India in a bind, forcing it to choose between the high road and the messy, contentious road. If India supported diplomatic condemnations but opposed active intervention, it would distinguish itself as an upholder of the rules based order and the free and open Indo-Pacific but could cede ground to rising Chinese influence and power projection. If India intervened militarily to safeguard serious strategic interests, others in the region could view India as autocratically as China, diminishing its influence and credibility as a defender of the liberal international order, particularly in the eyes of its revived Quad partners.

Reasons for concern:

India fears debt traps set by China that could lead to land grabs and a potential military foothold on the archipelago. China sets these traps with expensive infrastructure and white elephant projects financed by loans, masquerading as aid, which China then trades for equity stakes in the countrys critical infrastructure if a country cannot re-pay the loan. Such an action in the Maldives would be threatening to India for two reasons.

First, the expansion of Chinese influence in the Maldives could pose significant military consequences for India. The Maldives is a series of atolls composed of almost 1,200 islands whose northernmost point is located roughly 450 km from Indias southern coast. If China controlled some of these islands (or engaged in new island building), it could establish listening posts and naval facilities to monitor Indian naval activity or even construct air and naval bases to threaten the Indian mainland or sea lanes of Indias trade and energy supplies.

Second, Indias ability to maintain its influence over the Maldives is a litmus test of whether it can fulfil the role of net security provider in the region. After a string of setbacks in influence in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan, an erosion of influence in the Maldives feeds the perception that China is eroding Indias sphere of influence. Perceptions of power matter as much for deterrence or compellence as actual material capability. In such an emperor has no clothes moment, not only would India suffer a loss of prestige, but Indias reputation as the most consequential state in South Asia would be hollowed.

Indias options:

Hawks and moderates have both called for intervention, and there is some perception of US support for Indian intervention in the Maldives, but the Indian government has demurred from such action.

It seems highly unlikely the Indian government will intervene militarily in the Maldives as it did in 1988. Interventions today are messier, especially in a more competitive region, and could trigger greater resentment, blowback, and overextension. Instead, India could summon political and economic means to bring pressure on the Maldives government and induce a course correction, much like it did in Sri Lanka in 2014-15. For instance, tourism is the most important industry for the Maldives accounting for a third of its GDP, more than half its foreign exchange, and over 60% of total employment. While India only composes a small share of tourists, its Quad partners and their allies together compose 35% of foreign tourists and likely a disproportionate share of tourism spending. The ongoing crisis has already had a significant impact on the industry and India could use diplomatic methods and information campaigns further accentuate the pressure, as needed.

The author is a Senior Associate and Co-Director of the South Asia Program at the Washington D.C.-based Stimson Center.The Central Government constituted the Cauvery River Water Dispute Tribunal in 1990 and issued its final judgment in February, 2007.

K.V.Dhananjay, Advocate, Supreme Court

To put todays Supreme Court judgment in the Cauvery River Water Dispute in perspective to Bengalureans, let me cite an illustration.

You have a large family. You decide to build a high rise to accommodate all of them and apply for permission. Authorities allow you to build six floors, which you violate, constructing 19. Your family jostles for space inside and when it wont suffice, some 45% of them cluster along the sides of the structure. Authorities notice the violation and decide to raze down the building, sending you rushing to court. You omit to tell the Courts that you have already built 19 floors and the latter, in a moment of sympathy, makes a few calculations and decides to offer you relief by granting permission for 10 floors. Authorities are directed to enforce this and to keep watch over the building. Is this a verdict to be celebrated? Depends on what your lawyer told you. Were you informed that the building is now legal only to the extent of 6+4=10 floors? What happens to the remaining nine?

That is the situation Bengalureans find themselves in today after the Supreme Courts judgment. Lawyers for the Karnataka government have welcomed todays verdict, while the uninformed public and political party workers have resorted to celebrations at a few places. Reality is bound to hit us soon. Most lawyers are having a hard time digesting the fact that the Constitution of India expressly bars the apex court from settling inter-state river disputes, in keeping with Article 262. They fall under a different scheme.

The Central Government constituted the Cauvery River Water Dispute Tribunal in 1990 and issued its final judgment in February, 2007. In the current dispute between Karnataka, TN, Kerala and Puducherry, we consider only drinking water needs. A rule followed across the world says that only people living within the boundaries of the river basin are entitled to its water. Cities like Belagavi and Hubbali cannot claim water from the Cauvery, just as Bengaluru cannot demand water from the Mahadayi river which flows through the northern part of the state. Responsibility for the demands of specific cities and towns falls on the state government and are not recognized by the Tribunals. The Karnataka government had sought a large quantity of water for its drinking needs and the Tribunal, based on its calculations awarded it only 8.75 TMC from the Cauvery. All four states appealed to the Supreme Court and TN made numerous complaints about Karnataka failing to implement the order.

Bengaluru, Coorg, Mandya, Mysore, Hassan and the numerous other towns and villages were to make do with 8.75 TMC, but Bengaluru alone went on to draw 19 TMC annually. So now, while Bengaluru is already drawing 19 TMC, 45% of her population doesnt have access to this water. The Supreme Court went on to say that more water must be awarded to Bengaluru, considering her immense growth and global status. The city has increased the drinking water share by 4.75 TMC, which, in keeping with the Tribunals order, brings the tally up to 13.5 TMC only for all towns, cities and villages in the Cauvery basin. For Bengaluru, this means a drastic cut in water supply so that other areas can also manage with this amount.

Which segment in Bengaluru will suffer? The slums, the poor, the middle classes. It appears that the government failed to inform the SC about the actual state of affairs  the SC verdict now brings the same quality of solution as the 19-floor building conundrum!

The Supreme Court cannot be blamed; this modification to the Tribunal order is an unprecedented move in Karnatakas favour, although most of Bengaluru falls outside the purview of the Cauvery basin.

As a constitutional lawyer speaking without regard for the ramifications of the riparian dispute, I worry that the Supreme Court has opened up a Pandoras Box by going against a constitutional injunction. India has 14 very large inter-state rivers and 44 medium-size water bodies. States that have followed Tribunal orders with diligence will now approach the apex court seeking reprieve.

One thing is for certain. Bengaluru is poised on the brink of disaster and the state government is to blame. Can I provide a solution to these woes? Honestly, I dont have one and I doubt anybody else either. Our city has been left in the lurch, so press the Panic Button, if you will.Historian and Bengaluru resident Ramachandra Guha tweeted to the CM seeking action against the legislator's son.

Mohammed Haris's father and Congress MLA, NA Haris on Sunday admitted that what his son had done was wrong and maintained that the guilty would be punished. (Photo: Facebook)

Bengaluru: A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Bengaluru District Youth Congress General Secretary and son of Congress MLA NA Harris, Mohammed Haris Nalapad and ten others for allegedly beating up a person in a restaurant in Bengaluru's UB City.

The accused, allegedly threatened the victim Vidwath, at Mallya hospital where he later went for treatment.

President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, G Parameshwara on Sunday informed that Mohammed Haris Nalapad has been suspended from party for six years.

Historian and Bengaluru resident Ramachandra Guha tweeted to the chief minister seeking action against the legislator's son.

Here is a news report of the incident: https://t.co/Asl0mgQ98h

NA Harris is the MLA for my constituency; such behaviour is unacceptable. I hope the CM @siddaramaiah takes prompt action against father and son.  Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) February 18, 2018

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered the Bengaluru Commissioner to take action as per law.

" Offenders should be punished to the full extent of law regardless of who they are. No less, no more.Bengaluru Commissioner of Police will take action as per law and bring the guilty to book," he tweeted.

Mohammed Haris's father and Congress MLA, NA Harris on Sunday admitted that what his son had done was wrong and maintained that the guilty would be punished.

"I don't know where he is currently. Whoever does wrong is wrong, be it son of a MLA or anyone else. I have always advised my son to never do anything wrong. I will see that my son does not do anything like this again," he said.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Working President Dinesh Gundurao also assured that strict action would be taken against the guilty. He said that there would not be any sort of protection whether it's a person in Congress or from outside. "Mohd Haris Nalapad was involved too," he added.

Meanwhile, BJP workers protested over the incident demanding action against the offenders.Heavy exchange of fire between the troops of 202nd battalion of the CoBRA and Naxals is still underway.

Four jawans of District Reserve Guards and two jawans of Special Task Force were injured in the encounter. (Representational Image)

Sukma (Chhatisgarh): Two assistant constables and a civilian were killed and six security personnel injured in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Sunday.

Heavy exchange of fire between the troops of 202nd battalion of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) and Naxals is still underway near Elarmadgu village which falls under the purview of Bhejji police station.

The injured security personnel are being airlifted to Raipur for medical treatment.

Another helicopter has been deployed to carry the mortal remains of the two jawans.

Special DG, anti-Naxal operation DM Awasthi earlier confirmed that four jawans of District Reserve Guards (DRG) and two jawans of Special Task Force (STF) were injured in the encounter.

Meanwhile, in another encounter near Errabore village in Sukma, one Naxal has been gunned down by the police.The victim, in her complaint, alleged that she came in contact with Umesh Kumar, the accused, in 2016 when she was working in Zenetix Gym.

In June 2017, Umesh called her at his residence and developed a physical relationship with her on the pretext of marriage. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

New Delhi: The Delhi police on Saturday arrested the editor-in-chief of a Hindi news channel for allegedly raping a woman employee.

A case was filed at Delhi's Tughlak Road police station by the victim on February 13.

The victim, in her complaint, alleged that she came in contact with Umesh Kumar, the accused, in 2016 when she was staying in Indirapuram and working in Zenetix Gym.

In June 2017, he called her at his residence and developed a physical relationship with her on the pretext of marriage. In August, he called her to Claridges Hotel where she was sexually assaulted. Later, she got to know that Umesh was a married man.

The hotel authorities also confirmed the presence of accused in the hotel as a room was booked in his name.

A case has been registered under section 376 and 506 of Indian Panel Code and section 164 Code Of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).CM Khandu has categorically rejected the alleged rape charge, and described it as politically motivated and crafted by his opponents.

Victim has accused Khandu, Phurpa Lama Thumpeen Tashi, a teacher of the Tawang Higher Secondary School, and Dorjee Wangchu of gang raping her when she was in an intoxicated state at the Tawang Circuit House in July 2008. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

New Delhi: Women and girls who get raped or molested need to be given justice on time or they will never believe anyone, person or institution, said a woman from Arunachal Pradesh, who has allegedly accused incumbent Chief Minister Pema Khandu and two others of raping her in July 2008.

Addressing media in the national capital on Saturday evening, two days after she had formally submitted her detailed complaint before the National Commission of Women (NCW), the victim said, "I have filed the complaint against three men, including Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu. Till now, I have not got a proper response from either the police or the court. Both are saying it is a case of fraud, which is untrue. We (lawyer and I) have approached the National Commission for Women with the help of an NGO. If I don't get justice here also, then victims suffering like me, will not believe anyone."

"I will fight against this till my last breath because I am right. Many people on social media are saying that I am doing this to get popular or for money. But, I can't play with anyone's life just for money. Why would I file a fake complaint against anyone. The NCW should think about it and take action," she added.

The victim said that she was from Arunachal Pradesh's West Siang District and that she had filed the complaint on Thursday through her lawyer Rashmi Bhati under Section 10 of National Commission for Women Act.

She has accused Khandu, Phurpa Lama Thumpeen Tashi, a teacher of the Tawang Higher Secondary School, and Dorjee Wangchu of gang raping her when she was in an intoxicated state at the Tawang Circuit House in July 2008.

Bhati told ANI, "She came to us through an NGO. We heard details of her ordeal and decided to just give her a chance. We filed a complaint with NCW."

Earlier, Bhati had said, "The victim was and is very scared. This courageous woman has filed her complaint before the National Commission for Women in Delhi nearly three years after gathering the courage to do so."

NCW member Rekha Sharma who has additional charge as Chairperson of the institution said, "The NCW has received a complaint in this regard. The commission is going through the documents, and it will be seeking a legal advice, since the matter was dismissed by a court in Arunachal Pradesh. So after going through the complaint, the NCW will react on the matter.

Chief Minister Khandu, however, has categorically rejected the alleged rape charge, and described it as politically motivated and crafted by his opponents.

In a signed statement issued from his office on Saturday, Khandu said, "I am shocked and saddened by these false allegations against me. I have always conducted myself honourably and with utmost integrity. In my view, these allegations are politically motivated and crafted by my opponents."

He further said, "It's unfortunate that they have resorted to such dirty tricks, bringing disgrace to the political life of Arunachal Pradesh. I have full faith in the competent authority before which this matter currently stands and believe that they will do justice. There is no doubt that truth will prevail over this malafide campaign against me. I have already initiated legal actions for making such false and defaming allegations against me."Dalit activist Bhanu Vankar attempted self-immolation to protest against delay in allotment of a land piece to a Dalit family.

The police maintained that Mevani and the others were taken into preventive custody to maintain law and order situation. (Photo: File)

Ahmedabad: Dalit activist and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani was interrupted and detained by Gujarat police on his way to a rally in Ahmedabad to protest against death of Dalit activist Bhanu Vankar.

Bhanu Vankar succumbed to severe burn injuries on February 15, after he attempted self-immolation to protest against delay in allotment of a land piece to a Dalit family on February 15.

The police maintained that Mevani and the others were taken into preventive custody to maintain law and order situation.

Mevani, however, alleged that the police was violent in their demeanour, dragged him out, broke his car keys and detained him.

Jignesh Mevani was pulled out of the car in a very uncivilised manner, his car keys were broken and detained by the police while on the way to a peaceful protest at Ambedkar statue in Sarangpur, Ahmedabad. The protest was organised to meet the demands of deceased Bhanuji family, Mevani posted on his official twitter handle.

Bhanu Vankar's body is kept in Gandhinagar Civil hospital and the state government deployed Rapid Action Force in the city to maintain order.

Bhankar's family had initially refused to cremate him till their demands were accepted after it was brought for post-mortem to the Gandhinagar civil hospital.

The state government accepted their demands on Saturday.

BJP legilator Karsan solanki was hackled by angry members of the Dalit community when he rushed to meet the victim's kin.

Across north Gujarat, highways were blocked as thousands of Dalits came out to protest Vankar's death.

Vankar was also part of Mevani's Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch and was fighting for Hemaben Vankar, a landless Dalit farm labourer, who had alleged that authorities were not allotting a plot to her family despite collecting 22,236 as fees in 2013.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Saturday said that the main demand of land allotment was accepted.

The state also agreed to set up an inquiry commission headed by a former high court judge or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.

The government also stated that no one found guilty in the matter would be spared.

Despite deployment of police outside the collector's office, Vankar set himself ablaze while other members who tried to enter the premises were stopped by the police.Gandhi said that such a big scam could not have taken place without the knowledge or protection of people within the government.

The Shiv Sena joined the Oppostion party in attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the PNB scam and alleged that Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of the scandal, had been a partner of the BJP and helped it collect funds for elections.

New Delhi: The political blame game over the multi-crore PNB scam intensified on Saturday with Congress president Rahul Gandhi linking it to Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation decision and Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman labelling the scam as the original sin of the Congress. Mr Gandhi said the PNB scam started with the note ban on November 8, 2016 when Mr Modi took money from peoples pockets and put it into the banking sector before allowing his cronies to steal it from banks.

While Mr Gandhi questioned the PMs silence over the issue at a time when he can find time to speak for one-and-half hours to teach children how take their board exams, Ms Sitharaman said that Mr Gandhi and party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvis famly were linked to Nirav Modi and assured that the government will not spare anyone involved in the fraud.

Firestar Diamond International Pvt Ltd. is one of the companies of Nirav Modi. They have acquired it from Advait Holdings and one of the shareholders of it, since 2002, is Anita Singhvi. (Mr Singhvis wife). The property of Advait Holdings, whose directors are wife and son of the Congress leader, is rented to Nirav Modis jewellery company in Mumbai, said Ms Sitharaman. She said instead of asking the government, it is the Congress and its leaders who needs to answer on many issues related with the fraud. Mr Singhvi hit back saying that the ruling party and the NDA governments cheap sense of politics has reached ludicrous and ridiculous proportions and threatened to file a defamation case against the Union minister. Celebrity diamantaire Nirav Modi has been accused by the PNB of swindling `11,400 crore.

The scale of the fraud seems to be getting bigger with the I-T department saying that Indian banks could take a hit of at least `17,600 crore from loans and corporate guarantees provided to PNB.

Blaming the earlier UPA regime for messing up the banking sector, Mr Sitharaman said that the case reflects Congress modus operandi and claimed that the party and its eminent leaders are somehow associated with scams.

Citing the example of whistleblower and former Allahabad Bank director Dinesh Dubey, who in 2013 was against granting a loan to Nirav Modis maternal uncle Mehul Choksi but was allegedly asked to resign, Ms Sitharaman recalled an incident involving a former director of the SBI in the 1970s who was sacked by the then government and claim that even the current PNB case shows Congress modus operandi.

Dinesh Dubey, former government nominated director on the Allahabad Bank board, claimed that he had voiced dissent in 2013 on a proposal to give a fresh loan of `50 crore to Choksis firm Gitanjali Gems till it returned earlier loans of `1,500 cr. He said he was forced to resign later for raising the issue.

Ms Sitharaman also repeated her partys charge Rahul Gandhi had participated in a promotional even of Nirav Modis firm in 2013, adding that this happened despite the fact that the company had been barred from doing business at the stock exchange for six months.

Interestingly, the FIR lodged by CBI on January 31, 2018, about the fraud refers to just eight PNB Letters of Undertaking (LoUs), all of which were issued to Nirav Modi after 2017, during the NDAs regime.

Replying to a question on why most of the LoUs used by Nirav Modi were renewed in 2017, Ms Sitharaman said that the main reason was that they were not in the core banking system and it was only after the Modi government put in the self-correcting measures in the system that the matter got flagged.

Firing back at the government during a party meeting, Mr Gandhi said, The Prime Minister through his actions has destroyed the financial system. He has taken money from peoples pockets and put it into the banking sector. And now his friends and cronies are stealing it from the banking sector.

The PM should come out and say what has happened (on Nirav Modi) and why? And what was he doing about it? he asked.

He linked the scam to the Modi governments decision to demonetise `500 and `1,000 notes and said that the PNB scam started on November 8, 2016.

Mr Gandhi said that such a big scam could not have taken place without the knowledge or protection of people within the government. The PM is answerable to the nation as 90 per cent of the fraudulent transactions took place during his tenure, he said.

Mr Singhvi denied Ms Sitharamans allegation and claimed that Advait Holdings owns a commercial property in Mumbais Parel area which was rented by Nirav Modis company many years ago and neither the holdings nor his family has any interest involving Nirav Modi or the company.

Last August, the company gave notice to quit tenancy and vacated the Parel Kamla Mills premises in December 2017... None of us have anything to do even remotely with Gitanjali company, Firestar or any other business of Nirav Modi, said the senior Congress leader.

Threatening civil and criminal defamation against Ms Sitharaman and her colleagues for making ill-considered, ignorant and patently false allegations, Mr Singhvi said, sensationalism, ignorance and falsehood has exceeded all limits in this irresponsible charge.

The Shiv Sena joined the Oppostion party in attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the PNB scam and alleged that Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of the scandal, had been a partner of the BJP and helped it collect funds for elections.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party, a BJP ally, said Mr Modis promise of putting an end to corruption in the country, highlighted through his slogan na khaunga, na khane dunga, was in tatters after the alleged fraudulent transactions of Rs 11,400 crore came to light.The ruling BJP and the Congress have been blaming each other for the PNB fraud, with the former calling it the latters orginal sin.

With Parliaments Budget Session reconvening on March 5, the government is also wary that the twin issues could stall its key bills from getting passed. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Top echelons of the Modi government have received feedback that the Opposition seems to be slowly gaining an upper hand in their campaign against the government over various issues, including the Rafale deal and the PNB scam.

Sources disclosed that senior Cabinet ministers are expected to meet soon to chalk out a strategy on how to put the governments views on the issues and counter Oppositions allegations firmly.

With Parliaments Budget Session reconvening on March 5, the government is also wary that the twin issues could stall its key bills from getting passed.

With the Congress planning to go full throttle against the Modi government over the two issues along with others, in the second half of the Budget Session of Parliament, the government as well as the ruling party will also apprise it leaders about the facts in the PNB scam and how to counter allegations regarding the Rafale deal. The Parliament will meet after the break on March 5 and the budget session will culminate on April 6.

While the Congress had dubbed the Indo-French Rafale deal as the biggest scam of the Modi government and sought a white paper, the government had told Parliament that the deals details were classified information and could not be disclosed. The ruling BJP and the Congress have been blaming each other for the PNB fraud, with the former calling it the latters orginal sin.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has squarely blamed the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the PNB fraud and demanded that he should reply how the fraud took place.The 40% quota for youth will also apply within the 33% of party posts reserved for women and 20% posts for SC/ST party leaders.

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who chaired his first meeting of the partys steering committee on Saturday, pitched hard for a more substantive change in the working and vision of the party by reserving 40 per cent of all organisational positions for youth.

Sources said that the Congress organisational structure already has provisions for 33 per cent of posts being reserved for women and 20 per cent for Scheduled Castes. The 40 per cent quota for youth would be over and above this.

That is, even among women and SC/STs, 40 per cent should be youth.

It was not clear whether the steering committee approved the proposal or not, nor how the Congress president defined youth.

The meeting, which was attended by Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, among others, finalised the schedule for the plenary session to be held on March 16-18 in Delhi.

The AICC plenary will discuss and evolve the partys future strategy, and it will ratify the December 11 election of Mr Gandhi as Congress president, ending the entire process of organisational elections.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told the media that the steering committee discussed three major issues: Going forward with the dynamism of the youth and the experience of seniors; representation of women and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the party organisation; and building a narrative for the country based on jobless growth, problems of farmers and landless labourers.

Mr Randeep Surjewala, however, did not clarify whether the issue of holding elections to the Congress Working Committee was discussed. Till now CWC members have mostly been selected by the party president.

The steering committee, with 34 members, was set up on Friday after the dissolution of the Congress Working Committee.

While all outgoing CWC members are part of the new steering committee, some special invitees such as Amarinder Singh, Vilas Muttemwar, R.K. Dhawan, Shivajirao Deshmukh, M.V. Rajasekharan and Mohsina Kidwai, as well as special invitees have been dropped from the new panel.

The steering committee will function till the plenary session, after which a new CWC will be put in place.

As per the partys constitution, the 25-member CWC has 12 elected members and 11 nominated members, besides the Congress president and the chairperson of the Congress parliamentary party. However, elections to the 12 positions have only been held five times in the partys 133-year history. The Congress has, in the recent past, faced many questions, especially from rival BJP, on the lack of internal democracy in the party.

The steering committee meeting, which was also attended by former finance minister P. Chidambaram, and senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma besides all state in-charges, also issued a statement on the PNB scam and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apprise the nation of complete facts about the biggest Bank Scam instead of remaining silent as usual.

The Prime Minister must also tell the nation how a fraud of this magnitude escaped the eyes of all the auditors and investigators conducting statutory audit, internal audit, concurrent audit and even the RBIs own audit? the statement said.

Mr Chidambaram is understood to have explained in detail all the facets of the bank scam and asserted that this could not have happened without clearance from the top echelons of the government.

Sources said that party leaders also opined that pressure should be stepped up on the Nirav Modi scam as it has caught the attention of the country. The second part of Budget session of Parliament begins on March 5.The polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was peaceful with thousands of central paramilitary forces fanning across the state.

In the last Assembly elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 91.82 per cent, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it was 84.32 per cent. (Photo: Twitter/ANI)

Agartala/New Delhi: At least 76 per cent of over 25.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise for the Assembly polls on Sunday in Tripura, where the BJP is trying to dislodge the Left Front after an unbroken 25-year stint in power, officials said.

The polling for 59 seats of the 60-member Assembly was peaceful with thousands of central paramilitary forces fanning across the northeastern state.

There were reports of malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at some polling stations which were rectified.

Polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week.

The constituency will go to polls on March 12.

The Election Commission said in New Delhi the updated polling percentage was complied from 41 of the 59 constituencies.

At its briefing earlier, the poll watchdog had put the figures at 74 per cent.

In the last Assembly elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 91.82 per cent, while in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, it was 84.32 per cent, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain told reporters in the national capital.

He said two crude bombs were detected and disposed of by security personnel.

The voter turnout is likely to rise as long queues were seen at polling stations even after 4 pm, the time for the voting to conclude.

Under the electoral laws, voters standing in queue at the scheduled time for voting to conclude are allowed to exercise their franchise.

Additional CEO Tapas Roy said in Agartala initially there were problems with several EVM machines which were fixed.

Earlier in the day, Chief Electoral Officer Sriram Taranikanti had said voting was delayed in some polling booths of West Tripura, Khowai and Unakoti districts as officials could not properly connect the EVMs.

Technicians were rushed in to these placed and EVMs set right.

The BJP, hitherto an "also ran" in the border state, has emerged as the key challenger to the CPI(M)-led Left Front, which has remained unvanquished in the last five Assembly elections.

Manik Sarkar, one of the most enduring icons of the CPI(M), has helmed the state for the last four terms.

The Congress, which has been marginalised in Tripura, was last in power between February 1988 and March 1993.

It is contesting 59 seats and had not fielded candidate for Kakrabon constituency.

The BJP, which has been rapidly expanding its footprint in the northeast, with the party already in power in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, has forged an alliance with Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), an anti-Left party.

The BJP has fielded candidates in 51 places, while its ally is contesting the remaining nine seats.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah spearheaded the BJP-IPFT challenge in one of the last bastions of the Left. Sarkar, known for leading a frugal life and the considered the "poorest" of chief ministers in the country, almost single-handedly tried to defend his 'Red fort' against the saffron challenge.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) K V Srijesh said the voting was "incident free" and no violence was reported from anywhere.

While 300 companies of central armed forces were deployed, besides the state police, the BSF kept heightened vigil along the 856-km-long India-Bangladesh border in Tripura.

Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) R K Pachnanda was appointed special observer to coordinate with all security forces deployed for the election.

Manik Sarkar cast his vote in Ramnagar constituency here, while Biplab Deb, the state BJP chief, pressed the EVM button in R K Pur seat in Gomati district.

Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha cast his vote at Kailashahar in Unakoti district.Trudeau and Modi are also expected to focus on areas including civil nuclear cooperation, space, defence, energy and education.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with his family gestures 'namaste' as he arrives at AFS Palam in New Delhi on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in India on Saturday for a week-long visit aimed at enhancing business ties between the two countries.

Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are also expected to focus on areas including civil nuclear cooperation, space, defence, energy and education.

Trudeau was received at New Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, a junior agriculture minister. A formal ceremony will be held on February 23 before his talks with Modi, who visited Canada in April 2015.

Wheels up for India and a busy visit, focused on creating good jobs and strengthening the deep connection between the people of our two countries, Trudeau tweeted on Friday before leaving for New Delhi with his family.

Canada has an estimated 1.4 million people of Indian origin.

During his visit, Trudeau will meet with top business leaders in Mumbai and visit key Indian monuments, including the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the Jama Masjid in New Delhi.

At Davos last month, while US President Donald Trump supported new tariffs on imports, Trudeau and Modi came out forcefully against a drift toward protectionism in the global economy.

In 2017, two-way merchandise trade between Canada and India amounted to USD 8.4 billion, split equally between exports to and imports from India, according to Indian media.

Canada mainly imports pearls, organic chemicals, pharmaceutical products, textiles, bicycles and motorcycles from India. It exports vegetables, paper, fertilizers, wood pulp, iron and steel and precious stones to India.'Every human being should love each other. Some people don't understand this message of God,' he said.

Addressing the youth, Singh expressed happiness that these youth have visited various parts of the country and witnessed the rich cultural and historical heritage of the country. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday interacted with a group of school children from Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi and wished them a prosperous future.

The Home Minister met the children under the Youth Exchange Programme "Watan Ko Jano" 2017-18.

Interacting with the students, he said, "Loving each other is the biggest thing in this world. Who can do this, a person with small thinking or big thinking? Only a person with big mind can do this. Every human being should love each other. Some people don't understand this message of God."

During the session, a student also requested Singh for a picture with her.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has been organising programme "Watan Ko Jano" to give exposure to the youth and children of Jammu and Kashmir about the cultural and socio-economic development taking place in other parts of the country.

Around 200 youth from the state are on a visit to different places of the country as part of the programme from February 11 to 20.

Addressing the youth, Singh expressed happiness that these youth have visited various parts of the country and witnessed the rich cultural and historical heritage of the country.

The children have visited Ajmer, Jaipur and Agra and will now visit the historical places in Delhi.

Singh urged the youth to share their experiences and spread the message of unity.

He said that unity in diversity is the unique value of the country and these children are also a reflection of it.

MoS PMO Jitendra Singh and MoS (Home) Kiren Rijiju and senior officers of the MHA were also present on the occasion.Pakistan has violated the ceasefire 834 times along the LoC and the IB in the last three years.

Srinagar: As guns continue to roar along the borders with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, people who dwell in areas which fall in the firing range live in constant fear.

In fact, many have already paid with their lives for no fault of theirs as mortars rain on villages falling in close proximity to both Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) during each ceasefire violation. Also, properties have been wrecked and hundreds of cattle perished.

This is happening routinely now and, it seems, the November 2003 ceasefire agreement, reached between the two sides after years of rancour that had brought similar and even worse miseries to the border-dwellers due to string of skirmishes, exists only on paper now.

Villages, mainly along the IB in Ranbir Singh Pura and Arnia sectors, wore the look of war zone with damaged and already abandoned houses and other properties and animal carcases scattered around when reporters visited these amid recent skirmishes.

As per official statistics, eight civilians and 10 Army and Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed in the latest spell of ceasefire violations by Pakistan Army and Rangers, starting on January 18. The worst affected by what a Hollywood movie had depicted some years ago was Let us wake up the Indians pastime have been the residents of dozens of villages located along the divide line in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch districts.

"We already live in hell," said Sukhdev Singh, the head of village Gunya in Nowshehra sector of the LoC. He beseeched New Delhi and Islamabad to end the hostility for the sake of humanity. Firing and shelling are not the answer to the issues. For God's sake sit down, put your heads together and get us rid of this mayhem. People are suffering enormously here and there (across the divide line) as well, he said.

Each time, the cross-border shelling intensifies schools situated close to the IB and the LoC are shut, thereby, adversely impacting education of the border dwellers' children.

Amid thunders of shelling, thousands of families are forced to move out and relocate to safer locations, including the makeshift accommodations arranged by the respective district administrations, or take refuge at homes of their relatives at distant places.

Everything that filled our home was reduced to ashes. We somehow survived and are here for the last 10 days but are facing tremendous hardships, said Fatima Bi, staying at a camp set up for affected border residents in Rajouri.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti informed the state Assembly that the ceasefire violations have claimed lives of as many as 56 Army and BSF personnel and 41 civilians in the last three years. Also, 383 people, including 233 civilians, were injured in the cross-border firings during this period.

Nowshehra sector of Rajouri is among the worst-hit. Its SDM Abdul Sattar said, We have already constructed several hundred bunkers and people have heaved a sigh of relief with these coming up next door.

Corroborating it, Sonu Kumar, a resident of Gunya, said, In se bahut rahat milli hai (These have come as a big relief to us).

He added, The moment we hear firing we rush into the bunker built just outside our house and feel secure. This is unlike in the past when it would be really frightful to be inside our home during firing.

The Pakistanis have reported 16 deaths  all civilians  on their side of the LoC and the IB called "working boundary" by them, so far, this year. The two sides have blamed each other for initiating skirmishes. There has been an outcry over the deaths and destruction caused by ceasefire violations at political and diplomatic levels with senior envoys based in New Delhi and Islamabad being summoned to respective foreign offices after each major clash to lodge protests. In the past, the directors of general of military operations have amid flare-ups spoken to each other through hotline to defuse the situation but their effort could silence the guns only briefly. The active hostilities continue and it is the border-dwellers who bear the brunt.

Ms Mufti earlier said that the ceasefire agreement was violated by Pakistan as many as 834 times along the LoC and the IB in the last three years. Of these, 379 violations took place in 2017, 233 in 2016 and 222 in 2015. Out of the 41 civilians, 12 were slain in 2017, 13 in 2016 and 16 in 2015. Thirty one Army and BSF personnel were killed in 2017, 16 in 2016 and 9 in 2015. Also, 79 civilians were injured in 2017, 83 in 2016 and 71 in 2015 whereas of the 150 security forces personnel 62 were injured in 2017, 74 in 2016 and 14 in 2015.

Ms Mufti, while expressing concern on the situation along the borders which, she said, has led to huge loss of life and property, hoped Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will use his stature and wisdom and pace up his efforts so that the hostility ends and Jammu and Kashmir becomes a bridge of peace between the two countries, ending the bitter phase of acrimony between the two.

While the casualties and destruction set off anger in entire border belt, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly repetitively witnessed ruckus over the prevailing situation during its just concluded budget session in Jammu, the winter capital of the State. On one such occasion, Opposition National Conference (NC) lawmaker Devinder Singh Rana, amid chanting of anti-Pakistan slogans by his counterparts from BJP, took a jibe at them by asking, Tuhmari chappan inch wali chatee kahan gayyi (where has your 56 inch chest gone)?The BJP held a high-voltage campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as four rallies in the state.

Agartala: Tripura goes to polls on Sunday with the BJP emerging as the main challenger to the ruling Left Front, which has been in power in the state for the last 25 years.

Polling will be held in 59 of the total 60 seats. Voting in Charilam Assembly constituency will be held on March 12 due to the death of the CPI(M) candidate for the seat, Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma, five days ago.

Twenty seats have been reserved for the scheduled tribes.

The BJP held a high-voltage campaign with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing as many as four rallies in the state.

Other heavyweight leaders of the saffron party to take part in the campaign were its national president Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Manik Sarkar, who is running for his fifth term as the chief minister, led the CPI(M)s campaign addressing around 50 rallies in the state.

Other Left leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat lent support to the partys campaign.

The Congress campaign was somewhat subdued with party president Rahul Gandhi addressing a rally at Kailashahar in Unakoti district, about 180 kms from Agartala, on the last day of campaigning. Altogether, 307 candidates are in the fray.The BJP, an also-ran until now in the north-eastern state, is making a determined bid to demolish the red bastion of 25 years.

The CPI(M) fielded candidates on 57 seats, leaving one each for its alliances while the Congress, on the other hand, fought the battle alone. (Photo: ANI)

Agartala: The total voter turnout stood at 74 per cent in the single-phase Tripura Assembly polls on Sunday, 17 per cent less than the last Assembly election when the polling percentage was recorded at 91.82.

Voting was held on Sunday in 59 of the total 60 seats as polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma last week.

The constituency will go to polls on March 12.

According to the figures released by the Election Commission today, the voter turnout stood at 74 per cent.

The CPI(M) fielded candidates on 57 seats, leaving one each for its alliances.

The BJP, an also-ran until now in the north-eastern state, is making a determined bid to demolish the red bastion of 25 years, with stalwarts like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah leading the charge.

The saffron party, which had forged a pre-poll alliance with tribal outfit Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), had fielded 51 candidates.

The IPFT, an anti-Left party, contested from the remaining nine seats. The Congress went it all alone in Tripura this time and contested from 59 seats.

The party had not fielded a candidate from the Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

There are 25,73,413 registered voters -- 13,05,375 male and 12,68,027 female -- in the state.

The number of voters under the third gender category in the state is 11 and that of the new voters 47,803.What is the point of constructing new buildings, if the teachers dont come to class? he asked.

New Delhi: For Vaibhav, a student of Class 8 in Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Tughlaqabad, the quality of teaching there still remains poor. His complaint: teachers just dont turn up for classes.

I dont know why they dont come to the class. We complained many times to the principal, but to no avail. What is the point of constructing new buildings, if the teachers dont come to class? he asked.

From absent teachers and dropouts, corruption in school funding, the students of government schools discussed various issues plaguing the school system and came up with some solutions at a three-day Model United Nations Conference (MUNs) at Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College.

Speaking about his experience of Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) lab at his school, Class 7 student Mohammad Iqbal, described it as boring. The teachers put up a video and start doing their own work. And the video is always in English; I suggest that teachers should consult students on what they want to watch and there should be a discussion on it, said Iqbal, who was representing Qatar in the conference.

Though the MUNs arent a rarity, this was the first time children from underprivileged background participated in it. Around 25 kids underwent a months training, supported by NGO CRY and trainers from LSR.

Priyanka, a Class 12 student, said the government must focus on teachers training than send students to private schools. The MUN opens up a treasure trove of information for kids. They get to learn about policies of many countries. Im glad to note the MUN has broken language barriers, making it accessible to more children, said Soha Moitra, regional director, North Region, CRY.This exhibition will help people connect with the freedom struggle and the glorious past of the country, he added.

This exhibition will help people connect with the freedom struggle and the glorious past of the country, he added. (Photo: PTI Photo)

New Delhi: The Department of Archives will host an exhibition at Central Park, Connaught Place from February 21 to 27 to educate people about youth participation during the freedom struggle.

During independence, Mahatma Gandhi called up the students of the country to participate actively in the struggle for freedom, it was informed on the even of the event with the theme of Swatantrata Sangram Main Delhi Ke Yuva.

It was informed many freedom fighters used the Delhi University (DU) premises as a hiding place, while other revolutionaries used it as a place to host conferences etc where decisions regarding the freedom movement were taken.

The students engaged in planning and hosting general strikes and demanding the release of the national leaders at Tibbiya College, St Stephens College, Anglo Arabic School, Indraprastha College, Hindu College among the like.

The Viceregal Lodge, where Bhagat Singh was confined, was the Viceroys rambling lodge in the heart of DU houses a number of offices and utilities.

The hostel of Ramjas College, which gave shelter to Chandra Shekhar Azad, the famous link between the freedom struggle and DU is fascinating and intriguing.

Chandra Shekhar Azad took shelter from the British at Ramjas College. Also, St Stephens College played a vital role during nationalist movements such as Mahatma Gandhis non-cooperation and civil disobedience movements.

The Hindu College, which was the centre for political debate during the freedom struggle. The students there were quite actively involved in the Quit India Movement. The Hindu College is the only college in the capital to have a Students Parliament since 1935.

Sister Satyawati was an ardent freedom fighter from the capital, who was instrumental in drawing a large number of women from their homes into the Civil Disobedience Movement, said Sanjay Garg, archivist, Department of Archives. She combined the zest for national liberation with the cause of freedom for women, he added.

She worked in close association with leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jaiprakash Narayan and Sarojini Naidu. Seeing her zeal, spirit and commitment, Mahatma Gandhi named her Satyawati, he added

We have many documents and photographs among others related to freedom struggle and their connection with the university and its students and staff who took part in the freedom struggle, Mr Garg also said.

This exhibition will help people connect with the freedom struggle and the glorious past of the country, he added.Resident doctors association decides to raise cudgels against NMC Bill.

New Delhi: Resident doctors of Delhi government hospitals will once again stage protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, leading to shutdown of OPD services in the city on Wednesday.

The doctors said that during the earlier strike, the central government had assured that there will be further discussions on the bill, but since then no positive response has been received.

The previous strike on February 6 ended after Union health minister J.P. Nadda met a doctors representation at Nirman Bhawan and had said that exit examination and the Bridge Course have not been finalised, but are subject to further discussions with the standing committee.

However, in a meeting of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) on Friday, it was decided to continue the agitation.

Even after writing many letters and holding repeated meetings with various authorities, we have not received any positive response from their side. Since today was the last day for filing recommendations regarding the NMC Bill, todays meeting was held to decide the future course of action, a statement issued by the FORDA on Friday stated.

The doctors said they will wear black ribbons to work from Monday onwards and the OPD services will be shut down in all hospitals from Wednesday.

The NMC Bill, which was tabled in Parliament in December last was later sent to a Parliamentary Standing Committee. The bill sought to replace the Medical Commission of India with another body and proposes allowing practioners of alternative medicines, such as homoeopathy and ayurveda, practise allopathy after completing a Bridge Course.New Delhis position in Kabul is also likely to be strengthened as a result of a cooperative posture towards Tehran.

The recent visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to India led to the two countries signing nine agreements  among them one to further facilitate Indias partnership in expanding the present and future operations at the strategically-located Chabahar port in southern Iran. As Iran is under American sanctions, the two countries have also hit upon the idea of Indian investments through the rupee route, a device that should not draw Americas ire since dollar transactions are eschewed. In any case, the United States had indicated last year that it would not oppose business ties between India and Iran.

The agreements apart, the visit of the Iranian leader was important in itself as it came not long after Prime Minister Narendra Modis efforts to woo Israel and the Sunni Arab regimes closest to Tel Aviv  Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In essence, Mr Rouhanis visit underlines the strategic nature of relations toward which the two countries seem to be moving.

Naturally, both are benefited. Tehran is helped in breaking out of diplomatic isolation caused by the US sanctions. New Delhi gains transit routes through Iran to Afghanistan and Central Asia, bypassing Pakistan, as well as to Europe via the North-South transit corridor.

New Delhis position in Kabul is also likely to be strengthened as a result of a cooperative posture towards Tehran. Lately, influential elements in Afghanistan have been critical of Indias growing concord with the United States. After two hours of bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Rouhani said the two countries had no divergences on the Afghan question.

The fortifying of India-Iran relations and the buttressing of Indian efforts at Chabahar will also help bring more substance to this nations strategic posture in the western Indian Ocean, a point of no mean significance when China is seeking to make forays in the region.

India paying strategic attention to this end of the Indian Ocean, which connects energy-rich West Asia to the Asean region, was also given a boost recently when the Prime Minister visited Oman after his recent trip to the Palestinian territories and the UAE.

In Oman, India has signed an agreement to secure the military use of Duqm port, located to the south of the Gulf of Oman, the crucial passageway to the Gulf of Iran, which is not far from Chabahar. Chabahar, Duqm, and the Seychelles facility at Assumption have come to fruition after many years of diplomacy, stretching across the UPA and NDA-2 era.

The point, however, is that these should be made to count. That can only happen if India starts to deliver on its strategic vision. For that to happen, its fragile diplomatic relations in the immediate neighbourhood  so evident in the Narendra Modi era  should be improved.To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! she thundered.

We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law, she vowed -- slamming the fact 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour. (Photo: AP/Representational)

Fort Lauderdale: A survivor of the Parkland school shooting called out US President Donald Trump on Saturday over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, as several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.

Three days after a troubled teen armed with an assault rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd of students, parents and residents in nearby Ft Lauderdale.

To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you! she thundered, assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby. The crowd chanted in turn: Shame on you!

We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law, she vowed -- slamming the fact 19-year-old gunman Nikolas Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour.

The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics, Gonzalez said following her speech.

In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health -- making no mention of gun control.

Also Read: FBI chief pressured to resign amid Florida anger over tipoff negligence

If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and... how nothing is going to be done about it, Im going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association, Gonzalez said in her impassioned address.

It doesnt matter because I already know. Thirty million, she said, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trumps election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.

She then ran through a list of the pro-gun lobbys talking points -- for example, that a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun, that no law could ever stop a madman intent on killing -- answering each argument with We call BS.

The young womans powerful address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.

Trump tweeted a day after the massacre that neighbours and fellow students had failed to flag Cruz to the authorities.

We did, Gonzalez fired back, her voice shaking with emotion as she insisted the community had done its best to raise the alarm. Time and time again. Since he was in middle school. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter.

Also Read: Will improve school safety, address mental illness: Trump after Florida shooting

Missed warnings

US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs.

The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.

Cruz was also known to local police after his mother repeatedly reported him for violent outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show authorities investigated Cruz in 2016 after he cut his arms on messaging app Snapchat and threatened to buy a gun.

The newspaper, citing Department of Children and Family Services documents, said the investigation came four days after Cruz turned 18 -- legally an adult, and thus able to buy a firearm.

Investigators said there were some implications for the teens safety, but concluded that his final level of risk is low as (he) resides with his mother, attends school and receives counselling as an outpatient at a mental health center, the Sun Sentinel said.

Cruz later passed a background check, allowing him in February 2017 to buy the AR-15 rifle used in the massacre.

Also Read: How brave Indian-origin teacher saved many lives during Florida shooting

School safety

Trump spoke by phone Saturday with the Parkland mayor, the county commissioner and the principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to express his condolences and offer his support.

He then turned political in a tweet Saturday night, asking why didnt the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration. Because they didnt want to, and now they just talk!

Trump is staunchly opposed to additional restrictions on guns or gun ownership, but Vice President Mike Pence said at an event in Dallas the president would make school safety a top priority when he meets with governors of US states in the coming days.

Lets pray for wisdom. For all in positions of authority that we might find a way to come together as a nation to confront and end this evil in our time once and for all, Pence said.A complaint has now been filed with local police in Newham, east London, about emails, Facebook posts and other social media messages.

Neena Lall, the head-teacher of St Stephens School in east London, has been in the eye of the storm over a decision to ban the hijab for girls under eight years, a decision she was forced to reverse in January amid backlash from the community. (Representational Image)

London: UK police are investigating the alleged online abuse of an Indian-origin school principal who was characterised as German dictator Adolf Hitler over her attempt to ban the hijab for very young pupils.

Neena Lall, the head-teacher of St Stephens School in east London, has been in the eye of the storm over a decision to ban the hijab for girls under eight years, a decision she was forced to reverse in January amid backlash from the community.

A complaint has now been filed with local police in Newham, east London, about emails, Facebook posts and other social media messages received by both Lall and Arif Qawi, the former chairman of governors, The Sunday Times reported.

Local police confirmed that they were assessing a report of malicious communications following abusive e-mails having been received in connection with the case.

Also Read: Indian-origin principal of UK school branded 'Hitler' for trying to ban hijab

Qawi claimed that a campaign of messages, some abusive, over several days had forced the school to reverse its hijab ban. "I resigned because I did not agree with reversing the hijab ban and to protect the head-teacher. She was told that if I left, the campaign would stop, he told the newspaper.

No head teacher or governing body should be subject to the sorts of abuse we have heard reported in these recent incidents, said UK education secretary Damian Hinds, the latest high-profile figure to come out in defence of the schools right to set its own uniform policy.

Lord Theodore Agnew, Britains minister for schools systems, faith and counter-extremism in education, had last week offered his backing to Lall over her decision.

St. Stephens Primary School in east London has been at the centre of media attention after its ban on young pupils wearing the hijab and fasting during Ramadan. I have seen the vitriolic abuse on social media after this decision and read of the intimidation of staff, resulting in the resignation of the chairman of governors. I wanted to send out a clear message: bullying or intimidation of school staff is completely unacceptable, he said.

Earlier in February, the UKs independent schools watchdog  the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted)  had also came out in support of the school.

School leaders must have the right to set school uniform policies in a way that they see fit, in order to promote cohesion, said Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted.

Under the UKs Department for Education guidelines, uniform policy is a matter for individual head-teachers and their governing bodies.

Next week, Ofsted inspectors are to publish a report praising the schools leaders and governors. It is expected to confirm that the school is outstanding  the highest inspection judgment for schools  and criticise the pressures brought to bear on Lall and her management team.He has been vocal about cracking down on British nationals who joined the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

Neil Basu, currently Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner and Senior National Coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing, is tipped to take over one of the British policings toughest jobs. (Representational Image)

London: A senior Indian-origin police officer is in the running to take charge as Britains anti-terrorism chief when Scotland Yards National Lead for Counter Terrorism resigns in March.

Neil Basu, currently Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner and Senior National Coordinator for UK Counter Terrorism Policing, is tipped to take over one of the British policings toughest jobs from Mark Rowley, The Sunday Times reported.

Basu, whose father is of Indian origin, is a former Met Police commander overseeing organised crime and gangs. He has specialised in anti-terrorism policing for the past three years and is currently Rowleys deputy.

He has been vocal about cracking down on British nationals who joined the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

In a recent interview with the Combating Terrorism Centre in New York, he said that exclusion powers would be applied to about 200 of the 300 fighters in the war zone as he revealed that about half of the 850 who travelled from Britain to join ISIS had already returned and more than 100 were dead. Of the remaining 300, two-thirds would be blocked from the UK.

Like other countries, we operate on the principle that we dont want you back, and therefore we will deprive you of your British passportfor those among these who end up coming back, we are absolutely waiting for them. Thats the bottom line, he said.

The big threat for us now is the ideology thats been diffused onto the internet and the calls for attacks by its followers in the West by ISIS online. The caliphate may have been defeated militarily, but it has now become a virtual network, he warned.

Other possible candidates for the post of Britains anti-terror chief include Helen Ball, a Met Police assistant commissioner, and Dave Thompson, the West Midlands chief constable, from whose area numerous terrorist plots have emerged in the UK.The packed cabin turned chaotic when two Dutchmen seated next to the man requested him to stop, to no avail.

No arrests were made because nobody had broken any Austrian laws but Transvania imposed a travel ban on the four involved indicating that they were no longer welcome aboard. (Representational Image)

A low-cost Dutch flight en route to Amsterdam via Dubai had to make a sudden -- and absurd  landing at Vienna because of an aged passenger who refused to stop farting.

The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing as a fight broke out on board, the Mirror reported.

The packed cabin turned chaotic when two Dutchmen seated next to the man requested him to stop, to no avail.

Repeated appeals and even a direct order from the pilot fell on the flatulent mans deaf ears when his co-passengers complained to Transvania Airlines crew leading to an altercation.

Following the dispute the pilot made an emergency at Vienna International Airport in Austria, when on board officers along with police dogs escorted four involved in the fight off the plane.

Before footage of the passengers being evacuated started making rounds the pilot reported "passengers on the rampage." The post which went viral on social media had been circulated by Alfred Dekker.

A police spokesman confirmed the incident and its bizarre root cause- a man who wouldnt stop passing wind.

Two sisters who have claimed no involvement were also lead out of the plane, as they were seated in the same row. "It was crazy that we were included, we had no idea who these boys were, we just had the bad luck to be in the same row and we didn't do anything, Nora Lachhab, 25, told De Telegraaf.

However, the spokesman insisted that the women were also guilty of misbehaviour and verbal abuse.

"Our crew must ensure a safe flight. When passengers pose risks, they immediately intervene - Our people are trained for that. They know very well where the boundaries are, he said.

No arrests were made because nobody had broken any Austrian laws but Transvania imposed a travel ban on the four involved indicating that they were no longer welcome aboard.Prasad Kushwaha, 27 and Ajay Prasad Kushwaha, 21, were arrested from a hotel room during a raid by a special police team.

Acting on a tip off, the police team raided the hotel and confiscated two pistols and three round of bullets from the Indian nationals, Nepal police said. (Representational Image)

Kathmandu: Two Indian nationals were arrested in Nepal on Sunday for smuggling arms into the country, police said.

Prasad Kushwaha, 27 and Ajay Prasad Kushwaha, 21, were arrested from a hotel room during a raid by a special police team in Gaur Municipality in southern Nepal.

Acting on a tip off, the police team raided the hotel and confiscated two pistols and three round of bullets from the Indian nationals, Nepal police said.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, Ajit Prasad Kushwaha, a Nepali national from Birgunj Municipality in southern Nepal was arrested, police said.

They said a pistol was confiscated from him.

The 28-year-old Kushwaha was arrested during a security check by the police, police said, adding that further investigation into the matter was going on.Hi,



I sponsored my wife for a spouse visa which got granted last year. My brother, who is my only sibling is also trying to apply for Australian skill migration visa and I want to know whether I have the capacity to be a sponsor for him.



I know there is a limit to the number of partners you can sponsor, but is there any such limitation when it comes to my situation?



Will I be able to sponsor my brother even-though I just sponsored my partners spouse visa last year?



Thanks in advance for your input

SamvHi all, can anyone help clarify the below statement...



242111 University Lecturer (Suitable for the position of Research Associate or Research Fellow in a University)



"Suitable for the position of Research Associate or Research Fellow in a University"



Can a Research Fellow (but not a lecturer) working in the uni be nominated by "242111 University Lecturer" occupation ?



And If so, can this occupation go with 186 (direct entry) or just can do 457 (long term TSS from now on) and transfer to 186 later ?



Thanks allContact The Californians Robert Price at 661-395-7399, rprice@bakersfield.com or on Twitter: @stubblebuzz. His column appears on Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays; the views expressed are his own.KNOW THE SYMPTOMS

Valley fever, or Coccidioidomycosis, is caused by inhaling spores from a fungus that grows throughout the southwest United States. Because its symptoms mimic pneumonia, it's often misdiagnosed, leading to the potential for greater health risks. Here are the symptoms:

Fever

Cough

Extreme fatigue

Skin lesions

Chills

Night sweats

Muscle and joint pain

Lack of appetite and weight loss

If you think you have valley fever, insist your doctor test you immediately.Few issues that come before the Kern County Board of Supervisors are as fraught with emotion as marijuana.After a powerful earthquake struck Mexico Friday, frightened survivors near the quake's epicenter gathered in a field, opting to spend the night sleeping under the stars or in vehicles instead of in damaged homes vulnerable to aftershocks.





And then, a second unexpected crisis hit. This time, it fell from the sky.





A military helicopter carrying top officials assessing quake damage was preparing to land nearby when the pilot lost control. A few seconds later, the helicopter crashed to the earth  directly onto several vehicles packed with earthquake survivors.





Fourteen people on the ground died and least 21 people were injured, according to the state prosecutor's office in Oaxaca, where the crash took place. The dead include at least three children.





Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete, Oaxaca Gov. Alejandro Murat and everybody else aboard the helicopter survived with only minor injuries, officials said.





Navarrete told a local journalist that the pilot of the Blackhawk helicopter lost control about 100 feet above the ground as it was preparing to land in the town of Jamiltepec, about 20 miles from the earthquake's epicenter.





"It is unfortunate that this happened," Navarrete told Televisa news Friday night, adding that it was good that "there was no greater loss of human lives." - Read More



OUR VIEW: Promises made to Bakersfield veterans must be keptThere are more calls this weekend from parents, students and lawmakers for stricter gun control laws in the wake of the latest school shooting.

A gunman opened fire Wednesday at a South Florida high school on Valentine's Day, killing at least 17 people in the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012.

INTERACTIVE TIMELINE:  How the tragedy unfolded 

He has been identified as Nikolas Cruz, 19.

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday evening in St. Petersburg, and more did the same in Fort Lauderdale to protest, mourn, reflect and demand action.

"What we're hoping to accomplish is giving people a place to come and mourn and feel the loss that is devastating our community right now," said Lisa Perry of Women's March of Pinellas County.

Those in St. Petersburg remembered the victims with a vigil, but that wasn't all.

"Also to follow that with meaningful action, which is why after the vigil we are following up with a rally to demand sensible gun reform as well as accountability from the elected officials taking NRA contributions," Perry said.

Cruz is expected to appear in court Monday, Feb. 19. Officials say he is willing to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty and avoid a trial.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the sheriff's office has received over a dozen calls about Cruz.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it received a tip from someone close to Cruz saying they were concerned about his violent tendencies.



U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (left) was among those attending Saturday evening's events.

The FBI never acted and according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the information was never relayed to the Miami Field Office.

Meanwhile, the rally in downtown Fort Lauderdale gave a political outlet to the growing feelings of rage and mourning sparked by the carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Authorities say Cruz had been expelled, had mental health issues and used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle to kill students and staff.

"Because of these gun laws, people that I know, people that I love, have died, and I will never be able to see them again," Delaney Tarr, a student at the school, told the crowd swamping the steps and courtyard at the federal courthouse.

The crowd chanted: "Vote them out!" and held signs calling for action. Some read: "#Never Again," "#Do something now" and "Don't Let My Friends Die."

Student Emma Gonzalez told the crowd politicians should stop taking donations from the National Rifle Association. "Shame on you," she yelled, and the crowd repeated her.

"A lot of people are saying that these kids are activists, these kids need to be politicians,: she later told a reporter. "But a lot of us are just other students who figured theres strength in numbers. And we want to be sure that we end up having our message sent across. And then we can get back to our normal everyday lives, you know."

Laurie Woodward Garcia, the mother of a 14-year-old girl, echoed many in the crowd, who said they believed that this shooting would lead to change, though so many others had not.

"If there's something that we can unite on as Democrats and Republicans and Independents, it's our children. So it will happen," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Fire officials in Tampa are investigating after a man was killed in a mobile home fire.

Man in 60s dies in Saturday mobile home fire

Neighbor treated for minor injuries after trying to help

Investigators don't believe fire is suspicious



It happened at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the 100 block of E. Linebaugh Avenue in North Tampa.

Tampa Fire Rescue said heavy flames were coming from the single-wide home when they arrived.

A neighbor on scene broke a window in an attempt to rescue the occupant but was unsuccessful in saving him. The neighbor was treated for minor injuries.

Rescue officials said the victim was in his 60s. His name hasn't been released.

An Arson Task Force has been called to investigate, which is standard protocol in a fire-related death.

Authorities don't believe the fire is suspicious.This website serves as a reference source for the art and science of Body Language/Nonverbal Communication. The views and opinions expressed on this website are those of the author. In an effort to be both practical and academic, many examples from/of varied cultures, politicians, professional athletes, legal cases, public figures, etc., are cited in order to teach and illustrate both the interpretation of others body language as well as the projection of ones own nonverbal skills in many different contexts  not to advance any political, religious or other agenda.



__________________________________

The journalist Elizabeth Flock was in her early 20s when she moved to Mumbai.

Though she was wary of overromanticising India, she was immediately taken with what appeared to be an Indian attitude toward romance itself. In Mumbai, people seemed to practice a showy, imaginative kind of love, she writes in The Heart Is a Shifting Sea. She wondered if there was wisdom to this brand of passion: When I arrived in Mumbai after my dads third divorce, the city seemed to hold some answers. The Heart Is a Shifting Sea is the culmination of Ms Flocks search ...Late last year, a video of a polar bear starving in the Canadian tundra left millions of viewers devastated. Whether it was a gritty reminder of the reality of climate disruption or  as others have written  a sign of disease, it was certainly proof of how images can stir us much more than lifeless data.

But the viral video was also unusual. It is more common for nature videos to lift our spirits with magnificent sights than to try and shake us out of our complacency about the state of the environment. Nature documentaries have been bringing the wild into our living ...Canadian Prime Minister and his family, who arrived here on Saturday evening, managed to wow the Indian audience by greeting them with a Namaste from the aircraft.



Canadian Prime Minister will be visiting the Wild Life Century (Elephant Conservation Center) in Mathura's Churmura on Sunday.

Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and their three children, daughter Ella-Grace Margaret Trudeau, and sons Xavier James Trudeau and Hadrien, posed with folded hands for the cameras upon their arrival.

The Trudeaus were greeted by Canada's high commissioner in India Nadir Patel, his wife, Jennifer Graham, and their two-year-old daughter, Nylah.

Photo: Twitter

Trudeau's youngest son Hadrien did his best to steal the show, making off down the red carpet with the flowers handed to his father by an Indian official, leaving the rest of his family to manage the receiving line.

During his week-long State visit to India, the Canadian Prime Minister visit will be focused on job creation and strengthen ties between the two countries.

The visit, which includes stops in Agra, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi, will provide an opportunity for Trudeau to connect with the Indian leaders in government and business, promote empowerment of women and girls, and strengthen Canada and India's close economic ties.

Photo: Twitter

Both the sides will reaffirm the close friendship between the two countries, and discuss ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

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, the Jama Masjid, and Swaminarayan Akshardham.When the Trump family jet lands in India this week, the family member taking a tour of the worlds largest democracy  with a Secret Service detail in tow  wont be the president on a diplomatic mission. It will be his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on a sales trip. But Indians might be forgiven for not making much of the distinction. The visit by the younger Mr. Trump, intended to help sell more than $1 billion in luxury residential units being built by the Trumps and their local partners, has been promoted with newspaper advertisements that read: Trump has ...Recently the World Bank released the so-called Systematic Country Diagnostic for India. It is estimated that if the country grows at 8 per cent and above for the next three decades, the Indian economy will become one of the dominant ones by the middle of this century.

The draft report looks at some of the key aspects that policymakers need to address to achieve its potential. The report acknowledged that India has come a long way, as shown in Chart 1, in reducing poverty, thanks to relatively rapid economic growth. While it is true that India is likely to enjoy the benefits of ...Disregarding provisions of the RTI Act, the government's currency printing press reimbursed from the state exchequer the amount paid for a penalty imposed on one of its officers by the Central Information Commission, shifting the burden of what was a personal liability to

The case pertains to the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited which reimbursed Rs 25,000 - the maximum penalty levied by the CIC - to the officer from government funds as "legal and professional charges".

"It is like cocking a snook at the law. On one side they deduct the penalty and deposit it in the government's account and then reimburse it to the erring employee. If an official violates traffic lights, should foot the bill," RTI activist C J Karira asked.

According to the RTI Act, a penalty imposed on a central public information officer of a public authority is a personal liability on him or her and has to be paid by the person from his or her salary and deposited into the government's account.

The Act says if the Central Information Commission, the top appellate body in RTI matters, is convinced that information has been delayed without reasonable grounds, it shall impose a penalty of Rs 250 per day from the day information became due till it was furnished, with a maximum penalty of Rs 25,000.

The guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, the nodal ministry for RTI affairs, through order number No. 1/412009-1R dated October 5, 2009, said the penalty imposed by the CIC was to be paid by the central public information officer of the public authority.

The case pertains to a chief manager of the government's 'mini ratna' company who in October 2015 was fined Rs 25,000 by Information Commissioner Manjula Prasher as he had failed to furnish information in a timely manner.

The information was provided only after 16 months of the RTI application being filed after repeated orders of the Commission and a penalty being imposed. It is mandatory to provide information in 30 days.

Then Mumbai Mint Staff Union president A Q Shaikh had filed an RTI application in September 2014, seeking details about honorarium payments for additional coin production in 2013-14.

He was not given any information nor was his first appeal before a senior officer of the Corporation heard.

On his plea, Prasher had issued a show cause notice to the officer seeking an explanation.

After going through the arguments of both sides, she imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 to be deducted from his salary in five monthly installments.

Recently, RTI applicant Satish Sherkhane sought the file notes of the case file. This application showed that after deducting the penalty from the officer's salary, the corporation made grounds for its reimbursement, claiming the information was voluminous in nature.

It was also noted on the file that this (reimbursement) would "boost the morale of all executives who are discharging official duties pertaining to compliance with devotion and dedication".

The officials ordered that the request for reimbursement of Rs 25,000 -- the penalty amount -- be considered and shown as "legal and professional charges".

Former Chief Information Commissioner and ex-DOPT secretary A N Tiwari, who handled personnel matters of government officials, told PTI that such a reimbursement was "illegal".

"The penalty imposed on a CPIO under the RTI Act is personal in nature to act as a deterrent. It has to be paid by the concerned officer from his own pocket and deposited in the government's account. If the offices starts reimbursing it from the government's account, what is the need of penalty," Tiwari asked.

Former Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra agreed with Tiwari but added that there was no remedy for this in the RTI act as proceedings were completed after the penalty was deposited.

"The audit of the public authority must take note of it... If at all they wanted to compensate (the officer), they could have made an appeal to all the employees to contribute voluntarily but that should have been done unofficially," he said.

Activist Venkatesh Nayak who works with Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said a penalty was a personal burden which could not be shifted to tax payers.